Author archive
14 October 2008
We spent more of our time in Old Havana today … that’s the newer area next to Historic Havana. Kim needed to check his email … and internet cafes were nearly non-existent. We settled for an outlet inside the Capitolio (former State Capitol) for about USD6 per hour. While that seems pricey to us, spare […]
13 October 2008
Habana Vieja or Historic Havana is a pretty historic district that is relatively well-restored and is also the centre of all things touristy. It is about 20 minutes walk (but a strong contrast) from the crumbling Old Havana which we are in. In the real Old Havana, many of its residents crammed into three-storey apartments […]
12 October 2008
We have a guesthouse “Casa Novo” in the old part of Havana which was prebooked on the internet. The casa particular was run by a cardio-thoracic surgeon who has access to the internet at work, in order to accept bookings from the outside world. Otherwise internet is prohibitively expensive! The buildings here are old but […]
12 October 2008
We only had a couple of hours in the morning to check-out the sights of Nassau before flying to Havana at 1245. The feel is a strange mix of Caribbean, British and American. Cars are equipped with either right or left hand drive, but all drive on the British side of the road. We didn’t […]
11 October 2008
As there are limited flights between the USA and Cuba (and only for people with special qualifying circumstances), I had to fly to Nassau, Bahamas to access Cuba. But from Boston, I had to fly American Airlines to Miami first at 1150. When I landed at 1510, I looked out for Kim who would be […]
10 October 2008
As I only had one full day, I wore my soles out with long walks around most of Boston’s historic districts. Much of it related to the country’s founding and struggle for independence … the most famous of which was the Boston Tea Party which Brits of that time would consider an act of terrorism, […]
9 October 2008
Above: New York from the sky. Look at the deforestation! Lower Manhattan is on the right. Took a short flight today, departing at 1015 from Washington DC to Boston, flying over New York. The deforestation was heartbreaking! Yeah, that’s the kind of things westerners when they see documentaries of Borneo, Sumatra and the Amazon when […]
8 October 2008
Today I visited the man that fought against slavery, Abraham Lincoln. I drew the line at two Presidential memorials … limited myself to the two I studied about in school, namely Washington and Lincoln. I vaguely remember the “Four scores and seven years …” from my history lessons in one of his great speeches. Text […]
7 October 2008
Well, this is the seat of government for the most important country in the world! It is an impressive place … they certainly know how to do palatial buildings, museums and memorials. However, it does seem to be wasted on some people. Wandering around, an American guy couldn’t even recognise the Capitol building. He mistook […]
6 October 2008
Above: Taxation without Representation is Tyrrany. Tyrannised in DC. Today I bussed down from Philly at 1150 to Washington DC. I had booked with the same bus company as before through the same website, but I couldn’t get a USD1 fare. I felt ripped off paying USD15 for the journey of about 2h30 🙂 One of […]