Travel Life

It has been one year since I moved to China. I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly. In one year it is always hard to tell how well you really care or know something/someone till you revisit that year one day with a pen and paper.  I landed in China Last September, had a suitcase full of random stuff from home and a ton of clothes for professional attire.  A week in China I had already been well acquainted with other local expats. I was finally carving a niche for myself. Winter comes along, I get incredibly sick, I reevaluate a lot of things and end up meeting the love woman I am dating today.  February was full of adventure and what a learning experience this two year contract has turned out to be. May, I decided to stay in China for another year, get a bonus and try to pay off my student loan. I enjoy my apartment and I'm going to travel to shandong province with my Dear Lily. A lucky man I am. June rolls around, I have officially completed my first contracted year...

Bus four runs two ways, east and west. The predominant and more used route is the westbound. The eastbound takes you through. Pleasant little area near the area where the two routes intersect; this market area is a very narrow street with vendors and numerous amounts of restaurants, it is worth the travel. Although it is not hard to find on foot, nor is it discouragingly far, it is more convienent after a long day of walking to grab the bus. If you see the 1GO grocery shop, you have gone to far, that is where the routes closely intersect. I wrote this post a while back free some how gett no lost and by some how getting lost I mean, I don't know the symbols for the east on the bus that separates it from the one I needed.  The westbound bus will take you from the Qing Guai up to the decathlon, zoo coffee shopping area. This leads to the kaifaqu beach amusement area.  It is pretty much a straight shot down jinma Lu. But I got on the wrong bus and of course it was the last bus run...

The Dalian is not the capital city of Liaoning province in DonBei (northeast) China but it certainly is a new sense of urban centralization. Being one of the top beach resort areas in China (specifically the second best in Northeast (Donbei) China; Dalian outweighs Shenyang when it comes to attractions and history.  Dalian had in previous years been occupied by the Japanese during World War 2. Had has since been an area much travelled to to pay respects to the history and reclaim of the area.  There are many areas surrounding Dalian that are just as great the next but the big seller of the "Clothing City" (as it has been called) is the easy access to seafood. Although Dalian is really only known for (in terms of cuisine) is the dried and fresh seafood, it still has some amazing places to eat. No, not Japan amazing, but pretty great food! Outside of Dalian heading towards the North is an outer area (a growing urban core) called Kaifaqu. Although I live in Jinshitan, Kaifaqu is...

We all make mistakes; we all have desires. We are only but human; we need to learn, this is what is important to remember. We are supposed to learn from our mistakes. SUPPOSED to. I have partied in the past, I have done the run around- dance drink and do it all again. You know, the odd time I have also experienced horrendously sickening drinks :p But you know...sometimes these things still happen and I need cash in on the you owe me one with friends which never feels good emotionally or physically -_- Last night was the first time in quite sometime that I actually went out and did some "out of the blue" activity with a few good friends and just let it out. Literally... In Dalian, there are not opportunities to go have a wild night or go to certain places on a regular basis. The opportunity was there so, we seized it! I don't, regret much but that bus ride back home...God help me if I have to ever take a bus ride home that intoxicated again... There was a social event; a D...

.Late sleep in cause I didn't pass out till about one, Instagram and fb are accessible and I uploaded a bunch of photos. Totally forget everyone back home is on the computer and since I'm awake, why not catch up :p We Went to China town just around the corner on North canal Rd. And then left on a main road at the park area. After walking down past the Chinatown point, you get to the actual Chinatown which is seemingly more south China than the rest of actual China! I won't get into how well mannered and smiley people were, OR how much better the shops were than they are in actual China!!?? Does China just make awesome things to give themselves a good wrap and send them to awesome places you wouldn't think to look because well you didn't go to another country to see the culture of another a different country necessarily., but for people who do, they must think like wow!!! This is what they have here? What must they have in their own country, I'm not going to spoi...

Arriving in kuala Lumpar at 10pm at night (after taking a cheap can ride into Chinatown for our hostel) we were ready to have a first drink of ice cold sodas in KL.  We stayed at a great little hostel called the fern loft in which offered toast breakfast and had a 14$ bunk a night charge in a 24 person dorm. The coffee they gave was uhhhh well, water really, but free, is free? The bathrooms were clean and if they broke, they were fixed quickly. The wifi worked fast when you could get it but the best thing to do is to just use the birdneat guesthouse wifi (no problems and easy password to crack) it is birdnest :p The first night was spent at elements western food restaurant and we were welcomed with open arms to spend ridiculous amounts of money of cheap beer and greasy food. Guess that's a common thing among travellers. We ventured as much through the area we were staying in as we could without getting too far and too lost. We were chased by the most vicious looking cockroach and i...

