Category Archives: Solo Female Travel

Cost of Traveling in China: Dali, China

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How much does it cost to visit Dali, China?  Let’s find out.

I spent two nights in Dali.  I arrived early morning on day one and left early morning on day three.

How did I travel to Dali?  I flew from Kunming.  There are bus and train options which are way cheaper.  But one of the benefits of being employed full time is that you can justify these splurges in order to get a few more hours in a destination.

While here, I stayed at the Dragonfly Inn (Hi Lorelai and Sookie!)  in a private room with private bathroom.

dragonfly

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Train Ride from Dali, China to Lijiang, China

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To get from Dali to Lijiang, you can take a train or a bus. I took a train, because it was only two hours compared to five.  But it ended up feeling like seventeen hours, so maybe the bus is a better option after all.

Arrival at Dali train station.  Look at those stairs you need to get your luggage up. I pitied myself for only the ten seconds it took before I saw a woman with two full sized suitcases navigate the steps without any help.

Dali China train station

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Dali, China: Beautiful Movie Set-Like Setting and Cangshan Mountain Cable Car

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One thing you never realize while growing up American is that all the things you are exposed to are just replica of real things thousands of miles away.  So when you arrive in a place like Dali, China, it takes a while for your mind to comprehend that this is the real deal.  This is all authentic China.  This is not an amusement park, not a theme park, not a Hollywood movie set, this is an actual true town that looks like this:

Dali ChinaPretty, right?

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Dali, China: The Gorgeous Three Pagodas of the Congsheng Temple Grounds

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If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you may have seen me post that once upon a time, I saw a photo of Dali’s Three Pagodas and immediately thought “I need to go there.”  So I did.

This is one of the many things I love about travel.  That as you go further and further, you realize how attainable things are.  You can be a person who looks at a picture in a magazine and thinks “Oh how pretty” before turning the page and running for your car keys when you see an ad announcing that your preferred brand of kitty litter is on sale, or you can be the person who does not turn the page and instead brings the magazine to her laptop and begins Googling to figure out the logistics of getting there.  I will always be the latter.  How could I not be when this exists:

Dali three pagodas Conghsheng Temple China

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Dali, China: Beautiful Scenery, Dead Butterflies and I Get Lost and Hitchhike

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I woke up in Kunming this morning and had a fight with my VPN for way too long to actually admit to, so let’s just say it was a long time.

Took my hotel’s airport shuttle to the airport and checked into my flight to Dali.  The flight was a short 57 minutes but I screwed up everything about it.   I thought it was leaving at 9:35, but that was the time it was arriving.  I also at some point thought we were leaving an hour late because it was 8:30, but that is the time my flight was supposed to leave (and I thought it was 9:35 so wouldn’t 8:30 be an hour early and not late?)  Yeah.

We land in Dali and I am picked up by a prearranged driver for my hostel.  This is a luxury I love affording myself because it sure beats figuring out where I have to go.  Which as you read on, you will see why it is probably best I am not left to fend for myself.

I checked into my room at the Dragonfly Guesthouse.  There are so many places to stay in Dali, all with amazing reviews.  How do you choose?  Easy.  Pick the one with the Gilmore Girls related name. Easy, peasy.  Lorelai would be proud.

dragonfly

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31 Hours From My Apartment to Kunming via Kong Kong: Then Not Finding an ATM That Takes My Debit Card.

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After taking an hour long subway ride (that includes taking three trains to avoid having to carry my bags up several flights of steps,) I missed my airport train by about two seconds.  I wait half an hour for the next one, and then finally arrive at the airport.  Of course I was excited to see my flight was delayed.  Oh wait, no I wasn’t.  Sigh.

I was a combination of exhausted and hyper and I didn’t even realize I was making some sort of scene by stamping my feet singing outloud and talking to my cute little stuffed dog.  Then an airport employee came over to ask me if I was okay and then I realized I looked like a crack head.

My first flight was seventeen hours.  I always read about how Cathay Pacific is a great airline so I was excited to be flying them.  They do not have individual air vents at your seats, or at least they did not on this flight.  I did not like that.  They also didn’t do regular beverage service on this flight.  I am not sure if it was because it was an overnight flight or if that is normal.  Yes, you can hit the call button and someone will come, but I felt weird after eight hours of nothing, asking for a snack.  I don’t even know what kind of snacks they had.  It was weird.

