Xi'an, Langmusi, & back to Beijing

I have been very impressed by the city of Xi'an. This city has become a tourist hot spot as the Terracotta Warriors are just an hours bus ride from the city center. This city is touristy, but it is a fun place to stay. The Muslim quarter quickly became our favorite place in the city. It hosts streets full of bustling market places and an amazing selection of food. Almost every meal we ended up in the Muslim quarter wondering the streets trying to decide what we wanted to try next. There were so many options and good looking food we normally left the area with our hands on our stomach saying we were way too full. While in Xi'an my friend Evan from the states joined up with us to take in some of the Chinese sights. This is the third time on this “Long Jump Home” of mine that I have traveled with Evan. Immediately after we met up with Evan, the four of us, Vilma, Katenka, Evan, and myself headed out to check out the Terracotta Warriors.

(On top of the Xi'an city wall - Vilma, myself, Katenka)

I have been awe-struck by the Terracotta Warriors from the time I first learned of the Terracotta Warriors in school. I never really thought I would be able to visit them in person. So this portion of the trip was fairly exciting for me. For those that are a little rusty on their history, the Terracotta Warriors are a collection of terracotta statues of Chinese soldiers that were found over 30 years ago. There are estimated to be around 7,000 statures in total are in the area. Each statue is unique and has different face and body features. These warriors were created as part of an emperor's burial possessions.

After exploring the Terracotta Warriors we had to say goodbye to Katenka as she headed back to school. Vilma, Evan & I than loaded on to a night train and headed west. After traveling all night we jumped on an 8 hour bus ride into the mountains and to the very high plateau that includes all of Tibet and a few other providences of China. Around the time we were very much hoping we would be getting to our desired destination of Langmusi, a small Tibetan village, the bus stopped for what we thought was a bathroom break on the side of the road. I was a little disappointed as I did not think I could go to the bathroom in the open grass fields, when we heard from someone that this was the stop for Langmusi. After confirming with the driver, we quickly gathered our stuff off the bus & found our luggage had already been pulled off the bus and was sitting on the side of the road waiting for us. Soon after this the bus drives off and we are left standing at a T intersection hoping we understood what the driver meant when she pointed up one of the roads. At this point we composed our selves & loaded our luggage up and started walking. After about 2 kilometers of walking we ended up in Langmusi and found ourselves a place to stay at the local hotel.

(Terracotta Warriors near Xi'an)

We stayed in Langmusi for 3 nights. Evan and I enjoyed the local noodle dishes, although Vilma got food poisoning from one of the meals, so she did not seem to enjoy the food there the same as us. Once Vilma had recovered from her unlucky encounter with the nasty side of traveling we hired a driver and headed to the local hot springs. When we got there we walked past a number of stares from the local Tibetans & once we arrived at the entry doors, we split up with Evan heading into the guys pool & the two of us girls joining the woman in their pool. The pools were interesting, the children were playing and the water was shallow. Once we got in we realized that there was a significant amount of plastic garbage, food scraps, and how knows what else was floating in the water with us. We enjoyed the heat of the water as we had been freezing cold for the last few days, but soon decided that the warmth of the water was not enough to convince us to stay in the water with the trash for too long.

After our morning in the hot springs we set out to explore the mountains that sou rounded the village. We walked through some great valleys and hiked up one mountain to check out the view. I got up to 12,500 ft (3810m) elevation with this hike, which is the highest I have ever been. We enjoyed the good views and headed back down to town to enjoy some food & the disco club in the Tibetan town. Yes, this little Tibetan town had a disco club, or at least that is what they called it. Really it was a room with some tables, quite music & a few of the locals having tea or a beer. Nothing too flash, but nice to sit and relax after a big day.

