Guest Blogger 2.0: Hoi An

~Thank you, Mr. Gregory Johns, for Guest Blogger entry 2.0 from Hoi An, Vietnam. Despite the rainy weather we had a great time in Hoi An with Greg and were sad to see him go. BUT on the bright side of things I couldn't have been happier to meet up with our second special guest: Mr. Hari Vasu-Devan. Hari and I have been very close since we started working together in NY back in 2005 and both decided to take time off to travel. We have been following a similar travel path and finally overlapped for a few days in Hoi An. More adventures from Mary, Sarah, and Hari to come, but for now I'll hand it back to Greg to fill you in on our Hoi An experience:
Arriving back at the hotel from the trip to the tunnels in Cu Chi, it was time to leave Saigon and head to central Vietnam. Now, when I traveling I am typically not of the improvisational sort, but this time, we hadn't quite figured out how we were getting to our next destination, NhaTrang. We had two options: train or plane. Back at the hotel, we checked to see what flights to Nha Trang would cost, only to be told that flights to Nha Trang were not operating because tropical storm Noul was bearing down on the town. Oops. Guess we were going to be skipping that. So, we would simply head to the next planned stop early, which was Hoi An. Luckily, the flight to Da Nang (the nearest airport) cost a grand total of $62. Southwest can kiss our ass.

We landed in Da Nang and got a taxi for the 30 minute drive to Hoi An. I can't tell you how nice of a change it was to be on a road without 300 buzzing moped encircling us like flies on shit. We then arrived at the Golden Sand in Hoi An, a wonderful 5-star resort. Here I felt the "vacation" part of my trip was beginning (you see, unlike the rough and tumble world adventurer/hostel braving girls, I am a princess and demand luxury and coddling). While waiting in the lobby to check in, we were greeting with fresh sugarcane cocktails, which we immediately fortified with more vodka. Our room was a spacious ocean view suite complete with a college football game blaring on ESPN (the mostly showing soccer Hong Kong version, but at least it had some football tonight).The next morning we woke to brilliant sun and took in breakfast. One thing I think the girls appreciated, the hotel had a true western breakfast (aka eggs, pancakes, omelettes, cereal, etc) that they were unable to enjoy for quite a long stretch during the trip. We finished breakfast and headed for the pool. In the midst of all this, we had been a few cocktails down during the morning and continued so at the pool. I'm telling you all this because yours truly decided to throw a wrench into the entire rest of the day via what I call "the incident". This basically consisted of me developing a case of severe dehydration so much so that I needed to seek medical attention, which in Vietnam (let alone in a smaller town Vietnam) was a scary prospect. (The doctors were first rate though).

Fortunately the girls were great and took very good care of me through my ordeal. I was down for the count for a full day though, and missed what was left of the sun for the remainder of the trip. The girls managed to get some additional time at the pool however. The next day we planned to head into Hoi An, but the tropical storm which had hit Nha Trang decided to hang a right and move up the coast. We woke to 40 miles and hour winds and rain. And rain. And rain. Remember when Forrest Gump was talking about what it was like in Vietnam. Yeah, pretty much that. So, we were landlocked in the hotel for a while, during which time we read quite a bit, played massive amounts of Mahjong and finally figured out what happened at the end of the movie "Outsourced".

FINALLY, the rain cleared enough for us to head into Hoi An. The town is what is called a UN World Heritage Site, which is a fancy title for "place that hasn't been greatly disturbed by mass modernization, McDonalds and the like". Hoi An is also renound for being the textile capital of Vietnam, which is a fancy title for "getting custom made clothes really cheap." And that we did. 3 suits and 6 shirts for $250 cheap. The girls got a bunch of clothes made too. We walked all over the town for two days, taking in historical old buildings, the town market (complete with $3 polo shirts thanks to the haggling of the blonde). Central Vietnam retains a great deal of their French heritage, and it certainly shows up in the food, which was outstanding.
All too quickly, it was time for me to head back to the US (complete with a bag containing all the clothes so large that it looked like I was carrying around a dead body) and we said our tearful goodbyes. Yours truly flew back to Saigon and prepared for a long flight over the Pacific. Before I left Saigon though, the airport got hit by one of the worst thunderstorms I'd ever been in. And the funny part....the airport continued operating normally, even as lightning as hitting all over the place. Sitting in your seat waiting to push from the gate and looking out to see a funnel cloud forming knowing you're about to take off into the weather, well good times.

