Photographic Update

Hello everyone! We cannot believe we are in the last days of our Asian Adventure. We have safely made it to Bangkok from Cambodia. Below are some pictures highlighting what we've been doing over the past few days.



We passed the time at the Ho Chi Minh City airport waiting for the airport bus by donning cab drivers with amazing Canada tattoos.




Demonstrating how to enter the Cu Chi Tunnels



At the Cu Chi Tunnels in Vietnam



Gillian & Lisa visiting the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia




Sunrise at Angkor Wat


We are looking forward to seeing everyone when we return this week! This trip has been incredible and we can't wait to share the photos and stories with all of you.

Love from Bangkok,

L, C, J & G

Where is our tour guide? WHO is our tour guide?

Preface: Our tour guide's the one with the black eye... or was he? Who knows? More on that later.

July 15-19: Ha Noi & Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
By Lisa & Gillian

Good morning, Vietnam! As our plane landed in Ha Noi, I couldn't help but remember several Forrest Gump lines. Some favourites include:
"Bubba taught me all about shrimp as we was walking through the rain in Vietnam. Shrimp soup, shrimp gumbo, shrimp salad..."
"But the one good thing about being in the hospital... was the ice cream."
"Lietenant Dan! Ice cream!"

Ha Noi is nothing short of a complete sensory overload. We have never seen so many motorbikes in one place at a time. After my motorbike incident (no worries, I'm okay... only a few minor cuts and bruises) in Thailand, I was definitely not happy to see the roads with no traffic rules (at least none that were being followed) full of motorbikes. However, thanks to two friends we saw in Beijing who had recently visited Vietnam, we used their very special hand waving technique in order to safely cross the street. Ask us to show you when we get home. Think *spirit fingers*.

After walking around the backpacker district in Ha Noi trying to find a place to stay for the night while simultaneously booking our Ha Long Bay 3 day/2 night cruise, we were all unbelievably hot. We managed to find a hotel (that's right... hotel) for about $6/person for the night. We later realized why the price was so attractive: the rooms were on the fourth (read: 8 flights of stairs) floor. So here are 4 tired, disgustingly hot, hungry girls hauling their huge backpacks up the stairs...

We finally found a tour that was leaving the next day and booked it. This was only after we attempted to understand the differences between the deluxe and standard tours where MANY things got lost in translation. We decided to book the standard tour, bargained the travel agent down, and grabbed some food before heading back to the hotel to cool off and fall asleep.

The next morning we checked out of the hotel and were at the travel agency by 8AM which was when we were scheduled to be picked up. The bus showed up at 8:30AM. This lateness was only minorly foreshadowing the lateness that was to follow several times throughout the tour. After settling on the bus, our tour guide, Wai (pronounced "why"), introduced himself. It went something like this:

"Hello everybody! I am SOOOOOOOO excited to be your tour guide to go to Ha Long Bay. I am 25. I am not married. I have three children. Tell me how this is possible. I am getting married soon. Tell me what I am supposed to do on my wedding night please."

We laughed out loud but unfortunately, that may or may not have been a joke. We rather quickly discovered the whole children bit was a complete and utter lie. Wai was a strapping young Vietnamese man. Standing at about 4'10" and 95 lbs, he captured our hearts from the get-go. Buuuuut this was short-lived.

The bus ride to the town of Ha Long Bay was cramped but fine. We arrived and were shuttled into some random standing area with about 1000 other tourists and were told that our boat would be ready very soon. Wai quickly became very stressed out and started speaking like he was about to give birth to a child. We couldn't help but laugh. We also noticed that we had a human version of X-Men's Wolverine in our tour group along with his buddy who had flowing golden locks of hair reminding us of a really starved Fabio. After about an hour of standing around we boarded the junk boat and enjoyed a lunch of spring rolls, squid, tofu, rice, some scary vegetable and an orange (only one wedge per person, please) for dessert. THEN we left the port.

While the logistics of this excursion to this point would have made P. Fraser Johnson (what up!) experience cardiac arrest, the scenery more than made up for the inadequacies. This is a picture that I took on my camera (not from Google Images).