(Street in Langmusi, Gansu, China)

It was a great learning experience to head out to Langmusi for a couple of reasons. One being how much we learned about the Tibetan culture and way of life. Second being the ability to see rural China. I had previously stated in one of my blogs that I was confused why China is still listed as a developing country. Getting away from the cities, which is a very difficult thing to do in China, you can start to see signs of a developing country. So, I now think that there are parts of China that are developed and others that are developing. The Tibetan culture was even more interesting though. Tibetans practice a form a Buddhism that is unique to them. They do pilgrimages about once a year from their home to the monastery, which can be anywhere up to 40-50kms away. Than many of them also once in their life time do a trip to Lhasa to the main monastery. The distance to Lhasa from the area we were visiting was unfathomable to think a person would make this journey. It would take days by bus, train or car to get to Lhasa. We were told they usually make these journeys in the winter as the farmers are less busy. Let me tell you, it is COLD there and we were only there in November, not even the dead of winter. So let alone the cold, the thing that makes these journeys or pilgrimages so amazing is how they do them. They start by raising their hands in the air, than they work their way down to the ground laying on their stomach with their hands stretched out in front and they have to touch their head to the ground. From this position they put their hands flat on the ground and slide their body up to a standing position where they step forward only the length of their body than the entire process continues. They do this for 40-50 kilometers! We saw a number of people on the side of the roads traveling this way, up and down, up and down with little distance traveled for each prayer.

The three of us were very happy we made the long journey out to Langmusi. It is one of my main highlights for my China trip. We made a couple extra stops on our way back. One being a stop in the city of Xiahe, where we enjoyed some Yak meat. We had Yak with vegetables, Yak burgers, make-shift Yak pies, Yak cheese, and Yak dessert. Yak is Good! Once we got to Xi'an we were tired and a bit sore from the endless traveling on bus and train, so we stopped in and had some Chinese massages. Amazing! Vilma & I got 2 hour massages for $19USD. Oh, were we relaxed.

From Xi'an the three of us split up, Evan headed to Shanghai and beyond, while Vilma headed back to school in Wuhan & I headed back to Beijing via a night train. Once in Beijing I went to one of the markets and stocked up on some winter gear for when I get back to the states. I got some amazing deals, sometimes I love bargaining :)

~Laugh & Love Life~

Wuhan and Wudang Shan, China

Since I last wrote here I have met up with my friend Vilma who has been studying Chinese in Wuhan. I took a bus at the end of the cruise to Wuhan & stayed with Vilma there for a couple days. I came while her university was having a cultural festival. As she is Finish, she was doing quite a bit at the festival to represent Finland. So I spent a lot of time helping out and enjoying the festival while in Wuhan. There are a large number of exchange students at the school from all over the world, but only two from Finland. The festival involved a fair for two days and than an international dance show. The fair involved each country having a stand where they displayed different things about the country and some stands sold food. There were around 60 countries represented & a large number of people came, the place was busy the entire time. I helped out with the Finish stand. So many of the Chinese thought I was Finish & wanted my autograph and photo. I really felt like a super star, taking photos with everyone and signing all of their papers. It was fun to get to know all of the other international students there & try to understand what people were asking me in Chinese when I do not know the language. The show that all of the international students put on was amazing. Each country or area of countries prepared a dance to represent their area. The students choreographed the dance and than preformed it. The dances all were looked like they could have been planed and preformed by professionals, defintely a good show! Besides the festival I enjoyed some great street food and got some more much needed rest.
After the festival Vilma, one of her Russian friends, Katenka, and myself all headed to the mountains. We came to Wudang Shan, a mountain about 5 hours away from Wuhan by train. We arrived here & struggled through the process of finding bus and train tickets for leaving here & than finding a hotel. It felt way more complicated than it ever should have been, but we were able to find a place and we think we understand how we will be able to leave tomorrow.

Today was a great day. We got up very early, before sunrise & started climbing the mountain. We have been given a few different distances, but we hiked somewhere between 9-12 kilometers. The entire way was steps. So we hiked at least 4.5kms up stairs and about 4.5kms down. Most of these were very steep. I have no idea how many steps we are talking about, but let me tell you I do not think I have ever seen this many steps in one day in my entire life! Even as we came down we would have to up and over ridges that you had to climb a couple hundred steps up and than down the other side. So many were so steep you had to hold on to the handrails.

