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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 5 – spicy potatoes at ‘Jie Jiao Xiao Cai’

    by Mike Pole December 17, 2015
    by Mike Pole December 17, 2015

    One of the things I miss in China are potatoes – so I was thrilled to come across ‘Jie Jiao Xiao Cai’. …

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  • Autobiography & Travel

    Cheap Eats Nanjing 4 – Bahali Xinjiang Restaurant

    by Mike Pole December 15, 2015
    by Mike Pole December 15, 2015

    For naan bread encrusted with spices, and spicy tofu – there’s the Muslim Bahali Xinjiang Restaurant. This combination (see featured image) costs …

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  • Autobiography & Travel

    Cheap Eats Nanjing 3 – Steamed Dumplings

    by Mike Pole December 14, 2015
    by Mike Pole December 14, 2015

    For a cheap, quick lunch, three of these steamed dumplings do me nicely. So far I just point to the display ones …

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    Cheap Eats Nanjing 2 – Biangbiang Noodles

    by Mike Pole December 13, 2015
    by Mike Pole December 13, 2015

    I had to warm a little to this place – its signature dish, ‘Biangbiang Noodles’, means you are trying to eat (with …

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    West Timor – Mine of Women and the Palm Wine Bomb

    by Mike Pole December 12, 2015
    by Mike Pole December 12, 2015

    West Timor – Mine of Women, and the Palm-Wine Bomb I never thought to see a mine run by women. By why …

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  • Autobiography & Travel

    Cheap Eats Nanjing 1 – Korean Stone Pot

    by Mike Pole December 10, 2015
    by Mike Pole December 10, 2015

    The first of a series showing where I eat in Nanjing. May be useful to other ex pats or travelers here. I …

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  • Autobiography & Travel

    Would you like a beer? – Guests of the Kalimantan Police

    by Mike Pole November 22, 2015
    by Mike Pole November 22, 2015

    Roni is a Batak. This is a christian tribe that lives in the Lake Toba area of the otherwise Muslim Sumatra. The Bataks …

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    Chromite and Pine Forests – the closest I’ll ever get to the Old Syria

    by Mike Pole November 18, 2015
    by Mike Pole November 18, 2015

    On March 21, 2011  I was sent to do a job in the far south-east of Turkey.  Me and Erol, my indispensable …

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    Sunday School stole my heritage – Bears, Baa-lambs, and Salmon

    by Mike Pole August 23, 2014
    by Mike Pole August 23, 2014

    Don’t get me wrong – Christian virtues (the teachings of JC) are admirable. I was brought-up going to ‘Sunday School’ and I …

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    Black Sea rainforest? Gorgeous, green, Georgistan

    by Mike Pole May 26, 2014
    by Mike Pole May 26, 2014

    Rainforest in Georgia? (as in Georgistan, Black Sea, by the way, not as in ‘Good-Old-Boys’). I saw it marked on a Wikipedia map and …

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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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