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Departure Day |
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I am sitting here at San Francisco airport waiting to board my plane. The last week has been a hectic one. Despite having a whole month to prepare it always comes down to the last week and last day before everything gets done. Sure all the travel books have |
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Two weeks before blastoff |
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Well, I am two weeks out from the start of my trip. I am somewhat nervous about setting off. While the idea of jumping off the treadmill and getting out of the rat race even temporarily is appealing it does take a leap of faith. The idea of |
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One week before takeoff |
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Well one week before I leave for my grand adventure. It has been a busy week. I have started packing and continue to purchase travel supplies. Actually I think that if I were to get all the useful travel equipment such as pack-it cubes, travel towels, first |
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Arriving in Tokyo |
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I Arrived in Tokyo only a half hour after my origional schedule. I breezed through immigration and customs. Went to the airport money change booth and changed $400 into Yen at 120 yen to the dollar. There are apparantly dozens of ways to get from Narita Airport to |
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Day Two in Tokyo |
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I head out the at 6:30 and am at the Fish Market by 7:00. By a stoke of luck Tsukiji is on the same subway line as the hotel so I have no problem finding the market. Perhaps my fears of getting lost in Tokyo are exaggerated?
The Tsukiji Fish |
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Day three in Tokyo |
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Once again I have trouble sleeping and wake up at the ungodly hour of 4:30 A.M. However I am determined and stay in bed listening to Simon and Garfunkel until 8:30 before getting up.
As I lay in bed I once again reflected that this hotel was my home |
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October 5 2002-Tokyo |
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I am still in the habit of waking up at 5 in the morning and then working to get back to sleep but I manage to sleep in until nine. I will be meeting Ryuta today at three so I have enough time to visit the Ahkabara district, THE place |
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October 6 2002 Tokyo |
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Once again I wake up at 4:00 in the morning and have to lay in the bed untill 9:00. I went down to the lobby to catch up on my writing and check my email. Around 11:30 Havital comes down to the lobby. We chat for a bit |
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October 7 2002 Tokyo |
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I wake up with wet feet to the sound of rain at 5:00 A.M. I had been leaving the window above my bed open due to the heat and te rain was blowing into the room soaking the foot of my bed. I get up, close the window and |
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October 8 2002 Tokyo |
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Waking up bright and early I again laid in bed until 9 before going downstairs to hang out in the lobby. Around 11:00 Havital came down. She had a job interview that day so we chatted a bit more and arranged to get together for dinner |
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October 9 2002 Tokyo |
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I met Havital in the lobby as usual the next morning. I had been trying all morning to get my flight from Osaka to Beijing changed from Thursady the 17th to Monday the 14th I figuered that every day I spent in Japan cost me three or four days |
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October 10 2002 Tokyo |
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Havital has another interview so I have my last day in Tokyo free. I will meet Havital for dinner before leaving for the bus station at 8:30 to catch my 10 P.M. bus to Kyoto. In the lobby I run into a couple of guys and we decide to |
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Tokyo Impressions |
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The city was also easier to navigate than the Frommer's Guidebook indicated. All subway stations have signs in English and while the initial impression of the subway map is that it looks like a Pentium 4 circuit diagram I found it quite easy to use once I got the hang |
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October 11 2002 Kyoto |
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I arrived in Kyoto Station at 5:30 A.M. It was still dark and quite cool. I had little idea of where I was and I was sure that Uno House was not open yet. Shivering and still a little groggy, I set out in a random direction along |
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October 12 2002 Kyoto |
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Got up by 9:30 with a full day planned. Atually slept of except for waking up when someone came in late and managed to hit his head quite hard on a low beam. Even half asleep I winced in sympathy upon hearing the sound of his head itting the beam |
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October 13 2002 Osaka |
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I had planned to get up bright and early for my last full day in Japan. I wanted to get to Osaka early to see as much of that city as I could in one day. Of course I don't drag my lazy butt out of bed until 9:30.
