As I mentioned in my last post, it rained a lot this year in California. There was chatter about the “superbloom” and not surprisingly a lot of flower tourism. Ferda, my Dad, and I took advantage and visited the Carrizo Plain National Monument for the first time.
Along the way we made a few stops including visiting friends in pretty Santa Cruz.
Wow, it was a really wet winter in southern California this year. If you’re thinking hot, dry, brown Mojave Desert, well, these photos will surprise you. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the desert this green before.
I’m trying to remember, but I think this is the first time that I’ve ever managed to extend an airport layover. I’ve had some planned overnight layovers — Berlin, Vancouver, Seoul — but those were due to flight schedules, not my choice. And I’ve had unplanned overnight layers — Atlanta, Paris, and Moscow come to mind. Eva Air had reasonable rates so Ferda and I decided to spend five days in Taipei on our way from Singapore to Los Angeles.
My very first impression as we walked from the metro to our hotel was that the streets sure look a lot like Japan.
Just like Bali, I visited Singapore on my first trip to Asia 29 years ago. The cheap hotel district was centered on Bencoolen Street. The things I remember most were the air conditioning on Orchard Road (we certainly didn’t have a/c in our room!) and visiting the now closed Jurong Bird Park. This time we stayed in a capsule hotel in Chinatown, and the highlight was visiting the Botanic Gardens.
It was the first time for either of us to stay in one of these pods or capsules or whatever you want to call them — certainly smaller than our tiny room in Ljubljana last year. It was comfortable, quiet, and the temperature was perfect.
There’s no reason to splurge on anything in Singapore as a lot of money does not go very far.
On our first morning on the way to the Botanic Gardens we came across some street art,
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