Ho Chi Minh City

We arrived this evening in HCMC via bus. It was a sleeper bus, even though we rode on it during the day and it was a fairly comfortable experience. The best part was that it picked us up at our hotel and dropped us off a block from our hotel in HCMC. We decided to book a room before we arrived to dodge the touts. And we are pretty happy with how that worked out, especially since we arrived fairly late and it was awesome to just walk in, set down our bags and head out to dinner (Indian, yum!). Tomorrow we need to see about getting our visas extended before we decide what to do next...

Motorbiking Dalat to Mui Ne

Our Motorbikes with bags strapped on the back

Well, we arrived safely in Mui Ne this afternoon and had a blast motorbiking with our guides Mr. Hiep and Mr. Sao. Yesterday we did the countryside tour of Dalat and went to Elephant Falls where Dyanne got pretty wet venturing too close to the falls in the cave underneath them, the Happy Buddha, more falls, a rice wine "factory", and a lot more.

Elephant Falls

Climbing under Elephant Falls

Happy Buddha

Pongour Falls

Then we continued on to Di Ling where we spent the night. In the afternoon, it started to pour down rain and we pulled over to don our rain gear. My guide (Mr. Sao) was really well prepared and had rain pants and a poncho for me (plus a rain jacket which I didn't use because I had my own).

In rain gear

Our guides were really good drivers and kept us safe driving in the rain and the windy roads we drove on today to deposit us safely in Mui Ne where we are staying in a quaint (basic) bungalow on the beach. I think we'll explore here tomorrow and head down to HCMC (Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon) tomorrow.

Nha Trang

We made it to Nha Trang where we realized that we aren't really the hardcore budget travellers we would like to think we are (I know, not all of you are suprised by this conclusion). We arrived at about 9pm and checked into a budget hotel which we promptly checked out of the next day because there was no power. Nha Trang doesn't have enough power, so there's only power every other day until the end of the month (in case you are curious, they use a lot of hydroelectric power and the dams are pretty dry because the monsoons haven't hit yet, I think). Now, we could have survived without a/c (although it was really hot) and a hot shower (unnecessary because it's so hot outside), but we needed internet because we had to re-route our ticket. So, we checked into a mid-range hotel complete with generator (advertised as a "fully working hotel") and spent the day tossing coins to decide whether or not Africa is still on the agenda. And we realized we were much happier in the slightly upscale hotel. In our defense, we were even ready for a splurge and checked out the Novotel, but luckily (at $130 per night) it was full. The next day we rented a cataraman for an hour and spent some time on the beach (Reid also went to the doctor and he doesn't have anything serious, just a cold).

We got on a bus for Dalat today and arrived in the afternoon. We booked our hotel for tonight before we left and had a ride waiting for us--two guys on motorbikes (like Easy Riders) who sold us on a two day motorbike trip to Mui Ne leaving tomorrow. We'll spend tomorrow touring the countryside and get to Mui Ne the following day. We'll each be riding on a bike with a guide/driver and our bag strapped on the back. I'm really excited because I've wanted to do more motorbiking, but we haven't quite figured out the best way to do it, so tomorrow we'll get a chance to experience a bit of Vietnam slightly off the tourist path. Not sure about internet until we get to Mui Ne, but I'll try to do more of an update from there.

Via Seamail

We didn't end up getting photos of our clothes in Hoi An because they were all neatly packaged to be shipped home. A lovely lady from the post office came out to our hotel (and brought boxes) and packaged everything up for us. Here she is departing the hotel with one of our two boxes that should be arriving in Virginia in about three months.

Hoi An

Reid is off picking up the last of our custom made clothes--we already brought home two big bags on the motorbike we rented (and, really, riding a motorbike laden down with packages is a cultural experience). We are in a bit of a rush, because we need to get it all packaged and in the mail this evening because we are leaving on the train at 10:00 am tomorrow morning for Nha Trang.

We didn't end up doing much here in Hoi An other than shopping, which was a result of Reid only feeling about 50% for the past couple days (cold or flu bug we think) and our constant fittings (our own fault for not ordering more up front). So, we don't have many pictures. Which is sad, because I have had to jump on the back of a motorbike (or, yesterday an electric bike) to go to the tailor factory to show the guys actually making my suit the problem (the bust has been a bit of a challenge) several times. The shopping has been fun and we did make it to the beach one afternoon and our hotel has a pool which we've enjoyed several times.

But, we are pretty excited about our haul. Reid got four new suits and a pair of grey slacks and a brown sport coat as well as 12 work shirts and 5 more casual shirts. I got three suits (including slacks and a skirt), two skirts, a casual dress, two formal dresses, three work dresses, and ten shirts. It's definitely weird to be spending so much money in one fell swoop when we've been on a travel budget, but I'm sure once we're back at work, we'll only regret not getting more. And, it'll be fun to remember the experience each time we wear one of our pieces to work and to share the story whenever we get complimented on our suit/dress/ shirt (good interview material for Reid, maybe).

In other news, we need to re-route our ticket in the next couple of days, so be on the look out for an update on where we'll be going. Teaser: last check, Africa was out and Sumatra is in.

Hoi An

Well, we're still here in Hoi An. After a bit of a slow start, we have finally embraced all the tailoring there is to be done. With a fitting every day we've spent most of our time choosing fabric and styles and being pinned. They do let us out to grab a bite to eat and we even made it to the beach yesterday. We're having a blast and sweating a lot. Our hotel has a pool, so we've hung out there a bit as well. We'll have to post some pictures of our clothes before we ship them all home. At last count:

Reid - 4 suits, 11 shirts, 1 tie, 1 slacks, 1 sport coat

Dyanne - 3 suits, 2 dresses, 1 coat, 6 shirts

Hue

We boarded the night bus from Hanoi yesterday and arrived at Hue at 10:00 this morning. We found a nice little hotel and booked a half-day motorbike tour for tomorrow that will take us around to the sights. Reid's not feeling well and neither of us got a great night's sleep, so we've head a low-key day today and are crossing our fingers that Reid's feeling better tomorrow.

Bac Ha Market

We returned from Halong Bay on Friday and were hoping to jump on a train to Sapa (in North Vietnam near the Chinese border) that night, but the train was sold out. So, we ended up going up Saturday night and arrived in Lao Cai (the train station about 40 km from Sapa) Sunday morning. We wanted to go to the market in Bac Ha on Sunday morning and heard that we needed to get their early to experience it before the tourists arrived, which was why we wanted to get there on Saturday. Our train arrived at 5:15 on Sunday morning and we got almost immediately on a bus to Bac Ha. We were charged 75,000 VND for the local bus, which was supposed to be 50,000 VND... oh well! The bus ride took about 2 hours and along the way we picked up a number of locals headed to the market.

The draw of the Bac Ha market are all the Flower H'mong (an ethnic minority group) that come in their traditional wear. We were not disappointed. It was a rainy day, which was a bit of a bummer, but we had our rain jackets and rain covers for our bags and just toughed it out like the locals. We got to the market at around 8:00 am and got to observe the locals conducting their business--socializing at the food stalls and buying and selling goods. They trotted their water buffalo up the stairs to the livestock market where they were tethered to rocks waiting to be appraised. There were puppies and dogs for sale (and, no, I don't think they were for pets), ducks and geese.

Water Buffalo at the Livestock Market

Dogs - Sold!

