The sharper edge to traveling in Asia

Archive for the 'Tribal' Category

WoWasis book review: ‘In Search of Robinson Crusoe’ (and it wasn’t Selkirk) by Tim Severin

We here at WoWasis reviewed Diana Souhami’s Selkirk’s Island: The True and Strange Adventures of the Real Robinson Crusoe a while back. It’s a great story about a compelling but unlikeable character, Alexander Selkirk, marooned alone for 52 months on an island in the Pacific. But as author Tim Severin discovered, Selkirk, while inspiring Daniel […]

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WoWasis book back in time: ‘Kon-Tiki’ by Thor Heyerdahl

Veteran WoWasis readers are aware of our penchant for reviewing books on Asia and the Pacific, especially older classics. Why? For one thing, younger readers may have missed them. And Boomers and Gen Xers might not have read them either, although they’ve certainly heard of them. Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft is […]

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WoWasis book review: Paul Gauguin in Tahiti: Noa Noa

Noa Noa, painter Paul Gauguin’s short book on his time in Tahiti, often gets ignored today. Gauguin, after all, has been chastised for “cutting and running,” leaving a family behind there. Gauguin, who died in 1903, isn’t alive to rebut anything, of course. But he does leave the reader with his sometimes whimsical and at […]

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WoWasis book review: ‘Aloha Attire,’ a handsome history of Hawaii’s fashion trade

Hawaii’s apparel industry encompasses more than aloha shirts, and the whole story, including women’s fashion, is told informatively by Linda B. Arthur, in her highly informative Aloha Attire: Hawaiian Dress in the Twentieth Century (2000, ISBN 0-7643-1015-1). We here at WoWasis loved the book. The author focuses on four traditional garment types worn in Hawaii, […]

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WoWasis museum and book review: Quito Ecuador’s Pre-Columbian Casa Del Alabado

Ecuador’s capital of Quito boasts a number of interesting things to see, but we here at WoWasis found none more fascinating than the fascinating pre-Columbian museum, Casa Del Alabado. The guide book is something you’ll probably want to have, but more on that later. The strength of the museum is in its ceramics collection of […]

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WoWasis book review: ‘The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Drug Trade’ by Alfred W. McCoy

The first edition of Alfred McCoy’s The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Drug Trade was written in 1972 and was updated in 1991 and 2013. It has an amazing longevity, and has been cited numerous times in other works. As a plethora of researchers have discovered, the book, although nearly 50 years old […]

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WoWasis tours Bogota’s Museo Del Oro, the Gold Museum of Colombia

Bogota, Colombia is a city of 14 million people, and frankly, doesn’t have much going for it, in terms of the international traveler. It’s tough to get around during rush hour (try to find a taxi), so you really do need to head back to your hotel around 3 pm. Some of the downtown areas […]

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WoWasis book review: ‘Iban Dream’ Borneo Headhunting Fiction by Golda Mowe

Malaysian author Golda Mowe has written one of the more outstanding books we’ve encountered, the beautiful, at times shocking, and endlessly fascinating Iban Dream (2013, ISBN 978-981-4423-12-0). Through 288 pages, Mowe weaves an Iban fantasy that encompasses Dayak rituals, myths, and realities. First, a little background. Visitors to the Sarawak state in Malaysian Borneo will […]

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Korean Hahoe Masks and Theatrical Performances

Hahoe masks and performances offer a rich cultural experience to travelers visiting South Korea

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Korea’s traditional Haenyeo female freedivers pass into history: see them while you can

Traditional Korean haenyeo female divers are quickly becoming a thing of the past; see them now, while you can.

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