Endless Summer Tiny World

Well Chelsy and I made it through the night at our horrible hong kong hostel……. Barely! The bathroom smelled so bad that neither of us brushed our teeth and we waited for the airport to go to the bathroom, so it’s a good thing we headed there straight away in the morning. Next thing you knew we were landing in Bangkok, Thailand!

The weather is so nice and tropical, even hot!! We made our way to our hostel, which is really nice but very far from public transport, and no taxi would take us there so we had a nice sweaty 20 minute walk to the hostel. We had our first shower in a couple days, due to our disgusting bathroom, and then left to go meet chelsy’s Thai friend jib and her boyfriend Joe. They were both soo nice. Jib was a foreign exchange student at chelsy’s high school and Joe studied in the uk so they both speak really good English. Jib has a car, which is kind of a crazy idea to me since traffic is so bad in Bangkok, but they took is to dinner and drove us around the historical part of the
city. Dinner was so good!!! Jib and Joe ordered all kind of Thai specialties and we got to try them all and they are so tasty!! After dinner we went to the palace and drove through the town checking things out! They were both so nice and we had a great time getting a brief glimpse of the city! On Sunday they are both going to spend the day with us and take us around to all the sights!

Yesterday we needed to get sone stuff organized so we set out looking for some embassies. It turns out the Russian embassy is closed on wednesdays though- just our luck. so we ended up wandering around the city, trying different street food, looking at different little markets springing up and just checking things out. We then decided it was time to find the main tourist road and have a seat for awhile so we found an Irish bar on khao sun road (the main tourist road) and had our first full strength beer since NYC! We ended up sitting and chatting with our neighbors and had a great time. When it was finally time to get up we decided we definitely needed some food, and the great part is there is pad Thai and sober kebabs all over the street, none of it costing much more than $2 usd! After we had our dinner and walked down the street a bit we needed to head home for showers and getting some rest. It was a good day, though we didn’t really see much, it was still really cool to just see all the different street food! Today were headed off to kanachaburi, which has been made famous by the bridge over the river Kwai. Hopefully were headed to see some elephants there and swim in some waterfalls!

our last day in Yangshuo was good, we headed up to yangdi to try to go on a walk to another town on the river. There are three ferry crossings that go along with this hike. But when we asked how much it cost they told us 90 Kwai each!! That’s about $17 usd!!! To use our own legs to do most the work! The ferry crossing takes about three minutes! No way! So Chelsy and I just decided to walk along the river bank a little ways. It was really nice as it was a little warmer and this part of the river is where the picture was taken for the back of the $20 note. So it was really really pretty with lots of mountain surrounding it. We just hung out the rest of the day until our night train to Shenzhen – right outside hong kong- rich is actually a different country. This bus was an 8 hour bus ride an it was on a sleeper bus. It was kind of cool, with three rows of very narrow and shallow bunk bed type beds. And then they were almost sitting up a little so that your feet went under the people in front of you. We got a little sleep and arrived at Shenzhen at 4:30 am with no idea on how to get to hong kong. So we got on a bus someone told us would get us there but had no clue where it was even taking us so we decided to get on the metro instead as that is a little easier for us to tell where we are.

We finally figured it out and by 7:30 we were through customs and on a train into the city! When we finally got to our hostel around 9 am we were so tired and wanted to sleep but the rooms weren’t ready and apparently wouldn’t be until 1 pm. So we headed out to do some of our sight seeing. We went to the avenue of the stars, rode across the harbor in the star ferry and went to Victoria park and the statue square. We also went up to the ovservation deck of the icf 2 building. That was really high and cool. The rest of the stuff was pretty blah. We headed back to the hostel for some rest and then headed to go on the tram to the top of Victoria peak. The tram is straight up the hill! It is the coolest part of the whole thing. The top was actually a disappointment! It’s amazing but they have essentially put a shopping mall up there! So we stood in line for almost an hour to get up there and didn’t even have very good views of the harbor but could have bought a new pair of crocs or a new handbag. We met a really nice couple from Seattle and walked to the ferry with them to go get a spot for the laser show they do over the harbor each night. It was pretty cool, short and sweet- just the perfect length. We found sone dinner and have been preparing for warmer weather tonight. Our hostel is the worst one we’ve stayed at so far and is the most expensive! It is tiny, as is most accommodation in hong kong, but it’s not very clean and just kind of unpleasant in general. So you can definitely say that hong kong is not our favorite and were both happy we opted to save our money and stay in Yangshuo longer! We miss how cheap the mainland is!!!

