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Q: So where are you headed this Summer?
It's the time when the heat is switched on and people are given some nice relaxation time.
For me, it is either heading to L.A. to work in-house for a client then to Canada to fix up my visa before returning to China.
Or I just lay low in China just taking it easy, possibly spend some time in Sanya, Guilin and Kunming.
So what is your plan for this Summer? Changing jobs? Going home?
8 years 45 weeks ago in Transport & Travel - China
Gilgit, Pakistan. I'll attempt to reach the summit of Khorakarum pass on elevation of 5540m (18k ft.) from Kashghar, Xinjiang by
bus, after I stop for swally at Royceh Xin.'s town. We'll probably do it together with 'Non-naive' Fidu.
I can't walk for a long,
like the real mountaineers do.
I'll might get into some Summer camp before that.
dokken:
Anti American going to Pakistan? You staying is some kind of training camp?
icnif77:
I like to do camps. In China. 6 classes/day X 22 days X 210 Rmb/class = 'survivable wage' for a month of work. Have free housing (room), too.
dokken:
Wow I did not know they paid that much. I thought they just gave you a free ak47 and special package
icnif77:
I started at 135 Rmb/h, 4y ago, with a bit less working days. Nanjing New Oriental, which usually employs only Native English teachers, and where students grade the teacher. Repeated invitations to join the Camp every year, based on students grades from previous Camp. Such a Camp or such a FT?
AK47? You must have big balls to write about that. Scary!
icnif77:
Sometimes I'm having 'orthodox religious sentiments', especially in China, when they snap me all the time. I'm not into photos that much-oo. Have only one pic of myself, when I was 2y old at the beach.
My brick can't do photos. 150 Rmb Nokia, in red.
It rings only, when I'm eating or when am in the shower.
Some technology.
Mirror in my bedroom is covered by cloth. I don't do mirrors, if not really necessary.
I'm convinced life is not about me, doesn't matter what my mom says.
royceH:
Then how are you supposed to recognise yourself as you're walking down the street?
Looks like I've got you in the phone stakes...my Nokia cost 250. It's got a dictionary.
icnif77:
I always call my mom. 'Hi mom, is that me?' My mom when she doesn't understand me, she thinks I'm (too) smart.
Once, I called her I'll be late for lunch, and my pop asked from the side: 'Where are you?'
me: 'I don't know'
I think it was around my freshly-18y-old in EU.
I'm telling you, after I bought my brick in HK, I walked to another phone store .....(I'm not sure, why I always when I buy something, must go check another store with the same products.? And, I always want to buy only one item. I must have some of my sis genes.).... they showed me your phone. Very handy that thing with translator. Mine has only calendar, but it's in red, what makes it more pricey at collector-s than yours.
You should see, when I told my students (all have I-phones) I have new I- 6 last September.
Then I pulled out my red brick of the pocket and started my 'I-lecture': 'I-phone 6 has virtual screen. Do you know, what's virtual screen?'
All go: 'No, what is that?'
me: 'If you press this button, virtual screen appears.......'
I started to laugh......If they see me using my phone, they all go: 'I-6'.
royceH:
That's funny. The kids in my classes call my phone an Iphone 6 too. Or 'superdictionary'. I use the dictionary about 100 times a day.
Gilgit, Pakistan. I'll attempt to reach the summit of Khorakarum pass on elevation of 5540m (18k ft.) from Kashghar, Xinjiang by bus, after I stop for swally at Royceh Xin.'s town. We'll probably do it together with 'Non-naive' Fidu.
I can't walk for a long, like the real mountaineers do.
I'll might get into some Summer camp before that.
dokken:
Anti American going to Pakistan? You staying is some kind of training camp?
icnif77:
I like to do camps. In China. 6 classes/day X 22 days X 210 Rmb/class = 'survivable wage' for a month of work. Have free housing (room), too.
dokken:
Wow I did not know they paid that much. I thought they just gave you a free ak47 and special package
icnif77:
I started at 135 Rmb/h, 4y ago, with a bit less working days. Nanjing New Oriental, which usually employs only Native English teachers, and where students grade the teacher. Repeated invitations to join the Camp every year, based on students grades from previous Camp. Such a Camp or such a FT?
