Gemma and Nick-O babysit Madissen

Gemma takes me to Magnetic Island which is a choppy 30 minute boat ride away. The weather is tropical and overcast. We spend the afternoon on Magnetic Island on various beaches, and we walk right up to the rock wallabies to get an up close look. They're like little kangaroos. One even has her baby in her pouch.
She says Magnetic Island was named Magnetic Island because when Captain Cook sailed by, his compass was broken so he thought that the island was magnetic. She also informs me that the Australians call men's Speedos Budgee smugglers. Hint: a Budgee is a bird. I laugh pretty hard. We head back to Townsville by ferry. I'm still pretty sick.
The following day Gemma's boyfriend quits his job because his boss is a complete jerk. This frees him up to come with us on our mini road trip. We leave Townsville and head up the north eastern coast to a town called Mission Beach. That night we find a hostel and go out for drinks. The following morning we head to Port Douglass and find a hostel to camp behind. We decide to do a bushwalk in the forest along the water. It's absolutely beautiful peaking through the trees to see the ocean. Later Gemma Nick and I go in the ocean which is quite warm once he throws me in. We play in the waves. Gemma and I go check out the town. It's a very nice beach town.
We finish up in Port Douglass and they take me down to Cairns (pronounced cans) where we find me a hostel to stay in. We say our goodbyes, and then I'm on my own again. At this point I realize I won't see a familiar face until late August. I guess this should be an unsettling feeling, but now I know that I can create familiar faces and pretty much forget that I haven't seen anyone I know for months. And that's how most of us get by when we travel alone.
By the time I get to Carnes I realize I've been eating like a backpacker, and it's time to stop or nobody will recognise me when I get home. I go for a run and see a free zumba class being conducted by the water. I join 200 women and we Zumba as the sun sets over the ocean. That night I meet Jo from England. She invites me to the hippie party downstairs. I join in the drinking games and end up in the freezing cold pool in my clothes with the rest of them. Next week I'm off to Bali Indonesia.

Up the Coast

I leave the Islands and head back to Airley beach. The boys gave me their phone number just in case I wanted to hang out until my bus ride at 8:55pm. I've spent too much time with them, so I decide not to call. I spend the day coming down with a cold and blogging. I've been feeling a tightness in my chest for the last two mornings and I'm sure I could have fought it, but that boat ride probably did me in. It was worth it.
I take the bus up the coast to Townsville and Gemma appears on the curb right on time. I'm so happy to see her, and completely congested with a full blown cold. She takes me to the house in which she's staying. I meet a bunch of her friends who have stayed awake to meet me. They're so wonderful for inviting me into their home. I pass out next to Gemma's boyfriend's friend. I have an entire air mattress to myself, and he's on a mat. He talks my ear off until I just can't stay awake any longer. He's really fun, and pretty funny. He informs me that Drop Bears and Hoop Snakes are an Australian myth to keep tourists away. For those who don't know, a Drop Bear is a bear in the trees that drops down on you in a sneak attack and kills you. And Hoop Snakes grab onto their tales and roll down the hill to destroy tourists. They each exist in Australian stories for the soul purpose of scaring tourists away from touring Australia.
The next day Gemma takes me into Townsville, but I'm too sick to be there, so we keep it low key and head home for the night.
UGH! It's no fun being sick abroad.