When traveling around the world you are going to be seeing a lot of things and meeting tons of people. A lot of what you see is certainly well unique especially dependingn on where you stay and spend time. The people you meet at times are very much apart of the tourist traveller experience. Last night a colourful American "war veteran" of the quite young age and a big head (that is actually quite small compared to his body) basically confused my ability to put my foot in my mouth and be nice to being a soft push over...punk, some war veteran, where's the injury? Tats? No? Not very high ranking? Maybe spranged ankle injury? *cough* infantry *cough* I wanted to drop knowledge and tell him off but when you are in a loft with someone who seems mentally unstable and a bit drunk, the last thing you want to do is get into a scuffle that could lead to someone getting thrown off a balcony...I'm not the one who could or would do that as I'm pretty short :p Anyways,...

Where to begin, we landed in a pleasant airport (changi) and then caught a pretty cheap cab ride into a tourist district. We stayed at the BLISSFULLOFT on Hong Kong road which instantly brought me back to Hong Kong mentality. Everything I loved about Hong Kong was magnified by a million here in Singapore. Singapore is a city state, when flying in, no matter the time of the night, you can see the city lights outlining the beautiful view of the city, and the elegant spider web created by the well light main highways. The city spans over majority of the are with constant developments. For a less congested city style visit, you can ferry over to the island that is vast and green as you peer at it from the observation deck on the Singapore skywalk. Nothing says metropolitan like Singapore's population. The urban cores are well mixed sand are consumed by "sky scratchers" that are hotels and office buildings, beautiful to look at but other than that, used to form the more collec...

Landed, after a long and tiring morning if doing nothing and waiting. I don't understand why I have been so tired, but thinking about it, the preparation for the trip and preparing the end of the school semester until the holiday is over, has been a large reason for so much energy consuming activities.  First thing is first, find the cabs, hotel, and food. There is no chewing gum and smoking or large annoyances allowed in public. Drunk singing and regular Chinese etiquette will probably get us in copious amounts of trouble here, be respectful and be careful as in many places.  Things to possibly check out so far: -night safari -fountain of youth The fountain of wealth actually has the water flowing Inwards towards the sculpture because water is seen as luck, so instead of having the water flow outwards likely classic fountains.  Need to do currency exchange as well cause everyone needs to have cash on hand in foreign countries! Never know. -CB

How's everything going there? You working? It's Saturday, I just went out to Korean bbq with lily, got home after picking up some supplies for my house.  You will laugh, i kind of tried eating ... Bbq'd cow dick -_- not gonna lie, didn't taste bad, every thing was covered in chilli pepper though :p so really even the chicken heart and stomachs were the same taste, just different texture. Miss you guys, hope you are well. The astrill Vpn is not really doing what it should be for Apple products so basically it's only good for everything except Apple because Apple is a greedy and rude company :( Give my best to everyone, I'll be sending something in the mail tell ma she has my address, I'm sending you a copy now so she can constantly as you for it too :p  Miss you a ton, always thinking about what I would be doing if I was at home right now, and I think it would not be as pleasant because I wouldn't be happy doing anything else other than teaching. Don'...

I'm Here we are, Damian airport in the middle of the day. Woke up beside my qin ai de this toning and made some coffee, hopped on a Qing gui ride for  Salian airport with three other friends. The lady went home, we are at the airport. Ready to go, already sweating, unable to admire outside weather. After finding out our flight is not domestic and not quite international, we are placed in an odd holding cell area segregated from the rest of the airport, I don't know why, maybe just because it is  Singapore?  Talking to the guys, apparently they heard there are no firewalls in Cambodia and the other countries we are visiting. That will be nice if it is true! So buddy has taken care of the hostel in Singapore; the English is welcome spoken and very common there. The exchange rate on currency is about that of a CAD sooooo I need to watch spending, hoping for the Visa card venues! Hoping it won't affect our chances to see the night safari and the fountain of youth. We leave Si...

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Visa has been applied for to travel to cbpdia, loas and I have my visa for Vietnam.  I have some cash saved up for the trip now that I am paid! Thank goodness and all the travel clothes I need for southeast asia.  The passports are silly costs. Money grabs really, but cheaper than what they used to be, hopefully they are not fake or setting us up for jail or something :p So far we are starting in Singapore, heading to Malaysia and then making our way to Thailand and loas (maybe loas) then we are heading to Cambodia and finally Vietnam. So ya roughly 5 pr so countries in one month. Funny how looking at the month you wonder where all your time will be spent and you think darn that looks short, what do you mean I only get like 22 days or so of travelling!? :p #spoiled I think of most things this holiday I'm going to miss my Ren Li. I have not had the opportunity to tell you much about her yet but ya, she has been a new part of my life, a beautiful Chinese woman with similar aspir...

