Suitcase and World: She's Coming to China!

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

She's Coming to China!

Yim and I at Maijishan Grottoes in Tianshui, China in 2016

It all started with my posting on Facebook.  Given how much I travel, I am always asked where I am going to next.  So, I decided to give my friends a clue about my next trip.  Not surprisingly, my cousin Yim, who is one of my Facebook friends, responded with a question.  She's as much into traveling the world as I am so I was not at all surprised at her comment. 



Her simple question was answered by my emailing her the itinerary.  The conversation then continued on WhatsApp.

By the next day, Yim was already seriously considering the trip.  Mind you, we had our cousins reunion (after 20+ years) of not seeing each other when I went on a trip to China that she and her friend Sallyanne had organized.

Here's how our "moment" unfolded....in the hallway between our two rooms in the Grand Mercure Hotel in Xi'an.

Even though we had always gotten along as children, we really hadn't spent much time together as adults so we really didn't know how our time together would be in China.  As it turned out, it was one of my best trips ever.  I had the best time!  Before we even left China, we said we had to do another trip together.

In a tuk-tuk in Xi'an.  We laughed A LOT!

An opportunity for a larger family reunion was brought up earlier this year.  After thinking long and hard about it, I decided not to go....to the disappointment of my other cousins.  Had I gone, that would have been when I would've seen Yim next.

Then, this trip came along.  Initially, I didn't even think of asking her to join us.  I knew she had plans to go to Uzbekistan, Turkey and Iran and indeed, she was attempting to put together a trip to Iran but it sounded like potential travel mates were dropping out with cold feet.

I told her that Bro would be coming along and since he hadn't seen her in 20+ years, he was thrilled at the possibility that she would be joining us.  Not that I was trying to put pressure on her or anything like that.  😀

Apparently, she had also been considering a trip to Xinjiang and had looked at some packaged tour offerings so the thought of coming with us fell in line. 

She asked when she had to decide by and I told her mid-Dec.  Well, it didn't take her that long.  Barely a day after she replied to my Facebook post, she replied to me on WhatsApp.   She's coming to China and I couldn't be more thrilled!!


Yim is still a worker bee so she doesn't have the luxury of taking off for long periods of time so she'll be joining us in Beijing.  Luckily, I've not yet booked any accommodations or purchased plane or train tickets so now I can take her into consideration.  Yim also sent the itinerary to her sister so there is the possibility, though I think a very remote one, that we have another traveler with us.

Oh....and I also found out from Yim that her birthday is the same as Bro's.  We'll be celebrating in China!  I have to plan something special!