This is the story of 2 people who quit their jobs and spent 14 months traveling through 29 different countries. We saw Roman ruins, sailed the coast of Croatia, visited the caves of Cappadocia, saw the ancient Pyramids, hiked Mt. Kilimanjaro, took overnight trains in India, trekked the Himalayas, visited the malls of Bangkok, walked the Great Wall of China, and managed to get married in New Zealand. Please enjoy our journey as much as we did!

Susan and Brian- March 31, 2007 - May 30, 2008

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We've been back in Seattle for almost a month now. The job search is still going....and going....and going. Some days we feel like we're on top of things, other days we look towards the small pleasures (like Dr. Bronners lavendar soap and cereal) to make us realize how very lucky we are.

America does have a way of sucking you back in. We went from feeling as if we had access to information all over the world to being back in the fold of all things American. Maybe because America is such a big country that it doesn't look outside of itself for news? I think that's one element we really miss about traveling. It's hard to find people who are interested in holding discussions on a more global level. There is a mild sense of alienation going on.

We did meet a really cool guy while attending one of our free weekly activities. His name is Marty and we met him at the Teacup on Queen Anne during our weekly tea ceremony. He was fascinating. Not only because he was an American-Jewish-Christian and not only because he was in China studying Chinese and wanting to help bridge the gap between Chinese Muslims and Tibetans but because he actually seemed to have a pretty unbiased opinion on a lot of different topics. Once again, he reminds us of the reason why you can only believe 30% of the media. Research, research, research! I actually learned that very important lesson from my sophomore Social Deviance TA......

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Wednesday, July 30 2008

Written by: Our nephew Bryan

Day 2:

Today was a good day but not as good as yesterday.

Well today we went to the Air and Space Museum which has planes and space shuttles basically like a airport hanger with some of the best and fastest planes in the world.

There were three things I really enjoyed today. First was the space shuttle. I liked seeing this because it was not a shuttle that flew into space but a training shuttle to help them get ready for the real thing and let me tell you it was huge.

Next was seeing the fastest airplane ever, the SR-71 Blackbird. This plane went from California to New York in 68 minutes and 17 seconds.

Last was the flight simulator that was a little machine that we sat in. I got to go twice first with Uncle B then Aunt Susan. They flew and i was the gunner and the goal was to go and shoot all enemy airplanes. The first time I went with Uncle B I got 8 kills. But when I went with Aunt Susan we got 1 kill, which was not her fault because the simulator went upside down and so her dress and hair got in the way but I did not care because it was fun.

After the museum we went to where the first battle of the civil war was held and it is called Bull Run. Here we got to see Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson who was the leader of he South and got his name by standing strong when the North charged at them and I thought it was really cool to see his statue because I knew a lot about him from school.

This is all we did today but tomorrow will be awesome because we get to go see the spy and museum so I will send an email tomorrow.

Day 3:

July 7, 2007

Today was one of the best days so far.

Well to start the day Aunt Susan made french toast which was awesome. Then, I got dressed and we went to the spy museum. At the museum we did a mission like a spy and it felt like I was actually playing a game as a spy. I was the one left in charge to scan the documents and get the information and I did good and found everything  needed and we beat the mission and our tour guide was really HOT. There was also a museum of the spy gadgets which was awesome. But the mission was the best.

Then we went to the National Archives which holds the Constitution, Bill Of Rights, and Declaration of Independence. I was very pleased to see the Emancipation Proclamation because this is the 5 minute speech from Abraham Lincoln that ended slavery which was my favorite subject in history.

Last we saw the Jefferson Memorial which was obviously based on Thomas Jefferson our second president of the United States. There is a couple differences between the Lincoln and Jefferson memorial. One is Lincoln is square where Jefferson is circled at the top. Second, the Jefferson is sinking and the Lincoln memorial is not in water so it is not. Lastly, Lincoln is sitting and and Jefferson is standing.

This is what we did today so it was a good day.

Day 4:

Hello, today was a great day.

Well we started by going to George Washington's house. We got to learn about his slaves and got to see his amazing house which was huge.

The slave tour told us where the slaves worked and where they lived and what they did where they worked and how they did it. The house tour was we got to see all rooms in the house and we also got to see where he did his work and many other things.

Tonight was the best of the day I got to see the White House at lit up at night. We got to see a air force 1 helicopter  practicing to drop President Bush off when he gets back from the G8Summit. We also got to see the Washington monument which was really really cool.

Day 5:

Today was another great day.

First we had to get up at 7am and go to get tickets for the Washington Monument and to see where our nations money is made. Well me and Uncle B stayed in line for the monument and Aunt Susan stayed in the money engraving line.

The Bureau of Engraving is a place where we went first and it was awesome I got to see where our money is made and I got a sheet of 16 one dollar bills not cut which is so awesome, the bills look so new its amazing .

Second we went to the Holocaust Museum which showed what the Jews had gone through and it was cool at the same time but so depressing too. It was cool because |I got to learn so much on what they had to go through and also lean about Hitler. It was depressing because it showed what happened to them and what they did when they died and how they starved them and it was just really sad.

And last we finally got to go to the Washington Monument and it was just amazing to see all of the buildings in D.C.

Well tomorrow we start to go to New York, which is going to be great so ya. I Love You an Miss You

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Written by: Susan

August 11, 2008 

Why do you always want what you haven't got?

It's scary how fast you can really step back into life here in the states. I've been wanting to read the article in the current Vanity Fair magazine about Carla Bruni, the new first lady of France. As we were traveling, I found ways to seek information like this for free since access to it was really expensive (Vanity Fair would have been upwards of $15). Now that I'm back in the states, I completely forgot that you can actually just go to vanityfair.com and just read the article for free. I've been debating about whether or not to get the magazine, should I subscribe to it? etc, etc......until tonight when suddenly I remembered that I could access it online and will be enjoying the article from the leisure of my own home....for free.

Which brings me to my point.....why does the grass always seem greener? I remember while traveling, I'd think of all the fun stores that I'd get to go to when I went home, all the foods I'd be able to eat, the familiarty of everything. Now that I'm home, do you think I've actually gone to any of the places that I was DYING to go to while traveling? I haven't even stepped foot into the Seattle Patagonia or REI store downtown and those were always a part of my weekend routine.  

Did I just enjoy the idea of them more than the reality? Why is the idea of something sometimes so much more colorful? Is it because you can mold it to your happier moments and forget how much of a pain it really is to drive to some of these places, find parking, and walk around a store that beckons you to spend hundreds of dollars?

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Sunday, July 27, 2008

Written by: Brian and Bryan's(my nephew) emails (part 1)

Quick Recap to D.C.

The trip to DC was great but it was more personal for us seeing our friends and family.

Here is a bullet list of what we did leading up to our arrival in Washington D.C.

-The drive through Moab, Utah and Arches National Park was beautiful

-Arrived in Denver and had wedding reception hosted by our friends Jan and Len. THANK YOU!

-Bryan and I hiked to over 12,000 feet at Rocky Mountain National Park

-18 hour drive from Denver to Chicago was grueling, Nebraska is truly a boring state

-Spent 3 days catching up with my grandma in Chicago

-My mom had a wedding reception for us in Sandwich, IL and made some great traditional Polish food. Thanks!

-Drove down to Atlanta through the beautiful Smokey Mountains

-Spent 3 days with my cousin Keith and his wonderful family

-Headed to Washington D.C. on July 4th

The Capitol:

We arrived at our friends house outside of DC around 5:00 on July 4th and had a nice barbecue. That evening we headed into the city to see the most amazing display of fireworks I had ever seen. We headed home for some much needed sleep, tomorrow was the start of our Washington D.C. site seeing tour.

Taxation without Representation, the phrase that led to the revolutionary war and ultimately to independence of America. So it seems a little strange when the first day in Washington D.C. (from now on D.C.) I see the license plate motto“Taxation without Representation” on all the cars in D.C.

Dan, our friend that we were staying with in D.C. and resident expert on most historical matters informed us of the history of the motto. Washington D.C. is not a state but a district of the Untied States that house all three Federal branches of the Federal government. It has a population of around 600,000 thousand people but they have no representation in the Senate and they have a non-voting member in the House of Representatives. The residents of D.C. did not even have voting rights until 1961 when the 23 amendment gave them 3 electoral votes.

