- Blog
- Profile
- Homepage
-
Keeping the barbarians out
Arrived in Shanghai after a fantastic flight. Will post more later,but right now I'm frustrated by what I guess is the Great Firewall ofChina. Google still seems to work, as does Gmail, but Blogger iscurrently unavailable, as is Picasa web where I store my photos. Myphone says that China Telecom will only let it communicate…
-
Packed up and ready to go
The bags are mostly packed, the dog is with the mother-in-law, the taxi has been booked and in a few hours we should be off to Shanghai. All that is missing is sleep: for me, that is. Have to get up before 6am. I do like to get to the airport early, especially as this…
-
The troubles in Thailand
Today’s Sydney Morning Herald contained a map showing the Thai Red-Shirt area of Bangkok. The northern border followed Ratchaprasong Road, along which are the big shopping malls of Siam Square… and our hotel. It turns out that our hotel, the Novotel Bangkok Siam Square, had been closed from the 27 of April and would be…
-
From the Red Shirts to the Red Army
We’ve finally made up our minds and changed our destination from Bangkok and Shanghai. It was the most expensive choice and probably the most challenging of the alternate destinations, but the flights worked out a bit better and it was difficult to pass up the opportunity for an Expo experience. The change assumes that we…
-
Shanghai, Seoul or Taipei?
So far there still no resolution to the Thai crisis, so we are seriously looking at changing our routing for the upcoming trip. We have narrowed the choices down to Shanghai, Seoul or Taipei. Shanghai offers the World Expo and a side trip to the gardens of Suzhou. But we need visas and there will…
-
The Thai situation
The current security situation in Bangkok is troubling, with the blockades, protests, shootings and now grenade attacks. I checked the government Smartraveller website and they advised that the major protester location is not too far from the hotel we booked for our upcoming trip. It’s still a month before our holiday, but with at least…
-
The slow train
As I mentioned in Asia 2010 I’d like to catch a slow railmotor around the inland branch lines of the Chugoku region of Japan. It seems that I’m not alone in this, as I found an article entitled Enjoying the Primal Scene from a Local Train… A Trip on Local Line Seeking for Local Sake…
-
Still going
My leave was approved. I feel a bit bad about potentially leaving work a little understaffed for a few days. I wondered if maybe it would be better to have split up the trip. That way I could look forward to another holiday later in the year. September kept popping into my head. Now I…