We spent the first night on Cat Ba Island in a HOTEL that had towels, toilet paper, soap, toothbrushes and, to Gillian's extreme excitment, COMBS! We went for dinner and had more spring rolls, squid, rice, etc. We noticed a pattern. After dinner we decided to check out one of the floating restaurants for some dessert: ice cream.

Girls: Hello, do you have ice cream?
Waitress: Um... yes... 15,000 dong/cone.
Girls: Okay. We'll take 4 please.
Waitress: Okay. Give us 10 minutes please.
Girls: (confused) Okay. We'll just take a seat over here.
*waitress runs down dock to mainland*

10 minutes later, sure enough, we had ice cream BUT it was not from the restaurant. The waitress had high tailed it to a convenience store, bought 4 drumsticks for probably a lot cheaper than 15,000 dong/each, ran past us with them in a blue plastic shopping bag (she didn't even try to hide them) and placed them on a plate in an ever-so-appealing way. This caused us to erupt into fits of laughter. I (Lisa), have a very loud cackle if you do not know me. When something this great happens, the cackle comes out in full force. Shortly thereafter, we enjoyed the company of about 10 Vietnamese men and their families imitating my laugh. We eventually had a laugh-off and captured this precious moment on video for anyone interested in seeing it.

The next day we were up bright and early to go on a "nature walk" in the Cat Ba National Park. It was pouring rain but the view was worth the constant slipping and sliding through the mud. Here we are at the top of the mountain.







Naturally, on the way down, it poured rain even harder. Here's a picture of how stunning we are post-walk.







We ended up back at the same location for lunch again consisting of spring rolls, etc. We ran into Wolverine and Fabio who had spent the previous night on the boat and they informed us that Wai and a passenger got into a physical altercation resulting in Wai being punched in the face and was almost thrown overboard. Apparently, the fight was over food. Who would have guessed? We didn't see Wai for the remainder of our tour. Speculate as you may.

That afternoon we went to Cat Ba beach on motorbike cabs (which were driven by locals... we all know I don't trust myself driving them). Eventually (seriously, it felt like forever), we got back on the boat, realized our passports weren't stolen and being trafficked for dong by Wai (yay!) and attempted to avoid being photographed by locals who strategically took turns standing next to us. Apparently these people had never seen someone as tall as me or as blonde as Gillian. Great.

The evening on the boat was splendid and the next day was relaxing as well. We even got a fully air conditioned van back to Ha Noi (not a bus... pure luxury)!

Once back in Ha Noi, we found a hotel (again!) for cheap and went out for dinner. We weren't tired enough to head to bed so we decided to check out Ha Noi a bit more given that we weren't as taken aback by its busy-ness as when we first arrived. What's the best thing to do in Ha Noi on a random Saturday night? Attend a swanky bar's grand opening in pajamas, of course. (Kudos, Gillian) The champagne (free) was delicious, probably expensive, and we even signed their banner out front as illustrated in the photo.







The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel which was prepared by the receptionist (think a mini version of the American Idol sensation William Hung) and went to the Ha Noi airport for our flight to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).

We are safe in HCMC, have been fitted for suits and are having a blast. More from here later. For now, we'd like you to reflect on our experiences in Ha Noi/Ha Long Bay.

Love,
L, C, J & G

Illustrative Examples

By Lisa

They say a picture's worth a thousand words. Well, there are 12 pictures here so I guess that's 12,000 words for ya. We finally managed to locate a card reader in Laos (for $4 Canadian) and are happy to share these with you. They are a very high level overview of what we've been up to over the last couple of weeks.

*You should be able to click on each picture to open it in a larger format.*

ENJOY!





9 Ivey kids in Beijing for some flip cup and a night on the town (Beijing, China)








The Forbidden City: Us and our friends (Beijing, China)








10km trek on the Great Wall. This part was under construction. We lent a hand. (Beijing, China)








When it rains, it pours! We are about to take a bamboo raft down the Li River. (Yangshuo, China)








I'M ON A BOAT! Bamboo rafting down the Li River. (Yangshuo, China)








Jumping for joy in front of the spewing statue - aka merlion. What's a merlion anyway? (Singapore)








Natalie Deschamps arrives in Thailand to meet up with us! Here we are on a long boat heading to a different beach for the day. (Koh Phangan, Thailand)








The infamous Full Moon Party. (Koh Phangan, Thailand)








A random encounter with a good friend from Western! Out for drinks overlooking the Mekong River with our friend Taha Bandukwala and his friend, Emma, from McMaster med school. (Luang Prabang, Laos)









Bathing elephants! (Luang Prabang, Laos)











At the spectacular Kuangsi Waterfall (Luang Prabang, Laos)













Cat and I played a Vietnamese version of hackey sack with these kids. They were awesome. (Hanoi, Vietnam)








That's all for now. More to come!