Flower H'mong Ladies

Petrol Station

At around 9:15 the locals started turning their attention to the gathering groups of tourists touting their bags and other goods. So, we grabbed a bite to eat and headed for the bus. Although we were only charged 50,000 VND for the return trip to Lao Cai, we were crowded in to the minivan with several locals standing and about three chickens stashed under the back seat. We also took a break about half way to Lao Cai where the driver and several other men sat down to drink tea and play cards. Turns out, we were waiting for a connection that was delayed by and accident. An hour later we were back on our way to Lao Cai where we found a bus to Sapa, about an hour from Lao Cai.

Chickens on the Bus

We were greeted by stunning views of rice terraces along the mountains on the way to Sapa. We were able to find a comfortable hotel room for USD 15 that had a shared balcony with a view of the rice terraces (when we weren't sitting in the fog). We got settled in the hotel room, just in time for me (Dyanne) to be sick. I'm just grateful that we were able to enjoy the market before I started feeling really poorly.

Testing

Back in Hanoi

After a couple days in Sapa enjoying the views (and Dyanne being sick) we're back in Hanoi. We're headed to Hue tomorrow night to arrive the following morning.

Hi all, we are enjoying a lazy day at La Place, a comfortable little cafe/restaurant in the center of Hanoi's old city. Lonely planet mentioned that it had tasty food (which is true), but left out the fact that there is a great little rooftop deck, wifi, and a comfortable airy second floor lounge with lots of outlets. It is the perfect spot for us to spend a few hours relaxing and catching up on some blogging, banking, and assorted other e-activities (e-tivities? That sounds too much like nativities...).



The bells of St. Joseph's church are ringing across the square. St. Joseph's is a pretty catholic cathedral in the center of the old city. Vietnam is about 10% catholic, the second biggest catholic population in asia (after the phillipines). On our second day in Hanoi, we decided to attend the 6pm mass there.

Lonely planet mentions that the congregation spills out into the streets, so we arrived a healthy 45 minutes early. We were greeted by an enormous crowd of people in the square watching some type of nativity play.



There was dancing, singing, wisemen (with pasted on mustaches), and more girls in blue waving flowers and fans than you can shake a stick at (also, it is rude to shake sticks at people in church). I joined in some of the vietnamese hymns by peaking over the shoulder of the girl in front of me. Every now and then she would fan herself with the lyrics and I would have to make up words.

I loved the spectacle and the feeling that we were participating in a local event, as opposed to having something staged for our benefit. But I was also hungry and hoping that things would move along quickly, so I was glad when the play ended and the altar boys arranged themselves to pick up the huge palanquin with a statue of Mary that was the center piece of the play.



I thought we would be headed into church soon. I was incorrect. Instead, the altar boys tried very hard not to drop Mary while several orders of nuns, monks, flower girls, and assorted others lined up for a procession around the church. The procession became a parade when a military band started playing and joined in the march.


Eventually, everyone worked their way around the block, returned, and the monks, nuns, and assorted others followed Mary into the cathedral. Then the crowd started to line up at the doors, some people running and pushing, trying to get inside for a seat. This process was complicated by the people trying to carry stacks of plastic stools outside through the same small doors.
We eventually worked our way inside and found seats in a not-too-crowded pew towards the back. There were several fans nearby, but none were pointed in our direction. The little old vietnamese women on either side of us were kind enough to fan both of us periodically with their large (and effective) hand-held fans.

Mass was ... long. The sermon was (I believe) deep and meaningful. It was also in Vietnamese. I lost track of what exactly what was happening. There was a great deal of singing, including something that I think might have been a national anthem (or at least a prayer that included the words "Vietnam" with some frequency). We left during communion (along with a lot of vietnamese) and got to see a crowd of people sitting in the square on their motorbikes, all wearing ponchos against the rain, listening to the mass on the loudspeakers. It was a very different and cool experience.



After Mass, we had some pretty good tapas at "La Salsa" across the street. We ordered a cheese plate that came with blue cheese and goat cheese. It was twice as expensive as the other dishes and only had two small pieces of cheese. We both thought it was the most delicious thing we had eaten in weeks. It turns out that there isn't a lot of cheese in asian food (i.e. none). Then we met up with our Irish friends from Gibbon and joined them for a "last supper" (and drink), since all of us were heading off to Halong Bay with separate tours the next day. It was fun and a bit sad.

A Few Photos

Hi all. While we're catching up on our posts, I thought I would share a link to a few of our favorite shots from the trip so far. This gallery should update as we go, so check back every now and again.

Where to Begin?

Our apologies for the dearth of blog entries and photos. Since we left China we have been travelling on and off with various friends we've met along the way. It has been a blast, but hasn't left much down time to fill everyone at home in on the details. In Vientiane, we decided to fly to Hanoi.

After a couple death-defying bus rides in Laos we decided the night bus wasn't a great idea. We were able to get our visas to Vietnam changed to allow us to get into the country a couple days early and flew to Vietnam on May 29th. We then quickly booked a Halong Bay cruise where we were carted to Halong City and got on a boat to cruise around the bay for a day and spend the night on a boat before going on to Cat Ba island. It was beautiful, but basically they just herd all the tourists onto buses and boats and take them out into the bay. When we arrived on the island, we ditched our organized tour and had a couple days to ourselves and boy were we relieved to have some time to ourselves. We had a good time exploring the island and hanging out on the beach before heading back to Hanoi.




Tonight we are getting on a night train to Lo Cai. From there we're heading to Bac Ha for the Sunday morning market. It's the biggest market in the area and we are looking forward to it. From there, we'll go to Sapa to trek through some rice terraces and enjoy the views. After that, we'll return to Hanoi for a night or so before heading down the coast to Hoi An to have some custom suits, dresses, shirts, and maybe even shoes made to fit.

Another Quick Update

We are in Vientiane, Laos. Since we last updated we spent two days on the Mekong, a couple days in beautiful Luang Prabang, a day tubing in Vang Vieng and a day kayaking /riding to Vientiane. More updates are, indeed, in order, but just wanted to let everyone know where we are now.

And We're Off Again

After three wonderful days in Huay Xai ziplining through the forest (Matthew will be happy to know that there was no splatting) we are off again. This time we'll be traveling by boat to Luang Prabang. We've met up with a wonderful crew from the Gibbon Experience, almost all of whom will be joining us. So, tomorrow we'll head up to the dock to cruise down the Mekong on the two-day trek to Luang Prabang. We stop for the night in Pak Beng, but internet is uncertain. We have some fabulous photos (and hopefully video, if our camera gets returned), that we'll be updating with shortly (the nine hours on the boat should give us time to compose some long overdue posts).

On the Way to Jinghong

We made it to Laos a couple days ago after pausing in Jinghong for two nights. According to the hostel in Kunming, the bus station was 2 hours away by bus and 1.5 hours away by taxi. We decided to leave for our 8:30 bus at 5:00 and ran into a gal from our hostel that Reid had been hanging out with the previous (headache) night who had booked the 6:30 bus for Jinghong and hadn't realized that the bus station had moved further out of town. We shared a taxi and arrived forty minutes later--in time for Kristen to make her 6:30 bus and giving us two hours to kill before our bus departed. The bus station is in a temporary building temporarily while they finish the bus station (we could see them working on it). We checked our bags and went to explore the area.

There was a large building across the street that Reid conjectured was a shopping mall, so we headed there in hopes of a coffee shop and clean-ish bathroom (figuring most anything would be an improvement over the bus station bathrooms). We found an entrance but two security guards signaled that we couldn't enter, so we wandered around the building curious about what it was passing several closed entrances along the way. We worked out that it was a shopping mall, not yet opened.

