"Moto Bi"

Yesterday Mark, Phil, and I rented motor bikes here in Chiang Mai. For $3 a day and less than $3 of gas, we had the bikes for a full 24 hours. Chiang Mai is a little more laid back and easy to get around than any other city we've been in, so we figured it was a good place to try them out. Yes Mom, we wore helmets like all the other "farang". While traffic was the lightest compared to any other city, it was still challenging to figure out. But we got the hang of it no problem and avoided any dangerous situations. It took us about 2 hours to find our hostel on our bikes, since every time we rode around the city we were in the back of a truck taxi and couldn't see anything. But getting lost was actually kinda fun because we learned our way around. Last night, a group of about 15 of us went out for a little fun. Surprisingly, the ratio of girls to guys is quite good here in our hostel. Our group included 4 guys and about 10 or 11 girls, mostly from England and one from N. Ireland who is a crack up. It was another late night, which made today a little rough. But after we nourished our bodies with a little American burgers, we decided to head up the mountain on our "moto bis" to see a famous Wat (temple). The ride also allowed us to see the whole city of Chiang Mai. The ride was really fun, winding back and forth up the hill, until it started to rain. When it rains here, its like a monsoon! It comes down harder than any rain I have been in and riding our bikes made it feel like pins and needles on our bodies. We didnt make it all the way to the Wat and we didn't want to ride in the rain (too late) so we headed back down the hill to return the bikes in town. By the time we got there (20 min ride), we looked like we had jumped into a swimming pool. We taxied back to the hostel and tonight we are just going to hang out since we are flying to Ko Samui island in southeast Thailand tomorrow.

Chiang Mai Day Trek

Today we took a day trek outside of Chiang Mai. The tour bus (small Toyota truck with us sitting in the bed on a bench) picked us up around 9 am and we headed out of the city for about an hour. We made a stop at a butterfly farm, where they also grew orchid flowers. They showed us that it is a 3 year process to grow the orchid. They first plant it in a glass flask. After about 3 months they break open the glass and plant the small plant. From there its a very slow process and probably why orchids cost so much. After the butterfly farm, we headed to an elephant camp. We were greeted by some villagers and 5 giant Asian elephants. Phil, another friend from Cal Poly who met up with us in Vietnam, and I climbed aboard the elephants back and made our way into the jungle. Our small group trekked aboard elephants for about an hour, hesitating only to satisfy their hunger for more bananas. After our ride, we climbed into a metal cage and ran along a zip line over the river to the other side where lunch awaited. After dining on Pad Thai (fried Thai noodles) we began our long hike to see a beautiful waterfall. This hike was much more challenging than we expected. While the rain created a nice ambiance to the jungle scenery, it made the terrain much more difficult to hike through. Mud and slippery rocks were only the beginning. This hike included balancing on logs, pipes, and makeshift steps in order to accomplish our goal. Again, the rain only added to the challenge. Mark, who has hiked many different places in the U.S. said this was his most challenging yet, so that made me feel good when we finished. Everyone made it there and back safely (2 hours total) expect for a few bumps from the occasional slip. The waterfall was really pretty and the hike was well worth it. If that wasn't enough for one day though, the day ended with whitewater rafting. A quick briefing on commands and we were off. This rafting excursion was not the most challenging I've been on, but it still included a few good rapids. At this point in the day it was actually just what we needed; not too challenging but still exciting. For the final stretch of the river we embarked on a bamboo rafter. This raft was literally 15 pieces of bamboo tied together with what looked like rope made from shredded tires. Our guide designated me captain, and like a Venetian gondolier I guided our group down the final stretch. A cold, muddy, 1.5 hour ride back to Chiang Mai in the back of that same Toyota concluded our trip. We finished off the night ordering pizza delivery and stuffing our faces as a way of recovering.

View from my Elephant Ride (Asking for a Banana)

Royal Palace in Bangkok

Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

The Beach Outside Hong Kong (It's Behind the Yahts)

Up on Victoria Peak Overlooking Hong Kong

Whats the capital of Thailand? Bangkok!

