And you thought I’d forgotten about you? It may be a tad later than the usual, but it’s still Friday for another thirty four minutes in Australia and for a good deal more time in the US and the UK.
Why so late? Well, I just came back from my first ever comedy club experience! Heather (from The Kimchi Chronicles) and I headed out to the Laugh Garage in Sydney’s CBD to see Daniel Townes and a handful of other great local acts. I’ll write more about it later, but suffice to say we had a good time and I might just have to venture back to the Garage again sometime soon.
The Reads
The Guest Who Never Leaves by Backpacking Ninja
Aparna, the world’s first backpacking ninja, offers up some really helpful tips for how to make your extended hotel stay feel less like being the guest and more like just being ‘home’.
Your stay in a hotel doesn’t need to just be tiny shampoo bottles and the busy hum of vacuum cleaners in the hall, and the ninja’s tips will soon have you striking up conversation with the staff and feeling a lot less like an outsider.
Pre-Travel Freakouts: Seventeen Days in China Edition by Around the World “L”
That mixture of nervousness, excitement, and sadness you feel in the days leading up to departing for another adventure? That’s normal! Lillie does a great job of capturing those mixed emotions before a trip that we can all relate to so well as she goes through them herself in preparation for her trip to China.
There’s some great discussion going on in the comments as well, so go read and then weigh in with your own travel tales!
I Actually Like London… by Bitten by the Travel Bug
You’d have to have been living under a rock to not be aware of the tragic events that have occurred in London in the past week. In a country and city that have long been associated with culture and civilization, it’s truly shocking to see the photos and videos coming out of the world’s most famous city.
Nicole, herself having lived in London, discusses both her reaction to the events and how the tragedy might have changed the way she views a city she thought she hated. A great read.
Testimony from a Comfort Woman by Ask a Korean
For those of you not familiar with Korean history, a ‘comfort woman’ was basically a slave taken by the Japanese invaders to be used repeatedly for sexual gratification. The article, an account from a North Korean survivor of the Japanese regime, is a very graphic (be warned) recount of the horrendous treatment Korean women were subjected to by the Japanese invaders.
This needs to be read and to be shared. Too few people in the world know about the awful treatment the Korean women endured, and the Japanese have still yet to formally acknowledge it.
When Your Culture is Not Respected by yTravelBlog
I swear that Caz and Craig are not paying me to promote their blog. It seems like every week these guys are churning out so much quality that it’s hard to overlook them when I’m recommending reads.
Fresh off of last week’s post about being too defined by your culture, this week Caz wades into the topic of respecting the culture of the country you’re in. As always it’s a well written and thought provoking piece, and there’s some heated debate taking place on the page that provides some interesting follow up reading.
That’s three in a row for yTravelBlog. Quite the streak!
What’s Going On?
Aside from tonight’s stand-up shenanigans? I’ve got my second City 2 Surf experience this coming Sunday as part of the iiNet running/walking team. Last year Fallon and I tackled the 14.6k run to Bondi as runners, but this year I’ll be taking things a tad slower so that my trusty Canon can capture all of the fun and festivity on the day.
And there’s the whole ‘not as fit as I should be’ thing as well…
I’ve also got a lot of upcoming entries queued up. There’s my reviews of La Bodeguita and the Laugh Garage. There’s a feature on the importance of family and how to cope with being away from them for extended periods.
There’s a few more entries to come in my series on relationships on the road and my spotlights on street markets and street performance.
Exciting times lie ahead!
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