The Weekend Rambler

Always Authentic. Always on its own path.

Category: East Asia

  • Seoul Past, Seoul Present

    To get into Beijing, I took advantage of the 144-hour transit visa, which allowed me to stay in Beijing as long as I had a flight going somewhere other than where I came from. Seoul was the cheapest option, and so I went. I visited Seoul, along with Busan and Gyeongju back in 2014, and…

  • Dusty Beijing

    Beijing is dusty and hazy. If you open the weather app on your phone, it will probably show you the temperature and then under it say something like, “Partly Cloudy” or “Sunny”. But in Beijing, it’s a bit different. So with a “Very Unhealthy Air Quality” city ahead of me, I strapped on my face…

  • Gambling for Panda Butts

    Saturday’s are probably one of the worst days to set an alarm for 8:00, but the adventure ahead will be worth rubbing my dry eyes over. I take the bus from Lingnan University directly to downtown Kowloon, right by the Star Ferry Port. My bare legs are covered in mosquito repellent, so the air smells…

  • Restless in Hong-Kong

    I stand, waiting in line at the Hong-Kong airport for my Metro card. A Chinese man steps up behind me, and his bowels decide I need a proper initiation with a long-winded, open-armed flatulent vibration as if to say “Welcome to Hong-Kong”. I’ve just landed after an 8 day trip around Taiwan (read more here),…

  • First Days in Taipei

    I’ve been in Taipei for less than twenty minutes, and I’ve already had someone excitedly shout “Hi, Jesus!” at me from across the airport baggage claim. This’ll be a nice four months. My day started out at 4 am, walking to my car and seeing this goopy salamander crawling out of it. I didn’t even…