Love,
L, C, J & G

Monks, Markets, and Mammals (big ones!) -- Livin' it Up in Laos

July 13th through 15th by Justine and Gillian (Note: we tried so hard to include our own pics in this post with no luck - these are borrowed from google to provide visual interest!)

Our time in Laos started on a low. After two very difficult travel days (post to follow by LK... only her humour can do it justice) we arrived in Luang Prabang to discover 1) Canadians have to pay for most for a Laos visa of any country in the world (Bummer!) and 2) We had been robbed in Thailand and couldn't even scrape together enough cash to pay for our visas (Much bigger bummer!). Luckily, the Luang Prabang airport has an ATM and the most lax security system in the world because we strolled through customs sans passports to grab cash for our visas.

When we went to pay for our visas, things looked a lot brighter. There in line with the biggest smile was our friend Taha Bandukwala from home. He and his friend Emma had just flown in from Siem Reap and we were all united in this tiny Laos airport. We paid for our visas and headed to a hostel that Taha had recommended to him called SpicyLaos. It is a beautiful old World Heritage House that has been converted into a Dorm Hostel.

Once we were settled, we went to explore Luang Prabang. All of us fell in love with this city for its timeless and uncommercialized appeal, its French colonial influence, and for the 36 temples and thousands of monks that add to the spiritual, peaceful vibe that LPB exudes. We arranged for tours for the next day, and found a small restaurant along the Mekong River to catch up with one another and try out the BeerLao.

The next morning we were up at 5am to go to the Alms giving in town. At sunrise, the monks walk single file through the town on their way to prayer. While they pass, we are able to give to them food items for their lunch that day. After Alms, we explored the morning market and saw everything possible for sale from live snakes and lizards to sting rays, fish still jumping around, and even barbecued rats.









We went back to the hostel for a quick nap, and were picked up at 8am for our excursions. We drove out to the Mekong, then took a 'jumbo' (a long skinny wooden boat) to the Tat Sae falls. These falls, made of tumbling limestone pools, move through a tropical forest toward the river. We spent a few hours swimming (and dancing of course) in the falls before we met our elephants.









We had arranged to bathe elephants so we (some of us more hesitantly than others!) climbed on to their rough, hairy backs, and waded them into the deepest pool of water at the falls to scrub them and play with them. Gillian and Emma had a rather impatient elephant who bucked them off and would not cooperate which was a little scary, but these women are not faint of heart. They got back on and finished the job.









After our morning in Tat Sae with the elephants, we went back to town and bargained for transportation to the famous Tat Kuangsi falls about an hour away. We hiked from level and level and a few of us made the difficult and very slippery hike to the top of the falls. To cool off afterward, we swung from a rope Tarzan-style into one of the Falls' pools.





We rushed back to Luang Prabang to change and walk to a temple where the Monks were conducting their evening meditation and prayers. The prayers are done through chanting and we had the opportunity to sit in the back of the temple and listen to 70 or so young monks chant. The temple was breathtaking but the young monks were so moving that we all felt a wave of peace (as corny as it sounds) rush over us as we sat. It was definitely an experience of a lifetime. I really can't do it justice on here. We had the opportunity to meet the head monk after the chanting and learned more about the buddhism and meditation, which was amazing also. We also learned some of the novice monks are as young as 10 years old!




After the chanting, we met up at a french restaurant that had been recommended to us by an American couple we had met at the airport and that we ran into again the night before. We each enjoyed a 3 course meal including steak and potatoes with roquefort, wine sauce, and dijon, and soup and salad for about 8 dollars each. AAAAAAMAZING!

With full bellies, we wandered through the massive night market to pick up souveniers, then headed back to the hostel, exhausted from an incredible day.