We arrived in Bangkok a couple of days ago with little expectations. We kept hearing about how there is not much to see and how its a creepy city. Well, it is definitely a different place but it has its moments. We arrived in the afternoon and headed straight to our hostel. After getting settled, we walked around the neightborhood around 5 pm. We came across a section that had a lot of bars stacked on top of each other. Each one offered a different "experience". We knew Bangkok was a sexual city, but it was weird to actually be there. After walking around for 5 minutes, we were already uncomfortable. We couldnt even look in a certain direction without a group of women(?) soliciting us. At least we think they were all women. Apparently there are a lot a "lady boys" here who have had sex changes. Gross! What makes it even more gross is that it truly i shard to tell sometimes. We quickly retreated and headed for a "safe place", which was hard to find. But after we did we ate some food and discussed our discomforts. After establishing a gameplan, we went back to the hostel to change to go out on the town. Bangkok is know for its outrageous clubs and house music. We went to a club called Bed Supperclub. You can eat dinner in bed, then dance the night away. We passed on the dinner, but enjoyed cuttin up the rug until about 2am when they close. Feelin good, we headed to another club called Boss that stays open later. This is where the madness that is Bangkok reared its head. This club was not completely full, but the people there were out of control. The sexual side of Bangkok showed up again as girls were dancing on tables completely naked. We couldnt believe what was going on around us, especially since people were acting like it was no big deal. What!? Again, interesting for a minute then completely uncomfortable. Today we took in some sites after slowly dragging ourselved out of bed. We saw the palace and a couple of Wats (temples). This evening we took in a Mui Thai kickboxing event. It lasted about 3 hours and included 7 different fight, 2 of which ended in knockouts. The last kid was taken off on a stretcher. When I say kid, I mean it. We thought were at a black market event b/c they were so young. All weighed 100 lbs, expect for once match that paired up 2 kids weighing 115 lbs. We later found out that they were no older than 15 years old. We had no idea when we paid for our ringside tickets it would be like this, but they didnt disappoint. We even took our picture with the best fighter of the night (5'3, 104 lbs). Tomorrow we head to Chiang Mai in the north. I will keep you updated.

What the Pho? It's Viet-NAM

So its been a while since I last updated but that is only because every time I got on the internet in Hanoi, the annoying hotel owner would bug me about writing a stupid review for his hotel. The place was really nice, spacious, and offered free breakfast for about $5 a night. To give you an idea about Hanoi, its freakin' crazy! There are over 2 million motor bikes in the city according to our tour guide, and not one of them obeys the the traffic laws. They are more of a suggestion apparently. For a mere $6, a Vietnamese person can pay to get a drivers liscence without actually taking the test. They just hand over the liscence since you pay a little more. This made crossing the streets nearly impossible, especially since there were hardly any stop lights. Given this, we decided to sign up for an organized day tour of the city. A van picked us up at every site and drove us to the next. We saw Ho Chi Minh himself, just chillin out in his mosoleum. I say this literally. The room has to be cool in order to preserve a guy who has been dead for 38 years. He looked really creepy, but they love him in Vietnam. He is the equivalent of China's Mao, so you could say Ho is "Mr. Vietnam". The military guarding Ho was very serious though, correcting me for walking with my hands behind my back and making me walk with them at my side. We got to see the first university established in Nam which was founded in 1048 I believe so it is very old. The city of Hanoi will actually be celebrating its 1000 year aniversary in 2 years, so I assume a big party awaits. Hearing our guide talk about Vietnamese history and how they have fought off the Chinese, the French (twice) and the United States was interesting. It was very weird to hear him talk about the "US enemy". But the Vietnamese are very proud people, and hold no grudges. They just look to work together with us now and build a positive future, so that was nice to hear. And Dad, Vietnam surprisingly has great bread. I think it comes from the French influence after they tried to overtake Vietnam a couple of times. Anyways, we saw pretty much everything in about a day and then headed to Ha Long Bay, about 3 hours outside the city. Ha Long Bay was absolutley beautiful! Almost 2,000 limestone islands make up the bay. We slept on a boat, went kayaking, and swam in the 80 degree water. It was like swimming in a bath tub. I've never felt ocean water so warm. We also visited a floating village and explored a giant cave. After returning the next day, we flew to Bangkok, Thailand.