We were rewarded by seeing what we can only guess was a group of young people hoping to get hired at the new mall. When we arrived they were milling about a square and quickly got into neat rows and columns when several men in suits came out and started calling commands to them. After taking some time getting the rows and columns to their satisfaction, the suits called out a command and all the people lined up turned to their right and then proceeded, in an orderly fashion, into the office. It was quite the sight.

Although Reid was worried about the sleeper bus, it ended up being a pretty good experience. The bunks were pretty small, but our bus wasn't very full and we were able to move. Reid picked a bed in the middle and was able to just barely fit into the bunk. He took a sleeping pill and was out for most of the trip. I dozed for several hours at a time, which wasn't too bad or too awesome. We arrived in Jinghong at 6:30 in the morning very bleary eyed and were immediately descended upon by touts. It took us a while to fend them off, but to be fair, I wasn't sure if they were still trying to sell us something or just chat.

Lonely Planet was a bit devoid of sleeping options, but highly recommended a cafe for great travel information, so we decided to head there. It was walking distance so we set off down the road to find the cafe not yet open. We only had to wait about twenty minutes for workers to show up and open up one of the cafes. Luckily, they had internet and we were searching for hostels and reviews as we ate our breakfast. As we were sitting there, our friend Kristen from Kunming wanders up and asks where we were staying. She'd arrived at 4:30 am and a helpful Chinese man had set her up in a less-than-awesome Chinese hotel. Just as we were getting ready to set off for the new Many Trees hostel that was so new it hadn't even made it into Lonely Planet, a young man from the Czech Republic stopped by our table and asked, "do you know where to stay around here?" We had to laugh and confess we were also stumped. His Rough Guide mentioned a place that he hadn't been able to find--the road no longer existed, or something. So, we all set out together to find the hostel. Jinghong, we soon discovered, was warm and tropical and we were all coated in sweat when we found the hostel. It was good, but we still decided to check out a place recommended by Lonely Planet. We found it, but rejected it and all jumped in a taxi back to the hostel to check in, drink a beer, and take a shower. And it wasn't even lunchtime yet!

That's enough for one entry, check back for the rest of our adventure in Jinghong plus lovely lovely Laos.

A Wonderful Headache

Reid here. I am sitting out in the courtyard of the Cloudland youth hostel, sipping on an Americano (delicious, made with Illy coffee). People are just starting to wake up and there is a comfortable bustle around. There's a vine covered in small purple blossoms covering the wall opposite me. As I wait for my breakfast to arrive, I am enjoying the remnants of the best headache I've had in years.

It started last night, as all good headaches do, when Dyanne and I dropped down to the courtyard for a beer before an early bed time. We got into a bit of conversation with Peter, a German who has traveled to the area several times. He gave us more information on Vietnam, then gave us his lonely planet Vietnam - very nice of him! He was sitting with a group of about 10 people from various countries (South Korea, China, Sweden, Germany, and Australia). They were all very friendly and, after learning that I was from Chicago, I learned that Sue from South Korea loves Al Capone. I then learned that she was much better than me at ping pong, and her Chinese friend from Shenzhen (near Hong Kong) was even better. Dyanne had the good sense to go to bed at a reasonable hour. I, on the other hand, stayed up with this international group drinking until about 1am. At that point, the situation was beginning to deteriorate rapidly, and I judged it past time for bed.

I woke up this morning to sunlight and noises in the street. It was very early and my head hurt. Dyanne was sleeping soundly. We had a long day ahead of us that would end in a long trip on a sleeper bus. I weighed my options. I tried to sleep more. That failed, so I decided to go for a jog. I only made it about three blocks before I came to a little park that was just filled with activity. There were several groups playing the most vigorous badminton I've ever seen, a few people doing calisthenics, and a big group of people doing tai chi. I was the youngest person in the park by at least 20 years. I started following along with the tai chi from near the park entrance. After a few minutes, a couple of older ladies noticed me and emphatically gestured to an open space in the square. I joined them and did my best to keep up for about 45 minutes. My headache completely forgotten, I had the most excellent morning getting a free (and very genuine) tai chi lesson in a park overlooking a pleasant pond.

On a slightly related note, there is something very striking about the sense of community I've been seeing in Kunming. Older people doing tai chi (how many years have these same people been getting together to do tai chi every morning?), playing cards and mah jong at little sidewalk tables, etc. It definitely puts the community in communism.

Kunming Day 2

Happy Mother's Day to our Moms.

We decided to spend a second night in Kunming because we were enjoying the hostel and didn't get a chance to explore too much yesterday as we recovered from the long travel night. Because it was Sunday, we decided to head to the park and see how the Chinese spend their weekend. We packed a little picnic--we had already found some peanut butter (much to Reid's shock and pleasure) in Yangshuo and found some wheat ("bean sprout") bread at a local bakery along with some black current jam at a bakery here in town--and headed to the park.

Once at the park, we were surpised to find not the lush green lawn that "park" conjured to our minds, but a lake with paved paths and many many people. There were paddle boats on the lake and I even spied some bumper cars. Generally, it seemed to be modeled after the park on the lake at the Summer Palace in Beijing. It was beautiful and just crammed with couples and
families, young and old to enjoy the beautiful day. We ate our pb&js and just enjoyed the beautiful day.

Tonight we went to a vegetarian restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet. Vegetarian restaurants in China differ from those in the states in that their objective is to make non-meat products taste (and look) as much like meat as possible. We walked in at 8:00 and they closed at 9:00, but it was empty and the staff looked at their watches before they seated us. We asked them what they recommended and ordered mushrooms made into meatballs; sweet,
sour, and spicy mock pork; some kind of buddha's delight. We were also served endless cups of weak tea. At about 8:30, they decided to close up and brought us our bill (the first time this has happened in China-usually we have to go find them to ask for it) and most of the staff left.
Luckily, we had finished our meal and headed out shortly thereafter.

Back at the hostel Reid lost a couple of ping pong games as I drafted this. Tomorrow we'll head to the Flower & Bird market before leaving on the 20:35 sleeper bus to Mohan.

And... we're in Kunming

Well, we made it to Kunming and get off the plane at exactly 11:19 this morning.  Turns out "soft" sleeper is a bit of a misnomer and Reid didn't sleep very well on the train, so we decided to take a day in Kunming to get a decent night sleep before boarding a sleeper bus for the border.  Without too much drama we managed to get on the proper bus and get off at the proper stop for the hostel recommended in Lonely Planet (Cloudland).  Actually finding it proved more tricky, but about twenty minutes later we were standing in the lobby getting our key.  It's an enchanting hostel with an open courtyard and all the rooms opening into the courtyard.  The beds are hard, but not as hard as the train, so we're hoping for a better night's sleep.  Right now we are at the "French Cafe" where I had a lovely quiche and part of a salad--it's sad when you have to start eating fries to keep yourself of eating too much salad (one should avoid fresh veggies while traveling, so salads are forbidden and, yet, so appealing).  They have a couple second-hand books but none that look too interesting, so I think we are going to head back to the hostel for a quick nap before dinner.  I don't think we've decided whether to stay two nights yet, but will be on our way again tomorrow evening or the day after. 

On the Road Again

Well, turns out that Thailand is open again, or at least the British FCO has revised their travel warning to advise against non-essential travel to Bangkok only.  The rest of the country is, apparently, safe again.  Alas, we had already bought our overnight train ticket bound for Kunming, China when we got the news.  So, we are headed to Laos.  We may be out of touch for a few days as we are going to be in transit for the next few days and its unclear what internet access we'll have.  We checked out of our hotel in Yangshuo this morning and took the bus to Guilin and checked our bags at the train station. We then headed back to the pizza place we ate at last time we were in Guilin transiting through to Yangshuo. We were transported half-way here by a rickshaw driver who had no idea where we wanted to go and ended up charging us ten times what we thought we agreed to (apparently two fingers means not two but 20--we got out for 11 since he only took us half way).  The pizza place was only a ten minute walk along the river from where he dropped us, so now we sit here awaiting our pizza, sipping some juices, and updating our blog.

