Southeast Asia

So, its been a while since I last wrote a blog. But not to worry, nothing really happened worth blogging about. After two months of perfect traveling, I finally hit a roadblock and experienced the darker side of travel that I knew was coming at some point. Upon my arrival in Saigon, Vietnam, I became extremely ill, to the point where I thought that I had malaria, which would definitely put a damper on the rest of my trip. Fortunately, after a trip to a clinic and a round of Cipro, I kicked whatever malady had been plaguing me for the past week. On the downside, this illness caused me to miss my window of opportunity in Cambodia altogether. Although, I am a little pissed off about this intrusion on my seemingly perfect trip so far, I guess it gives me an excuse to come back and see what I missed, or at least this is what I am telling myself. After a short plane ride, I am back in Bangkok, and tomorrow I leave for Kathmandu. Since I am about to finish up my month in Southeast Asia, I thought I would use this blog to share some of my thoughts on the three countries I visited during my time here. Thailand, where I started and am now ending my time in Southeast Asia, is very different from the rest of the countries I visited. I attributed this to the fact that I spent the least amount of time here and only really got to experience the capital, Bangkok. As such, my experiences are skewed and I will only talk about Bangkok. As I stated in a previous blog, Bangkok is really unremarkable. It is essentially one big adult male playground. It is populated by people looking to fulfill their vices, and the Thai people trying to facilitate those vices and take advantage of anyone they can along the way. That isn't to say that Bangkok is not a fun city. It really is a blast if you go into it with an open mind. You will see things that are different from anything you have ever seen before/will see again. Unlike the other Asian countries I have visited, it almost seemed liked westerners outnumbered the Thais. This is definitely true in areas such as Kho San, the famous backpackers street where I have spent most of my time while here. This area is a haven for Thais that are looking to take advantage of silly travelers who are unaware of their scams that they have perfected over the years, but if you watch yourself and are not stupid, this scams are obvious and sometimes fun to play along with. The best part of Bangkok, in my opinion, is the access to fantastic Thai food wherever you go. Everywhere you turn there is a street merchant selling some of the best Pad Thai you will ever eat for pennies, cooked right in front of your eyes by an old woman truly in need of the small price you pay. (30 Baht for a plate, equal to 1 USD) But again, like I said, I spent the least amount of time in Thailand, so my experiences are limited, but if you would like to know more about what I have seen, I guess you will just have to come and see it for yourself. Bangkok truly is a wild city. Laos was my favorite of the three countries I visited. Laotian people are some of the nicest I have ever come into contact with. Laos, and Vietnam to some extent, really had the feel of Communism to them. But, that is not to say that propaganda was crammed down your throat, it was more in what I saw in terms of the interactions of the Laotian people. Everything seemed like "what's mine is yours", meaning that whenever I saw a family eating lunch, it seemed like they were always feeding at least five other neighbors or extended family that would drop by during their day. Everyone seemed like they were all friends and working together for a common goal. Besides this aspect, I just fell in love with Laos in general. Everywhere you went, people were bending over backwards to help you. Never once did I feel as though a native was trying to screw me over or scam me. On top of that, I noticed that there were essentially no rules in Laos. People did as they pleased when they pleased with hardly any interference from anyone or anything. At the same time though, there seemed to be order. Like people knew when they were overstepping a boundary. For example, they will rent you a motorbike that can go upwards of 80 MPH to drive on the dirt roads of Laos with no experience because they know that if something happens to you, nothing will happen to them. Nobody will sue them. Nobody will prosecute them for giving you the bike. You are the stupid westerner who road the bike too fast down a road you should not have gone on with no experience. I just liked the idea that despite the freedom to do what you want, it seemed as though there was order, even though I did not see a soldier or policeman once outside of the capital of Vientienne. Tubing was not so bad either. Definitely an experience I will never forget. Vietnam had sort of the same feel, but different. I expected to run into a small amount of hostility because I was American in Vietnam. I never even remotely got that feeling. The people once again were incredibly nice. Countless times, Vietnamese bent over backwards to help us. For example, during lunch at my hostel, the staff would cook a huge feast for the various workers, and always would offer food to any traveler who was lucky enough to be in the kitchen during that time. Vietnam is a place that I will definitely be coming back to. I met many travelers during my time there who had bought motorcycles and had driven all the way down the country over the course of a month, and apparently this is the way to see the country. I was lucky enough to do this for one leg of my journey, and it was one of the most memorable days of my trip. This seems to be a constant theme of my travels. My times spent in cities and tourist areas are fun, but the truly special times have been getting out into the heart of countries and seeing things that not every other person who comes there see's. Seeing people going about their everyday lives, not just standing around waiting to take advantage of tourists. That is the one thing I noticed about Vietnam that puzzled me. Literally, everywhere you went there were men sitting around doing nothing. Thousands of men sitting in little plastic chairs on the side of the road sipping tea, smoking cigarettes, at all hours of the day. It just seemed like nobody was working. Aside from the people working in shops or restaurants, you either drove a taxi, tried to get people to ride on the back of your motorbike, or sat there smoking and drinking tea. It was a little sad to see. Either way, my time in Vietnam was cut short by my illness as well as terrible weather, so I was not able to do everything that I had planned on, so I will definitely be making a trip back someday. Be that as it may, I have had so many experiences over the past month that I will never forget. Eating beating cobra heat, riding a motorbike on Vietnam roads with thousands of other Vietnamese and no streetlights or stop signs, tubing in Vang Vien all come to mind. Definitely glad I came here and sad to leave, I just hope there will be a next time. On to my most anticipated part of my travels, Nepal.