The next morning some of us slept while others went into town for relaxing Lao massages. We caught up for lunch, said our farewells to Taha and Emma, then headed to the airport for our flight to Hanoi.

Tomorrow morning we are off to Halong Bay for a 3 day/2 night cruise through the islands.

All our Love,

C, L, G, and J

SAME SAME... BUT DIFFERENT

July 8th through 11th 2009 - by Gillian



Hi All!


Here's a brief update on what we've been up to in beautiful Thailand. The reason we chose the beautiful Koh Phag Nan can be summarized in the following image:


That's right, Thailand's Full Moon Party. Probably the best way to sum up the last two stops in our trip is by saying that when we were in Singapore, we all agreed that it would be an unbelievable place to live. When it comes to Haadrin, we're pretty sure nobody actually lives here.


When we got off the ferry, we loaded our group of 9 into a Tuk Tuk (after many many arguments over the ridiculous pricing model - 100 Baht per person! No group/car rate! Give me a break!) and headed to the Dancing Elephant, our home in Thailand. We were greeted by a little frenchman named David who was cute, but definitely flustered - despite many e-mails with Cat, he still wasn't quite sure who we were or where we were going to be sleeping. After much confusion we were taken to our bungalows, where we were greeted by giant balconies and hammocks overlooking Sunset Beach. Absolutely amazing! Natalie arrived the next morning, no thanks to hotel owner David, who wanted her to "wait until he sleeps for a few more hours before he takes her to her room" (it was 9 am!).


During the day we've been soaking up the sun (on a few different beaches) and enjoying the FANTASTIC food of Thailand - curries, Pad Thai, chocolate crepes....UNBELIEVABLE. As Haadrin is pretty much a tourist town around a world famous beach, there are hundreds of restauraunts and bars to choose from and we've definitely sampled a good number!


We've also been enjoying the nightlife... Night one we celebrated the pre-Full Moon Party in style and the night of, we purchased some neon paint, did some body art and had an all around great time. Somehow, Cat, Justine and Natalie all managed to make it to sunrise (7 am). There's our UWO education hard at work!


Most of all we enjoyed the company of Cat's exchange friends -Mauricio (Mexico), Freddie, Anna & Levin (Germany), and Rebecka (Sweden) and were sad to see them off this morning.

What's in store for us? We've decided to stay on Koh Phag Nan for one more night. Today, C and I are taking a Thai Cooking class and the other girls have rented motor bikes and are cruising around the island. Heisz's - it may seem strange that I chose cooking, but when the motor bikes were suggested all I could think of is Geo (and his accident on a motor bike on a tropical island a few years back...)!

We're leaving Thailand on July 12th for two days of travelling (ferry then BUS then plane) to get to Luang Prabang, our next destination. We'll look forward to filling you in on what I'm sure will be an interesting journey from there!


Lots of love,
G, C, L, J and Natalie

Singapore Slings & Delicious Corn

July 4 – July 7

It’s been awhile since our last post but rest assured, we are all safe and sound on the beautiful island of Koh Phangan, Thailand. Let’s get you updated on the last few adventures…

On Saturday, July 4^th (Gillian Kendrick’s birthday – Bonne Fete, mom!), we flew from Guilin, China to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We flew on a relatively empty Air Asia flight. The four of us were packed into middle seats somewhere in the middle of the plane. About 10 minutes before takeoff, we realized nobody was sitting in the first 10 rows of the plane so Cat and I stood up oh-so-stealthily and went to claim some empty rows. Cat quickly learned the, “Don’t ask to move; just move” rule as one of the flight attendants chastised someone for asking to switch their seat. “PLEASE STAY IN YOUR ASSIGNED SEATS” was bellowed over the PA system shortly after we moved. Unfortunately, Gill and Justine did not get up in time to escape ridicule from the flight attendants, and so, they were stuck in their cramped row until after takeoff. We found it to be exceptionally hilarious that it was such an issue to move to an empty row when all passengers were clearly on board and- whatever.

Once we arrived in Kuala Lumpur, we had to go through the (what’s become) routine rigorous swine flu checks. For the first time in our lives we’ve been a little hesitant to show off our Canadian flags on our backpacks. I got selected for extra screening – lucky me and had a super fun temperature gun poked in my ear. After passing the temperature test, we were off to clear the rest of customs and head to the bus terminal to go to Singapore. At this point I would like to point out to a few certain individuals that we did, in fact, take a bus.

