The green grass is afraid of your foot!

Hello friends and family,

Once again, my dear friend Abby is posting this for me, as the

Internet here will no let me access the blog or the photo sites :( It

seems it will just have to wait until Vietnam I guess...

Anyway, we are currently in Suzhou,  and today was our last full day

here.  We love it here, the hostel is nice, the street it's on is a

no-cars street lined by canals and teahouses, and there is plenty of

shopping.  The weather has been fabulously warm and sunny (the sky is

almost blue! We can almost see it through the smog!) and hopefully

will continue for a few more days.  Tomorrow we take a short train

ride to Shanghai, where we get to stay in a Real Hotel, oh my gosh.

A few days ago we were in Nanjing, a former capital of China.  It is

the site of the Nanjing massacre of world war ll, which was the reason

we stopped in the city.  The memorial museum was extremely

informative, and stunningly beautiful, in a slightly depressing but

heroically commemorative way.  It was well worth the stop in an

otherwise bland city.

Our days before that were in Xi'an, the famous site of the terra cotta

warriors, another fascinating visit.  We very much enjoyed our tour

guide, who we hired just outside the entrance, as she helped us

understand what we were seeing more fully.

For two of the days we were in Xi'an, I took a mini trip to the Hua

Shan mountain, one of the five sacred mountains of Buddhism in China.

I met a nice couple from Beijing that spoke English and let me hike

with them. We hiked up together, stayed in a hostel on the mountain,

and hiked to each of the four peaks the next day before going back

down.  It was spectaluar.  On our way up, it had started to snow, and

by the time we reached one of the summits we were above the snow

clouds and the whole mountop was coated in a soft white fluffy

blanket, perfect for picture taking.  I was glad I had decided to put

on ALL of my clothing for the trip, it was cold! The scenery was

fantastic, though: it was the perfect type of rugged, steep, sheer

cliffs with twisty trees hanging off the edges, broken and smoothed

over giagantic rocks, and bamboo groves hidden within the interior.  I

was in heaven.  It was a really tough climb, especially with the newly

fallen snow that turned the shallow stairs into slip n' slides, but it

was completely exhilarating and breathtaking the whole time.  I'm very

glad I "conquered" the mountain, as my new friends told me after we'd

finished because now, they said, I could conquer anything.

So, I would like to say few things about the Chinese people after I

spent 36 hours with two very helpful Beijing natives.  The culture

here in China is very different, very ancient, and very set in its

ways.  But it has been fascinating to learn firsthand.  Here are some

interesting tidbits:

1. The Chinese are very excited whenever they see Westerners.  If they

know any English whatsoever, they will say (or shout) it to you. They

are mostly excited because they like to share their culture and their

nation, they are very proud of China, and very proud to have

foreigners come visit.  If they do not know much English, or if they

do, they may want to take a picture with you.  Once one person in the

group starts the trend, it is likely that you will be in pictures with

four or five people successively.  They will be particularly exited if

you make a peace sign for the photo.  All three of us have been in so

many pictures with Chinese people, we have decided we could probably

get away with living off royalties, especially if we start offering

autographs.  For example, just today, all three of us were requested

to pose for a toothless old man, first all together, then two by two

linking arms with him, then finally one by one in a nice hug, with

christa receiving a kiss on the forehead at the end.  It actually

wasn't creepy at all, he  was just very excited to see white girls, he

was very grandfatherly--it was kinda cute.

2. Chinese toddlers are almost as popular as westerners.  Most of the

time they are being watched over by their grandparents during the day,

possibly one, likely all four at once.  This, I believe, is primarily

because the one child policy obviously only gives one child per four

grandparents, and they probably argue over said child incessantly and

always wish to be in the presence of said miracle perfect child.

These toddlers are greatly encouraged to be social and interact with

other humans (particularly foreigners) on their daily outings, as the

grandparents generally feel their grandchild is hopelessly depraved

for companionship if they don't have one sibling, let alone seven, as

they did growing up.

