Right Here

I’m off to Asia and this is where you’ll hear about it. Right here: frenetic, steamy noodle stalls; claustrophobic crowds; language barriers and charades; hill tribes and city-dwellers; hopefully, a beach or two.

There are travel resources too. You’ll find links to travel guides, tourism agencies and news on the right-hand side of the page.

If you’re news-obsessed like me, you can read the Xinhua News Agency and China Daily, find out what China thinks and feels day-to-day. They’re an interesting counterpoint to western media like the Globe and Mail and BBC News.

I’ve included the Rough Guides and Lonely Planet websites too, both for different reasons. I like the content on Rough Guides better: it’s more detailed and gets off the beaten track more. But Lonely Planet has a really great bulletin board for users, the Thorn Tree. You can read opinions from people who have actually been to the places you’ll be going. Plus, Lonely Planet includes maps on its site. Maps are good.

The tourism sites for the countries I’ll visit are here, and the Government of Canada’s travel reports as well. They’ll give you tips on accommodation and health and travel.

But you want to hear about my adventures; these are just helpful resources if you’re interested. I leave for Hong Kong on the 7th and spend some time getting to know the city before heading to mainland China and perhaps the most challenging travel experience of my life.

I’m excited and scared all at the same time – it’s not every day that one heads to a country and a region whose culture is different from his own. I’ll see people and places and events that no one ever would in North America. And you get the blow-by-blow account. Right here.

Welcome to my blog!