Bangkok, Thailand

The bus rides from Siem Reap to Bangkok took us 10 hours, including the time spent crossing the border. That was how the three of us spent our Thanksgiving Day, sound like fun?

We were outside our guesthouse ready to be picked up at 7am, but our bus was on Cambodian time and picked us up at 7:40. Three hours later, the bus dropped us off at a bus terminal in Puepet, Cambodia near the border. We waited 1/2 an hour for a shuttle bus to pick us up. The shuttle bus took us to the Thailand/Cambodia border a mile away. We weren't sure why the larger, original bus couldn't take us to the border, but whatever. At the border we waited in a very hot line for 1/2 hour to have a Cambodian border agent stamp our passport and take our departure form. Then we walked to Thailand. In Thailand we waited 1/2 an hour for a border agent to stamp our passport and take our arrival form. After the border crossing we had to find our bus to take us to Bangkok. There were about 30 buses scattered around the border area, none with names or signs and no organization at all. After an hour of looking we found our bus and got on. Our bus wasn't a bus, it was a 12 person van that became packed with 13 people and all of our luggage. Our van driver had a serious lead foot and on the mediocre roads of Thailand we did about 90mph the whole way. We stopped twice; once for the driver to do his grocery shopping and once for a bathroom break. We got to Bangkok at 5pm starving for our Thanksgiving Dinner.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Lara created a 'Must Do' list for things she wanted to do on our trip. Another item on the list was to get a Thai massage in Thailand. Since we were a little stressed from our travels we thought "What a good time to get that Thai massage?" So that night the three of us enjoyed a Thanksgiving Dinner in a Bangkok mall food court and Thai massages. We didn't have turkey or pumpkin pie, but the food was great and the massages made us forget about our travels.

Our first day in Bangkok we decided to explore the Bangkok area by taking a tour of the Floating Market. The Floating Market is a small area of a bunch of canals with souvenir and food salesmen on boats in the canals. We jumped on a boat and boated around the canals as well. It was a cool experience, but you can only make buying cheap souvenirs so much fun. To get to the Floating Market we had to take a motorboat and on the way we saw several Kumodo Dragons. That was extra cool.

We got back to Bangkok in the afternoon and toured the city a little bit, spending some extra time in Khao San Road. Khao San Road is a backpacker's Mecca. It's filled with cheap guesthouses and hostels, a street market with great cheap clothes, lots of bars, and tons of excitement. We bought some stuff along the way and were really close to buying some fake identification cards at one market. I was thinking about getting either a Harvard University student ID card or an Air France pilot's license. Both would have been pretty cool.

After Khao San Road we took off for Lumphini Boxing Stadium to catch some Muay Thai kickboxing. Muay Thai is the national sport of Thailand and the people love it. Lumphini Stadium is the biggest and best venue to watch Muay Thai and we were sitting front row for the fights. For three hours we watched 8 bouts of great kickboxing. $2 beers, guys getting beat up, screaming gamblers, Friday nights don't get much better. Before the headline fight there was an exhibition fight between two guys in a different martial art. These guys didn't wear any padding and there was no clock; just beat each other up until someone gets knocked out. And somebody did. Since we were in the VIP section we got to get our picture taken with the night's champion. The little guy might be the champion, but at 121 lbs, I think I could have taken him on. The experience in the stadium is incredible. In the lower section where we sat there are chairs and assigned seating. Outside of the lower section it is just bleachers and unassigned seating. Gambling is technically illegal, but everyone does it. Before each fight and before the 2nd round a whole cluster of gamblers just go bezercks screaming to make their bets. It looks similar to the stock exchange but with more screaming and beer. The stadium itself is also unique. I've been in high school gyms that are better than Lumphini. As you walk through the hall to enter or exit the stadium the fighters are changing and stretching because their lockers are in the hallway. Part of the stadium is indoors and part is outdoors. It's a total hoot. The city of Bangkok has really good infrastructure, but Lumphini could use a lot of work. When the entertainment was over the three of us headed back to our hostel and called it a night.

The following morning we got up early again to go on another tour, this time to the Bridge over the River Kwai and Tiger Temple. The Bridge over the River Kwai is a famous World War Two sight and we thought it could be entertaining to see. It's about an hour to get there and once you get there you realize it's just a wooden bridge over a river. yawn. There are some small museums and a cemetery, but the quality isn't that great. The cool part of the bridge is that you can walk across it and there are zero safety precautions. The bridge is a railroad bridge and doesn't have a walkway. You walk across and have to make sure you step on the railroad ties, otherwise you're going into the river 30 feet below. After the Bridge we went to Tiger Temple. Tiger Temple is a Buddhist temple that has been around for a decades. About 8 years ago an orphaned tiger cub wandered into the temple complex and the monks took it in. When people heard that the monks were taking in tiger cubs people brought over other abandoned tiger cubs. Since monks don't believe in altering nature's course these tigers have bread rapidly and the temple now has 47 tigers. All of these tigers have been raised by humans and they are as tame as a tiger can be. When we walked into the temple grounds there were tigers all around. There were probably 20 tigers in the area. All of them were on short chains to the ground with several handlers nearby. The three of us and all other tourists were free to walk around the area and pet the tigers, which we did. A little later on we all walked to a special covered where we had a tiger lay in our laps. It was definitely a unique experience, but kind of weird too. The reason the tigers are so tame is that they play for hours before the tourists arrive and they are given their food before hand as well, so they have to gorge. This makes the tigers super tired and they just lay around the rest of the day.

A couple hours later the tour bus dropped us off at our hotel and we hit the town for a night in Bangkok. Of course, when in Bangkok you have to walk down Patpong Road, the red light district. It was an experience to say the least. A friendly salesman tried to get us to watch a ping-pong show in his bar and although we said no thank you he continued to walk with us and give us a tour of the strip. We were shown the Japanese street where Japanese business men go to have massages. The salesman commented that the Japanese are known for "Big wallets, small dicks." The salesman also pointed out other fine establishments in the area. We decided that the most entertaining thing to do would be to go to a bar and just watch the action. We stopped at one bar and observed all the old white guys picking up their 'desserts'. To get by the language barrier all of the working women wear numbers on them. It makes it kind of like In-n-Out Burger ("I'll have a triple-triple, number 3, animal style"). The night was actually very tame. With the exception of me trying to converse with a hallo person nothing exceptional happened. The next morning we got up early, again, and headed out to the airport to go to Singapore.

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Six hours of the worst bus ride in our lives later we arrived in Siem Reap. Siem Reap is about 150 miles north-west of Phnom Penh and in most countries that would be a 2.5 hour bus ride on smooth roads. Our ride to Siem Reap took 6 hours and was as smooth as .... I don't know what. But it wasn't smooth. It also wasn't quick. The road to Siem Reap was similar to India's roads, filled with potholes and shared with livestock. I do need to say that the countryside of Cambodia is beautiful. It is completely undeveloped. It is nothing but endless rice paddies with peasants working it with their bare hands. It's amazing, and sad, realizing that the people we were seeing were doing the same job that their ancestors had been doing for centuries.

The night that we arrived in Siem Reap we went out to a traditional Khmer (people of Cambodia) dinner and dance. Both the food and entertainment were good, not great, but very different. The guest house that we stayed in was both great and different. It wasn't so much a house as it was more like a motel. There were 30 rooms or so and on top of the office was an outdoor lounge area with a pool table, comfortable chairs, bar and an aura of complete laziness.

