blackwoodii

When Paldalmun reared up in front of my taxi a week after landing on the Spring-kissed shores of leafy South Korea, I finally got that existential knuckle-sandwich I'd been needing for a very long time. I got out. Stared. Pulled the perfect startled-bunny tourist face. "Oh." This was, of course, a fairly substantial understatement. What I meant to say was "Holy shit... I'm in Asia!!"

One time, I was deep in the Amazon rainforest on a river boat and we were late to port. Boca Manu was much further down river when the sun set and the boatmen had to reassure us they could navigate the Madre de Dios in the dark. The river was full of black caimans and we didn't have a single lamp on board to lead the way. We sat in the dark, pupils like saucers, listening to the engine and the shush of the water, wondering how long we had left to go. We hit a tree stump at full speed and the prow shot into the air. I grabbed at the seat in front and lurched sideways, squealing a little as one facing their mortality might, and was fully convi