3. Chinese motorists are very skilled at using that thing on their

vehicle that makes a loud noise to alert people and warn them they are

approaching fast and not slowing down at all so you'd better be moving

now and be out of the way very soon and even after they pass they'll

still be making all that noise just so you know they are in charge

here and don't you forget it.  I say that "thing that makes noise"

because it is not always your typical car horn.  It can be a bell, a

whistle, a faded batteries-out honk, an alarm,a pretend siren, a fire

truck siren, an amplified voice, or any other number of loud noises

you can imagine.  Also, these vehicles are not just cars and trucks.

They are motorcycles, scooters, bicycles, electric bicycles, bicycles

with trailers, rickshaws, miniature three-wheeled pickup trucks, and

covered wagon-type motorbikes for carrying people. It's exhausting

constantly hearing the noise and trying to get out of the way for

these people in a hurry.

4. Blowing your nose in public in frowned upon, but hacking up what

should have come out your nose and spitting it out in the middle of a

crowd is absolutely fine.  The noise is horrendous, it often sounds

like the person is literally throwing up, and it happens constantly.

5. Back to the first point, about how fascinating foreigners are, many

Chinese are too shy to come talk to us or ask for a photo with us.  If

this is the case I can expect to have people walk very close to me,

staring the whole time and examining me as if I were a specimen behind

glass.  I've had people circle me, some are bold enough to reach out

as if to see if I'm real, and young children will often stare, point,

giggle to their friends and pssibly shout "hello!" before running away

madly.  The most exciting for them, however, is if we reply.  When one

says "hello" and we reply in English, giggles follow.  If we reply in

Chinese, it is most likely to be followed by applause with fierce

laughter. Either way, it is as if they weren't quite sure we were

real.  This happens most often with school-age children, teenagers,

and the elderly.

6. Chinese women are proud of and admire our curves.  We have all

received compliments by locals, usually shopkeepers, on our lovely

curvy figures.  Unfortunately, the fact that we have curves makes it

very difficult to buy proper-fitting Chinese clothing, but they don't

seem to mind too much.  Although, they are always concerned about how

cold we must be and heartily suggesting we wear more clothing. It's a

catch 22.

7. The English translations on signs are extremely amusing.  I believe

I put a few examples up on the photo site, but I think I will make an

entire scrapbook out of them eventually.  There are young Chinese who

fully support this "language" that is referred to as Chinglish and

wish to see it continued.  Chinglish is a cultural phenomenon because

it allows English-speaking people who do not know Chinese to learn a

bit about the culture.  Chinese does not have verb tenses, all verbs

are in the "present tense" as we would call it. Thus, "to repect grass

and flowers not to tread" makes sense. "The green grass is afraid of

your foot" reminds one of the cryptic governmental policies, as well

as the implied respect for nature as a living entity.  "Slip

carefully" is a way to say step carefully or you may slip, however it

is implied that you are slipping as you step, so just do it with care

and don't blame us!

Okay, I will have to add more later as there are so many wonderful

aspects of the culture here that I need to recuperate before

continuing on. I send my love and thoughts to all, we are having a

great time and i can't wait to share my photos with you!

Love love love,
Maia

Xi'an!

Hello!

My Abigail Monson is posting this for me as I have been denined access
(repeatedly) to both my blog, and my picture website.  I may find
another free picture uploading site and use that instead, but in the
meantime this is the best I can do.  We are all safe and healthy
(knock on wood) and we are currently in Xi'an, city famous for the
terracotta warriors and intact city wall.  We arrived yesterday
(Thursday, by the way I had to ask three different people before being
certain it was Thursday as I really had no clue) by train from
Chengdu.  It was an overnight train, rather nice and we all slept
quite well.

Xi'an is really beautiful. It is nice because it is a much smaller
city center than Chengdu and therefore easier to navigate.  Our hostel
is very nice, they have delicious pizza, which is fantastic since we
have all been craving cheese quite frequently in this lactose
intolerant country.  They also have a very nice golden retriever and
an orange cat who is very cute but annoying loud in the middle of the
night.  The hostels have all been really very nice, and unexpectedly
modern.  China is definitely quite capable of staying at the cutting
edge of modern, new, and innovative (except, of course, internet
freedom and that of expression, but hey we don't judge, things run
really smoothly here otherwise).  Along those lines, I have decided
that all of China is permanently under construction.  Just outside
every city are hundreds of acres of developing land with dozens of
high rise apartment buildings half finished, and not necessarily being
currently worked on.  The unemployment rate must be unexistent,
everyone has a job to do, but it seems that not everyone is wuite
wealthy enough to afford what the government expects they are able
to...  My assumption is that they may be wealthy enough, but their
recent history has entrenched in them that to save money is essential
and to spend is still too risky.  I don't blame them, it must be
impossible to escape the habits of a poverty sticken generation, and
why should they?