Vietnam Continued

Vietnam is a place that you could spend months exploring and still not come home feeling like you experienced all that it has to offer. I have only two weeks, which makes this trip really hard for me. Hell, five days were wasted in Hanoi when the weather was too miserable to go outside. Not only did that ruin my time in Hanoi, Sapa, and Halong, but now it forces me to spend little time in the rest of Vietnam. Since my time in Hanoi I have traveled south to the towns of Hue, Hoi An, and Na Trang. Hue was an interesting little city. I only spent a day there and on that day I rented a bicycle and cruised around to see some of the various pagodas (temples) and tombs of Vietnamese royalty. The next morning, myself and a friend rented motorbikes and decided to make the full-day ride to Hoi An, a few hundred kilometers south. The trip is known as being one of the most beautiful drives in the world, and I would have to concur. It takes you through the countryside and back roads of Vietnam. Along dirt roads and mountain passes. The most notable pass, Hai Van, was absolutely breathtaking. Winding through the mountainside over top of the Pacific Ocean was quite the view. The most nerve racking part of the journey though was when we traveled through the town of Danang, which is a large bustling city. Let me sort of explain how roads work in Vietnam so you can get a better picture of what driving here is like. Motorbikes outnumber cars almost 100 to 1. The only cars you really see on the road are buses or trucks. There are also rarely stop lights at any intersection. The horns on bikes and cars are extremely important, because the way to go through an intersection is just lay on your horn to make sure every one knows you are coming and gets out of the way. Its kind of frightening to be driving along on your motorbike and all of the sudden being greeted by a deafening horn to your left signaling to get the hell out of the way. When going across an intersection it is essentially a free-for-all for everyone except for trucks and buses, so all bikes and pedestrians simply go at a steady pace and hope that the motorcycles miss them. It is a little terrifying at first walking across the street because it looks as though you will get hit by 20 cyclists, but as long as you keep a constant speed of walking, they miss you. So, long story short, motorcycling in Vietnam is very fun, but very dangerous. You must always be paying attention to the road and what is going on around you. There is nothing like taking a motorbike 100 Km/hr down the dirt roads of the Vietnam countryside, surrounded by the ocean on one side and rice paddies on the other. Truly a sight to behold. After the ride, we arrived in the city of Hoi An. Hoi An was once a trading post for groups all over Asia and Europe, so there is a strange meld of influences going on with the architecture. Sort of a mix between French and Japanese/Chinese. The old part of town was very cool (but touristy) with small streets lining canals that reminded me of Venice. Hoi An is also the tailor capital of Vietnam. Everywhere you walk there are shops where you can buy a tailored silk suit for as little as 50 USD. If I had more room in my gear or the money to ship it back, I would have definitely jumped at the opportunity. Oh well. As I said before though, my time in Vietnam is severely limited now, so I had to continue southward after one day. I arrived this morning in Na Trang, the beach capital of Vietnam, and hopefully I get to spend a few days relaxing, but I still have to travel to Saigon and catch a bus to Cambodia in the next few days, so we will see. I finally uploaded pictures to Facebook. All of the China and my SE Asia pictures so far. Check them out.

