Articles tagged with: bike
Pingling and the East Coast of Taiwan
July 8, 2006
I’ve been working in Taiwan for quite a while now. It’s been so long that the actual dates of my arrival and my first jobs aren’t in my head anymore. I’d have to look them up or think really hard to come up with them, and I don’t feel like thinking that hard.
Today is a Saturday. It’s hard to believe, but it’s already …
Guinea 074
Tuesday, March 13 7:42 a.m. Conakry
I was supposed to meet the Sierra Leonians at the Nelson Mandela Hotel at 6:30 for an early start. Amadou, the driver, clearly felt his reputation as a driver (which was quite good) depended largely on getting from A to B in the shortest time possible. He saw himself as a kind of rally driver and shouted down the other …
Guinea 073
Sunday, March 11 8:30 a.m. Kissidougou
I’m tired this morning not having slept well last night. My dreams were filled with barrages and angry little men waving guns and shouting. Not surprising considering the day I had.
My guardian angel the Good Conde let me down. I was at the gendarmerie post with my bicycle a couple minutes before 7:00 as we’d arranged but though a few …
Guinea 072
Friday, March 9 8:13 a.m.
My initial favorable impressions of Macenta have not faded. Unlike Nzerekore it has a discernible center, a downtown where my hotel is conveniently located. It is ringed closely by jungle covered hills. To the northeast two chains of hills run parallel to each other on both sides of the town. The buildings, mostly remnants of the French colonial era, hug these …
Guinea 071
Thursday, March 8 – 8:35 a.m. Macenta
I listened to the BBC the night before I left Nzerekore to come here to Macenta. I hadn’t heard anything about Guinea and border fighting for a while and going on the assumption that no news is good news didn’t want to hear anything now. But the top news story for Africa was a statement by Liberia’s defense minister …
Guinea 070
Monday, March 5 8:39 a.m. Nzerekore
When I left from Beyla I had no intention of getting to Nzerekore in one day. I’d gotten distance estimates ranging from one hundred and thirty-five kilometres to one hundred and eighty kilometres and with no idea of the road conditions even the low end of those estimates was beyond me. But cycle it in one day I did with …
Guinea 068
Friday, March 2 7:22 a.m.
My hands aren’t much better this morning. Even simple tasks like shaving and opening a zipper are difficult. Pushing the play button on my walkman was almost too much for me and I had to use two hands. This is unusual and I suspect that it has something to do with how I positioned my bar ends. I tried something new …
Guinea 062
Wednesday, February 21 2:00 p.m. Kouroussa
If I was yearning for the hot plains I got my wish and then some. At first though I didn’t think it was going to happen. I left Dabola so loaded down with water I felt like a camel. But then I felt silly because the land was heavily populated, very pleasant, and after an hour or two and the …