Archive for the ‘World Travel’ Category

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Disturbing Dubai

It’s rare that I hit on topics here that don’t involve myself, my adoptive country of China or my homeland of Canada. However, I just finished a long investigative report in The Independent about Dubai, and felt the need to share.

The article, written by Johann Hari, shocked me. I had never really put much thought into Dubai, more than knowing it was a common option for people living the expat life.

Hari does an excellent job of breaking down the success and seediness of the city state into multiple levels:

A Canadian in a car park

Karen, a…

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Scent of Adventure

I had the good fortune to interview Rob Thomson the other day and can’t stop thinking about travelling.

Rob, for those that don’t know, just broke a Guinness World Record skateboarding 12,000 km unsupported. His journey started in Switzerland and took him over Europe, the US and the width of China – beginning in Xinjiang and ending just over a week ago in Shanghai.

My interview with Rob drummed up some interesting comments from his well-travelled fan base on Lost Laowai, including an e-mail from Alastair Humphreys.

All of it has got me thinking about my

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Humanaughtahaironmyhead

So, spring is in the air in lovely Suzhou. Yes – our two weeks of paradise have arrived, and just in time for the droves of tourists looking to capture a picture of the city’s tranquil gardens (which are overflowing with tourists looking to capture a picture of the city’s tranquil gardens).

Spring always stirs in me a desire for change. Perhaps a remnant of my primordial past, or just the fact that I spend most of my days indoors with a slowly dwindling connection to the outside world…

Whatever the reason:

Before: Grizzly Adams

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Travelversary, how I got where I am

So, that little bump in the road with the site being down marks my third year of running this blog. Well, technically I didn’t start writing on here until I arrive in China in January… but thehumanaught.com is technically three this week.

Additionally, this week marks another anniversary of sorts. It was November 11, 2003, that I left Canada and began travelling for five months living out of a backpack and on various kind souls couches, spare beds, backyards and floors.

The recognition that it’s been four years since that fateful day has led me to take a moment and…

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Suzhou’s Surging Wave Pavilion (沧浪亭)

To say Suzhou has a lot of gardens is an understatement somewhat akin to saying China’s got a lot of people.

It’s the fact that there are so many of them that I’ve only slowly crept out to visit them. Much like temples in China, Suzhou’s gardens do tend to blend together. Generally speaking, they all contain a bamboo garden, big rocks, a pond full of hungry koi, a UNESCO World Heritage site marker, and several busloads of daytrippers.

My apartment is a 10-15 minute walk from two such gardens, but living next to a UNESCO World Heritage site…

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Dreamblogue has head in clouds, feet on ground

Over the last week or so, in between design projects and getting set for my impending return to studenhood, I’ve been helping flesh out the design of a great China charity project – the China Dreamblogue (or Blog of Dreams – I’m still not sure why it has two names).

The extremely ambitious project has been put together by Professor Lonnie Hodge (aka OneManBandwidth) and David DeGeest in an effort to help people not just reach for, but grasp their dreams, particularly as it relates to increasing their educational opportunities.

The project breaks down into the following four…

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More seasons than a spice rack

One of the toughest things for Maggie and I to get used to about living in Suzhou over living up in her home town in the north-east or mine in Canada is the weather.

We are both used to four distinct seasons running from a warming spring, a hot summer, a cooling fall and a freezing winter. I wrongly assumed that Suzhou had fewer seasons. Basically the weather goes from ‘chilled to the soul’ cold to ‘please somebody shoot me’ hot… with very little in between.

As we moved to Suzhou at the end of last summer, and it…

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Pan Gate – 盘门 (panmen)

One of the best things about having a guest visiting is it kicks you in the ass and reminds you that those scenic spots aren’t going to see themselves.

Recently, while putting together a list of tourist spots around Suzhou for my Your China Pal site, I discovered a place I had not heard of – Pan Gate. As one of Suzhou’s oldest landmarks, I’m not quite sure how it slipped past me.

Located in the south west corner of the ‘old city’, the gate is part of a larger park, or scenic area. For…

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Random Australian Girl In My Bedroom

So, today I am receiving a guest. I love guests.

Living in China for two years, I’ve had only a handful of people from back home come visit me, and so it is always with a great deal of anticipation that I receive new visitors. So much so, that I don’t really care if I have ever met them or not.

Such is the case with Lisa – said ‘random Australian girl’ (please note, by ‘bedroom’ I mean ’spare bedroom’ – a fact that Maggie was adamant about ;-) )

You see, Lisa is a friend…

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Announcing: Your China Pal

Hey all, I’m way behind in this announcing stuff, but wanted to wait until we had really got things going before plugging my newest venture on here.

A friend of mine here in Suzhou and I have created this business as a way for foreigners visiting China to have access to an English-speaking local Chinese guide (or ‘pal’ if you will), while circumventing the shady world of Chinese tour-guides (sorry guys, but you know you are).

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Anyone that knows me, or has been reading here long enough, knows that whatever my opinions are, I generally shoot straight. I…

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Back From Dalian

Well, I’ve returned from the savage lands north east of the wall, and despite my inlaws doing their very best to stuff me to the point of explosion, I survived.