The reason for our trip across the country was to take my 14 year old nephew, Bryan, to see the nations capitol of which he had just completed his 8th grade studies on. It was one of his dreams to see Washington D.C. and we thought it would be a great educational opportunity. Please enjoy his emails home each day reflecting on the days activities.

Day 1: Today has been a great day. I went and saw 4 things except one of them did not work out.

First we went to go see Fords theater where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated which was like my #1 thing to see except it was closed which really stunk but it was ok. It will not open until 2009.

Next we went to go see the Library of Congress which had every book ever published in the world and also we saw the library of Thomas Jefferson which was really big.

Third we went to see the Lincoln Memorial which was fantastic because i got to see where Forest Gump gave his speech and ran through the reflecting pool which was really cool.

Last we went to see the Vietnam Memorial which was fascinating to learn about and also made me think of grandpa (who was in Vietnam)

Stay tuned for part two of our 5 day trip to D.C. 

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It’s day 2 of being back in Seattle. Reality sunk in when we arrived on Monday night at my mom’s house. We literally weren’t sure what to do with ourselves. I’m not sure if it’s from having a lack of things to do after being on the go for so long or having too many things (admittedly not as exciting as traveling) to do and therefore, we sat that night like two bumps on a log.

The feeling of being like “fish out of water” was exacerbated by the fact that we have way too much stuff. It was overwhelming. Stuff that we had left at my mom’s house prior to leaving on our trip, stuff that I had lugged back to Seattle when we first arrived back in the States, and all the stuff that we had driven all the way from Chicago with that packed our Prius to the max. What is all this stuff??? Some of it warrants being sent straight to the garbage can, but others keep conjuring up the questions “what if?” I believe this question alone is the reason why America has so much stuff.

Not only do we have tons of stuff, we seem to currently have all the wrong stuff. Like an inflatable mattress. It’s things like that that people don’t think of before going on an around the world trip. Where are we going to sleep? I have a twin bed in my old bedroom so for the first two nights, I slept on the twin and Brian slept on the floor atop our featherbed that we were able to wrangle out of one of the garbage bags we had hastily stuffed it into 16 months ago.  

We have an inflatable mattress but of course, we have no clue where it is. All of our boxes are neatly stacked downstairs in the basement and there is no way we’ll be going through any of those. So like good American consumers who are too lazy to go through 50 boxes of stuff, we decide to go to Costco and purchase a new Aero bed. It was actually a good purchase as it blows up to the size of a real bed and has proven to be much more comfortable than our small, floor inflatable.

So currently we’re looking for jobs. Since we don’t have internet (we’ll be getting it Monday), looking for jobs requires us to drive all the way into Seattle (about 20 minutes) to an internet café to begin the search. We’ve dedicated ourselves to applying for 1 job a day and surfing various sites to look for jobs.

Our daily routine looks like this:

Wake up

Walk over stuff

Drink tea, eat humbows that my mom steamed for us

Organize stuff

Shower

Organize more stuff

Plan day

Discuss what to do with organized stuff

Leave house

Surf internet for jobs

Go home, walk over stuff, go to sleep

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June 28, 2008

Written by: Susan

We've traveled nearly 2000 miles now and covered 8 states. It started out with 5 people in a Prius. For those of you who don't know what a Toyota Prius looks like, let's just say it's not really made for 5 people to sit for any longer than say....oh about 5 minutes. Brian, unfortunately got the middle back seat since we were taking one of my girlfriends back to Flagstaff, Arizona (the closest town to the Grand Canyon). Not that any of the other seats were any better since we stuffed the car full of stuff. The only person sitting in luxury was the driver (me) but the drive is in charge of the whole car and should get a more comfy seat!

It was a six hour drive through the desert and none of us were looking forward to it. We made it though, cramped but in one piece. We dropped Jessica off, spent the night at a $50 Rodeway Inn on the side of I-40 and journeyed to the great Grand Canyon the next morning. **A tip for those traveling in the states. Hotels.com is a great site for lodging that gives pretty good rates for hotels and you can literally book until hours before you arrive. I've found that site to be much cheaper than calling the hotel directly or walking in. **

The Grand Canyon is always great to see (I'd been there 3 times since my girlfriend lives in Flagstaff) and always seems a bit surreal. I was surprised that the crowds weren't as heavy as I expected. Must be the whole gas issue that's going on right now here. Gas in the states is over $4 a gallon (about $1 a litre) which is still cheaper than most of the world we know, so it's been interesting to hear people debate the gas prices. It is the most expensive gas has ever been in the states though and I suppose if you're used to cheap gas, it totally sucks. What I do like about expensive gas it that it makes people start to think about alternative methods of transportation – which is long overdue – and people are starting to actually think about what kind of car they get and where they drive to instead of just filling up their huge SUV and driving hundreds of miles with just one person in it (a huge pet peeve of mine even before the gas hikes).

The Grand Canyon tour can take anywhere from several hours to days depending on what you want to do. I've never been a big fan of doing the rim-to-rim hike which is hiking from the south rim to the north rim. It seems that the only reason you would do that is for bragging rights and I'm too old for that. I'd much prefer to hike down Havasu Canyon (about a 10 mile hiike) to some beautiful waterfalls and spend a few days camping there instead. If you want to check out Havasu Canyon, google “Havasupai”. So we spent the day driving from the different vantage points around the Canyon, taking the obligatory pictures and than heading out to the four corners.

The Four corners is the only part of the United States where 4 states meet at their (duh) corners. The states are Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. We got there late (which we had planned) but what we had not planned was the fact that there were no hotels in the area. So we had to drive past the Four corners into Colorado and ended up staying at a nice casino just south of Cortez.

The next morning we headed out to check out these four corners and do the cheesy but fun “put our limbs in 4 different states at the same time” deal. Totally kitschy but a must do if you are road tripping the USA. Some guy had told us that it would be about an hour hike (which we weren't looking forward to in the hot dessert sun). So off we drove to the entrance, paid our $3 per person, and thought we were headed to the trailhead. We were pleasantly surprised to see that instead we drove right up to the four corners via New Mexico. We've become total lazy asses since getting back – gaining 10 pounds from eating bad but tasty but than it starts to not seem so tasty American food – so we were excited to waddle up to the four corners instead of hiking to it.

It was actually amazing to see how many people made this stop considering it's totally out of the way of anything and you really have to want to come here in order to make it happen. Brian's nephew wanted to go and that's how we found ourselves here. So what you actually do when you get there is they've (whoever they are) created a large bronze plaque with the names of all four states meeting in the corner. If you lay in the middle and stick your arms and legs out, you'll have each of your limbs in a different state. We, of course, all had to do this. The funniest people though was this retired couple from Australia  (think your grandparents) where the grandpa got down on his hands and knees and the grandma straddled him and yelled giddy-up! Only the Aussies would do that. Everybody got a good laugh and we were on our way.

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Monday, June 23, 2008

Written by: Brian

We have been back in the USA for almost a month now and we have been bad about blogging our arrival home.

The first three weeks were crazy busy. Susan and I had the wonderful experience of watching my niece (3yrs) and nephew (5yrs) for the first couple weeks and the third week we spent going to my other nephew's 8th grade graduation and getting ready for our cross country trip to Washington D.C.

The biggest question we have gotten is what is it like to be back in the USA? Well we can definitely say that it is different being back. There is a lot more “noise” then we are used too. For example at the airport I noticed that I understood everyone's conversation instead of usually not understanding ANY. I heard the guy yelling at some one over his cell phone, the wife and husband arguing over who was going to get which luggage piece and the elderly tour group that had just returned from the South Pacific. It was all quite overwhelming and after 20 minutes I had a headache. It has taken some getting used to.

Technology has not changed that much since we left but our technological aptitude sure has gone downhill. I used to consider myself pretty savvy when it came to electronic devices especially cellular ones but now I can not even figure how to type out a text message. Thank goodness for my 14 year-old nephew who was nice enough to show me the ropes.

