Chichijima, Ogasawara

December 14th, 2011 | By Lee | 7 Comments »

Arriving into the harbor on Chichijima, the main island in the Ogasawara archipelago, was like arriving in the new world. After a long and arduous journey aboard the Ogasawara Maru we pulled into the gorgeous port to throngs of islanders welcoming us to their island. It was very nice to be greeted so warmly after such a long trip; plus the weather couldn’t have been better. So as we disembarked, we sought out the information desk to arrange accommodation for us for three nights and four days. After finally agreeing on a place and price we hunkered down along the water in Omura for what would be a great stay.
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The 25.5 Hour Ferry to Ogasawara

December 5th, 2011 | By Lee | 7 Comments »

The Ogasawara Archipelago is located about 1000 km south of Tokyo. The entire area is administered as a single rural municipality, Ogasawara Village, which itself is a subprefecture of Tokyo. The archipelago consists of four island groups: the Mukojima (Bridegroom Island) group, the Chichijima (Father Island) group, the Hahajima (Mother Island) group, and the Volcano Islands (also known as the Iwoto, or Iwojima, group (the Sulfur Island group)). Chichijima is located at the approximate center of the archipelago and works as the hub of the village.
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#300 Jeju Island

December 3rd, 2011 | By Lee | 5 Comments »

Three years ago, when the Travelers Century Club added Jeju Island to the list of countries that I had to visit to achieve my goal I was a little annoyed. I had already spent some significant time in South Korea proper and Jeju wasn’t exactly the easiest place to get to. You really had to make the effort to get there. In fact, at the time I had never knowingly heard about it. However, as I did my research on the island and what there was to see, I got a little excited. As they recently started marketing it around New York City on billboards and busses, I was intrigued; and when it was recently voted one of the seven natural wonders of the world, I was stoked. So as I planned this trip, which was to originally include Wake Island, I started with Korea and Jeju in mind.
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Langkawi, Penang and Singapore

November 25th, 2010 | By Lee | 7 Comments »

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

After five weeks through some of the most dangerous and least visited places on Earth I found myself back on the Malaysian Peninsula as my last stop. Malaysia is one of my favorite countries in Asia, except of course for their stupid tourism slogan, “Malaysia, Truly Asia”. I have been to much of the country but was lacking the two main islands of Malaysia, Langkawi and Penang. I must say that it was the perfect way to end a five week trip with some quality time on the beach at one of my new favorite islands to visit. Langkawi is spectacular in many ways but first and foremost, it is just plain gorgeous.
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Good Morning Vietnam!

November 19th, 2010 | By Lee | 11 Comments »

Kiss me goodbye and write me while I’m gone…
Goodbye my sweetheart, Hello Vietnam.
-Johnny Wright, “Hello Vietnam”

If you’ve seen Stanley Kubrick’s epic Vietnam War movie “Full Metal Jacket” then you’ve heard that song in the opening scene when the soldiers are all getting their heads shaved. I couldn’t get it out of my head the past five days. While much has changed, obviously, since the end to the Vietnam War almost 40 years: it is still unfathomable to imagine that just a few short decades ago; more than 50,000 Americans lost their lives in this beautiful and peaceful country during a war that we never should have been involved with in the first place…sound familiar? Be that as it may, Vietnam is a fast developing country where tourists flock in droves and have for years. The air is heavy, polluted from millions of motorbikes racing the city streets. The people are friendly, the prices are dirt cheap and the natural beauty is apparent. There is a real buzz and vibe to Vietnam from Hanoi to Saigon. It makes you want to wake up and scream “Good Morning Vietnam”, just like Robin Williams in the classic movie of the same name. I’m not going to lie; I think I did it at least twice!
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Taipei 101

November 15th, 2010 | By Lee | 11 Comments »

Taiwan has been the easiest or most commonly visited place that I hadn’t been for a long time now. That fact always annoyed me so it was only a matter of time before I visited the island. Many people visit as a stopover en route to somewhere else but it had never worked out for me in all the times I’ve been to Asia. This time I made it work and went there directly from Hainan Island on Hainan Airways. I spent a full day in Taipei and then headed to Okinawa. Then I went back to Taipei for another 2.5 days, so I got a pretty good feel for the very cosmopolitan and new city of Taipei. So here is the Taipei 101…
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Lost in Translation

November 11th, 2010 | By Lee | 13 Comments »

The past week or so has been pretty hectic for me, with a lot of planes, places, booking stuff, researching, touring around and very little sleep. After Sri Lanka, I headed to the Maldives for a few days to chill and because I had to get a plane from there; since it was booked before the Chagos trip was cancelled. From there I went to Singapore for a night to connect to Hainan, Taiwan and Okinawa. I am going to focus this post on Okinawa because there is the most to talk about and I will mention some of the others as well. As I write this from my room in Okinawa, I am rested, ready to finish up this trip strong and head home for Thanksgiving but for now I am still lost in translation!
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World Heritage Sites in Sri Lanka

November 4th, 2010 | By Lee | 8 Comments »

Sri Lanka is one of those funny places when you see a list of countries. It has a funny name, a funny but cool flag, and it is seemingly in the middle of nowhere. It doesn’t really register with you on your to do list of visiting countries. I was just there for my third time and I still felt that way! This time I went up north to discover some of their World Heritage Sites in the cultural triangle as long as I could fend off traffic, rickshaws, heat, time and the worlds slowest driver.
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Kickin it in Karachi

October 29th, 2010 | By Lee | 6 Comments »

I’ll be honest, flying into Karachi, I was expecting very little. To be honest, I was thinking the city would be hell on Earth and that I can’t wait to be done with Karachi and get back to Dubai to just relax. Karachi, Pakistan marked a 4 day stretch where I was in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and moving non-stop in all of them. So I was tired of all the searches, scans, pat downs, airports, questions and just wanted to get a good night’s sleep and relax. Luckily, Karachi really wasn’t that bad a place to be and wasn’t nearly the calamity of a sub continent city I was expecting.
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On Par in Kabul

October 27th, 2010 | By Lee | 19 Comments »

I just spent a day in Kabul, Afghanistan. That is really cool and weird to say. After months of contemplation, planning, executing and jumping through hoops-the day finally arrived. I left Dubai early this morning on Safi Airways at 3:30am and arrived 2 hours later at the world’s most notorious city in the shadow of a ton of military planes and helicopters. The weather was crisp, cool and I had no idea what to expect. The only problem was the logistics company that I hired for security and the tour wasn’t at the airport. I was a bit miffed but as usual things end up working out.
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