Hi Everybody! The travel agency came through with our visa and we spent Sunday in Shenzhen. It was not a remarkable trip but we enjoyed the time that we spent with Lyn and Pat, 2 business people with Russell Stover Candy. They were going over to visit a factory that prints paper products for their company. We took a train from Hong Kong to LuWu where we crossed the border. We were limited to visiting Shenzhen since we only had a one day visa. Twenty years ago, Shenzhen was just a fishing village located by the Pearl River and across from Hong Kong. Now, it is one of China's top three high technology development centers. We found that there were not a lot of things for us to visit. It doesn't have the history of many ... read more

Hi Everybody! I thought that Iwas going to have to drag Walt to Myanmar (Burma.) He talked to some Australians last week who told him it was off limits for them to go there. He decided to call the American Embassy in Bangkok to check on the status for U.S. Citizens. They told him it was fine to go. One reason that he was worried was that CNN did a special on one of the leader's daughter's weddings. A guest wore a hidden camera and took pictures of the incredible wealth of the family. The bride had on more and larger diamonds than any movie star, the Queen of England, or Princess Diana. One necklace had probably several hundred diamonds of many carats. Walt was afraid that the leader might retaliate against U.S. citizens out of ... read more

Hi Everybody! We got up very early today for a 6:10 flight. When we got to the airport, we found out that the airlines made the ticket for the wrong day. We were suppose to fly tomorrow. We have been trying to resolve the problem for 4 hours. Finally, they decided to put up on a 12:00 flight to Bangkok and a late afternoon flight to Siem Reap. That will cut our time short in Cambodia, but we will just have to deal with it. I don't know if I have mentioned or not that we have to pay airline taxes when we leave some of the airports. When you enter a country, you have to pay for a Visa on Arrival if you haven't previously purchased one. We took care of a couple of countries' ... read more

Hi Everybody! We spent yesterday in the River Kwai region. we stopped first in Kanchanaburi, a town about 2 hours west of Bangkok. It was here that we viewed the Death Railway and the Bridge over the River Kwai. Both were built by the Japanese during WWII. They used Allied prisoners of war to do the labor. 25,000 workers died from exhaustion, malnutrition, and maleria while slaving away for the brutal Japanese. While the movie, "Bridge Over the River Kwai" is not completely historically accurate, it reflects the horror and suffering that the POW's and slave laborers endured. We also stopped at the JEATH (Japanese, English, American, Thai, Hollanders) War Museum and one of the POW Cemetaries. It was a sobering experience. We took an hour long train ride through the countryside. We saw fields of ... read more

Hi Everybody! If I ever take a trip like this again, I am not going to arrive or depart an airport after dark. It is frightening to go into an unknown place and especially at night. On our flight, there was one Caucasian lady. We approached her when the plane landed and asked her a couple of questions. She worked for the Asia Foundation, a human rights organization. We were thankful for her help and advice. We were able to locate a kiosk run by our hotel, the Colombo Hilton. They got us a taxi and we felt safe leaving in it. We had to ride approximately 40 minutes to the hotel. We were stopped numerous times by the military police. The driver would turn on the inside light, the police would shine a light on ... read more