Some of the destinations (Insomnia induced...)

OK, so the bags are packed... one suitcase with all the clothing to be checked... one suitcase with all the camera gear (I figure it's cheaper to buy clothing than cameras if a bag gets lost) to be carried on along with a fully loaded laptop (and of course a tangle of charging cables).

Now I can't sleep.  That's not a problem, because I have a nice son willing to zip me to the airport tomorrow and with something like 24 hours of travel ahead of me (airport, security, short flight, long layover, really long flight, baggage delays, customs, bus trip, car trip, etc.) I figure I can nap a bit on the way.

So I decided to pay bills (minor detail) and then look up some of the destinations on the web...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guangzhou

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chongqing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yangtze_River

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_gorges_dam

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yichang

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangzhou

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_lake

(Then returning to Guangzhou and flying out from Hong Kong.)

The fact that I can remember all these places without looking them up, know how to spell them, and make a reasonable attempt at pronouncing them blows my mind.

To give you an idea of the area we're covering, it would be like landing in the Charleston, SC, Spending a few days in Columbia, SC, then popping up to Chicago for a cruise, then over to Boston and NYC for a few days each before returning to SC.  Yes, I pulled out my globe.