We will board an overnight train bound for Kunming, China at 5:00 this evening.  We splurged for the soft sleeper, so we'll have to report back on how luxury train travel in China is.  We arrive in Kunming at 11:20 am tomorrow.  From Kunming we'll take a nine hour sleeper bus to Jinghong, China.  We may decide to stay the night in Kunming.  This decision will likely depend on how badly we decide that we need a shower and time off of a moving vehicle.  Jinghong is supposed to be a nice destination as well so we may break up our trip with a couple days there before we board another bus for Mohan which is on the border with Laos--apparently the border crossing is at the end of the main street.  From Mohan we'll enter into Boten, Laos.  In Boten, we plan to catch a bus to Luang Nam Tha.  There is, apparently, only one daily bus to Luang Nam Tha and it leaves Boten at 8:00 am.  The border opens at 8:00 am. So, we may need to spend the night in Boten.  After all this we will arrive in Luang Nam Tha, where we can do some trekking and maybe some homestays.  We are also excited for the "Gibbon Experience" where we'll get to sleep in tree houses accessible only by cable lines, be awoken by the sound of Gibbons in the morning, and do some trekking.  

From what we've read, we are really excited to be heading to Laos, even though on our original itinerary we were supposed to be sunning ourselves on a Thai beach right now.  Turns out this timing may be even better, by allowing us to take more time in Loas/Cambodia/Vietnam, if we'd like to and if not, then we can spend the balance of the time in Thailand.  That, plus we aren't supposed to dive on our Malaria meds until we find out what side-effects, if any we experience (which, for those who are curious so far include insomnia (both) and nausea (Dyanne, but note that this could also have been caused by my cold that has stubbornly decided to stick around or some various amoeba or bug)).  So, we couldn't have been learning to dive now anyways.  

We'll try to update from the road, but if we don't, we'll let you know for sure when we get to Luang Nam Tha, which probably won't be until Tuesday or Wednesday.  

Moon Hill Photos Plus

As Reid mentioned, we finally set off for our long-awaited bike ride today.  It was sort of overcast and muggy from the rain, but it was much cooler than the first day we attempted the ride.  Boy were we glad that we waited.  As you can see from Reid's shirt, it was a rather sweaty hike up Moon Hill and I think we would have been just miserable had we attempted it any other day.  But we were rewarded with a picturesque bike ride and a great hike up a karst, something Reid has had on his to do list since we go to Yangshuo.

Not sure if we mentioned it after our first bike ride, but riding bikes here is very interesting.  To begin, they don't give you helmets (their is one joint in town where you can get a helmet, but it costs 50 yuan to rent a bike versus the 10 - 20 everywhere else) and no one else rides with a helmet either.  And riding on the "main" roads to get out to the countryside seems daunting at first, but from the bike it seems to make a lot more sense than from a car.  First, there are a lot of bikes here and pedestrians and bikes converted into buggies or truckycles (a tricycle with a pick up bed on the back) and scooters that don't go very fast.  So, if you are biking at a decent pace you are actually going faster than a lot of the other traffic on the road.  Even a lot of the motorized vehicles, like trucks, don't go very fast because they are so underpowered.  Once you are actually on your way, the traffic doesn't seem nearly as bad as it does to look.  That is, once you realize that people honking at you is more of a "hey, I'm here" instead of what I've always taken honking in the US to mean--you are doing or have done something wrong (swerved into my lane, waited too long after a red light, etc.).  Luckily, the road out to Moon Hill was closed in one direction, so it was rather pleasant with only a few cars to bother us as we cycled our way out to Moon Hill.

As usual, not more than a five to ten minute cycle out of town and we were in the midst of farms.  We got to watch the farmers planting and some water buffalo doing whatever it is that water buffalo do.  We passed over a rather scenic area of the Yulong River (Yangshuo is on the Li River but the Yulong is close by) and stopped for some photos.  After our hike we headed into the town across the way for lunch.  On our way we met a young man who professed to be studying tourism and had a survey he wanted us to answer, we obliged and answered a few questions about how we liked the area.  Nearby to where we were stopped a man was putting on a show with two monkeys.  Not sure what kind they were, but one was larger and one was smaller.  They were atop stands and had chains around their ankles,  They were dressed up in doll clothes with funky hats and had little sticks that they were supposed to be holding behind their heads, but were resting on when their owner wasn't paying attention.  It was very odd--they were some human looking and chained up like that, it was just a sad sight.  We declined to pay for a photo.

Instead we managed to find Luna Cafe and were rewarded with a wonderful Italian lunch from a rooftop where we had a great view of the karsts we had just climbed.  It was wonderful.  We headed home (as Reid mentioned, the short way) and were rewarded with a shower and some time to do some laundry before we headed off for dinner.  We returned to the clay pot place and met a French couple finishing up their 10 month trip in Southeast Asia.  It was fun to compare notes and hear their recommendations on the countries we have yet to visit.  After dinner we headed up the street to find out if the optometrist was still open--the only place we've seen with contact solution that we desperately needed.  They were open! The young man in the shop didn't speak any English, but luckily the containers were similar enough to what we have in the states that we were able to pick something out and he told us the price via hand signals.  We then wandered back through town and there was a live guitar at Bar 98, a spot where we've enjoyed a couple meals, so we stopped in for a couple beers to enjoy the evening and the live music.  After a week here, I think we've finally figured out where we're going just in time to leave.

Alright, well I'm going to sign off so we can figure out how to get to Laos from here before we call it a night. 

Lao-ward Bound

Reid here.  We have finally decided on the next thailand-skipping stage our travels!  After much careful consideration, and, when that failed, a decisive tournament of rock-paper-scissors between the major options, we have chosen to head overland to Laos and work our way south to Cambodia.  

Our first stop in Laos will be Luang Nam Tha, a small border (ish) town that is the jumping off point for excellent eco-trekking in the Nam Tha jungle preserve.  But lets not get ahead of ourselves.  First we have to get to the Laos border, and that will involve a few exciting (?) firsts: our first overnight train in China (reputed to be quite nice), our first sleeper bus (not necessarily sharing the train's reputation), and our first land border crossing (not counting the hong kong - shenzhen one, since both are technically china, and I wanted three "firsts" for narrative flow).  

We'll take a short (1.5 hour) bus ride from Yangshuo back to Guilin, where we will catch the 18-hour night train to Kunming (capital of Yunnan province).  From there, we will take an overnight sleeper bus from Kunming to Mengla (a small transport hub near the border).  There, we'll transfer to a local bus that will take us over the border (where we'll cross the border and pay $30ish for a one month visa) and on to Luang Nam Tha.  

A side note on sleeper buses.  I did not realize such things exist.  I sort of wish that I still didn't.  It is a coach type bus with the seats replaced by two rows of bunks along each wall and another row of bunks along center.  The bunks are a bit less than 6 feet long and travelers have frequently described the sleeping experience as "coffin-like".  Smoking and spitting are also frequent complaints.  I think it will be an adventure.

As we peruse the Lonely Planet, we're getting excited about eco-trekking, staying at the "Gibbon Experience" - www.gibbonexperience.org, volunteering with some local literacy projects, and (hopefully) using my construction experience to help build a school.   

