Category: Uncategorized

Toyota pretty well owns the market for saloon cars (almost always Camry) and pickup trucks. Hyundai is the brand of choice for minivans. Honda is doing well too: they have a huge share of the small (100-125cc) motorcycle market, which is a popular way to get around in most places, and the dominant vehicle choice…

The first bicycle I ever bought was a Giant Sedona ATX back in 1994. It was a rigid frame mountain bike with STX (slightly above today’s Alivio) components. I rode it all over the trails of St. John’s, took it to university in Kingston, put it on a train to Vancouver, then rode it back…

Robin and I spent the last week in Beijing.. I needed to do some planning, book some tickets, get a visa… and Beijing is a great city anyway (apart from the pollution.) We’re now on a train from Beijing to Xining. We left the hostel at about the same time but by different routes: she…

From Saigon, I headed to Hoi An. This is a beautiful heritage town filled with old buildings, most of which now house custom tailors! These are places that will make you any sort of garment, usually overnight. Prices are good but sadly quality isn’t, so I didn’t get anything made. Instead, I wandered around the…

Robin and I entered Vietnam on a boat from Phnom Penh to the Mekong Delta and spent a few days there. The delta is one of the regions that feeds Vietnam (and probably other parts of the world too..) I didn’t see much rice growing, but the evidence was all along the river: random floes…

Robin and I are in Beijing, taking a much needed break from moving every few days. Also I’m still getting ready for the rest of my trip… cycling in Tibet and the Trans-Siberian. So… how we got here, in brief: from Dali, we took the bus to Kunming, the train to Guilin, then a short…

Things I’ve had to deal with lately: Getting a Russian visa. Apparently this can only be done at home, or in a country where you have permission to stay for 90 days or more. For me, this means Hong Kong. I had to buy an "invitation" online for 45 USD, print it at a business…

I’ve uploaded my photos from the temples of Angkor near Siem Reap, Cambodia. We spent a very full day visiting the temples. We got up at 4:30 and got on our tuktuk for a ride through complete darkness to the ticketing station. Then, up to Sras Srang, a small reservoir, for sunrise. After that, we…

We entered China on May 1 after a bit of a misadventure coming down the mountain from Sapa: I realized about halfway down that I’d left my passport at the hotel :( We were in a full van of people which obviously couldn’t turn back just for me, so Robin and I continued to the…

I’ve uploaded my photos of Ayutthaya. This is one of the ancient capitals of Thailand, active from 1351 to 1767. There are some great ruins, including a chedi (pointy mound found at some temples) with a tree growing right through its middle! Some of the structures have decayed in a way that shows that they…

Oh yeah, I have a blog :) Vietnam so far has been great. People are really friendly, even when they’re not trying to sell you something! Even arriving in the country on a canal in the Mekong Delta, there were kids on the banks waving at us and yelling "Hello! Hello!" The trip so far…

My life is a stereo… I found these biscuits in Cambodia. They taste just like Oreos. …kinda cheaply made though About 1/4 of the cookies had one side backwards, in other words the textured side of the biscuit was smushed into the filling. One cookie was completely backwards: smooth side out on both sides! Julie,…

Cambodia is a dual-currency country. Anything even remotely touristy prices its offerings in US dollars. Coins are not used though. Any change under 1 USD is given back in the local currency, Riel, usually at a 4000:1 exchange rate, which exists in bills as low as 100 Riel (well under 1¢.) A tuktuk, southeast Asia’s…

From Louang Prabang: a chance to fly a new (to me) airline and aircraft: Lao Airlines and an ATR 72. The airport was small and security was poor. A photocopied sign, strangely from CATSA (Canadian air security) advertised the usual liquid ban, but they xrayed all our bags when we entered the airport, with no…

From Vang Vieng, we took the bus to to Louang Prabang then flew to Chiang Mai, rode elephants, and took the train to Bangkok. Right now we’re in Bangkok for one last night before heading to Cambodia (train to the border, share taxi to Siem Reap, probably.) I have a few half-finished blog entries on…

We made it to Krabi amid many adventures. Tomorrow morning, longtail boat to Railey Beach for climbing. Please don’t take my recent negativity to mean I’m not having fun. I’m enjoying it, and hopefully so are you :)

Singapore was founded before any of us were born by some Thai prince who was out sailing and saw a Merlion, or Singha in Thai. Figuring he was probably high, the Singaporese government promptly banned all recreational drugs except alcohol and nicotine.[*] Robin and I arrived late on Friday night to find the public transit…

OK, back to Kyoto! Robin and I met up there after separate side trips from Hiroshima: she wanted to see Himeji Castle and I wanted to see the Mazda assembly line. Kyoto was a great place to spend our last few days in Japan. I took Robin to Kurama and Kibune, we visited some of…

Masuda! Out in the wilds of Shimane prefecture, the least populated in Japan, this small town was a big change from Tokyo. Robin and I headed out there on a complicated series of shinkansen then a pokey local train to stay with Caroline, a couchsurfer. After finding Caroline’s place, about a 15 minute walk from…

Robin and I are crazy but not insane – our love hotel adventure wasn’t actually all that risky. We fortunately didn’t have to use any of these, but there are many emergency sleeping options in the nightlife areas of large Japanese cities: Capsule hotels. Usually for men only, although some women-only or mixed places are…