I have to say driving has been the most difficult task to master. You would think that driving would be like riding a bike but I am hear to tell you it is not. Every time I turned a corner I switched on the windshield wipers (the turn signals are on the other side of the car in Australia and New Zealand). We definitely have the cleanest windows in California. Turning a right corner is a little scary as well as I forget what lane I am supposed to turn in to. The other day I asked Susan if I was in the right lane after turning and we before it clicked in our head a car turned the corner and we quickly realized that oops, we were in the wrong lane.

What I have come to realize upon our return is that Americans are very friendly, one of the most friendly in the world, outside of driving a car that is. From the grocery store check out to the bank people always seem to being going out of the way to assist us and being extra nice when we need something done. I had forgotten how courteous and nice people are in our own country.

We are now on the cross-country trip across the USA with our new Toyota Prius that is getting 46 miles to the gallon. Stay tuned for our next update on our travel with my mom and nephew from California to Chicago.

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Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Written by: Brian

Fiji:

If you are picturing white-gold sand beaches, palm trees, sun and tropical drinks then you have an  idea of how we were able to spend our honeymoon and the last part of our trip. The islands of Fiji were amazingly relaxing and just what we were looking for after 14 months of traveling. We were able to literally veg out the entire time we were there.

The saying in Fiji is, don't worry about it - you're on Fiji time, which pretty much means just take it easy and don't expect anything fast. The Fijian word 'Bula' is posted everywhere you go and it means “Hello” and it is a must to learn when visiting the country. Everywhere you go you are greeted with a warm smile and a friendly Bula!

The first island that we stayed at was Treasure Island about an hour boat ride from the mainland. We ended up on this very nice island resort because we had not booked anything ahead of time, our first choice of Octopus Resort was booked and they happened to have a killer deal. Otherwise, we would have never been able to afford a place as nice and expensive as Treasure Island. The island was just like we had imagined, with a beautiful white sand beach surrounding the island, reefs to snorkel, lounge chairs to read the day away and lush accommodations  facing the turquoise blue water for mid-afternoon naps.

After enjoying the island for four days it was time to check out another island, four hours farther away from the mainland in a chain of islands called the Yasawas. The place was called Oarsman Bay and was definitely more backpackerish. This is where the sand turned to soft white sand and the water was an aquamarine color. We swam, snorkeled and took a “village tour.” Now if you have ever seen a posting for a Village Tour before you know that they are usually set up villages for the tourists. Well this time it was different and we were pleasantly surprised.

We arrived at the village where the people actually lived their daily lives. The houses were made of concrete with thatched roofs made from palm leaves. Most of the houses consisted of one room with woven palm leaves mats covering the floor where they also slept. The village had around 300 people and had two churches, Catholic and a Methodist. There were no stores or restaurants just a village on an island. During a hurricane they would take refuge in the Catholic church that was built by the French in the late 1800's.

If we had just been back packing the place would have been great for us but the family style dinners required us to partake in conversation, which we were not in the mood for, and the accommodations where average especially in regards to the Treasure Island rooms. So after two nights at Oarsman we opted to take the ferry back to Treasure Island to spend the rest of our trip in the luxury accommodation we had at Treasure Island.

Here is where we would usually tell you about all the exciting stuff that we saw and did while we were on the islands but really all we did was read books and magazines, lay on the beach, and drink tropical drinks. It was pure heaven.

After 12 days of living in a tropical paradise though it was time for us to return home. So we boarded an Air Pacific flight (which was very nice and comfortable) and took a ten and a half hour flight to Los Angeles. After a pleasant trip through customs, where our customs official personally welcomed us back after 14 months and congratulated us on our marriage, we were back in the USA.

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May 2nd-11th, 2008

Written by : Jose Paez / Yvonne Bennett-Paez

First off, let me introduce myself.  My name is Jose Paez.  My wife is Yvonne Bennett. We’re the folks who flew out to New Zealand to witness Susan & Brian’s wedding.  I think it was the last night of our trip when Susan & Brian asked us to write the New Zealand portion of their blog.  Ah yes, it’s all coming back to me…..
 
It was May 10th late in the evening, say 1 AM .  We’re in Auckland . Just the four of us, and yeah, we’ve had a few drinks, we’re a little “liquored up” and okay, okay, I’m hungry for some donuts…some Dunkin’ Donuts to be exact.  And that’s exactly what I did.  I went and bought a dozen Dunkin’ Donuts at 1AM in downtown Auckland .

We had just finished our dinner at a Mediterranean spot that served Lebanese nachos (say what?), incredibly small portions of naan (bread), and nope they couldn’t sit us inside although there were plenty of tables.  But who cares, it was our last night in New Zealand baby!  I splurge and buy a $38 dollar bottle of Pinot Noir.  Woh!  Did I spend that much?!?!  “Did I do that?” (That’s Erkel.)  We love Susan and Brian, or “Su-Bri” as we often referred to them during our trip.  That’s a lie.  We never called them that.  And so now you know that I will make things up during this blog, but I’ll always let you know when I’m doing so.  Capiche?
 
Before our nice meal, ironically enough, Brian was brave enough to smoke a cigar with me.  I’d smuggled…err…brought the cigars from the US , as a manly man way to celebrate his matrimony.  One thing about the cigars was that they were at least 3 years old.  I kept them in a box in my garage.  But hey, I really like Brian, so I pulled out all the stops.  When I first bit into my cigar a whole big chunk of it broke off into my mouth…it literally disintegrated.  Still smokable!  And that’s what we did.  We walked a few blocks puffing away on our cigars, choking, spitting, coughing, cursing, feeling nauseas, doing god knows what kind of irreparable damage to our lungs, but all the while we’re smiling.
 
Hours before I brought out the cigars, while we were in our hotel room, I had mentioned to Yvonne the following words…“This has been a great trip. Don’t ya think?”  Yvonne slapped me in the face and kicked my shins.  That didn’t happen.  She said, “Yes my love-god. I agree wholeheartedly.”  We then reminisced about just how quickly our trip had gone by.
 
It all started on May 2nd, when Yvonne and I boarded a plane in Los Angeles .  I was happy because the airline was Quantas, and I recalled from the movie Rainman, that Quantas airlines had the fewest crashes than any other airline.  No need for the Xananx on this trip.  Plus, each head rest has it’s own video screen with literally tons of entertainment options. I watched 3 films on a 12 hour flight. Awesome.  One word of advice though, the vegetarian option on these flights should always remain an option, as in a last option.  Whew…that was rough.
 
We landed in Auckland at 4 AM on Sunday May 4th.  Say what?  You heard right.  Yvonne and I flew into the future.  Back in the US it was still Saturday.  We lost a day with the flight. But it’s all good (3 movies in 12 hours!!).  At the airport, we exchanged some cash, got some coffee or a “Long Black.”  We also got a nice little piece of cake to share.  We watched TV in the airport, and saw a Maori actor from the movie “Samoan Wedding.”  Haven’t seen that flick?  Nextflix it, baby.
We took another plane to Christchurch (which is in the South Island ).  There, for the first time in over a year, we saw Susan and Brian!  Unbelievable.  There they were.  We’d heard about their incredible journey, we’d seen the photos, watched the videos, talked to them on skype, but to actually see them…too cool.  
 
Seriously, it was really a cool experience getting picked up at the airport by Susan and Brian.  Our first experience of New Zealand suburbs, Brian driving on the right side, and very well I may add.  He only got us into 5 “near misses” in the 10 minute drive to our hotel.  Just kidding Brian.
 
We got to our hotel which was called Hotel SO, which is about as hip (and small) as you can get.  Think Ikea furniture, Euro chic fashion, all set up in the most efficient use of space we’ve ever seen.  Parts of it were like a scene out of Sleeper.  I was looking for the “orb.”
 
We had breakfast at an ultra hip sorta spot.  The food was delicious.  But more than that, it was really cool to hang with Susan and Brian and hear about their trip.  It’s really hard to imagine doing all the things they’ve done.  They’re like me heroes or something.
 
The rest of the day we spent driving around, getting a glimpse of beautiful landscapes, tons of sheep, and really really fit looking people.  At night, we got all “dolled up” to celebrate bachelor and bachelorette night!  Wooo hooo!  Party!!!  Yeah!  Except, there was no one in town.  Literally.  We went to a bar, and we were the only people in there. Who cares.  We had a few drinks, laughed, and hey, they had a small jazz trio playing a cover of “Song 2” from Blur.
 
