Its Been A While

I'm back in China after an amazing 6 weeks in the US.  I decided not to take my computer home with me this summer in order to recharge and relax, although that didn't really happen.

While I was home my mom schlept me to the airport way more than anyone should have.  Here's how it broke down:

2 weeks in Florida, including one trip to the Tampa Aquarium to dive with Sand Tiger Sharks (Amazing)

Hanging Out at Universal Harry Potter World

4 Days in New Orleans with my bestie

Airboat Ride in the Bayou

3 Days back in Florida

5 Days in DC/VA with my second family:
Springfield, Yorktown, Arlington, Alexandria and DC all crammed in to this trip.

Being a tourist in DC

4 Days back in Florida

5 Days in California
Healdsburg, San Francisco, a drive down 101 and the PCH and LA

Korbel Winery, Sonoma County

Whew! I'm tired thinking about my travels all over again. But it was so amazing to be home and explore more of the U.S.  Trips like these remind me how lucky I am to call such a beautiful country home and that I really do need to come home at least once a year.

Now that I'm back, I am overwhelmed with work.  I'm teaching 4 new courses this year, leading the student council and coordinating extra curricular activities.  Who do I think I am?  At least I'll be getting some good training so that I when I finally decide to leave Shanghai (not any time soon, though!), I'll be more marketable to other schools.

I'm already booked for a trip to Guangzhou, China for a training course, and I may head back to the Philippines in late September for some more diving.  Although I am very tempted to head to Jeju Isalnd off of South Korea.


Where would you go next?

The Time I Climbed A Million Stairs

Spring has finally arrived in Shanghai so I have been trying to enjoy every minute of it.  Apparently we get two weeks and then it turns in to summer, so I'm not wasting any time.  And I have been celebrating like anyone would...going to two pop concerts and hiking an insane mountain.

Up first was Katy Perry.  It was her first venture to China and she put on a great show.  Unfortunately I dropped my phone in one of the massive beers they were selling and now have to deal with a bunch of water damage.  You win some, you lose some I suppose.

Fans at Katy Perry

The following week I went to see my favourite band from 1997, none other than the Backstreet Boys! A few girlfriends and I went out for a few cocktails (which we certainly couldn't do before the Millennium tour in 2001) and headed to the show.  BSB was actually pretty decent.  They sang all of their hits and still had some dance moves, even though most of them are in their 40s.  Two of them were clearly on drugs and they all looked a little rough, but all in all it was a great night out!

Obviously we dressed up like the album cover for Millennium

That brings us to this past weekend.  The one where I climbed a million stairs.  Okay--maybe not quite a million, but it certainly felt that way.

A friend of mine invited me to go hiking in Yellow Mountain, about 6 hours outside of Shanghai. She said the hiking would be tough, but it would be worth it.  I'd been with her to an amazing series of waterfalls in August and had a great time, so I agreed to go.  I knew it would be challenging, but nothing prepared me for what lay ahead.

What some of the stairs look like from afar.

We were a group of 8 and almost all of them were really fit.  For some crazy reason, we decided to walk up the mountain, hang out and do small hikes over the weekend, and then take the cable car down.  

Here is the breakdown of the walk:

Distance: 12.5-13 kilometers up hill, mostly stairs  (it was paved, at least)

Time: ~7 hours

Steps: Roughly 15,000

Difficulty:  Endurance wise, very hard.  Technically, no problems except for one section where the stairs were so narrow it was tough to squeeze through with a backpack and it was STEEP.

I am not joking--this is one of the hardest things I have ever done.  We got about 3km in to the trip and I was ready to turn around, but there were already about 10,000 Chinese people trekking down from the cable car and it was insanely crowded.  (They had the right idea...cable car UP and walk DOWN the stairs.

It may be hard to see my face, but I was not happy about more stairs.

Even they were struggling though.  I saw countless ladies with no shoes on or small children crying as their parents dragged them along.  One lady had clearly been wearing heels (Chinese people like to hike in heels, who knows why) and was walking down in her bloody stockings while her husband prodded her along.  There were even old men and women huffing and puffing their way down.

For $20 you could have porters carry you.  I seriously considered it.

Once we got about 1/2 way, we realized how much work we actually had to do and I almost broke down and cried.  It was hot.  The stairs were steep.  There were so many Chinese people coming down they almost knocked us off the path several times.  You get the picture.

Miraculous I pulled some strength out of nowhere and motivated my friend and I to keep moving.  (We got separated from the really fit people for a bit, but we were only 40 minutes behind them!)

It was worth it.  The views at the top of Huangshan were absolutely amazing.

Love Locks--Like in Paris or London you secure a lock here and throw the key away and it is supposed to help your love stay strong forever.

Our second day on the mountain was rainy and misty, but I don't think any of us minded too much. We played cards and drank a few beers, gearing ourselves up for a sunrise walk the following morning.

