No Fixed Plans

New Year's Resolution

2011-12-31T15:14:00.000-08:00

You Should Travel to Italy

1) Get a pet wallaby

2) Eat more chocolate

4) Study photograpy

5) Get in shape with surfing

What Should Your New Year's Resolution Be?

Blogthings: 100's of Fun, Free Quizzes and 3 Stupid Ones

Fodor's Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos

2011-08-19T19:54:00.000-07:00

I used Fodor's Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos on my recent trip to New Mexico. I favor the Fodor's series because their "Fodor's Choices" always meet my expectations and their star system helps me decide what to see when I have little time. From this book I discovered the Turquoise Trail, which in turn led me to Madrid, NM, a delightful hamlet with several good shops with reasonable prices. The sidebar essays are quick reads that offer good inside information on the area.

Canyon Road, New Mexico

2011-08-14T20:16:00.001-07:00

Funky, yet traditional Canyon Road is home to dozens of art galleries and shops with lots of Native American jewelry, cowboy clothes and ceramics. There's so much that's beautiful, but everything I saw was pricy. I've gotten accustomed to buying crafts in Asia and I can get something lovely for $40 so it's hard to buy something comparable here for $200. Yet I realize the artists here need to earn more to support themselves. At the same time, if supporting oneself means living a block away from Canyon Road where I parked and saw a tiny house on the market for $750K well, I'm not as sympathetic any more.

Still it's fun to browse the shops, though I wish I could take some photos. I don't because it'd be rude and the owners would probably get miffed as the clerk did when I got the cowboy boots shot last week, but that I couldn't resist. It was one of those Dorothy Day, "I prefer to ask forgiveness, than ask permission" moments.

On Culture: Mistresses in China an South Korea

2011-08-13T09:21:00.001-07:00

Asia News Network reports that:

Seoul - The increasing popularity of "ernai," or mistresses among wealthy men is emerging as a problem in Chinese society, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

Amid the rapid development of the country's economy, large numbers of those fortunate enough to enjoy the prosperity are having affairs with mistresses, making it the symbol of the rich.

"Keeping a mistress is just like playing golf," a man told the New York Times concerning the issue, adding "both are expensive hobbies." Those seeking such liaisons offer lavishing apartments or cars as well as monthly allowances.
However, the public is angered by the trend. Chinese prosecutors believe about 90 percents of governmental executives accused of corruption have mistresses, sometimes more than 10.

In December a government employee allegedly murdered his mistresses and abandoned the body in a river when she asked for $3 million in return for putting end to the relationship.

Zheng Beichin, a lawyer who had defended a mistress, told the New York Times "the nation's elite, including judges and government officials, have little desire to tinker with the status quo."
Meanwhile, a similar phenomenon exists in Korea covertly under the name of "sponsor contract," where rich men provide money and a home to women in return for relationships.

For Travel Writers

2011-08-13T08:50:00.000-07:00

If you read much travel writing you're probably aware of the Travelers' Tales Guides, anthologies and chronicles with a wide array of themes. I've just discovered that they have an open submission policy and a webpage full of good articles and information for writers and travelers. Check it out here.

Old Town, Santa Fe

2011-08-10T14:01:00.000-07:00

Sunday I arrived in Albuquerque, rented a car and drove up Hwy 25 to Santa Fe. I wandered about the plaza checking out art galleries and jewelry shops. I love the adobe architecture. I imagined that the houses would use something different, that they'd have abandoned tradition, but they haven't.

Around the plaza there's three churches with beautiful architecture and art. St. Francis Cathedral Basilica and San Miguel, the oldest church continually in use in the US are open and free to enter. The Loretto Chapel isn't. It's been bought by a businessman who charges three dollars a head to go into the small chapel. The claim to fame is an unsupported spiral staircase, which is cool, but since it takes about 5 - 10 minutes to see the chapel, I'd say its something of a tourist trap.

One tip: You don't have to feed the meters on Sunday. So find a metered parking space. No reason to pay for parking.

Bourdain on Colbert Report

2011-08-05T10:58:00.000-07:00

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Two favorites shared the stage last night. Pretty good. The chemistry's a bit strained, but still good.

