A few summer travel pics
A photographic round-up of my summer of travel.
The Occidental Tourist
Singapore has a reputation for being a pretty rigid place, where gum chewing is against the law. From my brief visit, it didn’t seem so bad.
Cattlecars of the Sky, redux
Flying New York to Vancouver, with a stopover in Hell.
To the commune
Summer travels: wandering in Boston and New York.
The Best and Worst of Boston
Summer travels: Culture – the good and the bad – in Boston.
Fredericton: Noble daughter of the forest
I have entered, for the first time in my life, the Atlantic time zone, having arrived in Fredericton, New Brunswick on Wednesday morning. The trip was uneventful. I spent so much time and energy packing my bike in one box and my panniers in another – making sure that the weights and dimensions were not [...]
Spring Break in San Francisco
I’ve just returned from a quick trip to San Francisco, a week by the bay, where I was satisfyingly warmed by the California sun after months of (relative) freezing in Vancouver. Either I’m getting old and soft, or spending much of last winter in Costa Rica has removed my usual winter hardiness. Or both. Whatever. [...]
Alabama
The nudist gathering finished up, mercifully, with one sunny, warm day on which to actually remove one’s clothes comfortably. Though the overall event wasn’t really my scene, fundamentally, I had some fun and met some good people. Among these was Paul, who most people considered my body double though we didn’t think we looked like [...]
Where’s the hypothermia prevention workshop?
I spent the better part of the night freezing and huddled in the foetal position beneath the thin gruel of my $48 linens, enhanced by the meager weight of all my clothes (how many could I have brought to a nudist camp?). The wind was howling and banging doors and windows. I was somewhat surprised [...]
Off with the clothes!
As I may have mentioned previously, I have a commission to produce a couple of articles about an annual nudist gathering for gay men in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania. To that end, I picked up a charter bus outside of Fordham University in Manhattan, next to Lincoln Centre, on Friday afternoon. Rather than observe [...]
At least my carpal tunnel is getting better
After almost three weeks at Easton, I’m back on the road again. However, I’m not on the road as originally planned.
The other day, I took a test ride to the local town of Greenwich (that the locals pronounce “GREEN-witch”), not a particularly hilly route, and I did it with no luggage. The round trip is [...]
Rediscovering Community
I arrived at Easton Mountain on the afternoon on Saturday, July 28, after a very pleasant and scenic ride from Albany, northward up the Hudson River valley. Easton Mountain is an “intentional community”, of sorts with an integrated operation that serves to generate income for, and participation in, the community, as well as to promote [...]
Off to an unstellar beginning
Day one of my trip, yesterday, brought me to the dumpy-but-sterile Howard Johnson’s in Jamaica, New York, chosen for the fact that it’s just a mile from Kennedy airport. Here’s the $125 view:
Today, I cycled north through Queens toward the Bronx. On the way, the bumpy Queens streets (rural Saskatchewan backroads are smoother) broke the [...]
It was either this or the Raelians
Despite being overly guarded about being seduced by cults, I have cast aside my principles and willingly signed up for what may be the biggest modern cult of them all: Facebook. I resisted for quite a while, but the number of friends and acquaintances who have opted to join have reached a critical mass of [...]
La Manzana Grande
I arrived in New York as scheduled on Tuesday shortly before midnight.
I am staying at a hostel that has 624 beds, but fortunately, they aren’t all in one room. It’s one of the few places in New York that has rates that I am willing to pay, as even dumpy hotels rent for $150. The [...]
Celsius 232.78
232.78 degrees is the celsius equivalent to, according to Ray Bradbury, “the temperature at which book-paper catches fire, and burns …“. It is assumed that that was the temperature at which my journals burst into flame when I applied a match (and a quantity of corn oil) to them during a late-night beach bonfire last [...]
Back to the coast (for a bit)
After ten days of travel, I arrived back in Puerto Viejo on Monday afternoon.
My meditation retreat went well. It was a retreat organised by a local Brahma Kumaris group and took place in the small mountain town of San Cristobal Norte. The facility used was an old school building operated by a catholic church, which [...]
Into the Mountains
I am now back in San Jose again, after a few days in the cloud forests of Monteverde.
The Monteverde region is, I think, the best of Costa Rica. It is tropical, but rather temperate, and were I ever going to retire here with intended permanence, it would be a likely candidate for my new residence. [...]
He’s got radioactive blood
Well, here I am in beautiful downtown San Jose.
Today, I went to the Mueso del Oro (Museum of Gold) and looked at their collection of gold artifacts that had been made by the original indigenous inhabitants, before Columbus and his countrymen enslaved them all and stole their gold (fairly traded them for valued coloured beads, [...]
How do you spend your evenings?
For the last two months, I have been keeping an eye on two gecko eggs that I keep in a jar on my bookshelf. I found the eggs in the deadbolt slot of the doorframe on my bodega, and brought them in with the intention of seeing them hatch. Gecko eggs, which are white and [...]
