JonChan On The Plane Again

After Howard's graduation, my aunt and uncle flew back to Sydney. My parents, cousin, and I rented a car and drove to Gold Coast. Gold Coast is known for its long continuous beach and golden sand. There sand is actually softer than ours. My cousin and I decided to book a tour in Gold Coast. It was with Adventure Ducks. They have large buses that can transport people on land and water. We didn't tell my parents this because we wanted it to be a surprise. When we arrived to the bus, my mom commented on the bus telling me that it looks weird. I had my camera ready to catch their reaction when we went on the water. Before we headed for the water, you could see my parent questioning whether the vehicle would actually ... read more

My first destination was Hong Kong. I didn't do much for the first day. I just roamed around the Kowloon Island. Before I left, Monique told me I had to try this dessert place called Healthy Desserts. All their desserts are made of fresh fruit and fruit juice. Well, it was not hard to find this dessert place. It was on every corner of the city like Starbucks back at home. The place was very good and tasty =) My Dad and I decided to join a tour to visit Hong Kong's touristic sites. One of the famous sites is the Po Lin Monastery. You know how everyone wants to be the biggest or largest of something? Well, the Po Lin Monastery is the largest SITTING Buddha statue in the world. The Buddha is sitting on ... read more

The following day we took a 5 hour bus ride to the next largest city in Tibet, Rikaze. We visited a temple there. Very beautiful temple with it's beautiful view. So, at this point, I still have not fully recovered from my high altitude sickness. My body has not gotten use to the high elevation. So, if 3,000 meter was not high enough, our next destination was the highest salt lake in the world, the Holy Namtso Lake. This lake is about 4,500 meters high. Oh my god, I felt like I was going to die! You take it for granted that most of the countries we come from have cars that have suspension and the road we ride on are relatively smooth. I know in the states when we hit a bump or something that ... read more

For the weekend, I visited the ancient city of Ping Yao with five other people. Ping Yao is a city enclosed by a city wall. It is use to be the center of all financial transaction. The city wall that surrounds the city protected the city from intruders and enemies that wanted to rob the city of its wealth. All of the ancient architecture is still perserved so you are able to see how the Chinese in the ancient days lived. A lot of the Kung Fu movies are filmed here. Ping Yao is a 5 hours train ride from Beijing. From Ping Yao, went travelled to Taiyuan which is the city next to Ping Yao. Taiyuan is famous for its twin Pagodas. These Pagodas are identical and stand 55 meters. We were actually able to ... read more

Taichung was a fun city. There were many sites to see and lots of food to eat. The main attraction in Taichung was the Aborignal amusement park. Taiwan was not always inhabited by mainland Chinese people. Taiwan actually had Taiwanese people. They can be compared to the Native American Indians in America. The aborignals have several tribes spread out throughout Taiwan. However, there are less and less aboriginals because many of them have mixed in with the Chinese blood. So it's kind of interesting. Well, during this trip I was reading, "The Five People You Meet In Heaven." The main character dies because of a amusement park ride (don't worry I didn't give away the story...the guy is dead from the begining). So, right when I finished the book, we arrive at the amusement park.....hmmmmm....scary. Yeah, ... read more