It's with a certain trepidation that we receive a book written by someone we know.  Especially when it's an autobiography and the author is a friend we admire. "What if I don't like the book?" we fret.

Well, whatever status the author holds in our personal ranking of acquaintances we just have to sit down, read it - and hope for the best. If the book doesn’t appeal to us we should still respect the time and effort put into its creation.

When Sam Oglesby sent me his second book, "Encounters : A Memoir" (published last spring and  awarded an Honorable Mention in the 2010 New York Book Festival Bio/Autobiography category), however,  I immediately knew that I was in for a pleasurable read and a nice trip down memory lane.

Contagious "Yellow Fever"

Sam Oglesby is an atypical American with an atypical curriculum and an unusually great curiosity about, and respect for, other cultures.  He is also a longstanding friend and confidant of this hack and "Encounters"  brings many flashbacks of the buddy who widened my view of the world, introduced me to Thailand, Burma and Indonesia in the early 80s and made me fall  in love with South-East Asia. Sam calls it "catching the Yellow Fever" - and yes, I  too have been smitten by that fever.

With Sam I was invited to the annual Wedding of the King of Solo to the Queen of the South Seas in Surakarta (see link below) where our Western faces stood out among the predominantly Javanese guests.   And thanks to a friend of Sam’s in Bangkok,  I had the privilege to visit Phuket well before mass tourism rolled in over its beautiful beaches, at a time when the local airport still barely consisted of more than four pillars supporting a roof of  corrugated steel. 

Burmese souvenirs

I still remember every minute of a Burmese "pwe", an all-night street theater I attended with Sam in downtown Rangoon at the end of  December 1980.   Hypnotized from dusk till dawn by the sounds and rhythms of the Burmese  gamelan orchestra, the "sine wine",  and the intricacy of story plots and dance steps, I forgot the uncomfortable chair specially brought down for me from the apartment of one of Sam’s pals in the rundown neighborhood.

Behind my desk in Paris stands a beautiful Burmese lacquer chest  Sam sent me when he moved from Rangoon.  Twice a year I treat it with loving care - and  Johnson's Baby Oil - and think of my much too short stay in that green city teeming with  beautiful, smiling people.  I often wonder how they’re faring under Burma’s sinister masters today.

Good food advice

Sam and his Asian friends  helped me avoid many cultural pitfalls and guided me through specific national sensitivities. They recommended itineraries, guesthouses and foodstalls off the beaten track and opened  up their own homes to me. 

Not to forget that they taught me how to enjoy local food and gave me the most useful 6-point advice a traveler could ever hope for concerning food safety:
1) Look at the food. Does it whet your appetite?
2) Look at the people serving it. They eat it themselves.  Do they look healthy?
3) Pour lots of hot pepper (a desinfectant) on your plate  
4) Drink lots of local beer for further sterilization - and to calm down the fiery pepper
5) (Aimed at pleasure rather than safety:)  Eat with your hands and find out how to really enjoy food!
6) Remember that being nervous about what you eat will give you indigestion!