AK47? You must have big balls to write about that. Scary!
icnif77:
Sometimes I'm having 'orthodox religious sentiments', especially in China, when they snap me all the time. I'm not into photos that much-oo. Have only one pic of myself, when I was 2y old at the beach.
My brick can't do photos. 150 Rmb Nokia, in red.
It rings only, when I'm eating or when am in the shower. Some technology.
Mirror in my bedroom is covered by cloth. I don't do mirrors, if not really necessary.
I'm convinced life is not about me, doesn't matter what my mom says.
royceH:
Then how are you supposed to recognise yourself as you're walking down the street?
Looks like I've got you in the phone stakes...my Nokia cost 250. It's got a dictionary.
icnif77:
I always call my mom. 'Hi mom, is that me?' My mom when she doesn't understand me, she thinks I'm (too) smart.
Once, I called her I'll be late for lunch, and my pop asked from the side: 'Where are you?'
me: 'I don't know'
I think it was around my freshly-18y-old in EU.
I'm telling you, after I bought my brick in HK, I walked to another phone store .....(I'm not sure, why I always when I buy something, must go check another store with the same products.? And, I always want to buy only one item. I must have some of my sis genes.).... they showed me your phone. Very handy that thing with translator. Mine has only calendar, but it's in red, what makes it more pricey at collector-s than yours.
You should see, when I told my students (all have I-phones) I have new I- 6 last September.
Then I pulled out my red brick of the pocket and started my 'I-lecture': 'I-phone 6 has virtual screen. Do you know, what's virtual screen?'
All go: 'No, what is that?'
me: 'If you press this button, virtual screen appears.......'
I started to laugh......If they see me using my phone, they all go: 'I-6'.
royceH:
That's funny. The kids in my classes call my phone an Iphone 6 too. Or 'superdictionary'. I use the dictionary about 100 times a day.
Going home for 2 weeks...it's usually a month but my wife can get only 2 weeks 
Unfortunately the wifey cany fly this summer so not much. Maybe a road trip? Discussing driving to Sanya or Kunming. We will see what happens.
mike695ca:
havent decided yet. Usually got late August, but pretty free all summer. The closer we get to it, the more she seems to want to spend money on like a 10K stroller or something. I have family coming in October and December, Maybe just wait?? Who knows, but I sure wanna screw off for a while, and summer was always the time. Ill be pissed if i gotta sit on my ass this year.
It's looking more and more like fly into Manila, get into character down in Ermita. Then a short hop to Puerta Princessa, bus up to Roxas. stay with a 'naive local' there a few days, then on up to El Nido. then hopefully figure out some sort of boat service (may take superferry from PP and skip roxas/el nido) over to Coron...dive on the Japanese warship shipwrecks and trip-out on whatever underseas aquatic life-forms choose to come around, chill around the island some more and then close the loop back to Vanilla Manilla.
Robk:
Yeah, I have been to Coron twice. It is very beautiful, I was thinking of buying a villa there or a condo in the new Fernvale residential complex.
You should find it, they have an amazing pool at their club house... one of the best I have seen.
You can go from El Nido to Coron via ferry... it is about 1000 php.
diverdude1:
thx for the el nido ferry tip. I am so psyched about this. I have wanted to dive there since 4ever and have gotten side-tracked every time. hopefully I'll follow thru this time.
Dissertation.... and work.
The final due date for this thing is the 2nd of October,, and I haven't even gotten approval for it yet (ethics and data). So, for a large part of the time (well, in theory - I'm a lazy shit 
), I should be polishing that, writing up results and discussion and all that crap... then sending it off to be hacked apart by the supervisor, and fixing it til she's happy.
And, since I'm in town - working (visa got sorted out). This is the busy time of year, as all the little kiddies are no longer in school, so they come to get IELTS preparation...
Heading to America for a month with my wife and her mother - her mother's first time traveling abroad which should be interesting.
mike695ca:
your bringing her mother to the states for your holiday?? You are a brave brave man. Also kind. Or the very definition of " whipped". One of those things.
dongbeiren:
Lol Mike, probably some combination of the three 
. She's quite open minded and easy going actually so I luck out there. I'll let you all know how it goes.
