http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/karlyann/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from karlyann en-us Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:56:37 +0000 Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:56:37 +0000 Bandos Island Resort in the Maldives. It was absolutely beautiful One of those few untouched places. SCUBA diving was great with a wide variety of fish. The only sharks were small backtips though. We did a night dive and got to see the plankton lights if you've never done that you should it's amazing http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Maldives/Male-Atoll/blog-387826.html In Phuket we stayed at a little resort on the beach. We went to the FantaSea performance which was kind of like a theme park with lots of shops and games dinner and then a performance with dancers and animals a LOT of elephants...my favorite. It was interesting I would definitely recommend it. We also went to a little farm and got a demonstration of how the monkeys work to get coconuts down http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Phuket/blog-387818.html Spent the days leading up to Christmas in the town of Lahaina on the island of Maui Hawai'i. Rented a car and drove the road to Hampi...stopping along the way for some muchmissed Mexican food and to take a peek at a beautiful botanical garden. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Hawaii/Maui/Lahaina/blog-387814.html We stayed in a small lodge in Kabini and went on safari for a long weekend http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/blog-387801.html Quick trip to Mysore to see some old palaces and forts and even a stop off at the Bombay Circus it wasn't very good I wouldn't recommend it...but I couldn't resist. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-387795.html Quick getaway from Bangalore to the beach of Goa a lot of time to hang out and do nothing http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Goa/blog-387793.html Some of the parks around Bangalore the garden city and some snapshots of various aspects of rural modern India. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Bangalore/blog-387790.html I got to see Bangalore for the first time...the place I'll be moving in a few months http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Bangalore/blog-387786.html We went for a school trip to Singapore and Malaysia. We did some sightseeing but mostly shopping. In Malaysia we spent some time in Kuala Lumpur and then took a cable car to the mountains to visit Genting Highlands which was a very LasVegas type of resort...complete with Casino haunted house lots of shopping Ripley's believe it or not and a theme park. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/blog-387779.html Our friend Zhou Huajian is a Taiwanese singer so we went for a weekend in Singapore to catch him in concert. Most of the pictures are from Sentosa Island and for the rest of the time we basically explored the city http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Singapore/blog-387777.html Murali took us to see a big banyon tree about three hours' drive outside of Bangalore. There were monkeys everywhere. We also stopped to see the Big Bull Temple legend has it that the bull carved out of rock started out so tiny it could fit in the palm of someone's hand and kept growing until it reached the size it is today. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Bangalore/blog-387773.html Sophie and I decided to be kind of touristy during our last month realizing there was still a LOT of Beijing we hadn't seen. We sang at our graduation party in our qipaos and got a few last pictures of friends before heading back the next morning http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-387683.html We took the entire month of February off to explore Yunnan province in the south of China. It was warm almost tropical and a nice break from Beijing which is at its coldest in February.We flew to Yunnan's capital Kunming where my friend Julia met up with her grandmother before we set off in a bus. We went first to Lijiang and stayed in a Naxi village called Baoshan. Our second night in Baosha http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/blog-387600.html We took the train to Fujian province. We did a lot of hiking and explored a Chuxi village and a village called Wuyi shan and lived with local families there. From there we took the train to Jiangsu province stayed with local families in their villages and visited a lot of tea groves. We also visited a silk factory where silk is produced from the cocoons of silkworms and the next day visited a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Fujian/blog-387574.html Our Chinese teacher Cheng Laoshi 312433276924072 invited our Chinese class over to her house for an afternoon. We all took the subway over and went to lunch at a hot pot restaurant she made us do all the ordering to practice saying things like we want chicken but please don't put the head in the soup and other useful phrases. We went to her house and met her 1 12 year old son http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-387571.html Sophie's host dad was very excited to be introduced to this strange American custom of mutilating pumpkins for Halloween so he volunteered to go buy some. He came back with two very tiny pumpkins so we decided to give a watermelon a shot and it actually turned out quite well It only lasts about twelve hours though. Sophie's host family had a great time watching us carve pumpkins and helping http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-387568.html My new host family took me to a hotel basically in the middle of a swamp for a vacation. We walked around and hung out at a little very rustic hotel. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-387565.html You may be surprisedTo find out I have eyesAnd I can stare tooIrsquoll look right back at youBut why donrsquot you careIf I sit there and stareCanrsquot you just go awayI just want one dayWithout staresno one careswhat she wearsor shares itwith her friend on the busAnd I can seeHow yoursquore looking at meI guaranteeYoursquore not invisibleI tooCan see youstareAt my hairYes I know itr http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-387562.html Go to the bust stop and take but 104 to tie shi zi fen then cross the street to get to school. I thought the public bus would be an easy and mundane mode of transportation. I was wrong. After living in Beijing for eight months I am as capable as the locals at trekking through public transportation. If you think taking the bus in the morning isnrsquot worth mentioning you might be surprised.In http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-387561.html On the afternoon of April 4 2008 six of my School Year Abroad classmates and I boarded one of two buses headed for the Western Academy of Beijing to participate in the first Asian delegation of the Global Issues Network Conference. I didnrsquot know that the next three days were to permanently change my life.The First DayldquoYou not only can make a difference you must make a difference.rdq http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-387560.html