Our China holidays are getting closer and closer. Sure I am very happy and can’t wait for the trip however I am also worried. The thing is that my wife got again some plans on what we should do there and what places to visit. For any outsider this must sound great but you just don’t know my wife so let me explain.
Over the years we had many plans to travel around when being in China. Those plans always stayed plans as there is something magical happening as soon as my wife enters her parents home. The person who had all those great ideas about visiting some nice places basically disintegrates in front of my eyes as the couch potatoeism spreads through her body. Yes, my wife is a notorious coach potato when being in China. There is no bigger joy for her than lying on the sofa, having her favorite snacks and drinks within arms reach and watching TV all day long. Within seconds all plans are forgotten or not important enough anymore. Who wants to see the beautiful nature in Jiuzhaigou 九寨沟 when you have the 100th rerun of 武林外传 My own Swordsman in the TV, some bubble tea and 大白兔White Rabbit candy?
I think you understand now the dilemma I am facing as my wife is starting to make all kinds of plans for our upcoming holiday. Each time she gets me excited about all those places we plan to visit and in the end we just stay for several weeks in Xi’an and the only times she leaves the apartment on her on free will is in order to go out eating. So what has she planned thus far? Now she no longer wants to visit places in China but is doing research on nice travel destination in Asia which we can reach rather quick (and cheap) from China. Few months ago she made some plans to go to the Jeju Island as her parents had invited us for such trip. Then suddenly she started checking on Thailand but then it was Jeju Island again. This morning she woke me up by pushing her mobile phone in my face. No, she didn’t try to kill me but to show some wonderful pictures of Bali.
While still in bed she started searching for plane tickets, hotels and whatnot all. She even contacted one friend in China if she wants to come with us there together with her little family (they also got a one year old child). Right now I am myself looking up what Bali is offering for tourists and sad but true, I am excited about it. By now I should have learned from the past years but still I really get hyped every time she makes plans because somehow I still have hope that one of those plans will become reality. Though our big plans never worked out we still went sometimes at least to nice places around Xi’an such as Mount Hua or the Mountain Range near Qinghua Mountain. However these destinations are far from the original plans we had before each holiday in China. For now I also hope that MIL won’t suddenly decide it would be a great idea to join us in case the Bali plan ever becomes reality!
Are you a couch potato?
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Crazy Chinese Family 
Maybe somewhere else means you will get to do sightseeing after all – good luck! I am not a couch potato when I travel but I can understand that feeling of visiting your parents and just appreciating the feeling you can rest while they look after you, I remember being like that when my son was little.
Basically she has to do nothing there except of eating and sleeping 😛
Lol, sounds like heaven 😉
I hope that you will get to go on some sort of trip while you are there! Would it be too difficult for you to visit somewhere nearby (maybe not as far as Bali) on your own while you are there? That way if your wife becomes a couch potato you can at least do something interesting on your own or with your son,,,
Oh well, I have to see how it will work out this year. I am not really fond of traveling alone and it would be even harder to watch out for Nathan alone in those places 🙂
I can understand that! Maybe some kind of day trip? Although, I imagine that you’ve already been to most of the nearby places…
Yeah thats right, I actually have probably seen everything in and around Xi’an 😀
I am most definitely a couch potato every time I go home for a visit! It is quite difficult, you know, when you go home and see your favorite couch which you used to lie on all your childhood, everything else does not matter anymore!
But I think this time should be better for you. There’s little Nathan, your wife must want to bring him places, and he won’t allow you guys to just hangout at home anyway. 😀
In fact she does not even dare to go out with him as there are so many crazy Chinese who want to touch foreign kids all the time :p
Lol, I’m a bed potato…I recharge my energy on weekends by staying in bed for the whole day..haha…well, most of the time anyway…hope you do get to visit this time round! Jeju island is beautiful during this season and so is Bali…👍😉
I am just a person who wants to discover new things so when in China being stucked in that apartment I just go crazy 🙂
Haha…yeah, I can understand that…hope you manage to get out to explore later! 😋
I do hope you and family go to a great outdoor location/place in Asia.
Tell you wife this: We will not live in Asia for the rest of our lives. Our child will be going to school in Europe…and so whenever we are in Asia, let’s make the best use of time to enjoy Asia that we haven’t been to. It is EXPENSIVE to fly to Asia all the time….
And I don’t get vacation days all the time for my whole life.
Try to appeal to the economics, that both of you will not be healthy/fit forever.
Best of luck. 🙂
No I’m not a couch potato when I’m in a foreign country or a part of Canada where I’ve never visited before. I want to experience as much as I can. I get only 15 days of vacation from work per year. Every vacation day must be spent well for me.
These are things I have told my wife over and over again but thus far no luck. This time however she seems rather thrilled of traveling to one of those countries mentioned I my article.
15 days of holidays a year? Wow, that’s crazy as I am used here in good old Europe to at least 30 days a year :p
Anyways,right now my wife is the big money maker with her own business compared to me withmy full time job which I can’t even attend due to my poor health…so she gets to decide what we do..
I see.
I work for govn’t so vacation days vary, depending on the employer. I could only get 30 days a year, if I worked for my employer for over 15 years or so.
I am on an extended work week, so I get every 3rd Friday off. So that helps a lot.
