My 5 Favorite Cities for Walking Around

Walking is the best way to explore all the nuances and nooks and crannies that define a city's ethos. These days so many of us stick to a car, motorcycle or public transportation; this is especially true in the tropics where heat and humidity can discourage all but the most diehard walkers. I just finished reading Orhan Pamuk's novel, The Museum of Innocence, and I was struck by his use of the city as another character in the story that he tells. When I finished the novel, I was overwhelmed by the desire to hop on a plane to Istanbul and wander through the city. I was reflecting on this while sitting on the roof late yesterday afternoon watching the sun set as I usually do on nice days here in Bali. Gazing over the city of Singaraja, I was struck by how much of the city I've yet to walk through despite living here for over 20 years. That got me to thinking about my favorite cities to walk in as I love walking through cities. Here are my five favorite cities.

Chicago

OK, I was born in Chicago so I'm somewhat biased, but I spent a lot of my youth wandering the city, especially the area that runs from downtown up through the Near North Side and into Lincoln Park. I did a few searches to see if I could come across some photos of the area from back in those times and found, to my surprise, that there are all these mini-neighborhoods now that weren't there 40 years ago. Well, regardless, Chicago is a great walking city. A walk from downtown going north takes the walker past a variety of restaurants, bars and cafes, which offer weary walkers a chance to rest and refresh themselves. Some highlights include the nightlife area, Rush Street, Old Town with its quaint buildings dating back to before the great Chicago Fire, the Gold Coast featuring mansions dating back to the late 19th Century, the lakefront and, of course, Lincoln Park Zoo.

San Francisco
OK, another home town. I moved to San Francisco after I left Chicago, and The City by the Bay is one great place to walk through. Again, I'm a bit biased; I fell in love with a beautiful young woman on one of my walks through the city. The Embarcadero is a great place to start. Going north, I'd follow the Embarcadero up to Fisherman's Wharf and stop for a snack at one of the many restaurants and cafes there. After a break, I'd make my way down to North Beach with a visit to City Lights Bookstore the old home of the Beats with a quick stop at Caffe Trieste for a cool beer or two. Refreshed once again, I head for Chinatown and stop for an early dinner and end up the walk down at the Powell Street Bart station to head back to Berkeley. This is just one of the many possible walks around the city. I've left out Nob Hill, Russian Hill, the Haight and Golden Gate Park. I don't know that there is anyplace in the world with as many great walks as San Francisco.


Singapore

Time to get out of the historical mode and into the present. Now we get to the favorite places that I've actually walked through in the past few years. Singapore can be hot and sticky for visitors from outside Asia, but the city is easily walkable with loads of fancy international restaurants and neighborhood haunts to stop in for a snack, meal or drink or two. Orchard Road might seem like one mall after the next, but the streets still have some great treats like local buskers playing traditional instruments, high school dance groups performing for pun, or just watching the tourists and locals get on with their business. Count the number of people that pass by that are talking on a cell phone while walking. In a twenty-minute period last year, 75% of the people that passed me were talking on their phones. Get out of the mass of shoppers and travel up to Chinatown for a look at what's left of old Singapore. There are still many traditional old shophouses and local restaurants. Take a look in a Chinese apothecary and see some of the fascinating traditional medicines that they have for sale. I love wandering around the Kreta Ayer Road area. Sometimes I stay at the cool little boutique hotel, 1929, and sometimes I stay across the street at the Keong Saik, not quite as cool but a little less expensive. One of the best places to eat in Singapore is this little outdoor place across the street, Kim Hock Seng. They have great seafood and back when I still ate pork, they had some delicious pork dishes. This hole in the wall is often crowded with local workers and then suddenly a Mercedes will pull up and some wealthy folks will pile out for lunch. The Sri Layan Sithi Vinayagar Temple is right here as well. While, Chinatown is my favorite place to walk in Singapore, there are just so many great areas that an enthusiastic walker could spend weeks just exploring the city.

Bangkok
Bangkok is not usually thought of as a great place for walking, but I love strolling through the farang ghetto on Sukhumvit. I've been staying for years on either Soi 22 or Soi 23 when I visit Bangkok, and they are excellent starting points for a walk around the Sukhumvit area. Sukhumvit just past Asoke has one of my favorite bookstores, Asia Books. This small multi-story bookstore is filled with books from travel to history to children's books. The staff are helpful and it's possible to spend an hour or more browsing. And when I have a need for something from McDonald’s, it's right down the street from Asia Books. One of my favorite Robinson's stores is right there as well. So, I can get a lot of shopping done on these walking trips around Sukhumvit, and I plan my walking trips around what I need to do in terms of shopping. Back across a very crowded Asoke and over on Soi 23, is the famous, or infamous, Soi Cowboy. This nightlife street is fascinating to observe during the daytime when nothing much is going on. I like sitting in one of my favorite restaurants in Bangkok, Old Dutch, which is just at the Soi 23 entrance to Soi Cowboy, and watch the daytime activities. Then back to the Tai Pan Hotel just down the street to drop off any shopping and then out again to wander around the leafy, quiet backstreets in the area. My dentist in Bangkok, Bangkok Smile Dental Clinic, is in the area as well so I can always fit a visit to the dentist during one of my walks. And there's a number of little bars around if I feel in need of some refreshment. This is just one of my walks in the immediate neighborhood of my hotel. Other sections of Sukhumvit offers much more including some cool antique shops, mom and pop grocery stores and the Emporium mall if I feel really hot and need to get off the street for a while and cool down. I love the Sukhumvit area.

Singaraja
OK, my third hometown on the list. Singaraja was once the capital of Bali back during the colonial period. For tourists visiting Bali who only know the Kuta-Legian-Seminyak strip of tourist madness or the increasingly crowded and commercial Ubud, Singaraja is something completely different. Owing to the history of the area, Singaraja is one of the more multicultural areas of Bali. This is where cruise ships used to dock and ships from around the country used to dock at the old harbor, which just happens to be a few hundred meters from where I live. Our neighborhood, Kampung Bugis, is a poor little neighborhood, but we get a lot of walking visitors who come over from the harbor to view a fishing neighborhood. Just south of us is the main shopping area of Singaraja, Jalan Diponegoro. Nothing fancy here, no Starbucks or Pizza Hut or even a MacDonald's. Just a collection of small general stores, a few bookstores selling mostly textbooks, a handful of stores selling televisions and other electronics, and a couple of small hole-in-the-wall eating establishments. Nothing fancy here, just a working city along the north coast of Bali. The center of the city has wide streets with remnants of colonial architecture that reflect the hundred years of Dutch presence, as Buleleng (the regency where Singaraja is) was colonized much earlier than the south of Bali. It's possible to wander the streets of Singaraja without ever being hassled for transport or a hotel or a girl. Far different from the tourist areas of Bali, including Lovina, the tourist and expat ghetto to the west of Singaraja. I still have a lot of exploring to do here, but I'm looking forward to it.