My alien’s card is simply a modem tourist equivalent. An Dalian Map inquisitive nature and a zest for knowledge must surely be the hallmarks of all inveterate travellers, Dalian Map and for the other useful attributes I’d suggest a sense of humour in adversity, a calm temper, quick wits, endurance and an ability to sleep in the most obscure and uncomfortable places. At nightfall Wang kept on driving and I fell asleep wrapped up in my sleeping bag, until I awoke freezing cold to find he had parked for a cat-nap. When I next woke he was driving again. And so it went on for three days, though we stopped one night at a truckers’ inn. It was a relief to feel confident that I could travel as an individual without sex hassles
When travelling by car along the EastLink Tollway motorists encounter a collection of ideas, feelings and sensations present in the material conditions on and off the road. These tactile non-human objects, signs, surfaces and textures are embedded within the varying natural and built forms of the roadscape. The spectacular design features are essential components in the capacity of the Tollway to forge a dynamic and engaging sense of place for motorists.
Travelling by car along the route offers the potential for drivers and passengers to become enfolded within [the] externalities’ (Thrift 1999: 296) of the roadscape. This process of integration with the route is hard to dismiss when passing along the 45 kilometres of motorway-standard road, through the twin 1.6 kilometre, three-lane tunnels, or beneath the 90 bridges and three rail crossings (Reed 2008). It remains difficult to escape the omnipresence of the Tollway’s operations centre, sited in a dominating position above the northern end of the road and clad in various shades of green, or neglect the extensive plantings, kilometres of bicycle and walking tracks and the positioning of ten slightly more concealed minor-scale artworks that aid in placing the motorist within the geography of the road. A car trip along the Tollway may trigger in the motorist any number of memories, sensations, desires, fantasies, interpretations, stories and bits of knowledge’ (Edensor 2003: 166).
