Author: carrievijil

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Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square

What I Saw:

I saw the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.  I also saw the Great Mosque, the Stele Museum, and the Tang Dynasty dinner show.

My Favorite Part of the Day:

My favorite part of the day was the steles (large stone tablets with writing.)

What I Learned Today:

Tianenmen Square is a large public square most known for protests by the people of China.  The Forbidden City is the Chinese imperial palace built in 1420.  The Stele Museum is a temple that holds 3,000 steles since 1087.  There were also stone statues of lions and tomb gates.

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Great Wall of China

What I Saw:

I saw the Badaling section of the Great Wall.  I saw the South and North sides.  The Great Wall goes up and down lots of hill.

My Favorite Part of the Day:

My favorite part of the day was walking up 724 stairs.

What I Learned Today:

The Badaling section is the most visited section in the Great Wall of China.  It was built in the Ming Dynasty in 1504.  This section of the wall is more than 500 years old.  It was the first section open to tourists in 1957.  It was very cold.

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Continuing in Shanghai and Visiting Suzhou

March 7, 2015 The last few days have been great and we have been able to see lots of amazing things. On Thursday, we decided to see more of Shanghai and took a hop-on hop-off bus tour. They are always pretty “touristy”, but it’s really the easiest way to see a bigger view of the city while getting some highlights in English. Can I just say that I will NEVER attempt to drive in Shanghai…it is CRAZY! Sitting on the top level/front row of the bus, I thought we were going to hit cars/people/bikes/etc during the entire trip. Lane lines mean absolutely nothing here and traffic signals don’t seem to matter much either. If you are walking or riding a motor bike (tons of them here), you had better watch out! We were glad that we took the bus because we were able to see some things that we missed with our walking on Wednesday. We thought that we had seen The Bund area on Wednesday, but it turned out we were completely wrong! The Bund was actually the area on the waterfront with beautiful views of both sides of the river. It was a very cool view because on one river bank is all the new development with the big sky scrapers and very modern looking buildings with the other side being more stone buildings that looked more influenced by European architecture. DSCN0314 DSCN0296 DSCN0321 My highlight was finding a Pepsi stand…I actually love this idea of the little car that sells drinks and I totally want to get this to take to my stores when we get back!  🙂 DSCN0312 It was pretty funny that they had a bull just like they do on Wall St in New York City. Just about 10 years ago when Adam and I first went to NYC, we took a picture with the bull and got to recreate it in Shanghai. Lol DSCN0315 I have to admit that while we were walking around, Hayden and I broke down and had McDonalds for lunch. I am too much of a weenie to eat food off the side of the road, I really don’t want to spend the next few days with stomach problems! I have to say that the McD’s tasted just about the same. I guess McNuggets and French Fries are the same everywhere. DSCN0318 On Friday morning, we got up to head to the train station to spend the day in Suzhou. I have to say that we are pretty awesome at getting around. We were able to buy the correct tickets, find the train and make it to the city with no problems at all! We took the high speed train which was pretty cool…they track the speed and we got up to 270 km/hr. DSCN0390 Suzhou was very different from Shanghai…not much in English and pretty much no one speaks any English either. We got a map when we first arrived, so we could at least match up the characters on the street signs and find our way around. We made it to our first destination which was the North Pagoda and it was very cool. There were several very neat statues inside of the area. It is off peak season, so we had the place just about to ourselves. We walked around and took our time in the gardens and going through the buildings. DSCN0338 From there, we were heading down to another garden and were stopped by a guy selling river cruises. We wanted to go on a cruise anyway, so figured we would just go for it. Negotiating and trying to get a scheduled tour is a bit of a challenge when we don’t speak Chinese and they don’t speak English. We thought that we had purchased a river boat cruise, but it turned out to be a city tour with several different stops. It was a decent tour except it was all in Chinese and we had no idea what they were saying! The highlight for Hayden was that he seemed to be famous. He had a couple of people ask to take pictures with him and the lady sitting in front of him kept taking selfies with him (which he loved). She gave him some candy, so he was happy to smile. Lol On the last stop of the tour, we realized we were near Tiger Hill Pagoda and decided to just jump off of the bus tour and head off on our own. DSCN0347 Tiger Hill was BEAUTIFUL! It was a large area with lots of buildings, gardens, water, and the center pieces of the area, Tiger Hill Pagoda. There were so many areas to walk through and it was very peaceful. We spent a couple of hours going through the areas. It’s amazing to think that this place was built in 967 AD and is still standing. They were doing some restoration work while we were there, but nothing too significant. There was some interesting information explaining why the tour is leaning and why it won’t tip over…it has to do with the density of the ground in different areas under the Pagoda. The pictures don’t do it justice, but here are a few of the areas that we liked best. DSCN0377 DSCN0376 DSCN0369 After haggling with several taxi drivers to get a ride back to the train station, we got a good deal and made our way back to the hotel in Shanghai. Tomorrow (Saturday) is going to be a “lazy” day at the hotel. Hayden is looking forward to going to the pool and not walking for the day. On Sunday we will be taking the bullet train to Beijing!

