costliest cities for public transport

posted in: hong kong, new york 0

New graphic from the Economist. The cost for Hong Kong is interesting, given that its MTR was completely privatised in 2000. Compare with New York’s MTA, which is a (government owned) public-benefit corporation. To be fair, the way trips are priced is different for the two cities: in Hong Kong your fare varies by distance (paid for using your trusty … Read More

hallo oslo

posted in: oslo, travel 1

in oslo on holiday before heading to hanoi. the city is quite walkable (small, with a population of about half a million), pretty, and yes, cold (ok, maybe I’m just complaining, but it’s about 15 degrees here).   can you imagine actually having civilized public transportation? get this: stops for both trams and buses have signs indicating how many minutes … Read More

nakhon si thammarat

posted in: bangkok 0

in contemplating where to go for an extra long weekend, I thought about chiang mai, khanchanaburi, sukhothai, etc., but then realized I really just wanted to get away from as many farang as possible. so a place I had actually heard about just wouldn’t cut it. so I settled upon nakhon si thammarat. I of course referred to my hated … Read More

banning plastic bags

posted in: hong kong 0

there’s this commercial on the city bus (yes, on roADshow) that informs the good people of hong kong that they consume over 21 million plastic bags a day (remember the population is about 7 million). and now uganda joins the growing number of east african countries to ban the plastic bag in an attempt to clean up cities.

métro.boulot.resto

posted in: food, montreal 0

the metro extension to Laval is opening this weekend, both ahead or behind of schedule and over- (la presse) or under-budget (the gazette), depending on how you look at it. [here’s the STM press release with info on activities related to the opening.] according to la presse, the opening of these three stations (Montmorency, de la Concorde, and Cartier) will … Read More

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