It has not been that long since I last blogged from South America. One of the benefits of taking a long trip at the end of a calendar year is that you can take another not too far into the start of a new year. I had originally considered going to Australia this year, but quickly changed my mind knowing that China was a possibility and that the Chinese currency, the yuan, will likely soon revalue. At the present, China is quite affordable for the American, but it may not soon stay that way. I wanted to take advantage of that opportunity while I still had the chance.
This year's journey includes a similar format as the South American one. I absolutely loved the social group trip so I decided to sign up with GAP's competitor, Intrepid Travel, for one of their China itineries that sounded really intriguing, "Backroads to Kunming". I didn't want to just do the standard tourist trail trip in China of Beijing/Xi'an/Shanghai like a number of outfitters do. I elected to go for one that gets you back into some lesser known areas and I hope this itinerary accomplishes that.
I started my trip with a drive to Atlanta and a flight to NYC-JFK and then a direct route from NYC right over the Northern Polar region to Beijing, a 13-hour flight to a new time zone 12 hours ahead of the United States. I was concerned about jetlag but have actually had little trouble so far. I took sleeping pills the first night but have not since. I had no trouble getting to my first night's stay in a hostel either. I took a taxi. Taxis are cheap here. A 20 minute ride cost me about $17 and I think the driver took it upon himself to collect a small tip or it would have been even cheaper.
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