Xi'an is a very nice city.  Today we drove just outside it to visit
the underground mausoleum of an emporeror of the Han dynasty
(approximately 100 BC).  It was very interesting, somewhat like a
miniature version of the terracotta warrior exhibit, which we will
porbably do on Sunday.  This afternoon we went and had Chinese
massages, which were fantastically different and interesting but very
enjoyable.  All three of us were in the same room, on lounge chairs,
and we were given a set of loose fitting pajamas to change into.  The
therapists worked all over, but instead of focusing on relaxation
techniques and muscle tension they focused a lot on bone pressure
therapy, pressure of the joints, and accupressure points.  The TV was
on in the background, the therapists talked to each other, and we were
rewquired to change position a lot, but I was surprisingly relaxed the
whole time.  It was kind of like I was doing yoga (there was a lot of
stretching, but also a lot of joint movement) but that I wasn't
exerting any real energy in the process.  The face and head massage
lasted an acceptable amount of time as well which I really enjoyed.
This evening we went to the Muslim quarter, which is famous for its
food and shopping night market.  It was really nice, and had ample
souvenir buying opportunities.  We will definitely being going back
again, probably tomorrow after we take a bike ride around the ancient
wall that surrounds the city.

A story I forget to tell last time involves the bus system of Chengdu,
the last city we were in.  The buses there were a necessary part of
getting around as everything was quite spread out.  We quickly larned
how to get on and off and pay, but that was about all that we would
master the whole time we were there.  Standing up and staying standing
on those buses must be something that you are born with or inherantly
learn from the tiny age of 2 if you live in that city.  The buses are
large, the streets are complex and crowded, there are lots of
roundabouts and way too many obstacles in the road, and the bus
dreivers are about as good at driving as your everyday Thai taxi
driver.  (No offense to the Thai people, but those taxi drivers are
the best possible example I can come up with of horrible, awful, near
death experience driving).  Basically every time we got on a bus I
started to pray.  If closing my eyes would have helped and not caused
an immediate motion sickness vomit I most certainly would have done
so.  I violated so many laws of personal space on those vehicals I'm
surpirse I wasn't arrested.  Basically, it was quite the experience of
"crowded china meets new age driving and frantic urges to go fast
everywhere" syndrome.

Okay, time to sign off.  Hope everyone had a Happy St Patrick's Day!
We miss and love you all,

Maia

Chengdu: Buddhas, Buses and PANDAS

Here we are in Chengdu, just about to leave for Xi'an, and I have FINALLY been able to access my blog, if only for a short time.  In lieu of the Japan earthquake and tsunami, I think the internet has been particularly hard to access, if only for the sheer amount of people that must be on it...  We have been watching the English language Chinese news and it is frequently showing footage and giving updates on the situation over there.  It is always accompanied by very morbid sound and terror-inducing music (duhn duhn, duh-duh-duh-duhn duhn, etc).  I was very glad to hear that my friend Greta is safe, she is over in Japan teaching for two years.  Hopefully she will not be affected by the nuclear plant explosions at all.  It is yet another chilling reminder of our need to respect our planet and resources all over the world.

Ok, I will try very hard to put up pictures right now but I have failed on several other attempts.  Nope, failure...

We have been very busy while here in Chengdu, the main attraction being the Giant Pandas that find their home in the Sichuan province.  There is a research base with Giant pandas and Red pandas in very "natural" settings.  We visited the base on Sunday and it was quite stunning and very relaxing to see the Giant fuzzy pandas sleepily munching their bamboo talks and leaves.  They were so cute, and we were quite close to them which made for excellent picture taking.  I hope to be able to post them soon!  The red pandas are also quite cute but they reminded us of raccoons and looked like they had the potential to be rather viscous.  That was a nice morning excursion.  Later in the day, Brooke and I did some shopping and temple viewing close to the hostel while Christa took a nap.  I have loved seeing the Chinese and their Buddhism practices in temples.  It is fascinating, especially with all of the incense and candles that they use.

