Picture captions...

Photo 1: At the Summer Palace in Beijing - lovely bridge!

Photo 2: It's raining at Meiji Jingu, a shrine in Tokyo (somehow the pictures got out of order when they loaded- sorry!) This place was beautiful - greenery everywhere, and cool wooden prayer plaques you could write messages on.

Photo 3: Vending machine madness in Tokyo

Photo 4: A busy, neon-filled Tokyo street - in the Shibuya neighborhood

Photo 5: Photo booth picture from Tokyo. These machines are the BEST. They're made by Sega, and my new goal in life is to import them to the US and become richy. I heart them.

Photo 6: Temple of Heaven, Beijing - this is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests.

Photo 7: Tiananmen Square at night - "Hello, hello... Welcome to China!"

Photo 8: Great Wall 'o China!

Photo 9: The tobagen ride down from the Great Wall. This is the sign for the "speed chute," which was comforting. It was rad.

Photo 10: Forbidden City pagoda.

Pictures!

We're home, we're home!

Sorry so long no blog! Thank you for continuing to check in with us! Our last days in Asia were a whirlwind, and blogging facilities weren't always close at hand.

Beth and I arrived back home safe and sound last Monday - and have since been reveling in the joys of it (full meals that don't include Pocky, showers attached to living quarters, giant-sized everything, etc). Below is a synopsis of our final days in Asia to round out the tale of adventure!

Our first night back in Beijing was spent at Tiananmen Square to it lit up. We got there just in time to do a quick lap around the huge square as dusk fell and it slowly became illuminated. The massiveness of the square struck us once more - wow! Our most touching moment in China came when we passed by the Monument to the People's Heroes, a large statue in the center of Tiananmen. We were walking by, and heard someone shout "hello, hello?" Worried that we'd stepped on a cultural relic or otherwise offended in some way (we were a bit on our toes in the square - it's pretty intimidating with police everywhere and I'm sure lots more in plain clothes; we tried to be as inconspicious as possible, but as some of the only white people there, and with our freakish twin looks on top of that, it was somewhat difficult). We looked around anxiously and realized that the greeting had come from the soldier guarding the monument, about 100 feet from us. We looked at him, and he then shouted, "Welcome to China!" So sweet.

Our days in Beijing were spent touring the Temple of Heaven (a big park in the city, the highlight of which is the huge Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests - see pics!), visiting the Great Wall (we went to a somewhat off the beaten path section void of throngs of tourists - definately the way to go! We climbed up some steep parts, enjoyed amazing views, had many photo moments and pocketed a few crumbling bits for mom and dad - I promise, they fell off in my hand. Seriously.), exploring the massive Forbidden City and taking in the Summer Palace. All of these sights were fantastic - it's hard to imagine more history jam-packed into one area!

Our final stop on the trip was to Tokyo, where we spent two days getting lost in the city, and one day visiting Mickey (hailing from the OC, how could we not see how they do Disney in Tokyo?) We were struck by the city's cleanliness and trademark neon signage everywhere, and by its inhabitants' orderliness, polite and friendly dispositions and stylish/ adventurous fashion sense. We loved the glowing vending machines everywhere, the adorable knick-knacks (Hello Kitty everything; we spent no less than 3 hours in a 6-floor toystore) and the cool, futuristic technology. We spent our days visiting the city's famed shrines and temples (Meiji Jingu and Sensoji), getting extremely lost on somewhat frustrating no-name streets (the public transportation in the city is amazingly orderly and efficient, which is in sharp contrast to the city's virtually unplanned nature. Finding a random building in Tokyo can be a daunting task, as many streets aren't named and locations don't have actual addresses. We walked for an hour before finding our hostel, and only found it because a really nice stranger took pity on us and personally walked us there!), making our way with the masses through the trendy and so-cool neighborhoods of Shibuya (my favorite!) and Ueno and relaxing on tatami mats in our "Ryokan" (Japanese Inn). My high school foreign language Japanese skills (?) were put to the test (I basically remember how to say Yes, No, Hello, My name is Amy and Where is the bathroom; all of which were used, thank you Japanese class).

Our last day in Tokyo, and the last day of "Asiadventure 07," was spent...at Tokyo Disneyland. Loved it. Curry and noodles instead of hot dogs, orderly lines for photo-taking with Walt's statue, "Western Land" in Frontier Land's place, Star Tours in Japanese ("light-o supeed") and a myriad of other fun differences. It's a small world!

To all who read-- thanks for for journeying along with us!!!

:) Amy

Picture captions!

Just-loaded photo captions:

Photo 1: Soaking in the Muslim Quarter of Xian

Photo 2: Meet Beth, whose come as part of the "infestation of foreign adventurers." Yes, small children have been visibly frightened by her on the street. Seriously.

Photo 3: We are now giants and almost as tall as the Oriental Pearl. I don't think we'll fit on the plane home.

Photo 4: This was the view out our window at our romantic dinner at M on the Bund. Beth proposed to me.

