Beijing Entered Crop-Top Season Years Ago
Beijing Entered Crop-Top Season Years Ago Fashion enjoys pretending it invents things. A designer removes half a shirt, sends a moisturised man with architectural cheekbones down a runway and suddenly the male crop top is brave, disruptive and worth €400. Meanwhile, Uncle Chen has been walking through Beijing in flip-flops with his T-shirt rolled firmly…
Pay at the Hotel—But First, Let Us Raid Your Card
My March Hotel Wanted Money in August Let me set the scene. It was 28 August 2026. My Taiwan trip was still almost 200 days away. Kaohsiung existed as a collection of bookings, maps and suspiciously ambitious plans for March—not as a place where I was expected to start paying hotel bills before summer had…
The Tourists Returned. Their Wallets Remained Suspicious.
Apparently, the tourists accused of “revenge freeloading” did not stop travelling. They simply became far more selective about where their wallets were allowed to participate. In 2025, Chinese residents made 6.52 billion domestic trips, up 16.2% from the previous year. Domestic tourism spending also reached 6.3 trillion yuan, but it rose by only 9.5%. In…
The Unfinished Petronas Puzzle That Summoned Kuala Lumpur
Apparently, failing to finish a wooden 3D puzzle of the Petronas Towers was enough to summon Kuala Lumpur. The puzzle had been sitting unfinished for years. Kuala Lumpur and Singapore were not destinations I had been dramatically dreaming about, yet somehow the tickets were booked, Father was coming with me, and on 7 December 2019…
Taiwan Has a New Problem: People Visit and Start Mentally Moving In
Let me set the scene. You arrive in Taiwan with perfectly normal tourist intentions. See the temples. Eat everything. Figure out the trains. Photograph something dramatic. Buy enough snacks to make airport security mildly curious. Then, somewhere around day four, your Google searches start changing. Not: “Best things to do in Taiwan.”More like: “Average rent…
Shing Wong Street: Stairs, Street Art and a Hong Kong That Keeps Changing
Let me set the scene. You are walking along Hollywood Road, surrounded by antique shops, art galleries and enough carefully curated windows to make you question whether you are exploring Hong Kong or accidentally browsing someone else’s very expensive living room. Then Shing Wong Street appears. It climbs sharply away from the traffic, all concrete…
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About Me
I’m Jelena, a traveler, a photographer, and an Explorer. This blog is travel scribbles, diary of my traveling with family, preparing for it, and discoveries along the way.
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