The first time I ever put on downhill skis, I shuffled straight to the lift and, at the instruction of my seatmates, took my first-ever slide as a jump from the chairlift. I slid, two little sleds on my feet, in an uncontrolled straight line that stopped when I ran…

When we bought tickets to Thailand, Omicron hadn’t started to surge yet. It was something I should have anticipated, but didn’t. I bought nonrefundable airfare for a place half a world away, then kept doubling down: research, planning, getting financially and emotionally more invested. I don’t recommend this. We are…

On Open Street Maps’ contributor app, I’m walking around marking places as vacant. When we arrived on Koh Lanta from the speed boat, I thought this must be a strange edge of town: duffel bag under my arm, dodging the calls from rickshaw drivers since my hotel is so close…

This Thailand trip has been a working trip. I’m learning scuba and exploring my surroundings a little, but mostly I’m working like I might if I lived here, wake up and check in, my mind on the work most of every day. …

Thailand has been easy travel, mostly. There are a dozen cheap seafood places, casual quayside dining, just outside of our bungalow hotel. The streets are terrible to walk, but you can (probably) flag down the local bus — a semi-covered mini-truck — and if you do, it’ll happily turn into…

Passport? All the blood in my body tingles, slow-spreading electric shock. I, an idiot, failed to bring my passport to the long-scheduled second PCR-RT test that is a condition of my Thailand visa. I had this wave of stupid shock under an hour ago, the last time I was standing…