Sad but not real surprise

Road mishap kills five, injures 34 in Bangladesh

An excerpt on a bus ride from my sample chapter on Bangladesh:

The bus ride, of course, is nuts. We nearly die every few miles. But it’s nothing new in Bangladesh. I would just really hate to die doing something as stupid as pretending to be a garment buyer and eating it in a bus crash.

An investment?

I’ve spent the better part of my morning adding up my expenses from three months in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and China. It’s not pretty. Between flights, buses, translators, food, and accommodation, I tallied nearly $8,000 in expenses.

I had about $6,000 saved and allotted for the trip. I figured it would cost more than that, but hey, isn’t that what credit cards and second mortgages are for?

Through various writing and radio assignments, I’ve recouped half of the trip’s expense. I’m happy with that. I’ve only been home for three months and I still have a lot of stories ready to be written, sold, and recycled, and the possibility of a book deal. I don’t think I’m going to have trouble earning the expenses back, but when you consider 3-months of lost wages from my “other” job and away from my regular writing, it could be interesting.

Gone are the days of haplessly traveling and getting a story here and there. I’ve got a wife and a mortgage, and, to be honest, I’m just not wired for hapless travel anymore. What started as a love for travel became a love for writing about travel, and finally, simply, a love for writing.

There are few things I would rather do in this world than write and polish a great story. It just so happens that writing about people in faraway places makes for great stories. I hope I can keep doing this for years to come. Let’s hope this last trip earns itself out.

My shorts, made in the USA

“I don’ feel real comfortable with this,” said Linda from Champion USA.

I have that effect on people.

I was asking Linda about my 1992 Dream Team shorts. They were made way back in the early 1990’s. So long ago, in fact, that they were actually Made in the USA. I told her that I was pretty sure that factory was not open any more given how the industry has changed, but I would like to know where it was anyhow.

“Perry, New York.”

That’s all I could get out of Linda. I tried to explain to her my quest, but I think it just makes my request to know where my shorts came from look crazier. In Linda’s defense, if some quack called me up and mentioned Bangladesh, underwear, and Tattoo from Fantasy Island in one breath, I would probably hang up.

Perry, New York, is located just south of Rochester. I hear that it’s lovely in early September.

Some would say that it would be a perfect place for a honeymoon.

Others wouldn’t. They might refer to the lack of anything romantic in the photo the city selected for the frontpage of their website (WOW! Cars and a street). Or they could point to Perry’s description of itself in which there is so much exciting stuff going on that they mention, “Municipal services include a police department, volunteer fire department and 24-hour emergency ambulance.”

Perry is pretty close to Niagara Falls, which is a favorite of generations of honeymoon goers. But still, it would be a tough one to sell to Annie:

“Want to go to Niagara Falls? It will be great. We’ll take a side trip to Perry. They’ve got a volunteer fire department and, you are going to love this, a 24-hour emergency ambulance! Woohoo! Can you imagine the time we’ll have there? We’ll even take a day or two and interview people who used to work at the Champion factory that closed leaving them jobless. It will be so romantic. I love you.”

Look out Perry! Here we come!

Home

Hong Kong to Chicago – 14 hours

Layover in Chicago – 12 hours

# of times I dozed yesterday as I fought off sleep until evening – 21, including 4 times during my haircut. (Yep, I got one.)

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I’ll be posting some homecoming posts either later today or tomorrow. Until then, an essay I wrote about Home awaits you below the cut. I wrote it 3 years ago – it has some typos and flow issues, but seeing how we’re so close, I’ll let you read it anyhow.

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Heading Home

I spent today in Hong Kong snapping photos of glass towers and trying to find the longest escalator in the world. Tomorrow I fly home.

But fear not, the quest is far from over. Now the processing and research begins. I hope to be able to start discussing the apparel industry more in depth: the problems, what is being done, what we can do about them, etc.

I’ve only been able to share a little about my exploits with the factories and the workers and what I think about it all. I felt like I couldn’t post too often about the workers because it could hurt my chances of getting into factories. I do think the posts that I wrote on the workers and factories accurately reflect my thoughts – it’s not like I was holding back. It’s just that if the factories knew I spent weeks getting to know the workers and their lives, they would get nervous.

A new quest begins…

Taking all of this info and experiences and writing a book.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been approached by a literary agent and we hope to work on a book proposal when I get home. I’ve never worked with an agent, written a book proposal, or even a book for that matter. I hope to write about the hurdles, mistakes, and triumphs of the process.

I’ve been toying around with an outline as the trip has progressed and I think the story of my shirt, pants, underwear, and blue jeans is a complete one. But there is always a chance that I might have to chase down something else I’m wearing. A friend suggested that I visit Italy where one of my designer Italian shirts was made. One problem: I don’t have any fancy Italian shirts. The agent who contacted me thought that it might be interesting to track down something a bit more high-tech such as my wrist watch – Made in Finland.