Cobra

I finally got to do something cool yesterday which made me feel a lot better about my overall Vietnam experience. I have been wanting to eat cobra for a while, and apparently, Vietnam is the place to do it, so I jumped at the chance to take a trip to the outskirts of Hanoi to chow on some snake. I had had snake before in China, but this was a whole new ballgame. Once we got to the place, they immediately brought out a snake and started thrusting it at the four of us wanting us to hold it. Of course I grabbed the thing and immediately it started looking at my hand holding its tail like it was going to bite me. This kind of freaked me out because I thought it was a Cobra and thrust it back to the handler. He laughed (must of thought I was a pansy) and told us it was only the "House Snake". We could buy that snake for 1 million dong (50 US) but we came for the Cobra so we made them go bring out the good stuff. The Cobra was much bigger and cost an extra 20 USD. It had been de-fanged, so it was no longer a threat. We walked over to our table and before we could even think about it, the snake had been cut open and was being dismembered. The first thing to come out was the heart. The heart was cut and put into a shot glass. One of us had to drink it, and none of us had really thought about who out of the four would get that chance. I was not going to let this opportunity slip by so I essentially took it and downed it. I let the beating heart sit on my tongue for a few moments before swallowing it. A very weird feeling. It tasted very bloody and quite odd I have to say. We then sat down and they staff began bringing out red and yellow shots. The red were rice wine mixed with cobra blood, and the yellow were rice wine mixed with bile. Both were very disgusting, but I think that the rice wine was what made them so bad. Very potent stuff. Apparently, the blood is good for the male libido and the bile is good for the stomach (at least that's what they told us). We then proceeded to get around 6 courses of various snake dishes, ranging from snake ribs barbecued to snake skin and liver stir fry. They were all very good, but the spring rolls that they made with snake meat were definitely my favorite. Overall, it was a great experience and I am definitely glad I did it. When else will I ever be able to say that I ate a beating Cobra heart. Definitely a cool experience. And, to top it all off, the sun is finally out which is amazing. I leave tonight for Hue so it is only going to get nicer out. About time.

Hanoi

My trip in Vietnam so far has essentially been a disaster. After the horrific bus ride, I arrived in Hanoi and fell asleep for a few hours. When I woke up, there were horrible downpours of rain, making it almost impossible to do any sort of sightseeing around the city. I decided to wait out the rain, and ended up wasting almost two days just sitting around, doing nothing. The major attraction outside of Hanoi is Halong Bay, but you cannot even take trips out into the bay when the weather is this bad. With Halong Bay out of the picture, I decided that maybe it would be a better idea to go north to Sapa, which is known for its beautiful scenery and treks through the mountains. Big mistake. After a twelve hour bus ride (does not even phase me now) overnight I arrived in Sapa where it was around 40 degrees and pouring rain still. It was so foggy that you could not even see outside the window of the bus. The treks are all through rice paddies in the mountains, so the thought of walking through mud and water in almost freezing weather for a few days did not appeal whatsoever to me, so I decided to catch the overnight bus back that same day and get at least some of my money refunded. I arrived back in Hanoi at 4:30 AM (it was still pouring), and the hostels were not open. Luckily they opened at 6 AM so I only had to wait for a short amount of time but, needless to say, I was exhausted, wet and cold. I have to be in Bangkok on the 1st of April to catch my flight to Nepal, and I still have to go to Cambodia via Saigon in the south of Vietnam, so I made the executive decision to just hop on a bus and go south as soon as possible hopefully onward to better weather (most likely not). If not, I am just going to spend more time in Cambodia. Essentially, the only cool thing I have seen in the five days I have been in Vietnam is the prison where John McCain was kept during the Vietnam War, which was not even that impressive. I am scheduled to go and play with cobras and eat snake tonight, but knowing my luck it won't happen. I will let everyone know when I do something cool other than watching the rain fall.

