№ 785. New Orleans 2025

 

№ 798. Route 66: Galco’s Old World Grocery

 

№ 761. Happy Feet 2

Quezon City, February 2024

“At some point, all the horizontal trips in the world stop compensating for the need to go deep, into somewhere challenging and unexpected; movement makes most sense when grounded in stillness.In an age of speed, I began to think, nothing could be more invigorating than going slow. In an age of distraction, nothing could feel more luxurious than paying attention. And in an age of constant movement, nothing is more urgent than sitting still.” --- Pico Iyer

Uluru / Ayers Rock, Norther Territory, Australia, July 2023

№ 751. Paris Flea Market at Saint Ouen

 

№ 723. Beyond Borders: Fratelli Tutti

World Nationalism

"3. There is an episode in the life of Saint Francis that shows his openness of heart, which knew no bounds and transcended differences of origin, nationality, colour or religion. It was his visit to Sultan Malik-el-Kamil, in Egypt, which entailed considerable hardship, given Francis’ poverty, his scarce resources, the great distances to be traveled and their differences of language, culture and religion. That journey, undertaken at the time of the Crusades, further demonstrated the breadth and grandeur of his love, which sought to embrace everyone. Francis’ fidelity to his Lord was commensurate with his love for his brothers and sisters. Unconcerned for the hardships and dangers involved, Francis went to meet the Sultan with the same attitude that he instilled in his disciples: if they found themselves “among the Saracens and other nonbelievers”, without renouncing their own identity they were not to “engage in arguments or disputes, but to be subject to every human creature for God’s sake”. [3] In the context of the times, this was an extraordinary recommendation. We are impressed that some eight hundred years ago Saint Francis urged that all forms of hostility or conflict be avoided and that a humble and fraternal “subjection” be shown to those who did not share his faith.

4. Francis did not wage a war of words aimed at imposing doctrines; he simply spread the love of God. He understood that “God is love and those who abide in love abide in God” (1 Jn 4:16). In this way, he became a father to all and inspired the vision of a fraternal society. Indeed, “only the man who approaches others, not to draw them into his own life, but to help them become ever more fully themselves, can truly be called a father”. [4] In the world of that time, bristling with watchtowers and defensive walls, cities were a theatre of brutal wars between powerful families, even as poverty was spreading through the countryside. Yet there Francis was able to welcome true peace into his heart and free himself of the desire to wield power over others. He became one of the poor and sought to live in harmony with all. Francis has inspired these pages."

№ 720. Happy Feet: Paris

№ 708. Holy Places

№ 707. 2024 Philippine Holidays & Long Weekends

 

Guide to the Philippines

№ 689. Lonely Planets & Happy Feet

We’re most transported when we’re least distracted. And we’re most at peace – ready to be transformed, in fact – when most deeply absorbed. I’d much rather converse with one sight for 60 minutes than 60 places for one minute each. When I travel with the Dalai Lama – as I’ve done for 10 recent Novembers across Japan – I’m convinced that the wide-awake responsiveness he brings to every last convenience store and passing toddler is partly the result of the three hours he spends at the beginning of every day in meditation. Destinations can only be as rich as what we bring to them.

During this new season of the virus, I’ve been spending many happy hours on the tiny sunlit terrace outside my apartment in Nara, Japan, with the poet laureate of lockdowns, Marcel Proust. I think of him also as the patron saint of travellers, precisely because he was confined by severe asthma to spending three years alone in his cork-lined bedroom. What allowed him to read with such acuity the small print of every crowded soiree? To recall with such fresh immediacy a long-ago gaggle of young beauties on a beach? To record with wakeful precision the sight of a loved one asleep? That time in solitary, I suspect. It was Proust, I never forget, who reminded us that the point of every trip is not new sights but new eyes. Once we have those, even the old sights are reborn.

 

№ 669. Green School, Ubud, Bali

Green School 2

 

Located in the lush forests of Ubud in Bali is the Green School, an international school and community known around the world for its holistic approach to education. The academy is strongly focused on sustainability – naturally it is built to be eco-friendly too. Its unique buildings are made predominantly from bamboo, mud and grass, and the campus runs entirely on renewable energy; even food waste is converted into compost.

“We believe that education needs to change. It needs to adapt to the future,” said Sal Gordon, head of teaching and learning at Green School Bali, who has been at the school for nearly a decade. “Our students learn to make the world sustainable, and we believe the purpose of education should be to make the world a better place.”

№ 667. The Map You Make Yourself

Medium

 

 

The Map You Make Yourself

By Jan Richardson

 

You have looked
at so many doors with longing,
wondering if your life lay on the other
side.

For today, choose the door that opens
to the inside.

Travel the most ancient way of all:
the path that leads you
to the center of your life.

№ 649. Hong Kong

Exploring the bustling Central business district of Hong Kong on foot can be quite the challenge.
The area's hilly landscape, combined with subtropical heat and smothering humidity, would test the stamina of a mountaineer.

Luckily, there's the Central-Mid-Levels Escalator -- an 800-meter-long chain of moving stairs and walkways that's been dubbed the world's longest outdoor escalator system.

