This is a 3-part series where I look back at the past 3 years (coming out of the pandemic) that just somehow seemed to whiz by.
I used to be really disciplined about reflecting back upon the year. I took a brief look back, and noticed I was quite consistent, publishing virtually annual, even publishing a series of reflections during my "peak" years of 2014 and 2015 (2010, 2011, 2013, 2014-1 2014-2, 2015-1 2015-2 2015-3, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021-1 2021-2).
And then suddenly *POOF* it’s 2025?? Where did my summaries for 2022 - 2024 go? The pandemic sort of killed all that discipline as I fell further and further behind in blogging, largely due to the long extended trips I was taking during that time.
I’ve since largely caught up, and hope to be completely on top of my blogging backlog by the end of this month! As part of this greater catch up project, I've decided to kick-start 2025 by writing up annual summaries for 2022, 2023, and 2024 in these first few days of 2025. (Phew!!)
January: Post Covid Month in China
January, 2023. This single photo sort of captures how the Chinese were out in FULL FORCE after 3 years of being cooped up due to the pandemic.
Just a month before (December 2022), Mainland China had opened up suddenly, surprising everyone. Covid-19 spread like wildfire, and by mid-January, the country had mostly recovered from its massive bout of the disease. The first Chinese New Year (where people could finally travel after THREE years) was finally here, and people were SO READY to travel.
Crazy us, we decided to go to the Mainland for the first time (since 2020) as well. Even crazier, we chose to travel within China during this first Chinese New Year holiday TOGETHER WITH THE REST OF THE COUNTRY.
Foreigners navigating a post-pandemic China
We spent a week working in Shenzhen, heading off to the nearby manufacturing city Dongguan over the weekend to visit a friend. We then flew to Yunnan Province, where we traveled to a number of less-known cities (in an attempt to avoid the crazy crowds during the CNY holiday).
It’s hard to summarize a month of travel in a few sentences, so hopefully the below photos give you a general sense. To read more detailed reports, check out the posts I’ve written about the city of Jianshui (ancient walled city known for its well water tofu), Xishuangbanna (where we experienced the bold, spicy, and flavorful cuisine of the Dai Minority Group and Hani, our tour guide's minority group), and Kunming (largest city in the area).
All in all, it was a fascinating trip and we survived! As one of the few foreigners who was actually in China during that time, we did run into some snafus, especially with getting the proper Covid tests needed to return to Hong Kong (alas, Hong Kong hadn’t fully opened up yet!). However, overall it was a really unique and special time that I won’t forget.
(告莊夜市)
February
February we stayed put in Hong Kong, spending (what would be) our last month having to wear masks in public. As Hong Kong was finally opening up, we started to host more and more visitors to Hong Kong. We didn’t know it at the time, but we enjoyed our last meal at Ecriture (Valentine's Day!) before they closed for good later on in the year.
March: No More Masks! + Hangzhou, China
Hallelujah!!! On March 1, 2023, the Hong Kong government FINALLY removed the pandemic-era mask mandate in Hong Kong. It took a couple months, but by the summertime, most people had stopped wearing masks in public. I suspect the hot Hong Kong summers had something to do with it. XD
In March I visited Hangzhou with several other friends for a “girls trip” of sorts. It was a refreshing time of catching up with old friends and enjoying Hangzhou’s beautiful West Lake (by bike) and the tea terraces (by foot).
April: Guilin & Yangshuo
In April we took the high speed rail (~4 hours) to the beautiful areas of Guilin and Yangshuo. The mountains in this area of Southern China are really stunning. It was such a relaxing few days of exploring this unique mountainous region and the local food + culture.
Memorable meals included freshly peeled locally harvested mountain water chestnut, Guilin rice noodles, Yangshuo beer fish, Guilin oil tea, and food cooked in bamboo!
April: Boston
In April I traveled to Boston for a work conference and business meetings. It was great to be back in the city again. I made sure to enjoy plenty of Tosci’s grape nut ice cream, raw oysters, and time outside along the Charles River.
May: Greek Wedding in Athens
Yes, a Big Fat Greek wedding, for real! We flew all the way to Athens to celebrate the wedding of one of Bryan’s colleagues. It was such a unique experience. Do you know they START the wedding around 7PM, the dinner around 9PM, and the dancing goes on until deep into the night? Haha, the invitation actually said the wedding ended at 4AM (!!). We lasted until around 2AM, and even when we left, there was still a small group of die hard party-ers who were still dancing.
It was Bryan’s first time in Greece, so we visited a lot of the famous ruins In Athens. We sampled all sorts Greek food, from traditional gyros at tavernas to some amazing modern high end meals.
June: Boston for MIT Reunion
In June I flew BACK to Boston to attend my 25th (!) college reunion. It was such a joy to get together with several good friends from my college days. We re-lived a lot of our favorite Boston experiences, like visiting the “Make Way for Ducklings” ducks in the Public Garden, eating Italian food in the North End (Monica’s Ristorante), and even visiting our old dorm (Next House).
