Return to China and Zhangjiajie NP

July 30, 2026

After a somewhat unsuccessful poker stint in Cambodia it’s time to take a little break. I still won at poker, but after living expenses, it wasn’t much. 3.5 winning months, one losing month. BUT the one losing month was so so so bad that it basically ruined the whole trip. Anyway, time to give some money back to the country that I make most of poker money from. China has lots of investment in Cambodia and people that stay long term, lots of bad poker players too, and flights between the two countries are relatively inexpensive even with the current gas crisis. I found a good deal on a Sunday evening flight to Chongqing and hopped on it. Which worked out well because doing this would mean I would probably miss game 6 and 7 of the NBA finals, but it turned out I didn’t have to worry about that, as the series ended in 5.

rough itinerary, starting with a loop from Chongqing.

I must say, China is popular lately! It seems to be getting a lot more attention on social media in the last year or two, and now that they offer 10 or 15 day visa free travel (depending on your country) and a lot of people are taking advantage of it. It used to be that getting a China visa was a pretty big PITA. As for me, this is the last year of my 10 year China visa, which is a sweet gig (60 days multi-entry for an entire decade) so I wanted to get some more use out of it, as I hadn’t used it since 2017 and 2018.

It was not a great start to the trip, it was pouring buckets in Chongqing when we landed, and of course our plane didn’t get our own gate even at 12:30am, we had to board the shuttle bus. So we get dropped off at the baggage claim, and I’m looking around and can’t find Phnom Penh. Then I realize it’s only flights from within China. We’re in the domestic terminal! There’s almost nobody working and the one person I could find to ask about a Cambodia flight doesn’t know anything. Eventually I see people start gathering at where we came in, all the people on our flight are trying to figure out what we’re supposed to do. Finally an airline worker in a vest gets there and is yelling on the phone, presumably to get us on a new bus to the right terminal. Now that’s a pretty big airport screw up! Good work China!

So we have to forms lines and wait for a new shuttle bus to come get us and take us to the right terminal, which takes a while. It’s all straight forward from there, although my Esim isn’t working, which in China is bad news, because everything is operated on your phone, most importantly almost all your payments on apps like Alipay and WeChat - scanning barcodes. Many places don’t use cash anymore, so you can pay in cash, they just might not have any change to give you. I get in the cab, hoping I can pay in cash because I don’t have internet. I have only 100 yuan notes ($15) and it’s a $10 ride, so not a huge deal if I can’t get any change back. But I eventually figure out that I need to turn on data roaming to get the Esim to work, and viola! Yay. I’m now able to pay the taxi driver on Alipay, which has my credit card hooked up to it. You basically use Alipay to pay for everything in China. Without internet in China, your life sucks hard.

I get dropped off at my hotel, what the taxi driver tells me is my hotel (I gave her the exact address to put in her maps!) but it’s not it. So now I’m running around in the pouring rain trying to figure out where my hotel is, which is surprisingly difficult because so many of these hotels/guesthouses don’t have their own building, they occupy several floors of these huge high rises, and the signage is not very good or in Chinese. So I finally find it , and make it to check in at 2:45am, yeesh. I try to buy a drink from the refridgerator, but you can’t open with out scanning the WeChatPay (the other popular payment option) barcode, and mine won’t go through, so no drink for me! Aghghh. Everything is closed, but thankfully there is one 24 hour minimart down the street, so a quality late night meal of steamed buns, hot dog, and fried chicken it is!

I was up again at 7am, and it’s still raining. Summer is rainy season in this part of the world, but the weather for most of the week looked good, so my plan was to get out of Chongqing ASAP and get over to the next province to the east, Hunan, and over to Zhangjiajie National Forest, aka the Avatar Mountains. I used the rideshare app DiDi to get a car, although I just used the dropped pin location it gave me, which apparently was not the right one, so now once again I’m running around in the rain trying to find where my DiDi is at, god damn it. I find it down the road and where off to the train station. Rough start to this trip! But it was a lot smoother sailing from here.

And speaking of smooth, China’s high speed trains are super smooth. It’s honestly impressive how they’ve connected such huge swathes of their country with these things. The amount of work it must take to cut out such huge sections of hills and mountains so that the train can go in a perfectly straight line at 200mph is crazy to think about. What used to be a 6.5 hour train ride to Zhangjiajie town a few years ago is now 2.5. Although I was a bit surprised about how little of the countryside you could actually see, as so much of the time you’re going through tunnels. But still, the trains are fantastic. Man, I wish the US had high speed rail, it really is such an enjoyable, comfortable, low stress way to travel. Airports feel like little cans of anxiety in comparison. Here’s what the scenery looks like in this part of China.

2.5 hours later I’m at the train station, walk over to the bus station section and wait for a shuttle bus to take me to the small town outside the park, Wulingyuan. Another 45 minutes later I’m dropped off. No sun, a slight drizzle, very reminiscent of Guizhou weather when I was teaching English there. It’s definitely a mood. And one thing I had forgot about China is how friggen cheap the hotels are. I booked my first week of hotels, very basic ones, but clean and well kept and well rated, and this is my most expensive one of the week at $22/night. Amazing value compared to Japan or Korea. Or even Cambodia!

I got in around noon, my bedroom was ready fortunately, and I was almost all set to head to the national park. The hotel owner offered to buy my ticket for me, which was perfect, as you have to specify a route, as well as the time slot you’re arriving, so I was happy to let him do that part for me. This place is not cheap, almost $100 for the entrance ticket and unlimited elevator/cable cars, but it is good for 4 days. Not that you’d need 4 days in the park though. And it is China’s most popular and most famous national park after all. I was kind of kicking my self for not visiting in 2011 when I traveled around China for a few months, before the park’s popularity exploded.

So I was off in the drizzling rain, at least the park entrance is within walking distance. From there you take a shuttle bus to either a cable car or massive elevator, depending on what route you chose to take you up into the mountains. The Chinese love having these type of things to avoid any difficult hiking as much as humanly possible. I’d be taking the elevator today, and I’ll get into the park more in my next post.

Zhangjiajie National Park

So when people talk about Zhangjiajie there’s the town, there’s the national forest area with the famous rock formations, and then there’s the entire region, which consists of the national forest, Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon, and Tianmen Mountain, which are all three separate, distinct places, with their own entry fees and facilities.

So anyway I’m now at the Zhangjiajie National Forest, and upon walking through the gates I went through the route B entrance, which takes you to a shuttle bus, which gets you to the Baitong Elevator waiting area. I’ve read on holidays the line for this thing could be hours long, or even weekends as well, especially if you arrive at 9-10am, which is when all the tour buses come plying in. But in the afternoon on Monday, the line was 5-10 minutes. Excellent. It’s a pretty impressive structure, a giant outdoor elevator attached to a sheer rock face taking you to a high up section of the park.

Up top is a few miles worth of walking trails, well man-made boardwalk, most of them straddling along the edge of the cliffs. From here you can get a great view of the massive sandstone columns that rise up from the ground to the sky. The “Avatar Mountains”. The most famous part of the park. Very cool! It was cloudy and slightly drizzling, but fortunately it wasn’t foggy, as apparent if it gets foggy you can’t see anything. There was a bit of mist at the beginning, although it melted off not long after I got there, unfortunately. But the cool weather and white overcast skies definitely have that moody feeling to them. I feel like the pictures don’t really do the place justice at how tall and stunning all the towers look. The drone angles look better!

So after a few hours walking around up top, it was time to head back and take the elevator and shuttle bus down and out of the park. I was happy to be able to squeeze a half day in, as these high speed trains make it all possible. Dinner was some pork strips and veggies in a yellow broth, with lots of chili peppers! Hunan cuisine is big on chili peppers, but they always make sure foreigners can eat them. “La” is a good word to learn, short for lajiao, chili peppers. So I always say Xihuan La! Meaning I like it spicy! Although a common problem as a solo traveler is a lot of the time these dishes are meant to be part of a whole sharing meal, so you end up with one huge pot of food. I have to do a lot of hiking during the day to make sure my appetite is sufficient for these huge bowls of food and unlimited rice!

The next day would be route A, which is basically just means taking the cable car up to a different section of the park. Same as before, a shuttle bus takes to the cable car (instead of the elevator) and then there’s a few different shuttle buses to get you around while you’re up top, and a different cable car to get you down. It’s all pretty well organized, although it would be nice if they could connect more of the park with hiking trails, so you don’t always have to be getting on and off shuttle buses. But real hiking trails are just not the Chinese way. Anything to spare them a bit of extra walking! But the views of course are spectacular, you can’t really go wrong with any section of the park. And today the weather was great, all sun and blue skies.

For the afternoon it was a different set of cable cars up to a different section of the park, where there’s more cliffside boardwalks, about 2 miles worth. And then I decided to hike down instead of take the cable car, which was a nice break from the crowds. The amount of monkeys I saw on this trail outnumbered people by at least a 2:1 margin.

Then it was off to the river canyon hiking trail, which is also a popular one, as it gives you great views of the rock formations from the ground looking up. Also there’s monkey everywhere, and they are aggressive! I saw a lady with a large hand bag, and a monkey jumped out of nowhere an attached itself to it. Rather than fight the monkey off, the lady just let the monkey have it, and he dumped it open and flung everything around looking for food. And there wasn’t even any food in there! I was laughing, although I’m guessing she wasn’t as amused…

So that was a full day in the park, which really isn’t that big. Most people recommend two days in the park, but if you hike reasonably quickly, I thought a day and half was enough to see the vast majority of it. Dinner was a Hunan specialty, braised pork belly, which I ordered with a vegetable dish (mistake) and even though I took almost 40,000 steps on the day, I just couldn’t muster enough to finish everything! Pork belly is just too rich. Delicious though.

The next day I was off to Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon, which has a glass bridge over it, as well other various activities like ziplining, rock climbing, and bungee jumping. Although the bungee jumping was almost $300! I’ll pass on that. They can’t just let natural area be natural areas, they always have to turn them into a theme park! Online lots of people seem to rave about this glass bridge, but I didn’t think it was anything all that special. Good for photos I guess. It’s just a big river canyon, but there’s big canyons everywhere in this region. Although instead of taking the shuttle bus to get back to the entrance you can walk along the bottom of the canyon along the river and that was a really nice hike! That’s where all these photos came from.

I took a midday nap and then in the late afternoon I was off to the nearby lake, which I read the entrance was 30 yuan or $5 and you could take a boat trip if you wanted. So I was a little surprised when then lady at the ticket booth told me it was 140 yuan, as you have to take the shuttle bus to the far end of the lake and then take the boat across. I asked if you can’t just walk to the lake, it’s literally like 300m away on the map. But of course no, you can’t. Because China.

There’s also a hiking trail on the other side of the main road with an old monastery, so I just said I would do that. She rolled her eyes and I paid my 30 yuan entry fee. Silly foreigner who just wants to walk to a nearby lake and take sunset photos without doing a shuttle bus ride and boat trip. But the hike was surprisingly nice! Although I was hoping I could see the lake from it, but nope. And I was curious, because I did see another trail to the lake on my maps app, but when I got to it, it’s closed off. Of course! At least there was a nice waterfall nearby :)

Tianmen Mountain and Furong Ancient Town

July 30, 2026

Next up I packed up my stuff in Wulingyuan and hopped on the bus back to the larger Zhangjiajie Town, which is where Tianmen mountain is. One of the cable cars actually goes directly from the mountain to the center of town, which is pretty cool. So I dropped my stuff off at the hotel and bought my $42 entrance ticket, shuttle buses and cable cars included. It would start with a shuttle bus to a different set of cable cars. From there you walk up 1,000 steps to and through the giant rock arch called Heaven’s Gate. Or you can take the boring way, the tunneled out escalators. But the walk up is a pretty spectacular entrance to the mountain. From there in order to get to the top plateau of the mountain you must take a series of huge escalators cut though tunnels in the mountain, there’s no option to even hike up, just 20 minutes of escalators! It feels so weird for being high up in the mountains. You pick up about a 1,000 feet of elevation this way.

Tianmen means Heaven’s Gate. Makes sense!

From the top plateau there’s about 5 miles of hiking boardwalks, making one big loop. Although it was drizzling the whole time and the views from the top looking down don’t really change all that much, so I was pretty happy to get out of there after completing the the full loop. And then from there it was the endless tunnel of escalators. Normally this is where you could take the cable car that takes you to the center of town, but the top part is under construction, so unfortunately they take you by shuttle bus to a lower section, where you can then take the cable car straight to downtown. So many shuttle buses and cable cars!

The popular nature tourist nature attractions aren’t really like US ones. They’re generally much smaller, designed around one particular mountain or attraction, are almost always ticketed, have tons of extra paid activities, have plenty of food and drink stands (and toilets) and designed to handle large crowds of people - like sometimes having to choose a time slot + itinerary that forces you to take a specific one way route or direction to limit congestion. Even if you have your own car you can’t drive though them like in US parks. It’s always these shuttle buses. Without having a car this is okay with me. I can only imagine what would happen on a weekend or holiday when thousands of cars descended on these narrow winding roads, it would be madness. But I do get annoyed when they don’t even give you the option to hike from place to place and the shuttle bus or cable car is the only option you have, the actual feeling of hiking and exploring is very limited. And the prices are quite expensive. $42 US dollars is much more than $42 in terms of peoples salaries in yuan, 300 yuan is a lot!! No parks for the poor.

fun little restaurant section of Zhangjiajie. China is good about having these little pedestrian only area.

Mostly abandoned bar street. Not many people are drinking these days in China.

Later that evening I had booked a $30 massive live show that’s held at the base of the mountain. This happened to be the same night my Esim decided it was going to stop working. You basically have to get a Didi (same as Uber) to get up there, and then down from mountain. And without my internet working, I couldn’t figure out how to get there. I couldn’t order a rideshare from my hotel, as I it was in a no-car walking district. I stopped in a coffee shop, but the wifi wouldn’t work, and even then, how would I get down with no internet?? So I ended up just bailing and eating the ticket. Seriously, without internet in China you are you can’t do anything.

I decided to check out a cool looking group of lit up building called 72 Qilou, which I took by bus to get there. What I didn’t realize this area was a special tourist zone that cost 50 yuan to get in, and you needed your passport to buy the ticket. I didn’t bring my passport. Aghhh. So I could only get photos from the outside, damn. Welp, China won the battle this night. Lesson learned about the passport! I must have run out of data (2gb/day) because my Esim worked fine the next day. Weird.

I finally slept in the next morning which was also raining, hit the gym, and then checked out at noon. Most people take the high speed rail to get to Furong Ancient Town, which only takes 15 minutes on the tracks, but you have to take a Didi both to and from the high speed rail stations (they’re usually on the outskirts of town). I opted for bus as the station was only 500m away and I like taking the bus, even though it takes 1.5 hours. This part of the country has beautiful countryside and you don’t get a good feel for it when you’re constantly in the tunnels of the high speed rail. Plus I wasn’t in any hurry as Furong is tiny, and it only starts looking cool at night when all the lanterns start coming on. And maybe the rain will stop by the time I get there!

No such luck on the rain, but I liked my hotel, right on the river, nice window views, 10 minutes walking along the river to get to the Ancient Town, and the cost: $14.50! On a weekend no less. While they rake you over the coals a bit at the popular tourist attractions, the hotels are just insane value.

Around 4:30 I made my way into town, bought my ticket (obv have to pay to get in!) and had a stroll around. You can walk the whole thing in well under an hour. These old town are not exactly authentic, they’re kind of tourist zoos, rebuilt to look like ancient towns, made to appear as photogenic as possible. For example along the river in Furong above the waterfall, they have fake trees with bright pink flowers to make it look nice, and they have fog machines going off at regular intervals to give you that atmospheric effect! The main attraction of Furong is the waterfall itself, which does not need any enhancements, as it’s rainy season and the flow is strong, and its right in the middle of town. Also you can walk underneath it, which is kinda neat.

This is just a baby waterfall on the walk into Furong

The view from the main bridge connecting the two sides of town

On one side of the river they basically made it so you can’t take any cool photographs (because there’s no public viewing decks) so you have to go into a restaurant and order something to get a view from the balcony, which is what I did. It’s absolutely gorgeous watching the lights and lanterns turning on in all the “old” buildings with the waterfall roaring in the foreground.

The top section of the main waterfall, with the lights just starting to come on in the background

You have to buy something to get this view…

From there I made my way over to the far viewing deck on the other side of the river, this where you get the classic photo of the waterfall front and center, with the lit up buildings all around it. It’s almost impossible to not make this photo look good!

Back to main bridge, everything looking cooler now that the lights are on

Then I had to eat a quick dinner, fried rice and dumplings, as I was running late for the Tujia ethnic dance show, which is the local minority group in this part of Hunan. I already missed one show, I wasn’t going to miss another! It was nice, well done, kind of modern version with light effects digital screens going in the background. Kinda cool, but by no means a must-do.

The next morning I was up early, so I walked around town some more with no people around, made some doggo friends, and then it was off to the high speed rail station for the next ancient town, Fenghuan.

Fenghuan and into Guizhou

July 29, 2026

Back to back ancient towns! I did read they were different enough that it’s worth going to both, and I basically agree with that assessment. Fenghuan is a much bigger town that lines both sides of a river for at least a mile, plus the old town stretches several blocks back inland with alleys and shops and hotels. It’s an old town within a normal town. If you walk far enough away from the river and you’re in just another ordinary Chinese city. The nice thing is you don’t have to pay admission for this one, which for China is almost shocking. I was able to get a room with a river view for around $18, not bad.

super basic, but clean, comfy and a nice view

The town does look pretty cool, like some sort of fishing village you might see in Lord of the Rings or some fantasy movie. It’s got all of these old looking wooden building built on stilts jutting up from the water. There’s also some elaborate bridges and a watchtower.

From walking around it appears the most common thing to do here is play dress up! There are these combination clothing rental/salons everywhere, so you can rent your traditional clothing, get your hair and makeup done there, and it can include a professional photography package as well, which seemed to be a popular option! So many women out with their photographers! For the clothing most people wear the Miao minority clothing, which is known for it’s bright colors and elaborate silver headdresses, or traditional Chinese clothing, Hanfu, usually from the Tang, Song, or Ming dynasties.