The Bus Ride From Hell

I will never complain about travel again in my life after my experiences from the last few days. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to take a public bus 30 hours from Vientiane, Laos to Hanoi, Vietnam. The price was the major motive for my decision, but in the long run I only saved about twenty dollars by choosing the public over the sleeper bus (the total trip cost about 20 USD). So to start I had to take a bus from Vang Vien to get to Vientane before I could even begin my journey. The ride was only four hours long, but it was incredibly brutal. I unfortunately was sick that day to begin with and my stomach was giving me problems, which is not a good thing when on a toilet-less bus. I picked the back right seat of the bus which was totally full, so I was incredibly cramped and the worst part was that I was so cramped that my right arm had to be put out the window. I was wearing a tank-top and the incredibly bright sun burned my arm very badly. I was aware of this for the entire trip, but I could do nothing to stop it. To further add to my stupidity, I had heard that Laos currency is worthless outside of Laos, so I decided to spend it all before getting on the bus. I do not know what I was thinking, but that was the worst idea I have ever had. Finally, after four excruciating hours I arrived in Vientane, burned and sick as a dog. I then had to wait at a public bus station for six hours waiting for the bus to Hanoi to leave. When it finally did I realized what I was in for. The bus was literally a public bus. Exactly what it would be in America. People were getting on and off everywhere, the seats were incredibly cramped, and it was entirely full the entire journey. As we began our journey I realized just how screwed I was. I had not eaten in twelve hours, and probably wouldn't be able to do so again until I could find an ATM (there are only 5 in all of Laos) because nowhere takes credit card. To make matters even worse, there was no bathroom on the bus, and as I said before, I was very sick. Every time we stopped, you had to pay 1000 kip (around 15 cents) to use the bathroom (15 cents I did not have). After a few hours I even ran out of water and had no money to buy more. I just decided in my head that I would sleep as much as possible and actually managed to sleep for a few hours until we got to the border crossing. The border crossing was what I like to call a "shit show". People everywhere waiting, no lines, Laotian people jumping in front of me, it was crazy. We arrived at 2 AM and had to wait 5 hours until they opened. It was miserable. It was cold and foggy outside and I was still wearing nothing but the tank top. By the time I finally got to the border crossing to have my Visa examined, I realized that it cost one American dollar to cross. Luckily, a girl was kind enough to spot me the dollar or I would have been screwed. On the Vietnam side of the border, people were coming out of the woods, covered in mud, looking like they just snuck past the border. So weird. I later read that that border crossing was one of the worst in the area. So we finally got back on the bus and it was only another twelve or so hours to Hanoi which I tried my best to just sleep and not think about how terrible the circumstances of my trip were. Finally, I was dropped off at a bus station in Hanoi. I immediately set out to find an ATM, but the bus station was in the middle of nowhere. I was totally screwed. Once again, some amazing people let me jump in their cab to a hostel downtown, which was a lifesaver. I finally made it to an ATM, ate my first meal in almost two days, and used the bathroom for the first time in hours. I think it was lucky I had not eaten, which probably helped me not get sick on the bus. In hind sight, that extra twenty dollars in my pocket was not worth it for what I went through. I would not recommend taking the route that I did for anyone even if they did not have some of the extenuating circumstances that I had (lack of money and health). Do it for the story I guess. Never again.

