Blogs from Asia - page 13044

So here we are at the incredible Cape Panwa Hotel. The hotel is beautiful, sitting on the south eastern tip of Phuket island between the South China sea and the Andaman sea. The hotel is quiet and secluded with 750m of private beach made up of soft white sand. It is nestled in the side of a hill and even has a tram to take us from our room to the beach. We have a view of the ocean through a forest of exotic palms. The hotel staff is great, they cannot do enough for you. After a confrontation with the front desk over our booking they upgraded our room to a large suite with a livingroom, bedroom and large bath. As you enter the room the first thing you notice is a large well stocked ... read more

I am currently in the Narita Airport in Tokyo, about 1/4 into my journey home. Luckily I had to get up at 3 am this morning to get to the airport for my flight, and after staying out later last night I was dead tired and slept through most of the 6 hour flight to get me here. Next is the really long segment to San Francisco, then an 8 hour stop-over (luckily during the day so I will be able to go out and explore) and then another few hours to get me home to Edmonton. My final day in Thailand was a good one. The tailor came to the hotel in the morning to bring me my clothes, none of which fit so they then had to scramble and alter them twice more during ... read more

We thought Spring was in the air. We shed our outer layers, slipped on our sunglasses and rejoiced outside in the sunshine and warm temperatures. We packed away our down jackets, stowed away our winter boots and plotted to steal away for a moment of stolen sunshine during the working hours. Oh, Beijing weather, how you have mocked us. Over the past couple days, the winds have roared back in from Siberia, stripping the trees of their hesistant blooms, rattling the windows and bowling over small children struggling to pedal their way to school on their pathetic little bicycles. The temperature has dropped 20 degrees, making the impending shut-off of the government-regulated heat next Thursday all the more daunting. We have lost Spring, and fallen back into Winter. I hold but one stubborn ray of happiness ... read more

I admit my ambivalence is deciding what to name this particular blog entry. Perhaps because India is such an overwhelming experience. You not only see, touch, hear and taste...but literally because it pours into you, onto you and throughout every living and breathing moment you exist in this fascinating country. I have long since learned that while I may see sights that are incredible, it is the experiences I have getting to them that will leave me confronted and changed... So, we will start with CLEAN. This is a word that has completely changed its meaning to me. It seems that the webster dictionary may describe this word as "lacking in dirt" or "free from pollution". I now call clean an indescribable feeling. I am not sure what clean feels like...or looks like. I am pretty ... read more

We practically based our whole planning for the Asian leg of our journey on getting to India in time before it gets to hot, and most importantly, getting in a decent desert camel safari. Apparently in April it can get as hot as 48 degC and by May giant pythons slither out of their underground holes in the sand for their Summer break. At this time in March however, there was nothing like that to contend with. We had a 35km jeep ride from Jaisalmer - which is itself in the middle of the Great Thar Desert - to a spot near a small village even more in the middle of the desert. We had three extremely nice guides: Khan 1 was young and friendly, Khan 2 who was old and friendly and -sorry I can't ... read more