Photo 5: The beautiful Yu Yuan Gardens in Shanghai!

Photo 6: Pingyao!

Photo 7: Happy times and bicycles in Pingyao

Photo 8: Xian at night!

Photo 9: Try not to set fires while at the terra cotta, aiit? Thanks. -- China.

Photo 10: The terra cotta! Seriously so amazing.

Photo 11: Welcome to the "wood craving center." It's not like we can speak Thai or could come even close to translating words, but we're smart-asses at heart. Can't help but enjoy the horrible signage; It's just too good.

Photo 12: Sistas. The traveling hat is traveling, ladies!

Photo 13: Old and new Bangkok.

Photo 14: That crazy small bathroom at the floating market.

Photo 15: The market that floats!

Captions for Thailand part 2 pictures...

Pic. 1 - a Tuk Tuk - we loved zooming around Bangkok and Chiang Mai in these! The're everywhere, and can squeeze in-between busses and other cars to get places in no time!

Pic. 2 - An image from Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai. This Wat was amazing - on top of a hill (where we saw the 6 monks in a pickup truck) overlooking the city.

Pic. 3 - Beth at the Khantoke dinner, with the feast before her.

Pic. 4 - The Khantoke dinner dancers

Pic. 5 - an enormous golden Buddah, the tallest in Bangkok!

More pics from Thailand (China to come!)

"There's something strange in that room..."

So we had good intentions in Shanghai, and were going to blog, post more pictures, etc. but that didn't happen. Our hotel (we sprang for a hotel, as the hostels in the city are just as much. The hotel turned out to be a story in itself...read on for details) had hookups for laptops but no computers, so we were out of luck.

Our journey to Shanghai was fun and interesting as always - we left the hostel early and got to drive through a virtually empty Xian (save for a few pockets of elderly individuals doing tai chi -so cool!). We enjoyed a breakfast of spaghetti and french toast (toast with peanut butter inside, syrup on top and cucumbers on the side) at the airport, and were on our way to Shanghai! As we landed in the city, a light rain began to fall, and driving closer to downtown, we saw the skyline's giant buildings enveloped by clouds. It was a cool/kind of eerie Bladerunner-esque ride - all that new development (much of it still being built with bulldozers and cranes everywhere) surrounded by a mist. We arrived at our hotel, and were greeted by a woman at the reception desk who immediately informed us that the room we had reserved "wasn't very good" and that we should strongly consider upgrading. Hmm. We asked to see the room we'd reserved, and were escorted there by a young guy around our age. We got to the room and the young man, who had slowed his pace as we neared the room, said "wait here, there's something strange in that room" in a dramatic whisper. We said... "ok..." and he went inside, apparently cleansed the room of whatever supposed poltergeist (sp?) was inhabiting it, and he gave us the all-clear to enter. The room was totally fine - clean, big, with electricity and even a bathtub. Hayo. So we said, yep this is great. We went back downstairs to pay, informed the desk attendant that we would in fact like our original room, and although she looked dissapointed, she handed us a key. We got to our room we found that it was actually much nicer than the "there's something strange" room. Beth and I were pretty baffled by this very obvious ploy to get us to book a more expensive room, but chalked it up to cultural differences. Needless to say, I've incorporated the "there's something strange insert whatever we're about to go see/do" quote into my trip commentary.

Shanghai was really cool - a very interesting mix of old and new, foreign and Chinese, as the city was colonized at several points in its long history, and today is one of the major economic centers of China's booming economy. We headed to the Oriental Pearl Tower first, the symbol of modern-day Shanghai (the giant tower with baubles on it - the tallest thing in the city) and as we got off the subway were struck by its enormity and futuristic-ness (it looks like something from a world's fair). It was still misty, so clouds periodically covered the top of the tower and then receded - very cool. We visited the Shanghai History Museum, which is the base of the Pearl Tower, and enjoyed this great introduction to the city. It was really interesting to experience history from the standpoint of another country - to see how wars are discussed and what lessons are taught. We learned a lot about the city's development, and especially enjoyed the exhibit titled "the infestation of foreign adventurers," featuring mostly champagne-weilding white mannequins dancing to Auld Lang Syne. After learning about the city's past, we decided to soak up one of it's more modern offerings, and headed to the nearby...Super Brand Mall (how could we not?). Later we walked along the Pudong (the side of the river with the Oriental Pearl on it) waterway to enjoy the beautiful nighttime skyline of the Bund (the other side of the river, with old-style European buildings from the colonization era). A bit rain-soaked and pretty exhausted from walking the length of Pudong, we splurged on dinner at the very fancy M on the Bund, where we dined on salad (it had been awhile) and giant slabs of meat, and enjoyed the restaurant's truly amazing view of the Pearl Tower and the other Pudong skyscrapers as rain fell and Chinese falgs waved in the wind. A great day in Shanghai!

