Flying Solo to Raro #Take12Trips

I had mixed emotions about this trip - I couldn't wait to explore a new country, but I knew it wouldn't be the same without Scotty there to share it with. We're one of those annoying couples that do everything together, and we love it that way! So spending a week apart (or even one day) was very foreign to us. 

Scotty was going to the Blue Mountains to train for a big race he has coming up, so I decided to go to Rarotonga. He wasn't very keen on me traveling by myself, but I wanted to tick a new country off 'the list', so I tried finding somewhere not too far away, and somewhere he would feel comfortable with me being alone. The Cook Islands were the perfect place! 

It was school holiday time again, so we both flew to Sydney together on the Saturday and then I continued on to Raro. After leaving Sydney at 9pm Saturday night, I then traveled back in time and arrived in Raro at 7am Saturday morning. 

I had a very warm welcome (quite literally, the humidity was at a high) and was given a beautiful flower necklace to wear, and pointed in the direction of my transfer to where I was staying. 

The lovely necklace I received when I arrived in Rarotonga

This was only the second time I'd traveled internationally on my own. The first time was for my 21st birthday when I went to Fiji for two weeks. I love my own company and I'm pretty confident when it comes to doing things by myself so I was pretty excited for a week of rest and relaxation on a tropical island. 

The stunning beach only 50 metres from my front door

The place I was staying at was absolutely perfect. It was a gorgeous wee house right on the beach. And the owners were so friendly. I chatted to them every day and even had the opportunity to see them perform one night at a bar on the other side of the island - Rudy played the ukulele and Heidi danced. 

My island home

Rudy performing at a local bar on the beach

Rudy and Heidi weren't around when I first arrived, and I knew that I couldn't check in until later that afternoon as there was someone else in the house I would be staying in, so in true island style I wrote a note on a napkin and left it with my bags on their verandah. 

I met a lovely girl as soon as I arrived at the place where I was staying. She was just heading out to catch the bus to the markets so I joined her and we ended up spending the day looking around the markets and the town together.

The Saturday markets

We were able to borrow bikes from the place we were staying which was really cool, it was heaps of fun biking around the island to explore. I love walking/running or biking around new places, it's a great way of being able to stop and look at things in your own time. 

Louise and I riding around the island

I spent a lot of the week running and riding around the island. There's something really cool about putting your backpack on, jumping on your bike and heading off for a day of exploring, snorkeling and reading on the beach! Pure bliss!  

The sunrise on one of my runs

Another great way of getting around the island is the local bus. Two buses leave town every hour, one heading clockwise and the other anti-clockwise. You can wave them down from anywhere along the side of the road. 

I was lucky enough to be able to attend a church service while I was in Raro. It was such a beautiful experience with all of the locals singing and celebrating life. And the free morning tea afterwards was an added bonus too. 

Sunday School students before church

The locals were all so friendly and always wanted to chat about where I was from, what I do for work etc. I really enjoyed chatting to some locals while they were pulling in their fishing nets - this is probably not something I would've taken the time to do if I hadn't been there alone, and it's those interactions that I loved about traveling by myself. 

Locals fishing

One of the must-do activities in Raro is the Cross Island Hike with Pa. Pa is such a character and the perfect way to describe him would be with a saying that goes a little something like this - 'Never let the truth get in the way of a good story'! The hike is fantastic, heading up through the jungle to The Needle and then back down the other side. 

The infamous Pa

The Needle

Another must-do is the Te Vara Nui village tour, dinner and cultural show. You get to learn a lot about the Cook Island history and culture during the village tour. You then get to dine with other holiday-makers and enjoy an amazing buffet dinner with lots of local specialities before enjoying the cultural show put on by the local men and women. They are such amazing dancers and the costumes are incredible. The dessert after the show was the perfect way to end the evening. 

Te Vara Nui Village Tour

Local girls and boys performing cultural dances

If you want to run with the locals while you're there then get in touch with the Hash House Harriers. They do a group run (followed by beer drinking and chatting) every Monday night. It's a fantastic night and a great way to meet some of the locals. 