In our first day in Siem Reap we hit up the temples. Siem Reap is home to not only the world famous Angkor Wat temple, but also dozens of other incredible temples, some as large as a small town. We spent hours doing the Indiana Jones thing, literally climbing all over old temples and exploring inside. These temples were exactly the way they are portrayed in the movies "Tomb Raider" and "Indian Jones" (filmed in Siem Reap). The temples are covered with fauna, surrounded by moats, carved with interesting pictures, and simply amazing. We spent the entire day going from one temple to another. In the afternoon we visited Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is the largest temple in the world, about 1 square kilometer. It's surrounded by a moat and considering it's centuries old and barely maintained, it's in fantastic condition. Even though there were hundreds of tourists visiting the temple, since it was so large we were constantly finding ourselves alone in the temple's many rooms.

As the afternoon came to a close we tuck-tucked over to Phnom Bahkeng, a large temple built on top of a hill. We were told that Phnom Bahkeng is the place to be to watch a sunset in Siem Reap, and it definitely was. We climbed the hill and massive temple with a couple hundred of our closest friends and sat to watch the show. It didn't start off that great, but ended phenomenally.

At night we went to the Night Market in Siem Reap. The Night Market is awesome because it's filled with cool souvenirs and clothing for dirt cheap prices. We got some clothes and did some Christmas shopping for less than $10. Since we planned to get up early for the sunrise the next morning we didn't do any partying, just chilled.

4:30am our alarm clock went off and we headed out for Angkor Wat. We were told by many people and books that watching the sunrise at Angkor Wat is a must in Cambodia. The sunrise at Angkor Wat wasn't nearly as great as our sunset the night before, but it was OK. The great part about the sunrise at Angkor Wat though, was the fact that no one was there. It was an incredible feeling walking around the largest temple in the world with only the birds and bats around you.

After the sunrise we took a loooong tuck-tuck ride to see the Floating Village. The Floating Village is only a few miles outside of Siem Reap, but on a tuck-tuck powered by a lawn mower engine, with four people on it, on dirt roads, you don't go very fast, nor smooth (to get to the Floating Village we had to drive several miles to the boat launch and then take a boat another mile or so to the Floating Village). The boat ride to the Floating Village was a total hoot. Our driver was no older than 16 and on the one mile journey our boat stopped at least 5 times. Each time the driver would have to walk back and fix something with the engine. Not the most reassuring, but since we were in no hurry and the weather was perfect, what was the rush? The one mile boat ride took about 45 minutes and we finally arrived at the Floating Village. The Floating Village isn't named properly. It is a village, but it doesn't really float. The village is made up of a couple hundred huts on 15 foot stilts. The village is in a swamp that is about 4 feet deep with trees growing everywhere. There is absolutely no land anywhere but the villagers have a completely normal life. Everyone gets around on boat, some powered by paddles, a few by motors. It was funny seeing a boat full of school girls paddling to each other's huts to get dropped off. The Cambodian version of a school bus. The villagers even have livestock in their village. Many huts had pig pens below the house or in a tree near their house. The pigs that they kept spend their entire life in pens 4 feet above water and never see dry land their entire lives. We ate lunch at one of the houses and chilled out even more. From the house Lara and I hopped on a small boat (large canoe really) and one of the villagers paddled us around the jungle. The experience was absolutely incredible. We were being paddled around a jungle deep in the heart of Cambodia! When we got back to the house we boarded our larger boat and went back to dry land. The Floating Village definitely ranks as one of the most unusual places we've been to on this trip.

On the drive back to Siem Reap we saw a few more temples, but then threw in the towel. In two days in Siem Reap we probably saw close to 40 temples. There's only so much temple a person can handle. To relieve our templitis we hit up the bar scene in Siem Reap. For a small town in the middle of Cambodia, Siem Reap has a really good night life. We hit up a few bars, met some cool English people our age, then bumped into the same travelling bike group we met in Phnom Penh. Small world. Since we got up at 4:30 that morning we didn't really have the desire to keep the party going late, we crashed at 1am.

Our final day in Siem Reap we just checked out the town. There isn't much to the town, but that's what makes it great. Lots of little markets, guest houses, street food vendors, and nice restaurants and bars fill the town. We spent most of the day buying $1 souvenirs and relaxing. That night we stopped at some more bars and restaurants and really fell in love with Siem Reap. We left the following morning for Bangkok. Siem Reap will definitely be missed.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Holy cow! We're in Cambodia!

Our experience in Delhi seriously scarred us (see Baaaad Delhi). Lara and I were both freaked out that Phnom Penh would be similar to Delhi or maybe even worse. We were totally wrong. Phnom Penh is awesome!

On the way to Phnom Penh from Shanghai we met up with our friend Jen in the Hong Kong airport. Jen is a longtime follwer, first time participator in timandlaracompton.blogspot and was warmly welcomed. The flight from Shanghai to Phnom Penh was just another routine international flight and surprisingly, the visa/immigration process went really well. The three of us grabbed a tuck-tuck at the airport and went off to our hotel. 45 minutes into the 12km drive it was apparent our driver had no idea where our hotel was. We tried directing him using our Lonely Planet - Southeast Asia book. However, giving driving directions to a Cambodian cab driver who doesn't speak English, using a small map of a city which has a street numbering system going in 8 directions doesn't work too well. We thought we were close to our hotel so we just hopped out of the tuck-tuck. Turned out we weren't that close. Long story short, the 15 drive from the airport to the hotel took 2 hours.

When we got to our hotel we were greeted by the receptionist as well as an extremely talkative 25 year old British guy named Liam. Liam was biking around Cambodia with a charity group. He and his group were going out to a bar and he invited us to go with him. What the hell? We ended up being taken to a bar called Sharky's. The bar was similar to a normal American bar with some small exceptions. Beers were $2, pool was free, and there were Cambodian prostitutes everywhere. The three of us had a great time talking to the people in Liam's charity group and just experiencing the bar. As the night wore on the bar turned into Chris Hansen's dream. Chris Hansen is an anchor for Dateline and has a series called "To Catch a Predator" where he catches older men trying to have sex with underage girls. The bar became filled with middle-aged white men and much younger Asian prostitutes at their side. With the exception of their breasts, the prostitutes all looked to be over the age of 18 though. The night was fairly tame overall with nothing major to report.

For our first day in Phnom Penh we wanted to start on an upbeat note, so we headed to the Killing Fields. The Killing Fields are just that. It's an area about 10km outside of town that looks like a farm, but is actually filled with mass graves and a memorial to those who were killed. An estimated 17,000 were killed here during the Khmer Rouge regime. Some of the mass graves have been unearthed and their remains placed in a memorial stupa. Many other graves are completely untouched since they were made. The memorial stupa contains the skulls of 9000 people who were killed at this location. Seeing 9000 skulls, many of which bear the markings of how they were killed, is heart wrenching. We tagged along with a volunteer guide who told us about the Killing Field and stupa. Part of the stupa is open and our tour guide picked up two skulls to show us the bullet bole in one and the massive dent in the other that was made when that person was hit in the head with a garden hoe. Our guide toured us through the fields which still have bones and clothing littered about from the deceased. It was moving having our guide tell us how his family members were killed by the regime and the stench he remembers when he opened the graves 20 years ago.

