North America
United States of America (gosh, this is a free country)
Convenient double room for a discounted US$ 96.- per night; excellent value.
Friendly and professional staff.
Friendly and professional staff.
N 37° 33.83' W 122° 16.94'
Putting up for a night in the pricey but convenient Hilton Garden Inn San Mateo +16505229000 near San Francisco International, worrying about "The Big One", noticing how much the US of America have changed into a militarised freakshow, governed by minorities and paralysed by political correctness, since our last visit a few years ago, taking our time to prepare the upcoming trip into the communist/neo-mercantilist Middle Kingdom and to Mongolia, flying almost uneventfully the next morning with United Airlines (“You’re Going to Like Where We Land”) in a 5-hours delayed Boeing 747-400 (staffed with a bit spasmodic but affected enough and seemingly still airworthy senior-citizen flight attendants; estimated maximum age: 65 plus years, packed to the brim with forced optimism), from San Francisco International, over Alaska and Siberia (where we changed our watches from Pacific Daylight Time, GMT/UTC - 7:00 hours, to China Standard Time, GMT/UTC + 8 hours, and where we lost one day of our lives at the invisible International Date Line) non-stop into Beijing Capital International’s brand-new Terminal 3 (US$ 1,277.- per person for the entire but only partially utilised return ticket Taipei-Toronto-Taipei, all inclusive, booked on the internet with Airline Direct +491805888228, long ago in December 2011 CE) and taking the clean Airport Shuttle Bus, Line 3 (25 km, 1 hour, CNY 16.- or US$ 2.55 per person, +861064594375), from the airport straight to Beijing’s Main Railway Station aka 北京站 or Běijīng zhàn thus disappearing temporarily into Red China’s brave but Blogspot/Blogger-free new world…
“What is freedom of expression?
Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.”
Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.”
Click below for a summary of this year's travels
Recommended books - click below for your Amazon order from the United Kingdom:
