2014: Year in Review

2014 was another incredible year. I continued to fuel my passion for international travel, and I had the opportunity to spend my entire summer close to home. As I close out the year, it's always fun to think back on all the amazing experiences from the past twelve months:

- Wore a traditional Indian outfit...in India...while my local colleagues wore western clothing.
- Celebrated Chinese New Year with dim sum in Bangalore, India.
- Ate fertilized duck egg ("balut") in Manila.
- Sang karaoke in Manila while we ate seafood that was swimming only minutes before hitting the plate.
- Slept on the floor of the Delhi airport (actually, I didn't really sleep but I spent the entire night there thanks to a 10-hour flight delay).
- Visited Golden Temple in Amritsar, India (and learned about the Sikh religion).
- Got 'hit on' at Golden Temple in Amritsar.
- Watched a cricket match in the hotel garage in Amritsar.
- Drank alcohol at a house party in the dry city of Ahmedabad, India.
- Smiled at the 'matrimonials' section of the newspaper every weekend in India.
- Went bungee jumping in Nepal.
- Got the worst food poisoning of my life in Nepal and lost 10 pounds in 3 days.
- Ate banh mi in Saigon (minus the mayonnaise, of course).
- Visited the birthplace of Cao Dai religion in Tay Ninh province of Vietnam.
- Crawled through the cu chi tunnels used during the Vietnam War.
- Learned that the Vietnam War is known as the "American War" in Vietnam.
- Joined an American friend for dinner in Singapore who I studied with in Shanghai. I love crossing paths with people in the most unpredictable locations around the world. 
- Took a selfie in front of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur.
- Saw a dinosaur walking around the mall in Kuala Lumpur.
- Spent two weeks without going outside once (in Gurgaon, India).
- Used Air BnB for the first time ever in Canberra, Australia.
- Ran in the Canberra Half Marathon.
- Watched my colleagues in Sydney win their recreation league basketball championship.
- Spent Easter in Sydney with a classmate from LSE that I hadn't seen in over 12 years.
- Saw Prince William and Duchess Kate at Manly Beach.
- Drank German beer at a German pub served by a German guy...in Australia.
- Went hiking in the Blue Mountains.
- Worked out with Cameron Diaz and Kate Upton.
- Celebrated ANZAC day in the rain.
- Went running along the Sydney Harbour.
- Ate at Hungry Jack's in Melbourne (once was more than enough).
- Drove on the left side of the road.
- Ran the Great Ocean Road Half Marathon.
- Celebrated my birthday with a Kit Kat bar.
- Ran in the Melbourne Mother's Day Classic with local staff.
- Had my name published in the newspaper in Perth.
- Went to the horse races in Perth.
- Went Sandboarding in Western Australia.
- Touched a Koala.
- Fed a Kangaroo.
- Bicycled through King's Park in Perth.
- Rode a tuk tuk in Mumbai (and Bangkok). The experiences were entirely different.
- Watched a tug-of-war contest in a hotel ballroom in Mumbai.
- Accepted a promotion.
- Ran a 10k race with my friend who inspired me to run my first marathon.
- Spent 4th of July with family.
- Enjoyed a day on the lake in my brother's boat.
- Watched a Red Sox game in Fenway Park.
- Ran the Old Port Half Marathon with one of my oldest friends who I have known since birth.
- Returned to Chicago as a tourist (and discovered why people love the city so much in the summer).
- Stayed up until 3AM the night before the Minnesota Half Marathon (but still managed to finish in under 1.5 hours).
- Genuinely surprised my parents at their 40th anniversary party.
- Got sunburnt in Aruba.
- Went to Orlando (twice) without visiting Disney World.
- Celebrated both of my parents' birthdays with them.
- Went to a Boston College football game.
- Ate a cannoli from Mike's Pastry.
- Ran a 5k in Chicago that was followed by country line dancing.
- Ran the "Run to the Rock" Half Marathon in 90-degree heat and finished 2nd in my age group (6th overall).
- Took a 24-hour vacation to San Diego.
- Visited Pike Place market in Seattle.
- Ran the Smuttynose Half Marathon with a friend's number and won the female category (before I was disqualified).
- Moved to HONG KONG.
- Got drunk with my boss and all my new colleagues in Singapore.
- Signed an apartment lease for the first time since 2009.
- Went out in Hong Kong with an MBA classmate from the UK who now works in Switzerland and another from France who now works in Korea. The world is truly shrinking. 
- Visited floating markets in Thailand.
- Ran the Bangkok Half Marathon with the registration of a 53-year-old Thai man.
- Watched Taiwanese Opera (even though I didn't understand any of it).
- Flew on a Hello Kitty airplane.
- Went skiing in China.
- Witnessed a marriage proposal in Changbaishan.
- Spent Christmas with coworkers in China.
- Watched the fireworks display to ring in the new year in Hong Kong.