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October 14 2002 Beijing |
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Got up at 6:30 A.M. and made myway back to Namba station to catch my bus to the airport. The OCAT 880 bus cost Y880 and took exactly the advertised 45 minutes to get to the airport. I have found that there is usually a cheap way and an |
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October 15 2002 Beijing |
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In Japan I had promised myself a day off once I got to Beijing and this was it. Japan was so expensive I felt pressure to go out and see and do things almost every day. Here in Beijing paying $6 a night for hotel I felt that I could |
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October 16 2002 |
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After a good rest I felt much better and went to tackle the Forbidden City and Tianamen Square. A walk and subway ride and I was there. The days had gotten cooler and I had broken ou my long sleeve shirts but the weather was quite nice.
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Kyoto Impressions |
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Kyoto is a nice city with lots of temples, shrines and castles. However it is definitely still a city and anyone who expects to find a quaint small old style town will be disappointed. Slightly less urban than Tokyo, Kyoto is even much smaller and most sights can be reached |
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Japan Impressions |
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Japan is a wonderful place full of history and good food. The Japanese sense of asthetics rivals anyone's in the world and their cities are clean and efficient. However I glad to see that Japan is not quite as high tech city of the future as some would |
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October 17 2002 Beijing |
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Well today I made a mistake and ended up spending the whole day doing laundry. I washed my clothes but it was not until after completing the wash that I discovered that the dryer was broken. Unfortnately I had washed all my clothes except for the shorts and T-shirt |
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October 18 2002 |
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Still drizziling today so I thought I would hit an internet cafe to catch up on my email and then the Military Museum. Lonely Planet reccommended an internet cafe at the Beijing World Trade Center so I took a taxi over there. I have been taking taxis quite a |
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October 19 2002 Beijing |
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Today the weather was stil overcast but not raining so I decided to make a try at the Summer Palace. I had lso arranged to meet a friend of mine for drinks later that night. Down in the lobby I ran into Marian, a 21 year old woman from |
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October 20 2002 Beijing |
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Woke up around 10:00 and when I didn't see Marian down in the TV room by 11:00 I went up and knocked on her door to find that her and two of her roommates were just getting up. I waited for Marion inthe TV room until she was ready and |
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October 21 2002 Beijing |
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After sendng Marion off to the train station to go home at 7:00 A.M since she had a 2 PM class, I headed to the internet cafe to catch up with my emails. I arranged to visit her at her town on the weekend and we would go to Tai-Shan |
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October 22 2002 Shanhaiguan |
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Got up bright and early at 9:30 A.M. Well I am now certain I have solved that jet lag problem. It is actually quite nice doing this lazy type of travelling. Always in the past I would have to rush about to make the most of my two |
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October 23 2002 |
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I was to meet Mom's friend Kong at 7:00 P.M. so I did not plan anything big. First I went to the Internet cafe again to catch up on my email and upload some pictures and then I went to the Lama Temple. The Lama Temple in Beijing is |
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October 24 2002 |
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Woke up about 9:00 to a beautiful, bright day. It was too good of a day to pass up seeing the Great Wall so after consulting Lonely Planet and Let's Go I found that there were tours of the Badaling section of the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs for |
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October 25-27 2002 |
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It took almost an hour's taxi ride to get to the Beijing West train station so the Y48 fare wasn't bad. Not knowing the train schedule seems to provide for pretty stress free travel, no hurry at all.
I go there at 10:55 and found out the train for Shiziazhuan left |
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October 28 2002 |
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Marian had class at 2:00 P.M. so this was a good time for me to head off to Tai-Shan. I arranged to meet Marian in Xian the next weekend. I get to the train station and find out there are no trains to Tai-Shan but there is a train |
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October 29 2002 |
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Funny thing about rooms without heat they exert a curious magntic force to keep one in bed. I managed to overcome this magnetic force by 8 A.M. , mainly because the free breakfast included with the room ended at 8:30. The free breakfast turned out to be a |
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October 30 2002 |
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Got up late again but managed to pack and get out of the hotel by 10. I didn't want to spend another night in this boring little town of five million people so in a little departure from my usual freewheeling last minuete procedure I went to the train |
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October 31 2002 |
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As soon as I woke up I knew that something was wrong. My right knee had been tweaked in high school track and was weaker than my left. When I awoke my right knee was stiff and hurt some. As the day wore on my knee continued to |
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November 1 2002 |
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For the first time in a while I woke to the beeping of my alarm clock. I managed to drag my sorry ass out of bed and discovered that while my knee still hurt it was a lot better than the night before. As I got out of the |
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November 2 2002 |
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We got up late today but managed to get out of bed in time for lunch. After a quick bite at the nearby restaurant for Y10 we walked to the nearby bus station and caught the 306 bus to the Huaquing Hot Springs.
