Beijing, China, Asia Today was my last full day in Beijing, and in Asia. I figured I should get out and see one more sight before going back so I visited the Summer Palace. It’s about 45 minutes outside of the city by metro, but pretty easy to find. I’ve gotten the knack of travelling around these cities now, so finding something this big was no problem. The Palace really is huge! It’s full of gardens and parks, sprinkled with…
Beijing, China, Asia I got to see the Great Wall today, and it has totally saved my trip to China. It was incredible! It started out with a way-too-early wake up call of 5am, and the driver was at the hostel to pick me up at exactly 6am. The whole day trip cost 270 yuan ($42) and that included transportation, entrance to the wall, breakfast and lunch. The breakfast was an underwhelming start with a McDonald’s sausage mcmuffin and a…
Beijing, China, Asia I got to see a bit more of the city today, and had some pretty decent weather to do it in. I woke up at 7am so Aleeda and I could head out to the Forbidden City when it opened at 8:30am. We were among the first people inside, and there was hardly a queue to get tickets. It worked out really well because we could see what we wanted to see without too much hassle of…
Beijing, China, Asia I had a good night sleep last night and got to sleep quite late as well. I got up to watch the Patriots play against the Giants, and lose. It brought back memories of the 2008 Super Bowl, not a great start to the morning. I grabbed some breakfast at the hostel and decided that today I would go see Tiananmen Square. Our hostel is just down the road from the square, so I headed out and…
Beijing, China, Asia I woke up this morning after a pretty decent night’s sleep. What a difference it makes having decent roommates that actually give some consideration to those people around them. I met the four girls I’m sharing a dorm with Aleeda (Estonian), Magda (Swedish), Yen and Nicole (American). The girls invited me along to check out a market in Jinsong, so I decided to tag along. We met up with Yen’s friend Brian who lives here in Beijing…
Beijing, China, Asia I got up this morning and packed up all my stuff and checked out of the hostel by 8:15am. I stopped by Dunkin Donuts to pick up something for breakfast and then caught the airport express bus just outside. The transport system in Seoul has been amazing and certainly makes travelling around this city easy. The bus picked me up for 10,000 won ($10) and we were at the airport within an hour. I checked into my…
Shanghai, China, Asia I woke up this morning and had my last breakfast at Rock & Wood Hostel. It was a great place to stay, but I had to move closer to the airport for my flight tomorrow morning. I got all my stuff together and hoofed it up to the metro station and took the one hour ride out to where my new hotel is. I got to the metro station near my hotel, and had no idea how…
Shanghai, China, Asia I woke up this morning and decided to do something stupid; I upgraded my iPhone to iOS 5. It seemed like a good idea at the time when I started the download at 7:30am. It seemed like a bad idea when I was still trying to sort out the wreckage at noon. The restore didn’t go well, so I ended up having to restore it as a new phone and start from scratch. I got all my…
Hangzhou, China, Asia I woke up this morning and felt a little hungover. I guess I’m just not used to drinking anymore, so those beers and the bucket set me back a bit. I was in no hurry to get to Hangzhou, especially since I knew it was only an hour train ride away, so I took my time this morning. I got some breakfast downstairs, booked a night back at this hostel for tomorrow night and packed up my…
Shanghai, China, Asia I had a great night’s sleep last night! It was such a good night actually that I woke up at 6am and was completely rested. It was a great feeling that I haven’t had in quite some time. It was a perfect time of the day to catch up with the family back home so I made some calls and organized my hostel for the next couple of nights in Hangzhou. Initially I was going to go…