Whitsunday Island Fever

I leave Sydney in the late afternoon to head for Mackay (pronounced Muh-kai). I land in their tiny airport at about 8:30pm. I have to catch the Greyhound from here to Airley beach in order to take a boat out to the islands the following morning. They close the airport and imply that I should the three hours outside for my bus. After waiting outside for about thirty minutes, this kid that works for the airport comes out to ask if I'm okay. I tell him I'm just fine and waiting for my bus. He decides to invite me back in to the airport to call Greyhound to see if they're stopping at the airport. Come to find out, they're not. Oops. He's so nice that he agrees to take me since he's headed that way. We hop into his "ute" (pronounced yoot), which is pretty much an El Camino, and he drives me fifteen minutes into his middle-of-nowhere town. He tells me his girlfriend is spending three months in Switzerland and that he misses her quite a bit. We discuss life in Mackay and have casual conversation. When he drops me off in town he asks if I would like to swap numbers just in case I get stranded. I'm so grateful that he's looking out for me. I wait at the stop for an hour-and-a-half and finally the bus comes. I pass out and wake up two hours later in Mackay where I will stay for the night. I arrive at two in the morning when everyone is absolutely wasted. There's even a guy in his mid-tewnties who has peed in his pants. I definitely missed the party.
The next morning I'm off to the Whitsunday Islands by ferry. When I arrive I'm so excited to party it up on this island. Nobody is there. It's like a ghost backpackers resort. Oh no. I spend the evening alone and the next evening too. The day is spent by the pool, but I can only spend so much time by the pool.
I see a girl a little older than me dive into the pool. I've seen this girl alone at the resort a couple of times so I decide to go chat her up. I've never had to pick up another girl before. How do I do this? I walk up to her as she is lounging in the sun, and ask her if she's travelling alone. I then ask her if I may join her in a sunbathing session.
Her name is Jenniffer. She is an artist from Holland, and relaxing alone for the week. To be perfectly honest she really has no choice of wheather or not she's alone since this island is completely empty. She says the first night she was here she was the only guset, so she hung out with the staff.
That night we drink wine outside as the sun sets and chat for a long time. She invites me to stay with her when I come to Amsterdam in October. We walk back to our different rooms, and agree that we'll see each other in the fall.
The next day she is gone, as she had told me she would be. It's my last day on the island, and I'm alone again relaxing by the pool when these three Australian guys call me over to come have a beer with them. They've been fishing out on their boat all morning, and stopped in for a beer. We sit and chat for an hour, and then they decide they want to stay on the island for the night but they don't have any money with them. They say they have to go back to the mainland to get Mark's wallet. Next thing I know I'm racing over the ocean in a tiny motor boat hanging on for dear life. This guy is driving the boat like a maniac, and we're having the best time. We're crashing over waves and sometimes leaving the water's surface completely. They keep yelling "ARE YOU ALIVE!?" not questioning if they've killed me, but rather making sure that I feel more alive than ever before. We scream and cheer our whole way there and back, singing pirate songs "We're going this way that way foreword and backward upon the Irish sea!" as the guy steering the motor screams like a mad man. We go back to the island for the night and drink to a really good time. I wave goodbye to them the next morning at the end of the pier wrapped in a billowing white sheet for warmth as the palm trees bow in praise to the orange glow of the new day. What a life...

Sydney

The new girl in the bed above me is named Anita. She plans to go surfing at Manly beach and I plan to tag along and check out Manly as she takes her lesson. We take the ferry and she goes surfing at 10:00 in the morning. I check out the town and then pass out on the beach for an hour or so. We decide to take the scenic walk past homes that must cost millions. We head back at the end of the day to dinner with the Koran and the Italian. The previous night we had all planned to make a dish from our home countries. Anita and I are way too tired so we tell the boys we'll do ours tomorrow if they feed us tonight. We sit around and eat spicy Korean food, and pasta. Quite the combo. We meet two Irish girls sitting next to us, and Korea decides to bust out the number one do-not-say-it swear word in front of them because he's a bit confused when we ask what number one is. Hint: the answer was supposed to be pee. I later tell him that I'm proud of him anyway. I've grown really fond of him. He has taught me that language barriers aren't always a bad thing, and that if you have a big enough personality, language is completely secondary. We all love him for it in fact, and have even discussed it among ourselves.