The day before, Saturday, we spent all day exploring the two main parks in the city center.  Saturdays usually find the parks filled with families dancing, singing, listening to music, riding rides in the mini theme parks, sipping tea and doing nothing at the tea houses, taking pictures of the spring flowers, and generally just enjoying a day off in the nice weather.  I was most intrigued by the adult to child ratio as we wandered through the park.  In general, each child had about three to five adults accompanying them through the park.  Now, I knew the one-child policy is in effect, but it was very interesting to see it actually in practice... meaning it was stunning to realize that when these kids grow up and have their own child, there will no longer be cousins in the family.  Like, at all.   Plus, in my opinion, all of the children will have amazing superiority complexes and grow up being very spoiled and smothered with attention and affection, being used to having their own way but also under a tremendous amount of pressure to do well and be the best at absolutely everything.  All of this was heavily on my mind throughout the day, and made my head spin.  It's quite possible that the US will need to curb the population growth at some time as well, will that happen within our lifetimes?

On Monday we took a tour to the ancient town of Ping Le, and we were happy to discover that the tour guide was born and raised in the town, and that we would be visiting her family's tea plantation.  Our guide's English name was Ginger, and she was very nice and spoke English well.  We wandered around the town a bit, got to see a beautiful 1500 year old tree (which I immediately fell in love with) and sampled some local sweet bread.  The highlight was definitely the tea plantation, though.  We had a delicious meal with Ginger's family, traditional Sichuanese food (though not too spicy) and then went out to practice picking the shoots from the bushes that were to made into green tea, the beverage that the Chinese drink more frequently than water.  It was neat to learn more about the origin of tea, and the countryside was beautiful, the fresh air a sweet release from the days in the clogged, polluted city.

Yesterday we took a minibus to the city of Leshan, where the main attraction is a giant Buddha carved into the cliffs at the meeting of three major rivers in central China.  I believe the giant Buddha and it's fellow miniature Buddhas carved into the cliff side were carved around 700 AD, the giant Buddha being some 100 meters high!  It was quite remarkable.  We started out on top of the cliff and ttrekked down a tiny thin and steep trail to reach the foot of the Buddha.  There were railings and stairs, but it was quite exhilirating and anxiety inducing as it felt as though we would be pushed off the cliff by the rocks jutting out at any given moment.  It was beautiful though, we really enjoyed it.

Today we found a lovely English bookstore that we spent about six hours in since we had our morning coffee. midday snack, and late afternoon supper while reading varying books for loan.  It was quite marvelous, and very satisfying to hold real books since we all have our electronic books on the trip.

Tonight we take an 18 hour train ride and will arrive in Xi'an around 3pm tomorrow.  Hopefully it is just the three of us in our soft sleeper compartment because we plan on sleeping in as late as possible.

Okay, I am troubled to sign off so early but my time is running out and we need to get to the train station.  As I said, I will try to put up pictures at the next hostel... hopefully I can make it work!  I think this computer is just too old....

Lots of love!
Maia

And this is what we do in China...

So I hope many of you have had a chance to glance at the Picasa web album I sent out via email.  I had really hard time accessing the blog yesterday, it kind of comes and goes.  But now I will put up a few of those pictures that I feel need explanations.  The first half of the photos, roughly, are of Vietnam.  The first pictures I took in China are of Brook and Christa, individually, sitting in the hostel followed by the pictures of the cute cat that reminded me of Eva.  This kitty loved me.  It was so cute, she was always jumping up on my lap no matter where I was sitting or what I was doing.  Here name was black bean,  and she was very sweet.  We rarely saw here eyes though, she was constantly asleep. 

