December 23, 2005
More On Mao
We are grounded by the subway strike so have been reading more of the biography of Mao by authors Jung Chang, the author of the wonderful three-generation epic "Wild Swans,"...Read this update
November 04, 2005
"Taxation Without Representation"
Taking a fast sleek train, we are visiting our country's capitol city for a few days. "Taxation Without Representation" is written at the bottom of D.C. license plates here in...Read this update
October 23, 2005
Washington Heights
The "F" subway line, if you take it to the very end at the northern tip of Manhattan Island, lets you off in a Dominican neighborhood of Washington Heights. Everyone...Read this update
April 28, 2005
Inconsistent Values
After nearly a dozen visits and about six months time in the city, over the last several years, we have gotten to know Bangkok a little. In this city with...Read this update
April 02, 2005
Trekking Northern Thailand
As soon as we returned to Bangkok from Bali Bob took a train to Chiang Mai for a trek in northern Thailand near Mae Son Hong. I stayed in...Read this update
April 01, 2005
Keeping Body and Soul Together
In Bangkok we got a good deal for a month in a beautiful completely furnished apartment on a dead-end street in the upscale Saladaeng area...close to the Skytrain and the...Read this update
December 08, 2004
Miao Village In Guizhou
In Shanghai, exploring the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree web site, I noticed a query from a young woman from Kaili in Guizhou Province who was offering to arrange a...Read this update
November 03, 2004
"No Foreigners Allowed"
Travelled last p.m. from Tengshau to Yangzhau--train left at 7 p.m.--reported to be a 10 hr ride--however was aroused at 2 a.m. by the train mother that it was...Read this update
October 31, 2004
Lao Shan Mountain Climb
Spent 3 days in Quin Dao...one in new part of town, one in old town and one on a mountain north of town called Lao Shan--subsequently took train to...Read this update
October 30, 2004
Kindred Spirits
Walking by the Foreign Language Bookstore in Quindao, just up the street from my comfy clean hotel room that a tout from the railroad station led me to...80 yuan...Read this update
October 24, 2004
Overnight Train to Xuindao
Xuindao is also spelled Quindao From Beijing, I take an overnight train alone to Xuindap. Quindao is a weekend getaway for well-to-do Communist party cadres and the train is...Read this update
October 14, 2004
Last Leg Through Mongolia
Out of the train window, just before departure from Ulaan Bataar to Beijing on the last leg of our trans-siberian train trip, we watch about 30 Mongolians...brothers, sisters, aunts,...Read this update
October 01, 2004
Grueling Border Wait
The wait at the Russian-Mongolian border is a grueling 5-6 hour wait for customs to go through each carriage and take our passports, return to the office to fill out...Read this update
September 30, 2004
The Tajik and Olga
The Tajik and Olga In Irkutsk, when we find our seats on the train to Ulaan Baatar, we find a good-looking 40 year old Muslim man from Tajikistan in...Read this update
September 24, 2004
Irkutsk..."Paris of the East"
Off the train again, we dump our luggage at Nadia's, our homestay and look for a cafe where there just might be an English menu. We find one...not too...Read this update
September 22, 2004
Goodbye to Vladamir
Vladamir makes crying motions with his fingers running down his cheeks as we prepare to leave him on the train. Astrakhan in 2--5 he writes on a piece of paper...Astrakhan...Read this update
September 20, 2004
Hot Train Carriages
Most carriages are of East German origin solidly built and warm in winter. Each carriage is staffed by an attendant whose "den" is a compartment at the end of...Read this update
September 18, 2004
To Siberia & Lake Baikal
We boarded our a Moscow train at midnight. We are headed across Russia on the trans-siberian train system. However we will be breaking up the trip by getting off...Read this update
Free-Wheeling Moscow
2004-09-2004 Like in the big Central European cities we visited, there are cranes everywhere... old soviet buildings built during the Stalin era are scheduled to be razed and new...Read this update
In The Metro Never To Return
Our homestay in Moscow is in the "burbs." Tanya works for a French men's underwear company and later admits that her son is the wholesaler and she works for...Read this update
August 24, 2004
Krakow
We are out of the unusually hot and humid Czech Republic. After an all night train we are in cool Krakow Poland. We accept an offer by a young...Read this update
August 13, 2004
Ripped Off In Prague
My medications, that had gotten held up in Custums in Frankfurt, finally arrived in Berlin via fedex. We had planned on taking the train through Austria and Hungary but...Read this update
August 02, 2004
U-2 in Berlin