But all was without incident (as you can tell since I'm here writing this). The girls headed up the coast to the ancient capital of Hue. And with that, I will hand the blog back over to them. Despite the rain, it was a truly amazing trip and I highly recommend visiting Vietnam soon before McDonalds gets in there and ruins it.

Guest Blogger: Good Morning Vietnam

Mary and I were proud to have our first visitor come meet us (aka 'walk the walk') during our trip... Gregory Johns. As a special treat Greg got the privilege of writing the blog entries for the trip. This is a great deal all around, especially for us. Hopefully he lives up to the high blog-post expectations that have been established here. Thank you Greg for coming out to visit us and visit Vietnam. It was wonderful to have you here, a little piece of home as the holidays draw near. We had such a great time with you and with living the life of luxury for a few days. Good call on those suits. We miss you already!

Read on...
Greg here, proud to be the first special guest blogger on Plan B Travels. Apparently I am also the first guest on the trip, four months in. I've read the comments and I know lots of you are promising to meet up with the girls, so you best get to walking the walk.

For those who don't personally know me, I am Sarah's friend from Los Angeles that helped her toil through her two and a half years in the advertising business here. While I've traveled to Europe, Mexico and French Polynesia this trip would mark my first to Asia, let alone Vietnam. Needless to say I knew I was in for something completely different and was extremely excited. Just in case I was too overjoyed, I brought along Paul Krugman's "The Return of Depression Economics" for reading.
My journey to Saigon started with a flight from LA to Taipei. For some reason in my head, I thought this flight was 11.5 hours for weeks, but turns out it was 14.5. There is a YUUUGE difference between a 11.5 flight and 14.5. Fortunately, China Airlines (very good BTW) had a well stocked in flight entertainment unit allowing me to watch about 4 movies. Also, I won about $40K in video poker. I need to figure out who makes their software and somehow hack it into the machines at Mandalay Bay as soon as possible.

After finally landing in Taipei it was another 3.5 hour flight to Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City as it is now known. After being greeted by an airport more modern than the one I departed in LA, I experienced the traffic in Saigon. They call Beijing the capital of bicycles. Saigon is the capital of mopeds. Their are something like 4 million of them in the metro area and I think we rode with at least 3 million of them on the ride into the hotel. My favorite part is when traffic backs up on the streets, they just start driving on the sidewalks.

After decompressing at the hotel for a few hours, the girls arrived from Hong Kong, so great to see them after all this time.

Our trip began with an all day exploration of Saigon by foot. Step #1, not getting killed by the traffic. We quickly mastered the art of the slow and deliberate walking pace and before too long we were experts. We saw many sights such as the Reunification Palace, the former "White House" of South Vietnam. The Vietnamese are very open about what is called the "American War" over here. Especially moving was the War Remnants Museum. As expected, it's painted in a fairly anti-American slant, though not nearly as bad as one would suspect. Still, the imagery and artifacts shown are stunning, from a tribute to the journalists (from all sides) killed in the war, to replications of the tiger cages that housed prisoners of war. Much attention is given to our use of Agent Orange during the war and the pictures showing what was once lush jungle now looking something like the surface of the moon were quite haunting.
After long day of walking, we had a wonderful dinner. The food in Vietnam was great all around, though I don't think I need to have a spring roll until about 2010, as they featured prominently in every meal we had. Our next day took us to the Mekong River delta, where we embarked on a boat tour around a few of the islands. We watched as locals made rice and coconut candies and fired bricks in traditional kilns. We also got to tour a traditional French colonial house dating from the late 19th century. The trip was also highlighted by some recurring engine trouble on the boat. Now we can say we were stranded on the Mekong River in Nam.
The next day we visited probably my favorite site on the trip, the Viet Cong tunnels of Cu Chi. The Vietnamese government preserved about 75 miles of what was once hundreds of miles of tunnel network where the insurgency lived and commanded the war in South Vietnam. Although the site has become a bit touristy, all of the tunnel openings were authentic and it was amazing to realize that people actually fit in the spaces, let alone lived in them and more. At the site, I got to fire an M60 machine gun and AK47 assault rifle...Sarah took on the AK47 as well. Neither of us won the stuffed animal though. The grand finale of the tour was getting down in the tunnels. Now, the tunnels have been tourist-ified with some low power lights and made a bit bigger. But let's just say I don't really ever get claustrophobic at all, AND THESE SUCKERS WERE SMALL. I took an early exit from the second level down, but girls went down to the 3rd level command bunker.
After we returned from Cu Chi at mid-day it was time to leave Saigon. For the 4 days we'd been in Saigon, we were fortunate to enjoy good weather. Sadly, our fortunes were about to turn courtesy of Tropical Storm Noul.