The following night Anita and I cook for the boys downstairs in the hostel kitchen as promised. I make burgers and she makes a Brazilian dessert since she is originally from Brazil. Her dessert goes horribly wrong, so we just scoop it out of the bowl in which it has exploded and love it for the huge goopy mess that it is. We all sit around laughing and consuming my surprisingly amazing burgers. Needless to say, I got a ton of help with the preparation of them since I have no culinary knowledge whatsoever. We have a great time, and then head next door for drinks at the scary canary. Tonight is limbo night.
I join in the limbo game along with the rest of my roommates and the line slowly dwindles, but I stay in. The tiny girl in line goes, and she falls. I think I can win this. In the end it's me and Federico left. We feel like we've already won the $20 of free drinks since we're in the same party, but we compete for it anyway. Federico goes, and he falls so it's all on me as the entire bar watches. I remove my shoes and prepare to limbo. I slowly make my way under the bar, and I make it. I'VE WON!! The entire bar goes crazy and Federico lifts me up above the crowd as they all cheer. I claim my $20 of free drinks, and then it's drinks all around. We dance the rest of the night away until we can't dance anymore. I'm soaked in sweat. Both mine and other peopoles. It's an awesome night. It's also my last in Sydney.

Birthday Party/Swearing Party

My roommate Meg, from Berkeley, is turning 23 today and I wanted to make it a special one for her. She says nobody ever remembers her birthday so I figure we can't go wrong. I put a bunch of mini cupcakes on a platter and get little candles for her to blow out. When she comes back from seeing Wicked we have a mini celebration in the dorm. Then we go downstairs to the Scary Canary for Thai buckets. It's a sand castle bucket with alcohol Red Bull and juice mixed together. The six of us share them and then head out for some dinner. The only place that's open is the Korean place a few blocks away. The Korean guy is more than excited. The group consists of me, our resident Korean, Meg, an Indonesian girl, Federico (from Rome), and Tim (from Holland) who I love since he reminds me of my Luxembourgish friend Olivier--I LOVE YOU OLIVIER! The Asians have a lot of fun watching all of the westerners attempt to use chopsticks. We are taught a few words in Korean and a few customs as well. We head back home in the freezing cold at about one o'clock in the morning and all go to bed.
Theat day almost everyone in the room leaves from the original crew. It's me, the Korean, and the Roman left. We get a new batch of people and all become instant frineds. That night we give Korea a swearing lesson in english. We teach him words I will not mention here, and rate them on a scale of one to five. One being the absolute worst, and five being words like darn or fudge instead of the f word. We roar with laughter rolling on the floor as he takes notes and then repeats the words back to us but he is so intent on learning them that he just finds it educational rather than funny. Though he does laugh the majority of the time. Especially when he teaches us how to swear in Korean. One thing I love about him is that he is so focused on learning the English language that I can see him constantly translating in his head even if he is not part of the conversation, and even sometimes while trying to go to sleep.
We get a question from the Roman, Federico, about something he's heard and wants to know if it's true. He asks "Is it true that you guys say 'number one' if you have to pee, and 'number two' if you have to poo?" We confirm this as a yes, and tell him that anybody in the english speaking world would know this if you say it. He thinks it's absolutely insane.
After much laughter, plenty of education, and mouths that should be washed out with soap, the Italian promptly ends the lesson by exclaiming that he has to go number one.

Bye Alex!

I awake the next day just before noon. Yes...noon. I've heard a lot about the aquarium, so I figure I should go. I'm not much a fan of sea life, but I hear the aquarium is wonderful. I walk the ten minutes down to Darling Harbor and enter the aquarium where an over zealous Ozzie insists on taking my picture in front of the fake water backdrop. It is, afterall, his job. I wind my way through the many different fish and finally make it to the shark and manatee tank. I spend a good half hour here just mezmorized by the huge turtles, sharks, stingrays, and manatees in this tank.
In the evening I realize I don't have any food so I hit the grocery store, and as I'm eating in the hostel kitchen Alex walks in. He has to leave in about an hour-and-a-half. We discuss him giong back to Afghanistan and that feeling when you know your vacation is drawing to a close. I think most of us can relate to the feeling of having to leave a wonderful vacation, but not the feeling of leaving your vacation to go back to a war. I can already see his demeanor start to change as he prepares himself to go back to his life of constant paranoia.
We decide to take a walk to Darling Harbor to watch the World Cup on the jumbotrons that have been erected over the water. We walk hand in hand on the way back to the hostel to get his backpack before he heads for the airport. I walk him to the train station, and we say goodbye. Something I'm all too familiar with, but it's something you prepare yourself for every time you meet anybody new.