Laos

Out of the 5 Communist countries in the world I have already been to 2, and in a few days I will have gone to a third. I just thought that was pretty funny. Currently I am in Laos (China was the first) and Vietnam will be the third. Honestly, I cannot tell the difference. But anyways, Laos is bananas. I know I say that essentially about every place I go, and they are all insane in their own ways, but there really is no other way to describe this place. After a fourteen hour bus ride from Bangkok we finally got to the capital, Vientiane. Vientiane is more a transit city for tourists going to other areas of Laos, but I enjoyed it because not many westerners stay in the city overnight. Myself and some of my travel partners needed to get our Visas for Vietnam, so we had to stay overnight. Essentially Vientiane is like any other capital city of a third world country. Dirty, cheap, and not somewhere you want to spend too much time, so the next day we hopped on another bus to Vang Vien after we got our Visas (this one only 5 hours long). Vang Vien is a small city that is dominated by tourism. The city itself is lined all along a river, so it is quite beautiful. It is nothing but westerners trying to party and Laosians (not sure if that is a correct term) trying to take your money. Almost everyone speaks English, which is usually a bad sign. The main thing that the place is known for is tubing, which is essentially a huge party on the river (youtube Laos tubing to see it). Makeshift bars have been set up all along the river and you float down on an inner tube going from bar to bar and buying ridiculous cocktails that are served in the same plastic buckets you used as a kid at the beach for 50,000 kip (around 4 USD). The real fun part is that they have all set up water slides, trapezes, and rope swings at each bar to entice you to come. While floating down they just simply throw a rope to you and reel you in. There are essentially no rules on the river. No safety regulations. Even when the water is low, they will allow you to jump on things almost 30 feet in the air. Every year, multiple people die from getting too drunk and stupid. With that being said, it was a great experience. Something that I did once and totally had my fill. Usually by the time it is dark, the parties end and everyone buys Tuk Tuks (the taxi of Southeastern Asia) and stumbles back to the town. The town literally dies around 10 PM because everyone is so exhausted from drinking out in the hot sun all day. While I did enjoy tubing, yesterday was a lot more fun for me. Myself and two others rented motorbikes for around 5 USD the entire day and drove them into the countryside of Laos. No paved roads, cows everywhere, and tiny shanties set up along the dirt roads. The funny thing is that once again, there were no rules and regulations. I had never ridden a motorbike before, and the guy just took my money and gave me a manual bike and let me have at it. Took some getting used to, but it was a breeze after a few minutes. I have been to some destitute parts of Nicaragua (the poorest place in the western hemisphere) and this place was right up there with it. It was crazy because we were seeing what Laos was really like. We were in the areas that the people lived that commuted by bicycle and motorbike to the town everyday. We spent a few hours riding towards this place called the Blue Lagoon. It was essentially a little tourist spot set up in the middle of nowhere, where crystal clear blue water collected in pools and they had set up huts to relax in and after you go swimming. It was really beautiful and much more relaxing then tubing the previous day. The ride back was very fun because we were riding down the roads as the children were getting out of school. Every one of them road a bicycle, and the weirdest part was, none of them carried books. They all carried a farm tool of some sort. You could tell what their priorities were in school. After getting back we hit the bar scene of Vang Vien, which is actually hilarious. Every bar either plays Family Guy or Friends on repeat all day and night long. You have to pick which one you want to watch. People just sit there and watch episodes over and over. Pretty lively bar scene. Anyways, there is talk about the group I am with going to Vietnam tomorrow on a 30 hour bus ride or I might possibly go up to a city in the north of Laos called Luangprebong (not sure on the spelling). If I choose to go to Vietnam then my next blog will be from Hanoi.

Bangkok