ETA Blogs

2011-07-28T15:44:00.001-07:00

The English Teaching Assistant Program offered by the Fulbright program is a good way to immerse yourself in another culture. Participants assist high school English teachers usually in off the beaten track towns. Thus they're able to see a part of a country few do. They live in the community and participate in school events so they're exposed to the culture much more than those who work at English academies or institutes.

Here are some blogs by ETA's that capture the experience:

Here's a video:

Note: I know the authors of the starred blogs* and have read those regularly, the other blogs I've perused. Since the program operates in 65 countries there are bound to be many many more blogs. If you do apply, search for ETA blogs by typing in the country name for the location that interests you.

Where to Stay in Jinan

2011-07-27T18:13:00.000-07:00

A budget option, since they don't have a hostel in Jinan, is the Home Inn, a chain with locations throughout China. When I stayed it cost $180 rmb a night and required a 300 rmb deposit. The staff was put off when I showed up. They don't get many foreigners. But I assured them we could do this and we did. All the staff knew a little English and between everyone behind the desk and myself, we managed.

I got a clean room with free wifi. The only drawback was noisy neighbors.

Must See Chicago Event

2011-07-25T12:01:00.000-07:00

This is a must-see event in Chicago. For me it rates a lot higher than say The Taste of Chicago.

This coming Saturday, July 30th the Newberry Library celebrates free speech with the Bughouse Square Debates. They'll open with an award for outstanding work for free speech and then offer an afternoon of reasoned, passionate debate on a wide range of topics: religion, politics, arts, education, you name it. Heckling is encouraged and honored. The Dil Pickle Award will go to the best debater.

There is an open soap box so anyone could win this year's Dil.

Travel Tip

2011-07-25T11:59:00.001-07:00

When traveling say by bus or train with a group of your friends, don't always sit together. Sometimes split up and converse with some new people. It's a great way to tap into the zeitgeist and great fun to later compare notes on what you've gleaned.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Colorful

2011-07-22T16:53:00.001-07:00

Travelers who love to take photos may want to join me in this challenge:

New to The Daily Post? Whether you’re a beginner or a professional, you’re invited to get involved in our Weekly Photo Challenge to help you meet your blogging goals and give you another way to take part in Post a Day / Post a Week. Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.

Here’s how it works:

1. Each week, we’ll provide a theme for creative inspiration. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog anytime before the following Friday when the next photo theme will be announced.

2. To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “Weekly Photo Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use a “postaday2011″ or “postaweek2011″ tag.

3. Subscribe to The Daily Post so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements. Sign up via the email subscription link in the sidebar or RSS.

Avoid at all Costs: Marquette House Hostel

2011-07-21T12:24:00.001-07:00

I stayed an extra day in New Orleans after my friend had to leave. I figured I should stay in a hostel rather than a hotel to save money and perhaps rub elbows with some fellow travelers. I've had great luck with hostels in Bangkok, Beijing, Boston and Honolulu.

I booked a room at Marquette House New Orleans International Hostel online.

This turned out to be the worst rat hole I've ever stayed in. The room was filthy as was the bathroom. Guests, long gone, had left food containers and wrappers in the dorms and no one cleaned them up. The showers and bathrooms were a mess. The stairs needed repair. I shared a room with a woman from Isreal and profusely apologized that America was not usually so disgusting.

Is someone paying off the city inspectors? I don't know why this fire trap is allowed to remain open. It's a disgrace to NOLA.

The Red Capital Club

2011-07-20T15:21:00.000-07:00

Mao's favorite watering hole is now a boutique hotel, restaurant, and bar called the Red Capital Club. It's hard to find down a little hutong, but if you're persistent, as we were, you'll find a cab to take you there.

Inside the bar has a comfortable feel as it's full of Mao era kitsch: worker figurines, guns, old leather chairs, posters, Mao pins. The drink menu features signature cocktails inspired by Mao and his cronies. I tried the White Cat Black Cat based on Deng Xiaoping's famous quotation: No matter if it is a white cat or a black cat; as long as it can catch mice. (Actually, that may be a Sichuan proverb that he just used.)

I liked my White Cat Black Cat drink, though it was pricey at 800 rmb. Sometimes I'll break down and splurge.

Fat Wallet

2011-07-19T10:53:00.000-07:00

If you love a bargain, Fat Wallet is a website that offers shoppers additional discounts. For example, I needed a hotel room in August and remembered Fat Wallet, but logging in and then going to the hotel's website, I earned a $5 (approx.) rebate.

