Being spontaneous in Malaysia and Thailand

For more than a year, I planned what became monster trip to Asia—seven days at a school in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, two days at a school in Phuket, Thailand, and five days at four schools in Hong Kong. The way it shaped up, the bookings spread over four weeks with six weekdays that no schools requested.

While getting a week to tool around Asia would certainly be fantastic, it's not where I'm at in life. I'm already away from my family for too long; on top of that, to then spend rather than earn money for a week did not sit well with me.

The school visits started on February 15. By the next day, thanks to the kind word of mouth of educators who had just heard me present, I began to fill that gap week. Ultimately, I was able to schedule appearances for three of the five days—two schools and a company. Complicating that was the fact that one of the schools and the company were in Kuala Lumpur—but I was already in Thailand. Luckily, Asia has good budget airlines.

My gap week, revised: 

• Monday 2/29—rescheduled date for British International School of Phuket; that evening flew (back) to Kuala Lumpur (where I'd been from 2/13 to 2/23)
• Tuesday 3/1—British International School of Kuala Lumpur in the morning, Astro TV in the afternoon; that evening flew back to Phuket
• Wednesday 3/2—Phuket International Academy
• Thursday 3/3—flew to Chiang Mai in the north, Thailand's second largest city, for two days before leaving for Hong Kong on 3/5; speaking of being spontaneous, I landed in Chiang Mai without knowing where I would sleep that night

Huge thanks again to Jeremy Townend at the British International School of Kuala Lumpur, Hakim Amir at Astro TV, and Lynne Nigalis at Phuket International Academy for inviting me on such short notice. Your spontaneity is a gift to your students (and to me). If this proves anything, it's that author visits can be relatively easy (and definitely quick) to put together!

British International School of Kuala Lumpur:

 courtesy of Jeremy Townend

Astro TV, a large content provider:

 courtesy of Hakim Amir

They asked me to do a selfie with the audience:

Phuket International Academy:

courtesy of PIA

Day 1 of 2 in Chiang Mai; at the gate to the old city, which dates back to the 1200s:

This place is not as exclusive as it might seem:

The Everest of school visits

On the first day of 2016, I flew to India for third time within a year for my third stint at the American School of Bombay. I taught creative writing three times a day for five days, and capped it with a most unusual and unexpected speaking gig.

I’d stayed the week at a Sofitel hotel and on my first day, a restaurant manager struck up a conversation. When I said I am a writer, he asked if I’d present to the staff about my work. (On his list of suggested topics I could cover: calligraphy. I quickly disabused him of the notion that I had any knowledge of that.) I said I’d be happy to but questioned if anyone would be interested. He assured me that people would and he was right:

I learned this was part of the hotel’s monthly “voices” program which revolves around a different speaker each time—sometimes guests, sometimes locals.

On 1/9/16, I was off to a first for me: Nepal, to speak at two international schools in Kathmandu—Lincoln School and the British School.

The country is still reeling from the earthquake (and aftershocks) of 2015. Evidence of it is visible fairly often, but it’s far from a city of rubble. In some cases what I took for quake damage was actually new construction in progress. (Neither school had lost any staff or students in the quake, though both, I believe, lost a significant number afterward, due to urgent relocation.)

At one point, a Nepali I was with indicated a man on the street near us and said “He’s a rich man. He has an ax.”

Glimpses of my Nepal, starting with my first step there:

The airport:

Earthquake damage:

Due to fallout from the quake, some people ride the bus like this:

Small shops are rampant, this one on the scenic drive up a mountain to a spot called Nagarkot, where Everest could be visible if weather cooperates:

The Mount Everest Youth Club:

A five-star resort with a great view...but, since the quake, a drop in guests:

Two of my kind hosts, Lincoln School elementary school principal Ken Fernandez and his wife Cri:

If not for clouds, you would see Mount Everest behind me:

Great view of the Himalayas on this postcard of my hotel, Hotel Greenwich Village...but not in real life:

To go on an hourlong Mount Everest fly-by, I had to get up at 4:30 a.m. Since the quake, Nepal is enduring load-shedding, meaning times when the power is cut to conserve. Currently it is for six hours a day but there is talk it will increase to eighteen.

We were supposed to be at the airport by 5:45 for a 6:45 departure...
 

...but were instead in for a parade of delays:

Named for one of the biggest myths, one of the tiniest gift shops:

 

The plane finally took off...at 11 a.m. It seats about 20.

The air sickness bag leaves as little to the imagination as vomiting does to the stomach:

View of Everest from the cockpit...

...and from my seat:

(It is the one to the left of the peak that looks like it is smoking.)

At Pashupatinath Temple, a holy site for Hindus, bodies from the four castes are cremated steadily. It takes a male body 2.5 hours to burn fully, a female three. Then the ashes are set adrift in the river. Among family of the deceased, crying is not allowed. After the quake, the site could not keep up with the need, forcing mass cremations. The men who perform the ritual are professionals:

The hospice on site:

Holy men live here:

It will be hard to spot me here:

Bouddhanath Stupa, a sacred Buddhist (and UNESCO World Heritage) site, which was damaged in the quake (“stupa” refers to the domelike structure):

At Lincoln, the time to change classes is announced by a handheld gong:

One class greeted me with a cool sign (complete with credit to Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman artist Ty Templeton) and bats with every student:

Part of the garden behind Ken and Cri’s house:

A charming bakery that would also be right at home in Soho:

I have not seen tangles of wires and cables like this:

A new friend, midair:

Music, movies...and moos:

Another cow:

Jeremiah O’Sullivan, the risk-taking Lincoln librarian who brought me in, bore an uncanny resemblance to Bill Finger’s son Fred, and was game to pose like him: 

Less than a year earlier at the British School, on this spot stood another author...by name of J.K. Rowling:

 The Cinema Times

My kind librarian host at the British School, Sunita Chitrakar:

The oldest high school in Nepal:

Good marketing on this brand of Himalayan bottled water:

One of the days I was in Kathmandu, elsewhere in the city a leopard walked into someone’s house. Just walked in:
 

Fires in the street represent hope in the future for this lovely country.