I’ve even tossed around the idea of going back to Honduras and tracking down Amilcar, who made my t-shirt, which I gave him. (Maybe I’ll take the shirt back. I thought I would be able to find another Tattoo shirt. I haven’t been able to yet and I’ve tried.) The first time I met Amilcar, I was too nervous/shy/guilt-ridden to ask if he could show me where he lives and introduce me to his life. The Honduras portion was much more of a whimsical afterthought than a quest. Going back may allow me to bring the story full circle. But I’m just thinking out loud here. If you have any opinions please share ‘em.

In the next few months I hope to track down the factory and workers who made my favorite pair of shorts – Made in the USA. I’m sure the factory is closed, but I’m sure there’s somebody still around who used to work there and it would be real interesting to talk to them about the people who they lost their job to.

Coming Soon…

My interviews on the World Vision Report. I’ve done two and will do my last one (maybe) this week.

And hopefully, many, many, pieces from this trip published in many, many publications. My second mortgage told me it’s time this trip starts paying for itself.

Movies. An audio slideshow about China and one about the entire trip. I hoped to post the China one before I left, but, as I mentioned in the previous post, my computer is FULL!

If you thought this was a vacation…

It wasn’t. I worked my tail off.

The old laptop I brought on this trip has a grand total of 714 Kb left on the hard drive. That means it has room for about half of one photo.

Some more stats…

I’ve taken some 3,000 pics.

Written 2 Mb worth of notes (trust me that’s a lot).

Posted over 22,000 words on this here blog in the last 3 months.

Recorded over 12 hours of audio.

An Overdue Shoutout

Three months in Asia and it’s about time I give a shout out to a very important someone…

To My Constitution: You Rock!

She (yep, My Constitution is female) handled long plane flights, Bengali food, Khmer cuisine, and Chinese spice without even the slightest “irregularity.”

Let’s hope this post isn’t premature. I still have a 14-hour plane flight tomorrow and I ate shrimp tonight.

Below the cut I’ve posted a column I wrote about when she wasn’t so regular.

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My Whafro

My hair is about two weeks from being a full-blown whafro (whiteman’s afro).

Should I let it grow?

In a few days I will be home and you can bet that Annie probably has the clippers ready to cut the wild out of my Touron mop. It wouldn’t surprise me if the entire hair cutting station, complete with wood chair and sheet to catch the blonde curls, is staged.

Should I let her cut it?

Personally, I don’t care about the appearance of my hair. But I am always a little hesitant to let Annie cut it.

I have my reasons…

Note: If Annie doesn’t post a comment sufficiently stating why I should let her cut my hair, I’m not getting it cut. By the wedding in September it should be looking quite nice, especially with the family of sparrows that will be living in it by then.

Epicurious or Steve’s Barbecue

Each night I have a choice for dinner: Go Local or Eat something I can pronounce?

Last night I decided to go local. This decision was heavily influenced by the need to be temporarily relieved of my duties with KEWIC.

The western pub on the corner is filled with old men and their local lolitas and I can’t stand it. My foot grows sore from passing out the justice. If only the grilled fish and mashed potatoes weren’t to die for?

Anyhow, I passed on the fish and sought out a busy local place I’ve walked by a few times. They cook skewered meat and butter-drenched French bread over open flames. I was never able to id the meat, which was kind of off-putting (I think it was something’s liver), but the bread was delicious and so was the freshly squeezed sugar cane juice.

I ordered by pointing. My bill was fifty cents. And, best of all, I didn’t get diarrhea. A success all around.

Tonight I will be somewhat less epicurious as I head to the grand opening of Steve’s Barbecue, which advertises All You Can Eat for $5.50. It’s eleven times more expensive than last night’s meal, but I should be able to id the meat.

If you are worried about me getting a little pudgy from the All-You-Can-Eat feast, fear not. I’m sure I’ll burn it off as I attend to my KEWIC duties

Bangladesh is shrinking

No Bengal tiger hunting for me. Due to a complete lack of tourists, my tight schedule, and my stubbornness to never, ever call ahead to try and arrange things, the Sundarbans are a “no go.” Instead I’ll be heading to Kuakata beach on the Bay of Bengal.

My main reason for going on this excursion south of Dhaka is to explore the delta region’s extreme susceptibility to sea-level rise. A few feet rise would displace millions. Bangladesh is the world’s most densely populated country. Any loss of land would be devastating.

I traveled to Khulna via an 80-year-old paddle boat. The farther south we got the more flooding we saw. Houses were islands, fields were ponds, and walking paths were bridges.