Category: Sabbatical
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Tokyo Part II
Taking the train back to Tokyo on a Friday afternoon was a great feeling; while it was certainly pleasant to spend some time in the countryside, there’s nothing quite like traveling to a major cultural city (especially Tokyo) for the weekend. Being Golden Week in Japan, cheaper lodging in the city’s more popular areas was difficult to come by, so we had to suck it up and splurge a little bit for our last weekend. As we cleaned ourselves up and enjoyed some 7-11 happy hour beers in the room before heading out for the night, we absolutely soaked up…
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Hakone
While Andrew and I had very much enjoyed our time in Kyoto and Tokyo, we wanted to get out of the cities a bit, experience some more relaxed Japanese culture, and maybe even catch a glimpse of Mt. Fuji. We decided to spend two days and two nights in Hakone, a rural area to the west of Tokyo popular with Japanese tourists. After searching online through a large selection of accommodations including hotels, resorts, Airbnb, and Buddhist temples, we settled on a reasonably priced ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn. Our ryokan also had an onsen onsite, which was practically a…
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Tokyo Part I
Armed with a bit more boots-on-the-ground knowledge of Japan, Tokyo got off to a much smoother start than Kyoto. After exiting from the shinkansen, we switched to one of the local rail systems (there are several in Tokyo) and rode to Shinjuku station, the world’s busiest train station; I can attest that it is overwhelming and quasi-chaotic. After checking into our hotel, we walked around Shinjuku – a central ward of Tokyo and essentially a microcosm of the city at large – for a few hours to get the lay of the land. After an adequate (but unfortunately not California-level)…
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Kyoto
Our first day in Japan wasn’t under the most ideal circumstances: out late in Hong Kong until about 2:30, then up at 6:00 to pack and catch the train to the airport. I don’t think I have to tell you that packing while tired and hungover is a terrible, terrible time. Nevertheless, we made it to our flight on time, thanks in part to multiple attributes of Asian airports that I’ve noticed over the last eight months: they’re never that crowded, check-in is quick, and the security line is almost non-existent. In East Asia, I think this is due to…
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Hong Kong
When I started traveling, I had initially expected to stay entirely within Southeast Asia, but, upon looking more closely at a map, I realized that my eastward journey home would take me through (or at least close to) some interesting places that would be worth a visit. I had always been fascinated by Japanese culture, so I knew that would be my last stop in Asia; in fact, I had already purchased a flight from Tokyo to L.A. (entirely with credit card rewards – score!) since I knew my timeline for being back in the states. And though I’ve never…
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Thailand Once More
Krabi and Koh Lanta Before returning to Chiang Mai to finish my work for Bebee, I decided to take a quick holiday in southern Thailand, namely Krabi and Koh Lanta. Krabi is a smaller, fairly authentic Thai city that largely serves as a gateway for tourists to some of the southern islands. Due to the timing of my flights and the ferry schedule, I had to stay a night on the mainland before heading out to the island of Koh Lanta. Krabi was entirely pleasant, though it’s not much of a tourist destination by itself since it doesn’t have a…
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Cambodia
After 4 months in Thailand – almost entirely in Chiang Mai – I finally moved on to another country! Clearly I hadn’t envisioned this schedule when I set out last year, but I have been very pleased at how things have panned out. I need to be back in Chiang Mai in April for 2-3 weeks for Songkran and other merriment (and some work), so I know I’ll be back, but it still felt really weird to be leaving my new home. The best summary I can give is that these days I can’t read half of my Facebook newsfeed…
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Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center
Given the sheer number of photos I took at this place, I figured it deserves its own blog entry, but first, a quick introduction. The rescue center is home to many exotic animals that are being rehabilitated for injuries or are unable to live in the wild or are targets for poachers. There are some individuals who are looking to make money in the lucrative – and illegal – trade of wild animals, sometimes as pets, sometimes for food, and often for “medicine”. I’ve heard the same story over and over about animal parts being used in Chinese medicine because…
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Chiang Mai Part III
Good god, has it been three months since my last post? Chiang Mai has been very busy for me, to the point where I didn’t have the time or mental capacity to sit down and write about it. It’s a story with two very different chapters, so here goes wrapping up the last 90 days. After the magazine internship ended, several of my FFA friends were still in town, so the rest of the year was filled with various fun activities and not much work (yet). From what I can remember and from what I have in my photo albums,…
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Chiang Mai Part II
As with my last post, I have to apologize for going so long between updates. Between working at Citylife and spending time with FFA friends, I have had zero time for anything else. The fact that I remembered to jot down notes of what I’ve been up to is impressive to me. Let’s backtrack to three Mondays ago, when Lindsey, my fellow magazine intern, and I went to the night safari outside of town to do some preliminary investigation on a possible story. The story didn’t happen as there were other higher priority things to be done, so it really…