I picked up a fantastic brochure at the airport on my way in that showed a list of some of the different bars and restaurants that had activities or special events on certain nights. One of the fun things I decided to do was the 'party night' at the Coco Putt Ale House. For a mere $20 they will pick you up, provide you with a delicious burger, a free drink and a game of mini golf. There was a party bus (another fun night activity if you want to see the Raro nightlife) there that night so there was a great crowd and the night ended with me winning a game of limbo and doing my first ever funnel of beer as my 'prize'... I'm a non-drinker remember! 

As you can see Raro has something for everyone. It's also a famous wedding and honeymoon destination. While I was there I saw about 6 weddings and lots of honeymooners. It was really nice to be in a place where there was so much love in the air. And it was always funny when people asked where my husband was and I told them he was training for a big race so I had come there to relax. The girls all thought it was fantastic, and the guys would laugh and tell them not to get any ideas!  

I would highly recommend Rarotonga as a travel destination for people that are looking to relax and soak up the island culture. And I couldn't recommend Tropical Sands enough for the perfect place to stay. 

Stay tuned for my next #Take12Trips adventure in the Blue Mountains, NSW.

My final sunset in Rarotonga

My love/hate relationship with China

When we were in Thailand last year Scotty and I said we would never go to China. The Chinese tourists we'd experienced in Pai, Northern Thailand were loud, rude and pushy. And yet here we were, flying from Malaysia to Beijing! And we soon learnt that what we thought was 'rude' behaviour was actually quite normal in China. And not only 'normal' but it was necessary. When you're living in a city with over 21 million people you don't have much choice but to be pushy and loud. 

When we decided to go to Hong Kong for Scotty to race I thought it would be crazy to be so close to Beijing and not stop in and see the Great Wall of China. So that's what we did. 

Sipping on a hot chocolate in the bar at our hotel

Although we've been to quite a few Asian countries, China was definitely a culture shock. The number of people that could speak English was at a minimum. Taxi drivers had no idea where we wanted to go and hotel staff couldn't understand a word we were saying. We soon became very good at hand gestures and pointing! One thing that made things easier was having the name of hotels and other places we wanted to go written in Chinese, because if the locals can't speak English there's not much chance of them being able to read it either!

The next surprise came when we tried to access Facebook to let friends and family know we'd arrived safely. It turns out China has banned Facebook! I know, shock horror! How were we going to survive 4 whole days without Facebook!! #firstworldproblems

I'm going to start with a story about one of the more negative experiences from Beijing. When I first wrote this post I had this story at the end, but I'd rather finish on a positive note, so I'll squeeze it in here instead.

On our final night in Beijing we went to a restaurant that specialised in hot pot meals. I'd seen so many people having them since we'd arrived so I really wanted to try one. We had no idea how they worked and there were no English speaking people in sight. To cut a long story short - just because the word duck is on the menu, does not mean you are getting any meat... The duck was purely flavouring in the broth. So, when you're ordering you need to order the flavoured broth of your choice as well as a selection of meats and vegetables to cook. Suffice to say we had a rather interesting meal that night, but we're now much better educated for next time! (We had a fantastic hot pot meal in Tokyo on a random night out with some locals, so stay tuned for that in the coming weeks!) 

A big downfall to that night in Beijing was the group of men sitting at the table next to us. They were drinking and obviously having a great time, but this also involved chain smoking the whole time too. As annoying as that was, we were getting used to the fact that a lot of countries still allow smoking inside restaurants and bars. What I couldn't stand, and what really made for an unpleasant experience, was the fact that they were not only throwing their cigarette butts on the floor, but they were also spitting on the floor next to their table as well. And just when you thought that was enough to make you gag, they proceeded to blow their nose into tissues and then throw them onto the floor as well. Yuck!!

Now onto a couple of tips for traveling to China: 

1. There are people who spend their time wandering around the tourist spots listening out for people that speak English. They will spark up a conversation with you and then invite you to go with them to 'practice speaking English'. THIS IS A SCAM! We had this happen on a number of occasions so I was glad I'd heard about it before we arrived. 

2. Taxis don't drive down hutongs to your hotel. Some cars will drive down, but really there's not enough room, so taxis will not. And it's perfectly normal for someone from your hotel to call their mate to get them to take you to the airport at ungodly hours of the morning. It's actually quite a reliable way of getting there. You pay the hotel in advance, the 'taxi driver' will come right to the front door (even down the hutongs) and take you where you need to go. Your other alternative would be to carry your luggage out onto the main street and try to hail a taxi, and at about 4am, you'll be struggling to find anyone out and about, let alone a taxi. NB: It could be a bit busier earlier in the morning during the warmer months, but we were there in the thick of winter!