A Long Hike and Great Lunch

Reid here.  We had an excellent "adventure" day today in Yangshuo.  We woke up (relatively) early, had rather good egg sandwiches at our hostel, and then rented bikes and headed out to "Moon Hill" - a nearby karst that is on the tourist maps because of the strange arch shape at the peak.  We set off through town, then turned around after Dyanne pointed out that we had ridden in a circle (thankfully, it is a small town).  Properly oriented, we set off again, this time in the right direction.  Our route took us out to moon hill along a main road with the return planned along country tracks.  The forty-five minute ride was uneventful, but we regularly saw "tourist attractions" dotted along the road with parking lots for the inevitable tour buses.    (More signs of the "If there's tourists here, there must be attractions!" mentality).  My favorite was the sign for the "Real" water caves that warned you not to be fooled by the many other "fake" water caves.  I'm glad they cleared that up for me. 

When we arrived at Moon Hill, we paused at the 15 yuan entrance fee.  The guidebook had said 5yuan, and I think we were both concerned that this might not actually be moon hill, but merely a hill with a sign in front saying moon hill.  Two little old(ish) chinese women approached us and started into a pitch.  They would show us the secret locals way up for only 5 yuan.  No one should pay the 15 they said.  We conferred and decided that 5 seemed reasonable and it was likely to be a bit of an adventure.  The little old ladies took us back a few hundred yards along the road and had us lock our bikes up.  One stayed behind to watch them, the other sold us a water for 5 yuan (the one bottle we had was "no enough!" and then she took us across the street and up a dirt path.  After some climbing about we came to a bit of barbed wire that had been tied down, climbed over it and joined the "proper" path to moon hill.  Our little old lady guide had been nervously looking around the entire time until we were on the path and headed away.  We didn't see anyone except for two other little old ladies heading back down the way we had come in.  

A little while on, we found a fork that led to "Vanity" and "Moon Palace".  I chose left, Dyanne thought right.  Dyanne was correct.  We discovered this when we got to the peak of "Vanity" and stared across at the peak of Moon Hill.  Good view, but another long hike.   I considered giving up at this point, but we carried on.  The view from the peak was worthwhile.  There were rockclimbers on the "archway" segment, and hopefully a few decent photographs of the surrounding area.  I bought a mango juice from yet another little old lady to try to get her to stop fanning us and following us around.  It didnt' work, but the juice was nice.   We got to the bottom, found our bikes right where we had left them, then headed into the small village across from the hill.  Our guidebook had mentioned a good italian restaurant, Cafe Luna, here.  We followed the large sign and found Luna.  We sat on the rooftop (with an excellent view of moon hill) and had the best western food we've found in China.  Somewhat refreshed, we headed back towards Yangshuo.  We briefly considered taking the back roads home as originally planned, but the sky looked like rain and our legs felt like jelly, so we headed back on the main road.  We had a beer and a guava juice on our balcony to celebrate the successful adventure. 

Stuffed Noses and Other Stuff

Despite taking a self-proclaimed sick day yesterday, I still have the sniffles today.  We slept in to re-arm our immune systems and woke up to rain.  So, we skipped the bike ride and headed to a cafe for lunch and travel planning.  We pulled out our travel books (did we tell you about how we picked one up on the rooftop of a nearby hostel a couple nights ago) and proceeded to price out alternatives.  Well, it seems they all cost approximately the same and so it's just a matter of deciding what we would prefer to do.  Should we replace our couple weeks of beach-bumming in Southern Thailand with a trip to Malaysia and an equally gorgeous island beach complete with diving, less malaria, and easily accessed via Kuala Lumpur (hub for Air Asia--the low cost air carrier in these parts) or go overland towards Laos and begin making our way down the Mekong a few weeks early?  When no decisions are bad ones, how do you decide.  We may be resigned to flipping a coin. 

In other news on the travel front, we talked to United today to get our flight from Hong Kong to Phuket moved out a couple days and found out that , indeed, our flight to Phuket is not subject to a change fee waiver and that we'd have to wait a month to find out if our flight to Bangkok is eligible.  It looks like some progress on resolving the situation is being made, but it's still too soon to tell whether or not we should add Thailand back into our itinerary. 

We are hanging out in the hotel room now planning for an early bedtime so that we can get up and go for our long-awaited bike ride in the morning and perhaps some Tai Chi (or as they say it here, Tai Ji) in the afternoon.  And then probably some local food to eat.  After trying out some of the "fancier" places around here that serve Western food, we have decided that when in China you should eat Chinese and have found a couple local places that beat out anything we have had here for more than twice the price.  Unfortunately, when we ask to have most things made vegetarian (sushi) we end up with something and uncooked lettuce on top.  Which, in addition to not having the very good vegetables and seasoning that you get here, we can't eat the uncooked lettuce.  Oh well! Reid managed to get some very good clay pot rice with vegetables, so I guess I'll give that a go tomorrow. 

Now that the influx of domestic tourists have vanished, Yangshuo seems almost like a ghost town.  In part, there are just so many restaurants and bars that when it isn't packed, most places are virtually vacant.  Oh well, we've learned that the fact that we are the only ones eating at an establishment isn't any indication of the quality of the food or service.  And, we ended up able to keep our room and only pay an extra 70 yuan ($10) for two nights as a result, so we were happy with how that worked out.

A Sick Day

Reid here.  After days of sniffling, Dyanne has finally admitted that she has a cold.  So we're taking the day off for recuperation.  This is appropriate, since today is a chinese national holiday to celebrate May Day - which is the Chinese version of Labor day (May 1-3).  Yangshuo has been mobbed this weekend with domestic (Chinese) tourists and visitors.  Most of them seem to have departed today and West street has returned to a more reasonable level of commotion. 

I had a few adventures this morning, procuring the necessary items for Dyanne's recuperation.  After several minutes of miming a sore throat and making sucking noises, I was rewarded with a box of throat lozenges (I think).  My attempts to procure tea in a dry form were a complete failure.  The host at my hostel very patiently explained to me several times that ginger tea was what Dyanne needed, and that you needed to make this over a flame, not in the auto kettles in the rooms.  I did locate a small box of loose tea in a store (thank you, lonely planet phrase book), but it was an expensive souvenir package, so I took a pass.  I took the hostel up on its ginger tea offer.  We were rewarded with a pot of delicious tea made from boiling fresh ginger root.  I finally understood why he thought I couldn't make this in my room.  

This might be a good time for a digression on Chinese supermarkets.  In shanghai, we found a few stores that appeared to be small (very small) supermarkets, with a few "imported" foods.  More common were 7-11 style convenience stores (with a bit more selection).  However, Yangshuo does not seem to have either of these creatures (at least not in the sections of town where westerners go).  Instead, I've found mainly "Local Food Super Markets" that, I think, sell souvenir food items plus beer/coke/water.  I can't say for certain because most all of the items are in boxes covered in non-descript flower and landscape scenes with chinese writing on them.  These boxes are piled on islands that take up most of the store.  They could be filled with lovely things, but I wouldn't know.  Instead, I try to puzzle out what's along the walls.  70% of this is liquor (most of which is apparently counterfeit), the remainder seems to be a jumble of dried fruits, expensive teas and a few toiletry items (yay, travel sized toothpaste that isn't bubble gum flavored!  Yes, apparently small toothpaste containers must be destined for small people, or so goes the apparent logic of Colgate and Crest in China.  I am sick of kid's toothpaste.)  We searched every one of these stores we could find looking for peanut butter a few days ago.  We eventually found one jar in a bakery.  Our buying caused the clerk to call to the owner something in chinese.  I think it was along the lines "See, I told you they actually eat this stuff!"  But I digress...

