Do you know what’s the limit of your body?

I just return from Muslim Quarter, Xi’An, China. The most memorable experience there was the hidden meat corner. Depending on how you get into the area, it may be quite an adventure to reach the meat stalls. You may get lost in the delicious food in dirty places, in the dry fruits and fascinating objects, the surroundings, but you couldn’t miss the meat stalls.

I think they put them there especially for us, the spoiled foreigners. As an European, it impossible to understand how is it possible to manage the food in such a horrible dirty environment: no running water, the meat is cut on the table? What for if we have the floor? Yeah, the meat is “sharing” same floor as your shoes which just came from the toilet.

And you know what is insane and makes it even more mind twister? They don’t feel sick. I didn’t feel sick either. All this makes me ask myself: with the increase of our life standards, medicine and technology, don’t we miss to know our body? How much of our physical limits did we get to know in our entire life?

Dear Santa, all I want for this December is…

• Breakfast with the giant Pandas from Chengdu
• See the Pink Dolphins from Hong Kong
• Get Chinese cooking classes
• Escape to Shangri La, so please make sure you clear the road of snow before I go
• Trek on Great Wall
• Sand boarding in the Black and white desert
• Concur the Pyramids
• Eat loooots of Chinese food
• Get lost in the rice terraces
• Win at the casino in Macau
• Clear my eyes with the gorgeousness of Li River
• Catch all my flights
• Stay in a local’s place in China

Don’t bother in checking it, I was a very good girl this year. I even didn’t travel that much.

Only Ukraine, but that was an AIESEC conference, it doesn’t count. England was just a short 4-5 days trip on Easter and was overcrowded because of the royal wedding, I should claim some compensation.

Italy, you know you need a life to enjoy the Italian guys. Then Russia, com’on that was rather friends gathering than a trip. Warsaw and Sofia, you can’t even say I was there, were too short those trips.

Since it has been pending for longer than a year, Madrid is out of the business.

You see, I really deserve a couple of great trips for this December!

Your biggest fan and the most conscious traveler of Romania and the world,

Sincerely, I cross my heart and hope to die,

With love,

Anca

3 weeks is not enough for Chinese Heaven!

Pandas! Great food! Great wall! Forbidden city! Hakka houses! Trekking! Rice terraces! Tibet! Yangzi river cruise! Sparkling Hong Kong! Amazing Shanghai! Meditation! Lovely kids!

And only 3 weeks… to get the most of one of world’s oldest cultures. more than 4 thousands years of history in 21 days! Oh God! Why didn’t you make weeks longer? Life is so cruel!

The plan for my first trip to China is:

Landing in Beijing, head directly to Donghuamen night market and get lost into the food zoo! Wake up against the time lag and delight my camera with the colors of Panjiayuan market. After this great introduction, Great Wall day trip here I am!!!! I’m coming with all my winter gear to trek the biggest wall China has got to the world!

Before leaving Beijing, I’ll taste the sin in the Forbidden City, purify my soul in Lama Temple and simple breath and feel the joy of being again in Asia!

Xi’an! Terracotta Warriors and more food at Muslim Quarter!

Pandas, now it’s time to introduce myself: Anca, your fan #1! Get ready to pose for me and with me! Lovely teddy bears, book your time to be awake for me!

Well.. they say that if you meet the angels it means you are in the Heaven. And there I’ll be for more than a week: Lijiang, Shangri La, Guiling, Dragon Backbone Rice Terraces and end up with a short visit to Hakka round houses. I’ll trek, get lost into the stunning landscapes, breath fresh air, learn from locals, be with locals, live China!

My trip will end in sparkling Hong Kong. Fireworks over Victoria harbor on New Year, Macau, and more food! Double decker tram! Culinary delights – places of perdition, I can’t wait for you!!!!

China, open well your arms and chest of goodies coz Anca is coming to live you!!!

I miss Asia badly!

Walking on a dirty street, under a crazy heavy monsoon rain, with earsplitting honks around me. Sleeping with earplugs. No hair mouse or short skirts. Spicy food, too much good food! Delicious sweets! Jewelries, impossible of being forgotten home. What is normal? What is logic?

This is the life I quit one and half years ago. And now, when planing my trip to China I feel a part of me is there, or a part of it is in me.

I miss Asia badly!

The first thing I’ll do when getting to Beijing is going to eat! Asian food! I know I’ll get lost, I will whine when feeling the smells, but I will feel: God! I so much missed Asia!!!

