Walking through history in Heidelberg
Wednesday, June 10, 2026
Old friends and older castles
Travel
London, Part 2 — Another trip report
Sunday, June 7, 2026
Samurai at the British Museum, the treasures of the British Library, and just enjoying the lovely weather
Reading the Journals of Younghusband
Wednesday, May 27, 2026
The overstuffed bed of the Seman Hotel in Kashgar was a luxury after a 30+ hour bus ride along the edge of the Taklamakan Desert. The lighting in the room was low, with shadows adding more complexity to the fancy moulding and cornices. I read Peter Hopkirk while leaning on a mountain of pillows. Prior to becoming a hotel in 1950, the building served as the embassy of the Russian empire in the 19th century.
Final day. Did some souvenir shopping near city center then randomly ran into the Frankfurt Grüne Soße “Green Sauce” festival! There was a little jazz band, the mayor, a TV station and they threw bundles of herbs like wedding bouquets! After I walked the old star moat which is a giant park now.
Newspeak House — College of Political Technology
Friday, February 27, 2026
Chad opens an event at Newspeak House At the top of Brick Lane on Bethnel Green Road in east London the streets are lined with four-storey buildings tightly packed shoulder-to-shoulder, alternating brick and plaster. At street level there are pizza parlours, cafés, vinyl record stores, and a shop that sells terrariums. One building, measuring four gabled windows across with two wide storefront windows at the ground level, has nothing in the display for sale.
Discovering deep history in London
Sunday, February 22, 2026
An unexpected thing happened to me on my first trip to London earlier this month. I stayed in Brick Lane close to the venue (which I will write about separately!) for the event I put on. The first four days I stayed in the area prepping for the event and meeting people, so pretty much just work work work… but after the event was over (and I finally got a full night’s sleep) I had 3 days to explore the city, which I did mostly on foot.
Back to Birken
Saturday, September 27, 2025
A travel report from my 7 day silent retreat
Summer Travel
Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Travelogue by bullet point
On the plane back to Vancouver. 🛫 Goodbye Ottawa! 🏛️ Thanks for the memories Kingston. 💍 Loved the Cirque, Montréal. 🎪 Quebec City, I hope to return to the Château Frontenac in 19+ to see the new colour of the ceiling! 🏰 Summer hols are almost over. Regular programming starts Monday. 👋
More Ottawa adventures: Stewart the Service dog who greets people at the hotel and lives in a castle in the lobby, the portrait of Churchill that was stolen from Château Laurier and wasn’t noticed for 8 months and later returned, and Hitler’s car.
Today’s adventures in Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada and Canadian Museum of History 🇨🇦
The national Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa is a very impressive building. Built in “Scottish Baronial” design, it features of all sorts of animals 🫎🐺🦬🦫 on the outside and depicted in the stained glass. Also it has giant Earth 🌎 and Moon 🌖 globes!
Made it to the capital 🇨🇦
Now for some Cirque du Soleil 🎪
2 last morning shots of le Château Frontenac before we get on the train to Montréal. Over the past 100 years it has been expanded 5 times, taking the room count from 160 to over 600. In the 90s they almost lost their 5 ⭐️ rating for lack of a pool and spa so they built one! 🏊 🧖♀️
We GOBLIN’d it up in Quebec today #kdrama
Crossed the plains of Quebec to the capital city, founded in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain and the only walled city north of Mexico. We checked in at the hotel, did a walkaround, and ate some crepes. Tomorrow we reunite with our older daughter who has been here 5 weeks studying Français!
Current status: Quebec City ⚜️
This is the furthest east I have ever been in my life‡ 🙀
‡ Most of my travels have been in the Far East
Last day in Montréal! Walked a bunch including up the mountain! 🥵 Lovely view. Had amazing handmade spicy noodles 🍜 for dinner. (Seriously get the Oil Spill noodle, spicy cucumber, and spicy tofu strips. Perfect for a hot day!). Bon nuit Montréal! 🌇
Today was “Dome Day” in Montréal for us. We first visited the Biodome by the Olympic stadium dating from Olympics in 1976. Afterwards we saw the Biosphere designed by Buckminster Fuller himself for the 1967 Expo.
The sun sets on a hot and smoky day in Montréal. We walked around quite a bit. Sunburned. Saw The Ring. Ate crepes. Hit Schwartz’s. Walked by a ton of murals. Drank with witches. Daughter pet cats. What a day!
Had a full day in Montréal: met with a friend, a lot of walking around, visited the Notre Dame Basilica, ate lobster poutine, and saw Just for Laughs on stage! #travel #photography
Boats to Nanaimo for the National Association of Japanese Canadians conference
Tuesday, April 29, 2025
This past weekend we were blessed with gorgeous clear blue skies as we took the ferry from Tsawwassen across the Georgia Strait to Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island. Swartz Bay? But, it says “Nanaimo” in the title? you observe. And yes, you are correct. Although there is a ferry from Tsawwassen direct to Nanaimo, we decided to land at the southern end of the island and spend the Friday afternoon driving up the east coast of the island, visiting all those tiny little towns that I have heard about but have never actually visited before.
Suddenly Tokyo
Friday, March 7, 2025
It had been years since I had been to Shinjuku, at least, around the JR Station. It was a lot dirtier than I remember, but more than 25 years had past. It was a whirlwind trip this time to Japan, all for an important meeting for a client that asked me to come and help out. Except for taking my client to Ginza by taxi for some shopping, I stayed put in Shinjuku.
Taiwan Trip Report pt 4: Inconclusion
Sunday, December 29, 2024
Now that we are at the end of the year, and I have this arbitrary deadline looming, I thought I’d better finish off my series on travelling to Taiwan. Taiwan was extremely stimulating, and I have been promising to write my conclusions after doing a series of posts. At the same time I held off for fear of putting my foot in my mouth (this post might actually accomplish that 😅), so, rather than conclusive statements or “insights”, maybe I will conclude with some questions, lines of inquiry that you or I or whoever is next travelling to Taiwan to take with them.
Notes from Germany
Friday, December 27, 2024
I didn’t notice it in Frankfurt, but maybe that was because it was such a sunny day and after the 10 hour flight from Vancouver I was a bit jetlagged. Happy people enjoying the warm rays, walk the river under the watchful eyes of the statue of Karl de Grosse (aka Charlemagne), King of the Franks in the 9th century. Whether it was the weather, jetlag, or the cute little historical towncenter of Römerberg, I didn’t notice it.
My DWeb Seattle Social Trip Report
Thursday, November 21, 2024
Here are some photos and a bit of an overview of our recent, cross-border #DWeb event whtwnd.com/chadkoh.c…
Had a nice time walking around Mannheim taking selfies in front of old/impressive things
Taiwan Trip Report pt 3: Taipei
Friday, September 27, 2024
This post is part of a series. See the introduction here → Despite being the beginning of May Taipei was very warm. The sun was out as we walked the wide sidewalks around Taipei Station downtown, cars and scooters zooming by. Even when it was cloudy, crossing the Keelung River through the tech area of town (I spotted the Foxconn tower), the lush green mountains of the north were a tropical reminder.
Jiufen
Monday, June 3, 2024
This post is part of a series. See the introduction here → (see the whole album in full screen on Flickr here) The gold rush at the turn of the 1900s caused a boom in the small mountain town of Jiufen, with its sweeping views of the sea towards both the northwest and northeast. The narrow road switches back upon itself numerous times as you climb up the rugged mountainside.