On Thailand Day 5, we got picked up at a slightly more reasonable time than the elephant trekking (7:45 a.m.), and were on a long drive across the island to the Royal Phuket Marina Hotel. They dropped us off at the door and introduced us to the free drink and snack table. Then we waited for … Continue reading →

Thailand Day 4 was all about petting giant, exotic cats, taking in one of the many Buddhist temples in Phuket, shopping, and Indian food. We started out the day as we had started every day, piling our plate with items from the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet. It truly never got old. Then we got dressed and headed … Continue reading →

Our second day in Thailand was spent at Paradise Beach, which was exactly like it sounds, but I’ve grouped that into a later post all about beaches, spa trips, and fried ice cream. Now I’m going to skip ahead to Day 3 of the trip, which was dedicated to touching, feeding, and bathing elephants… and later … Continue reading →

After my fairly short journey, and Megan’s 20-hour journey, we were finally reunited at Phuket International Airport. Unfortunately our driver had been waiting there for an hour, due to Megan’s delayed flight. But alas, we jumped in the cab and drove off toward our hotel and the beginning of an epic vacation. We were taken … Continue reading →

It would be the last time I’d see Jack, since he didn’t have a return flight on his trip to Thailand. My flight to Thailand was in two days, so who knows when we’d meet again. The Cherry Blossom Crew had to get together for a last hurrah. We decided to go to Flip Out, … Continue reading →

Sonia had rented a car and we were off to the Sanxia District fairly early in the morning, around 10 a.m. Blasting tunes from Gaurang’s phone, the highway breeze coming through the windows, our art trip had finally come to fruition. We were planning to do a day of crafts for about a month, and … Continue reading →

At 11:30 a.m. on a Monday, Susan, Danny, Adriana, Jack and I all met at the Xindian MRT to take a bus to the Wulai District. The old street in Wulai is a popular place to see the cherry blossoms in Taiwan, especially at the end of February and beginning of March. The Wulai District … Continue reading →

Despite our busy lantern themed day beforehand, we got up at 6:45 a.m. to make it to the train station before 8 a.m. My friend Julia had invited me on a day trip to a farm that produces soy sauce. She always finds the coolest excursions. Trips where you get to do something new and … Continue reading →

Lantern festival has many manifestations in Taiwan: there’s artistic, decorative lanterns on display in Taipei, sky lanterns that get lifted off the ground by a ball of fire in Pingxi, and floating lanterns on Love River in Kaohsiung, just to name a few. This year was the year of the rooster, so everything was rooster … Continue reading →

The Taiwan Open was so, so much fun to watch. I was lucky to catch the end of the tournament because I was in Japan for most of it. I bought tickets for the last two days, the semifinals and the finals. The semifinals were on Saturday featuring two singles matches and two doubles matches … Continue reading →