Internet, I'm going to tell you a dirty secret about me.

I love Top 10 Lists.

Maybe it was growing up watch The Late Show with David Letterman, but I can't help but click on the news article or Youtube video with titles like, "The Top 10 Craziest Bookstores in the World", or "The Top 5 Most Adorable Kitten Videos". This is my Achilles Heel, and I acknowledge it. But looking through some past entries, I've said a few times "This is the # most beautiful place I have ever visited." I actually had a somewhat loosely defined list for that, but I thought, ya know, lets lean into my weakness and make my own Top List. And so, I am proud to present (with links)...

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(drumroll please)

The Top 10 (+1) Most Beautiful Places I Have Been To

Why 11? Because I came up with 11 and couldn't narrow it down. It was hard enough to get to this point, cut me some slack! Honorable mentions include way too many beaches, way too many mountains of Taiwan, most of Singapore, the caves of Ipoh, Khao Sok National Park, Guangzhou's Tianhou Temple, most of Luang Prabang, The Taj Mahal, Hawa Mahal, and Angkor Wat (yes really, it didn't make the cut! See why at the end.)

#11 - The Petronas Towers (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

So, I think you can get the impression from that blog I didn't really care for Kuala Lumpur that much. Which, I stand by KL is one of the most boring capitals I've been to - sorry KL. There's a lot of shopping and eating, but neither of those really wowed me that much. Maybe then, just by comparison, the Petronas Towers really stood out. They're not the tallest in the world (although they're up there), but something about the design, surroundings, and lighting really make them stand out enough to be really special. I actually went to see them twice when I was in KL, because I was so taken with them. While during the day they're fine, at night they are absolutely amazing. You definitely owe it to yourself to visit them if you find yourself in KL (along with the Islamic Art Center and Batu Caves). After that, head to Ipoh and Penang to see much more interesting parts of an amazing country.

#10 - The White Temple (Chiang Rai, Thailand)

I honestly don't know what to think about The White Temple, AKA Wat Rong Khun. It's one of the weirdest places I've been to, and one of those places that can only exist in Thailand - like the temple with David Beckham, or Mickey Mouse, or the entire Thavorn Hotel Museum. It's just one of those places that make you doubt your sanity, that such an off-the-wall place could exist. But Thai people have such a creative, playful, and daring spirit that after living there for 4ish years, it started to make sense to me, or at least stopped surprising me. But that cannot take away how incredibly beautiful this place is. I mean, that gold building down below? Those are the BATHROOMS, ya'll. Not only is The White Temple amazing to look at, the amount of intricate detail put into every corner makes me believe that it really won't be finished until the estimated time of 2070. And not to mention, the inside walls are painted with giant murals of Angry Birds and the WTC Twin Towers. Why? I don't know. It's Thailand. Just admire how much work and dedication they put into something that probably came into their mind on a drunken night out. I don't know if I'd recommend coming to the other side of the world just to see it, but if you're in northern Thailand, it is absolutely worth the detour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#9 - Maokong (Tapei, Taiwan)

I must admit, this entry is a bit of a cop-out, because it allows me to include two places in one: The top of Maokong itself and Zhinan Temple on the way up. Let's start with Zhinan. If I picture "Chinese temple" in my mind, Zhinan comes pretty close to what I imagine it to be. Tucked up in the mountains, with breaks in the clouds revealing the town below, monks walking around, and hardly a single tourist (on a weekday, anyway), it feels like you discovered something special. Every time I've been there (probably 4 or 5 times), the monks were incredibly kind, offered me water, and showed me to the statue of my birth... god... guy. The grounds around the temple are also really beautiful and worth a walk. In short, this is a must-see in Taipei.

And you might as well see it, because it's on the way up to the top of Maokong. The ride up to Maokong is in a cable car, which for less than $2 gives you an amazing, near 30-minute long view of the city and the countryside. On top, they have a neat little main road that looks like it's from 100 years ago, filled with wooden tea shops and snacks. All of these places have amazing views, and if you walk a little bit away, there are tea plantations that actually grow the tea you just drank at the tea shop. In typical Taiwan fashion, the people are incredibly kind, everything is spotless, and usually not too overrun with tourists. The cable car is connected to the metro, so there really is no reason not to go if you're in Taipei.

#8 - Tam Coc (Near Hanoi, Vietnam)

Tam Coc really surprised me, which probably contributes to why I thought it was so beautiful. By itself it isn't anything special I guess - it's a river. But the way it's carved out through the mountains, the plants around it, and the traditional way people still use it to farm make it really special. Unfortunately we didn't during the most beautiful season, but it's for the best because we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Anyway, it was apparently beautiful enough to serve as the setting for King Kong (the one with Jack Black), which I can see why. It does look sort of otherworldly at times, but also amazingly chill and perfectly encapsulates Vietnam and Southeast Asia as a whole - sit back, relax, and enjoy a beer bought from a farmer on a boat.