Di Long Beach

So last night Mark and I met up with Chuck at his place on Hong Kong Island. After finally finding it, we headed out to dinner at a place called Dragon Lounge or something. I dont know but it was expensive. Dinner was typical Cantonese. Mark and I spent $300 Hong Kong Dollars each, which is just shy of $40. Not too crazy for a nice dinner, but we were still hungry. Hong Kong is pretty expensive compared to the rest of China. The exchange rate is the same as mainland China, but eating and going out here are much much more. $12 USD drinks are the norm. Even going to the beach today cost us $300 HKD ($40 US) but it was well worth it. Chuck picked us up today and we drove north to a park near mainland China. Once in the park, we took a small boat on a 15-20 min ride around to a secluded beach that Chuck has been going ot for over 20 years. This was definitely the prettiest beach I have even been to in my life. We walked about 10 mins through the hills to get to the beach. Mark and I kinda described the scenery as what you see on a movie like "Platoon"; very lush and green. The beach was quiet and completely undeveloped. We knew a big party was on its way though and soon enough, many large yaghts pulled into the cove and tied together. A dj tent was set up on the beach and a big party of young models ensued. Apparently, a large media giant in H.K. also owns a modeling agency and they were celebrating a birthday party. We knew this was happening today and we glady joined. It wasnt as exciting as it sounds, but we had a good time socializing and playing frizbee. The weather was perfect! It was about 95 and humid but with a slight breeze and the cool 70+ degree water was just what we needed to cool down. Even though I constantly reapplied sunscreen, I managed to get a little red. Hopefully it mellows to a nice tan. We returned after 6 and are pretty pooped. Tomorrow we are going to hang around Kowloon where we are staying and see some sites. Oh yeah, we took in a movie the other day too to escape the night heat. We saw Die Hard 4.0 with Chinese subtitles. It was definitely worth it so go see it if you want some action! Anyways, we are heading to Hanoi, Vietnam on Tuesday so I will fill you in then. I'll try to post some more pics too.

Hong Kong

I know its been a while since the last post, but the hostels here in Hong Kong are really crappy. No internet or commong rooms, just small box rooms that Mark's wingspan can easily cover. We have already moved to a new one due to price and cleanliness. But now that I am off of the mainland, I can view the blog and your comments so thanks for the feedback. I hope all is well back home. We arrived here in Hong Kong Wednesday night after flying to Zhuhai, a small city on the tip of southern China. From there we took an hour long ferry to Hong Kong. Mark and I are staying on Kowloon, right across from Hong Kong Island. Our hostel is in a place called Mirador Mansion which is probably the worst building here. However, its location is perfect and almost all the other hostels are actually in this building too. We stayed at a place called London Hostel, yet it was run by a bunch of Indian guys. Ganesh adorns the walls looking over the place, keeping everyone safe. Aside from the smell of curry the room had 2 beds, A/C, a tv with no channels, and a toilet/sink/shower; everything we needed. While it was tight, you could actually get ready all in one place. The "bathroom" allowed us to perform the "3 S's" all at the same time. But enough about the room. Thursday we set out for our first day in Hong Kong. Mark and I walked around and saw the zoological park. It was surprisingly free and had many different animals such as monkeys, lemurs, and even a jaguar. After our stroll, we took the cable car to the top of Victoria Peak to get a look down on the craziness that is Hong Kong. The view allowed us to see over all the skyscrapers and showed us how little room there really is to build here. After lunch, we headed back to the hostel and called a friend of a friend who lives here. A very close family friend named Brandon has a friend that lives here in Hong Kong and he wanted to set us up. Thursday night we met his friend named Chuck and he took us to a free party sponsored by Chivas Scotch Wiskey. We met his friends and hung out for a bit. B/C he had work the next day, Chuck showed us a row of bars and then we parted ways. This was only the beginning for us those. We went to a club called Valore and danced til about 3:30. Mark and I met some British girls and they wanted to go to another bar where they had friends. We joined them and headed out. We soon realized after 2 guys bought us beers that the place these Brits brought us was a full blown gay bar! We avoided feeling uncomfortable by talking to whatever girls were around. We didnt stay too long and were home by 5am. The next day we slept in and took in the Chinese Space Museum, which not surprisingly showcased mostly American accomplishments. Today, Mark and I took a day-trip to Lantua Island, which is very close to Hong Kong Island. We went to visit the "largest outdoor sitting bronze Buddha in the world". While Im sure there are bigger out there, this one was made of bronze, was sitting, and was outdoors so I was stoked! The bus ride up and down the winding rodes was uncomfortable and the seats were definitely not made for anyone over 5'8". But at least we weren't as unlucky as the other tall American on the bus who had some Chinese lady throw up next to him b/c of the ride. Tonight we are most likely going to meet up with Chuck again to hang out. Tomorrow he is taking us to a beach that is supposed to be very pretty. He said we wont feel like we are in Hong Kong. I'll keep you posted.

