Traveled 5 South America countries: Argentina/Chile/ Colombia/Ecuador/Peru in 3 months

My solo-travel world adventures began in Fall 2011, when I took a three-month leave from work and traveling Argentina/Chile/ Colombia/Ecuador/Peru to experience Latin American life style.

I got back to Washington DC on 11/20/2012 from my 2.5 month trip to Taiwan/China/Vietnam/Cambodia/Thailand/Nepal/India during September to November 2012. My trip highlights include (1) hiking for 7 days in Annapurna Sanctuary, Nepal, (2) visiting the Halong Bay near Hanoi and a virgin cave in central Vietnam; (3) experiencing cultural shocks in Delhi, India; (4) being victimized by a gem scam in Bangkok, Thailand, and (5) attending 23-yr college classmate reunion in Taipei, Taiwan. Here is my updated blog for your casual reading. http://asiajt.blogspot.com/

You can browse my venture blogs:

Fall 2011 Argentina/Chile/ Colombia/Ecuador/Peru http://southamericajt.blogspot.com/

Fall 2012 Taiwan/China/Vietnam/Cambodia/Thailand/Nepal/India. http://asiajt.blogspot.com/  

Fall 2013 Middle East (Greece/Turkey/Georgia/Armenia/Iran/Spain) http://jtmiddleeast.blogspot.com/

Summer 2014 Cuba/Mexico/Guatemala/Honduras/Nicaragua/Costa Rica http://centralamericajt.blogspot.com/

Spring 2015 to Taiwan, Indonesia, and the Philippines. http://jtseasia.blogspot.com/

Summer 2015 cycling with a group across Virginia along the Transamerica trail in 10 days http://cyclex-us-jt.blogspot.com/

Fall 2015 to  UK, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Netherlands. http://easteuropejt.blogspot.com/

Summer 2016 to Italy, Vatican City State, Greece, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, and Germany. http://italyeasteuropejt.blogspot.com/ 

Summer 2017 to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Chinese Silk Road, Taiwan. https://jtsilkroadcentralasia.blogspot.com/

Spring 2018 to New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, and Taiwan. https://nz-aujt.blogspot.com/ 

Winter 2019 to Sri Lanka, South India, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Brunei, Korea, and Taiwan. https://jtasiaiii.blogspot.com/

Early Spring 2020 to Taiwan - Egypt – Jordan https://mediterraneanjt.blogspot.com/

   Fall 2021 to Portugal - Monaco - France - Luxembourg  -  Belgium - Netherlands - UK - Morocco  https://jtwesteurope.blogspot.com/

   Summer 2022 to Iceland – Norway – Sweden - Estonia - Finland - Latvia – Lithuania – Sicily – Naples – Taiwan https://jtnortheurope.blogspot.com/

   Summer 2023 to Israel – Palestine - Cyprus - Kenya – Tanzania – Malawi – Zambia – Zimbabwe – Botswana – Namibia - South Africa.  https://africajt.blogspot.com/

Summer 2024 to Russia – China - Taiwan https://russiachinajt.blogspot.com/

 

Last day of my 3-month trip

I visited a famous book store in Buenos Aires and touted the congressional building.

The El Ateneo book store was originally a theater (Teatro Grand Splendid), and it becomes in one of the top 5 most beautiful bookstores in the world.

No show of the "ladies" in Palermo park, Argentina

Buenos Aires’ main lush greenery park transforms into an outdoor brothel for transsexual prostitutes. The “ladyboy park” is a bizarre phenomenon, the result of a government legislation passed in 2005 that forbade prostitutes from offering their services within 200 metres of any school, church or residential building. This cancelled out pretty much everywhere in the city such that the prostitutes, most of them transsexual, moved to Bosques de Palermo and shown up after midnight.

I missed the opportunity to see transsexual prostitutes in San Rafael with my two girlfriends from San Francisco who told me about the transsexual prostitutes. I was looking forwards to see them last night in the park. We took two buses to there and almost lost our way back yet did not see even one of them. Did they take Sunday's off?! Very disappointed, since the Argentina ones are prettier because the plastic surgery is more affordable here.

I found an interesting link about a man had sex with the a transsexual prostitute twice and his emotional struggle.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080313234920AAaRX99

Almost got robbed in Buenos Aires, but actually got ribbed in Miami

I traveled in south america without incident until Buenos Aires. Before this, i thought Argentina was safer than Colombia and Peru.

The incident involved distraction theft and then backpack snatching. There were three policemen chatting just 50 meters away.

I first felt the back of my thigh was wet and thought that I stepped onto standing water on the sidewalk. However, I turned back but saw nothing on the ground and some bird shit looking stuff on my pants. I took out tissue paper from my backpack to clean it. A lady stood nearby tried to give me tissue to wipe them off, and another man pointed at the pants of my friend and the sign of a store front as if showing where the source of the white stuff.

My friend was experienced and already noticed that a third person snapped away my backpack crossing the street and shouted at him. He run towards the third person when he dropped my backpack on the street. The whole incident happen in minutes before I saw my backpack shown up across the street. I failed to keep a close eye on my backpack.

The first man spray something on me and my friend like hand cream mustard or the like. The lady pretended to help us, and to distract me from my backpack and, in the chaos, the third person stole it from me.

I should have Ignored their help, and focus on my belongings and extracting myself from the scene ASAP. I read the exact scan info on wiki travel but simply did not recognize it until after the incident.

Fortunately, my friend reacted timely, and the third person dropped my backpack to avoid confrontation. I am grateful that I got to keep the gifts I bought at San Telmo Sunday street fair and flea market. The incident happened after the market and our Chinese buffet. My palm was snapped by a restroom door and cut open. I did not expect such causality in the big city and right before I go home. The restaurant receptionist looked terrified by the little cut gushing out with blood and gave me bandages as soon as she could. My attack to the food was a little impaired by the cut but not much. They had BBQ and other typical buffet items.

I was told that the Argentina government control exchange AR pesos into US dollars, so I would have to change unused pesos in US. I budgeted 300 pesos to pay for one extra day in Argentina beyond my 30-day visa. However, the AR customs officer did not charge me the fine.

I tried to change pesos within the terminal of BA airport, but the exchange denied me since I had only ATM receipt but not bank retail receipt. To spare my time to find a bank in DC to change the money, I exchanged my pesos with an exchange within Miami airport which charged almost 25% as profit. I did it in a hurry without thinking. I was literally robbed 25 USD.

Casa Rosada (pink house), Argentina

Is the Argentinian president's office. It is open to the public only during weekends. The following link has photos of most of the rooms inside the pink house. I like the room of women and the room of scientists. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Rosada

I run into two concerts in town today. The 1st one was next to the praza de mayo and played traditional and tango music, and the other one was right in front of the congressional building and played rock music for AIDS awareness.

One thing I noticed again was argentians' hobbit of cutting into lines. O hand-gestured a lady that should get in a 1st line to get a number than my line to get in the tour. She simply ignored me and other people and sneaked into the tour. Most of the time I warmed the offender and deterred them, but not this time. I had an even worst experience in a supermarket checkout line. The old lady not only ignored me but also gave me a "so what" look.

I think it is an ego issue. They think they are more important than others so it is ok to save their time by cutting into lines. Argentina men have big egos. One even commented that American women are fat and disgusting. Im fact, I see quite a few fat Argentina women as well.