The castle on the rock is so strongly grounded, bounded, and founded, that by force of man it can never be confounded; the foundation and walls are unpenetrable, the rampiers impregnable, the bulwarks invincible no way but one to it is or can be possible to be made passable. - John Taylor 1618
The final chapter […]
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Andorra exists in an odd stratum of countries called microstates. These nations have avoided getting absorbed by larger states throughout history by arming themselves with extravagant casinos and various tourist traps. Invading armies would fall into a vicious cycle of gambling degeneracy and taking their kids to petting zoos, only to fall to the point […]
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Reduce
Ildefons Cerdà, the fucking guy who designed the city had a fetish for octagons. You can tell because every intersection in the district he planned is shaped in one. Pedestrians aren’t able to cross directly with the traffic, you need to walk around to where the crosswalks are then walk back around again to get […]
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A mere two and a half hours on a fast train from Amsterdam will get you to the fine city of Antwerp. The city is neither overrun with ants, nor were twerps a problem I encountered. I would have liked to have been here longer, but only had the day, so my experience here is […]
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Amsterdam was my second stop on this prolific pan European tour. It is one of the most pedestrian friendly cities I’ve been to, being perfectly flat, loaded with human scale urban design, and plenty of easy ways to get around. Sometime in the past the potheads who were tired of getting lost in the forest […]
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When I’m not cruising around in my flatulence powered Prius, or sipping my organic green tea while chained to fin whale, I’m usually thinking about how I can save the planet. Since I’m traveling through Europe, I’m going on a mission to save the environment here from the hazardous waste we know as eurotrash. It […]
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I recently got back from Italy for work purposes. Not much touring was done, but several stereotypes were done away with.
Stereotype:
Italians eat pasta everyday.
Veracity:
TRUE mostly
Observations:
Italians do eat pasta everyday, sometimes twice a day depending on the phase of the moon and the direction of the wind. Unless it’s risotto. And comparing these foods to the […]
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In the world, there’s a handful of places you must visit before you die. The Great Wall, The Pyramids, Angkorwat, Machu Pichhu, The Playboy Mansion Grotto, etc. Yet there is one dusty field full of relics that deserves to be on the list that most people have never even seen a postcard of.
About an […]
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I made it to one of the last frontiers I’ve wanted to travel to over the tail end of the Chinese New Years break. The place? Burma or as it calls itself: Myanmar. What follows are a bunch of incoherent ramblings concerning this enigmatic military playground.
So is it Burma, Myanmar or Pyi-daung-zu Myan-ma Naing-ngan-daw? In […]
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Tiger Leaping Gorge is a World Heritage Site carved into the mountains by the Yangtze River north of Lijiang. Being a WHS, you better recognize it’s worth visiting compared to those anemic “scenic spots” that every county in China has. Many people go on an overnight trek through the trail system, and wind up either […]
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The historic city of Lijiang is one of those places that look so amazing in post cards, no matter how much money you drain on Canon L glass, no matter how well your Photoshop skills can edit Jessica Alba’s head on some porno model’s body, no matter how many grams of mushrooms you eat, you’ll […]
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A friend and I decided to hell with the fact that Chinese Spring Festival is the worst time of year to travel, we passed around the lube, bent over and with big bearing grins prepared for the exorbitant pain prices that we would pay for airfare and to stay in hotels at this time of […]
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My trek to Jingdezhen was realized by way of 8-hour direct bus from Hangzhou after the return from Anji. For those interested in getting there, I would advise against this method. It’s expensive (140rmb), the buses are shit, and for reasons beyond my explanation they play really loud versions of old James Bond movies dubbed […]
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Here is what the article on Wikipedia (obviously written by some local government lackey) says:
“Anji county is synonymous with bamboo, containing as it does 60,000 hectares of bamboo groves. It has been designated a pilot county for ecological construction. Within its boundaries are mountains and gullies, lush with forests and vegetation. The air is fresh […]
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Longing to emerge from the sooty winter days of Qingdao, I happened on the opportunity to go treasure hunting for some Yuan Dynasty ceramics in the south half of the country in a place called Jingdezhen. Hangzhou was the city I would fly into. A good friend of mine who works in Anji, an hour […]
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Eventually if you’re living in China, you’re gonna need to do a visa run. Although Fukuoka is a popular visa run spot for the Korean English teacher crowd, for some reason China expats stay away like a gay dude hiding from a vagina. HK is (or was now that the Olympic visa regime is in […]
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• Everyone has satellite tv…in their car…that they watch while driving.
• I was expecting there to be American GI’s prowling the streets mercilessly trying to bag Korean girls, I only saw one guy in uniform ball and chain with a girl.
• Very few western people outside of Seoul. So if you leave that city, better make sure you […]
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The imbecility of my prior actions began to set in as I accepted that I had in fact missed the train and this was not some horrible hangover induced hallucination. The hangover itself was kicking into full gear and I hadn’t had the masochistic pleasure of one like this for a long time. The only […]
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Mount Tai or Tai Shan is one of the 5 holy daoist mountains of China. It is also the only one located in my home province of Shandong. My friend thought it would be a good place to visit during the week-long break we had as the rest of the class went on school trips […]
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After a quick flight from Beijing to YYZ I’m back in Canada for the first time in 8 months. It feels like even less. A few notes on this little trip so far.
If you’re flying from Toronto to Beijing, make sure to get on the direct flight. The airplanes are the most modern in the […]
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