I will travel for about 3-4 weeks with a Chinese friend. We will head to Hangzhou, Shanghai, Nanjing, Macau and then maybe Hong Kong. After the travel, I am working at a summer camp for a month in South China. Once the camp is complete, I report to my new school in Jiangsu Province. Busy time for me. But, I love traveling during my summer months.
Shining_brow:
It's looking to be a stinky hot summer in the mid-East part of China this year...Already had over 30degrees with high humidity.... so probablly going to hit the 40's by July/August.
If you're in HZ, drop me a pm and we might meet up... and I believe Hotwater is around here too!
3 weeks back to Italy as usual, 8-28 August. This year, booked 4 days in Austria on the Weissensee lake (http://www.weissensee.com/en/the-lake/the-lake/) and 1 week in Croatia on the Losinj island.
Good to have EVERYTHING within 3 hours (of very pleasant) driving....
Oh, BTW, in both places, the water is actually clearer than what you can see in the best pictures......
One week in Malaysia for diving...next,still thinking about that .
One week in Yunnan, mushroom picking, cycling, drinking cold beers. One of the disadvantages of a non-teaching job & not on an expat package is the lack of holidays. When based in the Isle of Man I had 21 days holiday plus 10 public holidays. Now on a Chinese contract it's only 10 days holidays plus 11 public holidays. So two weeks less vacation unless I take unpaid leave.
meiduo:
Where in Yunnan for mushroom picking?I love it,I used to do that in shaxi,Dali .
Hotwater:
Shaxi Guzhen. Went there for the first time last year. Lovely old town & not really spoilt. Dali was too "touristy "
home, if i can ever manage to get the ticket ordered.
6 weeks in Australia. Sydney/Forster/Brisbane/Forster/Corowa/Melbourne.
Family/friends/football/golf/bowls. Real food. Cold beer. Busy trip. Finish up with a few days in Chengdu on the way back to Xinjiang for another year of pretending. Got two months paid leave.
Catch up for swally with icnif if at all possible. That's one hardcore individual!
ROBK, three cities you mentioned are my favorite and i have an apartment in two of those cities. I spent last summer mostly in kunming, cool drdry air.
Do you teach in one of those cities?
Robk:
Nope, I run my own business. I have been to Sanya, but not Kunming or Guilin... but I hear both are very nice.
Do you work in either of those cities?
Spending most of the summer studying and/or working in Vietnam and China (respectively) myself. Not really looking forward to it but better than nothing.
Vietnam. I don't even have plans to travel in this worthless country or deal with its abysmal people ever again. The world is too big to explore what is essentially humanity's petri dish.
Guilin for a few days to drink some good tea and decompress. And then off to the Philippines for a month of fun in the sun.
Germany, after a visit to holland. Stay with my mom, then look for an apartment in Deutschland.
I just got back from 4 days in Weizhou Island, Guangxi. Those temperatures really go up. At least I didn't get sunburned. It was the 1st time the family saw the sea. The seafood was probably the highlight. Nice little island, but I'd only reccommend it as a winter holiday.
Our hotel owner was a nice guy from Sichuan, which is why my wife chose him over the others. He can cook traditional Sichuanese as well as Weizhou seafood recipes. Banana-fed pork is nice too.
If anyone wants to visit the hotel: it's airconditioned, free e-bikes to scoot around, and they will fawn over you if it's not busy season. PM me, and i can send you the Chinese address. No English speakers, though, so bring your Chinese partner.
BHGAL:
I like the banana fed pork comment.... I remember just feeding our pigs (at 55 degrees north - Rosswood BC) apples for a month or even 2 before turning them into dinner.. best pork ever!!
