“Do you want to go to Harry Potter world and go go-karting?”
What an offer. And to think I almost didn’t go. I am so glad I did!!! There is an amusement park about 15-20 minutes from where I live. It’s not one you hear very much about and I only knew about it because I had a friend who went go-karting there. What sounded like a weird invitation ended up being such a fun day!
(As you scroll through these pictures just picture Disney music playing. No joke!)
Head tilt- “That;’s interesting”
When exploring a weird amusement park, one must take fun photos!
Unfinished walk waysHarry Potter world
It ended up being a really dark Harry Potter haunted house.With all the construction we thought this was a fairly new amusement park. Nope, it’s 23 years old.Giant Chicken. And yes, that man is riding a motorbike in the parkAn actual temple. I’m having serious flashbacks of the opening scenes of Aladdin!
I was born in the year of the rat
We decided that this was a wishing treeI’m ready to go go-karting on a not-so-safe, no seat belts, helmet required, really fun track!Seatbelts…. who needs seatbelts? (Honestly, I’m so used to not wearing a seatbelt at this point that I didn’t even realize there weren’t any until afterwards when a friend pointed it out.:/)What’s 12D?Hammocks to rent if you need a restCan you see us?
You could have your feet cleaned by little fishThis guy was welding as the roller coaster was running. No words…Sure. let’s pour some concrete in the middle of the day on a main walk way. Why not?We did not realize how amazing this snow castle would beI wasn’t sure what to expect when they handed me this to wear. And the boots were wet inside, so that was gross.And then we walked into this. An indoor tubing run! What?!? Cue excitement!
Things I did not get a picture of;
Alligator park (which left the gate open at one point)
Water park
Four-wheel/dirt bike area
A garden
8,000 VDN (.35 cent) ice cream – we had two
Rides and games that weren’t running. We think they turned them on if you wanted to ride.
Dolphin show- figured this wasn’t going to be ethical so we didn’t go
Giant fruit sculptures
We paid to get into the park and then paid for the things we did. It was all very cheap.
Seriously, one of the most fun days I’ve had in a long time!
BLOGGING IS NOT SOMETHING I’M NECESSARILY GOOD AT AND AUTOCORRECT AND I HAVE A LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP, SO PLEASE IGNORE ANY TYPOS, MISSPELLED WORDS, OR ALL TOGETHER WRONG WORDS. 😉
Where in the world is Kuala Lumpur? I was asked this question a lot after I started posting pictures of my trip to KL. It’s a fair question. Where is Kuala Lumpur…..
My friend Libby and I spent four days in KL over New Years. The city is a nice mix of the Western world and Asia and almost everyone spoke English. There is a huge muslim population to the point where they have “female only” train cars. There were less motor bikes then in HCMC so it was quieter.
First stop- Petronas Towers
We found a nice park to sit in to watch the fireworks. We thought they would be going off over the towers but much to our surprise they came from right next to where we were sitting. It was a really cool experience!
So many people!
Day 2- Theme of the day… getting lost
When planning this trip, we were excited that KL had a metro system. Little did we know how confusing that system would turn out to be. From what we understood the different lines are owned by different companies. Some use a token and some use a card. They all go out of the main hub (which is in a mall) but after that you have to get off one, walk, and find the next one (if your switching lines/companies). Confused? Yah….. we were. And because of that, our first try ended here. In a village on the outside of town. Opps!
Token for the train
But we made it back into the city and kinda found were we wanted to go. Sometimes half the fun is in getting lost!
The walk way outside Bukit Bintang MarketBukit Bintang Market (Central Market) You could spend hours walking around in hereBukit Bintang MarketBukit Bintang MarketOld French BuildingsA templeThe Sri Mahamariamman Temple is the oldest Hindu temple in Kuala LumpurThe Sri Mahamariamman TempleThe Sri Mahamariamman TemplePetaling street/Chinese market
Petaling street/Chinese market
There was the main walk way (pictured above) and then stores on either side of it. Lots of purses and luggage being sold.
This, at some point, is going to be the taller building in Asia. It unfortunately blocked off a street we needed to get to.This picture looks photo shopped!
Day 2- Seeing the sights
The National Mosque of MalaysiaThe National Mosque of MalaysiaThe National Mosque of Malaysia
The butterfly park was one of my favorite things in KL. It was a beautiful green oasis with so many butterflies!
The Sultan Abdul Samad Building- Such a cool looking buildingOutside the City Art MuseumThe Sultan Abdul Samad BuildingI loved the flowers on the light postsMasjid Jamek- Oldest standing mosque in KLAlong the walls of one of the subways was cats pictures.