In the last decade or two the government realized a lot of traditional Chinese clothing people often wear was actually from the Qing Dynasty, hence Manchurian in nature, so there has been a big push to wear Hanfu - Han clothing that are from Han Chinese dynasties like the Ming, Song, Tang, etc. Kinda funny. Visiting other east Asian countries I thought this type of thing was really big in Japan and Korea, but China really takes the cake! And Chinese have been very quick to adopt the Hanfu, as there might not be another country on the planet that is as proud of their ancient history as China!

This classic style of dress, the Qipao, used to be the official dress of China, but it’s not Han, it’s Manchurian!

I was just enjoying taking in the scenery, walking around, taking a few photos, having a tea and reading my book along the river (which is about a minority group coming to age in Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms in the 80’s to early 90’s) I find the minority groups quite a bit more interesting than the Han Chinese. Han Chinese is just kinda boring. Although this love of cosplaying minority groups is definitely an odd thing that certainly never happened when I was there in 2012. Hell in 2012 a lot of women wouldn’t even smile in photographs and would put their hand over their mouths IRL when laughing to display modesty. A lot has changed!

Overall these type of ancient towns are a one night maximum for me, as I don’t care about the dressing up, shopping, minority dancing, but I do enjoy a unique setting. Plus it’s good for photography as well. I’d take my camera out again around sunset when the light was good and then wait for all of the lights the turn on. Like Furong, Fenghuang is also very impressive when the lights come on, the whole river bank glowing. Plenty of nice photos to be had.

The next day I was off on a bus into the province I used to teach, Guizhou. Not far from the border with Hunan is a rock column that juts out of the greenery of the mountains called Fanjingshan, a two hour bus ride to the nearest big city, and then another hour long bus ride to the park. I couldn’t help but laughing driving through the town, they had a cosmetics store with the English name of She’s Yeast. Talk about a name that would not fly in the English speaking world hahaha. Ahh good ole Guizhou, still coming up with ridiculous English names for stuff.

As for the park, I dropped off my stuff at the hotel, scarfed down some dumplings and went into the park. As usual it’s a shuttle bus and cable car to the top type of set up, but you could hike up this one if you wanted, so that’s what I would do. They tell you that it takes 4 or 4.5 hours to get up to the top, but what I’ve learned is you can basically halve Chinese recommended hiking times if you’re a good hiker. Which the Chinese are not. Out of the few percentage of people overall doing the hike (at least 95% take the cable car I’d guess) it seemed like a good portion of them were actually dying a slow terrible death on this hike up hahaha. They also wear pants and jackets, which is crazy to me. Anyway I took almost no breaks and it took it me about two hours to power it up to the upper plateau.

The highlight of being up here is climbing this rock spire that I had mentioned. There’s actually two of them next to each other, connected by a bridge at the top, but you can’t really get a good angle from anywhere to see it. That’s why the drone photography looks a lot cooler than what you see in person!

What I didn’t realize was you’re supposed to scan this QR code that gives you a number in the line, and your own barcode to scan going through the entry gates. I tried to walk right through, oops. So after getting my number in line it was a little over an hour to wait before getting to go up. And of course the line is so clogged up you barely move. I think in the first 30 minutes we moved about 30 meters. Welcome to China. I guess near the top it’s steep with a bunch of chains to help you get yourself up, single file, so that where the huge backlog comes from.

I did meet some people in line, students, who were curious to know what a foreigner was doing in Guizhou, as this province still gets very very few foreigners. Zhangjiajie and those ancients towns have been all over social media in the last year or two, so you see quite a few foreigners there, and people don’t randomly come up to talk to you. But once you cross into Guizhou, it’s a different world. I hadn’t done a single photo OP the whole trip, but on Fanjingshan I did at least a dozen! Most were on the way up, me posing while literally dripping in sweat, gross. But anyway it’s always fun to talk to the students who are confident enough in their English to approach. Young speakers who have mostly learned English from reading and writing have a particular way of speaking that I find endearing.

We finally get our way past the chains and up to the top. The scenery hasn’t changed much, you get slightly better views of the lush green hills/mountains, but you’re at the top! I helped one student make a little video for her social media, and then it was back on down, as it was getting a bit late. No time for hiking down, cable car it is. And then shuttle bus, and off to take a shower and surprise some restaurant owners by walking into their shop. Long day!

Return to Tongzi (Guizhou)

July 28, 2026

Time to return to my Chinese hometown where I taught English in 2012 in Guizhou! I was very interested in seeing how much the town had changed since then. Apparently the town now has a stop on the high speed rail network, as it’s right in between the Guiyang (capital of Guizhou) and the megacity of Chongqing. So it is extremely accessible!

Back in 2012 before all these infrastructure projects began Guizhou was horribly disconnected from a lot of China. It is landlocked, almost all mountains and karsts, and the roads were terrible, the trains slow as molasses. Guizhou in 2026 in much much different in this regard. As a long neglected province, the poorest one in China (although now it’s improved to 2nd poorest, take that Gansu!) It has seen a large uptick in tourism now that it has good roads and train connections, and of course because it’s a gorgeous province with some diverse ethnic cultures.

Even just from brief glimpses on the HSR you can see the much improved roads and so many bridges

The first evening I didn’t tell anyone I was coming, as I know with Chinese hospitality they’re going to want to accompany me and take me places and make sure I’m having a good time and not lonely or whatever, where I just wanted one night of alone time rediscover the city on my terms and just walk around observing and taking photos, which is like a completely weird thing to do in Chinese society.

We pulled into the station, which is at the far end of town, close to the high school the girls used to teach at, although Peter and I never made it down this way all that often, as back then it was kind of the outskirts of town. Although the face of the big mountain is near here, which is where I used to practice some rock climbing and bouldering. Getting off the train you can see that the train literally runs through the base of the mountain, which is pretty wild to me!

This part of town is way more built up now, there’s a big plaza outside the station, some newish looking buildings and shops, and a lot more high rises. The central part of town, where our apartment was, was already built through, so this area had much more room for expansion. Looking on the apps I was surprised at how many hotels there were, and how nice the rooms looked, at least in photos anyway. I remember hotels in Tongzi in 2012 looking dreadful. I did notice however when walking the 12 minutes to my hotel that not many of the shops had people in them.

Checking into the hotel was pretty difficult! Not only do I have a 10 year visa, which is quite different than the one month tourist visas they normally give, it’s in a separate passport than my current one. And with a visa for 10 years the reception kept thinking it was a work visa, and I had to keep explaining that it’s just a tourist visa, not a work visa. I think they thought, why would anyone come to Tongzi if it wasn’t for work? I explained I used to teach here and was visiting friends, and it got easier after that. Tongzi doesn’t get many (or any) foreigners theses days. They haven’t hired a foreign teacher since 2019.

While in China you still hear plenty of passing “Laowai” comments (direct translation is old outsider) or the more formal “Waiguoren” (outside person), especially outside of T1 cities. But in Tongzi you hear it everywhere! I think I’m probably the first foreigner to stop by since the pandemic. It is especially noticeable from the kids! If you walk by a group of young kids playing outside, they basically stop what they’re doing and yell and point WaiGuoRen! WaiGuoRen!! One of the very first things I noticed is that the preferred nomenclature is now Waiguoren instead of Laowai for a foreigner. I’m guessing they get taught that in schools that its more polite, as you can use Laowai in derogatory way (or affectionate way) based on how you say it, kind of like Gringo or whatever.

It’s all very amusing to me, and really brings me back to 2012. When I first got here I sometimes had little possees of kids follow around me and my camera to see what I was doing, as if me just walking around town was very fascinating. Even now, just crossing the street I had this young girl run up to me, stare at me in amazement for a good 20 seconds, jaw wide open, and then ran away as soon as I said nihao. So funny. I’m guessing I’m the first waiguoren she’s ever seen.

I had a chance to go hike up the hill opposite the big mountain and the new train station to take a photo of the town from above. So many confused expressions from people passing by! The town doesn’t look all that much different than before from way up above, just a few taller buildings. Oh and a new man made lake. It’s a great view. Coming down I walked down to the new lake, which has a nice boardwalk going around it and plenty of people going for an evening stroll. None of this was here before.

I passed the middle aged and older women, Ayis, dancing in the park (love it) some street food stalls, even a square dance group, and then was back into town. There was a teahouse built in the traditional style that was about six stories high and lit up at night. Impressive. It looks like they built a new old town (like everywhere else in China), although very few businesses seem to operate in it. But it was nice to walk through and well lit. Tongzi 2012 was a very dark, kinda scary place at night. Although I kind of liked it then, as it wasn’t dangerous at all, just creepy.

My teacher friend Bobo had work for most of the next day, so I did have some more time to take a walk to my favorite spot outside the city, the giant rock arch. The thing I loved about this place was that I thought it was an absolutely amazing spot, yet no locals seemed to care about it whatsoever. Never anyone there. You could bike there, hike around a bit on some overgrown trails, although you couldn’t go directly under the arch because it’s a river, but you could go for a swim at it’s base, which I did a couple of times. I ended up walking there, the route of out of town is kinda rough around the edges, just like the old Tongzi.

gotta get the smokestack in the background

When I got close to the arch I see that all round it is completely fenced off. Weak! I also see a they’ve built a wooden walkway up on the cliffside that looked cool, but I didn’t know how to access it, as the entrance was locked up. Okay so I actually snuck around the gates and hopped the fence, but like so much of China, the walkway was covered with cameras, so yeahhh, I’m going to try and not get arrested for trespassing my first day back in Tongzi, so I turned back. These cameras ruin all the fun!

I keep walking, all the way past the arch, wondering if the whole place is just completely shut down, but eventually get to the entrance of the “park”. Seriously, China just has to turn everything cool into an amusement park, even in small town China. There’s a ticket for 60 yuan/$10, 80 yuan, and 100 yuan/$15. I didn’t know what the difference between any of these tickets was, so I just bought the 100 yuan one, to make sure it included the cliffwalk. This is all very pricey by Tongzi standards! I doubt anyone in Tongzi was paying these prices. And they weren’t! I was the only soul in the whole the place.

They put me on a shuttle bus and took me back to the same place where I hopped the fence, unlocked the gate, and I was on my way, legally! I mean it is pretty cool, walking above everything like this. The boardwalk takes you around the arch and on the other side is the glass bottomed walkway, oooh scary! Not really. But this is what sells, supposedly. There’s also a zipline, which I thought maybe my ticket might be good for, but nope, had to pay even more for that, which looked like it would only last about 20 seconds. The route then goes down and you can walk through the arch. But of course you are limited to the boardwalk and there are even no swimming signs, boo. Not that Chinese people would randomly go swimming in a river anyways, it’s just not part of the culture whatsoever.

I took a photo from inside the rock arch and then walked to the lake, which must be man made, as I’m almost positive was not there before. I guess my ticket included a 5 minute boat ride on this tiny ass lake, meanwhile it was now drizzling, so yeah no thanks. So it was an interesting and unexpected trip to the ole rock arch! Eventually my friend got off work and he came to pick me up in his small electric SUV, which I was impressed he could afford on a teacher’s salary, it’s a nice looking car! A little goes a long way in China.

So it was cool seeing him again, we both couldn’t believe it’s been so long. He didn’t really look THAT much different than in 14 years, he’s now 47, so 7 years older than me, and he said now I look older than him. Chinese people are very blunt when it comes to physical appearances. But yeah, a lifetime of gambling for a living, too much drinking, and a lot of sunlight with not enough sun screen is taking its toll, oh and the hair loss. Always good to be reminded of that within minutes of meeting again! Asians do have better genes when it comes to aging though, as they are happy to point out.

We drove to the monastery on the top of the mountain, which didn’t have a road before and hiked around a bit in the forest catching up. Although I felt bad, it seemed like Bobo had a bit of a rough time, he got caught up a bit in an (unknowingly) fraudulent scheme through one of his friends, the richest businessman in town, who is now in jail for who-knows how long (10 years is the guess) for defrauding the government, he and his wife divorced, and his daughter, who I was hoping to meet (she was 4 when I was there) has some type of depression where she dropped out of school and just sits on her phone all day. So it was all a bit sad to hear. So he’s a free and single man now…

After the temple we went back to Number 1 High School, which is now Number 1 Middle School, and has much nicer facilities than when I was there. The track actually had nice fake grass in the middle of it, rather than dirt. They even had dormitories, which is where teachers after us used to sleep instead of our old building. Apparently Tongzi expanded from two high schools to four, plus two private schools as well. We ran into a couple of English teachers and Bobo tried to introduce me, they said they had to go and scurried away, the exact same as before! Chinese English teachers don’t want to lose face talking to a native English speaker because usually (almost always) their spoken English is not very good.

Although it sounds like the school expansions were a bit premature as now the school admission rates are getting lower and lower. It’s a pretty well known epidemic in China, birth rates have been going down and then nosedived after Covid. Tens of thousands of kindergartens across the country have already shut down. I’m guessing elementary schools are next.

The local economy has also been depressed since Covid, residents don’t have much free spending money, younger people are leaving to work in bigger cities etc. Not great to hear. We stopped by the building we teachers used to live in, it looked just as scary and jail-like as before! The rest of the street had changed a lot though, most of the storefronts on the street were totally different so I didn’t recognize much, everywhere was now well lit with glass windows and heat/AC, ie modern buildings. Very few of the restaurants had any temperature control in 2012. When it was cold, you just lived in your jacket. When it was hot you had a fan.

I went back to the hotel to shower and change and then met up with Bobo again for some shaokao, chinese BBQ, just off the main walking street. This street used to have tons of tables set outside lined with street food carts. Now most of the eating was indoors and Bobo said it used to be a lot more lively than it is right now. We talked a lot about 2012 and went through my old photos, it seemed kind of shocking how poor everything looked. Although to be fair I did take more photos in the poorer parts of town because they were more interesting to me.

Bobo liked this time period a lot, because as an English teacher who actually can speak English and likes interacting in English, he really enjoyed having the foreign teachers around. Although he did mention that well before 2019 foreign teachers were less likely to hang out, and not many groups got along as well together as our group did, which was nice to hear. So anyway for the last 7 years it’s only been Chinese English teachers, partially because more Chinese people have learned more English in Guizhou, partially because English skills are becoming de-emphasized in Xi’s China, which is certainly turning inwards rather than outwards.

We then walked around a bit, checked out Tongzi’s new underground shopping street, and then settled on quirky little tea house, where I taught Bobo how to play a bit of Texas Hold’em, which he was very interested in. In Tongzi the usual gambling game of choice is Mahjong, which you see people playing everywhere. Oh and I guess some student filmed me and Bobo picking out our meats for the bbq and sent it around to all the students, so I was going viral in Tongzi lol. News travels fast in a small town! So we ended up playing a bit of mock Texas hold’em and calling it a night. I tried to pay, but of course Bobo was having none of it.

The next day, another one of the teachers, Katherine, was coming into town from the next town over, Zunyi, and we would meet at a teahouse, which turned out to be same one as the six-story one I mentioned earlier. We had a private room, which I always find a bit stuffy and formal for two people. Besides the tea they gave us, Katherine had smuggled in some tea from Zunyi, and some Pu’er, which is aged tea from a certain region in Yunnan, and is quite famous in China. Which I thought was quite the coincidence because the book I was reading was about a minority woman growing up in the Pu’er boom of the 90’s! And it turned out to be the tea I liked the best. Katherine also gave me a tea cup and bag of tea as gift, although the whole thing about bringing gifts was something I totally forgot about, which I was pretty embarrassed about because I knew they weren’t going to let me pay for anything.

So we chatted a bit, we were never all that close in Tongzi, she mostly hung out with the girls, Suzanna in particular, and I guess they still keep in touch as Suzanna visited Katherine in Singapore this year! Katherine won a scholarship into a linguistics program in Singapore, so she was fortunate enough to be able to leave China for this program. Public educators are considered civil servants, and generally will not be allowed to leave the country, either by their school or the government, for tourism.

Basically the only way they could get approved to travel outside China is visiting a foreign spouse’s country, or a study program like Katherine got into. So it was cool she was able to get into this program. She was also now married with a young child and seemed to be happy, so I was glad for her. A little later Bobo showed up and he wanted to play some more Texas hold’em, so we did, using candy as pieces, and Bobo, ended up with all the candy. We took a break for a bit and then met up for dinner a little later, which happened to be right next to my hotel.

We had a private room again, one with the spinny table. Bobo brought baijiu (rice wine) and a friend, another English teacher at Tongzi #1 High School, who actually liked to speak English. These are a rare breed. He was younger and from Chongqing, so I’m not sure how he ended up in Tongzi, but he spoke English well and it was fun night with lots of GanBei’ing/cheers’ing. We ordered a special Tongzi chicken dish, and a bunch of sides, and the one I picked was eggplant of course, my favorite Chinese vegetable dish.

Although I always do feel a bit bad coming to Tongzi and hearing about how little money people make, then hearing how much I can make from poker (which is much less than it sounds after US living expenses) plus the younger teacher was dating a German girl online I guess, and she came to visit him for a month, but there’s no way he’d be able to visit her, so he expected the relationship to probably fizzle out. Life in Tongzi can be a bit difficult so I guess it felt a bit bittersweet.

After that we could either play cards or do karaoke, and since we’d already played cards twice now, I voted karaoke so that’s what we did. I figured it was a more fun way to end the trip than sitting around a card table. We started out with lots of Chinese songs, and gradually transitioned to all English songs. Although I must say, some of the English songs they chose are older and seem to be completely random, and not good karaoke songs! And the band Westlife as well as Celine Dion’s Titanic song, will presumably never stop being popular. So we finished the night butchering our way through a bunch of English songs, but having a fun time doing it. A good way to end the visit. Of course Katherine snuck out and paid the bill already. But I was really happy to have been able to stop by the city again and see some familiar faces

Xijiang Miao Village

July 28, 2026

When I was in Guizhou in 2012 I never went to any designated Miao villages, although I’d heard of them. Miao is the same as ethnic group that is known as the Hmong in Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand btw. Although I did run into one or two when hiking or climbing, they have distinctive wooden architecture, and these were like actual villages that didn’t get any or very few tourists. Wellll this one would be a little different! After an hour bus ride, 40 minute high speed rail ride, and another hour bus ride, I’d be there.

Xijiang is known as the largest Miao village in China, although like most designated minority villages that now cater to tourists, it’s not exactly authentic. This one is probably the most inauthentic, but also the most easily accessible without a car. Almost all their money comes from the tourism industry and you have to pay an entry fee (100 yuan/$15) to enter. And of course there’s a shuttle bus to take you further down the road to the start of the village. But it is authentic in that the people who live there are indeed Miao! Although unlike the other old towns I’ve been to so far, this one is completely in the countryside, surrounded by rice fields and crops, so it has quite a different feel to it, that rural charm.

I did regret booking a room way up on the hill on a 95 degree day though, not ideal, and I’m overpacked as I packed most of my stuff from Cambodia. It’s difficult because some of these places have almost no signage, certainly no English signage, so I walked into what I thought was my guesthouse, but there was nobody around, no one responding to messages, so I just kind of wandered around until a man finally rocked up with his bag of produce. Fortunately this was the right place! Most of these smaller guesthouses nobody speaks any English but I can usually check in alright without having to use the translator. I mean I probably should use the translator, I just don’t want to. He showed me to the room which large windows overlooking a small side river running to the main river in town. Not bad for under $20.

Everyday there is cultural dance show at 2pm so I went down to check it out. Why they do the one daily show at 2pm is beyond me, because it’s scorching hot, so all the people in the know got there early to snag all the shady spots. I’m sure it sucks for all the dancers as well. I think I made it 10 minutes into the this show I’d seen enough, it was just too damn hot and I find these type of dance shows a bit off putting, turning your cultural traditions into tourist attractions. But that’s what the people want.

I felt like I got there too early in the day, there just isn’t much to do during the day, walking around, sweating. All the girls were out on the riverbanks and the bridges getting their photos in. I don’t know how all they keep their makeup looking good in the midday heat. This town is of a course a giant cosplay arena for women, everyone all dressed in their ceremonial Miao outfits. Meanwhile the real Miao people just wear much simpler clothing and and a simple headscarf for the women.

The ironic thing is China just passed an ethnic unity law, saying no other languages may be taught in school besides Mandarin, among other things, but it is clearly meant to pressure minority cultures (particularly in Xinjiang and Tibet) into a more Han and Party centered national identity. So they’re outwardly “celebrating” minority cultures by encouraging all this dress up stuff, while trying to slowly erode their cultures from within. Although I guess pretty standard for a government that has a one unified China policy, that has long been giving Han Chinese moving incentives to minority majority provinces like Xinjiang and Tibet to dilute their populations. Moving on…

I ended up stopping in McDonalds for ice cream, yes there is a friggen McDonalds inside Xijjiang Miao Minority Village if that gives you any indication of how commercialized it is! And off to a coffee shop edit some photos. And then a short nap. Very exciting stuff I know!

I’d reemerge when it was getting close to sunset. The popular thing to do is go up the hill on the other side of town and get a photo overlooking the village when all the lights come on. There’s a look out point half a mile from the river, and there’s free shuttle buses to get you there. It’s half a mile! 800 meters! With nice views! Yet everyone crams onto these shuttle buses, because most Chinese are just absolutely allergic to walking if they don’t have to. Long line at the escalator (going down) or have the option to take the stairs? Escalator line every time. Walk through a beautiful old forest or take the shuttle bus? Shuttle bus!

So this shuttle bus drops you off at this insanely overcrowded viewpoint, meanwhile you can walk 5 minutes up the road and up to a short boardwalk and there is nobody there! Amazing. So it was nice and peaceful watching the lights turn on and the blue hour coming. I walked back down later on the main viewing platform, it was so crowded you couldn’t even get to the railing to get a photo haha.

My own little viewpoint with no people around

After that it was some more wandering around and finding a restaurant to try one of the Miao signature dishes, a sweet and sour fish soup, suan tang yu. I’m sure I paid too much money, but it was pretty tasty. And that was about all for XiJiang Miao Minority Village. I’d have some time to relax in the morning, then it was a train to the capital, Guiyang, and then another to the town of Tongzi.

The Very Hyped Up Megacity: Chongqing

July 28, 2026

Next up, the social media darling and mega city, Chongqing. Population 30 million! Wow. Although just like Singapore is a city that is the whole country, or Jacksonville is a city that is the whole county, Chongqing is a city that is the whole province. So the numbers are a bit inflated. But it’s been by far the most hyped place in China on social media. I see the lit up skyline on Tiktok or FB reels all the time. Is it worth the hype? Well considering I’ve already been here I think I know the answer to this one.

It was a super quick HSR (high speed rail) ride to Chongqing (ChongChing) although getting a DiDi from the underground parking lots where the rideshare pickup is was a nightmare. And then lots of traffic, even at midday, overly congested like I remembered. My hotel was in some massive building with multiple points of entry. I picked the wrong one, went up to the 26th floor and it was someone’s apartment, oops. The security guard got me sorted out though and I found the place. It was kind of an airbnb style place where the “hotel” just has a block of rooms, each with their own keycode. Housekeeping does come everyday, you just never what time. But because it wasn’t a real hotel it was cheap, $15 I think, and it had a great view overlooking the city. Works for me!

Can’t complain about views like this for $15/night! This is why I don’t travel much in the US!

I went back down and went for a walk, it was definitely bustling outside, a good mix of locals and tourists at the market, streets all pretty crowded. It’s a popular place to be right now and I was basically in the middle of the downtown, JieFangBie, with high rise buildings everywhere. It was also a Friday afternoon.

I decided to head out of the downtown and take a stroll along the river to check out the skyline, but on the side of the river that isn’t where all the tourists go. The city is larger than it looks on a map, it took me forever to get across the river and get to where I wanted to go on the other side. It was a nice walk, and the skyline looks pretty at night, but nothing that would make you think this city has a famous skyline. I think the most interesting part was the section of the street that was basically teen idol street, stands filled with Cpop and Kpop idols and populated by exclusively teenage or middle school aged girls.

I’d gotten far enough away from my hotel that I decided to take a rideshare back, as Chongqing is a really big city and I didn’t feel like walking another two hours. I ended up on the night market street and didn’t know what to get, so I chose one of the longest lines, figuring these people must know what they’re doing. It was ribs, which sounded like a great change of pace from all of the oily food I’d been eating. Seriously it feels like chili oil is running through my veins. The ribs were pretty tasty, but coming from a country with world class BBQ ribs, these were a bit below expectation.

The next day was some more random wandering, as there are just so so few cool touristy things to do in Chongqing during the day, and then it was off to see the skyline from the other side of the river and the Hongyadong Cave, which is 11 stories high, built on the side of rock face and modeled after traditional stilted architecture. It’s lit up to glow a bright golden color at night and has a bit of a fantasy like appearance. Although it was lit up like this in 2012, the difference is that all the skycrapers behind it weren’t lit up quite like they are now. Anyway Chongqing has done a hell of job selling this as some sort of world class attraction.

I crossed the bridge over the river and followed the roundabout section of footpath down to the riverside, where you get a great view of the skyline. That’s if you can find an open spot. Like many famous spots in China there’s professional photographers perched everywhere and they stake out and take up the most valuable real estate, which gets really annoying. I ended up heading down onto the river bank across the rocks and gravel to find a decent spot to take some photos. Don’t get me wrong, the view here is great when it gets dark with the Hongyadong Cave in the foreground. But I feel like Chongqing is only great from 8-10pm, which is when all the city lights are on. It’s a very brief window of coolness.

I feel like Chongqing has used it’s bright shiny lights to belie the fact that Chongqing is mostly a pretty boring, ugly, and congested concrete jungle. Especially once you get outside of downtown. And it has worked out great! Chongqing is more popular than ever. The cyberpunk city! But it feels like fake cyberpunk when the lights go off at 10pm. Lights out at 10pm is not punk. Compared with a place light Kabuchiko in Tokyo, which is lit all night, has people coming and going all night, and is actually kinda seedy, that feels like the real deal, not this. Ok I’m being kind of snob here as to what constitutes ‘real cyberpunk’ but I feel like Chongqing is way overhyped on social media and really is not that cool of a city. I guess it’s cool if you’ve never seen a well lit skyline in Asia before. But lots of people do seem to really like it, so to each their own.

The next day I was planning on doing a day trip, but it rained all day, and I kinda liked my view overlooking the city in the rain from the 26th floor. It was my first do nothing day of the trip. And so was the next as it just never stopped raining. It’s a good do nothing city because there is nothing to do in the city. Of course I’d go out for short walks to stretch the legs and find some interesting things to eat. Chongqing noodles are always good, more of a lunch food though, people love their hot pots in the evening.

Chongqing is well known for it’s very spicy hot pot, so I did have to go out for it one night, although hot pots are meant to be communal, so it feels a bit weird. Usually I get half spicy, half not spicy, but I was feeling spicy and just ordered the whole thing spicy. Two orders of meat, one pork, one beef, some mushrooms, some veggies, which the options were mostly various forms of lettuce, which annoyed me – who wants to eat three different styles of leaf instead of actual vegetables? Anywho the all spicy order was a mistake, I was dying about halfway through, with no respite of dunking some stuff in the non-spicy broth. Just had to power through it. I couldn’t finish everything, it was too much, and oh did it kill my stomach. I could feel the burning on the toilet 36 hours later.

Really should have gotten half spicy, half not spicy!

The rain never stopped, but I had to get out of this town eventually as it was driving me mad, so finally I hopped in a Didi to the HSR station and was off to the next town over, which is only a little over an hour away by HSR (which is crazy fast), the metropolis of Chengdu, with a paltry population of 20 million.

Chengdu and Around

July 28, 2026

The other huge city in the southwest is Chengdu in the Sichuan Province, although it’s not quite as large as Chongqing. It’s famous for it’s Panda Sanctuary, which gets incredibly crowded, it really is a zoo! Since I’ve already been to Chengdu and seen the pandas before, so I’d be skipping it on this trip. But I’ve always liked Chengdu, it has leafy boulevards and lots of people on bikes, and it feels pretty relaxed for such a big city. It has nice old town,s nice parks, a nice riverwalk that spans for miles and miles, it’s just a pleasant city. There’s not tons of cool touristy things, but it always seemed like a nice place to live.

The one thing I hadn’t done in Chengdu was a take a day trip out to Leshan to see the giant Buddha, which is now connected by the high speed rail. The Buddha is carved into a red sandstone cliff and is the largest stone Buddha in the world. It was started in the 700’s and slowly built over the span of 90 years during the Tang Dynasty. The engineers at the time constructed an invisible drainage system within the Buddha’s hair, collar, chest, and ears to divert rainwater off the statue. Pretty cool. It’s part of the reason the Buddha has stayed in pretty good shape over the centuries.

I honestly didn’t do anything especially notable in Chengdu, besides that trip out to see the Buddha, just walked around, stopped at various spots to read my book and just enjoyed the local life.

My main motivation for going to the Chengdu (besides the food) was actually to get up to the northern part of the province, a place called JiuZhiaGuo, a national park famous for it’s colored lakes. There’s also a smaller park called Huanglong, not too far away that has all these terraced waterfalls that looked pretty cool too. So it was two hours of high speed rail, and then I couldn’t find a bus to get to the these terraced falls at Huanglong, but there were shared taxis, so I hopped in one of these. Fortunately This place has luggage storage, so I ditched my big bag and was on my way.

As usual there’s a shuttle bus to a cable car, which takes you to the top, another shuttle bus (optional) and then you hike your way back down into the valley. I opted to hike the 1.5 mile path at the top instead of the second shuttle bus, which is not a very popular option! The highlight is a section of terraced pools that are very bright blue in color. Although I think they would look better on a sunny day. And then walking down it’s just tons of these travertine terraces, which have the bright colors because the limestone is rich in calcium carbonate. I don’t actually understand the science, but they’re pretty! Overall it wasn’t a must-do, but I had enough time, so might as well. A nice way to spend the morning. And then once you get out of the park, lots of shared taxi drivers to get you to where everyone is going, the national park, Jiuzhaiguo.

The town of JiuZhiaGuo is nothing special, all the businesses know you’re here for one night. I wanted to try yak meat hotpot, but I think I went into a tourist trap restaurant where the price was like $70, so I passed and just got some beef noodles at a more local place for $4, hah. And then some grilled meat skewers later on because I was still hungry. Noodles are usually my lunch food. I was in bed early as I wanted to get there before opening and beat the crowds. Hah. This is what the lines looked like 30 minutes before opening! Ahhh China!

Each line is for a different shuttle bus and the bus takes you near the end of the park and you can either walk your way back or keep hopping on and off the shuttle buses. I’d be walking of course! But most Chinese people are happy to take the buses from lake to lake. And there is certainly no shortage of buses, they come every few minutes, it’s actually pretty impressive. And the lakes are gorgeous, most are some a beautiful deep blue color, although some are greenish, and the most popular ones are really really bright blue, it’s pretty cool. There is reason why it’s one of the most popular national parks!

You can see the crowds in the background

Every time I ask someone to take a photo of me it never turns out well

Once I finished up the main section of lakes you can hop on a bus that takes you through another valley of the park, up to this lake, a crazy shade of blue! Take the bus back, and then there’s another few miles of stunning lakes to walk along (or shuttle bus) taking you out of the park. Definitely a worth-while place.

It kind of turns into a grassland near the exit

From the park I took another shared taxi to the Tibetan old town (recently renovated) of Songpan. It’s also pretty touristy, but domestic tourists only. I seemed to get lots of attention in Songpan, I thought there would be some foreign tourists, but nope. I got to show off my Chinese credentials by being able to answer such questions as where are you from, how long are you in China, do you work here, how do you like China etc. The old town is known for it’s street food, particularly grilled lamb skewers, which are tiny, but only cost 1 yuan, or 16 cents each. Not a bad deal! They also had a hookah café, which shocked me, so of course I had to try it out. Hookah isn’t very popular in China, it’s usually only in big cities and sold as a super upscale thing that costs $50 or $60 minimum, which is crazy, especially in Chinese currency. So it was a worthwhile stopover in Songpan for a night.

Xian and Mt. Huashan

July 25, 2026

Back on the HSR to Xian, the ancient capital of China for 13 different dynasties. It’s also the starting point to great silk road. It’s peak was probably the Tang Dynasty (618-907) when it attracted scholars, traders and monks from all over the world. It’s famous city walls were built in the 1300’s which contains the old muslim quarter (where most tourists stay) and outside the walls is a more contemporary Chinese city.

In the summer it is hot! 100 degrees or so. I took a Didi to the old quarter, which is difficult to navigate in a full size car, and I got dropped of near my hotel. It’s too hot to do anything in the middle of the day, so it was nap time, but eventually I ventured out for their famous biang biang noodles and off to visit the city walls, already drenched in sweat walking there at 7pm. The city was surprisingly green though.

The narrow roads are packed with people. Good luck using the sidewalk

I love the wide noodles. This is Biang Biang Noodles

This is the character Biang, one of the most difficult and complicated in all of Chinese. Just imagine writing this out by hand!

The vibe is a bit different here in the Muslim Quarter than in usual Han Chinese society

A fun thing to do there is rent a bike and ride all the way around the walls, 14km/9mi in total. Just don’t start too early! It’s a bit of a bumpy ride, but manageable enough.

Up on the walls

Some of it turns into a giant cosplay arena

The next morning it was Terracotta Time, I was up 6, had to take a taxi to the bus stop to take the 7am bus, and got there right when it opened. and this is what it looked like! Apparently the ideal time to go is late afternoon, not early morning. But seriously the touristy spots in China are just ridiculous sometimes, there’s really not much way around it, especially if your timing is on a weekend like mine was.

I did my research on the warriors ahead of time as there’s not much info inside and I didn’t want to take a guide. Although I rented an audioguide, but it was too loud inside the pit to hear anything! Pit 1 (there’s 3) is the largest one, and if you’re not one of the first to get in, good luck getting yourself up to the wall to take photos!

This is where a telephoto lens comes in handy

The compound was completely unknown to the outside world until 1974 when some local farmers were digging a well and discovered the ancient artifacts, parts of arms, legs, head etc. Subsequent digging revealed one of the most impressive discoveries in modern history! A lot of China’s archaeological findings seem to happen this way! The tombs contain over 8,000 soldiers, 520 horses, 130 chariots. They were all built by China’s first imperial emperor, Qin Shi Huang, to protect him in the afterlife. He’s said to have employed over 700,000 workers to build all this, as each warrior was built by hand and every warrior has a unique face, it’s said even with 8,000 warriors, no two have the exact same face.

Apparently there’s a few more sites they know about through ground penetrating radar, but the sun almost instantly evaporates the paint, so they’re waiting for the technology to be able to preserve them before opening them. Emperor Qin’s tomb is the most notable example, his tomb remains completely sealed and will likely stay that way in the near future. I found the history perhaps even more fascinating than being there in person, as it was so crowded it was just a thoroughly un-enjoyable experience. Probably my least favorite tourist experience since the Vatican!

Walking back through an hour after opening, miserable

By 9:30 am the place was just absolutely jam packed and it was time to take the bus back into town. In the late afternoon I had a chance to visit the museum nearby, which was basically a glorified place for Chinese people to hang out in the air conditioning, and then walk around some of the nicer parts of town outside the walls. Nothing too exciting.

The next day was a trip out to Mt. Huashan, which is almost 100 miles way, and in most countries this would be a hell of a day trip, but with HSR it’s like a 35 minute trip! Of course you still have to get to/from the HSR stations, but DiDis are so cheap and easy that it’s no problem at all.

Huashan is a circuit of four interconnected peaks (plus one in the middle) that form the shape of a flower – hua, and Shan means mountain, so flower mountain. You can take a cable car all the way up, which is what most people do, or you can take a cable car to lower peak and hike 2-3 hours to get to the upper section, or you can hike all the way up if you’re a real sicko. All of the cable cars are conveniently connected to the park entrance by, you guessed it, shuttle bus! I went for the lower peak option, although the 2-3 hours is in China hiking time, which mean a little over an hour if you’re in actual hiking shape.

The scenery up top is very cool, Huashan is like a giant bulb of granite sprouting it’s way through that flat earth around it. It reminds me a little bit of Yosemite national park with it’s steep granite walls. It’s famous for it’s cliff walk, a dramatic section of narrow planks bolted into the wall, which you wear a harness with carabiners to move your way across. This is something I’m of course interested in, but it’s in China, which means it’s a few hours waiting in line to do it, and it’s actually only 330 feet long! So it’s more about getting the instagram shot or being able to say you’ve done it and less about the actual experience imo.

Like most of the “hiking” in China, the entire upper section is all a series of steps and boardwalks crowded with people, plenty of shops and places to eat, plenty of toilet facilities, photographers (not nature photographers, portrait photographers) waiting at the viewpoints, etc. Even though the views are great, it’s just a such a thoroughly different experience of nature than in most countries, and not in a good way. After a few hours I was ready to get back down. I should have packed a change of clothing though, because I was basically soaked in sweat, always a good way to be taking public transportation!

It was about four hours up top on Huashan, then cable car, shuttle bus, DiDi, High Speed Rail, Didi, and I was back at my hotel in Xian. I had one more night to see a bit more of the town and try some more regional food specialties , so I went over to the Goose Pagoda at sunset, then stopped by the bell tower at night, and then onto the walking street to eat later on, and that was my three nights in Xian!

Luoyang and Beijing

July 25, 2026

So it was off to Beijing. I thought I might continue traveling in China, but a full month was really enough of China for me. Although I figured I’d visit one popular stopover before Beijing, called Louyang, which of course is easily connected by HSR. It’s also one of the four great ancient capitals of China (Xian, Louyang, Beijing, Nanjing), with Louyang being the earliest of the four, as it became a capital of Zhou dynasty all the way back in 770 BC. You wouldn’t know it was an ancient capital from the city itself, most things from ancient China do not hold up well to the tests of time, but there is a place outside of town dug into the limestone cliffs that has been preserved very well.

The most famous attraction in Luoyang is the Longmen Grottoes, an accumulation of caves and tombs built into the rocks along the Yi River. It’s hard to actually imagine how huge this place is, but there’s over 2,300 caves with over 100,000 Buddha statue, among other things. Originally built up by the Northern Wei Dynasty around 500 AD, it reached it’s peak in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). It’s way too hot in the middle of the day, so I waited until closer to sunset to go check it out.

Fengxian Temple, built in the 600’s during the Tang Dynasty

What it looks like around the area, this is a weekday!

As always, with seemingly everywhere in China, the place is packed. With the value of the Yuan going down, the cost of international trips increasing, so much of China being connected by HSR, plus a government push to explore your own country, and disenchanted young people valuing experiences over acquiring capital, domestic tourism in China is more popular now than ever. Even though there’s a million people it’s still a cool place to hang for a few hours. Some of these sights are better enjoyed from afar, with the lights turned on…

Next up, Beijing. I had completely forgot that I only had a 30 day SIM card and just now it had run out! So when I got into Beijing I was in the nightmare situation in China, in transit, no cell phone data! And I didn’t screenshot my hotel booking! There is no wifi anywhere, and even if there is, it requires a Chinese number to type in. Even many popular coffee shops have no wifi, argghhh. I could take the metro with cash, but I had no maps to tell me where I was going. So after running around for a while I was finally able to find an international hotel and use their wifi for a bit and repurchase another esim, thank god I had a VPN on my phone to access my Gmail! It is kind of insane how functionally useless you are in China without cellphone data.

So finally I was able to hop in a DiDi to my hotel, although this was a bad idea (as opposed to taking the metro) as I ran into the dreaded Beijing Traffic. Nine miles took well over an hour, my god. One left hand turn took us about 7 light changes! I got to take a good look at the distinctive Beijing architecture while crawling along, gray brick walls with dark gray roofs, the ubiquitous red doors and window frames and other accents.

You can’t see much of Beijing homes from the street

A new ‘old’ neighborhood. They tore down almost all of the old neighborhoods in the late 90’s/early 2000’s (the hutongs) which were one ofnthe most unique aspects of Beijing, and then of course rebuilt some years later in different parts of town.

Why am I taking a taxi when their metro looks like this??

I checked into my hotel, which was a bit of price shock, as most of China outside of Beijing and Shanghai is overwhelmingly cheap. It was late afternoon so I had some time to walk towards the Imperial City walls. The whole area is just crawling with police. It had just rained earlier so the sky was cloudy, but the sun came out right before sunset leaving a gorgeous rainbow over the city. On this trip I’d had almost zero good sunsets, so this was by the far the best of the trip!

This is the first time all trip that we had much color in the sky

Of course I have to show what anywhere picturesque actually looks like

The next day it was up early to get to the Great Wall. I’d heard the section closest to Beijing was very touristy, so I chose a tourist bus that takes you 2.5 hours outside the city to the Jinshangling section of wall, which is more wild and less touristy. Even though the bus time : hiking time ratio was not great, I was still glad to have visited this section of the wall. Often when things are “less touristy” in China, it just means kinda crowded, but not wall to wall tourists.

This section of the wall was more mountainous and more lush than I was expecting (and fewer people!). In my mind I always think of Mongolia as the desert, so I always picture more of the western section of the wall, that is part of the Gobi desert. It’s very cool to see something that was over 2,000 years continuously being built, rising and falling over the mountaintops. The sheer manpower required is crazy to think about. This section of wall, and most of the more ‘modern’ parts of the wall were built by the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) during a flurry of building. In just 10km there are 67 watchtowers!

You can see the wall even way off in the distance

You can see the broken sections continue on over the mountains

On the tour they gave us 5 hours to roam the wall, but it really only takes 2 or 2.5 hours to do it all, so you’ve gotta move at a slow pace. Fortunately there were some clouds out, as normally the Great Wall can be absolutely baking in mid summer. I ended up meeting some of the people on the tour (It feels very weird to have a tour bus full of white people in China!), one was from the Netherlands, another from Australia, and they were both doing the 10 day visa free travel, which has brought in a lot of foreign tourism in the last two years.

We had a solid two hours to kill before the bus left, so it was nice to meet some people. And then later that evening the Dutch, Aussie, and I met up again for Beijing Roast Duck, one of the must-try dishes in when you’re in town. There’s a couple of famous restaurants for it, we had a to wait maybe 30 minutes to get, although we decided on a less famous option because the wait times get too crazy. But it was good to go as a group because you usually order a whole duck, and that isn’t really possible for one person. So that was a really good meal for winding down the China trip.

Last day was the Forbidden City. Possibly the most the largest and most well preserved imperial palaces in the world. Originally buiIt in 1420 in the Ming Dynasty, it was the seat of power for over 500 years, throughout the Ming and Qing Dynasties, finally ending in 1924.

I didn’t buy my ticket far enough in advance so I had to join a tour group. I hate these things. Every time I’ve been on one the earpiece and the audio always suck, the English is subpar at best, and you move so excruciatingly slow. I made it about one hour into the three hour town before surrendering my earpiece and doing my own thing. I mean the place is really nice, but it’s just insanely crowded and hot, I was ready to get out of there ASAP. When the sun is out, you just roast in Beijing in the summer.

We descend upon the temple at the slowest pace imaginable, but learning many obscure facts in broken english and with poor audio.

After a rest in the middle of the day I was off to Tiananmen Square to check it out. You have to have a time slot, which I received at my hotel. When I got there the line was literally down the block and moving slowly because the security checks are very intensive. I decided I didn’t want to wait an hour to see a concrete square, and instead went over to the Temple of Heaven, which google said was open. I get there and the park area is open, but the actual temple gates are closed. Aghh. So all in all, pretty big fail on the last day. A few shots from the park near my hotel.

Whatever. I was so over China at this point, the lines, the crowds, reserving things in advance, just not my thing. I was thinking Mongolia might be a good change of pace…

Finishing Up, Roadtrip Days 5-6-7

February 26, 2026

BLEEP BLEEEP BLEEEP!! 5:30 am. Time to roll out of bed and hit the road. Jebel Shams sunrise at 6:45am and it takes about an hour to drive up there, go go go. Completely pitch black outside when I left. I was driving a little fast for being on windy mountain roads in the dark. But I lived. And made it up there with plenty of time to spare actually, as you have to wait for the sun to climb over the mountains a bit! I forgot about that part. I’m probably putting too much effort into these completely cloudless sunrises and sunsets… but with only a two week trip, I still have plenty of energy for it. No travel fatigue just quite yet. Although waking up for the sunrise almost every single day is maybe a bit much. Anyway the photography was pretty mediocre, although I had a goat pose for me, what a gentleman.

that little white line on the bottom right is the trail, looks more dangerous from up here

Goat delay. This was the shot, but I had the wrong lens on

Was that worth the 5:30 alarm? Hmm. Up next would be Oman’s most famous hike, the balcony walk, an 8km/5mile out and back hike that traverses the along the edge of the canyon, giving you some nice exposure. And as far as I could tell, I was the first person on it this morning. Which was great obviously, the more places I get all to myself, the better. And I’d beat the heat. The hike is pretty safe, you never really get close to the edge and views are great, plus there’s random goats hopping along the rocks. It’s a pretty snappy trek, and hour out, and hour back, plus however long for breaks. There were A LOT more people coming down on the trail as I was headed back up and out!

You never really feel all that close to edge, but still pretty dramatic views

Back to the nice coffeeshop to get my usual cappuccino and that would conclude my morning at Jebel Shams. A pretty good one. Back down the mountain and back to my guesthouse in Al Hamra. I’d have some daylight time to actually check out it’s abandoned village area, as my hotel was basically in the middle of it. Getting a bit same samey at this point though. The only thing of interest in the rubble was some of the metal doors still in place. A couple businesses were operating in it, so it wasn’t completely devoid of people. It would be cool if they could restore more of the very old buildings and actually use them, rather than have it be another ghost town. And there was a small museum, but it’s tour only, and I didn’t feel like doing that. I found a leafy outdoor café to eat some lunch and went back to the room to relax for a bit.

I was surprised how how green it was, lots of date palms around

I didn’t really have any plans until late afternoon when I’d visit Misfat Al Abriyeen, a traditional mountain village that’s a few hundred years old, though renovated quite a bit for tourists, and pedestrian only. It wasn’t far outside of Al Hamra. You maybe have to walk 500 meters from where you park to get to the entrance of the village. The village itself is actually tiny, you walk through the whole thing in 20 minutes tops, but the nice thing is the surrounding area is all palm trees and there are all these irrigation canals, the falaj system, that have been used for thousands of years to irrigate crops in the middle eastern desert climates. I then caught the sunset from one of the rooftop cafes, although the views weren’t particularly great or anything. Then it was back to the same shisha place and back to that same Yemeni restaurant because I liked it so much. Déjà vu.

Entrance to the coffeshop, beaming you up

The next morning I bought the hotel breakfast and the guy brought a big tray of food to my room, and I was like ‘I’ll eat on the rooftop,’and he told me it was fine to eat in the room. Uhh ok. So I brought my tray of food up to rooftop by myself, why wouldn’t you eat on the rooftop?! And there I met an Italian couple, who said the exact same thing! Although they were not in high spirits as they damaged their 2WD car on the Jebel Shams mountain road, yikes. So their trip was temporarily on hold as they had to wait and see what the mechanic would have to say about it. Ooof, that sucks. But that’s why you suck it up and get a 4x4 for this type of roadtrip!

morning view of the old town at the rooftop ‘restaurant’

Coincidentally, today (also my last full day) would be my most adventurous one with the car, and I was slightly nervous. I was heading into the snake canyon, which is strictly 4x4 only, you’re just not gonna make it with a 2wd car. Once you start going down into the canyon it’s all dirt/rock/gravel roads, and they’re steep and bumpy! And in some parts very dusty and sandy with bad traction. But now I was getting the hang of these roads, it was pretty fun, a nice challenge how to best navigate each section without banging around the car too much. And everything is easier than sand dunes! The only slightly tricky parts were narrow sections if someone was coming the other way. The photos don’t convey the steepness very well!

As always, down at the bottom of the canyon were wadi hikes, two of them. One you’d need a guide and ropes to get you in and out of certain spots, the other was doable on foot. I obviously opted for the one without ropes, although in hindsight I do kind of wish I signed up with one of the tour companies for the adventure tour, it sounded quite fun and would have been a good way to meet more people. Outside of my buddy Wail, all I’d met were couples on this roadtrip. In hindsight I probably could have posted on the Oman FB group or something to see if anyone wanted to tag along, as I’m sure there’s some backpackers out there who don’t want to (or can’t) pay the car rental costs for just one person. Oh well.

My wadi hike was very nice as usual. Once again, nobody around, this one involved some rock scrambling, and eventually you get to a point where the hike ends and you have to swim. So I stashed my bag somewhere and started swimming through the canyon a bit. Although I didn’t make it too far because the on-land parts were just killing my bare feet on the rocks. I needed some water shoes! But swimming through these canyons is just so much fun.

This is where the trail ends and you have to swim

So that was basically the whole afternoon, driving dirt 4x4 roads through the mountains and doing my daily wadi hike + swim. Fantastic. It was a little tougher going up and out than coming down, you just have to be aggressive with accelerator. Pedal to the metal! But totally fine. I of course stopped at the coffeeshop with view when you get out of the canyon, and then it was onto Nizwa, the biggest city in the interior region, which has the most popular fort in the country, the aptly named Nizwa Fort; as well as an old town (of course) and a lively market/souk. And as usual the drive getting there was excellent!

I checked into a private room at a hostel/guesthouse and was off to see the fort for sunset. Although I did have a bit off time to check out the old town area that’s around Nizwa. Nizwa was the capital of Oman in the 6th and 7th centuries, right around the time of Islam being adopted, so it has some famous mosques, I’d get to the big one tomorrow. Prophet Mohamed sent Nizwa a handwritten letter in 630 AD asking them to convert to Islam, which they accepted, apparently.

The area isn’t very big, but people still drive these silly cars around

Onto the Nizwa Fort. It’s very impressive, the structure had been around a while, but was really turned into the fort it is today in the 1600’s, as Nizwa was the big trading hub back in the day, connecting Muscat and the southwestern region of Dhofar. It’s actually a fort connected to a castle, and the fort features a 40 meter tower that had all sorts of great defense systems, trap doors, canons, musket holders, as well as plenty of oil shoots aka murder holes to pour boiling hot date juice/oil on any possible invaders. Fun stuff. It’s interesting how useful those dates are!

And the Fort has even been put to use in recent times as well, when the interior forces of the Imamate were fighting the Muscat Sultanate + the British in the 50’s. The Sultanate would end up winning this one.

This fort is more expensive, but they have dance routines, singing, a food court, an art gallery etc.

The one way up into the tower is very narrow and winding for a reason, so they could pour boiling oil on you if needed

Just look at that shoe and outfit matching

Then it was book reading + shisha time, I was onto my middle eastern geo-politics book, which I was finding fascinating just because as I mentioned before, I’m pretty under-informed about the whole region in general. Proxy wars everywhere. But not by Good Guy Oman! Oman likes to stay out of everything.

Then back to the fort area to take a few night photos and see the souk. The main building was a more modern one with lots of glass display cases and bright fluorescent lighting. They sell lots of halwa (sweets) here, and the cool thing is that vendors let you sample their sweets for free! Nice, I hadn’t had Omani Halwa yet, which is a dense brown jelly cake-like thing, it’s sticky and gooey, you eat it with a spoon. There’s a bunch of different kinds. I tried them all, and I must admit the consistency is just not my thing. I don’t really care for gelatinous goop desserts all that much. Probably why I don’t like Chinese desserts much. I did like the tahini halwa though, which is made from sesame seed paste and topped with ground pistachios, with more of a cookie dough consistency. So that’s what bought. It’s heavy!

Above is the Omani Halwa. If it was more of a chocolate fudge (as it initially appears to be) than a gelatinous consistency I would like it better! To the right is the Tahini Halwa with pistachio topping, mmm.

Then it was off to dinner on my last night, might as well have Oman’s national dish, Shuwa. Slow roasted, marinated, fall off the bone lamb or goat, served on spiced rice. Can’t go wrong with that! Delicious. This region does lamb so well.

I need to work on the food photography! This tastes better than it looks

The next day my flight to Phnom Penh (via Abu Dhabi) was at 6pm, so I had most of the day to get to the airport. It was less than two hours to Muscat on nice roads. So I stopped at the big mosque outside of Nizwa (wore pants this time) and there was basically nobody there. And then I got in another fun little wadi hike, but this one said no swimming. Booo

For this wadi hike you simply walk along the concrete irrigation channel (Aflaj). Easy!

1.5 hours on the highway later I was back in Muscat, I took the Tucson to the car wash, as apparently they’ll ding you $75 cleaning fee if you bring it back too dirty, which my car certainly was. I’d actually gone over my allotted 1200 kilometers, but they didn’t seem to care when I returned the car, so that was nice. I had plenty of time to spare, so it was off to the airport lounge to hang out and then onwards to my usual stomping grounds, Cambodia.

So that was my 7d/6n roadtrip around Oman. Highly highly recommended! Gorgeous country, super safe, super fun driving, very diverse, if you want an introduction to an Arabic country, Oman is it. One week felt just about perfect for seeing all the stuff I wanted to see on the roadtrip, although I could have always used one more day to spend somewhere on the coast to chill out at the end, as it was a pretty action packed trip, but you can always use one more day. Or maybe do the snorkeling trip on the last day instead of the first day. But anyway I was happy with my trip and itinerary, basically everything went according to plan, except maybe getting stuck in the sand for 5 minutes. Overall Oman gets 5 stars! Great country.

Probably the best sunset of the trip at the airport

Road Trip Days 3-4

February 22, 2026

I was happy to be off the sand and back on a real road. I stopped in the gas station to refill my tires, grab a cappuccino, and then back on the highway for some smooth sailing. I had googled some of the most popular Arabic artists and added a few albums to my phone. It was mostly pop music, because if I can’t understand the lyrics, I at least want it to be catchy. I must say, cruising through the desert in a new country, on perfect roads, mountains in the background, listening to some banging Arabic tunes is quite enjoyable! Too enjoyable, because I did end up getting a speeding ticket somewhere along the way! $52 + Enterprise payment fees. Pretty reasonable though.

First stop of the day would be an abandoned village, Harat al Yemen, supposedly one of the oldest settlements in Oman. There are lots of abandoned villages in Oman, but this one is particularly old, which is why it’s preserved, well not exactly preserved, but not demolished either. Supposedly it predates Islam, so before the 600’s AD. FWIW the Islamic Calendar starts in the year 622AD, that’s their year zero. As for abandoned villages there are also many others in various states around the country. This is because modernization happened so fast in Oman, and the government encouraged people to move closer to cities so they could provide everyone with electricity and water and healthcare, things you don’t get so easily out in the desert.

iphone says the sky is going to be really really blue

Yep, that’s what an abandoned house looks like

I was the only person in the abandoned village, which is a pretty eerie feeling! Some of the buildings had sketchy little stairwells so you could climb up and get a decent view of the whole place. Kinda neat. Next up was driving up towards the largest mountain range in Oman, the Jebel Akhdar mountains (Jebel means mountain), the town of Saiq specifically. To get to this area of Oman you need to go up a very steep mountain road, and there’s a checkpoint you have to go through that only allows 4x4’s or AWD. The road is pristine though, and I’m sure normal cars could make it up. So for this town, I was expecting something like a quaint, rustic mountain village, but it was more like a rich person enclave with big SUVs whipping around you.

This photos sums up the place pretty well, very nice modern homes, but still lots of open space and dirt/gravel and goats freely roaming around.

Lots of very nice homes, higher end coffeeshops and restaurants. It kinda felt like the mountain version of Naples where richer Omanis have second homes, except they have them to escape the heat, not to flee to it. Omani summer does not sound pleasant whatsoever. Since it was technically ‘winter’ it wasn’t too crowded. But I’m pretty sure the AWD/4x4 rule is to keep the riffraff out. If you don’t have an SUV or a truck, you ain’t coming.

After checking into my guesthouse – I was wondering why it was so expensive, now I know, I had time to check out one more abandoned village. About 15 minutes out of town was another one, this village was in a more scenic location, built into the mountainside. So it was mildly interesting to pop in all the dilapidated structures, but once again, not really not much to do. I hit my daily quota for abandoned villages. There was a hiking trail I followed for half and hour, but it didn’t appear to lead to anywhere exciting as far as I could tell, and I wanted to get back in town to find a good place to photograph the sunset on the cliffs.

Okay I think you get the idea of what these places look like

And that’s exactly what I did. There are a few very nice resort hotels also perched on the cliffs, but also plenty of open space and rocky areas to scamper around on with great views. Locals like to bring to their portable chairs and tables and teapots and watch the sunset while sipping their tea. And blankets. As soon as the sun sets it gets cold very quickly up this high at this time of year. I took photos from a few different angles, but with these desert climates and no clouds in the sky it’s hard to take any overly dramatic photos. I also got invited for tea, but in Arabic countries I’m never sure if they’re just being polite, as it’s one of those polite gestures people sometimes say but don’t mean, or if they actually want me to join them. I declined, as I had more photos to take, but I appreciated the offer!

I don’t know what these plants are, but I like them

I kinda like this one. I was laying on my stomach and I still I couldn’t get low enough!

Someone’s tea setup. This one isn’t exactly very portable haha. How red it is scares me a little! And you can see one of the big fancy resorts in the background.

For dinner I found a more a local place that tourists seems to like, you pick out your food from a few different options and find a spot on the carpeted ground with pillows, and then the owner brings out a plastic sheet to put in front of you and your plates of food are put on that so you can’t spill on the floor. The traditional eating style I guess you’d call it. I sat next to a French couple who were on a similar roadtrip (basically every tourist is on a similar roadtrip) and we were both surprised by our mismatched expectations of what this ‘mountain village’ would look like! And not in a particularly good way haha. Not exactly the vibe we were going for. And no shisha here either except for at an upscale lounge, and I’m not paying $40 to smoke shisha.

Can’t go wrong with chicken n rice. The sauce you pour on it is very tasty

The next morning I was up early as usual and made my way back over to the cliffs to watch the sunrise. Well I missed the actual sunrise, but caught the first light hitting the terraced villages further down in the canyon. There was also a very scenic layer of fog at the bottom of the valley. Then it was back on the road, I didn’t really feel like sticking around much longer, nothing was open yet and I wanted to make sure I had enough time for seeing some forts and wadi exploring, as today would be a longer day and a bit more off the beaten track.

the mosque on my street. Throw a stone and there’s a mosque

Once I got down I stopped in a coffee shop and planned out the day’s route. First stop would be the UNESCO heritage site, the Bahla Fort, originally built sometime in the 12-15th centuries in an important area for the frankincense trade, which Oman was famous for. It was renovated in the early 2010’s, although not “restored” as cement and stone were used to mostly cover up the original rocks and walls, which got quite a bit of criticism. Still, it’s a good looking place, and very few tourists. Although they give you very little information about the fort itself and almost all the rooms are empty. It felt a little low effort for being a UNESCO heritage site…

lovely interior spaces, as you can see it has a very (overly?) polished look to it

Kind of makes you want to play interior designer with all that unused shelf space

The next stop was the Jabreen Castle, built in the 1600’s by the ruling Yaruba dynasty at the time. It was originally built for the Sultan and his family, eventually turned into a government building, and now a museum. They give you a bit of info about traditional family life, but not much info on the castle itself. I guess they want you to buy the tour. But it has some very well decorated and ornate rooms and courtyards and all that.

I’m trying to take more photos of myself…

Next up was yet another UNESCO heritage site, the Al Ayn beehive tombs, a necropolis from the 3rd century BC. I was feeling lazy and didn’t make the hike up to see these things, just photographed them from below. I wanted to make sure I had enough time hike to the Wadi Damm pools, which apparently you need to hike quite a bit to get to. From this point onward the road turned into gravel and was a bit slower going. I got lost a bit trying to find the parking lot because there’s various gravel roads that don’t really show up on the map and certainly no signs. There were maybe two other cars in the parking lot. This isn’t a very touristy one!

It turns out that this wadi was mostly dry in the dry season, but it was still a very nice hike through the canyon, with a bit of rock hopping and scrambling involved to make feel a bit more adventurous, and there was still some water flowing. There were maybe two or three pools that were deep enough to swim in, so I wasn’t totally out of luck! And really I had the whole place to myself. I passed one person who was coming out, and that was the only person I saw the entire time in the whole canyon. So that was a nice way to spend a few hours in the afternoon!

First swimmable pool. It’s got a rope at the end to get you over that set of rocks

After hiking back out I drove up the steep, bumpy, unpaved road to the Jebel Shams area, Jebel Shams being the tallest mountain in Oman. I was definitely happy to have the AWD SUV for this road! The upper plateau has a great view overlooking the largest canyon in Oman, with a surprisingly nice coffeeshop to boot! Although on the other side where the sun sets I couldn’t really find a good place to take a sunset so photo… hmmph

This is all we got. It’s a rocky scrubby wasteland

Driving down. This would have been a better shot…

Lots of people stay in one of the few somewhat expensive hotels up here, or camp out, but I don’t have camping gear and I didn’t feel like paying $100+/night. Plus it’s freezing at night and nothing to do. So I drove down an hour and stayed in the town of Al Hamra, which also has an old abandoned part of town, and from there I could enjoy my whole shisha + bookreading routine, and then I ate at a famous Yemeni restaurant, which was fantastic. The camel skewers were surprisingly good! I’d be back awake at 5:30am to drive back up and catch the sunrise at 6:45! Sleep is for the weak!

Night view of the old town from my hotel rooftop

Roadtripping Days 1 -2

February 22, 2026

ROAD TRIP! No time to waste, me and my new friend Wail (Wa-eel) were up at 6, out the door by 6:30am. The Indian snack shop across the street was actually open so we ate some chapatis and dhal (basically curried lentils you dip the bread in) and then hit the road. Quick and easy. Fortunately Wail is more tech savvy than me, so he was able to get the navigation on my phone onto the car’s digital screen via Bluetooth as well as my music. I honestly did not know how to do this. Sad!

Muscat’s highways are very nice, so driving was not stressful at all. If anything I wanted to go too fast, but they have speed cameras everywhere, I’m not sure how much they’re paid attention to or enforced, but just their constant presence was a big enough deterrent to not go over the 120 km/h speed limit, or 75mph. At least their locations show up on google maps. Coming out of Muscat you had to climb some mountains, but once you get past that part it was pretty flat and smooth sailing along the coast, with mountains all in the background towards the interior.

First stop was the Bimmah Sinkhole, which looks pretty much like you’d expect, a big hole in the ground with water in it. We were the second ones there and after some debate, decided to go for a swim, as it’s cool to have it all to yourselves and it would probably wake us up a bit. It was cool, as in cold! Fortunately Wail carries around a mug of hot coffee, so this was was a good coffee spot as well.

Next up was the famous Wadi Shab, probably the most famous natural attraction in all of Oman. Wadi just means canyon, but the ones that show up google maps usually imply a hikeable river canyon with swimming. Although some do dry up in the dry season. For this one you have to hop on a boat to cross the river, then hike 30 minutes, then you get to a spot where the canyon tightens and you basically swim, wade, and walk your way through this beautiful canyon. There’s even a little hidden cave you can swim into. The whole area is a very popular spot though, so you certainly do not have it to yourselves. There’s a bunch of Indian tour groups to contend with, and they’re not small.

Of course having to swim through a canyon means you need to leave your stuff behind, so people who were well prepared brought dry bags along for the swim. Me and Wail didn’t want to leave all our stuff behind, an overabundance of caution perhaps, as theft like this isn’t really a thing in Oman. But just in case, we just went through the canyon one by one. The whole place was a lot of fun and I can see why it’s on everyone’s tourist itinerary. Great spot to hang out for a few hours. On the way back we lost our return trip boat tickets and the guy wanted us to pay again, but Wail said a few words in Arabic and problem solved. Very nice having an Arabic speaker around.

After that we went to a local shisha place for a bit and then found something to eat. We went to, I believe an Egyptian run place and split the good ole, trusty standby – the mixed grill. Before we ordered Wail was asking the owner a bunch of questions about the food, and I guess the owner didn’t like that much, and told him he was personally insulted. Which was interesting to me because I don’t think I’ve ever had a conversation at a restaurant which invoked such strong feelings over asking about the food. Or at least having those feeling said out loud! We’ll chalk it up to cultural differences! Wail went to apologize after dinner haha.

The next day Wail would be taking the bus back to Muscat as he’s already done a bunch of my itinerary, and I’d be continuing onwards to the interior of the country to the sand dunes of Wahiba Sands more specifically. And doing what I’d be doing most afternoons, finding a wadi to go hike and swim!

The wadi on the way to Wahiba Sands is also a touristy one, and apparently they’re doing construction all around it, building some sort of tourist facilities – ewww, wadis are supposed to be natural places! And the reviews online were not great. But still I had a lot of time to kill, and I didn’t see anywhere else interesting on the map to visit, so I was still going. And despite the construction, you could still find some very pretty sections of the river to swim and have by yourself if you did a little rock scrambling to get down! But yeah, you just had to listen to the gentle sounds of jackhammers in the background. So overall not the nicest wadi to visit, but still some beautiful sections of water.

Back to the highway and next up was figuring out how to get to the desert camp. First I had to pull into the gas station to lower my tire pressure down to 18 psi. There was already someone at the air station, but there was also a guy in the parking lot who offered to do it for me for 1 real, $2.50, which felt kind of silly because it should be something really easy to do myself, but whatever, this enterprising young man can have my business. Down to 18 psi, I guess the ideal tire pressure for driving on sand.

I had time for some coffee, where some guys tried to poach me from my desert camp to theirs, but I wasn’t falling for it! The desert camp I had booked had warned me about this! Soon I found the office and then I’d be following the guide into the sand dunes and onto the desert camp. I was a little worried about this because I’d never driven on sand before! The first part was easy, we were just driving in a flat valley, but then we eventually turned up into the dunes. I was warned I needed to punch it, and we got to the steep uphill part, that was also quite bumpy, and I had the accelerator pressed to floor, but I started losing momentum, slowing down, no, noo, nooooo! Stuck!

The guide had to come back to my car, I pushed from the front as he reversed and we went in reverse down the hill, and he did this section for me. You really need to pick up a lot of speed BEFORE getting to steep uphill part! And then just eat all the bumps. Just don’t lose any speed! Once you lose that momentum you’re doomed no matter how hard you press on the gas. Live and learn. From the top of that hill I got back in the drivers seat and it wasn’t too bad getting to camp after that. It’s a pretty basic setup, a bunch of very thick, sturdy, tent type structures with beds and bathrooms attached, a bonfire area, and a big shaded platform. That’s the whole camp!

In the big shaded platform I met some of the guests, an Austrian couple and Dutch/Moroccan couple who were both friendly. The Dutch/Moroccan couple was a quantum physicist and PHD in climate science. Like come on! The Austrian couple had booked two nights, which they had kind of regretted, as there really is nothing to do all day. Sand dunes are good for one sunset and one sunrise, imo, that’s all you need! I had some time to read my book before sunset, as I didn’t sign up for either of the two activities, dune buggy or camel ride. Spending 30 minutes on a camel in India was enough to know that I don’t really need to be on a camel again. And I was particularly interested in reading this book (Celestial Bodies) as it was the first book in Arabic to win the Man Booker prize, and it’s by an Omani author set in Oman. Eventually around sunset it was off to hike around the dunes and take some photos. I don’t get many chances to do dune photography, but it is pretty fun, the play of light and shadows gives many opportunities for interesting photo compositions! But the light is only right for a short window of time before the sun sets. Or right after it rises.

How dare these people to have walked where I want to take photos!

So that was fun. Dinner was at 7, and it was excellent, tons of stuff to choose from, the usual middle eastern fare with lots of grilled meats and kebabs, rice, bread, hummus, salad, pita etc. Everyone just sits on the floor together. And then after that was the bonfire where our hosts told us all about Bedouin desert life, how people survive in the desert, how it’s changed it modern times, etc. Then they sang us some Bedouin music, which started slow at first and then eventually became a bit of a dance party for a little bit. So it was a pretty fun camp. Very highly rated spot.

Next morning was off again tramping around the dunes bright and early at sunrise, then a very large breakfast, and that was about it for the desert camp. A nice experience! I followed the guide back into town, no getting stuck this time! I had to fill up the tires again and then I was back on the highway for the roadtrip to continue!

Other cheaper camps are down in the valley, which is lame

Playing with the shadows. I like this one

Cool spot!

The White City: Muscat

February 14, 2026

As I’ve mentioned, in backpacking circles, most people don’t have great things to say about some of the places I’ve just been, but everyone, and I do mean everyone has had great things to say about Oman. Doing a roadtrip around the country is the thing I’d REALLY been looking forward to most on this 15 day trip. The big city is stuff is fine/whatever. I’m not that much of a city guy, just small doses, getting out into the country is where all the fun and adventure is at! From the photos I’ve seen, Oman is a surprising stunning looking country compared to some of it’s Gulf counterparts. And there’s less ethical concerns as Oman is sometimes called the Switzerland of the Middle East as they stay out of everyone’s business and often act as mediators. So I was very excited to be heading there.

Muscat has quite a different feel from the other cities I’ve been to! For one thing, it’s got quite a bit smaller population, 1.7 million compared the 4 million of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. There’s only 5 million people in the whole country, (and over 50% are actual Omani). The interesting thing about Muscat is there are basically no skyscrapers. The rule for almost all buildings is that they are capped at five stories! How crazy is that? And most buildings are mandated to be painted white to keep a consistent cultural, traditional aesthetic. The lack up building upwards means the city is super spread out, so it makes it somewhat difficult deciding where to stay, because everything is so far away from each other and the bus system is not good.

One of the things I wanted to do was a one day island snorkeling trip, and the marina for that is also very close to the airport, there’s a bus there, and there’s also one of the very few hostels around, so that’s where I decided to stay. Al Mouj it’s called. Although the specific marina part is the most expensive part of town, so I stayed a bit outside of that, but it was still a very nice neighborhoods, not really many tourists, mostly locals and expats, with some fancy pants houses that looked something like this…

pretty typical styling, they love having everything walled off

But the marina, they’re going more luxury apartments overlooking the water for people with their boats/yachts and building it up a lot

Al Mouj Marina - not my photo. It’s very posh though. They might be more lenient on the 5 story rule here…

I think Muscat is also a pretty much a one day and done city, but with the addition of the boat trip I would have a full two days in Muscat. I was up bright and early for the 8am start to the snorkel trip. I was a bit surprised at how crowded the boat was and how international the crowd was! Everyone was tourists! It seemed like so far on this trip I had met very few actual, 100% tourists, so many people seemed to be there for work related purposes, so this was a nice change of pace.

It was about an hour to get out to the Daymaniyat Islands, which is cluster of islands, and they were very pretty. Well, the water around them was very pretty, the islands were mostly brown and rocky outcroppings. We did two snorkel spots with an ‘beach’ break in between, and a very nice lunch set up with pita and kebabs and hummus and labneh and vegetables and lots of stuff. I think some people were just there for the lunch! Then we got in round two of snorkeling. It was good, lots of turtles the first trip and then a few black tipped reef sharks on the second. No underwater photos though…

Then I had some time to hang out at the hostel, definitely an interesting crew. The wifi there was very good, so a few of the people were digital nomads, living on the cheap. Most were not from western countries, someone from Sudan, Egypt, Morocco, Russia, an Estonian girl learning Arabic, etc. Not much interest in road tripping though.

sunset at the nearest beach which involved a good 30 minutes of walking around construction sites.