For both being in Asia, Thailand and China could not be more different. In Beijing, I could walk for hours down the streets and not see a single white person, where as in Bangkok, everywhere you go there is someone speaking English. Bangkok essentially is just a large, dirty, major city that is full of tourists looking for a vacation of anything-goes debauchery surrounded by beautiful Buddhist Temples. The first thing you notice after getting off the plane is that it is incredibly hot and humid here. I instantly was coated with a layer of sweat even though it was almost midnight. It hovers around 80-85 degrees at all times here. You get used to the sweat after a while which is not a nice feeling. It was kind of odd leaving Beijing where it was snowing and cold to coming to this tropical climate but I have to say, I enjoy the hot more than the cold. The first full day I had to explore Bangkok I decided to go to some of the old Buddhist temples located at Wat Pho in the old part of the city. The infrastructure of Bangkok is actually not very conducive to traveling around the area. Essentially, you have to either walk, take the sky train, take a ferry through the canals, or pay for a taxi. The ferries are fun because you get to see some of the old parts of the city where everyone lived on the banks of the canals that once dominated the city, making it look almost like a dirty, poor version of Venice. The ferry cost around 19 Baht, which is around 50 cents USD (around 30 Baht to the dollar). The only problem is that the ferry only drops you off at stops along the major canal, so you end up walking anyway. To be honest, the old part of the city is interesting, but not all that spectacular. There are many Buddhist temples that are all outrageous colors that make them truly stand out. They are very intricate and covered in gold. I love seeing sights like these, but I am much more into experiencing the culture of a place, so I hopped in a Tuk Tuk, which is a three-wheeled vehicle that is honestly hard to explain, but Bangkok is filled with them. They are more expensive than taxis, but they are so much fun to drive around in. It is essentially a rickshaw with a motor. It is a great way to see the city. As a side note, I mentioned about the scams that occur in Beijing. Bangkok is no different. Well-dressed men will ask you if you need help in getting somewhere around the city and end up taking you to places for jewelry or designer clothes where you are forced to pay exorbitant amounts of money or the police are called. Tuk Tuks do the same thing. They will drive you to designated stores instead of your destination, which is frustrating. Taxis will even not turn on their meters and then force you to pay whatever it is they want after your ride. You just have to be conscientious of your surroundings and not be stupid, and you will get around fine, but it is clear that many people get burned by these scams, and these people have been practicing them on westerners for years. Later that night I met up with my friend Kitson whom I went to Elon with and lives in BKK teaching at a university. I give her kudos for living in this place, especially as a girl. We met at this area that is a haven for backpackers, a road called Khao San. It is filled with cheap hostels, cheap bars, and cheap food. You are hard pressed to find someone who is not white walking along this street unless they are selling some stupid little trinkets to all the foreigners. Nightlife in Bangkok is pretty unreal. The only way I can describe it is that it seems like it was designed by an American male, recently divorced, in his 40s. Everywhere you go you are there are men offering prostitutes, sex shows, and anything else the perverted male mind could think of. You are constantly surrounded by older white males that are walking hand-in-hand with young Thai girls. I enjoyed taking this all in and seeing what life is truly like here, but it just was not my cup of tea. I like to get out of the major cities. It sort of helped that for the past few days I have been staying with Kitson on the outskirts of the city at her University, which is much more laid back and normal. The food is much cheaper here and people are not all about exploiting westerners. In terms of food, I have been pretty much eating curry for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and loving every moment of it. In BKK you can get a curry for around 40 Baht, a little over 1 USD, and rice. Last night we went to a Korean do-it-yourself barbecue that was definitely the most fun I have had eating on this whole trip. For 120 Baht, around 4 USD, we had all-you-can-eat where you pick all the meats and vegetables that you want and cook them on a skillet right in front of you. Some of the meats that I sampled included cow heart, kidney, liver, and intestine, which were actually quite tasty. We gorged ourselves for over an hour and definitely got our moneys worth. But, as I said, I have been getting the itch to get out of Bangkok so myself and a group of Kitson and her friends are taking an overnight bus to Laos tonight and spending about a week traveling around the country. Apparently, Laos is unreal. So cheap, so beautiful, and apparently what Thailand was like 30 years ago (an up and coming tourist destination that most westerners do not know about). Hopefully I get a chance to blog while I am there, but from what I have heard it is a pretty backwards place, for example there are only five ATMs in the entire country, so I make no promises. After Laos I am going directly to Vietnam so I will try and update as soon as I can.