These two girls are from Norway!  We were so excited to meet them and hear they were Norwegians that they were quite confused.  When we explained that we were from Minnesota one of the girls got really excited too and said she lived there for three years and completely understood why we were so excited that they were from Norway.  She knew us Minnesotans have a lot of pride for the homeland!  They had just arrived from a month long stay in India and had beautiful henna tattoos (temporary) on their hands, arms, feet and shoulders.  We were very impressed.  We spent a long time chatting with them as they waited for their boyfriends to arrive, who were joining them for their month around southeast Asia.  It was nice to have some people to connect with and chat with right away on our journey.



The flower and bird market in Kunming that I wrote about before was filled with interesting flowers and birds.  Rachel or Karen or Mom, please let me know if you recognize any of the strange looking ones!  I know there were quite a few orchids, obviously I know the blue sparkly ones are roses (albeit dyed and covered in glitter), but a few others were completely foreign!  Also, the birds were very fascinating.  The puppies for sale were to be sold as pets, thank goodness, because in other places they are sold for meat.  I have heard awful stories about markets with dogs for sale that way and I have no intentions of subjecting myself to that mental agony, even though I know it is a cultural tradition that people generally accept here.  So I was happy to see that these puppies were well taken care of and being inspected for friendliness and nice fur instead of plumpness and a nice smell. 

There was a beautiful little pond in the middle of the market surrounded by men selling birds in wooden cages and children playing.  Christa managed to make friends with two young boys who were shooting small sticks and cigarette butts at a dead fish in the pond.  They came very close to hitting it several times which was very exciting.  I loved watching the old men try to sell their birds.  The cages were beautifully made, and birds are apparently highly desired and respected pets here. 

So, Kunming was nice, though not too many things to do. The market was definitely the highlight. We realized it was mostly a stopping point for may travelers on their way to other destinations in the very spread-out southwest of China.  It takes a minimum of 7 hours to get anywhere in Yunnan, and the average seems to be 14.  Now were are in Lijiang and have been here three full days.  Unfortunately, with Christa sick the first two and Brooke sick all day yesterday we have been mostly hanging out around the hostel and just doing minimal activity.  Because of all the sickness, I decided we needed to have a session of "cupping" which is an ancient Chinese practice of toxin removal via small glass bowls being suctioned to the back for about twenty minutes. 

We found a massage center that also offered this type of therapeutic technique and all had the glass bowls attached to our backs, which was slightly painful but oddly satisfying.  The lady first swabbed the inside of each bowl with alcohol, then stuck a flaming piece of cotton inside it before pressing it to the skin where it created a vacuum with the lack of oxygen created within the glass.  Like I said, slightly painful but also a release of toxin and pressure, especially at the end.  Christa felt almost immediately better, mostly because she was suddenly able to breathe, and had much more energy.  Brooke and I also felt great, though we all went home slept a long time that night.  Our bruises are startling gruesome, though not at all painful.  I have a rather creepy one just on my shoulder that every now and then appears in the corner of my eye and genuinely startles me, but otherwise there are no lasting harmful effects.

Lijiang is a very beautiful old town in China.  It was hit pretty bad by the earthquake a few years ago, so much of it is actually very recently rebuilt, but all in the style and exact layout of the ancient town itself.  We have very much enjoyed wandering the streets, doing some window shopping, trying out new foods and people watching in general.  Though the town has been described as overly touristy by some, we have enjoyed the level of tourism so far, especially since we are tourists and still at the beginning of our travels.  Perhaps later on we will seek areas that are less crowded and tourist-oriented but for now it is nice and generally appreciated.  The town is crisscrossed by several small rivers, giving it a nice feel as there are plenty of bridges and lots of waterways lining the small streets.  The center of the old town is off limits to cars and motorized vehicles which is also very nice. 

Make sure to check out the pictures of the food, and also the interesting signs that are on the Picasa site ( https://picasaweb.google.com/maiajoh/China1Mjh?authkey=Gv1sRgCL_nrtHfxM3ukAE&feat=directlink).  The signs are a direct example of how nationally ore\iended the Chinese are expected to be on a daily basis.  They also give some pretty good general advice about life:  "Please do not throw waste and keep a civilized behavior," "Eating out should keep civilized behavior and keep healthy eating in mind," "Everyone please strives to be a civilized resident that push the bike or motorcycle to walk,"  (no idea, really)  "Take care of all your way when travelling sade and civilized are golden," "Don't forget to keep civilized behavior during outing, and also shopping should be rational."  Obviously, that last one is our absolute favorite :).