The next day was the big day.  The wedding day.  So cool.  Yvonne and I are really lucky to be here with Susan and Brian.  This is too cool.  Who gets to get married in New Zealand ?
 
Yvonne and I got married in Reseda, Ca.  Reseda is just like Christchurch , except it has zero free-roaming sheep.  Also, Reseda had more Mexicans than all of New Zealand combined.  So there.
 
The wedding ceremony was short and sweet. Susan looked beautiful and Brian looked sharp.  We played paparazzi.  We also got teary eyed and choked up.  Oh yeah, and Brian’s sister was on the phone listening to the whole thing!  That was cool.
We drove to the botanical gardens and took more photos.  I’m saying, Yvonne and I could start a business!  Tell us what exotic country you’d like to get married in, will fly out there and take pictures of you, and then you can give us some food or something.
 
You know what else is cool about Susan and Brian?  They’ve got great smiles.  All their pictures look terrific.  Serious.
We had an unbelievably tasty dinner at a very cool restaurant.  Lucky us.  We appreciated every moment there.  By the end of the evening, we were wiped out.  What a day though.
 
Tuesday in Christchurch , and we’re hitting the road.  We drive through Arthur’s Pass, we see more and more and more stunning landscapes.   New Zealand is really pretty.  Here’s a list of things we did (in no particular order):
 
·Checked out a possible hotel that looked like the kind of place teenagers go in the summer before they get killed by Jason or Michael Myers.
·Saw kiwi’s (the birds) in Otorahunga (say it like it’s spelled…now you’re speaking New Zealandese).
·Ate great food everywhere.  Highlight: Free hot chocolate pudding cake with Vanilla ice cream…..ooohh dat wuz good.
·Wine tasting in Nelson!
·Ferry ride from Picton to Wellington !  No one got sea sick, although Brian had a pounding headache and I was nervous our boat would sink at some point.
·I went to the oldest music store in New Zealand and bought 2 cds: The Mint Chicks, and Johnny Devlin.

·Lord of the Rings Tour in Wellington .  Peter Jackson=GOD in Welly-Wood. Cool tour, learned a lot, took pics of my friends wearing “Elf” ears.
·Ate pizza at Hell’s Pizza.  Dude, pizza was good.
·Got lured into hotel because they offered a free dinner. Dinner included one tiny bite size samosas, 3 french fries, and a napkin. Dang.
·Stayed at the Crellow House, run by an elderly woman named Pam.  She made us eggs and biscuits.  She was sweet.
·Went to the 3rd best pastry shop in all of New Zealand .  We know it’s the 3rd best because it said so on the front.

·Met a woman in a shop in Picton, who said Picton was stress free! “Any stress that you feel is your own stress.”
·Ate mountain lion.  That’s a lie.
·Went to Museum in Wellington . Pretty cool, nice set up, a lot to see in one day.
·Had tons of conversations while Brian drove, ate too many skittles and fiber cookies.
·Stayed in a hotel that had a trampoline, that Yvonne jumped on.
·Ended up in Auckland , smoked cigars, ate dunkin’ donuts.
 
Well, there you go. The long awaited “Jose/Yvonne write Susan and Brian’s New Zealand Blog Entry (a month after the trip).”  Sorry for the delay.
 
We had an amazing time.  Thanks for the wonderful experience and congrats again to
Mr. & Mrs. Trunk!
 
Love,
Jose and Yvonne

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Sunday, May 11, 2008

Written by: Brian

Good Bye New Zealand, Hello Fiji,

We did some amazing things over the last week from getting married, to going on a Lord of the Rings tour,  to seeing the infamous Kiwi bird. Unfortunately we have not been able to blog our awesome adventures and now we are heading to Fiji for our honeymoon.

Don't despair though, we have a plan in place. Our friends Jose and Yvonne were able to come visit us for the week and we have volunteered them to blog our week long adventure that will take the four of us from Christchurch to Auckland. Thanks Jose and Yvonne!

We have 12 days in Fiji, which we are still planning out, before we arrive home in Los Angles on Saturday, May 24 at 1:00.

Please stay tuned as we will still be updating blogs when we return home with our Fijian adventures.

We are leaving on June 16 for a month long trip across the USA. We saw the world now it is time to see our home.

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Wednesday, April 29, 2008

Written by: Susan 

After surviving 12 days of rain in Australia, we were ready (and hoping) for nicer weather in New Zealand. We flew into Christchurch and one (of many) interesting things about New Zealand is that the country is so small from east to west that we started our initial descent into Christchurch which is on the east coast of the country on the west coast. The mountains were stark and jagged, like razors rising out of the ground and trying to pierce the bright blue sky. After passing over the mountains, the scenery became flat and filled with green farmlands filled with sheep that stretched until the ocean.

We stayed in Christchurch for 4 nights in order to apply for our marriage license as well as scope out a few places for dinner and a place to say our vows (which will be the Christchurch Botanical Gardens). The colors right now are so beautiful as it’s fall here and the leaves are vibrant golds, reds, and yellows. The hotel we stayed in was the ultimate luxe traveler hotel – Hotel So in case you ever need a place to stay in Christchurch. It’s not grungy like most backpacker places but it’s also not as swanky or impersonal as most upscale hotels. It’s perfect for travelers like us who are just looking for a good, clean bed, nice hot shower, and wifi. Plus they have full kitchen, sauna and the best part…..flat screen television!....so we were in heaven for a couple of days.

Our friends, Yvonne and Jose, will be joining us back in Christchurch in a week so that gave us the opportunity to explore the southern part of the south island before they got here. We took off for Lake Tekapo and Mount Cook. We were greeted with the warmest weather we’ve had since Hong Kong and welcomed the sun. It was a beautiful day and the first time we’d really been out on the open road since South Africa. Everybody falls in love with New Zealand and we can definitely see why. The scenery is stunning with jagged mountains surrounded by icy blue lakes and trees with gold leaves blowing everywhere. The roads are well maintained – something we now notice after all the dodgy roads we’ve been on – and offered some of the best scenery around.

We were lucky enough to arrive at Mt. Cook while there was still daylight and get some good pictures of the mountains while walking around. Unfortunately, accommodations are slim (unless you’ve got a lot of money) and the Hermitage Hotel at $600 a room was WAY out of our price range. So we had to drive back down to the town of Twizel (pronounced Twy – zel, not like twizzler which is what I called the town when I tried to make reservations and confused the lady on the other end). We stayed at this farmhouse that was converted into 3 rooms, 1 bathroom and a shared kitchen. It was like living in a house. We liked it because it was cheap and it had heat. Unfortunately the only restaurants in town wanted to charge us $15 for a hamburger and $30 for main courses. We don’t mind forking out the money for a nice meal here and there, but this town was the deadest of dead towns and you could tell that everything was directed towards the tourists. Instead we stopped at the “barely any groceries” grocery store and bought some cheese for grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup.

Today, we decided against going back to Mt. Cook, which was our original plan, since the mountain wasn’t visible and it looked like storm clouds were rolling in. Instead, we charged on to Queenstown. We wove our way through mountains, rivers, fields, and vineyards on our 3 hour drive further south. We didn’t realize that there were a lot of wineries located right outside of Queenstown and so we decided to stop at one that had a “Cheesery” sign.

Cheese always makes us stop and it was time for lunch anyways. Of course, there happened to be a winery next door so we went there first and did a sampling of 4 of their wines for $5. We weren’t too overwhelmed with any of them so we decided to just head over to the cheese shop. The cheese was amazing. Probably the best cheese we’ve had since Paris. We weren’t really expecting it to be anything more than some Havarti and Cheddar as that was all we had gotten at the last cheesery we stopped in near Christchurch. They had an amazing selection of goat cheese, pecorino, gruyere, and our favorite, the blue. It was so good that we bought a couple bricks of it, some fresh bread, chorizo and had ourselves a picnic right there. We hadn’t bought any wine but decided to go back and buy another sampler to go along with our cheese bread and it was amazing how much both the taste of the wine and cheese tasted. We were floating on cloud nine when we left the winery for Queenstown.

