Joe Benning Photography

Travel & Photo Blog

  •   Reston, VA

Two Days in Singapore

Singapore, March 2023 We have just spent two days in Singapore, one of our favorite cities.  What a mix of ethnicities, religions, cultures and history can be found here.   Folks from China, India and Western countries are everywhere, alongside folks originally from the Malay peninsula.    Singapore is a vibrant and young city, clean […]

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Exploring Vietnam

Five Days in Vietnam March 24, 2023 “Brits drive on the left side of the street; Americans on the right. Vietnamese drive on all sides—and the sidewalks.”   —Tour Guide Vietnam is a study in barely controlled chaos. The comment from our tour guide about driving is essentially accurate. There are motorcycles everywhere and they […]

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The Republic of Taiwan

March 17, 2023 (AKA Patrick’s Day) We sailed into the port city of Keelung Taiwan on March 14 bypassing a scheduled port-of-call a day earlier because of bad weather. After Keelung we sailed into the port city of Kaohsiung.  Keelung, the second largest port in Taiwan, has a population of about 360,000; Kaohsiung with a […]

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A Frenetic and Fun Day in Hong Kong

March 13, 2023 We are sailing toward Taiwan looking to dock in our second scheduled Taiwanese port because we missed the first one (Hualian) due to bad weather. Really bad. We sailed through the night through waves as high as 14 feet, so we got knocked about quite a bit. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.  […]

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A Few Days in the Philippines

March 10, 2023 We sailed into the Philippines on March 7, 2023 and then spent a few days touring around the country, traveling to 2 islands in the archipelago. The first was Palawan where among other things we visited a Philippine Penal Farm where minimum security prisoners put on a show for us. Kind of […]

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Brunei Darussalam

March 8, 2023 We sailed into what is officially known as Brunei Darussalam on March 5.  Brunei is one of the smallest and statistically richest countries in the world. It has only about 450,000 residents with an estimated per capita GDP of about $75,000 for 2022. For rough comparison purposes, U.S. per capita GDP for […]

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A Few Days in Indonesia

Bali and Surabaya March 3, 2023 We just spent several days in Indonesia on Bali and Java islands.  On Bali Island, among other things we visited  Denpasar, the capital city of the region. We stopped into  Tohpati Village a section of the city; had a coffee break by a rice paddy, and visited the Royal […]

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