Japan with Chinese Characteristics
As I step into my last Taipei taxi, heading for the airport and home, I look out on this amazing city and think about how it compares to mainland China and other Asian nations in my travels. That’s when it hits me.
Taiwan isn’t China. Taiwan is Japan with Chinese characteristics.
Read MoreMy Midnight Savior – OK
Its late, who knows what time, and I am famished. It’s been an all-night (or with jet lag, all day) bender, a Carnegie’s kinda night, and I haven’t eaten since sometime yesterday or maybe tomorrow. Who knows, I only know I need to eat.
Trouble is, this is Taipei, and while it wants to be a 24 hour city, nothing is open. Not a restaurant, not a cafe, only bars, and they’ve stopped servicing food hours ago.
Read MoreEarth, Circumnavigated Twice
Walking through Hong Kong’s International Airport today (or was it yesterday?), I realized that I did it again; I circumnavigated the Earth for the second time.
Read MoreWaiting to go “UP”
I stand here, in the lobby of the Jaic Hilton, Colombo waiting. Waiting yet again for the elevator. Waiting, like yesterday and the day before, like I shall tomorrow and the day after. Waiting, for the slow-ass elevators to come, waiting for them to go, waiting for movement. Always waiting.
If my room were not on the 23rd floor, if I was not in a suit, and if it wasn’t sweaty hot I would walk the stairs. I need the exercise; I have a triathlon to prepare for. If the pool wasn’t so nice, the room rates so low, and the location so perfect, I would switch hotels.
Read MoreRiding the Colombo Rails
It’s a slow Sunday afternoon in Colombo, and I’m wandering through side streets and back alleys, enjoying the different styles of life visible over walls and around corners. Then I hear it, the “hoot” of a train horn, and off I am, in a mad dash to the train station.
That “hoot” signals the arrival of a train, a local commuter train and I am gonna jump on for a ride. See, as much as I fly, I really don’t like traveling that way. What, with the dry air, cramped space, and checked baggage intrigue, airplanes have none of my love.
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