It was an amazing view as we went up and at the top. Although, like every high and well low place here, there was a temple at the top of the mountain. I think this mountain has some importance to one of the religions here, so there is a cable car up to the top if you do not wish to climb 4.5kms of steps. I think the cable car is the more sane way to go up the mountain, as these steps for 4.5kms were tough going. After taking in all the great views and lots of walking up and down steps we decided to take some Tia Chi classes. None of us had ever done Tia Chi before and apparently the martial art style comes from the Wudang Shan area. So we called a school here and joined in for the afternoon. The only really depressing thing about this was that we had to walk up and down another huge amount of steps to sign up for the class and than to get up to where the class was held. Our legs were not so happy with the additional steps. The Tia Chi classes were good, we learned how to the Tia Chi walk and some moves. It was also quite good for us to be able to stretch after all of our walking up and down steps. Following the Tia Chi class we found a place to stay for the night and were excited to get some dinner as we had really ate nothing more than a few crackers and an orange during the whole day and our bodies were needing some food. After a good days work, a full stomach and a beer, I am off to bed. Tomorrow we will head to Xi'an to see the city there and get out and see the Terra Cotta Statues.

~Laugh & Love Life~

Yangtze River, China

I have spent the last few days aboard a cruise ship sailing from Chongqing to Yichong, along the Yangtze river through the center of China. The region I have sailed through is called the three gorges reagion. Many of you would have heard about the worlds largest hydro-electric dam that China has been building. The Three Gorges Dam, a majority of the project was finished in 2009, has meant the relocation of 1.3 million people as villages and farms have been covered by water and huge gorges have been filled up. At points the water is now 100 meters deeper than it was originally. Now with the dam complete, the water will fluctuate 30 meters in depth between the winter and summer season to avoid flooding.

I have been very impressed with the project here. Before coming here I heard how bad the Chinese government was for putting the dam in place, forcing all the people to relocate and all of the potential environmental issues that could take place. However on this trip I have learned a lot about the region and have seen what has been put in place. For all of the villages that are now under water the government has built complete new modern cities above the new water level. They have also subsidized the housing so those who are relocated can buy apartments and houses for extremely cheap or in some cases have been given homes for free. You can see they have done a lot of work to try to protect the environment and have taken actions to try to stop any adverse affects, including the fact this dam will significantly reduce the amount of coal burning required for electricity in the area. They have moved farmer to new locations to farm and are trying to set up new industries to replace the old industries and for the farmers who have moved to the cities. Additionally I have learned that in this region every 5 years it floods. In 1998 the floods were so bad 6000 people died. Having the dam here means they can regulate the river to ensure the floods do not continue to take lives. So, while relocating 1.3 million people and drowning homes, villages, farms, and livelihoods can and I am sure has caused much heartache, I have been impressed by the sincere actions taken by the government to care for the people and make things better instead of worse for everyone affected.

Can I also say that I am slightly jealous of the engineers that worked on this project? There are some cool bridges, new cities, infrastructure and of course the dam around here. It would have been one interesting project, I am sure with its fair share of headaches, but one good project none the less. Oh, one more thing I appreciate about the area is that the government made a point not to use the same design everywhere, they wanted variety. So no one bridge looks alike here & the apartments from town to town look different.

On this boat I think I am the youngest passenger by a long shot, well expect for the 13 year old here from Canada. Most of the passengers here have children my age. This fact has made this trip perfect. I partially took this cruise to see the Yangtze, but the other main reason was to just chill for a couple days. Since my last attempt failed (see my previous blog) I thought perhaps if I was stuck on a boat for a while I would actually get some R&R to build up strength for the remainder of my trip. You know what, I think I have got it to work. I have been able to just relax most of the time, take in the scenery, sleep in, take naps, and have nice chats, although I have ate way too much food as the buffets are too good. Everyone here has been so nice and lovely, there are a number of Canadians, some Australians, a German and of course a few Chinese. I think they are all little surprised that I am traveling by myself & I have had to tell my story many times, but they are all great.