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November 3 2002 Xian |
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Marian's train left at 9:30 P.M. so we kept the room for another night so that we would have a place to hang out and I would go to see the Terracotta Warriors the next day before heading out myself. We had considered going to see the Terracotta Warriors that |
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November 4 2002 |
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Proving that I could stay late in bed by myself i didn't get up and checked out until 12:00. Leaving my big bag at the hotel I went to the nearby train station and purchased a Y65 hard sleeper ticket to Luoyang, the closest major train stop to Song Shan |
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November 5 2002 Songshan |
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I arrived at Luoyang just before four in the morning somewhat blurry eyed I was immediately surrounded by the usual swarm of taxi drivers and hotel touts. After a bit of confusion I found out that the first minibus up Song-Shan mountain would not leave until six and that |
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November 6 2002 Songshan |
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I got up and made it to my Kung Fu class in plenty of time. I was introduced to my personal instructor, a young man around 20. It seems that all foreigners get a personal instructor. After a bit of stretching we got right to learning the basic |
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November 7-10 2002 Zhengzhou |
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Around six in the morning I get a knock on the door. Quite groggly I answered the door and there was Marian! I had expected that she would get my email in the morning and get to ZhengZhou in the evening but instead she had gotten my email the |
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November 11 2002 Chengdu |
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The power charger for my PalmPilot broke a couple of days later which meant that my PalmPilot quickly and inevitably ran out of power. Not only did this mean I could not use or write with my PalmPilot until I got a new power charger but would also result in |
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November 12 2002 Chengdu |
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I arrive in Chengdu in the morning. The day is overcast but the temperature is comfortable. As I ride in the taxi to the hotel I quickly sense a different, slower feeling to this city even though at 11.3 million people Chengdu only has two million people less than |
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November 13 2002 Panda Adventure |
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My trusty watch alarm wakes me up in time to catch the bus but I laze in bed too long to take advantage of the free breakfast. Once again it was overcast. I later learn that it is overcast pretty much all the time in Chengdu.
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November 14 2002 Leshan |
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I even got up in time to take advantage of my free breakfast and chat with Helen the waitress at the restaurant. The waiter at the restaurant spoke excellent English but of course he was not nearly as fun to flirt with. At nine-thirty I boarded the mini-bus to |
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November 15 2002 Emeishan |
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Early in the morning I get a knock on the door rousing me for breakfast. Went back to the hotel restaurant for a traditional Chinese breakfast which invariably consists of hard boiled eggs, plain bread bun, small pork buns, plain rice porriage, and tea. I usually don't eat breakfast |
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November 16 2002 Chengdu |
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Slept in late and got to the hotel restaurant just before the free breakfast ended. I had made a date to go shopping with Helen the waitress when she got off work at two so I just stayed in the restaurant catching up on my writing. While I was |
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November 17 2002 Chengdu |
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I had planned to go to Chongqing today but I when I got back to my room I discovered a huge problem. My power convereter had died. China runs on 220v current instead of American 110v and I had purchased a converter to allow me to recharge my American |
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November 18 2002 Chengdu |
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Got up in the morning with every intention of heading to Chongqing. However on the way down to breakfast I ran into Holly who said that she wanted to go out to dinner with me again. Following my policy of never turning down a beautiful woman who asks me |
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November 19 2002 Chongqing |
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Today I finally managed to catch the bus to Chonqing. The four hour ride on a modern bus was uneventful and I arrived in Chonqing by the early afternoon. Chongqing, otherwise known as Chungking is a pleasantly different city since it is built on hills. Most of the cities |
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November 20 2002 Three Gorges |
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The guide knocked on our door at the ungodly hour of five-thirty. The boat docked at Fengdu at six and we would have three hours until nine to see the city. Fengdu is known as the CIty of Ghosts and is the legendary home of demonic spirits. Above |
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November 21 2002 Chengdu |
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I was woken up at the ungodly hour of five in the bloody morning and told I should go up on deck as we were about to sail through the first of the Three Gorges.
