Earlier this month I was in Lima, Peru… tomorrow I am going to Lima, Ohio. I will be leaving Cleveland heading back to Salt Lake City this Tuesday, and before I left I wanted to check out small town Ohio. We found this small town called Lima that sounds pretty strange and unique. Apparently there is a Kewpee burger chain and the flagship store is in Lima (if you don’t know Kewpee click here, or here). Anyway, should be interesting.
I am back in the country after a two week adventure in Peru and things are finally calming down. It was a tiring trip with lots and lots of traveling via plane, train, bus, taxi and boat. That being said I saw some of the most beautiful countryside and landscapes I have ever seen. Peru Is a beautiful country and two weeks was not even enough to barely scratch the surface. We were able to visit Lima, Cusco, Machu Picchu and an area of the Amazon called Manu. It was my first time to South America, but I can be sure it won’t be my last.
Tomorrow Yaya and I have a long day of travel. We are headed to Peru for a couple weeks for a bit of a Summer journey before she has to go back to school. We have a pretty loosely planned itinerary, but at the moment the plan is to head to Lima for a couple days… then on to Cusco to see Machu Picchu… and then to the Amazon for some jungle adventures and to hopefully avoid any run-ins with big ass bugs, snakes or crocodiles.
I will be leaving my laptop at home, but should have access to internet occasionally to post photos and update on the happenings. Though I am looking forward to being ‘unplugged’ for a while.
Earlier this week I left Salt Lake City again and headed back to Cleveland to stay with my girlfriend who has one more semester of school left here. This is my second trip to the now Lebronless Cleveland. I am rather impartial to the city, but I must say there are some good eats here. The first thing we did upon my arrival is head directly from the airport to Happy Dog. Damn good stuff.
Last night we went to see Delorean and Glasser play at The Grog Shop. The crowd was disappointingly sparse, but the show was as good as I had hoped it would be.
Later this month Yaya and I will be headed to Peru for a couple weeks. It will be my first time to South America and I am really excited for the food, Machu Picchu and a little jaunt in the Amazon for a few days. Just crossing my fingers I don’t get Malaria or bitten by one of these.
I can’t really count the amount of times in the past few years I have packed my bags and moved to a city for an undetermined amount of time, but I am doing it again. The time to leave China has come, and although the past 10 or so months have been really good here I am glad to be going back to the States. This has been my fifth time to China, and third time living here. I have been bouncing around for the past few years and I feel it’s time to grow some roots. Now only if I could decide which city that should be. One thing I do know is that it will be in America. Home sweet home.
I traveled more this year than any other, and I hope this trend continues throughout my life. The people you meet and the experiences you have while traveling are invaluable. From being attacked by monkeys in Vietnam to DJing in Tokyo I had some pretty interesting travel experiences in 2009… here are my favorite.
At the beginning of this month I left Shanghai for Tokyo for a nine day adventure with my friend Eli Smith of So Sweet Records. Tokyo was the last stop on his tour through Asia and Australia and he invited me to DJ at show with him at a club called Trump Room. I had never been to Japan so obviously I jumped at the chance.
The trip ended up being lots of long days and long nights. Trying to fit in as much of what Tokyo has to offer in eight nights/nine days can prove to be exhausting. One of my favorite things we did was spending a day at Oedo Onsen in Obaiba (wikipedia link for those of you who don’t know what an onsen is).
Big thanks to Tomo of So Sweet Japan for letting us crash in your tiny little apartment!
Above is a video from the show at Trump Room. I will post more as they are uploaded. Check out more photos on Flickr.
Photos by Sam of Jellymon - See more
Lately I have felt a bit overwhelmed with work, DJing, travel, friends in town among other things. I returned late last night from Beijing where I was playing at a festival called Zoo. Also playing was Drop the Lime and Classixx who are all really cool guys. My friend Eli Smith had also just gotten into town from L.A. before we headed directly to the train station to go to Beijing. He played the first stop of his tour and will be playing this Friday in Shanghai before heading to Japan. I also met up with a bunch of close friends in Beijing so needless to say it was a really fun weekend.
Finally getting a chance to sort and upload photos from my trip to Vietnam. The vacation overall was really great. Ho Chi Minh city is hectic, loud and chaotic. Even more so than Shanghai. At times got a bit too stressful for a vacation. The best part of the trip was by a long shot the 3 days of relaxing on the island of Phu Quoc. We had a bungalow on the beach, and waking to this view every morning is pretty amazing.
I also took some shots with my Holga. I am really happy with how they turned out. This is my first try at cross-processing my film. Some of the shots are a bit dark, but most of them I really like.
I am about to head to the airport for a red-eye to Ho Chi Minh City and then on to Phu Quoc. This will be the first time in a very long time I have not taken a laptop with me on a trip/vacation. I will try and post an occasional photo or tweet here and there, but for the most part I will be pretty absent from the internet machine. Is it sad that my iPhone gives me much comfort in leaving my MacBook behind?
Next week we are headed to Mango Bay in Phu Quoc, Vietnam (above). I am going to view the vacation as a complete “unplug” from everything including my laptop, email, Twitter, Tumblr, Blogs, Facebook and basically all the technology I am addicted to. There’s not even television or air conditioning in the bungalows. Beyond the technology I am also looking forward to just getting away from Shanghai and the chaos of this place. I plan on doing pretty much absolutely nothing.
A little late on this, but last weekend a bunch of friends and I jumped on a train and headed to Beijing for the weekend. I was DJing the Swatch MTV Playground event and a friend was having the grande opening of his Beijing store (The Source). We stayed at my good friends Li’s new place (above). It’s an amazing studio on the 33rd floor overlooking the CCTV building. It was a pretty amazing time and great to have the Shanghai crew all transplanted and having a good time together in Beijing.
Goodies from the trip:
My trip to Seoul was a quick one, but it was good. The first night I was there I decided to try out a love hotel which was rather interesting. I had heard from friends and read that they are a good option for a cheap, quick place to stay if you are in Seoul, Tokyo or Hong Kong. Even though it wasn’t too bad, it did have a super weird vibe, so I decided to change hotels for my second night there. The street food culture in Korea is amazing. As soon as the sun goes down the sidewalks become makeshift patios and get flooded with vendors. It’s like a block party every night! Although the street food was good, I think my favorite place was called Two Two Fried Chicken & HOF which does only fried chicken and beer. The food itself may not have been as good as the street food, but it kind of reminded me of a Korean version of Rascoe’s and that’s always a good thing.
More photos here.
It’s time again due to visa reasons that I must leave China. This time around I have decided to take a quick weekend trip to Seoul, Korea. Ever since watching Anthony Bourdain visit Seoul on No Reservations I have wanted to check this city out. I am a big fan of street food and the street food in Seoul looks pretty amazing.