Were off to Bangkok tomorrow! Were both super excited! And Tasia and Angie are coming to visit in 6 days so that’s going to be super fun as well!

So we’ve had some days of relaxing and we’ve done some biking in the country among the gumdrop mountains. One day we biked out to where you can hire a raft and went on an hour raft ride down the river. It was so fun. It’s these really long bamboo rafts and there’s about 10 pieces tied together and then two chairs attached to the raft. Then you have a guy with a huge bamboo pole and he pushes you along the bottom of the river. The cool part was there were a couple little dams they take you up and down. To go up they pull the front of the bamboo raft up on two poles that roll and then they slide you along. We went up two of these dams, and the second one was much bigger so we had to get off the raft to get it up the river. The real fun was going back down these dams. The big one was so cool. You just took your raft right back over the rollers. And as you went down they took photos and your raft is completely submerged at one point! Its super fun and they almost treat it like a rollercoaster ride!

Today we went to a nearby town named fuli and there was a market there. It was neat to go to. They had all kinds of things you could buy but the cool part to see was these small pools that had fish in them so you just go pick out your live fish you want to eat for dinner. We tried some fried bread type stuff and we saw our first dog that was meant to be eaten! It was also pretty funny cause towards the back of the market there were men getting shaved right out in the open and people getting their teeth worked on or cleaned in buildings that didn’t have doors!

We’ve really enjoyed Yangshuo and have one more day before our night bus to hong kong!

Quotes:
Chelsy: uggh these are so weird! This was good until those weird little gummy things were in it!! (freaking out after spitting out juice she was drinking!)

Sir Jep: look at this little poop I got for my phone…. And while were on the subject if anyone in this room for some reason happens to have diaherea we have these pills…..
(discussing how to tell matias we have diaherea pills without saying we know he has diaherea)

We got on our 26 hour train and four out that it was colder inside the train than outside in the cold air! We now call this train the meat locker train! We did our time well though with lots of reading, rummy and chatting with the locals. The people on the train were some of the nicest we have met here. We finally made it to Guilin after 26 hours and finally being complete icicles, an we only had an hour by bus left to go.

We were tired, hungry and soo happy when we finally made it to Yangzhou. This place is soo touristy and westernized but we really like it. The mountains around here are so unusual and interesting. We got up today and it was a little rainy and we got some food while deciding what to do. Apparently were getting better at chopsticks because no I’ve offered to help us and we ate it all on our own…. Haha! We came back to the hostel to figure out our further travel plans and we our fellow hostel dorm mates were headed to a water cave so we decided to tag along. It was a blast!! They walk you through the cave and show you different random things. We had a great time with the Danish boys we were roomies with! There was a mud cave in this cave where apparently the mud has lots of minerals good for your health. We all got in and had a blast sliding down the slide and getting in big mud fights!!! From there you wash off and go into a hot spring pool! It was soo great to be fully warm for awhile!!!!
After the cave and hot springs we got dinner across the road before heading back to town. We headed out last night for Beer pong with all the Danish boys and lots of other foreigners. We made some friends with American girls, lost at beer pong but just barely and got our butts kicked at foosball. All and all it was a ton of fun but the night had to end when we finally got so cold we couldn’t handle it anymore as they don’t heat their bars either!

This morning we got up and found a great restaurant that had. Western style breakfast for cheap. It was huge! We then rented bikes and headed out to the countryside to bike through the mountains and by the river. It was absolutely beautiful and we had. Great time! The mountains in the countryside and along the river were amazing! They all almost look like giant gumdrops! And it was finally a little warmer and the sun came out for a bit today!

Quotes:
Jeppe (Danish friend): it’s ok, it’s ok, cause she’s retarded. (talking about how summer almost lost the game of beer pong for her and Chelsy)
Chelsy: (laughing hysterically) I love him for saying that, especially after that picture you took earlier today!

Chelsy: does he think he’s going to win because of his lifesaver shirt (about nils’ striped shirt)
Nils: I don’t even know what lifesavers are!

We had dinner near the cave and then came back to head out with our new Danish friends to a bar to challenge lots of people in beer pong. We had a great day, made great friends with the Danish boys and think were gonna have a blast in Yangshuo!

