Xi'an

Hi there. So I'm pitifully behind on the blog...still haven't posted about our trip to Thailand all the way back in March! But I'm just going to skip ahead and hope to return to the last few months eventually...

Our July vacation was supposed to start with 10 days in Tibet and Nepal. After 2 days on the train from Shanghai, we were set to explore Lhasa for a few days, then make our way to Rongphu with a short hike to Mt. Everest Base Camp, staying the night at the Rongphu Monastery before crossing the border and spending a few days in Kathmandu. But a week before we were set to leave, the government decided to close Tibet to all foreigners. So in a pinch we were off to Xi'an for four days instead.

Xi'an was the start of the silk road and a buzzing metropolis long before Beijing was ever on the scene. Today its bustling Muslim quarter is one of its biggest attractions--from the smells of good street food mingling with the stench of questionable street side butchers, to outstanding people watching, we found ourselves back among its crowded streets again and again.

Not too crowded by day...

A typical Chinese street scene

Naturally, when you want to by fake artifacts, that includes crossbows!

Who knew there were so many types of dates!

We never figured out what this is...

Click to enlarge...#9 sounds delicious!

He's making edible sugar balloons

One of many local butcher shops

In case the color of the meat doesn't give it away, the stench of this one was unreal

Delivery truck, complete with swarm of flies and pools of blood

Drum tower...marked nightfall in the past

Bell tower...bells used to ring at dawn

Back to the Muslim Quarter--it comes alive at night!

Enjoying our first yangrou paomo...you break up flat bread, then they serve lamb soup on top.

Yangrou paomo--the best part was the pickled garlic! yum!

Barely controlled chaos...

Saw 10 mantas on this morning's dive. Amazing!!

You know urine China....

Last weekend we flew to Hong Kong and back on another of our monthly visa runs. It had all the makings of a smooth, non-eventful trip. After Brian's traumatized retelling of this story, I actually regret sleeping through it! Leave it to China to make an ordinary moment absolutely unforgettable at the drop of a hat, er, cup. Take it away Bri....

On the flight back to Shanghai we were seated behind roughly 4-year old twins, their mom, and grandparents. The disinterested father was across the aisle from me. Mid-diaper change, one of the girls announced she had to go to the bathroom. So rather than slapping the old diaper back between her legs and hustling to the loo, grandma stands her up on her lap, and has her pee in to the cup from dinner service. Talk about having blind faith in the aim of a 4-year old! Can you imagine being the flight attendant on the receiving end of that cup on your next garbage run down the aisle? No? Not to worry, you don’t have to, because as Grandma stands up and goes to walk it back to the flight attendant, she bumps into her seat and spills it....on the father sitting across from me! Poor dad, who was just minding his own business, valiantly ignoring his kids, trying to enjoy a book during a fleeting moment of silence when they aren’t flying through the air jumping seat to seat, and he’s interrupted by a cup of pee dumped in his lap! (Leslie bets the disgruntled mom probably pushed the grandma in his direction!)  Amazingly, he just casually brushed a few not yet absorbed droplets off his pants and went back to reading as if he didn't even realize what had just been poured all over him. Be assured, had the cup landed in MY lap, there would have been a significantly different reaction!

P.S. To Gerard Depardieu: you're most welcome. We bequeath this oui oui tall tale to you and look forward to your attempts to use it as a plausible cover story the next time you fly.

P.P.S. Two weeks ago, I would have laughed at this. Now it just makes me cringe.

One Year Ago:

Thanks Dad! 

Read this NOW!

A huge thank you to Connie for passing this book recommendation on to us. J. Maarten Troost's Lost on Planet China is the funniest, most accurate and relatable depiction of our experience here in China. If my blog was a book, I would want this to be it. Troost is a travel writer who has lived in nearly every corner of the world, yet is at first stupefied by much that is China. From pollution to the inability to stand in lines, public urination (stay tuned for a story that easily beats his!) to seemingly ubiquitous prostitution (we live behind a classy bathhouse/brothel), he still discovers the magic of China off the beaten tourist path, blending humor with history in the most enjoyable of reads. Two enthusiastic thumbs up!!

One Year Ago:

The Three Bs

The best laid plans...

First order of business--the answer to the latest edition of Food Fight. I got a few (hilarious!!) guesses from you all. Amanda correctly named the largest mystery item--it was eggplant! From everyone else's guesses, it sounds like a review trip to the veggie, errr, fruit section of the grocery store is necessary (This means you Deb :-)! As for the other 3 foods, they are ALL eggplant! See how sneaky I was?! The smallest ones are almost horribly bitter, but were in green curry everywhere we went. The rest all taste like, well, eggplant!

And now, back to the Philippines. Sometimes, in spite of all your best intentions and advance planning, you just can't win. Take, for example, our month in Australia: in 30 short days we lost (and found!) our passports, had all but one day of an entire week of diving cancelled, and had to scramble when an airline we'd booked was suddenly grounded indefinitely due to safety issues. We're learning very quickly that when it comes to planning a month long vacation something undoubtedly, inevitably, will go wrong. And sometimes that can turn out to be the best thing in the world.

