An Asian Peregrination/Una peregrinacion asiatica
In and around Champaign, United States
Juliana and I share a mutual desire of life: travel broadly and explore the world. We are fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit many places, and now extend this with our most ambitious trip yet: Asia for 3 months. In this journal we'll recount our adventures, impressions, observations, and ruminations as we wander through that part of the world so rich in people, history, culture, language and more. We hope to provide enjoyable reading for those who have the time to cast a glance this way. A viajar!
See our calendar here: http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=op0nigfube6gevc2rtseiqof2k%40group.calendar.google.com
Route taken and entries by Real Traveler Steve & Juli
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Packing up…
Still working on getting out of the house.
And seeing if this will work very well…
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More Tokyo
Tokyo is our first stop on this jaunt through Asia. First impressions? Frustration! It is an odd feeling... Continue reading »
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Tokyo
Hemos sobrevivido dos dias y medio en Tokyo! El primer dia, Septiembre 26, llegamos a las 3:40PM despues de 13 largas horas de vuelo desde Chicago.... Continue reading »
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Fuji-continuacion
En este momento estamos en Kyoto, pero voy a terminar la parte de Fuji. El segundo dia pudimos ver el monte Fuji por la manana y luego nos fu... Continue reading »
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Tokio-Ueno
Estas fotos son todas de Ueno, el parque donde quedan los museos en Tokio y un templo importante. Esto lo vimos la ultima manana en Tokio. Continue reading » -
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Fuji (Kawaguchi-ko)
Antes de comentar sobre Fuji, creo que vale la pena hacer una descripcion detallada de la experiencia de montar en el metro de Tokio a hora pico.&n... Continue reading »
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Mount Fuji
We wrapped up Tokyo the morn of the 29th with a rather thrilling experience of the Tokyo subway system during rush hour (let's... Continue reading »
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Kyoto
En este momento estamos haciendo un pequeno descando en la estacion de Kyoto, en la oficina de turismo. Uds no se alcanzan a imaginar lo que... Continue reading »
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9
Holy city
A large part of the adventure so far is culinary. Japan has its interesting gastronomical delights, some of which rapidly... Continue reading »
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10
Kyoto-Nara
Hoy pasamos todo el dia en Nara que queda a 45 minutos de Kioto en tren. En Nara hay un parque inmenso con templos y in Buhda gigantesco. La caminata... Continue reading » -
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Urban ecology
The emperor once lived here. For a short bit, before moving to Kyoto. Nara is a 45 minute train ride south of Kyoto... Continue reading »
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12
Green tea and watermelon fish
Tea is a big deal in Japan, as we would all expect. South of Kyoto there is a small town called Uji where tea has long bee... Continue reading »
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13
Koyasan
La experiencia de Koyasan con los monjes fue fantastica, en mi opinion la mejor que hemos tenido en el Japon. Todo empieza desde el momento e... Continue reading »
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14
Mountain retreat
While I have bemoaned the abundance of temples and shrines here and the rapid loss of their novelty, part of this is due to the... Continue reading »
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15
Japan--a summary
Now in China, a few summary comments on the Japan tour. These must be qualified by the fact that our stay was short and only included a few d... Continue reading »
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16
An ancient capital
Juliana is giving me funny looks. Apparently she doesn't appreciate my penchant for subtle prose (much less after&nbs... Continue reading »
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17
China - La Gran Muralla China
Despues de dos dias de choque cultural estamos empezando a ver y descubrir la riqueza de esta cultura. Hoy tomamos un tour a las tumbas de la... Continue reading »
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Beijing - Palacio de Verano y Ciudad Prohibida
En este momento estamos extenuados despues de habernos caminado absolutamente todos los rincones de la Ciudad Prohibida y la plaza de Tianamen.&nbs... Continue reading »
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19
Paranoia and hubris
Our Beijing experience now includes the obligate tourist stops of the Great Wall, the Summer Palace, and the Forbidden City. Each has its all... Continue reading »
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20
China - Datong / Pingyao
El hotel donde estamos en Pingyao tiene computador! Bueno, la llegada a Datong fue por un tren nocturno desde Beijing. La estacion de t... Continue reading »
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21
China past, behind stone
Pingyao is a relict city from the Ming dynasty, with a history extending to 400 B.C. or so, but mostly influenced by develo... Continue reading »
