Beijing, China; yum yum in my tum tum

When me and Brianna arrived early in the morning, 7 am to be exact, we took on the Pearl Market. The name is decieving as there is much more than just pearls to buy. The venders there can really wear you out...at one point I was held hostage in a booth by a lady wanting me to buy a fake Dolce bag. She held on tightly to my arm.

I was intrigued. Have you ever seen a crystal ball this big??

So after the Pearl Market we walked across the street to see the Temple of Heaven. It doesn't exactly look like a typical temple, but the designs on the outside were outstanding. The temple dates to the Ming dynasty.

On the outside of the temple. The popular Chinese dragon and phoenix.

As much fun as were were having shopping and sightseeing we were definately in need of some good food. We were up for trying some of Peking's famous Roast Duck. On Wanfujing Street we found a place called Quanjude Roast Duck Resturant. At this place you either have the choice of ordering half a duck or the whole thing. We went for the half, and it came with some dark sauce, onions, and wonton wrappers. Apparently the Chinese like to eat their duck rolled in the won ton wrapper with the sauce and onions like a fajita. Let me tell ya. I throughly enjoyed my duck.

They come to your table and carve the duck for you. Oh, and by the way Brianna ate the duck's brain. Eww.

Leia Mais…

Xian, China

I have to say, that Xi'an (said she-ann) was a very cool city to visit. As an added bonus, we stayed in an even better hostel than the night before.

In Xi'an, there are old city walls in the center of the city. They used to obviously surround the city, but now the city is too big to fit inside. The south gate used to be the starting point of the silk road. Briana and I hired a guy to drive us on the wall a short distance.

We walked around the Muslim Quarter night market the first night. It goes on my list as favorite markets I've been to. You can find many stands selling dried fruit and nuts as well as knock off bags, shoes and everything else you can imagine. There are an assortment of vendors selling arts, crafts and also exotic teas.

This is a brushes shop.

We also got the chance to try cow heels. I didn't mean to order the dish, but the waiter didn't understand that I said no and sent me the dish anyway. I tried it. Besides for being extremely spicey, it wasn't that bad. Very tender. I didn't eat much of it, so I gave it to a begger that had come up to our table (we were eating outside.) Bri and I were shocked to watch him down the plate in 3 seconds considering how spicey it was.

This is me eating cow heels.

The next day, we got up early, and rode the bus to see the Terracota Soilders. The tourist attraction was suprisingly well laid out with marble steps, a park, shopping plaza, and museum. I was a little disappointed at the trip because it wasn't as amazing as I had imagined.

Inside pit 1, the largest of the three.

Afterwards, we got back into Xi'an and paid a visit to the Big Goose Pagoda. It is 7 floors high, and they say the higher you climb, the more successful in life you will be. Of course, we climbed to the top.

We also had lunch at the best dumpling place. We enjoyed pork dumplings boiled and steamed, and also a plate of prawn dumplings. The nice thing was that it was all free. The locals sitting next to us paid for our lunch and bought us beers!

This is us enjoying our dumplings.

So I absolutely had to post this picture. This is Brianna and some locals outside the Pagoda. Everywhere we go, the local people come up to her and ask to take a picture of her, or most often, with her. Of course they definately don't want me, I had this one lady come up and I actually thought that she wanted me in her picture too, but she pushed me out of the way! I roll in laughter inside everytime!

We left Xi'an last night with a very positive perspective of the city. Definately a place you wouldn't want to miss if comming to China.

Leia Mais…

Leshan, China; losing weight the Chinese way

What can I say but that its been a very wild two days. As I left off, we were in Chengdu. The next morning we awoke early to catch a half day tour to a Panda Breeding Base where the endangered species are born and raised.

At the center, you can make a 1000 Yen donation (about 150 US dollars) to hold a baby Panda. Wow! Briana paid to hold a panda and I took tons of pictures for her. For me, I got a bonus just being that close to a baby Panda. They are so cute.

This is a picture of a random person holding a panda I took with my camera.

The center also housed Red Panda's. They kind of look like big red tabby cats.

The next half of the day, we went to Leshan, about 2 hours outside of Chengdu where we were eager to see the Giant Buddha. What we were absolutely not prepared for was the stairs. You laugh now, but if only I could give you the full scope of what I mean.

Here. Here is a extremely small fraction of the many, many stairs that we went up, then down, then up, then down.... get the picture? Me and Briana were drenched in sweat because of the humidity. It was quite a hike.

Can you see me at the bottom? These are some serious stairs.

(I'm carrying lunch)

This is right next to the Buddha, see the people way at the top? You start there and climb down these intensely steep stairs against the side of the cliff.

So anyway, the stair climbing, in my opinion, was worth it. We reached the top and saw the Big Buddha. Then, we climbed down the cliff to see the rest of him from the bottom up. He is quite amazing, over looking the river. An easier way to see the Big Buddha would have been by boat, but hey, we took the more crazy route as usual.

Here is the Big Buddha.

This is Briana at the top...

And this is me at the bottom..!

There was much more to see at this park besides the Big Buddha. Me and Briana agreed that we could have easily spent the entire day there at the Buddha Park. There were many temples and things to walk around and see.

So busing it back to Changdu, we caught an overnight sleeper train (15 hours) to Xi'an. And here we are. We are staying at probably one of the nicest hostels yet.

