THERE IS SO MUCH already written about Tokyo, and so much more that needs to be, that my paltry two days (not even!) feel too preposterously short to scribble down anything that could meaningfully add to the canon of Tokyo lit. Who can know this city? The high-speed train plows on from Narita International, at least 90 minutes from the urban core; the outside cityscape … Continue reading Tokyo, Japan: Impressions in 36 Hours
I shut my eyes and pray that Orbitz drops dead; I lift my lids and find that it remains. (I think I made it up inside my head.) Three thousand bucks? No cheaper fare instead? Like arbitrary numbers gallop in: I shut my eyes and pray that Orbitz drops dead. What happened to two grand — that’s what you said! “That price no longer exists” — … Continue reading Mad Man’s Travel Poem (With Courtesy to Sylvia Plath)
AN ISLAMIC NEIGHBOURHOOD was holding a garage sale in the middle of downtown George Town, Malaysia back in February. V and I spent close to 30 minutes rummaging through the stock, eventually leaving with just one item: a postcard of the very hotel we’d checked into the previous day, the Oriental. It was uncanny. I tried to take a replica shot, but the honking traffic … Continue reading Postcard from the Oriental Hotel: George Town, Then & Now
IN WHAT WAS PROBABLY the most expensive weekend of my life, V and I took a trip to Tokyo in March. Good ol’ reliable Air Asia had just opened its Busan – Tokyo route, which meant absurd sales in the area of $100 round-trip. I took this to mean we might be able to do Tokyo on the cheap in just a day and a … Continue reading Photo Essay: Two Days in Tokyo
NAMEHAE IS NOT DIFFICULT TO REACH, but once you’re in, it’s surprisingly difficult to get around. It is the kind of rural island where every day must feel like a weekend, where shop hours are unpredictable and if someone doesn’t know your first name they don’t know you at all. Taxis swarm the bus terminal but elude streets elsewhere, which is a problem because local … Continue reading Notes from Namhae: Where Cabbies Refuse Our Money Because They’re Too Honest
THE FIRST THING WE SAW WERE DILDOS. Racks of them. Dozens, even. Black and pink, dangerously large, hilariously small, all dangling in streetside tents. One vendor was spoke casually on his cell phone as he hung up his thick rubber cocks, getting an early 8 p.m. start for what he presumed would be a normal, meaning busy, Tuesday night. Patpong is filthy in every conceivable … Continue reading Finding the Bang in Bangkok
WE WERE BROKE when we stepped off the bus in Savannakhet. Not broke like we didn’t have cash–we had a few hundred bucks for the coming week of travel, but it was in all the wrong currencies. A few thousand Vietnamese dong, a hundred-ish Philippine pesos, 22 American dollars. It was downright sloppy time management. We arrived in Savannakhet a few hours after sundown on … Continue reading Hospitality in Savannakhet: The Lovely Ladies of Laos
THE FIRST TIME I SHAT in Singapore’s airport, I was awe-struck. It was clean. It was spacious. It smelled pleasantly floral. The experience was so wholly enrapturing that I literally did not want to leave, so I didn’t–not for at least 10 excessive minutes, leaving V. to wait outside, possibly confused and worried, while I jotted down the following notes: I have pooed in Ben … Continue reading Notes From a Singaporean Toilet: The Greatest Airport Bathroom in the World
IN MAY 2011, I was sitting across from four editors in the startlingly modern private boardroom of the Chronicle Herald newspaper in west end Halifax, Nova Scotia. I’d prepared for this job interview all week. The Herald isn’t an especially well-regarded publication (it’s locally nicknamed “The Chronically Horrid”), but holds the distinction of being one of Canada’s oldest daily papers, and the largest of the … Continue reading A Postgrad’s Travel Tale: The Aimless Twenty-Something Life
FUCK THE RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS. I have never, and will never, desire a from-California-to-California road trip while flowing my hand in that silly sea-wave gesture out a car window to the tune of “Road Trippin’”. If this sounds harsh, I apologize. I just meant to weed out anyone who might be offended at the fact that the proceeding list happily omits the RHCP, not to … Continue reading My Travel Playlist: Top 10 Songs for Journeys, Ranked in Descending Order of Obscurity
A Long Way Back 