Belt and Road reaches Nepal’s wild north in the Nikkei Asian Review

My latest story with Laure Siegel in the Nikkei Asian Review on how highways, bridges and dams flow from Chinese infrastructure bonanza in Nepal. A hard truck ride to the Nepal/China/Tibet border, the proverbial end of the world. Some 140 km to the north of Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, China’s “Belt and Road” infrastructure plan is in […]

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India’s ‘Middle Kingdom’ faces winds of change in The Nikkei Review

Tourism and climate change threaten way of life in scenic Himalayan valley. Laure Siegel and I report from Spiti in Himachal Pradesh, the Middle Kingdom, a remote valley between Tibet and the rest of India. KAZA, India — “There are more cars than potatoes now” sighs Chhering Angrup, slowly turning a prayer wheel below a […]

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Eaux Troubles – Sharks are not the only killers… – Short Story in Ecoute Magazine

Sharks are not the only killers off the shores of Réunion Island. Eaux Troubles, the first of three parts out with Ecoute Magazine in Germany this month, written by Laure Siegel and myself, is our first crime fiction short story collaboration in French.

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Some of my best recent stories in the Nikkei Asian Review

From a punk rock collective in Borneo to European proto-colonies and ethnic minorities in India, rock stars and a circus from Cambodia, the scourge of development in Laos, female motorcycle taxi drivers in Thailand, Japanese entrepreneurs in France and my eye witness reports of the 2015 Nepal earthquake, the Asian Nikkei Review has published some […]

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ATC Books publishes host of tattoo stories, including Chris Roy – The Death Row Tattooist

The market for good print stories is getting smaller all the time. Especially for off the wall, niche or sub-cultural stuff. So it’s great to see some of my recent work published specially to be read on smart phones. Almost everyone has one and there’s more to life than Candy Crush. ATC Tattoo Books have […]

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Vang Vieng, Laos: From party capital to eco-adventure paradise on CNN Travel

Sitting on the banks of the Song River, the rural town might seem serene now. But Vang Vieng has seen a tumultuous 15 years, evolving from an agricultural community to a hedonistic party capital when it was “discovered” by Western shoestring travelers in the late 1990s. Excessive drinking, drugs, trash, concrete construction and fatal accidents […]

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Owner of the Map – Power, politics & motorcycle taxis in Thailand at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand

Packed night at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Bangkok on the rights and politics of the city’s 200.000 motorcycle taxi drivers. From left to right – fixer extraordinaire Jan Sujittra, president of the Bangkok motorcycle Association Khun Chaloem Changtongmadun,  Chief Editor of the Nikkei Asian Review Gwen Robinson, journalist Laure Siegel and myself.

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