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MikePole
Travelling to understand time and place

Autobiography & Travel

This category brings together autobiographical writing and travel as a form of fieldwork. I have spent much of my life moving through landscapes—sometimes briefly, sometimes for many months at a time—and many of the ideas explored elsewhere on this site have their origins in these encounters.

The posts here range from the usual traveler’s-yarn, to more reflective pieces about place and work. Some are about particular locations, such as New Zealand, Ukraine, or Spain; while others are concerned with the act of travelling itself, and with what prolonged exposure to unfamiliar environments reveals over time.

These essays don’t offer practical travel advice, but focus on attention: noticing landscapes, people, vegetation, and everyday practices. It’s me, trying to get my head around Time and Place – trying to figure out something about the World. Travel, in this sense, becomes a way of learning—sometimes informally, sometimes uncomfortably, but always cumulatively.

Together, these posts form an autobiographical thread running through my broader site, providing a personal context for the scientific, historical, and cultural topics explored elsewhere.

  • Autobiography & Travel

    Cheap Eats Nanjing 17 – Green tea and red bean ice-cream at Bellagio’s

    by Mike Pole April 15, 2016
    by Mike Pole April 15, 2016

    The green tea and red bean ice-cream (see featured image) served by Bellagio’s became an absolute favourite of mine whenever I was passing …

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  • Autobiography & Travel

    Cheap Eats Nanjing 16 – Korean Leek Cake

    by Mike Pole April 14, 2016
    by Mike Pole April 14, 2016

    Korean Leek Cake – yum! Never heard of it before, but it tastes as good as it looks (see featured image). This …

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  • Autobiography & Travel

    Cheap Eats Nanjing 15 – even better chicken curry and rice

    by Mike Pole April 11, 2016
    by Mike Pole April 11, 2016

    I thought I was on to a pretty good Nanjing food deal at the place where I had a chicken curry and …

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  • Autobiography & Travel

    Mongolia – crap, fire and herbal-tea

    by Mike Pole April 10, 2016
    by Mike Pole April 10, 2016

    I once had a student come to me for help looking at sheep crap. It took the mystery out of what this …

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  • Autobiography & Travel

    Ratbag – just another cat in Nanjing

    by Mike Pole April 7, 2016
    by Mike Pole April 7, 2016

    The Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology has cats. There’s at least a dozen of them, if not 15 and more. Hard …

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  • Autobiography & Travel

    Cheap Eats Nanjing 14 – All You Can Eat – and Drink!

    by Mike Pole February 18, 2016
    by Mike Pole February 18, 2016

    Not really one of the cheapest – by local standards, but hear me out….. This place is called Jinfushan, it’s an all …

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  • Autobiography & Travel

    Cheap Eats Nanjing 13 – Savoury Pancakes

    by Mike Pole February 2, 2016
    by Mike Pole February 2, 2016

    This place is part of a chain called Huiwei. I first came across them elsewhere in Nanjing and for a couple of …

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  • Autobiography & Travel

    Mongolia – Nights under the nine stars of the Pleiades

    by Mike Pole January 26, 2016
    by Mike Pole January 26, 2016

    Erik von Daniken’s ‘Chariots of the Gods’ came to my town when I was a kid. Alexandra, New Zealand was perhaps a …

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  • Autobiography & Travel

    Cheap Eats Nanjing 12 – Sticky Rice Cake and other nibblies

    by Mike Pole January 21, 2016
    by Mike Pole January 21, 2016

    I spotted this little take-away cake shop one evening after getting a cheese fix opposite. Pleasant woman in charge and bunch of …

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  • Autobiography & Travel

    Cheap Eats Nanjing 11 – Fried Dumplings

    by Mike Pole January 12, 2016
    by Mike Pole January 12, 2016

    I’ve been making eyes at this place for ages – the dumplings get cooked in an guaranteed eye-catching arrangement on a hot …

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MikePole
  • Home
  • About me
  • Contact me
  • Categories
    • Curio Bay – New Zealand’s Jurassic Fossil Forest
    • New Zealand Geology
    • Supernatural
  • Places
    • Australia
    • Armenia
    • Bosnia
    • Brazil
    • Canary Island
    • China
    • Indonesia
    • Turkey
    • Estonia
    • France
    • Georgia
    • Germany
    • Lebanon
    • Mexico
    • Mongolia
    • Kazakhstan
    • Russia
    • Uganda
    • New Zealand
    • India
    • South Africa
 

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