- Greg Johns

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

It's December. We are on the beach...in Cambodia.

Even the statues at Angkor Wat get into the holiday spirit.

Missing all of our friends and family and wishing we could be with you, but we won't complain...

Much love, Sarah and Mary

Birthday #2 - Beijing Style

Sarah got to spend her birthday floating down the Nile River - I got to spend mine in Beijing, walking the Great Wall, seeing a crazy acrobatics show, and having a traditional dinner at Lillian's parent's house. Okay, okay, so the whole Great Wall experience was actually the day before my actual birthday, but it's pretty damn close. On my actual birthday we spent the day sightseeing in Beijing which was awesome. Lillian and Sarah secretly worked to plan an amazing birthday evening...

Lillian's parents live in Beijing and were generous enough to invite me, Sarah, Holly and Charlie to their home to have a birthday dinner celebration. Unfortunately Lillian's father was out of town on business, but her mom took the day off from work to cook all day for me, so cute. As we were getting ready to leave the hotel Sarah mysteriously disappeared and came back with a few bottles of wine to bring over to the house, and a big box from a bakery. I had no idea what could possibly be in there. We arrived at their house and were happily greeted by Lillian's mom. She was so excited to show us around the house and took out tons of photo albums from when Lillian was a little girl. We hung out and had some wine and before we knew it, Lillian's mom starting bringing tons of plates of food out from the kitchen to the dining room. She truly made me a birthday feast - chicken, several kinds of stir-fried veggies, rice. Everything was delicious and I was so thankful to be surrounded by such a great family.
After dinner was over the festivities began, Lillian and her mom insisted that I partake in some Chinese birthday traditions. I had to roll an egg up my arms and over my head for good luck in the coming year, and I had to pick up noodles from soup as high as I could to see how long I am going to live. I got to 100 years, chopstick skills. Then the lights dimmed, and Sarah came out with a birthday crown and a cake covered in candles. It was seriously one of the best chocolate cakes I've ever had. Everyone sang to me and it was just a great night. By the end we were all just sitting around the dining room table talking and reminiscing about the past 3 weeks that we had all spent together. We miss Holly, Charlie, and Lillian and think about them often. The next day we said our goodbyes and parted ways - Holly and Charlie stayed behind in Beijing for a few days, Lillian started another tour, and Sarah and I headed into Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh City, here we come.

The Great Wall

Needless to say the anticipation of seeing the Great Wall was building - we had been in China for 3 weeks and had been looking forward to it from Day 1. After a few days of sightseeing in Beijing we made the trip to the Great Wall. We took a 3 hour bus ride from Beijing to Simatai, a more remote section of the Wall with less tourists where we would be able to hike all day. We started to get close and all of a sudden, there it was on the horizon: a seemingly endless wall that perfectly kissed every curve of the surrounding hills. We practically jumped out of the bus, made our way up a few ridiculously steep flights of stairs and then we were standing on the Great Wall. I think we all just stood there for a few moments taking in the scene, we were speechless.