For travelers Fat Wallet has rebates and coupons for hotels, car rentals, airlines and travel gear.

I have tried this and did get my rebates.

At the Shanghai Museum

2011-07-13T09:06:00.000-07:00

The Shanghai Museum is centrally located and best of all free. Yes, free! You can easily spend hours there viewing this impeccable collection.

New Orleans Walking Tour

2011-07-12T10:52:00.000-07:00

On Thursday Maryann and I missed out on the U.S. Park Department’s free walking tour of the Riverfront. They only take 25 people a day and the line for the 9:30 am tour started at 8:30. We tried again on Sunday and were rewarded with a ticket.

A ranger, who’d come to NOLA from Iowa and knew his stuff, led the tour. He entertained us with a lot of history of this spirited city that has been ruled by the French, the Spanish and the Americans by turn. Among the many facts I learned were:

The term Dixie derives from the currency used in NOLA. The bills used to be bilingual and ten dollar notes said “dix.” Hence outsiders called NOLA, Dixieland.
No one really wanted to live in NOLA with its mosquitos and humidity so the French “coaxed” prisoners, prostitutes and those unemployed for more than a few days to board a ship for their new homeland.
Spaniards who came to NOLA did not bring wives so they wound up marrying French women, who taught their children French thus keeping the language in play during Spanish rule.
The for-profit tour companies have lobbied for reducing the number of tours, participants and locales of the Park Service’s tours to ensure they make a profit. Considering that I find most commercial tours disappointing, this irks me. Why not embrace the challenge and provide better tours to ensure success? Considering that the National Park Service’s mission is to preserve wildlife and culture they do have a place in the Big Easy.

Hotel Review : Golden Palace Silver Street

2011-07-12T08:55:00.000-07:00

Beijing - Golden Palace Silver Street
With modern, chic rooms and a good location near Wangfangjing shopping street and near a metro station, you’d think this would be an easy recommendation. Yet the “24 hour restaurant” is only open in the morning for what my friends described as a dreadful, disgusting breakfast and few on the staff speak English. So picking up one’s baggage saying, “Mine’s the big, green bag in the corner” can only be deciphered by one of the six people working the desk, make me urge people to go elsewhere.

What cinches it is that the bellboys are in cahoots with the cab drivers who loiter out front and refuse to use their meters. So they’re charging three times the rate to go to nearby stops and an extra 50 rmb to go to the airport. I told one guy that he was disgraceful as I helped a friend out to the main street with her luggage so she could get a fair price.

Dead passengers can't use a flight credit

2011-07-11T08:25:00.000-07:00

This article describes a terrible customer disservice. American Airlines refused to issue a refund to a man whose wife died and thus couldn't travel as planned. Whoever first handled this matter was obviously out to lunch.

It makes me not want me to travel with American.

Cadogan's Provence

2011-07-10T12:55:00.000-07:00

Cadogan has become my new favorite travel guide. Beth, my former boss, recommended the title and suggested I visit Provence while in France. This guide's strength is the commentary which is often funny and provides just the right amount and kind of facts. Here's a sample:

On Arles
Like Nîmes, Arles has enought intact antiquities to call itself the "Rome of France"; unlike Nîmes it lingered in the post-Roman limelight for another thousand years, producing enough saints for every month on the calendar. . . . Henry James wrote "As a city Arles quite misses its effect in every way: and if it is a charming place, as I think it is, I can hardly tell the reason why." Modern Arles, sitting amidst its ruins, is still somehow charming, in spite of a general scruffiness that seems more intentional than natural.

By the way I really like Arles. It was easy to get around and there was plenty of charm and good food for three days.

Hotel Reviews: China Trip

2011-07-09T17:29:00.000-07:00

The West Hotel - Hong Kong
A fine, though small hotel not far from Jordan Station in Kowloon. The rooms are tiny and the prices rather high. Lynda, my roommate in Hong Kong on the tour, stayed at a better hotel with free breakfast for less money for two nights before the tour started.

I’d say the YMCA hotel in Kowloon is better. The rooms are more spacious and the location is closer to the nearest MRT station.