People use many of the beaches to free camp and 4x4, in stark contrast to UAE and Qatar

oooh there’s the sunset. You’ll notice how much of Oman is just open space, dirt, nothing

Lamb dish. Actually from an Iraqi restaurant, but you eat a lot of lamb in Oman

The next morning I took the bus out to the Sultan Qaboos mosque, which involved walking 35 minutes to the bus stop, waiting 20 minutes, the actual bus ride, and then another 20 minute walk to Muscat’s biggest tourist attraction. WTF, they can’t drop you off there? Needless to say taking the bus in Muscat sucks. I’m not even sure why I do it when it’s not that expensive to take a ride share app. For the love of the game I guess. Logistical problem solving? I like walking?

When I was walking out the door I realized I forgot to wear pants, but it was hot outside and I’d be walking around and every mosque I’ve ever been to if you don’t have the proper attire they will give you some sort of cover up for free or for a small fee, like a sarong, so no biggie. Ha!

Well when I got there I found out that I could not enter the mosque unless I rented their full length traditional dress, the dishdasha. Oh man I was NOT very jazzed about this. I’ll tape a piece of fabric over my calves or something. But what choice did I have? So I very begrudgingly paid the stupid $15 or whatever to rent it, and had to try on three to get one to fit right, probably on account of my big bulging muscles. The material is just not very flexible. I did neglect to wear the traditional cap though cap, but it hindsight I probably should have just committed to the whole bit.

So finally I was on my way into the mosque feeling quite silly. But at least the mosque was mostly empty and peaceful. And as you guys know I hate taking photos of myself, but I guess I might as well get a photo with this thing on hahaha. I found a Korean guy taking timer selfies with a tripod, so I asked him, and of course he did the very Asian thing of having me pose in like 10 different ways! Okay, okay okay. So that was an interesting experience at the mosque. Beautiful place btw. It helps for photos that I got there right when it opened. Also I’m sure this is very relevant future advice for for many readers, DO NOT try to run in a dishdasha! I tried to jog up some stairs and there is just not enough room in the fabric and nearly wiped out.

gotta get that looking away side pose with the sun shining on my face lol

Then I had some time to kill before getting back to the airport to pick up my rental car. I normally don’t rent cars, as I like my scooters and places with public transportation, but in Oman it’s basically a necessity, and most people recommend getting a 4x4 or AWD for the mountain roads or driving on sand, so that’s what I did. Not cheap! Especially for just one person. But my cousin’s husband is pretty high up at Enterprise, and can give friends and family discounts, and wouldn’t you know it, there’s an Enterprise at the Muscat Airport! So that knocked around 1/3 of the price off, so thanks Pat! I would be getting a 2025 Hyundai Tucson AWD. Nice!

I wouldn’t start the road trip that day, but I wanted to check out the famous Muttrah Souk, which is on the far end of town, so maybe 35 minutes driving with no traffic, and basically impossible to get to by public transportation, so the car was very useful. Although I’m not used to new cars, so it was a little intimidating for me with the bells and whistles, I was afraid to touch anything. And the Forward Neutral Reverse is a rotating knob, which I very much did not like. The driving was smooth though.

The edge of the city approaching. And taking photos driving, like a boss….

Anyway, the Muttrah Souk is at the far south end of town where they can’t build anymore because you run into the mountains. Oman is very mountainous. There’s also a bit of hiking around and fort that overlooks the bay and the mountains around here. The fort was actually built by the Portuguese in the 1580’s as it has a very advantageous military position overlooking the entrance to the bay. Portugal ruled Oman for about 150 years in the 15 and 1600’s apparently. There’s nothing special about the fort but it is a good spot to watch the sunset!

The Muttrah Souk is Oman’s oldest and some say it’s the oldest marketplace in the world, so that’s quite the selling point, even if it did start to feel like I was getting souk fatigue. And I really do love that souk smell when you’re walking around, you really know you’re in an Arabic country. Its fun, it’s different. And I like the little alleyways when you get away from the main section of the souk. But I didn’t linger for too long because I always feel bad walking around getting called over to various shops and not planning on buying anything.

Back at the hostel I was talking again with the Sudanese Dutch guy (mostly Dutch) named Wail and he was interested in joining for the very first part of the roadtrip, so sure, of course! I have a whole 5 seater car to myself. And he speaks Arabic, which is awesome and super helpful. I wanted to start early, so we’d up at 6am to start at 6:30, for what would hopefully be the highlight of this whole trip, a one week road trip around the supposedly beautiful country of Oman.

The More Laid Back Capital City: Abu Dhabi

February 11, 2026

A 2.5 hour, not very exciting bus ride gets you to Abu Dhabi. Not shockingly there’s a lot of flat, boring desert scenery in between. Getting into Abu Dhabi you can feel quite a different vibe. It’s the capital city and known being the cultural capital and quite a bit less exciting. There’s wide boulevards with less traffic, as opposed to Dubai’s sprawling highway systems that are impossible to cross for pedestrians. There’s also no metro, so you have to take buses everywhere, which is a bit annoying. There’s way less skyscrapers except for the waterfront. Much more worn out pastel colors as opposed to metallic building materials. Everything felt a touch older. The bus station we arrived into looks like it’s from the 70’s and painted in an avocado green, although it is nice and modern on the inside. That’s not to say there isn’t a lot of money that get’s spent by the sheikh in Abu Dhabi!

My particular neighborhood seemed to be the Filipino part of town, complete with a Jollibees. Filipino expat food is much more expensive than Indian expat food! And not as good. Sorry Filipinos- but you just can’t use hot dogs as a normal ingredient in your dishes! I walked around my part of town, and it was not particularly exciting, not even any nice coffee shops, but you could get 33 cent (tiny) paper cups of chai from Indian snack places! I didn’t wait around to head out, the first destination would Abu Dhabi’s self dubbed version of the Louvre! From all looks, it appeared be gorgeous. They’re also making their own version of the Guggenheim, but maybe come up with your own name??

It’s really cool how it sits out on the water

I must admit though, for the actual displays, while they had some very nice stuff, it seemed like mostly a super random hodgepodge of stuff from antiquity, with not a lot of signage explaining things. And there didn’t seem to be a coherent direction to follow. Without enough things to read it too me only 1.5 hours to get through the whole thing. I won’t bore you with any photos of the museum artwork.

The view when you leave the main part of the museum

But, like I said, the place is a stunning piece of architecture, I was much more interested in taking photographs of their public spaces, because they are indeed splendid. An their waterfront viewing area is certainly a place worthy of an $8 cappuccino. I spent a good long time walking around this non-museum section of the museum, which is indeed massive. For example Chicago’s Art Museum has way better works of art, but it can feel old, cramped and stuffy inside compared to this…

It’s also a popular spot for instagrammers, which I didn’t get any myself, but I did creep on a few people getting them taken Everyone waits in line for one specific spot, which you’ll see, as it’s like a catwalk/runway

Ahhh neat architecture spaces are fun. After that it was on the bus and time to catch the sunset somewhere. I didn’t have anywhere in mind so I headed to the waterfront promenade, which runs for many kilometers.Very nicely done. Although no clouds to light up the sky, and not particularly great views of the skyline from this angle, but it was a nice relaxing stroll with lots of people out fishing or exercising. A shocking amount of people fishing, which is actually kind of annoying as you have to avoid their lines. But as usual in the gulf states, it’s still pleasant, well built, well maintained place

it does have a pretty empty feeling to it, there should be more people around, it’s a lovely night

kids playing cricket in front of the very well lit mosque

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Then it was some more wandering and then off to a shisha cafe to to do some reading. I have been reading a lot of the gulf history, being British protectorates, all the oil and gas discovery, the uniting of the emirates, how each country gets along. One thing that really blows my mind about the history of these countries is just how little there was here 50 years ago or whatever. Abu Dhabi developed first, before Dubai, as it discovered oil first and also had the resources in place to develop it, and Dubai developed before Doha. Qatar is like the late comer (as they eventually found a bunch of natural gas reserves) that nobody really likes for it’s ties with Iran and Al Jazeera broadcasting among others, but just look at this photo from then and now, absolutely crazy stuff.

Although what I should have been reading more about was the touristy things to do in Abu Dhabi. There’s a mosque called the Sheikh Zayed mosque, which is supposed to be possibly the prettiest contempory mosques in the world (2007) and I managed to get it confused with the National Palace. The mosque is way outside of the city, while the National Palace is much more centrally located spot - and it also looks amazing, and has 20,000+ reviews on Google, and so I thought that’s what I was looking for because I’m an idiot.

So early in the morning, that’s where I took the bus to. And it was a beautiful piece of architecture. I mean just look at the photos. It’s where they host all the foreign dignitaries. But I thought something seemed odd, and yet net, it never hit me I was in the wrong place! What a brain fart. But still, hard to complain too much here, and I was one of the first ones there. It’s another place that feels like it should have more people!

Then I had some to time to kill during the day, and I packed by swim trunks and towel, so I thought I’d mosey on to the beach. Not a very walkable part of of the city, they had that building pictured below in a place that gets zero pedestrians. Anyway there was a private beach at the Hilton Hotel (friggen everywhere around here is a private beach) but I just moseyed on in an bought an over priced smoothie and the workers seemed cool with that.

random nice buildings that I don’t think anyone ever goes to

small section of beach for the high end hotels

Even this crappy looking beach was a private beach

So last up was the far end of the corniche which is supposed have good views of the skyline and the National Palace and whatever this huge exclusive building is supposed to be

One more of the Royal Palace lit up at night

Then of course a bit more wandering around, which you kind of have to do with no metro and a bus system that stops early. Here were some photos I thought were interesting

The next morning was my flight to Muscat, Oman, (apparently the buses were all booked up days in advance) and wouldn’t you know it, what I saw looking out my window was that big beautiful enormous all-white perfect looking mosque not far off in the distance. Arghhh! Just to rub it in. So that was probably my biggest travel screw-up since somehow not seeing the Sphinx in Egypt.

Here’s the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in case you’re wondering. Sigh

A Pretty Polarizing City: Dubai

February 2, 2026

I must say, among backpacking type travel communities, Dubai is not very well liked. Many people think of it as fake, gaudy, materialistic, expensive, what have you. Kind of like the Las Vegas of the Middle East, plus throw in some extra criticism of foreign worker abuse and racial discrimination. For what it’s worth, I actually like Las Vegas, and am always a little skeptical of online consensus, which often disparages or reduces a lot of countries I like traveling to into complete stereotypes, (India for example), or can’t seem to separate the government from the people, so I was interested in giving Dubai a fair shake.

Plus what you hear online skews so much more to negative experiences, horror stories, scams, racism etc, than with your normal everyday ok/good/pretty nice encounters that make up 99% of the time, so reading places like Reddit, I always take with a grain of salt. Seriously social media can make you a bit paranoid or give you some pretty horrible impressions. It’s good to know about the dangers/annoyances of the country, but our brains are not equipped for it 24/7. Someone will make a “UAE/India/Morrocco/Egypt is awful” post, then a hundred people come in and agree (out of tens or hundreds of thousands reading) and now you think those places might be the most awful dangerous hellholes in the world.

Anyway, it was a quick one hour flight to get from Doha to Dubai, clear skies, easy trip. The first thing you notice about landing in Dubai is the immigration line is much longer than in Doha. I think it took a solid 45 minutes to get through, although I wasn’t even asked any questions by immigration, basically just stamped right in. They give you a free SIM card upon arrival, sweet! Except it didn’t work and directs you to paid plans. Hmm. It actually randomly started working 12 hours later.

The next annoying thing is that there is no machine to buy their metro/bus card, you have to buy it from an actual person at a booth. And it’s one person working with a long line. What year is this? I thought Dubai was supposed to be like technologically advanced? The metro is MUCH more crowded than Doha! Dubai is a hopping place apparently! Although you can always buys the VIP metro card which gets you into the first car on the train separated from all the rest…

Since I’m cheap I stayed in Old Dubai, which I guess is also where all the South Asians live, and my room, which was marketed as a “capsule hotel” was basically just a hostel. There was no signage whatsoever (you had to communicate through whatsapp for them to get you in) and I’m guessing this place might not be technically legal. While the room was actually relatively nice and redone recently with electronic codes for all the doors and lockers, but the building was very old and in terrible shape, and even for someone who is well traveled my “this place is creepy AF” meter was definitely going off when I walked in. If I was a solo female traveler I might have balked. There was also a notice from the city about an investigation and fines for overcrowding and having apartments over capacity. South Asians are pretty famous for this, sleeping 10 people in a room or whatever, hmm sounds familiar. So anyway, not the best first impression, but you get what you pay for in Dubai

I took a little rest in my bed and then had a walk around town. My specific part of town basically feels like you’re in India! Or South Asia more specifically. There’s lassi stands and biryani places and dosa shops and everyone is from India, Pakistan, or Bangladesh. It’s kind of interesting how they are all somewhat forced to live in harmony together despite their national hatreds of one another! I had a chicken kathi roll for lunch and chatted with a guy from Kerala (India), and in general the foreign workers all very friendly and speak great English, really everyone is a foreigner here! Once again, just an odd dynamic in these gulf states. I think about 15% of UAE are actual Emiratis, so just slightly more than Qatar at 12%, but Dubai is even less I believe. Qatar and UAE are also the richest of the Gulf States per capita, fwiw.

Unfortunately the Old Dubai Museum was closed for renovations, but I did get a walk around their “old town” which feels like it’s just been built in the last couple years. Nobody lives there, it’s really just for tourists. Kinda reminiscent of some of China’s “ancient towns”. I was not particularly impressed by this, and eventually found my way to the metro stop, where I’d go to the end of the line and then hop on a ferry to a spot called Dubai Creek Harbor, which is supposed to be a nice sunset spot, a bit further out from the downtown, on the creek, which runs through Dubai. It’s much more like a very wide river, and not so much like a creek though.

My one photo of the old town, at least the mosque is actually in use

Once again Dubai is bustling place! There was a line for the ferry and I missed the first one because it filled up too quickly, so waiting for the second one I almost missed the sunset! Although it’s not really the best sunset spot, it’s more about the seeing the skyline light up after the sun sets. And overall the Dubai Creek Harbor is a very nice place, high end condos/high rises, fancy restaurants, lovely public spaces, although my cappuccino was $10. The view of the skyline is great, and you can really tell how much the Burj Khalifa just towers over everything. I walked around here for an hour or so, but after seeing coffee prices, I wasn’t particularly inclined to stay for dinner. Nice spot, but just not much reason to stick around, which is how I feel about Dubai in general! I took the ferry back, found a nice shisha place to relax and read, got back to Old Dubai to eat some ridiculously large shawarma platter that cost like $4, and bedtime.

What it looks like arriving in Dubai Creek Harbor

I actually did sleep in a little the next day, until 8:30am or so. I was hoping the souks would be open when I was walking around, but I think Sunday mornings they might not open until later. I found somewhere to eat a masala dosa and chai for like $3 - which is insane btw, imagine going out to eat breakfast in what is generally thought of as a high cost of living country for $3! Definitely not happening in the US! I then found a legit nice coffee shop to get a cappuccino which cost like $7, these price discrepancies are wild if it’s a “high class place” or local place. By local, I mean foreign worker place. But I had some time to kill. 10am is when the Al Shindagha Museum opens, which is an open air museum, a collection of 20-something different houses, usually just the traditional brick/adobe kind, that all house some sort of exhibit about Dubai’s history, or customs, handcrafts, perfumes, poetry, clothes, etc, tons of different stuff. It goes through the old days, the pearl farming, recession (apparently Japanese pearls are way better and killed the pearl market) the decision to dredge the creek to allow bigger boats through, and how Dubai started quickly modernizing, except it doesn’t mention much about oil or gas!

So it’s a little bit of “look how awesome we are and our sheikhs are all geniuses”, like yeah, you found a shitload of oil! But still good on them for providing for their citizens unlike somewhere like Venezuela, and really it’s an amazingly well put together museum, beautiful displays, tons of info, all in English and Arabic, it leads you through each exhibit very well. For example in the perfume house, they have buttons you press that shoot a perfumed mist into the air you can smell what they’re talking about, great stuff. I spent over three hours there, and only made it through 2/3 of the houses! I never spend more than 2.5 hours at a museum, that’s usually my brain’s breaking point.

This is the room where you smell the perfumes

I only had only one afternoon to go downtown and check out the Burj, so it was off to the nearby metro stop and onto to the city center. Definitely no spots to sit on the train, Dubai is busy all the time. I took the train one stop further past the Burj Khalifa stop and then walked back towards it. The whole area is high rise condos with more and more coming up. You gotta hand it to Dubai, they’ve done well for themselves, making it the regional hub of business and commerce, and it only seems to be getting more popular. If you invested in some real estate before covid, you’ve done very well for yourself.

First view out of the metro, looking away from the Burj

I had no real plans for this afternoon, it was mostly just to wander around the whole plaza that encircles the Burj Khalifa. There’s a manmade lake with lots of café and restaurants on it, with great views, and even greater prices. I enquired about the one place that I saw had shisha and it was $65. GTFO. There’s also a huge mall that is one of the largest indoor shopping centers in the world, complete with an indoor water, ice rink, aquarium, kid’s playhouses, a VR park, a Chinatown, you name it. So that’s where I spent most of my afternoon, the mall! Exciting!

lots of new (and interesting) construction going on

Sadly I did not get this instagram photo for myself. Random note: lens distortion with the Burj Khalifa is a pain in the ass

And no, I did not go to the top of the Burj Khalifa. I’ve learned that places that tower over everything actually have pretty unexciting views, like the Tokyo Skytree. And it’s like $50 to go to floor 125, and something stupid like $110 to go up to 148. Ridiculous. What I wanted instead was a view from a high up rooftop bar overlooking the Burj Khalifa instead. I googled a few and decided on the Shangri La, which is like 2km away, which is a good distance because the Burj is so tall that you don’t want to be right near it, because then it’s just a photo of you looking straight upwards at this one building.

How many photos can you take of one single building??

