Portugal (Sintra, Cascais) - April, 2011

If Lisbon is the political center of Portugal, then Sintra must be the cultural center! Never before we did see so many beautiful palaces in the same place! The day we spent in Sintra, we visited the Sintra National Palace, the Quinta da Regaleira Palace, and finally the Pena Palace.

Overall, Sintra is heavily influenced by Moorish culture. There are plenty of beautifully decorated Arab rooms in each of the palaces. It reminded us of Granada.

We first visited the Sintra National Palace, which is located at the foot of the moutain. The palace was used from the 15th to 19th century by the King. The palace has a simple white and yellow outside, and has many elaboratively designed rooms inside. What is most special about this palace is its huge kitchen. It has two huge chimneys that stands out from the rest of the Sintra town.

We also visited Quinta de Regaleira Palace, which is built by a wealthy man as his summer estate. The palace is huge, it includes a main building, a chapel and a huge garden. Alex and I walked in the garden for a long time and got completely lost. We walked and walked and walked and I was exhausted. >< We finally returned to the main building. The main building has many rooms, and each room was decorated differently, from the floor, ceiling, wall, and furniture. I loved watching the details of the ceiling. The ceiling often has stars and moons shaped carving. It reminds me of the turkish bath we often see in the Middle East.

Our final destination was the Pena Palace (yes, this is OUR palace!). The palace is located on the top of the hill, and has two parts: the Moorish castle, and the palace itself. The Moorish castle extends long walls across the moutains, and it looked very pretty. We climbed to the top of the castle and saw Sintra town from the top, including the two big chimneys from the National Palace. The top was quite windy, so we rested there for a while and climbed down again. I cannot tell the difference between Moorish and other castles...in fact, I think it looks quite similar to the great wall of China...jeje

And the finally, we went to the Pena Palace. I don't know if it is because of the name, or because of how the palace looked like, it feels like home! I visited many palaces, but this particular one, although not as big or glamorous as Versalle or El Pardo, gives a cozy and homey feeling. When you walk around this little palace, everything is pretty but nothing is overwhelming. I remember visiting the Queen's room and the Princess' room, and I saw that the furniture was well kept, and everything looked like it was just left behind. And I said to Alex, oh I can see a real Queen living here!

One day visiting 3 palaces was really exhausting...I think Alex and I are done with palaces for a while now. ^^

Portugal (Lisbon) - April, 2011

The most important stopover in our Portugal roadtrip is Lisbon. We stayed over at our good friends Ana and Miguel's place, and spent 2 days exploring this great city.

When we first arrived in Lisbon, we entered the city through Marquês de Pombal, a beautiful square in the middle of the city. In fact, later we leanrt that our friends Ana and Miguel live just nearby, and we passed by this square many times during our 3 days in Lisbon.

From Marquês de Pombal, we followed a long road with trees all along it to go to Baixa, the old city center. We parked the car, and walked around the old city center. We saw beautiful squares, paved streets, antique shops, and eventually arrived at the riverside. There was a beautiful palace built along the river, from there, you can sit down at the stairway and look at the river quietly flowing away.

After Baixa, we went back to Marquês de Pombal and united with our friends. In the evening we went to Bairro Alto, a beautiful neighbourhood on top of a little hill nearby Baixa to have dinner. We walked around a bit to see the bird view of Lisbon, and I got drunk over a 50-cent Sangria. We went to a recommended restaurant. It is small, with only about 15 seats. We had to wait for half an hour to get a table since there is no reservation, but we had great seafood there. Especially, the appetizer, steamed clams, was extremely delicious. After dinner, we walked around the neighbouhood and had a drink in a bar nearby. The neighbourhood has a great atmosphere, a lot of young people, tourists, and music. In the bar where we went to, the European football league match is playing, and naturally, people were divided into Real Mardid vs. Barcelona supporters.

In our second day in Portugal, we went back to the old city and walked around Alfama. It is a Moorish neighbourhood. It is heavily concentrated on the hills (Lisbon is very hilly and there are lots of ups and downs). It was built like a maze, with lots of narrow streets, dark corners. It is extremely difficult to navigate, and we got completely lost.

