Squalor and Splendor: Expat Tales of East and West

SQUALOR AND SPLENDOR Tales of East and West is a series of unusual travel stories that take place in Europe and Asia covering the Philippines Japan Indonesia (Bali) Papua New Guinea England Spain and Morocco. The title refers to the two polarities of the traveler’s experience: unpleasant encounters and observations of degrading experiences balanced by the ecstasy of beautiful lands and new and fascinating experiences. Flesh deals with prostitution in the Philippines and the narrator’s strange reaction to it. Revolution portrays a spoiled bored member of the Marcos class that was to fall in the revolution of 86. Million Girls is the story of a typical Philippine prostitute. Boracay is the odd story of a man who mistakes a young Filipino transvestite for a girl. Green Man is a parable of reverse racism in Japan. Jean Shrimpton relates the oddly connected experiences of a man in London over a period of eighteen years. Wimbledon is about a student who has a not so idyllic experience as a cook in a steak house. Bali deals with the negative effects of tourism on that no longer enchanted island. Morocco shows a young westerner encountering the drug and hippie culture along with a persistent boy prostitute in that atypical Muslim country. Hemingway is an ironic look at the Hemingway heroic myth in Spain. Siquijor is an account of faith healing and magic on that island in the Philippines. The subject is a well-known faith healer named Tibor.