http://blogs.bootsnall.com/Emeraldeyes Sweating my worries away, one country at a time... Mon, 18 Jun 2007 08:41:02 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I apologize to my loyal readers and followers of my blog, that I have left my trip reports incomplete. I am not in Vietnam anymore, the last time I was there was in September 2006. I continued my trip through Laos, Thailand and India, then hit Germany, Latvia and the ... http://blogs.bootsnall.com/Emeraldeyes/i-was-home-now-im-off-again.html The morning of my Halong Bay trip, I woke up before my alarm, as I often do when I know I need to wake up for something and am anticipating the alarm. I showered and had some time to watch a little TV before heading down for a quick breakfast ... http://blogs.bootsnall.com/Emeraldeyes/the-beauty-and-the-beast.html My early morning taxi ride from the train station to the Old Quarter took only a few minutes, and after a couple of head shakes and puzzled looks, my driver found the small alleyway where my desired guesthouse was located. After finding where the guesthouse was supposed to be, I ... http://blogs.bootsnall.com/Emeraldeyes/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire.html My bus from Kunming to the Vietnam border town of Hekou left promptly at 7pm. The sun was setting quickly, and after only about 20 minutes, it was too dark to read and since there were no lights on the bus, I pulled out my handy but geeky headlamp and ... http://blogs.bootsnall.com/Emeraldeyes/62.html Dali is one of the more popular tourist destinations in China, especially for backpackers, known for a laid back vibe, beautiful scenery and the availability of certain herbal delights. I was more intent in getting out of the city of Kunming and seeing some nice countryside again, and booked an ... http://blogs.bootsnall.com/Emeraldeyes/dali-dali-we-like-to-party.html After buying my subway ticket to the stop nearest Shamian Island, I waited for the train for only a few minutes. Since there didn't seem to be any way to tell what stop we were approaching,  I had to count the stops before arriving at my destination. Leaving the subway, ... http://blogs.bootsnall.com/Emeraldeyes/back-in-the-game.html Photos are up on my smugmug homepage for Cambodia (with captions), China and HK (without captions.) Enjoy! Leaving the airport in Hong Kong was as easy as getting there, and I hopped aboard the express train, which runs all night, back towards the station closest to my hotel. Unfortunately, the shuttle ... http://blogs.bootsnall.com/Emeraldeyes/where-the-hell-am-i-part-2.html Our first night in Hong Kong was a fairly uneventful one. After finding out the Happy Valley races weren't on, Chris and I headed out to explore the surrounding area a bit and get some dinner. We wandered for just a few minutes and came to an Irish pub that ... http://blogs.bootsnall.com/Emeraldeyes/where-the-hell-am-i.html Spending the last night on the cruise boat was relaxing and peaceful, and aside from having to repack our stuff, we didn’t have much to do. Our final port of call was a town called Yichang, and we were told by our tour guide Kevin that we needed to be ... http://blogs.bootsnall.com/Emeraldeyes/planes-trains-and-automobiles.html The first night in Chengdu was an early one, and I fell asleep almost instantly, only to wake up in the middle of the night having to run to the bathroom. Uh oh. Something other than my rash was also going on now, and I went back to bed hot ... http://blogs.bootsnall.com/Emeraldeyes/cruising-chinese-style.html