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Showing posts from December, 2019

Expidite the expidited

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I am headed to the passport office this AM to get a new passport. I didn't have time to do the expidited renewal after getting back from Japan. So I made an special expiditing appointment with the passport folks in Atlanta. I am glad I only have to drive into Atlanta, not fly up to NY or Washington DC. It seems I have had to do some expiditing everytime I have renewed my passport. Passports are good for 10 years. When you get a new passport it is a time to ponder where you will be and what the passport will look like in 10 years. The pic belows shows the wear on my now cancelled passport. it was a 50 page book (the extra pages version) and 46 pages are fully used. Many countries require 3 empty pages to enter their country. So, I got full use of the larger size passport. If you need more pages, you send the passport in and they will "sew-in" more pages. The thickest passport I ever saw was at the Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan border. A truck driver I saw had a Uzbekistan passpo...
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We are back from our most complex trip yet. This time in South East Asia. Some stats: 8 countries (not including the US) 10 flight segments 6 airlines 14 days 4 boats 1 elephant ride 1 scooter rental Countries: South Korea Thailand Cambodia Laos Vietnam Singapore Brunei Philippines Cambodia For Cambodia we concentrated on Siem Reap since that is the city closest to Angor Wat. The Angor Wat park complex is enormous. The active temples have oscillated between Buddhist and Hindu over the years. We were quite interested in a huge stone carving depicting a great battle. It is very similar to the Bayeux Tapestry. Interesting, the Bayeux Tapestry predates the Angor Wat carving by about 100 years (1066). We also liked Angor Thom best, the temples with the large faces. Good vibes there for sure. I haven't seen this type of pull-tab on a can for probably 30 years (or more). Apparently bamboo scaffolding is still used in Cambodia. Vietnam Vietnam is a photographer's...