The Wall was built under the rule of Emperor Qin to protect the northern borders of China from Xiongnu attacks. It stretches more than 6000 meters from Shanhaiguan to the current southern border of Mongolia and took nearly 2 millenia to complete and maintain. Some of the most famous parts of the Wall were built in 220 B.C. and many sections are currently being restored. It is estimated that nearly 3mm people died during the construction of the Wall. It was difficult to grasp the amount of time and dedication it took to continue construction over several dynasties. It was one of the most impressive man-made things I have ever seen in my life.

We hiked for 4 hours, climbed 10,000 steps, and passed 30 watch towers, stopping every few minutes to take photos and just take in the fact that we were walking on the Great Wall of China. It was a perfect autumn day complete with cloudless blue skies. Simply amazing. Sarah, Charlie, and I did cart-wheels along the way and Holly impressed us all with a backflip (she's got diving skills). We had an awesome time taking crazy photos and messing around, but overall the day was pretty quiet and serene. We spent most of the time admiring its beauty and just taking it all in. Once again, Sarah and I found ourselves just gazing into the horizon, thankful for how lucky we are to be doing this.

We were approaching the end of our hike and thought it could not get much better when we saw a zipline from the top of one of the watch towers, over a lake, back to the bottom of the hill. How could we possibly turn down a zipline? We strapped in and took off, a great ending to an awesome day on the Great Wall. It was a bit of a risk taking the camera but we got some bitchin' shots of us on the way down.

And just when we thought that the day could not get any better, we forgot that we had tickets to see a traditional acrobatics show in Beijing. It was insane - a group of guys jumed off trampolines to do flips 5 meters into the air, a contortionist twisted her body in ways that I did not even really care to see while balancing crystal vases on her hands and feet, 12 young girls balanced one bicycle while riding around stage, men did flips through hoops and juggled while balancing on each other's heads. Like I said, insane. I couldn't have asked for a better way to ring in my 26th birthday...

One Night in Beijing

One Night in Beijing is the song that we heard a guy BELT out during karoke night on our cruise ship (past blog post). Let's just say he gave it all he had. We arrived via night train to the last leg of our trip, Beijing, were we stayed for 5 days. There is so much to do and see in Beijing our days were packed with sightseeing. I would like to note that Beijing was freezing cold. Mary and I are following summer on this trip so our warm clothes consist of two long sleeve shirts and a fleece. Those items got plenty of wear while in Beijing.

Disclaimer: I am too lazy, tired, and behind on blog posts to Wikipedia the background info on all of the places we visited and add the info to this post pretending like I remembered all those facts from our tour guides who were less then proficient in English. Apologies. Yes, I did refer to Wikipedia a few times for the post.

Our first day in Beijing we set out to see the Summer Palace and take advantage of the nice weather (only one long sleeve shirt was required). The Summer Palace served as a resort for Empress Dowager Cixi, who took money from the Chinese Navy to build and reconstruct the Palace. This almost crippled the navy. The Palace is a huge area of land on Longevity Hill surrounding a beautiful, man made lake, Kunming Lake. There are a slew of different things on the Palace grounds, museums, islands, temples, a projection TV playing a Mavericks NBA game, and the palace itself. There is a killer view on the top of the hill. Later that night we enjoyed peking duck, a dish Beijing is known for. It was so yummy- the duck comes cut up and you make a small rice paper wrap using the duck, scallions, and plum sauce. We got the usual eggplant side dish and were in heaven.

The next day was our great great day at the Great Wall (see Mary's post for all the juice). Our third day was Mary's official birthday. In the morning we visited the Forbidden City and Tienanmen Square. Both places have a significant place history. The huge picture of Chairman Mao is worth the trip along (joking), but the picture is pretty great. The Forbidden City and Tienanmen Square are located in the center of Beijing and has been used as a podium for peace, justice, conquest, independence and power over the centuries in China. The Square is obviously important as it has been the site of several key events in Chinese history. The Forbidden City complex consists of 980 surviving buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms and covers 720,000 square meters. The palace is rich in Chinese palatial architecture and it is evident in each of its many buildings. There were entire buildings for everything you could think of: getting dressed or storing a royal throne. The City was closed off from the public since the 1400s and was recently opened. After the Forbidden City we went to have lunch at a school for special education. The kids put on a show for us and taught us how to write calligraphy. It was a nice change to the usual restaurant meal and it was great to spend time to the kids at the school.