We had planned to go on a bike ride down a bit south to a couple of local attractions today - "Moon Hill" and the "Water Caves", and maybe check out a really old banyan tree on our way back.  We'll probably do that tomorrow instead, but it wouldn't be a tragedy if we didn't.  I think that is my favorite (least favorite?) aspect of Yangshuo tourism.  All of the "attractions" came after the tourists.  Once upon a time, there was a beautiful peaceful place in rural china with two rivers and tons of limestone karsts.  Backpackers started coming to get off the beaten track (beating a track in the process).  With all of the people here, attractions were developed to give them concrete activities.  It seems like whatever direction we set our bikes in, we find something beautiful and fascinating.  

I'm off to see if there are any good DVDs at the reception desk.  We watched two yesterday, "smart people" and "Book of Eli."  The best part of Smart People was the subtitles, which were sort of in English.  It sort of seemed like each phrase had been through a long game of telephone before it was transcribed.  

Oops, Thailand is Closed Today.

Reid here... As some of you may know, Thailand is having a bit of a problem lately.  Pro and Anti government protesters have been staging demonstrations in central Bangkok and a bit of Chiang Mai for a while now.  The situation has deteriorated in the last few weeks.  There have been police crackdowns and grenade violence that have resulted in many injuries and some deaths.   Nonetheless, the conventional wisdom had been that the problem was isolated to Bangkok and it was fine to travel in the rest of the country.  

This seemed reasonable to me until the last few days.  At the end of April, the US state department said that US citizens should avoid all non-essential travel to Thailand.  The Brits said the same thing, and even Australia said it could be dangerous if you get caught in a demonstration and you should re-think your travel there.    

The next leg of our RTW plane ticket takes us to Phuket, Thailand, where we were planning to spend a few weeks eating delicious thai food and learning to scuba dive (and probably getting a sunburn).  After that, we were going to move north to Chiang Mai to start our trek along the Mekong through Laos, Cambodia and then work up through Vietnam to Hanoi.  

Now we are in a pickle.  Thankfully, we're in a very picturesque (and relatively cheap) spot in China (Yangshuo) to take a few days to strategize.  We've come up with three or four options for our onward journey and we're puzzling through the logistics now.  One unfortunate side effect is that all of the options look a bit more expensive than Plan A.  But, as the sign on my mom's fridge says, the key to life is how well you deal with Plan B. 

Plan A.  Decide that the US/British/Australian embassies are just whining, that we are nimble enough to avoid large groups of people in red shirts, and that we should be pretty safe on the tourist beaches in a country filled with very peaceful buddhists.  As one line of thinking goes, all of the troublemakers from either side have gone to Bangkok anyways.  Ahh, beautiful Phuket.  Why does the beach here look so empty?  Umm, could someone please take me to Cambodia?

Plan B. China is rather a lovely country and we didn't really budget enough time here in the first place.  Take another week or two to visit Yunnan province, especially the trek through the beautiful Tiger Leaping Gorge.  Then we can take a bus from Kunming (China) to Luang Prabang (northern Laos) and start our planned trip through Laos, and Cambodia.  Take an extra week or two on an island in southern Cambodia to get our scuba ceritificatons (same water as Thailand, same PADI course, but cheaper).  Then we can work our way up through Vietnam, catch a cheap flight from Hanoi back to Hong Kong, and resume our RTW trip (skipping the Phuket and Bangkok legs).  The downside is that we don't get to the beach for quite some time (and, says Dyanne, no Thai food either!)  

Plan C.  We go back to Hong Kong and revise our itinerary to skip Thailand and go directly to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). From there we can go to a few islands or nearby beaches for our scuba certification, then work our way up through Vietnam to Hanoi, then over to northern Laos and do our planned Mekong itinerary back to Saigon.  The problem is that our visas for Vietnam don't start until June 1, so we would have to get new visas issued (and pay the fee again) in Hong Kong.  

Plan D.  We take a train/bus combination from Yangshuo to Nanning, a Chinese city near the Vietnam border with a consulate.  We get new visas and then head to Hanoi and do our planned trip through SE asia in reverse, stopping in Cambodia/Southern VN for scuba.  The difficulty here would be getting from northern Laos back to Hong Kong to resume our RTW trip. 

So these are the plans we're currently considering, give or take a few esoteric logistical differences.  Oh, did I mention that almost all of the regional flights route through Bangkok, particularly on Star Alliance?  Oops :)

In the meantime, Yangshuo is beautiful.  We are enjoying our little double room with a huge balcony on a quiet alley off of the main drag.  We've gone for some fantastic (though tiring) bike rides in the countryside.  We might be volunteering with a local program to teach english in one of the rural primary schools for a few days or a week (they want the kids to get used to speaking english with foreigners).  Also, the local beer "LiQuan" is quite drinkable and costs about 50 cents per liter. So, we are rather content to hang here until we figure out where to go next.  If you have any comments please be sure to e-mail us, since we cannot get to our blog to read the comments. 

    

Dragon Bridge Bike Ride

After sleeping in from our late night out, Reid brought breakfast too our room yesterday morning so that I could sleep in.  Which was very sweet, becase in addition to the late night, I've been fending off a sore through and general "icky" feeling.  I took some Zyrtec, Sudafed, and Ibuprofen and figured I was in good enough shape to head out for a short bike ride.

We rented the 10 yuan bikes from the hostel that happen to be city bikes without great steering and no suspension.  They were also both girls' bikes.  I cannot remember the last time I went bike riding, so we decided that we'd set off for a little while and then turn back.  For some reason we decided to head towards Dragon Bridge on the Yulong River, for which Lonely Planet describes a 20 km loop.  I figured that we ride for a bit and then turn around and head back home.  Well, a little ways in a helpful scooter-ride pointed us the way towards Dragon Bridge and when we stopped at a little bridge to take some photos and consult our map.  He showed us where we were and, according to the free map from the hostel, we were nearly to Dragon Bridge.  So, we continued along our way.

From that point on, we were riding on a higgedly piggedly mud or sometimes gravel road that wound its way between peoples homes and along their fields, so that at times I was afraid we were going to veer into someone's backyard.  No one seemed particularly offput by our presence and we often called out a "Nihao" that was often greeted with a "Hello."  But the sights were just incredible.  The fields framed by the karsts.  The Farmers leading their Water Buffalo for their baths.  Chickens wandering freely.  Cows tied up alongside the road grazing and looking at us dolefully as we rode by.

After riding like this for quite some time, we had no idea how off track we might be and our legs were getting really tired.  If Dragon Bridge wasn't nearby, we were heading back.  Although, at this point I wasn't sure that going back was any faster that going forward.  Luckily, Reid found a nice Chinese gal who told us it was close by and sure enough, a little ways up and we hit a main road that we followed for a few meters until we saw a sign tellings us to turn left for Dragon Bridge.

I'm not sure what all the hype about Dragon Bridge was about.  I think it's just an old bridge.  We did pick up some cold tea and water from the vendor and fend off touts offering to sell us Bamboo Raft rides back down the river.  I was half tempted by the raft ride, but figured we could bike a bit longer and then jump on a raft a bit further down.  At this point, my butt was pretty sore from being constantly jostled on the bumpy road and our bikes had no suspension, so any divet or bump translated directly to my bum.