#7 - Hoi An (Vietnam)

Can a whole city be an entry? Hoi An was another Vietnamese surprise. I had heard it was pretty, but what I didn't expect is how not-touristy it was. Like, yes there was a tourist industry, but it still felt like a real place that people lived and worked. And wow, I couldn't believe how cheap it was - A hotel is $5 a night. Fancy western food is like $3 a meal. A massage is $2. But aside from comforts, the city itself was just beautiful. The whole downtown is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which I usually don't put too much stock in, but it's deserved in this case. Each building looks like you imagine it did 50, 100 years ago, and several are little 1-room museums you can check out. But the real star is at night, where the entire place gets lit up with paper lanterns, and they put more floating out in the river. It's an amazing sight to look at, the highlight of that trip to Vietnam, and one of the few places I would have no problem seeing a second (or third) time.

#6 - Jiufen (Near Taipei, Taiwan)

This was a really hard decision, because there are so many mountains in and around Taipei I could have chosen for here. Like Qixing Mountain, Zhuyi, or the aforementioned Maokong, they're all beautiful and worth the trip. But as much as a I like Maokong, and think it's more fun, for beauty I think I have to tip my hat to Jiufen. Jiufen is really a special place. It feels like you're walking back in time, to a lost Chinese city up in the mountains. While I know things have been restored for tourists, Taiwan is such a clean, "perfectionist" kind of place, all the care and small details put into it make it seem like you just got out of a time machine. You can get lost wandering through all the little alleys, sampling all the street food, and checking out these 1-room museums they have set up. It's also worth hiking up the mountain next to the town, because you get an amazing view of the whole place on one side, and an amazing view of the Taiwanese countryside on the other. It really is a must visit, and I say this while declaring Taiwan is probably my "must visit" place for Asia in general. I regret not taking more and better photos of this place, enough that I have to borrow from Wikimedia. But it's just an excuse to go back.

#5 - Akshardham (New Delhi, India)

During our trip to India, we saw a lot of really beautiful places. The Taj was really nice, and definitely worth seeing. A lot of Jaipur as well, was awesome to look at and a really underrated city. But as artificial as it is, I have to say I was most taken aback by Akshardham. I know, I know - it's built for tourists. It's sort of like Hindu Disney World. But I've never seen any building as intricately design as that one, it's hard to imagine the thousands or millions of hours that was put into its construction. So yeah, the Taj is more impressive considering what it was built for, how iconic it is, and the time it was constructed. But purely for a purely visual experience, I think Akshardham comes out on top. Unfortunately they don't let you take cameras into the park, so all I have to share are photos from the internet. But that's a good reason why you should go see it yourself.

 

#4 - Pura Mengening (Ubud, Bali, Indonesia)

When putting together this list, I think I'm learning the things I have tended to consider the most beautiful are the ones that surprised me. It's fitting that, Pura Mengening was maybe the biggest surprise I had in Indonesia. It's not really promoted on any tourist websites. It's not on any sort of public transport route. I've never heard anyone else talk about it. So, this may be the closest "authentic" travel experience that so many people try to have. Ella called it "The Temple Run Place", but to me it's like "The Zelda Forest Temple". When we were there, we had the place nearly to ourselves. So more than any other except #1, it felt like we discovered some long lost civilization. I was a bit disappointed with Bali overall (I think Thailand and Vietnam are better choices for easy beach life), but for me Pura Mengening is the saving grace that puts it on the map. If you find yourself in Bali, it should be the #1 thing to see.

 

#3 - Luoping (Yunnan, China)

You ever cook with canola oil? You ever see where it comes from? I had not, and I admit I wasn't feeling like driving out to some farm was going to blow my socks off. But how wrong I was, because Luoping County is like, the home of canola oil. Once you get in the area, as far as you could see, were just endless fields of yellow. I'm not really a flower guy, and I'd probably not pay them much mind if they were in arrangement next to a doorway or something. But I guess just the scale of Luoping, that literally, for miles in any direction, it was just yellow yellow and more yellow. On top of that, the hiking trail near the fields was really pretty, with lots of waterfalls, vistas, and other cool stuff to see. I can't imagine why any tourist would ever be in the area of eastern Yunnan, but in the off chance you are, Luoping is worth a visit.