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We’ve Arrived In China

March 4. 2015

We made it! We’re so excited to be in China after what was a crazy, long flight. I will never complain again about the flight from Orlando to Seattle. 🙂  We left Orlando and it took just over 3 hours to get to Toronto, Canada. Once we were there, we had a 7 hour layover…luckily, we were able to sleep for a while in the airport. There was also a decent restaurant right near the terminal, so we had breakfast and lunch without having to go too far. Once we left Toronto, we got lucky because the nice lady next to Hayden switched seats with me so that we could all sit together. The flight had TVs with movies at each seat, so the time went by fast enough. The flight was over 14 hours, but Hayden was a trooper, so that definitely helped. It was actually pretty cool because we flew over the top of the Earth and had an awesome view of the Arctic! Hayden loved that!!

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We had our first Chinese meal on the plane…Cup of Noodles…lol. Even if it wasn’t exactly “authentic”, at least we got to practice with chopsticks.

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Once we made it here, we hired a car to take us to the hotel which ended up being a great decision. At first, we were pretty sure we got taken because a taxi or the train were quite a bit cheaper, but it turned out that at rush hour, the train is REDICULOUSLY crowded and there was a 1.5-2 hour wait just to get a taxi. After all of the travel, we were fine paying a little more to get to the hotel and get settled.

Today (our first full day), we went to the Yu Yuan Gardens…it was beautiful! Pictures can’t capture how pretty it was inside. It was overcast and a little chilly, but the gardens are inside of a wall, so there wasn’t much wind. There were lots of different buildings with artwork and antique furniture which I’m sure are even older than the US. My only complaint is that everything was written in Chinese characters, so we couldn’t read a thing. (I guess it’s pretty selfish to assume that things would be written in English!)

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After that, we had tea in the oldest remaining Tea House in China! It was very cool, but insanely over-priced (which we didn’t realize until we already sat down). We were a little depressed about a $20 cup of tea, but chalked it up to an experience that we will never get again.

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There was a huge shopping area just outside of there, so we walked around for a while before going to the People’s Square. The People’s Square turned out to be a big mall (we were thinking it was more of a historical place). It worked out fine because we found a good place to eat and relax for a while. They had clean restrooms (with Western toilets and toilet paper), and we found a good Noodle Shop, so we were happy. Hayden has discovered that he loves Chinese food and he wants to live here when he grows up. 🙂

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So far, so good, but lots and lots of adventures still to come!

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We’re On Our Way!

Well, the time flew by and we are on our way to Shanghai… crazy!

We are sitting in Toronto now, waiting for our flight out that leaves in about 6 hours.  We were a little delayed getting out of Orlando, but since we had such a long layover planned here in Toronto, it wasn’t a big deal.  We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, we decided that we would rather be early and hang out at the gate than be late and get caught rushing.  I’m sitting here wide awake, while Adam and Hayden have already zonked out sitting at the table.  LOL.

airport sleeping

I think that I’m still in shock/denial/disbelief that we are actually leaving the country for this length of time and with minimal planning done.  I have to admit that as I think about what we are actually doing, it is pretty crazy.  Hayden has said that he’s excited and sad at the same time… excited for the trip, but sad that he will miss his friends, family, and (of course) Sierra.  I suppose Adam and I feel the same way, but we are confident that this time will be good for us, so we are making a point to stay very positive through the entire trip and take every day as it comes.  We are not going to let ourselves get too far ahead worrying about what’s coming next, but enjoy the experiences that are going on around us each day.

We managed to fit everything that we needed to bring in our backpacks and so far, we haven’t found anything that we forgot.  I’m sure that we will figure out something that is missing by the time we get to China, but anything we may need, we can buy over there.

ready to go

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How to Pack for Long Term Travel on the Road

How in the heck do you pack for spending months traveling in various climates with very little luggage?

Our first tough decision was that we needed to keep our luggage carry-on size.  With so many legs of the trip via airplane, we knew that we would spend a fortune on checked baggage if we couldn’t carry it with us.  To decide on the size of our bags, we reviewed the carry-on specifications for the airlines we would be using.  The smallest requirement left us with just a few options for bags.  We ultimately decided to go with the REI Vagabond because it is a backpack that zips the long way like a suitcase (as opposed to a top-loading backpack) so it is easily accessible while still keeping the convenience of a backpack.

