Dongducheon, South Korea, Asia I’ve spent these last five days with Crystal, Andrew and baby Jax. Most of the week was spent chilling at the house, eating a lot and shopping. It was really nice being in a nice apartment for a while and not have to live out of my bag. Plus, it was really nice being around other Americans who I could speak English with and not be as annoyed as I had been in China. It was…
Dongducheon, South Korea, Asia I got up at 5am and was ready to go at 6am. The hotel had a shuttle that brought me and two other guests to the airport for about $1.50, you can’t beat that! Of course he dropped me off at the right terminal, but at the completely wrong end of the building, so I had to lug my stuff all around Pudong Airport looking for the China Southern check-in desk, but I managed to find…
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…
Shanghai, China, Asia Good news and bad news: The bad news is that I got almost no sleep at all on the train last night. The good news is that it was my last long distance train ride for my whole trip! All-in-all it was a pretty good way to travel. I liked that I could pay for a cheap ticket, fall asleep (hopefully) and wake up in another city, while also saving a night’s accommodation at a hostel. But…
Xi’an, China, Asia Well I officially hate dorms in China. I think I’m getting less sleep in the dorms than I am on the hard sleeper train rides. The strange this is that down south I could get a single room at a hostel for about $10 a night, but up north I’m struggling to see any for less than $25. When I can stay in a dorm for $7, it just makes no sense to pay that much more…
Xi’an, China, Asia Well I was right. They were all Chinese in my dorm, and I didn’t get much sleep again. Some guys came in around 11:30pm, put the light on without caring that I was asleep, and then left the door open for a ridiculous amount of time so all the mosquitoes in the world could come in. When they finally turned the lights out, they decided it was the perfect time to call their best friend and have…
Xi’an, China, Asia I didn’t get a great night’s sleep on the train last night. They turned the lights out at 10pm, but a bunch of people stayed awake until about 1am chatting quite loudly, right at the foot of my bed. One guy sat on my foot twice, but I guess that’s to be expected on a bottom bunk. The train was scheduled to arrive in Xi’an at 7am and again, it was right on time. I hopped off…