Today wrote a a query letter to a magazine editor about an article about different walks that a person can take in Taiwan.  While looking up quotations to use in the query I suddenly remembered how much I used to enjoy walking.  When I first started traveling, whenever I arrived in a new city, after putting my things in a hostel, the first thing I would do was walk down random streets and alleys and I wouldn't stop until I had gotten myself good and lost.  That would usually take one or two hours, and finding my way back several more. One my first trip outside of North America ( I was 18 at the time) I spent eight hours lost in Madrid at night.  It was the most exciting thing that I had ever done.  I explored cobblestone alleys and unknown plazas and wandered among centuries old pillars holding up centuries old roofs. I saw gangs of street hoods and tapa bars filled with overweight, overly made-up prostitutes -- things I'd never seen before in my life.  I was even accosted by one extremely persistent old hooker missing several teeth who insisted in walking arm-in-arm with me and chattering away to me in Spanish even though it was obvious that I didn't speak Spanish and wasn't going to give her any money.

Walking is the best way to see a place.  If you drive, you watch the road.  In a taxi, the city moves past too quickly.  Riding a bicycle is even too fast and distracting. Walking is the only way to really examine the people, the shops, the art, and the trash.  The only way to feel the texture of a city at ground level is with your feet.

So, in celebration of my remembrance of my favorite way to explore, here are ten quotes about the glory of walking:

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
~ Henry David Thoreau

My father considered a walk among the mountains
as the equivalent of churchgoing.
~ Aldous Huxley

Walking is the great adventure, the first meditation,
a practice of heartiness and soul primary to humankind.
Walking is the exact balance between spirit and humility.
~ Gary Snyder

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.
~ John Muir

There is nothing like walking to get the feel of a country.  A fine landscape is like
a piece of music; it must be taken at the right tempo.  Even a bicycle goes too fast.
~ Paul Scott Mowrer

Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.
~ Steven Wright

I would walk along the quais when I had finished work or when I was trying to think something out. It was easier to think if I was walking and doing something or seeing people doing something that they understood.
~ Ernest Hemingway

All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche

It is a great art to saunter.
~ Henry David Thoreau

Meandering leads to perfection.
~ Lao Tzu

Check out this month's Action Asia magazine for my profile of one of Taiwan's most prominent and longstanding foreign paragliding pilots, Malcom Vargas.

Damn, it's been a good year for awards.  Today I was notified that I was chosen as one of the top fifty travel blogs of 2010 ) by Awarding the Web -- an organization that strives "to recognize excellent web content so that those who have worthwhile content can be distinguished from the useless, bad content that plagues today’s internet."

I have no idea how these people find my blog.  I don't rank high enough with Google to come up at the top of searches, and I'm not listed in the top sections of any of the travel blog toplists.  Yet, this is the second award (read about the first one here) I've received this year.

Strangely, both of these awards came from contests sponsored by online education companies.  This award was sponsored by Online Schools, and clicking on the badge will take you to their website.

Regardless of who they came from, they're very flattering.  I hope you all continue to enjoy the blog, and keep nominating me for awards!

The good folks at VBS.tv are, in my opinion, some of the best documentarians in the world.  They go after ridiculous and unthinkable stories gonzo style, resulting in a humanistic view of incredible tragedies, and incredibly weird topics.  A couple months ago I posted the riveting, and extremely disturbing, Vice Guide to Liberia.  Next, in a series of VBS videos I plan to post, is this documentary on a service that offers a simulated illegal border crossing from Mexico into the United States, complete with a shady 'coyote' guide and potential arrest.

Watch it now! (29 min)

For the first time in my life, I'm ashamed to be Canadian.

We Canadians are overwhelmingly proud of our country. Why shouldn't we be?  For all of its shortcomings Canada has often (although not always)  shown itself to be a fair country, especially when dealing with civil disturbances and inner conflicts.

The police reaction to the recent G20 protests in Toronto, however, was shameful.  They used excessive force dealing with protesters that were overwhelmingly peaceful and arrested hundreds of protesters that showed no aggression whatsoever.  Consider the following videos.

In this video, the police attack a group of protestors without provocation (except for singing our national anthem).

And in this video the police surround and close in on a large group of protesters, also all exercising their rights to non-violent protest. The don't allow anyone to leave and then arrest them.

It is a sad day for Canada.  Tonight I will go out to a Canada Day party and, like most Canadians, drink a ridiculous amount of beer.  This time though, I will not drink to celebrate.  I will drink to forget.

I just received an email from Online Degree Programs.  They ranked Matt-Gibson.org as one of the 50 best travel blogs in the world. I'm even placed third on the list (although I don't think that really means anything), just after World Hum and Best Travel Writing, two of the biggest and best group travel blogs in out there.

How flattering is that?

You can read their blog post that I'm featured in here: http://www.onlinedegreeprograms.com/blog/2010/50-best-blogs-for-travel-writing/

Check it out.  I was just featured on TravelBlogs.com. TravelBlogs.com is website that offers a ton of useful travel information such as, stories, book reviews, panel discussions, and a really, really long list of travel blogs.

My listing is here: http://www.travelblogs.com/blogs/matt-gibson-org

The Yenshuei Fireworks Festival (Yenshuei Fong Pao) is a festival held in the Yenshuei township in Southern Taiwan every year.  During the festival millions of fireworks are shot out of large hives into crowds of revelers dressed in heavy clothing and full-face motorcycle helmets.  Each hive may contain as many as sixty thousand fireworks.  If proper safety precautions are taken, the activity is not very dangerous.  However, each year some people are injured.  To learn more about this festival, read my post Standing in the Fireworks.

