Flint is a tough place. Like its namesake rock, Flint is a hard, gray place. The people who live here are tough, too, and take a certain amount of pride, along with a big dollop of good humor, in calling themselves Flintstones. Best known as the home of the 1933-34 United Auto Workers sit-down strike, Flint is also very much a company town. General Motors in its various incarnations has been building motor vehicles in Flint since 1904. At its height, General Motors employed about 77,000 in its plants in Flint alone. Today GM employs fewer than 8,000 people in the city. Needless to say, this has brought severe economic hardship to the area. Based on 2013 FBI crime data, Flint earned the dubious distinction of being named the most dangerous city in the United States, ... read more

Walking around the old city of George Town, Penang, is a fun exercise. One of the things guaranteed to bring a smile to your face – unless you’re truly a grumpy, old curmudgeon – is the street art. On July 7, 2008, George Town was officially named a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its unique architecture and cultural heritage. As such, the historic core of the city has remained. Renovation of old buildings is encouraged, and there are financial incentives for building owners to refurbish the outside of their structures to historic accuracy. High rises and modern shopping malls are relegated to the outskirts. In 2012 the Penang Municipal Council made the bold move of commissioning a Lithuanian artist named Ernest Zacharevic to create a series of murals around the city. Collectively these are called “Mirrors ... read more

Many people, myself included, say disparaging things about American consumerism, especially around the holidays. My friends, you ain’t seen nothin’ till you’ve been in a shopping mall in Asia. Let me set the scene: It is the third week of December. It is 104 degrees Fahrenheit, the air so thick with humidity you can practically chew it. I’m in Malaysia, a Muslim country. I step into KLCC Suria, a beautiful upscale, air-conditioned mall at the foot of the Petronas Towers. In the center court is a stage set with an enormous teddy bear, a fireplace that could shelter a family of three, and a larger than life Santa. Onto this stage steps a group of attractive young Malay singers who promptly start singing “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.” Now, is it just me, or does ... read more

I don’t remember why I thought it was a good idea to book my trip from San Diego to Kuala Lumpur by going from San Diego to San Francisco to Hong Kong to Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, 32 hours and five airports when all is said and done, but I did. Probably because I’m, shall we say, frugal (sounds so much nicer than saying I’m cheap) and probably because I wanted to use miles to upgrade to business class. I’m one of the few people I know who actually like airports – other than the standing in line bits. This trip gave me the chance to look at several airports, and some of them are clearly falling behind. A recent Skytrax survey showed that of the top 25 airports in the world, none of them are ... read more

I grew up reading Cold War spy novels and watching James Bond movies. Border crossings and the exchange of enemy agents often figured prominently in such fiction. Those stories had at least a brush with the facts, though; the Glienicke Brücke, a small bridge linking Berlin in West Germany with Potsdam in East Germany, was the site of many such exchanges. I was reminded of those stories as I walked across the lonely border between Eilat in Israel and Aqaba in Jordan. I took an El Al flight from Tel Aviv to Eilat. This flight left from Terminal 1 at Ben Gurion Airport, not Terminal 3, which is for international flights. I got there a little early, and the terminal was full of IDF soldiers, most of them carrying machine guns. Other than the lady in ... read more