Smoggy day :( could be better but I have been trying to do this for far to long and I currently have the opportunity to do so. Seizing the day. Origin point jinshitan, qinggui to kaifaqu. Stopped in kaifaqu, heading to tong shi tai, it is the first stop of the smaller line that stems from kaifaqu station. When getting off the train in kaifaqu, walk to the railway to your right that has the next station sign pointing in the direction your train came from. Get on train. Get off the train and head down stairs, exit off the same way you entered the train. Once you punch out of the station, exit the right side of the building onto dongbei road, a short distance to your left you will see a curve I to the next street which is______ road, go down that road _____ a short distance ahead you will see a hard to notice bus stop, jump onto bus 4, take it till they kick you off. After you get kicked off you will be confused and around what looks to be a street market. Lots of places to get food and w...

Currently the one restuarant that comes to mind with regards to in-house or brand specific brewing is "HaiDiLao", as far as I understand, their beer is brewed in HuBei and their label is slapped on the bottle. Similar to buying a pair for luxury brand sunglasses, they are all made by the same factory, but the specific products are claimed by specific purchasers along with those copyrights. Now China being a developing nation in the way of copyright laws, its plausible that HaiDiLao beer isn't actually HaiDiLao's beer, but a local brewer's from HuBei. With that being said, its still not bad beer, nothing to write home about, but good-and priced appropriately given the establishment.  One thing living in China that I always appreciated and found interesting was the personal touches that restuarants and other service establishments put on their storefronts/in their establishment. For me, yes, that used to come to specifically beer (good beer would be nice), not too i...

Where in the world can you see tigers, Siberian tigers, lion tigers (ligers) and even white tigers?! Well, for starters, china and Russia. Yes,! In china, mainly the north, there are Siberian tigers, the thing about these beautiful and endangered species of mammal or big cat, is that they reside in a conservatory park. This is known by expats as the Siberian Tiger Park in Haerbin. The place the live is hot in summer and Thunder Bay sort of cold in the winter, by that I mean, the cold is quite dry to many other places, the feeling is such, you can get warm, and when you are warm you stay warm. Not like here in dalian where the cold is bone deep.  The tiger park lows for amazing pictures, real life experience and the opportunity for people to bond between nations over the fascination of beauty that a certain creature has.  The tours are started in a bus through the park, you feel like you are in Jurassic park and like if the bus dies...well so will you. The people you are travel...

A city of 10 million, 2.5 of which are in the urban core. At least they know the warmth of people standing together is a thing! Really spread out city with a fair bit to see mostly in the winter but also in the summer there are noticeably nice beach and hike areas for travellers to visit.  Which is it? Harbin or haerbin? I am confused because the spelling in the second word was seen around the city but then the common (maybe English) of it is Harbin. I guess the idea could be taken much similarly to the Jinshitan or jinshitun debate among expats who are too bored for their own good. Open to suggestions and don't say "get a life". I believe there is a large gap in the pinyin, oral aspect of the speech and the Chinese characters. Pinyin is handy and easy to tell the tones but very much unknown to some individuals as they normally use characters. This is something I noticed travelling through China. Yes, obviously dialects are different among regions as well as ethnic design...

Where to begin... Amazing woman, beautiful traditional Chinese attitude :) great for having around when this outlander can't figure out red from black, well actually I know hong and hei :p We randomly met through the assistance of a student whose father was a friend of a friend, haven't looked back since. She has taught me how to cook traditional Chinese and darn, she is good! We have many adventures to come and much more to learn about each other, it is hard to believe that this small amount time spent together has brought us this close :) She is an experienced educator and former tour guide, so not only is she awesome at teaching me Chinese but she is also probably quite awesome to travel with (especially if she is really into all the same things I am into when I travel, thrills, food and fun). When I met Lily, I was seeing someone else. Then after we stopped seeing each other, Lily and I found that there was a certain attraction between us. I knew that her and I were going t...

A fever of 103.5 Fahrenheit, what do you do; you are in china, fairly alone, feel like you can overcome it but start to get kind of worries because it has been getting worse? Last night I took my chances and made my first and hopefully last visit to the emergency room here in jinshitan, it is on the barbecue street just around the corner from Suzan's. I had this angelic and incredibly sweet nurse Lushun who took right good care of me, she help me get everything I needed and got me comfortably hooked up to the healing process. I still don't fully understand what I have, probably the flu, and I still don't know what was in the iv or shots I got, meh, next day I am in my own bed and bl feeling a but better, granted I felt a bit better the first time I got this fever and took a rest :s Stupid sickness screwed up my last get together with my girlfriend before she leaves for Florida today, she was having none of it, she said I wasn't allowed to cook with such a high fever las...