Chengdu (pronounced Shen-du) is a big, gray city, home to 8 million humans and 150 giant pandas. The pandas drew us to Chengdu but we left with a deep appreciation for Sichuan cuisine. Chengdu started off on a bad note. We arrived to a pretty disgusting Airbnb. We can lower our standards some, but it …
China: Guilin and Yangshuo
There is a saying in China that Guilin’s landscape is “the best under heaven.” It comes pretty close. The landscape is stunning and showcases rivers (most notably the Li River) and lakes and beautiful green karsts (limestone mountains) as far as the eye can see. Clouds and fog often shroud the karsts. It is gorgeous. …
China: Hangzhou
We are 18 days, 3 airplanes rides, 2 train rides, and 4 Airbnbs into our trip. There have been more hard moments than easy ones, mostly because China. Is. Hard. We knew it would be, so we came equipped with a VPN and Google Translate, and they have mostly been helpful. But Chinese characters are …
The Packing List, Part 2 – Clothing and Electronics
We arrived in Hangzhou, China yesterday! It feels like a small town, or at least the area we’re staying in does, but it’s a city of about 10 million people. The language barrier is pretty tough. Google translate is helping tremendously, but it’s still hard. What we’ve seen of Hangzhou is beautiful and idyllic so …
Continue reading “The Packing List, Part 2 – Clothing and Electronics”
The Packing List, Part 1 – Gear
This has been a very fun post to write. What – and how – do we pack for a family of five for a year? The answer: as little as possible. We have agonized over every little decision with the goals of lightening our loads and keeping ourselves hands free. This first post focuses on …
Countdown: 3 weeks
Welcome to our blog! Our round the world adventure begins in 3 weeks. It has taken a lot of time and preparation to get to this -3 week point, and we are all excited, nervous, and giddy to be in the home stretch. We feel incredibly lucky that the stars aligned, allowing us to be …