Question of the Day: What is the SPF of my shirt?

Slowly winnowing away the plate o' fruit. I learned something this morning: it is much easier to floss your teeth if you do it before you put on sunscreen. Afterward, it's kinda hard to hang on to the ribbon.

I'm still freaked out by the amount of American music around. While in the car yesterday (we ( Read more... )

Question of the day: Is it safe to drink tap water that has been boiled the electric kettle?

Why do stars fall down from the sky...Apparently there's some sort of karaoke going on in the courtyard. Since there are a lot of hard surfaces (think stone/tile/marble) it, um, carries well. A little too well, one might think. [Islands in the stream...] It' ( Read more... )

Wake up at noon. I'm not ready to tackle the outside world yet, so I make a pot of (just to ward off a headache) coffee in the room. I'm glad I brought a sharp knife (in checked luggage, obviously) to cut up (what I think is) an Asian pear for breakfast. I figured out how to put the AC on "low." Now to try to update the travel site. Sorry no ( Read more... )

Population of Haikou increases by one fat, sweaty American.

Baggage Claim. Yay, my luggage made it! There is a narrow gate to exit, and two people check that the tag on your baggage matches your ticket. Still, you must get through the gate as fast as possible. Push. Urgently.

Sandy and Sailor meet me at the airport. I am so happy to see them! And not ( Read more... )

Long, slow line at customs. It's air conditioned, but hot. I'm worried about catching my connecting flight, as I only have an hour and a half to navigate customs, claim luggage, and figure out where to catch my connection. The person behind me starts up a conversation, which is fine, but she's complaining about how slow it's going: "That line seems ( Read more... )

In the interest of consolidating blogs, I'm posting entries from my first China trip here. Nothing new unless you missed it the first time.

I've never taken a flight over about 7 hours or so... Usually after about 5, I start pacing up and down the aisles and gritting my teeth. Combine this with my fear of starving (The airline didn't have enough ( Read more... )