The next three pictures are from the night market that we walked to from our hotel.
I want this in my apartment
Day 3- Batu Caves and fancy dinners
The Batu Caves are an easy 30 minute train ride from the KL’s main train station. They are a series of cave temples and the main cave was free to enter. If you want to read more about them click here
There were so many monkeys!Ready to climb all the stepsLord Murugan Statue is the second tallest Hindu statue in the worldMonkeys monkeys everywhereInside the cave. Off to the left they were building a restaurant
How many monkeys do you see in this pictures? (Hint: there are more than 5)How I felt about all the mean little monkeysHanuman the green monkey godHanuman’s cave cost to get into and was a bit different then the Batu CaveKL Tower at nightThe view from KL Tower of the Petronas Towers
What a fun dinning experienceDessert. Yum!
Last Day – The Aquarium and one last trip to a mall
Streets of KL
The aquarium had the longest shark encounter I have ever seen. It was so cool!
Jelly fish are my favoriteThe park behind the Petronas Towers
I need to take a moment to address the mall situation. There were malls everywhere. When we walked out of the airport we walked into a mall, when we switched metro trains we had to walk through a mall, there was a mall for just electronics, an air-conditioned walk way through town that connected two malls, malls, malls, and more malls! I have never seen so many malls in such a small area. It was insane!
Air conditioned walk way.It was nice to see English books
Dining at the mall…. so many choicesGetting my fix of two of my favorite western treats!The main train station is in a mall.
This trip was a really nice way to end my winter holidays!
BLOGGING IS NOT SOMETHING I’M NECESSARILY GOOD AT AND AUTOCORRECT AND I HAVE A LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP, SO PLEASE IGNORE ANY TYPOS, MISSPELLED WORDS, OR ALL TOGETHER WRONG WORDS. 😉
I’ve been little behind with my blogging… opps! So sorry I’m about to hit you with two or three in a row.
I flew one from Germnay on Christmas day. Flying on Christmas is cheap, but kinda sucks. No, the airline did not do anything cool because it was Christmas. However, I had 16 hour layover in Beijing and I was definitely going to leave the airport. But how? It’s China. From what I’ve been told not a lot of people speak English and because they don’t use the Roman alphabet their signs are impossible to figure out. So I set out google. It’s the one part of my winter break trip I actually researched. I read various blogs and emailed several different tour companies. The standard visa into China, for Americans, is a 10 year visa and it cost $200, however if you are there under 72 hours and have an ongoing ticket you can apply for a free visa. This seemed like that better option for my bank account. I was able to book a drive and an English-speaking tour guy who would take me to the Great Wall, TiananmenSquare, and the Forbidden City. I was stoked!
When I flew through Beijing on my way to Paris there was a huge line for this visa. I figured it was because it was later in the day (I guy I work with was on that same flight and he said it took him four hours to get through the line). I figured I’d have better luck because my flight would arrive at 4:45 am. My luck ended up being not much better.
I recommend that if you ever decided to try out this 72 hour visa you have patience. Buckets and buckets of patience. It’s a long somewhat chaotic process but don’t worry your tour guy will not leave you! (Something I was stressed about).
So I arrive at 4:45am and went straight to the line. There are two different forms you have to fill out. One is at the counter next to the line and the second you have to ask the person processing the visas for. Interrupt him/her or they will never give it to you. There were maybe 7 people in front of me, however they were holding 5-6 passports each. I didn’t think anything of this assuming one person was processing a whole family of passports. Time dragged on. An hour passed and we still hadn’t moved much because there was ONE person processing all the requests. There must have been 150 people behind me (no joke). As it started to creep towards two hours things went down hill fast. First they ran out of the appropriate paperwork. People began forming a line next to the actually line just to get the paperwork. This would have been fine, however the people in front of me needed to get their families in line when it was their turn. This started causing a lot of issues. Accusations of cutting began to fly around, cussing happened, and a third line on the other side of the real line formed where other people decided to just start cutting in. What was once a nice orderly line turned in to a mob of people pushing. It was awful! When my paperwork was finally process I had to push and shove people to get out of the line.
I would like to hope that my experience isn’t typical. I have my doubts about that. There was one person processing paperwork and it took a lot of time. People were frustrated. A gentleman told me Shanghai is much better as they have multiple people processing the paperwork. After that line you have to go the actually immigration line to get your passport stamped. This didn’t take long.
It was definitely worth the wait and stress of the whole process. Just prepare your self to be there for a while.
