An exciting aspect of overseas travel comes from grasping new opportunities that are presented on the road. I was learning to keep an open mind as a traveller and trying to make every post a winner when it comes to new travel adventures. I mean to say, how could I resist a visit to Macau when it is only sixty kilometres south west of Hong Kong, and can be reached in just over an hour on a high speed ferry out of Victoria Harbour. This proved to be an irresistable lure for me, and I climbed aboard the ferry for a [View Full Entry]

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Hong Kong roars along as one of the four Asian tigers, along with Sinpapore, South Korea and Taiwan. The territory is an Asian powerhouse in the region, and excels by operating as a financial centre with a deregulated economy committed to low taxes and a philosophy of small government. The services economy accounts for 90% of GDP in the territory, with Kowloon peninsula attached to the Chinese mainland and sharing a border with Guangdong province. Hong Kong is also one of the most densely populated places on earth, with a population of six million people packed into a small group of [View Full Entry]

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Next stop China. Yes, that's the plan and this travelling caper is starting to get real interesting. An American girl from our Tokyo guest house was keen to head out with me, and we caught a bus south to Osaka to link with the ferry voyage to China. Strategic planning wasn't a top priority for a pair of impulsive young travellers, and we only sensed trouble when the bus arrived in Japan's second largest city after midnight. Winter was setting in and we had no idea where to find a hotel that was still open late at night. Eventually we found [View Full Entry]

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Shinjuku station is in the heart of downtown Tokyo, and the busiest train station in the world. Up until my arrival there I thought I was doing OK, having farewelled my friends in San Francisco and boarded a flight to Japan before arriving at Tokyo's Narita airport. From there I caught the airport train to Shinjuku and was nervous alright, but arriving at the station really freaked me out. There are several floors, train lines in every direction and more people rushing around than I'd ever seen in my life. For a time I just stood at the station paralysed with [View Full Entry]

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The history of California makes for a fascinating story. Who would have thought the world's eighth largest economy was formerly part of Mexico. The US took control of several border states formerly in Mexico at the conclusion of a triumphant war, yet the enormous influence of their Latino neighbours to the south is still prevalent in California today. Continuing from the previous journal my American friend with his buddy offered to drive me down to Baja California for a weekend away from San Diego. Mate, the furthest I'd travelled before going overseas was the to the border with Queensland and [View Full Entry]

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There is no feeling in the world to compare with heading overseas for the first time, away from family and friends with no real time frame in mind for returning home. It can feel a bit terrifying but is also an exhilarating experience, full of anticipation for what lies ahead laced with a degree of apprehension due to fear of the unknown. The period of preparation leading to a long trip overseas galvanizes a prospective traveller like little else can, and it was with all these conflicting emotions swirling around in my head that I boarded a flight over the Pacific [View Full Entry]

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Hello Friends Welcome to the first of my retrospective travel journals, and greetings from my home town Sydney. The date of this journal is the very day I boarded a flight to San Francisco for my first overseas trip, following an emotional farewell with family and friends. I had recently graduated from university, and was working two jobs while squirrelling money away in the bank to prepare for an extended trip overseas. Finally the big day arrived and it was time to pack up my troubles in the old kit bag, in preparation for the first ever overseas flight to discover [View Full Entry]

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