As I look forward to 2015, I am full of optimism. My job has so many possibilities, my new life in Hong Kong is starting to take root, and I already have a flight booked to return home for one of my favorite holidays. Just like hiking through a winding path, I cannot anticipate what will be ahead but I am excited to continue exploring. 

Changbaishan, China

Two weeks at Changbaishan ski resort in northeastern China showed me that people in this part of the world like the idea of skiing more than they do the sport, itself. 

On first glance, Changbaishan appears to be a well-developed, serious ski resort. The base of the mountain has several luxury hotels, a "European-style" village, and a beautiful new gondola. Even the nearby regional airport is expensive and limited in flight connections - just like its North American counterparts such as Vail, Taos, or Bozeman. If someone invests in a flight to this remote area, you would think they are serious about a winter holiday.

My flight arrived in the evening, and I got excited when I saw a heavy blanket of snow and some trails that were illuminated in the distance. My transfer to the hotel was in a luxury ski bus, complete with a private desk and computer.

Hotel shuttle bus, which included a desk and a private computer monitor

Despite being completely isolated and within an hour of the North Korea border, the appearance of my hotel could have rivaled any of the finest ski resorts in the world. The accommodations are spread across several villas, which give a nice residential feeling. Seeing the Christmas trees glistening in the window of the lobby immediately put me in the holiday spirit. 

Exterior of the main building

Home for the next 2 weeks

I had forgotten just how different Hong Kong is from mainland China, particularly in people's ability to speak English. At breakfast, I had my own personal waitress because she was basically the only one comfortable enough communicating with me in English. The others just stared at me like I was visiting from outer space. 

To their credit, most of the guests are from China and there are not many reasons for anyone to know English. I actually like being one of the few foreigners because it helps everyone to remember me. Not to inflate my ego or anything, but one of the staff members even told me I look like a movie star. Clearly they don't see movie stars too often!

Breakfast room in the hotel

Food throughout the resort was decent, but northern Chinese food is much less delicate than what I have gotten used to in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. I found lots of oily and salty dishes, fatty cuts of meats, and bold ingredients with a very aggressive flavor profile. 

My favorite dish of the entire trip was this giant squid.

Trying Chinese BBQ on Friday night

One night, we went to dinner in the town center (about 20 minutes from the ski resort) and I was amazed by the giant portions and cheap prices. You order from the photos on an illuminated wall (perfect for someone like me who can't read Chinese) and all the food was quite unique and tasty. My celebrity status was further elevated in this part of the town. As soon as we walked into the restaurant, everyone stared in our direction. Finally, one guy asked for a photo (with his flip phone!), which started a wave of other introductions. I was genuinely loving the curiosity and I have no sympathy for real celebrities who complain about the attention.

Making new friends in Baishan town center.

Our group in front of the order-by-picture wall

To be honest, there is not much to see in the Baishan town center other than a few restaurants and karaoke places. We walked around the ghost town for about five minutes after dinner before the sub-zero temperatures forced us to just head back to the resort.

Now, for the skiing...

With such luxurious amenities at the base of the mountain, my expectations for the skiing were somewhat high. My lift pass included equipment rental and it was the bargain price of CNY400 (approx US$65). The hotel has its own ski house on site, so I didn't even need to go outside to pick up my gear. 

