In saying goodbye to life in Korea, I’ve said hello to an exciting three months of traveling throughout Asia before returning home to Chicago. The first flight out of Incheon brought me to Beijing where I would have approximately 60 hours to explore all that I could of this dynamic city.
I arrived around 3pm in Beijing and was off to get my 72-hour transit stamp, which was easier than I had expected. From there it was off to find my hostel, which was more difficult than I had expected. I had somehow made it all the way to the subway stop and then misinterpreted the walking directions to the hostel. Luckily a security guard and local man seemed to notice the blonde girl buried with backpacks and offered their help in guiding me to the correct street.
What seemed like an eternity later, being weighed down by four bags, I reached my destination.
Why four bags?? A culmination of poor packing and over-packing. By the time I would reach Osaka a week later I would have gotten rid of about half of the unnecessary items I’d brought along, and scheduled a much-needed acupuncture appointment.
Anyways, back to Beijing. So I opened the door to the hostel and was amazed. It was beautiful. White walls were adorned with wooden beams and strong pillars in the center of the room. Worn wooden tables were dressed with bright pink flower arrangements and surrounded by mismatched, yet complementing chairs. The whole space was filled with lush greenery hanging from the ceiling and sprouting from planters along the walls. GORGEOUS. And exactly the breath of fresh air I needed as I was officially feeling overwhelmed from traveling and being away from my home away from home. Mind you it had only been about 6 hours since boarding the flight to leave.
I got myself settled and the sweetest front desk attendant gave me a great recommendation of a night market to head to for dinner. So like that I was off once again, determined to see a bit of nightlife in Beijing. Following the directions I was given I landed directly in the center of Donghuamen Night Market.
The market was a bustling group of small streets intersecting each other. The main streets were filled with food stalls selling everything from potstickers to scorpions on a stick. I played it safe and opted for a wrap of some sort that I have yet to determine the name of. It seemed to be stir-fried bean sprouts mixed with other veggies then wrapped up and grilled to perfection. Great for wandering around the market which is exactly what I did with the rest of the night, taking in this new city. The next day would be filled with tours of some of Beijing’s most famous places.
SaveSave
Following our 
After a couple of subway transfers we got to our stop and followed the crowds to help lead us to our destination. Once we saw the mystical white clouds of steam rising from the water we knew we were in the right place. A stone pathway allowed us to walk right over the crystal clear cyan water, getting just close enough to feel the heat and lean over for a quick steam facial. We were lucky in the fact that it wasn’t terribly busy for a holiday weekend and we were able to peacefully enjoy the hot spring. I’ll chalk that up to the Lunar New Year and so many people being out of town to visit their families.
Now it was time to journey out to visit Jiufen. We’d come across this day excursion via a couple of blog posts which had compared the small Taiwanese town to Santorini as it too sits cozily on a mountain next to the water. We spent the next few hours exploring all of the back roads of this small mountain village, trying different foods, popping into different shops and wandering a temple. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon out of the hustle and bustle of Taipei. We explored just long enough to catch the sun setting behind the mountain and see the blue sky fade from yellow to red to black, at which time the city began to light up. I couldn’t have asked for a better day in Taiwan.
The weekend started off with a great flight from Korea to Taiwan and an easy bus ride from the airport to the hostel that my friend and I would be staying at for the weekend. After arriving in the center of town we ventured off for a quick dinner and explored our new surroundings into the evening. Something that Taiwan and 
Once we had our fill of the square we decided it was time for lunch. Something we weren’t expecting about traveling during the main weekend of the Lunar New Year was that most of the city had gone back to their hometowns to be with their family. This meant that the city was unimaginably peaceful, but it also meant that a lot of storefronts and restaurants were closed for the week. Luckily for us we found an incredible restaurant tucked away on a little side street that served absolutely delicious dim sum.
As the evening of day two was approaching we wanted to explore one of the markets that we’d researched. A lovely taxi driver dropped us off at Raohe Night Market which was supposed to be where any locals were likely to be on New Year’s. In theme with the weekend, we were surprised to see just how calm the market was. Nonetheless, we did a bit of shopping and grabbed some street food as we started to find our way to the subway to head home.