Other Shanghai highlights included the Shanghai Museum (where we saw examples of calligraphy, lots of chops, traditional ceremonial costumes and masks and lots and lots of three-legged wine holding vessles) walking the Bund to see the historical buildings up-close, taking a boat crusie on the Huangpu river to take in both sides of the skyline, visiting the georgous Yu Yuan Gardens (Ming-era gardens in the center of the city), bargaining at the Yu Yuan Bazaar (the most crazy, people-filled madness ever; we took respite in Starbucks, and found that virtually every other foriegner had decided to do the same; we were packed like sardines drinking lattes and watching from the window as other people, similarly packed like sardines outside bargained - wow), having drinks at the Cloud 9 bar at the Grand Hyatt (such a great view!) and seeing an amazing acrobatic show. Shanghai, we heart you!

We're in Beijing now and will blog more about adventures here shortly! Also, I'll try to figure out more pictures posting... hugs, Amy

"the Terra Cotta!"

We're safe in Xi'an, after night-training it again from Pingyao. I know Beth blogged from Pingyao, but since we've been in China we've been unable to access our own posts, so sadly your comments have gone unread (though we appreciate them!) and I'm not super sure of what Beth blogged about so I may repeat a touch, but hopefully not. There's so much to report on! Pingyao was great - a really nice way to get our feet wet in Chinese culture - apart from the somewhat shocking scale of Beijing (that place is gigantor. All the buildings are huge. Tianamen square is breathtakingly vast. And blocks on the map that look eensy are actually...huge, becuase all the buildings on them are mammoth (it's like las vegas in that - and only in that - where you start walking towards something that looks close and then come to realize 45 minutes later that the giant tower you're heading for is actually still 6 blocks out. The buildings are a tease). So, the pace of Pingyao let us test the Chinese waters, and being in this new culture started to sink in. Beth gave Pingyao details, so I won't repeat - but it was a great place, with a hostel full of really nice people (travelers and locals alike) and we were fans. We left Pingyao after two days, to head out on the night train to Xi'an. The night train was a mass exodus of "waigouren" (foreigners) - it's a very common route to go from Pingyao to Xi'an, and our hostel arranges train travel, so we filled up about 1/2 a train car with other foreigners on the train, which was fun. We were saved once again by someone who took pitty on our lack of muscles and hoisted our big backpacks onto the high racks above. A couple of sleeping pills later, it was smooth sailing until morning. We really like Xi'an - it has a very "polished" feel (it's the former capital of the country so it's enjoyed lots of preservation), and it's a nice size for exploration on foot. Our first day we climbed up into the Bell Tower, a cool pagoda with a nice view of the city's main thoroughfair and traffic circle. The smog was nuts - we thought it was just overcast, but soon realized (as our eyes began to water) that the "fog" was in fact smog. The sun looks like it does at home when there's a big fire - a hardly-distinguishable reddish ball, which is pretty nuts. But the Bell Tower was very cool; neat architecture and fun art exhibits inside. Our next stop was the Drum Tower (another cool old pagoda) which we walked under to get to the Muslim Quarter. This area is really neat - lots of street vendors selling traditional snacks, tons of Mao memrobelia (I had to purchase Mao playing cards. They say "Mao - man, not God. Playing Cards" on one side, and on the top, somewhat puzzingly, they say "Not playing cards." But really...they're playing cards (Mao's even on the Joker.) We went to a georgous mosque, took LOTS of photos (to come - the machine for making CD's is broken here, but I promise we'll load more in Shanghai) and played "Chinese Checkers" at our hostel. Yesterday we bussed to the Terra Cotta Warriors (the bus trip was an adventure in and of itself - we waited at the "bus 306 - Terra Cotta Warriors" bus stop for about 1/2 hour, during which two different local people came up and told us that the bus had been cancelled but that we were welcome to go on one of their private tours instead. We politely declined, knowing this was a scam (we'd been warned). But we waited...and waited...while they circled and eyed us, and then eventually two police women came by and told us that the bus we wanted was actually around the corner, behind a wall in an area with no sign. We walked to the no-sign area, and just chillin at the side of the train station were four 306 busses. Right.) But that made our victory of actually getting there even sweeter, and the Terra Cotta warriors were awesome. They've taken the area where the warriors were found/excavated and built observation rooms and exhibits up around them - big rooms built around this recently-discovered self-proclaimed "8th wonder of the world" (the signage everywhere is very proud of the 8th wonder. the warriors were discovered in the 70's). It's a really cool way of displaying them and preserving them, and Beth and I were amazed at not only the amount of in-tact soldiers they've unearthed (rows and rows of life-size warriors), but also at the massive amount that are still to be excavated (there's a good 2/3 of the room in which the soldiers are that still hasn't been dug into. I bet in 20 years it will look a lot different... Amazing! Today we hung out around town again; honed some bargaining skiznills (Beth types an amount into the calculator - about 1/2 of what she's really willing to pay. She slides the calculator to the shop-keeper, who laughs at the figure like it's a joke. The shop-keeper then types another figure, really not much higher into her calculator like you might expect from the previous "that's absurd" cackle, and Beth considers, then types one slighly lower and the shop-keeper considers...and then says yes. We're learning.), had an awesome time strolling and drinking local Tsingtao beer on the vast, beautifully preserved town wall (we haven't been eating that much, and the beer hit us. Beth observed, "that one asian girl at the front desk is really nice" - as you may have guessed, there are about 6 different "asian girls" who work at the desk; and I later commented that "we should really learn how to say thank you," forgetting momentarily that the only words we really know how to say are "ni hao" (hello) and "xie xie" (thank you.) We say them...all the time. One can of Tsingtao and we so silly), and after walking we decided to rent bikes to ride on the wall (as the sun went down and the lanterns turned on and locals waved and shouted "helllllloooooooooooooooo!" to us, and we shouted "ni hao!" to them- so great!) Tomorrow morning we fly to Shanghai, where more pictures will be posted and adventures had. Much love to you all! Amy

