Posts with the category ‘Asia’


Malaysian Visit Just in Time for Dinner, Dancing and a Show.

February 16, 2014

America is often referred to as a cultural melting pot but I give the Malaysians credit; they’ve got the go-along/get-along thing down to an art. Just like Singapore, their next door neighbor, Malaysians are a mix of Indian, Chinese and Malay. Skin color ranges from dark to light and the three big religions, Christian, Muslim and Hindu are represented with sizable and well-visited houses of worship.   The downtown Holy Light Presbyterian Church in Johor Bahru at the southern most end of the country, takes up an entire city bloc with sanctuary, school, sports fields and meeting space. The nearby Hindu temple is ringed by stalls selling strings… Read More…


Auto Show Tempts Public Transport Aficionado

May 10, 2013

By Andrea Lee Negroni In New York, I ride the subway and buses. In Washington and Paris, I travel on Metro, and in any city with a bikeshare program, I ride a bike. Failing these, I take cabs. This routine gives me an excuse to brag occasionally about exercise, economy, and the environment. I’ve never been a “car person,” but a couple of hours at the Auto Shanghai 2013 could convert even a diehard devotee of public transport. At the Shanghai New International Expo Center last weekend, buildings larger than airplane hangars were mobbed with adoring crowds wielding cameras. The event, recommended by a female… Read More…


Airbnb For Rooms and a Whole Lot More

September 22, 2012

I can’t believe it was just one year ago that my internet-savvy daughter, Marian Schembari told me about Airbnb. I was visiting her in New Zealand headed to the United Arab Emirates  and – as is my wont – had not yet booked a hotel in Abu Dhabi.  “Why didn’t I check Airbnb?” she asked, and I had to confess, I’d never heard of it. Simply, Airbnb is a web-based marketplace for people to rent overnight accommodations to travelers. These can be as modest as a bed in a shared room or as grand as an entire house. In additional to these conventional places, people… Read More…


The Story of the Friend I Did Not Know

September 18, 2012

Over rice and barbequed eel, Takeo Aizawa remembered the day the bomb fell on his hometown of Nagasaki. He was only six and sitting in his 1st grade classroom when the air raid signal went off. All students were told to go home at once. “Some of the older boys grabbed me by the collar,” he said, demonstrating with his hand at the back of his neck, “and they delivered me to my house.” There his mother took him and his three younger siblings into the garden where they sat out the attack in their homemade bomb shelter, a large hole dug into the dirt…. Read More…


Let’s Get Loud in Beijing -Together

June 13, 2012

I couldn’t know it at the time, but that dinner served to me on Air China Flight 982 to Beijing would typify my experience during my week long stay here. It was an unassuming little plate of vegetables, cooked vegetables, not my favorite way of eating greens frankly. But I took one bite and was pleasantly surprised. They were delicious. On first glance, Beijing is the same way, vaguely familiar as large urban centers are anywhere in the world, some traditional buildings, some modern, some over-the-top, “what was that architect thinking?” and lots of people. This is China after all. It’s the second glace, the… Read More…


How Many Chinese Does it Take to Build a Great Wall?

June 6, 2012

There are two ways to get up to China’s Great Wall at Mutianyu, north of Beijing. One can climb the 2,500 feet to get to the access point or do as I did and take the cable car. Later, after more than an hour on the wall, as I gasped for breath and did a hand-over-hand final push to scale the last steps to the point where further access was restricted, I realized I’d made the right decision by riding the first leg. That I, a woman who walks 4 miles every day before breakfast, was puffing like a steam engine on the final stretch… Read More…


Treasures Found in Towers of Trash — Guest Post

February 24, 2012

My friend Jim Karsh is my kinda’ guy in a number of ways; he’s an avid traveler who gets down and dirty wherever he happens to find himself, he loves airplanes, (flies a big one in fact for a major American carrier) he likes chocolate (’nuff said) and he is creative; a photographer and an aspiring writer. Today I’m turning Go How over to Jim who files this guest post on his recent visit to the Philippines. The Peninsula in Manila is a swanky hotel in whose ornate lobby I have on past visits seen none other than Imelda Marcos having cocktails. When I fly… Read More…


Demanding Chocolate On Every Flight

November 12, 2011

Like the perfect hostess she is, Lina Abdo can see the connections most folks miss. God bless her. On Friday,  she found a way to link chocolate, Veterans Day and travel at the 14th annual New York Chocolate Show. Hundreds, nay thousands were packed into the Metropolitan Pavilion for the show, sampling chocolates in every conceivable size, color and flavor. But the two marines who wound up at the display belonging to Lina’s little business, Les Cinq Amandes, were treated to sweets, sweet thanks for their service and made to feel like rock stars. Les Cinq Amandes, (French for the five almonds)  makes customized gift… Read More…


Ready to Roll in Copenhagen

November 8, 2011

I’m very excited about my upcoming trip to Copenhagen because I want to see for myself if it lives up to its billing as the world’s most bike-friendly city.  It boasts some pretty impressive figures. Seventy percent of the residents of Copenhagen do not own cars. Thirty-seven percent of commuters ride their bicycles to work. So devoted to their bicycles are the Copenhageners (Copenhageners? can that be right?)  even rain doesn’t dissuade them from riding. They open up a big umbrella and keep on rollin’. I’ve seen the pictures. Donchaknow I’ll be on a bike as soon as I possible after landing in Copenhagen and… Read More…


Plenty to Love Besides the Candy at Changi

September 28, 2011

I’ve made no secret of my affection for Singapore’s Changi Airport. But perhaps you don’t know that I also love chocolate. Which is why I was intrigued by a press release sent to me by the airport today announcing that when Americans pass through Singapore’s airport, the thing they most often buy is, you guessed it, chocolate. My fellow Americans – we are so out there in our obsession with chocolate,  that we purchased 1.35 million boxes of chocolate at that airport last year. I’ve been to Changi airport 3 or 4 times. I don’t remember buying chocolate there, ever. I do, however remember buying… Read More…


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