I didn’t get a chance to write my usual monthly recap post at the end of April so this one is a 2-fer. I had my Lasik surgery at the very end of April and I may have slightly underestimated the recovery period. I thought I’d be back on the laptop in 2 days. But my (new, improved) eyes had other plans and decided that they didn’t want to look at a screen until a week later. And by then, I got lazy to write a re-cap post and it was almost getting to mid-month anyway.
This post should be real short because I already did my best to summarize what’s been going on. But I would hate to skip over the re-cap for these months, so here goes:
Apr 3 – 17: Taipei, Taiwan
I don’t think any Asian city surprised me as much as Taipei. I went there with zero expectations and quickly fell in love. I’ve already talked about everything I love about Taipei, so I’ll spare it here.
Taipei gets skipped over a lot on the Asia trail, perhaps because it doesn’t have famous tourist attractions. And maybe that is perhaps why we enjoyed it too. We spent our days working in cozy cafes and our evenings eating our way through the night markets. And still, we felt that two weeks wasn’t nearly enough time to soak up the city.
By the time we left, we had already decided that we would come back at the end of this year and spend a lot more time here. Taipei will mark the first place in which we will settle for a while – a testament to how much we both loved the city.
One of the major highlights of our time in Taipei was getting to see where D used to live. These past couple of months have been about dwelling into each other’s histories. We met up with D’s uncle in the city and he took us to the apartment where D’s mom’s family used to live. D was born in the States, but lived in Taipei with his grandparents for a year as a toddler. It was really special to see that.
In case you missed them, here are what I’ve already written about Taipei:
- A photo post of why Taipei is the coolest Asian city I’ve been to yet
- I ate the most expensive bowl of beef noodle soup ever and compared it with a locally famous cheaper on
- I revamped my entire travel wardrobe in Taipei and shot my first outfit post!
- A post of the drool worthy (and sometimes strange) food in Taipei
Apr 18 – May 15: Beijing, China
I had the BEST month in Beijing!
Ever since I moved to the States at the age of 6, I’ve returned to Beijing for a visit about once every 4-5 years. While I’ve enjoyed every single one of them, I was probably too young and immature to fully appreciate them. This visit, however, I really treasured.
We timed this visit with my mom’s annual trip so I was able to spend a lot of time with her. My grandparents are no longer as healthy as a few years ago, so any time spent with them now is precious. I was really happy to be able to introduce D to my Beijing family and show him my childhood home and have him taste the food I grew up eating. It was important for me to show him where I came from.
I already wrote a summary of my month in Beijing so I will keep this brief. I still have so much more I want to share about my time in Beijing. I never kept a written record of my previous trips to China, so even more so, I want to document every moment of this one.
May 15 – Present: Shanghai, China
When we were planning our China trip, we knew Beijing was a must, but we had an entire two months to fill with other destinations. The options seemed endless: Xian to see the clay soldiers! Chengdu to see the pandas! Yunnan for the scenery! But it was too expensive to move around that much so we decided to stick to our preferred slow-travel style and pick one other city only.
D had his heart set on Shanghai. Truth be told, I wasn’t too excited about Shanghai because I’ve visited briefly before and felt generally meh about it. To be fair, I’ve only visited the super touristy sites, which is not often the best representation of a city. So I agreed to give it a real chance and we booked a month.
Guess what? I LOVE Shanghai! I feel slightly guilty that I prefer it over Beijing and I kinda like it even more than Taipei.
We’ve been taking it pretty slow here. There are a lot of small, unique towns to visit around Shanghai, but I think we’ve both reached the point where we’re too tired to do heavy exploring. So we’ve been sleeping in late and focusing more on work than on sightseeing. But the weekends are when we have our fun. I have a cousin my age in the city and we have a lot of fun hanging out together!
There seems to be an endless amount of things to do and eat in Shanghai, everything from dirt cheap to super lux and everything in between. I really think I could spend 10 years here and still not do (and eat) everything there is to do! I’ll have a much better assessment of Shanghai in my next report!
Coming up in June
June will be a big month! We will be finishing our month in Shanghai and then flying to Shantou, China, just for a 2-day pit stop to visit D’s overseas contractors. I’m really excited about it! I know absolutely nothing about this town.
After that, we are headed to Hong Kong for 9 days. D insisted on Hong Kong because of *surprise surprise* the food scene. I confess that I’m not the hugest fan of Cantonese cuisine, but I’m really hoping that these days in Hong Kong will change my mind. Any food rec’s, let me know!
After Hong Kong, we’re completely changing up the game and flying to Europe! I am so excited to be going back to Europe this summer! We will be flying into Warsaw, Poland and spending one week there with D’s Polish family. And that will take us to the end of June.
Okay, in the beginning of this post, I said it will be real short, and I still managed to ramble on. Sigh.
Aw, looks like you had the most fabulous last two months. Hope you continue to enjoy your Chinese travels! The way you speak about being in Beijing is really nice… I can see how important it is to you!
These 2 months have been all about connecting and reuniting with family (for both of us!). I’m so glad to be able to show D Beijing and where I came from!
Love reading these recaps, Anna. What an amazing two months! It must have been nice to slow down a bit in Beijing, as I agree that adventures can get a bit tiring and sometimes you need a bit of a rest. June sounds oh so very exciting! :) Can’t wait to hear more about Shanghai too, it sounds amazing and I’m curious to hear about what makes it so great! June for me will be about making the most with family and friends, and London as the month of leaving is drawing closer… about three to go now eeep! So i’ll be living my travels through you until then x
We do both feel exhausted now and don’t have the energy to do as much sightseeing in and around Shanghai, but it’s okay! We’re happy with taking it slow and don’t feel like we’re missing out.