The Smell of Smoke and Noodles

Helloooo! I'm sitting here typing in the restaurant of our beautiful hostel, looking out on one of the main streets of lovely, little ancient Pingyao, a town that is older than, well, the United States of America (Ming or Quing dynasty, anyone?). This place is BEAUTIFUL.=) Intricate lanterns hang from the curved corners of tile roofs, paper cut-outs of flowers and tigers and little Chinese men cover windows, dark wooden walls and dark wooden furniture is accented by light walls filled with painted tile art pieces that tell elaborate stories (we're assuming, as we can't read them...) in Chinese. AND our hostel has a breakfast buffet! Hallelujah! After arriving in Pingyao at 4:25a.m. on an all-night train from Beiing, we were SO grateful to step off the train and be greeted by a Chinese man with a van and a sign that said "Amy." We were tired and starving...having consumed Snickers bars and cookies and bagged chips for dinner, as the pre-packaged beef noodles they sell on the street corners looked a bit sketch to us. The train ride was quite a trip. Getting on the train was like being herded into a small corral with several hundred people who are a bit more used to pushing than you are (the guide books warned that we needed to "hold onto our hats" in Chinese train stations. Thanks for the warning.=)) However, people were so FRIENDLY once we got on board. If only we spoke Mandarin! Thank goodness that a very kind man offered to help us lift our large bags into the tiny luggage compartment over our bunks. It's a tight fit, and not speaking the language means you do a lot of smiling, nodding your head, holding your hands up to communicate, "I have no idea what you're saying" and such. We chose to travel in a "hard sleeper," meaning that we were in a compartment with six bunks. We booked a bit later than some (Chinese trains are the way to go transportation-wise, so they're always packed!) so we got top bunks. We spent most of the ride sitting in tiny seats in the hall, looking out through the gauzy curtains at the small Chinese towns and farms (including some people driving water buffalo and herding sheep) going by and reading books about China. It is a cultural experience to ride the train. We were the only tourists in our car, and were surrounded by locals who were playing cards, chatting about (it seemed) anything and everything, listening to Chinese pop music over the loud speaker, pouring hot water into their cups of beef noddles and stepping into the space between cars to smoke and laugh (smoking, especially by men, appears to be a national past-time). It's so amazing how often the people we met on the train (and meet in general) started speaking to us in Mandarin, just assuming we'd understand them. We're doing our best to learn a few new phrases each day..."excuse me" and "please" and "how much for this?" (in an effort to bargain...which sometimes works!) and other helpful phrases, but all of the guidebooks assure western travelers that trying to take a self-taught crash course in Mandarin is pretty pointless, as the language is tonal and even saying the right words in the wrong tone can mean the difference between asking after someone's mother and asking about their horse. So we try to muddle through as best we can...The young staff members at our hostel are incredibly nice, 17 and 18-year-old girls from the town, and their English is superb (of course...eesh...), so we've gotten the chance to chat with them some. In fact, we just got back from visiting an ancient Buddhist temple on the outskirts of town (pics to come later!) and had a great little chat with a monk there. He's working on his English, and we spoke the scant Mandarin we could muster. People here typically have the same line of questioning..."Where are you from?" "How old are you?" (This question is considered proper and polite here, as is a question about how much money you make, although we haven't gotten that one...) "Are you married?" (Also a big fav') The monk, not surprisingly, wasn't married, and wasn't surprised that we weren't, as Americans typically get married significantly later than most Chinese, apparently. However, the monk had news for Amy and me about our future marriages. He asked us for our palms and did some reading of them...and apparently Amy's going to "marry soon" and "become famous in the USA" (Woohoo for palm-reading monks!), while I, on the other hand, am either going to have a "bad marriage," or perhaps, if we misunderstood that interpretation, I am going to have a good marriage only if I "get married after 30." Cool. Lord knows it ain't happening before then, anyway. The nice thing about getting your fortune told with a language barrier is that you can interpret it as you wish...=)
China is an intriguing place to be, especially for a western and English-speaking traveler. Even though tourism is really on the up and up here, people still seem constantly surprised to see us...Two Chinese girls from this area who Amy and I just met on the street a few minutes ago asked to have their picture taken with us, and this was not the first time total strangers have asked. When we ATTEMPTED to go to the Chinese National History Museum by the Forbidden City in Beijing (details on this shortly!) we actually got sidetracked and ended up getting our picture taken with a young Chinse couple (the guy gave us a small Chinese flag as a gift...cool!). Speaking of not going to the history museum...well, let's just say that the logisitical side of traveling on your own in China is a bit, well, we will say CHALLENGING. Most signs, even in major cities like Beijing, are in Chinese, and even when signs are in English it's often hard to tell where to buy tickets for things, how to enter gargantuan buildings, etc. Upon finding the Chinese National History Museum and walking around more than half of it looking for an entrance (it's a HUGE building) we finally found a door with the name of the museum in English. People dressed in official gear, most likely young soldiers, were standing outside the building, but people dressed like this are standing outside most official buildings in Beijing, so we didn't think much of it. We were stoked, because there was a huge sign that was counting down the months, days and minutes until the Beijing 2008 Olympics (they have olympic fever here!), and we paused to take pics in front of it. Then, we started toward the museum...but we were grunted at, loudly, by the young men in uniform, who waved us off in another direction. We soon ran into two sweet young English-speaking college students who were attending a fine arts college in the Forbidden City (awesome place to go to school!) who informed us that the museum is closed. They're converting the space into a place to host dignitaries during the olympics. Needless to say, we just laughed to ourselves. Ah, what a simple sign can accomplish...BUT, as our museum plans were a bust, we befriended the girls and went with them to see their art show within the walls of the Forbidden City. They're water color artists and showed us their work and the work of their teachers. As it turned out, the place was crawling with foreigners, who it seemed most of the students had found on the square (probably when they were also in a state of confusion!...) and brought into the show. We ended up buying some beautiful work from the students...the proceeds of which will help them study abroad in Barcelona. Not a bad side-trip after all.=) AND, since so much of our time spent in Beijing seemed to be wandering, as it turned out aimlessly, it was nice to just go where life took us for a few...
Amy has been kept trying to figure out how to fit one of our random Thai stories into this blog. You see, as we were walking down a side street near our hostel in Chiang Mai this man kept stepping out at us and saying "MONKEY SHOW!" and flashing us this sheet covered with pics of monkeys doing tricks. It was random and hilrarious, and, every once in awhile, especially if it's hot and we're getting a big discouraged or lost, we remember the "monkey show" man and laugh. Well, that story fits our Chinese experience pretty aptly. As I mentioned earlier, people are incredibly intrigued by us here, and stopping to stare at foreigners is not considered impolite...so, as we walk down the street, we draw more than our fair share of stares, people sometimes pointing and often shouting "Hallooooooo!," and, after awhile, we feel like we've become the monkey show. It's a sometimes mind-boggling experience, but one worth having. We're off to Xi'an (Terra Cotta Warriors!) on another night train tonight, and then on to Shanghai! Next time, more stories from the road.=) Beth

