http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Tiffany-Journeys-East/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Tiffany Journeys East en-us Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:17:35 +0000 Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:17:35 +0000 November was an ordinary partyless month. I thought maybe my center would have a Thanksgiving party but alas there was none. I made a nontraditional Thanksgiving dinner for my friends and I spaghetti and garlic bread and we had that the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It was very tasty. The only thing of note for November was the discovery and rescue of a very beautiful kitten. One day as Kim and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-463485.html My center planned a big party for Halloween. It was part real Western Halloween party the parts we foreign teachers planned and part weird Chinese party everything else. Everyone arrived dressed or partially dressed in costumes. We had a quite effective haunted hallway that people had to walk through and traditional Halloween party games like bobbing for apples passing apples with your neck http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-463483.html After a few weeks I settled into my new job. This year I work in a training center as opposed to a school. I have students that range in age from 5 to 55 and in proficiency from beginner to advanced. Some of my young students are very advanced and some of the adults are complete beginners. The adult beginners are the most difficult to teach. A young beginner is easy because a teacher can use song http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-463435.html Wow. I have been extremely lax in updating my blog. I will try to get it up to date as soon as possible. I returned to China on September 4th. The flight was pretty good as good as a 17 hour flight can be. I managed to have my whole row to myself so I could stretch lie down spread out and generally relax and even sleep a little. The night I arrived at Kimrsquos apartment I experienced an in http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-463426.html On June 29 2009 I boarded a plane in Hong Kong to fly home a place I had not seen in almost a year. I had never been away from the US for so long and I was eager to return to see my family and friends to hug my puppies and to experience what all the books call lsquoreverse culture shockrsquo. I was lucky enough to have several friends I met in China with me for the first leg of my trip to http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/blog-449848.html Our final full day in Beijing we had reserved for Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. They werenrsquot far from where we were staying and it was only two stops via metro to get there. Tiananmen Square is a really really REALLY big square. It looks big on TV and in pictures but the full scale of it doesnrsquot hit you until yoursquore standing in it and it seems to stretch on forever. Ot http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Forbidden-City/blog-448810.html After two days of nonstop stair climbing and touring we were pretty pooped and decided to take it easy on our third day. We still got up pretty early for a free service offered by our hostel a bike tour of the city. It had been so long since I had ridden a bike that I literally could not remember the last time. Perhaps testing my pedaling skills in a citysetting like Beijing wasnrsquot the bri http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Beihai-Park/blog-448359.html The day after our Great Wall adventure we headed out early again this time to see the Summer Palace. I love visiting stuff of historical importance so I was pretty stoked about seeing the Summer Palace. I knew that much of it was rebuilt and not original courtesy of the destructive plundering of French troops many moons ago but I was still excited to see how the emperorrsquos spent their summ http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Olympic-Park/blog-448339.html Before returning to the States for the summer my friends and I took a trip up north to Beijing. Normally members of the CTLC have nearly three weeks of training in Beijing during which time new teachers can explore and see the sights. My group last year got the shaft due to the Olympics. Instead of three fun filled weeks in Beijing we got ten mediocre days in the small coastal city of Zhuhai. So http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Great-Wall-of-China/blog-446619.html My blog is hideously behind so I will do my best to catch up quickly without skipping the best bits of whatrsquos been going on for the past two or three months. The last couple of weeks of teaching at Li Yuan were fairly uneventful. The school had a dinner for Rosemary and I before the end of the year. They took us to a vegetarian restaurant that was very very good. I didnrsquot plan any big http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-433275.html During a brief April holiday my friends and I decided it was finally time to check out Macau. It was only a short ferry ride from Shenzhen and after finding all the affordable accommodations taken took a day trip instead of spending the whole weekend there. Best decision ever. Macau was meh. To be fair we really didnrsquot plan anything. We boarded the ferry sometime around eight in the morni http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Macau/Macau/blog-404280.html Day 20 and 21 Sunday and Monday February 1st 2nd 2009The hostel we stayed at in Bangkok was very clean very new and very quiet because Irsquom pretty sure we were the only guests. I had only two complaints 1 The beds were so hard that a plywood box covered in a bed sheet may have been more comfortable and 2 The location was not that great. I was so completely disinterested with being th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-401424.html Day 19 Saturday January 31 2009Due to cost concerns we decided that the best way to return home was to take a bus from Siem Reap Cambodia to Bangkok Thailand and fly back to Shenzhen from there. None of us really wanted to visit Bangkok given all the trouble theyrsquove had but it was the cheapest way for us to return to China. So early Saturday morning we packed our things bid farewell http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-401421.html Day 17 Thursday January 29 2009Ah Finally This was my first day in Siem Reap that I slept in. Till 11am It was blissful. Then I lounged wrote in my travel journal lounged had lunch lounged and so forth. There was one more thing I wanted to do and that was visit the silk farm. Neither Kim nor Cara had any interest so it was to be another lone venture. We had planned to lounge for the entir http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Siem-Reap/blog-400789.html Day 15 Tuesday January 27 2009Now that our temple tour was over Kim gave in to the illness that had been brewing in her bad imagery I know for four days. She was really quite ill overnight. We had made an appointment with Rak to go to the floating village of Chong Khneas but Kim was in no shape to leave the hostel and Cara and I didnrsquot want to go without her. Instead Cara and I went out http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Siem-Reap/blog-400717.html Day 14 Monday January 26 2009Our third and final day of touring the temples was reserved for two that were a little out of the way and the Big Kahuna Angkor Wat. Every one wants to see the sunrise at Cambodiarsquos most recognizable landmark and we were no exception. So at 520 in the morning we boarded our tuktuk and braved the chilly air along with hundreds of others all after the same thin http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Siem-Reap/blog-400513.html Day 13 Sunday January 25 2009Breakfast at our hostel was delightful. For 1 there was an all you can eat buffet of cereal fresh fruit toast and pancakes along with tea coffee and juice. The man who ran the counter we named lsquoSmileyrsquo for his permanent smile and perky demeanor. Actually he was Little Smiley. Big Smiley was one of the waiters. Our new best friend Rak picked us up a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Siem-Reap/blog-400367.html Day 12 Saturday January 24 2009 We left our hostel at 8am to begin our three day temple tour. Our incomparable guide Rak took us first to buy our temple passes. It was a quick and efficient process of picture taking and money taking. Our first stop was the ancient city of Angkor Thom. Though not much older than all the medieval buildings I saw in the U.K. approaching the south gate to Angkor http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Siem-Reap/blog-399856.html Day 11 Friday January 23 2009We left our hot and uncomfortable hostel at 300 a.m. and arrived promptly at the airport at 420 a.m. Darn. Our flight was not until 7 a.m. I know being early is better than being late but dang. It took less than ten minutes to check in and go through security which stood in sharp contrast to the day before. Kim was still feeling ill. We managed to secure somewhat http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Siem-Reap/blog-392724.html Day 10 Thursday January 22 2009Ah another leisurely lsquotravel dayrsquo morning. The laundry had our clothes done by ten a.m. They werenrsquot perfect but they were certainly cleaner and smelled marginally better. We once again packed and hailed a cab to the airport. This occasion was not quite so breezy. It took nearly forty five minutes just to check in and go through security. I beli http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Wilayah-Persekutuan/Kuala-Lumpur/blog-392717.html