Staying on the same note, we went to the Tuol Sleng Museum after the Killing Fields. The Tuol Sleng Museum was a high school turned detention facility that the Khmer Rouge used to torture and kill its opponents. The museum still has the wooden cells inside the buildings, each of which still has the water bowls that the prisoners used. The larger torture rooms still had the same metal cots that the prisoners would be chained to. Like the Killing Fields, the museum was heart wrenching.

Our tuck-tuck driver took us to the Independence Monument after the Tuol Sleng Museum. The monument was nothing spectacular, but it was very odd seeing a North Korean flag fly nearby in the North Korean embassy across the street. From the monument we started our city walk. First we walked to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. The Royal Palace is the home of the Cambodian King (he still lives there) and contains many beautiful pagodas and shrines. One of the pagodas is the Silver Pagoda, named after the 5000 silver tiles that are on the floor. Also in the Silver Pagoda is a 90kg gold statue of Buddha with diamonds covering it, one of which is 25 carats.

After our tour of the Palace we walked to the Foreign Correspondent Club for a drink. The Foreign Correspondent Club was the hotel used by the foreign correspondents when the country was at war. We didn't appreciate the history that much but from the third floor where we had our drinks we had a spectacular view of the Tonle Sap, Tonle Bassac, and Mekong Rivers. That will definitely be a view I'll remember for a long time.

We left the Foreign Correspondent Club to go check out the nightlife at the Boeng Kak lakeside. The Boeng Kak lakeside is a backpacker's paradise. It's filled with cheap guesthouses and bars that serve extremely cheap beer. The buildings on the lakeside are all on stilts over the lake. The bars/guesthouses on the lake have large patios with hammocks, tables, and pool tables to totally kick back. We savored some $0.75 beers and watched the sunset. Because we were so stressed out from watching the sunset we decided to get some $5 massages next door. These weren't regular massages and they weren't the irregular massages either. Our masseuses at this place were blind. The massages were really good. Too good actually, since they completely knocked us out and we decided to go crash at our hotel instead of go out.

Before we went to bed we grabbed dinner at a restaurant near our hotel. The restaurant's specialty, make your own soup. Each table has its own electric burner and you simply tell the waiter what raw ingredients you want in your soup, he brings them out, and you put it in. The soup was actually really good and we went to bed with some nice full bellies.

The next morning we got on a bus and headed to Siem Reap. I should really say how much I liked Phnom Penh. It might have a million or so people living in it, but it doesn't feel like it. The city itself is bustling but it has a great laid back feel to it. The city also felt incredibly safe. Although being white makes you stand out like a soar thumb, we were only solicited by tuck-tuck drivers and we were never bothered by anyone else. The weather was great too, 65 - 85' with clear skies and surprisingly no mosquitoes. I'll say it again, Phnom Penh is totally awesome.

China, Final Thoughts

We spent over two weeks in China and saw its biggest cities and many of its cultural highlights. But, it still doesn't feel like we saw the real country. To me, China felt like the Wizard of Oz telling us to "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain." In all of the major cities there were large cement walls next to the streets. If you aren't paying attention you wouldn't think twice about them. But if you are able to peak over them you notice that inside its filled with old, dilapidated houses or old houses being torn down. The biggest example of the government trying to white-wash everything is in Beijing. There is a tall building that is next to the CCTV (China's state owned and only TV company) building in the central business district of Beijing. You probably remember the CCTV building from the Olympics as it looks like a giant silver N. The tall building next to the CCTV building is completely burned out. The building was burned during Chinese New Year when, against the fire department's wishes, CCTV had a huge fireworks show. The fireworks started a fire in this tall building and it got completely destroyed. Because this is in the central business district of Beijing and very visible the government has put up massive billboard walls along the freeways and roads in the area to try to prevent people from seeing it.

We also had a hard time talking to our tour guides in China. Some of our guides were fairly open and you could tell they were very progressive. Others spoke just like the government would talk. One memorable scene happened with our first guide who was fairly liberal. On the bus she would speak on a microphone as she toured us. When we asked her questions she would respond on the microphone as well. Lara asked her a question related to how she felt about a government policy. Even though Lara was in the back of the bus our tour guide put the microphone down and told her how she felt. Clearly, our tour guide wasn't comfortable talking candidly. This was a rare exception of a guide speaking candidly, but her body language said even more.

It wasn't just the government censorship that made us feel like we weren't seeing all that we could. Our tour company never got off the beaten path. We only ate at tourist restaurants filled with white tourists. We only drove on the main roads. And we only went to the main tourist attractions. You would never see the real America if you only drove on the freeways, stopped at the big tourist attractions, and only ate at Chili's.

We're both so glad that we went to China, but the jury is still out on what to make of it.

Shanghai, China

Shanghai, China! As we drove into Shanghai we immediately knew it was going to be much different than any other Chinese city. There were neon lights, skyscrapers, and elevated freeways everywhere. It's like a more densely packed, traffic clogged LA. After we got situated in the hotel, the four of us youngens tried to hit the town. Our hotel was just off of Nanjing Road, which is a long street through the heart of Shanghai and is known as the best shopping area. The street was cool and there is lots of shopping, but there is a complete lack of bars or clubs in the area. We ended up settling on buying some beers at a convenience store and going back to our hotel to drink and play cards (we purchased a $1 deck of Chairman Mao playing cards a few cities back. Chairman Mao says, "Work is Struggling.").

The first stop on our tour of Shanghai was the Shanghai Pearl TV Tower. The tower is one of the tallest TV towers in the world and has an observation deck near its peak. We walked around the observation deck for a while checking out the 360 views of Shanghai. The floor below the observation deck had a glass floor that looked down on a park 500 feet below. Not for the acrophobics for sure and very, very cool. After the tower we walked around the park that surrounds the tower and runs against the river. The park was filled with Chinese school kids there for a field trip or something. While we were walking around a girl started to talk to Lara. The girl was 11 and was with a group of friends. The girl spoke very little English but we all enjoyed talking. While we talked to them the girls would give us candy. Totally unexpected and really cool.

Like every day we were in a tour, we were taken to a tourist trap. This tourist trap was a silk factory & restaurant. The silk factory was interesting because we saw the whole production cycle from cocoon to cloth (they skipped the sweat shops and child labor stages though). We did end up getting a silk comforter, so the dog and pony show worked on us, so did the awesome price though.

Like Italy, I would like to go off on the food we had in China. When Lara and I were travelling solo in China (Beijing and Hong Kong) we had great food that was totally unique. The meals that we had with our tour group were all the same (except 2). All 20 meals! Every single meal (lunch and dinner) was steamed rice, tomato and egg soup, sweet and sour pork, spicy chicken and peanuts, pork and onions, steamed bok choy, beef and a vegetable, and finished off with sliced watermelon. The meals are all served family style on a lazy Susan, on a round table that seats 8 - 12 people. The restaurants were all large restaurants with dozens of other identical tables and occasionally our own room. The restaurants were never heated. So you can guess what our lunch was like at the silk factory.

After our unique lunch at the silk factory we were taken to China Town. I know it seems odd that there is a China Town in Shanghai, China, but there is. Since much of old Shanghai has been bulldozed to make way for condos, office buildings and KFCs there is very little 'old China' left. To rectify that the government has built a large area with shops and department stores all in the classical Chinese architecture. The town was kind of interesting and Lara and I bought some Chinese souvenirs that we hadn't purchased yet.