Oh yeah, and about the earthquake in NZ. It turns out I did have some friends in Christchurch. One girl I traveled with was there and lost everything in the hostel. All her belongings, including her passport, bank and credit cards, and other imperative things for travel. She has been taken in by a local family and they are helping her weather the storm. Apparently, up until a few days ago there were violent aftershocks occuring. Definitely dodged a bullet on that one.

Last Beijing Blog

For the past few days I have been struggling with what I was going to do with my last few days in Beijing. It came down to taking a 17 hour train ride to Xian to see the Terraccotta Warriors and then a 17 hour ride back (that would blow), or change my flights to go ahead and go Bangkok. I decided in the end to change my flights, so I leave for BKK tomorrow night. Just as I did with New Zealand, this final blog gives a quick overview of my thoughts after my 10 days here. A quick side note, I will try to upload pics when I get to BKK. I am a little bit weary of doing it here because the uploader for my camera software is all in Chinese. When I tried to upload my pics in a Korean internet cafe in Auckland it was all in Korean and somehow I managed to delete the pictures from my last 10 days in NZ. Major bummer. So Beijing was a blast. Definitely loved most things about the city. The people are incredibly nice and willing to help you with what little English they do speak. What I noticed though is that those that knew not a word of English would not even give you the time of day. A lot of cab drivers would pull over and as soon as you spoke to them in English they would close the door and drive off. They just did not want to deal with the hastle. A fair amount of people that you would come into contact with would speak some English and you were able to communicate on a basic level. The thing that really annoyed me though about people was as soon as they saw me, dollar signs lit up in there eyes. It seemed as though every seller, from food to clothes, tried to take advantage of the stupid American pig. For example, I went by a food vendor that was selling breakfast sandwiches one morning and saw that she was selling them for 3 Yuan, about 40 cents American. The next day I went back to get one on the way to the subway and as soon as she saw I was white and did not speak Chinese she said the price was 35 Yuan, almost 5 USD. Same goes for virtually all other vendors. It is disappointing because I ended up missing out on eating and buying a lot more little things because they really tried to screw me on the price. Same goes for people trying to scam westerners. It seemed as though everywhere you go its the same old story about how they are poor art students who want you to come to their show. Even so, its a good preparation because I have heard Thailand is even worse. So I will not be so shellshocked next time around. Besides those bad aspects, the people were extremely nice and fun. Aside from the constant stares from people about my height and the bombardment of pictures taken of me without my knowledge that I could see out of the corner of my eye, the people were amazing. In terms of the food, it was good to eat some of the strange things like scorpions and snake that I did, even though from what I saw the Chinese did not even eat these things. The Chinese it seemed were all about eating various meats fried on skewers. Street food is very big here, and quite cheap if the seller is not trying to screw you. Going to restaraunts was very fun though because if you went with a group then you could order around 5 or 6 dishes and end up only paying around 4 USD per person for a feast. Most of the food was similar to what you would find in Chinese restaraunts in the States. I got a little tired of eating Chinese food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday, but it was almost always tasty. Peking Duck was definitely the most delicious thing I ate, and rightfully so since that is what Beijing is known for. It also takes a little while to get used to using chopsticks at every meal. Some dishes are extremely hard to eat with just the sticks so our table often looked like a warzone compared to our Chinese neighbors. In terms of the sites and landmarks of Beijing, just walking around the streets made for some of my favorite memories. The area in Old Beijing was very cool with many shops and bars surrounding a large lake in the middle of the city. Exploring the hutongs, or traditional neighborhoods, was also very fun. The only problem I had was that it was quite cold and snowed the first couple days I was here, which made it very difficult to be outside for long periods of time. In terms of traditional sights, the Great Wall was truly the most breathtaking thing I saw. Just the size and length, coupled with the surrounding mountains and valleys was truly spectacular. Something I will not forget for a very long time. Overall, Beijing was very cool and definitely worth the 14 hour plane ride it took to get here. I think 10 days is a perfect amount of time to spend here. I saw everything I wanted to see, and then some. As a final remark, I can tell that China is on the verge of breaking out as a world superpower. The people have the capitalistic instincts and drive to definitely start making moves economically, and just the sheer amount of people (there are around 1.34 billion people in China) will make them a force to reckon with in the next coming decades. I would not be suprised if China is the next big thing in terms of travel destinations for westerners. Now it is time to move on to Southeast Asia. I am getting to BKK on the 5th of March and almost immediately meeting up with a friend from college and myself and some of her friends are going to take the overnight train to Laos. I can't wait. See you in Thailand.

