TRAVEL MEMOIRS

Backpacking Southeast Asia Before Our Marriage Blew Up

We traveled with books and love

Bayon Temple faces, Angkor Wat complex. Photo by D. Groves Harman.

In Edward Abbey’s book, “Fool’s Progress,” the protagonist leaves his vacant house after shooting the refrigerator. He takes only his dying dog. His wife has left, and he embarks on an odyssey.

My husband Ken and I shared a love for books. Not the book “Fool’s Progress” though. That was Ken’s book. Ken, the traveling loner who kept secrets, and lots of them. I knew most of his secrets. Back then, they were innocent. That was when we were madly in love. I was, anyway. He blew up our marriage later, but we were happy for a long time. In 1994, we left Oregon for Southeast Asia. We made Cambodia home for many years.

In Bangkok, we went to the used paperback book store on Khao San Road to swap out books. At the shop, the paperbacks are yellowed with age and smell musty. Pages are brittle. We got books by Graham Greene and Joseph Conrad. Susan Fromberg Schaeffer and Maya Angelou. At night, we lay in bed and put our mini mag-lights on our shoulders to lit our pages. The magic of reading with a flashlight can’t be overstated.

Especially when backpacking. We slept on little single cots and pushed our beds together. Whispered and listened to night sounds in places we’d never been. We…