Ni Hao (Hello), China!

As you may have gathered, we're in China!!!!!!!!!!! And it's awesome!!!!!!!!!!! Obviously...I'm pretty excited.

We had a nice last few days chillin' in Thailand - it was good to be there for an extended period to take more advantage of the the "vacation" part of this trip. We sampled a myriad of Thai beers (I recommend Singha), didn't get our hair braided (you're welcome) and took a few day trips to round out our last days in/around Bangkok. We bussed to the near-by beach town of Cha-am, a local spot 3 hours outside of the city. Our books said that this is one of the beach towns were Thais vacation, and it was cool to get to see that, as well as feel for ourselves the super-warm (if brown) ocean water. Cha-am was cute, very laid back and full (seriously, the entirety of the beach was a sea of) sweet rows of nonstop umbrellas that could be rented to protect from the hot, hot day. Mid-afternoon some monsoon-looking clouds started rolling in, so we headed back to the bus stop on foot, and were promptly soaked to the bone by a giant cloud burst. We both brought Brannie's hats and wore them in the storm...so at least our heads were protected. :) Soaked and so ready for a dry bus ride home, we enjoyed the scenery (lots of factories manufacturing fish sauce on the road from Cha-am to Bangkok). The next day we bussed to Damnoen Saduak, the town that houses the famously beautiful floating market. We opted for staying a night in the town's one guesthouse and hitting up the market super early, as opposed to taking a day tour from Bangkok, because our trusty (thanks, Lonely Planet!) guidebook said it gets pretty touristy later in the day. The Little Bird Guest House was pretty nuts - obviously a school or domitory converted into a hotel; Beth and I felt like giants in an insane-asylum in the all-hot-yellow, low-ceilinged bathrom (fun-house pictures to come). The floating market was nice - we hired a boat and got paddled around (and solicited by everyone under the sun) for about an hour. Unfortuanly, we were kind of dissapointed in the experience - the postcard-perfect setting so often seen isn't really close to the real thing. It's turned into a tourist outing, and the local vendors know it. Instead of food items and other, traditional "market" wares, it's now essentially a paddle-up mall at which one can purchase, among other things, fake coach purses. But it was pretty, and people are nice, even as they insist that you purchase a counterfit wallet.