Our last two days in Beijing we were on a sightseeing frenzy with Holly and Charlie. We went to the Olympic stadium which is incredible. It is such a stunning piece of architecture creating the birds nest effect. We went inside the complex which was impressive to see in person since the Olympics just passed. All the buildings including the swimming pool and the gymnastics arena were top notch, no expense was spared. London has big shoes to fill. After being asked to be in photos with a number of Chinese people (not going to lie, there was a line forming) we headed out to the snack market. The snack market consists of stands selling any disgusting thing you could think of, usually fried. Some of the snacks available to eat were seahorses, scorpions (still moving), or sheep penis. Charlie wanted to try the fried starfish and I decided to take a bite too (you think I would have learned after the monkey). Lets just say I regretted the decision for the next 10 min until I got the gross fish/salty/unidentified taste out of my mouth. Mary and I did find the sour berry stick treat was a favorite of ours.

We also checked out the various temples in the city. One had the largest Buddha statue carved out of a single piece of wood. It made the Guiness Book of World Records, which was proudly displayed on multiple plaques outside the temple. It was cool. Next it was time to pack up and head off to South East Asia!

Xi'an, China

Xi'an was the first major metropolitan city in China that we visited on our tour. Xi'an is literally translated to "Western Peace" and was the ancient capital of China in the 14th century. The city is surrounded by a 14km wall that was built during the Ming Dynasty to protect the center city. Sarah, Holly, Charlie, and I rented bicycles and rode around the entire perimeter of the wall which took us nearly 2 hours. The views were incredible, the weather was perfectly brisk, we were able to see the entire city from every direction. Great time on the bikes. We also went to the 64m high Wild Goose Pagoda which was built in 652 to store the translations of Buddhist sutras obtained from India. It was surrounded by beautiful gardens and statues and we just walked around and hung out there for hours.
Lillian walked us through the city and showed us some cool markets where we could buy silk and traditional paintings. We ate Xi'an's traditional duck dish but passed on the "smelly tofu"which is exactly what it sounds like - street market fried tofu that smells so disgusting I cannot imagine being so accustomed to it that I would ever want to eat it myself. Lillian said it is an acquired taste, her grandmother loves it but she thinks it is terrible. One night we also went to a popular dumpling restaurant and got to try the traditional steamed veggie and crab dumplings, delicious. During our few days in the city we also saw the famous Bell and Drum Towers at the North end of Xi'an. We went to the top of each and also saw performances inside - appropriately enough, the Bell Tower was a 10 minute performance using all different sorts bells, while the drum tower used different types of drums. We preferred the Drum Tower performance, very impressive.

The main attraction of Xi'an lies about an hour and a half outside of the center: the Terracotta Warriors. In 1974 farmers were digging near the sight and uncovered the massive tomb of QinShi Huangdi who ruled from 259 - 210 B.C. He was the first emperor to unify China's divided territories into one nation and he also standardized its written language. Emperor Qin was very concerned about the afterlife and wanted to be protected so he demanded that an "army"of soldiers to guard him into the next life. When Qin was only 14, construction began and took 700,000 workers to complete. Skilled craftsmen used terracotta to sculpt over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots, and nearly 700 horses, all of which are life-size. Imagine being one of the farmers who uncovered a massive life-like terracotta soldier in his field. The army was placed in lines surrounding Qin's tomb. Today the army remains in excellent condition despite some destruction by peasants, and the excavation process is continuing. Only a portion of the entire site has been uncovered as to protect the warriors that are still buried. The army is currently housed in 4 massive warehouses, called Pits, that could easily fit a Boeing 747. I could not believe how many there were and how life-like their features looked. I was extremely impressed at how careful and meticulous the excavation process is, the archaeologists are even working to restore the original colors. Seeing the Terracotta Warriors is definitely a highlight of Xi'an.

