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Showing posts from March, 2007

Country #60: Switzerland

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A few years back, a well-travelled friend of mine casually asked me how many countries I had been to. I brought out a notepad, made a list, deliberated over it for awhile and gave him an answer. He then produced his slightly shorter list, which he had had at the ready all along. What's ensued from that day has become an ongoing competition with an ever evolving set of rules and regulations (ie. merely landing at an airport does not count, you must leave the airport property; landing on a country's territory and landing on the country itself only counts as one; countries must be recognized by the UN) and not to mention, the occasional accusation of cheating. Not content to play with just one person, I have thrust my atlas at many an unwilling participant and demanded that they tally up their "scores". The result is that there are now about a dozen of us playing Count the Countries. That makes it especially thrilling when I

Hades Express, Don't Leave Home Without It

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My last day in Bangkok was spent wandering around the labyrinth that is Chinatown. I went there for two reasons. One: this is one of the few areas of the city that I had not devoted any time to and Two: I had to check out the Hell Money. I had read in my guidebook about an alley named Soi Itsaranuphap in the heart of Chinatown where you find a line of shops selling fake money, issued from the Bank of Hades and household goods made of paper. Chinese Buddhists will purchase these, take them to the temples and burn them so that their loved ones who have passed on can receive them in the afterlife. As far as unusual religious practices go, you've got to admit, this one is a doozy. What I found in that alley was even better than I could have hoped for. Not only did they have cash in just about every denomination, size and color, they had every comfort and luxury items you could think of. You could get a Mercedes (with a driver, of course), a computer (PC only, somehow Steve Jobs

Boats, Bridges and Beasts...oh my!!

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As you may have already seen, last Thursday had my friends and I hanging out with some rather large kitties. This was actually just one part of our three-in-one sightseeing tour. The tour, which began at the unfortunate hour of 6:30 am took us to the floating market about one hour outside of Bangkok, where we had the opportunity to take a boat ride and gawk at tourists gawking at old ladies in big straw hats. We, ourselves, were given some rather large sombreros to wear, but this did not seem to result in anyone gawking in our general direction. After floating through the market and sampling the aquatic equivalent of street food, we were off to the province of Kanchanaburi , for our second scheduled activity. This was a visit to the River Kwai and more importantly to the bridge which spans across it. At first I felt a bit guilty about never having seen the movie, read the book, or even possessing any strong feelings towards this Bridge, but after seeing how no one in our group seemed

Not that kind of Tiger Show...

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Here are a couple of pictures from the Tiger Temple in Thailand. I'll be writing more about it when I get a chance....

Q: What do you do with 44 hours in St. Thomas?

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A: Get the hell out of St. Thomas. Seriously. If you don't want to take my word for it, just look at the officially sanctioned US Virgin Islands website. Sure, they may use words such as "cosmopolitan" and "lively" in the place of the more accurate "overcrowded" and "tourist trappy", but instinctively you know what they mean. The site goes as far as to point out that St. Thomas is the "least virginal" of the Virgin Islands. They, the very people being paid to make this place attractive to visitors can't help but to warn you that this is one whore of an island. If you want to find the Johns, you need look no further than the port which hosts the greatest number of cruise ships of any Caribbean island. Lucky for us, the girl working at the gift shop in our overpriced hotel shared the website's penchant for unfailing honesty. Only with a bit less subtlety. I believe her words were "All the beaches in St. Th