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wheres kevin - Kevin Gurr

I have been living in Hiroshima for the past few years, teaching English, and travelling when I've opportunity, to destinations in China and South East Asia. I like to travel solo and I like to commit a fair bit of research before the adventure. Studying the history, religion and art, as well as searching blogs and travel guides for inside scoops, makes for a much richer experience, I find. Looking forward to a few months trekking through Pakistan and China late summer and Autumn 2007.

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Joined on: January 19th 2007
Last Login: July 24th 2008

Blog Entries: 55
Photos: 1505
Recommended by 4

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Blogs & Travel Journals

by wheres-kevin, order by Date newest first.

By wheres kevin
May 21st 2008

North Sumatra: from Medan to Lake Toba

Asia » Indonesia » Sumatra » Medan

Mona, semi wild Orang Utang, Bukit Lawang

Medan: English Lesson with a Happy Ending It’s a day faster and with Air Asia it’s actually cheaper to fly KL to Medan, Indonesia's thrid largest city, a quick hop arcoss the Straights of Malaka but I need to reach it by sea, want to relive bygone days of explorers and spice traders. The ship, however, is oblivious to any romantic notions, a low aluminium hull tosses its cargo from port to starboard and back mile after nautical mile, air con preserving passengers like produce in a refridgerator, no promenade deck for shuffleboard, just a muddy window pane, and a neighbour [View Full Entry]

Dokan, traditional village outside Berastagi

By wheres kevin
May 12th 2008

Malaysia: Only Half the Truth

Asia » Malaysia » Selangor » Kuala Lumpur

Boddhisatvas, Kek Lok Si, Penang

Kuala Lumpur The closest I've ventured yet toward the equator. Magenta paints a wispy horizon of the broadest sunset I've ever seen as the plane skims over the orderly regiments of palm tree plantations. I lug a thirty kilo suitcase along the curbs of Chinatown to a relatively quiet and windowless guesthouse the far end of Central Market. My shirt smells of sweaty cheese. Asians find westerners smell milky, a delight to mosquitoes. Super-sized shopping malls, fly-overs, 2 and 3 story colonial facades speckled with mould, undaunted rats the size of handbags scurry among the shadows, the result of a poorly [View Full Entry]

By wheres kevin
April 21st 2008

Ethnocentrism, Resentment & Traffic: Conversations on Kunming

Asia » China » Kunming

Alexandra, a vision of the night

The same day stretches six weeks long, waking, sleeping - it’s the same - denying routine, denying necessity, progress, change, accepting sunlight, escaping cold, watching an apartment block’s shadow creep up the block like a giant sundial tracking the day’s journey. Ants pass aboard buses, crowded into minivans, on three wheeled bicycles laden with boxes. Measuring time with questions. What next? Feeling the victim of circumstances, easier to procrastinate, stagnate, grow weary of a love affair. My lover and I argue, see the less than perfect existence, the differences between us multiply, a beauty once compared to a constant light begin [View Full Entry]

By wheres kevin
February 14th 2008

Winter in the City of Eternal Spring

Asia » China » Yunnan » Kunming

Yuantong Si
Buddhist temple in the heart of Kunming

New Year's Unmet Resolutions It's not as I'd expected. The apartment is not yet finished, the electricity unwired, hot water tank and kitchen appliances missing. I remain with Joan in his old flat, the rent contract now under Sergio's name. Joan has run into money problems. He paid the contractor the full cost for the kitchen appliances but the contractor put half that towards his employees' wages. Their employment has dragged on several months past the completion date. Joan is disappointed with their slack attention to detail. The light fixtures in the kitchen will have to be rewired, several cabinets [View Full Entry]

