Where is Matt right now?
DECEMBER 23, 2011 - Today I'm learning to dive at Fun and Sun Dive and Travel on Malapascua, Philippines (http://bit.ly/vAoQjP). In three days, we be swimming with thresher sharks. Merry Christmas to me :)
With three books, Steven Crook is one of Taiwan’ best-known English writers (and my former editor). In this interview we discuss his career, Taiwan’s best sights, and how travel apps are changing travel writing.
London may not be the best place for outdoors adventures, but it is perfect for adventures of another sort.
La Tomatina is the world’s biggest tomato fight. Every year on the last Wednesday in August tomato warriors gather in Brunol, Spain to fling more than 100 tons of tomatoes at each other. These are the top three videos of the insanity.
In northern Columbia there is a place where it is normal for men have sex with donkeys. VBS.tv investigates, and finds out way more than they want to.
My friend Garret Clarke went to Sri Lanka for two weeks this summer to shoot a reclusive and rarely photographed tribe called the Dambana Vedda, but he came back from the trip with five sweet series’. Personally, I like the train ride series the best. But his outdoor studio portraits of the Dambana Vedda hanging out in the jungle wearing loincloths and carrying spears are pretty damned NatGeo. And the tea farming series is just plain pretty.
He just finished doing the post processing and has posted them to his website. He’s also looking for writers in Sri Lanka who are looking for pictures for their stories, or would like to write one based on his.
Check them out: http://www.garretmclarke.com
For the first time in my life, I’m ashamed to be Canadian.
We Canadians are overwhelmingly proud of our country. Why shouldn’t we be? For all of its shortcomings Canada has often (although not always) shown itself to be a fair country, especially when dealing with civil disturbances and inner conflicts.
The police reaction to the recent G20 protests in Toronto, however, was shameful. They used excessive force dealing with protesters that were overwhelmingly peaceful and arrested hundreds of protesters that showed no aggression whatsoever. Consider the following videos.
In this video, the police attack a group of protestors without provocation (except for singing our national anthem).
And in this video the police surround and close in on a large group of protesters, also all exercising their rights to non-violent protest. The don’t allow anyone to leave and then arrest them.
It is a sad day for Canada. Tonight I will go out to a Canada Day party and, like most Canadians, drink a ridiculous amount of beer. This time though, I will not drink to celebrate. I will drink to forget.
The Yenshuei Fireworks Festival (Yenshuei Fong Pao) is a festival held in the Yenshuei township in Southern Taiwan every year. During the festival millions of fireworks are shot out of large hives into crowds of revelers dressed in heavy clothing and full-face motorcycle helmets. Each hive may contain as many as sixty thousand fireworks. If proper safety precautions are taken, the activity is not very dangerous. However, each year some people are injured. To learn more about this festival, read my post Standing in the Fireworks.
Below is a gallery of pictures from the 2010 Yenshuei Fireworks Festival. You can navigate the gallery using the thumbnails, by clicking on the image, or by using the arrow keys on your keyboard.
DECEMBER 23, 2011 - Today I'm learning to dive at Fun and Sun Dive and Travel on Malapascua, Philippines (http://bit.ly/vAoQjP). In three days, we be swimming with thresher sharks. Merry Christmas to me :)
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