After Alfama, we joined Ana and Miguel for a family brunch. We met at least 30 of their family members, and really enjoyed the conversation and the food. I even received a gift as a surprise from Miguel's mom, and was really happy about it.

In the afternoon, we went to Belem. It is a bit far outside of the city, but a very important historical site. There were the famous monastry, Belem castle, and the tower. Belem was in an very open area, with lots of grass, flowers, etc. We first visited the monastry. Unfortunately it was closed for visiting, but even the outside of the monastry was stunning. It is carefully decorated with carved religious figures. We then walked along the river and visited the tower and the castle. The castle was built at a spot where the river was merging with the sea. So when we walked along the river, we start to smell the smell of sea. The distances between Monastry and the riverside was quite far, and we were both extremely tired after the visit. I whined about how Alex always forces me to walk for so long, so he carried me for 50 meters...^^

Since we were in Belem, we couldn't miss the very famous Pastéis de Nata, since it is a local product. We lined up in a pastry for half an hour, and had this amazing desert! (Also called egg tart and can be easily found anywhere in Chinatown if you don't know what that is...) The real Pastéis de Nata is very different from the Chinatown eggtart. You eat it when it is hot, and the dough is much more crispy. You also pour cinnemon and sugar power onto it before you eat, so the flavour is much more sweet than the egg tart.

We returned to Portugal in the evening, and joined some other friends for dinner at a Portugese restaurant. This time, the cuisine was from the islands of Portugal, and was much more difficult to recognize than what we normally had.

Our very last day in Portugal, we visited a palace recommended by Alex's parents. It is in the middle of a park, and it had beautiful gardens with china tiles painted with beautiful patterns. It was quiet and the entire tour was conducted in French, but we really enjoyed this old palace.

From there, our Lisbon tour ended. Although the two days were intense and completely packed with activities, we still haven't finished exploring Lisbon fully. We enjoyed the company of friends and great food in Lisbon, and hope to return here in the near future!

Portugal (Aveiro, Coimbra, Obidos, Ericeira) - April, 2011

From Porto to Lisbon, we drove through several small Portugese towns. Each of these towns has characters of its own. We saw great scenary, had wonderful food, and experience real Portugese culture along the way.

Our first small town visit is Aveiro. It is often described as the Venice of Portugal. There are several cannal running through the city, and you can see small boats manueveoring through the city. The city is also known for its beautiful traditional houses. These houses are decorated with tiles made from china covering majority of its outside. The most usual ones have blue and white patterns, and often you can also see tiles of other colours. My hypothesis is that this style decoration reflects the Mulism and Chinese influence in Portugal. ^^

But of course what attracts us here is THE FOOD! We were told by Alex's uncle that there are great enguia (eel) in Aveiro. So we asked some locals and found the best seafood restaurant in town! I had the best enguia soup in the world! And Alex worked on some fried enquia for a long time. I just remember through out the lunch, Alex and I concentrated so much on our food, we didn't exchange more than 5 sentences for the entire hour! My soup was huge, but it is so amazing that I really stuffed myself and almost finished it all. The soup had a really intense flavour that still makes my mouth watering whenver I think about it. Oh...I am dying to go back to that restaurant and have that soup again!

Ok...enough about the food, our second stop on the way was Coimbra. When we reached there, it was raining outside, so we stayed in until almost the evening before heading outside to see the town. Coimbra's old city is on top of a little hill. So we climbed all the way up and visited several churches, the Coimbra University and some gardens on the hill. Maybe it is because of the weather, Alex didn't like Coimbra too much. We had a quick walk and returned home.

The next day, we set off early and visited Obidos. Obidos is a pretty little town with the old city center perserved perfectly: it has the complete city wall, castle, church, old houses, etc. It probably looks exactly the same as 200 years ago. We walked on the city wall and saw the city from the top...it is filled with little red roof top houses...just like in the fairytales. When we came down from the wall and walk within the city, the street is filled with pretty flowers! You can find all kinds of flowers here: rose, lily, etc. etc. We loved it here!