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Long way to Xi'an
From Pingyao we worked out a route to the south with the intention to visit the Shaolin temple and subsequently Mount Huashan on... Continue reading »
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Bastion of history
*** SEE 'LONG WAY TO XI'AN' FOR PICTURES ***
Arrived to Xi'an a tad earlier than planned... Fortuna... Continue reading »
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China - Xian
El viaje a Xian empezo dos dias antes de lo prevista debido a circunstancias fuera de nuestro control. Antes de llegar a Xian paramos en una... Continue reading »
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25
China - Shanghai
Shanghai es una ciudad fantastica, es una China muy distinta a la que vimos en el interior del pais. La primera impresion es de una ciudad li... Continue reading »
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26
A modern encore
From one of China's most ancient cities to its most modern, Shanghai makes dramatic counterpoint to the sights and urban areas e... Continue reading »
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27
Hong Kong
Hong Kong es FANTASTICO y hasta ahora ha sido una de las sorpresas mas inolvidables de nuestro viaje. Nos quedamos en una hosteria en la isla... Continue reading »
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28
Fusion
We're a tad behind... hopeful for time and opportunity to make more comments and catch up once we reach Vietnam...
In Hanoi now and try... Continue reading »
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29
Vietnam - Hanoi
La llegada a Vietnam ha sido muy emocionante. La cultura es muy distinta a lo que hemos visto hasta ahora y algo sorprendente. Todo el... Continue reading »
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30
Trekking North Vietnam
Nov 4 We're in North Vietnam. Hanoi, now, to be specific, after having trekked through the hills/mountains a f... Continue reading »
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31
Vietnam: Sapa/Halong Bay/Saigon
Vietnam es un pais encantador, no solo por sus riquezas naturales sino tambien por su gente. Las personas sonrien constantemente, ya sea en e... Continue reading »
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32
Limestone wonderland
After 3 days walking the hills and a day, not without its own adventures, in Hanoi, we turned our sights on the renowned World Heri... Continue reading » -
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South Vietnam
Saigon is the modern heart of Vietnam it appears, with 10 million people and 5 million motorbikes, the pace is as fast as the smile... Continue reading » -
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Temples and jungle
Seen Tomb Raiders? See it again, because we're on the set. Angkor is a extensive complex of temples and ancient ston... Continue reading »
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35
City of Angels
Another new airport. A theme in this part of the world? This one, however, is enormous and reminiscent of DIA--nightmar... Continue reading » -
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True paradise
The Surin islands are a 2+ hour boat ride from the Khura Buri pier and sufficiently unknown that few non-Thai toursts find their wa... Continue reading » -
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Island passage
Big time tourist island, Phuket served us as little more than a stop over between Surin and Ko Phi Phi. The highlight? A hotel for $7 that... Continue reading » -
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Prettiest place on earth ... ?
Touted as "the prettiest place on earth", it was difficult to not want to go to Ko Phi Phi (pronounced koh pee pee) and see what the buzz was a... Continue reading » -
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The Mixing Pot
We departed Bangkok early- way too early as we mis- read our flight time and our taxi driver flew through the nearly nonexistent... Continue reading »
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Serenity amidst tea plantations
A bit car sick (or maybe more than a bit...) after the sinuous ascent from the lowlands, we descended from our bus to the clamor of hotel touts in the... Continue reading » -
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Christmas in Asia
Singapore has Christmas spirit--even though few locals are christian! Continue reading » -
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The chirp of the gecko
Geckos chirp. Hearing one chirp exactly 7 times is considered good luck in Asia. In the tranquility of the nights in Amed (Lipah, actually... Continue reading » -
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Religion in Bali
A local holy day pending and tiring of the slow pace in Amed, we made our way to the cultural center of Bali, and important tourist destination, but a... Continue reading » -
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Encore on the beach
Tiring of travel and seeking something of the classic vacation experience of a beach resort to end our trip, we made our way to sleepy Sanur, somewhat... Continue reading » -
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Casa
After 43 hours of traveling, we find ourselves back in the safe confines of Juli's folks' home in Cali and with time aplenty to reminisce and reflect... Continue reading »
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