The "hike" wasn't that bad.  It was only about 700 stairs from our hotel and there were amazing views of the mountains.  It was a little crowded, but we were able to find a good spot eventually.

Everyone wanted to take a picture of the sunrise.

This view was worth those 15,000 stairs.

How amazing is this??

We were smart and took the cable car down, which was nice since we got to see a different section of the mountain.

Overall it was a great weekend, but I am glad it is over.  With the crowds and difficulty of the walk I can comfortably say that I will not be climbing Huangshan again, but I am certainly glad I did!

How Diving Became My New Obsession

Quite a few people were shocked that I went on a diving vacation in the Philippines for Spring Break this year.  After my horrible experience in Myrtle Beach, even I never thought I would dive again.

As a recap, in 2011 I went diving in South Carolina with a few family friends.  The dive was horrendous.  The visibility was terrible, I didn't see much in terms of aquatic life, and I ended up with decompression sickness.  Apparently I couldn't read my depth gauge and I surfaced two or three times during my dive first dive (really bad) and went back in the water for a second dive (really, really bad) and lost my dive buddies.  I had a horrible bloody nose and once I got back to shore was sick and had some crazy hallucinations.  

I tried again in Honduras in 2013, but didn't love it.  Maybe because I didn't see a whale shark?

Anyway, I decided to listen to the advise of a few colleagues and go for my Advanced Open Water license because they PROMISED me I would feel more comfortable in the water and I would finally enjoy scuba diving.  

They were right.

Loving life on my morning shark dive

I was pretty nervous to start my course, but when I met my instructor I new I would be fine.  I got to work with Angus, a 6ft+ Scotsman (who looked more like a viking).  We knew that I'd be in good hands.  Once I was able to concentrate, I realized that I was lucky enough to be taking a course with the lead instructor at TSD. 

The course went well and I even ended up doing a night dive, entering the ocean when it looked like this outside:

And surfacing in the pitch black.  I loved it!  

Throughout my week on Malapascua I did a total of 17 dives.  I went to see the Threshers 4 times (and with a 4:30am call time that was impressive) and averaged around 3 dives a day.

Not the best picture, but I got to see several of these guys.  They were so cute!

Since I've gotten back to Shanghai, all I can think of is when I get to dive again.  So, I've already made plans to dive with sharks in Tampa. 

I'm also planning to continue my diving education, and am going back to Malapascua in October to complete my Rescue Diving course.  Woo!

Can't wait for another Shark Bite to celebrate my certification!

Way too excited to be diving.

How cute is this place??

 

I'm so glad I listened to everyones advice and cannot wait to get back in the water.  Maybe my next job will take me to somewhere tropical where I can teach scuba on the side.  Diving friends...who's with me??

Chinese New Year in Myanmar

Over the Chinese New Year holiday I finally had the chance to get out of China and travel somewhere in Asia.  I set off to Myanmar with two friends because I knew some friends from college living in Yangon and figured it would be a great way to see a new country and catch up with my friends.

We planned our trip around the major tourist spots- Inle Lake in Shan State, Bagan, Ngwe Saung for the beach, and a few days in Yangon to check out the city and see my friends.  I had high hopes for Myanmar because everyone I talked to told me how wonderful and undeveloped it was and this trip definitely didn't disappoint.

We arrived in Yangon late the first night, stayed in a really nice hostel and collected our tickets for our first internal flight.  The next morning we flew to Heho, which was about an hour from Inle Lake.  The airport was pretty crazy.  We got there two hours early (at our travel agent's suggestion) and proceeded to wait around with nothing to do.  Security took 2 minutes and they didn't even look at our passports before giving us our tickets.  I guess we looked pretty trust worthy.  Once our plane landed the airport staff quickly ushered off the previous passengers and then loaded us in to a pretty small plane with visible propellers.  The flight was uneventful but we did make a few stops before landing in Heho, so it was more like being on a bus than a plane, but at least it was comfortable.

After landing we took a taxi for an hour to our hotel near the lake.  It felt way too touristy because I was expecting there to only be a hand-full of backpackers, but once I got over that it was great.
We rented bikes and road around town, eventually finding a winery that was recommended to us.  The view was great, the wine...not so much.  We still had a great time.

Amazing View!

Look how exited we are about the sun!

The next day we arranged a boat tour and spent 8 hours on the lake, stopping off at different places to check out some of the local culture.  We saw the famous fishermen who fish with their feet (they also tried to pose and ask for money), lots of handicraft shops, the long-necked Kayan Lahwi weaving, a pretty sad lotus textile factory and the first of several thousand pagodas.  

Local fishermen:  They use their feet to paddle while they try to catch the fish.

Kayan Lahwi 

Budda in one of the temples

 That night we also took a cooking class with a local Myanmar family.  They showed us how to make some classic Burmese dishes with a western flare, and it was all amazing!  