Our final stop is Ericeira. Again this town is referred to us by Alex's uncle, and you can probably guess why he referred it. So Alex's uncle has been coming to this town for vacation for 11 summers continuously, and always visited this restaurant called Riva. He became good friend with the owner and recommended us to come here again. So our only mission in this town, after all the driving, toll, getting lost, etc. is to EAT! I can never forget our lunch in Riva. We had great sea food, and too much of it! In fact, I never knew that I can get full just from eating crabs! And that day! I ate so much crab and I actually had to say stop! I could go on and on to describe the amazing seafood in this restaurant, but I can one picture is worth 1000 words. So just take a look at what we had that day! UNFORGETABLE! And yes, that's why I fell in love with Portugal!

Portugal (Braganca, Porto) - April, 2011

Jumping ahead for about a year, in April 2011, Alex and I did our most recent trip together in Portugal. From Madrid where I was visiting Madrid, we took the car and drove around Portugal and did a 6-day road trip.

We started heading to the west of Madrid, and first visited Braganca and Porto. Then we headed south and visited a few small towns: Aveiro, Coimbra, Obidos, and Ericeira. We finally arrived in Lisbon and stayed there for 3 nights. We also visited Sintra and Cascais which are just a bit outside of Lisbon before heading back to Madrid.

After 3 hours drive, we arrived in Braganca. There was no particularly reason why we chose to visit this town, simply it is on our way to Porto and it is about time for lunch. Braganca is a small and quiet town with lots of old houses. We wandered around the town, visited the castle and had a hearty lunch in a local restaurant. In fact, since Braganca is so close to Spain, we didn't feel it was too different from home - everyone we met spoke Spanish, and the food is quite similar. We did learn that in Portugal people eat earlier: 12:30 - 2 for lunch, 8:30 to 10 for dinner. But because Portugal is one hour later than Spain, the schedule worked fine for us.

After lunch, we continued our drive and eventually reached Porto at around 5pm. We checked into our hotel, and took a nice walk towards the riverside. Porto is the second largest city in Portugal and it is a beautiful port city. According to the guidebook, people here used to rely on trading for living, so they developed a unique merchant culture. We walked to Ponto de Luis, and watched a beautiful sunset along the lake. We had dinner in a Chinese restaurant nearby the bridge and returned home early to rest.


The next morning, we woke up early and walked around the old town. We visited the market, the San Francisco Church, the stock exchange, and again walked along the river shore. We saw boats carrying wine cellars parked on the river and learnt that Porto is famous for its local wine. The city is quite hilly, so we walked up and down hills and got quite tired in the end. At 11am, we said bye to this beautiful city and departed for our next destination.

Tibet (Lakes) - July, 2010

During our time in Tibet, we visited two great lakes: Yamadroke Lake and Namtso Lake.

We passed by the Yamadroke Lake on our way back from the Everest Base Camp. The lake is not very big, we drove around it for about 2 hours. Its colour is turquoise blue and it is completely tranquil. We saw a thunder storm happening on the other side of the lake, and the yaks quietly eating grass, passing their afternoon.

And towards the end of our visit, we went to Namtso Lake and camped there over night. Namtso Lake is elevated at 4718m, and it is the largest salt lake in Tibet. It is a sacred lake is Tibet, and every 12 years, the pilgrims walk around the lake to complete a circle as part of their religious ritual. It is said Namtso Lake is the most beautiful place in Tibet, but unfortunately the two days we spent there the weather was foggy, and we didn't see much. But comparing the Yamadroke Lake, Namtso Lake was much more lively. Along the lake, there were many locals who use their horses or yaks to pose for pictures with tourists. But when we arrived there, they all jumped into the water and started bathing their horses. They were chatting, laughing, splashing water onto each other (by the way, the water is freezing since we are so high). And they were having a lot fun. And at the end of the day, the yaks just walk around the beach and look for plants to digest. Yaks are such gentle and beautiful animals, I love them very much.

Tibet (Everest Base Camp) - July, 2010

One of our goals to come to Tibet this time is to reach the Mount Everest Base Camp. This is no easy task. The base camp is located at 5545m. And already one member of our team Marco was experiencing some painful headache and cold caused by the altitude sickness.

