EUCLA, Western Australia—I realize that in all of this, I haven’t really given my impressions of Australia, particularly its wild and woolly western half. In short, it’s tremendous and awesome. I’ve been around, and I’ve never quite seen a landscape like this. On Sunday, as we headed north from Esperance toward Norseman, the forests, Read More
ESPERANCE, Western Australia—Since my last post, I’ve moved on from Perth. What to say about Perth? I’ll let a great writer take up the intro: “Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen, Read More
Hello all! Long time, eh? Well, sorry about that. I was at sea when the world supposedly ended. Perth is the most isolated big city in the world. To the west, the endless tracts of the Indian Ocean, only interrupted by the bulk of Africa and Madagascar almost 7,000 km away. To the east,, Read More
ABOARD THE WHITE SEA—This will be a quickie, as I’m still in port and using my phone for Internet access, but I’m aboard the White Sea and will be setting sail in some hours. The ride into Pasir Panjang Terminal was uneventful, and the shipping company made me use their own driver, as private, Read More
SINGAPORE—I used to like Singapore. I really did. It was a soothing, calming, well-mannered tonic to the chaos that was Pakistan. Whenever I visited, Singapore was like a gleaming, neon beacon in the wilderness, promising good bars, great food and a chance to let worries about security slip for a bit. Here, that’s the government’s, Read More