Lastly, I suppose I should explain the pictures of the river, mountains and creepy ladder.  I decided that I really wanted to visit the Tiger Leaping Gorge, which I believe is the deepest gorge in China, if not the whole world...?  Brooke is not a fan of heights, and as Christa was sick she was not in the mood for a tough hike, so I went by myself.  It was very invigorating.  I did not have time to do the whole two day trek obviously, so I took a taxi to the middle part of the gorge, hiked down to the river and the Tiger Leaping Stone, and then back up to the road.  The entire hike took about two hours and was really quite difficult.  I love those kinds of treks though, and I'm pretty sure I wen down and back up 2,000 meters or so each way.  Maybe I'm exaggerating but it was really steep!  The weather was perfect, chilly but occasionally sunny, and slightly foggy.

The ladder on the way back up was really scary, but rather safe.  I was pretty much by myself the whole way, though there were a few tourist groups, mostly Chinese and Japanese at the bottom.  They did not take the same way up that I did though, which I don't blame them, since it was rather tough.  I'm very glad I did the trek, even though I was alone.  I really enjoy alone time out in the "wild," and I was well prepared with snacks, band aids and plenty of water.  I also had my China cell phone in case of emergency.  I loved the gorge; it was very sublime and stark, and the mountains were quite extreme. It was nice to be alone with just my thoughts and my camera. I felt very much like I was in ancient China, pretty much for the first time the whole trip. 

So, tomorrow morning we are flying to Chegdu, which is in the center of the Sichuan province (known for it's spicy foods, eek!).  We are very excited becuase we will get to see pandas at a research base just outside the city.  We will have a long weekend in and around the city, and hopefully be on our way to Xi'an by Tuesday, where we will get to see the Terracotta Warriors, woohoo!  Alright, time to go wake up the sick ones.... hopefully sick no more!  We are going to the Dragon Pool park today, and maybe a nearby town.

Lots of love from all of us!

Maia

Internet in Asia...

So, as I mentioned in my previous post, the Internet is very tricky to navigate here, not just because most everything is in Chinese, but also because many social sites are blocked, i.e. Facebook, twitter, YouTube, and apparently some blog sites too. Not sure if any of you have have heard anything about possible unrest and media crackdown here but apparently it's been mentioned, mostly because of the revolutions in Egypt and Libya. We haven't heard anything but in Vietnam we had to use a proxy server to get on Facebook, and that was a recent development. Here, however, there is no way around the system that we have discovered. We don't plan on trying too hard though so if suddenly I'm unable to blog don't be alarmed, we just may have to wait it out. If the Chinese government is really watching us as closely as I think they are I don't want to cause any problems. So right now I'm blogging from my phone because I couldn't get on through the computer. I don't know why, but oh well.

Tonight we are taking an overnight train to Lijiang, which is in the northwestern part of the Yunnan province, and therefore close to Tibet, which I am really excited about. Obviously going to Tibet is severely frowned upon so it won't be in the cards for us, but just being close to the border means we get a taste of the culture in the surrounding small towns. Plus, we'll be in the mountains, yay! After that, the plan is to fly to Chengdu in the Sichuan province. Lack of prior planning has left us realizing too late that the southwest of china takes several weeks to navigate in full because of the spread out towns, huge mountains, and a general lagging behind in travel convenience compared to the north. So anyway, once we get to Chengdu it should be easier to take trains and buses on a regular, normal schedule.

Today Brooke and I went out exchange the memory cards we bought on accident for SIM cards for the phones we bought in Vietnam. We bought cheap phones so we can communicate if we get lost, and to call hostels and other places for reservations if need be. Yesterday we wandered into a small electronics shop with hopes of buying Chinese sim cards and since the language barrier was so extreme and our phrasebook navigation was poor we ended up with three memory cards that obviously failed to make our phones functionable. So Brooke and I took those back today with a note written by one of the hostel workers asking if we could return them, which we could, and the nice lady showed us where we could find teal sim cards. That was another language barrier adventure, but the woman who helped us was extremely patient and even took us to the small shack on the corner to help us buy the right card. The electronics store she worked at didn't sell them after all, I guess. That was very entertaining, and now we having working Chinese cell phones! A girl at the hostel even put them into English for us, which was a relief.

