Tina
Moving to China - should be interesting.Living in China
I will start off in the Yongchuan district of Chongqing and then head to Jinshitan, near the city of Dalian.
Travel Blog Posts
May 11th 2012
We took a bus (1 hour) from Busan to Gyeong-ju. We stayed at Guesthouse Santa – a hard to find, right in the middle of downtown, clean and wonderful hostel. The owner doesn’t speak much English but is very nice and helpful. He also had REAL (fair trade and organic too!) coffee to drink for breakfast. Mmmm... Gyeongju is a small town for Korea. Its population is about 300 000 compared to Seoul's 10 million and Busan’s 4 million. This made it very nice and relaxing to walk around town. Gyeongju was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Silla(57 BC – 935 AD) which ruled about two-thirds of Korea. The town is scattered with 'Tumuli' or ancient burial mounds. It makes for a lot of interesting green space in the city! For dinner we went ... read more
May 5th 2012
We were picked up just after 7am to start our ‘DMZ tour’ with VIPTours in Seoul. To be honest I was a bit skeptical when our tour guide was wearing 4 inch heels, pink and purple splatter painted skinny jeans, a jersey top, a bejewelled baseball hat and was so proud to be the same height as Lady Gaga. She proved me wrong and ended up being a great guide who was so interesting to talk to about South Korean politics and government. The demilitarized zone between North and South Korea is about 250 km long and 4km wide. It is the most heavily militarized border in the world! On our drive out to the DMZ there is a huge barbed wire fence and guard posts all along the Han River to keep out North Korean ... read more
May 1st 2012
We caught the 7:10am KTX (fast train) to Busan. Train tickets in Korea can now be reserved online at www.korail.com - a very user friendly website! We arrived in Busan just before 10am to rain. It took us while to find our ‘hostel’ as it was actually just some guys apartment that had bunk beds in it. It was in an apartment high rise in the business and bar district of Busan. The 'hostel' was cozy but not as clean as the rest of the hostels we stayed at in Korea. We spent our first day in Busan going to South Korea’s largest fish market, the Jagalchi Fish Market. We wandered the alleys checking out all of the sea creatures for sale and watching old ladies clean fish at a rate so fast it was almost ... read more
April 29th 2012
We were greeted in Seoul by a plethora of English signs and western amenities. There were 7-11’s and Dunkin’ Donuts everywhere! It’s hard to believe it’s only a 50 minute flight from Dalian! Incheon airport is the best airport in the world. Literally. Furthermore, the transportation system in Korea is phenomenal – so efficient, organized and vast. Getting to our hostel (Phil House) was easy. On our first day in Seoul we went to Gyeongbokgung Palace in the middle of the city. Upon exiting the metro station we were offered a free English speaking tour guide. Its a great deal for both the tourists and the guide. We had no idea where anything was or what it was and she, Helen (14 years old), wanted to practice her English. Gyeongbokgung translates into ‘Palace Greatly Blessed by ... read more
April 15th 2012
I went grocery shopping yesterday. Here is a picture of one of my favorite produce stores in Hong Mei (the Korean part of town). I also added a picture of what I bought for 25RMB or about $3.96. Life in China is going good. It has been almost 2 months since my winter holiday. In less than 2 weeks is our next holiday. I will be flying to Korea for 9 days to escape the chaos that is China during any sort of National Holiday (I learned my lesson in Suzhou in October).... read more
February 6th 2012
The title of this blog says it all. There are a crazy number of tourists here. Western amenities are everywhere. The beach is packed. Food is expensive. I am overwhelmed. On day 2 we hired a taxi to take us to Tra Trang beach. Much better! It was a lot quieter. On the third day we packed up and headed further north to Nai Yang Beach. We stayed at in a bungalow further away from the beach and rented a motorbike to take us around. The beach is nice and much quieter than Patong. We spent the next few days cruising on our bike, relaxing at the beach and eating a lot of seafood. It was VERY relaxing and much needed! After Patong I headed back to Bangkok and then east to Koh Chang. I spent ... read more
Back in Bangkok ... and up to Chiang Mai
Published: April 15th 2012Asia » Thailand » North-West Thailand » Chiang MaiFebruary 1st 2012
We spent a day an a half in Bangkok wandering around the Khao San area shopping, eating, drinking, and pampering ourselves. We stayed at the KC Guesthouse ($22 dollars for a triple with an ensuite bathroom and AC). Its clean and in a great location. They also serve wonderful food in their restaurant. On the night of February 2nd we took the night train up to Chiang Mai. We opted for second class which was fine. It was clean, cool, and quiet. Our train ride to Chiang May was late but our guesthouse, the ThaPhae Guesthouse was still there to pick us up. The hotel was REALLY nice ($17/night of a double with ensuite and AC). The hotel also had a decent (and cold!) swimming pool. We spent our first day in Chiang Mai wandering around ... read more
January 29th 2012
We stayed at the Beauty Land I Hotel ($30/night for a double with a balcony, breakfast, TV, and hot water). It's a great hotel that is clean and with nice owners and staff. We were within walking distance to the Shwedagon Pagoda. Accomodation is in short supply in most of this country so its difficult to get rooms. When you do get rooms they are a bit expensive and not as nice compared to other SE Asian countries. I think part of the problem is not being able to 'put money down' to reserve a room. You can verbally reserve a room but if someone else shows up first, it's gone! Having Chan book us rooms ahead of time really helped. Yangon is a great city. We spent 3 days here. On one day with Chan ... read more
January 27th 2012
We left Bagan and had a very long day of driving to Bago. We started the trip off by stopping to see a family who had a palm farm. Every day they collect palm sugar from the trees in clay pots. They would have to climb up about 100 trees per day, collect pots from the day before and hang new pots up. They would make sweets and wine from the palm sugar as well as palm oil from the leaves. The rest of the drive was uneventful. We arrived into Bago late at night and stayed at the Mya Nanda Hotel ($20/double). Bago is super busy and noisy. I think its a hub for truck drivers. The restaurant we went to served a variety of goats testicles which we decided not to try. The next ... read more
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