 

 

 

 

 

#2 - The Peak (Hong Kong)

I honestly don't know why I love The Peak as much as I do. Like, yeah, it's pretty, but is it better than like, the Taj Mahal pretty? For some reason, to me, it is. I guess it's being above the buildings looking down at the skyline instead of looking up. Maybe it's just how pretty Hong Kong looks at night. Maybe I wasn't completely taken with the rest of the city, and it stood out. But regardless, The Peak really stood out as my favorite thing to do in Hong Kong. It's really pretty up there. I spent hours waiting for day to turn into night just so I could see it more. I've seen it three times now, and can spend hours just staring. I don't get it either. But it is what it is. Protip - unless you bought the tickets in advance, don't take the tram - the line is usually killer. The bus is faster, cheaper, you (usually) get a seat, and you can actually see some great views on the way.

#1 - Bagan (Myanmar)

Usually when I meet other travelers, so many of them have been to Thailand, or Cambodia, but so few of them have been to Myanmar. On the world stage in general, Myanmar is not a big player. Most people have never heard of them. In fact, when I first when to Asia, it was known as the "North Korea" of the region, because it was closed off to foreigners. I was very lucky that they relaxed visa restrictions around the time I moved to Thailand, because I was among the first of a new batch of outsiders who had never seen the country before. I have no idea what the country is like now, because when I visited, they were going nuts building hotels and other accommodations. The tourist industry looked like it was hastily thrown together with chewing gum and duct tape. But that's what I loved about it. I said at the time that I think Myanmar is going to become "the new Thailand", the "amazing, must see" SE Asian country, and I stand by that. But Bagan in particular, I hope stays exactly the way it is. Because those few days I was there... that is as close to Indiana Jones I will ever be. It's just a bunch of 1-room temples, in the middle of a triangle a few kilometers on each side. The corners of the triangle have little towns full of maybe a couple hundred people. And you just... drive. Drive around on your scooter, find a temple you like, and just poke around. You'll probably be the only person there. Almost none of them have been restored or messed with. They're exactly as they were. You'll need to bring a flashlight, food, and water. Sometimes there's not that much interesting stuff - maybe half a statue of buddha. Sometimes there are staircases that are difficult to climb, because the whole place is crooked after settling into the ground. It's the quintessential, "I want to travel to avoid tourists and see authentic places" destination. I hope it's still that way, because it's the best spot in Asia to see a temple... sorry Angkor Wat.

Summer break, summer break!

My last few entries have been silly, one-off sort of things, so it's kind of refreshing to get back to a normal, "What's going on in life?" blog. I last mentioned how I was going back to teaching in-person classes, which, I did, and there were no issues whatsoever. Like, I don't want to get political here, but the schools were run like someone had actually attended school before. Coming into and leaving school were staggered, everyone used hand sanitizer before coming in, and used sanitizer frequently throughout the day. In the evening, classrooms were sprayed with disinfectant. Everyone wore masks when leaving the classroom (yes, even my Grade 1s), and the windows were always open. AFAIK, we didn't have a single case, and we'd hear about that officially or through rumors if it did. But it doesn't surprise me, because Shanghai, a city of like 25 million people, currently has 16 cases. Is it really only 16? I honestly believe it is, or at most marginally higher. I know that may sound impossible considering the current situation in America, but it really is a 100% united front here. For better or worse, there is no debate, and people listen to health officials.

So yeah. Things are working out well.

School was pretty uneventful minus the extra precautions. The last day of class I told my kids that it was really great teaching them, and I wish them the best of luck in 2nd Grade. And that blindsided a lot of them, like "Wait, you aren't our teacher forever?" So I had to explain no, I'm a Grade 1 teacher, and as far as I know I'll remain in Grade 1. Some of them were not cool with that, which is really sweet. They really are a (mostly) great bunch of kids, and while I wouldn't hate to teach them again, I would sort of like a fresh start. It's a good chance to try out new methods of teaching, to see how they stick, and develop my skills. It's a lot harder to do that with a bunch of kids that already know exactly what to expect and what you can do.

Because of the mess of a schedule due to COVID-19, I finished school about two weeks before Ella. I thought about getting a gig doing a summer camp, but it seems most of them were cancelled. And the few I found wanted a 1 month plus commitment. So that means a bachelor life for me! I haven't had a place to myself in a while, so it was a nice few weeks of playing video games and chilling. I picked up the Shantae series (really underrated) along with a 3DS game called Ever Oasis. I know I'm really behind the curve, but ya know, if you just stay 3, 4 years behind the curve, you can save a lot of money. And the game playing spree continued, because after Ella finished work, it was off to travel! But in China only!