Following China Town we went to a traditional Chinese acrobatic show. The show started off with a bunch of guys juggling hats, followed by a 5th grade quality magic show, and concluded by motorcyclists riding in a large steel mesh ball. I'm belittling the performance actually. There were about a half-dozen acts, some were good, like a guy who climbed a tower of balanced chairs 40 feet high. Some acts were weak, like a pair of acrobats who swung in the air on a ribbon. It was great getting the experience though.

We finished the last night with our tour group at a dinner near our hotel. All twelve of us had a great time and at dinner we got to thank each other for making the two week experience so great. When we got back to the hotel Tim, Chloe, Lara and I convinced our tour guide to hang out with us and play cards. Because tour guides are strictly regulated by the Chinese government and they can loose their license for drinking I have to censor what happened. But, I can say the four of us had a good time getting to know our tour guide a little better. Late that night Tim, Chloe, Lara and I said our good-byes. Tim and Chloe were leaving early the next morning to go back to LA and Lara and I were staying in Shanghai for another day. Having Tim and Chloe on the trip with us was awesome and definitely made it a lot better.

The next morning we didn't get up too early, but we did manage to get up early enough for the hotel's complimentary breakfast. After breakfast we meandered through town. We started our walk along Nanjing Road and then detoured into some side areas. As we were walking we were approached by a trio of 20 somethings, two girls and a guy, all appeared to be locals. They had overheard us speaking English and immediately started talking English to us. The five of us hit it off really well and they invited us to a tea drinking lesson that they were going to. The one guy in the group lives in Shanghai as an engineer and was touring the two girls around the city since they are thinking about moving there. The two girls are college students and will be graduating soon. Part of the guy's tour was a traditional tea room. We knew that following them could end up being really good or really bad. We decided to brave it. We went to a tea room inside a shopping center and sampled 6 types of great tasting tea. We also learned the proper way of tasting tea. We were there for almost two hours and had a great time with the other three. There were lots of memorable 'cultural' exchanges. We also took pride in increasing their English vocabulary by teaching them the meaning of such useful words as; awesome, hella, and transgender. After the tea room the trio had to leave to catch up with some other people and Lara and I got back to seeing the city.

We walked a good 5 miles from the time we left the tea room until we got back to our hotel. We walked through lots of side alleys but we didn't encounter anything too crazy. Since we were no longer travelling in organized tours we had to start making arrangements for our upcoming travel to Southeast Asia. Since the hotel's secure wi-fi was no match for my hacking ability (username:admin password:admin) we spent 5 hours planning out the next two weeks. Not the way we wanted to spend our last night in Shanghai, but oh well.

Our final morning in Shanghai we got to experience Chinese public transportation. We rode the Shanghai subway and then the new Mag-Lev train to the airport. The subway was no Hong Kong subway, but it beats any American subway system, although it was packed. The mag-lev train was trippy. It covers 30 miles in about 8 minutes and at its peak it goes 430kph (~250mph). It was odd riding on a multi-billion dollar train going 250mph on tracks over shanty villages, but that's China.

Hangzhou, China

We arrived in Hangzhou in the evening and as luck would have it our hotel had a massage parlour. Since Lara loved her foot massage so much she convinced six more of us to get a foot massage with her. Since massages are only $10 it's hard to say no. Lara, Tim, Chloe, Natalie, May Fong, Margaret and I all partook in a foot massage. This massage was actually comfortable compared to the beating I got a few days prior. We didn't inquire with our tour guide if the massage parlour was a regular massage parlour or if it gave irregular massages. But, considering all of the masseuses were 20 year old girls, there were beds in the private rooms, and my masseuse was silent but her eyes were saying "600 yuan for a special night", I'm reasonably confident there are some shady dealings in the massage parlor. We (Lara and I) went to bed after our massages and totally passed out.

First thing in the morning we went to the West Lake in Hangzhou. The West Lake is a beautiful lake in the city of Hangzhou. It is considered the most beautiful lake in China and is displayed on the 1 yuan bill. Our tour of the lake was on a medium sized, glass enclosed tour boat. Our guides gave us a short lecture on the boat prior to getting on and were quiet as we putted around the lake. A Chinese tour leader was not so quiet. Even though she was only leading 10 people, all of which were within 10 feet of her, she still felt she needed a loudspeaker to talk to all of them, for the entire 1 hour boat ride. We kindly asked our tour leader to ask the other tour leader to turn off the speaker. She kindly did not. Being the diplomatic statesman that I am, I thought it would only be nice if I stood in front of the window they were looking out and give them a tour. The Chinese group didn't appreciate my tour and she kept on talking. Whatever. The lake was very picturesque and despite the frigid weather we enjoyed the tour.

After the lake tour we were taken to a tea plantation. The tea plantation was the standard tourist dog and pony show. First we were shown how tea was dried, then we had a tea tasting, and when that was over we were offered to purchase tea. The show wasn't that great, especially since the room we were in wasn't heated and the thermometer inside read 13' C. But, the area was beautiful, especially since it had snowed the night before and the tops of the hills were dusted with snow. We stayed the obligatory one hour and then departed for the Yellow Dragon Cave.

I'm not really sure what to call the Yellow Dragon Cave. The Yellow Dragon Cave wasn't a cave at all, it was a complex of buildings all for art or astrological purposes. There were statues everywhere, all of which had some sort of fortune tied to them. At one end of the complex was a stage where a Chinese opera was being conducted. I've heard a few Chinese operas on my trip and I can attest that they aren't very good. They are a hybrid of a cat dieing and nails against a chalkboard. As we watched the opera though an older man approached Lara and asked her if she spoke English. The old man used to be an English teacher and wanted to speak English with Lara. The two of them talked for a few minutes and by the time we said good-bye a crowd had gathered to watch the conversation. Apparently, English speakers aren't too common around here. Also at the Yellow Dragon Cave are some neat bamboo gardens including some bamboo that is square shaped. We made a few wishes at a nearby wishing well and then departed the cave. Definitely a good stopping point.

The Yellow Dragon Cave was our last stop before our departure from Hangzhou. From the Yellow Dragon Cave the bus took us to Shanghai. The drive was 3 hours and pretty interesting. The road was new and fairly nice. Along the road the entire 200km or so is the construction of an elevated high speed train that will connect Hangzhou with Shanghai. The train will make the journey in 45 minutes instead of the 3 hours it took us. Also on the side of the road was lots and lots of poor villages. Some looked like they hadn't been touched in centuries and some were in the process of being torn down. The trip definitely showed us the state that China is in. In the evening we arrived in Shanghai.

Guangzhou, China

We departed Hong Kong on a high speed ferry for Guangzhou, China. The sky had cleared up a little and on the ferry we got to see what Hong Kong actually looked like for the first time. The ferry to Guangzhou was a little under two hours. Guangzhou, as we learned is the third largest economy in China, after Shanghai and Beijing.

From the ferry terminal we took our bus to the Guangdong Folk Arts Museum and Chen's Ancestral Hall. The GFAMACAH is a walled complex with a bunch of pagodas and large rooms. Most of the rooms had artwork, some new some old. None of the rooms had heat. In one of the room was a painter who used only his hands and fingers to paint. Totally unique, we got one of his paintings. Another room had an embroidery exhibit with really neat artwork.

