Kathmandu… some people love it, some people hate it. As for me, I simply adored it all. If you look beyond the pollution, the stink, the trash piles, the agressive traffic, the incessant honking, the homeless or drug-addicted child beggars, the rickshaw drivers chanting “rickshaw, rickshaw,” getting ripped-off, the feeling of danger lurking in the alleys, the power outages, the Maoist strikes that paralyzes the city, the travel-agency/hash/souvenior shop touts hounding you all over the Thamel streets, and, of course the insanity… well, if you look beyond all that, the [View Full Entry]

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DAY 1 We started our journey to the Nepal border early the next morning. Nima, our driver, came in a spacious Toyota Land Cruiser at 9:30 a.m. to pick up Simon and I, and we went to pick up the other two passengers, Hong and Bora. Simon and I realized that we forgot something, se we went back to the Yak Hotel, which is when Hong and Bora realized that they forgot something too, so we had to go back to their place again! Anyhow, that was the start of our four glorious days together! Our first stop was Yamdrok-tso (lake), [View Full Entry]

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Chengdu to Lhasa The ride from Chengdu to Lhasa was a nice 48-hour scenic escape with breathtaking, eternal landscape... well at least for the time I was awake! I was in the second level of the hard sleeper, which doesn't give me enough room to sit up, so most of the time I just fell asleep while reading...that is, until the altitude started kicking in and I started having wild, vivid dreams, and some trouble sleeping. I shouldn’t complain about my bed b/c there were people who were sitting for the entire ride in the hard-seater! An added bonus was [View Full Entry]

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I arrived in Chengdu after a 20-hour train ride, which wasn't so bad except for the businessman across my bunk, who had a 2-hour Chinese yellfest with his colleague (according to Philipp's translation, "Why are you unhappy with your job?!?!"). My ipod helped drone it out... so my sleep was not entirely sacrificed. We checked into Mix Hostel, which is a nice place I would recommend for travelers on a budget (Y15/$2 for a 6-bed dormroom) or for meeting people. It has a clear openness to it, but the Bob Marley/Jack Johnson on repeat got old after awhile-- but added to [View Full Entry]

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The next morning, another traveler (Philipp) checked into the dorm room. He’s a German university exchange student studying Chinese in Beijing who is on a month long break, and it was a huge blessing for me to meet him because his Chinese is AWESOME! What to order for lunch? No problem! Lost? No problem! How much? No problem! How do we get to XYZ? No problem! His understanding of China’s history and its current status is so helpful in my understanding of the people, the culture and the places I visit. I jokingly called him my Chinese guide because he has [View Full Entry]

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So the time comes to leave Seoul for my 6 month long backpacking trip. Wow, after a year and a half of living here, I'm actually really sad... to leave family, DK, friends, good food, stable job, clean toilets, kimchee, familiarity.. Well, I guess that's what it boils down to...familiarity, hence the Itaewon subway cry-a-thon with Joanne.. haha... plus the 2+ bottles of wine that added fuel to the fire. It's been 14 months since I've been back home in LA, so while I was in Seoul, I was too busy being homesick for my life in LA. Now, I'm homesick [View Full Entry]

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As a result of the timing, a national Korean holiday known as Chusuk (similar to Thanksgiving) happened to fall on the weekdays, meaning I had the whole week off! My friend Jenny and I planned a trip to Boracay to take advantage of this rare holiday. MANILA We arrived in Manila on Sunday afternoon and rode a company taxi into the main city. FYI for future travelers en route to Manila, metered taxis are not allowed in the international airport b/c they are potentially dangerous and notorious for ripping people off, so only company taxis are allowed. Since they have a [View Full Entry]

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After traveling alone, imagine my joy when I am reunited with DK! Yayyyy!!! When we see each other at the arrival gate in Bangkok, it's like a movie scene: lots of smiling, hugging and muah muah muah! DK's first words were, "It's been a while." It sure had! SINGAPORE From Bangkok, we jumped on a flight to Singapore and I talked for the entire 6 hour-flight. When we got into town, I am floored when I see our hotel room, I mean, it had an actual bathtub and I could use the water from the faucet to brush my teeth! We [View Full Entry]

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After much contemplation (“Should we stay one more night?”), we took a bus to Luang Prabang the next morning. The scenery along the route was just an amazing collection of rolling mountains, low misty clouds and endless greenery. According to the Lonely Planet: "The pictures do not lie; Luang Prabang is stunning. An incredible collection of Buddhist and French colonial architecture clustered together on a small riverine peninsula and surrounded by mountains... Over the past decade, tourism has boomed, but even that has done little to dampen Luang Prabang's unique atmosphere, and ma [View Full Entry]

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HANOI to VIENTIANE The drive from Hanoi (Vietnam capital) to Vientiane (Lao capital) can be a whole blog entry in itself! There were several travelers who had warned me against taking the bus, but my broke self had to opt for the cheapest method. The 20-hour bus ride was an overnighter, roughly from 7 p.m. to 4 p.m.-ish the next afternoon. The bus that took me on this journey turned out to be a retired Jeju-do (island in Korea) bus! The things you see! Anyhow, let me paint a picture of the bus scene when I walked in: cheesy disco lighting; [View Full Entry]

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