We arrived in Beijing last night, and are excited for some hard-core-how-to-fit-it-all-in Beijing sightseeing funness (though Beth looked worried as I meticulously plotted our course of action for Beijing on the flight over. Muah.) Moreso than in Thailand, arriving at the Beijing airport felt like being dropped into a different world. Though much signage was in English in the airport, figuring out which bus to take to the city was a task (even with Beth and my different travel books - both Lonely Planet and Let's Go were wrong this time! Crazy China!), and after some confusion, mime and pointing to things on the map, we got the right bus tickets (small victories.) The ride into Beijing was awesome - everywere you look are giant buildings with neon Chinese characters on them (a trip), CCP party slogans on freeway overpasses and bridges, lots and lots of bicycles and an entire lane devoted to this mode of transportation, a myriad of trees and public parks and Volkswagens as far as the eye can see (apparently very popular here. I think they're manufactured in Shanghai. I wonder if crap falls off in your had on these cars like it does on my Golf). Our hostel is totally cute - very backpacker friendly and homey - my favorite is the giant rooftop terrace with a cool view of the city's tallest banks and hotels. We arrived pretty late last night, spent this morning booking all of our in-contry travel (hayo, sleeper trains - travel and lodging for one low price!) and are about to head out to start seeing all Beijing has to offer! Will wrote more about it soon - "xie xie" (thank you) for reading! hugs, amy

Laundry time

So we did laundry yesterday. It started out routine enough - sort the clothes in the room, decide what will be washed hot/cold and that. Beth ventured downstairs to ask the people at our check-in desk where the closest washing machine was (we're back in Bangkok on Kao San Road, the super touristy, Johnny Walker Whiskey at every turn, drunk vacationers getting neon braids they'll regret tomorrow and signs for "tattos - experts services" all around... so we figured laundry would be close by and normal enough). Close by it was...normal 'twas not. Beth was informed by the helpful front desk attendants that nobody around here does there own laundry; instead we were to visit the man in the alley adjacent to our hostel and leave our clothes with him. Right. Visit him Beth did (there's people everywhere, so not as sketch as it may sound), and she was instructed to place our clothes on a scale. The man weighed them, made a note, handed her a slip of notebook paper with a number and told her to come back by 9pm for clean clothes. We came back around 8...and the alley was deserted save for a youngish guy selling bootleg cd's (3 for 100 Baht - a pretty outrageous deal. Let me know if you want a Backstreet Boys cd.) Puzzled, we asked him if he knew where the laundry man was. He took our slip, rummaged around underneath his table o'cd's and found a bag labeled with our number. Not sure that location was the best place to put clean laundry, but whatever. We were happy with the end result- good smelling, expertly folded laundry and even knotted underwear. What service! Today we took a day trip to a nearby beach town, Cha-am today, and are super tired, so it's bedtime. Enjoy the posted pictures - hope they come through all right. Will write more soon. Hugs. --Amy

Captions for photos

Picture 1 is at the Grand Palace in Bangkok. The royal family used to live here, but now it's open to the public. It's huge and georgous - so much to take in!

Picture 2 (across from 1) is Ronald McDonald "wei-ng" - a wei is what you do to greet someone- it's a sign of respect. It's usually accompanied by "sawatdeeka" (hello). Even Ronald does it, yo.

Picture 3 is of dogs playing poker...at the super spiritual forest wat we visited in Chiang Mai. Beneath it is a wise saying (we think) in Thai. There were other cool things posted in the trees, my favorite being "cut yourself some slack. Remember, one hundred years from now, all new people." aka, Chill - you'll die soon. Will post more pictures of this place lata.

Picture 4 - Beth and I on the steps of another Chiang Mai wat, Doi Suthep. This is the one we took the red truck taxi to up the big green hill - beautiful!

Picture 5 - crap, that's the same as picture 1.

Picture 6 - We take our shoes off to go into wats (those are our feets.)

Picture 7 - Enormous golden buddah! This is at a wat in Bangkok - it's one that was included in our tuk tuk tour!

Picture 8 - These signs are everywhere - this year the King of Thailand celebrates his 80's birthday so it's Thai pride all over the place. Everyone wears yellow polo shirts with the royal logo on it in celebration and on nearly every street corner there are huge posters of the royal family. A cool time to be here - long live the king!

Picture 9 - This is out of order... mom took this right before we left for the airport (thanks, mom). :)

Picture 10 - The view from our longboat the first day we were in Bangkok. This trip was rad - we got to see the canals behind the city - most of the business in Bangkok used to be conducted via canal like in Venice.