3. Speaking of taxis - be sure to steer clear of 'black taxis' or taxi drivers that try to approach you at the airport. They will charge a lot more than a regular taxi. Follow the signs towards the taxi rank when you're at the airport. It's always a good idea to have a rough estimate of the cost of getting from the airport to your hotel before you arrive, this will help you to identify scammers that are trying to charge too much. We knew our taxi was going to cost about 85CNY, so when they said it would be 650CNY we knew it was a scam. We ended up paying 125CNY which we were happy with. 

4. On a more comical note - If it's the middle of winter, do not wear shorts! The locals will point and laugh (without trying to disguise the fact that they are actually laughing at you) and will insist on taking your photo when you're not looking. They will also stampede you in the street to have their photo taken with 'the crazy foreigners'. We learnt this quite quickly and Scotty made sure he wore pants for the rest of our time in Beijing. 

The hutong where we were staying

And now for the good bits!

The architecture in Beijing is incredible! A few must see places are:

A. The Forbidden City (also known as the Palace Museum). You can pay for an audio tour which is a great way of knowing what you're looking at, and a lot cheaper than paying for a guide. They pause and reset if you walk ahead to the next building so you don't have to wait around. From memory it was about a 4 hour 'tour' and we weren't planning on spending that much time there, so we found the audio tour very useful. 

Forbidden City

B. To get a fantastic birds eye view of the Forbidden City I would highly recommend going to Jingshan Park. If you pay to go into the Forbidden City, walk all the way through to the other side, exit the Forbidden City and cross over to the other side of the road, you'll come to Jingshan Park. Bear in mind there are lots of underpasses/walkways and fenced off areas around, so you can very rarely just 'cross the road', you will generally have to walk under, around and across to get to the other side.

Jingshan Park

The central most point of Beijing

C. Tiananmen Square is such a cool place to visit. There are so many people around exploring the buildings and taking in the atmosphere. Be prepared to go through security checks and have your bags x-rayed. And there are a lot of hawkers around the underpasses selling trinkets and beanies (in the winter).   

Tiananmen Square at night

We were lucky enough to be staying within a 15/20 minute walk from most of these places (bonus points for me for choosing the hotel!).

One of my favourite buildings in Beijing. I'm not sure why, I just loved it!

Something I would definitely recommend doing while you're in Beijing is a night at the Red Theatre watching a Kung Fu Show. It was a fantastic night out with such talented performers. But be warned - you're not allowed to take photos inside the theatre! And if you try, you will get in trouble! 

Kung Fu Show at the Red Theatre

Another must see place in Beijing is the Summer Palace. We were very close to not going because I'd read mixed reviews, but I'm so glad we went with our instincts and checked it out. If we hadn't we would've missed out on the awesome experience of 'ice skating' on the frozen lake - something you don't get to do every day. If you've got enough time you could walk around the whole lake - such a relaxing way to spend a few hours taking in your surroundings. And it's meant to be pretty impressive in Summer too.

'Ice skating' at the Summer Palace

Locals ice fishing at the Summer Palace

Marble boat at the Summer Palace

Visiting the Great Wall of China was an incredible experience and one that deserves it's own post, so that will come next! 

One of the traditions I loved about our trip to Beijing was the flag raising ceremony at Tiananmen Square. Each morning at sunrise and then again each night at sunset everyone gathers to see the flag risen (at sunrise) and taken back down (at sunset). It was really special to see so many people joining together, even in the freezing cold. 

Locals coming together at sunset to watch the flag being drawn down

They have a fantastic train system in Beijing and everything is very accessible. But be prepared to push your way to the front if you want to get on. There's no time for manners, if you want to get on the train, you have to do what the locals do. It took a bit of getting used to as it's very much against our nature to push in front of people or squeeze your way to the front, but in Beijing if you want to get anywhere, this is what they have to do. Just don't forget to switch back to the 'polite' way of doing things when you get home! 

A typical Beijing street

So, there you have it - my love/hate relationship with Beijing. As you can see there are so many amazing things to see and do there, but there are just a few things that take you by surprise as well. At the end of the day, that's what traveling is all about. Take the good with the bad, and embrace every moment!