Author RenegadeTourist
The two fishermen on the beach warn us that the current is strong but I ignore them and follow my friend as he steps into the water. A few steps out the river bed drops away abruptly and I sink down to my chest, my watertight backpack floating up behind me like a cork. The water is cold and I can feel the current tugging at my body, wanting to pull me away and send me down stream. A feeling of trepidation flashes through my mind for a brief moment but disappears when I see my friend fearlessly continue forward, so I push on with determination. As we round the slight bend in the river I look up to the right where a smaller side stream comes cascading down the cliffs to join ours. Further along the little creak, the water flows over the edge of the high, jungle clad cliffs and comes crashing down into a small pool, sending spray high into the air. This place is imbued with a combined sense of danger and beauty and here and now, at this very moment, that is all I need.
About two years ago Renegade Wife and I visited an old amusement park that had been turned into a Buddhist temple. There were some parts of the park that we didn’t have time to visit and I’ve always wanted to go back. Last weekend we finally took the time to go there again. Because it’s been a while since I took the motorbike out I decided it would be a good day to go for a ride. However, it was a bit cloudy so we packed some rain gear and a couple of umbrellas just in case.
It was … Read the rest
My mom is part of an international women’s organization called Zonta which organized a big conference in Yokohama this summer. My mom was going as a delegate for her club in Sweden and my dad was going with her. Since they would be fairly close it seemed like a good opportunity for me and the wife to meet up with them for a few days, so we booked a couple of tickets to Yokohama.
Although Yokohama is a pretty big city it’s not particularly well known for anything. Renegade Wife however did her homework and found out that the city … Read the rest
For the last few months the city government have been redecorating (is that the correct word here?) one of the parks near my house. The have added some fancy looking street lights, made new walkways and put up new fences around the canal, all in all making it a nicer place to be. As part of this redecoration they have also put up little groups of tables and chairs where people can sit and chat. For some reason, I suspect it is a case of prioritizing design over function, their choice of chairs fell on dinky little backless stools – … Read the rest
The sun has just started to set, it's noticeably lower in the sky but still bright and warm, shining right at me. My hat shields my face from its rays but I can feel its warmth on my bare chest. It paints a broad streak of silver on the water's surface, like a glimmering road across the tops of the waves, from the ever shifting waterline on the wet sand all the way out to the horizon. I stand a few feet out in the water with the waves washing over my ankles, watching that strip of silver as if mesmerized by the way it sparkles, drawing in my eyes until I see nothing else. I feel the cool breeze one my back, I feel the sand being washed out from under my feet as I sink down into it, I hear the wooshing of the waves that, though not loud, drowns out the sounds from the people around me. It is a strange thing this, this urge that makes me kick off my shoes and go stand in the water, this instinctive need for meditation that only the ocean can fulfill.
A while ago I stumbled upon a video showing some people in Bangladesh who had invented a kind of passive air cooler made from scrap bottles that could help poor people keep cool in the summer, you can read more about it here. I think it’s a neat idea so I figured I would try to build one of my own. The version shown in the video fits in a window but I figured i could fasten it on the front of a fan for increased effect. This post is a build log detailing the process.
Materials:
As can be … Read the rest
The Final(?) Taiwan Advice Post
Over the last few months I have written a couple of advice posts for living in Taiwan that you can find them here, here and here. Apparently, three posts was not enough to cover all the subjects I wanted write about, so here comes post number four which I believe will be the last one.
The Importance of Food
Food is undeniably an important part of any culture. Not only is food a cultural expression – the ingredients and flavors say something about the history and way of life of the people that cooked it – but the … Read the rest