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November 22 2002 Sitting on a train |
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When I was on the boat I had considered going to a couple of extra places before going to Shanghai such as Wudanshan of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fame. However due to the loss of power for my Palmpilot I decided to head directly to Shanghai. Anyway I was |
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November 23 2002 Shanghai |
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This has turned out to be a very, very long train trip. The first 24 hours was fine but the last 8 saw me slowly getting cabin fever and getting more and more anxious to get off the train. After all there is only so much eating and sleeping |
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November 24 2002 - Shanghai |
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There were two things I wanted to get done in Shanghai. First I wanted to find a power adapter for my PalmPilot and second I wanted to find an English speaking doctor. I had been suffering from a couple of minor medical problems including a mild case of athlete's |
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November 25 2002 -Shanghai |
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With my chores not completed but at least put off I devoted the day to exploring Shanghai, after the obligatory trip to the internet cafe of course. First I took the subway to the Old Shanghai area. This area, a maze of narrow lanes packed with houses is where |
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November 26 2002 Shanghai |
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Shanghai was a nice city but there really is not a huge amount to do there. I had seen the main sights and coupled with my continuing medical and technical problems pointed me towards going quickly to Hong Kong. I had considered visinting several more places such as Nanjing, |
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November 27 2002 -Guangzhou |
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Arriving in Guangzhou in the morning presented me with a couple of choices. I was not expected in Hong Kong until the next day so I could spend the day in Guangzhou and head to Hong Kong the next day, go to Shenzen, spend the day there and head to |
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November 28 2002 - Hong Kong |
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To many Hong Kong is an exotic destination, to me it is my birthplace and second hometown. I have been to Hong Kong many times in the past and it is the place outside the US that I am most likely to visit again. As a consequence Hong Kong |
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November 29 2002- Hong Kong |
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The next morning I went down to have Dim Sum with my aunt and grandparents at the restaurant downstairs. I really like Dim Sum especially when served in true Cantonese style from carts pushed around the restaurant. There is nothing like sitting and watching all those carts of delicious little |
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November 30-Dec 16 2002- Hong Kong |
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The next day my aunt went back to her house in a nearby town just over the border and my life quickly fell into that most boring of things, a routine. Therefore instead of going day by day I am just going to summarize my three weeks in Hong Kong |
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December 20 2002- Shenzen |
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After sitting in Hong Kong for three weeks I was determined to leave. My ear infection was better but still not completely cured. I figured rather than sit around waiting I should continue my travels around China and return to Hong Kong if needed. I had promised to |
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December 21 2002 -Shenzen |
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I had one chore for the day and that was to buy an airplane ticket to Chengdu. While I normally would prefer to travel by train I discovered it would take about 40 hours to get to Chengdu by train and cost around Y400. Since the plane only cost |
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December 22 2002- Shenzen |
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Bright and early I was awakened to go out with my grand uncle to see a park. After breakfast we went out and caught a bus to the park and spent several hours walking around. It was a pretty nice park with a nice temple, lake, gardens and |
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December 23 2002 - Shenzen |
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I actually had nothing planned for that day. All of my other relatives left me alone to spend some time with my grandfather. Of course this was kind of awkward as we really didn't know each other much, had little in common and still had that language barrier. |
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December 24 2002 - Chengdu |
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Ah Christmas eve and by the wonders of the internet I had already sent all my Christmas gifts and cards. I think it is one of the wonders of the modern age that I can do my Christmas shopping from anywhere in the world and have it delivered by the |
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December 25 2002 Chengdu |
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Christmas day dawned onto a typically overcast day. In China Christians are a minority so only the stores celebrate Christmas. Even though I didn't have a Christmas tree, presents or even a chimney I was determined to get a Christmas meal complete with Turkey. I knew this would |
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December 26 2002 Chengdu |
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Holly had to work so I slept in late and went to the HighFly cafe for lunch. The Chengdu Highfly Cafe had pizza every bit as good as the Xi'an branch and i was to find out was owned by the same guy who owned Holly's travel agency. Afterwards |
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December 27 2002 Kunming |
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We got to Kunming late the next afternoon and by the time we got the hotel it was dark. I had chosen the Yunnan Foriegn Language University guesthouse which the guidebooks said offered doubles for Y80, a mighty good deal. We were dropped off in front of what looked like |
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December 28 2002 Kunming |
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This morning I took Holly to a French Cafe near the Guesthouse for breakfast. The area near the Foreign Language University as one would expect has plenty of foreigners so there are a number of restaurants and cafe's catering to them. Holly had never had French food so I ordered |
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December 29 2002 Kunming |
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At the god aweful hour of six my alarm bell rang but we sort got distracted and didn't get out of bed until six thirty. The room did not have much in the way of heat and it was really, really hard to motivate myself to get out of a |
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December 30 2002 Kunming |
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Got up before dawn again and this ride was even worse than the last. Picking up other passengers we actually had to wait a half hour while they had breakfast meanng we didn't even leave Kunming until well past nine.
Juixiang is a new attraction and it was not |
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December 31 2002 Kunming |
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New Years Eve, the end of the year and it was time for Holly and I to part. Holly had to work on New Years day so she had to take the noon train back to Chengdu. We had planned to go to the National Minority Villiage in Kunming |
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January 1 2003 Guilin |
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The train trip was long as usual. During the day I was able to see some of the famous Karst hills as the train passed through the countryside. The earth was a deep red color and it struck me that it was here that mother earth really showed herself. |
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January 2 2003 Guilin |
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Woke up to the sound of rain. From what I had seen of Guilin the other night it is a nice city but not quite like my painting. I had heard of a nearby place called Yangshou that might be more of what I was looking for. I |
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January 3 2003 What China SHOULD be! |
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After I got up I gave the young woman I met on the bus yesterday a call. This was a difficult process since once again I did not know any Mandarin and she did not speak English. Hell I couldn't even figure out her name. However with a |
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January 4 2003 Yangshou |
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awoke cold to the sound of rain. Well this was not good as it was a sure sign that I needed to go south. I was faced with a very serious choice. My ear infection had gotten better but still wasn't 100%. I could go back |
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January 5 2003 Yangshou |
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Darn cold again in the morning. It was quite hard to get out of the warm bed. True I had pretty much worn all my clothes to bed but it was still hard to get up. However I had promised to go on the bicycle tour so I |
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January 6 2003 Yangshou |
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Woke up and found it was pouring rain. So much for one last sightseeing trip. I slept in late and went downstairs for a late breakfast or early lunch depending on how you look at it. I didn't see Amelia but I went ahead to check out |
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January 7 2003 Hong Kong |
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We got off the bus in Shenzen but I had no idea where we were. We grabbed one of the rather expensive Shenzen taxis and had it take us to the border. I guided Amelia through the somewhat confusing border and into Hong Kong. The first thing we |
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January 8-22 2003 Hong Kong |
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Well I was back in Hong Kong again. I quickly settled into old patterns of going to the doctor and the internet cafe. After showing Amelia the basics of how to get around she explored Hong Kong on her own. My cousin Beata had returned from |
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January 23, 2003 Goodbye to Hong Kong |
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I am a procrastinator so of course I put off packing until the day of my departure for Bangkok. I went down to Dim Sum with my grandparents. I had fallen out of going to Dim Sum with my grandparents every morning. I really like Dim Sum but |
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Jan 24 2003 Hanging on the Kho San |
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I had been to Thailand twice before and I was going to show Marian around when she arrived on Feb 4 so I didn't want to go sightseeing. I went over to the main backpacker area of Kho San Road to take a look around. On my previous trips |
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Jan 28 2003 The Heart of Darkness, Phenom Phen |
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We had wisely packed the night before so all we had to do when we got up at the unholy hour of 5:30 A.M. was to grab our bags, pay for our room and head downstairs. It was still dark but at least it was nice and cool as we |
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Jan 27 2003 Tomb Raiding the Temples of Angkor |
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The three of us got out of the guesthouse to meet Mr. Sophat Rouen (tel. #855 012 630638) at 8:30. He had our car, a pretty new model Korean car and driver with him. He spoke excellent English and when we mentioned that we needed to buy boat tickets |
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Jan 29 2003 Blowing Shit Up and the Night of Rage |
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One of the reasons I wanted to come to Cambodia was to go to the firing ranges. Unlike American shooting ranges, anything went at Cambodian ranges. Tourists could shoot anything from pistols to rocket launchers. Last summer I had tried to get my co-workers to take a vacation |
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Jan 30 2003 Trapped and Sick in Phenom Phen |
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I woke up and noticed I was sniffling aching and sore. Damn stuck in the middle of a potential war and I was coming down with a cold to boot. I spent the morning watching CNN but still there was a disappointingly little amount of news. The only thing |
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Jan 31 2003 Sniffle City |
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I was still not feeling well. I was tired and sniffly. With the potential problems on the street I didn't want to do much so other than going out for food I stayed in the guesthouse all day getting lots of rest and drinking plenty of liquids. I as |
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Feb 1 2003 Fun at the Water Park |
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The days of rest had worked and I was feeling much better. I met Gary and Bob for breakfast and found out they were going to the water park. I was still not 100% but I was definitely feeling good enough to lounge around a water park.