I finally figured out how to translate the page and post pictures. I hope you enjoyed them. Apparently the Big Red Chinese Machine has blogged my blog in China, so that's why I cannot view it from here. But at least I can post. So, today we strolled around Shanghai's business district called the Pudong. Its across the river from where we are. Its a much slower pace here and things are a little more upscale. We went to the top of the Jim Mao Tower, the tallest in Shanghai. The observation deck is a towering 88 floors up. There is a Grand Hyatt inside the tower and an atreum that is over 30 floors high. It was quite a site and offered good views of "the hell China has created" according to Colin. Shanghai is extremely large! With over 13.5 million people, it is much larger than New York City. Some have even said there are almost 20 million people. Who knows?! As for sites, there is not much to see really. The skyline is nice, but not much for history. This city really boomed in the 1930's, so compared to the rest of China it is very new. Tonight we hung out at a bar overlooking the city and enjoyed a local brew called Tiger Beer. Mark and I sat with a young guy studying in Alberta, Canada and an Aussie in his late 20's who seems to have been all over the world. He has some pretty cool stories to share. Not much going on lately, but we head to Zuhai on Wednesday. Its on mainland China in the South near the island of Macau. From there we will take a ferry to Hong Kong. It was much cheaper this way. I'll clue you in then.

Shanghai at night. The Pearl T.V. Tower is on the left. The Aurora building is gold during the day, but at night displays at 250 + ft. T.V. screen showing crappy Chinese ads.

Me and Adonald Foyle in the V.I.P. lounge. His hands are really small.

Mr. Olympia pose at the new Olympic Stadium in Beijing

I conquered the Great Wall, one of the new 7 Wonders of the World!

Mark and I in the Forbidden City

Scottie Pippen and the Craziest Night Ever!

This entry will be the best yet. Every day so far has seemed to blow our mind a little differently, but last night has to be the pinnacle already! I don't know if it can be topped. I'll fill you in. So when I last left you, we had just gotten to Shanghai on the overnight train. Yesterday we checked into our hostel then went out for our first looks at the city. It was pretty crappy weather, but still hot and humid. I guess this is a typical Shanghai summer. It stormed really hard then went away, only to come back and dump even more rain an hour later. While walking along the riverfront, we met a guy named Jay who spoke English. Jay was really friendly and offered us some good advice on scams to watch out for. He said he was starting his own business and wanted to ask us a few questions about what foreigners look for when traveling. In exchange, he let us use his cell phone to get ahold of a friend of Colin's (Mark's friend from Beijing) named Jamey. We couldn't get ahold Jamey then, but we later talked to him about going out on the town. Jamey is from D.C. and has been living in Shanghai for over a year, so he knows bouncers, DJs, and the hot places to party. We met up for dinner and drinks around 9pm at a place that looked like a typical American bar and grill called The Spot. We stayed until about 11:30ish and went to a club. I cant remember the name of this club, but we danced for a while to some hip hop. There was a Chinese rapper, who rapped in English with some European DJs. It was actually pretty good. I cant remember what time we left, but we then headed to another club called the Muse where Jamey knew one of the bartenders. This is where it got really fun! When we first got into the club, Jamey's buddy told us the Scottie Pippen was there. This obviously got us a little excited. Mark and I hit up the dance floor and noticed another NBA player; Chris Duhon of the Chicago Bulls. We met another young white guy who was hanging with the players and he asked us if we wanted to go in the V.I.P. room and party with them. We were immediately welcomed with shots in a syringe that we shot into our mouth. These continued by the bucket-load. Dom Perignon filled our glasses all night, while caviar filled our stomachs. It was rediculous! We got the chance to talk to Adonle Foyle of the Golden State Warriors and I even got a picture. Scottie Pippen was playin suave, making drinks behind the bar. I later helped fill his glass with a little Dom when he ran low. We met the club owner and partied with them all night. We were totally welcome and it felt great. Clubs dont close here, so we partied here until probably 5:30 am. When I thought we were taking a cab back to the hostel, we were actually heading to another place called Dragon Club. I was pretty tired at this point, so Mark and I left soon after. By the time we got back, it was 6 am and the sun was pretty much up. Easy to say, today was pretty much a complete waste. Sometime last night, my chain wallet that I have been traveling with snapped. We later joked that Scottie Pippen broke my wallet. I found a guy on the street with tools to fix it today. It cost me about 50 cents for his labor. We didnt get up until around 1 pm to grab some food. Today we cured our hangovers with a little dumplings and fried bull frog. Bull frog is pretty good, but very boney. Mark ate my leftovers. We then headed back to sleep and are just now getting up again. It was about 6 pm by this point. Thats all for now. Still trying to figure out how to post pictures. I'll try to ask someone who speaks Chinese.

