Travel Heart

Beijing Huan Ying Ni!

travelheart24 — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:46:00 GMT

It only took me until Day 9 of the Olympics to recognize one glaringly obvious fact - namely that, while the Olympics have been amazing and it is incredibly cool to be part of them, they are also a LOT of Sports; SPORTS, all day, every day... Brilliant hey? Yes, well this occured to me at the same moment that I admitted I dont watch Sports all day every day in my regular life! Haha, so while it has still been AMAZING, there are also times my attention wanders.

Despite this, I have learned about a lot of cool sports from the whole thing. The most interesting new one (new to me at least) was Handball. For those of us in the States who have never heard of it, its like a combination of basketball and soccer (football for my non-American friends ;-)). It's played with a small 6 inch basketball that is occasionaly dribbled, and shot toward a soccer/football net. The first match I saw was Men's Russia vs. Iceland, and I swear to you all the Iceland guys needed were Viking hats and they would've totally fit! The second match was Women's Brazil vs. Korea, also very cool. The Brazilian goalie was c-r-a-z-y (and a bit useless), but Brazil still won because they had great shooters. The score was close all through the game, but Brazil won it at the end by a kick ass shot literally with one second on the clock! Plus it was fun cheering for Brazil because the stadium was full of Chinese and they dont care much for Koreans, LOL.

The most FUN game I went to by far was the beach volleyball game! And I'm talking Men's, haha, although guys, there were dancing girls at every time out in bikinis, SO CALIFORNIA hahahaha. It was just great because the whole atmosphere felt like an awesome beach party, with great music too! Definitly the first stadium where I got to hear "We Will Rock You!" :-D and not only that but "Dont Bring Me Down" and "Born to Be Wild", it was awesome! Plus I discovered it really is fun cheering for your home country, as the first game was US vs Germany. We rocked it in two sets, didnt hurt that the blocker on our team was 6'7", good lord. I certainly wouldn't want to meet him across a net. The second game was great too, if only for the ending; the match was Georgia vs. Netherlands, and Georgia battled hard and won. When they won, one of the two guys jumped off the court and started running up the stadium stairs; I thought he was going to his family, but he kept running all the way to the top of the stadium where all the country flags were, straight to the Georgian flag, and raised a huge cheer! It was awesome :-D It was only the quarter final match, but just incase they didnt go to the medal round he had his moment and honored his country. So cool! Oh you won't believe this though, he took the game winning volleyball and served it into the crowd, in my direction.... the ball literally came straight at me, I put my hand up, it rolled across my palm, and the guy behind me captured it! NO WAY! I considered putting up a fight for a second but then I remember I'm a tour leader and cant carry stuff like that around! hahahahaha But it still would've been cool.

Other highlights... in Weightlifting I got watch a man lift 175 kilos over his head - that's 385 pounds.... :-o In Judo I watched an awesome Mongolian guy take down the Japanese champion with the highest scoring Judo move there is - to actually throw the guy over your shoulder flat onto his back, worth 1000 points. I also found out later that day the Mongolian guy went on to win gold. I did see a ping-pong session - not exactly a highlight, but I did shake my head and think 'oh my god, I'm watching ping-pong in China, wow'. I saw one very preliminary round of Men's Gymnastics, and one Swimming heat... but very very sadly no Michael Phelps :-( I was happy when he won the 8th gold medal, but at the same time my thought was 'There goes my last chance to see him" hahahaha

Speaking of gold medals, you may have heard a rumor about the Chinese CLEANING UP in gold medals in like every single sport! Good gracious! I love China, I do, but even I think it is a bit ridiculous how many golds they've gotten! I went to the Women's Diving final and (since the US wasnt in medal contention) I was routing for the Canadian girl :-) She came soooooo close to taking the gold, oh, but in the final dive a Chinese girl passed her point count, nooooo. And if I hear one more "Zhong Guo Jia You!"..... JK (kind of).

Overall its been a very random, amazing, TIRING two and a half weeks. I've seen 18 Games plus the Opening Ceremony :-D and you have my full permission to hate me for being such a lucky little bi-atch. I've posted photos on Facebook and Snapfish, even I get tired of the sports ones after a while, but I made myself take at least one at each event so I could remember what I saw and when.

So I've got two days left of the Games, tonight I take my group to the Athletics Final, tomorrow night is the gold medal round of Basketball (yay!!), and then the Closing Ceremonies. I'm posting this now because as soon as the Games end my boyfriend Nick is arriving and I will probably be pretty incommunicado for the next two weeks! :-D I hope you all have enjoyed the Olympics, and I appreciated all your comments on my facebook photos; I love knowing that you really care where I am and what I'm up to. Love you all!

Modern Nomads

travelheart24 — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:01:00 GMT

CHINGGIS KHAN (aka Genghis)... if I could sum up Mongolia in two words it would be Chinggis Khan. For a guy who lived 800 years ago he has quite the personality cult following; he's everywhere in Mongolia! He's on all the money, his statue is in the square, the local vodka is Chinggis, you fly into Chinggis Khan Airport - truly. Granted he was the greatest leader Mongolia ever had. Between himself, his son, and his grandson Kublai Khan, they united Mongolia from a bunch of nomadic tribes into one of the largest empires in history ~ did you know at its greatest the Mongolian Empire stretched from Austria to Vietnam??

I flew into Chinggis Khan Airport two days before I was supposed to meet the group so I could look around Mongolia a little bit. Thanks to a supreme lack of planning on my part I managed to arrive at the end of the Naadam Festival, the biggest and most exciting festival of the year in Mongolia. Naadam is an annual festival, and is comprised of the Three Manly Games (seriously) - horse racing, archery, and wrestling. The wrestlers are amazing, they're built like Paul Bunyan, no sumo style here. Unfortunatly watching the wrestling isnt all that exciting because these giant guys have strategies that prevent them from making many moves or taking many risks. So most of the match is uneventful until the big finish, but it is by far the favorite of Mongolian sports. And their uniforms, oh my, essentially a blue speedo with a burgundy half-jacket, and great big boots... stylin' :-)

I joined the group and went with them on the city tour around Ulan Baatar, the capitol city of a whopping 1 million people. All of Mongolia has only 3.5 million, spread over 15 million km's. We went to the Gandantegchenling Monastery, which is a Tibetan Buddhist temple, and learned so much about Buddhism and Mongolia from our guide Nemo. Not only did he tell us about Mongolia, but he told us something very strange: Mongolians are superstitous over children, and until a child is 3 yrs old it is bad luck to say that the child is cute or handsome or beautiful -- so it's good luck to say what an ugly baby someone has! :-O This was really killing me because the Mongolian babies were sooooo cute! I mean ugly, aaagh! I didnt get any pictures of the 'cute/ugly' babies because they also believe the photos steal a bit of their soul. Mongolians believe in a combination of Tibetan Buddhism and shaamanistic religion.

