Wander |
"Not all those who wander are lost."
I am excited! A & I planned our spring break. Never thought that I would say this about traveling but certain Wonders of the World is really pain in the *butt* to get to due to logistic difficulties, so I am hoping all these tedious planning will pay off instead of a tourist ripoff waiting for me on the other side. Not sure if it is the monday morning blues talking or just general negativity from the pouring rain outside. I am gonna blame it on the rain. Yes, Pinterest pictures make it so enticing that you are like OMG I must go to Machu Picchu before I die. I know I am a bit young to be doing bucket list but hey why not! Total amount of planning time for Machu Picchu ~ 2-3 weeks. I started with some casual browsing of things to do in Peru > look up how to get to Machu Picchu > look up restaurants > set-up a tentative itinerary > proposed the itinerary and the suggested budget to A > refine the itinerary to cut down on the cost > book everything. I think no one ever tells you how many different modes of transportation you need to get to Machu Picchu so I am gonna break it down for you: SFO > Lima via flight
Err, don't try to drive from Lima to Cusco (google map). The driving will probably take up one day of your trip. Most people probably book the trip with some travel agency to just save themselves the headache of coordination but I thought I have the time so I would rather plan my trip myself (retrospectively speaking, maybe I should have chosen a place that is slightly easier to get to). Disclaimer: I am not a master at planning trips, but I am very OCD about it and I shop for hours for good deals. Machu Picchu Entry TicketThe best site that I found that helped me through the process was this website: https://thriftynomads.com/how-to-buy-machu-picchu-tickets-online/ . It has screenshots. You can also use google translate! My high school Spanish teacher should be proud of my bare minimum Spanish skills that got me through the whole process of booking things online! The very very OCD travel schedule that I planned. Lessons that I have learned1. Don't try book things in the middle of the night
I am pretty sure there were other lessons that I have learned but I'll save it for later. Gotta get to my monday morning stretch yoga class so will update this post again once I have gone on my trip to let you know more about the logistics of getting to Machu Picchu.
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Airbnb website: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/12348943 This is my last post for 2017 (California time) and the first post for 2018 (Taipei time). I was looking through my photo from 2017 and I realized that I am behind in my blog writing. I guess my wish for 2018 is to write more blog posts, especially for the MAKE section. A asked me why I don't post all of my homemade food on the blog. Well, I usually forgot to take pictures (too hangry) + night time lighting for photo is just crappy so nothing looks good despite the fact that it may taste amazeballs (yes that is a word). When we went to Napa, we decided to stay in an Airbnb. The property is a small cottage off of the main building. Victoria is a superhost with lots of shining reviews so we were pretty confident that this Airbnb experience would be better than our last Airbnb experience (Florence). For those who have never tried Airbnb, there is some basic etiquette that one should take note of before you check-in. 1. Airbnb is not a hotel. Don't expect hotel level services. Think of it as couch surfing at your distant relative's home. 2. Always be kind to your host. They put in a lot of effort to rearrange their schedules so that they can check you in. Don't demand to check in early (usually they may have another guest before you and they need to buffer in 1+ hours for cleaning). Don't check in at twilight hours. Again, this is not a hotel. Do you expect your distant relative to stay up and open the door for you at 2AM? Probably no, so don't ask your host to do that. 3. Keep the bed clean and don't eat in the bed. This is the host's home. If you leave a mess, it will take a few hours for them to clean it up. 4. Find out about parking and how to check in early. Don't just randomly park in the middle of nowhere. Your host's family may need the parking spot as well. 5. Bring your own toiletries and towels (when you can). 6. Text them one day before, the day of arrival, and the day of checking out. Good communication is important! 7. Try your best to leave the place as clean as possible. Your host will really appreciate it. 8. Don't try to bargain for a cheaper price and even try to negotiate offline. if you are staying for > 1 month, then yes by all means ask for a discount. If you are staying for 1 week and wants a great deal at a superhost's place, errrr you will leave the host thinking that you are a super cheapo and they may just reject your request. The whole reason why transactions should be done via Airbnb is so that you and the host are both protected financially. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Above. Amazing panoramic view of the farm + sunset The cottage is located in the residential area in Sonoma. You definitely need a car. We rented a car for the trip. Most residential areas in Sonoma do not have many street lights at night so we tried to get back to the Airbnb before sunset to avoid driving in complete darkness. A did not want me to drive into a vineyard accidentally. Above. Cows roaming around eating grass The cottage had a porch in the front with a hammock. There is no light pollution. On a clear day, you can probably sit there and stargaze. We unfortunately were still adjusting to our jetlag so we slept from like 9-3AM, woke up, and watched "Schitt's Creek" till 5AM. I recommend buying a few bottles of wine and just chilling on the porch. Above. Close-up of the cows (those little black dots) Above. The TV that we never watched.
I really love Victoria's mid-century classic furnitures. Tastefully decorated flats take forever to build because you have to collect the pieces of the furniture one by one and think about how it fits into the rest of the decór. She puts in a lot of thoughts for her Airbnb. She even put in snacks for us in case we were hungry (that is why she is a superhost). We had a blast in Napa. if solitude is your cup of tea, do check out Victoria's Airbnb (and no, she did not pay me to write this post). |