Coming up out of the U-2 line of the Zoo railway station and thinking of course of the Irish rock band we enter now-rich, Western, happening Berlin. We pore over...Read this update
Posted by laughingnomad at 11:42 PM |
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January 08, 2003
Zhangziajie
Bob and I said goodbye to Jana who would leave later in the day on a train to Shanghai and then home from Hong Kong. The next day we...Read this update
December 31, 2002
New Years in Chengdu
The sleeper train from Kunming to Chengdu takes about 18 hours and passes through more than 200 tunnels. It took 10 years to build the railroad...mostly by political prisoners...and...Read this update
December 28, 2002
Ruili
Coming down out of the mountains we were happy to see Ruili lying in the green lush valley below...a larger city than I thought...a Chinese/Burma border town with a...Read this update
December 03, 2002
End of the Burma Road
Sunday Dec 1-3 2002 Arrived at Kunming from Guilin after 23 hours on the train. We had gained considerable elevation throughout the night. We took a taxi to the...Read this update
November 30, 2002
Cormorant Fish Festival
Friday November 29 2002 The annual Fish Festival began today. The fish festival celebrates the Cormorant fisher birds who dive for fish from fishermen’s boats they perch on but...Read this update
Posted by laughingnomad at 08:02 PM |
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November 22, 2002
To Guangzhou
Friday November 22 2002 Hong Kong to Guangshou Across the street to noodle shop for breakfast. Sat with woman who worked as a buyer for a British department store...Read this update
November 20, 2002
Hong Kong
Wednesday November 20 2002 We flew to Hong Kong from Bangkok on China Airways at 3pm...a one hour time change. We noticed the metal spoon and fork that came...Read this update
September 25, 2002
Hanoi
September 24 2002 Bob left Hanoi right away on the train for Sapa near the Chinese border to do some trekking among the colorful minority villages and then to...Read this update
August 29, 2002
Kalaw...British Hill Station
In a monsoon rainstorm we climbed off the train in this cool wooded hill station built during the British occupation. The locals laughed (with me) at my little paper...Read this update
August 28, 2002
Schwenguan
We took a taxi back over the mountain from Tounggye to Schwenguan where we were to catch a train for the three hour ride through beautiful terraced rice fields...Read this update
July 27, 2002
New Delhi
July 27-30 The hotel arranged to have us taken to the railway station in their car for the 6am train to Delhi, so at 5am the streets are full already...Read this update
April 26, 2002
Images of Egypt
All we have to offer regarding Egypt are images.Very little understanding. We were open; wanted to understand, feeling generous and happy. Smiling. Saying hello to everyone. Thinking we were making...Read this update
April 10, 2002
Stuck In A Train In Napflion
Train Trip to Nafplion The next morning we walked to Syntagma Plaza to took the metro to the port at Piraeus for departure to some of the Greek islands by...Read this update
April 08, 2002
Rome
"Italy will return to the splendors of Rome, said the major. I don't like Rome, I said. It is hot and full of fleas. You don't like Rome? Yes, I...Read this update
April 05, 2002
Serendipity Florence
Well, we are in Florence, by serendipity, on April 5, 2002. By that I mean that we were on the train from Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera headed to...Read this update
April 01, 2002
Cinque Terre
Took a train to the Cinque Terre (Five Lands..or villages) area on the northern Italian Riviera. The towns, jutting out into the Mediterranean and straight up the hills on...Read this update
March 28, 2002
Avignon France
Took the train from Barcelona to Avignon in the Provence area in the south of France. Stayed at Hotel Mignon on rue Joseph-Vernet. Cute little French hotel room but...Read this update
March 08, 2002
Spanish Trains
Spanish trains have compartments with room for six people. Luckily ours had two young Swiss girls that we recruited, a young guy from Japan that was studying Spanish in Salamanca...Read this update
February 21, 2002
A Good Thing
It´s a Good Thing to take along a tour guide and in this group that will be Bob-most probably because he has the greatest need to know where he is...Read this update
TVG Trains Better Than Hitching
High speed (TVG) trains travel over 200,mph. In 1965 when a college friend and I traveled through Europe; it took all night to get from Dover to Ostergard on a...Read this update
February 19, 2002
Do your Homework
When Bob went to the train station in London to buy a train ticket through the chunnel; they did not bother to tell him that if he had a Eurostar...Read this update
September 18, 1995
Serendipity In Tashkent
In September of 1995 we flew into Tashkent, Uzbekistan from New York City on Uzbekistan Airways on our way to join an REI trek into the mountains in Kyrgyzstan....Read this update