The best part of the trip was getting to go with the group out to the ger camp. The vast majority of Mongolia is countryside so going out to the ger camps is the whole reason to visit this country. It was really fun because it felt like being at summer camp :-) We got to do archery and go horseback riding on tiny Mongolian horses. My horse, according to the guide, was a former racehorse! So he had to be kept on a lead the whole time with the guide so he wouldn't run away with me! I called him Speedracer and he even had a racing stripe down his mane :-) As we were coming back to the camp, the guide who had my horse's lead left us and came back a while later with a herd of cattle.... totally normal? Then he took my lead back and I got to ride along with him while he herded the cattle back to the camp! This is definitely going on the list of 'Things I Never Expected to do in my Life' -- herding cattle in the Mongolian countryside! awesome :-D On the way to the camp we stopped to try the local alchohol..... FERMENTED MARE'S MILK. Home-brewed too, mmmmmm. It literally tastes like yogurt that's gone bad a day or two before :-S But like all local horrible specialties, the Mongolians love it! In moderation; the emporer used to force people to drink fermented mare's milk as a punishment >> 5-10 LITERS at once! WOW.

When it was time for me to take the group on to Beijing, we took a 30 hour train from Ulan Baatar to Beijing, including a 7 hour border crossing... :-S It was surprisingly interesting though, because at the border the wheels (or bogies?) had to be changed from the Mongolian track style to the Chinese tracks. They actually kept us on the train while they did this - which means one by one the train cars were disconnected and lined up into the elevators, then while we're still in the cars, they lifted the carriages, pulled the bogies out and slid the new ones in! Reconnecting the cars was a little less fun because they basically rammed the cars together to secure the couplings << once or twice is okay, 16 cars worth is a lot of clanging and banging, especially at 1am. But overall, a very interesting thing to have seen.

Beijing was Beijing, we ran our legs off for two days before the trip ended. I did celelbrate my 10th visit to the Great Wall :-) This group of pax was fun and I think it would've been cool to go the whole trip with them, which is more than I can say for the group I started the following day. The first trip ended Sat night, and Sunday night I started the next group for the same Trans-Mongolian trip going westbound back to St. Petersburg. This group was a whole bunch of oddballs (who didn't listen) and I was happy to put them on a plane this morning and leave them for the other leader to deal with :-)

So now I'm back in Beijing, for the next 6 weeks! I officially got a temporary job during the Olympics, working as a Coach Host (Coach like a big bus, not a sports Coach). I'll be picking up groups of pax at the airport, shuttling them around for three days at a time, and VERY LIKELY GETTING TO SEE SOME OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES!!! :-D :-D You have my full permission to hate me, I know I'm ridiculously lucky. So I'm stoked. The only sad drop in my cup is that one of my dearest friends in China, Sharon, is going back to England in about 2 weeks :'-( I'll be staying with her until she leaves, but then I'm all by myself in China.... not really, but it feels like it. If that's the saddest drop in my cup, then the happiest drop (or cupful) is looking forward to the end of August when my boyfriend Nick comes to visit :-D :-D :-D Hurray! Only about 5 weeks now :-D

Currently Reading: The Travels of Marco Polo << unfortunately disappointing! For a guy who got to explore some of the most amazing civilizations and see more of the world than anyone alive at the time, he was a terrible storyteller! boo

But Where Has the Tent Gone??

travelheart24 — Fri, 4 Jul 2008 03:04:00 GMT

How many adventures can three girls have in two days?? Quite a few it seems! Just off the top of my head, we rode camels across the Tenger Desert, went sledding on the sand dunes, had one of our tents blow away in the wind (!), and celebrated 4^th of July with s’mores and firecrackers! It would be just my (good) luck that this trip got rerouted from the Tibetan grasslands area, so instead we went on this camel trek in the desert :-) Straight off an overnight train, my two passengers, Olivia and Katie, and I set off with our local guide, Lionel (as in Ritchie…) and the camel driver, Lao Lu. Of course we named our camels, hehehe, so in the photos you can meet, Samuel, Oscar, Curious George, Ginger, and my Abu :-D Oscar was Katie’s camel, and a more unfortunate animal you have never seen… that poor camel looked like it’d been beaten with an ugly stick every day of its life until it gained a permanently doofy and unattractive sneer , WOW. I thought Abu was cute, but in general camels are cuter in cartoons than in real life, hehe. They look a bit like ostriches, strangely, with massive craniums, bulgy eyes, and wild hair. Their feet are big and squishy and black and looked almost like they’d stepped in four cow turds and were carrying them with them! LOL! Bear in mind, I really enjoyed riding the camels, but they were so funny. Besides, we weren’t exactly fashion plates ourselves; in our attempts to keep covered up from the desert sun we wound up with a hilarious mismatch of shirts and pants and scarves and hats, goodness. The desert was beautiful, Tenger means “big like the sky” in Mongolian ~ everywhere we went were picturesque scenes of rippling sand and smooth dunes. We spent two hours riding before lunch and two hours after. I’m a terrible rider, I lean forward when we go down hills and back when we go up, I don’t think I helped poor Abu at all. Four hours bouncing around on camel humps was enough to make us well sore and happy to set up camp. After we pitched the tents we went to find the biggest sand dunes around to sled down! So much fun!

We spent quite a lot of time out among the dunes, then came back to camp to play some card and dice games. We’d been there a while before Lionel suddenly looked up and asked, “Why are there only two tents?” Sure enough one of our tents (MINE) had blown away in the desert wind! <<Note: the guides mostly set up the tent, just so I don’t get any grief for it not being done properly ;-)>> Picture this, our campsite is in a depression with three higher dunes on either side, so wherever the tent has gone, it’s gone over a dune and out of sight! We set off in different directions and found it about 5 minutes later, none the worse for its independent explorations :-) No sooner had we gotten my tent back and secured it, when the tent that the guide and the driver were sharing fell down, LOL. Twice they put it back up before discovering one of the supports had snapped. Olivia (aka MacGuiver) tried a few solutions before suggesting they take the great big shade umbrella we had and open it inside the tent – and it worked! We had so much fun at this campsite! There was certainly no lack of entertainment, hahaha. It got dark about 8:30 and we made a campfire. Even though it was July 3^rd, I told everyone I wanted to celebrate 4^th of July, so we lit off firecrackers we’d brought with us, and roasted marshmellows for smores! Even our camel driver loved the smores :-D It was so great.

