Category Archives: Travel

Moscow Taxi Touts

April 28, 2013 – 12:35 pm

New York newspapers frequently report about naive visitors paying excessive taxifares into Manhattan. The record was set by a Japanese tourist. The cab driver extorted $2500 from the hapless visitor and threatened to strand him in Harlem, if he wouldn’t cough up another $500. Things have improved at JFK, however the age-old practice of soaking [...]

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Drunk in Moscow, Not Idaho

April 28, 2013 – 12:23 pm

In 1994 I was traveling from Malaysia to Paris on Aeroflot. Kuala Lumpur-Karachi-Dubai-Moscow-Paris. The flight time to Moscow totaled about 24 hours. None of them were comfortable in the flimsy chairs of the Soviet era jetliner. Disembarking at Moscow, I discovered that my connecting flight to Charles De Gaulle was delayed until the next morning. [...]

By Peter | Also posted in 90s, semi-fiction | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Koh Tao

April 23, 2013 – 8:48 pm

In 1990 I traveled around the world. NYC-LA-HONOLULU-BIAK-AMBON-BALI-JAVA-SUMATRA-SINGAPORE-BANGKOK-NEPAL-DELHI-PARIS-LONDON-NYC The Singapore to Bangkok segment of the trip was overland and I detrained in Suranthani to catch a midnight ferry to Koh Samui. I stayed at Coral Cove for $5 and after two weeks boated over to Koh Phanghan then finally took a little boat to Koh [...]

By Peter | Also posted in 90s, Thailand | Tagged , | Comments (0)

LOST AT NIGHT by Peter Nolan Smith

April 23, 2013 – 8:01 pm

In the winter of 1990 I bought a round-the-world ticket from Pan Express in New York. The total cost was $1500 as was advertised in the NY Times. The boss of Pan Express helped to arrange the path of my circumnavigation of the globe. “Sir, you are going West.” John had a quaint Indian accent. [...]

By Peter | Also posted in 90s, indonesia, semi-fiction | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

MACAM KUMBANG by Peter Nolan Smith

March 24, 2013 – 12:14 pm

In 1990 I got off the train from Surabaya a little past dawn and headed over to the port of Jakarta to catch the noon ferry to Sumatra. The inter-island ship was a big liner and I was looking forward to a cruise through the Java Sea to the Indian Ocean. As I neared the [...]

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