Just so you know...

I realize I haven't put photos up. I've had requests, but have to explain that I can't do it on other computers. I'll have to work up the nerve to ask someone if I can use their computer to upload, and then delete them out of their photos. I would love to share them as soon as I can. I know it takes me forever to update my postings, there's just so much going on as you can tell. And I even skip blogging some stuff!!

This weekend I went to the Whitsunday Islands off the eastern coast of Australia. Tonight I head further up the coast to visit my step sister. I'll blog all about that too.

I don't know if I've metntioned, but I'm having the absolute time of my life. It's so fun hopping from place to place. I find the travel to be half the fun, which is good because it's half the time!!


~BYE~

My Sydney Stud

The first night of being in Sydney, Meg and I decide it's time to party. The hostel has a bar called the Scary Canary. If you are staying at the hostel you can get all kinds of discounts. We head for the elevator and as we are descending to ground level the guy in the elevator starts to ask us a question.

"And where in The States are you girls from?"
Cue sleazy saxophone music.
"California" I jump in.
The guys I lived with in Sacramento always play this game called Your Team/My Team. Tony tells me the rules are simple: If she's my type she's on my team, his type his team.
The guy in the elevator is dark hair, dark skin, not too tall and looks like Colin Farrell.
MY TEAM.

We spend the evening at the bar dressed in garbage bags (it's a bin bag party) getting to know each other. He's a college graduate from South Carolina, but currently a lieutenant at war in Afghanistan. He's on leave for two weeks and decided to come to Australia with his brother who went home just two days ago. At the end of the night he shows me photos on his computer of back home and we talk about our friends and family. There's so much to this guy that I love to hear about. He has so much to say, and a lot of interests. He's also a very good listener. We agree to meet up the next day.
As I'm climbing out of my bunk the next morning I hear a knock on the door. It's Alex (that's his name) and he's ready to go. I get dressed and we take off to the fish market where I order calamari!!! We walk around Sydney in the sun and Alex insists we see a show at the Opera House that night. He buys our tickets and then it's an all out scramble for me to find the right shoes to go out in. I bought a really cute outfit in Melbourne last week, but I can't wear my walking shoes!! We part ways and agree to meet up at 6:45pm. After my frenzy shopping spree I get dressed and made up. We meet in the lobby and head down to the harbor. The Opera House is having an event right now where they are projecting different images like leopard print, scribbles, leaves and inspirational quotes onto it. It's beautiful sitting in the harbor all lit up like this. We're so excited because we actually get to go in to the theatre instead of just standing outside of it and taking photos.
The show we're seeing is called Glow. It's done in black light and the characters wear neon costumes. It's funny, creative, and seems to transend all cultural, age and language barriers. The plot is basic and the show is done in Italian and English.
After the show he gives me a piggy back ride around the harbor since my frenzy shopping spree lead to me purchase heels a half size too small. We watch an old man and a young woman in their hotel room drunken dancing as we voice over what they're saying. We have dinner in a cafe, and then head to the bar for a few drinks.
Though I awake the next morning with a nasty hangover, we decide to go check out the zoo since it is his last day. The zoo is across the harbor so we have to take a ferry. Never chase a hangover with a ferry ride. When we get to the zoo nobody charges us admission since it's almost closed. We take a gondola to the top of the mountain and begin to make our way down through the zoo. It's completely empty and all of the shops are closed. Our favorite are the chimps. We walk up to the glass and three of them come and join us. They seem just as interested in us as we are them. We go visit the huge sea lion undulating through the water in absolute silence. It's so serene getting to watch him through the glass swim figure eights and torpedo himself throught the water. We pass the giraffe standing tall as the sun sets, and visit the little penguins darting through their habitat playing around with eachother. Mama and baby elephant stand huddled together in the harbor breeze.
Our boat ride back to the other side is just as peaceful and serene as we approach the city lights once again. Such a beautiful view.
We decide to make dinner so we go to the grocery store. Alex is completely in his element. He plans the meal and has the best time cooking it in the hostel kitchen. He never gets to do this in Afghanistan. We're starved and sit down to an amazing pasta/chicken dish. Tomorrow we'll say goodbye.