When we got to the bus terminal, we weren’t exactly sure where to purchase tickets to get to Singapore and which bus we were supposed to board. Suddenly, a little man (seriously, he was like 5 feet tall, maximum) in a bright yellow shirt with “Delicious Corn” written on the back appeared out of nowhere asking us where we needed tickets to. We were all a little skeptical of Delicious Corn (DC) at first. Was he really part of the bus posse? Was he supposed to be inside the bus terminal actually selling delicious corn? Was he working two jobs? Did he sell delicious corn on the bus? The questions were endless but good old DC ended up not only being the man who sold us our tickets but our bus driver. Unfortunately, he never offered to sell us any delicious corn. DC will forever remain in our hearts, though, as the small but mighty dude who sold us our tickets and got us to Singapore safely.

We grabbed a cab once we got to Singapore and dealt with an especially impatient cab driver and finally booked a room at the G4 Station hostel. The next day, Sentosa Island was visited. The subway, we might add, features a very innovative anti-terrorism rap. Valerie Grimba, you’ll be happy to hear that roti prata was had and fully lived up to your rave reviews.

On our second day in Singapore we spent the morning wandering around the city. Like total Operations keeners (what up, Fraser Johnson!), we decided to check out the port and discuss the biggest ports in the world. Don’t judge. We also visited Clarke Quay, the Merlion (or spewing statue) and had obscenely overpriced Singapore Slings at the Raffles Hotel. Gillian displayed her fantastic ability to be discrete when attempting to gawk at a woman’s really bad red hair dye job directly behind her. The full story is much better when told in person with hand motions and facial expressions. Once the rain began to pour down, we went to one of the million malls full of expensive items. Coming from China, we were appalled at the idea of spending more than $5 on ANYTHING.

That night we went for dinner with Travis and Aimee (friends of the Heisz family) and had hilarious conversations over too much sushi. Post-dinner we went to a bar called “Loof” where if it rains, all drinks are 2-for-1. Unfortunately, the sky did not cooperate with us and so we found it fitting to just get a bottle of vodka instead. We had an incredible time with Travis and Aimee sharing stories of Asia travels and creepy upper lip smiles. We’d like to thank them again for their great hospitality and look forward to visiting with them again in the future (Asia or Canada).

Then we were off to Thailand… or so we thought. When we arrived at the Singapore airport, we saw that Air Asia had cancelled our flight due to “operational issues.” Not wanting to miss our connection from Bangkok-Surat Thani and subsequently, the ferry to Koh Phangan, we booked a flight quickly with Tiger Airways. Tiger is located in a different terminal so we had to bolt to a cab where a man by the name of Gay Kim Soon jetted us over to the right terminal and told us it was very important for us to get McDonald’s for breakfast because it’s bad to be hungry. Thank you, Mr. Soon; however, it’s also bad to miss a flight because you were hanging out with Ronald McD.

We made it safely to the 6pm ferry and managed to see exact replicas of the Jonas brothers (does their mother even know they’re here???), see a Thai escort work her magic on one of the passengers and also practiced our French. Natalie arrived safely and we have been having a blast with her as well as Cat’s exchange friends and we’ve added even more people to the group since meeting some Brits.

More to come in a couple of days. For now, we’re off to the beach.

Love from Thailand – same same but different,

L, G, J & C

Discovering Yangshou

July 2, 2009 -- Justine

On our first full day in Yangshou, we rented bicycles and decided to spend a full day exploring the area. This would include bamboo rafting down the Yulong River, and exploring Water Cave -- enormous caves in the Yangshou mountains complete with mud baths and hot springs.

After an incredibly satisfying 'American Breakfast' of pancakes, eggs, and Muesli, we hopped on our rented bicycles and followed a guide out of town and into the country side to the Yulong River. The bike bells were essential to navigate through the throngs of people. Justine's bike was missing a bell so she had to yell "beeep-beeep-beeep" to get people to move. The air was heavy and humid and the landscape was lush and green and covered with rice fields and the beautiful Yangshou mountains. After biking for about a half hour, we left the roads and navigated puddle-filled dirt trails up to the Yulong.