I think this is very sad; when you are young you should make the most of your youth and travel. As you become older, you will start experiencing aches and pains in joints and muscles such as ankles and knees. This does not deter me…come October I will be following the tea trail in Yunnan and then following in the footsteps of Joseph Needham. Can you not record the TV programs and take them home with you?
Oh those programs she can watch also here and does it already however once in China everything changes immediately 🙂
I don’t know where is home for me these days, and travel is a rarity. But I don’t watch TV. More like prefer to watch what’s on the laptop and YouTube when I’ve got a day off…couching in a different way. When I’m visiting folks in Malaysia, it’s always go out to eat with them – forced to.
Good luck with the upcoming travels. Who knows, the places you do visit might end up as a surprise, can’t be that bad – an adventure 😀 Bali? So close to Australia. Just come over here already 😀
Even when I used to live in Finland and got back home I always wanted to do things 🙂
Eating out in China is already much better than just staying whole day at home.
Australia will be in our list at some later point, just too many places to visit with too less holidays
I’ve heard great things about Bali, so I really hope you can make it over there!! 😀
Bali looks wonderful from what I could find out so far. I really hope it will work out 🙂
When are you guys going to Xian? I think it may even be possible that my boyfriend and I will be there at the same time! We’re going in late July for a weekend I think
Too bad, we will be going in the end of August for 3 1/2 weeks 🙂
We’ ll have to share travel tips with each other then! 😀
Just ask what you want to do there and I might have some ideas as I have been plenty of times there already 🙂
Bali all the way! It is so nice there, pretty cheap, and lots to do there. Plus, there is no reruns of Chinese programs for your wife to watch [and even if there is, you can laze by the pool or on the beach all day.]
I will definitely hang out at the beach all the time or discover the area if we manage to go there 😀
On vacation, we always have many plans and follow through with most of them. My grown children have limited vacation days, so they don’t want to waste any of them.
I visited Bali in the 1970s when it was just beginning to grow its tourism industry. I loved it!!! It’s my favorite vacation spot. If you go, be sure to see some Balinese dances and traditional theater. I also enjoyed visiting Ubud.
Bali must have been wonderful back then before the tourism grew so much. I bet it was like a little paradies 🙂
I will try to watch those things in case we actually make it there
Bali is one of our favourite places on earth, so, I sincerely hope you can tear your wife away from My Own Swordsman and the White Rabbit Candy. Lol. Maybe you could convince her to book the plane tickets before you reach China? 😉
Actually I am trying to get her to buy the tickets asap 😀
I read so many lovely things about Bali on different blogs that I really really need to go there
The pictures I saw from Bali look heavenly and I do hope that you will be able to go.
Maybe it would be a good (yet somewhat bold) step to just book flights and hotel when your wife makes some plans. Though I am too sometimes are quite the couch potato there really is no choice when it’s already booked, right?
Bali really does look heavenly and I think I would need some more memory cards for my camera when going there..
I am trying to get her to purchase the tickets as soon as possible however we also have the problem that I have currently some health issues which makes any pre-booking dangerous 🙂
Oh, that doesn’t sound good 😦 Are you okay?
I hope this time there will get nothing in the way and that we’ll see loads of pictures from Bali 😉
Well, I have some “Nervenentzüngen” with nearly unknown cause. Some things in food have been figured out thus far so I am slowly getting better
Sorry to hear that, I hope you’ll get better soon!
Let’s just take a moment to enjoy the phrase, “couch potato”. Tee hee. Yeahhhhhh, that sucks. I hate it when you’re in the mood to travel, but your partner isn’t. Why don’t you go out alone? Then you will be both happy, right?
I dont really like traveling alone and furthermore we still got Nathan. To take care of him alone while travling would be a bit too much 😛
Jeju Island in Korea? I’ve heard it’s really beautiful there. I think I understand your wife as I’m exactly the same, when I’m at my parents’ place:)
Yes, Jeju in Korea 🙂
I think right now I dont really care which of those place she decides on as they all are wonderful and I just hope that we actually manage it to one of those places!
Well look at the bright side, if she already booked and paid for plane tickets you will have to go no matter what!!
You can also come to Shanghai/Suzhou ;D
Jeah, now it just needs enough convincing that she actually buys those tickets 🙂
Shanghai/ Suzhou is somewhen in the future…
Bali sounds like a good idea. I hope you get there!
Bali would be really great, just need to convince my wife that we really really have to go there 😀
Good luck!
You could try to just book tickets and a hotel (make sure you can’t cancel, she’d be sorry for all the money you spend if you don’t go).
Well, it will work all through her/ her mothers Chinese bank accounts so no chance for me booking it :p
Please tell your luverly wife I am a HUGE sucker for White Rabbit Candy (d.h., teeth-breakers) and “Sugus” fruit-flavoured squares (d.h., Swiss candy). 😉
Haha, Chinese people and making plans…. but I can totally understand, why she becomes couch potato back home. I think it is the “home” feeling. I mean, back home in Germany, I also don’t feel like sighhtseeing…
Ahh, I guess more it is because you are girls! I don’t think guys would become such coach potatoes, at least not any guy I know! 🙂
Hm, also very possible, now that I think about it, my hubby also doesn’t like idling around…