For all the new readers, you can get the background on why I’m writing about McDonald’s here. McDonald’s Taiwan is the first McDonald’s I’ve experienced since New Zealand to have a completely unique item on the menu: the rice burger. The rice burger is a burger where the bun is replaced with rice and the …
Read part 1 and part 2 first. The Temple We paid the dirt bike drivers $18 to take us round trip up the mountain. I don’t think they get much business lately. On the way up we saw periodic small groups of soldiers sleeping or bathing. They didn’t appear to be at Defcon 5. We …
Over the last three years I’ve taken somewhere around 60,000 photos. I’ve taken photos from the air, from the inside of caves, in deserts, in jungles, on islands and on mountains. I even spent one memorable day on the Great Barrier Reef as an underwater photographer. Until last week, however, I had never found myself …
Another day of street food has come and gone. Here is what I had to eat on Thursday. Lunch Jackfruit – 20 baht (US$0.60) bag of chicken skin and 2 chicken wings 42 baht ($1.27) bag of longkong – 50 baht ($1.51) Dinner Skewer of chicken gizzards and grilled fish – 20 baht (US$0.60) I …
In my humble opinion, the greatest movie ever made is Lawrence of Arabia. Shot on location in Wadi Rum on 70mm film, a forerunner of IMAX, it is a fantastic story with amazing acting, directing, and cinematography. It tells the story of TE Lawrence and the Great Arab Revolt in WWI against the Turks. I’ve …
One of the things which has made up a major part of my life has been academic debate. I was on the debate team in high school, in college and coached high school for three years after I graduated. During that time I read volumes about almost every subject you can imagine. In debate, you …
I think I should finish up writing about the Philippines before I get too much farther in my trip. The farther I get away, the less fresh it is in my mind. From the moment I landed in Manila to the moment I left, there was something that just didn’t seem right with the Philippines. …
If you are going to travel through Japan, there is really only one way to properly travel between major cities: The Shinkansen, or as it is better known in the west, The Bullet Train. The Shinkansen is a high speed train that links up most of the major cities in Japan south of Hokkaido. If …
Perhaps the most unique thing about the Philippines is the transportation system. With the exception of a short light rail line in Manila, there is zero public transportation in the Philippines. Well, they call it public transportation, but the ‘public’ refers to who the service is aimed at not ownership like in the US. The …