Down Unda!

I take a Quantas flight from Shanghai to Sydney, then Sydney to Melbourne. I meet a guy on the plane and he and I get the entire row of seats to ourselves. We bond over our joy. I land in Melbourne and head to the hostel. On June 3rd, my birthday, I take a tour of The Great Ocean Road. It's a tour up the coast where they show us beautiful rock formations in the ocean and then take us for a "bushwalk" in the rainforest. This is where I see my first exotic birds, koalas, and kangaroos. The day is 14 hours and on the way home my new friend Emily has the entire bus sing Happy Birthday to me.
The following day Bec comes to pick me up. Her step brother and my step sister have been dating for years, and she stayed with us in London while she was on her world tour. So she has invited me to stay with her and her family for the weekend. She has great style and is such a character. She takes me around and shows me the famous beach boxes. Her family takes me out to dinner for my birthday which is so nice of them since they've only just met me. We eat snot blocks which are YUMMY custard in pastery, basically. The next few days we spend just hanging out, shopping, seeing Sex and the City, and we meet up with a few of her friends here and there. They are all so friendly to me. Having my own room and being in a house is such a luxury that I hardly want to gou out into the cold to do anything.
I book an overnight Greyhound to Sydney for Monday night. Her mom drops me off at the station and the twelve hour ride begins. The bus driver is awful. He chews, flicks lights off and on to keep himself awake, laugh to himself, breaks unexpectedly, and yells when he talks. It's a sleepless night. Finally we make it to Sydney. I find my hostel and pass out. When I awake, I can't wait to go see the harbor. I take a walk down to go see the Opera House. I sit down for a lunch and as I'm just about to be done the seagaulls swoop in on my last few bites. I freak out and stand up as the little old Vietnamese waitress shoes them away and grabs my tray promptly ending my meal. I meet Meg, a UC Berkeley student, and Joe who has been living in the Australian outbakck for 75 days with an outdoor school. He shows us picture of the huge spiders that he would wake up under. And yes, I mean under. These things are huge and he says more often than not he would wake up with one on his chest. We all get to know one another and share stories of our adventures. I can tell I'm going to like Sydney.

Chinese people and travelling in China

China is a heavily populated country. Getting on and off the subways is a nightmare. Unlike Japan, people push and shove. They love to take photos with white people. I've even had middle-age women sneak photos of me. Some just ask. Chinese people don't tend to speak very much English, but love to say HELLO when I pass them in the streets. Especially the children. Bikes and mopeds are everywhere. I often see the mother, father, and single child riding on a moped on the weekend. One time I saw two guys on a bike and one guy holding was holding a kitten in a wicker bird cage about four inches off the pavement while they sped through the intersection.
There is no shame in blowing huge snot rockets, or coughing without covering one's mouth. In fact this is commonplace. The children that are diaper age often don't wear diapers, but rather pants with a built-in split through the seam of the croch so their parents can hold them while they go potty in the streets.
There is no facebook unless you re-route throught another country, and blogs seem few and far between. One time James was talking about traveling outside of China, and said something about freedom in reference to the amout of things available to him when he leaves his country. I had to think for a second before I realilzed that freedom is a foreign concept to him. It's strange to hear somebody talk about freedom as if it does not belong to them.
All in all the Chinese seem to be a pretty happy bunch of people. They can be boisterous, and have strange cultural differences, but it's really quite interesting and unique. No, I do not see myself living there in the near future.

