The biggest winner at this year’s Academy Awards is that Martin Scorsese finally got the Oscar he deserves. I’m totally with them on this one, but I’m a bit disappointed in The Departed as the “Best” Picture of the Year. I’m even more disappointed in my home country…

The travel blog world is a buzz today as the nominees have been announced for various categories in the Best of The Web’s Travel Sites.

A link to the video that shot Matt Harding to fame, as he “danced” his way around the world.

Today, marks the beginning of the Year of The Pig and the celebration of Chinese New Year (or as its called here in China, the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival).

The first lesson that we should have learned, was if approach by an English speaking guy insisting he has a taxi, when you are in the middle of a Chinese speaking city of 15 million, you should be a bit skeptical. Unfortunately, we were so taken off guard by the man’s miraculous appearance and his English, that we didn’t have any time to be skeptical before he whisked Erick’s suitcase away and was hauling us off towards the taxi line.

I smiled and just as I looked up, a man stepped in front of us. “Taxi! You need taxi?” he said. Taken so off guard by his abruptness and his English, we didn’t respond immediately and had only barely half-nodded, when he grabbed Erick’s luggage and started to whisk us away to what we thought was a taxi line, only to find we were about to learn our first major lesson on travel in China: “don’t say ‘yes’ to a con man.”

The commenting was broken on this website, its fixed now. Thanks for your patience.

It’s embarrassing to admit, but my command of English is a bit worse than I thought, and I bet, most Americans would find that they are in the same situation.

I’ve been served dessert by a girl named “Cake.” One of my neighbors goes by the name “Carton” (he jokingly says, “It’s French, it’s pronounced Car-TONE,” with a smile.). Two of my newest friends in Beijing are a dynamic duo that go by the name of “Ice” and “Tool.”

One of the most difficult things for me so far in traveling is dealing with the language barriers at times, and it has been fortunate for me that English is the langua franca of the world. And I’ve come to realize how essential knowing English is to being able to operate globally. For example, in Hong Kong, you can always count on an English speaker maning the counter at Starbucks, cause how in the world do you say “venti drip vanilla double soy espresso macchiato with room con pana” in Chinese? (actually I don’t even know what I just said in English?)