Then came figuring out what to put in the bags.  The overwhelming majority of travel bloggers have said that people ALWAYS over pack.  We tried very hard NOT to do that.  So, here’s the packing list:

How to Pack

3 – pants (1 zip off shorts, 1 light weight/quick dry, 1 jeans)

2 – Columbia long sleeve shirts that roll up to short sleeves

2 – t-shirts

2 – long sleeve t-shirts

1 – swimsuit

1 – set of quick dry PJs

4 – pairs of underwear (quick dry)

4 – pairs of socks (quick dry)

1 – set of thermals

1 – heavy down coat that can by smooshed down

1 – scarf that matches all shirts

1 – pair of boots

1 – pair of flip flops

1 – sleeping map, inflatable pillow, and sleeping bag (light weight since we will only be camping when it is warm)

1/2 – light weight travel tent (Adam has the other half)

1 – poncho

1 – travel towel (quick dry)

1 – water bottle with built in filter

1 – headlamp

1 – first aid kit:  band aids, alcohol pads, aspirin, neosporin, pepto, immodium, anti-itch, purell, sunscreen, bug spray, gloves, kleenex, baby wipes, chapstick, q-tips, nail clippers, tweezers

1 – toiletry kit

1 – Microsoft Surface with Keyboard

1 – power/plug adapter

1 – digital camera

2 – compression bags

1 – REI Vagabond pack to fit it all!

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Our Trip Around the World…Let the Adventure Begin!

Well, it’s official…we are going to spend the majority of 2015 traveling around the world as a family!  Oh my gosh, I can’t believe that this is really happening and that it’s going to happen so soon!  I am so excited and I could burst, but insanely nervous at the same time.

We take off from Orlando in March and will be starting our trip in Shanghai and then spend about 5 weeks traveling around China.  As it stands now, we plan to spend 5 days in Shanghai, 5 days in Beijing, 5 days in Xi’an, 3 days each in Chengdu, Kunming, at the Shaolin Temple, Guilin, and another 5 days in Hong Kong.  Travel around China by train can take up to 24 hours to get from location to location, so we have a few days planned for that as well.  After China, we will move on to SE Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand) for a month and then be off to South Africa to relax in Cape Town for a week or so before departing on our Safari.  The Safari will take us from Cape Town, South Africa through Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Malawi, Tanzania, and into Nairobi, Kenya.

Following the Safari, we are spending 2 weeks in Egypt and then flying to Greece to spend the last 3 months of our trip traveling by train around Europe.  The 3 month global Eurail pass and our tent will give us the freedom to keep our plans open and go where the wind takes us.  I’m very much looking forward to this part of the trip!  Then, in October, we will be returning to the US.  Writing it all down makes the whole endeavor seem pretty crazy, but we are very much looking forward to the change of pace and chance to do something that very few people have done before!

Our house is rented out and know we need to get busy with the packing (I really hate packing) so that the renters can move in on March 1st.  It really couldn’t have worked out any better with them wanting to move in so soon.  It will allow us to minimize the amount of money that we are losing on the mortgage.  I guess this means that we will be spending Valentine’s Day weekend and Adam’s Birthday weekend packing up boxes and breaking down furniture.

It’s pretty surreal to think that we are actually doing this, but it’s an adventure that we have always wanted to take and the timing just seems right.  The general reaction is that we’re crazy to spend 8 months together on the road, but I think that it will make us a stronger, more flexible, and more well-rounded family.

So, why are we doing this?  There are several reasons:

First…Why not?!?!  We have always enjoyed traveling and we have always wanted to see new places.  Every time I read one of those, “1,000 Things to See Before You Die” lists, it makes me want to go on vacation immediately.  We are very much an “experience over things” family…although you wouldn’t know if by looking at the toys in Hayden’s room.

Second, Hayden will be 8 years old and we have decided that this is a great time for him to see the world;  he is old enough to remember the experiences, young enough to still want to hang out with us, and we are very much hoping that this experience of seeing the world will influence the way he views the world.  We want him to appreciate the advantages that we have in our lives and for him to understand how lucky we are in all that we have; hopefully this will lead him to be a compassionate person thorugh his life.  In terms of school, he will be home-schooled during this time and will not miss a beat jumping back into 4th Grade when we get home.

Third, although we are by no means rich, we are able to swing the trip financially at this time through lots of saving, being very thrifty and by doing this on a very tight budget.  While we were deployed to Iraq (during our time in the Army), we saved as much money as possible knowing that someday we wanted to use that money for something really cool…what could be more cool than traveling the world?!  We do appreciate that we are very lucky to be able to take this opportunity together as a family and will certainly enjoy this time.

Last, but certainly not least, when Hayden was 4 years old, he was diagnosed with a JPA Brain Tumor.  We have been extremely lucky that the tumor was benign and the Neurosurgeon was able to remove the majority of it.  For the past 3 years, Hayden has had 2-4 MRIs each year along with Oncology and Neurosurgery appointments.  Then, this January, he was re-diagnosed with the same type tumor again and had to go through a 2nd surgery last month to have it removed.  We are extremely thankful that the surgeon was able to remove the entire tumor and the only complication is a small tremor on Hayden’s left side.  In the grand scheme of things, we consider this a success and we are looking forward to getting back to a normal life.  He is such a trooper and has never complained about anything (except getting an IV…which he hates) through the entire ordeal.  With all of that, we decided to jump on the opportunity and get out into the world!!

We will keep this blog going throughout the trip!