Irot

....and I'm not meaning the end of my time in China, though it draws nearer every day. I mean the end of blogging for me. If you couldn't already tell I ABSOLUTELY HATE it. Sure I could catch you up on the rest of my Cambodia trip, preach about the wonders of Myanmar, whine about the tourists in Thailand, and attempt to describe the beauty of Malaysia and Brunei but I would much rather sit down and talk about them. I will not attempt to put my feelings about China into a witty and insightful paragraph. I won't divulge my thoughts on my upcoming exit of this country except for one word: trepidation. I don't want to express myself through text with the constant pressure of trying to be a good writer and also I'm kind ... read more

Taking it right out of the old travel journal. Enjoy: We left Laos and crossed into Thailand at the Ubon Ratchathanni border crossing. Upon passing through immigration we were faced with little less than a ridiculously expensive cab ride into Ubon. Just when all hope seemed lost a very nice Thai couple pulled up and offered us a ride since they were headed that way anyway. We happily said yes and settled into a pleasant 2 hour drive and conversation about Thai exports and tourism. We spent the night Ubon before catching an early train to the Cambodian border in the morning. The paved roads and reliable electricity were a nice respite between the dustyness of Laos and norther Cambodia. Getting to the border with Cambodia was extremely easy. Although once across we had to pay ... read more

After reaching Laksao with our van full of fish, we parted ways with it and hopped on an open air bus for another 4 hours over bumpy, dusty, red earth roads. We were dropped off at the only road going north/south throughout the country and told to wait for a bus to pass so we could flag it down. We didn't have to wait long and soon found ourselves clambering over boxes in the aisles and claiming seats on an all Laotian bus with Avatar (of all things) playing in Lao on the ever-present-on-Asian-long-distance-buses TV screen at the front of the bus. I nodded in and out of sleep, finally arriving in Savannakhet at 7 pm, a full 24 hours spent on either riding buses or waiting for them. Savannakhet is not a large city by ... read more

So it's been a while again but this time I have the excuse of Spring Festival for my absence. Ignore the date above, I know it's almost February now but I'm going to write this as if I've been keeping up on my blog during the trip. Zak and I left Shenzhen on the night of the 15th for Hanoi via a night train from Guangzhou to Nanning and then Nanning to Hanoi. The last time I entered Vietnam I came on the same train from Nanning so it was kinda interesting to be back on it and be able to recognize the way. As Zak and I had both been to Hanoi before we felt obliged to take a much more relaxed pace to the city and laze away our days there without much worry ... read more

Okay not really an ode in the literal sense of the word. More like my effusive love for this city that inevitably manifests when this particular island comes into conversation. I had the pleasure of two, four-day weekends in a row and, as I needed to add more pages to my passport anyway, used my need to visit the American Consulate as an excuse to laze away a perfect day alone in one of my favorite cities. Not that I was actually alone, you can never really be alone in China, whether you're on the mainland or the SAR. Wanting to get as much time as I could catching up with the city, I awoke early to get to the border crossing at Futian Kou An, even though my appointment at the embassy wasn't until 1:30 ... read more

the internet and I do not get along... read more

"What can one say about buses?" is what I'm sure you're all thinking. Well allow me a rant. Most people love the bus system here. And yes, I must admit that if my intended destination is more than a mile from my starting block, then they are a most wondrous and inspired means of getting to said destination. They are the cheapest form of public transit I've ever come across and go virtually everywhere you could possibly want to frequent. But the detriment of them is that they are quite simply TOO convenient and TOO cheap. There is really no need to walk more than a few blocks in any direction. And if this is how you choose to cut your paths through China, you will most certainly miss out on more than you could even ... read more

It's a Sunday night, exactly 10 pm. Normally I'd be avoiding lesson planning and getting ready to start the week all over again; steeling my reserves for the students' antics, both of the funny and frustrating variety. However, last Thursday I stumbled upon an unexpected light in my schedule. I was informed by my contact teacher, Erica, that all of the Junior 2's have "technical training" this week, before she broke out in a wide grin and followed it up with a "very good, right?". I was quick to agree with her and then hastily sent out a text message to several friends to brag about my good fortune. Five minutes later I was on the airAsia website looking at what flights I could possibly get out of SZ with a few days notice. Eventually I ... read more