My tour guide, Alice, (along with at least 15 other tour guides) was waiting for me at a Starbucks in the arrival area which was really easy to find. She took be to our car and we were off to the Great Wall. On the way she gave me a brief history of the wall and soon decided I looked too tired let me take a nap instead. (Actually, I was car sick from being over tired but didn’t want to make the driver feel bad). we went to the Mutianyu part of the wall. It was rebuilt in the 80s and you can still see parts of the original wall. We arrive and took a chair lift up to the top. You can take stairs but it was freezing and I was exhausted so I opted for the easier option. When we got to the top there was barely anyone there. It was so nice!
Gondola ride upEnter a caption
We walked to four of the tours
So.many.stairsEvery now and again I have moments where I’m glad I’m short!Toboggan track you take to get downYou don’t have to take the toboggan down, but it’s the most fun!
After the seeing the Great Wall we headed to Tiananmen Square (“the Square of the Gate of Heavenly Peace’). Tiananmen square is the largest public square in the world. I was surprise with all the security around the square. Because I was with a tour guide I was able to bypass all the lines!
Mausoleum of Mae ZedongThe Great Hall of the PeopleThe Gate of Heavenly PeaceNational Museum of ChinaThe Great Hall of the People from farther away
We then walked under the road via a tunnel and were at the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was a palace complex for the Chinese Emperors and is now a museum. It’s beautiful and has several palaces with in it which get smaller the farther in you go. The front was repainted for the Olympics so the colors were much brighter. My tour guided pointed out how so much of it was built around the idea of feng shui.
There were lions everywhereAbout to enterThe first palace with the Emperors throne.The ceilings were amazingThe complex was so big that you could spend hours just walking around it
You weren’t allowed to walk on these, but leading up to every palace were different sets of stairs and walk ways. The middle one was reserved for the Emperor. They were amazing! I can’t even imagine how long they took to carve!Emperor’s throne This belonged to one of the Emperor concubines. The Emperors wife could not give him a son so when he died the aire to the throne was the concubines son.Inside the palaceA dragon lionYou weren’t allowed to go up there but that building over looked the gardens.The back gateA pagoda outside the palace wallsI know this picture is blurry. These yellow bikes were everywhere. You “rent” them and leave them where ever you want when you’re done. I think my guide said it was 1 YEN an hour.
This was my guide, Alice. She was fantastic! Great English, very knowledge able, and kept offering to take my picture with out me asking! If your going to China I recommend looking her up!
Good-bye, China!
This was probably one of the best layovers I’ve ever experienced. I highly recommend booking a driver and tour guide! China seemed like it would be hard to navigate on ones own and the Great Wall is about an hour outside the city. It was a great way to end my trip to Europe and a neat way to spend my Christmas!
Blogging is not something I’m necessarily good at and autocorrect and I have a love/hate relationship, so please ignore any typos, misspelled words, or all together wrong words. 😉
Garmisch- Partenkirchen, Germany. “Huh?” is the reaction get from most people when I talk about the cute little town at the foot of the German Alps that I called home for 13 months. It’s the reaction I got from most people when they asked where I was going for Christmas. I like that most people don’t know about Garmisch. It’s like a hidden secret. Garmisch will always have a sweet spot in my heart. This summer will mark 10 years…. 10 years… holy cow a decade, since I moved their. It’s a move that I can honestly say changed the course my life was on. I made life long friends, got to experience new countries, and ultimately decided not to live in California when I returned. (A decision that surprisingly made it so I ended up in Vietnam. But, that’s a whole different post that I’ll write someday.) I know there were moments where I struggled living there (walking 2 miles to work at 6 am in the dark and snow), but I look back on that time in my life with so much fondness. When I visit and we drive in from Munich and finally see the mountains, it feels like coming home.
My dear friend Jason still lives in Garmisch and when I visit I stay with him. He’s like an annoy big brother who gives great bear hugs! 😉 There is a comfort that comes from being around old friends and it’s so nice.
He picked me up and we went to Tollwood. It’s a big holiday festival held in Munich. It’s fun just walking around looking at all the different venders. I only remembered to take a picture at the last-minute while we were eating.
Inisde one of the food tents
He had the first day I was there off so we hopped on the train and headed to Innsbruck, Austria to explore their Christmas markets. I feel like Innsbruck does not get the recognition it deserves for how beautiful it is. It’s gorgeous!
(Side note, Shelley, if you’re reading this…. I did not get locked in a cafe bathroom this time! ha ha!)
A snowy morning view from Jason’s apartment. I swear there are mountains back there somewhere 😉First view of the ZugsptizeView from the train InnsbruckInnsbruckAnd the Christmas Market begins!Breath taking views
Giant deep-fried swirly potato on a stick and some gluehweinI look tiny next to Jason
And speaking of gorgeous, Garmisch isn’t too bad to look at either! It snowed the first day I was there, rained the second, and was sunny the third and fourth.