Summer: rabbit or gorilla? (when discussing what type of fur is on any type of clothing) 

General trip quote: who’s got it better than us? No one

Jan. 19:
Summer: this is so crazy! It’s Ike everyone is doing a penguin walk and trying to get there a few seconds earlier for nothing….. Oh I see now (when discussing how everyone shoves each other to get anywhere and then seeing its so they have a spot for their bags!)

Chelsy: suck it in everyone…. Oh wait were the only ones who need to suck in, everyone else is already skinny enough! 

Summer: good thing were practically twice as large and twice as heavy as most these people, especially w our backpacks on

Chelsy: that’s the best thing your mom bought that camcorder for! (after throwing our parachute men off the wall in Xian)
 
Chelsy: you think that’s an outline of a Chinese guy who died (hen taking about the outline of a small man in a walking section of the sidewalk)
Summer: laughing historically
Chelsy: what it might be! Chinese men are small

I do not recommend taking an overnight train in a hard seat in china. We had a sixteen hour train ride to get to Chengdu where the giant panda research base is. We couldn’t get a sleeper like w wanted so instead just took a hard seat which was hard!! Haha! In china people aren’t exactly good at lining up but they are very good at pushing and cramming the whole way, it’s like standing outside walmart at 3 am on black Friday and when they finally open the doors everyone just starts shoving ther way in. Im just happy no one got trampled to death! The next challenge is finding. Space to put our bags, since Chelsy and I are not as skillful at shoving and are used to the western way of a line or some kind of order and all Chinese have some at least four different bags per person (god knows what they’re bringing home, almost everything) we had to improvise to get our bags on a rack. And then there was 16 hours facing another person and trying to get some kind of sleep while the neighboring chinese lady screamed into her phone (yes they do talk on their phones louder than me, and we all know that’s a challenge!) so I definitely don’t recommend taking a hard seat on a long trip!

We finally made it to Chengdu and spent the remainder of the afternoon looking for food and wandering the city a little. The next morning we woke up early to take the city bus to the giant panda research base. This bus had the air conditioning on instead of heat I think and we now call it the meat locker bus. It was an hour ride to the pandas and we were both frozen icicles by the time we got to the park. So we were mistaken in thinking we were going to warmer weather and now of course a cold front is coming in so it’s cold everywhere, even hong kong, I feel mother nature justwants to make sure we appreciate it when were so hot and sweaty in southeast Asia.

The pandas were so cute and amazing. I never realized that there were only 27 pandas outside of china, and all in captivity. We saw pandas that were one to two years old that were very active, eating, playing and wrestling, we saw some only about 8 months old sleeping and we saw older pandas eating and sleeping. They have some red pandas too which look like little foxes. We now have tons of pictures of pandas and it was very good to see so many pandas thriving, though only in captivity, I guess you have to start somewhere.
Our ride back was in the meat locker bus again and after riding in this bus you feel you can never get warm again so we just picked up some snacks on the way back to our hostel where we crawled into our beds that had electric heater blankets and we stayed! We ended up falling asleep and not getting up til morning. I guess we needed the sleep as we slept for 12 hours! Today we are off to Guilin and Yangzhou, where we hoped it would be nicer weather but the cold front is calling for rain and cold weather. The train ride is 26 hours, but this time we have a sleeper train and were a little more prepared!

Today we headed out with every intention of biking around the city walls of Xian. We gotto the south gate and found out they no longer are renting bikes, I think either because it’s winter or because they have their new years eve decorations up. We headed up the city walls anyways so we could check them out, and they are surprisingly thick. We walked all the way to the corner and took pics and enjoyed te new years decorations along the way! They really go all out for new years, I’m really excited to celebrate it! They had little scenes from all continents and a bunch from china, even some representing Disney land! It was very cool. We also entertained ourselves by throwing the little plastic parachute men I brought with me off the wall.

We then decided to try to go and see the Muslim quarter where there is supposed to be a street snack street. We had a really good time and just wandered the very crowded streets, bought some food and snacks and looked at all the crazy things people can sell on streets! The best snack we tried today was a orange round doughy thing stuffed with sunflower seeds and who knows what else! It was very tasty. Were headed off to the train station soon and have a LONG train ride to Chengdu where well go to the panda research center.

today we woke up and headed out to get our next train ticket. This was one of those adventurous trips where we forgot something so had to go back and then return, but that’s just how traveling goes. We stopped and got an egg crepe type thing that was so good and cost only about 50 cents! I see a great, cheap breakfast in my future for tomorrow!

