WELCOME TO FARNSNIENTE

It’s easy to tell the difference between a day on a tour and a typical day on our own. When on a tour there’s usually a lot planned and you’

Today in Nagano the Metropolitan Hotel has a very full, very good buffet breakfast. Asian soups, dishes, smoked fish, and even a big bottle

We’ve just had one day (two nights) in Tokyo but it’s already time to head out, at least for a short while. In our quest for peak sakura (ch

We wake up to our first full day in Japan and in Tokyo and sure enough it’s raining. It’s our only full day in Tokyo, so we’re a bit sad. We

Last night, which was our last night in Seoul, we spent at an enormous hotel with two big towers of rooms. So it’s only fitting that there’s

For the first time in a long while we’re on our own. It’s a free day in Seoul and our last full day in Korea. We need to switch our hotel fr

When it rains it pours! Well, thankfully it’s not raining, but our dance card for the day is very full. If all goes according to plan, we’ll

We’re (mostly) all accounted for at 8am in the lobby. I have my brand new teeshirt that I’d bought from the Cambodian dancers (just to suppo

We stop for a coffee, the first for most of the group today as it isn’t an option at breakfast at the monastery. I reach for my wallet and r

In the morning we luxuriate in our nice hotel rooms for a bit longer, packing, showering, flushing the toilet by merely sitting on it. We ge

We each emerge from our Hanok (traditional Korean house) into the bright sunshine and blue sky. The air is cool and crisp. It’s 38º now, but

My brain has trouble dealing with the seeming paradox of being two time zones closer to the “west coast” (e.g. San Francisco, and such) and

In theory today should be easy. We’re just trying to get from our Hanoi hotel to our Seoul hotel. There, at 6, we’re to meet the rest of the

Today dawns bright but still very cloudy. It seems we may not get any blue skies while in Lan Ha Bay. We have a quick cup of coffee and head

After the excitement of yesterday, we are a bit tentative about eating, or really doing anything this morning. I feel better, but not totall

In Bali they talk about having Bali Belly. In Thailand tourists strive to avoid the dreaded Thailand Tummy. In Cambodia you definitely don’t

We have our normal wake, coffee, and breakfast, but is also packing. We’ve been aboard The Lotus Navigator for seven nights, so our stuff is

Today is the first of the month, so we again say “Rabbit, Rabbit” first thing, for good luck. Per the calendars (that we’re seeing in the lo

Until now, when we’ve wanted to go ashore, we walked some gang-plank and we were there. Not so here in Vietnam. We’ll be using Sampans. The

On many ships one occasionally gets an ‘At sea day’, when you have zero ports of call. Today, for us, will be an ‘At sea’ day, but we’re on