I love this churchI’m pretty sure I drank my weight in chai teas.Friday farmer’s market. Something I never got to go to when I lived there because of work.
On day three I decided to take the train to Munich to go to the Christmas markets. (If you haven’t guessed, I love Christmas markets!) I had this bright idea to wear my sneakers. I could give my feet a break from the snow boots and there was no snow in Munich. Seemed like a great idea! Until I stepped outside! The rain had left a nice layer of ice on all the side walks. Needles to say I walked very slowly to the trains station! (And yes, I know I should have gone back in and changed my shoes. I was being stubborn. ha ha!)
This view never gets old.
The view when you exit the S-baun station!
Stairs in one of the sub ways stations. Clever advertising Ritter Sport chocolate!
When I got back to Garmisch Jason and I went to eat in Old Partenkichen.
On my last full day I decided to just walk around Garmisch because it was so nice out. Not too cold and very sunny. I ended up walking all the way to Old Partenkichen and back (roughly 6-7 miles round trip from Jason’s) weaving my way through cute little streets.
The sky was so blue!Paintings on the Chirstmas market stalls
Old Partenkirchen is so cute!
Seriously, it’s like being in a postcard!
Leaving was hard! It was not easy getting on the plane that day and it was Christmas on top of it. I made sure we had time for a pancake breakfast because that is my families Christmas tradition so at least it felt a little like Christmas It was such a nice visit! And a great way to end my time in Europe! Thanks again for having me, Jason!
(My next blog will be about my awesome layover, which helped make flying on Christmas Day a little easier).
Blogging is not something I’m necessarily good at and autocorrect and I have a love/hate relationship, so please ignore any typos, misspelled words, or all together wrong words. 😉
On day 3 of my time in Copenhagen I decided to take a day trip into Sweden. Why not when it’s so close! Getting from Copenhagen to Sweden is easy. There are three cities that are easily accessible. Malmö, Lund, and Helsingborg. I picked Malmö because it was the closet and it had a castle. The train ride took about 30 minutes and unfortunately was not covered under my Copenhagen card. I found it interesting that the first train stop in Sweden had a heavy amount of security. The train stopped and customs agents walked through checking everyone’s passports. If you wanted to get off you had to go through a gated area. On the way back there was no security on the Danish side.
Again, I did no research before going to Malmö so I hopped off the train, found the nearest tourist both, grabbed a map, and started walking. Copenhagen must have more buildings blocking it from the wind because Malmö had more of an icy chill to it. The city doesn’t have a whole lot to see and I saw everything on the tourist map in a few short hours, but man, the buildings were impressive! The city was also very quiet, which I loved! Below are pictures of Malmö.
Inside the Malmö train stationBefore you walk out of the train station. Not sure what it was for.
Town Hall is located in the Great Square. There is a very interesting water fountain out front. It looked like a boy holding a monkey on his shoulder and a rattle in his hand. It marks the spot of an old water reservoir.Statue of King Karl X GustavStortoget “The Great Square” More of The Great SquareI loved the lights!Musician statues in the pedestrian areaThis was a pop-up cafeTree decorationsYes, people were kayaking in the freezing weather.Point of View sculpture. One of the first things I saw from the tourist map (I saw everything in the above pictures as I was trying to find a tourist booth). My reaction was “ummmmm,” (head tilt).Malmö opera houseSt. John’s churchSt. Peter’s secondary schoolSons of the Work statueA cute little farmers marketI’m not sure what this was but it was in what looked to be an amusement park for kids. Everything was shut down because it was winterStreet artI got a little lost walking through a park trying to find the castle. In my defence, the park was huge!I got a little lost walking through a park trying to find the castle. In my defence, the park was huge!I got a little lost walking through a park trying to find the castle. In my defence, the park was huge!Remember I said I went to Malmö because of a castle…. This is it; Malmöhus Slott. After Denmark’s castles I expected more. Ha haMalmöhus SlottI stumbled upon the cutest fish market
HSB Turning Torso. I bit of an eye sore compared to all the old buildings.Øresund Bridge – The bridge that connects Denmark to Sweden. I had to walk so far to get this picture.You can barely see it, but in the distance is Denmark. You can’t tell but the wind was icy and my hands about froze off when I was trying to take this picture! Ha ha!
Malmö Christmas marketsI love Christmas markets!Lamp Statue # 1Lamp Statue # 2. They were nowhere near each otherLittle square
Old water fountain in the little square
Malmö central train station
Although Malmö didn’t have very much to see, it gets a gold star for cuteness!
