The Angkor World Heritage Site in Siem Reap, Cambodia is one of the most incredible places we have visited. Before visiting, I had heard of Angkor Wat – a large temple – and knew that parts of the Angelina Jolie movie, Tomb Raider, were filmed at the Angkor site. However, as we researched more about […]
Longhaired People of Longshen China
The Red Yao people have lived a unique lifestyle in the mountains near Guilin, China for thousands of years. They wear distinctive colorful clothing, but are most known for the long hair of the women. On our way to the Longshen Rice Terraces we stopped and visited a village and saw a show focusing on […]
Longsheng Rice Terraces
We ended our 48 days in China with our most touristy few days of our whole trip based out of Guilin. Situated on the Li River in Southern China. The metropolitan area is home to about 5 million people. It is a very popular tourist destination and is known for its distinctive geography; the limestone […]
A Week in Anren Ancient Town – Chengdu, China
Our stay for a week in Anren Town, Chengdu was a pleasant surprise and very interesting. Our 48 day trip through China was fairly busy. Our master retirement plan is to travel the world slowly, spending months in each area or city. However, in China we spent only a week in most cities, so there […]
A Day in Rural China
A day in rural Chengdu was one of the highlights of our 48 days in China. Don’t get me wrong, we loved visiting all the well-known, traditional tourist sites: Great Wall and Tiananmen Square in Beijing, The Bund in Shanghai, the Terracotta Army in Xian, etc. However, whenever we travel, we like to see how real […]
CSI Chengdu, China – The Case of Carey’s Missing Backpack
A big shout out and thank-you to the Chengdu, China police department and the staff of the Holiday Inn Express Chengdu Gulou. I narrowly escaped a pretty disastrous situation when we checked in last Friday night. We arrived in Chengdu after a seven hour train trip and took a taxi from the train station to […]
Climbing Mt Hua
While we were in Xian, China, we took a day trip, (well, actually a day and a half trip but more on that later) to Mt Hua. The mountain has been called, “the most precipitous mountain under heaven” due to its steep terrain. It is incredibly beautiful and has many Taoist temples, niches and carvings […]
Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance in Hong Kong
In the 1880s the small village of Tai Hang, in what is now Hong Kong, had a run of bad luck. First a typhoon hit, followed by a plague, and if that wasn’t enough, a few days later a python came and ate the livestock. A local soothsayer determined that the only way to stop […]
How to Eat Like a Spaniard – Understanding Meal Times in Spain
Everyone needs three square meals a day, right? Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right? If you have said or believe either of these two statements, you are obviously not from Spain. The food in Spain is fantastic! I love it! The quality of the food is exceptional. However, meal times and […]
My Free Luxury Hotel Stay in Paris
How would you like to stay five nights in Paris at four and five star hotels for free like I did? It was really quite easy, I used free hotel reward nights and points I got for signing up for a couple of hotel sponsored credit cards. I have made collecting lots of airline and […]