SHANGHAI.

So we survived our first encounter with the Chinese train system! My last post mentioned we were going to take the overnight train from Beijing to Shanghai from Friday night to Saturday morning. So it is currently Sat morning after 9am here, but still Friday night back in the States. The kid next to me is watching the Red Sox vs. Tigers game online as we speak. Before we left Beijing yesterday, we had pretty much a whole day to kill. Mark and I ventured to the Temple of Heaven, a large park with beautiful temples that were used to praised god for a good harvest. When we went to buy our tickets at the gate, we ran into a nice young Chinese woman probably in her late 20s. She heard us speaking English and offered to help speak to the ticket taker. Since she was alone, she asked if she could tag along with us as we toured the park. We were pleased to have her join us and we began our walk. Her name was Joy and we learned that she was born in Taiwan, studied in New York City, works as a Marketing Director in Shanghai, and was just visiting Beijing. Her English was very good and her Chinese came in very handy. After seeing some sights in the park, we walked to the Peal Market to try and scorch some deals for knock-offs. This is where Joy's Chinese really really came in handy for us. I ended up getting a "Gucci" watch for less than $20 thanks to her. They originally wanted about $90. Score for Joey and Joy! Mark also got a good deal on an "Armani" watch, with no help from Joy. After we parted ways with Joy, we went to the restaurant right by our hostel and ordered a plate of sweet and sour pork, royal style chicken (spicy with peanuts and onions), rice, and 4 large beers. The bill was less than $4 per person and were stuffed! We then made our way to the train station amidts the chaos of fellow travelers. We had really no clue how it worked, but after Mark asked someone, we found out we were on the wrong floor. We headed downstairs to find that our luxury seats had their own special entrance to the platform. We rode in comfort overnight to Shanghai and have just now checked into our new hostel, which is brand new. We thought we were getting a smokin deal for only $1.07 a night, since that was the price when we booked online, but we have to settle for $8 a night. Free internet, clean bunks, A/C, free washing machine, and free breakfast make it tolerable though. I will update later.

Beijing Day 3

Last night after a long day, we finally were able to meet up with Mark's friend Colin. Colin was working in Shanghai for Morgan Stanley, but is now living in Beijing. He is enrolled in an intense Chinese language course in order to help him learn the language. A nice girl we met in our hostel dorm let us borrow her cell phone to get ahold of Colin. She is of Cambodian decent, grew up in Paris, but currently studying in Shanghai. However, she is in Beijing just for a visit. Anyways, so after we got ahold of Colin, we met up with him for dinner. Our new friend and another guy from Mexico that is staying in our room went out looking for this restaurant we were supposed to meet him at. Luckily for us, our new friend speaks 5 languages! (To her this is no big deal, and she wishes she spoke more) Meeting Colin was exciting becuase he is a very friendly and funny guy. He also filled us in on what its been like living in China as an American. His Chinese is actually quite good already, which is a trip to hear. After a great dinner (which Colin treated us to) we decided to go out to the bars and mingle with the locals. The found a cool rooftop bar called Blu Bar and had a couple drinks while learning more about our new friends from Paris and Mexico. We then headed to a club called China Doll for some dancing. Luckily for us, Americans got 1 free drink as a way of honoring July 4th. Dancing the night away to techno, the intense strobe lights accented the unusual adult content being displayed on the jumbo screen above the dance floor. Quite unusual. This morning, after popping a few Advil, Mark and I set out for our day. Passing a few local food stands, we grabbed a breakfast sandwich which we cleverly nicknamed "Egg McMao" since Mao is apparently the man here. Mark refers to him as "Mr. China". He is everywhere; money, the Forbidden City, watches, and many other random things. The same food stand sells another food item that we have come to enjoy. We call this one the "Crunch Wrap Beijing" because it is so similar to Taco Bell's Crunch Wrap Supreme. After breakfast, we went on a quest to find the new Olympic venue. Since its not done being built, there is no way for tourist to really see it. The subway line is not finished yet either, so we took a cab. After drawing the Olympic rings on a piece of paper to communicate with the driver, we were on our way. The whole venue is wrapped with metal sheet walls, establishing the construction site. We tried to enter, but a military guard wouldnt let us in. Defeated, we crossed the street. A friendly man dressed much nicer than any other Chinese man on the street said hello to us and started a conversation. We thought he was going to try to sell us something, but turns out he must be an engineer on the project. He actually offered us his hard hat to go up a building still under construction in order to get an overhead view of the stadium, aquatic center, and basketball venue. He settled for just getting past the guards. Once on the site, we passed kids much younger than us building what will be the newest Olympic venur for the 2008 games. The is still much work to be done, but the stadium and other venues look to be almost done. The stadium, or Bird's Nest as it is being called, is amazing! Google "Bird's Nest Beijing" and you will get an idea. The aquatic center is also a site to see, not only looking cool, but being a sustainable "green" building as well. Since we weren't supposed to be on site anyways, we took our pictures and soon left. I will try to post some when I get to Shanghai. After the Olmpic venue, we headed to the Summer Palace, a large palace which grounds surround a big lake. It was very neat and we hiked to the top where there is a Buddhist Temple. The Summer Palace is not very old at all, being built in the early 1800s. After the Palace, we went to see the new Opera House that is being built in Beijing. Another amazing building! It's not quite finished, but almost. It Looks like an egg sitting in a lake. There are no visible entrances because patrons will have to enter from afar and walk under the lake in order to get inside. After seeing this, we headed back to the hostel. Tonight we are going to keep it mellow and grab some dinner with the Danish girls we met at the hostel. Tomorrow we are going to go to the Silk Market to buy some Chinese knock-offs and then we are taking the overnight train to Shanghai. Ill fill you in then.

