Shanghai July 2012

This was a big trip, China, Asia, intimidating. Shortly after returning from my trip to Mexico I received a phone call from my director at work. She wanted me to go to Shanghai and work with a team there on our business processes. Wow this was exciting, I was going to China in July.

First off let me say that when you go to China everyone will tell how bad its going to be. All I heard before this trip was "its a communist country" "you can't use the Internet". People were leaving me with a concern about going on this trip. Remember this is my first time in Asia, I didn't know what to expect. I did my research about proper business etiquette, places to visit as a tourist, and things to be aware of. I was going to be in Shanghai for 2 weeks so I made a list of places I wanted to see around the city. I gathered most of my information from popular travel sites like trip advisor and grouped attractions together based on location in the city. I had a plan....just didn't know what to expect.

The flight was the longest flight to date that I had ever been on. I was flying form Los Angeles to Shanghai and I was going to be on the plane for 12 hours. I brought a book, I brought music, and I tried to sleep as much as I could. Upon arriving in Shanghai my anxiety level started to climb. I'm here, what if they don't let me in, I'm sure they are going to stop me and go through my bag, will I have to answer a ton of questions, are they going to follow me? My head was swimming with all the information people back home were telling me before I left. Here I was, an American in a communist country, I was sure it was going to be difficult.

I got off the plane and the first thing I am hit with is the smell. For anyone who hasn't traveled to Asia, it has a unique smell. The best way I can describe it now is a mix between the super potent durian fruit and Chinese spices. The humidity is thick enough to cut with a knife. Here I was, about to  be questioned, it smells, and its humid and hot. As I followed the crowd to Chinese customs I started to get really nervous. I rounded the corner and stood in a small line, I was asked no questions and the customs lady stamped my passport across from my Chinese visa. I walked directly into the baggage claim, I gathered my bags and prepared for the worst. As I approached the exit I follow the signs for individuals with no duty items to claim. As I walked through the door I realized I was outside the airport where the taxi's were. Had I slipped through and the army was going to track me down? I quickly got into a cab and gave them the name of my hotel and off I went.

I landed on a Saturday evening and I was staying at the Radisson Blue in the Pudong district. Shanghai is cut in half by the Huangpu river, on the east side is the new Pudong district and on the west is the old Puxi(pronounced pu - she) district. Pudong is where all the modern sky scrapers are located and what most people will associate with Shanghai. I still had my reservations about China for the first few days. I did not venture very far from the hotel. The first night I decided to walk to the shops around the corner of from the hotel. From my room it looked to be an outdoor mall. Once outside and around the corner my fears of "what will I ear" quickly went away. Burger King, McDonald's, KFC, Subway, and Starbucks. It wasn't what I expected being in a "communist" country, but at least I had some options. As the weekend went on I explored further and further. I went through my list of attractions and started with the ones closest to my hotel and branched out every day.

One of many ponds in Century Park

I'm going to skip the boring parts of my story but there were big chunks of time I spend in transit to and from work or sitting at work. Every week day I left the hotel at 7am and returned at 5:30pm. I would quickly change then head out to see something new and get something to eat.  As I said earlier I had a circle that grew by the day. My hotel was the center of the circle and every time I would go out, I would go farther and farther. My first sight seeing adventure was  Century park and the Shanghai Science museum. Century Park is like the Central Park of New York City, it is a large open park surrounded by sky scrapers. The park was filled with ponds and gardens was was a great place to get some quiet in the bustling city.

Confucius Temple
in the Confucius Garden 

Exploring the Pudong(new side) of Shanghai is much different than exploring the Puxi(old side). The Puxi side has many old gardens, temples, and complexes that really take you back to old world China. I visited a number of places on this trip but a few stood out and I continue revisit in my mind a subsequent trips. I spent one afternoon at the Confucius Temple and gardens. It was amazing how you are transported to another time. The temple is located in the center of a busy, loud neighborhood. I was expecting to go in take a few pictures and move on to the next attraction. I was shocked when I walked through the gates at how quite and peaceful the temple was. The architecture was old world China and the grounds were perfectly manicured. It was amazingly quiet and just what I needed to escape the big city for a short time.