June: Taiwan Trip with the Family
At the end of June, my sister and her entire family (plus my mom!) flew to Taiwan for a multi-week trip. Of course I had to join them! It was so fun hanging out with our relatives in Taiwan and visiting some local sites together. Highlights included street food, dumplings at Din Tai Fung, go-kart racing in Taichung, and just spending time with the extended family.
July: Tokyo Through the Eyes of a Tween
In July we ate our way through Tokyo with Bryan’s best friend, his wife, and their 12-year old daughter. Our friends wanted to introduce their daughter to all different types of Japanese food, so we explored the gamut during the trip, tasting sushi, tonkatsu, yakitori, izakaya, ramen, soba, wagyumafia yakiniku, 7-11, and even lining up to go to a Shiba Inu (dog) cafe. Funny thing is, the 7-11 oniri rice balls may have turned out to be one of her favorites . . .
September: Belgium, London, Bilbao
In September we went on another extended European trip, this time to Belgium and Bilbao. I love Spain, and I had fallen in love with San Sebastián the last time we were in this region. At first I was hoping we could go back to San Sebastián, but Bryan’s conference was in Bilbao, and he reasoned that we should explore Bilbao first since we’ve never been there before.
Bilbao turned out to be an amazing place to visit, and I’m glad we gave it the whole week. You still get to enjoy fantastic pintxos, jamon Iberico, and 3-Michelin star cuisine. However, it’s got its own unique attractions, most notably The Guggenheim, and one of my personal favorites, hiking San Juan de Gaztelugatxe (where Game of Thrones was filmed).
Better yet, the Rioja region is very close by. We took a whole day private tour with Tenedor Tours and enjoyed a lovely day (with perfect weather!) out wine tasting.
October: Bali, Indonesia
We had a friend who moved to Indonesia in 2022 and she invited us to visit her. Bryan planned out an amazing trip using travel points, including a luxurious stay at the Ritz Carlton Mandapa Reserve.
Alas, a passport snafu occurred with the number of blank pages that were required for a visa-upon-arrival. Sadly, Bryan could not board the flight, and I had to go alone. My friend and I enjoyed a lovely stay in Bali, even though it was really sad Bryan wasn’t able to join us.
Postlude: update! We returned to Bali again in 2024, and thus time Bryan was able to make it! (Blog post about that trip upcoming . . .)
October in Hong Kong
Despite not being able to go to Bali in October, we still managed to celebrate Bryan's birthday in a few ways. We rented a junk boat (on the eve of a typhoon!) and had a Lamma Rainbow seafood outing with a group of friends.
The two of us also enjoyed a lovely yakitori tasting menu at Yamato, so close to our home!
November
November is my birthday month and also prime hiking month in Hong Kong! For my birthday I chose to go hiking to the Peak with Bryan. We started from our home and got egg tarts at the top! My birthday two-part dinner included a lovely steak dinner at BeefBar and a joint birthday meal at David Toutain’s new restaurant in Hong Kong, Feuille.
During the same month, we also took out of town friends to Sharp Island (Sai Kung) and Dragon’s Back (both beautiful and manageable hikes!). Around Thanksgiving, we enjoyed a really fun Pol Roger Champagne dinner at Pang’s Kitchen, where we even took home an autographed Pol Roger bottle from one of the family members who was hosting the event.
December: Taiwan with Nina Simonds
After not going to Taiwan for so many years (despite living in Hong Kong), I felt so fortunate to have multiple opportunities to visit Taiwan in the past 2 years. In December 2023, an old family friend, Nina Simonds (Boston-based James Beard Award winning cookbook author) invited us to go on a weekend food trip of Taipei with her!
She wrote about our trip in a Boston Globe article titled 50 Years Later I'm Still Falling for Taipei.
Back in Hong Kong, We hosted several out-of-town friends and visited Disneyland, checking out the new Frozenland.
December: Christmas in California
Another special Christmas back in California to see family and friends. This time we stumbled upon In-N-Not during their 75th anniversary celebration (so they were giving out hats!). We also re-visited some of our favorite Mexican places that we had discovered during the pandemic, such as Playa Amor. Sadly, Taco Maria (one of our favorite restaurants in LA) had closed in July (boo boo). We were so thankful Bryan’s mom took out the time to make Che family pumpkin cakes, tea eggs (my favorite!!), as well as our traditional family hot pot meal.
We did enjoy an absolutely amazing “Taiwanese Omakase style” meal from chef John Yao at Kato in Los Angeles. It blew me away and I can’t wait to go back again. I can’t believe I still haven’t written up a post for that meal. I will make sure I get around to doing that sometime soon.
2023 . . . .
All in all, 2023 whizzed by. It was the first year where in Hong Kong we actually felt like the pandemic was really behind us. FINALLY, we could travel freely without worrying about having to get clean Covid tests to fly back home. FINALLY, we could host out-of-town guests in Hong Kong again. FINALLY, we could easily go back into the Mainland again, and we went multiple times and visited so many new places.
On a side note, I also took over as Managing Director at my workplace, so even on a professional level, there was a lot going on!
Next up: Reflections on 2024
