When you went to the zoo as a kid, which animals were you most excited to see? Monkeys? Lions? How about dogs? Or a pig? If you visit the small zoo attached to the Guanlan Mountain & Lake Garden Farm in Shenzhen, China, you won’t find the first two, but you’ll find plenty of dogs, […]
Snacking on Scorpions in Beijing
The Chinese are famous for eating everything. Name an animal and I guarantee there’s a restaurant that serves it; name any part of that animal and they’ll have a dish featuring it. To be fair, mostly this stereotype applies to the south. There’s even a saying among the Chinese that people in Guangdong province “eat […]
I Love Chinese Repairmen!
When you live in a Chinese apartment, something will stop working. Actually, most things will stop working. The majority can be fixed using duct tape, paper clips, newspapers, rubber bands, chewing gum and/or various other items laying around the house. Occasionally none of those will work and you have to call a repairman. That’s when […]
How Long Does It Really Take To Pick Ten Lychees?
I’ve been on a number of sightseeing tours in China and they all had one thing in common: they were bad. Often very, very bad (like this one in Xi’an). Despite that, I enjoyed most of them. Having the right people on the tour helps, but the most important factor is attitude. If you go […]
Village Life on Inle Lake…Yes, it Includes Souvenir Shops
After puttering down the lake for a while, we eventually arrived at the village of Ywama to visit a local market. Our driver parked our boat and dropped us off at a long, covered walkway lined with makeshift stalls manned by local vendors. The vendors might have been local, but [read more…]
Real and Fake Leg Rowing Fishermen on Inle Lake
“Skip it. It’s too touristy.” If you’ve done any traveling, you’ve probably heard this phrase. Some travelers shun any destination or activity seen as popular and will even go so far as to berate others for not doing the same. They don’t seem to understand that places become touristy for one simple reason: [read more…]
Even Indiana Jones Would Get Lost in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Station
I recently learned that Japan boasts 45 of the world’s 50 busiest train stations, including the first 23 (source: rocketnews24.com) . The top three are all located in western Tokyo, a few stops apart on the Yamanote circle line. The busiest sits in the middle and sees almost 4 million visitors per day. Welcome to […]
Seoul Convenience Stores Beat Most of its Bars
Seoul has no shortage of bars and clubs, but we did most of our drinking at convenience stores. In a city with three major nightlife districts—Itaewon for military personnel and those who like sleazy bars, Gangnam for those who enjoy overpaying for everything and Hongdae for those who prefer to have fun on a night […]
If You Can’t Take The Heat, Get Out Of The Onsen
Once we got to the hot spring, it was time to split up. You may have noticed I was the only guy in the picture from the first part of this series, so I had to head off to the male room to sit in some water on my own. The whole experience was uncomfortable in [read more…]
Braving Japanese-Style Accommodation on Mount Aso
Accommodation is easily the biggest expense when traveling in Japan, but you can cut down on your costs quite a bit, if you are willing to move away from the standard western hotel or hostel experience. In most cities and towns, the best value is found at a minshuku. This stripped-down version of a ryokan (traditional [read more…]
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