The Olé London Hotel

That accent mark is on the Hotel sign and cards so it’s not my error. I do think they meant Ole, but whatever. It’s a cute hotel with clean, though small rooms. It’s walking distance from the plaza where all the churches and shops are. Also it’s not far from a stop for the free buses to the Venetian Hotel. I’d go back there if I had to stay in Macau, which is an easy day trip from Hong Kong.

Lisa’s in Yangshou
The rooms are clean and pretty nicely decorated. Our rooms looked out to the limestone mountains. the street is quiet, unlike the main drag where one of her other hotels is located. It’s an easy walk to the cafés, shops and bars, but you don’t get all the commotion that comes with the main drag.

The showers are nice and hot and except for one girl at the desk, who may be a relative, all the employees are responsive. the non-responsive girl won’t even look up from her computer games as you talk to her and ask for help. She can somehow get you what you need while IMing or whatever.

Lisa is kind and a go-getter with two other small hotels in town. She took care of our breakfast orders and made sure things ran smoothly (except for that surly teen). The breakfast offerings were Western (good French toast, eggs, pancakes, etc) or Chinese (dumplings) and portions were huge.

I’d definitely go back.

Yet - don't use the laundry service. They promised to have everything done, including drying by the time we left. We were there two days and that should be adequate time to get laundry returned. We were still waiting for ours when we were about to leave. We got back bags of wet laundry. We had to hang it around our compartments on the night train.

Flower Hotel - Chengdu
A beautiful hotel with a great decor, the Flower Hotel is charming -- until you try to deal with the staff. Again, their English was bad as was the breakfast. Just inedible and I like some Chinese breakfast foods like dumplings and some savory breads. But I don’t like them tepid.

Dealing with the staff was a comedy of errors. They woke two friends at 3 am to bring them toilet paper that wasn’t asked for. (Adrienne says they were probably doing a routine check to see if there were prostitutes inside.) When I asked about getting hot water in the afternoon when I wanted to take a shower, I was first told to let the water run. Then when I said it had been running for over 10 minutes, I was told it was being repaired. Huh? How convenient that you just remembered that.

Back to the pretty decor. The bathrooms are enclosed by glass with a shade on one side and strings of beads on the side near the door. That’s beautiful if you’re with someone whom you’re intimate with, but if you’re with a friend, it might not be. There are all these opportunities like when you may be dressing and your roommate who went out for a smoke enters the door giving everyone in the hall more of a glimpse of your body than you’d like. Some real walls would be welcome.

Shanghai - Nanjing Hotel
I forgot to take a picture of this room. It was clean and in a good location right around the corner from a metro station and 100 meters (half a block) from East Nanjing Street. One can easily walk to the Shanghai Museum and the Bund.

The staff spoke English well - the best on the trip, tied with Hong Kong. I didn’t have breakfast there. Outside each morning there were vendors making pancakes filled with meat or veggies. Some friends like them. I think I chose the wrong cart since mine was rather greasy. It is near a few Starbucks, which I craved since I can get Chinese food all the time anyway.

St. Joseph's Parade, 2011

2011-07-08T10:10:00.000-07:00

I loved this parade in New Orleans last March. It's so real and natural as opposed to commercial and impersonal. I highly recommend attending this if you're in NOLA when they have it.

Found Treasure of Travel Writing

2011-07-08T09:59:00.000-07:00

I recovered this post from the void of cyberspace.* Since Donald Richie, as I stated, is such a remarkable writer on culture, I thought I'd share it here.

Monday, June 30, 2008
By Donald Richie
Donald Richie is one of my favorite writers on Japan. Every Sunday he writes a book review in the Japan Times. Here's this week's

THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Having faith in traveling

EXCURSIONS IN IDENTITY: Travel and the Intersection of Place, Gender and Status in Edo Japan, by Laura Nenzi. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2008, 267 pp., illustrations IX, $57 (cloth)
During Japan's Edo Period (1603-1867), Dr. Laura Nenzi tells us, "physical mobility (traveling along horizontal lines) was tightly regulated and social mobility (traveling along vertical lines) . . . was not always a viable option."

This was because "parameters based on status and gender permeated every facet of one person's life, and to a certain extent travel was no exception." Officials meddled with every major move, and actual checkpoint barriers periodically closed the major roads.

