We spent our four nights in Dali, China at the delightful Windoo Resort, situated on the western bank of Erhai Lake. Stretching 40 kilometers in length at an elevation of nearly 2,000 meters, Erhai is the second largest lake of its kind in China. Ferries make frequent trips across the lake for those wishing to […]
Hotels I Love
Shuhe, China: A Charming Stop on the Tea Horse Road
For our five nights in Lijiang County, we stayed at a delightful guesthouse in Shuhe Old Town, four kilometers from Lijiang Old Town. Like Shangri-la in the north, Shuhe was a stop on the Tea Horse Road over which Tibetan horses and Chinese tea were traded for centuries. Today that heritage is still in evidence, with […]
Afternoon Tea at the Fairmont Peace Hotel, Shanghai
My mom came to visit us in Shanghai last year and absolutely fell in love with the beautiful old buildings lining the Bund. We walked into the lobbies and soaked up the 1930’s style of the restored hotels and banks. This year I thought it would be fun to treat her to afternoon tea at […]
Fun Things to Do in Luang Prabang, Laos
The sleepy little town of Luang Prabang is located in the mountains of northern Laos, at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers. The quaint streets are lined with traditional wooden shop-houses, with open-air cafes and boutiques on the ground level. The ancient Kingdom of Laos was colonized by France during the 19th […]
China’s First Western Hotel
After the Treaty of Nanking opened China’s port cities to foreign trade, the British established their land concession and a building boom ensued. Realizing that the newly arrived foreign merchants would need lodging while in Shanghai, a Scottish man by the name of Richards opened an eponymous hotel near the Bund in 1846. It was […]