Haveyoubeenhere 2019 Steemitworldmap Travel Contest - joining in the fun with my four favourite posts

First of all, those who know me, know that I'm part of the SteemitWorldMap team, so obviously this post won't be entered into the Haveyoubeenhere 2019 Steemitworldmap Travel Contest?

I made this post because I think this is an awesome way to relive all the travel posts. Oh! Have you not heard about the Haveyoubeenhere 2019 Steemitworldmap Travel Contest yet? This contest asks you to choose four of your favourite posts pinned onto the SteemitWorldMap in 2019, and tell everyone why they were special to you. The contest has a 150 Steem prize pool, and closes on 12th Jan, which is a week away. You can find out more about it in this post here.

So back to my four favourite posts pinned to the Map last year. You know what? Selecting them was a lot harder than I imagined, Truth to be told, I probably wrote less travel post last year compared to the year before, but nearly all my posts were about travels that I did during the year and memories that were very close to me. Sometimes it's difficult to imagine I was only there less than a year ago, or in some cases less than two months ago. It's like, where has the year gone?

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My first chosen post is The lunch or the view?.

Since coming to Taiwan I've done quite a few hikes and this is one of my favourite one. This was a hike that combines exercise, views, and not to mention a simple lunch up in the mountains. I don't know why food always seems to taste the best when it's simple and outdoors.

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My second post is also from Taiwan, as I think this great country is so underrated and deserves to be mentioned more. Travelling is as much about culture and food as is places, and Skinless peppers this is one of those post.

I travelled around Taiwan quite a bit last March and visited this shop which is famous for producing a local delicacy called skinless peppers. This ingredient is not found outside of Taiwan, not even in Hong Kong where it usually follows closely on the trends. I was so amazed with this little shop that produces the most popular brand of this local delicacy and reflects the local Taiwanese community where small artisan producers still play a big part in the economy.

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I couldn't not chose a post from my trip to Thailand last year. This was my second time to Chiang Mai, the first being ages ago. During this visit, I spent A day in Chiang Rai, Thailand, Laos and nearly Myanmar which was a real eye-opener for me.

This was a packed day in the north of Thailand, where I joined a local tour being cattled around to many places during the day. I have to say, this isn't my normal type of holiday as I like to take my time to explore places. Sometimes it's good to do something different so at least I can look back and compare the good and the bad. I'm going to pin this post to one of the many locations I visited on this day.

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The last post I chose is a place very dear to my heart, Hong Kong. It's called Smile and Walk around my ancestral village in Hong Kong and is actually a video of a walkabout in a traditional village in Hong Kong. I love this video (even though it's been deleted by dtube now) as it features my adorable great nephew and it's about a place where I grew up when I was a kid.

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So here's my four favourite travel posts pinned to the SteemitWorldMap in 2019. Hope you like it and hope to see your's as well!