Bangkok Shock

Bangkok surprised us. First came the heat. Hot, humid heat. We expected that. What we didn't expect were the hordes of tourists. We hadn't seen so many white sunburned faces in a long while. We spent our first night in tourist ghetto then moved on to a more secluded area. I pined for China during my first few hours in Bangkok. But then Bangkok slowly revealed itself. It may have been the public transport boat rides on the river. Or the street-side stalls and small shops. And just as I started to like the city, we moved on.

We flew to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand today. We're doing a Thai cooking class tomorrow on a farm just outside of town. It should be fun.

Weapons

I forgot to mention that on our hike up the mountain, there were people selling food, drinks and other goods all along the hike. We could have bought a handcrafted slingshot, a crossbow and a wooden sword... but we didn't. Then we wondered, are these mountains safe to hike? Should we be armed?

Tapirs!

We almost forgot to add this video online. It's from ages ago (2 weeks) when we were in Beijing. I don't have audio on this computer but I'm sure the video includes witty commentary.

Last days in China

While in Chengdu we dropped by to see some pandas.


We then took the train from Chengdu, Sichuan to Yunnan, Kunming aka the bottom of China. Yunnan is pretty cool, very eclectic. We met "my uncle" on the train. He was one of our cabin mates. We called him my uncle because he had the same gruffy voice as my uncle Gaston and the same curiosity in people. He would write us little notes in Chinese thinking it would help us understand him (it didn't). We still managed to have a basic conversation with him and his friend using the four pages of Chinese from our guide book. Aaron and I provided the best entertainment on the train: a chance to watch foreigners eating, playing cards, reading.

The food in Yunnan is still spicy. Plates are always peppered with little hot chillies. We had the best fish dish ever yesterday in this tiny restaurant. The menu are the ingredients displayed on shelves which you point at. Very fresh.

Yesterday, we went on what turned out to be a 16-kilometre walk up a mountain. Monks a while back carved caves up a sheer cliff so they could go from the bottom to the top of the mountain.

Tomorrow we fly to Thailand.

Counting, hot foods, cool ice cream bars

We can now count to ten in Chinese. That's both outloud and on our fingers. Chinese people have a different way of counting on their fingers. Three is done with the index finger and thumb touching so that the other three fingers are up. Six is the hang-ten sign. Ten is an X made with the two index fingers. It leads to less confusion if we stick to their counting method.

Secret note to Bav: I don't know what number the "Rock On" sign is. To be investigated.

We're in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. The food is hot. Full of chillies and oil and yumminess. The temperature is hot too. But not too hot, about high 20s I would say.

Suprising discovery: China makes some really tasty ice cream bars. My favourites so far are the ones with juicy raisins frozen in them. We haven't ventured for the corn ones yet.

Train and Bejing

This just in - our pictures for the train trip from UB to Beijing and Beijing pictures have been added to our Picasa site. Click through for fantastic images! You will be wowed!

Goodbye Beijing, Hello Xian.

Beijing is too big for Aaron and I. We keep on trying to walk everywhere in a city with huuuuuge blocks. We should have done like the Beijingers and biked. It was saved us a few blisters and leg cramps.

We're now in Xian. About smack dab in the middle of China. It was a 12-hour train ride to get here. We haven't seen too much yet, we got in late and slept in. We'll go out of the hostel soon enough... Xian is home to the terracotta warriors and to a city wall that seems out of place. The city inside the wall is totally modern (that we've seen so far anyway) and shouldn't be inside a brick wall...

Beijing

We had a nice train ride from UB to Beijing. We had a four person sleeper cabin that we shared with a Russian girl and an American substitute teacher. The countryside was nice, especially in the Gobi Desert. We had our first glimpse of the Great Wall of China from the train.

Beijing is huge. The city is a strange mix of huge new buildings and little winding streets with tiny shops and tiny homes. Our hostel is on one of these tiny streets.

The food is great. Mmmm, Chinese food. We ate some Peking duck one night. Delicious but rich. You buy a whole duck which seems super huge but really you only get two plates of meat out of it.

Yesterday, we hiked the Great Wall. Not the whole thing... just 10 kilometres of it. It was beautiful up there. And quite the workout. Up. Down. Up. On uneven steps and crumbly bits.

Today we do the forbidden city.

Daylight Savings Time

This year, Mongolia decided to forgo springing forward. The UB time on the right is actually one hour fast because few were notified that the change wouldn't happen.

Strangely, Aaron and I have been getting up earlier ever since the change was supposed to happen. We wake up every day half an hour to an hour earlier than our alarm clock.

In three days

In three days, we'll be on the train heading towards Beijing. It's a 30-hour ride that goes through the Gobi as it cuts south and east.

In three days we'll be saying goodbye to Mongolia. It's harder saying goodbye when we don't know if we'll ever be back.

Our plan is to head south for a bit before heading home. Southeast Asia, Australia... warm places.