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Posts tagged ‘trans-siberian’

Hotels (in which Carrie learns she is way too old for hostels)

I mentioned the name of the hotel we stayed in while in Beijing a couple of times: The HuLu Hotel. The HuLu Hotel was wonderful. It’s in a central location, tucked away down one of the hutongs. Staying there, I really felt at home in Beijing. Read more

The Lama Temple

I’m all typed out, so just the pictures of the Lama Temple. Read more

Looking for cash in all the wrong places

You might think the big event of my single day in Beijing was the Great Wall. Or even the Lama Temple. Or walking around Beijing, buying $2 umbrellas when we’re caught in a downpour, or finding a restaurant and ordering food in a hutong near our hotel.

But no. The big event was finding someplace to change money. For a cash-based economy, China really makes it incomprehensively difficult to change US Dollars into Chinese RMB. Read more

Sweating on the Great Wall

In the planning of this trip, I made an early decision that I would not spend much time in Beijing. After all, I’ve been here before and seen the big ticket sights, and on the whole would rather save my vacation days for new things.

Except for the Great Wall. I wanted to go to the Great Wall with Steve.

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Logistics, planning, and scheduling (disappointment)

This trip has been in the planning phases for more than a year.

On November 18, 2013 I posted this on Facebook: 

I am once again thinking the trans-siberian railway sounds like a pretty cool vacation. Maybe in a year or two?

And my cousin Steve Vincent responded that he was interested. And the rest is history.
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