My moto guy |
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Feb 2 2003 Escape From Cambodia |
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By this time I had had enough of Cambodia. Bob and Gary were heading to Shinaokville a town on the coast. I had planned to go that way as well to take the land route back to Thailand but I was still not sure if the borders were open. |
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Feb 3 2003 Back on the Kho San Road |
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I got up a little late and didn't leave the hotel until 8 which turned out to not be a problem as I still made my airplane in plenty of time. In my hurry I made a little goof and forgot to put my Swiss army knife in my checked |
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Feb 4 2003 Reunited with Maid Marian |
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Marian was not arriving until midnight so I had another day free. I did some more checking with the travel agencies and basically blew another day at the internet cafe. This time I actually managed to avoid playing games and completed quite a bit of writing.
I met Dave again |
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Feb 5 2003 Once Again Chill'n on the Kho San |
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I had planned an easy first day for Marian. She had been travelling for 25 hours to get to Bangkok from Maryland. We got up around lunchtime and the first order of business was to get an airplane ticket for Marian to return to China. After a bit |
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Feb 6 2003 Sightseeing in Bangkok |
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Marian had never been to Bangkok so I had to take her to see the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. For those who do not know, a Wat is a Thai Temple. Kho San Road was not that far from the Grand Palace so we just walked there, stopping on |
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Feb 7 2003 Partying in Pattaya |
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As I mentioned before I don't particularly like Bangkok so I decided to take Marian to Pattaya. Pattaya is a beach resort about two hours away from Bangkok. It has a bit of a sleazy reputation and is about as built up a tourist town as can be. However |
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Feb 9 2003 Alligators, Tigers and Transvestites, Oh My! |
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Today I wanted to take Marian to the Million Years Park and Crocodile Farm. After our usual late awakening we stopped by a travel agency and found that tours to the park cost B350 per person but looking at the schedule it seemed that we would probably be herded from |
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Feb 11 2003 Arriving in Paradise, Kho Samui |
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We were supposed to arrive in Surat Thani to transfer to the bus which would take us to the boat to Kho Samui at six in the morning. I had set my alarm for five thirty to make sure that I not miss our stop. As it was I |
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Feb 12 2003 Chillin on the beach |
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We got up rather late but in time to check out. We headed to one of the beachfront guesthouses we saw the day before, the Coconut Bungalows right in the center of Lamai Beach. By paying in advance for a full week I was able to get a large |
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FEb 13 2003 A Most Dangrous Day |
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We got up rather late around eleven and decided to go explore the island a bit. I asked the resort if they had mopeds for rent and the reception lady called someone up to bring us a moped. While we waited for the moped we had lunch at the |
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Feb 14 2003 On Foam Parties and Buying Houses |
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We had thought about taking the moped for a morning ride before returning it but Marian and I don't do mornings very well so we just returned the moped when we got up and went to the Rich for another peaceful day in paradise sitting by the ocean, reading, playing with |
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Feb 15 2003 Chaweng Beach |
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We wanted to visit a couple of interesting sounding restaurants in nearby Chaweng Beach. We planned to visit in interesting sounding place called Captain Kirk's for lunch and then I had a yen for steak so I wanted to visit a place called Churrasco which promised good steaks for dinner. |
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Feb 16 2003 Lazing Around Doing Nothing. |
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After spending so much money booking the tour we spent a quite day at the Rich again just reading and eating. It was just another perfect day of lazing around doing nothing. At night we went to the Siam Cafe for dinner and to catch the free Polynesian show. |
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Feb 17 2003 Ang Thong National Park |
