CHINA YOU’VE BEEN AWESOME: PART 1
At the start of 2014 I decided I was going to do something different and out of the norm. I had just started my first job and was saving up to finally travel. Traveling has always been a part of my life and I wanted to ensure that I experienced the world by myself before I settle down and start a family where vacations always include kid friendly places.
I always live on the safe side of life, not taking much risk and being careful. But one day while I was sitting at home watching Lifetime bored out of my mind I decided that I didn't want this to be my life. Sitting home on Saturdays watching movies all day long or recovering from Friday night adventures. I wanted stories to tell my kids. So I promised myself a vacation.
I didn't want the regular go home to Nigeria trip (Not a vacation) and I'd been to London a couple of times. I also didn't want to go to a beach and lay in the sun all day (luckily for me I had already done that all summer long) and I knew I didn't want to travel alone so I called up one of my cousins who is usually down for a good time and asked her if she wanted an adventure. She said yes! I was so happy.
So I had my travel buddy on board and I had the money set aside, now we had to pick a place to go. Figures from the title of this post we chose China. But I want to tell you how we figured out China to be our vacation spot. We both wanted something new (no beach and no Nigeria), we wanted a place with tourist attraction (sites and wonders we could experience) I wanted a guided tour because knowing yourself is a powerful tool in your hands. I have the tendency to sleep and just want to relax. I knew that if there wasn't a strict agenda I just might spend $2,000 sleeping and watching TV. Something I could already do in the States at no cost to me. We definitely knew we wanted something in Asia and that my friends is how we chose China.
Great Tip: Always shop around for the best possible deals you can get when traveling. Living Social and Groupon are great sites to start with but don't be afraid to just Google travel agencies. You also want to check for reviews on travel services as well as the sites you are booking your travel itinerary you don't want to be duped online.
CHINA YOU’VE BEEN AWESOME: PART 2
OK! So I booked my trip to China with my cousin and I was bursting with excitement over the upcoming trip. I booked with chinatour.com (this is not an ad advocating for this company) They tour guides were amazing! If you are thinking of going to China, I would suggest you visit the website and see what deals they have. We were placed in nice hotels, the guides spoke English and obviously taught the group some Mandarin. The local restaurants we went to were amazing and they tired getting us deals on goods if they could.
I would advise that you be careful of how you spend money at the places the tour guides take you to and ALWAYS bargain, even when they tell you not to bargain, still bargain. So we get to China and I'm awed at what a beautiful country it is. Granted we weren't taken to the poverty stricken areas but still the cities were beautiful. We did all the touristy things you imagine and are sick of people doing in your state. Journey with me through my pictures and as always enjoy.
WHERE NEXT? HOW ABOUT COSTA RICA? PART 1
Ever since I got back from China last year, I've been itching to travel somewhere else. I've made it my mission to travel to a place I've never been every year. This year it looks like it's going to be Costa Rica! But I didn't just arrive on Costa Rica out of the blue. I honestly wanted to go to Thailand this year, but there were a couple of factors that stopped me. Grab a spot of tea, let me explain.
Tea in hand? Ok let's run down the list of reasons I couldn't go to Thailand.
1) I didn't want to travel alone. I had asked a bunch of people, put it on my Facebook and Instagram (you should be following me if you aren't already. The links are on the top of this blog) page and I got some prospects but when I mentioned price, people started jumping ship. Also some of my friends where just not serious, or they wanted to travel at weird times in the year.
2)OK to be honest, traveling to Thailand is quite costly. A week's trip is about $1,800 per person, not counting the pocket money one should have handy, which for me is typically $500
3)If anyone from my family is reading reason #3 they're probably rolling their eyeballs. LOL so I'm the girl that cried New York! What does that mean exactly? Since I started working in the city, I've been telling everyone I'm moving to the city and it's been two years after and I still live with my sister in Jersey. What does this have to do with Thailand? Well let me tell you, I'm planning on moving to the city in August of this year, fingers crossed I think it's really going to happen this time, but the jury is still out.
4)Everyone wanted to travel later in the year and I really didn't want to pay for a trip and have to wait 7 months before I got to go. I almost went crazy last year with China, having bought the trip in April and had to wait till October, I almost died of internal excitement.
5) I couldn't really find a good deal! It was really frustrating and all the ones i saw on Groupon or LivingSocial where guided tours. I really didn't want a guided tour.
6)OMG the travel time!!! After spending 24hours traveling to China and losing my internal balance for a week when I got back to the states, to be honest i wasn't really thrilled about the experience all over again. So I wanted somewhere I could get to relatively faster than 24hours! I mean if it was 10hours I might have been influenced.
So that's it. Thailand isn't crossed off my list yet. In fact I'll most likely be traveling there in 2016 with my wonderful cousin Damilola and maybe a few friends. Anyway my Friend Tamara was talking about renting a cabin in Costa Rica for Memorial Day Weekend during dinner in February during one of the cold nights. I mean mention a warm place when you're literally freezing your butt off and I'm in. We really didn't talk about it until the end of April, when we found a really sweet deal on Groupon.
And that my friends is how I ended up booking a trip to Cost Rica. I'll be sure to update this page as we embark on this adventure. Leave a comment and let me know if there's something we should try or places we should avoid. I've been reading a lot of blogs about traveling to Costa Rica and I can't wait to get there and experience it for myself.
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