Rented bikes, visited Yueliang Shan (Moon Mountain) and Fuli. Met some nice peasants who sold us water.  

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Eating Dongbei (northeastern) food in Guangzhou.  

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Grandma Sue and Flat Stanley try on Korean clothes at the airport in Korea.  

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A quick runthrough of how to make Vietnamese Iced Coffee (Ca Phe Sua Da).  

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Angin Mamari, in the northern edges of Chicago, serves up Indonesian cuisine like coto makassar. I liked it. She didn’t.  

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Today was the 14th annual Korean Street Festival in Chicago. It was hot, so we didn’t stay too long.  

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I saw this car, the Isetta, nicknamed ‘Das rollende Ei’ (the rolling egg), during lunch a while ago. It’s a one-seater and can’t top 60 mph. But, it gets excellent mileage.  

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Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson and Billy Mays.

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A quick trip through the geologic history of the red rocks of Sedona in Arizona with a bossa nova feel.

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Cacti, aloes, and agaves at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona. Also, the artwork of Dale Chihuly was on display.

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Parallel parking, durian, and Chinese Sour Kraut.

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A quick demo of how you can upgrade your MacBook’s hard drive to a Corsair 128 GB solid state drive and install more memory.

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A quick survey of the 56 different ethnic groups (officially recognized) in China (55 minorites plus one majority).

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Natasha and I tried the neighborhood sports bar, the Hop Haus. I had kangaroo burger. She had a pizza.

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Went to Chinatown in Chicago to find out if Jackfruit really does taste like Juicy Fruit gum.

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A quick trip to the Chinese Bakery on Argyle and H-Mart in Niles.

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March 28th is Serf Liberation Day. This year, take some time and think about the liberation of Tibet’s serf from their feudal theocracy by the PLA.

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A short conversation about the end of newspapers got me to thinking; isn’t the web 2.0 world we live in today better than web 0.0?

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Reviewing Roberto Bolaño’s novel ‘2666′.

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If you have any better idea how to translate ‘Baker’s Dozen Girl Band’ into Chinese, please put it in the comments.

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I captured one day of my life to test out the new Flip Mino. I was a little concerned that I might have trouble with the codecs, but my fears were allayed.

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Testing Starbucks claims that their new VIA Ready Brew Coffee is better than traditional instant coffee.

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Nanfeng county in Jiangxi, China, is famous for oranges and Nuo dancing. Nuo dancing is an ancient performance/ritual still performed during Spring Festival in China.

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Just a short video of my b-day in China.

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A short look at the question of Tibetan autonomy. Is Tibet part of China? What does the Dalai Lama think about Tibet’s sovereignty?

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Natasha’s mom, Shuifeng, demonstrates how to cook Chinese food for a lot of people.

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Natasha’s mom demonstrates again how far a little vinegar, salt, msg, and corn starch can go.

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Siddharta might have gotten a haircut in Lamphun once and left behind a little hair for Wat Phra Hariphunchai. Even if he didn’t, it’s still worth a trip out of Chiang Mai to pick up some sweet longan.

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A short introduction to the history of Thailand peppered with photos from our last trip, including photos of Bangkok, Ayutthaya, Chiang Mai, and Koh Chang.

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Factories set up outlet shops along the road to San Kamphaeng outside of Chiang Mai, Thailand. You can buy stuff made by Thailand’s hilltribes like the Hmong, Akha, Karen, Lisu, and Lahu; get a mulberry paper umbrella like those made in Bo Sang, or learn how silk is made.

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Pung Tao Gong Ancestral Temple, Wat Paphang, Mornthean Temple, Wat Chang Yeun, Wat Papao, and Wat Bupparam. Buddhist and Ancestral temples around Chiang Mai, Thailand.

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Poor planning prevents us from seeing the legendary wat on Doi Suthep, a mountain outside of Chiang Mai, Thailand.

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Centuries ago the city of Wiang Kum kam established by King Mengrai along the banks of the Ping River in the Lanna Thai Kingdom was abandoned. We visited the unearthed ruins on the outskirts of Chiang Mai, Thailand.

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There are several night markets in Chiang Mai: the nightly night bazaar, the huge Sunday market in the old part of the city, and the nightly food market across the street from the night bazaar. We ate watermelon, mango, salty strawberries, mango salad, banana satay (can you call it satay if it’s banana?), squid satay, and [...]

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Elephant riding, trekking, swimming, rice hulling, bamboo rafting, and a little Hmong village near Chiang Mai, Thailand.

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Koh Chang, Thailand. Southeast of Bangkok. Full of macaques and hippies.

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Nanfeng, Jiangxi. No electricity. No running water. Lots of duck.

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Get down and boogie in Nanfeng, Jiangxi, China. Every year during Spring Festivals villagers dance in the village temples. This show was put on for the benefit of CCTV.

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Finely chop two large frogs. Fry for a couple minutes. Add vinegar, salt, onion, ginger, chilis, and soy sauce. Add water and let simmer. Throw in a little MSG.

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Banglamphu, Bangkok, is a blackhole that sucks in all the foreigners and sometimes never spits them out. Go to Khao San Road for banana pancakes and Democracy Monument for history lessons.

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Ratanakosin is the historical center of Bangkok where you can find the Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaeo and the Emerald Buddha, Wat Pho and the Reclining Buddha, Sanam Luang, Lak Muang, and statues of white pachyderms.

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In a world without Jello, one woman tries to prepare the fruit flavored gelatin.

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Ayutthaya was doing pretty well until Burma finally quashed the city in 1767. The Thai bounced back quickly, however, with another city, Bangkok, patterned after Ayutthaya. Some practical information about visiting Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya is not far from Bangkok, just two hours by train. Unless you are a Wat enthusiast, one day is enough. [...]

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The former Portuguese colony Macau is the Las Vegas of China. Kim Jong Il allegedly kept bank accounts here with his personal entertainment funds. We spent a day there, seeing the ruins of St. Paul and gambling our money away.

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Wudang Mountain (Wudangshan) in Hubei, China, is famous for the monastery at its peak . Along with the Shaolin Temple, it has a prominent role in Chinese martial arts movies (including ‘Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon’). Students at Shaolin Temple in Henan, China, demonstrate their Kung Fu skills. The grasslands near Hohhot in Inner Mongolia let tourists [...]

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A few hundred Miao people live in Upper Lang De in Guizhou, China. They sustain themselves by fishing, raising water oxes, pigs, and chickens, and putting on daily shows for tourists. I had the opportunity to stay with a Miao family for several days.

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On White Cloud Mountain near Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, you can go Bungee jumping. I rushed to get there early so I wouldn’t have to stand in line only to find there wasn’t a line. The onlookers seemed to think I was crazier for spending so much money than I was for jumping.

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Chairman Mao grew up in Shaoshan, Hunan, near Changsha. Tourists still visit Chairman Mao’s hometown. He chose Beijing as his final resting place, and, in lieu of leaving his corpse behind in Shaoshan, he instead chose to leave some dirty clothes and a hat.

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Recycled material with narration from my Hainan to Shandong trip. In addition to Haikou, I stopped off in Guangzhou, Guilin, Kunming, Chongqing, Chengdu, Xi’An, Taiyuan, and Shijiazhuang.

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Note: A Tibetan viewer let me know that this is in fact a dialect spoken in Yushu, Kham. After I read that, I remember him telling me he was from Yushu which I assumed was in Amdo but in fact is in Kham.

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