After much discussion, we still decided to go for the Base Camp. We first had to leave Lhasa and drive to the second largest city Tibetan Shigatse first. Shigatse is at 3950m. And the night we arrived in Shigatse, Alex had a huge headache. We were not sure if it was caused by his migrant or altitude sickness. So we ran to a local Chinese medical clinic looking for help. After carefully examining Alex, the doctor said he needs some acupuncture treatment! Oh my god, I had to watch the doctor putting 4 huge needles onto Alex's head! Alex was clam about it, but I was quite freaked out. Also at the clinic, we equipped us with medicine and oxygen tanks to be fully equipped for the next day.

After one night of rest, Alex was feeling better, so we left Marco behind, and went with our guide to the base camp. The drive was long, and after several hours, the paved road disappeared and we were driving on the dirt road, making huge S turns to climb up and down the mountains. We were worried because our driver had to drive for 16 hours continuously that day!

When we finally approached the base camp, it looked quite cloudy and we were warned that we should be prepared not being able to see Mount Everest. Just when we were getting discouraged, suddenly a hole in the cloud showed up, and through the hole, we were able to see the peak of Mount Everest very clearly, for about 10 minutes! We were excited, and stepped outside of the car to take pictures of this rare view!


When we finally reached the base camp, the cloud closed up, and we were never able to see Mount Everest again.

The base camp was very simply set up. A few tanks were around to provide food and lodging for all the mountain climbs. And occasionally, you can see local Tibetans coming up and down the camp in truck to provide suppliers. While we stayed at the camp, I had a headache, and used the oxygen tank to help breathing. We stayed in the camp briefly for lunch, and left to return to Shigatse in the afternoon.

Tibet (around Lhasa) - July 2010

The second day in Tibet, we were supposed to start our roadtrip for the Everest Base Camp, but Marco fell really sick, probably because of the high altitude sickness and developed a fever. So we decided to cancel the original plan and stay in Lhasa for one extra day. While Alex was caring for Marco, our guide took Limin and I to a nearby monastry which is situated inside of the mountains. To my regret, I couldn't remember the name of the monastry, but it is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever visited.

As you can see, the monastry is built on top of a quite steep hill. It's white and red painting really stood out from the yellowish green mountain. The monastry is small and quite, without too many visitors. Over there, we saw how Tibetan people quietly offer their home made yuk butter to the temple to keep the lamp burning day and night.

After the monastry I returned to the hotel to take turns care for Marco while Alex and Limin visited another temple. I will have to ask Alex to tell you what he saw on his trip!

Tibet (Lhasa) - July 2010

Somehow I convinced Alex to come to Tibet with me. I always wanted to go to Tibet, and I made a pact with Julian back in 2007 that we would go visit Tibet together in 2010. Now I don't know where Julian is, but I made it to Tibet in 2010 finally!

The 4 of us flew in from all parts of the world to meet in Lhasa: Limin from Beijing, Alex from Nepal, Marco and I from Nanjing. We met in Lhasa on July 16, 2010 and started our 10-day trip together.

Lhasa is a beautiful city. Located in a valley surrounded by chains of Himalayan mountains and the Lhasa river, the city is clean and quiet. The air the thin at 3650m is thin, so the sky looks extra blue to me. Our hotel was near the Jokhang Temple, next to the Barkhor Bazaar in the old town. Along the narrow streets, there erects many two-floor traditional tibetan houses. These houses have typical white wall and black roofs, with colour windows carefully decorated. Tibetan people are darker than the Chinese. They have round faces and red cheeks, and look very strong and healthy.

We stayed in Lhasa for 2-3 days, and visited Norbulinka Palace, Jokhang Temple, and Potala Palace.

Our first stop was Norbulinka Palace. The palace is a bit out from the city center, and used to be the summer palace for Dalai Lama. In the palace, we saw many Tibetan who sincerely offer their prayers. One part of the palace had a beautiful garden.

We then visited Jokhang Temple, which is very close to where we lived. We were amazed by the crowded souvenir markets - the Barkhor Bazaar. Hundreds of visitors come here to shop for all kinds of souvenirs, and the beautiful turquoise is the local favouriate (we later spent many hours shopping for turquoise necklaces). Just in front of the Jokhang Temple, many religious tibetans keel down and offer their prayers. Inside of the Jokhang temple, again we saw beautifully decorated traditional Tibetan buildings. The rooftop of the temple (a 4 floor building) is undergoing some renovation, and we saw people singing and dancing while paving the roof. It's nice to see how much fun they are having even when working. Also from the roottop, we saw the beautiful view of the Potala Palace, situated on top of a hill on the other side of the city.

