Back from Beijing! What an adventure, while I love the price of frequent flyer miles and that they afforded me the front of the plane, it was a rather round-a-bout route. Atlanta to Vancouver to Seoul to Singapore to Beijing. I had an 8 hour layover in Singapore, enough time to discover my bag was still in Vancouver. It did find me in Beijing most fortunately about 4 hours after I got in.
Travel Tip: Pack an itinerary of what’s in your checked bag in your carry on. It was scary and challenging to try and recall everything with values, places purchased and dates.
Being vegetarian! No I haven’t given up red meat, white meat, or pink meat, but in order to avoid packing rations of tuna fish, crackers, and peanut butter, I had some advance notice that the cuisine might not suit my palate. Never much for duck, Peking or otherwise, and not enjoying food that looks back at me, I enjoyed a lot of veggies and European style salad even at breakfast.
Travel Tip: Learn about the culinary customs before you head internationally so you are prepared and don’t offend a host by declining. You can always be vegetarian or not eat a particular food for faith reasons.
Olympic Fever! They are building like gangbusters. Importing labor from the countryside and housing them in almost cardboard two story 5×8 dorms with bunk beds. Close to the Olympics everyone will be shipped back out the rural areas.
Business Tip: If you can make your business international, China has a lot of opportunity!
Travel by design,
MG
