Nara has several large temples, cool sake bars, and decent hiking. But its mostly known for its deer. This leads to many different scenes. Some pretty stereotypically Japanese. Some that might be described as adorable. And some particularly carnivorous. Who’s in the mood for venison?
Tag: World Heritage Sites
Bribing Guards at Koh Ker
In places like Cambodia, Indonesia, and Uzbekistan (to name just a few) the most important factor in life doesn’t always seem to be who/what you know but, rather, who and what you pay. Rules are flexible everywhere, but in some places all it takes is a bit of cash to […]
Around Dunhuang
While Dunhuang is surrounded by beautiful natural and historical sights, many of them are quite far away from anything that I’d be comfortable calling a town or, at times, a road. So, I let myself be talked into taking a minivan tour to most of these sights on the second […]
Jiuzhaigou: Tibetan Villages
One that important to realize about Tibet is the distinction between cultural and political Tibet. Politically, “Tibet” is the Tibetan Autonomous Region including Lhasa, Everest, a bunch of other cities, and China’s border with Nepal. Culturally, however, Tibet is much bigger. Tibet once controlled much of Western China, and still […]
Leshan Big Buddha
The largest carved stone Buddha in the world, I didn’t visit Leshan’s Big Buddha the first time I was in Chengdu because the sky had that China-haze going on. On this round, with a day to kill before I really wanted to head to Jiuzhaigou, I decided to give it […]
Huangshan: Yellow Mountain
Huangshan: Yellow Mountain I highly recommend visiting Huangshan if you’re on a trip in China, both because the mountains themselves are beautiful but also because it can be a great place to interact with Chinese on an equal tourist footing. There are plenty of ancient villages in the area nearby […]
Hey there! I'm Stephen, this is my travel blog, and that's me in the poofy hat.
I'm a photographer / writer traveling since 2008, and I've been doing my best to visit amazing places.
My current focus is Central Asia, because for a hiking and camping enthusiast it's as good as it gets.