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My Top 10 Posts of 2009

Monica — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:00:21 +0000

My New Year’s Resolution: To be happy & healthy in mind, body & spirit. And travel a crap load more.

I started A Pair of Panties & Boxers as a reminder to myself to never conform to society’s norm in the daily grind of a 9-5. I didn’t want my job to be the reason I stopped seeing beyond four walls and I didn’t want the burden of saving for grad school keep me from seeing the world. I figured the best way to travel as much as I can is to start a travel blog because in order to write about my travels, I’d actually have to go and travel. When I start running out of things to write, that means I need to get on a plane, train, bus, boat or any type of transportation fast – not that I don’t get that urge to just jet every single day. But sometimes, we do what we have to do and not what we want to do.

It hasn’t been a year since I started blogging but I thought I’d still wrap up 2009 featuring my top 10 most popular blog posts of the year. I hope all my readers enjoyed growing this blog with me these past 6 months. Thanks for sticking around.

So without further adieu, here are the top 10 posts for 2009.

1. Photo Friday: Kaifeng, China

Kaifeng, China

The beauty of traveling through China is that sometimes, I feel like I’m in two places at once – the past and the present.

See #8 for related post.

2. Facing Mud Made “Squatties” In Yunnan

The one thing I absolutely loathe about China is the lack of Western toilets. Those hole-in-the-ground-you-have-to-pee-by-squatting apparatuses make me cringe every time. I’m a girl — how am I supposed to pee that way?!

So when my roommates and I decided to trek westward for fall break, towards rural Yunnan and Sichuan, I had to put on a brave face and come to terms with the fact that I’d be using nothing but “squatties.”

Five hours into the bumpy bus ride and two bottles of water later, I was bursting with thoughts of shiny automatic-flush toilets and marble sinks.

Alas, what greeted me at the makeshift rest stop was an outhouse made out of mud and three little children asking for a 50 cents fee for using their “bathroom.”

The Blue Mosque sits directly across from the Hagia Sophia on the Hippodrome, also known as the Sultanahmet Square. It’s hard to say which is more impressive. They both rival in beauty. With six towering minarets, The Blue Mosque dominates the Istanbul skyline.

5. Poverty In Pudong

I paid ¥20 for a cab ride down to People’s Park (人民公园), ¥10 to see the Gaudi exhibit at the MOCA, ¥40 for lunch at Pizza Hut, ¥50 for a shuttle ride to the Oriental Pearl Tower, another ¥50 for dinner and ¥1o for extraneous expenses. I dropped ¥170 like it was nothing because in my mind that was only $10.

My friend (at the time) JC and I walked along the Huangpu River that night. We saw a boy in ripped rags and torn slippers. He looked about 10 years old. He approached us raising a flower in his hand and said…

“一块，一块。要不要花？”(One dollar, one dollar. Do you want flowers?)

He haggled a little. We politely declined. I turned around and watched him zig-zag his way down the path. He made sure not to miss a single couple. JC and I sat down on the stone-rimmed flowerbed and watched the boy pace back and forth under the moon light.

6. My 3 Best Kept Travel Secrets

Travel Secret #1: Art of Cheap Accommodations
Travel Secret #2: Kaifeng, China
Travel Secret #3: Climb The Great Wall When It Snows

What are some of your best kept travel secrets?

Share!

JC and I walked non-stop these past two days. It was either restless leg syndrome or it was the excitement of being in Madrid. I thought we would take it a little slower on the third day but nope – not when traveling with JC.He only knows one speed – and it’s just go, go, go, go, go!

We began the day with a trip to Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, home of Real Madrid.

8. Kaifeng, China: Chinese Jews

This was Kaifeng’s welcome to us. Fog? Pollution? Combination? I don’t know but it was one hell of a welcome. I held out my hand and saw nothing. I looked down and I had no feet. We blindly walked forward – away from the train station and closer to the sound of the road. We had a hard time crossing the street. We couldn’t see the cars and bicycles and they couldn’t see us. We played it by ear. Literally. And hailing a cab? I want to say, “Fuggedaboutit,” but we managed to do so. Till this day, it still puzzles me.