Whew, believe it or not there was more to the trip, haha. Besides the usual visits to Shanghai and Xian and Beijing, we also went to Shaolin, where there is the most famous kung fu temple and training center in the world. Of course we did a kung fu lesson while we were there – and nearly DIED, oh my god! I’ve done kung fu before, in Yangshuo, a few times even, but this was like freakin’ kung fu boot camp! The moves themselves weren’t so hard, it was the stretching and calisthenics that nearly killed us. All three of us truly almost cried when the instructors was stretching our legs, but he took no notice, despite this being our first day. Can I just say I did a standing back bend for the first time since I was 11?! GOOD GRACIOUS. And don’t even get me started on the frog hops we had to do across the mats, oy. Not surprisingly we were very very sore for about three days after. The girls recovered just in time to try the bike ride around the Xian city wall (I’ve done it before, thanks), so they were sore again. That wasn’t so bad, but from there we rode the camels = sore bums, and three days later we were in Beijing climbing the Great Wall! I swear I should be so fit by now… oh well :-)

My two passengers were great, Olivia and Katie Kit, from England. They were so easy to please, it was fantastic. Two days into the trip we took our first train, on the way there Katie goes “I like taxis!” and Olivia goes “I like trains!” and all I could say past laughing was “well everyone’s happy then!” Their only hang-up’s lay in their extreme phobia of bugs, and Liv’s fear of stuffed animals… yeah. We each bought about 3 new books in Shanghai and have our own little book trading club; we’ve been playing with daily vocab words (yes, we’re geeks, haha); and we sing songs all the time – pop and Disney, I’m so happy, hahaha. Katie I called ‘Kit-Kat’ and they called me ‘Jammy Dodger’ – apparently it’s a British candy :-) Katie is second generation Chinese from England, and she speaks Cantonese but not Mandarin. We had a crazy time because every time we went to a restaurant, or anywhere else, the waitresses would speak to her first, then they couldn’t understand why she didn’t understand them, and they completely ignored me trying to explain what was going on, good gracious. It was a little frustrating for Katie because they kept saying to her “You’re Chinese, why don’t you speak Chinese”, but she does, just not Mandarin. It was a little frustrating for me too because they completely ignored me just because there was a Chinese face among us. But oh well, it was a different experience, and the girls and I have had a great time. Plus we've been totally girly together for two weeks, talking about boys, etc ;-) and good lord they let me go on about Nick, hahaha. We've been shopping, bought shoes, got massages, had girly cocktails and generally a ton of fun!

So I had to say goodbye to my two fun girls, but I'm still excited because in one week I'm going to Mongolia!! :-D We have an interesting situation right now, normally these trips are lead by leaders from Russia, but they're having trouble getting visas too, so we're splitting the trips. The Russia leader will go with them from St. Petersburg to Ulan Bataar (Mongolia), I'll meet them there and take them to Beijing! I've got two of these trips scheduled right now, potentially three, and I'm stoked!

Currently Reading: Persuasion and Mansfield Park -- all Jane Austen, all the time :-)

Walking Off the Map

travelheart24 — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 02:35:00 GMT

WALKING OFF THE MAP

Kashgar, Kuqa, Urumqi, Turpan.... if these names don’t evoke images of Arabian Nights, deserts, camels, silk, jade, nomadic shepherds and ancient cities, they should :-) Together these things embody the essence of Xinjiang, China's westernmost province and corridor of the Silk Road. At the end of my last trip I flew to Kashgar to meet my friend Spark and explore Xinjiang. From our first walk around that evening I was struck with the smell of smoke on the air from the outdoor street kebab stands (lamb on swords, mmm), the heat, and unusual combination of cultures. The people of Xinjiang are mostly an ethnic minority called Uighers (pronounced 'wee-gers'). Their culture and language are much different from the rest of China. Uighers are of Central Asian descent, their language is Turkic - totally different than Chinese - and some happy combination of genetics has given them the most beautiful olive skin, dark hair, and strikingly clear eyes. They are mostly Muslim and women wear head scarves. Mosques and minarets are on every street, you'd hardly know you were in China.

Spark and I explored Kashgar for a day, visiting the Tomb of the Fragrant Concubine, the old city, and the famous Kashgar Bazaar. The bazaar was food for the imagination, with heaps of spices and nuts in stalls, silks hanging from every surface, carved gourds, jeweled knives, and gaudy gold vases - it was so Aladdin! :-)

Our first (of four) overnight bus took us to Kuqa, and here we really did walk off the map :-) Well, we didn’t have a map so we drew our own as we walked around the city. We felt very Intrepid as we explored places our regular trips don’t go to, and earned our map-making Boy Scout badges, hahaha. We made friends with a local Uigher man, Mohammed, who told us some interesting things about local attitudes and ideas. They're a bit controversial for me to record here, but ask me anytime and I'll tell you about it...

We didn’t even have one night in Kuqa before we were on another overnight bus, this time to Urumqi. Our goal here was getting ourselves visas to Kazakhstan -- did I mention we went to Kazakhstan?? :-D hehehehe. Both Spark and I had a deadline when we had to leave the country and re-enter to reset our visa validity, so we opted to cross the border into Kazakhstan for a few days! And no, I didn’t tell my mom until I got back safely ;-) Our day in Urumqi was a bit crazy, running back and forth from the visa photo place to the Kazakh Embassy, to the bus station for tickets, back to the Embassy, and back to the station to take off the same night! <<That's 3 consecutive nights on buses, by the way>> It didn’t help our stress levels when, we got our passports submitted a half hour before the deadline for the weekend and were told to return at 4:00 to get them. We went to buy bus tickets on faith that we actually going to get these visas approved the same day, but when we returned to the Embassy they were closed...! They've got our passports and its a Friday afternoon, we may not see them again til Monday... boo. A guy was walking around behind the gate, he looked like a gardener, but he took the receipt we had for the two passports and disappeared.... pile on the stress. About 5 minutes later he returned with our passports complete with shiny new Kazakh visas! Hurray! and off we went to the bus!