Enjoying our dinner

From Inle we took a 7 hour bus ride to Bagan, home of over 1,500 Buddist temples and pagodas.  This spot was much less touristy (strange) but very beautiful.  We spent most of our time here checking out all of the different pagodas and the surrounding area. 

Our first day exploring was very eventful.  We rented electric bikes and rode around town, stopping at different pagodas and restaurants for breaks.  The group (actually just Danielle...)had several issues with the bikes.  Her kickstand stopped working so we had to wait around for a new bike, which the company that rented them happily provided.  We also had a very nice man and a police officer help us while we waiting.  Once the bike was switched, we continued on our way exploring a few of the pagodas in New Bagan.

More pagodas

Danielle trying to fix her bike

Once we got tired and hungry, we decided to stop for lunch.  This was the best part of the day because a.) Danielle crashed her bike in to a fence and it was hilarious--no one got hurt! and b.) we found an amazing spot to have lunch.  Our friend who helped with the bikes told us that he worked at Hotel Bagan, so we decided to stop in to check it out.  It was ridiculously nice.  Part of the hotel was built around an old pagoda and it was right on the water.  We decided to stay there for lunch and a few margaritas before continuing on our journey.  

After lunch we explored more of the town and then headed back to one of the most popular pagodas to watch the sunset.  When we arrived we found that about 1,000 other people had the same idea, so we asked a guide if he knew of any other places to watch that were less crowded.  He pointed us to a much smaller pagoda and we decided to check it out.  It was definitely worth it!

What we avoided for the night.  Too many people!
(We ended up at this pagoda in the morning, though)

Tight Squeeze going down

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Beautiful Sunset

The next day Danielle and I decided that we had to go back to the pagodas for sunrise because we wanted to see the hot air balloons come up over the pagodas.  We left our hotel around 5:30am and it was worth the lack of sleep.  As we were driving in, the sky started to turn purple and it was a beautiful morning.  I forgot the dress code and wore shorts  because I'm an idiot, but luckily there were vendors selling some delightful hippie pants outside.  We opted to climb the main pagoda because it wasn't quite as crowded and my bike was not going to cooperate on loose sand, but it was much less crowded at sunrise and we had a great spot.  

All the steps we had to climb to get to the top

 I have thousands of pictures of the pagodas and the balloons, but I won't bore you with them all here.

After Bagan we flew to Yangon and caught an overnight bus to the beach at Ngwe Saung.  This was one of the worst bus rides I've ever had.  It was so uncomfortable and took forever.  Plus, once we arrived at the resort our room wasn't ready and the hotel staff suggested that all three of us share one double bed.  We politely, but firmly, told them no way and the quickly sorted out our room.

Once all of that drama was dealt with we had an amazing 3 days at the beach.  We lounged under the tiki huts, had drinks delivered to the beach, swam in the Bay of Bengal, and hung out in the pool.  It was so great to be in the sun and out of the pollution.  Unfortunately, all three of us got horrendously sun burnt.  In Inle Lake we bought what we thought was sunscreen (because it said Sun Factor 50 on it!), but after we spent 10 minutes in the sun and turned lobster red we realized we had made a mistake.  It turns out that we bought skin whitening cream (very common in Asia) and it did not prevent sunburns.  We made the best of it, though, and spent the rest of our time in the shade.  Sunburns be damned!  It was our only chance at the beach and we were going to enjoy it!
Our group did walk in to town in search of aloe, but all we could find was some menthol, mushroom cream.  Whatever it was did the trick and we felt much better, just in time to head back to Yangon.

You can already see the sunburn coming in!

Once we begrudgingly left the beach, we headed back to Yangon via taxi.  There was no way we were taking that bus again!  It took us 6 hours, but we finally made it back to the city in time to meet Mark and Kelsey for dinner and drinks.  Our massive group enjoyed some Myanmar BBQ and national beers.  It was a great night out.

The next day we explored Yangon a bit.  We went to Shwegadon Pagoda, famous for housing 9 of Buddas hairs, and spent some time looking at all of the different statues set up in the space.  Afterwards we walked around Kandawgyi Lake and saw the famous dragon boat restaurant.  We also found a shop with some of the best ice cream I've ever had!  That evening we met Mark and Kelsey for dinner and drinks again before heading back to Shanghai.  Our time in Yangon felt way too rushed and I wish we had another day to spend with friends and explore.  I'll definitely be back to see more soon!

Shwedagon Pagoda

Dragon Boat!  

Yay! Reunited with the Cices

Once we made it to the airport we realized there was a little bit of drama because Danielle's flight was the following day, but she was able to sort out her ticket and flew standby to Seoul.  I made it home with no issues and had two full days to recover, which were 100% necessary.

It's been a hard week back at work, but this trip reminded me of why I am living in China and what I have to look forward to for the next few years.   =)