I intended to do a partial trek of the Annapurna Circuit, specifically, up to Manang and back down, but changed my mind when the views of the Himalayas disappeared completely soon after our arrival. We were awarded awesome views of the great snowy mountains as we approached Kathmandu on our flight, and we could still see some while we waited for our van in the airport parking lot, but by the time we arrived in town the cloud line had lowered and blocked them out. It was kind of like a strip tease; the dress -in the form of clouds- was [View Full Entry]

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This was our second trip to Seoul, and this time I was determined to get out of the metropolis and see the DMZ border zone and possibly a national park. Neither of those happened, for some reason. Regardless, it was a nice long weekend out of Taiwan, which is often needed. Speaking of Taiwan, this country (back in ROC now) is a sorry-looking backwater compared with South Korea these days. Once economic competitors, South Korea has left Taiwan -a.k.a. "Taibodia" in the dust. Formosa is literally out of the race. I fear that this place is going the way of the [View Full Entry]

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The Wanhua area of Taipei City has got to be one of the shadiest areas on the entire island. I was shouted at several times for taking photos, drunken taxi cab drivers were puking in front of their cars, and prostitutes were burning incense in front of temples asking the gods to please send more customers. [View Full Entry]

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Sharon and I have just returned from a last-minute decision to relax in Japan for a few days. 3 nights/4 days was not nearly enough, of course, but it was refreshing to get out of Taiwan for a bit. Literally from the moment I stepped onto the jet bridge (the thing that connects the aircraft to the gate -I had to look it up on Wikipedia) I was floored with warm feelings of contentment; indeed, my every pore oozed with happiness and warmth as I knew we were to spend a few days in The Land of the Rising Sun. There [View Full Entry]

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I arrived in Thailand on August 1st and took a bus straight to Petchaburi, an ancient temple town 2.5 hours from Bangkok and the most non-touristy place I have seen thus far in the Land of Smiles. This was an alteration on my original itinerary, because I was now to meet up with my friend Paul, also teaching English at a university in Taiwan, on August 5th in Bangkok. Having been to Bangkok 4 times previously, I wanted to begin the solo leg of the trip with a place I had yet to explore. Lonely Planet made it sound enticing, so [View Full Entry]

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so far this summer Asia » Taiwan » Taipei By 54 July 20th 2007 Greg McCannHere are some pix taken since we returned from the States at the end of May. The first few are from the Ping Ding Old Canal Trail, which is located in the foothills of Yangmingshan National Park, in a nicely wooded corner, I should add. The other photos are from Caotun, Nantou, where Sharon's family is from. Now it's on to a new apartment in Linkou, which is about 40 minutes south of Taipei. Pix of the new place when we get settled in. [View Full Entry]

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The wife and arrived in Bali for the second time this year, more due to logistics (with her benefits as a flight attendant) than for an unquenchable love for the place -though we spent some time in a part of the island that I really hadn't seen before -Ubud. Ubud, an artists' town up in the foothills of the volcanoes, charmed us with its narrow winding sidestreets lined with temple-like homes. Nearly all of the homes and guesthouses in Ubud are in the traditional Balinese style of red tiled roofs, red brick construction, walled in from the roads with brick, and [View Full Entry]

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Bird Creek Ridge trail is about a 40-minute ride south of Anchorage along the Seward Highway, which hugs the Turnagain Arm, which, at 10am when we drove out, was one giant reflecting mud flat with a few deep channels of gray water coursing through it. We climbed from just a few feet above sea level to 3,700+ feet in a very short distance. Awesome Chugach Mountain and Turnagain Arm panoramas all the way up, and piles of fresh bear scat. We saw the Tarmagin -Alaska's state bird- going up, and a bald eagle -the national bird- riding a jeddy on the [View Full Entry]

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A couple of shots from the train ride back from Seward, and few taken today near Goose Lake, behind UAA in Anchorage. [View Full Entry]

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These were taken down on the Kenai recently. [View Full Entry]

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