After the stop at the hall/folk art museum we went to the airport and headed out to Hangzhou. Kind of a weird day. We're still confused by our tour company's logistics.

Hong Kong, China

Hong Kong is totally awesome! We got into Hong Kong at night and because we were all so tired from the previous days' journeys we just crashed in our hotel room. However, the drive from the airport to our hotel was great. Hong Kong has a beautiful skyline and seeing it at night is really cool.

Our first, and only, toured day in Hong Kong started at Stanley Market. Stanley Market is the Caucasian district in Hong Kong. It has a neat little bazaar that we toured as well as nice parks and condo towers. On the drive from our hotel in the heart of Hong Kong to Stanley Market, on the side of Hong Kong Island, we passed by awesome looking buildings. It makes you wonder why we don't make buildings that nice in America.

After Stanley Market we were taken to the obligatory tourist shop. This time it was a jewellery store/factory. Like all the other tourist traps we've been taken to, this jewelry shop has the small factory that we tour followed by the massive showroom where we can buy all sorts of goods that are of "great quality and discounted prices". It was mildly interesting to see the factory floor and see how jewelry is made. I know the factory we saw is really just a model to make it look like we are buying it directly from the factory, but it was still interesting.

Following the jewelry shop tour we went to Victoria Peak. Victoria Peak is at the top of a mountain overlooking most of Hong Kong. Unfortunately, when we were there it was overcast and we couldn't see more than 2 miles, but the sight was still amazing. Our official Hong Kong tour ended at Victoria Peak at 1pm on our first day and we were free for the next day and a half. Our first matter of business after being set free was to get a different meal from the one we've been getting from our tour the past week. Tim, Chloe, Lara and I all grabbed a sandwich and took in the view from Victoria Peak one last time.

From Victoria Peak we took the cable car down to the center of Hong Kong. The cable car was another memorable experience. Hong Kong's cable car is a lot like Istanbul's funicular. It is just one car that goes up and down the track. Hong Kong's cable car, however, is on a much grander scale. The view on the cable car is great and the steepness is on par with San Francisco's cable cars. Very cool. From the center of Hong Kong we took the subway to Lantau Island. Hong Kong's subway is by far the best mass transit I've ever ridden; clean, quick, timely, very impressive.

At the subway station at Lantau Island we got on a gondola to go to the Tian Tan Buddha Statue. The Tian Tan Buddha Statue is a massive statue of Buddha that overlooks a huge area of Hong Kong. The best way to get to the statue, as we found out, is to take the gondola. The coolest part of the gondola, its glass bottom! For the entire length of the gondola, about 5 miles, we looked down on people hiking through the mountain and checking out the sweeping views. The weather was still really overcast, so we didn't get nearly as good of a view as we could have, but it was still great. Hong Kong is one of the best designed cities in my opinion. On Lantau Island for example the subway station is in the heart of a shopping mall and surrounded by a cluster of high rise condos. But outside of this little cluster is miles and miles of beautiful green hills. Nearly the entire length of our gondola ride was above a park with really nice walking trails.

We arrived at the peak and proceeded to freeze our asses off, or at least I did. The Buddha statue is very impressive. The statue is only 20 years old and they built really well. Like most of Hong Kong, it's clean and very well maintained. After the Buddha statue we got back on the gondola to the subway station on Lantau Island. Since we were starving we grabbed a bite in the mall attached to the subway station. We had a quick, cheap tepanyaki grilled meal; like Benihana, but simpler. It was great! Why can't we have this in malls in America?

Of course, one thing you have to do in Hong Kong is party like a rockstar. After making ourselves presentable the four of us hit up Lan Kwai Fong. When we got there (11pm 'ish) the place was hopping. The entire street was filled with people, the bars were overflowing, and the weather was perfect. There was also no police presence at all and everyone was completely enjoying themselves. We did a bar hop for an hour or so and then settled on a dance club somewhere. At 3am Lara and I threw in the towel. Tim and Chloe, the veteran partiers, stayed out until 5am. They reported back that when they left the bars were still hopping and people were still out in the street, although less than at 11pm.

It should go without saying that the next morning didn't start too early, 11:30 to be exact. The four of us had the whole day to explore Hong Kong. We breezed through one of Hong Kong's dozens of high end malls, stumbled on a motorcycle street show, rode through the SoHo district on the world's longest escalator, and took one of Hong Kong's unique double decker trams, all in the first two hours. Then we got on a ferry to Kowloon. I'd compare Kowloon to Brooklyn. It is still part of Hong Kong, but not nearly as big and nice. We walked around the major shopping streets in Kowloon and were amazed time and again at how much high-end shopping there is. We passed no fewer than three Tiffany's stores and we literally stumbled into four high-end shopping malls that day. One thing we hadn't done much of was sample street food. While walking down the main drag of Kowloon we saw a long line of people for a hole in the wall food place that was serving waffles. We tried a waffle and what appeared to be doughnut holes. The waffle was great. The doughnut holes turned out to be fishballs, they were not great.

As we walked along the main drag, Nathan Road, we stopped to look into a small tailor shop. We had heard that Hong Kong is a great place to buy suits so we decided to take a looksee. We walked out 2 hours later with 2 suits, 2 skirts, 2 shirts, and a tie, all custom fit. Tim and Chloe ended up getting 2 suits as well. The experience was memorable as well. The shop is no larger than 12' x 10' and is manned by a locally famous tailor and his wife. The tailor doesn't speak a word of English and his wife speaks OK English. So the communication of telling us to what to do and asking us how we would like our clothes to fit was kind of a struggle. It was also a little awkward when the tailor pointed out that my right arm is longer than my left. That awkwardness was nothing compared to getting flossed though. The clothes are being shipped to us right now, cross your fingers.

With our wallets MUCH lighter we decided to walk around the Night Market. The Night Market is a street bazaar in Kowloon that has really cheap goods. I bought 5 ties for $5 to complement my new suit. As the night went on the rain got heavier (it rained lightly most of the afternoon) and we decided to head back. The following morning we went straight to the ferry terminal to go to Guangzhou. Like so many other places we visited, we definitely did not get to spend enough time in Hong Kong. We'll come back to Hong Kong for sure.

Blocked by the Great Firewall!

All, sorry for the long silence. Apparently, the Chinese government believes that Blogger is a threat to national security and has denied access to it from China. We are now in Hong Kong and free from the grasp of commie power. We will be posting all of our India adventures over the next few days that we're here.

Stay tuned!

Guilin, China

What a difference a plane ride can make. We left Xi'an airport in 6 inches of snow, freezing temperatures, and roads that were horrible. We arrived in Guilin to low 60 degree temperatures, sunshine, and a laid back feeling. We got into Guilin late in the evening and didn't have anything planned. As many of us were stressed out from the previous days' events we decided to get some massages. Our local tour guide recommended a traditional Chinese massage parlour near our hotel and 6 of us (Lara, Tim, Chloe, Mark, Sharon, and myself) went off to check it out. The massage parlour was a regular massage parlour has our national tour guide, George, described, not an irregular massage parlour. George further described the massages as, "Men with tender hands that will make you scream." Seemed kind of contradictory, but hey, when in China. Traditional Chinese massage parlours offer two types of massages; foot massages and full body massages. This parlour offered both for the same price, a whopping $12 for one hour. Me, being the accountant, thought, "Why would you get a foot massage when for the same amount of money you can get a full body massage?" I decided on the full body massage, Lara decided on the foot massage. Big mistake on my part.

