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| On my quest to fly 100,000 miles again this year. My journey will bring me to the historic city of Istanbul to experience where Europe meets Asia. An amazing city with a glorious history.
There is no better time to visit Turkey than during thanksgiving. I will depart Thanksgiving day and be there till Wednesday November 28 with my favorite travel companions the Nguyens. I am excited to be able to scope around in the city before I meet them in Istanbul!
If you are interested in visiting Istanbul with me let me know. Hotel is covered!
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| The question I get asked most frequently when I meet new people is "How many countries have you been too?" I guess I never ever really counted until I found this website http://www.world66.com/myworld66
Officially I have been to 53 countries throughout the world, but I have only covered 23% of the world.
Looking at the map I have a lot more travel to do! Anyone want to go somewhere exotic? let me know!
This summer has been awesome! I got to experience beautiful Hawaii and scenic Vancouver!
Looking forward to my travels to India and the Middle East this fall! For now I will be home so come visit!
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| Home sweet home. All the fanciest suites in the world do not compare to my own bed. Getting back to Buffalo was another story. So i arrive in Washington after a 14 hour flight from Kuwait and ready to get my bag and get on my flight to Buffalo but no bag so I miss my flight to Buffalo, then later find out that all flights to Buffalo are full and the only flight is 12 hours later. In my mind what is going on in Buffalo and I arrive and find out the Buffalo is hosting March Madness! So tons of people to Buffalo and lucky me I got on the next flight but still no bag  .
This trip has been long and I moved quickly went to India, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. It was my first time to Saudi Arabia. What an interesting place. Picture this you see an ad for McDonalds you see a women and her family but the face of the woman is fuzzed out (done on purpose). It was so odd to walk around the country and see ads with women's faces fuzzed out. Another fact: women in Saudi can not drive!
Well off to Taiwan next week.
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| Actually it really should be greetings from New Delhi, India. Kuwait will have to do for now since I am stuck in Kuwait with no plane to take me to New Delhi. Things always seem to work themselves out somehow. I was suppose to take a 11:00 pm flight from Kuwait to New Delhi and arrive at 5am in India. With this delay they put me up in the hotel and tomorrow I will arrive in New Delhi at 3:30 for a fair that will start at 5pm. A little tighter than I wanted but I will be there in time for the fair. Now at least I can sleep in a hotel rather than on a plane.
You know it sucks to be treated as a second rate citizen here in Kuwait. It was my first time ever experiencing it and kinda sucks. Check in the hotel and they told me I get dinner too. So I go to the dining room and it was buffet or a la carte. They seat me with a view very nice with dinner napkin which was all fine and dandy. Then the waiter comes and I ask what is the amount I can spend etc... once he found out that I was staying there because of my flight delay the waiter asked me to move to a no view area with paper napkins. I was tired and I was fine until I sat down and thought to my self I just got treated as second rate citizen. The great thing is that when it came to bill the manger punched my room number and name in the system it showed that I was platinum status which is the highest status in this hotel chain, he realized he made a mistake , he came over and all of a sudden became very interested in me and became very courteous. I did not say anything, but they will hear from me tomorrow morning when I have the energy to complain.
A note about Kuwait- Kuwait is a very rich country from their oil and many Indian and Filipino people work in Kuwait and comprise much of the working class. So many times there are many stories from being treated as the "working" class, I am sure this would not have happen if I was Caucasian. I get that look many times. I am lucky I am American and had a US passport so I can enter Kuwait but there were some other folks that were stuck at the airport because they did not have the clearance to enter the country. So they were stuck inside the airport.
Oh yeah the flight from Washington to Kuwait was already 14 hours, so I was kinda glad to stay a night in Kuwait before heading to New Delhi. Good Night
Has anyone seen Babel? Watched it on the plane and since most of the movie is in subtitles was not able to read some of the subtitles and did not understand. I wasn't sure what the whole movie was about.
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| December went by so quickly. In the first part went on a cruise with my parents. Time well spent with my parents and a time for them to get away and relax. Since we have been on the Norwegian Dawn before we spent more time resting and enjoying. There was a night I spent some time donating money to the casino and return to the room with no one there. Later I found out that they were both on the upper deck watching the stars, having drinks at the bar and listening to live music.
It was also very cool to see my mom swimming with stingrays and my dad swimming in the Atlantic ocean for the first time. As for me there were days where I was pretty lazy, my mom brought me breakfast in bed. What a special treat! Special moments! We loved it so much we planned our next cruise to the 50th US state!
After the cruise then I spent a week with my pseudo parents mistervoo and rehmee78 with my pseudo uncle Bon (How crazy is that!) Another week of special moments with the old Buffalo crew laughing, talking and eating. I had a great time seeing everybody. It was must needed time since I have been away so much! I must say I miss just chillin and hanging out even more than my travels. A week spending time with friends that are family is also very relaxing especially when I got sent to "essential therapy". Thanks!
These 10 days were a nice time of eating and chillin. I have to say eating hot pot and pho from the pseudo grandparents was also a very nice treat. Xing of course has a special place in my heart! Lots of fun! Oh and there is Max Brenners - never had so much chocolate in one seating! In about a week I wonder how mistervoo and rehmee78 will eat all the food in the apartment without Bon and me! How quickly 10 days have passed and how much we have eaten. Good times!
Now back to the real world! Miss my parents both real and pseudo. Thanks for a wonderful December. Looking forward to my next visit! | | |
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