So we crossed the bridge and headed back on the other side of the bridge.  The map shows that the route we were supposed to be on follows the west-bank of the river.  We found the initial trail fine and then at a little fork in the road, I decided to head left since this would take us back toward the river and I figured the closer we stayed to the river, the less chance we'd have of getting off track and wandering too far west.  Well, the track went for a ways and then started getting narrower and narrower.  The steering on our bikes was pretty wobbly, so it wasn't very easy to keep them on a narrow path.  Eventually, I gave up and jumped off the bike to walk for a bit.  By now we were walking in between fields and rice patties with irrigation ditches down below us.  The path was not wide enough for me and my bike to make it through, so I made for some tough maneuvering, until the path pretty much dead-ended.  So, we took some photos of us lost in the middle of the fields and headed back to the fork in the road to resume our travel.

As we made it further South and West back toward Yangshuo we rode through another part of the path that got very narrow and didn't seem too well-traveled.  There was a Chinese graveyard built into the side of a Karst to our right and not much too our left.  I nervously asked Reid whether he thought we'd made another wrong term, but neither of us remembered seeing a turn off.  And, sure enough, the patch eventually widened back to its normal width.  I guess the path narrowed a bit because there wasn't much space between the river on our left and the karst on our right.  

We were then back at the Yulong River and crossed back over to the East side.  We opted not to take a ride on a bamboo raft and this point, although I really regretted it later as we had to pick our dinner spot based on who had the most padded chairs to sit in.  It was a great day and a wonderful ride and I was pretty surprised that we accomplished a 4 hour 20km ride when we had just set out to tool around a bit.

Our Arrival in Yangshuo

I woke up yesterday to the sound of spitting outside our window.  Although we had heard about the spitting in China, we hadn't seen much of it in Beijing or Shanghai.  We had just enough time to shower, pack our bags, and check out at noon.  They are very strict about check out times here and will charge you half your daily rate for check outs between noon and six (we haven't experienced this yet, but it's posted in most of the places we've stayed).  

I'll admit that I was feeling a bit under the weather and grouchy.  We got a recommendation for a pizza place on the main drag and despite the gestured vague directions were able to find it.  We were rewarded on our way with views of the Li River and we were already enjoying getting out of the cities.  The pizza place was touristy, in other words it rose to Western standards of cleanliness and had a wonderful little patio where we could sit and look across the road to the river.  But the prices were also inflated.  Despite the cost, it did not disappoint.  We both had great coffee and shared a thin crust pizza.  It was exactly what my flagging spirits needed.  And they even had a clean restroom.  

After we ate, we made our way to the bus stop to catch a bus to the main bus station where we would get on a bus for Yangshuo.  As we were waiting at the bus station, a rickshaw driver came by and offered us a ride.  We negotiated a price that was about 1 yuan more than we think the bus price was and jumped on.  Reid ended up giving him a 1 yuan tip because the most he tried to sell us was some "river fish" that we could eat on the way.  We arrived at the bus station and walked inside.  No English desk.  Well, at least we know how to say Yangshuo.  The Lonely Planet explained that you wanted the express bus, not the local bus.  We understood that the local bus only left from the train station, but after the airport, we wanted to be clear that we got on the right bus.  We pulled out our mandarin book and Reid managed to buy us two tickets on the "kuaisu" bus to Yangshuo that departed at 2:35 for 30 yuan.  We picked up some snacks and Reid used the bathroom and then we tried to puzzle out where exactly our bus left out of this busy bus station.  Our tickets were almost entirely in Chinese.  We could read that it left on 4.28.10 at 14:35 and that one of us was "3" and the other "4."  The only other number on our tickets was a "10" and our guess that this was the departure bay was correct.  We queued up with some locals and bordered our bus about 15 minutes later.  

It took an hour and a half to get to Yangshuo and the scenery was beautiful.  I was glad, however, that we chose to sit in the middle of the bus where we couldn't observe the drive.  If the honks (emitted by our bus and cars around us on the road) were any indication, it wasn't something we wanted to see.  We arrived in Yangshuo at 16:04 and as soon as the bus pulled in a group of touts huddled by the door to "help" us find rooms and places to rent bikes.  We were able to fend them off and they didn't even follow us half a block away where we went to re-group.  We ducked into a bar and ordered a beer while we oriented ourselves and then set off to Bamboo Inn.  They operate two locations, the Inn, which I think is mostly dorms, and a newer Bamboo Hotel.  They had a double room available at the hotel, so "auntie" walked us three minutes down the road to the other location where we have a great room for 130 yuan ($19) a night.  It even has a bathtub! No more showering over the toilet for our stay here.  The bed is soft, a novelty in China, and we have a little two-person patio with a bit of a view of some karsts.  Perfect.  It's booked starting on the 2nd, becuase of the Chinese Labor Day, so we'll have to move to a different room.  But we'll enjoy the balcony while we have it.

After checking in, we showered off the travel day and walked around before finding dinner.  The river is a stone's throw away and, if we choose, we can take a Bamboo Raft ride down the river.  It is just beautiful here.  After checking out the scenery we went to a Vegetarian restaurant for dinner.  In Southern China they eat rats and dogs, so we are happy to avoid those whenever possible (I'm probably being paranoid, though.  This is a very touristy area, so I don't think anyone is going to sell you dog or rat without you knowing it.)  After dinner we took a long walk back to our hotel and were met by the general glare of neon lights announcing the various bars, restaurants, and shops that were all peddling their wares.  The karsts had spotlights on them so that you could enjoy them as a backdrop.  I told Reid that it reminded me of being at the State Fair.  I was suprised I didn't run into anyone trying to sell me funnel cake.  Despite being so touristed, Yangshuo is charming and I appreciate the variety of food here.  I probably wouldn't have to eat anything Chinese for the balance of our stay.  The Chinese food we've had here is very good, but you do find yourself craving something familiar.  

We had planned to rent some bikes today, but after a leisurely morning and late lunch it started to rain.  We wandered around the shops instead and found a pair of matching bands.  Yay!! We then headed to the farmer's markets.  We managed to avoid seeing any dogs skinned, but did see a bunch of cages housing any type of fowl you'd want and some pretty fat bunnies.  Well, I think we've figured out dinner plans, so I think I"ll sign off so we can get some food.  

Dude, Where's My Chopsticks?

On our last day in Shanghai we headed to a charming little alley off of Taikang Lu that we had found with my Dad on a walking tour of the French Concession earlier in the week.  After seeing my Dad and Trey off to the train station for their sleeper train to Beijing, we were all set to take off.  Until we realized that my Dad had been navigating and we had no idea how to get back.  Google maps is only slightly helpful in China because a lot of roads and even metros are only labeled in Chinese.  So, we made our best guess and headed off.  We exited the metro alongside a major road with flashing lights and tall buildings all around us.  This did not look familiar.  We were totally confused that our charming little alleyways could be within a couple blocks.  But, we set off.  And eventually found our way back to familiar territory and found the cute little alleyways lined with shops and small restaurants.  

We ended up at a little Thai place called Corner Asia and ordered some egg rolls, a vegetable curry, and pad thai.  They brought out our beers a little tray with sliverware and napkins on top.  They then brought out the egg rolls.  We looked around, but our chopsticks were nowhere to be found.  All that we had was a silver fork and spoon.  Hmmm... we  decided it was finger food.  Then they broughts us out our main dishes and steamed rice.  Although this posed less of a problem to eat with a fork and knife, we were, nonetheless, shocked at how foreign and awkward the fork felt after eating exclusively with chopsticks for the past couple weeks.  I suppose it doesn't take long to adjust to these things.  After dinner we headed home and packed up our bags for our trip to Yangshuo

Travel to Yangshuo - Part I (Dyanne's Version of Events)

So, 17 hours after checking out of our hotel in Shanghai, we are nearly to our next destination.  But we do have two more stamps in our passports!  Yangshuo is still about an hour and a half bus ride away.  To be fair, when we set off this morning we didn't expect to arrive in Yangshuo until tomorrow.  Reid accurately recounted our adventure getting onto our plane in Shanghai.  Our great relief at getting onto the plane after taking about twenty minutes to check in and the most thorough screening we have ever experienced--they detected a pair of sewing scissors that had made it through two security check points already.  It's a good thing that the lines here aren't very long (for check in or for security) because both take much longer than in the States.  So, by walking right up to the counter it takes about the same amount of time as it would at home.