My row only had two seats.  I was in the window and my seat mate had a seat’s worth of empty space next to her, until some woman decided to start jogging in place in it. I could not stop laughing.  I understand the reasoning for the jogging in place on a plane.  I do not understand why you would  think it was okay to do so, so close to another person.

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Itinerary For Traveling 7000+ Miles to China to Take One Photograph

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Okay that title is unfair. I am not going to take ONE photograph.  I am going to take eleventy billion photographs.

I always have my future travel plans mapped out in my head.  Once per year I take a BIG trip.  I knew last year that my BIG trip for 2015 was going to be India.  But then as always, my plans changed.

Last year, I spent a month in China.  This includes me going to Tibet and spending a night at Mount Everest Base Camp.  I really should get my posts about that up on my blog, eh?  Most exciting thing I have ever done and I have yet to post about it a year later.  Worst blogger ever.

But anyway, back to THIS post.   When I left Tibet and flew to Chengdu, I was crippled with depression because I wanted to still be in Tibet.  It was the most beautiful place I have ever been.  Sometimes I look at the photos and I cannot believe that I ever stood here:

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Stopover in Xining, China and Getting Knocked Down a Stairway. Oh China.

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I took my first overnight train from Xi’an to Xining.  It was not as bad as I thought it would be.  I was fortunate to have a bottom bed in a soft sleeper car.  My cabin-mates were nice, did not try to speak to me, but did try to give me cookies.  It appeared they were all together.  The (one I assumed was the) father had the bottom bunk opposite me.  He coughed nonstop all night which kept waking me up.  But other than that, not bad at all.

I make it out of the train station. I attempt to walk down the steps.  There is a ramp on the right side of the steps, intending for you to roll your luggage down it as you walk down the steps.  I could not figure out how to use it.  Neither could the woman in front of me.  Unlike me though, she kept trying.  This was holding up everyone.  Except that this is China so by “holding up everyone” I mean “making everyone smash into me to get me to go, but I couldn’t because she wasn’t.”  Next thing I know, I am pushed really hard, I still don’t want to knock the woman in front of me down, so I try to steady myself and end up falling backwards.  No one stops, they all keep continuing down the steps.  Sigh.

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Sometimes As A Solo Traveler, I want to Travel Solo

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Once upon a time, I was in Chengdu, China.   I was going to visit the Grand Leshan Buddha.   I get on the bus and it is hot and smells like a homeless person.  Shortly after, it begins.  I hear some girl talking loudly on a cell phone.  “There are no backpackers on here, only Chinese people and they all smell bad.”  I shrink down in my seat a bit.  It is one thing to not wish for human companionship ever, it is another to hide from someone who is rude enough to have said this aloud.  Don’t assume that no one on the bus can understand you.  I’m betting a bunch of them could.

We get to the town of Leshan and I make the mistake of not immediately running off the bus.  I get caught.  “Hi!  Do you want to share a cab?”  No thank you, I am taking the bus. “I will take it with you!”  Argh, fine.  We walk to the bus and she is joyously telling me how happy she is to have found me.  Me?  I don’t want to be found.

There is a thing about meeting people while traveling.  That thing is that I don’t want to.  Let me make this clear: I know I am the odd one here.  People who want to meet other people?  They are normal.   YOU are normal.  You should be glad I don’t want to spend time with people.  Who wants to spend time with a weirdo?  Go on, run off and be free!

Whenever I do meet someone, the internal dialogue starts.

Me: Ughhhhhhhhh

Me: Would it kill you to just be nice to this person?

Me: No, but I just don’t want to talk to anyone

Me: But would it kill you to just be nice to this person?

Me: But a huge part of this trip was to escape the real world and BE ALONE

Me: BUT WOULD IT KILL YOU TO BE NICE TO THIS PERSON?

Me: I DON’T WANNNNNNNAAAAAAAAAAAAA

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My Last Stay at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City

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I made two trips to Atlantic City this past summer.   I never posted about either of them because I am the world’s worst blogger.  I am now going to post some pictures from this trip before I get to posting about a third trip last weekend.

For both summer trips, I stayed at Trump Plaza and both times were my last times staying here as this hotel and casino closed soon after.

Trump Plaza Atlantic City New Jersey

You know what else closed too?  These guys, Showboat and Revel:

Showboat casino Atlantic City Showboat House of Blues Atlantic City Continue reading →