The main purpose of this cruise is to enjoy the magnificent views provided by the Three Gorges & the Three Lessor Gorges, which are more stunning the the three main gorges. I have now seen the huge Three Gorges Dam & have rode the ship through the locks to go from the top to the bottom. Besides these we also stopped a few places along the way on the tour where we learned about different cultural things about the area as well. One of the places we stopped was Ghost City. This is where in the Chinese religion, Buddhism, they believe all souls go after death. So according to the main Chinese religion your soul ends up here on top of a hill at the Yangtze River after you die. There is a building called hell & one heaven. Hell is higher up on the hill than hell, not sure what you symbolism you can gather from that. Either way, it is an interesting place, but not really a place I will be rushing back to. There are places where I could have worshiped different gods to get health, wealth, and/or a happy marriage. At heaven there is a very large statue of the god that is the gate between heaven and hell. In hell there are 4 judges, and around the side you can see exhibits of the different tortures given for the different bads committed, it is not a pretty sight. So after that stop I imagine I can now claim I have been to heaven and hell, how many people do you know that can claim that? Never imagined I would ever be able to, not sure it will do me any god on my resume though.

Besides the sides stops, this cruise was just what the doctored ordered. The views were stunning. Many of the photos and pictures of China we see with great scenery, gorges, rivers and mountains is from this area. It was so nice to sit back and just float on through some amazing landscape that I never dreamed I would see in person.

Sometimes, ok way more than sometimes, quite often on this trip I stop and have had to pinch myself. I just can not believe where I am at, where I have been, and where I am going. I am awe struck at what I have experienced. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would do half the things I have done at any point on this trip, or in large parts of my life for that matter. I talk about so many amazing things in this blog & cool experiences I have. Whenever I sit back and think about what I have done, each of these experiences throw me back and make me appreciate how lucky and blessed I am. Just thought I would share some of that with you.

This has turned into another long blog. You know, when I sit down to write these blogs I usually think, “oh I do not have that many interesting things to write about this time, this is going to be a short blog.” Although each time I start writing and next thing I know, I have got another long blog. I usually can even add more and more if I had the time to & did not think I would bored my readers to death. So, here you go it happened again. I sat down thinking all I can tell you about was how stunning the gorges were & that was it, but now I have wrote another long blog. Well, I hope you find all the other bits more or just as interesting.

~Laugh & Love Life~

Sorry there have been no pictures lately, but it has been difficult to find internet that will support picture uploads to the blog.

Beijing, China

I have spent the last few days exploring Beijing and hitting up all of the must sees like the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and of course the Great Wall of China. These sites were good, all that I expected them to be. I was quite pleased with all of them. It was a cold day when I visited the Great Wall, so there were not too many people around and it was very easy for me to walk along and find empty sections to explore and discover by myself. From Beijing I loaded a plane and headed to the city of Chongqing where I walked around for the day and saw a few sights before loading onto a cruise. I am currently on the cruise floating down the Yangtze river through the Three Gorges area. I have stunning scenery all around me. It is a nice relaxing change from the constant go, go, go that I tend to have while I've been traveling the last few months.

While in Beijing I took a day to do as the Chinese do & rode a bicycle to get everywhere. The bicycle is the most popular type of transportation in China. Everywhere you go there are bicycles, so I figured while in China I needed to travel as the Chinese do & hit to the traffic and roads of Beijing on bike. I quite enjoyed it. Since the bike I hired was not exactly in mint condition, better than the average Beijing bike, but non the less not in great condition, I got a good work out as well as I had to work twice as hard to pedal the bike. I hope to hire more bikes as I travel around China, maybe ride some through the countryside.

