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As I sit on the beach during my summer vacation, I’ve been reminded of my most recent other stint on the beach: a few days at the Perhentian Islands on the Malaysian coast, way back in October. My mom and I stayed on Perhentian Besar, the larger of the two islands, and spent our days [...]
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ST. PETERSBURG — Along with a good portion of St. Petersburg, we escaped the city on this sunny Sunday for the cooler confines of Peterhof, the Summer Palace originally designed by Peter the Great. Crowds not withstanding, it was a terrific excursion. The gardens, not the palace, are the highlight of Peterhof, woods hedges and [...]
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SIBERIA — The name Siberia evokes bleakness. It was where criminals were sent into exile, a place inextricably associated with freezing temperatures and endless snowy tundra. But as we crossed Siberia on this train ride — the longest of the trip at 54 hours — nothing we saw matched that stereotype. The landscape alternated between [...]
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Fenghuang’s old town wall glows a warm pink when it is bathed in the evening sun. All day long, tourists meander its length, admiring the small carvings that adorn the roofs above. I find its structure a little confusing — were the houses on the other side of the wall once not a part of [...]
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On my last morning in Vientiane, I came very close to skipping out on Pha That Luang. A golden monument on the fringes of town seemed like one of those attractions that might be adequately represented by a photo. And since I was on my own, there was no one to judge me for my [...]
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Over the weekend, I had a chance to revisit one of my favorite places in China. Unless you’re an extra-avid reader of this blog, you’ve read your Lonely Planet cover-to-cover (welcome to the club!), or you know me in real life, you’ve probably never heard of Dehang. It’s village in western Hunan that is surrounded [...]
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Updated (6/6): Planning a trip to Leshan? Check out my Leshan travel guide for more information. Visiting the largest stone Buddha statue in the world in Leshan, outside of Chengdu, made us wonder about other “superlative Buddhas” around Asia. As it turns out, many, many places claim to have the tallest, largest, or oldest statues [...]
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Updated (6/6): Planning a trip to Chengdu? Check out my new Chengdu travel guide for more information. Can you say you’ve been to China if you haven’t seen pandas? Frankly, yes. But they’re still darn cute, especially when they are eating. Watching a panda carefully peel a stalk of bamboo and then chow down gave [...]
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Updated (6/6): Planning a trip to Langzhong? Check out my Langzhong travel guide for more information. Before I left for Sichuan, I heard that the province was famous for its teahouses. But I couldn’t possibly have imagined just how ubiquitous they were. In Chengdu, every park has a teahouse or two where men and women [...]
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At dusk, Halong Bay begins to fill with wooden junks anchoring for the night. When dark falls, the karsts disappear but every boat is outlined in twinkling deck lights. Although the bay is crowded, it is a solitary experience, shared with just the few other people on your boat. A night aboard is the perfect [...]
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Travel stories and advice from an independent traveler and expat in China. Full bio
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