Contents
Anecdotes of the Sublime: An Introduction
Asia
The Chinese Don’t Believe in Anything (Kashgar–Urumqi, Western China)
Seeing the Future (Seoul, South Korea)
The Prostrate Pilgrim Slides Home (Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, Tibet)
Quiet Repression (Beijing, China)
The Great Wall (Mutianyu, China)
Picture, Map, Territory (Tokyo, Japan)
The Beggars and the Killing Fields (Siem Reap–Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
Red River Train (Hanoi–Lao Cai–Sapa, Vietnam)
Away from the World (Vang Vieng–Nong Khiaw, Laos)
Thick and Thin Culture (South Kuta, Bali, Indonesia)
Human Trafficking in Singapore (Over the Indian Ocean)
The Silent Retreat (Chennai, India)
Hindu, Muslim, Fisherman (Mahabalipuram, India)
Where Is Your Family? (New Delhi, India)
The Oil of the Lotus Plant (Mysore, India)
The Higher Education in Tamil Nadu (Kumbakonam, India)
My Life as a Pedophile (Malappuram, India)
Middle East and Central Asia
The Little Man of Samarkand (Samarkand, Uzbekistan)
Armenia Is Not Beautiful (Baku, Azerbaijan)
At the Border (Lagodekhi, Georgia–Balakan, Azerbaijan)
Windcatchers (Yazd, Iran)
Grieving with the Poets (Takht-e Jamshid–Shiraz, Iran)
Paradise (Dubai, United Arab Emirates)
Crossing the Border (Eilat, Israel)
Everyone Belongs Somewhere (Gold Souk, Amman, Jordan)
Bad Neighborhood (Izmir, Turkey)
The Americas
Semana Santa (Tecún Umán–San Juan Ostuncalco–Antigua, Guatemala)
Los Angeles, South (Nahuizalco, El Salvador)
The Wild West (Ocopateque–Yamaranguila, Honduras)
Why Don’t They Hate Us? (Grenada, Nicaragua)
The Church Bells of Quito (Quito, Ecuador)
The Salt Flats (Uyuni, Bolivia)
Being a Whore in Ecuador (Quilotoa Loop, Ecuador)
Beach (Boca Chica, Dominican Republic)
Culture under Castro (Havana, Cuba)
Café la Poesía (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
The Blue Economy (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Tango (San Cristobal, Argentina)
Incident in the Old City (Montevideo, Uruguay)
Jazz in Chile (Santiago, Chile)
Uruguayan Politics (Asunción, Paraguay)
Dutch South America (Paramaribo–Pokigron, Suriname)
French South America (Cayenne–Kourou, French Guiana)
Amateur Electoral Polling (Pigeon Island Georgetown, Guyana)
Zona de Tolerencia (Bogota, Colombia)
Africa
Baksheesh 101 (Tangier, Morocco)
Saddam Hussein and the Postcard Salesmen (El-Djem, Tunisia)
Camel Herders (The Tunisian Desert)
Pyramids, Museums, Sewage (Cairo–Giza, Egypt)
Sandstorm in the Sinai, Dust Storm in the Delta (East of Suez–Nile Delta, Egypt)
Pretty Pictures (Stone Town, Zanzibar)
AIDS and Other Maladies (Morija, Lesotho)
Under a Tree in the Distance (West of Moamba, Mozambique)
Ecstasy in Maputo (Maputo, Mozambique)
The Tourist Corner (Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe)
Porous Borders (Botswana)
In the Reeds (Okavango Delta, Botswana)
Cull the Humans (Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe)
Europe
Dreaming Arizona (Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria)
Perestroika in the Baltics (Vilnius, Lithuania)
Old Art Nouveau (Riga, Latvia)
Immigrants (Helsinki, Finland)
Why Putin Is Still in Power (Moscow–St. Petersburg, Russia)
The Painted Crosses of Maramureș (Săpânţa, Romania)
Waiting at the Bulgarian Border (East of Delchevo, Macedonia)
Holding a Grudge (Upper Town, Gibraltar)
Business Lunch (Downtown Minsk, Belarus)
Being Jewish in Belarus (Minsk International Airport, Belarus)
Acknowledgments