Blogging is not something I’m necessarily good at and autocorrect and I have a love/hate relationship, so please ignore any typos, misspelled words, or all together wrong words. 😉
I loved Copenhagen. Loved, loved, loved it! It was so cute and had an amazing Christmas feel to it! I loved being cold and cozy in my gazillion layers. I know this is weird for my but it was so refreshing after HCMC 90-100 degree days. I want to go back in the spring or summer because I have a feeling it’s even more beautiful. I didn’t do a whole lot of research before I went because the end of the school term had me burnt out. I read few blogs and looked up a few tours but that was about it.
Day 1- 12.5 miles walked
I arrived in Copenhagen around 9:30 am after spending a night in Paris.
Flying over EuropeI loved this!
First thing I did was buy a Copenhagen card. I read about this card and everyone raved about. It gets you into all the major tourist attractions and on the trains/busses. It’s worth every penny! If for nothing else it just made life easier. I didn’t have to worry about buying train tickets and sometimes I didn’t even have to wait in line. The man at the ticket counter explained to me how and where to use it and it was during this time I realized I could use it to go see Hamlet’s Castle (the castle was the setting in Hamlet). I wasn’t planning on seeing any of the castles outside of the city because I didn’t want to spend money to do a tour. Turns out they are very easy to get to via the train system. So I went to my hotel, dropped my luggage in their luggage storage room and off I went. It takes about 45 minutes to get to the town of Elsinore where Kronborg castle (which is a UNESCO site) is located. I got off the train and realized I didn’t actually know how to get to the castle from the train station and I had no internet. Opps! Luckily for me, when you walk out of the train station you can see the castle!
You can’t tell by any of my pictures but there was a huge moat around the castle.
This was set up in the court yard
Here are some photos from inside the castle
Hamlet being preformed at the castle
Kings bed room
View from the top of the castle
Elsinore is also home to the Little Mermaid’s brother statue and some interesting street art.
After walking around Elsinore a bit I decided to take another 30 minute train ride to Frederiksborg Castle which is also known as the Museum as National History. This one I couldn’t see from the trains station so I ended up walking around a bit. The main road from the train station basically goes in a circle around town and either way takes you to the castle. This castle didn’t look like much from the outside but the moment you walk through the gate it takes your breath away! It is stunning. Sadly I arrived about 15 minutes from closing so I didn’t get to see much of the inside. The outside made up for it though!
This is what it looks like from outside the gateAnd when you walk through the gate
This beautiful chapel is inside of the castle.A choir singing Christmas music
View from the backThis is what fairy tales are made of!
I ended by first day with a walk through Tivoli park. It was a winter wonderland!
Day 2: Seeing the sites -14.5 miles walked
I had meant to take a free walking tour but when I realized how close everything was together I decided to head out early instead of waiting around for the tour to begin. I left my hotel around 8:30 am to head toward the Little Mermaid statue (about a 45 minute walk) and it was still pretty dark out.
City HallI loved how festive Copenhagen was
The famous Nyhavn canal
Amalienborg is the home of the Danish royal family and I had it all to myself!I waited around until someone walked through so I could get a picture with me in it. I was surprised at how close you can get to the buildings. Flags up = Queen is homeHe agreed to a picture as long as I kept my distanceThe famous Little Mermaid Statue
Went passed Amalienborg again on my way back.
My phone died so I ended up in this cute little cafe forced to drink hot chocolate while I waited for my phone to charge.
The next series of pictures are from Freetown Christiania. It’s a self-governed town inside of Copenhagen of about 100 hippie squatters. They moved in 1971 and haven’t left. From what I read there has been a lot of controversy over the area. The whole place made me a bit uneasy. It didn’t have the cheerful feel the rest of Copenhagen had and I felt like I was invading a private area. It wasn’t clean and things were pretty run down. There were signs up around town asking you not to take pictures of the market area because they were selling marijuana. Seemed to me that was the only reason people visited Christiania. The street art was pretty amazing.
The towns flag painted on a door. Three dots for the three “i” in ChristianiaThis looked to be a give/take areaTrying to get a sneaky photo of the market area
Church of our Saviour which is down the block from Freetown Christiania
After visiting Freetown Christiania I went on a canal boat tour. Just one more thing I was able to do with my Copenhagen card!
Nyhavn from the waterThe opera houseThe round towerView from the top of the tower. It was incredibly windy!View from the top of the towerView from the top of the tower
Back to Tivoli I went for some daytime winter wonderland!