Picture 11 - a view of a wat from the longboat.

Picture 12 - A self-photo in a cool wat.

The computer is pretty slow so that's all I had time to load - more pics to come! --Amy

Pictures at last! See the next post for captions...

No wet, no fun

Hayo again from Chiang Mai! It's the end of our third day here, and we're starting to feel like we know our way around. The Kanatoke (I can't remember how to spell it now) dinner was awesome - we were picked up from our guest house (any time you book a tour or anything else here they pick you up - our guest house also transported us from the airport to town - I've never been one of the people with a sign made for them with a driver waiting (no, the time Sabrina and I made one out of a napkin for Melanie doesn't count), so that was sweet. It's the little things.) Anyway, the dinner was cool - good food, no crazy unidentifiable meats (or at least none that we were aware of, so it's cool), and lots of traditional dancing, etc. It was seriously a bang for our buck- things here are inexpensive, but this was lots of culture jam-packed into a couple of hours. Yay! The next morning we headed out on our day trek. A frienly Thai guide named Ramu led us, and explained that we'd be visiting an elephant camp, two hill-tribe villages and would then go rafting. It was a full day of stuff- and more exercise than Beth or my sorry grad-school accustomed-to-sitting-and-typing-and-snacking selves had seen in a long time. But we held our own, and had an awesome time! Riding an elephant was rad- we got to feed it bananas, and I think it liked us (as much as an elephant can like people who ride it); the hiking was cool (it poured rain part of the time! bring on the monsoons, yo), the hill-tribe villages were interesting and pretty eye-opening and the "rafting"... was really more Thai guides dunking helpless unsporty girls into the water repeatedly. Beth's little girl squeals every time the guide tipped the raft over made us easy targets; we were completely soaked by the end. :) The Thai rafting guides kept yelling, "no wet, no fun" ... indeed. Despite that... trip on the river was amazing - so much beautiful scenery; so many elephants, water buffalo and rice paddies! Back at our guest house, we passed out, then stumbled to dinner and enjoyed our first for-real monsoon rainstorm. Sitting at an outdoor restaurant (with a romantico candle and everything), the rain beat down on the tin roof and lightning flashed; all of the other tourists and us were so excited; the Thai staff laughed at us. Today we took it easy...the nice woman at our guest house called her friend, a red-truck taxi driver, who agreed to take us to a nearby craft village called Ban Wai. As we were about to leave, she decided to come along, which made the trip even cooler. She answered lots of our questions about the things around us, and we shopped with her for new linens for the guest house's attached restaurant. After a couple of hours of shopping, we were tired, and bought water from one of the craft vendors. When the lady saw us sitting on the curb nearby drinking our water, she insisted that we come sit on itty-bitty plastic chairs that she had. Then she plugged in a fan for us. So nice! (our glistening butter-skin scores!) When we got back to town, we went to visit a few wats, wrote some postcards and went night bazaaring again. "same same" t-shirts were purchased. Tomorrow we leave Chiang Mai to go back to Bangkok - where pictures will be posted! Thanks for the comments and love - hugs to you all. Amy

6 monks in a pickup truck...and other stories from Chang Mai

So I hope this works... I'm sitting at an outside computer stall at our Chiang Mai hostel, typing away as a family of lizzards climbs up the wall next to me (surprisingly, "cute" was my first reaction, as opposed to the typical repulsion I feel for most things that creep up walls in tropical climates)... though many of the features on the computer are in English, the blog page is all in Thai...so fingers crossed that I'll hit the right buttons and you'll be able to read this! Beth and I arrived in Chiang Mai (a city in northern Thailand, about an hour's flight from Bangkok) yesterday. While Bangkok's cacophany of sights, sounds, smells and more was a varitable schmorgasboard of excitement (fantastic!), we were looking to venture a bit more off the beaten path as well, and heard that Chiang Mai was a good place to do so. Our ride to the Bangkok airport was a testament to the fact that the Thai people are very, very kind to tourists, which we've experienced since day 1 here. Our taxi driver to the airport was a sweet older man, with whom we spoke for as long as we could-- which, due to the language barrier, was about 2 minutes. He then offered us postcards of the floating market to look at, and as silence settled in, turned his head back suddenly and, beaming, shouted "music!" In went a cd featuring Thai remakes of British and American pop and hip-hop songs, my personal favorite being a hip hop song whose only lyrics were "Big boiiiiii." The driver and us exchanged several smiles via rear-view mirror, as he bobbed his head gangsta-style to the music. Truly a melding of cultures. Chiang Mai is great - a bit cooler than Bangkok (though we seriously glow hard-core no matter where we are here...all the locals keep asking us "why you walking? so hot!" when they see us on the street because we look like we're covered in vaseline or butter or something). Yesterday we hired a "red song taos" (one of the fleet of many red pick-up trucks with benches instealled in the back which are used as public transportaion all over the city) to take us up to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep Rajvoravihara (try saying that five times. Or just once, really.), one of the area's most beautiful wats. The journey was awesome- just chillin in the back of a pickup truck as it wound its way up a gigantor mountain with greenery everywhere. 6 monks in the back of a pickup truck passed by on the ride up (which, surprisingly, is not something I see everyday in Brea. Not even on the trolley). The wat was impressive and, as they all are, so peaceful - and included many buddahs, bells, offerings and a great view of the city below. Back in Chiang Mai, we collapsed at our hostel and attacked the box of Pocky Beth had hidden away, rested long enough to for the feelings of heatstroke to subside, then hit up the fantastic town night bazzar for some outrageous deals on Thai silk, crafts, etc. A young entrepeneur on the street tried his best to entice us to enjoy some "blue crab delicacy"... but that will be saved for... never. Day 2 in Chiang Mai has been great - we booked a trekking tour for tomorrow (going to ride an elephant, raft in a river, see a tribal village and try not to have too many "holy crap that's the biggest bug I've ever seen" embarrasing farang moments), took another red pick-up to a sweet out of the way forresty wat (where a monk talked with us! we had a monk chat!) with hippy inspirational signs written in the trees (pictures to come). Tonight we're off to a Khantoke Dinner, a traditional Thai sort of "dinner show," that we've heard is a must-do. Khantoke-doke. Pictures soon, I promise (we have to get a cd made to post them - in Bangkok we'll do it!) Until then, give us a holla - we miss you all!

