Rapid Travel Chai

German Outpost Born of Racism in 1887 Blends Into Paraguay (NYT). Paraguay is a challenging, fascinating destination where you can seemingly be the only tourist in the country, see my 27 Hours in Paraguay.

Is Doing Business in India More Difficult than in China? from Asia Briefing’s Chris Devonshire-Ellis is a detailed commentary from one of the great businessmen and observers of business in Asia.

High fliers take to the skies explores the growth of private aviation in China (Shanghai Daily).

Airline Learns to Be Nimble shows lessons learned by ANA from its budget carrier partnerships (WSJ).

On China’s Border, Underground Banking Flourishes (NYT) looks at cash movements in and out at the Zhuhai/Macau border, Macau being one of my favorites of Asia.

Heavy Metal Rocks in Europe’s Cruise Market on  themed cruises where you can get drunk and tattoed without leaving the boat (Bloomberg Businessweek).

New York’s Woodbury Common, A Magnet for Shoppers Is Getting a Makeover (NYT).

Chinese Hot Pot Chain Hai Di Lao Makes Move to U.S. (WSJ). Hai Di Lao is quite good in China, I am curious to try it in the U.S. and for those who have not tried hot pot, give it a whirl. Maybe I will go to a Hai Di Lao next week in Shanghai.

Delivering KFC by Tunnel, Not Too Fast but Satisfying in Gaza City (NYT).

How Normal Are Cruise Mishaps? (NYT). I have yet to take a cruise, maybe I will try one for some Caribbean country collecting.

Saudi Arabia: Spending power (FT). When I visit a destination I start noticing it more in the news. I was suprised that there were less vanity protects in KSA that I expected, Riyadh had a fair number while Jeddah was quite run down.

View from the Wing expounds on The Travel Insurance Scam.

MilesQuest finds Travel to Moscow has changed – for the better, especially with airport rail links.

Olympic-sized corruption plagues Sochi Winter Games, report claims (MSNBC). Anyone surprised?

Wandering Aramean has the best take on Delta’s refurbished T4 at JFK, with The Sky Club is the only impressive part of Delta’s new JFK T4. I was unable to partake as I was flying in NRT-JFK that day and as I commented, “Yep, it still is JFK, I flew in on opening day NRT-JFK, delayed 2 hours for mechanical and traffic, then a huge backup at immigration that I bypassed with Global Entry, then baggage claims monitors said 5 while luggage was at 4 after a half hour wait (I had some gifts that had to be checked), good thing I originally had 5 hours between arrival and my JFK-RUH on Saudia.”

Via TravelBloggerBuzz, I have been introduced to the country collecting travels of Norwegian Gunnar Garfos with his The World’s 15 Hardest Countries to Visit.  He got to Saudi Arabia on a transit visa, too. I had no idea that US citizens are the only nationality with visa-free entry to Equatorial Guinea.