Sprint Tourism: Seeing the Big Stuff on Layovers

Friday morning at Angkor Wat. One of my favorite things to do is watch or take pictures of other people watching and taking pictures of something else. Confusing?

this is what everybody stands around waiting for: sunrise. I took in one Angkor sunrise and three sunsets.

On the ride to the airport Saturday morning, I try to cram some final pictures I had planned on taking...like all the unusual forms of transportation. They use these trailer beds to haul people around, too.

I have to say, this picture drives me a little crazy. In fact, I nearly wrote an entire article about it. See all the empty seats? There are MANY. I took this picture after everyone had boarded. I took my own row where I could stretch out. Now notice the girl with the hairbun thing in the window seat on the right side of the plane. She made the other two people in the row move so that she could get to her assigned seat. For some reason, all three of them sat in their assigned seats the entire flight. WHY?! I don't know why this gets me worked up, but it does!

As you can see, I take my backpack storage very seriously. It was my one and only possession for which I was responsible. In Kuala Lumpur, I stored it for the day at this airport locker area.

This bus took me from the airport to downtown KL, Malaysia. While in the airport, I took 5 minutes at the tourist desk to get a free city map. On the bus ride, I decided I had enough time to see Chinatown and the Petronas Towers.

Once in downtown, I picked up a subway ticket to make my way around. Notice my shirt. I wear it for over 48 hours. It's retired now.

Taking in Chinatown...probably not the best choice on a limited layover, especially seeing that I would be in CHINA the next morning.

Hey, I told you, one of my favorite things to photograph is other people taking photographs. I find these people more interesting subjects than the sticky rice it looks like they are capturing.

In a high-end Malaysian grocery store. I liked how the juices were so orderly as to type and size.

Standing outside the Petronas Twin Towers, this was to be the highlight of my day in Malaysia. These are the tallest twins in the world, and used to be the unqualified tallest towers until 2003.

When I went inside to get a ticket to the skybridge connecting the twin towers, they were "sold out." It turns out they usually distribute all the free tickets before noon, and I was arriving in the afternoon. Luckily for me, I understand the power of friendly persistence. While others were being turned away left and right, I managed to work my way into the lineup.

I checked out all the history while waiting for my chance to see Kuala Lumpur from the Skybridge.

This is the group I joined, an Indian family from, um, India! They were extremely happy to have me join the party, especially the guy in the bottom left.

Prior to escalating to the Skybridge, we were shown a 3-D mini movie about the towers. I tried to keep the shades, but that didn't work out.

After the towers tour, I went to a bookstore in the mall right next door to make a layover plan for Beijing. After that I took in a movie. While in line, some woman offered to give me this free ticket for a couple dollars, which was less than the regular priced tickets. I accepted. You can see the writing on my wrist. That's my reminder of the next takeoff time. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the ending of Inglorious Basterds, and had to rush out of the theater to make my flight.

While running to the subway to catch my flight, I had to take one last picture in front of the brightly lit towers. It's not my best self photo, but time was of the essence. When I returned to the airport, they told me I was at the wrong airport! It turns out there are TWO major airports in KL, and Air China used the other one. Ugh. Luckily they are 15 minutes apart, and I made the flight.

Many countries are showing graphic images of smoking hazards. We'll probably see this in the U.S. soon. Who knew smoking could mess up feet?

This little map, that I ripped from a subway magazine, became my day planner, complete with email addresses of new friends, schedules, bus routes, money spent, and journal of events. What's shown is in the early stages. I left the airport at 6:50 AM and had a 2:00 PM flight. Could I see the Great Wall in such limited time?

Tiananmen Square, my first stop. In my very short stay in china (7 hours), I was very impressed with how modernized people and infrastructure were. I was surprised to be one of the very few Western tourists. The large majority of people on the subway and at the tourist sites were Chinese. I imagine places like the Great Wall have Mecca-like status for Chinese. Take a look at the blurriness of the sky. For once I can pass blame to something other than my camera and photographic skills...that blurry sky is Beijing smog, some of the worst in the world.

Realizing I was on a super tight schedule, I didn't have time to stand in the enormous line to see Chairman Mao. You can see I had to tug around my backpack all day. I was still in the same shirt...

I made my way over to a park by the Forbidden City, where folks were doing morning Tai Chi (or some other sort of martial art/calisthenic).

Yep, bicycles are still popular in China!

In front of the Forbidden City, soldiers were marching around. I tried to take a self portrait with some of them in the background, and was surprised to see this guy eyeballing the camera. He needs to work on his military bearing!

After speeding through Tiananmen Square and seeing the front of the Forbidden city, I had to make my way to the Great Wall! I nearly took this little cab thing, but the prices were too high, so I walked it.

Just like Halong Bay in Vietnam, I found the logistical setup for moving throngs of tourists to the Great Wall absolutely machine-like. This long line moved so fast. As soon as a bus would load the seats, it left. The next bus would move forward, load every seat, and leave.

Somehow all the Chinese tourists could sleep on the hour long bus ride to the Great Wall. I was exhausted from all my sprint tourism, but managed to stay awake for this picture.

This picture was taken in Badaling, probably the most popular tourist spot for Great Wall walking. I had such limited time that I took some pictures and video, then went right back to the buses without ever actually buying the $6 ticket and standing on the Wall. You can see the Chinese pollution well in this photo.

While I literally ran back to the bus stop, backpack bouncing, to stick to my strict timeline, I stopped briefly to get these pictures of a girl imitating art for her mom.

On the subway from Beijing to the airport, I found amusement in the little information card. I really think they (governments, businesses) should email me their drafts. Before going to print, I will ensure their products are top quality. Stay tuned for a "million dollar idea" on this topic...

Before boarding, I snapped one last picture of the airport hygiene necessary for any sprint tourist! USA or bust!