I woke up about six hours later feeling quite refreshed. I slept the night in the same sleep sheet I had used as a nineteen year old trekking across Europe. Not that I needed the sleep sheet the hotel bedding looked quite clean but I was feeling nostalgic. The free breakfast at the backpacker's hotel was in a little cafe next door. I handed the woman at the bar my breakfast ticket and a few moments later I was presented with three slices of toast, eggs and sa...

I landed in Beijing at about 20 minutes past eleven in the evening. The Beijing Capital Airport was massive; it may be the largest in the world. The plane taxied from one terminal to the next before arriving at the gate. I think I spent more time taxing the runway than I spent going through customs. The entry into China was completed with great efficiency, young customs officials in tailored blue uniforms sat in a long row of white document stations ready t...

Maybe it was the threat of SARs, or bird flu, the H1N1 or the consistent stories of smog but the flight over to Beijing was empty. I should have booked a seat in the middle section because those folks had three seats a piece. I am glad that I did not upgrade to "economy plus" because that section was nearly full. Poor b******s. I hoped none of them turned their heads toward the rear of the plane to see all the economy class laid out in full stretch across empty s...

From the air Ireland is exactly as I imagined, green fields poking through a crochet of clouds. Outside baggage claim I found the driver with the Softchoice sign as well as a few other folks who had been waiting over an hour for my lazy plane. The twenty minute or so drive to the Westbury Hotel was punctuated with the normal small talk. I introduced myself to the other Softchoice employees, Matt Sampson and his girlfriend Alison from Chicago and Shane Holl...

I am writing this travel log six months after the fact from my notes hand written while traveling. This is solely in response to a commitment made to myself back when I was nineteen: When I travel, I journal. Now at forty it is tough to come close to my nineteen year old expectations. I mean twenty years ago my travel journal was going to be my bridge to fame, my nugget of incite to be found by curious grandkids…now, twenty-one years later as I write this a...