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We were picked up by a very old jeep truck probably of WWII vintage at 8:30 in the morning for our snorkel tour. After stopping by another hotel to pick up three Germans and their Thai girlfriend we went to the northern part of the island to board a nice |
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Feb 18 2003 Just Another Day in Paradise |
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Having spent so much money on the tour yesterday we spent the day engaging in our favourite and cheapest activity, namely spending the day at the Rich, reading and eating. It so nice and relaxing that it is almost a shame that we were not vacationing from a 60 hour |
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Feb 19 2003 Back to Bangkok |
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We got to Nathon where I left Marian at a Cafe to get some lunch while I set up our transportation. After inquiring around I discovered that all the cheap tickets were sold out and I had to book us two air conditioned train tickets for B1,500 total for both |
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Feb 20 2003 Mystery Of The Extra Day |
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Got off the train quite early in the morning and caught a cab back to the Classic where we were surprised to discover that we were back a day early. We went to the Pizza Company and had lunch to puzzle out the mystery of what had gone wrong. |
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Feb 22 2003 Farewell to Marian |
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Marian was nervous and did not want to do anything again. A large part of this nervousness was that she had not been able to contact anyone at her school for five weeks ever since she left China. Everyone had given her cell phone numbers which she could not reach |
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Feb 23 2003 Lost Without The Fair Maid Marian |
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I was a bit lost after Marian left. Wasn't sure what to do so I went back to my other spouse and spent the day playing Civilization 3. I was doing OK until all the computer players decided to gang up on my and kicked my ass. Didn't |
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Feb 24 2003 Drowning My Sorrows In a Microchip |
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Woke up late and realized that I should do something. My ear was still giving me problems and I had heard about the quality and cheapness of Bangkok's medical system so I figured I should see if I could once again try to fix my ear. After lunch I went |
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Feb 25 2003 Back to the Doctor |
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Got up earlier and actually made it to the hospital in the morning. After a short wait I was shown to an ENT specialist. He was a middle aged fellow who spoke quite good English. After looking at the medical records I had brought with me he gave |
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Feb 26 2003 Heading for Chiang Mai |
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Woke up late as usual but still in time to check out. Went out, got some breakfast and did a little shopping for some additional supplies before leaving. While in Cambodia I had noticed some deficiencies in my first aid kit and I set out to remedy some of them. |
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Feb 27 2003 Hill Tribe Trekking Day One |
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The train was supposed to arrive at six in the morning. However since I have not encountered a Thai train that has ever arrived less than two hours late I did not bother to set an alarm. Nethertheless I woke up, or more accurately came out of my dozing |
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Feb 28 2003 Hill Trekking Day Two, Day Of The Pig |
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I did not sleep very well. The wooden sleeping platform was very hard and it was difficult to find a comfortable sleeping position. In addition later in the night it got very cold and despite the light sleeping bag and two blankets I was still cold. Then around |
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March 1 2003 Hill Trekking Day Three Wet and Wild |
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Once again I did not sleep well. The wooden floor of the huts was no softer than the wooden sleeping platform of the first night. The temperature was, if anything, colder. I also discovered that the floors of the huts were not quite level causing me to slide |
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March 2 2003 Time is Running Out |
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The train, which was scheduled to arrive at eleven, was predictably late and got in at one thirty. I rushed to the Classic Hotel where I had reserved and prepaid a room to drop off my stuff and then rushed to the hospital to see the doctor before they left. |
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March 3 2003 Shots, Books and Airlines |
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The first order of business was to change my plane ticket. I went to another travel agency who helped me call the airline for B30. This proved to be a good deal because it took her a good twenty minutes on the phone to get everything straightened out. |
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