Kevin Thom - Hamilton, Toronto, Ontario Photographer

Laura and I drove into San Diego late last night, after flying into Orange County. It’s nice to be back in California again. It’s a bit cool and grey, which I’m told is due to the “June Gloom,” a weather condition that results in clouds and fog in the mornings and evenings. In the morning, I left Laura to enjoy her conference in San Diego, and drove up the coast toward Los Angeles. I found that the June Gloom quickly gives way to bright blue skies at mid-day, as the California sun is irrepressible.

Heading north on I-5, I made a stop in San Clemente to dip my feet into the Pacific, walk the pier, and to have a delicious seafood salad at the Beach Garden Cafe. I particularly enjoyed walking the beach, feeling the pull of the tide eroding the sand beneath my feet, the ocean breeze through my hair, and the sun on my face. Children pelted noisily by, kicking up sand, splashing into the surf, fueled by new discovery. Their excitement fortified my own desire for exploration. In the distance, dark dolphin shapes looped lazily above the waves before disappearing again into azure.

For the next couple of nights, I’ll hang out with my talented Uncle Wayne in Los Angeles. Wayne has 40 years of experience in architectural photography, and is a great source of professional and artistic knowledge.

I found a website that calculates distances on Google Maps. I thought this might be a cool way to visualize the my trip to China.

It shows the distance traveled as being about 32,681 km (including flights to and from Toronto), but I’m sure it was more than that. The distances were “as the crow flies,” so didn’t account for the winding, weaving roads and railroads between places. The trip started with a flight in to Shanghai, located around the center of the image, and ended when I left Hong Kong to return to Toronto. Looking at this stark map, it brings to mind vivid memories of those places and experiences represented by the magenta pins and lines.

I’m writing this entry from home, because the last few days of my trip passed in a blur. During the wedding ceremony, the temperature hit about 41 degrees C. I got a pretty nasty case of heat stroke and passed out. Yikes. That was embarrassing. Fortunately, I didn’t cause a major disruption, and only my friends around me really noticed. I recovered enough to be able to participate in all of the parts of the ceremony I was supposed to, but felt pretty abysmal by the time I got back to the hotel. I missed the reception, which by all accounts was spectacular, and slept for the majority of the next day and a half. Note to self: tuxedos and tropical weather are a bad combination.

I’d given my camera to my good friend Culver to take some photos during the ceremony. He did a great job joining the scrum of photographers surrounding the happy couple, and got some excellent shots. The first eight photos in the gallery below are his. There are a couple of snaps from our dinner at Prime, the steakhouse at the Hilton. The rest of the photos show the Loy Krathong festival in Bangkok, in which you release a floating vegetable and flower sculpture into the river, symbolizing the release of negative energy. It was a beautiful experience, and it was a lot of fun to be able to participate. I took a hair-raising tuk-tuk ride back to the hotel after the festival celebrations. The tuk-tuk actually did a wheelie at one point because of the acceleration, and the wind had my face plastered into a grin. Awesome.

I left for the airport at about 4am the following morning, which was way too early for my 6:30am flight. But, you never know what traffic will be like in Bangkok, and the last thing I’d want to do is to watch my flight take off from the back seat of a taxi. I got to Hong Kong right on schedule, and decided to take a train ride into the city to kill off a bit of my six-hour layover. Hong Kong was as lovely as ever. I spent most of my short visit sitting on the public pier at the Central ferry terminal, enjoying the breeze off the harbour and watching the boats. Hong Kong, like many places in Asia, is undergoing constant and rapid redevelopment. Hong Kong is perpetually reinventing its glistening skyline, with office and condominium towers reaching ever higher.

My final flight home was long and uneventful. The gluten-free meal on the return leg was approximately thirty-five million times better than the one on the way over. This one contained delicious portions of steamed fish, salad, vegetables of many colors, and tropical fruit. Thank you, Hong Kong caterers. You’ve outdone yourself.

Things here in Hamilton seem exactly the same as they were when I left. The stability of Canada is comforting after a month of continuous change. As I sit here now, breathing crisp, clean Canadian air and sipping cold water poured straight from the tap, I can truly say that it’s great to go away, but even better to come home.

Is it an oxymoron to say that I’m getting used to culture shock? I’m settled in to my favorite little hidden hotel in Bangkok, the Silom Convent Garden. After weekly doses of culture shock from exploring various regions of China, from cosmopolitan Shanghai to the outskirts of Tibet to the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, I’m in a whole different world again. The language, people, money, food… all are different, of course. I woke up in Beijing this morning, with a climate like Canada’s, and got off the plane into Bangkok’s 33 degree Celcius heat. Even getting on the Internet is different. I don’t need to worry about someone snooping what I’m writing and banning my access to my server. My mini suite at the Silom Convent Garden has a rainshower bath, kitchenette and a king sized bed, which is a far cry from the hard and narrow beds served up by hostels in China.

Dinner tonight was at one of Silom’s finest street-side eateries. It’s literally a woman with an array of fresh ingredients, under an umbrella on the sidewalk. There are tables and chairs set up in a the alley behind her. It smells like sewage. The food, however, is divine. I ordered a plate of shrimps, stir fried in a pungent red curry with those delicious Thai licorice-scented basil leaves. I also got a piece of grilled chicken, sliced over shredded cabbage and fresh leaves of lettuce, with a sweet chili dipping sauce. All of this for about $5. Why can’t I find a Thai restaurant in Canada that cooks like this, at any price?

During dinner, it started raining, and I mean pouring. The brief but violent rain temporarily washed away the city’s nearly pleasant stink, and cut the substantial humidity by about one percent.

This week is going to be filled with festivities pertaining to Tan’s wedding. I’m looking forward to the arrival of many of my friends in the city tomorrow.

It’s been a long day! I started shooting around 9:30 this morning, and just got back now. It’s just after midnight and I’m ready to finally pack it in. This was my full day in China, and I felt rewarded with this gorgeous weather. After I shot those blue sky photos from the previous entry, Dad and I departed to explore the city a bit. We hit a hutong neighborhood, which is a classic Chinese residential area built in a series of alleys. I’m caught off guard by things that make perfect sense to the very pragmatic Chinese, like a leg of pork hanging to dry with the laundry. I mean, why not?

We wandered for hours, eventually finding ourselves in a major tourist area and then at a bus stop. After studying the various out-of-date maps posted for everyone’s inconvenience, we worked out how to get back to the hostel on the bus. I find these little adventures to be rewarding.

Dinner tonight was Peking duck. No visit to Beijing would be complete without the city’s famous roast duck recipe. The food was so good last night that we decided to eat at the same restaurant again. The chef and owner of this restaurant clearly appreciates that having good Chinese food doesn’t mean you need to have a dismal dining experience to go along with it. The presentation and service were top-notch, and the price was very reasonable. There was even a dude who stood by our table and patiently wrapped and served us the traditional “duck burritos” that are an essential part of the Peking duck experience. I remembered to bring my camera this time. No, the wriggling still-alive scorpion skewers are not from our dinner. They were from a local street-food market. I was gratified to note that everyone, including domestic Chinese tourists seemed grossed out by the scorpions.

Immediately after dinner, I set out to the Olympic park to try again at shooting the “Birds Nest” stadium and “Water Cube” aquatics centre. This time, I had better luck and managed to score a few shots of these iconic structures. That’s good, because between walking and the subway, it’s about two hours each way to get to the Olympic park.

Now it’s time for bed. I’m leaving for Bangkok tomorrow. More thoughts about China later.