All massages I had received up to this one were done in a private room by a masseuse who seemed to be interested simply in massaging my muscles. What I received in Guilin was an assembly line beat down. The parlour has several large rooms with dozens of beds in each room. In our room there were several other people being massaged next to us. Four of us decided on the full body massage and we were all placed on beds next to each other. The masseuses, all small Asian women, then began their beating. First, my face and scalp were jabbed repeatedly by the masseuse's thumbs. Essentially, these were nuggies. She even took the time to jab her finger into my ears. Next came the arm death grip, self-explanatory. The thumb jabbing resumed over the rest of my body. Mixed into this was the high speed karate chop on different parts of my body. The beating lasted 45 minutes and the four of us all looked at each other afterwards and asked what the heck we just experienced. Lara came out of her room with Sharon and said her foot massage felt great.

Back to Guilin. Guilin is one of the most beautiful spots in China. It's home of the Li River and a picturesque river valley with towering mountains. The scenery is featured on the Chinese 20 yuan bill. The scenery was unlike any I have ever scene. The towering mountains are slim, limestone towers covered in lush forest.

Since our flight to Guilin was postponed for one day we only had a half day in Guilin. We got up early and headed to the river for our boat cruise of the Li River. The boat was a large pontoon boat with a couple dozen people on it. About 10 minutes into our drift downriver a group of men on bamboo floats approached our boat. We all thought these were farmers of some sort trying to avoid our boat. They were actually 'hallo people' who were trying to sell us stuff. They approach on their bamboo floats then tie a rope to our boat and are tugged along side our boat. They then open their bags and sell cheap souvenirs. It was actually really cool. It was so cool we ended up buying a fake jade dragon from one the guys for $4.

The boat ride was a great experience. It was extra nice because it was a complete departure from the Xi'an airport. Because our group had a private cabin in the top floor of the boat we all got to bond even more, but in a much nicer setting. We were served lunch and beverages on the boat. On the beverage menu, snake wine. Snake wine is wine that looks like watered down Jack Daniels and is kept in glass jugs with dead snakes in it. It didn't taste good. The cruise lasted 4 hours and we were dropped off downriver in a small town called Yangshou. The town was by far the smallest we visited in China and arguably the most beautiful. The town was surrounded by the towering limestone hills and had a really nice charm to it. We were supposed to spend the night in Yangshou, but because of our delay we only got to walk through a bazaar and drive through it. We piled back into our bus and headed to the Guilin airport, destination Hong Kong.

Xi'an International Airport, China (Execution of the Curse)

We left downtown Xi'an at around 11am for the airport to catch our flight to Guilin. The weather remained what it had been all day, cloudy and very cold. We arrived at the airport and it was a mad scene. The check-in area was completely packed with no where for a group of 14 to stand. Our national guide, George, headed for the check-in booth while we stood around. George came back 15 minutes later and told us that there were flight delays due to weather in Beijing and our flight was delayed an hour. Since we couldn't check in and get our boarding passes we were stuck in the check-in area until then. We moved around the airport like a wagon train. We would occassionaly move around the airport to somewhere less smokey or warmer and then circle our carts like covered wagons.

We spent 5 hours waiting around the check-in area. Finally, the villagers became restless and demanded food from our guide. We were taken to the the lovely airport restaurant for dinner. At the end of dinner George came to us with a big smile and said our plane had left Beijing and was on its way to Xi'an. We quickly left our comfortable seats in the restaurant to go check-in. It took us over an hour to finally check-in due to one delay after another. Eventually, we checked in and headed through security. When we got to our gate it was a mad house. The terminal was very small, 5 gates, and was filled with angry people who had been stranded in Xi'an from anywhere to a couple hours to all day. At about the same time we got to our gate the skies opened up and it started snowing big time. We all knew that our flight might get delayed so we found a nice corner of the terminal to lay down and get comfortable. We listened to the PA system over the next few hours go from announcing delays of flights, to cancellations of flights, to the closure of the airport due to weather. We were now in the airport terminal with our luggage somewhere on the tarmac and no prospect of leaving. About an hour into this George told us we could pick up our bags at the belt and head back to the hotel. Again, we all left our somewhat comfortable seats to wait at the luggage courasal for our luggage. This took another 1/2 hour. At 12:40am we had our luggage and boarded our bus to go back to the hotel we had spent the previous two nights in. On the way back to the hotel our bus never drove in a straight line as it was fishtailing for 30 miles. We didn't go to bed until 1:45am.

The following morning we got up at 8am and headed for the airport. Since we had no idea when our flight would leave, we needed to be at the airport if a flight became available. The airport was the same as we left it, packed, cold, loud and very smokey. We did the same thing as before, made a circle with our carts and waited. And wait we did. We had the same crappy meal for the third time at the hotel's only restaurant. We tried to pass the time by making a betting pool on when the plane would actually leave, Superbowl Square style. At 1pm we were told that our plane was on its way and we could check our bags. We then waited for another 3 hours until we boarded.

The moment of triumph finally arrived at 4:30:34pm when we took off. We ended up being delayed for over a day and spent close to 16 hours in the Xi'an airport. The moral of the story is don't mess with the hallo people. They're pushy, smelly, and capable of putting 24 hour curses on you.

Xi'an, China (Placement of the Curse)

We arrived in Xi'an and proceeded to freeze our asses off. Having spent two weeks in India where the temperature was 60 - 80 and sunny almost every day, to China where the temperature was 30 - 40 and cloudy everyday, we had some adjustment. We didn't have anything planned our first day in Xi'an so when we arrived at the hotel in the evening we were on our own. There really isn't much to do in Xi'an so we spent some time in the hotel's bar. It was entertaining as we got to watch a middle-aged man get drunk in the bar and watch the wait staff bend over backwards to make sure he didn't lose face. We also walked next door to our hotel to what appeared to be a large bar, but was actually a shady massage parlor. We walked inside and asked the girls at the front desk what the 600RMB massage was and they all looked at each other and started giggling. That told us enough.

Our first day in Xi'an we visited the Terracotta Warriors. The Terracotta Warriors are kept in a large museum/park area. Large buildings, similar to a hangar, have been built over the Terracotta sites. There are actually 3 separate pits with sites, each has its own building. The first building we toured was the largest and most interesting. The first building had exposed all of the trenches the warriors were in and had pieced the warriors together so it looked like it did originally. The other two buildings were not nearly as interesting. The Terracotta Warriors are an archaeological dig in process. The last two buildings we visited contained broken warriors or simply dirt with warriors supposedly underneath. Spending an hour in a large, unheated building looking at dirt isn't that interesting.

We got back to our hotel in the afternoon and almost the entire tour group, about 9 of us, went on a beer run in Xi'an. Picture this, 9 American tourists, all but two white, walking around the streets of a working class Chinese neighborhood asking anyone if they speak English or where we could find beer. We weren't very productive. After an hour we settled on something that looked like beer. Later that night we were treated to a traditional Chinese music and dance show. Luckily for us, we were able to smuggle in beer :) . The show was ok and the dinner was the same food we had for the previous 3 days, but we had a blast. When we got back to the hotel the four of us, Tim, Chloe, Lara and I played cards and drank until the early morning.