The main way of traveling long distances between towns is by bus and train. I have quite enjoyed the over-night train experience. On the over-night trains you get a bed a flat bed with a small mattress, they are called hard-beds. There are six people stacked into each little section, 3 bunks high. I prefer the top bunk as it means no one is climbing past me in the middle of night to use the restroom or to get off at their station. Just hope I do not get bed bugs from the sheets and pillows, they look a little sketch to me! It is nice though, as you lay there the rocking back and forth of the train is just like a rocking chair, rocks you right to sleep. Than before you get to your station the conductor comes and wakes you up to ensure you get off a the right station. So you get from point A to B while multitasking and getting a good nights sleep in the process. So efficient, I love it!

Riding the buses are interesting as you never know when they will break down. Some of the newer ones are ok, but you just never know what you are going to get. At one point while coming back from the Great Wall the bus I was on stopped for a check point. After it stopped and all was good, the driver tried to start it up and nothing happened. After he had a few more tries, walked around the bus and got back in, and the conductor and driver had a bit of discussion, next thing I know we are rolling down the hill. The driver was jump starting the bus! Thankfully it worked. I was thinking I might get some good reading done as I thought we would have to wait for the next bus passing by and hope they had room for us. No matter what though, there is zero to no leg room on the buses. They were not made for tall people. I definitely prefer the train over the bus. They are ok for short distances, but not too keen on them for long distance, but they are an experience.

Half the experience is trying to get your ticket. I have encountered a few that speak a little bit of English, but normally I have to walk up, show them the name of the place I want to go in Chinese. From there a process of making hand signals and pointing goes on between the ticket seller and myself. If all goes well, they understood my hand signals and pointing and I understood theres. Than I just start walking in whatever direction they pointed me in and show my ticket to people along the way, who continue to point me along my way. Eventually if all goes well I end up at the gate and load the train.

The best though is the game I play every time I want to eat. As some of you know I do not eat any pork and most seafood. These two things are very much apart of the Chinese diet as are some other crazy animals I have no intention of eating. So the normal chain of events when I want to eat involve me first finding a place that looks like a few people are eating there. I pick these places as I hope that means the food is better and less likely to give me food poisoning. Once I enter the place I usually get a few giggles and smiles as everyone seems to be excited to have a westerner stop and eat at their place. Well that is my guess of why they laugh & giggle, maybe I just look funny. Anyway, I look through the menu and try to find the Chinese character for beef or chicken. Once that is found I pick that item and order it, usually by pointing than, the waiter or waitress points at the same thing with a questioning look at me. From here I shake my head yes and they run off while I take a seat. For the next little bit as I wait for the food is a nervous time for me. I sit and wait in anticipation of what I just ordered, usually a bit scared that I may not be able to eat what they put in front of me. I usually sit there going through my head, are we sure we picked the right Chinese character? Than I start thinking, oh no what am I going to do if this thing comes out with a bunch of shrimp on it? Neither speak the same language, so this could get weird. So far I have been pretty good, and what ends up in front of me is very tasty & something I can eat at the same time. Sometimes some of the other patrons, or the waiters try to have a conversation with me, but after a few tries that normally stops as we both realize there is no hope if they know no English & I know no mandarin.

China has been described to me as a developing country and I have always pictured it as a developing country. Maybe I have been traveling in really developing countries for too long, but it does not feel like a developing country to me here. Perhaps I need to get further inland or something. I do not know for sure what defines a developing vs a developed country, but if I had to guess I would say with in the last 15 years China has made the jump from developing to a developed country. There are high rises everywhere, especially apartments, so so many apartment buildings. The apartment buildings line the skyline. It seems like there sanitation system is working, you get running water everywhere, they have amazing transportation infrastructure established, and you don't see starvation. Yes, pollution is a huge problem here, as it tends to be very smoggy, you do still have people walking down the streets carrying loads, and you see people pushing carts full of things, but this I have seen in parts of Europe as well where the streets are so narrow it does not makes sense to bother with a vehicle. I have not had Internet in a while & a number of websites are blocked here, so I have not been able to research it, but when I can I want to see weather China is still listed as a developing country or not & if so, why.

