For the first time while I was in China the rain and humidity has caught up to me in Hong Kong. I’m kinda surprised but Hong Kong is probably my least favorite place so far. To be fair, Hong Kong seems like a city you have to spend some time in to enjoy everything it has to offer while I am just here for a day and a half. It is just so crowded and every 20 feet you have a bad smell coming from some store nearby. I think i was just enjoying the more laid back cities in China and suddenly i am thrown back to the western world. One good thing is the electronics here are pretty cheap and everyone is buying up everything like new netbooks, ipads, cameras and more. I ... read more

April 22nd-24th, 2011 The first day was spent mostly traveling. We had to be up early at jumped on a public bus from 8am to 5pm. The bus did make two stops to use the squatters, but one was so bad people were coming out sick, so I decided to hold it. There was one interesting Chinese lady on the bus with us that picked up live chickens in the first city and was bringing them back to her home. First she tried to put them under the bus with our luggage, but since they were not caged they stopped her and she had to keep them near the bus driver up front. Not something you see often in America. The cruise was a three day trip through the three gorges of the Yangtze River ending ... read more

I will keep updating this one so check back. Also some of the people I am traveling with got some great pics of Waldo (aka Wally) which I will get once we can get on facebook in Hong Kong... read more

Shanghai was the complete opposite of Beijing. Beijing is about the past whereas Shanghai is about the future. Enormous skyscrapers and crazy lights everywhere. One of the nicest things about Shanghai was that you didn’t feel as much of a tourist everywhere. In Beijing, everything we did the Chinese would be watching you or asking for your picture. In Shanghai, most didn’t look twice. After some quick showers after checking into the hotel, we walked to the Bund, which is a long boardwalk that shows off the massive skyscrapers everywhere. Our hotel was only a few minute walk from this and feet from Shanghai's famous shopping street, Nanjing Road. As a group, we attended a show by Shanghai’s famous acrobats which was possibly the best show i’ve seen in my life. These people had much ... read more

So I made it to Beijing, China! I sat next to one of the hottest Chinese girls i have ever seen for the 13 hour flight, and I lucked out cause in the 3 person row, nobody sat between us. I swear half way into the flight are feet and arms bumped and their was magic. The bad side is she only knew about 10 words in English but I was saved by the powerful chop sticks. She started laughing at my unorthodox style of using chopsticks (I taught myself how to use them for the first time about a month ago) and she tried to show me but was unsuccessful so she hinted at the Scoop and Slurp style for me. Besides having what seemed like thirty 3-5 year olds on the plane, the rest ... read more