Sir Bani Yas In Muscat, we were on a mission to visit the Tropic of Cancer, also known as the Northern Tropic. There is a sign posted in the Oman desert to mark this important latitude and we wanted to go to it. It was a 20-minute drive to the sign from the Port of […]
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Abu Dhabi We slept well and woke up rested. Now we had time to make ourselves familiar with the ship. First of all, our cabin was a lot better than we expected. We paid for the cheap inner cabin but were assigned a cabin with a window. Perhaps, because we bought the cruise close to
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Denver to Abu Dhabi We landed in Abu Dhabi at 6.00 a.m. After many hours in economy and two sleepless nights we were able to keep upright and to function only thanks to a cup of strong coffee that we had on the plane. Getting to Port Zayed where MSC Opera was docked required taking
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This was not a trip planned well in advance. I browsed cruise offerings and spotted something that looked like a good deal – an MSC 7-day cruise around the Persian Gulf for $209/person. My husband and I are not cruise people. Before that, we only did 2 cruises. We normally organize our trips ourselves. This
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Seoul (continued) For my last day in South Korea, I wanted to get out of town. I saw in Seoul pretty much everything that I wanted to see. Going to another museum would add little to the cultural experience. Online search for nature attractions in the area came up with Bukhansan National Park, a popular
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Royal Palaces of Seoul Having visited Japan shortly before South Korea, I couldn’t help but to compare these countries. There are a lot of similarities and yet they are distinctively different. The Japanese are rather formal and reserved while South Koreans are open, laugh often and have no regard for personal space. They can almost
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The DMZ The main attraction of the South Korean capital is its five Royal Palaces with long and difficult to pronounce names: Gyeongbokgung, Deoksugung, Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung, and Gyeonghuigung. All palaces were built in the same style and belong to the same period of the 1300s – 1500s. Most of the palace buildings were destroyed by
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Seoul The start time of the DMZ tour was 8 a.m. The bus was almost full after all passengers were picked up from their hotels. The driving took about one hour. I was glad to see a bit of South Korean countryside from the bus window. So far, I had not left the city. The
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From Philippines to South Korea The weather in late September was perfect for taking a stroll around Seoul. Downtown was an amazing mix of traditional and contemporary architecture with green areas between skyscrapers, shady nooks with benches, streaming water, a sculpture here and there, and cozy paved trails. Just look at these two creatures on
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In Cebu, Philippines, my husband and I parted. He was going home and I had time for exploring another Asian country on my own. My initial plan was to see Taiwan. However, my husband was against that; he does not like when I go to a country that he himself did not visit. So Taiwan