Beihai is a place I been wanting to see.... the island, weizhou was a surprise and certainly a place that would intrigue me.... happy to hear your comment on it. i.e no big deal, but OK. I never expect much, out of an out of the ordinary place, but it is good to here SOMETHING!!! I live not far, and enjoy the summer and winter weather down here..... glad to hear something about that little island!!!coineineagh:
yeah, most chinese will feed them soy or taro to fatten them up quickly, but that doesn't grow so well in subtropical islands, so they get bananas.
coineineagh:
oh, wel then: it's a volcanic island with an inactive crater, allegedly one of the largest of its kind in the world. it has a french church and a small community of 5000 christians. the church was 3 minutes by e-bike from my hotel. my wife payed 100/room. it was close to the north beach, which is the best one, but i needed to walk a bit westward to avoid coral rocks if you want to swim. jetskis and dune buggies are available around south beach. that one is crowded. my German friend had a bar there up until 2 years ago, then he decided to move back to sichuan so his wife's parents could help care for their baby. that's how we were introduced to the island. the island is probably not safe for young kids due to the bumpy roads, but we made it back unscathed. as for Beihai city, we just saw everything through taxi windows. it seems like a normal chinese city, but hotter. i have to say sichuan girls are hotter, though. the taxis at the port and airport are ripoffs, so beware.
BHGAL:
I have mentioned and bragged numerous times on here about Dong hai dao...... an island just 40 minutes from my home. There is basically nothing there but a beach.. the beach is 15-20km long, haven't walked it all to prove what is said on line, but it is there, google earth it.. It is just plain beautiful. few people, clear blue waters, ... I have seen a few jet skis, I want one!!!! at this place!!!!...... no anything western commercial...there are still so many places on earth that McD and KFC and Sheratons and Hiltons have not got to yet.
coineineagh:
there is a lot of construction work on the island. hotels and other tourism. before, the main industry was something gov't-related. my friend mentioned the government wanted to keep nosy tourists out, then they only offered day trip tickets to non-locals. he had to protest with a bunch of other bar & hotel owners to restore the ferry rules. but i didn't spot any MacD's or any other commercial chainstores. the freshest place we bought fish was near that church. it has a sort of open market you can scooter through. more bikes than cars on the island, naturally. and be prepared to pay a higher tourism price for everything. but the worst prices are at Beihai airport: 15yuan for a 2 yuan ice.cream. not fun when yiu have a 2yo screaming for ice cream.
BHGAL:
my wife would go nuts if we went there and had to pay more for stuff we can get at home........pearls maybe an industry? .... she knows her fish. sounds to me like it is not much different than here .... except dong hai dao has not been explored as much. I hear there are places to stay and restaurants of course...... never seen a hotel sign.
coineineagh:
my wife also didn't like paying extra, but it was a learnibg experience for her immigration to Europe i guess. there are no big hotels that can be rated with stars, but plenty of B&B type places that are worthwhile, and more will be built, i think. a very rural atmosphere, exceptions being the nature park, the jetskis and the dune buggys.
I'm home-bound to San Diego!! I plan to enjoy my barefoot walks across lawns, in the garden and in local parks; without the fear of stepping in bodily excrements! I'm gonna weave in and out of authentic Mexican restaurants with tasty (Grade A) bean & cheese burritos in hand; hit up every little funky shop in Encinitas; read newspapers in the public libraries that are actually current; cross the street safely on the pedestrian strips while appreciating the courteous drivers and shop the thrift stores to give gently-used items/paperbacks a new life.
Gotta pick fresh fruit/vegetables directly from the trees/vines and eat them; attend local wine tastings; Google whatever website I desire; resume my contacts on Twitter and lay on a blanket in the grass in Balboa Park.
I must cross the border leading into Mexico and chillax in Ensenada, suck down a few margaritas and allow the ocean sounds to soothe my mental state.
Hopefully, I won't recall the negative experiences I've faced here in the Middle Kingdom. Should I see PRC tourists exhibiting their negative and/or cultural behavior in my city/state/country, I'll be very tempted to stare, point, take innumerable pictures of them and yell at them to take their money and return to the PRC soonest. We aren't desperate enough to give up our immaculately clean grounds and bathrooms; respectable noise levels; respect for each other and common courtesy for their tourism dollars.
I'm blowing Dodge City as SOON as those final grades are submitted!
Three weeks back in the States. Can't wait to be able to cross the street safely .
