http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/SF-Girl/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from SF Girl en-us Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:08:33 +0000 Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:08:33 +0000 It's nearly been a year since returning from China. I can't sit still. Despite being back in San Francisco being close to my family and friends being involved with my community having a challenging career and drinking the Koolaid I realized that life gets so dull when you start wondering what's the point and now what. I feel so shallow all the time I go to parties and gathering http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/blog-323690.html Heading to my all time favorite destination home I didn't realize how much I love the Bay Area until being away for an extended amount of time. I love Shanghai too and China is a fascinating place to be but it doesn't compare to San Francisco. As much as I have loved seeing new places meeting people and being alone I have to admit I am tired of riding buses planes trains and figuring o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-205445.html Apartment Y5000 a monthInternet Y130 a monthTaxi meter starts at Y11Nofu Spring Water Y1.20Subway single leg Y3Breakfast pancake Y1Pirated dvd Y7Deluxe foot massage Y88Starbucks latte Y24Text message China mobile Y0.10 each.Pair of socks Y10Admission into Shanghai Museum Y10Dumplings at Nanxiang Xiao Long Y11 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/Xujiahui/blog-220318.html Back in Shanghai still in one piece. I was starting to miss Shanghai I am happy to not be sleeping at a hotel tonight nor trying to figure out where to eat where to go or when to get to the bus stop or airport. I had such a good trip the past 6 weeks. I am thankful that everything went smoothly and I did and saw almost everything I wanted to A few more days in Shanghai and then I head h http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/Xujiahui/blog-219817.html Some pictures of transportation the past few weeks. Some of the buses were pretty nice with considerate passengers. Some of them were just horrible smoking trash peels bones spitting overcrowding people wanting to bring on weird stuff ie their bike engine... yikes. A small taste of real China. There aren't taxis in most smaller citiesvillages so people rely on passing buses to tak http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-219775.html Admission tickets to Angkor Temples 20 USD for one day 40 USD for three consecutive days. When you purchase your ticket they take your photo and the entire ticket and pictures is laminated for you We were a bit templed out and tired by the third day. The humidity and heat was making me dizzy and soon enough the awesome temples started to look like piles of rock. Day 3 we took it easy and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Angkor/blog-219594.html Day 2 We woke up insanely early to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat and then continued visiting temples. Ta Keo Really steep steep steps. Some of the steps are worn down so a bit scary to climb up. I only went 13 up I was clutching to the wall. J went up a little further and saw a small boy selling bracelets. He sees her and tells her to buy a scarf when she declines the bracelets. Before http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Angkor/blog-219590.html We bought a 3 day Angkor Temple pass and planned to visit most of the main areas. We hired Mr. Bann a tuktuk driver from the hotel to drive us around for the day 10 USD. He waited for us while we went to each temple. Angkor Wat is about a 15 minute ride from Siem Reap. The temples are actually pretty far apart not very walkable. Renting bikes would be a good idea but a bit tiring in t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Siem-Reap/blog-218883.html Air Asia to CambodiaWe spent the day traveling from Chiang Mai Air Asia to Bangkok and Bangkok to Phnom Penh Air Asia. Air Asia is a budget Thai airline. Air Asia is definitely budget no assigned seats and they charge for beverages.The only airline that flies directly from Bangkok to Siem Reap where Angkor Wat is is Bangkok Air which charges 150 USD each way. The flight is like 45 mi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-218483.html We woke up at 430 am to view the sun rise over Angkor Wat. Quite magical. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Angkor/blog-218711.html We waited for the weather to clear up before committing to a trekking tour. J and I signed up for a 2 day 1 night trek in Northern Chiang Mai. We took it easy our third day in Chiang Mai. We got a late start since we stayed up watching Mr. and Mrs Smith on HBO the night before. After eating brunch at Art's Cafe we went looking for a spa to get massages. We went to a place called Let's http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-217646.html We waited for the weather to clear up before committing to a trekking tour. J and I signed up for a 2 day 1 night trek North of Chiang Mai in the Doi Inanthon National Park. The trek includes elephant riding hiking staying at a hilltribe overnight and more hiking and bamboo rafting. A pick up truck with seats in the trunk picked us up along with a group of travelers from England. The 6 o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-217647.html The rain clouds that is. It was raining a little the day we got into Chaing Mai. More like I'm following the rain... Sigh. Nonetheless the rainy weather makes Chiang Mai even greener and more lush. The air is much cleaner as well. Perfect for a rainy day J and I signed up for a full day's cooking class at Best Thai Cookery how can you go wrong with a name like that We had a great tim http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-216969.html Hello from Bangkok Thailand Night 1 in Bangkok I got here earlier this week from Kunming. I happened to reconnect with another traveler who I went biking with in Lijiang. We were on the same flight to Bangkok which was nice since I had some company transiting from BKK airport to the city center. We took the bus to Khao San area and looked for hotels and had dinner together.Day 1 I was in http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-216340.html Dali is surrounded by beautiful mountain ranges Cangshan and one range that I don't know the name of. Our driver told us it was nicknamed Chicken Feet Mountain. Who knows.Cangshan is on the west side of Erhai Lake. There are two summit areas. I only went to the top of the first area 2450 m. From the mountain top you can see all of Dali and Erhai. Anyway I rode a horse up Cangshan to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Dali/blog-214733.html Kunming is supposed to be known to feel like Spring all four seasons of the year. That said the weather is mild and great for growing flowers. I read an article about about Yunnan's flower industry and Yunnan province produces one of the most flowers in Asia. The market in Dounan near Kunming is Asia's largest flower exchange and exporter of flowers. I was curious about this and wanted to go http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Kunming/blog-215263.html Went back for sunshine Back in Dali 65288228232970265289 the weather is perfect here. Blue skies longsleeves and jeans fleece vest in the morning kind of weather. I spent the day around Erhai Lake 6528827953280232824665289 with a couple from Spain. The husband was hardcore he had his thick LP rebound into smaller sections and spent three months studying China de http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Dali/blog-214494.html Back in Dali. Yunnan is supposed to be very ethnically diverse meaning there are a lot of ethic minorities. I had finished reading Leaving Mother Lake which is about the Mosuo Nationality. Technically the Mosu are classified with the Naxi Nationality. In Lijiang you see so many women laborers because in Naxi culture women work and provide. There are a lot of female cab drivers female http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/blog-214168.html Believe it or not all I brought with me for my 35 day trip was an oversized backpack. I somehow have survived alternating between two pairs of jeans. However in Dali I sent one pair to the cleaners and never got it back I was pretty unhappy but left to Lijiang and called the cleaners 3 times to follow up. I was pretty desperate for another pair of pants so while I was in Lijiang I picked u http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Dali/blog-214497.html One of Yunnan's most popular adventures is trekking the Tiger Leaping Gorge in Yunnan 2011321335. It's a two day trek through a very large deep gorge. I've seen photos of the hike and wasn't thoroughly impressed but it's more for the experience than the scenery. I was planning to skip the Gorge all together but since I was already in Lijiang I decided to just go.I told one of the gi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Lijiang/blog-213951.html