I think it's safe to say I'm a little China-ed out. I'm past the point where I want to yell at everyone. Alex and I have simply ended up in a Zen mindset, realizing that our immediate future is out of our hands. But the good news is that we are supposed to pick up a real valid visa, not even back dated or anything, on Monday. We'll be flying out on Monday night to Yangshuo to pick up some of our stuff and then it's off to Vietnam for 3 weeks before we go home. We've spent our time (a [View Full Entry]

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If you really want an update on our situation, just re-read my last blog. Because for all the phones calls and visits to the PSB turn out exactly the same : They refuse to give us any information and they can't tell us when they CAN give us any information. They can't even tell which department we should speak to about it. The American Embassy will help us, but we have to wait a few days. And even the "consulting company" I called advised us just to wait. Even if we get our passports back now, it won't really matter because [View Full Entry]

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Because of all this red tape! I'll keep this brief. We arrive in Shanghai September 9th and went to PSB to renew our visas the next day. We were told that we could only get a 10 day extension. Since we ALREADY HAD 10 days left on our visa (good till September 18th), we asked for our passports back, so we could maybe do a visa run to Hong Kong and then make it back in the country in time for Alex's parents visit in Bejing. They told us no. I asked very nicely "Please?" And was told no. "We have [View Full Entry]

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Lesson 1 Scaring Asian children sounds like a lot more fun than it's worth. Every freaking time I'm playing with children on this continent and I slyly work out trying to scare them - playfully, mind you - something goes wrong. On two separate occasions in Thailand and Laos, I tried to scare some children with whom I'd already been sharing gringo-play-time ("gringo" works in any language, btw). Both times they cried. 90% of those times, I looked like an idiot. The other half, I looked like an asshole. Let's not forget that one of those bawling yard-apes so HAPPENED to [View Full Entry]

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....I have ever done! SO, if you've finished my last post, you will recall that we went on an awesome 4 day hike in the mountains aroud Urumqi (that culminated in a 7 hour hike with my 30 pound pack on the last day). After this, I was understandably sore. I mean like, walking funny kind of sore. my calves were tight and aching and my thighs were killing me, even when I was just standing! The guys were feeling the same way, though they weren't QUITE as whiny as I was, and we decided to get massages the next day. [View Full Entry]

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I feel like I've just completed an epic journey, worthy of multiple references to Lord of Rings, and various other epic journeys through the wilderness. Mostly because our last few days have been filled with nerdy, geeky literary and cinematic references, and the scenery just happened to match. On Wednesday we got a ride (hired a jeep) out of Urumqi at the relatively early hour of 8 am. By 12ish, we had passed deserts, coal drilling, and highways and had turned off on a dirt road that crossed and re-crossed a river. Our guide, Harry, pointed out the valley we'd be [View Full Entry]

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I just finished a really nourishing meal consisting of a piece of fried flat bread covered in sugar and bowl of milky tea that tasted like a cross between cream and beef broth. Despite the funny taste, my mouth was so happy to eat something that WASN'T Chinese food! We're in XinJiang, the most western province in China, and the people are a mix of Uighers, Kazaks (because Kazakhstan is just a bus ride away) , and Han Chinese. I was definitely expecting something a bit more desert-like, but the capital city is green and clean. We arrived on Saturday night [View Full Entry]

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As dark rain clouds gathered , Alex ascended the first route up the steep cliff. His muscular, manly fingers gripped the sharp edge of the limestone karst cliff as he gazed up, up up......"Only 22 meters high? Ha! I could do that in my sleep!" he thought to himself. Down below, Julie looked up lovingly, full of the kind of confidence that only comes from experience. "Only 22 meters high? Ha! He could do this in his sleep!" she thought to herself. Suddenly, Alex lost his grip! He frantically clutched at the rock, and his agile feet nimbly pushed off [View Full Entry]

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So, Yangshuo flooded. The main street, West Street, that tourists frequent was under water for 24 hours or so. Because the street dead-ends at the Li River, the shops closest to the river were swamped. People were taking boats to deliver food and water. The water has receded today, but check out the pictures. [View Full Entry]

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Well, we hit the ground running. That's all I can say. After 2 weeks of travel, Alex figured we had logged some 50 hours on buses, trains and planes. Our first stop was Kunming, the City of Eternal Spring. You know how in springtime, the weather is always a bit on the rainy side? Kunming was like that. After our 18 hour train ride from Guilin, which I thought was fantastic, we dumped our stuff at a hotel and hired a driver to take us up to a temple, just outside of Kunming. The temple is famous for its realistic, nearly [View Full Entry]

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