I rode the gondola to the summit for my first run and dove straight into a black diamond, advanced run. It was somewhat steep, but would have definitely been rated an intermediate trail in North America or Europe. 

Do you like moguls?  They don't exist here. The only bumps in the trail are unintentionally created as a result of people skiing all day on fresh powder. 

Fresh powder was a really fun way to start the day

Glade skiing? Also doesn't exist. The only patches of trees on the mountain are too dense for anyone to ski through. I'm obsessed with glade skiing, so this was a bit of a disappointment.

Surprisingly, Changbai mountain is the highest in the entire Korean peninsula. That said, the vertical drop is still so much smaller than anything I have become accustomed to. Each run took no longer than a few minutes before I was back on the lift.  In fact, the lifts were the only things preventing me from doing 100+ runs per day (none of the lifts are detachable, which is surprising for brand new, Doppelmayr technology). Maybe the resort designers deliberately slowed things down to give the appearance that people are traveling a further distance up the mountain!

Once you do get to the top, the views are pretty decent because this is literally the only mountain in the area. Outside the village at the base, the landscape is largely untouched.

View from the summit of the mountain

One of the days was cloudy, which actually provided a very cool white-out effect:

Cloudy day on the mountain

The lack of crowds was probably the best part of the entire experience. If I was skiing in Western countries on Christmas, it would have been absolutely filled with people, but I felt like I had the entire mountain to myself in Changbaishan. There were a good amount of people roaming around the village, but very few of them actually know how to ski. In fact, the busiest trail (by far) was the bunny hill. I loved whizzing past the few adventurous souls on the black diamond trails and feeling like I was the most advanced skier on the entire mountain. 

It was also fun to see all the people with rented ski clothing, which are even more visible by their 70's era, all-plaid pattern! Those who did bring their own clothes sometimes added a little extra padding in case they fall over...

Extra padding for this snowboarder

A group of skiers in their rental outfits

Some people didn't even bother giving the impression that they wanted to ski. Instead, they just rode the gondola to the summit for some pictures of themselves in the snow. Jumping poses were the most popular.

A photo shoot at the top of the mountain

China is the land of funny signs and even the ski resort played into the stereotype. My favorite was the safety bar on the lifts, which comes with a reminder to lift the bar before exiting. Do some people not realize this when they reach the top and try to slide off??

Do not forget to lift the bar before exiting the lift!

For the first time since I can remember, I actually finished skiing before the lifts closed down. The biggest reason is that I was bored from skiing the same 5 trails without any real challenge. The other reason was the cold weather. I know, it sounds ridiculous to complain about cold weather when skiing is meant to be cold, but this was a temperature that I rarely experience. Perhaps I have become intolerant after spending the last 3 winters in Hong Kong, India, and Mexico?  Whatever the reason, I was happy to defrost at 3:30pm. 

Instead of going back to the hotel so early, I decided to walk through the ski village and see what they had to offer. Maybe my perspective is biased because my last ski vacation was in Aspen, but I was very surprised to see Pizza Hut, McDonald's, and other low-end shops. It was not what I expected in an area full of 5-star hotels, but I suppose it is proof that even rich people like fast food sometimes.

Changbaishan Ski Resort Village

I swear, I have seen this architecture before at another ski resort...

There's no better way to end a ski day than to return to a hotel and spend some time at the spa, so that is exactly what I did. With multiple indoor pools and even an outdoor heated pool (for crazy people), I had plenty of options for relaxation. Yet again, I had almost the entire place to myself.

Indoor pool at the hotel spa

 

Overall, it was a lot of fun to experience skiing in China. They have done an excellent job at copying some fine ski resorts throughout the world, but the biggest thing they couldn't mimic was a real mountain. Does it work for the local clientele? Surprisingly, yes.

For me, there was a glaring disconnect between the high quality of facilities and the (lack of) ski terrain. Back at home, this would have been a mountain that local people drive to for a quick day of skiing on a weekend. I couldn't imagine spending an entire week skiing at such a tiny resort with no other mountains nearby. Would I come back? Sure, but only for a couple days. Anyone who wants real skiing should look elsewhere.