Well I am off to enjoy a bit more of this rest and relaxation. Hope you are all well in your neck of the woods!

~Laugh & Love Life~

1st week in China

Upon arriving in Shanghai I decided I needed to take a breather and rest a bit. My body, once again was trying to send me not so subtle hints that I tend to push it a little too hard. To avoid a complete break down I have had the goal and plan of taking it easy, sleeping in, going to bed early, taking naps, and stopping occasionally throughout the day. Those that know me well, will know these are all hard things for me to do, well except for the sleeping in part. With a couple of months travel still ahead for me I decided I would have to do it. I feel it has done me some good, but I also find it irritating to have to slow down when there are so many cool places and things to see. After all, I only have a limited amount of time. :) So let me describe to you how I “rest”....

(Tea tasting room at tea house with my new friends)

I arrived into Shanghai Monday afternoon & after figuring out the metro system I got to my hostel around 3:30pm. At this point took a nap, checked my email, researched some travel plans, got some food and went to bed early. I was so proud of myself. The next morning I got up late and hit the road walking. I was walking through some of Shanghai's main streets checking out the sights when 4 Chinese university students stopped me and wanted to speak English with me. After to talking them a little bit I figured out that they were on holiday from Xi'an, a town near the Terra Cotta statues with the one guy being from Shanghai & acting as their tour guide. They invited me to a traditional teahouse they were headed too up some side streets. So, I joined them and had such a great time. I learned so much about tea. The teahouse host did not speak any English, so my new friends were quite excited to be translating everything to me in English. The host started by pouring tea into the tea tasting cups, but than succeeded to dump the contents of each cup over this little figurine she put on the table. I soon came to find out that they offer the first drink of tea to the tea-god here. It is a little statue that of a frog with a fishtail, coins on it and colored beads on its back that represent wealth, love, happiness, etc. So the first cup of tea was poured over this little statue which was a way of serving the tea god first. After this I tasted sweet teas, bitter teas, and everything between. It reminded me a lot of wine tasting, learning about the color, smell, body and original seed and plant the tea came from.

After this great experience I went explore the some of the architecture, tall buildings, the river and other areas of Shanghai. After an exhausting day of walking all around I went back to the hostel for a quick nap and than met up with my friend Lola from Nigeria that was traveling in Shanghai at the same time as me. Her and I than headed to an acrobat show that my friends I met earlier had recommended to me. Following this Lola and I went up the tallest building in Shanghai to its bar on the 93^rd floor. Her we caught up a bit more, had a drink and enjoyed a live band. Listening to the music made us both want to dance, so we found a place with a bit of a dance floor and good music. Next thing I know it is after 1am and I was not in bed. So, I once again was not able to follow my concept of getting to bed early and resting up, as I am sure dancing for a couple hours does not count as rest. None the less it was a good day. The next day Lola and I slept in on my request and than went searching through the markets for a coat for her. Without any luck we headed to the Shanghai Museam, which is an impressive museum with four floors of great exhibits from the Bronze age, monetary system, dress, pottery and many other thing on display. I was really surprised when I found out the museum was free. After being throughly exhausted from walking around the museum for hours the two of us made a very exhausted swagger out of the museum with the goal of finding food! After a bit of walking we found a restaurant and had a great time trying to get the waiters to understand what we could and could not eat when they brought us eel. (Neither Lola or I can eat eel). After lots of confusion, we got food we could eat and got our energy back with it. With our new found energy we were able to find Lola her perfect coat and get back to the hotel in time for her to head off to the airport and on her way back home.

