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Traveler

. Sometimes I travel, and sometimes I write about these travels. This way I can entertain my friends and also perform that special process of transforming my experience by thinking and writing about it. You can receive my writer’s diary in your email inbox by subscribing at this link. . . selected travelogues . Travelogue 1: San Francisco to Hong Kong Travelogue 2: Kunming to Muli Monastery Travelogue 3: Muli Monastery to Wachang Travelogue 4: Wachang to Litang Travelogue 6: Two Tibetan Print Houses Travelogue 7: The Amateur Mountaineers Travelogue 8: Three Ecstatic Moments

Lightplay 14 – Utopian Proposals

What follows is an installment of Lightplay, my email newsletter. To receive this in your email inbox, subscribe here. Dear Reader — Hello and welcome back to Lightplay, the big email of your faithful if intermittent correspondent Jasper Luna Nighthawk. (Who was until recently named Jasper Nighthawk Henderson.) I’m delighted to return to your inbox, and I hope that wherever you’re reading these words, you and your family and friends are safe and doing okay. Happy Mother’s Day! Here in Los Angeles, I’m spurred to write again by the blossoming jacarandas. Every May and June, these Brazilian trees produce luscious,… Read More »Lightplay 14 – Utopian Proposals

Lightplay 12 – the Lost Travelogue

What follows is an installment of Lightplay, my email newsletter. To receive this in your email inbox, subscribe here. Dear Reader — I hope this letter finds you well in health and spirit. Here in Los Angeles, the morning is cool and the air clear. Late fall! Today, I’m thinking about travel. Partly, this is because I’ve been receiving short, photo-laden daily emails from a man currently walking the 500km Tōkaidō pilgrimage route in Japan. (More info here.) Maybe it’s also due to a seasonal fear-of-holidays, an atavistic terror at the big feelings I and others will surely have. And,… Read More »Lightplay 12 – the Lost Travelogue

Travelogue 8: Three Ecstatic Moments

What follows is an excerpt from my email travelogue, which I send every week or two while I’m on the road. To subscribe to the mailing list, follow this link. This installment was originally sent out on January 11, 2015. .. Dear Travelogue Readers — . For the last month I have been living in a hotel called Viraporn’s Place, here in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Late at night I squirt my arms and ankles with pungent bug spray and sit in the courtyard to think, or write, or smoke a cigarette. Many nights Viraporn, who I know from the days when she ran… Read More »Travelogue 8: Three Ecstatic Moments

Travelogue 7 – The Amateur Mountaineers

What follows is an excerpt from my email travelogue, which I send every week or two while I’m on the road. To subscribe to the mailing list, follow this link. This installment was originally sent out on December 12, 2015.   Dear Travelogue Readers — . It’s been a couple of weeks since my last update, and much has happened, though it also feels like I’ve been standing still. I made it to Thailand, spent a week laid low by the flu, and for the time being I’m living in Chiang Mai, a northern city filled with other foreigners and ex-pats. Life… Read More »Travelogue 7 – The Amateur Mountaineers

Two Tibetan Print Houses

What follows is an excerpt from my email travelogue, which I sent every week or two while I was on the road. To subscribe to the mailing list, follow this link. This installment was originally sent out on November 16, 2015. My last morning the monk and I struggle to communicate. I’ve told him that I’m going to hitchhike to Derge, a town famous for its traditional printing presses. He leans forward again and pretends to spread ink on a woodblock, mimes putting paper down, and then rocks forward again as if he was running a roller the length of… Read More »Two Tibetan Print Houses

Travelogue Excerpt – Wachang to Litang

What follows is an excerpt from my email travelogue, which I send every week or two while I’m on the road. To subscribe to the mailing list, follow this link. This installment was originally sent out on October 27, 2015. Day 7: Wachang – ??? I have a terrible nightmare of skidding off the edge of a cliff. I am on a motorcycle with big panniers and a wide console for a stereo and all the other stuff certain bikers want for their rides. It seems clunky and overbuilt, unstable. I’m coming down one of these narrow Tibetan roads carved into the side… Read More »Travelogue Excerpt – Wachang to Litang

Travelogue Excerpt – Muli Monastery to Wachang

What follows is an excerpt from my email travelogue, which I send every week or two while I’m on the road. To subscribe to the mailing list, follow this link. This was originally written on October 16 and sent out October 26. Day 5: Muli Monastery – Wachang I wake up to a loud voice: “Jasper, Jasper!” It takes me a little while to sort out where I am. The off-white sky crossed by two black stripes; the cocoon of impossibly perfect warmth. “Jasper!” I sit up and unzip the tent and then the condensation-damp fly. Outside Jasi and Tsien-lu are bundled up… Read More »Travelogue Excerpt – Muli Monastery to Wachang

Travelogue Excerpt – Kunming to Muli Monastery

What follows is an excerpt from my email travelogue, which I send every week or two while I’m on the road. To subscribe to the mailing list, follow this link. This installment was originally sent out on October 12, 2015.  DAY ZERO: KUNMING My twenty-fifth birthday. Buy apples, pomegranates, toilet paper, a bar of laundry soap, and a tiny towel. Wash clothes by hand on roof terrace of hostel. Shower and shampoo my hair. Attempt to get SIM card for phone at China Mobile, unsuccessfully. I am terrified. My stomach on its own is clenching and occasionally its muscles buzz, like a phone.… Read More »Travelogue Excerpt – Kunming to Muli Monastery

Travelogue Excerpt – San Francisco to Hong Kong

What follows is an excerpt from my email travelogue, which I send every week or two while I’m on the road. To subscribe to the mailing list, follow this link. This was originally sent out on September 28, 2015.     I. THE DAY OF DEPARTURE My adventure officially started the morning of September 22nd, a Tuesday. Tuesdays are exceptional days, alone in the whole week for not having an important symbolic position. They are neither beginning nor end, not a mid-point, not penultimate. Holidays tend to avoid them. Nobody’s given Tuesday a cute name like “Hump Day,” nor has Rebecca Black mentioned… Read More »Travelogue Excerpt – San Francisco to Hong Kong