Khross

Today was wonderful! We slept in till about 9:00am then headed off to the Grand Bazaar to do some shopping. Shopping here involves a lot of haggling and bargaining...everything can be negotiated. Rule of thumb is to take whatever price they give you cut it in half to get close to the right price. We ended up with a few trinkets here and there. Mom is quite indeiscive and we ended up spending almost 4 hours in the Bazaar and the surrounding markets. She did end up with some cute black shoes, the man selling them to her I think fell in love with her. He kept asking me to leave so he could be alone with her...ummm I did not! Look for the picture. Speaking of, we had no idea how the men would react ... read more

Today we flew to Izmir for a day trip to the cities of Ephesus, Selcuk, Sirince, and Kusadasi Selcuk was more of a stepping stone town to get to Ephesus; however, there were a number of old ruins in the city - including the representative remaisn of one of the Seven Wonders of the World and the burial site of St. John. Ephesus was the real treasure of the trip. This city was said to have been founded in the 10th century B.C. This archeological site can be compared to visiting Pompeii, it was once buried by layers of silt and sand, now uncovered and rediscovered it offers a glimpse into the lifestyle of ancient Roman civilizations. The entire walk of the city takes about 2 hours..a little more if you walk off the main path ... read more

Final Days at Beijing This morning we went to a crepe place that was next to our hotel for breakfast. Mom and I split the banana and chocolate crepe which was delicious although I can't say it is very Chinese. We then went to the Summer Palace. Mom and I were expecting one large palace type building that we would walk through...wrong! The Summer Palace is virtually a museum of traditional Chinese gardening that uses rocks, plants, pavilions, ponds, cobble paths and other garden styles to create a poetic effect between different scenes. It was used by the imperial family as a vacation spot during the summer and each emperor added their own touch to the grounds. The grounds were really beautiful for us to walk around; however, we felt that it had become very ... read more

The Great Wall and the Forbidden City Early in the morning around 7:30 we hired a guide/driver to take us to the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City. The section of the great wall that we went to was called Mutianyu and was about an hour and half away from our hotel but apparently is known for being less crowded and touristy. We got to the wall around 9:00am and took a cable car to get to the top of one of the watch towers. We were practically the only people there, didn't have to wait in any lines or anything! We started at tower 14 and mom and I hiked up all the way to tower 20. That may not sound that far, but it was mainly an uphill/upstairs hike. I think our ... read more

Hangzhou We fly into Shanghai and are met with a guide that was previously arranged to take us from there to Hangzhou by train. of course our plane was delayed an hour and a half and when we land, we learned we have to drive about 45 minutes to board a train that leaves in 30 minutes...needless to say, we were running through the airport, boarded a taxi that drove extremtley fast and we made the train as it was starting to roll down the tracks . Hangzhou is known for its beautiful scenery especially its west lake. Our guide took us in a boat across the lake to see all the temples that had been built along the edges. It was misty out and the lake had a majestic fog that emitted the look similar ... read more