Jiangxi's Sanqing Mountain

Another beautiful mountain. Sanqing mountain in Jiangxi province is situated between Wuyi mountain in Fujian province and Huang mountain in Anhui province. They all have similar characteristics, especially Sanqing and Huangshan. They are all beautiful and I've hiked each of them this year. Sanqing mountain is a National Geopark and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Its name means 3 peaks.

How'd You Get There?

On Fridays the school day ends, for teachers, at 2:45 which makes it possible to get an early start on weekend trips. I took a high-speed train 4 1/2 hours northwest, before taking a taxi for about an hour to my hotel. The trains are comfortable, so I napped and read, as usual. 

Would you stand on this? 

That is the same walkway from far away. 
I love how they make my stomach drop.

Mountain Weather

Typically I get great weather on my hikes. Only Tianmen mountain, which I visited in Hunan province, was socked in with fog the whole time I was there. I tend to have early morning fog which rolls out shortly after. I've had clear blue skies and the desired 'sea of fog' at many locations. 

The 'trails' are man-made paths build on the mountain side.

Aren't You Tired?

People tell me they are too tired to travel on the weekends. "Aren't you tired?", they ask. Though I do get a lot of photos and see much on my trips, I also take a lot of down time. This weekend excursion was particularly relaxing. Saturday morning, I left my hotel around 7:30 am and walked the few minutes to the ticket counter and chairlift. Thankfully, the chairlift takes you up part of the way. I was ascending stairs on the mountain by 8. I exerted enough energy climbing, walking and picture taking that, spent, I was back in my plushy hotel room before 3, where I ordered room service and layed around watching YouTube videos. I ate the buffet breakfast the next morning and arrived back to Xiamen late afternoon. It was actually an incredibly refreshing weekend. 

Convenient

Xiamen now has metro transportation, so I was happy to take it directly home from the train station. I ordered my groceries as I rode they underground. They were delivered to my apartment shortly after I arrived home. China is very convenient in these kind of ways. I also order lunch and occasionally dinner to my apartment door for less than it would cost to go through a drive through in America. For example my cheapskate staple lunch is delivered my school's security gate for the equivalent of 2.49 USD. Generally a meal, including delivery fee, is under 5 dollars.

You Travel A Lot

If you're wondering, even my co-workers think I travel "all the time" and "every weekend". Which is not true. If I travel on a weekend, I bookend it with weekends where I have relatively no commitments and I mostly stay in my apartment and hermit. And actually, I usually just travel one weekend in between our normal school holidays. As a teacher I typically get a week off at fall, aka fall break, 2 weeks off at Christmas/Winter break, a week for spring break, and a few more during summer break. As a teacher in China, my summer break is 2 weeks shorter in order to give me an additional 2 week long 'Chinese New Year' break. If I didn't have those breaks from teaching, I would most definitely burnout as I completely deplete by energy most days, though I love my job. But that is a lot of breaks. So I travel. During this season I have had the amazing privilege of traveling a lot. But not, "all the time". Today though, after work, I'm heading to Korea(spring break).

Beautiful Bali and Impressive Indonesia

 

Indonesia is impressive because of its beautiful scenery, great food and the fact that it's relatively inexpensive. Specifically Bali is great because everything is so friendly to travelers. They have adapted to having Western and other foreign visitors and yet it maintains its exotic nature with its lush landscape, beautiful beaches and extravagant Hindu decor.

Another thing that is impressive is the amount of travel time I'll endure to same money. It basically took me 2 days to get to Bali. I taxied from work to the train station. I high-speed trained it to the Chinese border. After leaving China and entering Hong Kong, I taxied to an airport hotel and slept. Upon awakening, I walked to the plane, plane-ed to another plane and taxied to my final Bali guesthouse. The way back was even longer, but I always manage to find something interesting and enjoyable to either see, eat, or read along the way.

BALI

I heard it's crazy at the Bali airport from other seasoned travelers, but it wasn't for me. Since I didn't know that was going to be the case, I had arranged for someone to be waiting, sign in hand (with my name), for our arrival. I always get a kick out of seeing my name like that. Lol.

This actually wasn't a solo trip. I went with a colleague and friend. We had fun challenging each other to different adventures of choice. I bet we'd each pick different things that we thought were the 'highlights' of the trip, but I think because we have some different interests we got a fuller 'experience'. 

Tianqi Hen Hao; Nice Weather

In Xiamen it's winter, and while it doesn't get cold enough to warrant central heating, it feels cold because of the humid weather, concrete buildings and lack of carpeting. In my opinion those things actually prove central heating is warranted. Because of the cold feeling, I was looking forward to warmer temperatures. It was plenty warm in Indonesia. There was one rain filled day, but overall the weather was great.

What's you do in Bali?

Even though I don't love monkeys, our visit to the lush and shady Monkey Forest was cool and picturesque.

We paid a short visit to a rice terrace. I've been to rice terraces in China before, and they are among my most favorite things, so I could have spent a lot more time there. It was really beautiful. We also got to go on an 'extreme' swing over the terrace, which was amazing and a definite highlight of mine. 

We also saw a large waterfall. I really hadn't seen that many waterfalls in my life, up to that point. I ended up seeing many in Indonesia. The water is a little muddy because of the recent rainfall.



The next morning we got up in the middle of the night in order to make it to the top of Mt. Batur to see the sunrise. Mt. Batur is an active volcano, though obviously it's monitored and not due to erupt anytime soon. I was a little surprised at the loose stone and dusty ash we needed to climb up, but the view was pretty and the experience- worth it.

Fantastic Food and Bizarre Beverage

We ate amazing meals at our guest house and restaurants everyday. I loved the food in Bali. I haven't seen many Indonesian restaurants in my world travels, but I'm not sure why because their food is wonderful. I tried a new fruit, too. This is a highlight. I love discovering new fruits! Snakeskin fruit. So different and delicious. I really liked the fermented tofu, called tempe, too. Bali also has a great variety of international foods.

 

 

We also got to make Indonesian food. We participated in an amazingly organized and aesthetically pleasing cooking class. The food was delicious. 

We also drank Lowak coffee. This is a coffee that is cleaned, roasted and brewed after being digested by a civet cat. It's a novelty and expensive. It has an interesting history and it was fun to try. But, I don't think its taste warranted all the fuss.

 

GILI AIR

Next, we spent a few days on a nearby island called Gili Air. Technically it is not Bali, but it's also a typical tourist destination. It is part of Lombok. It's a small island that's still being developed, but has a lot of beauty. Thanks to my traveling partner, we had a great hotel location, right on the beach. I got a little stir crazy, when the biking they advertised didn't pan out as I expected. I also regret not trying to snorkel, which I have never, and still never, ever done. But Gili Air was a nice beach addition to the trip, making the Indonesia experience richer. I spent a lot of time laying on the beach under an umbrella. Unbelievably I still managed to get sunburned, even under cover.

 

LOMBOK

Next to make a rich trip even fuller, we went to the larger Lombok island to meet up with some friends of my colleagues. One of the friends lives in Lombok so it was special to get a glimpse of her life there. Motorbike, malls, friendly neighbors, floor eating and showers without hot water are the adjectives that first come to mind, when describing my short stay in Lombok. 

We had a fun 'waterfall adventure day'. This was a highlight. We spent a few hours trekking (like real trekking) with a local guide who helped us find several unique and beautiful waterfalls. We went into the waterfalls and I even got to go behind one.

 

Indonesia is somewhere I would definitely return to because of its incredible natural beauty. Bali is super convenient and itself has so much variety and beauty to offer that there really does seem to be something for everyone. I can easily see why it's one of Asia's most popular vacation destinations.