I’m starting to run out of adjectives to describe the scenery here in New Zealand without sounding like a broken record. Queenstown though deserves to be recognized as a town with stunning scenery. It sits at the edge of a lake and the mountains seems to soar straight out of the lake up towards the sky. It’s really beautiful. Queenstown is known for its offering of adrenaline rushing, extreme sports. Everything from skydiving, to bungy jumping, to hangliding, and many more activities that I’ve never even heard of. Unfortunately, we think they’ll be out of our price range this time around. A simple boat ride costs a $100 and to do anything cool would cost us closer to $200 a person. Since we’ve decided to take a cross country trip once we get back home, we’ve had to make some sacrifices.

There are still some pretty cool free things to do here although unfortunately the rain has decided to follow us today. We were lucky enough to get a break in the weather later in the afternoon and went for a drive down to the town of Glenorchy. Again, just to sound like a broken record, the scenery is everything you imagine New Zealand to be and looks exactly like all the photos. Just stunning.

Tomorrow we’re off to Milford Sound!!

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Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Written by: Susan

We’re only one month away from the end of our trip. A spectacular 14 month journey around the world. How are we feeling these days? Well it depends on the day. For me personally, I am just excited about knowing where things are and not having to “figure it out” every single day. On the other hand, I get nervous wondering how we’ll react to being back in the states. I’m sure at first it will be exciting and fun to see everybody but than what?

Will we be excited to settle down? Put our backpacks away and be able to actually buy a large bottle of shampoo? Or will we be totally bored and crave being in a place that is a bit more chaotic.

We’ve slowly being reintroduced into the western culture. First stop being here in Sydney. Getting off the plane and into the corridor, it was a bit odd to see the signs all in English and no other language. And then realizing when you went through customs that you could actually speak English and not try to rack your brain for the word ‘thank you’ in another language. On the downside, Brian and I can’t really make comments to each other as everybody around us can now understand us.

It’s interesting to see the subtle changes that have happened to us. Most of them logistical changes. For instance, we get totally flustered now when crossing the street. We’re so used to being able to cross when there aren’t any cars but now in Sydney we stand on the corner even if there are no cars on the street and wonder if it’s legal to cross the street if there are no cars. We get flustered when cars actually stop for us at a cross walk to let us cross the street. We’re so used to running or getting pissed off at cars that don’t stop at cross walks that to actually have a car stop for us leaves us looking like we just got off the boat.

Stores are now even overwhelming for us. Walking around you realize how much you don’t need to survive but how easy it is to get sucked into the idea of needing all the things they so beautifully merchandise in the windows. There are so many choices too. We got so used to buying things in mom and pop stores where they had either one or two options of your preferred item (or sometimes none) and it became easy to run in and run out with what you actually needed. Now we find ourselves roaming the vast aisles of stores overwhelmed by the choices not knowing quite sure which brand, model, or flavor we want and end up leaving with an empty basket instead.  

It does feel great though to be in an environment that is similar to our home and has allowed us to slowly acclimate back into our world.

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Thursday, April 17, 2008

Written by: Brian

G'day Mate,

We arrived in the “land down under” and we have to admit that it was nice to see all signs in English and not have to worry about transportation. In Australia we just had to hop in a taxi and off we went, no need to negotiate or worry about getting ripped off. I have to admit it was the easiest entry into a country we have had since the start of our trip.

What is hard to realize is how large Australia really is, though it is a continent after all. The size of Australia is almost equal to the size of the states and since we only have a short 12 days here we decided to focus our attention on Sydney and the surrounding areas.

Sydney is much the same as large cities in America. There are some cool things to see like the Sydney Opera House which was just as beautiful as the pictures we had seen. The transportation system was easily accessible from our B&B so we rode into downtown each day to check out the sites or stroll through one of the many parks.

What surprised us was the strength of the Australian accent, I mean we have all seen the crocodile hunter on TV. In person, Aussies have a stronger accent then you see on TV which makes it tough to understand sometimes if your not listening closely. We have traveled all over the world and you would think that being in an English speaking country it would be easy. Now I am not making poking fun of the accent, but you would just think that it would be easy to understand each other. Well let me tell you it is not easy. We have learned a whole new list of words (which I will poke at), my favorites being “How you going” and  “pecker machine.”

The manager of our hotel was telling us directions to the train and told us that we would pass a casino on the way and he told us to stay away from the “Pecker Machines.” Well they had just asked us if we had brought our “swims” to head to the beach so I just thought this is what they called the slots at a casino. I couldn't believe that they called them “pecker machines” so I asked again “what did you call them at the casino,” the manage said in a serious tone “Peeocker machines.” I almost started laughing but was able to hold off until we got outside to ask Susan if she thought he was calling them pecker machines too, but it was just my delusional thoughts. I mean they did call a swimsuit a swims....

My next favorite phrase is “How you going,” which is asked at every checkout from the grocery store to  buying a Starbucks. I am just so tempted to say “How am I going where or I am taking the train today thanks for asking,” though I am thinking that the Aussies won't get my humor.

All kidding aside, Australians have to be some of the friendliest people in all the world. They have coined the phrase “no worries,” and they pretty much live their life that way. You can be assured that you will be greeted with a smile everywhere you go and they will always give you friendly advice on what to do and see without you even asking.

Australia is known for being dry where most of the time the conversation revolves around when the drought is going to end, though during our visit it has decided to rain everyday which has made seeing the sights difficult. I mean how beautiful can a beach be when it's raining. We will definitely have to return again someday to appreciate the beachs of Australia.

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Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Written by: Brian    

Beijing,

Why has it taken me so long to write the story on Beijing? I mean we did see the Forbidden City, the Lama temple, the new Olympic stadium and of course the Great Wall. To be honest besides the Great Wall experience there is not much to tell about the capital city. We came, we conquered, we left.

The Forbidden City:

“We came” to see the palace that was off limits to the public for centuries. We had seen the palace numerous times in movies and pictures so to actually walk through the city that was home to the emperors for over 5 centuries was exciting. The city is amazingly huge and it takes around a half to a full day to explore the entire palace. Unfortunately, due to the Chinese wanting to spruce things up prior to the Olympics, the city was less then spectacular as there was scaffolding all over the place which really hindered our photo opportunities.  

I would love to tell you this was the highlight of Beijing but then I would not be telling you the truth. The architecture looked amazing and it was interesting to see but without a tour guide (which we decided not to hire) we missed out on the explanations of most things and we were bored within the first hour. We did spend a total of three hours exploring the numerous rooms and museums in the palace but it just was not the same with out knowing what we were seeing. You would think we would have learned after seeing some 100 different sites around the world that a guide or audio guide is key to understanding what you are seeing. Our bad...

“We conquered” the Great wall:

So we move on to the highlight of our trip, as a true wonder of the world, the Great Wall of China did not disappoint. We got up at 6:00 am to head out to one section of the Great Wall of China and the day could not have been nicer.  It was sunny and around 75 degrees. The great wall is 7,300 kilometers (4,500 Miles) long and runs through most of Northern China and contrary to popular belief it can NOT be seen from space. The wall was started by emperor Qin to hold of Northern invaders. The section of the wall that we where going to hike was Jinsanling to Simatai and would take us about three and half hours  tofinish.

We had pretty high expectations for our adventure. We have all seen photos of the wall snaking through the mountains going from peak to peak and into the distance farther then the eye could see and we were hoping for the same experience and it is exactly what we got. It was probably one of the best things we have done on our whole trip.

We hiked up and down the the valleys of the wall and at times we were all alone on our section of the wall. There were other people hiking as well but the wall was so long that you rarely bumped into the other people. The pictures we have are amazing and they say a picture is worth a thousand words..... so I will leave it at that and you can view the photos.

We left:

Just how America should and is defined today by its people and not by our government, Chinese people are going through some of the same dilemmas. We learned that the Chinese people are very excited about the Olympics and are doing their best to live up to the international community's level of expectations. Everything is being improved like sidewalks, public bathrooms, stadiums, English street signs, and people's manners. No more coughing up a luge on the streets of Beijing.

After all the protesting and news coverage that the Olympic torch received in the past few weeks I thought I would leave with this quote from a Turkish Carpet guy whom we met in a small town outside Goreme. Keep it mind when thinking about the Olympics and the people of China, who want to live just as we do in America.

