For those such as Carlee who’ve accused us of animal cruelty, I’d like you to think of this as a cross cultural exchange. Wayne’s done the guinea pig, snake eating thing in previous travels, this time he was determined to try turtle. Here you can buy turtles as big as fry pans on the street. […]
Posts in category
Travel
Oct 14-18, 2009 Stayed at the Old Street Youth Hostel in the old town. Located on the narrow, stone pedestrian tourist street, it’s lined […]
Wayne here. Had a strange dream the other night. The principal dancer at a major dance company took ill and the rest of the cast and crew beckoned me to step in and take over. I stated that I had no real (or imaginary) skill at this, but they insisted. Then I woke up, not […]
Suzhou (6mill), just west of Shanghai, is one of those legendary cities with 2500yrs of history. It was said that in heaven there is paradise, on earth there is Suzhou and Huangzhou. Even Marco Polo said it was the most beautiful city in China, with its tree lined canals, fantastic gardens, silk and art epicentres, […]
We check into the Asset Hotel, a unremarkable but clean 2 or 3 star job, and are happy with the extra space and anonymity, and promise we will do nothing in Shanghai…Yea, right. Wicked Shanghai it ain’t. More like Blade Runner takes Asia. The contrast in the poor and the glitter is jaw dropping. We […]
We discovered a delicious steamed bun paradise on the way to the Summer Palace but we are in need of some western food…never thought we’d say this. These five bite buns of joy were named after a general who used them as heads in order to disguise his army size. Whatever, they’ve ruined any future […]
There’s likely few people who couldn’t identify the Great Wall. The long, meandering battlement snaking in and around rugged hills, the myth of it’s visibility from space, images of Mongol invaders scaling it’s precipice. Nice images. But rather unreal. Most people go to sections of the wall that are completely restored and polished, and inundated […]
Wayne here. Twenty years ago when I was here in Beijing, the country was in the midst of social and political upheaval. It culminated in the Tiananmen Sq masacre which today isn’t discussed, nor taught, nor acknowledged. You have to be at least in your mid thirties for it to register. For these locals, it […]
The Irish are like salmon, they must return to their birthplace. In the case of the O Dowd sisters, it was to an Irish pub. They had to watch the all-Ireland match between Kerry and Cork, with Kerry winning. If Berlin is the wall art/graffiti capital of the world, our IKEA outfitted apartment was located […]
So its hard to image a more beautiful city than Edinburgh. Somehow they’ve managed to by and large preserve the relics of a tragic and heroic history around every corner. You won’t see so much stone and fine craftsmanship anywhere…and we’ve been to Peru. And somehow the turbulence of its heroes, villains, myths and legends […]