Russia

The Moscow Metro

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Walking through the Moscow Metro, you get the sense that you’re moving through hallowed ground. The place is busy, but not notably so, and everyone moves with a very quiet efficiency. Workers are constantly cleaning and polishing the floors. I saw one worker diligently moving a straight line of fine wood chips across the floor […]

Russia

Arrival in Moscow

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After an uneventful flight to JFK, we checked in at Terminal 1 for our Aeroflot flight to Moscow. I don’t think we’ve ever been in Terminal 1 in JFK before, but I’ll say this: the place is a zoo. Flights are departing to every imaginable destination with every imaginable culture being jammed through the same […]

Mexico

Last Days in Mexico

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You know, one can’t help but filter travel experiences through the lens of your own culture and experience. You step into another way of life, observe the differences, and usually start out thinking “WTF is wrong with these people?!!” At least, that’s what I usually think. Seriously though, when observing things that don’t seem to […]

Mexico

Pico de Orizaba hiking trip

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Our hiking trip began catching a bus and bringing all our gear from Mexico City to Puebla. After overnighting in Puebla, we met our mountain guide “Oso” (Translation: The bear), who drove us to our first acclimatization stop in Tlachichuca. An interesting note on Oso, while he’s been professionally guiding on mountains for at least […]

Mexico

Passing through Puebla

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We stayed overnight in Puebla to meet our mountain guide “Oso” (The Bear) the next day to start our hiking trip to Pico de Orizaba. We were only there a short time but we really enjoyed the atmosphere in Puebla. The town is bustling, clean, and had more foreign tourists than any other place we’ve […]

Mexico

Photography Gestapo & Mexican Hairless dogs

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Visited a big museum today and met some more family who are also in town visiting. We visited the Dolores Olmedo museum, which is basically a collection of art and artifacts from a VERY rich lady. A large part of the museum is collections of art from Diego Rivera and Freda Kahlo, actually bigger collections […]

Mexico

Coyoacan & Chapultepec

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Started out the day in Coyoacan and browsed around a market there. They have a lot of the local crafts and such, but generally of a higher quality and without the aggressive sales tactics at a lot of tourist areas. There was an artisan there selling the traditional carved and painted animals from the Oaxaca […]

Mexico

Teotihuacan & Zona Rosa

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Got a fairly early start to go visit the ruins in Teotihuacan (about 45 min from Mexico City). Scorching hot but otherwise good weather. We traveled on the non-tourist local bus (less than $3 each) Interesting events during the trip included being stopped at a Federal Police roadblock and having every passenger and their luggage […]

Mexico

The Trajinera Scam

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Fairly relaxed third day in Mexico City. On the agenda: taking a Trajinera (elaborately decorated boat) down canals first used by the Aztecs. Our destination (sort of) was something called “Island of the Dolls”. It’s a bizarre area off a canal where a man started placing old and mutilated dolls everywhere to appease the spirit […]

Mexico

Mexico City: Downtown/Historic District

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We arrived in Mexico City a couple days ago reasonably well rested after a couple uneventful flights. I’m withholding my complete verdict on the “Cabin Comfort” pillow, but tentatively it seems ok and I managed a short nap on the way here with it. As usual, she snoozed most of the flight with her travel […]

Travel

World Trip 2011 Itinerary

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Planned Itinerary, May 31 – August 11, 2011: 1. Mexico (Mexico City, Puebla, Tlachichuca, Hidalgo Village, Pico de Orizaba) 2. Russia (Moscow) 3. India (Delhi, Agra, Jaipur) 4. Thailand (Bangkok, Kanchanaburi) 5. Cambodia (Siem Reap, Phnom Penh) 6. Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon) 7. China (Guilin, Beijing, Xi’an) 8. North Korea/DPRK (Pyongyang, Nampo, Mt. Myohyang, Sinchon, Kaesong)