Observing Beijing
The Beijing Ancient Observatory (北京古观象台) not only offers history and science lessons, but also provides great views of Beijing.
Traveler Reads: River Town by Peter Hessler
A traveler and former China expat’s review of River Town, the first book on China by The New Yorker correspondent Peter Hessler.
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Train Travel Adventures
I’ve taken quite a few trains around the world. Unfortunately, trains in the US lag behind those of other countries in terms of convenience and cost.
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Temple and Coincidence in Bali
On a tour of Bali, I ran into my driver’s brother-in-law, who set me up on the tour, at Pura Desa Batuan in Ubud.
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Thanks for All the Fish, Iceland
A sampling of the great restaurants Iceland has to offer, filled with plenty of fish and even smoked puffin breast.
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Respectable Clowns
A clown can surprise you sometimes. In my first year and a half in China, my colleagues and I compared ourselves to clowns (or dancing monkeys in some cases) because that’s how we felt about our jobs. As foreign English teachers in China, we were entertainment rather than educators, and our evaluations reinforced that point.
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On Cameras and Equipment
On my winter trip to Iceland I discovered the limitations of my Panasonic Lumix. Attempting photos of the northern lights convinced me to buy a new camera.
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Slithering into a New Year
The Chinese New Year is upon us! It’s the year of the snake, which probably means that a lot of people in China will eat some sort of snake dish to celebrate (couldn’t do that last year with the year of the dragon). During my first summer in China, my parents came to visit for
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Iceland’s Icy Golden Circle
A day-long tour through Iceland’s Golden Circle in January. Stopping to see Gulfoss, Thingvellir National Park, and the Geysir.
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Chewing on Air
Airpocalypse around Beijing reminded me about the air pollution when I lived in Shenzhen–the hazy days I saw there and even in Hong Kong.
Conversations in Iceland
I enjoy having conversations with people when I travel, and I found some interesting people to talk with in Iceland.
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Frigid Return
I returned from Iceland last Friday and my New York metro area home decided to welcome me back with huge drop in temperature. It is significantly colder than it was in Iceland. I didn’t need a lot of my cold weather gear on vacation, but I certainly need it now that I’m home. I also
New Year, New Plans
Happy 2013! Now that we’ve all recovered from our New Year’s hangovers, we can plan for the year and make those resolutions. Of course, I’ve never been much for resolutions–every year is more or less the same: travel more, read more, stay healthy, find new experiences… Reading is high up on that list because I
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Chinglish Snacks
My unhealthy fascination with unusual international snacks sometimes leads me to buy food based on Chinglish snack packages.
Xinjiang’s Heavenly Nature
We took a ride from Urumqi to Tianchi (天池), Heavenly Lake. This turned out to be my favorite day in China’s Xinjiang Province.
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