Mutianyu and the Great Wall

Today we woke up at around 5:45 am to set out on an adventure to conquer the Great Wall of China. Our hostel organized a trip for about 15 of us, which made it pretty easy. For less than $30 USD, we got transportation from Beijing to Mutianyu, about an hour and a half north of Beijing. Today's weather was much better than yesterday, about 94 from what I read and clear. It was nice to step outside of hazy Beijing to see the Chinese countryside. Mark and I still have not been able to determine if the haze is a fog from all the humidity, or if it is due to typical L.A. style smog. Once we got to the base of the mountain where the Wall runs, we decided to pay about $7 extra to take a chairlift style lift to the base of the Wall. This $7 also included a tabaggon ride down the mountain, instead of taking the chairlift down. Imaging a luge in the Olympics, only we were sitting on a plastic cart with wheels that rolled down a metal tube. It was pretty fun and had a lot of potential, except for the lady in front of us that completely slowed us down and created a bottleneck. I guess the her Chinese driving skills came into play there. Anyways, Mark and I spent a good 2 hours climbing the Wall, hiking to and from different lookout towers. The Wall is massive, and I was much more impressed than I thought I would be. I knew it would be amazing, but I guess I figured I would lose interest after about 20 minutes of being on it. I didn't! I will try to post pictures as sson as possible, but at the moment I can't get the blog to work other than post messages. Everything except for the text box I am typing in is in Chineses! I had to guess which characters to click on to get it to work yesterday. Hopefully when I get to Shanghai I will figure it out. By the way, Mark and I booked our hostel in Shanghai yesterday. It's brand new in the center of town and it is only costing us $1.07 a night. Dont worry, we saw pictures and it received good reviews from other travelers. We are pretty much able to get by on less than $20 a day easily. Food will fill us up for less than $5. We splurged and went out for Peking duck last night and it was less than $10 a person. It was pretty oily, but moist, with a crispy golden skin. We wrapped it in a tortilla style pancake and dipped it in plum sauce. Tonight we may try to find a Western July 4th party and tomorrow we wil hit up the Olympic center.

Beijing Day 1

So, after a grueling flight that left us in direct sunlight for seemingly 20 straight hours, we made it to Beijing. We left at noon on Monday and arrived here a little after 8pm on Monday night, basically losing 2 full days. All Nipon Airways was very nice however, and I enjoyed a few movies and games on the personal tvs. Our hostel is nice, but nothing to sneeze at. We are a little way from the center of city, but we have figured out the subway, which has stations a good mile apart from each other. So we have walked a lot as well. Today we saw the Forbidden City, which is absolutely amazing. The place is so massive, you cant possibly see it all in 1 day. Luckily, we got our fix after a couple of hours. We then headed to Tienamen Square right in front of the Forbidden City, where we were asked to pose for photos with at least 3 different asian families. Quite funny! Maybe they have never seen a real live white person before? Beats me, but we made sure to get a picture with them too. Tonight we are going to relax and maybe go out for some famouse Peking Duck. Tomorrow we plan on headed out to see the Great Wall on a tour. Thursday will most likely include more sightseeing. Ill keep you posted. And by the way, we are lucky to live in California with the weather we have. It's, about 90 degrees with about 90 percent humidity.