Then I’ll go to check out the random markets, street foood!!! Food!

Food! Food! People! Smiles! Break my patterns! Forget about what is normal.

Asia, here I come!

Ginger from Goa, Curry from Madras and Belgian chocolate

These days I went with a friend to a chocolate exhibition on Radio Hall in Bucharest. There was chocolate and sweets from different European parts. Till now, the best chocolate I had is the Belgian one, so let’s go to the Belgian chocolate stand.

What do we have here? Belgian chocolate with Ginger from Goa?! Ginger from Goa?! Maybe you want to say tan from Goa, or sand, beach, but for sure Goa is not famous for ginger.

Then… What else do we have here? Belgian chocolate with Curry from Madras?! Spice and chocolate… It is more masala on chocolate shape than chocolate.

Belgian chocolate with Indian species. It can be an interesting combination I thought, but these ones were just pathetic. It had nothing to do with the real and delicious Belgian chocolate and they were insane expensive.

The saddest part was that people bought them just because the seller said is a great Belgian chocolate with something that then don’t even know what it is.

That’s why I love to travel!

Andaman

What does this tell you? Andaman.

Sometimes I get into my inbox trip offers. No, no, I didn’t change my mind, I still think I’m my best trip planner, but is good to get news about unknown places.

So, today, I was in the metro when I checked my emails and… Andaman..

Hmm… Where is that? I searched on google and… I forgot to walk. No words:

And I know that even I give you infinite choices you will never guess where is this island.

India!

I still can’t believe it! India has this paradise and we love Goa?! No way! After this I will not be back to Goa. I don’t say Goa is bad, but Andaman is the paradise! If I will ever be back to India, Andaman is on my trip list, together with Kashmir.

How do I change the world?

I’ve seen this topic moving around my AIESEC friends some time back, but I never felt like writing about it. But now, Alexandru Negurici made me pay it forward, so here I am.

Changing the world is a frequent topic discussed in AIESEC. Actually it is the aim of this organization and guess it is what makes us get so involved and passionate about AIESEC. I love AIESEC because makes you feel big, accompanied, you have with you millions of people from around the world and more than 60 years of big dreams made reality, but personally I don’t believe in changing the world.

Why should we change the world? Why should we make a change? Maybe people are happy as they are. How many people in Romania think it was better during Ceausescu’s times? According with the last studies, almost 60% of Romania’s population believes it. They were happy in the Socialist Republic of Romania, we are happy now in Romania.

Who were we to ruin their world? “What is better now? You, the young generation can go abroad, so what, if there is no money? “

Who are they to stain our world with their regrets? “The times are difficult for those who are not working, of course!, why should we carry with the lazy ones? Work, compete, strive for excellence and you will have a good life”.

For our grandparents’ generation, the communism was a good thing. I believe it too; and Vietnam is a great example that communism is a good thing. Americans came to their land wanting to make a change, to free them from communism. Who were they to do that? What gives them the right to change the others? Vietnamese people were happy as they were and at the end, they prove to the whole world being a communist country is the best for them and they don’t require a change.

In A post about people I admire most: Vietnamese you can see it, Google it, or even better, visit Vietnam.

I’m a dreamer and I will never stop being, that’s why I believe the world doesn’t need to be changed, nor followers of dreams. I believe in colors, I believe the sky is just a limit that cows have invented and bad people are just an imagination of people who don’t have the courage to face out the consequences of their own facts.

And now let’s talk about my dreams:

In April 2009, when I left to India I had a dream: to show people around me that India is not as terrifying as it may seem. This is how my blog was created: I wanted to make all of you part of my incredible Indian experience with good and bad. I didn’t think even a second I can fail; therefore one and a half years later, this dream is completely met, and even more, I never thought I can change the mindset of the old people, but it happened! Of course, the dream is not forgotten now; I will take it with me wherever I will be. India is one of the must see in life.

Back to Romania, I have another dream: to convince those around me that there’s a world out there, so take your backpack and discover it! If I’m not mistaken I’m one of the few Romanians who have been backpacking in Asia or who have been in more than 20 countries at 23 years old. I will follow my dream and till 30s I plan to visit China, USA, Middle East and Latin America, backpack with a Romanian and travel in Romania with a foreigner. For the next coming months I plan to be a good guide for all those(foreigners or not) who will visit my town.

I believe example inspires. The world is made of people and only those who need and want it can be changed. And in my opinion these people need examples to follow; they need to see it happens in order to believe it, therefore this is my way of making a change.