All the snow was fake
After Tivoli I went back to my hotel to give my feet a rest before heading out to the Christmas markets.
This hotel was neat. It had giant tv screens mounted to the building counting down the days until Christmas. It was also playing Christmas music.I love Christmas Markets!Goulash and glogg = perfect way to stay warm. Glogg has raisins and almond flakes at the bottom so when you’re down drinking there is a treat at the end.
Day 3: Sweden and more sightseeing -14.5 miles walked again!
After I arrived back from Sweden I had some day light left so I went to the Christiansborg Palace, which is currently under construction. Half of it used by the Royal family and the other half is parliament. I had walked past it the day before but because of the construction didn’t realize what it was.
It’s hard to tell from this picture but the whole front of the palace was torn up
When walking in the palace one must wear booties.
The royal library
Royal thronesThe embroidered tapestries were really neat
I then walked to a pop up food market. This was a bit of a walk and on the other side of the river, but it was really neat. It was an old warhorse on the pier that had food stalls in it. From the count down clock inside I’m guessing it was only around for a short period of time. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much for me to eat but that atmosphere was amazing.
Street food marketCountdown clock to when it closes.My pictures of the inside didn’t turn out very wellView from aboveSee through bathrooms
I did find something I could eat!
I ended the day with a walk through the Hans Christian Anderson museum. Honestly, only go here if you have the Copenhagen card. It was weird.
H. C. AndersonThe Little MermaidThumbelina
One of his original stories.The hotel gave free glogg and apple strutdel (which I couldn’t eat) to all the guest. Best way to warm up after a cold day!
Day 4: Last Day – 10 miles walked
I had two things left I wanted to see before my flight to Germany.
Hans Christian Andersen’s grave
This statue of Hans Christian Andersen was by City Hall, not by his grave.How nice of them to have things so clearly marked
Rosenborg Castle
It houses the royal collection of artifacts, the Crown Jewels, and the Danish Crown Regalia. The other castles/palaces I visited had a lack of visible security. This castle had secret service looking people walking around all over it.
This is the back side of the castle. Don’t try to walk in the back side. It’s a military area. Opps! Thankfully, the guards was very kind about the whole thing.The garden
The changing of the guards involved a lot of music.
Royal toilet. Weirdly enough there was a ladder in it.
Throne roomThere was so much ivory!
This crown was massive!Danish Crown RegaliaRoyal crowns
Copenhagen has a huge bicycle scene. It was a little crazy but very cool that even though it was freezing people were still riding their bikes!
They have lanes and lights just for the bikes
Typical scene on most streets in Copenhagen. I noticed most of the bikes just had locks around the back tire but weren’t actually locked to anything.
My hotel was pretty amazing. It had a gluten-free breakfast and a bathtub! And you better believe I used that tub every night!
Cow outside my hotelMy roomThe bath tub was a major selling point for this hotelGluten free BREAD!!!
Copenhagen is now one of my favorite cities and I hope to go back again! I was a great start to my winter break.
Blogging is not something I’m necessarily good at and autocorrect and I have a love/hate relationship, so please ignore any typos, misspelled words, or all together wrong words. 😉
Phu Quoc is a little island off west coast of Vietnam in the gulf of Thailand. It’s a quick 45 min flight from Vietnam that will cost you less then $80 USD round trip. A few weeks back my friends and I were discussing going to the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) Christmas Gala. We looked up the price and jokingly said that we could have a whole weekend in Phu Quoc for the same price. So, we book a weekend trip to Phu Quoc and it was such a nice and much needed weekend away.
Phu Quoc is a quiet little island right now, but there was a lot of development going on. Give it a few more years all there will be a lot me resorts which is good or bad depending about how you feel about development.
We stayed a place called Richis Resort. The people were so kind. Airport pick up and drop off was included in our stay. The staff was very helpful. They let us store our luggage on Sunday and use the showers at the spa once we’d checked out of our rooms. And I asked them at one point what the name of an essential oil was that they were using and the gave me a small bottle of it to take home! (Still don’t know the name though. Ha ha!)
The buildings looked like they came from a southern plantation. The whole property was gorgeous! Check out the pictures below:
Our room
The view from our balcony! I’d love to wake up to this every morning!
Their free breakfast was delicious!
Saturday was spent lounging around the by beach and the pool. You could see the beach from the pool so that was pretty awesome!
Christmas at the beach
Sunday we went snorkeling.
Driving through Phu QuocUmm…… Thankfully we did not see any jelly fishView leaving the harbor
Floating houses for the fishermen
First stop of the day was to do some snorkeling (I’m the one with my hand up). Unfortunately, there wasn’t much life in the reef.
