En route to the beaches of Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast, Shelley Buck encounters her first suicide shower. My husband is sick. En route to Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast, we’ve driven all day from the Central Valley in an unfamiliar diesel four-wheel-drive vehicle and crossed to the Nicoya Peninsula over an uneven bridge built recently by […]
Entries Tagged as 'En Route'
A Misadventure in Hat-Yai
September 27th, 2014 · No Comments · En Route
Border areas can bring surprises, as travel memoir writer Shelley Buck learns during an overnight stay near Thailand’s southern border with Malaysia. Our landlord is wailing and exclaiming. The porcelain sink, which was so proudly and tenuously attached to the wall of our hotel room, has tumbled and shattered. Lee and I had both just […]
Tags: Shelley Buck·Thailand
A Train Ride to Provo
March 29th, 2012 · 1 Comment · En Route, Time and Place
At age 23, like many in his generation at the depths of the Great Depression, John A. Palmer, “packing a toothbrush and razor in the lapel pocket of my jacket and armed with the clothes on my back and a pack of cigarettes,” hit the road, heading west. He had $7. Palmer’s memoir, A Walk […]
A Road Trip into Death Valley
May 17th, 2011 · No Comments · En Route
In Margaret Murray’s novel, Sundagger.net, six New Age seekers journey to Death Valley in a cramped VW bus, together with their sweat lodge leader. The group’s intent is to hold a Native American vision quest, once there. In this excerpt, the mostly-urban travelers encounter a wild land of fierce winds and disorienting geological trompe l’oeil. […]
Icarus
July 12th, 2010 · No Comments · En Route, Travel Memoir
In this selection from her travel memoir, East, Shelley Buck recalls her first flight across the Atlantic. The plane out of Los Angeles was packed with returning Scottish tourists. We were all bound for tiny Stansted Airport, outside London. I nestled into my seat, fastening my seatbelt. The upholstery felt scratchy, but that was OK. […]
Tags: Atlantic·East·flight·Shelley Buck
The Globe
June 24th, 2009 · 11 Comments · En Route, Travel Memoir
Shelley Buck traveled overland to India by boat, bus, train, and (sometimes) taxi in 1972. The following is from her memoir of that journey. “I don’t want to travel with a woman,” explained the beefy American from San Diego, turning me down. “You get hassled.” We stood in the narrow lobby of Istanbul’s Hotel Güngör, […]
Tags: East·Istanbul·Shelley Buck