Shanghai Shenanigans

Over the next few days, Ellie and I roam Shanghai and become really good friends. We go to the propaganda museum to explore China's anti-US sentiment. The museum is tucked under what looks like an apartment building. It shows the different posters used by the Chinese government to advertise how to be a model citizen. After that we head to a bar in the posh section of town. We have a couple of drinks and then realize that we're in a bar that western men come to in order to pick up Asian women.
Our few days in Shanghai are very low key. On Sunday we wander over to the park where traditionally people place ads up for their single kids. There are hundreds of hand-written posters pinned up along wires that run along the bushes. Parents gather in groups discussing their children, and showing pictures to one another to see if their children are a match. I wish I could understand what they're saying! Ellie and I go get an ice cream and sit on the grass trying to name the country that each western passerby is from.
My last day in Shanghai Ellie and I decide to invite my new roommate Shane out for the day. Shand is from Canada and visiting China for the month. We end up at this huge shrine in the middle of the city. It is very beautiful, and we all bond over missing western food. At the end of the day I hurry back to the hostel because I have a flight to Australia in the evening. Ellie and I have a teary goodbye, and agree to try to meet up in Thailand. We didn't know it would be so difficult to say goodbye, but hopefully we'll see each other again.

Shang-HI!

I'm in Shanghai to see the World Expo. My dad told me I should go, so I booked a flight into Shanghai so I can check it out. Word on the street in Beijing is that it's not very exciting, but I have to see it for myself. Right when I land I'm bombarded with images of the World Expo mascot, and ads for the event. When I first heard about it I thought it would be a big stadium where every country gets their own stand. It turns out each country that participates creates its own pavilions. I arrive in Shanghai and have to go find my hostel. Once I settle in, I realize we have a street market right outside of our hostel. I walk down the middle of the street to see huge fish cut in half that are still squirming, frogs, turtles, caged chickens on the back of mopeds, and ducks that look like they've been through the ringer. Hmmm....what to eat? There's one guy whose job it is to keep the fish in their water bins since they are still swimming and leaping out onto the street. This is crazy.
In the common area that night I meet a Chinese guy named James. We go eat at the street market, and agree to go to the Expo the next day. Right off the bat I don't know if I can handle him for an entire day. He's sixteen and I'm sure babysitting wasn't on my list of things to do around the world. The next morning we meet up back in the common area where I meet a girl with flaming red hair. Her name is Lydia. She goes on to tell me that she has been teaching Yoga for a month here in China, and her fellow yoga instructor assaulted her in the middle of the night in the hotel. Namaste.
I help her out because I already know the ropes around the hostel. I ask James to do some translating for her so she can get her reservation sorted. She leaves to go home to Vegas tomorrow. I invite her to the Expo with us, not only because I would like her to go, but because I would like her to join my babysitters club.
The Expo is amazing. Each country has its own pavilion. The architecture is amazing, and inside each of them is themed to the countries culture, history, and current position in the world as well as the future of thier technology or their ideals. Most of them have a line that is over an hour. And the good ones we will have to wait for three hours. After the USA pavilion we've had enough of James so we decide to ditch him. He has friends headed to the Expo anyway.
Lydia decides we have to go to the Japan pavilion, and I am reluctant since it's a three hour wait. When we get in we realize why it is three hours. It's a huge dome that we wind our way through. On the screens they are projecting images of their beautiful wild life while the lighting changes in unison with the pictures. We are then lead into a standing room theatre where they show us their technology. Cameras, cars, and a robot walks out on stage and plays a violin to show us the dexterity in his fingers.
The last one is a huge theatre where they give us a traditional show that begins with two people in futuristic robot wheelchairs. It then turns into a story about a little boy and a swan. The show is beautiful.
At the end we are absolutely exhausted from the World Expo. We head off to dinner, and then go back to the hostel. As we arrive at the hostel Ellie (from the Great Wall tour) is standing in the hostel checking in. I get her situated while Lydia gets her reservations taken care of. Lydia, Ellie, and I all hang out in my room that night and talk for hours. The next morning I awake to find a not next to my pillow that Lydia has left. She tells me that I really helped her out when she wasn't in such a good position after the guy assaulted her. Her note says "you have a friend for life." To me that's what travel is all about.
The day of the expo has been the only day that I've been homesick . Just knowing that Lydia is going back to the United States makes me long for home, but once she is gone, so is that feeling of wanting to go with her.