Unfortunately the school holidays are when most teachers pop off to Thailand, but China's borders are still closed to foreigners. So yes, I can leave. But I can't come back. Recently there's been some exceptions, like if you have Chinese family. So I suppose I could work it out somehow, but there'd probably be a lot of paperwork. Instead we went to visit the in-laws in Qujing. Before I launch into that, I should mention what travel is like in China. You may have heard of WeChat, or maybe Alibaba's Alipay apps. Well, these apps pretty much manage your entire life in China, so much so it'd be really difficult to do anything without them. They each have a health tracker app that has to show green before getting on transport. And I've heard if you share, for example, a train with someone who later tested positive, your status will be changed to yellow and you need to go get tested. I think there is a Plan B that involves you filling out papers so they can contact you, but for all the lack of privacy it really is a fantastic system that seems to be doing a great job, so I'm all for supporting it during a public health crisis. And that's about it to be honest. You have to wear a mask of course, but people here do that anyway, even in places it's not required. With public transport to and from the airports, plus flying, I've gotten pretty used to wearing masks for 6, 7+ hours. So when I hear people who complain about not being able to wear in for 30 minutes... I am at a loss for words. Do you think surgeons are superhumans or something?

Anyway, what is there to do in Qujing? Not much really. It's a nice enough town but it's not a tourist destination by any means. I'm sure I've talked about it before, but mostly we just slept, ate, and talked. We did go to a lotus park, which was very pretty. But yeah, mostly just relaxed. I wish I had a better story for you (and myself) here. For Ella's birthday she and I went to Pizza Hut, where she made a pact with the devil to get Hawaiian Pizza. Now, some of you may be like "Ugh, Pizza Hut on your birthday?" And ya know, I get you. But Chinese Pizza Hut is NOT American Pizza Hut. They're less posh now as more have opened, but 10-ish years ago when I got to China, you would not be out of place wearing a suit to Pizza Hut. They serve wine. It's kind of expensive. And yes, the food is significantly better. 2020 is weird ya'll.

We had planned to make our way up in the mountains towards Tibet, ending at Shangrila. Unfortunately it was kind of chilly in Qujing, itself being similar to Denver in elevation. Going up to a bit below half of Everest's height sounded much colder. So instead we did the opposite, and went on over to Hainan. For a Chinese geography refresher course, Hainan is an island often called "China's Hawaii". Which, they're pretty similar in environment, but definitely not in size. Hainan is it's own province, roughly the size of Ohio. It is an island, but it doesn't feel like one. We started by flying to the capital, Haikou. Haikou is definitely the "working" part of the island, that doesn't have all that much for tourists itself. It's more like a jumping off point for those going to the beaches. But I am a sucker for provincial museums, and ya know, Haikou has the best provincial museum in China. No joke. It looked a little underwhelming at first, until you went into the newer section inside which was beautiful. Lots of neat dioaramas, bi/tri/quadlingual signage, Haikou really stepped it up. Well done guys.

The rest of Haikou was unfortunately a little less impressive. They had a pretty "old street" that looked like Macau. That's about it. We found an Indian place that had some banging butter chicken for much less than you'd expect for China. But after a day or so we hopped off the train to get to the southern end of the island, the resort town of Sanya.

Sanya is about a 1.5, 2 hour train ride from Haikou through some beautiful countryside. I'd imagine it would be closer to an hour if it went through the middle of the island, but instead the train travels along the eastern edge. It's nice in a way, because you get some scattered views of the beach as you go. For Sanya itself, there was a bit of a culture shock. I'm used to signs being in only Chinese, but if there is any additional language it's English. In Sanya, the 2nd language is Russian. Apparently it's quite the popular destination for Russian tourists. Except with the border closed, I saw maybe 10 the whole time there, I guess people like me that have more or less settled down. It sort of reminded me of Pattaya, a town in Thailand with a large Russian tourist population. But while Pattaya is a sin city that would make Vegas blush, Sanya is a little more low-key. It's more like beach BBQs, resorts, and coffee shops than gogo bars and clubs. Ya know, more family friendly I guess. That still doesn't detract from the quite beautiful beach, although due to the weather the waves were quite large. Enough that they at first didn't even let people onto the sand, but the next day let people get to the water line, just no swimming. It didn't matter much to us, seeing as how we had packed mountain clothes instead of swimsuits, but I can imagine being bummed if you went there for some beach life. We still got plenty of beach life in the form of the aforementioned BBQ and beers. We also went to Luhuitou Park, or I guess translated as "Deer Turn Around" Park. It's just a hill near town you can take a bus almost to the top of and get a nice view. Since it's the year of the mouse, I got in for free - not that the $4 entrance fee put me off. But it was weird to seriously declare to the ticket person "I am a mouse." and walk past. Some great views from the top of Sanya, and even a free shot of espresso made for a nice afternoon.

That was mostly it for the holiday. Now back in Shanghai, I have about another week until work supposedly will start prep for the next semester sometime at the end of the month. While I'm not exactly looking forward to it, in a way I am, because I've mostly sat on my butt for the last 6 weeks. I haven't put on any weight, though I am convinced managing 30 7-year olds is pretty solid fitness routine.

In Sanya Airport - some of the best Engrish I've seen yet.