Touching down in China Town

Whenever I go to a new country or city I like to listen to a song that gives a shout out to that city or province. These are some songs that I have listened to on arrival to various destinations.

One Night in Bangkok (Murray Head)- As the plane descended into Bangkok dusk was just arriving and this song was pumping me up.

Two different songs were played when I went to Vietnam. The first was neon tiger by the Killers, which says, "far from the rain fall on the trails of old Saigon". Ho Chi Minh, which was formerly called Saigon sure did provide plenty of trails to see, especially along the old tunnels the Vietcong used. The next song that I had going while riding around town was none other than Kanye West's Diamonds from Sierra Leone, "Good Morning, this ain't Vietnam still, people lose hands, legs, arms for real."

The next song is a classic, "Turning Japanese" was playing as I touched down in Nagoya, Japan. I didn't turn Japanese, so the song didn't work, but I still liked it there.

Last summer, Conor Oberst and the mystic valley band wrote a song called Moab, which I had playing as I drove through Moab on a road trip.

Jump Little Children have a song called "Mexico", so this was playing as I crossed the border into Tijuana. Very appropriate for the occasion.

The Recession by Young Jeezy has provided me with lots of good tunes, one in particular is called "My President is Black" and talks about the earthquake in China. Two weeks after that happened I arrived in Hong Kong with this song playing.

Costa Rica is another country that provided me with some songs to listen to. The first song is by T-Pain called "Can't believe it". He says "I put you in the beach house, right on the edge of Costa Rica." I happened to stay in a beach house in Costa Rica, rather a beach hostile, but it's all the same there. The second song is an old one by Saves the Day called "You Vandal", where he says, "last night I dreamt you called from Costa Rica, the place you've been for the last two weeks." I wasn't exactly there for two weeks, but I loved all the time I had.

The last and final song is probably my favorite from Alt. country star Ryan Adams called "New York". You can of course guess where this destination is. Ryan really gives the New York feel in this song and I listened to it about fifteen times during the three times I went to NY last summer. Kanye also gives some "NY summertime" shout outs.

So there are a few of the songs that I have listened to while going to various places. Comment on some of the songs that you have resonated with while going to various countries, they don't even have to have the name of the place in the song. Maybe just a song that meant a lot to you when you went somewhere. I wish I could go to England because there are tons of songs I would listen to, American Boy, Jude Law and a semester abroad, and English Girls Approximately. Holla to all you London town goers.