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    Audrey Scott and Daniel Noll serve up a scatter plot of observations from rapidly changing countries on their journey around the world. Tune into Uncornered Market for human stories, engaging travel photography, street food reportage, and insights into personal growth. Read more…

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    • India
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    • South Africa
    • Madagascar
    • Botswana
    • Namibia
    • Zambia
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    Buy From Amazon and Support Us The Art of Worldly Wisdom

    The Art of Worldly Wisdom
     Author: Baltasar Gracian
    Beautifully translated, this collection of timeless, universal chunks of insight into human nature easily transcends run-of-the-mill personal and professional management wisdom.

    Shantaram: A Novel

    Shantaram: A Novel
     Author: Gregory David Roberts
    Administering first aid in a Bombay slum, selling fake passports and running guns to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. Technically a novel, but closely linked to the Author's own experiences. Fantastic read.

    Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, New Edition

    Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, New Edition
     Author: Jared Diamond
    An admirable crack at explaining why the world is the way it is by way of an anthropological macro-history. This book probably comes up the most in conversation as we travel.

Category Archive: Motley Mots

Happy 2008: Some Year-End Wisdom from Nine Sacred Places

Temple Lotus Flowers - Chiang Mai By way of a Buddhist festival that we stumbled upon here in Bangkok, we found some fitting wishes and words of wisdom for the new year. In the festival pamphlet, designed very much for locals with a nod to us non-Thai speakers, we discovered a list of wishes and matching offerings for each of the nine participating wats (temples). From this list, we inferred something rather noteworthy. Continue Reading »

 Filed Under:  Motley Mots, Southeast Asia, Perspectives, Thailand by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
2 Comments  |  31 December 2007

The Search for Grandfather’s House, Part Two


The new house, commanding magnificent views of open sea and bathing beaches, and mountains and forest gardens, and houses. North of the Iltis Huk church, at foot of the big hill, on south slope. Wish you could enjoy it soon with us. Big love, Daddy

- a note on the back of a photo of the house in Qingdao, China, written by my great-grandfather to one of his children on July 31, 1937.

Armed with the photo of the house and the description above, we hopped on a bus Continue Reading »

Article Series - Grandfather's House

  1. To Grandfather's House We Go
  2. The Search for Grandfather's House, Part Two
Previous in series

 Filed Under:  Motley Mots, Perspectives, China by: Audrey Scott
5 Comments  |  30 December 2007

Christmas in Krung Thep

Snowman with a KalpakThat’s Christmas in Bangkok to you and me. Krung Thep (City of Angels) is the Thai name for Bangkok, Thailand - the location from which we happen to be writing this post.

We first imagined this post being entitled Wishing You a Very Chinese Christmas, but a quick decision five days ago altered our trajectory and landed us in sunny Bangkok instead. Continue Reading »

 Filed Under:  Motley Mots, Southeast Asia, Thailand by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
4 Comments  |  25 December 2007

To Grandfather’s House We Go


We’re headed next to Qingdao to look for my grandfather’s birthplace and the house my great-grandparents built.

–explaining our travel plans in China to a group of expats at a Thanksgiving
dinner in Beijing.

The group appeared utterly confused. I don’t look like I’m of Chinese heritage in the least. So how is it that my grandfather was born in China? Continue Reading »

Article Series - Grandfather's House

  1. To Grandfather's House We Go
  2. The Search for Grandfather's House, Part Two
Next in series

 Filed Under:  Motley Mots, Perspectives, China by: Audrey Scott
8 Comments  |  10 December 2007

Dreaming of Dinner

After surviving on more than three months of Soviet and nomad-inspired cuisine from the Caucasus to Central Asia, we’ve begun to have visions of our favorite foods and restaurants. Here’s a taste of what we’ve been craving.

Note: this fantasy interlude does not represent a “best of” and is in no particular order. Deprivation knows no logic or sequence! Continue Reading »

 Filed Under:  Motley Mots, Food and Markets, Central Asia by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
8 Comments  |  10 September 2007

Housekeeping in Kazakhstan

Changes to our home page, our erratic publishing schedule, and varied topics have thrown some of our readers off. It’s time to come clean.

We’re not actually traveling. We’ve been updating this site from a beach in the Maldives. We’ve fabricated all of our stories and grabbed content and photos from around the web and Photoshopped ourselves in where possible. Isn’t technology amazing?

OK, the real story.
For those of you who believe everything you read, that last bit was a joke. All the experiences are ours. And so is the content. Continue Reading »

 Filed Under:  Motley Mots, Travel, Technology, Central Asia, Kazakhstan by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
1 Comment  |  7 September 2007

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