Nov 21-23, 2009 Halong Bay if you believe the Vietnamese, is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. It has a UNESCO stamp to back it up, plus there is nary a soul anywhere who will tell you that its overblown and overrated. The 2000 drop-dead gorgeous limestone pinnacles rise from the emerald […]
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Adventure
Presidential Palace Temple of Literature Hanoi, Nov 14-21 and 24 Well before one lands in Vietnam, you are forewarned and buried with redflags and alerts about touts, scams, thieves, annoyances, dangers and cheats. Indeed we saw evidence of this immediately after hitting the arrivals area when teams of young men plied us with questionable offers. […]
(NOTE: THIS ENTRY SHOULD PRECEDE “THE ROAD OUT OF CHINA…..PRAGUE”) Nov 5-7, 2009 Kunming as capital of the province of Yunnan, and our last major city, is the gateway to our last region of China. It’s hardly worth noting except for the pix that show some of the seemingly wanton destruction of the past and […]
NOTE: THIS ENTRY SHOULD APPEAR AFTER THE “DESTROYING THE PAST….KUNMING” ENTRY) Kunming to Lijiang to Tiger Leaping Gorge to Kunming Nov 5-14, 2009 When we were at the Forbidden City in early Oct, we thought half of China had followed us. Now we’ve learned where the other half were–waiting for us in Lijiang. Lijiang is […]
Oct 25-Nov 1, 2009 Now in Yangshuo, the land of surreal, karst-like limestone peaks rising out of nowhere and everywhere. Our digs (River Retreat) are set in idyllic rural and poor China, outside of the town, overlooking the […]
Hong Kong Oct 19-24, 2009 For Wayne, Hong Kong is like that first kiss, or staring down that bully in grade 1. It’s filled with romance and larger than life dreams that have been upsized with each telling. He didn’t tell you that it took 25 hours to get there from Huangshan, involving a […]
Oct 14-18, 2009 Stayed at the Old Street Youth Hostel in the old town. Located on the narrow, stone pedestrian tourist street, it’s lined […]
Wayne here. Had a strange dream the other night. The principal dancer at a major dance company took ill and the rest of the cast and crew beckoned me to step in and take over. I stated that I had no real (or imaginary) skill at this, but they insisted. Then I woke up, not […]
Suzhou (6mill), just west of Shanghai, is one of those legendary cities with 2500yrs of history. It was said that in heaven there is paradise, on earth there is Suzhou and Huangzhou. Even Marco Polo said it was the most beautiful city in China, with its tree lined canals, fantastic gardens, silk and art epicentres, […]
There’s likely few people who couldn’t identify the Great Wall. The long, meandering battlement snaking in and around rugged hills, the myth of it’s visibility from space, images of Mongol invaders scaling it’s precipice. Nice images. But rather unreal. Most people go to sections of the wall that are completely restored and polished, and inundated […]