Border Search Exception. International travelers, be forewarned: the US federal court decision announced on New Year’s Eve did not seem to attract a lot of attention, but its impact should be of interest to all of you. The court upheld the government’s right, at the borders, to inspect and copy the contents of travelers’ laptops…
Winterthur Museum ~ An easy day trip!
Winterthur Museum is the premier museum of American decorative arts and is an easy and worthwhile day trip year-round for people living in the Mid-Atlantic region. Originally a 60-acre mansion and estate of the Dupont family located within a 1,000 acre preserve of rolling meadows and woodlands, Winterthur (named after the Swiss town of the…
Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, … the smart way to travel!
Global Entry. A few years ago, I was coming back from overseas into the US and was waiting in line for my turn to go thru passport control at the airport. While hundreds of us were standing around waiting, we could see a few travelers head to a row of ATM-looking machines on the side…
Delhi … or is it New Delhi? Some thoughts on India travel
India travel. We are going to India and Nepal next February. This is a trip which I was not keen to organize, even though I now have a new career as a travel writer and a blogger (I invite you to visit my travel blog BonVoyageurs.com and enter your email address on the home…
Grasse, France ~ The scent of a woman …
Grasse France. We had saved today for the historic and hilly town of Grasse, the world capital of perfume, located about ten miles up the hills of the Maritime Alps behind Cannes. The small town of Grasse still accounts for two thirds of France’s production of perfume essence and food flavorings. The hills around…
Yichang to Shanghai via Shanghai Airlines !
Yichang to Shanghai via Shanghai Airlines. Read our previous posting at “Three Gorges Dam river cruise” Our Chinese is getting better; sao dan (wait a moment), pu yong shie (you’re welcome), pie tan shin (don’t worry) are some of our latest additions. And I can’t believe how fantastic the music played on the Chinese cruise…
Three Gorges Dam river cruise !
Three Gorges Dam river cruise. Read our previous posting at “Yangtze River Cruise and the Yangtze Gold One!” Chang Jiang Huang Jin Yi Hao is the name of our cruise ship; it means Yangtze Gold One in Chinese, who don’t use the term Yangtze. For them, it’s Chang Jiang, the Long (or is it Eternal) …
Yangtze River Cruise and the Yangtze Gold One !
Yangtze River Cruise. Read our previous posting at “Cruise Ships: The Yangtze Gold One!” Our first day cruising down the Yangtze river towards the Three Gorges was rather quiet and uneventful. I had purposely selected the three day (in reality two and a half days) downstream Yangtze river cruise, rather than the four day upstream…
National Rail Travel from Chengdu to Chongqing !
National Rail Travel from Chengdu to Chongqing. Read our previous posting “Panda Bear keeper for a day!” I was somewhat anxious about our scheduled train ride from Chengdu to Chongqing aboard a China National Rail high speed train. Our guide had warned us that there would be a lot of stairs and there was no…
Shangri-La Hotel Chengdu !
Shangri-La Hotel Chengdu. Read the previous posting at “Chengdu China : capital of Sichuan!” Since we were staying at the Shangri-La Hotel Chengdu, we had made reservations at the very formal and top-rated Shang Palace hotel restaurant, where they serve Chinese cuisine at its finest, but at the last minute decided to take it easy…