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Ethan Ward writes and photographs everything in Maroon Astro, a travel magazine from someone who went. You can learn more about him at iamethanward.com.
Issue
Nov 1, 2026
•
3 min read
The places I’d still send you, and why Paris shops close in summer
Picks
Oct 28, 2026
It’s the only eSIM I’ve ever used. I set it up before I fly, so my phone works when the plane lands.
+1
Oct 27, 2026
6 min read
The places I’d send a friend, from the hike I did several times a week to the flower market downtown.
Story
Oct 26, 2026
4 min read
I got my money back after a bad stay in Cebu City, but Airbnb removed the review I left for the next guest.
Ho Chi Minh City
2 min read
A month in District 4 left me with 5 places I’d go back to and 3 things I’d do differently.
Noticed
The return dates on neighborhood doors sent me looking into the annual holidays behind the closed shutters.
First trip
A month in Bang Sue began with the wrong clothes and a search for a pharmacy, then settled into dinner at the same stall.
6 places I’d eat at again, from a café that knew my order by heart to a seafood dinner in Kedonganan.
Los Angeles
I had built a journalism career in the city where I once slept in my car, and I still wanted to leave the United States.
Dublin
I moved to Dublin for a master’s degree and planned to stay, but the welcome I experienced was not the one I saw everyone receive.
Went back
In the 12th arrondissement, a Friday market, a stranger’s help, and an afternoon in Starbucks gave me plenty to do without making a plan.
Bali
From a café where I waited for breakfast to a warung where lunch arrived almost immediately, I kept finding more to a meal than I expected.
1 min read
From my balcony in District 4, I watched a dog sit calmly in traffic I was afraid to walk into.
The app said my first motorbike ride, to a movie theater in Hoi An, would take 2 minutes.
Three women worked on my hands and feet at once, and I was the American with money to spend.
Hoi An
I wanted someone to walk around Hoi An with, and ended up asking a Tinder match to explain what he meant by “woke.”
Twelve photographs from a visit that brought me face to face with the violence, personal accounts, and acts of remembrance preserved inside.
A look outside a restaurant in Ubud reminded me how familiar racial assumptions can feel far from home.
Bangkok
12 photographs from a month of finding my way around Bangkok, stopping for coffee, and looking for air-conditioning.
I noticed smiles disappear when my turn came, then found myself questioning what I had seen and what I was bringing to it.
I walked Hoi An’s ancient town from Chợ Hội An to the Japanese Covered Bridge and went into a lot of shops on the way.
I photographed offerings being prepared, sold, and placed around Bali, including one with french fries on a KFC counter.
Manchester
Watching television in Vietnam, I recognized a place I’d photographed 4 years earlier and went looking for the pictures.
In Ho Chi Minh City, a river-view apartment, a work schedule, and a phone that always needed charging gave me a life I hadn’t known to picture.
