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What's Harold Stephens Working On?
To answer your questions, Harold Stephens is currently working on two books at the same time. One is a collection of short stories called "The Man Who Wanted to Buy A Wife, and Other Tales from the Pacific Rim," and is near ready for publication. The other one which he has been working on for many years is "The Asian Woman." It's a book, he considers, that won't win him many favors.
What is he up to? Stephens never stops. He just returned to Bangkok—where he lives in a great old colonial house with a garden and a jungle of plants trees—from India and Nepal where he traced the footsteps of Lord Buddha. He was contemplating building a large boat for exploring the wild rivers of Asia, but has settled for an 18 foot dory (which he just completed) that can be transported overland, say from Bangkok through Cambodia to Vietnam to the mouth of the Mekong River. The same for Burma, he can load the dory aboard a freighter and ship it to Rangoon to explore the Irrawaddi. Other rivers are the Chao Phraya River in Thailand, The Pahang in Malaysia, the Rejang in Borneo and possibly the Sepik in New Guinea. The dory is fully equipped with even bunks for sleeping. We are sure a book will come out of his.
He is also planning a trip along the Silk Road, beginning in Xian, China, and entereding Uzbekistan and exiting in Iran. A few months ago he traveled to Uzbekistan to survey the possibility of driving, which he had originally planned to do in his four-wheel drive Land Cruiser but the complication are too great. Anyway, he says, by bus and train will be fun. His idea of fun is not everyone's. He has more adventures planned, and more books dancing around in his head, but we dare not ask him about them. You can read his weekly travel stories that appear on Thai Airways International's webpage: www.thaiairways.com and open HOLIDAYS.