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His and Her Way to Explore the Bay

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There are many ways to explore Ha Long Bay and we chose two……. Jim’s way and Alisa’s way. Jim’s….. We saw everything from old Chinese junk boats to sea planes leaving from the dock of Tuan Chau. We wanted to see the bay and visit Cat Ba to hike to the top of the National Park, Ngu Lam. For $2.40 a person, the public ferry chugs slowly along the bay, the same route taken by luxury cruises. The ride lasts about 50 minutes and is notoriously late. Our 0900 departure was 45 minutes late, pushing into our hiking time and the last return ferry at 1500.  Soon we were sailing by those famous limestone formations dodging boats and barges. That’s when I noticed the ramp in the front was still in the water, no wonder we were going so slow. There were so many times in Vietnam I just shook my head. This was just one of many. However the views were impressive and the ferry was mostly clean.  The public bus was packed when we finally made it off the ferry. The bus follows the ferry's schedul...
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Mercado de Tlacolula

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Our time in Oaxaca has been mostly just typical days of living life: laundry, shopping, bills, learning Spanish, taking walks and just living. For me I am still trying to learn that this new life is not about cramming my days full of things to do, but more about learning the culture in which we are living.   Jim’s mom arrived in Oaxaca a couple of weeks ago and is staying across town; so we invited her to join us for our trip to Tlacolula Matamoros to visit the Mercado de Tlacolula. This is one of the oldest Sunday markets in Oaxaca. I reminded Jim and his mom that we needed to hail a colectivo that was empty so that we could all be in the back together, otherwise one of us would have to ride up front squished in the middle of the driver, a stick shift and another passenger. Jackpot, I hailed an empty colectivo that had Tlacolula on the window and after confirming with the driver, we all piled in the backseat. It was a pretty drive through the countryside and nice to get out o...
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Mazatlán, again..

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The price of airfare is important when we are choosing our next spot, however Mazatlán had nothing to do with cheap airfare and everything to do with timeshare points. Actually airfare to Mazatlán was the most expensive cost to our travel budget in the last year and a half and it came with an entire day of travel! A positive though, was that we have never made it through Customs and Immigration so quickly on a trip.  Priority Pass lounge We had an hour and a half layover in Mexico City and because it was a short connecting flight we were escorted past the long Custom's lines and went straight to an "express" line. That gave us about 45 minutes before we left. It just so happened the airport had a Priority Pass lounge that was right next to our gate, worked out perfectly, as Jim stated. But, not so much for me, I like to be at our gate about 35-45 minutes before boarding, but because I could see our gate from inside the lounge, why not?  We ordered a drink and a quick bite...
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