I can’t believe it’s only 3 more months for you!!! How scary and exciting at the same time. I’m sure you’re crazy busy packing up and getting things in order. And of course, spend a much time with family and friends as possible! x
AAAAAAAAMAZING! I actually really want to hear more about Shanghai and why you liked it! I don’t think it’d be to on my list either, haha! And I can’t wait to read about the end of your China adventures before heading to Europe. Oh, what’d I do to be in Europe this summer! More like, I just wish summer lasted forever. We’re heading to Japan in less than 2 weeks (ahh!) and will also be in Ecuador, but I think you already knew that. ;)
Omg I didn’t realize you were headed to japan this soon!! I CAN’T WAIT to hear about your Japan trip! I’m so excited for you about Ecuador too!
Shanghai is such a fun city for young people! There’s SO much to do here and the food is good too. It’s also the most international Asian city I’ve ever visited. There’s just something about the vibe here!
I LOVE Shanghai. That whole city is so much fun and has a good vibe. Plus the soup steamed bun are the single best thing I’ve ever eaten. I had never really thought about going to Taipei but I’ve heard really good things about Taiwan and wish I could of had time to go back. I hope you guys have tons of fun in shanghai and drink lots of fancy cocktails
I know!! Isn’t Shanghai amazing?! I didn’t think I would love it so much!! I would totally live here if I could find a way to stay for more than 2 months, and if it weren’t so expensive, haha. I think Taipei’s vibe is similar in some ways, but not as grand and not as international. I really love it too! It’s a very livable city.
It seems that April and May have been very special for you! Happy to hear that you loved Shangai while exploring slower… so it is worth to give second opportunities to the cities :)
May has been for me a “taking rest” month. After six month of traveling full time I needed it! I have a couple of friends here in Chile so I spent time with them, slept, ate and talked. In June I’ll be traveling in Chile, from Patagonia to Santiago.
Happy travels!
Taking a rest is so important! We both feel pretty burned out too (even though we’ve been traveling slower). I’m looking forward to go back to Taipei at the end of the year and just staying put in one spot for a while!
Oooh Chile! I was only in Santiago (and Valparaiso for a couple of days) but I loved it SO much. I really want to go back and explore all of Chile. I’m excited to follow your adventures in Chile!
You so make me want to get over to Asia. Well, I already want to, but your posts make it really hard not to just book a ticket right now. (That and my bank account). So nice that you got to visit your family and slow down a little! Looks like you have a lot of great things coming up! I can’t wait to read about them :D
I hope you get to come to Asia someday! :D I’m glad I can introduce people to how fun China is. I’m so excited for this month too. As much as I’ve loved being in Asia, I can’t wait to get back to Europe!!
I’ll be looking out for some Warsaw recommendations ;)
I hope I’ll have some! I just know that we will for sure go back to our favorite Polish restaurant there!
You said you have already decided to go back to Taipei end of this year to settle down for a bit, but that was before Shanghai happened. Are you changing your decision now? At any rate it is still more interesting to me, most travel bloggers that I read will go to Thailand or Vietnam when they want to settle down for a bit. It gets boring after reading them awhile.
I think there’s definitely more to do in Shanghai (and plus my cousin is there too!), but Shanghai is a lot more expensive than Taipei. I would probably live here though is money isn’t an issue! But I couldn’t anyway because my visa only allows me 2 months in China and 2 months out. But we get 3 months in Taipei, and we can just go away on a mini vacation and fly right back in!
I’ve fallen a bit behind on blog reading the last few weeks so I’ve missed a few of these and I’m really glad of this summary with the links of your posts that I missed first time round. I’ve got to admit, you’ve really sold Tapei to me, I too had never really even thought of it as a destination to visit but if I head back in that direction one day, I will definitely try and see if I can somehow make a stop there. China would be a dream come true to visit (I would love to see the pandas too) but as Pumpkin’s already been, it’s harder persuading him for a return just yet as I think he really wants to see Japan if we go back to Asia. So lovely that you got to meet each other’s families and spend time really seeing a bit about each other’s childhood backgrounds. Such precious moments :)
I feel like Pumpkin has been to a bunch of places without you! China is sooo huge that there’s so much to explore without having to repeat places. :) I’m sure we’ll be back to China a lot more now and it’s gonna be a hard decision between returning to Beijing/Shanghai vs. somewhere new. I’m glad you’re interested in Taipei now too! I think it’ll make a fun stop for a couple of days to just soak up the vibe of the city and of course, to eat!
Wow, my ancestors came from Chaozhou. Will you be blogging about Chaozhou, Shantou?
That’s awesome! And yes, I definitely will blog about it! I’m really excited to visit it and eat the food from that region of China. :D Have you been there?
No. Maybe next year:)
How exciting!! :D I just looked up some pictures of Chaozhou and it looks really pretty and unique!
Sounds like an exciting time. There nothing like feeling connected to a place through family. I will be visiting Scotland in a couple weeks and so excited to explore my heritage.
Oh my gosh… Scotland!! How exciting!! I’ve always wanted to go! I assume that you’ll be taking your babies? I hope you guys have the best time and I look forward to hearing about it!
I so enjoy keeping up with your travels and all! Thanks for sharing with your readers! May was a cold month here in Lima, Peru, and busy with work (teaching.) Hoping to travel to the south later this month for some sunshine!!! :)
Thanks so much for reading, Mere! :) I read about your hospital experience (for some reason, I don’t see a comment form so I couldn’t comment!)… how terrifying! That’s one of my worst travel nightmares. I’m glad you’re all better now and I hope this month is shaping up to be a good one!
Argh, I’ve been trying to fix the comment thing, but I don’t know what’s wrong! It’s Disqus, which used to work on my site, but apparently not anymore :/ thanks for letting me know though!