When we arrived at the river, we loaded our bicycles into a pickup truck and boarded our bamboo rafts. This is maybe the Chinese version of the Italian gondolas, with a man in the back propelling us along using a long bamboo pole. We floated down the river for a couple of hours, singing, dancing (Leesa and Nat 'The Luckiest' came out and we couldn't resist), relaxing and soaking up the beauty of this place. Every half hour or so, we were pushed down a small waterfall which kept things interesting.

After rafting we reclaimed our bicycles and biked along the highway up to the Water Cave ticket booth. Biking and highway and China means half happy half terrified Canadian girls dodging tour buses, children, and livestock along the shoulder of the road. What can we say, it's all about the experience right? When we got to the ticket office we locked up our bikes and boarded a sketchy old bus that drove us down the most POT HOLED, rollercoaster of a road that we had ever experienced. I don't think my head had ever met the ceiling of a bus before, but there's a first for everything. When we arrived at the caves, we boarded small wooden boats in group of eight and headed toward an opening where the mountain met the water that felt like it was maybe as tall as my grade school ruler. We flattened ourselves against the seats of the boat and headed into the caves. At first, all I could think about was "Please God, no earthquakes today. I am NOT Angelina Jolie. Let's keep the tomb raider bit out of today's adventures." When the caves expanded and we could sit up again I think all of us were feeling better. The caverns were beautiful full of colourful stalactites and running water (like it was constantly raining in the caves) but the REAL treat was our tour guide, George, who lead us proudly through the caves for about two hours to point out what the different rock formations looked like.

"Every beautiful girl! Every beautiful girl! You look here! You see this rock? This looks like a big ice cream. Every beautiful girl! This is the biggest ice cream you ever see!" .... and so it went.... for hours. Even though there was about a dozen other people on the tour, George was focused on us the entire time, and we feighned polite interest in every, single, rock, shape, he pointed out: The young girl in the long dress flying, the mother holding her child in her arms, the shooting star, the pyramids of Egypt, the Great Wall, monkeys on a mountain? Jeeeze George, with sights like these we were wondering why we would ever need to travel anywhere else!

Finally George set us free at a large waterfall in the cave and Lisa and I (justine) almost killed feet trying to walk across it. We were then lead back to the mud baths where we willingly covered ourselves in nasty gooey cave mud. None of us were that jazzed about having to clean mud out of our ears for days, so we were more pumped to visit the hot springs. HEAVEN! It felt like the hot tub relaxation we had been craving all week.

We left the cave starving, only to realize we had forgotten about lunch and it was now late afternoon. We biked back to Yangshou and indulged in incredible pizzas and sodas, then headed back to the hostel for a low key evening. Catalina and I decided to explore Yangshou and visited the night market and the touristy parts of town... all pretty standard China.

It was a fantastic day in Yangshou and we are looking forward to our final day here tomorrow before heading to KL/Singapore.

PS My Bag was located and made it back to me!!! Great success China! Wooooo!

Guilin and Yangshou

Hi Everyone! Here's a quick update of July 1st in China! I'll do my best to not leave anything out .

On July 1st, we woke up in Guilin, one of China's more southern towns and the proud and joy of the Chinese people. Canada Day was off to a bit of a rocky start for us four; Justine's luggage didn't make it on the flight the night before (leaving her with only the clothes on her back and with no Canada Day t-shirt!) and Gill realized her debit card was left in a Beijing ATM (whoops).

So three of us got decked out in our Canada t's, loaded our bags onto our backs (oh! should mention here that our bags were weighed at the airport: Gill came in at 9 kg, Justine at 10 kg and Cat and Lisa at 12 kg each!) and headed to catch the next bus to Yangshou. While we liked Guilin (the little we saw of it), we'd heard that Yangshou is basically the same thing but catered more to people our age. So off we went!

