Wandering/Wondering

Author: CBT

  • Why are so many American cities not “walkable”?

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    CBT
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    I have, by now, been to many cities. I have seen pretty, pastel-coloured cities, I have seen grey, skyscraper cities, I have seen cities that were barely worth the name. But Phoenix was something altogether new, unlike anything I’ve encountered before. The huge roads of multiple lanes were more like motorways, and the pavements were…

  • USA (Arizona) & Mexico

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    CBT
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    Day 1 I had hoped that I would be finding my hotel in Phoenix by the light of a desert sunset, but no, night has fallen by the time I leave the airport. It makes the city all the more confusing and intimidating. I stop briefly to take stock, and note that there are almost…

  • Why do so many Welsh people go to Australia?

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    CBT
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    While walking past the reception in the hostel in Darwin, I heard the receptionist tell a group of young women, ‘We don’t get many Welsh people here’. Attention grabbed, I turned and asked, ‘You don’t?’. It turned out that several of the group were from Wales, including a girl from Pwllheli – Welsh-speaking Gog (Northener),…

  • An Admission of Failure

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    CBT
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    While walking past a beach in Darwin, I saw a lone man facing the sea. His arms were spread wide, and he seemed to be declaiming something to the waves in Larrakia. I wondered if he was a local eccentric, until, later in the day, I saw a group of people on another beach in…

  • Why are Chinese communities so much more visible in Malaysia than in Thailand?

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    CBT
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    Kuala Lumpur was strikingly similar to Bangkok in many ways. Ultra-modern infrastructure, skyscrapers, and massive shopping centres, right next to tattered, grimy streets in oppressive tropical heat. But there was a key difference: where Bangkok had the shining spires of Buddhist temples and the Grand Palace, Kuala Lumpur had mosques, Hindu temples, and at least…