Blogs from Asia - page 14739

Well folks the main reason I'm doing this is not because I'm an egotistical b#^!h but because I feel I may email you all and you might think “Oh Clare there she goes again banging on about her travels and to be honest I don't give a ...” So if you are reading this you have to be interested 'cause you're here Yeah! Well I'm in Laos which is lovely and has been the most hygienic and “normal” so far. The people aren’t trying to sell you stuff 24/7 and they are a lot more relaxed. We’ve met a lovely Swedish couple so we have just been riding bikes around the city together lovely! The journey here tho was a complete ‘mare! Anyway we were staying in this fabbydoo hotel in Hoi An, Vietnam really posh, ... read more

Good Morning Singapore. I'm now at the new Budget Terminal waiting for my 9.50am flight to Macau where I will start a 10 day journey into the Pearl River Delta covering Macau, Hong Kong and Shenzhen. It's been a long time since January when we booked our air tickets and finally, we are flying this morning. I will try and keep u updated as we go along our journey.. Till I see you again. Take care. Roy :) 9.15am... read more

It's always comforting to know that if I ever have any dental issues on my trip, all I have to do is go to the market in Dali, and there, between the banana stand and the guy who sells nuts and bolts, I can expect to get the highest quality of service. The techniques used here are state of the art. A string for extricating those rotten teeth, your latest in plastic prosthetics and the "secret ingredient" mouth numbing syrup (although I would go for that 60 proof stuff that they drink here instead). I might even get a suntan while I get treated!!! ... read more

As a final-goodbye evening (KTV wasn’t deemed enough - they obviously like us, they said they’ve never been friends with any of the volunteers before, only seeing them as teachers), the med students invited us out for Mah-jong and tea at a very posh tea house outside the city walls. We managed, for the first time in three months, to actually be there on time, despite the crowded buses and ridiculous traffic, I was so so happy to prove that we weren’t thoughtless all the time, just time conspires against us. I had also told the rest of the volunteers that we had to be there fifteen minutes before we actually did, so it meant we left on time rather than late. Sly, but it worked! After a bit of food (great noodles), we headed on ... read more

Three more weeks, almost packed, and frequent "stomach-butterflies" encourage quiet thought and contemplation of what is about to be. The advantage of a first visit to Taizhou Teachers College in Jiangsu Province of China, in the summer of '05, make anticipations and expectations no longer unsettling, rather they have become important for their outcomes. When I first met my friend Arthur, the Foreign Affairs Director at Taizhou College through links on the Internet, I asked him if he understands, that at 62, I am considered a "Senior Citizen", not always a desirable commodity in the West. He responded in appreciation for my age, and in recognition for life's education and experiences, with success and failure, and insisted, that these are very good and important qualifications, and are respected and admired at his small college (some 8,000 ... read more