Ahh tumblr, sorry I’ve abandoned you once again! Lack of perseverance seems to me my nagging fault. I only have my laziness to blame but I must say, it has been a crazy few weeks since I’ve last blogged. I left Beijing mid November and have been on the traveling ever since. First stop was Shanghai with a quick side trip to Hangzhou. Then, I went back the my parent’s hometown in Kunming, where I had met all my relatives, including my grandparents, for the first time in 7 years! Ever since then I’ve been exploring Yunnan province (in which Kunming is the capital) from the rain forests of Xishuangbana to the snowy mountains in Dali. My sister also came back to Kunming for the holidays and so we took the opportunity to take a week-long trip to Vietnam, which borders Yunnan to the south. We just got back to Kunming two days ago, after which I was so exhausted, I’ve been sleeping ever since! Now, finally rested, I’ve decided to take a few days off from traveling to organize all my pictures and blog a bit about the past few weeks. Stay tuned!

Played the penis game at Tiananmen Sq,

with “free tibet” instead

Scariest version of the penis game I ever played.

Visitors have to enter the building through an underground tunnel. We had passed it when we first arrived, but being all illiterate, failed to realize it was the entrance. We must of spend an hour walking around the moat, trying to figure out how to get in! By the time we figured it out, it was 5:02 and the center closes at 5:00 :( It was beautiful from the outside though.

I ate a scorpion! I’m pretty proud of that.

Erick and Patrick ate lamb penis. They are not very proud of that. 

Too many pictures to upload! More next timee.

Silk Market was definitely not what I expected. The name made me think of some traditional outdoor market along the ancient silk road, where people bartered with goats instead of money… in reality, its a bunch of stalls in a shopping center. This is where everyone goes to get the fake labels. I thought it was pretty funny when I was shopping for a wallet and I asked the seller if she had any without a label.. she just looked like me with the most confused expression.

Shopping there was exhausting if you are a push over like me. People literally grab you by the arm and try to pull you in to their stall. One lady yelled at my friend things like “are you mentally ill!” in Chinese when he refused her offer. In the end, I just bought a stamp with my Chinese name engraved. I’m pretty sure I got ripped off though because the lady gave us all a small doll as a present, probably in pity haha.

downtown

Sanlitun Village

After a whole day either waiting for or waiting in a plane, I just arrived in Beijing a day ago. Spent the whole day today getting things in order and helping my cousin move into her new house. Hopefully, if I’m not too jetlagged, I can start exploring the city tomorrow! I am definitely excited since it’s my first time here. First impression: construction and cigarette smoke everywhereee. 

hi from seattle! midway through a 5 hour layover, im exhasted but so, so glad i made it.
getting to lax was an adventure in itself! left around 3:30am thinking i had plenty of time to get to my 6am flight…that is until me and my parents realized the 710 free was under construction, took the detour and got utterly lost. it would not have been so bad had it not been for the blinding fog. we couldnt see more than two feet in front of us!
the atmosphere was so sureal. the detour had forced us to exit on to local. the night was black as we slowly made our way through the desserted street. watching the lights and neon signs float by, i felt like i was in a scene from taxi driver. at first i thought it was cool but it soon became an absolute nightmare to navigate.
the scariest part came when we reentered the freeway. there was a fork at the entrance, every car took the right way and we were the only ones to take the left back on to the 710. for a good 5 minutes we drove on a completely empty freeway (a first in my 13 years in los angeles!) with nothing but black fog on either side. were we running into a wall? a cliff? an army of zombies? i was imagining every horror suddenly appearing in front of us. i was terrified that we had entered a closed freeway, would run into the end of the road and be forced turn back and drive the wrong way on the freeway. i sighed a huge sigh of relief when dim lights from trailing cars emerged behind us. unfortunately, my relief was short lived because we soon realized the detour had already led us to long beach.
in desperation, we exited the freeway to ask for help and found a motel right off the exit. the receptionist was very friendly and helpful but as we left the motel things got REALLY taxi driver like… we saw a hooker! ok so i dont have proof she was a hooker but im pretty sure a women in hoochie heels and hot pants walking to a getto motel at 4am is hooker. my trip hasnt even stared and im already seeing new sights!
well, interesting as it was, i really just wanted to get to the airport on time! we somehow made it, but with less an hour till departure, i was forced to say a haisty goodbye to my parents. my excitment was overcome by sadness as i fought back tears. i have never been away from home or away from my mom for this long yet i still did not think saying goodbye would be just this hard. i guess there is no turning back now!

ps. i wrote all this on my ipod so forgive my typos!