I'm currently sitting at a Starbucks at the Bangkok, Thailand international airport on Sunday, July 31st at 6pm local time. I have a return flight to the states this evening just after midnight. I have another 6 hours of downtime. All good - this time has offered me the ability to do plenty of things.
The day started for me around 8:30am in Phuket. (I slept in preparing for what I'm about to encounter over the next 24 hours). I packed up and then took a taxi to the airport. I flew from Phuket to Bangkok. I will spend the day mostly in the Bangkok airport today awaiting my international flight to the states
I thought I would take this time to hit the high points on this trip. See below:
The peak of Mt. Fuji
Tokyo Dome - Baseball Game
Torii Gates in Kyoto
Hiroshima
Bamboo Forest - Kyoto
Korean War Memorial - Seoul, South Korea
Olympic Venue - Beijing, China
Great Wall of China
Terra Cotta Warriors - Xi'an, China
Shanghai, China - night river cruise
Hong Kong - sky view
Taipei 101 - Taipei, Taiwan
Manila, Philippines - American Cemetery on Day Tour
Summer Palace - Bangkok, Thailand
Angor Wat - Siem Reap, Cambodia
Patong Beach, Phuket, Thailand
James Bond Beach - Phuket, Thailand
I feel very blessed to have the ability to travel and see new sites. It's amazing to me to see the world and understand the sheer depth of everything that is out there. Look at the list below - the US is only a fraction of the world's population.
Largest Continents in Population
1. Asia - 4,055,000,000 (Over 4 billion)2. Africa - 1,108,500,000 (Over 1 billion)
3. Europe - 729,871,042 (including all of Russia)
4. North America - 522,807,432
5. South America - 379,919,602
6. Australia - 20,434,176
7. Antarctica - No permanent residents but up to 4000 researcher in summer and 1000 in winter.
So I'm prepared to take a 3-flight connection to hopefully get me back to St. Louis, MO on Monday, Aug 1st around 4pm local time. I'm crossing my fingers that all goes well. This will be my 15th flight (one-way) experienced on this trip (Denver-Chicago, Chicago-Tokyo, Osaka-Seoul, Seoul-Beijing, Beijing-Xi'an, Xi'an-Shanghai, Shanghai-Hong Kong, Hong Kong-Taipei, Taipei-Manila, Manila-Bangkok, Bangkok-Siem Reap, Siem Reap-Bangkok, Bangkok-Phuket, Phuket-Bangkok, Bangkok-Tokyo, Tokyo-Chicago, Chicago-St. Louis, St. Louis-Denver). My total will be 18 flight legs before I get back to Denver. That's 1 key difference between Asia and Europe -- the train system is not nearly as good (or non-existent) for the most part. Flights are inexpensive however - it just takes a bit longer.
I'm going to sign off for now. I'll be working on a little video over the next couple weeks I'll post as a highlight summary of the trip. My sabbatical will continue in the states when my mom visits Denver with me. I'll be back at work the following Monday - and again looking to bring with me some of that peace/inspiration found on this trip.
Here's to an amazing continent. A place of vast diversity. A place that makes up over half the world's population. Here's to my 2016 Asian Sabbatical!!
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