The carpet guy had invited us in to his shop to have a cup of tea discuss the Iraq war. I was a little nervous and was thinking that the conversation could not end on a positive note until he said

        “We like American people, the world likes American people”....“In the world, it is not the people that are bad, it is politics that is bad.”

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Hong Kong

Written by: Susan

Date: April 10, 2008

Hong Kong is a city full of stimulation. Lights, people, shops, and traffic everywhere. It’s hard to be alone in Hong Kong and if you’re a person who needs “personal” space, it’s probably not the place for you. Unless of course you’ve got like millions of dollars and can afford your own penthouse suite. Most of us regular joes though end up staying in the cramped expensive quarters of Hong Kong. We were a bit apprehensive about our hostel since all we had heard were horror stories about how dingy, small, and skanky the hostels in Hong Kong are. It’s a big city where real estate is expensive and therefore every inch counts.  

After an expensive 40 minute taxi ride form the airport which is on an island far, far away from the city we arrived in the center of it all. Our cab couldn’t drop us off right in front of our hostel so we had to walk with our backpacks, day packs, and wheelie (yes, we ended up having to buy yet another wheelie suitcase in China) and pushed our way through the streets of Hong Kong looking for our hostel. Luckily we were close and were only damp with sweat by the time we found it.

After checking into our tiny, tiny but very clean room we decided to go walk around.

We had heard Hong Kong was the mecca for all things electronics including any cell phone your little heart could desire. Brian was especially excited since he’s an electronics junkie. I, on the other hand, prefer a phone with 2 functions, making calls and having an alarm clock. Everybody was right as cell phone stores were everywhere. Hong Kongers (I made this term up) are obsessed with their cell phones. It’s all about style, how many functions, and how cool you look with your cell phone. For us, it was almost too much. It was hard to even begin to look at cellphones as there were literally thousands of cell phones on display. After deciding that we couldn’t handle cell phones anymore we moved onto ipods and cameras. It was quite fun looking at everything and doing some wishful thinking.

What we really wanted to buy was an SLR camera. Canon 40D to be quite exact. It was beautiful. It sang to us, it said buy me, buy me! If only we could afford it. We continue to look at it and try to find ways to justify the cost but so far we have come up with nothing. I guess it will have to wait until our next around the world trip.

There’s tons to do in Hong Kong if you love to shop and eat. There’s also tons of hiking and parks. For some reason, we weren’t getting into any of it. Maybe we were getting lazy and didn’t really feel like figuring out how to get to places. Maybe because it was hot and humid. Not unbearable, but we had just come from a cold country so the heat felt sweltering at times to us. So instead all we’ve done in the past week is wander around the streets of Hong Kong, checking out the shops, cleaning up our resumes, and sleeping in. Maybe that’s what we needed though before the final leg of our trip.

Today, just to get ourselves out of our neighborhood and do something a little different, we decided to take a bus ride…..plus it was cheap entertainment. There are tons of doubledecker buses here in Hong Kong and some of them are really nice and fancy looking. We hadn’t seen much of the city since we’d been taking the subway most of the week and I thought it might be fun just to cruise around on the bus and see other neighborhoods. So that’s exactly what we did. We stood at the bus stop and waited for one of the nicer, newer buses to pull up and we hopped on and rode it to the end. It was pretty uneventful but just nice to see different areas of Hong Kong. Our final stop was anticlimactic as it stopped in front of a retirement home complex and small shopping center.  So we walked around for about 5 minutes and got back on the bus.

What we have enjoyed about Hong Kong is all the interesting street food. I love trying new types of food and Hong Kong definitely puts its best foot forward when it comes to street food. There are stalls that sell fried fish balls, tofu, squid, and anything else fried. Other stalls sell different varieties of snacks made out of waffle batter. Those are my favorite. That’s actually one of my favorite memories of Hong Kong when I was here in 2nd grade. There are other stalls that sell these fresh mango, coconut, fruit drinks with tapioca balls and jelly. They claim it’s healthy but I’m not so sure about that. What I do know is that they are really tasty.

We’ve also been lucky enough to find a really good dim sum place by our hostel. Dim Sum is a breakfast/ lunch time way of eating for many Cantonese people. It’s especially famous and good here in Hong Kong. Basically you sit down in a restaurant and these ladies push little carts around with little plates of food on them. It can be anything from steamed shrimp dumplings to bbq pork in a bun to chicken’s feet. Everything comes on little plates so that you have the opportunity to sample a variety of dishes. It’s one of my favorite ways of eating and Brian has begun to learn to appreciate and enjoy it as well.

Travel info on Hong Kong:

We stayed at the Dragon Inn Hostel: www.dragoninnhk.com. It was very conveniently located only a block off of the Mongkok metro stop.

Taking a cab from the airport to Mongkok costs us $300HK (about $36US).

We purchased an Octopus card for the Metro system for $150HK ($50 of that was a deposit for the card). It works for the metro system as well as the bus system which was a bonus for us.

There is a great street of cheap, local restaurants one block east of the Ladies Market in Mongkok.

Cookies are buy 3 get 3 free at Mrs. Fields under the Metro station at Mongkok after 10pm. Get there early as a line forms and people actually have order lists.

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Date: April 3, 2008

Written by: Susan

We had 10 days left before we were due to fly out of Beijing to Hong Kong. Although we knew we wanted to spend a week in Beijing, we thought 10 days might be a bit too long. There were a few options and we decided that we would take the 11 hour overnight train from Xi’an to Pingyao, a town described in our guidebook as a quaint, old Chinese town that would melt even the most hardened of expats. Sounded good to us. We were ready for a smaller town and a few days to just wander aimlessly.

After an 11 hour train ride on which we barely slept, we were thankfully greeted by our hostel. Hostels in China have been the nicest and cleanest that we’ve experienced so far on our trip. To be quite honest, they can barely be called hostels they tend to be so nice and clean. I digress….back to our hostel picking us up. It was freezing cold, possibly because it was 6am but I think more so because a cold front had passed through with some freezing rain. It was the coldest weather we had experienced so far in China.

After sitting in a nice warm front room waiting for our room to be cleaned, we had breakfast. Sometimes it’s hit or miss when it comes to places making western food. It said on the menu that they had pancakes, which are always a favorite of mine. Brian ordered apple pancakes and I ordered banana. The pancakes looked awesome when the came out except for the fact that there was no syrup (they gave us thin honey as a substitute) and that they tasted like fried garlic and onions. Clearly, they wipe down their pans here and cook not only pancakes, but Chinese food in them. Besides the fact that Brian’s did not taste like apple at all and mine only carried a hint of banana. Needless to say, I stuck with fried eggs the rest of our time at the hostel.

Pingyao is a town where there isn’t much to do except wander aimlessly around the streets looking at the old architecture and all the crap shops lining the main streets. It’s one of the most well-preserved ancient towns in China and therefore gets the Chinese tour groups visiting in hordes. After checking out most of the shops on our first afternoon, we still had two days to kill before our overnight train to Beijing.

There was a sign up in our hostel that had various services available including massages, acupuncture, foot massages, Chinese cupping, etc. Perfect we thought. We have nothing to do and we should take advantage of the low prices of massages because the prices will be steep from here on out. On the first night we each got a foot massage. First they soaked our feet in some sort of brown Chinese medicine that we felt did absolutely nothing and than began the massage. Brian said his massage was really nice and not too painful. Mine on the other hand almost left me screaming at points. We’ve noticed that in Asia, there have been many a times when the masseuse thinks hard means good and beats the living crap out of our feet.

The next day we decided to try cupping. We’d both never done it before and it sounded intriguing. Plus, it was only going to cost us about $10 and how could we say no? So the big selling point here is that the doctor (cupping is actually a medical treatment) comes to your room to administer the treatment. Essentially you lie on your stomach with your shirt off. He finds pressure points (similar to the ones in acupuncture) and puts a small glass jar near the area, lights a flame and quickly puts the glass jar on your skin. The jar suctions your skin and is supposed to help draw our impurities and ciriculate your blood. He repeats the process all over your back. Most of the time it just feels like something is pinching your skin. He continues to do this and moves the jars onto different points of your back. This process goes on for about half an hour. Afterwards, you pretty much looked like you just got into a major brawl with the vacuum cleaner and you didn’t win. It’s not pretty.