Walking there was not easy though, as these cities can be very pedestrian unfriendly when you have to get around some of the main roads or big highways. When I got there I learned that one bar of the skybar was closed for a private event (the best part for photography as it turned out) but the other one was open. Uhh okay. Well I just walked 40 minutes to get here, so I’m going up. And the view was excellent! But you could tell that you couldn’t get the full panoramic view, as part of the building was in the way, which was a bit of bummer. If I wasn’t a photographer, that part wouldn’t have fazed me one bit, as the view of the Burj and the downtown was seriously stunning, there were nice sunset colors, and watching all the lights turn on and the sky getting that nice dark blue was great. Really gorgeous up there. And almost no people. You do pay for the view though, my one drink for the trip, the cheapest they had, was a beer for $24! I was originally going to get a glass of wine, but it was $45! WTF. This is the type of thing that people hate about Dubai, the type of pricing that signals “this is for rich people only!”

Sunset photo on the way there! That highway on the right was not easy to get over

Entrance to the Shangri La, the colors are starting to come out. It’s good luck when you actually get clouds in the desert!

Still lots of construction, even away from the city center

And that was most of the the Dubai trip. I wandered around some more, smoked some shisha, took some more photos of the impeccably lit architecture, randomly found the lobby for the museum of the future, which is super cool looking. I did skip this museum because everyone on the UAE forums says it’s overrated and overpriced ($43), and like half of it is for kids. But the lobby was sweet!

Then went back to Old Dubai to eat some Indian food, and that was about it! Oh and I bought some Dubai chocolate, which seems to be picking up in popularity these days. They’ve managed to combine chocolate, with kunafa, a popular middle eastern dessert (called the Queen of middle eastern desserts) - pistachio kunafa in particular, and it is pretty god damn delicious. Especially with dark chocolate. I don’t think Dubai has the best chocolate, but the combination of flavors works really well together. In the US we really don’t use pistachio enough. And in case you’re wondering what the king of middle eastern desserts is, that would be the baklava!

Honestly delicious. Kinda pricey though, $10 for a chocolate bar. Probably paid too much

So that was 1.5 days in Dubai, which is really all I needed. I mostly just wanted to see the place, but not really do the overpriced touristy type stuff. I mean sure I could have gone to the museum of the future, the indoor snow skiing park, the Palms at Jumeiria, where they created all that artificial land that juts out into the water to form the shape of a palm leaf, etc. But nahh, not really my thing, I was pretty happy with 1.5 days to see the place. And not give too much money to the UAE government, because they are definitely involved in some shady shit, but I got to see what I wanted to see. And I can’t really disagree with the backpacker sentiment that Dubai is kinda fake and overhyped, but it really doesn’t have to be, and it’s still a very cool place just to see for a day or two. If you’re on a budget, just stay in Old Dubai! And there’s a big bus station in Old Dubai which makes it very easy to hop on a bus directly to Abu Dhabi. And I guess you do have to hand it to Dubai, they have done an excellent diversifying their economy into being the region’s business and tourism hub.

One Very Full Day in Doha

January 29, 2026

So the morning run and spending time on the waterfront was very pleasant, then it was back to the hotel to shower up and get my day plans sorted out.

Next stop would be visiting the nearby souk (traditional market) and getting some breakfast. While there are plenty of restaurants, it mainly functions as a market. They sell basically everything in the souk, and they have a very very distinct smell, which really gives you that sense of place, as there is always incense burning and wafting around. This part of the world is famous for its frankincense. Plus you have all the spices, dates, perfume shops, just lots of lovely and very particularly fragrant smells walking around these middle eastern souks. I really enjoy it. And the vendors were not pushy at all, it was nothing like being in a souk in Egypt for instance. The perfume shops give you free strips of their popular fragrances without even trying to wrangle you into their shops. And this souk had a bird market too, which seemed pretty random to me.

Gonna need a translation here on what kinda shop is on this corner

The main walking street running through it was where all the restaurants were, and I googled traditional Qatari breakfast, but I could not seem to find what I was looking for. Turkish breakfast, Lebanese breakfast, Yemeni breakfast, but I couldn’t find Qatari breakfast! I ended up at a shakshuka place, which is still a middle eastern breakfast, but more from the N African or the Levant region. Oh well. It was still delicious. And expensive, as this souk is also a very touristy place. Not US expensive though. Even Qatar isn’t US expensive.

The main walking street. Interesting choice of statues here

In terms of food, Qatar is kind of like Australia, they don’t have a lot of dishes that are distinctly Qatari. But food from the entire region is great, so they borrow a lot of other middle eastern or north African dishes. Plus the foreign workers all bring along their own cuisines so you’ll find lots of Pakistani, Indian, Nepalese, Bangladeshi, and Filipino restaurants as well.

Next up would be the Museum of Islamic Art, which is new-ish (2008), has beautiful architecture, and located right on the waterfront. Very well done exhibits, impeccable lighting, a great place to spend an hour and a half during the middle of the day. My knowledge of this part of the world is actually quite limited, so I did enjoy learning a bit of the history, rise of Islam, the changes in art and language in different Caliphates, etc. Although I had to choose between this museum and the National Museum of Qatar, where I’m sure I would have learned more of the history stuff, but I have a short attention span and I like looking at pretty things. So I spent a bit of extra time on wikipedia for the history lessons, the tribal history, surving in the desert, pearl farming, being a British protectorate (gotta protect that India spice route), Independence, finding oil etc.

At least three taxis asked me if I need a ride while walking towards the museum, a minute away from it lol

those people taking photos directly upwards would be me in a few moments

I need a wider angle lens. But Islamic Architecture is very pleasing to the eye

And now I will bore you with some random shots of pieces in the museum

I asked someone to take a photo of me, which I hate doing, and then they always turn out crappy to boot. SquintySunEyes.jpg

Later on I would head to the Katara cultural village, which, I’m not sure if it was because it was late afternoon (lots of places don’t get crowded till after sunset) or what, but it was boring as hell, and I honestly couldn’t figure out what exactly I was supposed to do there? The amphitheater was closed for setting up a concert and I felt like I walked around the whole place in 20 minutes. Surely I missed something. I ended up strolling the waterfront with empty beaches and then hopping back on the metro a few kilometers south, which involved crossing a highway with no crosswalks, it felt like being in certain parts of the US with many parts of the town not designed at all for pedestrians! Then I was back into the strange downtown area.

Some of the deserted beaches. Low 70’s is not yet beach weather I think

The downtown has so many big buildings, but so few people actually walking around, or even looking like they were going in or out of these big skyscrapers. It feels like they were built for people to use eventually, but just not yet. It feels like Doha is prepping itself ahead of time for something like Dubai style growth, or something along those lines. Walking around downtown was also uneventful, but I did get some nice photos back on the corniche as the sun was setting and the lights of the buildings were turning on. Gorgeous skyline.

I need to stop taking photos of the dhows

Being my first full day of travel and still full of energy I decided to hop back on the train and go further north, to the Pearl District, more specifically the Qanat Quartier, which they call the Venice of the Middle East. Although my metro card wouldn’t work on the bus needed to take you there, and buses seemed to be infrequent, so I just walked a few miles, and this wealthy part of Doha is definitely not set up well for walking! Like many places around the world, the rich seem to limit public transit in certain areas to keep the riffraff out. But they weren’t keeping me out!

Finally getting to the walkable canals, looks like a nice spot to live!

As I walked there everything was super nice (besides the lack of sidewalks), beautiful apartment buildings with perfectly manicured yards and gardens (it’s literally insane how many foreign workers they have all around the city doing landscaping, yardword, sweeping, glass cleaning etc. There was an absolutely stunning looking mosque. Many of the apartments were on the water with small marinas and boats, and eventually you get to the very walkable part where the buildings have a more European style and there’s a few canals running through the area ( which is how it has it’s nickname) with shops and restaurants, but I’d say the Qanat Quartier was pretty underwhelming for how much walking I did to get there! Felt kinda like Fort Lauderdale. A nice spot for rich people to drive their boats around.

Kinda creepy beach view of the Lusail building. If I wasn’t so tired I would have liked to check that building out

The bus stop, motion activated doors, air conditioning, tv playing. That’s a nice bus stop!

I’m sure it would be a very nice sport to live, international and cosmopolitan, there were upscale Japanese, Argentinian, Korean, Peruvian, Thai restaurants, but very little that seemed ‘Qatari’. And god damn it I want to eat at least one Qatari staple dish in the country, so I would eventually work my way back to the waqif souk, which should have ‘traditional’ Qatari food. Although I had to walk back to the train station, so all in all it ended up being 50k steps on the day! Yikes. But I wasn’t really in any hurry, and the nice thing about Arab countries is that everything is open late, almost nothing closes before 11 or midnight. Plenty of places open until 3am or so.

I eventually got back to the souk, and it was packed! Like every restaurant you looked at seemed to be fully jammed. Part of this is the weather, because once it gets to summer you can’t even eat outside because it’s just too hot. This time of year the weather is gorgeous, low 70’s in the day, high 50’s at night. I kind of hate being a solo diner when every place is full. It felt like this in Rome.

I soon found a spot at place that advertised “Traditional Qatari Food”. Great! Although I put that in quotes because almost every place that advertises like this are tourists traps, and yeahh this one was too, but I didn’t care, I wanted to sample some traditional Qatari dishes, which I did! They were served in small cheap tins, cafeteria style, from precooked buffet trays in back of the restaurant, and way overpriced, but god damn it, I was finally eating food from the country that I was actually in! It was fine, the chicken majboos dish and the chickpea dish were good, but I knew I was definitely not getting the finest example of the country’s cuisine. Oh well. When you do as little pre-planning as I do, you have to accept everything isn’t always going to be perfect.

That photo wasn’t a picture of my food, which looked much worse, but that’s chicken majboos, the national dish of Qatar .

So that was my two nights and one whole day in Qatar. I finished up in an Egyptian run shisha café, then off to bed pretty early and I flew out early the next morning to the next stop, Dubai.

A New Part of the World, The Gulf Countries: Doha, Qatar

January 29, 2026

Alrighty, the blog is back! Normally I fly over the Pacific to get to Cambodia but I thought I’d switch things up and fly over the Atlantic this time around. I booked a Qatar Airlines flight to Dubai with a two night layover in Doha. With plans to visit Abu Dhabi as well and then Oman.

After a 13 hour flight with purposely no sleep, I landed in Doha around 6pm, a bit after the sunset. I didn’t realize how early the sun sets in the gulf states, around 5:30 or 5:45, so it was already mostly dark when I landed.

Everything was very smooth, the flight was on time, immigration was easy, I was in and out of the airport very quickly. The airport is connected to the metro, and it was super easy to buy a metro ticket, it’s a flat price no matter how far you’re going, which makes things easy, no worrying about trying to find your exact stop or anything like that. And it’s like $1. There’s also the option for a day pass, which is great, maybe $3. I can’t imagine they make any money from their metro, but a country with a jillion dollars in natural gas reserves can subsidize a few things! The airport train comes every 8 minutes. You just have to make sure you don’t go into the ladies only section of the metro, but no worries, there were very people around anyway. About 30 minutes of train, which included one quick transfer, and then 10 minutes of walking and I was at my hotel. About as seamless as it gets! Well without taking a taxi of course. But overall a nice first impression.

The nice thing about Qatar Airlines is they let you choose how many days stopover you’d like in Doha and your stopover includes discounted hotel prices with affiliated hotels, so two nights seemed about right (nobody raves about all the cool things to do in Doha) and the hotel I was staying at was $40 per night instead of $75. The first thing that struck me walking to the hotel was just how quiet the area was. There were a few other hotels around, a few convenience stores and casual Indian/Pakistani restaurants, but there was hardly anyone walking on the streets, few cars, lots of parking spaces, just an empty kind of feeling. It didn’t feel like much of a residential area, just a hotel zone.

Check in was easy, I put my stuff down, and then basically headed right back out to check out a bit of the city. I knew I’d only have a few hours before the adrenaline of getting into a completely new place wore off and I’d crash pretty hard, after over 24 hours of no sleep. The closest interesting place to my hotel was the Mina District, kind of a bougie, artsy place, with traditional clay/adobe brickwork transformed into a very modern and fashionable outdoor shopping and eating area. A pretty popular area for native Qataris.

One of the most interesting things about Qatar is that locals are only about 12% of the population, and the rest are mostly foreign workers. The standard of living for Qataris is pretty high, their GDP per capita is the highest of all the Gulf countries, followed closely bye UAE, so with all their all oil and gas reserves they can afford to bring in such a cheap labor force. And their government seems to take care of them very well.

But as a tourist in your day to day routine that mostly involves talking to hotel staff, cleaners, restaurant workers, any type of retail workers, you’re probably not actually going to meet many actual Qataris. Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Filipinos, Nepalese, Egyptians, you name it, you will come into contact with. But as a tourist, I’m not sure if even talked to anyone from Qatar the entire time I was there. Quite the strange dynamic. My first meal was some Turkish? kebabs at a place run a by some Bangladeshi guys. Tasty!

The country also faced some very heavy criticism for how they treated their foreign worker population in the lead up to the World Cup in 2022, where workers were forced to work in blazing hot conditions all day, and many ended up dying of heat stroke or exhaustion. So needless to say the Qatari government isn’t exactly great on human rights abuses and the spending money in the country does come with an ethical dilemma, but being from the US and seeing what’s going on with our government, well people in glass houses can’t throw stones. My general stance is that most governments suck and my money is mostly going to the people of the country, not the government. Plus its only 2 days. But suffice to say that the leverage Qataris can hold over the foreign workers is certainly ripe for exploitation from bad actors.

So walking around you’ll quickly notice that Qatari men usually wear the full length, white garments called the dishdasha, and women usually wear full black dress called an abaya, usually with a head covering as well, called a shayla. Although it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re from Qatar, as they could be from one of the neighboring gulf countries as well. Other foreign male workers generally wear long pants and button downs, as they’d normally wear in their own countries, foreign women usually wear pants and a blouse or a full length dress, and I was quite happy to be sporting shorts and a t-shirt.

As a white guy and obvious tourist I felt no obligation whatsoever to wear pants in the desert. I hate wearing pants. Nobody really cares what you wear around town, as long as it’s not a holy place. Although being a pretty conservative place, western girls will definitely get some looks with short shorts and shoulders exposed. White guys get a pass for everything.

Anyway, the Mina District was a nice walk around, lots of pretty buildings and artisanal shops, definitely a place where you could spend some coin (I didn’t) and you do get some very nice views of the downtown area of Doha, lit up all nicely, right across the bay. I stopped in a more cheap, local kebab place on the walk home, and then couldn’t resist the shisha café I passed, and then after that it was straight to bed, out by 10pm.

the entrance looking back to the downtown

nice coffeeshop on the water, $8 cappucino

So the Mina District was fun for taking some photos, and then walking back there was also a little area on the waterfront that had a bunch of shops and restaurants made from shipping containers, which was kinda neat, as they were constructed very nicely and very colorful. Every area designed for public use in Doha is nice!

notice the security guard in the yellow vest, these guys are everywhere

If you can’t tell, I like the lamps they have around here

So after a solid sleep I was wide awake at 5:30am. I was supposed to sleep longer than this! But I knew there was no going back at this point, so it seemed like a nice opportunity to go for a very early morning jog along the Corniche, the waterfront path that leads all along the bay to the downtown, maybe 5 miles away. Excellent running weather too, upper 50’s or low 60’s.

It was an excellent run, watching the sun come up and watching the buildings slowly get closer and taller. The corniche is gorgeous juxtaposition with the traditional wooden boats (called Dhows) docked near the shore, with the tall modern skycrapers off in the hazy background. I did stop my run many many times to take iphone photos. I kinda wished I took my big camera along, I have a hangup about seeing nice photos in my head but not being able to photograph with my DSLR. Fortunately cell phone camera technology is almost there anyway. But it was really really nice way to start the day. So here’s the photo dump…

As you can tell you, you just can’t have enough dhow photos!

Wide angle lens distortion is a real bitch on phone photos! So that was my early morning on Doha’s Corniche, very nice! I was already glad I made the stopover here.

Danang and Everywhere Nearby

August 14, 2025

So I left Hue on the train to Danang, which was great, the last section of it carving it’s way along the lush hillsides overlooking the coast heading into Danang. I made sure to get a left hand window seat just for these views. Although it was raining the entire time, which was a bit of bummer, and the bright shades or turquoise aquamarine that you’d see in photos looked more like a dark shade of gray. I hadn’t been paying much attention to the weather, but this rain was the start of the summer season’s first tropical depression in Central Vietnam. Yay. I run bad in Danang, when I first flew out to Southeast Asia in December I flew into Danang (great airport btw) and it literally rained the entire week I was there. De ja vu.

Similar views from the train, but this was all I could muster for a photo haha

The reason I like to stop in Danang, besides the beaches, food, coffee, prices, etc, is that it has poker, albeit quasi-legal poker. Cash games (but not tournaments) are illegal in Vietnam, but there are casinos that are allowed to operate as long as they don’t allow any Vietnamese citizens, and some of them have live poker, such as the Crown Casino in Danang. The concept is similar to the “Social Clubs” in Texas for poker. It’s also in USD, which is very convenient. For fully legal poker rooms there are a bunch of card rooms around the city that run tournaments only, and this is where you’ll find all the Vietnamese players. Although I don’t particularly like tournament poker, and the buy ins are small. But still they’re a good way to kill a rainy afternoon, and they’re fun because the tournaments are very soft, lively, and gambley. Plus it’s nice to play with and chat with locals. The type of Vietnamese that play are usually the well educated, upper middle class type, and they really don’t care to throw away a bunch of $30 or $50 buy-ins. That would be FAR less likely in Cambodia.

In Cambodia for the locals, poker just isn’t really a thing. There’s no interest in it, it’s seen kinda like golf, a rich man’s game. And there just aren’t that many people that can afford to lose a few hundred dollars any given night. It’s also technically illegal for Cambodians to gamble in casinos, but it’s not enforced at all. The government likes its’ money after all. So in the poker scene the few Khmers that play are usually either short buying at the lowest stakes, or playing high stakes and don’t care about money at all. Which sums up Cambodian society pretty well. Rich or poor, not much in between.