THROUGH THE KHORGAS PASS

The road to the border took us through vast expanses of NOTHING.... not terribly interesting, but it does give quite a picture of what the ancient traders saw as they passed through these areas on camel caravans... awesome. Just before the border though in the Khorgas Pass, I woke up in time to see the sun rise over a beautiful long narrow lake bordered by mountains, and then soon after when we were in the mountains I found myself with a gorgeous green hillside dropping off on one side and a Kazakh yurt camp on the other! I almost fell out of bed trying to get a photo of it. (A yurt is kind of like a tipi, but flatter with a dome roof). They were scattered across the landscape like stout mushrooms with shorn caps. If I were the bus driver we would've stopped every two minutes for photos :-)

Crossing the border was an experience... the words 'outpost' and 'middle of nowhere' kept coming to mind. We got delayed on the Kazakh side because my passport looked suspicious -- stressful! The moment we crossed the border all Chinese ceased to be useful and suddenly everyone spoke Russian! I realize it's a former Soviet Union country, but it was still surprising because Xinjiang was so strong in the Muslim/Central Asian culture, that we were expecting that even more so in Kazakhstan, but instead found ourselves in what felt like Eastern Europe. We had no end of trouble trying to get from the border to Almaty, where we were planning to stay the few days. We bought a Central Asia Lonely Planet, but it was 4 years old -- helpful hint: a current edition guidebook is useful but subject to change; a 4 year old guidebook is a study in urban development! Not only could we not find anything we tried looking for, but the cost of everything listed in the book had gone up by 800%! Literally. The inflation was shocking -- to our budget too, haha. Case in point, the book said there was a bus from the border to Almaty for $3.50; in reality there was NO bus, and we paid $25 EACH for a taxi because there was no other option! The "taxi" hahahaha, oh my goodness, was an early 90's model Audi HATCHBACK that we travelled 350KM's, in 90+ degree weather, and there were FOUR adults in this Audi, besides the driver :-O If I never repeat that experience again I will be very happy.

When we finally got to Almaty the Russian feeling was reinforced. If I take anything from this trip (besides adventures) it's very rudimentary knowledge of how to read and pronounce the Cyrillic alphabet. Within a day and a half I learned to recognize that what I originally thought was 'pectopah' is actually 'restoran' (because a P is an R, C is an S, H is N... yeah) Of course being able to pronounce the words doesn’t mean I have any idea what they mean, but it did help that we could match the Cyrillic street signs to our English map -- much good that it did us considering most of the things we were looking for weren’t there anyway!

We spent our first night in the cheapest hotel available, inside the train station, facing the tracks, with no bathroom except the one downstairs shared by the whole station -- and even this room was 3 times more than we would normally pay in China, good lord. There wasn’t really a lot to see in Almaty, and we spent one whole day tracking down unfruitful leads in the Lonely Planet, haha. One of the few that did pan out was the Irish bar! It is truly amazing how these are the same the world over :-D I had a White Russian, it just seemed fitting, hehe. Being in Almaty gave me a good reminder of how culture shock feels. The culture itself wasn’t at all difficult, but not being able to speak the language or know how things operate, being reliant on someone else, being unfamiliar and uncomfortable, I'd forgotten those things.

After three nights in Kazakhstan we headed back towards China. Our bus this time was so posh! Air conditioned and comfy beds -- better than our hotels the last 3 nights! :-) Unfortunately all this luxury was offset by the fact that the ride was SO BUMPY that it felt like riding a mechanical bull flat on your back for 350km's. The sites on the way back were equally stimulating; the Lonely Planet summed up Kazakhstan in one line, calling it "Interesting and quirky sites separated by vast expanses of NOTHING." and it's true. Crossing the border this time we had no trouble, except getting 'tagged' at the border by some local guys. They were literally huddled in a crowd and ran forward to touch us as we walked by, like they were afraid of us! It was crazy.

TURPAN TAXI

Spark and I spent our last two days in Turpan and Urumqi. Turpan is officially the hottest place in China, and without fail it was 110 degrees the day we were there! Appropriately, one of the first sites we visited was the Flaming Mountains – so called not only because it is so incredibly hot, but also because at sunset it is said that the light plays over it like fire (we didn’t get to see this phenomenon). We did visit Buddhist cave paintings, more tombs, and stopped at a grape village for lunch. If you see my pictures you’ll see some strange and interesting looking buildings, all brick, that look like a regular house on the bottom, but have a 4 walled brick screen of sorts on the top level; these are used to dry the grapes that are the main industry of Turpan. Raisins and wine are big in this area.

The best part of the day was on the way to the grape village, our driver pulled over and asked if either Spark or I wanted to drive! We were riding in a regular taxi, mid-90’s Honda something, just Spark and I, our local guide Mardan, and his dad was the driver. I couldn’t pass up such a fun chance, besides I love driving, so I jumped at it! :-) Chinese drive on the same side of the street as we do at home, so I was perfectly comfortable, passing cars, the whole works – stick shift too, thank you very much! I can hardly say the same for Spark…. he was absolutely s-h-i-t-t-i-n-g himself! Hahahaha! I was driving with one hand on the wheel and the other resting on the gear shift, and do you know he actually said to me, “Two hands on the wheel!” LOL My immediate response was “yes, Dad” :-P (no offense to my real Dad ;-) ) I only drove about 15 miles, with Spark carrying on a constant chorus of “I’m going to die” and me hurling insults at him for backseat driving and not actually knowing how to drive himself – hahahahaha, it was great fun! :-D After I relinquished the wheel back to the real driver we also visited an ancient ruined city called Jiaohe that was really really cool (see photos).

One last bus brought us back to Urumqi, officially the one place in the world that is farthest from an ocean. Pretty crazy ey? (There are lakes, but no ocean). We walked around a fantastic park our last night there. Weekends in the parks in China are an awesome thing to see :-) The whole community comes out, and this park was particularly great because they had little electric cars shaped like animals riding around, a fountain light show, bumper boats in the lake, and best of all these inflatable tubes that kinda look like big hamster wheels out on the water that water for people to roll around in! It’s like a huge carnival, and all it is is a Sunday night in the park! I knew if I left my camera at the hotel I would want it, without fail, but it was still fun and funny standing by the lake watching these kids rolling around in the tubes and crashing into each other. :-)

Twelve days and two countries later, Spark and I haven’t killed each other, and better yet we’re still friends too, hahahaha. There are still a few places on the Silk Road I want to visit, like Jaiyuguan where the farthest western remains of the Great Wall are, and Dunhuang to see the Mogao Caves, but if I never lead an Intrepid Silk Road trip at least I got to see all these cool places myself. Hurray!

Currently Reading: "Don't Tell Mom I Work On the Rigs, She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whore House" -- this book is strange and funny and feels like trying to dodge baseballs from a fast pitching machine!