Monkeys, Monkeys Everywhere

Next we traveled to Mt. Emei to experience a very different side of China, spending three days living at two different monasteries and hiking up Mt. Emei. Having the opportunity to stay at monasteries was a very unique experience and a humbling one. We had no idea what to expect living at a monastery to be like. We were presently surprised. We had very nice accommodations and were able to have our laundry done for us, which was huge plus. The monastery is open to visitors so there were always people wandering around, saying prayers and lighting incense. It was just a very peaceful place of harmony. An additional plus was that we got to enter the 'no visitors' areas which made us feel like we were kind of a big deal since the tourists were always so curious as to why we had the privileged of being a non-tourist. We enjoyed the monks vegetarian meals which we got to eat while staying at the monastery. The monks weren't allowed to eat with us, but they were very kind and courteous to us during our whole stay. We even got up (were woken up anyway) at 5am to watch their morning prayers, which was a very special experience.

Side note: one thing we noticed in China was that you could hear and see people were spitting (aka, hawking up loogies) everywhere you went. I could always here the throat clearing sound before the shot gun spit flew. The monks were no exception, several of them leaving during the prayers to hawk and spit into a designated jar located outside the door. Even in Hong Kong there are signs that say 'No Hawking'. I know it is gross but I had to bring it up, as it was often a topic of discussion (that and the bathroom situation in China).

I digress, after our first night at the monastery we took a bus, a tram, and then hiked up to the top of the Mt. Emei. We were so bummed that it was raining so the magnificent 'view from the clouds' was just fog and rain clouds. It was so foggy it was hard to make out much of anything. There was a beautiful and huge golden statue in the middle top, but it was hard to see with the dense fog. We took the bus down the mountain were there was a chain reaction puke incident which thankfully we did not contribute to, but let's just say no barf bags were available and I will stop there. After they literally hosed down the bus, we were back on the road and soon we hiking up to the other monastery where we were to spend the night at.

Our hike was beautiful as we walked through the forest filled with wild monkeys, waterfalls, streams, and just mother nature at its finest. The Chinese government created the trail a few years ago and the trail was filled with lush green trees well taken care of plants and wildlife. Monkeys were everywhere and we were provided monkey sticks to protect ourselves if they tried to grab us, or anything that we had exposed outside of our backpacks. It was about a 3 hour hike with our fiscally fit group, we even performed like rockstars up the 2,000 steps that led to the monastery. Yes, my legs were sore the next day.

The next day started with yummy banana and honey pancakes (we saw the hive the honey came from, delicious). We went down the hill and luckily it was a nicer day and the sun was shining. We, well mostly Charlie, spent quite a bit of time taking more photos of the beautiful surroundings. Then Charlie got the bright idea to buy food from a stand and feed the monkeys. His feeding attempt went flawlessly and without incident. Of course decided I need to get in on the feeding monkey action (keep in mind there as signs everywhere that say 'do not feed the monkeys', but it was from a legitimate stand, right?!) I am not going to go into details, but there was eating the food in my hand, then reaching for the bag of food in my other had, then there was an 'incident'. Iodine was on my hand in seconds, I guess this has happened before, and we completed the hike. After going to three clinics we finally found one that actually had a doctor present. There was a shot and some pills ingested and I was on my way.

The day ended with a $4, hour long massage and a night spent playing mahjong, playing cards, and eating cookies - hey we were at a monastery. I was just grateful that the injury wasn't worse and even better I got to be the laughing stock of everyone that heard the story. Yes I now think it is funny too. Bottom line, I am OK, it has been over a month and Mary tells me she hasn't seen any foaming at the mouth, erratic behavior, etc. I do however I have a new found fear of wild monkeys...

Xióng Māo (Panda)

We traveled to Chengdu to see the Giant Panda Sanctuary. We spent two days in this big city seeing the sites and most importantly seeing the giant pandas. Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan province and is one of the most important economic centers and transportation and communication hubs in Southwestern China.
China's Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuary is home of one-third of the world's giant panda population and is the largest remaining contiguous area of panda habitat. The sanctuary is also home to several endangered species, including red pandas (they look a little like cats), snow leopards, and clouded leopards. We got there early because that is when the pandas are most active. Active for a panda consists of sitting and eating and perhaps moving around a bit, lazy. They were SO SO cute and were hungrily eating their bamboo and sleeping and occasionally playing. We also got to see these tiny pandas that were only about three months only. They were trying to stand up and falling all over each other. Pandas are absolutly adorable! This was the part of the trip that Holly was looking forward to the most, seeing Xióng Māo. Since the Prime Minster of Sri Lanka was at the Sanctuary, Holly almost didn't get to fulfill her dream of holding a baby panda (she eventually was able to). Prime Minster of Sri Lanka, really, really?!!?