Alright, typing on a tiny screen with my thumbs is getting tiring, so I think I'll sign off. We are going to dinner soon, and in a few hours we board our overnight train! Keep us in your thoughts as I really hope we are able to sleep well and safely. I feel very safe here though, I have not had any moments of unease yet, or true anxiety of my personal space as I have had in other places. I suppose as we near the big cities the general amount of people will be much greater and most claustrophobia inducing, but we will deal with that in due time.

Ok, lots of love!! Xoxo
Maia

CHINA!

Hello from Kunming!

So, we made it to China, yay!  We are currentlyin Kunming, tonight will be our second night and we plan to head out tomorrow.  The city is very big, and there isn't too much we want to see here, we are mostly looking forward to seeing smaller towns and more countryside, which should start tomorrow.  The trouble we have been having as far as planning from here on out is the fact that everything is SO far away from everything else! Plane tickets are an option, but really kind of out of our budget. Train tickets are cheaper, but if we are on one for 19 hours we want to have a bed to sleep in and apparently those sell out pretty quickly... thus we had an issue with our initial plans to head east as the trains were all booked.  SO we are going west, and adjusting to the change of plans, which isn't a big deal since we never really had any plans that were set in stone... that's the beaty of backpacking!  You just go with the flow and let yourself figure out where you're going while you're on the way.  So most likely our plan is to go to Lijiang tomorrow, and then head north towards Sichuan and then Xi'an.  I would really really like to see the rice terraces though, which are unfortunately quite out of the way, but we are going to look at some options tomorrow and see if it will be a possibility.

So far no one has gotten sick (knock on wood) which is fabulous, and we have only had some minor squabbles concerning the scheduling and the planning where to go next.  We all expected this of course, so it's good to get it out of the way!  Generally we are all just so in awe of the fabulously exotic culture we are experiencing and just having fun with all of the new sights, sounds and smells (and believe me there are quite a few new ones).  Our first reaction to Kunming was Wow, this is like a very polluted and cluttered Disney Land!  Mostly we thought that because there were a lot of neon lights, decorative lighting lining the streets and sidewalks, and lots of pretty flashing colors.  After walking around a bit today we saw more of the city, and were able to attest to the fact that give all of the people and clutter it is really quite remarkably clean and well cared for.  The traffic is intense, but everyone follows the rules, there is a lot of trash but it is quickly cleaned up by city workers, and the trees and bushes are regularly watered by a slowly moving truck that plays old fashioned Disney songs or Christmas carols (one hung out on the street by our hostel for about 20 minutes blaring "Its Small World" louder than an ice cream truck).  The people are very nice, and generally very accepting of the fact that we stumble of Chinese words slower than a parrot while rifling through the phrasebook and failing miserably at hand gestures.  We have about three words down pretty good, although everyone still thinks its a great joke when say any one of them, meaning we have pretty awful accents.  At least they smile and seem pleased that we tried, that's our goal.

Today we made it to the Flower and bird market, which was very fascinating.  It obviously had a lot flowers, most of them very unique and exotic.  The birds were really neat, especially in their wooden cages that were cautiously watched by old men crouched on the ground under the trees.  I took a ton of pictures, I'll put a few here:

This is at the Hanoi Hilton.

Just outside our hostel in Vietnam.

Wow that was way harder than I expected... slow computer, slow internet, also we have to use prozy ip addresses to access blogger, facebook or other social sites here in China.  That makes it difficult.  Plus I can't read Chinese so I'm using my ancient knowledge of Micosoft Windows and the format and type of questions I expect to pop up in those boxes.. then I just pick a button randomly and it takes a lot of trial and error.  Anyway I obivously have a ton more pictures but here and now is not the time to upload them.  I will do more as soon as I can!

lots of love,
Maia