Indian Briefs #4

Floating palace, Jaipur

I wrote three blog posts about the first two cities I visited, and then there’s been nothing since, though I’ve careened through nineteen more cities and towns since I left Agra.

Read More

Indian Briefs #1

Humayun's Tomb, Delhi

The first (I hope) of some brief snapshots from India. If all goes well, I’ll get caught up a bit the next few days while I’m here in Jodhpur.

Read More

24 hours in Delhi

Delhi

Delhi. I’ve read about it in guidebooks. I’ve discussed it with others who’ve been here before. I’ve absorbed its depictions in books and films.

Read More

Tokyo: Ikebukuro and beyond

A small restaurant just outside the city centre. At a table in the middle of the room sits a beefy young man with t-shirt sleeves rolled up, a pack of Marlboros and a Zippo on the table in front of him. On the wall behind him, a poster, one of those old black and white…

Read More

Penang, Part 2: The food

Okay, I’m a little behind in my travel blogging. Maybe it’s the heat. Or maybe it’s the food. There’s been a lot of food. In fact, this whole trip has mostly been about eating. Of course, one can’t eat continuously throughout one’s waking hours, so we’ve filled in the non-eating periods with other activities, like…

Read More

Penang, Part 1: The heat

Three years ago in Thailand, on my first visit to Asia, I thought my skin would melt off. I like heat, but I’m accustomed to the Pacific Northwest variety, where in summer one can be comfortably hot in the sun, but kind of chilled in the shade. The vast bulk of my DNA likely originates…

Read More

A final day in Singapore

On my final day in Singapore, I once again ventured out to the north end of the island in search of the Changi Prison Museum, this time equipped with a more detailed map and the freshly viewed Google Street View image in mind. As it turned out, I was only a couple of blocks off…

Read More

Something to (not) chew on

A couple of weeks back, as I was cycling out to Wreck Beach, my front fender started to make a hell of a racket, so I pulled over to check it out. As it turned out, I’d run over a piece of chewing gum that someone had coughed up onto the roadway. It was firmly…

Read More

He’s got radioactive blood

Well, here I am in beautiful downtown San Jose. Today, I went to the Mueso del Oro (Museum of Gold) and looked at their collection of gold artifacts that had been made by the original indigenous inhabitants, before Columbus and his countrymen enslaved them all and stole their gold (fairly traded them for valued coloured…

Read More

Flexibility is still key

Reporting my bike theft to the Toronto police is turning out to be difficult. Every time I call them, they claim to be ten hours behind and ask me to call the next day. I guess they are too busy out on the streets ticketing cyclists who are riding without a bell. Not that I…

Read More

Never underestimate the value of a good bike lock

Toronto (Sightseeing). July 08: DAY: 25.35km. ODO: 4,232km. AVS: 18.7km/h. MXS: 37.5km/h. ATM: 1:20:59. Toronto (Sightseeing). July 09: DAY: 8.06km. ODO: 4,240km. AVS: 18.6km/h. MXS: 34.0km/h. ATM: 0:25:56. I should have left on Thursday. Last night, I went for dinner to Le Commensal, a vegetarian buffet off of Bloor. It’s a great place if you…

Read More