Opened to the public in 1993 and built at a cost of $30 million, it's a series of 16 reversible escalators and three travelators -- all covered to protect against sudden downpours.
Building a system of people movers that intersects 13 busy streets on a slope was as challenging a task as one would expect.
 

The escalators were designed to follow the natural inclination of the hill slope. As most of the slopes' gradients don't fall within the normal standards for escalators, a dedicated production line was set up by the escalator manufacturer.
 

With limited spaces between Hong Kong's old buildings and new skyscrapers, most of the escalators on the link only have one reversible track that changes direction "following the prevailing direction of pedestrian flow during the day."
 

Running at around 0.65 meters per second, the network of escalators has its own CCTV system with 75 cameras, a PA system with 200 speakers, four LED displays and a control room to monitor the system.
But most importantly, it's a congestion-free means of commuting between Central and Conduit Road in Mid-Levels, serving 78,000 pedestrian trips daily. And there's no charge.
 

Snaking through narrow streets in the busiest neighborhood in town, it's actually a great way to tour Hong Kong's dramatic cityscape -- from dai pai dong food stalls in small alleys to the trendiest bars in Mid-Levels, from colorful old walk-ups to sleek modern skyscrapers.
 

Here are some highlights that can be found by hopping on and off the escalator system.

№ 558. Trang

Spencer Gurley

№ 508. The Paradoxes of Enclosure

At a time when the rule of life across the globe has been disrupted by the paradoxes of collective isolation, a sensitivity to “the small,” to containment and enclosure, presses upon individuals, families, and society in unexpected and often confounding ways. Like Jones’s experimental letter forms, we awkwardly jostle for space within the confines of our homes, balconies, and gardens. Even communal spaces like parks and grocery stores seem to have shrunk, as attempts to heed social distancing alter our awareness of space. Our sense of what counts as crowded has changed, as we learn to accommodate these new rules. Meanwhile, many of us, particularly those in self-isolation, are simultaneously learning just how vastly vacant even a small space can feel.

We can recalibrate our senses to the mysteries of the small through meditation on that paradox of paradoxes, the Incarnation, with the help of this little wood block by David Jones. Throughout Jones’s work there is a marked affection for “things familiar and small.” It is inseparable from a spiritual practice of attention—tuning our senses to that which is easily overlooked or undervalued. Wrapped up in this sensitivity to the small is a care for the fragile, the vulnerable, and a discovery of the surprising resilience of the delicate. It is guided above all by the conviction that it is through refinement of our attention that the wonder and mystery of the created world, particularly in its relation to the divine, reveals itself most fully to us. Focusing on what is small and seemingly commonplace becomes a portal for seeing all things in light of the love of God and thus yields, paradoxically, the most generous and capacious of vantage points.

As the whole world fights to contain a contagion through the mantra “stay at home,” uniting and separating lives in various ways, our spiritual labor in this time may be to find these openings for grace within the multiple circles of our everyday circumstance as these widen and intersect with others, and in light of their relation to the divine Other. We are in truth, as Julian of Norwich reminds us, enclosed not by walls or government guidelines, but by the enduring intimacy of the love of God. For “he is our clothing that for love wrappeth us and windeth us, holdeth us and all becloseth us, hangeth about us for tender love that he may never leave us.”

Grand Mosque at Djenne, Mali

№ 507. Happy Feet: Palazzo Ducale

Bocche di leone or Lion's Mouth, or a lion head letter box, through which it was possible to post anonymous denunciations of crimes or misdeeds. Renaissance Wing, 2nd level, Doge's Palace or Palazzo Ducale. 

Is this a 16th Century Ombudsman?

The inscription below the face reads: "Secret denunciations against anyone who will conceal favors and services or will collude to hide the true revenue from them".

№ 460. Lonely Planet

Khao San Road

Ajahn Buddhadasa, a famous Thai monk who passed away in 1993, once told me, "You know why you like to travel? Everywhere you go, nothing belongs to you. When you're home surrounded by your possessions, you're weighed down."

I think he was right; it's liberating being stripped down to one suitcase, which is how I still travel, in the original Lonely Planet style.

№ 453. Paris 2012

№ 452. Venice 2012

 

№ 448. A Bucket List for an Extended Lockdown

The plague has the real world on lockdown. Thankfully, not the "Westworld."

Whittier Daily News

Here's a list of things to do during our extended free time:

1. Get involved in the community. Red Cross.

2. Visit museums.

3. Tour libraries, borrow and read books.

4. Plan the next trip. Pre-Visit or travel to countries and cities: Moscow Metro; Along Dusty Roads; and, Cool Hunting.

5. There's still free television, cable TV, Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV and other streaming services.

6. Brush up on or, at least, keep up with the unfolding current events. The pandemic will pass sooner or later. But we need to hit the ground running. We lost an entire month already. Ah yes, I faintly remember the concept of deadlines and conferences. Yup.

7. Keep in touch, stroll, curate the world, troll and stalk on social media. We could do this so well before the plague. There's so much more time to waste now.

8. House chores, laundry and sundry. Clean out the ref., that butter looks green.

№ 436. Wyoming On My Mind

West Railroad Street, Green River, Wyoming