After the serenity and beauty of Bukit Lawang and the Sumatran jungle, I wanted to go to Bali to take another swing at surfing, since I learned earlier this year. The beaches around the southern part of Bali are famous for it, but I’d also been told that Kuta is nothing but a party scene,…
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DAY 1 Flying from Chengdu to Medan, on Sumatra island, Indonesia, I had a layover in Kuala Lumpur. My flight left Chengdu 5 minutes before midnight, and I was excited to have a whole row on the plane to myself, so I could lay down. However, the flight attendants woke me up to tell me…
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The official name is “Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.” It’s why most people go to Chengdu, and—of course—I went. There are 2 panda centers near Chengdu, 1 more in the city and 1 way outside that takes 2 hours to get to, so I went with the closer option. The hostel I was…
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A and I wanted to go see the world’s largest Buddha statue, carved into a cliff along the river in Leshan, an hour by train from Chengdu. Legend has it that the place where 2 rivers meet was the site of many boat accidents, causing loss of goods and lives, so people decided to make…
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From Lhasa, Tibet, I planned to visit Chengdu, China, which is in Sichuan province and essentially in the middle of present-day China. I had originally thought about taking the train, but I ran into 2 problems: 1-the train to Chengdu only runs every other day, so I’d have to pay to stay an extra day,…
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