We woke up the next morning to a snowy landscape. It had snowed a little less than an inch and the city looked kind of pretty. We were toured around old town Xi'an which reminded us a lot of Lucca. The old town has a large wall and moat surrounding it, with towers every 100 yards or so. There were several cool pagodas and other neat sites. Lara and I split off from the rest of the group and walked around the Muslim area of town. The Muslim area wasn't Islamic, but it had a very cool neighborhood feel. There weren't any tourist chachky shops and the people were overwhelmingly happy to see us.

We met up with the rest of the group and we walked back to the bus. On the way to the bus we were harassed by a pushy 'hallo person'. 'Hallo people' are people who are trying to sell fake Rolexes, designer handbags, or cheap pieces of tourist junk. They are called 'Hallo people' because they always address you by saying "Hallo." This hallo person was a 60 something old lady who was trying to sell something we had seen a dozen times. I don't remember what I said or did, but suffice to say I probably wasn't too mature. I turned my back on the lady and she pushed me. She said some nasty words in Mandarin and then stuck her tongue out at me. She finished her display by sliding her hand over her throat like it was being sliced. Nobody was sure what her deal was, but we think a curse was placed.....

Beijing, China

China, woo hoo! When we left India the Chennai Airport's computer system had crashed so the workers at the check-in counter in Chennai had to manually write the destination airport for our luggage. When you have all of your clothes and items you need for three months in your luggage and you are travelling from India to Beijing with a changover in Kuala Lumpur having the check-in worker scribble the destination airport isn't very comforting. So when our bags arrived in Beijing with us we were thrilled. The arrival of our bags also meant that we had officially survived India with everything intact.

Because we didn't know the language, culture, transportation, etc. and we wanted to see lots of sights in China we hired a tour company to take us around. We also booked our flights so that we arrived a day before the rest of the tour group and left a day after the tour group so that we could have an extra day to ourselves in Beijing and Shanghai. When we walked out of the Beijing Internaitional Airport (which is a great airport) we were immediatly greeted by our local guide Wen. Wen and the driver drove us to our hotel in downtown Beijing and got us setup. She also went off on the government owning all the cell phone companies and having high cell prices, so we knew she wasn't going to bull shit us like our Mumbai guide. Lara and I spent the rest of the evening walking around the mall that the hotel was attached to and the nearby streets.

The following day, our first full day in Beijing, we went on a laundry hunt. You might be wondering what exactly a laundry hunt is. Well, when you are backpacking around the world with only a week's worth of clothing doing your laundry becomes imperative. Unfortunately, most of the world has not caught up to the West in laundromat technology or prices. As I mentioned in an earlier post, laundry in India is done in rivers next to water buffalos or in mass laundry areas in Mumbai, we never saw where laundry was done in Turkey. The other option with laundry is to pay the hotel to do the laundry. The typical price for a hotel to do laundry in India was ~80 rupees an article. At 40 rupees to $1, the prospect of paying $50 for a load of laundry is a real possibility. Thus, when we arrived in Beijing we figured that in a city of 14 million people there has to be one laundromat. We did some searching and it appeared that a laundromat in Peking University was the only one in the city. So away to Peking University we went. As we discovered, most cab drivers don't know English, so when you tell them Peking Univesity, you don't go very far. Luckily, we were able to tell one cab driver where we wanted to go on a map. As we requested, he dropped us off in the area we requested, unfortunately, the map we had was in Chinese, all the signs are in Chinese, and all the people only speak Chinese, so we struggled a little bit. After asking a few dozen people where Peking University we arrived at our destination. Once on the campus of Peking University we were lost again. How do you find a small laundromat in a large, urban college campus with everything in Chinese? Our solution, ask the white people. We bumped into a nice British college student who guided us to our end destination.Next problem, how do you tell someone how to wash you clothes? You're starting to notice a trend I'm sure. In the end we were able to get our clothes washed.... but not dried. The dryer has yet to make it to China apparently.

What's Peking University like you ask? It's a lot like UC Berkeley, lots of Asians. The campus is as bland as a rice on noodles. All of the buildings look the same. There are very few postings on walls advertising furniture for sale, or tutoring services, or strippers needed like on American college campuses. We also didn't see anything related to sports or activities. We tried grabbing a bite to eat in the main congregation area, but you can only buy food on campus with a special debit card, so the all important food review could not be performed. When we got our clothes back, sopping, we grabbed another cab back to our hotel.

That night we explored more of the neighborhood our hotel is in. Beijing is a completely different city than any city I've been in. Nearly every building we saw was no more than 10 years old, the same could be said about the roads and infrastructure. The city is also designed differently. The streets are incredibly wide, 5 lanes in each direction in many places, and the buildings are very squat. Most of the buildings are huge, but very rarely more than 25 stories. We both thought it was odd that this huge metropolis wasn't building more skyscrapers. We also noticed that entire buildings were vacant. The visibility in the city was also horrible. We couldn't see more than 2 blocks away. The Chinese all called it fog. I'd like to think I know a little bit about fog since I lived in San Francisco for 5 years, but this wasn't like the fog I'm used to.

Our second full day in Beijing was our first day with our tour. We met the rest of the group in front of the hotel and we quickly realized this was going to be a good group. There were 10 other people besides us plus two guides. There was a good variety in ages as well. The first stop in our tour was the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace was home of the emperor of China during the Summer (obviously). It's a large walled palace with a lake inside. There are pagodas galore at the Summer Palace. There is also the longest corridor in the world connecting many of the pagodas. On the lake is the world's largest marble boat. It doesn't float, but it looks cool. After traveling the world for a month and a half, we've seen a lot of palaces. The Summer Palace was the first 'Oriental' styled palace and very cool.

Following the Summer Palace we were taken to Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City. Tian'anmen Square actually wasn't as big as I was expecting, but it was very cool to be there. The square was very well guarded with metal detectors and x-ray screening. It goes without saying that there were lots of security personel there as well; police, security gaurds, and military. We were also told by our tour guide that there are lots of secret police in civilian clothes. Some of the guards are standing at attention in the square with fire extinguishers at their feet. We obviously thought it was weird, but our guide informed us that they do this because some protestors will burn themselves with gasoline in the square and the gaurds are there to prevent them. Totally crazy. We didn't get a chance to see Chairman Mao in his pickled state in the basement, but his oversized picture was very prominant.

That night Lara and I and two other people from the tour, Tim and Chloe, hit up the town. Tim and Chloe are our age, really cool, and like to party. Our tour guide gave us a suggestion on an area in Beijing with lots of bars, Hutong District. The bar scene in Beijing is different. The location looked cool, lots of music playing, lights shining and people everywhere. However, on closer inspection every bar is a karaoke type bar with a person or band singing. Of all the bars like this, probably 20, not a single person sang well. In fact, most sang horrendously. We spent most of our time finding a bar that didn't sound like it had a cat dying in it. Another thing different about the bars in Beijing is that you are supposed to negotiate the price of beers before you go in. At one location the promoter/bouncer decided negotiations had stalled so he dragged me into the bar, half joking.

For our third day in Beijing we toured the Great Wall, visited the Olympic sites, and took a bicycle rickshaw ride of the Hutong District. Seeing the Great Wall was awesome. But, in a reoccurring theme in China, it wasn't real. The wall we were taken to, just outside of Beijing, was reconstructed just one mile in each direction from the freeway. For most people it looks real and it's a great sight. However, if you climb it for the 1 mile or so, you come to the end. Apparently I ate something bad the day before and my stomach wasn't having any climbing the Great Wall, but Lara, Tim and Chloe climbed the wall. When I say climb, I really mean do mean climb. Each step was about 8 inches wide and 14 inches high, try doing that for 1 mile.

