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