Tag Archives: tourism

AtW #48: Nitai Deitel from The Hutong

Nitai works at The Hutong, a cultural exchange center based in Beijing, China. We discussed the types of trips he runs through the Hutong, ranging from Great Wall excursions to bicycling around Yunnan province.

Around the World Podcast #28: Fei Fei Huo

Around the World Podcast, Episode #28: Fei Fei Huo

My guest for this episode is Fei Fei Huo (霍婉菲). She grew up in Chengdu, China and has traveled to many parts of Europe. We recorded this podcast while sitting by the river in Shaxi, China at the end of yet another picture-perfect day. Our discussion was mostly about cultural differences between East and West, and she taught me a lot. You can even hear my moment of epiphany when I learned why Chinese people sometimes say things that don't make any sense to my Western brain.

Around the World Podcast #27: Carol Woo

My guest for this episode is Carol Woo (胡宝娟). She grew up in both Guangdong province (China) and Hong Kong. She's quite artistic – she organizes theater performances for international audiences. For now, she's helping to run the Horse Pen 46 hostel in Shaxi, Yunnan Province, which is where I met her. We had a fun and lighthearted conversation in the hostel's coffee shop.

Can you really pay to be a guest?

There were no cockroaches on my overnight train ride to Lau Cai, on the Chinese border. As soon as I stepped off the train, I, along with every other passenger, was hounded by bus drivers looking to take us to Sapa. I bargained one driver from 100,000 dong to 50,000. He put his index finger over his lips and said, “Shh” as I paid him. Apparently he didn't want me to tell any of the other passengers that they had gotten ripped off. Or maybe they had paid even less than I had, and the driver didn't want me to find out. In Vietnam, one never knows.