New Year’s Eve 2004 consisted of 2 groups of people, 4 different events and a bad hangover the next day.
I dun usually drink champagne. Especially bad champagne. Which was what was served at these events. Hence the hangover.
Anyhooo, here’s to 2005 and more world travel! If only State would return my passport in a timely manner (I sent it back 4 weeks ago because it needed new pages), I could start traveling immediately. After all, the time from January to March is usually the time for cheap fares (except to Asia).
Instead, I’m stuck here in the US. Blah.
Updates
Nothing much in the travel front recently.
It’s Xmas season which = high season for airfares and the like.
But I did upload pix for November’s last trip in the Gallery. That’s for all of you who want to see pix and not read commentary…
Just go back to the splash page and select “Gallery”, then Int’l Travel, then “Beeg Asia Trip 2004”.
I’ll add pithy comments in the next few days. So you WILL have to read!
muuuuhuuuhaaahaaa!
Ho ho ho
Merry Christmas to all of you that are actually reading this !
Xmas tree in Union Square, San Francisco.
In the background is the St. Francis Hotel on Powell Street, where the cable cars rumble up and down the hill.
I took this pic last night (Xmas eve) before it got cold cold cold! 4 degrees celsius!
Brrrrr….
Xmas in Hong Kong
When I returned to Hong Kong after flying in from Beijing during my trip last month, I saw Xmas lights beginning to go up.
I like the idea of decorating buildings. Makes the harbor look even more interesting…
Get it? Parts of the building look like peppermint sticks!
Sakura-jima
This is Sakura-jima, an active volcano off the southern tip of Kyushu near the town of Kagoshima.
Part of the cone was blown off during one of its frequent eruptions a few years back. That’s why it doesn’t look as conical as Fuji-san.
Unfortunately, this is as close as we were able to get to it since we only had a few hours in town.
Since it’s still an active volcano (note the smoke above), there are concrete shelters all over. If you hear the sirens, you duck into here.
Does concrete stand up to lava?
Shinagawa at Night
Somewhere between Ginza and the JR Shinagawa station. This was around 2200 hours on a weeknight from my last night in Tokyo, after dinner with Yumi-chan.
End of the Storm
We had a big blustery storm blow through here last night.
Gusts up to 50 MPH. It blew the trash cans over. Lots of loud rain too. Fierce.
Then, as is with all storms, as it left, it left sunshine and fresh air in its wake.
But I half expected to see this morning:
Fuji-San in the distance and lots of Y300 umbrellas left at the JR station near the entry wickets…
People walking through Wan Chai in the morning and being able to see TST clearly in the brisk and clean air…
Being able to walk three blocks down Orchard Road before breaking out in a sweat because the humidity isn’t quite THAT bad yet! =P
Yeah, I got it bad. I NEED to get out there somehow…just need to get outta here.
Recovering
So after 4 nights with 8+ hours of sleep and sampling every over-the-counter remedy (TheraFlu night formula works best, BTW), I can say that I’m recovering.
I still say that they should ban sick people from planes. Of course, if I could have fit a SIN trip to the end of this trip, I never would have sat next to the sick guy on my flight because I would be on a different flight than the one I was on…
wouldacouldashoulda.
Sick people on Planes
BAN THEM BAN THEM BAN THEM!!!
They shouldn’t be flying if they’re freekin’ sick! And they should NOT be seated to ME!
I traveled in Asia for three weeks. I suffered (and sweat) in the heat of Hong Kong, sweated and chilled in Japan for over a week, froze in Beijing, stumbled into Shenzhen and sweat in the then not so hot as before Hong Kong before I left for California.
I got seated by some sick (COFF COFF COFFFFF!) Brit who lives in Mexico. He was coughing and sneezing throughout the entire flight.
I had a mask in my baggage from the SARS time. Should have put it on.
Come to think of it, he should’ve had a mask on for the consideration of the others on the plane.
But nooooo, in-consideration is the name of the game here!
I’m sick now. Great. Hope the Theraflu nips this in the bud.
Freekin’ sick people! Kick them off the damn plane!
Back in SFO
Bleagh. Back in the US. Not an anti-US screed, but more of an annoyance. Follow:
When you travel, there’s usually two lines: one for foreigners and one for citizens of whatever country you’re visiting.
Usually, the foreign passport line (especially in China) moves really slow while the citizens line moves fast. Makes sense.
But when I finally landed at LAX and walked from El Segundo (it really seemed that far) back to customs/passport control, guess which line was longest?
US Citizens, that�s what!
Although, the line moved kinda quick considering how long it was. Customs was a snap, much faster than it is in SFO.
After a few hours, I caught my UA connection back to San Fran. The service was horrid (in all ways) and people weren�t too happy on the plane.
So in other words, it was United Airlines! =)
Landed and went straight to In & Out for my �welcome back to Cali� dinner.
Yeah, I�m back. And despite eating a lot, I lost 7 pounds! Yeah!