What’s better than one Lonely Planet book? Two, for the price of one. The preeminent publisher of travel tomes has extended its Lonely Planet Buy One Get One Free promotion until the end of October.

Christmas is coming, and Lonely Planet books are always great stocking stuffers. Hot off the press are best sellers such as the New Zealand and Mexico guides, and the new full color Hawaii guide.

A getaway to Koh Samui sound or a visit to the ancient Angkor Wat Temples in your future? All covered in the new Regional Encounter Guides. Melbourne, Rome, New York and Singapore all have shiny new Lonely Planet City Encounter Guides rolling off the presses.

Some “professional” travelers scoff at Lonely Planet guidebooks. They do so at their own peril. There is always one in my pack. There is no better packable resource. I recommend the Lonely Planet China Guidebooks, I use them often when planning excursions.

The Lonely Planet Buy One Get One Free promotion ends October 31st.

Dim sum and milk tea – A typical breakfast in China, on the go, on the street. One piece of culture I can’t adapt to: I’d rather have bacon and eggs, and, coffee and tea. Either. Or.

Captured: September 19, 2008.

This is my world at the moment, September 24, 2008:

A map of Typhoon Hagupit over south China

Yes, another Typhoon. I can’t complain, they canceled classes last evening because of the arrival of Typhoon Hagupit in Shenzhen. My team received an unexpected evening off. We were sitting at an outside cafe-esque establishment enjoying the wind and malty libations until the owner, fearing for the tent that covered the tables, closed up.

The Hong Kong Observatory issued the following warning:

Here is the latest Tropical Cyclone Bulletin issued by the Hong Kong Observatory.

The No. 8 Southeast Gale or Storm Signal is in force.

This means that winds with mean speeds of 63 kilometres per hour or more are expected from the southeast quarter.

At 3 a.m., Typhoon Hagupit was centred about 230 kilometres southwest of Hong Kong (near 21.1 degrees north 112.4 degrees east) and is forecast to move west or west-northwest at about 28 kilometres per hour heading towards the western coast of Guangdong.

Welcome, Mr/Ms Typhoon Hagupit. Please, stick around a few more hours (as long as you don’t bring much death and destruction). I could use a day off.

Ya, I haven’t posted a self-portrait in a while, a Saturday night ritual I engage in when extremely bored. I was bored last Saturday, hence the photo. Thanks for reminding me, Ron.

I hauled all my stuff to the roof and set up with a flashlight, thinking I would be relatively safe from interlopers. I was wrong. Just as I started to get the image I was after a random guy walks across the roof, at 9 pm on a Saturday night. What was he doing on the roof? I have no idea. It was obvious what I was doing: Engaging in vanity photography out of boredom. He decided to stay and watch.

I packed up, took my lovely Phottix Cleon Remote Shutter Release back to my apartment, and drank a can of Shandy (I can longer seem to stomach beer. Ya, call me a girl. I wish China had Beer Gift Baskets.)

Captured: September 23, 2008.

We are all waiting for something: For riches, enlightenment, inspiration, happiness, a soulmate. Waiting for  grandeur, almost unobtainable. Waiting for Godot. Waiting for Guffman.

But we often wait for other, more mundane things as well:

Waiting for the Chinese holiday dinner rush.

As my blogeagues do: Here’s the music.

The host and hostess of the Mid-Autumn Festival show.

I’m usually on stage when the estate puts on a show. My phone rings when they need a foreigner that cleans up nice and is generally sober. I have always lamented not being able to shoot the performances I’m in. Waiting in the wings, a forced smile on my face, trying to remember my lines, generally prohibits photographic adventures.

As the Mid-Autumn show wasn’t televised I wasn’t needed. I didn’t even know the extravaganza was taking place until I wandered by. Not being able to read signs has drawbacks. It was hot, I was tired, but I trotted home for my Canon EOS 40D and my new Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8L USM IS lens.

People stared as I walked the quarter mile from my apartment to the outside stage. Carrying the camera, with a giant white lens attached, I felt like an armed soldier on patrol. I think some machine guns weigh less than the 40D with a 70-200 USM IS attached.

I pushed through the crowd, not as bad a boarding the subway, but holiday crowds, especially Grandmother with grandchildren appearing on stage, can be formidable foes. The lights went down and the music came up. The beautiful hostess, in a shiny sequined dress appeared, a dapper man at her side. As the orchestra started their first number the local press photographers appeared.

I had seen them before. While waiting in the wings at previous shows, I cursed them. They looked and acted just like their North American counterparts. Journalist and photographers must be the same the world over.

I did not want to be in the paper. I don’t want any photos taken of me (from 1993 to 1998 I think there are two photos of The Stevo in existence, one being a driver’s licence mugshot). Ironically, it was once me waiting, camera and flash at the ready, stalking stage-bound quarries. Turn about is fair play, someone said.

Children dancing as part of a Mid-Autumn Festival Show.

I shot, and shot, adjusted my exposure and ISO settings, and shot some more. Practice makes perfect, and I’ve only had the Canon EOS 40D for two months. We haven’t bonded yet. We’re getting closer, but our relationship has not yet been completely consummated.

The band did a second song and I lowered my axe. As I adjusted the ISO settings, I saw a Chinese photographer, with same gear as me, pointing his giant zoom lens in my direction. I pretended I didn’t see him. Another photographer, I saw from the corner of my eye, slyly trained his lens on me.

Crooning by the lanterns.

It’s been hot in south China as of late. Okay, it’s usually hot nine months of the year, but the last two weeks have been damn hot. Imagine:  A red-faced, white man, dripping with sweat, holding a camera and ginormous zoom lens. Yeah, a great newspaper photo.

A group of dancing children bounded on to the stage. I raised my camera. In my haste I had only brought one memory card. I didn’t have many shots left.  I fired away.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a weak flash. When I lowered my camera I saw an old man standing ten feet away. He held a video camera and was shooting stills of me, unabashed. A print photographer would have been more discrete. I’m sure he’s a neighborhood monitor and immediately sent my photo to someone in charge, with exclamations of a foreign reporter being present.

My card full, I beat a hasty retreat. Yeah, the new lens, attached to a Canon EOS 40D, rocks, but I stand out even more in a crowd.