China 2009

February has always been a blah month – it's that time of the year where I am so ready for winter to be over. Cooking-wise, I am uninspired; all I want to do is curl up in bed and binge-watch television.


This has also been a reflective year. I'm at the point of my life where my friends are popping out babies and suddenly, I have the title of surrogate aunt. It's a bit of, "What am I doing with my life?" but mostly, "Where is my career going?" It's not like I’m power hungry and have the goal of climbing up the corporate ladder (though there's nothing wrong with that – Lean In, if that's your aspiration), but this job insecurity issue is stressful and ever-present on my mind. All I want is to not worry about being unemployed several months from now.


My travel lust is rearing up its head again. I have a friend who visited Patagonia this month and the gorgeous pictures she shared made me want to pack my bags and head there immediately. Or anywhere, really. I thought I was over my backpacking phase, but my yearnings are proving me wrong.



The last time I did real backpacking was China in 2009. It seems like a lifetime ago, but random memories stick out: my first attempt at climbing Tiger Leaping Gorge and failing because I was so sick that I nearly fainted and had to turn back; the most delicious hand-pulled noodles and lamb kebob meal from an Uighur restaurant; my hostel owner picking persimmons from a tree in the courtyard with a net contraption.

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Southeast Asia & China 2008-09

As predicted, I ended up abandoning this blog. Now that I have settled into a routine, perhaps I will post more regularly. One would hope so anyway.

While I am enjoying my time back in Canada and getting the opportunity to spend time with friends and family, life is a bit mundane compared to what I was up to last year. The itch to travel is getting more and more persistent, something I'm trying to suppress as I attempt to be a Grown Up. I have visions of working on an organic farm in France, taking cooking lessons in the countryside of Italy or travelling through India on its rickety train network. Of course, I would be eating my way through these countries because aside from sightseeing, the best part of travelling is gorging on delicious food.

Instead of succumbing to my urges, I've been looking through my travel photos of Southeast and East Asia. I skimmed through the pictures when I first arrived home but haven't touched them since. It's an awful habit of mine - I take a crapload of pictures and then discard them to the side afterwards.

Here is a small sample of some of my favourite places that I visited.

Sapa, Vietnam

Sapa is located north of Hanoi, above sea level and surrounded by beautiful mountains. There is a large ethnic minority population and I did a two day trek with several ladies from a Black H'mong village. I can't even describe how breathtaking it was to walk through the terraced rice field - a green so vibrant it's almost blinding.

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