(Shopping with Lola & on our way to the tallest building in Shanghai)

The next morning I decided to start traveling outside of Shanghai and get on my way. I continued the practice of trying to let myself get more sleep, so I slept in a little later than initially planned & ended up quickly chatting to my brother and father of Skype. By the end of all of this I had missed the first 2 trains and was going to take the third train to Hangzhou, the only problem with this is that I come to find it is running 3.5 hours late. So I did not get to my destination until just before sunset. I saw what I came to see, but I missed a whole days worth of additional places I wanted to get to. When I arrived at the train station to get the night train up north to get to Ji'ian, I was too late. The train had been booked out and there were no seats, so I got a ticket on the train to the city halfway, which I knew had many transfers to the final city I wanted to get to. The only problem was when I got there, they could not fit me on a train until 10am the next morning, which meant I ended up sleeping on a bench in the train station (yes it was safe, for all of you worriers out there) and spent the entire next day traveling instead of traveling at night like I had planned. Because of further delays and issues along the way I ended up not getting into Beijing until 1am & the taxi driver dropped me off at the wrong spot. This meant at 1am Friday evening I was walking around streets in Beijing looking for a place to stay. Thanks to an amazing Chinese man who was riding his bike home and stopped to show me around I finally found a random hotel, paid an expensive price, but had a place to sleep. The moral I can gain from these last few days, which have been so frustrating, is that I can not sleep in anymore. I have to get up and get with it while on this trip, I will have to rest when it is all done! So after today I am back to my crazy schedules & hopefully my body can keep up. :) Although, to bed early is still a goal every night.

(Jenifer, myself, and Lola just before Lola left me)

The language barrier has been a bit different than I am used to. I am used to being able to at least recognize the characters of the alphabet & sometimes hear a word or two that are similar in English. Here, that is very much not the case. It is definitely taking my travel skills up a notch. I have been coping, but with some fun times along the way. I will try to tell you some of the stories in the next blog.

~Laugh & Love Life~

My last few days in Nigeria were great. I spent the rest of my days there exploring Lagos. By end of my trip I was giving directions to the Nigerians on how to get around in their own city. I spent some time in the markets, which I thought were great fun. I loved how many people were all around & the hustle bustle in the market. We used the public transport for most of the trip, some of the drivers were impressed with my ability to say good morning & thank you in their tribal language. I also enjoyed Guinness' Foreign Extra beer, some good stuff! It was a good couple days of spending time with m friends in Lagos.and just havin fun getting to know the Nigerian way of life. While there I was also able to get my Chinese visa. So I now finally have all of my visas for this trip. Which is such a relief.

From Lagos I flew to Hong Kong. Here I met up with two of my friends Peter & Corin and stayed with them. Hong Kong is a great city, the infrastructure it has set up for pedestrians and within the city is great. There is even a couple streets where you can take escalators and travelators to go across half the city. It is now officially apart of China, but it is a modern, thriving major world city. I hear that it is completely different than China, and believe that whole heartedly. I can not wait to go see what China is all about.

The first couple days here it rained, which apparently is uncommon for Hong Kong this time of the year. Thankfully the last two days were not too bad. My first day here I went up a gondola to the largest Buddha & monastery, which is supposed to have a great view of the mountains and hills that make up parts of Hong Kong. It was a great ride & I could see how there was probably a great view, but I mostly just saw clouds & rain. :)

Thankfully yesterday, my last full day in Hong Kong, the sun came out to welcome me. Pete, Corin & I headed out on a ferry to Lama Island. This small island used to be a hippie island and I suppose it probably still is. Although the Hong Kong government was tired of the hippies and got upset with them. In an act to show their control the Hong Kong government put a huge power plant right on the island where there are now very tall smoke stacks that can be seen from most sides of the island. Other than the big nasty power plant, the island is quite nice. We walked from one side to the other and enjoyed a large Chinese lunch & a few beers.

I am currently sitting in the airport about to head north to Shanghai. I have really enjoyed my time here in Hong Kong & am looking forward to spending some time in China.

~Laugh & Love Life~