Besides the adorable pandas, Chengdu is known for its spicy food (such a fan) and their hot pot dish. The hot pot is eaten family style and consists of a simmering metal pot of water/oil/spicy-ness at the center of the table - think fondue. While the hot pot is kept simmering, ingredients are placed into the pot and are cooked at the table. Typical hot pot dishes include thinly sliced meat, veggies, mushrooms, seafood (white carrots and lotus roots are a favorite). Although you get quite smelly in the process of cooking your food, it is worth it and did I mention it was spicy. Always a plus.
Other tourists attractions include the huge statue of General Mao, the Anshun Bridge, and the Jin River that runs through the city. We went and saw the Sichuanese Opera, famous in Chengdu. The opera consisted of traditional musical instruments, an insane hand puppet show (she did ET), a girl that flipped a table on her feet, and a marionette show . The highlight of the opera is the mask changers, they switch masks every couple seconds, it was incredible. We also got the once in a lifetime offer to star in a porno movie if we run out of money and want to go to Taiwan. Interesting...

Yangtze River, China

As part of our tour in China, we spent 3 nights on a small cruise ship on the Yangtze River, making our way through the Three Gorges Dam. The Yangtze River is the third largest river in the world (after the Nile and the Amazon). We boarded in Yichang and scoped out the scene on the boat: there were about 80 people on board and Sarah, Charlie, Holly, and I were the only Westerns on board. We quickly became minor celebrities, people were asking to take pictures with us and at dinner everyone wanted to sit at our table. We were kind of a big deal and loved it.

We had a lot of free time on board as we were moving up the River and noticed that everyone else besides us was playing Mahjong so we asked the cruise director, Tommy, to teach us how to play. Mahjong is a traditional Chinese 4 person game played with domino-like tiles. Thank you, Wikipedia, for this oh-so accurate description: Mahjong involves skill, strategy, and calculation, as well as a certain degree of chance. Depending on the variation which is played, luck can be anything from a minor to a dominant factor in success. In the game, each player is dealt either thirteen or sixteen tiles in a hand (depending on the variation being played). On their turn, players draw a tile and discard one, with the goal of making four or five melds (set of 3) and one pair, or "head". Winning comes "on the draw", by drawing a new or discarded tile that completes the hand, and the winner must yell "HULA!". We set up a table, picked up our tiles, and Tommy started teaching us the rules. As we were playing an audience quickly formed around us, and before we knew it, at least 10 people were surrounding the table to watch us play and give us advice via a mixture of broken English and hand signals - it was so much fun and our fans seemed to be having just as much fun as we were.

After a full day on the boat we made it to the Three Gorges Dam. Quite a bit of controversey surrounds the Dam - it was constructed in Sandouping, where the water level has already begun to rise in surrounding towns after only 2 years, threatening both the ecology and the people. Not only will the scenery of the river and mountains change, but there will have to be a mass relocation of the towns where the water level continues to rise. However, proponents of the Dam argue that in the long-term the Dam will increase river traffic thus making shipping along the river more efficient and boosting the economy. It was very interesting to hear both sides of the argument. The Dam is massive, I could not believe how large it is. It took our boat 4 hours to get through the 5 sections that lead to the other side of the Dam.

One night on the boat there was "entertainment" on the top level so we had to check it out. The entertainment turned out to be musical chairs, an interesting game where you tie balloons to your feet and run around trying to pop other people's balloons, an awesome dance called "Left Left Right Right", and of course, karaoke. Man, the Chinese love karaoke. Some guy rocked the female part of a duet, hitting notes that even I could not hit. Sarah might have been Chinese in a past life, she loved the noise makers they gave out to applaud and got up on stage to sing Britney Spear's "Hit Me Baby One More Time". We were huge fans of the "Left Left Right Right" dance and later surprised some people in Xi'An when we ran to join in with them in the middle of a street.

