Category: travel
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Food, Family and Fresh Air
We got up this morning to meet my mom’s cousin, Cotton, had a nice catch up, and then he took us to the Queen-sponsored Thai handicrafts shop (so you know they were made by actual Thai people with Thai material). We also swung by The Erawan Shrine (one of many, many sacred spots in the…
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Tigers – Are They That Grrrrrreat?
Nothing like popcorn and bananas to start the day off right. We had to be at the older, smaller train station at seven – apparently a peak traffic time in the city. Our taxi driver conferred with our hotel receptionist, who tried to confer with us but once again there was some linguistic confusion. We…
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Cruising in Kanchanaburi
We hung out at our sweet hotel this morning, had breakfast and got re-organized. Then we rented bicycles and rode them to the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery and Wartime Railway Museum. It was quite somber, as you can imagine. They had many personal effects and anecdotal stories. Basically, as they were beginning to build the railway,…
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Mao, Mom & Me
Our last morning in Beijing, we woke up early and headed out on another yogurt mission. This time, our objective was these tiny jars that people seemed to be sucking down outside of the shops try had just bought them in. Any time of day, there would be a ton of empty jars lined up…
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Bopping around Beijing
At seven in the morning we stumbled across some people (mainly silver sneakers) line dancing in the middle of a pedestrian mall with a stereo watching themselves in the storefront glasses. I wanted to join but no time to learn a new dance (or several – they had new moves for every song). It’s a…
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Wait, what’s for dinner?
After our great wall adventure, we decided it was high time for a traditional Chinese massage. Our driver Victor recommended a place near our hostel that was next to a Peking duck restaurant (one that was cheaper than the touristy one the guidebooks and internet recommends), which we had expressed interest in. The owner of…
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The Weather and The Wall
Nothing like starting your day at seven in the morning with a hearty breakfast of pork and onion and also maybe cabbage boiled dumplings! But that’s what ya get when you point at a picture to order your meal sometimes. The next customer to come in after us was a kid and got this fried…
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A hostel in a hu tong
Well, it didn’t take us long. Our tradition of “getting our bearings” (read: lost in a strange city carrying 20 lb bags) lives on! We did get a chance to wander through a quiet neighborhood, where old men were gambling and drinking tea without their shirts on, and old ladies were slowly line dancing in…
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logistics
What’s it like in Beijing, you ask? Well, we wouldn’t know. Yet! There was a lot of confusion and a little sass, but ultimately it boils down to this: United Airlines screwed up, and we couldn’t get on our 1:30 am flight to Beijing. We arrived in LAX around ten pm, made our way to…
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Packing. Like A Boss.
I have been giggling to myself all week. Some of the giggles are of an incredulous nature – I just can’t believe how lucky I am sometimes! Sure, I have no job and my shiny new college degree doesn’t seem to have the magic wand-type power I imagined. But its all good because my mom…
