Tag Archives: travel

I Wouldn’t Call It Buyer’s Remorse, But…

By Ed Selby | Published January 12, 2010

Tomorrow I leave for a week-long trip to China. I love to travel. I love to photograph the people and places I encounter in my travels. I am really looking forward to this trip from a “life adventure” point of view, but the sappy thing is, I’m going to miss my wife. I’m missing her already.

Talisa is my partner, my friend, my co-adventurer. As much as I am looking forward to this trip – even with the almost 3 total days of just flying and layovers – I am not looking forward to doing this without her.

I’ve deleted three of four sentences that were poorly constructed or just overly sappy. Let this post just suffice to say I am looking forward to this trip, and I am going to miss my wife.

Posted in Travel In China | Also tagged adventure, China, Talisa Selby, wife Leave a comment

Trip To Yiwu China Countdown

By Ed Selby | Published January 11, 2010

International travel may be old-hat to some of you, but other than being born in Germany more than 45 years ago, and a cruise trip to St. Marteen and the Bahamas, I’ve never been out of the US – not even to Canada. It was pointed out by a co-worker that I am more excited than his kids were on Christmas morning.

I confess. I am very excited about my trip to Yiwu, China.

I am already mostly packed (even though I don’t leave for 2 more days), have a new Sprint HTC Hero Android phone with apps for currency exchange, language translation, photo-blogging, and geo-tagging. I think I have more geek toys to play with this time than on any other trip, but I also have plenty of travel time to learn how to use my new toys.

Searching for what to do in Yiwu, China has been problematic. There just doesn’t seem to be anything to do there except the market.

This is what it takes to get to China:

Leave Wed. 1/13 @ 5:30pm
Atlanta to LAX
3+ hour layover in LAX
Leave LAX @ 11:50pm
LAX to Guangzhou, China
15 hour flight
Arrive Guangzhou 6:50am
2+hour layover
Flight to Yiwu
arrive 11:15am

All totaled, that’s about 27 hours of travel time – IF everything goes smoothly, leaves and arrives on time.

I hope to be posting and sending pictures from my phone and computer while I’m on the road. I think it will be a fun trip, even with the tiring travel.

Speaking of traveling in Asia, check out my friend Brian Garrett’s new travel blog. He’s doing a two week Asian trip starting next week.

Posted in News & Updates, Travel In China, Travel Photography | Also tagged android, Asia, China, flight layover, HTC Hero, sprint, Yiwu Leave a comment

Traveling To China

By Ed Selby | Published January 8, 2010

After pictures of pretty girls, travel photography is my second favorite genre. I love seeing photos of other places and other people, and I especially love taking photos of other places and other people; unfortunately, I don’t have the opportunities to travel as much as I would like (other than within North Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina).

My day job is with America’s Best Franchising. We franchise 3 Palms Hotels & Resorts, America’s Best Inns & Suites, Budgetel Inns, Country Hearth Inns & Suites, and Vagabond Inns. We have a representative in China who has two clients who have opened hotels in Yiwu. They want representatives from our company to be there, and I half-jokingly volunteered. Remember, never volunteer for anything unless you really mean it. Next thing I knew, I was going to China!

In the past 24 hours I have done research on Flickr for pictures of the Yiwu, found Google information about Yiwu, and even tried to get some basic Chinese phrases down (I can now say “hello” in Chinese). I am excitedly nervous about the trip. In my 45+ years, other than being born in Germany, and taking a cruise to the Caribbean, I have never been out of the US – not even to Canada! It will be interesting to be in place where I don’t look like everyone else, nor can I understand what is being said.

The answer to the silly question you are forming in your head (asked by more than one person already, so don’t think you’re original in asking it), yes, I’ll be taking my camera. Yes, I will be taking a LOT of pictures. Yes, I will post them as quickly as possible!

I hope to have reliable and open internet access during the week I am gone so I can share my trip with you.

On the to-do list for the weekend: