"Come, watch the tones of changing light From starlit days to sun-filled nights. Refreshed from Polar Night's calm sleep, With gentle sunrays, time I keep!" So reads the 24-hour sundial in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, a land of extremes. Located at 79 degrees north, Longyearbyen is well past the Arctic circle and holds claim to several 'northernmost' records. The town of 2000 formerly was dedicated to coal mining and research but tourism is quickly grabbing hold, with several hotels and restaurants opening the past few years. Svalbard is a Norwegian territory and may also be known by the n [View Full Entry]

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March 18, 2008 Flight: Bahar Dar (BJR) to Addis Ababa (ADD), Ethiopian Airlines 121, F50, Economy Flight: Addis Ababa (ADD) to Washington DC (IAD), Ethiopian Airlines 500, 767, Economy, miles earned: 7195 (LH) Our last day in Ethiopia, we had an early flight out this morning back to Addis. We ran into the American family again in the hotel lobby, they were going to Gondar today. It's a 17 minute flight or 4 hours in a bus. Checkin at the airport went quickly and we headed upstairs to grab breakfast when I heard my name called on the loudspeaker. I went [View Full Entry]

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March 17, 2008 Hotel: Hotel Summerland, $45 Today we had arranged a tour to go out to the island monasteries in the morning, then in the afternoon we would go out to the Blue Nile falls. The Blue Nile starts its journey from Lake Tana, the largest in Ethiopia. There are a dozen or so monasteries scattered on islands throughout the lake. Breakfast at the hotel took forever, in general you can't be in a hurry to eat in Ethiopia. We had to ask for a bottle of water several times before finally going down to the bar and just buying [View Full Entry]

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March 17, 2008 Flight: Lalibela (LLI) to Bahar Dar (BJR), Ethiopian Airlines 127, F50, Economy Hotel: Hotel Summerland, $45 We woke up at 6 AM this morning. The shower did have hot water, but the water had a very strong iron/rust/sulphur smell, and the water pressure was negligible. I guess that explained the lack of a shower curtain. We had breakfast (included) at the hotel before meeting our guide around 7AM. He had his 'official' guide jacket on. We walked back up into town and to the ticket office. We noticed the two-story huts that were typical for the area. Several [View Full Entry]

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I recently returned from a trip to Ethiopia, courtesy of the $0+tax companion fare mistake. I went with a travel buddy of mine during spring break, we had scheduled 4 days on the ground. Our trip would take us from Austin to IAD on United where we would spend the night, connecting to Addis Ababa on Ethiopian Airlines, all-in for $274 R/T each. I had wanted to visit Ethiopia for some time, so when this deal came up I jumped on it. We wanted to visit some other parts of the country, specifically the rock carved churches in Lalibela and monasteries [View Full Entry]

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Ah.. so our stay in the DPRK finally was coming to an end. Today we would be taking the train back to Beijing, nearly 23 hrs. On our way out, I noticed a DHL truck outside the hotel, the only Western company I had seen the whole time here. The train station was quite busy when we arrived. Some kids were playing volleyball (common sport here, most factories will have a volleyball court) without a net. We had a last group photo, then said our goodbyes to our local guides, they would not be joining us on the train. The train [View Full Entry]

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September 2, 2007 Hotel: Yanggakdo Today was our last full day in the DPRK, but just as busy as the previous two had been. This morning we would be visiting Kim Il-Sung's mausoleum, for which we had to be presentable. Shirt+tie for men and dress for the women. The mausoleum itself is huge gray granite/marble building with no windows, just a large picture of the Great Leader. It is always busy with locals who usually visit two or three times a year. When we arrived there was a long line of workers and women in brightly colored traditional dresses, pink, blue, [View Full Entry]

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September 1, 2007 Hotel: Yanggakdo Today was another full day of touring. Woke up early again this morning to walk around outside the hotel. There was a stream running by that had amazingly clean clear water, the early morning air smelt fresh, quite refreshing! The DPRK is mostly an agricultural society, and a pre-industrial one at that... most of the work has to be done by hand since they are short of fuel and energy. There are corn and rice fields everywhere, but the yields are low. Most electricity here is generated by hydro or coal. Lack of industry and cars [View Full Entry]

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August 30, 2007 Flight: Beijing to Pyongyang, Air Koryo 152 Hotel: Yaggakdo Hotel, Pyongyang At last.. today I would be going to the hermit kingdom, North Korea! I'd wanted to go now for a few years since I'd heard about Koryo Tours trips, and DPRK had opened up the past few years to Americans, letting them in for the Mass Games. My wife and I were actually scheduled to go on their Mass Games trip last year when it was canceled due to flooding, I wanted to make another attempt this year. M. couldn't make it this time and since their [View Full Entry]

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I had an 18 hr overnight layover at Narita on my way to Xian; my plan was to go visit the nearby Narita temple. Arriving at Narita, the line through immigration was very long. After waiting for 15 minutes one of the agents said the other side was open, and there was no wait at all. I had found a good rate at the nearby Holiday Inn which is very close to the terminal. I had just missed the last shuttle by mere minutes and had to wait 30 minutes for the next one (I could have walked it, it turns [View Full Entry]

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