Yuyuan Bazaar 

As I worked north visiting different attractions I made sure to go the the Peoples Square and the Yuyuan Bazaar. The Peoples Square is another large park but located on the west side of the river. It is similar to Century Park as it is filled with gardens and ponds. This park was much busier however, it was a gathering place for old me to play Mahjong on the weekends. Yuyuan Bazaar is an old shopping district that has been transformed into an out door mall with modern day stores. The buildings are beautiful old world architecture and give you a sense that you are shopping a thousand years ago. That feeling does pass quickly as you spot a Starbucks!

View at dusk of Shanghai new skyline
 from the Bund side of the Huangpu River

I was pretty loose with my site seeing plans with one exception, The Bund! The Huangpu river splits Shanghai into to districts, the new district Pudong to the east, and the old district Puxi to the west. On the west bank of the river is the Bund, a collection of old European style buildings that are beautifully lit at night. On the east side of the river is all the modern sky scrapers that light up at night. When you see pictures of Shanghai you are most likely seeing one of these two areas. I needed to get my own pictures. The plan was to be on the Bund at dusk to catch the lights of the sky scrapers coming on, then take a ferry across the river and photograph the Bund. This is by far the busiest attraction you will encounter in Shanghai. Thousands of people flock here nightly to take pictures of the Shanghai Skyline. Even though there are massive amounts of people it is easy to find a spot for great picture!

View of the Bund at night from the
Pudong Side of the Huangpu River

Food was an adventure the first time I was in China. First off I was on a business trip and using a corporate Master Card....Guess what not all Chinese merchants take Master Card..or Visa meaning, my personal card was useless too. This was a struggle for me for the first week I was in Shanghai. I
could not find places to eat unless I wanted to

Dumpling and noodle soup, Xiaolongbao, and a Sprite
at Din Tai Fung in the World Financial Center

spend my own cash or eat at the hotel. I generally opted for eating at the hotel, but this got old quickly. As I mentioned before my exploration area grew as the trip went on, leading me to more and more places that has restaurants. It was simply trial and error, I would walk up to the hostess and pull out my corporate card. Most of the time she would shake her head no and I would continue on to the next place. I did get lucky over the weekend I was there. I was in the Shanghai World Financial Center and I walked up to a restaurant and pulled my card out. The hostess greeted me in English and said they welcome my card, so I sat down and ordered. This restaurant was a dumpling restaurant named Din Tai Fung and has become my favorite restaurant in the world. I crave the Xiaolongbao dumplings. They are steamed dumplings with pork soup in the center and are amazing. Once I found this place I must have revisited 4 times on this trip alone.

Restaurants in Xiantandi

An alley in the Xiantandi Shopping and Dining Neighborhood

The rest of the food I tried in Shanghai took some getting use to. It is much different that anything we have in the United States, but all of it is worth a try. I was lucky enough on some nights to have dinner with work colleagues and they would generally order for the entire table leaving me to try new things outside my comfort zone. One evening we went to a restaurant in the Xiantandi neighborhood of Shanghai. This neighborhood has been renovated and caters to the wealthy of the area. The exterior of the buildings are from the original buildings but the interiors have been modernized. It is a great area to grab food or drinks and watch the expensive cars drive by.

Group Dinner at Jade Palace

Here are some tips and things I learned that I can pass on to you
1) China is an amazing county! Yes it is communist but you will soon forget while you are there. I was never stopped, searched, or bothered by anyone. You will not see the military and will rarely see the police.
2) China is very clean in the popular areas. There are no homeless people in the larger cities, no beggars, and the streets are cleaner than most places I've seen in the United States. No trash, no graffiti.
3) Eat at Din Tai Fung. It is actually a chain restaurant in Asia, I have eaten here in multiple countries. The best part...there are some in Seattle and Los Angeles...Must do!!
4) Carry Cash as most places won't take western credit or debit cards
5) Always ask upon walking into the restaurant if they take your card, if you eat and get to the end you may end up paying entirely in cash.
6) Try new food, order different things, if you don't like it don't finish but be adventurous and get outside your comfort zone.
7) If you have seafood or selfish allergies be careful!!! Inspect your food before eating, I have a mild allergy to selfish and I was constantly finding shrimp in my food.
8) The subway is great, in my opinion better and more convent than a cab. Best part is the announcements are in Chinese and English and the ticket machines have an English option. Cab drivers do not speak English and it is very difficult to navigate without the address already written down in Chinese characters. Plus the subway is much cheaper and always running.

