I had never had a reason or urge to visit Bali, but recently fate and circumstance allowed me to do just that. A package deal from EVA Airlines (Taiwan’s safest airline) made this part of Indonesia impossible to resist. Roundtrip airfares during Bali’s dry season, which runs from May til September, can be had for about $2,800 from Los Angeles (though fares drop as the rainy season approaches). The five hour flight from Taipei to Bali’s Denpasar Airport was efficient and non-eventful. Upon arrival, we lined up to purchase our landing visas. (Note carefully your length of stay, or else you will be fined when you try to depart!). Once outside, we were greeted by mild temperatures, low humidity, and our driver, who took us to the Patra Bali.

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So you arrive in Quito, Ecuador, are greeted by cheerful children who put leis around your neck, take the modern subway from the airport to downtown, and have your bags carried by friendly locals past the impossibly blue fountain to your hotel.

Then you wake up with a cramped neck…and your flight attendant tells you to put your seat in its upright position.

While Quito isn’t the roughest introduction to South America (Caracas, Venezuela or Recife, Brazil wins that prize), you may still wonder if you made the right choice when you step outside the airport. Within a few seconds once inside your cab, a woman with an almost lifeless one-year-old strapped on her back will ask you to buy a pack of Trident gum for 25 cents and vendors will come to your window at red traffic signals, in between the dilapidated storefronts and buses that blow noxious black smoke into the heavily polluted air. But all this is character waiting for your appreciation, nearly 3,000 meters up in the sky. Continue Reading…

The British are rightly proud of their currency. So proud, in fact, that while the UK is one of the linchpins of the European Union, it has steadfastly refused to become a member of the so-called “Eurozone” – the group of countries that use the euro. Some recent entrants to the EU, like Hungary, have adopted the euro in fits and starts. In Hungary, the old national currency, the forint, still circulates side-by-side the euro. Even countries as remote and poor as Romania and Bulgaria may soon adopt the euro.

Great Britain, however, remains the great outlier in so many things. The British drive on the left with steering wheels on the right, have an unwritten constitution, think Kylie Minogue is entertaining, and hold resolutely to the venerable old pound, or as people in posh financial circles like to call it, “sterling”. Continue Reading…