As we exited the temple we found ourselves moving with the crowd into the main strip of the Raohe Night Market. We crawled along with the thousands of other visitors slowly taking in all of the shops and stalls along the market until we found a crêpe stand that we couldn’t pass up. We hopped out of the shuffle where we were handed our strawberry Nutella crepes and reluctantly decided it was time to head back home for the night. in preparation for the following day.
After our busy 
A three-day weekend in Korea called for a quick getaway across the East China Sea where we landed in Honk Kong. It only took about 24 hours for this country to captivate my mind and soul. Hong Kong is the ultimate combination of eastern culture and western convenience. It reminded me of being in New York, but then we would simply turn a corner and be in the middle of a night market. I was hooked.
A cable car took us to the top of the mountain where we walked along a shop and restaurant lined street on our way to the stairway up to the Buddha which is where we discovered the Po Lin Monastery also sits atop the mountain. We wandered our way to the Buddha and slowly made it up 268 stairs to the top where we stayed for nearly an hour soaking in the view from the peak of the mountain and snapping countless photos of the Buddha and the surrounding statues.
Once we were back at sea level we took a long yet relaxing train ride to the Tsim Sha Tsui part of Hong Kong which would be home for the long weekend. We spent the rest of the day sightseeing and exploring the city until late into the night. We ended our day at the famous Temple Street Night Market which lived up to all of the reviews of good shopping and great street food.
{Day Three}
On my last day in HCM I decided to take advantage of the hotel’s rooftop pool and spent the morning swimming and relaxing before taking to the streets to explore the side of the city I hadn’t yet been to.
There happened to be a little street fair on one of the side streets next to the post office which was the perfect place to waste an hour while I was waiting for the Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica to open. I took some time to enjoy the beautiful church before it was time to grab a little caffeine and head to the airport and back to Korea. While it was a brief trip, it was an excellent way to spend a few days off from work and see an entirely new country.
After a wonderful
The hour or so journey there was actually pretty cool. As we traveled along we passed by small houses and tons of fishing boats. It was interesting to see the rural side of the country even if it was just for a brief moment. I found myself wondering what it would be like to live in one of the tiny riverside homes we passed.
Just weeks after beginning the new semester at school Chuseok weekend was upon us, and that meant the perfect reason to travel. Chuseok is essentially Korean Thanksgiving, and it allowed us a full five days off of work. While 
The morning started with a walk alongside the Saigon River and a shopping trip to the Binh Tay Market. I’d done a lot of research on the various markets in HCMC as markets tend to be my favorite travel experiences regardless of the city. I’d heard a lot about the Ben Thanh market and that it could be a bit touristy where as Binh Tay was where the locals shopped. I had plans to visit both, but Binh Tay would be first.
Once I made it inside the market I was greeted by two floors of a seemingly endless number of stalls with floor to ceiling merchandise including almost anything you could imagine. I spent hours walking from end to end and in between the countless stalls.
I toured this unexpected pagoda for another hour and then ventured back out to the street where I found a little side street market. Up until finding this street I’d been somewhat surprised about what Ho Chi Minh looked like. Of course, I’d seen pictures of the European style buildings, but being in Vietnam I still expected to see hundreds of older women wearing conical hats which seemed to be non-existent. Until I found this market that is.
After a few wonderful days in Jeju City, our vacation was dwindling down to just two more days. We had a few things left on our to-do list, one of which was visiting Manjanggul Cave, a UNESCO World Heritage sight that is a cave formed from a lava tunnel.
When we arrived, we were greeted by a vine covered staircase entrance into the cave. We followed along the one kilometer path through the lava tunnel enjoying the chilly climate that was so different from the sweltering streets of Jeju.
Our last day started with us packing our bags and quickly dropping them off at the airport before catching a cab to the beach to soak in some sun before boarding our flight that evening. We had an incredible cab driver pick us up who tried his absolute best to communicate with us in his broken English and we attempted our best broken Korean. Though we had to act out words for ‘beach’ and ‘swimming’, he had no problems telling us his opinions of what was at the time the upcoming 2017 presidential election.
After a few days 
bbm travels 