Colin Ellard - You Are Here

Brief check-in from Cambodia

I've much to tell about the most recent phase of my worldwide quest for happy and interesting spaces.  I've spent the last two days exploring the sacred spaces of thousand year old Buddhist temples in Angkor, near Siem Reap.  My setup here is rather crude, though, so I'll save the pictures and maps for my return to Singapore.  Not only could I not afford to post any images from this hotel computer, but I'm not sure I could muster the concentration for the process, for I have just discovered a fundamental truth of travel:  there may be nothing louder in the world than a cavernous hotel lobby filled with a busload of effusive Korean tourists who have just discovered the joys of those gigantic bottles of Angkor beer. Only one thing for it.  I'm going to join them.  GPS logger is now turning off.

Important mixology research

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Flying away eve

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Where I am now

To travel along with me and participate in my geo-adventure, follow my tweets at this link (also in the sidebar).  We'll see what we can find out about life in ultra-high density and perhaps have some cyber-scavenger hunt fun along the way.

Cyborg tourist

Less than 48 hours from now I'm out the door for a nice piece of traveling.  I've got a brother who lives in Singapore and I've been trying to get there to visit him for quite a while now.  My moment is about to arrive.  I'm really looking forward to the family bonding, to find out how he really spends his time in Asia and to see what his life context is like, but I have to say I'm also fairly intrigued with Singapore and what it might have to say to me about life in high-density urban settings.  And high density it is, indeed.  Singapore packs more than 4 million people into a land area of about 700 square km.  As a point of comparison, the city of Toronto has a population of just over 5 million people, but packed into an area of 5900 square km -- about 8 times the land area of Singapore.  The only country in the world that can boast higher density is Monaco, but the land area of Monaco is so tiny that, lovely as it might be, it's hard to even think of it as a city with critical mass.  I have to tell you that other than a few of the stories my brother has told me, I'm pretty much in the dark about what to expect, and this is by design.  My usual approach to a new place has been to do a good bit of research before landing, just so I have some idea of what to expect and so I won't waste any opportunities by finding out about all the highlights when it's too late to visit them.  In this case though, I wanted to try something a little different.  Other than expecting to see a goodly number of faces, a fair number of shopping areas and some kickass tightly organized urban planning, I don't have a clear idea of what's there nor of how it is arranged.  

I just sent my brother a long list of electronic appliances I intend to lug along with me to check out the power and adapter situation.  I'm a bit of a cyborg.  Along with the usual notebook, I'll be traveling with a smartphone loaded with Garmin mapping software, a GPS logger, an iPod Touch, and of course a decent digital camera.  I'll be tracking my movements extensively and hopefully reporting back with some impressions, images, and discussions of how this city strikes me.  

There may be some sidetrips as well -- Malaysia for sure and maybe Cambodia as well if we can swing it.  It'll depend in part on what big brother can manage and also what I can figure out for myself.

Whatever happens, I'll try to report back here as often as I can.  I'm limbering up for a psychogeographic adventure of the highest order.

Light, rapid, and grassy

When I read Christopher Alexander's "A Pattern Language", one idea that seemed to me impractical in my part of the world but lovely nevertheless was to replace residential streets with what amounted to grassy cart tracks that could reduce and slow traffic and greenify a neighbourhood.  Kind of a bio-Woonerf.  Something like this might not work in a typical wet and muddy Ontario November, but it's an incredible idea for a green context for an LRT.  What's wrong with us in North America?  Why aren't we doing this kind of thing here?

Wayfinding renaissance

It's truly a delight to see legendary wayfinder, Nainoa Thompson, of the Polynesian Voyaging Society continuing with his quest to keep the ancient seafaring methods of the Pacific Islanders alive.  Thompson will set out without any modern navigational instruments in a vessel something like the one pictured above in an attempt to travel from Hawaii to Kirbati, a round trip of about 2,000 miles.  The point?  To celebrate a remarkable heritage, to help to retain an ancient set of skills and perhaps most of all to remind us of a time when being somewhere could mean only actually being there, no matter how difficult the getting there might be. 
For me, one of the most enjoyable parts of writing my book was the opportunity to read about the methods and exploits of practitioners of these traditional seafaring methods. 

Almost home

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As you read this, I'm somewhere on an ugly highway.   Travels to the ocean seem like a distant memory already.

Vacation is coming to an end soon

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Why are the best sunsets near the ends of vacations?

Lake Huron

Every time we walk along a beach some ancient urge disturbs us so that we find ourselves shedding shoes and garments or scavenging among seaweed and whitened timbers like the homesick refugees of a long war.  -Loren Eiseley