I look like I’m getting ready to punch something. Ha ha!
After lunch we had out second stop of the day. Here we had the choice to either snorkel or take a small boat to an island called Fingernail Island. We opted for the boat to the island.
We ended our weekend with a beautiful sunset.
I needed this weekend! I needed to get away from the hustle, bustle, noise, and pollution of a big city and just relax by the ocean with friends. It was so nice! Phu Quoc is a place I definitely plan on visiting again!
Blogging is not something I’m necessarily good at and autocorrect and I have a love/hate relationship, so please ignore any typos, misspelled words, or all together wrong words. 😉
AQI…. Air Quality Index. This is an acronym I have become very familiar with. Living in SE Asia means you live with air pollution. It’s just a fact of life. I thought I knew what air pollution was, I mean, I lived by LA, that’s air pollution, right? Boy was I wrong. Most mornings when I look out my window there is a heavy haze over the city. It looks like fog. I love fog. I wish this haze was fog.
My school uses three colors and this is how I like to think of them Green = woo hoo! Go outside, take a deep breath, and enjoy the day. Yellow = not so good, but you can be outside. Red= Students aren’t allowed out for recess and you should avoid exercising outside. Since I have lived here we haven’t gone over red. If you want to see what a maroon city looks like check out what New Delhi is currently going through.
We graph the air pollution in my class instead of the weather because the weather doesn’t have much variance to it. Last month we had 1 red day. Last week we had 3.
October AQI graph
November AQI graph
October graph vs. November graph
AQI sign when you walk into school.
So I finally did it. I bought an air pollution mask. (Well, to be completely honest I accidentally bought 10. Ha ha! I bought them online and thought I was buying one nice one but in reality I got 10 disposable ones. At least they are the best disposable ones you can buy! 🙂 ) The pollution makes me dizzy and gives me head aches. Some mornings you can taste it. I’m not exaggerating either. It’s gross.
Below are a few pictures of what the air pollution looks like.
Yesterday’s AQI-Just to put it into perspective.
Red day
Green Day
View out my apartment window. Red Day vs. a Green Day
Walking to work on a red day
I’ve been told the air pollution is from several different things; factories burning at night, construction, motorbikes, and wind blowing it in from other places. Where ever it comes from its gross. But, ever city has its downside. Right now, air pollution just happens to be Saigon’s.
I feel like Bane from Batman, but at least I’m prepared for more red days!
Blogging is not something I’m necessarily good at and autocorrect and I have a love/hate relationship, so please ignore any typos, misspelled words, or all together wrong words. 😉
(***because I’ve mentioned the school where I’ll be teaching I should probably mention that everything on this blog will be my thoughts, not those of my employer***)
I’m super lame and started this blog three weeks ago. Then, I got food poisoning and was sick for five days. I even tried to go back to work and they sent me to the doctors. It’s was miserable and I’m not sure where I got it from. I did realize that I had stopped taking my probiotic because during my trip. I had just forgot about them and then forgot about them when I got back as well. So I partially blame being sick on that. Anyways, I started, I got sick, and then I forgot to finish this blog. So here I am, almost a month after my Fall Break trip I am finally writing about it.
Fall break happened the first week of October and I, with two of my friends, spent 7 days in Northern Vietnam. I need to emphasized that pictures do not do justice to the places we went. They were stunning!
We decided to book with a tour company (Halong Bay Tours) because in all honesty we were too tired to try to figure everything out on our own. It wasn’t like we were on a tour, it was more that they booked everything for us so we didn’t have to worry about anything. Best money spent! Especially when things went a little sideways while we were in Sapa.
Day One
We flew into Hanoi on Saturday and were picked up at the airport and dropped off at our hotel which greeted us with welcome drinks (aka Tang). We spent the evening walking around Old Hanoi and the night markets. Hanoi had so many more tree then Ho Chi Minh!
Night Market
Day Two: Hanoi City TOur
Sunday morning we were picked up for a day tour of Hanoi. We started out tour by seeing Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum. Ho Chi Minh was the first president of what is now unified Vietnam. His mausoleum holds his embolden body. We weren’t allowed in because his body is currently not there. For two months out of the year is shipped off to have “maintenance” done. We toured the ground and then went to see how lacquer painting was done.
Presidential Palace
Ho Chi Minh’s House on stiltsA pagoda
Lacquer painting
After the lacquer painting we head to the Old Quarter for some yummy lunch.
Old Quarter
Next we went to the Museum of Ethology.
House on stilts at the museum of Ethnology
After the museum we went to the Temple of Literature which was Vietnam’s first National University.
