Tag: Mass Tourism

  • A Totally Impractical Guide to 6 Underachieving Nights in Hong Kong and Macau

    A Totally Impractical Guide to 6 Underachieving Nights in Hong Kong and Macau

    This is one of those times when I have, in theory, at least 4 blog posts worth of things to write about but haven’t the wherewithal to even try to shove it all into one, much less 4. Bear with me then, as I attempt to guide you through a fabulously exciting week in Hong…

  • A Totally Impractical Guide to an Intellectually Dirty Weekend in Nanjing

    A Totally Impractical Guide to an Intellectually Dirty Weekend in Nanjing

    I often (well, once every few months, which is technically often in geological terms) get emails from people asking me for advice on what to do in, say, Random Chinese City I Mentioned Once In a Post. Although I feel slightly honoured that someone actually thought I might have a clue, I usually have to…

  • Making You Jealous in Tangier, Morocco

    Making You Jealous in Tangier, Morocco

    So, Tangier. We came here because Doug was sick as a doug dog in Chefchaouen and we needed to go somewhere less strenuous than our previous intended destination, which was the freaking southern desert area. Camels and Bedouin and all. Not good when you’re ill. Especially not good when it’s both summer and Ramadan. Because,…

  • Making You Jealous in Chefchaouen, Morocco

    Making You Jealous in Chefchaouen, Morocco

    We are now in Chefchaouen, Morocco. If anyone has a spare million dollars or so for me to buy my own riad here, I’d be much obliged. I really need to live here. Seriously. This edition of Making You Jealous is going to be a bit understated. There will only be one food porn shot…

  • Notes on Travelling in Fes, Morocco During the First Few Days of Ramadan

    Notes on Travelling in Fes, Morocco During the First Few Days of Ramadan

      This was going to be two posts originally, one about Ramadan in Fes and one about trying (note the emphasis on trying) to be an independent traveller in Fes.  The more I made notes (I couldn’t do my usual silver-shovel unedited, quickly posted  word-dump as we were without internet for 4 days), the more…

  • Mapping the Amorphous City: I Attempt to Plot a Walking Tour of Shanghai

    Mapping the Amorphous City: I Attempt to Plot a Walking Tour of Shanghai

      One thing I have learned from two years of writing here (and from approximately 30 years of writing in general) is that I can be factual, accurate and interesting- but never all three at the same time. Most of my university career was spent writing wildly ‘factual’ papers that my professors deemed interesting enough…

  • How Not to Travel in China During the October National Holiday

    For about a month, our conversations went something like this: “How about Thailand? If we fly in to Phuket, we could catch a ferry to X and go diving for 3 days…” “No, no- what about the decompression time after and before the flight? I’m not keen on getting the bends. And my passport only…

  • Notes on Genocidal Tourism in Cambodia

    Notes on Genocidal Tourism in Cambodia

    One of the emotionally complicating factors of constantly living in and travelling through countries with troubled pasts is that you will inevitably end up having many conversations with and interacting with people who had lived through that troubled past. And given that troubled pasts often involved death, betrayal, torture, imprisonment and whatnot, it’s a disconcerting…

  • Meat and Mops- My Parents’ Journey to Qibao

    Meat and Mops- My Parents’ Journey to Qibao

    So we went to Qibao yesterday, our first grand excursion in a week or so, as I’d been busy with stupid school stuff and having my jaw sledge-hammered, and my mother was battling her semi-inevitable post-flight cold. Doug and I had gone there about two years ago when we first moved to Shanghai, back when…

  • On travelling and on staying put

    We’ve been in Myanmar about two weeks now, travelling close to the ground (usually about 6 inches from the pavement when facing backwards on a trishaw) and grinding our way from Yangon to Moulmein to Kyaiktiyo to Yangon to Mandalay to Hsipaw and I’m tired. For about two days I have been wanting to stay…

  • The Hordes of Yangshuo

    The Hordes of Yangshuo

      The hills are so famous that they are on the 20rmb note.  Looking closely at a 20rmb note, I failed to see the armies of uniformed tour groups and the clusters of hotels and the endless checkpoints of touts and vendors surrounding the hills. They are there. I know they are.  We walked amongst…