All in a Days Work

travelheart24 — Mon, 9 Jun 2008 16:53:00 GMT

This has got to be the least eventful trip I’ve ever run! No crazy stories, no near death experiences, how very sad… doesn’t mean I wont still write though! ;-) I had 3 days off in Shanghai before the start of the trip, oh joy. Shanghai is quickly becoming one of my least favorite places in China; in addition to its overwhelming size and inflated prices, I also got pickpocketed on the main tourist drag and lost my sunglasses! Not the end of the world to most, but I happen to like the really dark lenses those had… :-( and yes, I’m pouting, hahaha. After Shanghai we visited a water town similar to Zhujaijiao on my last trip. Again, having not been to this one I didn’t have much insight for pax. I really did research the place, but seem to have missed the fact that MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 3 WAS FILMED HERE! Oops. Don’t I feel… sheepish. (name that movie!) Xitang is a lovely town though, even more picturesque than Zhujaijiao, although I didn’t actually take any pics… maybe next time. <<I stole the above photo from the MI3 website! LOL :-D >>

This trip only stays one day in each city, so we moved quickly on to Xian. Nothing eventful here, especially because I did NOT attempt to take the group to the lightshow, LOL. We also didn’t get any aftershocks while we were there, although some hotels are still having people sleep outside, just in case. The train from Xian to Pingyao was my second worst train experience in China, and culminated with me telling off a group of inconsiderate Chinese (in my best Mandarin) for blabbing all over the train at 12:30 at night. Grrr. In Pingyao I shot a couple games of pool with some of the pax, lost all three games – shocking, I know. Onward and upward to Beijing, hit the Great Wall -- and no, that's the one things I'm not blase' about, the Great Wall is awesome every time, and this time we had a pretty cool thunder storm. If it were at all possible I would've got a photo of the lightning I saw framed by one of the ruined watch towers.... WOW.

The pax on this trip were an interesting bunch; one middle aged guy who was so Australian that I think he could’ve actually said ‘Crikey’ and got away with it!, his girlfriend who sounded like Fran Drescher in The Nanny; one cool British/German/Spanish chick who reminded me very much of my dear friend EJ, so of course I took to her; her quiet but nice German boyfriend; two single British chicks; a 72 year old German/Kiwi gentleman, former history researcher, with the largest rolling suitcase he carted onto 3 trains; and one crazy Russian girl who seriously wanted to know everything about everything, and asked ‘What is this? What is this? What is this? Where do I go? What is the plan?’ until I wanted to shake her… I think I’m actually liking the shorter trips because I don’t get nearly as attached to the pax, hahaha.

I’m much more excited now about my plans for time off :-D In a few days I’ll fly to meet my friend Spark in Kashgar at the end of the Silk Road, and we’re gonna work our way back towards Beijing along the Silk Road :-D !!!! I am so stoked! (the Silk Road is the ancient trading route between China and European countries; silk was traded for European goods. The culture out there is COMPLETELY different to the rest of China. I should have loads of photos after this trip, and hopefully some cool stories!) We were going to go to Mongolia too, but that’s been postponed to July. By far the best piece of news I got this trip was the new schedule that has me going to Mongolia to pick up a trip! So I’m gonna go a few days early, have a look around, Spark will meet me there and we’ll celebrate his birthday and the start of the Nadaam Festival! I’m not sure how I got quite this lucky in life, but I am ridiculously blessed. So when I return from the Silk Road I’ll have new stories and LOADS of photos! :-)

Currently Reading: White Teeth – apparently some big hit, all I know is it was the only English book at the book traders, hahaha.

The Bucket List

travelheart24 — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:13:00 GMT

This entire trip turned out to be one big birthday party! What a classic trip, to have a bunch of oldies for passengers and yet we had fun everywhere we went :-) Between the 8 oldies (and 4 youngers) we had 3 birthdays on a 12 day trip! Good times. One lady in particular, Jan, was celebrating her 60^th bday and told me it was part of her ‘Bucket List’ to have her 60^th bday on the Great Wall! The photos are great because she brought a ‘Happy 60^th Birthday’ banner with her to the Wall. We celebrated Phil’s birthday on the overnight train to Xian, during which I introduced them to rice wine and they were all totally down for drinking games! At one point we had all 12 pax and me in one train compartment :-D Barbara’s birthday was two days later in Xian, which we celebrated despite the pouring rain, with dinner and cake. Dinner that night was so funny because we wound up with a ‘grown-ups' table’ and the ‘kids' table’! And the conversations that went around the grown ups table…. us kids ears were burning! Jan’s actual birthday we celebrated a few days later in Yangshuo at a place called ‘The Best Coffee’ (and it really is). She’d gone out that morning to get a facial and came out with a haircut she hadn’t asked for! She shrugged it off though and told us, ‘I’ve had my hair permed in Peru, colored in Brazil, and now cut in China!”

The Funniest moments of the trip without a doubt were:

1. 1. Sitting next to Sue on the overnight train, she was a bit tipsy and we were singing ‘I’m just a teenage dirtbag, baby!’ HILARIOUS

2. 2. On the same train, Oliver, a young guy from Germany, when we had to drink rice wine for penalties (which is harsh stuff), started singing, ‘I get knocked down, but I get up again, and you’re never gonna keep me down!’ and about 5 of us had the whole chorus going :-D

3. 3. And on the same train (it was a really fun train!) when I had trouble finishing my beer, Sue admonished me that I had to finish it because ‘there are people in China without beer’! (like when your mom used to tell you to finish your dinner because there are kids in Africa without food…. It was really funny)

4. 4. I bought a roll at a bakery in Xian that was labeled in English ‘Crouching Tiger Hidden Bacon’… I kid you not.

5. 5. Sue spotted a sign outside a store that said, ‘No Guns, Drugs, or Nuclear Weapons Allowed Inside’!