Tuk-Tuks in Thailand...and What's a What?!

Day 3 in Thailand (although it will seem like two to all of you, as we're 15 hours ahead over here...)---Today we took our first ride in a tuk-tuk, a fun little motorized cart with a kind driver who sped us from one wat (a Buddhist temple) to the next, and stopped by a suit-maker's shop...just because they apparently always take tourists there. We've already seen at least a half-dozen wats, and counting...
Thailand is an amazing place. Hotter than hades, and more friendly than almost any place I've ever been. Taxi and tuk-tuk drivers are all smiles, and everyone on the street wants to sell you their wares...whether hand-made bags, tiny Buddhas, bags full of sweet tea or juice, mini pancakes made on a street-side griddle...The fruit looks amazing, but who knows what water they're washing it in...=) Thus far we've seen so much, and we're learning to happily function in the heat a bit better each day. Some unexpected findings include the fact that there's a 7-11 on what seems like every corner, that they indeed have Starbucks, and Subway, and KFC, and Au Bon Pain, for god's sake. Even Gloria Jean's Coffee, which we grew up walking by in the food court of the Brea Mall (we took a pic of the sign for you, mom!). As we are obviously super white people know we're foreigners, or "farang," and as we look so much alike people are constantly ask if we're twins...or they just smile at us and say "Same Same..." We found "Same Same" t-shirts on the crazy backpacker lane we're staying on in our little hotel, and we're coming home with a matching set. Staying on Thanon (Street) Khao San is a little like staying on DP in Santa Barbara, really. Amy feels right at home here.=) Tons of Europeans, Australians and others sitting out on the street and drinking massive amounts of beer, pretty much all night...the people who look bleary-eyed when we walk past them toward breakfast in the morning are the ones who just haven't gotten the chance to go to bed yet...=)
The first day here we took in some of the most famous cultural sites---the Grand Palace (former home of monarchs) and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, where a much-prized but very small green Buddha sits perched atop a pile of gold decoration (this is one of the most important Buddhist sites in Thailand). We took a long boat down the Chao Praya river and got to not only see some famous wats from an awesome vantage point but also a slice of Thai life on the water. Yesterday we gave ourselves a bit of a break and went on an outdoor tour of Jim Thompson's house---a beautiful teak house constructed by an American expatriate who reinvigorated the Thai silk industry after WWII---before winding our way through two HUGE malls in a newer part of town. The upscale mall was wholly "western" (Amy keeps laughing at me for calling things this...=))...it almost looked like something straight out of West L.A...except its foodcourt was full of amazing Thai food...and the more regular mall was completely out of control. I've never seen so many goods and so many people in such a small space. The street fair way of life here has a way of almost visually overloading people who are from elsewhere...in every mall, on every street corner, there is so much to see and potentially purchase, so many smells and so much movement...we're just beginning to be able to take more of it in...=)
That's it for this post, I'm thinking...Amy is the more techno-savvy one, and I'm hoping she can figure out how to post pics for you soon, as I just played around with it and can't figure it out!...Tomorrow we're off to northern Thailand, to Chiang Mai, to be exact. As we're not bad-ass backpackers, and our white skin makes us a little less jungle-friendly than some, we've decided to ix-nay tromping through Cambodia to see Angkhor Wat. Something for another trip...But Chiang Mai is supposed to be the cultural capital of Thailand...where hill tribes sell their crafts, where Thai massage, language and cooking classes are taught...and they have elephant camps that I've been told are very cool.=) Peace out, everyone. "Kawpkhunka" (thank you in Thai) for reading.=) Beth