Some More of Beijing

A lot to type, and time is money so I will get right down to the nitty gritty. Since the last time I blogged a lot has happened. I have done a lot of sight seeing and seen so many cool things that it is hard to write about each one in detail. I guess I will start with some of the sites I've seen and then go into a few little stories about how crazy China is. After haning out with the Canadians for the first few days I needed a change of scenery, so I switched hostels to meet some people and was fortunate to meet a few Americans and hung out with a guy from Idaho recently until he left today. We spent a day going to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden city which was very cool. It was truly amazing seeing the square and the giant picture of Mao at the entrance, and the entire place still has a Communist feel to it. The Forbidden City is actually connected to the square. There are so many tourists there, almost entirely Chinese. Cody and I were one of maybe ten westerners I saw the whole day. Everywhere you look there are soldiers parading and doing drills with AK 47s and Kung Fu as signs of Communist strength. Its really kind of eerie, and you are surrounded by about ten thousand Chinese tourists who grew up being taught that Americans were the Devil. It is funny to see Chinese tourists though. While walking around Bangkok you can tell who the tourists are and who the Beijingers are. The tourists wear dark clothes and worn no-name jackets and have a weathered look to them while the Beijingers are all wearing fake designer clothing and Nike sneakers. The Beijingers also do not stare at me as much as the tourists, who all stop and stare like I am more interesting than the 700 year old palace they are in. The Forbidden City honestly was not all that spectacular. It was cool to see in person and because I am into the history behind it, but I really expected it to be more Grandiose. While in Tiennamen we were bombarded by Chinese people who claimed to be art students who wanted us to come to an art show. This is one of two scams that you will find almost all over Beijing. They are quite friendly and speak English very well and take you to a place where they claim is a free art show. Once there they force you to pay a crazy amount of money or they will call the cops who are also in on the scam. The other classic scam is the tea house scam, where they invite you into a traditional tea house and force you to pay or they call the cops again. They prey on stupid Westerners. That night we went to the famous Wangujing Night Market where a lot of the crazy foods you would find on Bizzare Foods are located. It is a tiny street, about 10 feet wide and about a football field in lenght and stalls are packed all along both sides. Each one sells similar foods, ranging from various types of skewerd meats and fruit, to the more delicious insects, scorpions, spiders, snakes and other interesting eats. What is funny is that all the Chinese that are eating there will not touch the bugs and other interesting foods, they just eat the fruit, soups, and meats. To get your eat on you just walk up to the stall and point to what you want and the guy throws it on the grill for a few minutes. The prices are kind of high compared to the rest of beijing (about 3 USD for a skewer of scorpions) but like wise Ryan Cooke once said, "do it for the story." I ate quite a bit of crazy things but I will just talk about scorpions, snake, and seahorse. Scorpions just taste like paper. They use a nice spice but to be honest they are pretty tasteless themselves. The bigger ones have sort of crab taste to them. I would definitely recommend the bigger black ones. Much better flavor. Snake tastes like chicken as lame as that sounds. They cook it for so long in a sweet and sour sauce that it is very tender. Seahorse was by far the weirdest. It has a very salty taste to it. Quite crunchy and it felt like biting into a bunch of fish bones. Would not recommend it for anyone. We finished that day off with a Chinese massage. It was around 20 USD for an hour. It was much different from what I imagine. It was almost like the masseuse beat me up for an hour. She was so small but very strong. At one point she was essentially standing on my back and at other times she was punching my legs. Very weird. And to answer the question on everyone's minds, no happy ending. The next day we spent exploring the Summer Palace on the outskirts of Beijing. I really enjoyed it except for it was blistering cold the entire time and windy. Aside from that, the place was enormous and you could spend days exploring. The palace itself is a number of palaces that encircle a lake, and just as its called, was the summer palace for the royal family (the forbidden city was their normal residence). It was pretty spectacular. That night I bought a ticket to an Acrobatics show which was amazing. Every part of the act was something incredible. There were so many highlights. One guy could juggle 8 balls at once. At one point they fit 11 girls on one bicycle while riding it in circles on the small stage. Just seeing the amount of strenghth and flexibilty exhibited by these people was crazy. Definitely glad I sprung for the 20 USD ticket (things are so cheap here). After a few days of exploring Beijing I finally went to the Great Wall yesterday. I went to the Mutinayu section, which is not very touristy and for the most part in its original state. After a two hour busride we arrived at the wall to a fresh layer of snow. It as around 32 degrees outside and perfectly sunny so the weather was perfect. We took a chairlift up to the bottom of the wall (it runs along the top of a mountain range) and began to walk to the highest point. The wall is so much larger than I imagined. It was very steep as well which gave us a pretty good workout. What was the craziest thing to me was that there were people selling drinks and souvenirs on the wall that had walked 2 kilometers from the town below and then traveled all the way along the wall, which at times is at an extremely steep incline with thousands of steps, carrying 25 pound bags of stuff. Some of them were older women that seemed like they were in their 70s or 80s, all when it was close to freezing outside. Hell of a way to earn a living. Ater about three hours of going uphill we got the highest point. I was taking a picture when all of the sudden someone startled me from behind. It turned out to be a buddy of mine that I traveled with all over New Zealand. I had no idea he was even in China. He just happened to be on that part of the wall, on that day, in a place thousands of miles away from where I met him. We made plans to meet up later that night. The walk down the wall was much easier because we could almost run down the steps. The way down was so much fun though. Instead of the chair lift they have a tobaggan run. It is very long and you can go extremely fast. It was not safe at all and it seemed like there were no safety regulations. I was going maybe 20 MPH downhill on this old metal chute with a little plastic luge. It was so much fun. Anyways so after getting back into Beijing, I met up with my buddy and we got dinner and had Peking Duck, which was amazing. So much better than any duck I had ever had before. We then proceeded to go to a Chinese night club where the Chinese girls wanted nothing to do with us and we essentially made asses of ourselves. The only girls that gave us the time of day were prostitutes which is not exactly my style. A great day all around though. It was so insane to see my friend again. I was definitely pretty happy about that. Small world. Truly amazing. Anyways I am getting kicked off the computer right now because they are closing. I will try and blog tomorrow about my overall thoughts of Beijing. I am deciding whether or not I want to stay a few more days or go ahead and fly to BKK. We will see. Until next time...