After figuring that out we headed to the train station where we needed to find a public bus to the warriors in the parking lot. This proved the hardest part of the day! The train station is right near the bus station and there were about a million people and a hundred buses, and no parking lot in that area! After about 45 minutes of searching and asking, searching and asking we finally found the bus we needed, nicely posted and in a very obvious location of course. We got to the museum parking lot and it was a ten minute walk to the entry gate, and it was cold!! We, of course, made it all the way to the entry and then found out we had to buy our ticket at the bottom, so that was another trip we had to make before we could finally get to the warriors! But it was all worth it when we finally saw the terra-cotta warriors! They were so amazing!! And definitely life size. Some had colors, and still being excavated! There were some you could see up close, and the large pit was sooo huge!! It was really cool!

Back in Xian we got on the bus to try to find the noodle joint we wanted to eat at, but we didn’t know what stop to take, and it was rush hour! So we got out at the stop we thought who turned out to be off by only about 10 blocks! We finally found the restaurant and it turned out that was worth the walk as well! While Chelsy and I thought our chopsticks skills had improved, our waitress did not share that same thought. She saw us struggling and came over to dish out our noodles for us! Haha!

All in all we had a pretty great day. Tomorrow will be jam packed as well before we head out on our 16 hour night train!

we spent two days in the bitter cold in pingyao. It is a walled city and so adorable with lanterns hanging all through the streets! We headed out to do exactly what you do in pingyao….. Walk an window shop. We came across what we think was some sort of festival for new years eve. There were people dancing and drumming, people in costumes and then lots of float type fixtures. It was really cool to walk around and see and hang out. We then went backup our window shopping and had some street meat and some little bread loaves for lunch. By this time we had been out in the 28 degree weather long enough that we were human Popsicles so we headed back to the hostel to warm up. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing cards and warming up. When dinner time arrived we headed to a tiny little restaurant and had the best meal we’ve had yet in Chinese. It was two noodle dishes that are local to pingyao and so tasty! We then headed back to our new years eve festival area to look at all the sights lit up at night.

This morning after a breakfast of doughnut holes you can buy for next to nothing on the street we headed out to the highway where the buses pick you up and we got on a bus for a 6 hour trip to xi’an. The bus ride was funny cause there was a little boy near us and everytime he had to pee his parents held him up and had him pee in the garbage! So weird and kinda gross as well! Our hostel in xi’an is soo nice, it’s more like a hotel than a hostel, and so far since it’s low season most of our dorm rooms only have me and Chelsy so that’s super nice as well!

Quotes from the last couple days:
Chelsy: crank that soldier boy (refering to the electric heater blanket going on high)

Chelsy: I’m just gonna keep my eyes closed for the whole ride 
( after seeing a little boy pee and a lady puke in the garbage and then being scared a guy was eating a chicken foot, which was really jerky but he was eating it strange, on our six hour bus to Xian)

Our last day in Beijing Chelsy and I visited the summer palace. It was very nice with a huge lake. We walked around the whole lake, which had 8 unusual bridges, one with 17 arches. We also saw cixi’s concrete boat. This was the place that was built using money intended for the navy and this concrete boat was the only boat built with the money. I think this place would be beautiful in the summer when all the plants and trees had leaves on them.

From there we went to the temple of heaven park. It is huge!!! But we saw the few temple center pieces and the echo wall.

Yesterday we headed by bus to pingyao. We would prefer to go by train, and preferably sleeper trains, as some journeys are very long, but getting train tickets is very difficult because Chinese new year is right around the corner. The bus ride was long and uneventful but when we finally got to our hostel in pingyao it was worth it. Pingyao is the old china people think of. It is a walled city, all of the old wall is almost completely intact and is around 600 years old. Also inside the walls many of buildings are old concrete or brick and they have red lanterns hanging everywhere and all down the streets! It is so cool! Today we are going to head out and see the town and walk the city walls.
It feels much colder here than Beijing and it is supposed to snow on weds and thurs when were in Xian. But after Xian we are going to start being far enough south that it will be in the 50’s and only get warmer the further south we go!