We can’t exactly say we felt renewed, rejuvenated or even relaxed after the experience. The only thing we really could do was compare our war wounds and decide who looked worse. On to the next treatment………

Day 2 brought us acupuncture and massages. We’d both never done acupuncture before and it somehow seemed appropriate considering we were in a small ancient Chinese village with nothing else to do. Again, it was the same doctor who had given us our cupping treatment but this time he came with his assistant. Acupuncture was a bit intimidating to us as they actually stick needles in you. We had heard though that it’s not supposed to hurt….and it didn’t exactly….except for when you tried to move your arm. We had 5 needles in us. 1 on the top of our head, 1 near our elbow, and the other near our wrist. The one on the head felt like nothing but the two on our arms were hitting pressure points that were really painful if we tried to move our hands. It was if our arms were these dead weights. To be honest, after about 5 minutes I wanted the whole experience to be over. I didn’t really like it and it kind of freaked me out. Instead I just laid there for 30 minutes with needles in my body.

The massage afterwards was anti-climatic and not very good considering the lady just rubbed our bodies with all of our clothes on. It felt more like we were getting chafed skin than a good rub down. Oh well….only another $14 down the tube but hey, at least we can check off acupuncture and cupping from our list.

After a not so refreshing several days of treatments, we were ready to head to Beijing and begin the last part of our journey here in China.

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March 31, 2008

Written by: Brian

Xi'an (pronounced Shi-an) is a city of over three million people located in the heart of China and located in the province of Shaanxi. The city is rich with the history of China, from the Qin (pronounced Keen) dynasty to the silk road.  So it was twenty two hours after we left from Shanghai and with a restless night of sleep, that we literally rolled into the city. All we really knew about Xi'an was that the Terra-cotta Warriors were unearthed there about 30 years ago and that is why we traveled all the way out here. What we learned from our trip was how important Xi'an was to the start of the Chinese empire and the country that is becoming one of the world powers of today.

The history of China is long and complex. I remember studying Chinese history in highschool and then again in college but I could never keep the dynasties straight. There was the Qin, the Han, the Three Kingdoms, the Ming and so many more that I couldn't keep track of. I was a little nervous when our tour guide starting talking about the Qin dynasty and its importance in Chinese history and started having flash backs to those confusing days of world history class. Although after listening to our guide and doing some further reading I came to appreciate and understand the history of China that had confused me in the past. As in anything there is a beginning and that is where the Qin dynasty and our story starts.

At 13 years old, Ying Zheng, the son of a King, assumed control of his father's province, the area of Xi'an today. When he assumed full power at 22 he had one goal in mind,  the unification of China. In 221 B.C. he accomplished his goal. This was the start of the first dynasty in China. Ying was so pleased with himself (like most people with too much power) that he gave himself a new name, Qin Shi Huang which translates to first emperor of China. At the time this title was reserved only for deities and the mythological sage-emperors.

Although Qin was a ruthless leader he made many modifications that allowed China to thrive. He standardized the unit of measurement, adopted a unified form of Chinese writing and installed a universal coinage system. While these are not the most exciting things to read about they are important to the overall growth of China. But I did not have you read up to this point to be half asleep to tell you about universal coinage system and standardized writing system, but to tell you the two most notable things in China today were started by Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the Terra-cotta Warriors and the Great Wall.

The Warriors:

The ancient Chinese believed sacrificial objects accompanied the emperor into his afterlife so the Emperor had over 7,000 life like pottery soldiers, horses, chariots, and even weapons built to protect him when he died. This was all unknown until 1974 when a farmer (who we met, imagine Harry Carry but Chinese with the same glasses) was digging a well and he dug up a human looking pottery head that lead to the what some say was the greatest archeological find of the 20th century. So with this knowledge, Susan and I got on the tour bus and headed an hour outside of town to the see first hand what the Chinese are calling “The 8th Wonder of the World”

Our little tour van stopped and our group of six got out and started walking through a modern looking subdivision of brick townhouses that we learned the Chinese built for the farmers whose land was now being used as an archaeological site. The displaced farmers were given work with various functions regarding the unearthing and preservation of the warriors. The town was was about a five minute walk from the entrance and our tour guide brought us through the back streets to avoid the touts that were lining the streets to the entrance.

We entered the gates and had about another five minute walk until we came to a set of buildings.  There were three buildings for the warriors, one movie theater and a museum. The buildings (called pits) that housed the warriors were the size of of football stadiums though only half as tall. After a fifteen minute movie in the theater that was lulling us to sleep we headed to the 3rd pit as we wanted to save the best for last, which was pit number 1.

Pit 3 is the smallest of the three (51 feet wide and 61 feet long) and is guessed to be the command center as it houses higher ranking warriors and warriors guarding the entrance. There was also a set of horses and drivers and about 68 warriors that were set up about 15 feet below us. It was a pretty good first view of the warriors. I got a little camera happy and snapped a good fifty or so photos. We spent 15 minutes gaping in awe and then we rushed out so go see pit 2.

Pit 2 is the probably the best of the exhibits as behind a small piece of glass we got to get up close and see the detail that was put into each and every warrior. Every figure differs from those around in facial features and expressions, clothing, hairstyle and gesture. The horsemen, the longbow bearers, the archers, the senior officers and generals were positioned in accordance with the ancient directives on the art of war. The pit itself is 282 feet wide by 252 feet long and is still under excavation but we could see the 500 figures that had been uncovered so far in battle ready positions. Our favorite was the horsemen and his horse that was on display. The detail was amazingly real and we could not believe that this was done over 2000 years ago. Time was winding down and we still had pit one to view so we hustled over to the largest of the buildings.

Pit 1 is 690 feet long(about 2 and half football fields) and 186 feet wide and there are over 6,000 Terra-cotta warriors in battle formation. We were immediately in awe of the size and grandeur of what we were seeing. We walked around the structure and stood in front of the all the warriors and snapped a few dozen photos.

We would have liked to spend a little more time gazing at the life size figures but our two hours was up and alas it was time to board our mini-bus and head back to Xi'an.

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Written by: Susan

Date: March 27, 2008

So there’s lots of little things that happen to us that don’t ever make it into any of our blogs but are nonetheless interesting and fascinating (well at least we think so). So this blog is dedicated to all the things we’ve either encountered, habits we’ve acquired, or simply things that we have found amusing.

Order Please!

Coming from the chaos of Southeast Asia where anything goes, arriving in China was a bit of an adjustment. We’d been in countries where you crossed the street whenever you got the chance. It usually meant weaving in and out of traffic and sprinting at the last moment. Here in China, not only are things orderly with traffic lights and signals but there’s also the upbiquitous traffic signal cop. The cop’s sole job is to make sure that things follow an orderly process which includes blowing the whistle at any rogue person who might have dared step off the curb. Of course the only reason we know this is because we’ve stepped off the curb one too many times. Each time to be whistled at and with the flick of their white-gloved hand, sent back up onto the curb. Trying to defy order, Brian has on more than one occasion dangled his toes off of the curb to see what would happen. Luckily, most times he’s just met with a glare. I guess his blues eyes aren’t helping him in this department.

I, on the other hand, am secretly a little bit thankful for the traffic cops. This is usually one of the things Brian and I bicker about whenever we enter a new country. Brian loves to just cross the street, dodging in and out of traffic. I prefer to stand and wait for the light. In most countries though, we’ve gotten used to the no light situation and I too was weaving in and out of traffic. So when we arrived in China, Brian continued to dodge traffic. Not only was he getting whistled at by the traffic cops, but also getting yelled at by me because he would cross without warning me that he was crossing. I, not paying attention because I was checking out the surroundings, would get caught either on the curb or between cars. The problem is that the cars in China aren’t small and I’m pretty sure they don’t care whether or not they hit you. I mean, are you really going to play chicken with a car or even more likely a bus? So that’s typically argument #1 that Brian and I have when arriving in a new city.