I’m going to say this once, to be clear about things… NEVER TAKE THE FUCKING BUS IN CHINA.

As I mentioned post-previously (c’mon, that’s kinda fun to say) – Maggie and I opted to take the bus as she was told (by the ticket agent) that it was faster and cheaper. Cheaper it was (300 RMB vs. the 400 RMB of the train, and 800 RMB for a flight),…

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Returning To Dalian

I’ll likely be offline for the next few days, as later this afternoon I’m packing myself into a sleeper bus for the 15-hour journey from Suzhou to Dalian.

Though I’m always quite keen to go back up to my old stomping grounds in 东北, and Maggie’s thrilled to see her father for the first time since we went in December to register our marriage, the main reason for our visit is so I can be properly welcomed into the family.

kaifaqu01.jpgAs we didn’t have a ‘traditional wedding’ in any sense of the term, I’ve…

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Time To Face The Book

After endless pestering from my friend Sarah, I’ve finally jumped on the Facebook bandwagon.

I’m not a huge fan of social networking sites, mostly as I’ve just been over exposed to them. From back in the day when my friends were on Campus Kiss, and then migrated to Friendster and MySpace and now they all seemed to have moved again… it’s just tiring trying to keep up.

Not that the sites don’t inform you of how many friends are just waiting for you to join. Nary a day goes by that I don’t get an…

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Road To Wedlock VIII: Thai’d The Knot Pt. 3

… continued from Part 2

We were both a bit sad to leave Koh Chang, and like most of the places I’ve been in Thailand, I’d like to return and explore it properly one day.

The bus ride back to Bangkok was much the same as the ride there – complete with loud, boastful foreigners talking between themselves for the whole bus to hear. Adding to the oddness of the characters on the Thai tourist buses was a middle-aged Canadian sitting beside me.

Shortly after leaving the port I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye, and…

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Road To Wedlock VIII: Thai’d The Knot Pt. 2

… continued from Part 1

Where were we? Right… Koh Chang – or rather, the journey there.

I’ve travelled most the various forms of mass transit in Thailand, and when possible I’ve avoided the VIP tour bus solutions. I’m not entirely sure why, maybe because I heard packs were commonly rummaged through in the luggage compartment, or because I just hate listening to a bus full of foreigners talk about how great they are and how many places they’ve been.

However, the deal with the bus to Koh Chang was sweet (600฿ round-trip, incl. ferry), costing the same (or…

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Road To Wedlock VIII: Thai’d The Knot Pt. 1

It’s been over a month since we returned from our honeymoon in Thailand, but I’ve only just found the time (or rather the patience) to wade through the hundreds of photos I took and pick out the ones to put online (and to print for our little honeymoon photo album).

So, without further adieu,here is the long-intended honeymoon post.

After seeing my family off at Shanghai’s Maglev station, Maggie and I found a netbar and decided it was high time we got some idea as to what we’d be doing and where we were going when we arrived in Thailand…

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Shan Tang Street – A Walk Through Suzhou’s Past

Getting out and taking photos has been rare for me lately, as has going to see anything worth taking photos of. However, a couple days ago Maggie said she wanted to go to a massive wedding dress district up by Tiger Hill here in Suzhou. Tiger Hill is a rather large temple complex that is the burial place of King He Lu (d. 496 BC). At 2,500 years old is one of the oldest landmarks in Suzhou and likely makes for some great sightseeing.

Sadly, wedding matters forced us to save exploring…

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Little Forest – Little Honour (少林-少光)

Last Spring Festival I tossed around several travel ideas before finally settling on our trip to Haerbin. Top of the list prior to that was making our way through Shandong towards Xi'An – stopping in Songshan to visit the famous Shaolin Temple. You know the Shaolin monks, right? They're the guys that can do all that amazing kung fu like you see on TV – stopping bullets with their teeth, dodging raindrops, and kicking the crap out of homer – while spouting off prolific Taoist gems of wisdom.…

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Quid Pro Quo: So Cool For School

Possibly the coolest part about stretching my legs and leaving the safety of the True North Strong And Free is that I meet some amazing people. Actually, sometimes it's a bit overwhelming to be surrounded by such cool people and realize my biggest concerns are that people at work didn't notice I shaved my beard. Sigh.

Well, one such cool person is Gionata, or as the Dalian crew came to know him – John. John, you may remember, stayed with Maggie and I back in February. He stayed…

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Maple Bridge | 枫桥

Continuing our foray into Suzhou’s tourist spots, we headed to 枫桥 (Maple Bridge – man do I miss syrup) recently and were pleasantly surprised. Generally speaking, I’m not impressed by Chinese tourist spots, yet lately I’ve not been let down – perhaps I’m just tuning out the stuff about them that previously ruined the experience for me (big stones with red-painted characters for photos, the matching hat mafia, fibreglass everything, etc.).

The park is located to the west of the old city, on the bank of the Grand Canal. To get there, simply take…

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