After saying goodbye to Em and Katie in Osaka, I high tailed it up to Lake Kawaguchi which is the second largest of the Five Lakes surrounding Mt. Fuji. It was a full day of travel for me but I was rewarded with a fresh snow fall about an hour after I arrived! Keep in… Read More Snow, Mt. Fuji and Monkeys
Osaka was the last stop in Japan for the three of us. I stayed in Japan for a bit longer but Katie was going to Vietnam to meet up with some friends and Em had to go back to the states. We got to our hostel in Osaka kinda late in the day so we… Read More Two Monkeys and A Ram in Japan: Osaka
We made it to Kyoto later and hungrier than anticipated cause of the mix up with the train tickets so we went to find some dinner. Our hostel recommended a BBQ place nearby which I thought was going to be American BBQ but it was Korean BBQ. At a Korean BBQ restaurant, you get brought… Read More Two Monkeys and A Ram in Japan: Kyoto
This year my school gave me a super long holiday again. Fortunately, I was able to go back to the states for a couple weeks but unfortunately on the trip back to China my flight was delayed and I had to stay overnight in Tokyo. Which was strange because in less than 36 hours I… Read More Two Monkeys and a Ram in Japan: Tokyo
I recently just had to surrender my passport in order to get my visa extended so I can come back to teach next year and I have never felt more stuck. A passport is essential to any travel in China because you need it to check into any hostel/hotel and it is usually required to… Read More On The Weekends, I Live In Hong Kong
Sometimes my three day weekends turn into four day weekends because of holidays in China. The latest holiday was Tomb Sweeping Day which is a time for a family to honor their ancestors and provide some maintainence to their graves. For me this meant a quick trip to Yangshuo, a Chinese tourist mountain village that… Read More Yangshuo: A Mountain Retreat
We got back to HCMC and booked a tour to go check out a couple of the major spots in the city the following day. The first spot was the War Remnants museum. It was nice to get a refresher of the events leading up to the war and the actual war itself but the… Read More Spring Festival, 4.2: HCMC, Vietnam
This is the second to last post in my series on my Spring Festival and the first post about Vietnam. Since I spent about a week and a half here its just too much for one post but stay tuned for the second post! Spending a week and a half in Vietnam gave us plenty… Read More Spring Festival, Part 4.1: Mui Ne, Vietnam
After spending a couple of weeks in Thailand my time in Cambodia was short, sweet and to the point. But I can’t say the same thing about the Poi Pet border crossing to get there. By this time in my travels, I have had the pleasure to cross many borders either at the airport or… Read More Spring Festival, Part 3: Cambodia
Travel spins us round in two ways at once. It shows us the sights and values and issues that we might ordinarily ignore; but it also, and more deeply, shows us all the parts of ourselves that might otherwise grow rusty.
-Picco Iyer … Read More “Qíngwén, nǐ kěyǐ…”
In a Shenzhen Minute 