6. 6. We visited a section of the Great Wall called Mutianyu that I hadn’t been to before, and at this one we got to take a cable car up onto the wall, and a TOBOGGAN down! So fun! :-D

The great thing about travelling with oldies is as much as I ‘mother’ my passengers, these guys have a tendency to ‘mother’ right back, hehe. Phil and Sue in particular, who are a very sweet and fun British couple, had been visiting their son before the trip started – he’s been living in Beijing for the past year. When it came time to say goodbye to him Sue had a hard time because she won’t see him again for a few months, so she found some comfort in temporarily adopting me. Ironically though she was also the first on the trip to call me a ‘Mother Duck’ and I didn’t even suggest it – I think it has something to do with how I herd them through traffic. :-) I’ve got to give these folks credit for life experience too… Jan is recently widowed and travelling the world a bit before going home to pick up her life again, and Sue is a cancer survivor herself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We got a dose of mortality early on in the trip with the earthquake that struck Sichuan province. We were still in Beijing at the time, 700 miles north of the epicenter and I didn’t actually feel it, but it was a 7.8 in Sichuan. 2008 has seen so much chaos already this year…. Since the beginning of the year there have been the worst snow storms in 50 years, the Tibet uprisings, the beginnings of the visa problems that will continue to the Olympics, now the earthquake, and all the madness that will come along with the Olympics in less than three months. What started out as a lucky year is turning into something we’re all just trying to survive. This morning’s newspaper reported the current death toll in the earthquake area at over 51,000 dead and nearly 30,000 still missing. They are calling for aid in supplying tents and temporary housing to the 4.5 million people who are homeless right now. My pax and I made a donation from our trip money that was originally allocated to go to another charity in Xian, but we felt it was more appropriate to send it to Sichuan, plus Intrepid will double every donation. <<If you’re interested in contributing through Intrepid let me know and I’ll send you info.>> They’re also predicting rain in the quake area this week, so please pray with all your heart that there’s no rain, or additional land slides, or anything else that goes along with that. On a positive note, out of tragedy there are always the wonderful stories of people helping out; the Olympic torch was supposed to pass through Shanghai while we were here, but a week after the quake China designated three days of mourning across the entire country. The torch relay was paused during that time; the last city that it passed through before stopping, the torch bearers collected 500,000 yuan to donate to Sichuan, and the city as a whole donated over 2 million yuan :-) Now its looking like every city that the torch passes through for the next three months on its way to Beijing will collect donations, and I’m getting goosebumps as I write this. The relay was also rerouted so that the last cities it passes through before the Olympics will be the four major cities in Sichuan province. It’s been very emotional following the news on all this the past few weeks.

