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Japan is decked out in full autumn foliage as the red clogs transit across the island of Honshu. We’re winding down our global travel lollapalooza and due to an Airline Situation, we have added 3 days which officially brings us to…Around the World in 90 days!

It’s my fourth visit to Japan, and the goal for this final segment was to take in the vibrant fall colors, disappear into the mountains (balancing out bustling Seoul and Tokyo), and explore new places that were not overrun with tourists.

It’s day 6 of a one week visit to Uzbekistan and I’m on the Afrosiab train criss-crossing the country from Bukhara to Tashkent via Samarkand. I could be on Amtrak except that the landscape is different – first desert-like, now more trees and lots of black cows, brown and white horses and occasional herds of goats. I see people picking cotton in the fields. Oh, and there’s the added benefit that the train staff keeps coming by to offer tantalizing treats – fresh fruit cups, strawberry or vanilla ice cream, and a cart loaded with snacks like Pringles, Lays, and Milka chocolate.

Hello from 10,000 feet altitude in Jebal Akhdar, Oman. Much cooler up here – a mere 83 degrees – than the 105 (feels like 115) that we experienced yesterday in the Wahiba Sands desert.
One consistency about our “Around the World in 86 days” trip is that each day seems to whiz by in a flash of impressions and experiences. There is so little down time. I’ve missed writing to you about Greece and Qatar (both of which were high points), so I will have to get back to those. But for today, I want to tell you about Oman. And to shake things up, we’ll have a little Q&A.

Today’s update on Croatia features something new and different – partial support from a guest writer who is sharing the red clogs. With all good intentions, I had planned to write brief posts from each country that we are visiting on our Around the World in 86 days adventure. And just like that – I’m now 3 countries behind. So with full rights to his content, I am leveraging a bit of my husband’s weekly email updates to his Men’s Coffee Group so that I can attempt to catch up!

“Hey”, I say. “Well…hello…” “Sorry”, I mumble. “I WAS beginning to wonder,” comes the reply. “Everything ok?” “Well….” I venture, “not really. I haven’t…