However, what became known as recreational travel changed all this, and altered some of these parameters. By the 19th century, travel had already become a part of consumerism and though religious pilgrimages were often the excuse for travel, the new mantra, suggests the author, was "I buy, therefore I am."

Besides being pious and visiting noted shrines and temples, the new travelers could take advantage of quite a menu, one which in the author's words rested on the relationship between "faith and fun, prayer and play, sacred and profane."

As the Edo Period matured (if that is the word) into an age when money mattered more than pedigree, travel generated its own economic power. Thus the pilgrimage, far from being a mere act of faith, became an enterprise that required a monied infrastructure to pay for the advertising, the lodgings, the making and marketing of all those amulets and charms.

Landscape (something to look at and admire rather than something to simply tramp through) was invented, and citizens flocked to gaze at Mount Fuji, not as an object to avoid by going around it, but as a presence that was to be thought beautiful and, eventually, divine.

And when the traveling crowds got too big, they could go see the miniature Fujis that, Disney-like, spotted old Edo. The most famous of these imitations was in Meguro. It was only 12 meters tall but visitors admired the blend of the sacred, the leisurely, and the convenient.

The Japanese discovered many reasons for travel, once travel had become a possibility. Among these one of the most interesting to the modern mind (at least, to this modern mind) is what we would now call sex tourism. Though there were eventually many guides to various venues, there is also one literary monument. This is Jippensha Ikku's 1814 "Tokaidochu Hizakurige" translated into English as "Shank's Mare."

In its picaresque pages the two friends Kita and Yaji make a mock pilgrimage, the real purpose of which is to eat and drink a lot and to enjoy the other sensual pleasures as well. Every pretty girl is noted and the Tokugawa military checkpoint at Hakone is barely acknowledged.

Ikku quotes the old proverb that "shame is thrown aside when one travels," and Kita and Yaji go out of their way to illustrate this. Their travels are punctuated by their realizing it on a purely physical level and in the form of instant gratification.

And they knew just where to go, since by this time brothels and baths loomed large on travel maps and cruise guides. As Dr. Nenzi informs us: "To the erotic traveler, interaction (and intercourse) with local prostitutes served a purpose similar to what lyrical or historical recollections did for the educated and what the acquisition of material objects did for other wayfarers in the age of commercialism." And it is true that sex makes a memorable souvenir. Or, as phrased by the author: "Intercourse, like the recovery of historical and lyrical precedent, or like shopping, facilitated the seizure of the unfamiliar."

Nenzi is an academic and manages to squeeze out most of the juice before presenting the pulp, but, on the other hand, such a dry delivery benefits the text in that, by contrast as it were, it beckons the salacious (this reviewer among them) to re-imagine the pleasurable dimensions of free travel in straight-laced Tokugawa times.

*It's magically cached after my cyber attack.

Summer of China in Milwaukee

2011-07-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

I went with a friend to the Milwaukee Museum of Art for their The Emperor's Private Paradise exhibit which features furnishings, sculptures, decorative arts and paintings from the Qing dynasty when Emperor Qianlong ruled (from 1736-1796).

We were able to join the noon time gallery talk which greatly enhanced the experience. I learned about this wise yet ruthless ruler, who presided over the largest country at it's zenith in terms of wealth and power. (Who knows what the future will bring?)

I also learned about the symbolism like the three friends of winter (bamboo, pine and plum trees) and how the Chinese painters learned to do trompe l'oeil from the Jesuits who went to China in the 18th Century. The gallery itself had life size photos on the walls of the gardens and buildings in which the articles were kept so that you really felt you were in the Forbidden Palace.

I wish I could have taken some photos, but that's forbidden.

Road Trip

2011-06-30T20:47:00.000-07:00

You Take the Road Less Traveled

You see companionship and loyalty as what's most important in life.

You live a life of leisure. You take your time in every aspect of life and enjoy it to the fullest.

You're willing to take a few risks in life. You may not take the road no one travels, but you're happy to take the road less traveled.

You are able to find a fairly healthy balance between work and play. You work when you need to, but you never let yourself burn out.

You could have owned an indie bookstore or boutique in another life.

The Road Trip Test

Blogthings: We'll Tell You The Truth... Someone Has To!

I'd love the indie bookstore -- a generation ago pre-Amazon. A boutique sounds good too.