kayessemm

I'm back in my favourite part of China that I visited last time. We are spending fours days in Guilin with a day trip to Yangshuo before hitting the chaos of the World Airling Roadrace in Hangshou. THe weather is wonderfully hot and steamy and I'm going to savour every stifiling humid moment because I know as soon as I get home it's dry and cold from here on out. We a currently living in style at the Sheraton in Guilin ( I'm spoild, I know) and it is wonderful. More touristy but feel like we can relaze just a little bit more than when we were in Xi'an. My advice for anyone wanting to visit Xi'an so they can see the Terracotta warriors. Take the overnight train from Beijing so you get there in the ... read more

My advice to any individual who dreams of seeing the Great Wall of China, if you go to the two locations closests to Beijing you will probably have mixed feelings about, quality, cleanliness, accesibilty and overall views of the 'great' wall. My best suggestion is to hit the Wall at the furthest spot away from Beijing called Mutianyu. Easy like 'hike up', great access to the wall, sweet sled ride down, less tourists and CLEANER! Don't forget your student I.D. or dye your hair a nice shade of grey and claim senior status. Once back in Beijing we hit the Silk market and mom, the Aunts and I ran the gauntlet of contriband jeans, shirts, pearls, jades, purses, shoes, watches and iPhones. Much more caotic than the Pearl market near the Temple of Heaven and they ... read more

After a brutal flight over on Air China, don't remember it being that long and miserable and will probably do my best to avoid Air China flights in the future, I finally made it to Beijing. After two years of being away I have found myself back in the same smokey internet cafe (I'm pretty sure some of the other users haven't left this place since the last time I was here) that my friends and I found when we first kicked of our great Around the Wrold Tour. I managed to convince mom and the "Aunts" to stay in the same hotel as last time too! For anyone who cares I highly recommend the Chong Wen Men hotel, clean, cheap and close to anything you really need. Although the fabulous Peking duck restaurant is gone ... read more

So internet is crazy expensive so this is going to be super short. Spent two day in Athens, checked out the Acropolis but really didn't take in much more of the city. It was just a stop over before we hit SANTORINI!! So I'm in love with this island and now have plans to become a lighthouse keeper/fisherman/vineyard owner/diner owner. Should be good. School officially ended today so I'm on my way to get gussied up for the big celebratory dinner tonight. Shpuld be a riot. This is the part in the field school where people hook up or have a nuclear fall out. Can't wait to watch the events unfold. Going to go find a beach tomorrow so I can take advantage of my time in the sun. I'll track down a computer when we ... read more

So my second day ın Turkey has been very low key. Had a few lectures and am now doıng research for my presentatıon tomorrow. Enjoyıng Istanbul much more than some of the other places that we have been to on thıs trıp. People seem to understand the word ´no´and seem to get the whole concept of personal space. Also, ıt ıs so nıce to be ın a country where there are a lot (and I mean a lot) of good lookıng guys. Don´t get me wrong some of the other places there were some guys that weren´t bad to look at but the boys ın Turkey have better style when ıt comes to pıckıng up gırls. I thınk ´Would you lıke some tea?´Is a very popular pıck up lıne. Went to the Blue Mosque today. It ... read more

Arrived ın Istanbul this morning. Sorry ıf thıs entry ıs a lıttle messed up crazy key board wıth extra letters and symbols ın the wrong places. I thınk thıs ıs some where I wıll have to return to. Very much what I had ın my head when I pıctured Europe. Just wandered a bıt thıs mornıng. We donit get our rooms for another hour and everyone ıs runnıng off of two hours of sleep. Had a great tıme ın Egypt but reall excıted to be movıng on to the Medıterannean. Nö good storıes so far (can´t fınd the comma) but I´ve already got a bunch of plans for the next couple days. I´ll gıve a better update tomorrow ıf I can. Mom ıf you want the rug now ıs the tıme to get me to buy ... read more

Visited Countries Map My visited countries map is getting filled in quite nicely.... read more

My fourth day in Egypt is coming to a close. Much cleaner experience compared to India. The people still harass you at every chance but they are much friendlier about it. Had one guy grab my arm and try to drag me into a store. I think that is the only time some one has touched me and them almost getting decked. I've decided that I don't like the bigger cities. Cairo was nice, but it was too much of a pain in the ass to get around. Our second day in Egypt was great because we were able to see the pyramids. I managed to do a handstand on one of them without getting yelled at by the tourist police. We had lunch by the sphinx. Went to a citadel on one of the hills ... read more

Sorry another short update because the bus for the airport leaves soon. Yesterday we made our way to Agra and saw the red fort and the Taj Mahal. It took all day to see the Taj Mahal because we kept getting taken to other sites that had some historical significance related to the Taj. No one paid any attention to the poor tour guide at these places because we were tired (430am start), bored (we've seen enough forts and temples to last a lifetime) and all we really wanted to see was the Taj. When we did finally make it, WOW!! I had to stop myself from jumping around like an idiot because it was so great. Now we are on our way to Cairo. Today is Jo's 21st birthday! Hooray! Sorry mom, no saffron. It ... read more

India has a very distinct smell. It smells of cows and dirty people and urine and insense. I'm going to make this short because I'm running on lack of sleep,lack of food, lack of water and it's too damn hot to function right now. When we got back to Delhi it was 47 degrees celsius. Thank god it's not humide. Since the last time I sent a message I have taken 3 trains and a plane ride across this country. We went to Amritsar a few days ago. I like Amritsar better than Delhi. Saw the golden temple. Very impresive, so far the highlight of the trip. Made our way over to Varanasi. Not my favorite place so far. Too dirty and too much death. Our dead bodies spotted count has now reached at least ... read more