Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Hello again! Some updates on life

I thought it might be time to revive this blog. A lot has happened since the last time I updated this blog! Since then (May 2015), I've moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area from Hong Kong. In the summer, Yalu and I went on an epic tour of Southeast Asia, renewing my belief in long vacations. I stayed in HK for a few months, waiting for a transfer that never happened. So I resigned and came back to the States on my own, in time for Thanksgiving. This post is a short recap:

  • After the hike to Tai Mo Shan, Sally and Durand left Hong Kong.
  • Yalu arrived in Hong Kong and we set off on an adventure:
    • Flew from Hong Kong to Hanoi. Ate a lot of food and went on a boat cruise in Ha Long Bay
    • Flew to Ho Chi Ming City. Stayed in a very Japanese part of town. Went to a beach resort.
    • Took a bus into Cambodia and arrived into Phnom Penh where Yalu got more pages in her passport.
    • Took another bus to Siem Reap where we stayed at an amazing 5 star resort.
    • Toured Angkor Wat by tuk tuk and then by bike, during a monsoon.
    • Flew out to Laos and arrived in the UNESCO Heritage city of Luang Prabang.
    • Ate some really good food and visited an amazing waterfall
    • Flew to Chiang Mai where we went to the highest peak of Thailand
    • Then we ventured into the mystical country of Burma by taking a nearly empty flight
    • Arrived in Yangon towards the evening and stayed at a sketchy hotel and was joined by Yalu's friend Ariel
    • Took an early morning flight to Bagan and stayed at another nice resort where they let us check in at 7am. 
    • We took bikes from the hotel to visit the temples where we have to walk around barefoot in the really hot day. Surprisingly, ate some more really good food.
    • Ariel and I found that we have a lot of mutual friends.
    • Ariel flew back to Yangon while Yalu and I took a van out to Inle Lake
    • Went on a lake tour and got caught in another monsoon on the way back. Really don't know how the boat driver managed to find the way back, in the middle of heavy rain, thunder, and lightning.
    • Burmese food is pretty good.
    • Flew back into Yangon where we stayed at a really stuffy hotel and went on a train ride where we nearly freeze to death in the highly air conditioned car.
    • Flew to Bangkok where we enjoyed the moderness of the place. Stay with one of Yalu's friends at a 5 star hotel and enjoyed her amenities.
    • This is where we parted ways. I flew to Singapore while Yalu went to Phuket. 
    • After all this traveling, I got sick in Singapore and slept on the couch of my friend's apartment for a couple of days.
    • Flew to Perth and arrived in winter. Got to Sally's house and proceeded to borrow her clothes, sleep in her bed, and eat her food.
    • Perth is really, really nice, even in the winter.
    • Flew back to Hong Kong via Singapore. 
  • Joined Pure, a really nice, expensive gym and went there several times a day, many times a week. Feel like I'm getting old because it took about two months before I saw any results.
  • Resigned from Arup and flew back to Oakland via Japan. Had an adventurous day in Tokyo.
  • Home for Thanksgiving.
  • Helped my brother applied to $2,000 worth of colleges
  • Met up with a lot of Bay Area friends. 
  • Flew to LA after Christmas and hung out with a family friend. Also got to see Sally and Durand while they were in LA.
  • Flew over the Pacific on New Year's Eve and landed back in Hong Kong. Spent the transit in an airport lounge.
  • Arrived in Bangkok after taking three consecutive flights on separate reservations so I had to leave the security area and check back in every time.
  • Attended a Thai wedding.
  • Flew back to Hong Kong where I spent a week visiting friends and taking care of miscellaneous things. Packed up the last of the stuff I left at my previous apartment and flew back.
  • Sent out many applications and contacted a lot people for work.
  • Worked part-time for Arup SF as site staff and found site work in the US to be even more boring than in HK.
Hope I didn't miss anything. The last part of 2015 involved a lot of flying. Now that I'm back in the US, I've been applying for some new credit cards with nice welcome bonuses. Hopefully, I can get this job thing sort out, start making money again, and go on some nice vacations in the future.