Okinawa

by | Oct 5, 2017 | 0 comments

I am writing this from roughly the middle of the East China Sea on a twenty hour sea passage from Shanghai to Okinawa.  Actually, I’m not going to Okinawa but to Ishigaki-Jima which is a part of the Okinawa chain of islands which are, in turn, are part of Japan. I don’t want to insult anyones intelligence by dwelling on what you already know, but, if you, like me, missed this part of the world in your world geography class, a little context might be useful. Okinawa is a chain of 150 or so islands midway between Japan and Taiwan, and lies, as I previously indicated, in the midst of the East China sea.  Of the 44 islands which are inhabited, a...

Burma

by | Jan 28, 2015 | 0 comments

If you are of a certain age, I bet I know the first thing that comes to mind when you see the word “Burma.”  Be honest now, I’m pretty sure it had nothing to do with Aung San Suu Kyi or the dreadful military tyrants that have had the country in lockdown for the last fifty years. Your first thought may go something like this: “Does your husband, Misbehave?  Grunt and Grumble, Rant and Rave?                               Shoot the Brute…Some Burma Shave!” I know you wouldn’t remember the exact words of the doggerel but, more likely than not, you would have thought of Burma Shave. That’s about where I started out as...

Singapore, The Asian City State

by | Oct 15, 2011 | 0 comments

I had been looking forward to this trip for some time.  An all expenses paid trip to Singapore is nothing to sneeze at these days, even if I had to work a few days for it.  Singapore, as you know is on the other side of the world.  Well, it’s not exactly the other side, but it might as well be.  The world’s circumference is about 24,000 miles and it’s about 10,000 to Singapore as the crow flies, but no one ever flies like a crow.  My plan, developed after far too many hours on the internet, was to fly DFW to LAX, and after a short layover, catch the Singapore Airlines non-stop to Singapore. Three hours to LA, two hours of layover, and sixteen hours of food,...