At one point we thought we would spend a few days in Malaysia hoping to connect with my 3rd cousin who often works in Kuala Lumpur. It didn’t work out, so since we had already booked a flight from Bali to Malaysia on Air Asia, we decided to book a continuing flight on Air Asia from Kuala Lumpur to Vietnam. This journey was certainly a work in progress. When we arrived in Kuala Lumpur we…
On arrival in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon) airport, we were met by a representative from the visa company who helped us obtain our expedited visas. It was time consuming, expensive and we lost one of our day’s stay in Vietnam, but we made it. The ride from the airport to the hotel was harrowing. The density of cars, motorcycles and mopeds all competing for space regardless of the traffic lanes was…
After an eventful flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok, it was a relief to easily and quickly obtain a free Tourist visa to Thailand. In fact, we were able to skip the long immigration lines that other passengers on our flight had. We got money at an ATM but ATMs continue to be a challenge for us on the trip. With 31 Thai Baht equaling 1 US dollar, this was far more manageable…
I had the good fortune to visit China for 2 weeks in 1988 on my first sabbatical and for 6 weeks in 1992 as the chaperone for a Milton Academy Chinese Language program. Both times, I had the pleasure of spending most of my time with the Experimental Middle School attached to Beijing Normal University. I developed some wonderful friendships with two the schools’ teachers and I was hopeful Frances and I could re-connect with…
Konnichiwa! I have wanted to visit Japan for many years so this was a wonderful way to end our 9 week around the world journey. Thanks to the Tonegawa family, Thomas and Yuko Taylor, Aaron Goldberg and Rene Huemer, photographer, for their help with travel ideas for Japan. We flew from Beijing to Osaka with a change of planes in Seoul. When we arrived in Osaka there were very long lines checking for people who…
Japan, and especially Tokyo, has long been on my bucket list of places to visit. I have always found Japanese culture fascinating and was excited about the opportunity to experience and be immersed in it. We left Kyoto on the extraordinary bullet train. What a treat to witness the amazingly efficient and comfortable rail travel in Japan. Riding in the first-class cars was wonderful. The ride was smooth and pleasant. As we were traveling from…
And now we are headed home. Our return flight was on American Airlines. This was the only US based flight since boarding our first flight on JetBlue from Boston to New York on February 22. Many, but not all, of the airlines we flew on in Africa and Asia offered more comfort, better food and better service than US based carriers but I truly welcomed the carry-on policy of American Airlines. Our initial descent into…
