Asia overview

We first visited Asia when Alethea and Yanni were in China. While we were there we spent time in Beijing and Xi'an. The two week stay entailed an overnight train, the high speed train and an internal domestic flight. We also traveled by bus and taxi. Alethea and Yanni lived in Dalian which is near the North Korea border. Xi'an is in the west side of China and Beijing is somewhat in the middle. We thought at one point of taking the Transiberian Railway from Beijing to Moscow. We like trains, so it would be a peaceful trip with opportunities to take pictures out the window in an extensive view of Russia. We may return and fulfill that dream, but not yet.

While we lived in Thailand a few years later we decided to make the most of our location to take in sights at various nearby Asian countries. Thailand is about the size of California and borders Malaysia, Burma/Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. We made a point of visiting different countries on our visa runs. We did Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, Cambodia, Burma/Myanmar trips as visa runs. Malaysia was the first because it is close to southern Thailand. Several times we made visa runs by bus to Malaysia. The bus runs went to Penang which is a great tourist destination. We flew once to Kuala Lumphur. That is a large metropolis. The bird park there is worth a visit.

Nepal is a significant trip in Asia in its' own right. The culture is strong, but tourism is easy. It can be rustic in accommodation but people are friendly and curious. Nepal is more of a Hindu country altho they have a very significant Buddhist temple in Kathmandu. Since our trip was a visa run we hadn't planned ahead very much and it was just a fun cultural excursion eating, touring temples and shopping. I bought a locally made outfit which I still love to this day. We also got a couple of singing bowls, prayer flags, and some knick nacs. Karen was enamoured of a few of their local dishes including Thukpa and some of the tea.