Eat, Swim, Read, Repeat
Jessica and I take any opportunity we can to pop into a bookstore. This one in Singapore happened to have an entire section dedicated to Chinese propaganda. Jon Hull
Two months of summer vacation now blend together as one long, steady rhythm. The scenery changed, but the pattern held: eat, swim, read, repeat.
Connecticut
Jessica returned from Singapore in early June. After a couple of days in Newtown and Middletown, we made for the coast. We set up camp under a wide umbrella, the air salted and warm. Time felt unhurried as we pulled our paperbacks from our beach bag. In between chapters, I drove my last few commutes from Old Saybrook to Southbury until, at last, summer vacation arrived.
My summer began with my favorite book of the year so far: The River of Doubt by Candice Millard. Theodore Roosevelt, embarrassed by his defeat in the 1912 presidential election, takes off for the Amazon Rainforest to embark on an insane journey down an unmapped river. Millard captures the setting powerfully.
In the early-morning light, the scene that Roosevelt beheld was a breathtaking tableau of timeless nature—tranquil and apparently unchanging. That impression, however, could hardly have been more dangerous or deceiving. For, even as the men of the expedition gazed in awe at the natural beauty surrounding them, the creatures of the rain forest were watching back…
Jessica returned to Singapore at the end of June, and I spent a lazy week swimming and reading to start July. My summertime leisure was interrupted when I sprang into action to buy us a great little place in the Wooster Square neighborhood of New Haven. But more on that in a future blog!
Other books I read in June:
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy: A short, punchy mystery set on an island south of Australia in the waters off of Antarctica. ★★★★★
All Systems Red by Martha Wells: A straightforward science fiction book about an artificially intelligent robot. ★★★⭐︎⭐︎
The Fall by Albert Camus: A disorienting plunge into one man’s guilt and confession. ★★★★⭐︎
Touching the Void by Joe Simpson: An intense, true story about one man’s survival after he breaks his leg climbing one of the most difficult mountains in the Andes. ★★★★★
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami: A surreal mystery set in a sleepy seaside town on a Japanese island. ★★★★⭐︎
London
In mid-July, Mom, Eric, Aunt Sharon, and I boarded a morning flight to London for my cousin Seth’s wedding. Somewhere high above the Atlantic Ocean, I finished In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick. The book is a beautifully written, true account of the story that inspired Moby Dick.
He could hear it—the hollow wet roar of the whale’s lungs pumping air in and out of its sixty-ton body.
A massive whale rams into the side of a Nantucket whaling ship in the middle of a desolate stretch of the Pacific Ocean. The men initially survive, but their trip back to South America in glorified rowboats gave me added appreciation for clean drinking water and the miracle of air travel (and food that isn’t people). Things get pretty gnarly.
Seth and Berti’s wedding felt like a midsummer dream: a small countryside town in Essex with cousins, aunts, and uncles we hadn’t seen in too long. We took in views of rolling hills with Catherine, Dom, Hannah, and Owen as music rolled out of the white tent into the warm night. Jessica and I hopped in a taxi back to our Airbnb around ten.
Jessica and I spent the following morning and afternoon in London, and we made the most of it: eating pastries in London Fields, climbing up to a rooftop sauna/ice bath with a view over the city, walking through the Columbia Road Flower Market, and ending at Dishoom for our favorite Indian meal in the world. Then, we hopped on a train and boarded our flight to Singapore.
Singapore
In Singapore, Jessica showed me a side of the city she knew I'd love. One of our first stops was the Newton Food Centre, a hawker market which has delicious, cheap Asian food. I got chicken satay from a stall recognized in the Michelin guide.
Asian food we tried at hawker markets and home cafes:
Chicken satay: marinated chicken, skewered and grilled, served with a savory peanut dipping sauce
Gobi Manchurian: deep-fried cauliflower florets tossed in a flavorful, tangy sauce
Curry puffs: a savory pastry filled with a curried potato, popular in Malaysia
Egg tarts: flaky pastry filled with a sweet egg custard
Kaya toast: toasted white bread, spread with kaya (a sweet coconut jam) and butter, served with soft-boiled eggs.
Kopi-O Kosong: Malay for black coffee with no sugar
Tiger beer: a popular Singaporean lager
At The Ice Bath Club, we braced ourselves for the plunge, gasped as cold water bit at our ankles, and sought refuge in the sauna. I met her friends Magdalena and Monisha and visited Singapore American School. Evenings slowed into walks along the Rail Corridor and quiet hours in the apartment, our books open and the city humming faintly outside.
Thailand
The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami affected thousands of miles of coastline and took many lives in Thailand. Fortunately for Koh Samui, it is sheltered in the Gulf of Thailand by the Malay Peninsula. Its shores were unaffected. Image Source
Halfway through the trip, we swapped Singapore’s pristine order for Koh Samui’s chaotic charm. The island smelled like salt, sunscreen, and motorbike exhaust. Roads were rough and narrow; storefronts sold faux luxury handbags, cannabis, and massages.
We weren’t brave enough to rent a motorbike, so we took taxis and walked (sometimes for forty hot minutes under the tropical sun) toward new stretches of sand. Days fell into a perfect loop: swim and read, swim and read. Jessica drank coconuts. I drank Singha beer.
In the quiet mornings, I worked through The Doomsday Machine, Daniel Ellsberg’s account of nuclear brinkmanship: reading about how close we’ve come to the end of the world while waves lapped quietly just feet away.
We woke early on our third day to set out on my favorite adventure of the trip: a visit to Wat Plai Laem and the Big Buddha Temple. I borrowed a pair of linen pants from Jessica to make sure my knees were covered and swooshed around taking photos. The golden statues dazzled in the rising sun; behind them, the sea stretched brilliantly blue. We set off for Fisherman’s Village and lingered into the afternoon long enough to find showers across the street.
By our fourth day, I’d finished Ellsberg and started Murakami’s 1Q84. It was a welcome transition from stark reality to the surreal. I read a lot of Murakami this summer. There is something about his prose that hooks me.
I fill the stove with firewood, settle down in front of it, and read. When I get tired, I just space out and stare at the flames. I never grow tired of looking at them. They come in all shapes and colors and move around like living things. They are born, connect up, part company, and die.
We returned to Fisherman’s Village on our final night. By this point, we’d grown comfortable in Koh Samui and had a couple of favorite spots. We stayed for a well-rehearsed fire show on the beach. It felt like a proper send-off from the island.
Final Days in Singapore
Back in Singapore, Jessica returned to work. My mornings were quiet: espresso in the apartment, paperwork for the place we just bought, the occasional long solo walk. The afternoons and evenings were ours.
One of our final weekend adventures brought us to Knead Kopi, a home cafe where we enjoyed a truly Singaporean breakfast. We sat on plastic stools in the sloped driveway, sipped kopi, and munched on kaya toast. Our final days together seemed to drain away and pool at our feet.
Somewhere in that time, I closed the last page of 1Q84. While lying next to Jessica, I started Adrift by Steven Callahan and read about his survival on a raft in the Atlantic. Tomorrow, I’ll carry his journey with me on my 18.5-hour flight home above the Pacific.
Our last days were bittersweet. We danced around the coffee table, held each other tightly, and cried. It is always hard to say goodbye.