When we finally arrived at Potala Palace, it was almost closing, so we had to rush to climb hundreds of stairs to reach to the entrace on top of the hill (we then heard the palace is 14 floors tall. The Palace is divided into two parts, the red palace and the white palace. The palace is a sacred place for it is where the Dalai Lama lives. The palace is lit by yuk butter lamp, and had a beautiful smell. From the Potala Palace, we had a bird-view of the entire Lhasa city.

When we finished our visit in Lhasa, we just walked around the old town and got completely lost in its narrow streets. We found several good local restaurants and enjoyed the momos and yuk butter tea, and we even found a local bar where we hang out almost every night while we were in Lhasa.

It is a warm and pretty place, I love Lhasa.

By the way, during that month we spent in Tibet and China, Alex was trying to grow his little beard. He saved it for almost 1.5 months until I finally convinced him to shave it off before meeting my mom...lol....this is how he looks!

Indonesia, February 2010

Ok...let's step back a bit...before we went 'official', we actually took a trip together to visit Yogyakarta in Indonesia.

We went with a group of friends from the master degree, and arrived first in Yogyakarta city. The city was crowded, colourful, heated, loud, anything that you could imagine as a typical Southeast Asian city. We and our friends were scattered in a few hostels around the city, and commuted by Tuktuk for getting together.

Our first sight seeing destination was Prambanan, a complex of Hindu temples. It was my first time visiting Hindu temples, and I was completely amazed by its complex decorative stone carving, countless imaginary figures, and grand scale. It was very different from the Buddhist or Christian decoration that I was familiar with. I particularly liked the narrow staircase that leads up to the inside of each tower, and spent a lot of time climbing them.

Then we visited Borobudur. It is also a temple complex, but this time, of Buddhist stupas. I'm quite familiar with Buddhist temples, but have never seen something quite like this before. The structures were built on top of a little hill, and along each level, there were tons of stupa shaped hollow structures where a buddha sculpture was hidden in each one of them. The carving was much simpler comparing to Prambanan, but the scenary, set against chains of mountains and unbounded farmland, made the place very special. We stayed up on the hill and watched the sun set.

In that same evening, 4 of us, decided we would go and climb the famous volcano, mount Merapi. It is the most active volcano in Indonesia, and is about 2911 meters high. We set for the hike at 1am, and planned to reach the top at 5:30am to see the sun rise.

Oh boy, after 200 meters into the hiking, I realized I made a big mistake...I am not physically prepared at all, and the moutain is too hard to climb. And my dear companions, being all type A males, are just walking too fast for me. I vomitted at our first stop, and seriously thought about returning home. But somehow, and this is also what I told Alex later 'if I don't do something crazy once in a while, I will feel old'. And because of that, I stuck till the end and almost killed myself.

But by 6am when the sun started rising, all the pains were worthy it. The stones were heated up on top of the mountain which kept us warm. And I saw one of the most amazing sunrise in my life! From the pink smoke emitted from the volcano, the sun gradually rise up into the sky, spreading golden lights upon the mountain and us. It was absolutely stunning!

Also on top of the mountain, Alex and I got close, and posed for our first individual photo together!

We came down from the mountain and saw that the crater were converted by the villages into their local football league play field. We were amused by such an arrangement, and didn't know that just a few months after, in November, the volcano erupted and killed 353 people nearby...><... It was an unforgetable trip. Afterwards, I found out Alex is a mountaineer, and we did many more hikings together. But we always talk about Mount Merapi, and how special it is.

How I Met Alex

Hello World!

I'm Ke, a Chinese girl who grew up in Canada. In Janurary 2010, I went to Singapore to study for my master degree (also to escape the cold Canadian winter) . It just so happens that a very nice Spanish guy called Alex was in my class, and we talked for the first time in our class BBQ.

I don't remember much about this conversation, but in the end, my conclusion for him was 'you are very funny!' And obviously Alex took it as serious compliment, and decided to get to know me better in the next a few months.

So after a few months, on April 19, 2010, we became a very happy couple! And since then, we started our amazing life together to explore the world!