When we arrived in Yuangshou (called Y from this point forward), we were not dissapointed! Absolutely beautiful green, rounded ("sugar tip") mountains everywhere, with a cute little village tucked right in the middle. Heisz's: the landscape and weather were both just like St. Lucia. Here's a shot:

Very lovely! What was equally lovely was the wonderful hospitality we experienced at the West Lily, our hostel. The owners were incredibly sweet and full of advice and even walked over to meet us as we got off the bus (we also discovered the next morning that they make a MEAN pancake). On the advice of our Hostel owners, Lily and Stephen (who resembles Stewie from Family Guy almost exactly), we took a raft cruise on the Li river for the afternoon, enjoying the relaxing pace. The cruise is rather famous (featured on the 10 Yuan Bill). We did get trapped in a bit of a downpour, but happily locals were ready with poncho's for sale and the rain lasted only 10 minutes.

We then spent the evening at the city's light show. The light show is also especially famous as it was designed by the same man who designed the opening ceremonies at the 2008 Olympic Games. It's stage is a bay on the Li river, amidst the mountains. While we enjoyed the action, we were caught off guard by the "theatre culture" of the Chinese people. During the show just about everyone carried on a conversation at a regular volume, answered their cell phones, left early and nobody clapped either through the show or at the end (other than us and maybe 10 other Westerners). Here's an image from the show:

After a long day of travel, we were anxious to jump in bed and rest up for a great July 2nd, which was sure to be exciting!

End of Beijing

Hi Everyone!

 

Sorry for the delay in postings, we have found it challenging to update our blog in China as the government does not allow Blogspot.  As it is pouring rain in beautiful Yangshou, we'll spend some time updating you on our latest adventures!

 

I believe Lisa left off at the Great Wall of China.  I'll do my best to fill you in on the rest of Beijing (Gillian here). 

 

We woke up tired, with very sore butts and legs but with full hearts after our spectacular day on the Great Wall of China.  The mood was an interesting one, as it was going to be Cat's final day in her Asian hometown of Beijing, and we were all so moved after our Great Wall trek the day before. 

 

The morning took us to Cat's favourite place in Beijing, the Summer Palace.   The Summer Palace is a huge area in Beijing with a number of temples, gardens and a man-made lake, it was so large we easily spent a morning wandering around!  For those history buffs among us, the Summer Palace was built in the 18th Century as a kind of resting place for the Emperors to visit, and to escape Beijing's blistering heat for the summer months.  We thoroughly enjoyed a lazy morning of popsicles and wandering.

 

Here we experienced something we've become pretty familiar with by now (but is still quite funny).  As four Westerners, we've attracted some quite interesting attention.  Not the same as in St. Lucia (where we get marriage proposals from the locals), but here the other tourists (who are 99% Asian and probably 95% Chinese) whip out their cameras in the hopes of capturing us Westerners busy enjoying the sights.  At Summer Palace, there was a particularly interested gentlemen who had a camera in one hand, camcorder in the other and followed about 6 inches behind us for a good 20 minutes.  Awkward.  Our response?  All four of us whipped out our cameras, turned around and got right in the guy's face, taking hundreds of shots of this totally unsuspecting Asian man.  I felt like the paparazzi following Jon & Kate, it was quite hilarous.  He immediately cracked up (and probably realized how creepy his lurking was) and after that we were pretty much left alone. 

 

After we departed the Summer Palace, we wandered over to another of Cat's favourite areas, old Beijing, featuring hutongs (old homes), where we met with Dave, one of Cat's exchange friends and had a fabulous lunch of hot dogs, complete with cheese whiz (for Justine only, as the can ran out after her dog).

 

Then, off to Beijing's man-made lake where we stumbled upon the much welcomed site of a STARBUCKS!!!!! YAY!!!!!!  Of course, it cost us more than a night at a hostel but it was SO WORTH IT.  Note that in Beijing, to get a Tim Hortons type quality coffee, you're looking at spending more than your entire day's meals would be, so we'd been caffiene starved up to this point.  We enjoyed our coffees by the water and chatted about books and movies, which was quite lovely.  For the Canadians reading, you should note that China chooses one Western movie per month and permits it in the theatres (all the rest don't make it across the ocean), so Cat and Dave were VERY behind on the latest trends in Western film, which made the conversation particularly interesting. 

 

After a fabulous day in Beijing, we returned to Cat's apartment to say goodbye, pack our bags and set off on our next journey, one that has brought us to the beautiful Guilin and Yangshou.