• Welcome back to Pokécharms! We've recently launched a new site and upgraded forums, so there may be a few teething issues as everything settles in. Please see our Relaunch FAQs for more information.

Far From Home - Your Most Notable Trips/Vacations

Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
Administrator
Heya peeps! Even half way around the world from home (it's the middle of the night here yet only early afternoon back home), nothing can keep me away from teh Charms ^^

For anyone who didn't read my news update, I'm visiting China for about two weeks because my mom's adopting a second child (her and my sister came here about a year and a half ago to adopt my little sister, Emily). I'm currently connected via our lappy at the hotel we're staying at in Beijing. The two flights I took to get down here weren't too bad, but anyone who says "It doesn't feel like 13 hours" is lying out of their ass. Every time I checked the time it seemed like none had passed at all x.x

Oh well... I didn't do much on our first plane ride (which, to be precise, didn't go to British Columbia for the change-over. Instead we waited in the Toronto airport for a couple of hours) but on the second I managed to log a bit of time on Animal Crossing WW, Sonic Rush, and even feed/groom/walk my Nintendog. Also watched Batman Begins for the first time - pretty good, considering the yellow Chinese subtitles taking up 1/3 of the screen.

So now, like I said, here we are in Beijing. Pretty much all of my email accounts and MSN are disabled in the hotel yet oddly enough AIM works just fine. To give a short description of what Beijing feels like: it's like being in Toronto, Ontario, but with more ads and cool birds. Seriously, there hasn't been much for traditional Chinese architecture yet (though the check-point looked sweet), but I hear Kunming, the other area we're visiting to actually adopt the child, will probably have lots of it. Still, it's just cool being here. We had an entire tour bus to ourselves coming from the airport to the hotel. And last, but certainly not least, I love the Engrish (ie. saw an ad for "Happy Buys" as well as a few other amusing things but I forget what they said offhand) ^^

Guess I've rambled enough for now. In short, I didn't die in a plane crash and have arrived in China. The Pikachu plushie who replaced me on my mom's/sister's last trip here is with us again, too ;)

Anyways, to actually make this a topic, what are the biggest trips that you guys have been on and what were they like? (aka. not trips in your own backyard :p)

I'll reply to this again with an update on my trip if anything interesting happens. Until then, laterz! :D
 

Prof. Cinders

Mathemagician
Staff member
Administrator
Glad to hear you haven't died, yet. :p I think the biggest trip that I've had was to New York/Canada. My dad was already in New York for work reasons, and he flew us over. We had this huge apartment in Chelsea... and a huge hunk of choccy. My dad broke his teeth on it. :p Halfway through, we went straight up New York state to none other than Niagara Falls! Such a beautiful place... Took us two days to get there though. We went on a boat and saw tight rope walkers going right above it and triple rainbows and... Yeah, stuff like that. We managed to break three cameras. Then we came back to New York and went to the Pokemon Center at the Rockefeller Center *grins* I bought some stuffs you can't get over here, and generally stormed around admiring all the cards. The only one they don't have is Jynx, which apparently caused some racial problems a while back or something. All in all, spectacular trip which we didn't strictly pay for. ^_^
 

Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
Administrator
You guys are all so positive about me living through this. Thanks :p

My new little sister has big eyes XD
And props for Pokemon - the first thing that made her smile when we met her was my toy Pikachu ;)

Kunming is a really nice location, especially the weather. Beijing was about as cool as Canada, but here in Kunming I was walking around in a t-shirt (sweatshirt at night). Our hotel is awesome, too. We're like upperclass in a place like this. Everything is so cheap because of the exchange rates. It's sweet ^^

And now I'm off for a yummy all-you-can-eat breakfast. Laterz!
 

baratron

Moderator of Elder Scrolls
Staff member
Moderator
My parents spent 6 or 7 months out of the UK when I was 3, and do I remember any of it? I have the odd flashes of memory of bits of Israel and Vancouver, and I remember looking out of the aeroplane at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco... um... a little bit of Honolulu, and that's it. What a waste :p.

Most exciting trip I've done was my last visit to the US in January, when I flew to Baltimore, took the train to NYC, then took another train to Rochester, NY, then got driven to Boston. It was exciting principally because I made a lot of the plans as I went rather than planning it all out in advance. I really want to do that again, as soon as I'm well enough to. (Of course, I don't have any money at all saved up because I haven't been working much, but...)
 

Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
Administrator
TheBlueAvenger said:
Linkachu said:
And now I'm off for a yummy all-you-can-eat breakfast. Laterz!

As soon as I read that my mom called me down for dinner.

No way your dinner pwnz the ones I've been having - especially since I haven't had to pay a cent for any yet ;) If there's one thing I'll remember about this trip, it's the food! ^__^

Sorry to anyone who's been trying to catch me on AIM. Either haven't had the chance to log on or I've been too freakin' tired to do so. We're up in the moutains and the air is pretty thin, so just exerting yourself as usual takes an obvious toll on your energy levels. Hills are a killer x.x

I can't believe I thought Kunming was a small city. It has half the population of Toronto but probably more cars. The amount of taxis you see going by the window in a single minute is insane. It's definitely one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen, though... probably due to the fact that it's considered a tourist hotspot. Not caucasian, though. The people here act like they've never seen a live white person before.

And that's enough for now. For the record, if anyone reads this in the next 20 mins or so and has AIM, log on and drop me a line! :)
 
Linkachu said:
TheBlueAvenger said:
Linkachu said:
And now I'm off for a yummy all-you-can-eat breakfast. Laterz!

As soon as I read that my mom called me down for dinner.

No way your dinner pwnz the ones I've been having - especially since I haven't had to pay a cent for any yet ;) If there's one thing I'll remember about this trip, it's the food! ^__^

Heh, wasn't trying to suggest that. I just liked the timing on it.
 

Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
Administrator
It's always hard to tell with you ;)

Soo.. Leaving Kunming today! Heading back to Beijing for a week or so, then its off to Ontario on the 22nd, an over night stay at a hotel, then a short flight back to PEI on the 23rd. I found a prezzie for Oakster here (a Chika toy) but I won't be able to mail it out until I get home/get his home address ^^

Have any of you guys ever been lost in translation? It's quite a tense experience when people are yammering at you in some foreign language and won't let you pass. Its happened to me a few times now at the airports @_@

EDIT: w000t! Finally hit 1000! And I fulfilled my goal to reach it before new years eve 8)
 
Thanks. x_X

And I've sort of been lost in translation. I visited New Zealand a few years ago... even though everyone still spoke English, it was pretty much an entirely different language. The best part of that came when a guy was able to tell I was American when I happened to say 'cool'. XD
 
Top