Mexico May 2012

I was invited to a wedding in Playa Del Carmen Mexico in April of 2012. To be honest I was skeptical of going because of the drug violence that was plaguing the country at the time. I decided to put my worries aside and head down for a long weekend by the beach. This trip was a bit of an emotional roller coaster for me. First off i was very nervous about going to Mexico with all the violence I was hearing about in the Media. Secondly I was finally finishing my Bachelors degree. I didn't take the typical route through school, it took me 12 years and 3 different schools to obtain my Bachelors degree. This trip was the very end! I had one more test to take, which was online, and it was going to be on the first day of the wedding trip. I wasn't concerned about the grade but it was a symbolic ending to a major achievement in my life. I took my test and immediately popped open a beer and celebrated. The years of work were finally done and I was in a beautiful beach hotel.

I stayed at and all inclusive resort named Hacienda Tres Rios that is situated between Cancun and Playa Del Carmen right on the water. The hotel was beautiful and had multiple pools with 2 spots for private beach access. There were multiple restaurants on site and you could get drinks and food from any restaurant, even sitting on the private beach cabanas.

Beach side wedding

The wedding I went to had events that covered 3 nights. The night we arrived there was a welcome Happy Hour at the hotel to let the wedding guests mingle and have some cocktails. On the second night a Rehearsal Dinner was held in the ballroom of the Hotel. All of the wedding guests were invited to the rehearsal dinner which was a different experience. It was almost like a wedding without the vows and formality. There were drinks and a buffet and allowed the guests to continue get to know each other further. On day three there were multiple events the guests were invited to. the Bride and Groom split up and went to separate pools on site and had a mini day of bachelorette/bachelor party during the mid morning. The evening of the third day was set aside for the wedding. All guests were bussed to a private beach near by for the wedding and reception. It was a beautiful beach ceremony followed by a dance party, drinks and dinner.

Main Beach view from my cabana bed!

 As I mentioned earlier there was plenty of beaches and pools at this resort. The main pool was in the middle of the grounds and was surrounded by cafe's and restaurants. The second pool was near the beach, soccer pitch, and beach volleyball courts. Both pools were beautiful but I spent most of my time on the beaches. Living in Phoenix I have plenty of access to pools year around, so I wanted to spend time at the luxury I don't have at home. The resort had 2 areas for beach access, both had cabana beds and a wait staff to bring food and drinks. The main beach was directly behind the resort but the water was full of seaweed. It must have been the wrong time of year of the water around Cancun. The only time I spent on the main beach was laying in the cabana drinking frozen drinks. It wasn't horrible by any means. The beach I spent most of my time at was the lagoon beach. This beach  had beautiful blue water protected by natural seawalls. The water was warm and the cabanas were quiet, it was exactly what I needed. The only down side....no drink service!

Just a little monkeying around in Playa Del Carmen

On one of the last afternoons we decided to take a trip into the town of Playa Del Carmen. We hopped in a cab and the driver dropped us off in the tourist area where all the shops and bars are located. It was quite the adventure as we went from bar to bar having beers while shopping for souvenirs. While in town I was able to pick up a Mexican National team jersey to add to my fledgling collection of soccer kits.





On the last day before traveling back to Phoenix we spent the morning kayaking the cenotes near the hotel. Cenotes are a cave or sinkhole that lets ground water come to the surface. The Cenotes near the hotel had beautiful clear blue water, started back up in the jungle, and flowed to meat the ocean right on the beach of the hotel. 

Argentina August 2008

I started this blog to share my travel experiences with others. Naturally I should start at the beginning and talk about the trip that gave me the travel bug. In early 2008 a friend and co-worker, Brian, approached me with an opportunity to go on a snowboarding trip in South America. At this time in my life I was spending at least a few weekends a month on the various slopes of New Mexico and southern Colorado. I really liked the idea of traveling and participating in a sport I loved, so i jumped at the opportunity to spread my wings.

