The Overpacker

Dateline: Hanoi, Vietnam – Sunday, July 4, 2010

I’m terrible with remembering birthdays. It’s so bad that I regularly forget my own. Seriously. Read more…

Dateline: Hanoi, Vietnam – Saturday, July 3, 2010

Today was a writing day. Pounding out entries left and right from my notes. First in my room in the morning. Then in a little café all afternoon. I had myself a cup of iced Vietnamese coffee (café da) but still was dozing at around 3 p.m. It was like I was back in the firm office, working on contracts or writing a memo. Guess I get tired mid-afternoon so long as I’m sitting at a computer. Read more…

Dateline: Nanning, China; Hanoi, Vietnam and roads between – Friday, July 2, 2010

Just another travel day. Got up early, checked out of the hotel 3 hours after checking in, and lugged my bag to a bus station ticket office. I bought a ticket with ten minutes to spare and joined a mass of Chinese and Vietnamese on an 8-hour ride to Hanoi. Read more…

Though his posts are still in China, Mervyn is now back in Vietnam!  Have you tried calling him yet?  No, you haven’t.  Sure, like most things, it probably won’t be worth the effort, but you won’t know until you try.  It’s kinda why we’re all here.  Find out if Mervyn is still here or there by calling him in Vietnam using the information in the Contact Mervyn page.

If you have actually already called Mervyn, tell him by calling him in Vietnam using the information in the Contact Mervyn page.

Dateline: Shanghai, China – Thursday, July 1, 2010

It’s officially been 4 months since I hit the road. It really doesn’t feel that long. It sort of feels like I started yesterday. In part, that’s because when you’re traveling, having a good time, time flies. It’s like hitting the snooze button in the morning. You know the alarm last went off six minutes ago, but when it buzzes again, it usually feels like you just blinked instead of fell asleep.  Read more…

Dateline: Shanghai Expo, Shanghai, China – Wednesday, June 30, 2010

China reportedly spent more on the Shanghai Expo than it did on the Olympics. This is surprising since the Beijing Olympics were generally regarded as over the top, excessive, and the most expensive Olympics ever. It seems ludicrous to spend more on an event that most people don’t know still exists. I mean, can you remember where (or even when) the last World Expo was held? Read more…

Dateline: Shanghai, China – Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Today I had lunch with Doug, a friend of a friend who happens to run a travel business called Travel ING. They run tours throughout China catering to 20-35 year old English-speaking Westerners. The tours sound cool. While I can’t vouch for the tours (I didn’t go on one), I can say that Doug was a great source of information. He knows his stuff and we had a good time talking about how different China is from the U.S. Read more…

Dateline: Shanghai, China – Tuesday, June 28, 2010

Maybe I’m an idiot, but I figured China would be more like Japan, a collectivist culture where the good of the many superseded those of the individual. It’s the stereotypical Asian mindset, right? A society where the group’s interests are paramount. Where the individual is a footnote, not the center of the universe.

After nearly a month in China, I realize that this was a silly misconception. Today, while walking through the Pudong area of Shanghai, I mused that Chinese people are the most self-centered people I’ve seen. Read more…

Dateline: Shanghai, China – Sunday, June 27, 2010

Dear World,

Your game sucks.

You wouldn’t know it from what we saw last night, though. World Cup is televised in China in the middle of the night, yet here in Shanghai people crowd around televisions at bars, restaurants, and dance clubs for 3 a.m. games. It’s not just ex-pats watching their home teams either—most of the throngs are Chinese people watching games between countries that aren’t them.

The question has to be, then: why hasn’t your football (or what we Yanks call soccer) caught on in America? Read more…

Dateline: Shanghai, China – Saturday, June 26, 2010

Considering how late I was out last night, I got up early today. Bri sent me a text offering to crash his place for the duration of my stay in Shanghai. Free accommodation is hard to refuse, so I played impromptu couchsurfer and took over his guest room. Beatrice and Lindsey had crashed his place the two nights before, so basically he swapped me out for them. They’d had a rougher few hours than I, considering we were all out until 3 a.m. and they had to be at the airport for the Beijing flight at 7 a.m.

After I’d moved my stuff, Bri and I headed to brunch on the Bund at a place called New Heights. A substantial brunch and bottle of white later, we headed out for a walk past the Bund and down Nanjing Road, which is mostly closed to automobile traffic. Swarms of Chinese tourists crowded the streets. It’s like Times Square in New York City with the Chinese equivalent of out-of-towners from Kansas and Mississippi flocking to kitschy stores and tourist trap restaurants. Read more…

Dateline: Shanghai, China – Friday, June 25, 2010

The Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Center is one of Shanghai’s best kept secrets. It’s home to the most comprehensive collection of government propaganda posters in the world. These works of art range from 1949 to the 1980s and covers the Cultural Revolution and changing relationships between various communist countries. The Chinese government destroyed most of the posters after it decided that it didn’t want to perpetuate the cult of personality around certain leaders and that it no longer wanted to use the medium to present its message to the people. Lucky for us and the Chinese people, 5,000 posters were saved by the director of the Propaganda Poster Art Center.

The collection is legal, but it isn’t something the government probably wants to highlight. This collection is certainly worthy of a center spot in Chinese history. It captures an idealized view of a period in China’s history. You can’t see the starving people or the persecution of intellectuals or the many hardships experienced by the Chinese people, but it is a window into the elites’ view of the world. Read more…

Datline: Shanghai, China – Thursday, June 24, 2010

It’s raining in Shanghai. I walked off the train and out into a light shower. I called three hostels. All full. The fourth had a bed in a four-person dorm room and I snapped it up. No sense in spending my night outside, which is what I’d rather do than spend $100 on a Western-style hotel.

I got in to the hostel, secured my bag and my locker, and proceeded to sleep. And write. And e-mail. And wait out the rain, which never stopped. Read more…

Dateline: Xian, China – Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Today Lindsey, Beatrice, Seth, and I spent the morning biking around the old Xian city wall. Xian used to be the capital, home of the country’s first emperor. He commissioned construction of the wall which is about 50 feet tall and is up to about 40 feet wide in spots. It’s about 2 kilometers along each side. There is also almost no shade. Read more…

Dateline: Xian, China – Tuesday, June 22, 2010

I’m here in Xian to see the infamous clay army buried by China’s first emperor. He assembled this force to protect him in the afterlife—a reasonable endeavor considering his brutal four decade reign. Trying to unite a fractious empire, standardize writing and measures, and enslaving hundreds of thousands tends to piss a few people off. Read more…

Dateline: Beijing, China – Monday, June 21, 2010

Some things are different here in China. A clear day has nothing to do with clouds but, instead, with whether most of the power plants and factories are open today. People’s idea of politeness and decorum is a bit more pushy and phlegm filled. Toilets can be an adventure in balance and bombardier abilities. Not everything’s traumatizing, though. Some things are better. Read more…