9. Merhaba Istanbul!

I’m a nerd. I like math and I like to plan. Excel is my best friend. I can’t live without my planner. When it comes to traveling, I get excited at the thought of creating a new spreadsheet. Budgeting is my favorite part. How low can I go?

I conquered 7,200 steps to the top of Taishan and trekked 4 hours around the West Lake in Hangzhou. Climbing The Great Wall? Sure! No problem. Except I forgot to factor in the high altitude and nearly freezing temperature. Read more…

My 3 Best Kept Travel Secrets

Monica — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:50:42 +0000

This is the Tripbase Blog Tag. “The aim of this game is to unite travel bloggers in a joint endeavor – to create an amazing list of top travel recommendations across the globe to share with the entire online travel community.” – Katie from Tripbase.com

Without further adieu, here are my top 3 best kept travel secrets. I guess these won’t be secrets anymore.

Terrace View At The Hali Hotel, Istanbul

Travel Secret #1: Art of Cheap Accommodations

Everyone has their own travel style. It’s all about perspective. For me, lodging is minimal. I don’t need a Tempurpedic mattress and a flat screen TV. All I really need is a bed with no bed bugs and a bathroom that flushes. Lodging serves as a storage room where I can fall face flat on the pillow after a 15 hour foot exploration Sometimes I book rooms before I arrive. Sometimes I arrive homeless, which isn’t as scary as it sounds. It’s actually much cheaper.

Arrive in person
Tell the hotel/hostel half the number of days you’re actually staying. For example, if you’re traveling for 10 days, tell them 5.
When a daily quote is given, ask then for lower rates for an extended stay. (That’s where the extra 5 days come in handy.)
After they give you a quote for the extended stay, offer to pay in cash if they could lower the rates even more.
Then show them your student ID and ask if they have student discounts. (This works better in youth hostels than in hotels.)

My 8-day trip to Istanbul was only $1270 – $640 for round-trip tickets and $630 for everything else. I spent less than $80 a day, including accommodation, food, entrance fees, transportation and souvenirs. I’d say it’s a pretty good deal for independent traveling.

Travel Secret #2: Kaifeng, China

In response to my impression at the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, Erica from Traveling Blissful commented, “I think many tourist sites are too hyped up and leave travelers feeling disappointed, wondering ‘What’s so great about this?’” Popular tourist attractions come with high expectations. The more I travel, the more I realize how exquisite the smaller, less discovered places are.

Kaifeng, China is a place was a place where I had no expectations. It was also a place that blew me away. It was here where I discovered Chinese Jews, people of Jewish descent living in China, and their fascinating history and community. It was also here, the view above, where I realized this: the beauty of traveling through China is that sometimes, I feel like I’m in two places at once – the past and the present.

A Snow Day On The Great Wall of China - Photo by Jabari Bell

Travel Secret #3: Climb The Great Wall When It Snows

Everyone knows that The Great Wall is impressive in length and in beauty. You’ll sweat buckets if you’re climbing it during the summer and you’ll be throwing elbows if you’re visiting during spring and fall. It’s harder to appreciate the context of it’s surrounding when The Great Wall is inundated with tourists and cameras. I’d recommend visiting in the winter, preferably when it snows. Why? Because…

You’ll see The Great Wall frosted in snow.
You’ll have The Great Wall all to yourself.
You’ll see the rolling mountains and the vastness of the land that it sits on.
You can build a snowman on The Great Wall of China!
And because the snow makes it’s ridiculously fun to glide down the descending slopes.

Now, how many of you can say you’ve a snow day on The Great Wall of China?

===

Now, I’d like to nominate these 5 amazing bloggers to share their top 3 travel secrets on their blog. Tag! You’re it!

Emma, Aye & Jack at GotPassport
Keith at VelvetEscape
Carrie at MySeveralWorld
Jennifer & David at ApproachGuides
Talen at Thailand, Land of Smiles

Photo Friday: Kaifeng, China

Monica — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:35:45 +0000

Photo Friday: Kaifeng, China

Monica — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 21:00:26 +0000

Kaifeng, China: The beauty of traveling through China is that sometimes, I feel like I'm in two places at once - the past and the present.

