I spent the weekend attending the Dali Music Festival, an event co-sponsored by a local guesthouse business supposedly interested in purchasing and developing land in the Dali old city. Several of my favorite Kunming bands, as well as a couple of acts I hadn’t seen before, played in front of an old temple on Friday [...]
Apologies for the recent sucky blogging, or rather non-existent blogging. I do have a very good excuse, though. Last Saturday I fell off my bicycle while going downhill on a slippery mountain and injured my right arm and hand to an extent that typing became physically impossible. After four days the injury hasn’t healed completely, [...]
It isn’t often that flipping through the pages of a week-old China Daily provides a moment of delight. But it was so, when notified by a friend, I found that in a narrow column called “Your Say”, snippets from this Lost Laowai post I wrote about a month ago were used. Of course, being lumped [...]
On Monday, my friend and I (who share a birthday) invited about 20 people to a Tibetan restaurant in Kunming for our birthday dinner. Neither of us had been before, but the place had been recommended by a couple of good friends and we thought we’d try something different. The deal at the restaurant included [...]
Well, in celebration of his 28th birthday, your humble blogger shall delve in a moment of self-indulgence. Because I can. 1. All the little things people nag you about; flossing, doing the dishes, putting the cheese back in a plastic bag; are actually good advice. 2. Travel is good for the soul. 3. I don’t [...]
Quite a lot of people in my bulding have dogs, and very few of them bother keeping their dogs on a leash. I love dogs, but this concerns me. First, sometime last year a small dog attempted to bite me on the street, missing by a milimeter or so. Second, a big dog the other [...]
Here I am in Shenzhen…ground zero of China’s Gilded Age. Thirty years ago, Shenzhen literally didn’t exist; it was a typically stagnant Chinese village that happened to border Hong Kong. Now, it is a city of ten million, none of whom are from here. There are no old buildings in Shenzhen and I’m unsure if [...]
Yikes…an e-mail from my sister reminded me that I’ve been silent in this space for a bit longer than usual. Apologies! Work has been busy and I’ve been occupied by other things, but keeping fresh content on this site remains a priority to stay tuned. Before I write about my trip (I’ve got a bit [...]
Well…I’ve made it back to Kunming in one piece, though I imagine my legs will be grumpy for the next few days. The trip was simply amazing- one of the best I’ve undertaken in China ever. I’ll have much more to say later. Thank you for those who commented and e-mailed about site suggestions. I’ll [...]
’tis the October holiday, and while it would be nice to relax in Kunming all week, I’ll be up to something far more interesting. A few friends and I will be going off to towns in the central Yunnan countryside, traveling almost exclusively by bicycle. I won’t have the opportunity to blog during the trip, [...]