Danang is a pretty interesting city. It’s been growing very rapidly! It seems to pick up 3% every year, so it’s doubled in size in the last 20 years, up to 1.2 million people. High rises and ones under construction are literally everywhere. It’s long been the cheap beach hotspot for Koreans, with whole sections of the town filled with Kbbqs and karaoke joints. Since Covid it’s been picking up steam as a digital nomad hotspot, with youtubers touting the cheap prices and apartment leases for around $300/month. Although if prices (and crowds) this summer were any indication, Danang’s status of Hidden Gem is officially over! Tourism is up something like 35% from last year. A big part of that has been Vietnam’s push to tap into the Indian market, and holy cow, you can really tell. Vietnam is certainly the hotspot for Indians at the moment.

Vietnam is a quite a bit more developed than a lot of people realize

Hotel prices were at least double what they were in December, so I ended up getting an Airbnb on a nice quiet leafy street that doesn’t have any high rises, which I had already scouted out last time I was here. Being next to the sounds of pounding and jackhammers all day, every day, is a constant worry when selecting a place to stay in Danang. This Airbnb was run by a friendly young Vietnamese woman, although it’s a bit of an awkward set up, as you walk through the living room and kitchen to get to the staircase going up, but she didn’t seem to mind and liked to chat with all her guests. My room had full length glass doors overlooking the street, which was nice. I liked this particular street because there’s very little traffic, there’s lots of trees, but also because I like how it has lots of local shops that operate on the ground floors of the buildings.

In Vietnam it’s very common to turn the ground floor of the place you own into any sort of business of your choosing. There’s no real restrictions or rules against it. So on this street there was a nail salon, laundry, and foot massage shop all run as small businesses. And then for food you’ve got a fresh juice and smoothie place, a coffee/pastry shop, a fruit/yogurt/granola bowl shop, an ice cream place, and a sandwich spot. Most of them are set up as professional looking establishments (albeit with very little seating) but for instance the ice cream and sandwich spots are literally just people’s homes and you basically walk into their living room to place your order and sit at a table on the sidewalk. And that’s if there’s someone even there. If they’re not, you just move along. In a very corporate world, I like this kind of thing. Of course I wouldn’t like it if I really really wanted that chicken bacon sandwich.

So for the first three days it did nothing but rain. Rain rain rain. Enough to flood most of the streets under a few inches of water. In a tourist beach city like Danang, there really isn’t a whole lot to do if the weather is shit. Sit in coffee shops and get massages. Definitely no shortage of either of those type of places. The number of coffee shops in town is actually insane. Take your pick from trendy, modern and minimalist, to old school communist kitsch, or perhaps no decorations at all, just little stools and tables set outside. You could café hop for months and just scratch the surface. Since I was staying in the digital nomad part of town, the nice indoor places were always full of people sitting on their laptops, taking up space. A million coffeeshops, somehow all of them busy. Wild.

After a few days the weather cleared up and it was 80’s and sunny the rest of time. Excellent beach weather. And of course the beaches aren’t crowded during the middle of the day because Asians are absolutely allergic to the sun. You should see what the Vietnamese women wear riding their motos around town to make sure no glint of sunlight touches any piece of bare skin. Oversize sunglasses, hats, full face scarf, pants, long sleeves, gloves, etc. Dressed like it’s winter in 90 degree weather. It isn’t until right around sunset when all the Asians hit he beach. This is when you realize how popular Danang is right now, because the beaches are jammed. Of course with a scooter it’s not that hard to find non-crowded beaches if you like.

Photo stolen from internet, but it’s always crazy to see some of these outfits in 90 degree weather

Midday a few miles away, absolutely nobody on the beaches

Danang in the evening. This was from a stormy day, so it wasn’t too crowded

Besides the beaches, which aren’t anything amazing, Danang has lots of interesting places within scootering distance. Danang has a really pretty peninsula that juts out into the ocean, the Son Tra Peninsula, which is very hilly, forested, and shockingly undeveloped. It’s got a bunch of windy, narrow, pot-holed paved roads you can take your scooter on. What I didn’t know was that they won’t let you take an automatic scooter up there, so I had to turn around. Bummer! I think they’re trying to keep tourists away, because some can’t handle the steep gradients of some of the roads. Meh

My favorite part of Danang is most certainly the Hai Van Pass (cover photo), it’s also one of the top touristy things to do. It’s a 15 mile road that takes a similar route the train took, winding up in mountains overlooking the coast. Sometimes you’ll read that it’s dangerous for tourists to do, but that’s only if you don’t know how to ride at all, because the roads are wide and in fantastic shape. Excellent riding! At the other end of the pass the Lap An Lagoon, which is really nice. I think an underrated part of Vietnam is their lagoons. They’re interesting eco-systems, the brackish water is good for raising things like mussels, crabs, lobsters, and especially oysters. The fishing villages and the amount of fishing traps, stilted huts, boats, etc all in the lagoons is particularly photogenic. And eating a plate full of freshly caught oysters for like $4 is also great.

I prefer oysters with less stuff on them, but these were good too

The most popular spot around is definitely Hoi An, about 30 minutes south, which is a kind of bougie ancient town, filled with boutique shops and cafes and famous for it’s brightly lit paper lanterns everywhere as well as boat trips down the river. I liked eating in the big indoor market, which is full of small vendors with rectangular bar type seating all vying to get you to their stand. Hoi An’s specialty is called Cao Lau, a pork noodle soup dish with distinctive chewy noodles. Very tasty.

As for the main streets of Hoi An, it is an absolute zoo. Tourism has basically exploded there. Although June is peak domestic travel time for the Vietnamese and it’s also peak Indian holiday travel as well, so yeah, it’s a busy month. It’s still worth checking out, and who doesn’t love a bunch of cutesy cafes, restaurants and cocktail bars in old French buildings with old timey paper lanterns illuminating everything? Women especially seem to dig it. But really there’s no room to even walk on the main street and I had to chuckle at just how many boats were in the river, all jammed in there like sardines. No thanks. A few hours in Hoi An was enough for me.

Everyone trying to get you on their boat

There’s also the Marble Mountain, which has a bunch of Buddhist temples built into the karst mountain grottos. There’s some sort of resort amusement park called Bana Hills, which sounds miserable and I would not be attending. The only reason to go would be to get that famous photo of the hand bridge (photo stolen to the right), but really I don’t care that much. Besides that there’s just lots of nice rural scenery, rice fields and the like which makes for a great day cruising around on a moto. You can basically pick any direction and it’s nice for riding. So anyway, there’s lots of reasons to like Danang!

So I spent a few straight days picking a new place to drive around in the day and then playing poker at night. Unfortunately the cash games were pretty dead and it was mostly the house players keeping the games going. I really wish Danang had better poker, because it really is a great spot to hang out for a while if you like beach life and doing outdoor activities and meeting other nomads. It definitely reminded me of Playa del Carmen. The city center itself being kinda boring for tourists, kinda ugly, sprawling, lacking culture as so many people are transplants etc, but as an active foreigner there is just a lot of stuff going on. You can easily join yoga groups, running clubs, do beach volleyball, surfing, Crossfit, trivia nights etc. Less focus on a drinking and partying.

Which is kind of the opposite of Phnom Penh, where the crowd leans more boozy and degenerate. I mean I like Phnom Penh and all, its cushy, some excellent cafes, restaurants and bars, but there is not much of a health and wellness scene. There’s basically zero nature, very few outdoor activities, almost no parks, the idea of a running trail in a forest would be a completely alien concept. My outdoorsy activity is going for runs that mostly involve dodging moving cars, trucks and scooters and broken pieces of sidewalk or pavement. Even getting out and doing day trips there’s very little of interest, mostly just endless sprawl followed by flat scrubby land. Although it’s hard to be too harsh on Cambodia, as so much of it shaped by uhh, something very bad that happened not long ago. But for better or worse, Cambodia needs foreign money and is happy to allow plenty of gambling and easy visas, and I can’t complain about that. Anyway, I’ll finish with way too many photos of that lagoon that I liked so much :)

fishing is obviously the livelihood around here

Hue, the former Capital

August 9, 2025

Hue is a pleasant medium sized city of over a million in Central Vietnam, just a bit smaller than Danang, but quite a bit less touristy. It’s the former capital of Vietnam, from 1802 to 1945 during the Nguyen dynasty. It was also a major battleground of the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War, which was lost to the Vietcong with many civilians being massacred. It’s well located on the Perfume River, which is supposedly named because it carries lots of aromatic plants and flowers during autumn, although I have trouble imaging this, as boat exhaust seems to the primary smell near the river. Doing a dragonboat ride at sunset down the river is a very popular thing to do.

Hue is famous for it’s walled Imperial City, which was taken after Beijing’s Forbidden City. But it’s also got a bunch of historical cites, a citadel, a few massive mausoleums of the former rulers, and even an abandoned waterpark. It’s also got some nice countryside and it’s only 30 minutes away from the ocean. I stayed just two nights, but definitely could have done three. I’m not going to write too much for this post though, just provide the photos with some comments. Like usual, I just rented a moto and spent the day cruising around. The first stops are the mausoleums, the big 3, built by emperors Tu Duc, Minh Mang, and Khai Din. Sadly I did not dress in traditional Vietnamese clothes for these places haha.

Fun Fact: Tu Duc was the longest running emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty. He had 104 wives! And that’s not including concubines

Can you tell that dressing up for these places and taking photos is a popular thing to do?!

Minh Mang’s Mausoleum, 2nd emperor. He liked to build stuff and kill people.

Khai Dinh’s Mausoleum. 12th Emperor. His predecessor was exiled by the French in the 1900’s and he was mostly seen a French puppet.

Just enough time to hit the beach in the late afternoon

The crossing the bridge over the Tam Giang Lagoon, largest lagoon in Southeast Asia

For whatever reason, there are cemeteries everywhere around here

Entering Hue’s Imperial City. This was the main residence later on in the dynasty.

So that was a pretty active day and a half in Hue. There’s a lot to see. The Imperial City definitely piques your interest from the outside as the outer walls are tall enough that you can’t see anything inside. There’s four main gates, all crossing the surrounding moat. Two of the gates are closed, one is for the tourist entrance and one for the tourist exit, which is a little confusing if you don’t know the layout beforehand. I got there right when it opened so it was pretty cool to have the place mostly to myself, well besides like 3 different girls in costume and their photographers haha. Dressing up at these old historical sites is basically a national pastime as far as I can tell!

The grounds of the city are pretty expansive, you could easily wander around for a few hours, but it started drizzling when I was there, so I didn’t stay too long. I needed one of those antique umbrellas all the girls were carrying around. Of course I parked at the gate on the exact opposite of exit gate, which mean walking an extra mile around the walls in the rain to get to my scooter, grrr. I stopped in the usual egg + baguette type of breakfast place, eventually returned the scooter, and was on the 1pm train to Danang. It’s so nice to have the train option again!

Savannakhet and into Vietnam

July 21, 2025

After Thakhek I was ready to head into Vietnam, but the border-crossing buses don’t go from Thakhek, you have to backtrack south a few hours to the 2nd largest city in Laos, Savannakhet. After doing some research I found someone who recommended a good one day motorbike loop from Savannakhet, so that was all the convincing I needed to stay two nights in the town. It was a 3 hour minibus trip, with somehow only two people in our bus, plus a mango pit stop at a roadside market that also sold live snakes in a bag, bbq rodents, and dead animals in large glass jars filled with liquid (pictured). Yummy. The mangos were actually really good though, they like them partially unripe, so they’re a little soft in the middle and crunchy at the edges. The driver gave me a mango and his knife to cut my own on the way. Top notch service!

But seriously what is that thing in the photo?!

Once in town the driver said I could pay an extra $2 to get dropped off directly at my guesthouse instead of the bus station, so sure. I checked into a family run guesthouse and the teenage son showed me to the room, and soon enough I wandered off. All of these Loatian cities kind of have a similar feel, they’re all on the Mekong, they all have some colonial French buildings, they’re all kind of boring, and they all have a night market which is always the most popular place to visit in the evenings. Being the largest of the southern cities, Savannakhet had the most old French buildings and the biggest and most diverse night market, which I suppose makes it the best of these cities! They had a few interesting things like Turkish style kebabs and grilled eggplant, Japanese mochi, and Korean fried chicken and corn dogs. It’s worth noting with the explosion of Kpop in the last few years, everything Korean is very trendy now. American culture is on the decline. And I hate to say it, but Korean corn dogs >>> American corn dogs. The fried chicken is closer. I still have to go with Nashville hot chicken.

I rented a bike from my guesthouse, and they gave me a beater. But seeing how Savannakhet gets very few tourists, there’s not many places to rent bikes, so I figured I would make do. The loop was all paved road anyway. So I set off around 11am, 15 minutes later I’m in the countryside. But this damn bike is running high RPMS at cruising speed. I was shocked at how fast it was using up gas and had to stop at a roadside stall to buy a liter of gasoline. When I tried to start the bike up again, nothing. Agghgh. Tried for 5 minutes, using the kickstart, nothing. Someone came over to help to see if they could get it going, nope. I asked where the mechanic was and fortunately there was one a few minutes down the road. The nice thing about Southeast Asia is that if you’re anywhere near civilization, no matter how small the village, there is always a mechanic nearby. Always.

It was about 10 minutes, sweating my ass off in the sun, and I actually passed a guy who asked me what was up, in unmistakably American English, and he walked with me to the mechanic to help translate. This guy had lived and worked most of his life in California but came back to Laos to retire and build a house in the countryside. Not a bad plan. After failing to get the bike to start again, the mechanic unscrewed the middle plastic housing and began looking around inside. Verdict: Bad air filter and bad spark plug. He brushed the air filter and replaced the spark plug and 15 minutes later I was on my way after paying the invoice, $2. Crazy. Although the bike seemed to be running even rougher than before. But I just started and hell if I’m going to just turn around already.

In this part of Laos the land is very flat and the scenery uninspiring, and there’s nothing overly exciting for tourists to see, but there were a few mildly interesting spots on this loop. My first stop was at a shady forest temple called Wat Phoukor, which was a nice respite from the sun, as most of the countryside doesn’t have many big trees. The temple grounds have many scenes from local folklore, including figurines depicting what happens in Buddhist hell. I didn’t even know there was Buddhist hell! Pretty gruesome!

Going for a relaxing stroll around the temple… oh wait. Yikes

Riding further on, there’s a monkey forest, but all the monkeys seem to just hang out in the parking lot, not in the actual forest. And trail disappears. Hmm. There’s also spot called Taleo old temple, which was designed like a church, but isn’t a church, and was in use as a monastic school until 1969 when it got heavily damaged by American bombing campaigns. It’s still standing today, but in bad shape. The closer you look in Laos, the more you see the scars from the Vietnam war. Apparently the locals know where to find old, unexploded cluster bombs, but people are more educated about them now (ie teaching kids not to play with them) and knowing specific areas to avoid. But still a handful of people die every year from explosions, usually children. Of the 270 million cluster bombs dropped on Laos, they say 30% never exploded. That’s a pretty insane number, almost 100 MILLION little bombs just sitting around somewhere in the country.

While I was driving I noticed my gas gauge drop pretty quickly, but I thought there was no friggen way I could have burned through almost a whole tank in an hour. No way. Normally a full tank lasts you all day. I was on a country road, so I’d investigate in the next village. A minute later the needle dropped all the way down and I came sputtering to halt. God damn it. Piece of shit bike. Back to walking it on the side of the road. Very fortunately (again!) a place with gas was only a few minutes away to fill her up and it was only a short delay that could have easily been much worse. Back on the road I was soon at the highlight of the loop, the oldest library in Laos, built on wooden stilts over the river. Very impressive! No tourists around or anything, just a few monks hanging out and some local kids running around.

There was also a turtle pond and crocodile marsh to see, but you had to go a bit out of the way to get there, and with my lack of trust in my bike, I decided against it. Which was good, because the bike was getting worse, and as soon as I made it within the city limits of Savannakhet, the piece of crap died again! Now I’m pretty pissed off. 3rd time the bike has died. Although once again, it was just a few blocks walk to find another mechanic. Same deal, he opened it up, took a look, bad spark plug. He removed it and handed it to me to touch, burning hot! Ow! Thanks for that Mr. Mechanic! So another new spark plug. Another big bill from the auto shop. A bit more expensive this time, $2.25. Big city prices.

I finally got back to the guesthouse well after dark and let them know what I thought of this bike they gave me. Karen mode. I was pretty (very) annoyed they gave me such a shit bike, and I was very very lucky it died in all the right spots. I didn’t have to pay for the bike rental, but I still ended up paying more in gas and mechanics than I would have paid on a normal day of renting a bike + buying a full tank on a bike that isn’t garbage. Although the actual dollar amounts are trivial of course. I guess it’s pretty fitting though, you can’t have a trip to Laos with at least some bike trouble! Well that concludes the brief two week excursion into South/Central Laos. Being that I’m poor-ish this year, I didn’t want to travel too long, my plan was to get over to Danang in Vietnam to play some more poker. Although the bus from Savannahket goes to a city two hours north of Danang called Hue, the former capital of Vietnam. So that’s where I’d go first. Two more nights before the poker restarts.

This was maybe $2.50? Good stuff. Laos steak and eggs.

The next morning I went to a beef and egg place near the bus station before boarding a big ol’ bus from the 70’s or 80’s. I was the only foreigner on the bus. The border crossing was actually surprisingly stressful because the driver doesn’t speak English and nobody tells you anything! There’s a no man’s land that you have to walk across, and then once you get through the Vietnam side, there’s no bus anywhere to be seen. Uhhh. What. I’m trying to ask people and they just point to the exit gate. Okaaayyyy, weird. You almost always wait for your bus in the immigration area.

Lots of old things in Laos. This is from the bus station parking lot

So I walk past the exit gate and guard, and now I’m fully in Vietnam. All the locals waiting on the Vietnam side are trying to get me in a taxi or minvan to the nearest town, Dong Hoi. No, no, no. Thankfully someone actually helpful tells me to go down the road and wait at the gas station for my bus. I ended up waiting there 30 minutes, wondering if my bus and luggage were gone, never to be seen again. But eventually it arrived and it was smooth sailing until Hue. Although we sat in rush our traffic, driving through the whole city, and they wouldn’t let you off the bus in town! You had to wait until the bus station, outside of town on the exact opposite side of the city. And then sit in traffic again taking a taxi back into main part of the city. AGHHGHG. But now we’re in Hue!