In 2008 I was working for a local furniture company and going to school full time. Needless to say i wasn't making a ton of money at this point in my life. In retrospect this was a trip I could not afford but I was young and stubborn and I jumped at this opportunity.  This opportunity came to us from an individual, Mark, who was a rep from a vendor that worked with my company. He was a skier and had found this tour company who led week long back country trips. It was great the tours were small, only 10 people plus guide, the payment covered everything except airfare, lunch, and booze. I didn't have much say in which tour to take as Mark was already going on a specific Argentina trip and suggested we all go together. I was cool with this recommendation as I would much rather experience this with a few friends than by myself.

It was August and I was ready to go on an awesome vacation and experience. I had some major travel issues on the trip upon arriving at the airport in Albuquerque i was notified my flights were changed as there were weather delays in Miami. I was put on a flight from Dallas to Buenos Aires directly. My flight to Dallas from Albuquerque was delayed to the point I missed the flight from Dallas to Buenos Aires. The best option the airline could come up with was to get me to Dallas and then on a flight to Santiago Chile, then on to Buenos Aires. This flight plan actually worked out and I even get a short leg in first class but it meant my original travel plans in Argentina needed to be changed. Originally I was to land then head to the domestic airport for a connecting flight from Buenos Aires to San Carlos de Bariloche. Obviously due to the flight delays this didn't happen, but the airlines did put me up for the night in Buenos Aires which ended up being a great experience.  This delay taught me a few travel lessons I have carried on for the rest of my world travels

1) Never book connecting flights on the same day if they are at different airports. There are too many variables to account for its best to plan to spend the night and give yourself a buffer.
2) Plan for the weather at your destination and have extra clothes in your carry on. My bags were lost! I left Albuquerque in August when it was 95 degrees out. Argentina is in the southern hemisphere, meaning its winter in August...like 40 degrees winter. I was wearing shorts a tee shirt and sandals. I was cold.
3) If you are planning on taking sporting equipment, or any equipment for that matter, that is critical for your trip...figure out a back up plan in the event your bags didn't show up.

Walking around in downtown Buenos Aires

So here I was in South America, no contact with anyone and in a city where I didn't speak the language. What did I do, I explored! After getting set up in the hotel and taking a shower I wondered around downtown Buenos Aires stumbling on some attractions and shopping districts. I grabbed some toiletries and picked up an Argentina futbol kit. It was Olympic time and Argentina looked strong and could win the tournament. The next day I made it to the domestic airport and got on my flight to Bariloche to join the rest of the tour. Upon landing they thought it was quite comical I was wearing shorts and sandals.

First day snowboarding in borrowed gear

As I said earlier this was a snowboarding trip, but here I was without gear. I was lucky enough to be on the tour with some great people and guides who all pitched in and gathered up enough clothes so I could join them on the slopes. I borrowed Brian's second snowboard and bindings so all I really had to find were snowboard boots. These were easily rented at the base of the slopes. Everything worked out.

Bariloche 

Outskirts of Esquel

In total I visited 4 cities in Argentina, Buenos Aires, Bariloche, Esquel, and El Bolson. Spending a few days in each spot gave me a large view of the country. Obviously as one of South Americas largest cities Buenos Aires was vibrant and bustling. The smaller towns of Bariloche, Esquel, and El Bolson were quiet,  Argentina was beautiful!!

Brewery in El Bolson

When I finally got my bags and Gear

We spend our mornings traveling to the slopes and would hit the back country all day.

Mark, Brian, and I at a steak house in Esquel

In the evening we would eat at some amazing restaurants. Argentina is a land of meat lovers, Steak, Steak, Steak I was in heaven.

This is me an Gonzalo, one of the tour guides. On this night
we were at a bar in Esquel watching Argentina win the 2008
Olympic Soccer Gold Medal

At night we would go out to the bars and clubs.

















I had a great time in Argentina! It didn't go perfect by any means but I grew and learned about myself. This trip set in motion a few traits that I still carry to this day. Explore your world, drink good beer, don't be afraid to try something local. Argentina is a place I will return to someday, once I have visited a few more countries and am ready for repeats of amazing trips.