I will keep the topic as I received it, so pay it forward: How do you change the world Romeo Man?

I will be back

This is another draft I found in my laptop these days. It is from the same period as the previous one, when I was leaving India.

I think India was the challenge of my life and it’s now when I start having contact with my world when I notice how much this experience change me. I remember I use to cry because the life is unfair, because the things are not as I want them to be. I was always fine after maximum one – two days, I was always keeping the head up and go on, but I always had that bad feeling about the unfair thing happen to me.

A lot of the trainees get very frustrated in India and one here always has ups and downs. Almost all my internship I loved India, but I know I had days when I hated it, when I couldn’t understand it, when I didn’t want to accept what is going on around me, there were days when I was 100% convinced I want to go back to my pink world and days when I was truly sure that I can live here for longer and enjoy being here.

Now, when I see my luggage already done, I know I want to go back home, I want to stop blaming India for all the bad things are happening to us here, I want to remember how is at home, which things are really underdeveloped here and which ones are our frustrated invention. I want to see how the western world is.

I miss

Cleaning my laptop I found an old draft post for my blog, from April 2010, when I was still in India, missing home:

I miss:

• Skating when it snows and listen to Christmas songs
• Warring short skirts and transparent blouses
• Taking sun or enjoying the warm summer sea
• My Tae-Bo trainer
• My breakfast from home: cheese and bacon with a cup of milk with Nesquick
• Wearing gloves
• Running after trams in the morning and getting pissed off for waiting another 5 minutes for the next one
• My soft and big bed
• My welcoming messy room
• To hug and kiss my boyfriend on the street
• The joy to see that the spring is here
• The wonderful feeling of wearing boots
• To horrible wet cold from autumn which always ruins my birthday plans
• I miss my peaceful city
• I miss Sage and the hot chocolate with cinnamon
• I miss the boiled wine after skating
• I miss cherries
• I miss walking and seating on a park
• My body creams

Don’t know what I will miss from India. I think it is too early to realize. I still don’t believe I’m leaving in some days. My internship is over. I always say: ah, it’s still a long time to go home. I will come back to India after my trip, for some days. Will bring you presents, will have a farewell lunch, dinner, party for me. And I will be back. Soon!

A post about people I admire most: Vietnamese

It’s been like 3 months since my trip in Vietnam and I never could get to an end my posts about Vietnam. Now I have to do it, they deserve it.

Everything started long time ago when I was thinking about making a trip to South East Asia and someone told me that I should see Vietnam because is nice, there are some war tunnels quite interesting. Then I was thinking: war, tunnels, secrets, unsafe, challenge, this is for me! And I got the plane ticket!

I haven’t research so much about Vietnam because it supposes to be a poor country which tries to build something after a long war, so I limit myself of figuring out where and how is better to cross the border. My only fear was to don’t be dropped in the middle of nowhere or have problems in getting the visa.  Nothing as these happened.

My first stop was Ho Chi Min City and here is where I got the information I wanted to know about Vietnam. I seen the Cu Chi tunnels which helped Vietnamese to win the war against Americans, what are the consequences on people and nature of the pesticides thrown by Americans, and how they rebuilt a country from nothing. And not only this, they helped their neighbors (Cambodia for example) to reorganize their country and move forward.

Tourist size of Cu Chi Tunnels, Near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

After the American war there was nothing growing over the soil, people had nothing left, only they proud of gaining a war against one of the biggest world power which I guess gave them the strength to move forward. I have and I will always have a special respect and admiration for Vietnamese people for their capacity of rebuilding a country from ash, working hard and being united.

The organization of Cu Chi Tunnels during American War in Vietnam

War Remnants Museum - Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

And because I strongly believe a picture values more than 1000 words I will show you what is Vietnam:

Incredible beautiful beach in Nha Trang, Vietnam

Gorgerous park near beach in Nha Trang, Vietnam

Incredible beautiful beaches, clean, welcoming people, no toots, a very well organized tourism, happy people, hard workers who defeat the history and one of the biggest world power, this is for me Vietnam, the people I admire most!

War invalids working in the art atelier, Ho Chi Minh City

Dazzlingly beautiful art objects, at the invalids atelier, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

And… because life is a mister, I never thought I will get the chance to be hosted once again to a Vietnamese: she’s Thanh, my surf couch in Oslo and I thank her and to the destiny for giving me the chance to meet another great Vietnamese! And for hosting me in the cold and harsh Oslo!!

Thank you Thanh!