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Asia 2010

Asian Adventure: The Highlights

12 weeks. 7 countries. 9 flights, 2 train rides and 34 bus journeys. These numbers sum up my 3 month adventure across the Asian continent. Along the way, I traveled by every possible means of transport imaginable…foot, bike, boat, bus, songthaew, car, van, train, tuk-tuk, motorbike and, of course, airplane. I met some truly wonderful […]

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Asia 2010 China

China Wrap-Up: Part II

Behold the “Middle Kingdom.” Zhongguou, more commonly known by its English name of China, is an up-and-coming force to be reckoned with in the world. And now that I’ve had a few weeks to digest my second visit to the world’s most populous nation, I’m ready to write Part II of my wrap-up. In Part […]

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Asia 2010 South Korea

Homeward Bound

2 hours of sleep. That’s all I had gotten before what would become one of the longest single days of my life. The lack of sleep was definitely not my choice, as a key snafu kept me up till 3:30am and I needed to head to the airport for my flight home at 5:30am. Thus […]

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Asia 2010 South Korea

Lanterns in Seoul

If you had an 8 hour layover and didn’t need a visa for the country, would you stay in the airport? That was the very thought running through my head as I was booking my return ticket to New York from Shanghai. See, I was due to spend a significant amount of time in Seoul, […]

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Asia 2010 China

Shanghai

Shanghai. The mere mention of that name evokes images a modern, cosmopolitan city…a far cry from the “traditional” China that so many travelers seek. A walk down Shanghai’s bustling shopping street, Nanjiang Rd or through its business district, Pudong simply reinforces that view. A sprawling example of China’s dramatic growth, Shanghai (pronounced SHAWNG-hai) serves as […]

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Asia 2010 China

World Expo!

The World Expo. That mere phrase has a certain aura surrounding it. In fact it’s a concept that came to me at a young age when I worked on a production of Meet Me in St. Louis, a movie and Broadway based on the excitement surrounding the 1904 World Fair. Now the World Fair certainly has […]

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Asia 2010 China

Social City

Cities certainly have redeeming qualities, even after they’ve chewed you up and spit you back out again! Such was my first experience in Kunming, the capital of China’s Yunnan province, nearly 2 months ago, when I had an amazingly frustrating day trying to figure out how to get out of this place. Then, I did […]

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Asia 2010 China

Old China: Disney-fied

What is it about fame that changes people…or towns for that matter? As if I hadn’t experienced enough of a town gone famous in Lijiang, I’m now getting a full dose of it in Dali (pronounced Daw-lee), another of Yunnan’s “must see” sights. Touristy barely begins to describe this town (and Lijiang, for that matter); […]