Ni hao Everyone,
I hope all is good and life is treating you well. My trip continues to tick along as I have now been on the road for 5 months. 5 months of living out of a backpack, wearing the same 5 sets of clothes, meeting hundreds of people who I can't communicate with, eating whatever random things I come across, most of which is from places OSHA wouldn't exactly approve of, and sleeping in mostly college style dorm rooms. Although my college dorm at Virginia Tech had much nicer bathrooms then I normally come across on the road. Doesn't it sound great? :)

When I started my trip I didn't really think I was cut out for this long on the road. But I have learned that it is much easier then you could possibly imagine. Mostly because all you need is an open mind, confidence, PATIENCE, and lack of standards. Partly because I have pushed my limits of where I am willing to eat and sleep, the amount of filth I will deal with, and the type of transport I am willing to take to such an extent that I am hard pressed to find a situation I can't look at and go "well, this is not exactly my idle solution, but I've done harder and dealt with worse." The largest bonus I've learned is that by-enlarge people are people, they mean good, it is nature to help the needed, the world is a safe place (even though many lead you to believe otherwise), and that overrides all else.

I have been in China for almost 4 weeks now and have enjoyed it very much. It is an enormous, diverse, beautiful country with more places to go and see then perhaps any other country on earth. There are more cities here that you haven't heard of that are gigantic it is hard to describe, makes sense when you think about it, the 1.4 billion people need to live somewhere. The level of national tourism is incredible as well, everywhere you go other Chinese tourists are there to greet you. At the same time, you can be in a city of 3 million, and not come across more then 1 person all day who speaks English which definitely adds to the challenge. You find yourself ordering meals by pointing at what others are eating and doing a lot of guessing when it comes to directions, highly encouraging to work on that Mandarin so you can communicate. Fortunately, in the last few years backpacking has boomed here and there are great places to stay and meet other travelers in almost every city, making it much easier. Anyway, I will be in China another few weeks then I am off to SE Asia.

It's not too late to catch up with me and do some traveling of your own in SE Asia. I will be somewhere in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, or Malaysia, probably until sometime in February or March. It's really easy and cheap to bounce around this area. Let me know, I am looking forward to the warm weather, warmer people, beautiful sites, great beaches, and incredible culture myself.

If anyone would like a postcard send me your address and I will do my best to get one to you.

Let me know what you think. Please add some comments to the blog site and drop me an e-mail to let me know where you are, what's going on, and how life is treating you.

Gom Bai,
Bill
wchallett@yahoo.com