From the Archives: Your Mother Cooks Socks in Hell – Balaji Mandir, India’s Exorcist Temple

This is a travel story from some years back about a visit to a rather peculiar temple. So take a ride to the Temple of the Possessed…. Ashok was a great driver. We are on our way to Balaji Mandir, a temple dedicated to the mighty monkey king Hanuman, who rescued Sita, Ram’s wife, from […]

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Tom Vater’s 2006 non-fiction title Beyond the Pancake Trench bootlegged in Cambodia

While I was in Cambodia last week, I noticed that my 2006 non-fiction title Beyond the Pancake Trench is still available as a photocopied bootleg in several outlets around the country. My very own work, pirated by nefarious greedy people, does not sell nearly as well as the multitude of Lonely Planet titles that are […]

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From the Archives: Shiva’s Toilet – The Parvati Valley, India

This story was originally published in my anthology Beyond the Pancake Trench, available at my Amazon Store, as Paradise Lost – How the Wild East is turning into a Trailer Park. There is a valley in the Himalayas so beautiful, that Shiva, Deity of 1008 names, Destroyer of the Universe, without Whom creation could not […]

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Erneute Demonstrationen der Rot-Hemden in Bangkok

Seit einigen Wochen demonstrieren die Anhänger Thaksin Shinawatras wieder in Bangkok. Der frühere Premier ist auf der Flucht, seit er zu zwei Jahren Haft wegen Korruption verurteilt wurde,  und taucht immer mal wieder in Dubai, Montenegro, Schweden, Nicaragua und Uganda auf. Sonst will ihn scheinbar niemand. Nach Deutschland darf er jedenfalls nicht. Vielleicht fühlt er […]

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