Now in Shanghai

Well, we're now in Shanghai after a great couple of days in Beijing staying with Gwen and Ludo. On Wednesday we went to the Great Wall of China and boy did we luck out with the weather. It was one of those perfect autumn days where you just want to be outside. And where better to be outside than climbing 5 miles of the Great Wall? The 7 a.m. pickup was a bit early for us late risers, but other than that, no complaints. We were all prepared for cold and windy conditions and brought all our gear but it was sunny all day with great blue skies and temps in the high 60s. A great day for a hike. At first the hiking was a bit strenuous, but after you got into it, it was really fun. The Great Wall is definitely a must see and it's better to hike it rather than just show up and take some pictures and go home. The countryside around there is beautiful. The only disappointment is that there wasn't an invading Mongol in sight! We were up for the challenge of defending China from the invading barbarians from the north.

Here are some pics from the Wall:





Now, once we got to the end of our hike there was a river/lake that needed crossing.



One way to cross it was by using the suspension bridge.



Unfortunately, the suspension bridge had all these restrictions on who could use it. Namely, rule 4 stated: "Do not participate if you are suffering from high blood pressure, heart-complaints, fear of heights, infectious diseases, mental illness, alcoholism, confused state of mind or physical handicapped". Well, needless to say, Karen and I didn't pass these tests. :) I'm still not sure why one couldn't cross a bridge with infectious disease or mental illness, but I'm not the one making the rules.

So, what other way is there to cross this river/lake? Well, zipline, of course!



So, off Karen and I went down the zipline.



A bad pic to be sure, but it's difficult to take good pics of yourself when on a zipline (and with Kevin's big hairy hand in the way).

Truth be told, we took the bridge across one way, the zipline back across and then had to take a boat back across yet again to the parking lot. The boat provided us with our first of presumably many future examples of "it's a small world". We get on the boat and the guy across from us says "random question, but where did you go to college?" Well, it turns out that this guy went to Yale as well and graduated in 2002 and was good friends with a couple of our freshman counselees. You just can't go unrecognized anywhere in this world anymore!

A Whole Lotta Kevin

Time for some pics already? You know us...we're a bit snap happy. And have we been happy in Beijing! Here are pics of Kevin, a monk and a panda for your delectation.

Beijing Zoo is huge! And there are loads of interesting animals here ... unfortunately the life for many of these animals appeared pretty grim. Most of the animals looked depressed or incredibly sleepy--like they were in jail, except for some excitable monkeys who looked a bit high due to the potato chips the Chinese were throwing into their dens. They sometimes even threw the whole bag of chips in. We were really appalled...what if the monkeys suffocate on the bag of chips?!?!?! The pandas were a sleepy bunch and ate a load. I think we can all learn from their lifestyle.



We took a rickshaw around Hou Hai lake in Beijing and chanced upon this Buddhist Monastery. Chinese love their mobile phones and even the monks have them! Here's the proof! Kevin also really liked the monk's boots and likened them to wellies which is useful as it rains a lot here.



Who needs an expensive gym membership when you've got these sidewalk gyms. They're all over the place, on the very busy sidewalks next to the completely traffic congested streets of Beijing, and people actually do use them for exercise. We tried them and they actually work very well and are fun. I think Kevin overstrained his hip on the hip rotater contraption though...



If you've been to Beijing, you've gotta have this pic of Chairman Mao.



We came, we saw and we conquered the Forbidden City. However, in the end, fatigue conquered us and we trudged off to find ourselves a nice snack.

We were intrigued by these seahorse skewers that are sold in Beijing. They also have beetles, offal, and snake for sale but these seahorses and scorpions were just so attractive we just had to share them with you.

