Terracotta Warriors

By Allan Brown:

One does not simply go view the Terracotta Warriors; you need a reservation and you need to be searched, scanned, and your passport inspected.

Our guides were happy to tell us that it was a slow day after viewing, for what seemed to us, massive crowds. Really? This was a slow day? Sure enough, we saw crowd control barriers that seemed to be able to handle about 10 times more people than were here on this day. Wow! This is hugely popular, even in China!

Hallo to Ha Long Bay!

By Allan Brown:

Alongside the Great Wall of China, Ha Long Bay is known for gracing many travel calendars. The iconic karsts of the bay have been seen on screen savers and social media worldwide.

A Real wink-wink Indian Village

By Allan Brown:

We have done excursions on several tours where they take you to a local family or native village to…ah…well see how locals live, or how they used to live. We still laugh about the native village in Ecuador we visited that involved taking a canoe down the river, hoofing it across the sand bar to cross another river and then hiking to the village. As we sat in the sweltering heat Marla happened to pick the one seat where a laser beam of sunlight poked through the roof and melted her face like a wax candle. It was an awesome sight to see and it distracted us from the obliviously bored“native family” dressed in grass skirts sitting in their own hell while a termite nest burned smoking away the mosquitos.

Our Lady of the Rocks

By Allan Brown:

Before there was an island and before there was a church on an island it was a small rock of about 3 meters square sticking out of the water in an islet off the coast of Perast in the Bay of Kotor, Montenegro. Then things got weird, in 1452 some fishermen saw a vision of the Virgin Mary underneath the water near the rock so they needed to set her free. Or something like that.

Why Colorado?

By Allan Brown:

Sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a faithful trip, it started with a Corvette top a top that would not fit…

A buddy and I had planneda road trip to Colorado to buy a top for his vintage Corvette. I was talking to my brother about possible routes and places to stay and he had suggested Glenwood Springs. Another friend had a time share there and it all sounded good until a sharp eye noticed that a photo of the Corvette top advertised was for a different year and wouldn’t fit. That trip was cancelled but the seed had been planted for Glenwood Springs.

Lower Than but Not Less Than

By Allan Brown:

Prague has an area they refer to as Lesser Town but not in a disparaging way, our guide Jana didn’t like the term either. Lesser Town means it’s lower in elevation in its proximity to the river and more prone to flooding.

The area is also where most of the foreign embassies are located in beautiful old buildings. The streets are narrow and are made of cobblestones that give a unique yet comforting sound as cars drive by. You can judge the speed of a car by the pitch of the tires whining upon the cobblestones.

Rift Raft

By Allan Brown:

After our Amazon rain forest walk we hopped back on the boats and cruised across the river to a sandbar where two balsa wood rafts were waiting. They were like it sounds, balsa logs tied together like in the movies. We sat on the edge of the rafts dangling our legs in the water and pushed off the bank into the river and about ten minutes later we all jumped in the water. This portion of the river was wide, smooth with no whitecaps and rated safe for doughy seniors.

Then the hard part came, a bunch of overweight and out of shape seniors trying to hoist themselves back onto the raft with lots of grunting and words of encouragement. Have you ever seen Shamu at Sea World slide up to the trainers for a fish? Then you can imagine a bunch of pale dad bods doing the same-without the fish. The boats pulled up and we had to now stand up on the raft and step over the side of the boat, one task was brute strength and this one required grace and balance, neither which most of us had.

The Mystery Vacation

By Allan Brown:

Marla had planned a mystery vacation for us and I hadn’t a clue of where we were going. Our kids and her co-workers knew her plans and they all kept it a secret.

I finally got some clues like being told to buy a hat, pack a swimsuit and bring sun screen. Later I was to purchase some bug spray followed by her telling me that the initial flight would be five hours yet it wouldn’t be our final destination….