I realize that was a bit heavy, but reality has been a bit harsh the past two weeks…

~~~~~~~~~~

So my trip is wrapped up, my pax are running free in Shanghai and I’ve got 3 days off here before starting my next trip; I’ve already spent most of today sleeping, so I should be ready to rejoin the land of the living tomorrow :-D

Currently Reading: nothing good… I’ve really got to find some better books!

Current Injury: none! Unless you count the fact that I sort of fell into a manhole in Yangshuo, but I didn’t really hurt myself….. LOL

The Luck of the Irish

travelheart24 — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:48:00 GMT

I promised adventures, and I deliver! :-D

It's not often when things go wrong and you ask 'Why? why has this happened?' that you actually get an answer. I was lucky, I got my answer the very next day, in the form of my new travel buddy, Estelle! I went to Hong Kong intending to catch a THIRTY HOUR TRAIN by myself to go exploring in Shanxi province. Along the way I ran into my friend Spark, who convinced me to stay in HK and fly out the next day (tough call). The only problem was getting my train ticket refunded, and what a run around that was, culminating in an international border crossing and 4 passport stamps just to get my money back! All in a days work, hey? lol So I catch up with Spark back in Hong Kong, and we go out carousing as we do....

The next day as we were sobering up over breakfast, Spark's friend Estelle - a crazy fun Irish chick - says she doesnt want to fly home yet, so I say, Come with me! Come explore Shanxi with me! And that's what we did :-D With no money and without even properly sorting out her plane ticket off the bat we took off for the airport, sans plane tickets, as has become my M.O. Our luck held out and we got a flight to Taiyuan, from where we continued on to Pingyao.

Pingyao is an ancient city, nearly 4,000 buildings in 6kms are from the 1500's. It's is cute, quaint, and very very old. Our best day of the trip I'd say was when we rented bikes just to ride around and explore. Along the way we inadvertantly crashed a local wedding! No kidding! we were in a tiny alley and heard a bunch of music, so we checked it out and they invited us in! We weren't even sure it was a wedding until I saw the groom, and realized, oh crap! Then, they took us in to where the bride was getting ready!! No kidding! They wanted photos of us with her, which we did, and then got out of there as quick as possible. They stopped us for another 20 or so photos before we escaped, hehehe. When we got a little distance away, we stopped and asked ourselves, Did we just crash a wedding?? hehehe, what just happened? :-D

And there's more! We kept cycling and found a basketball hoop; we were told if we came back in an hour there would be a game. So we come back with tennis shoes on and fully played a game of b-ball with a bunch of these young local guys! (we did pretty good too, although they weren't playing defense nearly as hard on us). It turned out that they were students at the performing arts college and they invited us to their show that night. This show is a big production, the tickets normally run about 300 yuan each (thats a lot here in China), but the guys gave us their family tickets and we went free! The best part was one of our basketball buddies was the star of the show :-) The guy we'd just been shootin' around with was now dancing and twirling the girl in the air! awesome

After Pingyao we went to Datong, where there are two major sites, the Yungang Caves and the Hanging Monastary. The cave network was amazing, carved into a hillside that ran about 100 yards were 50,000 BUDDHAS :-O From as little as 3cm tall to 17 meters tall, there were tons of them. The most impressive ones had intricate pillars carved inside the caves, with every inch of the surfaces covered with figures depicting different stories. Hopefully my photos convey some of it. The Hanging Monastary was even cooler :-) I've wanted to see it for years, and it was worth the trip. This monastary, when you see the photos, is 50 meters in the air, literally clinging to the side of a cliff face, and its been there for 1500 years! In the photos you can see long skinny wooden pillars that support it, but those are secondary; the actual support are the horizontal beams that are imbedded in the cliffside. The part we see is 1/3 of the beam, 2/3's is in the hillside. And we got to walk through this place, not just look at it! The pictures somewhat do it justice, but it was really really cool.

For having had nearly 3 weeks off, I'd say I did pretty well. I managed not to be by myself for more than a day or two, hehe. I spent the first whole week in Hong Kong with my passengers from the last trip, then a few more with other leaders at our apartment, and finally met up with Estelle -- who calls herself 'officially Bonkers!' which is why we get along so well ;-) I'm in Beijing now, started my next trip last night. They're an interesting group, I'll let you know how it goes; this trip is only 11 days, so you'll be getting another story very soon :-)

Currently Reading: The Bookseller of Kabul (very good, if somewhat frustrating)

Don't Forget Your Sun Cream!

travelheart24 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:57:00 GMT

There’s a phrase heard often here in Leader Land that explains when things go wrong inexplicably, it’s called “T.I.C. – This Is China”. It explains why your hair dryer works one day but not the next, why you can view your email inbox but not actually read a message, and why your favorite local restaurant has been turned into a bus station. This trip had “TIC” written all over it. It started out innocuously enough on the first morning when I took the pax for an orientation walk in Beijing; along the way I pointed out what was my favorite local restaurant during training last year, only to find out it truly had been turned into a bus station. Continue to Xian, where I attempted to take my pax out to the light show at the Big Goose Pagoda; we arrived on time… if it had been summer hours… boo! I didn’t know there were winter hours, having only been in the summer and we missed it by a half an hour. The following day was the crowning glory: we’d arrived in Xian, it was overcast, everyone set out to their activities, and by evening nearly all of them returned home sunburned. Bearing this in mind, when we went to the Terra Cotta Warriors the next day, it was overcast again, and I conscientiously reminded them not to forget their sun cream incase the clouds burned off again. Yeah, the weather made a fool of me be proceeding to piss down rain the entire time we were there! Good gracious, you can imagine I caught shit for that for the rest of the trip ;-) One more incident in Shanghai rounded out my reputation as being ”completely rubbish” (just kidding), I was taking the group to the Shanghai Acrobats via the metro. The street the metro is located on is ridiculously crowded, so I thought we’d bypass some of the traffic by taking the road just parallel to the one we needed, then cut over…. can we all see where this is going? The street headed off diagonally, and when I got to cut back over to the other we were detoured again by massive construction! Ai yo! We still made the show on time (barely, thank goodness), but it really didn’t help my rep. :-) Good thing they all still love me and think I’m the coolest tour leader ever ;-) (I bribed them)

This group was fantastic. Right from the start they gelled well with each other. For a group this size – 14 people – it’s unusual that they would want to do everything together the way these guys did. And when they all wanted to do stuff together they included me too :-) There were two young British guys on the trip who were so funny! :-D Another passenger named Liz asked me halfway through the trip, why are we bothering to pay admission to shows and things when we’ve got these two around?? And it’s true, LOL. For example, I was giving Jon a hard time for not remembering his chopsticks one night (this group was rubbish about bringing their chopsticks…) and Jon goes off on this whole explanation about how when I was warning them about pickpockets the day before he had spent that entire evening worrying about his chopsticks in his pocket – never mind the wallet or camera, his concern was for the chopsticks! Hahaha, yeah right, but it was still hilarious! And Mark, good gracious, we were on the first train from Beijing to Xian, Mark was eating a muffin, Trudy asks him what flavor the muffins are, and after seriously considering the package (entirely in Chinese) he responds with “muffin flavor”. Not sure if that was a “had to be there” moment but it was pretty flippin’ funny. These guys also introduced me to proper ‘football’. Lots of my pax talk about football (soccer), but we went and watched a proper game (match) at a sports bar in Shanghai, and it was really quite fun.

My goodness, coming back to China has been so fantastic – after that initial airport drama ya’ know ;-) When we got to Yangshuo and took our bikes out to Chaolong, early in the evening it was warm and wonderful, I could smell flowers everywhere and hear frogs in the rice paddies… I was so happy I nearly got emotional :-D We had such good times in Yanghsuo too, kayaking, rock climing, biking, and playing tons of pool, or “snooker” as the Brits call it. I got to meet up with Ann Thai and celelbrate the Thai New Year by tossing water on her! Oh, I have a new best friend in Yangshuo too – my laundry lady. One of Ann’s pax spilled a glass of red wine ALL OVER ME, and what happens to be my favorite shirt at the moment :-S I ran full speed down to my laundry lady and she was able to get the red wine out! I love her :-)