Leia Mais…

Chengdu, China; one shoe

Today was strictly a travel day. We got up at 5:30 am and walked through the empty streets of Hong Kong to the east rail station to take a train to Shenzhen. Shenzhen is where we walked over to mainland China and made the border crossing. I didn't expect so many differences between Hong Kong and mainland China as there was. First off, even the currency is different. Also, in the mainland they drive on the right rather than the left. Not many people seem to speak much English, and there are definately not a lot of tourists.

From Shenzhen, we took a flight via Air China, which I have to note is a remarkably clean and nice airline to fly, to where we are staying now, Chengdu.

I would say that we got lucky on three accounts today. First off, we really didn't have a clue where to go or stay when we arrived here, but a helpful man at the airport suggested a place called Dragon Town. Having no plans, it was just as good as any to find a room. This place has turned out to be picturesque with traditional Chinese architecture and a village type feel. There are no cars driving down these alley's and also all signs are in Chinese. So my guide book listed a place called DragonTown Guest House (www.dragontown.com.cn), but trying to find it was going to be a challenge. Remind you, no one can speak a word of English here, and there are no street signs. The first place I walked in to attempt to find the place happened to actually be the place.
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This is me with all my stuff as we are walking through the town.

So here we are in DragonTown staying at this incrediable youth hostel that is actually a historic building dating back to the Qing Dynasty (whatever that means).

Just a couple pictures of this place. Its rather strange, this village, since we are in the middle of a city of 10 million.





The last account of getting lucky today was me losing a shoe. This is a bit of backpackers humor because I actually had my sneakers strapped to the outside of my pack so that my clothes wouldn't get dirty. Somewhere along the line of walking through DragonTown to find the hostel I had lost one. Me and Bri backtracked to try to find my one shoe. I was bummed about not finding it. So we went back to the hostel and the lady at the desk said in her heavy accent something like this; "You have shoe? I knoc in doors for somebody shoe. " I was so happy to find my long lost shoe.

Here are a couple pictures from our walk through the Hong Kong harbor taken last night.

Leia Mais…

Hong Kong; big big city

Me and Briana arrived in style yesterday, disasterous from the 21 hours of traveling. We made our way to the hostel where we are staying by way of metro. Our room is probably the worst hostel I have ever stayed in. It feels like we are in a closet and it smells like mold. But I told Briana to think of it like camping, only indoors.



So on our first day, we went to Victoria Peak, a big hill in the middle of Hong Kong. To get up to the top you ride this packed cable car. The view is amazing at the top and oddly, there is a whole big shopping plaza and food court at the top.


View of Hong Kong at the top of Victoria Peak.


To get down, we decided to do the adventerous thing and walk down, rather than take the cable car like all the other tourists. It was supposed to be a short hike had we have not taken the wrong path. This is the funny part, we took the wrong path that was a two hour walk just to take us all the way around and back where we started. Haha. From there we should have taken the cable car, but nope, we decided again to walk down. Well this time it was the right path, but had we have known that the walk down was going to be as steep as it was, and take as long as it did, I would have taken the cable car like all the smart people.

Hours later we got to the bottom, sweaty, hungry, exhausted, and our calves screaming in pain.

So that was yesterday. Today we got up early and went to the Po Lin monastery on Lantau. Situated there is a big Buddha.






So tonight its an early bedtime, so that tomorrow we can wake up early and head into mainland China.

Leia Mais…

Greece Greece mum mum.....

So talk about spur of the moment trips. At least all those who know me well, aren't surprised that I just picked up and left Vegas on a whim.

So I entitled this, my one and only entry while here in Greece, as such because what I discovered about the people here, is that though they come across as the most friendly introductory people, in actuality their friendliness is limited. When I ask any Greek a question about how to get somewhere or where the toilets are, they reply in the most mumble tone of voice and act as if they are bothered by my stuipidity as an American. I went to the reception desk to ask if they could help me get a cab, and rather than say a yes or a no, they looked at me turned around and walked away. I didn't know whether to keep standing there or whether he understoond or not. That's Greek for you.

Other than that, the food here is awesome. They sure do like their feta cheese, olives, tomatos, cucumbers, and olive oil.

When I arrived in Athens, I paid a visit to the ruins, the Pantheon. I do have to admitt, I know nothing about Greek mythology, and going to the ruins didn't seem to spark any interest to learn more. But i guess it's cool to say that I've been there, and besides the view from the top was spectacular, over looking the entire city of Athens and the Mediterranean Sea.









I will write more on Greece when I get back to the states, as there is much more to say, but I want to upload more pictures.

Here is a picture of Santorinni, the most amazing place I have been to in Greece thus far.




I have been staying mostly on the island of Crete. I have a fabulous room over looking the sea.

Leia Mais…

Coldplay Concert

This concert was seriously the coolest, most amazing concert I've ever seen in my life...and yes, this Seattle girl has been to many many concerts.

Not only did they have lasers but the lights were just so beautiful. In the middle of the show, the whole band jumped off the stage, and ran all the way to the back of the arena. They played two songs in the middle of the audience, which is the picture of them in the middle of the crowd. The last part of the show, a million paper butterflies fell from the ceiling, and the lights shinned on them so the whole arena looked so beautiful, as the band was rocking out on stage. They had the best energy and the audience was singing along, it was so much fun!

Leia Mais…