Old and New China in One Go

So, it's taken us awhile to add a posting to the blog because we've found that access is limited to our blog while we are in China. I just found this internet cafe next to a lake in the middle of Beijing and am having -- of all things--a caramel macchiato! So coffee and an internet for me while Kevin explores one of the oldest (500 years) drum towers in China next door. And the funny thing is it's a fantastic caramel macchiato...not a pseudo one at all. Oh, did I also mention this is all happening as we take a rickshaw around the lake. The driver stops at various sites he recommends and the Drum Tower was one of them. Ooops...Kevin just got here so we better go back to the rickshaw and on to the tour of some Hutongs--old Chinese courtyard houses. Laters!

Karen's visited countries

So, I didn't really think it necessary for me to post this but Kevin wants us to do a before and after kind of thing. So here it goes. As you can see, I've been to much more of Asia than Kev...but that makes sense, eh?

Stuffed backpack = broken back?

Houston...we have a baggage situation. My clothes are about a third of the size of Kevin's so I'd say having a third of the size of his luggage would make sense. But it doesn't. I don't really consider myself high maintenance when it comes to cosmetics and creams but these items seem to constitute half of my bag's weight! So, for about the fifth time today I've tried to cram everything in, strained the zipper to its limits and then taken out another "essential" item or two. Backpack is now closed but there remains this nagging fear in me that somewhere in the middle of Tibet I'll suddenly long for that moisturiser I left behind. More likely, I'll think how cuckoo I was to worry about that item when you can get most anything everywhere nowadays. Part of the point of this trip is to feel unecumbered by material things so my current panic is completely silly!

I haven't slept well the past couple of nights. It's the anticipation and I suppose the slight nervousness, excitement and worries that seem to plague me at the moment. Everything is "what if" and I've decided that for someone who thinks she sees the "glass half full", when it comes to travel panics I see it half empty! For the first time, I'm looking forward to a 10 hr flight because it means I've left our flat and done everything I can to leave it spic and span (we're renting it out) and that we are well and truly on our way.

Funny travel photos

Before we headed out, I wanted to make sure I knew how to post pics to the blog. I figured I might as well try adding some funny travel pics from previous trips. So, since we're starting in China and I just read an article about how Beijing is trying to clean up bad English in China ahead of the Olympics in 2008, I might as well as some pics of some appetizing food choices from our last trip to Shanghai. Still, their English is better than my Chinese.

States/Countries visited

Eileen has a great blog. She recently featured a cool map where you can plot where you've been in the US and the world. Since this is essentially a travel blog, I thought I might add my current maps. Our big trip will only add about 10-12 new countries for me, but at least it will cover two big current gaps - Australasia and South America. I still need to get to sub-Saharan Africa. I also need to get Russia under my belt to cover the big empty space at the top.

Ready to hit the road

Well, it's now our final week in London. We had a nice going away party at our flat last night (Saturday). It was great to see everyone before we head off.

We might as well start our first real post by showing our itinerary.

The summarized version:

Oct 20 - London to Beijing
late October - Beijing, Shanghai (for Karen's brother Brian's wedding) and on to Tibet
early November - Nepal
mid to late November - India
Dec 4 - Mumbai to Bangkok
early Dec - Thailand and possibly Angkor Wat
Dec 11 - Bangkok to Manila
mid Dec - Philippines
Dec 26 - Manila to Sydney
New Year's and early Jan - Australia
Jan 19 - Brisbane to Auckland
late Jan, early Feb - New Zealand
Feb 9 (landing Feb 8!!) - Auckland to Tahiti
Feb 12 - Tahiti to Easter Island
Feb 15 - Easter Island to Santiago, Chile
Feb 16 - Santiago to Rio (in time for Carnival!)
Feb 25 - March 7 - Antarctica
March through early May - South America, itinerary TBD but including Brazil, Argentina, Chile, possibly Bolivia, definitely Peru and Ecuador
May 4 - Quito, Ecuador to New York
May - US - Boston, NYC, Philly, DC, Chicago
Jun 6 - Boston to London

We're both extremely excited to begin this adventure and hopefully this blog will let other people experience a bit of it with us.