We also got to go down the Shennong Stream off the Yangtze River on small Chinese style canoes. The Stream was surrounded by amazing mountains and greenery, it was so quiet and untouched. On the boat everyone sang traditional Chinese folk songs, very cool to hear. After our cruise down the Stream we went back to the cruise ship, took some pictures with our friends on board, and got our things together to move onto our next destination.

Yes we actually made it!

I won't sugar coat or elaborate on this too much, but after much drama/hassle/hell we both got our f'ing Chinese visas and successfully made our way to Hong Kong and ultimately mainland China. Enough said.

We arrived early in Hong Kong to see the city for a couple days before meeting up with the tour group that we were going to be traveling with in China with for the next three weeks... Hong Kong is awesome - it is easy to see how it can be described as the city where the East meets the West. It is very cosmopolitan and has a big city feel with a landscape complete trees, beaches on the sea, a harbor, and stunning architecture all around. Hong Kong has the world's largest number of skyscrapers: 7,558. The urban areas are small and that is why there is such a tall skyline in the city. We stayed with my friend Audrey (shout out and big thank you) in HK so we had a local to show us the town with is a huge plus. The city is filled with expats as we soon discovered for ourselves out on the first ngith SOHO where it seemed everyone we met was from somewhere other than China. Honestly, a nice change of pace from the last couple months being able to just blend in.

The next day was an absolutley beautiful day to see the city. We started off at the famous Victoria Peak where you can take a tram to the top of the peak that over looks the city. From the top you get an amazing look at the cities modern architecture and views of the harbor front to the steep hills of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. Truly impressive. From there we grabbed some sushi lunch (ahhh it had been so long). We walked along Hollywood Road in SOHO and checked out a few temples in the area. We took a pretty hairy bus ride (Audrey was definitely nervous) to Stanley Market. Along the way we saw picturesque views of the South China Sea and the beaches. Stanley Market is the best market in HK to find anything you are looking for: Chinese silk bags or jewelry cases, jade jewelry, Chinese paintings, and any knock-off good you could want. There are actually many markets like this throughout China so don't spend all your money in one market/city. That night, on the way to meet up with our tour group at the hotel, we took the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbor to Kowloon.

At the hotel we met up with the much anticipated group we were going to be traveling with for the next three weeks. When we walked in there were only three people there, our tour guide and another couple - Charlie and Holly. Turns out that was the whole group, just the four of us and Lilian our tour guide. Not going to lie, we were a little shocked at first that the group wasn't bigger, but it turns out that the four of us couldn't have gotten along any better. It was an awesome little team of Charlie's Angels. Charlie and Holly work in Hawaii on the Norwegian Cruise Line, which is where they met. The just got married and this China tour was their honeymoon... And they got to spend it with us. I know, I know. We were a big happy family for the next three weeks and now Mary and I can say we have gone on our first honeymoon. On our last day in HK we wandered around Kowloon Island. Taking in the outdoor markets, jade street, and a temple in the area. Then it was off to get some use out of our China visa and hit mainland China.
After one of our many overnight trains in China we arrived in the little town of Yangshuo. This town is surrounded by karst peaks and the Li River (represented on the 20 yuan bill). The town consists of just a few streets filled with small shops, an outdoor market, and restaurants. The town is known for its beer fish which we got a taste of - a light fish cooked with lots of veggies, chilies and yes, beer. We also fell in love with the eggplant dishes (even Charlie) and got a lot of it while in China. We tried our hand at a cooking school one night, right on the Li River. We cooked stir fried eggplant, cashew chicken, steamed tofu balls, and beer fish. And not to brag but all the dishes turned out pretty awesome. We spent a day bike riding and rode out to Moon Palace and hiked up to the top of the huge rock with a giant hole in the middle of it. On our last day there it was unfortunately pouring rain which ruined our attempts to take a ferry ride on the Li River. Bummer, but we were able to see all of the city in our three days there. After that it was another overnight train to...