http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/marcandjon/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from marcandjon en-us Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:42:43 +0000 Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:42:43 +0000 To make a long story short we arrived in Beijing with no place to stay having only just found out before getting on the 30 hour train ride. Luckily Jon knows people and people know Jon so we got a floor to crash on for a while. Sweet. Thanks Adam Andy and Shamus. And a howdy doody to Tony.One of the first things we did upon arriving in Beijing was go to visit Jon's high school host family. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-314828.html Jon's birthday present July 22 was an adventurous train ride from Ho Chi Minh City Saigon to Beijing. Boy oh boy what a treat. Ok now I'm bored.The first leg of the trip was riding the entirety of the Reunification Railway from the southern tip to the northern tip Ho Chi Minh to Hanoi 30 hours. We boarded the train late at night and slept our way back to Da Nang. We had heard the ride http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangxi/Nanning/blog-314814.html We sadly left Da Nang on boarded the Reunification Railway to the deep south. Only being a few hundred miles away the bullet train only took 16 hours. We slept the night away and woke up at 500am to the blaring sound of Saigon Dep Lam Saigon Uh Saigon Uh... La lalala la translation Saigon Beautiful Saigon Uh Saigon Uh... La lalala la. We soon got off and hoped onto a five hour min http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Mekong-River-Delta/Rach-Gia/blog-306201.html Welcome back to the next long anticipated entry of our travel blogDa Nang blue skies white sandy beaches and clear waters. After leaving the airport we took a xe om motorcycle taxi 11 km south of the city to a more remote beach location thanks Lonely Planet it was about the only thing the book got right in Vietnam except of course which beach the hotel was on and how much it cost http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/Da-Nang-/blog-305597.html Continuing down the cooridor we spotted a building that said Passport check. Though the building was not gated in and we could have easily just walked into Vietnam into the parking lot we decided to enter legally.The customs officials were friendly and jovial and were laughing and asking for help with their English.After entering the country we hoped on the back of two motorbikes driven by som http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-298261.html 27 hours to Nanning... the closest big city to Friendship Pass the border crossing to Vietnam. After shopping for food for our long journey we hopped on board the semimodern train in a hard sleeper car. Hard sleeper cars have about 20 rows of tripledecker bunk beds. We had to top bunks next to each other. The bottom bunk functions as a bench during the day. The squatter toilets empty out onto http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangxi/Nanning/blog-298244.html Ni hao Oh how the fresh smell of sweat dripping from your body mixed with humidity and pollution attracts the mosquitos.We first went to our hotel Xinlong to take a nice cold shower. Our room was on the 4th floor facing the Suzhou River. We watched the barges float by and the construction on nearby buildings as well as senior citizens practicing the age old Tai Chi. The hotel was 10 and we http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-297270.html Our last Europe installment took us back to Nurnberg to view the Eurocup quarter finals Germany vs. Turkey back with our friends.We spent a great evening watching the game in a pub in a small town near Nurnberg where Joachim's boyfriend Stephane went to dental school and lived.Once again the excitement in the air was extreme since Germany was playing Turkey and Germany has a high Turkish pop http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Bavaria/Nuremberg/blog-297242.html For an extra 15euro euro we hoped on a train and in a few hours was in Prague. Our railpass gives us 1st class tickets but the ticket in the Czech Republic was for second so we were kicked out at the border and sweated our way to Prague in a second class nonair conditioned no open windows compartment. But feel free to unbutton your shirt completly like the local hairy bellied men.Our tra http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Czech-Republic/Prague/blog-292881.html Again speeding down the Autobahn we flew to Berlin in about 5 hours. We actually didnt stay in Berlin but outside of the city about 40 minutes in Joachims family farmhouse. The house was in former East Germany and it was very interesting to see the differences there. The farms around the house had lettuce patches and horses. It was really quiet and peaceful. We went into Berlin and did some si http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-292168.html DeutschlandThe train to Germany was quick and pleasant. We arrived in Nurnberg and was greated by Marcs friend from CSULAexchange student Joachim... trouble We enjoyed a delicious German dinner prepared by his boyfriend Stephane. A meal including sourkraut sausage and heffenweisen. We took a walking audio tour of Nurnberg and learned about the castles Nazis churches and the city wall. O http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Bavaria/Nuremberg/blog-292160.html Friday the 13th on the train from Paris in car number 13 departing at 1300. Despite the bad omen the train ride was beautiful and pleasent riding through the French and Swiss countryside up in 1st class no class to the back. Upon arriving we were greated by 300000 dutch people dressed in orange aka HollandNetherlands. Unknowingly we arrived to a host city for the Eurocup and Holland came http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Switzerland/North-West/Berne/blog-292148.html BonjourThe city of light... and its amazing.After a delayed plane in Ireland we made it to our hostel just before the subway closed and slept beautifully.Our first day was spent walking across town along the Seine River. We started at the Bastile and ended at the Eiffel Tower. Our first major stop was Notre Dame. It was a lot bigger than we had imagined and magnificent. The whole area was buzzing http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-288340.html Our experience in Dublin was about this quick...1 Huge needle in the sky we were told it was the Biggest building in Europe... but actually only in Dublin city center.2 We saw Anna Freedman which was awesome eventhough she was our bartender.3 Beer at noon.4 On one hour of sleep and won't sleep til Paris. about 30 hours from DC to Paris with 1 hour of sleep.5 No leprecans. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Ireland/County-Dublin/Dublin/blog-288208.html Stop 2 Last Stop in the United StatesOur layover sucked in Minneapolis due to a freak hail storm but otherwise uneventful.Upon arriving to Baltimore Washington International Linda Jon's Mom was on the lookout. After reuniting with folks we spent our first day in DC at the zoo. Beautiful zoo indeed especially with the new Asia Trail complete. We got the chance to see where the American tax http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/District-of-Columbia/Washington/blog-288199.html Howdy ya'llFirst stop San Jose we've taken a while to start our journal because aside from our laziness the last website sucked. So now we are here. Also coming soon a really cool map to look at of our trip...In the meanwhile we hung out with the Nguyen family in San Jose for a week. After the 5 hour drive from LA to SJ with Binnie and Victor we celebrated Memorial Day with a fatass BBQ w http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/San-Jose/blog-285192.html