At the start of his journey, the traveller is truly, albeit temporarily and perhaps contentiously, an adventurer, observer, farseer, nomad, ronin, and a traitor of the system, all at the same time.

– Eddy Izuwan Musa / Tristan Yap, The Cycle Empire

☕️

A sign: Coffee smells like freshly ground heaven :)

🤿

Looking up towards the central ceiling dome in a shopping mall, with a large screen in front. On the screen a man is shown snorkelling towards us through blue water

🚬

A huge pile of cigarette butts on a disposal stand, in front of the side of a food truck, in red with white writing

🦌

A stone tablet, with a brown surface and a hole cut in its centre, stood at an oblique angle facing away from the camera, with a white reindeer statue in the distance, appearing through the hole.

Happiness begins here

A sign in Traditional Chinese characters: 幸福從這開始

☕️

Hand-drawn sign with an illustration of a cup of black coffee on a saucer, with the words "Drink Marvellously", and the name of the coffee shop, Yoshino Coffee.

An old photo of Bitan for Leap Day. Thanks to 老涂, who made it using a Holga on Fomapan film, back in 2011. 📷🎞️

Black and white misty photo taken from a bridge, of a river, bounded by mountains on the right side.

Dune: Part Two was epic, I loved it. Hans Zimmer’s score was incredible. Saw it nearly back-to-back (16 hours) with re-watching Dune, both on IMAX. It follows the book well, but of course they left out a few things, and made it more socially acceptable. 🍿

☯️

Looking across a white bridge, the lower part made up of blue arches, with embossed dolphins and the yin and yang symbol

🪧 所不負責

A green fishing boat up on the dry dock being repaired/painted, beside a white sign relinquishing responsibility for paint that gets splashed on any cars parked nearby.

❎🅾️

Two jars of Marmite; one normal with a yellow lid, and the XO (extra old/mature) beside it

🐈

White and ginger cat with its eyes closed, crouched on a motorcycle seat

🐧

Dutch tall (sailing) ship behind an iceberg in the background, with several people and penguins walking along the beach in the snow in front

A ship is the noblest of all man’s works – a cunning fabric of wood, and iron, and hemp, wonderfully propelled by wings of canvas, and seeming at times to have the very breath of life.

– Mutiny on the Bounty

The stern of a sailing boat, including the wheel, with her name

⛵️

Wall mural of a bird-girl with long red hair, swinging on a swing, with a sailing boat off in the distance

El faro por la noche 🚨

The Colonia del Sacramento Lighthouse with its red light shining, beside a renovated 18th-century Portuguese house, its lantern lit in yellow

👁️

Wall mural of a monk-like person in meditation, sitting in the lotus position, a aura-surrounded drink can hovering between his hands, with a green eye in the middle

💍

Section of a green-aged copper statue, of a young lady with her dog; the dog's nose rubbed clean, some money stuffed into her hand, her wedding ring very prominent. She is Liliana Crociati de Szaszak.

🐾

A juxtaposition of a row of cat paw-shaped lollies, looking out of a window towards the street, with two policemen standing outside in blue vests

📖

Statue of Anne Frank, 1929-1945

And we’re off… 🛫🇳🇱🇦🇷🇺🇾⛵️🇫🇰🇬🇸🇦🇶

A lighted wall design of sky lanterns, the largest and closest in pink with flowers, having the English word Happiness and the associated Chinese characters

I don’t often post links, but this Trove of 4000 glass plate negatives is worth sharing. They’re such amazing quality, and one can imagine in each a story of what ordinary life in the US looked like between the 1860s and the 1930s. More photos linked at Terri Cappucci’s Somebody Photographed This.

富士山🗻

Snow-capped Mount Fuji with cloudless skies, taken through a plane window

🎢

An M-shaped loop of the red Yokohama Cosmo World rollercoaster, with cars full of riders coming over the top of the first crest