Provincialism in China

Monica — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 01:16:17 +0000

I’ve heard rumors that Chinese people can’t drive. I can prove otherwise. Well, our cab driver can. The alleyways were just wide enough to pass through. The walls and the side mirrors were barely an inch apart. He sped through it while striking up a casual conversation. The more he looked at the rear view mirror the more nervous I got. It somehow reminded me of that carnival game where you move a metal ring down a rotating metal rod. And at any moment, it would touch and you’d get zapped. Driving down that alley was just like that. At any moment, the car could crash and we’d be zapped.

We were heading toward the Iron Pagoda in Kaifeng. It was dusk and the pagoda would be closing soon. It was our last day and we wanted to squeeze in as much as we could so we made the attempt to get out there. The cab driver turned into chatty Cathy after he learned JC’s grandparents were from Henan Province, the province where Kaifeng is located.

Chinese provincialism is strong. People in these province are all Chinese. They’re all brothers and sisters. Therefore, chinese people from the same province are more willing to help each other as opposed to someone from a different province. For example, a 广东人 (Cantonese person) will be more willing to help a fellow Guangdongren as opposed to a 福建人 (Fujinese person).

We almost didn’t make it to see the Iron Pagoda but our cab driver had connections. He was friends with the guards at the entrance. They were closing up just as we were pulling in. With a few laughs and a couple of pats on the back, the cab driver motioned us to get out of the car. The guards at the gate let us in with free admission. Oh the camaraderie. If JC had said that his grandparents were from another province, I don’t think the cab driver and the guard would have been as generous.

The Iron Pagoda didn’t top my discovery that there was such a thing as Chinese Jews but I’m glad we made it out there. The pagoda isn’t really made out of iron. It’s build from bricks. They call it the Iron Pagoda because of the color. Each brick is intricately carved with over fifty different images of Buddha, standing monks, flowers, lions, dragons and other engravings. It’s little things like this that reminds me you don’t have to visit populated cities to find beauty in another culture. Sometimes the smaller, less traveled paths are just as beautiful and if not, even more charming. I wonder how many people have been to Kaifeng when they visit China.

Kaifeng, China: Chinese Jews

Monica — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:34:02 +0000

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emmy82tFT30

Kaifeng is one of the seven ancient capitals of China, which used to have a small but thriving population of Chinese Jews. They are said to be Persian merchants who traveled along the Silk Road from today’s southern Turkey to Xi’an. They preserved their traditions and culture until the 17th century when assimilation began. As a result of the increase of intermarriage between Jews and other Chinese ethnic groups and minorities, Chinese Jews looked no different than their Chinese neighbors.

Discovering a people of Jewish descent in China was certainly new to me. You don’t learn about this in school. It’s one of the beauties in traveling. What is it like as a Chinese Jew living in Kaifeng? Here is an excerpt:

The Jewish community as a community can be said to have died out by 1860, when the synagogue itself was no longer standing. Since we had no communal place to worship anymore, we only retained some Jewish customs within the family and on an individual basis.

For example, according to my grandfather Shi Zhong Yu’s recollection, when he was a seven year old boy, he saw his father Shi Qingchang, during the Chinese new year, using a new Chinese writing brush dabbed cinnabar over the doorpost of his home. After that his father said to the family, “to draw the red line, originally lambs blood was used, later changing to rooster’s blood, now cinnabar is used as a substitution”. Apparently this is the hint of Passover. When the wheat ripens, my grandfather’s father asked his family to make some pancakes without yeast and to cook mutton soup without salt. The whole family ate the pancakes and drank the soup. When my grandfathers sister got married, before she got into the sedan chair, my grandfather’s father asked her to eat mutton and to drink mutton soup, instead of eating a cooked egg according to the Chinese tradition. In is my grandfather’s generation, all practices completely stopped. Today, when we revere our ancestors on special Chinese holidays, we still do not give food offerings that include pork out of respect to our ancestors who did not eat pork. However, most of us today eat pork and are completely assimilated. – Kaifeng by Shi Lei