Temple of LiteratureThese stones had names on them of the people who passed the University ExamsThere was some sort of graduation going on.
And last, but not least we went to Chua Tran Quoc; the older Buddhist temple in Hanoi.
After our tour we explored Hanoi a bit more and had dinner before catching our night train to Sapa.
Fake North Face anyone?
View from the restaurant we ate at
Day Three: Sapa
Sapa is a mountain town in Northern Vietnam along the Chinese border. It is surrounded by tiny villages and mountains and mountains of rice fields.
Sunday night we took a night train to Sapa and arrive around 5:30 AM.
Our cabin on the night train
I didn’t think the night train was that bad once it started going. I was also on the bottom bunk so that may have helped.
We were picked up at the train station and driven to our hotel. Although we were unable to check-in the hotel had showers and bag storage we could use. Our guide picked us up from the hotel and we went on our first hike to the Cat Cat Village. This village is more of a tourist village then a local one.
Sapa is gorgeous! So green!
Cat Cat Village
There were a lot of little shops on this hike.
View from where we ate lunch
After our hike we decided to walk around Sapa and have smoothies at one of the brand new hotels
This view
Day Four: Sapa and Hanoi
It’s rained! And not just a little rain. It rained enough to cause landslides which then caused the train to stop running (this is where things went sideways.)
When our guide picked us up she recommended we rent rain boots. They were every penny (we only paid USD $1.50). Life savers! It poured on and off the entire hike. We hiked through the rice fields and down to a small village for lunch. About an hour into the Spanish couple with us got a call from their travel agent explaining the situation with the trains and informing them they would have to take a bus back to Hanoi. This meant we would not be able to hike after lunch and would instead need to a bus back up to our hotel. At first I was bummed but as the rain continued and the paths got more and more slippery, I was thankful to be done at lunch.
Rice fields cut into the side of the mountainsWalking through the flooded rice fieldsWater buffalo
This is one of the ladies who followed us down the hike. They are not hiking guides. They are local women who live in the hill villages. They help you down and in return you buy their hand-made goods.
Our lovely guide, Sue.
Our tour company ended up booking us a sleeper bus and sending us the details. I am so glad we didn’t have to figure this out on our own! Sleepers busses are not as grand as they may sound. I’ll take the sleeper train any day over the bus. Thankfully though we got back to Hanoi at 10pm, were picked up by a driver, and brought back to our hotel.
Day Five: Ha Long Bay
Ha Long Bay is in the Northeat of Vietnam and is know for it’s 1969 limestone islands.
We were meant to leave Hanoi at 8am on a bus to Ha Long Bay. We waited.. and waited… and waited…
After contacting our tour company it turned out the bus forgot to pick us up! The tour company sent out one of their employees to pick us him in his SUV. We thought that he would be driving us all the way to Ha Long Bay. That didn’t exactly happen. He sped through traffic in the rain, spent more time on the left hand side of the road then they right side, and eventually caught up to one of the local busses. It was a bit confusing as the what was going on. We had ask to use the restroom and he pulled over and then ushered us to the bus. This bus was not the bus the tour company had booked and everyone on the bus seemed a bit confused as well. But, we made it to Halong Bay where we caught our boat.
Our boat “Lavender”View of the top deckMy roomWe were told you don’t often see blue sky in Ha Long Bay.
We had lunch and then went kayaking and hiked to the top of Ti Top island.
Safety first
Through the cave………and into a beautiful little cove where we saw monkeys!
Getting instructions from our guideHiked up a bunch of stairs in the rain to get to the gorgeous view.
When we got back we were given a lesson on how to make spring rolls. Which then turned in to a race of who could make spring rolls the quickest.
Spring rolls have become my favorite Vietnamese food.
I don’t usually take a photos of my food but the presentation of our dinner had to be documented!
They were vegetable cutting artists!
Day Six
We went to the largest cave in Ha Long Bay and then did a little hike before heading back to the main land.
Not a bad view to wake up to.Local fishermen
Largest cave in Ha Long Bay.Inside the cave.Inside the cave.So many tourist boats
James Bond Island where one of the James Bond movies was filmedIt was hard to say good-bye to this view!
When we got back to Hanoi that night we ended our trip with a nice dinner and a beautiful view!
For our last night in Hanoi we stayed at the Hanoi Trendy Hotel & Spa. It was a cute little boutique hotel in the old quarter that was really hoping for good reviews on trip advisor. (They told us this! Ha!) They welcomed us with fruit and beverages, breakfast was fun, there was a spa on site, and when we left the staff came outside to see us off. I’d recommend them if you go Hanoi.
