My first lucky moment in the last several hours occurred when I drove into the last free space at the parking lot closest to the Village of Eze, half way between Nice and Monaco. My being there on this cloudy afternoon after spending an almost sleepless night on a transcontinental flight was pushing the limits of comfort, but I was actually very happy to have the opportunity to explore a place along Côte d’Azur that I had never visited before. My stopover in Zurich had only provided fifty minutes for me to go from one terminal to another one in the opposite side of the airport from where my scheduled Swiss Air flight to Nice was to depart. As I rushed to get to my departing gate, I was not too concerned about being able to ... read more

After the extreme virtual time travel from yesterday at the Valley of Fire, visiting this site that started forming only about one million years ago should have felt somewhat different, but I found that it also contrasted the timelessness of our planet against the short human experience in it. Cathedral Gorge showcases abstract landscapes that are extremely unusual. Within its bounds, you find geological features that appear to range between the totally surreal and what you would normally see in science-fiction movies. The geological history of the site is not as full of random events as that of , but the ultimate outcome is not by any measure less spectacular. During the Pliocene era, a large fresh-water lake covered this valley in central Nevada. Rains in the nearby mountains washed sands and clays into the lake, ... read more

As I walked around the park’s large pond with my overnight roller trailing behind me, neither the numerous water fowl cruising the surface of the water nor the people sitting on the surrounding benches or walking their dogs on the paths seemed to take much notice of me. From my part, I was truly enjoying myself being an observer of the morning activity developing all around me and capturing a few images here and there with my vintage, ten-year-old Canon Powershot S20 point-and-shoot camera that I carry sometimes in my business bag (when I don’t really expect any major photographic opportunities). Though I was quickly reminded that I was not the only visitor in Central Park with similar interests (I was amazed by the high number of photographers out and about the area I was passing ... read more

Somebody said that you couldn’t claim to have been in China until you have been to the site of the Qin terracotta army in Shaanxi province near Xi'an. Often during my frequent business visits to China I had thought about visiting this place, but always considered that it was just not possible to fit it in within the limited free time that I get sometimes. It was actually Elizabeth who kept insisting that I should pursue this side trip whenever I had a free weekend in this side of the World, but it took a casual conversation with my colleague NC Yu (himself an assignee from outside mainland China) to get me going! NC shared with me that it was actually quite common for foreign visitors from our company to fly to Xi'an on the first ... read more

The story has all the elements for a Hollywood production: a good, noble guy who dies unfairly; a corrupt court official and cunning villain who is disliked by everyone but seems to be always ahead of the game; the good guy’s loyal subordinates who are totally determined to avenge their master’s death at whatever price, even with their own lives... In the end, the story has sparked the imagination and inspired the utmost respect from an entire nation for over 300 years. During my years in Japan, I had heard the account many times and had passed very close to Sengakuji temple hundreds of times in my way to and from work on the Keihin-Tohoku Japan Rail line, but I had never taken the time to actually visit this national shrine. My opportunity to bring the ... read more