You can find my pictures of the trip at:
http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd180/cl8onj1s/Cathay%20October%202007/
Unfortunately they are slightly out of order at the moment, but I will likely be re-sorting them before you read this!
Enjoy and thank you for reading.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Thursday, November 1, 2007
The World Has Turned and Left Me Here
There is a great lyric from Weezer that states, "The world has turned and left me here, just where I was before you appeared". For Weezer they were singing about being back in the same place after a relationship gone awry, but in my case, I find myself typing in my blog back in somewhat familiar San Francisco. While physically everything is the same, through my adventures, I think I am a little different.
No adventure should ever be measured by numbers, but I think it can be a fun game to play and so here are some interesting stats:
+ 3 out of 4 Asian Tigers/Dragons visited (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and missing South Korea)
+ 9 cities visited with a population over 3 million
+ 4 new "countries" visited (counting Hong Kong and Macau... though officially they are Special Administrative Regions of China)
+ 3 Hong Kong passport stamps (one during my visit, one coming back from Macau, one this morning switching airlines between Singapore and San Francisco)
+ 6 different airlines (United, Cathay Pacific, Dragon Air, China Eastern, China Air, Asia Jetstar)
Someone asked what my favorite part of the trip was and I would have to say the day I spent catching up with Susanne (and later Clea) in Shanghai. Shanghai had been such a place of my imagination; a place where east and west collide, old and new share the same address, poor become rich. Certainly such a place can only exist in myth, but Shanghai comes very close (in they myth it would be a fair bit cleaner). In the backdrop of this amazing place, Susanne and I caught up on each other's lives and talked a lot about where the economy and world was going. Me being so young an naive in the ways of global development, it was the type of all day conversation typically reserved for only students. I am indebted to Susanne for not only her wonderful hospitality but reminding me how wonderful it can be to engage in ideas (and not the type of rosy, student optimism from college... but the pragmatic type that is born from real experience and understanding).
I can honestly recommend to any would be traveller any/all of the places I visited. My "guide" in writing this blog has been Marco Polo, and while I fall far short of his abilities, I hope that maybe I have interested you in visiting Cathay (or including Singapore the Sino-sphere). Please feel free to contact me for more information (or just to grab a cup of tea).
I will post the link to my pictures when I have them all sorted!
No adventure should ever be measured by numbers, but I think it can be a fun game to play and so here are some interesting stats:
+ 3 out of 4 Asian Tigers/Dragons visited (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and missing South Korea)
+ 9 cities visited with a population over 3 million
+ 4 new "countries" visited (counting Hong Kong and Macau... though officially they are Special Administrative Regions of China)
+ 3 Hong Kong passport stamps (one during my visit, one coming back from Macau, one this morning switching airlines between Singapore and San Francisco)
+ 6 different airlines (United, Cathay Pacific, Dragon Air, China Eastern, China Air, Asia Jetstar)
Someone asked what my favorite part of the trip was and I would have to say the day I spent catching up with Susanne (and later Clea) in Shanghai. Shanghai had been such a place of my imagination; a place where east and west collide, old and new share the same address, poor become rich. Certainly such a place can only exist in myth, but Shanghai comes very close (in they myth it would be a fair bit cleaner). In the backdrop of this amazing place, Susanne and I caught up on each other's lives and talked a lot about where the economy and world was going. Me being so young an naive in the ways of global development, it was the type of all day conversation typically reserved for only students. I am indebted to Susanne for not only her wonderful hospitality but reminding me how wonderful it can be to engage in ideas (and not the type of rosy, student optimism from college... but the pragmatic type that is born from real experience and understanding).
I can honestly recommend to any would be traveller any/all of the places I visited. My "guide" in writing this blog has been Marco Polo, and while I fall far short of his abilities, I hope that maybe I have interested you in visiting Cathay (or including Singapore the Sino-sphere). Please feel free to contact me for more information (or just to grab a cup of tea).
I will post the link to my pictures when I have them all sorted!
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