Most Recent Updates

As of today, the most recently updated posts were:

A Scalene Triangle... (Adventures in Accommodations in Yangshuo) [NEW POST]

There's a big update gap prior to that, but everything prior to

** Beijing - Day 5 - I was Not lost; I'd just intentionally misplaced myself. [PHOTOS added]

is also as new as it'll ever get.

Viewer Poll

So, I don't know who even reads this puppy anymore, but thought I'd poll the 'crowd' regardless....

Would it be useful/helpful for you to know the most recent post I've updated?

Since I'm mostly backposting anyway, I'd hate for you to have to go searching to check... I dunno. Just a thought. If so, leave me a comment and let me know.

A Note to the Readership

So, slowly, I'm going to get around to filling in the many extensive gaps in this here storyline of my trip. But, mostly for my own sanity when I look back at this, I'd prefer to keep the tale in chronological order...

"Oh NO," you say, "then I will have to search for the posts I have not read!"

Never fear, fearless adventurers... I've come up with an excessively complex and wonderful organizational system to keep things clear, if not actually convenient.

Entries marked with a single asterisk (*) are new, or edited significantly enough that they ought to count as new. Entries marked with double asterisks (**) are old, but have been updated with active links to photos, for your viewing pleasure.

The photos are actually more likely to go up before I get around to finishing the posts, so if you have a craving to just see some photos with only minimal storytelling to go with, feel free to browse over @ my flickr account. This is the best place to start, if you're interested, as it serves as a Table of Contents to my trip photos, and links to all my other photos as I get them up.

Hope you enjoy - I certainly enjoyed the trip, and it seems to have my usual rosy touch in the retelling, give or take a rant or two for added colour, of course. Cheerio, my dears.

Y^2

PS. It amuses me that 'readership' reminds me of the word 'mothership'. Thought I'd mention.

An excellent slogan

The motto of the chinese postal service (as they translate it):

Post is profession. Post bureau is home. Mail is life. On-time delivery is gold.

I love it.

PS. For those of you who've asked, No, the underlined words aren't links. They eventually will be, once I'm home, and have the ability to upload my buttloads of photos at my leisure. Buttloads. About 70 so far, and I haven't even REALLY gone anywhere of note. Let alone into the scenic destinations I want to go to so desperately. Anyway, the point of the underlining is mostly to remind me that there are photos or other links that I'd like to eventually point to, once I'm back in Canada and do a good hearty upload / revision / insert missing posts.

Technical Note

So, since I won't really be constantly blogging during this trip, but will be constantly trying to remember the millions of details of it -- many handwritten, many yet-to-make-it-into-sentence form, I hereby give you fair warning that there may be significant gaps in this narrative which will likely get filled in on my return to Canada. So, if I'm suddenly writing from some city you don't remember be getting to, you are not going crazy. Also, I will try to insert posts by date when I do finally piece the whole story together, so when the trip's over, I'll try to come up with some sort of consistent system so that you don't have to go digging through the whole blog to find posts you've yet to read.

Next, this comes to you unedited. In fact, since I can't even see my blog from here (no, seriously), I can't tell if I double post, if weird chinese characters appear in the text, or edit after I send (post). So, we're not aiming necessarily for quality of writing, per se. I just need to basically download about a mini-lifetime worth of experience every day for my own sake, and hope you enjoy reading it too. I don't aim to compare in readability to some of my readership's own trip logs (AHEM, still waiting) or metaphor-driven artistic blogging.

But... It begins. Hope you like. It's going to be quite the adventure.