As I mentioned, I had a little upset stomach in Beijing. Having an upset stomach in China is absolutley horrible. Most of the bathrooms I visited weren't 'western', i.e. they were holes in the ground with no toilet paper, heat, or soap. The time I spent in the bathroom at the tourist restaurant near the Great Wall was the worst bathroom experience I've ever had, I'll leave it at that.

The Olympic area (Bird's Nest Stadium, Watercube, National Indoor Arena, and Fencing Stadium) is really cool. We all remember the great show that China put on in 2008. But get this, since the Olympics the Bird's Nest stadium has been used only twice. The Watercube is almost never used. And I can't imagine an arena used simply for fencing gets much use as well. Next to the Olympic venue is a series of high rises shaped like a dragon. I'm sure everyone saw them, one of the buildings has a huge screen in the middle of it. Almost all of the space inside the buildings looked empty. It really felt like China put on the most expensive and spectacular dog and ponny show in the world.

After the Olymipc venue we went back to the hotel. We got up early the next day and visited the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. Unfortunately, the weather was anything but heavenly. About 10 minutes into our tour of the Temple it started to snow. It goes without saying that it was very, very cold. The Temple of Heaven is a large temple built centuries ago with a tower pagoda in the middle and large, cavernous buildings surrounding it. Not a single building had heat and all of them were freezing. We took some pictures of the Temple, saw everything there, and got out quick. Our final stop in Beijing was the Beijing Domestic Airport. We had a the staple Chinese lunch in the Beijing Airport, Kentucky Fried Chicken. I don't know why, but the Chinese love the Colonel. We saw more pictures of Colonel Sanders than we did Chairman Mao, currency aside. I also have to say, the Beijing Airport is the nicest airport I have ever been in, it was also well heated.

Xi'an, China......

India, Final Thoughts

The previous posts from our two week experience in India has a lot of contradictions. We saw a lot of depressing sights, but also incredible wonders. We were pickpocketed and taken advantage of, but also had some of the best experiences of our trip in India. There is no easy way to sum up India. There's also no way to answer the question, "Would you recommend going to India?" India definitely isn't for everyone. For us, India was incredible and we are so glad we went.

Now it's off to China!

India, Cast of Characters

For those of you following along at home I've created a quick reference guide for the characters we met along our tour of India. In order or appearance;

Colleen - Emergency room doctor in her second year of residency at a hospital in New Jersey. Colleen was part of our tour from Delhi to Pushkar. Colleen came to India to give a lecture on "The Thyroid Storm" at a medical conference.

Helene - Emergency room doctor (not related to Colleen, married to Mark) at a hospital in Chicago. Helene was part of our trip from Delhi to Pushkar and provided solid medical advice and acted as a proxy for our mothers.

Mark - Chief of Surgery at the University of Chicago's hospital (not related to Colleen, married to Helene). With us from Delhi to Pushkar. Mark is kind of like the Dos Equis Most Interesting Man. He's been to both the North and South Pole (the North by dog sled, the South by cross country skiing), been bitten by an anaconda in Central America, had a bug fly out of his shoulder while having the bug surgically removed and has run two marathons over the age of 50, both faster than me. Lesson learned from Mark: if you want to make a big purchase that your wife isn't keen on, buy her expensive jewellery before hand.

Kami - Tour guide from Delhi to Pushkar. Kami has a masters degree in history and definitely showed it. We learned a lot from Kami over the week we were with him. Kami had an educated answer for all of our questions, or he's an extremely good bull shitter.

Stuart - Brief but memorable appearances from Jaipur to Aurangabad. Stuart appears to be the love child of Mr. Burns from (the Simpsons) and Kramer (from Seinfeld). Divorce lawyer from New York. He is definitely his own best customer as he has been married and divorced 5 times. He currently has a girlfriend but that didn't stop him from trying to have sex with every female he saw. Of all the sleazy things he did over the time we were with him, the sleaziest thing he did was tell us to check out his daughter's sex scene and tell him what we thought. No joke. He has a daughter who is an actress and was in a sex scene in a movie, he simply wanted opinions.

Herb - 74 year old, semi-retired real estate professional from Santa Monica with strong resemblances to Mr. Magoo. Herb gets the sympathy card for this trip. He decided to do this trip because his beloved 10 year old German shepherd died and he thought this trip would take his mind off of it. A week into the trip his sister died as well. Herb mentioned these events in between bouts of complaining about everything else. We traveled with Herb from Pushkar to Aurangabad.

Maureen - 74 year old homemaker who is as sweet as she is immobile. You have to give her credit for going on a three week trip to India, but you also have to ask why a 74 year old who can barely get around would go on a 3 week trip to India?

Fran - 70 something widow and technophobe. At Jaipur Fran demanded a different hotel. The tour company obliged and sent her an email asking for her credit card info. Fran never responded and the day she was supposed to go to the different hotel our tour guide asked her why she hadn't responded. She yelled back at him that the tour company sent the email to her email in America, how could she possibly access her American email in India. Because you know, you can't access Hotmail in India. The tour of India cost several thousand dollars and was Fran's last big trip, she brought along two disposable cameras to remember it. Luckily, we were only with Fran from Pushkar to Udaipor.

Anna - 60 something from Texas. We were with Anna from Pushkar to Udaipor and she spent that entire time sleeping in the back seat of the bus or staying on a bench outside the site while we went in. Maybe Anna was a figment of our imagination...

Frank and Karen - 60 something couple from LA. Frank and Karen were taking a prviate tour with our tour company, which meant we saw them at all the sites and hotels, but we never travelled with them. Really nice couple that we enjoyed spending time with at dinner and the Mumbai airport. Favorite topics of conversation: Herbeen and the amazing sights we've seen on the tour.

Naji - Tour guide from Pushkar to Udaipor. You could definitely tell Naji was being pushed to his limits with the group he had (Herbeen, Fran and Anna). You could also tell that Naji liked us a lot because we were interested in the sights. At the end of our trip Naji gave us a nice little figurine.

Mumbai Tour Guide - Strong resemblance to pond scum. Neither one of us remember this guy's name, so "Mumbai Tour Guide" is the most civil name I can give him. The guy wasn't interested in showing us the sights or giving us information at all, he only cared about getting his cut from the sales.

Sanjay - Tour guide in Aurangabad. Another great tour guide. Taught us a lot about Aurangabad and India and showed us stunning sights. He's engaged to be married early next year and has met his fiance all of two times. We really felt bad for him for getting reamed by Herb for taking so long at the caves, even though we spent the exact amount of time that was specified in the itinerary.

Cameo appearances:

Anderson Cooper - Closeted TV news anchor travelling with his 'friend'. Cameo appearance at the Amber Fort in Jaipur and had a brief conversation with Lara (Lara: "Are you Anderson Cooper?!?!", Anderson: "Yes, I am", Lara: inaudible giggling)

That nice older couple with the guy who has a bad back - Nice older couple that was travelling solo with our tour company. We saw them at several locations. The guy had back surgery a month before the trip and couldn't carry anything.