Has anyone noticed the absence of drinking stories so far this trip…? Hehehe, these guys drank more Coca-cola than my last ten trips combined I think! Not to say we didn’t drink at all, in fact we had a really funny night in Longji where I taught them to play “Bruce”… guaranteed, LOL. Oh and there was a night in Shanghai at the Velvet Lounge that was so fun! They played real American hip-hop and dance music! Hurray! Beats the club in Xian by a mile where the locals went crazy to “Country Road”… I kid you not. We just had such a great time, three weeks absolutely flew by. Good thing a bunch of them are still in Hong Kong for a few extra days, so we’re still hanging out. Yesterday we went out to the Big Buddha, tonight to the light show – yeah they’re awesome and I want to keep them :-) So shout out to Eva/Elinor, Isabel/Inga, Veronica/Vanessa, Mark/Matthew, Jon/Jesse, Ceridwen/Cynthia, Kadyn/Kevin, Brett/Brad, David/Doug, Trudy/Tina, Kaori/Karine, James/Jeremy, Liz/Erin, and last but certainly not least… Chris/Nigel, LOL. (long story)

Right, I’m chillin’ in Hong Kong for the time being, don’t have another trip starting until May 12, and nope, I haven’t quite figured out what I’m gonna do during all that time. But I’m sure I’ll have some adventures to report back when it’s over ;-)

Take care all! Love you!

Currently Reading: Ysabell

Current Injury: NONE! Perfect season so far ;-) Although by the way, the Great Wall did nearly kill me my first time back, just like I predicted. By the 3rd watchtower I almost threw up, hahaha. I really sat at our lunch spot telling myself "Do NOT throw up. This is not acceptable for the tour leader" LOL I didnt, just in case you were worried ;-) Good thing I've got a few more trips to get my fitness back up before I get more difficult climbs.

Please Return Me to the Nearest Lost & Found

travelheart24 — Thu, 3 Apr 2008 00:04:00 GMT

I'M BAAAAAACK!!!! :-D

Hehehhee, did you miss me?? Figuratively speaking of course, since I just spend the last 4 months hanging out with most of you. For those of you I didn't get to see, and for the cancellation of the open house this past Sunday, I'm sorry. I was wickedly sick on Sunday and still haven't fully recovered. Made Monday's 15 HOUR FLIGHT to Hong Kong every bit as enjoyable as you might imagine... but I do this because I love it, right?? ;-)

Allow me to clarify my blog title, as I can already feel you shaking your heads at me across the world... I wasn't actually LOST, I just got stranded in an airport without any method of paying for my plane ticket! (much better, right?) It's a very long story involving me not being at fault, hehe, but I have so much more fun things to tell you all, so I'll just say that after sleeping in the airport, my friend showed up with money for me and I am now safe and happy in Beijing. *whew* 48 hours in the country and I'm already a liability -- I mean, adventure! hahahaha

A very quick synopsis of where I've been the last couple months, skim briefly if you desire, but I do give lots of shout-outs in here ;-) After I wrapped up my last trip I took myself on a jaunt down to Cambodia for my 25th birthday!That was jaw-dropping, breath-taking, etc, the most a-m-a-z-i-n-g 25th birthday I could ever ask for. A short four days later I arrived home -- accidentally a day early from my international fight.... another long story, with me being totally at fault this time, and suffice it to say I had to wait a little while for my mom to come pick me up, LOL.

After spending the holidays with the fam, I moved on down to San Diego, where I "couch-surfed" my way through the next few months -- cheers to Samantha, Jill, Wendy, and Brooke's mom who opened their houses to me! :-D My friends, most of whom are reading this, couldn't understand how I could switch houses every few weeks, but to me any time I get to be in one place for more than one day is a bonus! There were definitely some good times there, like speaking in Chinese in my sleep (although Samantha swears it wasn't a human language, let me believe!)

I walked into a fantastic job opportunity in San Diego, thanks to God and Emon! I got to work in the Mechanical Engineering Department again, but this time I was running the office, woo-hoo. They needed a temporary person and the timing was perfect. *Shout-out to Carolyn!*

Let's see, what else did I do... watched LOTS of American TV, ate LOTS of Mexican food, hehehe, didn't hike once, umm, went on a couple blind dates (who knew those could turn out so well? ;-) ) and got to spend time with so many wonderful friends I love! I would shout out to you all but if I forget one I'll never live it down, so just know I love you all.

The piece-de-resistance was Jill's wedding, which I got to spend not only with my dear friends Brad and Tim and Lisa and Lucy, and of course Jill and Jason! but I got to see my dear James from way back when, yay! A lovely way to end a wonderful time at home <3

So now I'm back, gearing up to start my first trip tomorrow... had a bit of a rough start already, but just now feeling like things are lightening up. I beg your prayers guys, between being sick and getting discouraged over all this since I've been here, I could really use the uplifting. Of course your emails and comments on the blog are ALWAYS appreciated too ;-) hehehe

Love you guys! Back again with more stories in three weeks :-)

Currently Reading: ... nothing interesting. I gotta get a good book from our apartment.

The Sun'll Come Out Tomorrow!

travelheart24 — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 08:21:00 GMT

A Kiwi, two Irish, a Canadian and an American get on a train.... and no one in their carriage sleeps for the next 14 hours! hehehe, okay maybe we weren't that bad... but nearly! Most passengers enjoy the train or are indifferent about it, but these guys actually looked forward to the trains because it meant we would drink and play games all night. :-) We were also making up new rules to the games we were playing, so at one point we weren't allowed to say eachother's names; Matt the Kiwi became 'Sheep Shagger', Caoilfhion ("Keelin") the Irish became 'Spud-nik', Clare the other Irish became 'Michael Flatley, Lord of the Dance!', Elise the Canadian became 'Maple Syrup', and yours truly was the 'Yankee Bitch', hehehehehe.

These pax were great because they wanted to do absolutly everything they possibly could in China during our three week trip. I got to have a lot of "firsts" with them because of it. Like the day we went to the Great Wall and there was SNOW! It was beautiful and cold and we ended up having a snowball fight on the Great Wall! That was definitly a first for me, and so flippin' awesome :-D We spent the night at a guesthouse near the Wall and the next morning we got up in the dark and went to see the sunrise. Unfortunatly it was overcast that day and the sun never really rose, the sky just kind of got lighter... me, being the smart-ass you all know and love decided it was the perfect time to sing (from 'Annie'), "the sun'll come out, tomorrow! bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there'll be sun!" ... :-) This was only the beginning, by the end of the trip we'd come up with nearly a song-of-the-day for the whole three weeks. The group favorite by for was "I like steamed buns and I cannot lie!" (think Sir Mix A Lot) LOL :-D

Our second stop was Xian, where we happened to be for Halloween. We'd decided that the whole group was going to dress up as Pandas for Halloween, hehehe, but as it turned out we went to a club and never went back to the hotel to get dressed up. That didnt end the panda idea though, we carried it on to Yangshuo ~ but more about that later. What did happen in Xian was that I taught these guys to play dice... and lived to regret it! I had no idea at the time I was creating four little monsters because they became absolutly addicted to the game! Caoilfhion even bought herself a bag of dice to take home and teach her friends. Of course she bought me a bag too so I can teach future pax ;-) Oh! Another "first" in Xian was that Clare, Elise and I went to climb Mount Huashan, a Buddhist holy mountain near the city. The pics are awesome, and more importantly, can you believe I actually chose to go climbing voluntarily??

From Xian to Shanghai, where we weren't too crazy. Clare and Caoilfhion did eat goose brains though... I have a rule for my pax that if they forget to bring their 'Responsible Tourism' reusable chopsticks to a meal, the rest of the group gets to decide what weird thing they eat! We happened to be at a dim sum restaurant when Clare and Caoilfhion forgot there's, so goose head it was! It was either that or the pigs nose...

Shanghai gave way to Yangshuo, where good lord these guys kept busy! Cormorant fishing, calligraphy, painting, tai chi, kung fu, kayaking, rock climbing, and mud caving. The coolest thing is, I went rock climbing too :-D It was awesome, I even did the 'fearless leader' bit and went first. I'm not great at it, and I got a few bruises (surprise surprise), but I'd definitly do it again. I also got to go mud caving for the first time with this group. What is mud caving? Basically after walking through a huge cave full of stalagtites (or stalagmites, does anyone ever remember which are which??), you reach a cave full of mud at the end and you get to jump in and get all muddy and get eachother muddy and have a great time! In addition to it being really really fun, we also took this opportunity to revisit our panda idea. Enjoy the photos, they are too funny, we couldnt find any face paints so I bought black shoe polish and white shoe polish for us to paint ourselves with :-D

The trip ended in Hong Kong much the same way it had been going for three weeks, lots of laughter and jokes, card games and beer :-) I couldn't have asked for a better group to finish off the season with. The season has absolutly flown by, I've done 10 trips total and the good thing is while I had 3 shit trips I also had 4 good trips and 3 kick ass trips! I've made some amazing friends, both in pax and in fellow tour leaders, I have probably never laughed so much in my life, I've experienced so many new things, and I have thousands of photos to show for it! hehehe. So now I'm here at our apartment in Hong Kong, getting everything sorted before I come home. On Tuesday I fly to Cambodia for a week ~ my plan is to be at Angkor Wat for the sunrise on my birthday! (hopefully the sun does come out that day ;-) And very very soon, before you know it, I'll be home...

Currently Reading: The Pact, and The Woman in the Fifth

Current Injury: fell off a bike AGAIN! If I hear even one person say "it's as easy as riding a bike" I'm gonna clock them! :-)