Below is a gallery of pictures from the 2010 Yenshuei Fireworks Festival.  You can navigate the gallery using the thumbnails, by clicking on the image, or by using the arrow keys on your keyboard.

This page has an image gallery on it. Click here to open the post in your browser to see the gallery.

Read the article on Transitions Abroad here: http://www.transitionsabroad.com/listings/travel/travel_writing/travel-blogging-nomadic-matt.shtml

It takes most people between 15 and 20 hours of practice spread over several weeks to learn how to kitesurf. But, occasionally, an exceptionally motivated individual is able to go from ‘zero to hero’. That is: learn to kitesurf in one day.

When I decided to write this article on how to kitesurf I didn’t want to waste any time. Being an experienced wakeboarder and snowboarder, as well as having some experience surfing and windsurfing, I figured I was as good a candidate as anyone to go from zero to hero. Although in my relatively short seven-hour lesson I never quite got up on a board, I did learn what it takes to learn to kitesurf, and it’s really not that difficult.

My instructor, Joe Rueger of the Tainan Kitesurfing Center, walked me through the following steps.

Lesson 1: The Basics
First you have to learn the proper kitesurfing terminology so that your instructor can communicate instructions to you clearly. This includes a few pieces of equipment and kite positions.

Equipment
Kite – Used to harness the power of the wind and pull you across the water. Looks like a smaller, modified paraglider.

Harness – Attaches you to the kite.

Power Bar – Allows you to steer the kite and control the power or ‘pull’ of the kite.

Board – The board that you stand on as you zip across the water. Similar in size and shape to a wakeboard.

Bindings – The foot holders that attach you to the board.

Kite Positions – Horizontal (see fig. 1)

As with flying any kite, when kitesurfing you always stand with your back to the wind. If you are facing the same direction as the wind, the position of the kite from left to right is discussed in terms as if you are standing in the center of a large clock and the kite is near one of the numbers. Straight ahead is 12:00 and 90-degrees to your right is 3:00. To your left 90-degrees is also 12:00. The kite will always remain between 9:00 and 3:00 because if it goes any farther the wind will no longer hold it aloft.

Kite Positions – Vertical (see fig. 2)

The position of the kite on the vertical plane is discussed in terms of degrees; the ground being zero degrees, and directly above your head being 90-degrees.

Lesson 2: Power Positions (see fig. 1 & 2)
Once you know how to discuss the position of the kite, it’s time to learn the significance of the positions. This is important because the position of the kite determines the strength of the pull, or power, of the kite.

The formula for power positions is basically this. The most powerful possible position is when the kite is at 12:00 (directly in front of you), at a 45-degree angle – pretty much the center of the kite’s field of movement. The farther you move away from this position in any direction the less power the kite will have. If you place the kite at any extreme – 3:00, 9:00, 90-degrees, or zero degrees – it will have barely enough power to stay aloft.

Lesson 3: Controlling the Kite
Next, to learn how to control the position and power of the kite, you will start practicing with a trainer kite on the beach. The trainer is a miniature kitesurfing kite that maneuvers just like a real one, but that is too small to pull you anywhere.

You’re first attached to the kite by a harness. Your control over the kite comes in the form of a bar about 80 cm long that you hold onto like a set of handlebars. This bar controls the direction of the kite, as well as the power. The ends of the bar are attached by strings to the corners of the kite and the bar pivots on the main cord that attaches your harness to the kite. When you pull in on one side of the bar, the kite will turn in that direction.

The bar also moves towards and away from you along the cord that attaches your harness to the kite. Holding the bar midway between yourself and the stopper will keep the kite at full power. If you pull the whole bar towards you, or let the bar all the way out, it will de-power the kite. This is a failsafe for people who feel out of control. If you panic and let go of the bar and the kite completely de-powers.

Lesson 4: Sand Skiing
Once you’ve got the hang of the trainer kite, it’s time to strap on the big boy and try dragging yourself across the beach. First, you strap into a real kite. Then, you practice moving the through low-power positions. Then, when you’re ready you move the kite into a power position. It will jerk you forward and then, leaning back against the pull of the kite, you will ski briefly across the sand. Don’t worry, you won’t be pulled far. It’s very hard to keep the kite in a power position in this exercise. You’ll move the kite through the power position, and then out do a de-powered position, so the pull will only last a moment or two. This exercise teaches you where the power really is, and how it feels to be pulled.

Lesson 5: Body Dragging
The next step is just to get comfortable with a kite in the water. This is basically the same as sand skiing, except you’re dragging yourself through the water. You just move the kite in and out of power positions, pulling yourself along through the surf.

Lesson 6: Kite Surfing
This is it. You’ve mastered all the techniques. Now it’s time to strap on the board. To start you sit in the water with the board on, keeping the board near the surface of the water, just like starting on water skis or a wakeboard. Then you put the kite in the air, and move it into a power position. The pull of the kite should pull you up out of the water and, as you lean back, keeping the board’s edge in the water, you’ll start moving. And that’s it – you’re kitesurfing.

For more information in Chinese visit the Taiwan Kitesurfing Center website.
For information in English call Joe Rueger at 0956 100 97 1