By wheres kevin
December 25th 2007

TEFL certificate

Asia » Hong Kong

Macau

Two weeks to cross south China, aboard a sleeper train from Kunming to Guilin, an expected two hours later than listed in the time table. A bus parked in front of the station departs for Yangshuo, an hour's drive down a highway resembling a long parking lot. I'm greeted by a pushy hostel staff member who quickly arranges my onward bus ticket to Shenzhen before booking me into an empty discount dormitory a short walk from the tourist congested centre. I am unwell for my few days stay. A kind young woman, Shanghainese, Christian, English speaking, works in a popular guesthouse [View Full Entry]

By wheres kevin
November 20th 2007

Little Burma

Asia » China » Yunnan » Ruili

night market, Ruili

"Uuuuh," Joan moans as we enter the PSB office on Beijing Lu, "this guy's a prick," he informs me under his breath. Within half a minute I've gathered as much. Standing across from him seperated by a desk, the officer speaks as though to an assembly. I respond in a likewise trumpeted voice, "I plan to travel around Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangzhou. He seems satisfied. I fill out the form and hand over my passport. It'll take a week. In the meantime Joan suggests a trip to the Burmese border. We arrange for friends to take care of Joan's black lab. [View Full Entry]

By wheres kevin
November 15th 2007

For Urination Only

Asia » China » Yunnan » Kunming

Urination Only

There are rules in Kunming as in all towns, in all societies, but the young expats, a tribe of drifters, don't much adhere to them. One guy, I forget his name, remains behind bars, caught with a large possession of drugs a few months ago. A girlfriend paid him a visit. I forget her name too. She invited Joan but he declined. Like most in Kunming he had distanced himself from the pusher, told me in a taxi ride various instances that summarized the enprisoned foreigner's fate as following logically. There are plenty of pills in Kunming. Little baggies exchange hands, [View Full Entry]

By wheres kevin
November 10th 2007

Tibetan, Naxi, Bai: Minorities of NW Yunnan

Asia » China » Yunnan » Zhongdian

Ganden Sumtseling Gompa

In Tibet's Shadow Before six the following morning in a cold darkness after the moon sets and the sun rises, four Brits, a Czech and I stand at the depot awaiting a bus that does not come. Shortly past nine we pile into a minivan for the joureny south into Yunnan. We've been warned of a four hour section along an unmettled road and keep an anxious eye out. We climb into the mountains headed west from Xiancheng taking a roundabout seldom traveled scenic route. The slopes shimmer gold and yellow and red. The narrow highway cuts through small villages with [View Full Entry]

Guishan Park, and a very large prayer wheel

By wheres kevin
October 25th 2007

West Sichuan, the 'province' of Kham

Asia » China » Sichuan » Litang

prayer wheel, An Jue Si, Kangding

Sichuan-Tibet Highland Highway: Kangding, Litang, Xiancheng Saturday, October 20th, I am thirty today, a long day beginning at Xinnanmen, boarding the coach for Kangding, gateway to Tibet, 2560m above sea level, six grey hours drive west of Chengdu. The passengers are dressed in head to toe gortex and equipped with fancy cameras. I burry into a copy of Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad from which I learn of the author's unappreciated talent as a travel writer and the late nineteenth century's mistrust of his less than honourable commentaries of American tourists relic hunting in the Holy Land. I find his cynicism and [View Full Entry]

By wheres kevin
October 17th 2007

Chengdu & Leshan

Asia » China » Sichuan

I was here, Leshan

Chengdu: Sex, Drugs and Hot Pot Beyond Langmusi, hemmed inside a narrow valley cutting south past sleepy villages, the road weaves into north Sichuan. After Songpan, the road climbs higher and higher into the western reaches of the Tibetan plateau, a spectacular drive made all the more enjoyable by the enforced no-smoking policy. In fact, one beligerent old man is booed off the coach for refusing to extinguish his cigarette. The policy holds until the last hour of the ride when stuck in traffic on Chengdu's outer ring road, the driver can contain himself no longer. It was fine weather when [View Full Entry]

jade ornament, Jinsha Site Museum, Chengdu