Rub, Flip, Scratch

This is the first time on our trip that we’ve encountered counterfeit money, or at least counterfeit money where we knew about it and shops wouldn’t accept it. The thing that upsets us the most about this is the fact that we get the money from a legitimate ATM machine and the counterfeit bills happen to be 100 yuan (equivalent to $14US). So it’s a bit annoying when you get bad bills because none of the banks will take responsibility for it. Now, when we get money out of an ATM (typically 3000 Yuan at a time), we stand at the ATM machine and being as incognito as we can scratch the collar of Mao (on the real bills his collar is rough), flip the bill because the 100 imprinted on the bill changes from a green to blue color, and rub the paper as the paper is a bit coarser and thicker than the slick counterfeit bills. We’ve gotten pretty good at it but I’m sure the security officer is wondering what the hell we’re doing. What would we do now if we found a counterfeit bill after our own inspection? Well I think we would just go into the bank and raise holy hell about it. I’m sure nothing would still be done, but boy would it feel good!

This ain’t Panda Express……..

Nor is it my mom’s home cooking. The food has kind of been an unexpected problem here in China. Although my mom had warned me that the food in the north wasn’t that good, I figured we could make do somehow. In our first town, we made the mistake of going to a local restaurant. We usually try to eat at local restaurants as they tend to be cheaper and more authentic. Authentic this place was as the chickens, turtles, ducks, and seafood were all roaming around in little cages and tubs right outside the restaurant. Our Kung Pao chicken came with more bones than meat, our beef made me feel like Fred Flintstone gnawing on a Tyrannosaurus Rex bone, and the little bits of black flecks floating around in our soup made me recall the notes in our guidebook about this area of China eating dog. Not a pleasurable meal and it wasn’t going to get better.

There are a lot of considerations that have to be made whenever we start thinking of our next meal. What do we feel like eating? Where can we go eat? How much is it going to cost? Is it going to be a long dinner? Will it be good? Will it be hard to order? And the list goes on and on. Cost being one of the biggest considerations puts a lot of constraints on the type of restaurants we can get in.

Admittedly here in China, we have visited McDonald’s one too many times as a value meal falls into our budget range and quite frankly, it’s because we know what we’re getting. A micowaved cheeseburger never tasted so good. The only downside is that at 300 calories a pop on the cheeseburgers and 350 cals for a small fry, the only consequence for this type of behavior was getting fat. Sigh. Fat or starving? Neither sounds that appealing.

Luckily, in the town of Xi’an, dumplings are all the rage here and there are dumplings restaurants everywhere. Although not dirt cheap, it’s easy to order and for the most part really tasty. We’ve heard Beijing is not much better, but we did meet some friendly Australians who said the food in Southern China is sublime. We can’t wait.

Tea time is all the time

Tea is originally from China which therefore means that everybody drinks tea here in China. There are teahouses, tea stores, tea cups, and tea tumblers to fit every whim. The trains here have hot water spouts so that you can make yourself some fresh tea on the train (along with those buckets of top ramen noodles they consume here by the millions). Even the hotel rooms all have hot water boilers and their own tea cups. So when in China, do as the Chinese do. It wasn’t that hard as Brian and I are huge tea lovers. One of our favorite places is this Chinese tea place at the Pike Place Market in Seattle where you sit down and the lady just starts making all different types of tea for you depending on your mood. It’s really just a soothing and relaxing ceremony to participate in.

So when we arrived in our first town, we bought tea mugs. They are a bit of a pain to carry as they’re ceramic but totally worth it. Drinking tea out of anything that isn’t ceramic makes the tea take on unappetizing flavors. So throughout our trip we’ve been stopping at little teahouses, sampling all the different varieties of tea (green, oolong, floral, and black – which we have yet to try) and purchasing boxes of tea. We love making tea in the morning as we’re getting ready for the day and in the evening as we settle in to watch one of our bootlegged movies.

We’ve now entered the second phase of our Chinese immersion program by purchasing clear, plastic tumblers that all the Chinese carry around. In the bottom is a sprinkling of tea leaves and at the top is a little screen. You fill the tumbler with hot water in the morning, let the tea steep and take it with you so you can sip tea for the rest of the day . The best thing is that when you run out of hot water, any number of restaurants or even local shops will always willingly fill your cup with up the hot water already prepared, as if they knew you were coming. It’s one of the many charms of China.  

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March 21, 2008

Written by: Brian

My parents always told me to not to talk to strangers and to never go down a dark alley with someone you don't even know. Curiosity got the best of us though and after being asked no fewer then 50 times in the past three days if we wanted to buy a watch, purse or DVD, we decided to take a walk with a tout to see their wares.  Our friend Bruce, a Boston born Canadian, was with us and wanted to buy some DVD's for his son so we tagged along looking for an adventure. The funny thing is in Shanghai you can't see copy products on the street. China exports them to Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and even Hong Kong but the local people can't get in on the action, well at least legally.

We head down the dark alley to what looks like a small clothing shop and walk inside. The shop is small and immediately a secret door is opened and we are ushered to the “backroom.”  In the back room there were two small rooms that were filled with DVD's, Rolexs and Louis Vuitton bags. After checking the box of DVD's and negotiating our price (1 USD for a DVD) we left the store and on the way out we saw a knock off North Face jacket that ended up not fitting me.  We were told to come down to another store where there was a better selection.

We were intrigued to see where this would lead and headed down the dark street.  Thinking back, in a horror movie we would have been killed already. You know when they hear the noise in the back room and say lets go see what that was...  We were with three Chinese guys that were not bigger then Bruce and I and they spoke pretty good English so we felt safe enough and I was able to ask them about the underground scene and how it works.  They explained that if they were caught they would be thrown in jail and fined.  I explained how China exports all the same stuff to Thailand and Vietnam and it is sold “legally” in stores of those countries. They were shocked that people were able to make a living and not have the government interfere with their business even though they were selling copy goods.

We entered the next store which was a large children's clothing store and went to the back room. We looked but could not find the secret door in the room, the doors are really secret like in a Sherlock Holmes mystery where you have to pull out the right book and the door pops open. A lady came and beckoned for us to follow her and she pulls a lever next to the children's coats and the door slides open and we climb up the stairs to a entire second floor show room full of knock off copies.  There were shoes, wallets, watches, sunglasses, coats, suits, tee-shirts, purses, bags, suit cases, and of course DVD's.

We decided to look at the jackets as it was around 45 degrees in Shanghai and it was only going to get colder as we traveled up north to Beijing. We are not into buying knock off's (we have been known to buy a few DVD's here and there to watch as we are traveling and Susan has bought a couple pairs of sunglasses) but we thought we might need a coat for a couple weeks until we got to a warmer climate and we didn't feel like shelling out $100 USD for a coat we only needed for 3 weeks.  After trying on a few of the North Face jackets I found one that fit pretty well and would keep me warm. Susan was not as lucky as the only one they had for her made her look like a yellow M&M.  

The Negotiation Process:

Next was the negotiation process which is always fun for me.  They started with a price of about 65.00 USD, I laughed and told them in Chinese “to high.”  They thought my Chinese was funny (speaking a little Chinese always makes the price go a down a bit) and said to me you tell us how much you want to spend.  I told them I could not do that as they started to high. They insisted that I give them my price and we would work it out. Now after traversing the world, I feel I have gotten pretty good at the negotiating process and they had no idea who they were dealing with here. I looked at the lady and said, “promise me that you will not be mad at me if I give you my price.”  She promised that she would not be mad and I dropped a rock bottom price of $10 USD.  She looked a little angry and said NO. I told her you promised not to get mad. She laughed and said there was no way they could make that deal. I said I understood and that it was “ok” the coat was just to much for me buy. She said ok ok how about $40.00, I said sorry still to high and then started to walk away, she stopped me and said ok ok how about $30.00.   Susan and I discussed that we would pay $20.00 for a coat that was worth $100.00 (if it was real) because we did need to keep warm.  I went up to $15, she came down to $25 and since 23 is my lucky number I offered $23 USD and she reluctantly shook her head yes, she had made a sale but not at the profit she had hoped for.

The lady told us if we came back tomorrow she would have a black North Face for Susan for the same price and with that she smiled and bid us farewell and we headed back the hotel and I was a lot warmer on the walk home.

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