After flying to Hong Kong, our plan was to take the overnight bus to Guilin, which would have arrived at seven in the morning.    Sitting on the tarmac in Shanghai for four hours meant that we arrived at Hong Kong airport at 4:20 and the train was leaving at 5:30.  That plan scrapped, we opted for plan B--bus to Shenzhen airport and flgiht to Guilin.  We knew there were several flights leaving in the evening.  It took a while to sort our the bus situation.  Turns out, what the guidebooks advertise as "a" bus to Shenzhen is actually a thriving private industry of buses who drive people the hour to the Hong Kong/ China border and drop everyone off to walk across the border into China and then pick you up on the other side and take you the rest of the way to the airport.  We were not the only ones with this plan.  The border crossing was quite bustling and everyone was carting large loads of stuff they had picked up in Hong Kong.  It seemed like quite a lot of effort to get back to where we had been this morning--China.

We arrived at the airport and bought our tickets for the plane and had about an hour and half to grab some food, update the blog and finally take a breather from the dashing around we had been doing.  I also discovered at the airport that we were no longer in Shanghai (in Shanghai and Beijing, in places frequented by tourists, the bathroom was populated by mostly Western toilets and only about one or two "squattters" and in Shenzhen, there was ONE Western toilet reserved for "the weak"--I decided I was weak, but first had to trek back out to our bags to pick up the toilet paper.  This was but an introduction, though, because there were ZERO Western toilets at the Guilin airport and I was grateful for all the sqauts my trainer had me doing in the months before we embarked on our adventure.)

Bathroom needs resolved, we headed outside to find a taxi.  Turns out that the airport shuttle may have still been running, but at after midnight it wasn't entirely clear if it was the shuttle or a tour bus and for the 60 yuan ($8) difference in price we figured it wasn't worth the risk.  The taxi driver took us on a fast and furious half hour drive to the hostel we had picked out only to arrive and find the place dark.  Luckily, he was willing to take us to the next hostel in line.  All the while Reid and I were crossing our fingers that it would be open and that we wouldn't have to check into a regular hotel.  We arrived to find lights and room and are now in a double room for 120 yuan ($17) for the night.  We're hanging out in the lobby now  with the 4 yuan beers we picked up at the convenience store next door decompressing from the excitement of our journey.  

Tomorrow we'll sleep in, perhaps poke around Guilin, and then take a bus to the bus station where we will get on a bus to Yangshuo.  According to Lonely Planet (and others) it will be worth effort.  We are already appreciating being out in rural China and we got a few glimpses of the karst landscape from the taxi, so we are both looking forward to renting bikes and touring around for a few days.

I feel, in a way, that our round the world trip finally started today.  Despite the difficulties getting started in Beijing, it all just seemed a little too easy and there wasn't any element that felt remotely like we were roughing it.  I don't think that we have quite gotten to the point of "roughing it" exactly, but the long travel day, language barrier, and spontaneity of it all felt more like what I was expecting.  

A Travel Day (a really really really long travel day)

Reid here, even though the tagline up there says Dyanne.  One of us had the foresight to set up posting by email.  One of us gets to post under his wife's name.  I'll let you guess who is who. 

We just had our first true travel day (actually, we're still in the midst of it).  We left Shanghai this morning and our goal was to get to Yangshuo, a great little backpacker hangout in a rural area of china about 12 hours from Hong Kong where we plan to rent bikes and ride around the countryside.  We will take Tai Chi classes.  It will be a bucolic idyll.  But first we have to get there.  Our plan had been to take the third leg of our RTW ticket from Shanghai to Hong Kong and then get cheap local transit to Yangshuo.  It was until a few days ago that we realized that China is Really Big, and that close on the map does not mean close in real life.  

We are sitting here at the Tea Leaf Cafe in the Shenzhen airport drinking Tsingtaos and eating vegetable noodles while we wait for our plane to Guilin.  (As a side note, China has a very loose association with "vegetables" - in this case, three pieces of lettuce and a bit of shredded carrots qualified the soup for that status).  We have been traveling for about 14 hours, with a few more ahead of us.  But it has been an Adventure (or so we are telling ourselves).  

We got packed up and checked out of our Shanghai hotel in good order this morning (though a bit behind schedule) and took the metro to the Mag Lev train that runs out to Pudong airport.  I am glad to say that I have ridden on a mag lev train, but I would probably recommend that people just budget a bit of extra time and take the metro to the airport.  

We almost missed our plane.  First, the airline couldn't find either of our tickets.  Then they solved half of the problem by finding my ticket, but saying Dyanne had cancelled hers.  Eventually, both were located and printed.  Then we hit security.  And the most thorough team of screeners ever to be assembled.  Once our bags were repacked (thank god for packing cubes), we heard our flight announced for a last boarding call.  We ran through a strange maze of hallways and got the gate just in time to jump into the transit bus out to our plane.  We got into our seats on the mostly empty flight and sat back with a great deal of relief.  It felt good to sit.  But then, we realized that the plane was sitting too.  It was apparently tired, because that's what it did for the next 4 hours. Sit.  We never got any clarification on why, but they gave us beer and a meal, so I felt that was an acceptable compromise.  

By the time we arrived in Hong Kong, we had missed any chance to catch the overnight train to Guilin that left from nearby Shenzhen airport (back in mainland China).  We had also missed the last ferry to the Shenzhen airport that would have let us bypass Hong Kong immigration.  So we officially left China and entered Hong Kong.  Then we found bus tickets to Shenzhen airport (and got just a bit ripped off, but that's a post for another time).  We grabbed a quick bite and boarded the bus to Shenzhen (a mostly empty coach bus, quite comfortable).  It turned out to be mostly empty because there was another identical bus for about 80 yuan less (~$10).  Oops.  

The drive through Hong Kong was fantastic.  It looks like a fairy tale south east asian archipelago, all jungle covered mountains jutting out of the sea, and everywhere with a flat bit of land was covered in skyscrapers.  I definitely am looking forward to going back and taking a closer look at the city.  After about an hour, we reached the land border with china and the bus spit us out to cross back through customs and immigration.  By the time we made it back through, we had missed our connecting bus to the airport, and had to wait 20 minutes for the next one.  Then we sat in traffic for a while.  Finally, we arrived at the airport.  

We had researched prices for flights to Guilin, and had been told that you could usually get a cheaper rate by asking at the ticket desk at the airport.  I can't speak to the general rule, but this time was an exception.  After asking at several different ticket desks, we realized that (a) the prices seemed to be set in stone and (b) all of the ticket agents worked for the same company and could ticket for any of the flights.  We fired up our laptop and confirmed that the internets couldn't get us a better deal and bought two tickets.  

That seems to bring us current.  I am sure that I am leaving out something or another, but on my four hours of sleep, I think that is all that I will be able to manage :)  So now we fly to Guilin, get a cheap dorm room for the night, and take a bus to Yangshuo tomorrow morning where we hope to check into the Bamboo House hostel for a week of relaxation.