Muay Thai Food Fight!

In March we took a fun cooking class in Thailand--I'll share some of the easy, delicious recipes soon. But for now, here's an overdue Thai edition of Food Fight! One is a freebie, but do you recognize some of the other ingredients did we used? Use the comments to make your best guesses!

One Year Ago:

A Trip to the Market

Near death in the Philippines: Part 1

The next day we were off to Batad. At two hours down the "road" from Uhaj, we happily splurged on renting a jeepney for $75 for the day.  Plus, the last 45 minutes aren't even passable by trike! Jodi mentioned that the previous week it rained non-stop and we must have brought the good weather with us. I can't even begin to imagine these roads in the rain.

Just a pretty view along the way...

Unlike the gently sloping valley of Hapao, the closer we got to Batad, the more moutainous the surroundings became. As if real estate didn't already take a back seat to the terraces in Hapao, here it was even more pronounced, with homes literally hanging off cliffs.

FINALLY! (aka For Darcy)

Absolutely nothing I can say or show you will do the rice terraces of Ifugao province in the Philippines justice. Believe me, I've tried writing this post many, many times. It's a small part of why I've neglected the blog for so long. That, and the arrival of spring here in Jiangyin, but also the frustration that ebbs and flows with knowing this blog get 2,000+ views a month, but rarely a comment or email. So you, my mystery readers, have my sister Darcy's threat of disownment over my lack of posts to thank for this one.

I sometimes forget that Brian can't always read my mind, and that simply saying things out loud instantly improves the situation. Perhaps I've fallen in the same trap with you. "If I don't write on the blog, people will start to miss me and actually get in touch rather than just reading my posts incognito," was my not so well thought out train of thought. Because I wasn't reaching out to you as individuals either. So two months later I'm still in the same boat. I'm so grateful for this adventure Brian and I are on, but sometimes the distance is really hard. More often than not, it feels a bit "out of sight, out of mind" and I know I can easily fix that. But my tendency is to just clam up instead of opening my mouth (or a new email). So here's to turning a new leaf. I'm going to try to send more personal emails instead of just relying on the blog to keep you up to date. And can you help me by letting me know what you do and don't like about the blog? Posts you particularly like and want more of? It takes HOURS to upload the photos here in China, so it'll be helpful to know I'm writing posts that are actually of interest! And to those of you who do comment and email--THANK YOU! It absolutely brightens my day!

But back to the Philippines.

Bon Voyage!

Well, believe it or not, it's time for us to take off for another vacation! Living in China truly does have its benefits. This time we're off to the Philippines and Thailand. Here's the highlights of our coming month...

After arriving in Manila, we'll take a pleasant 10 hour bus ride to Banaue, where we'll spend 3 days hiking the rice terraces.

Then it is off to Puerto Princesa for a few days before leaving for a scuba liveaboard to Tubbataha.

24 hours in South Korea

After our January jaunt in Beijing we once again had to leave the country for our visas....so it was off to South Korea to visit friends for 24 hours! We flew in to Busan then headed south to Geoje Island, which was absolutely beautiful even in January. We drove around a good portion of the island, stopping of course to see the shipyard that makes Jiangyin's look oh-so-tiny, ate good Korean food--including fermented baby octopus (surprisingly good!), drank a good amount of Soju and Scotch (separately), and even squeezed in a near fatal trip to Costco before jumping back on the plane.

I can't believe I'm posting this atrocious photo of me....but it's good of Dougie, Bri and Ji-Young.

In the summer this is Busan's see-and-be-seen beach...

It was a whirlwind trip, but great to sleep in a comfortable bed and see Dougie & Ji-Young's town, even if the trip ended with food poisoning from Costco. At least the food poisoning gods were slightly kind, in that it didn't kick in until after our flight. Oy.

Too many photos!

Well, I finally made it thru the 800 photos we (I) took in 3 days. Considering the fact that 2 years later, I still haven't waded thru all of our wedding photos to tell our photographer which to put in our album, I consider this nothing short of a miracle. In no particular order, here are the best of the rest of our time in Beijing.

Cute hutong inn where we stayed

hutong entrance

Friendly Lunar New Year reminders all over town....

In front of the new performing arts center...surrounded by a moat, you enter thru a tunnel!

Shockingly empty roads....Forbidden city on the left, Tiananmen on the right

Tiananmen

Me 'n Mao at the Forbidden City (which was closed the first day we went)

We weren't the only ones who thought it was brutally cold!

Forbidden City

Jingshan Park

Fantastic View from top of Jingshan park...the 980 buildings that make up the forbidden city

Houhai...surrounded by cute restaurants and shops that were mostly closed

2nd trip to the Forbidden City we find....an astroturf basketball court for the guards

The Forbidden City is huge--1km x 0.75km. This is the 2nd courtyard before actually entering

Demons to scare away evil spirits--The more demons, the more important the building

The end-all-be-all peking duck meal at Made in China. Ah-maz-ing.