China Daze

The next day I plan to go to the Silk and Pearl market. I take my time getting ready at the hostel, and the chinese family that owns the hostel invites me to eat lunch with them at the table. This was a particularly unique experience to be able to dine as the only westerner with a table of locals. We eat rice porridge and a few different strange food items. They ask me about my plans for my world tour and discuss China a bit.
After lunch I head off to the market. It is four layers of a market where all of the ladies shout at me to come buy something at their stand. "Lady which jacket do you want?" "Lady, come choose a scarf!" I spend the afternoon haggling over various pieces of jewelry for my charm necklace. I've decided to buy a charm from each country, and hang it on my necklace as a small token of my travels throughout the world.
Tonight Ellie (from the Great Wall) and I have decided to meet up and go to the famous outdoor food market. We meet up at 7:30 and head off to the market. The market is well known for its delectable cuisine of skewered tarantulas, geckos, snakes, slik worms, beetles, testicles, ovaries, crickets, sharks, starfish, seahorses, and scorpions both alive and dead. We go for the fruit skewers. At the end of the night we say our goodbyes, and agree to meet up in Shanghai later on in the week.
The next day I as I prepare to head off to Shanghai, the family that owns the hostel gives me a little gift and a huge farewell after walking me to the door. They hug me and wave goodbye. What a wonderful little place tucked away in residential Beijing.

The (not so) Great Wall of China

I take the hostel owner's recommendation of the Great Wall tour. Her favorite is one of the many on the long list of tours. I'm in no mood to read about each of them so I pick one and pay. The next morning I am up at the crack of dawn and being fed another McMeal. They promised us breakfast! We take the drive up to The Wall which takes about three hours on a huge bus. I meet a girl named Ellie and a guy named Darron. They met in their Beijing hostel, and decided to take this tour together. We all hike up to the wall and begin the 10k treck along the winding dragon.
Now, most of us may imagine the Great Wall to be an easy path to stroll along and enjoy the views from. NO. It's steep with stairs that sometimes look like they lead all the way to heaven, and most often look like they lead directly to hell depending on which way you look at them. Parts of the path are crumblilng because they are from the old wall. I try to forget my recent Sacramento hikiing adventure which eventually lead to the diagnosis and treatment of a broken hand.
I have plenty of people to talk to though, and it is fun chatting with people from around the world. The Israeli boys are my favorite. No shirts, great accents, always friendly, and tan. By the end of this trek we are so exhausted and faced with the option to continue to walk or take the zip line over the water for seven dollars. ZIP LINE.
On the other side we are picked up by a boat and taken to across the water to where a six person van picks up all ten of us. Disgusting and sweaty we pile on top of each other. We are fed meal that tastes like cardboard, but never has anything tasted so wonderful.
Sunburned and exhausted, but with a new experience and a new friend I head back to Beijing city, and pass out in my hostel at 8:30.

China Doll

I touch down in Beijing mid-afternoon. It takes a little while to find my hostel because it is burried among all of these gray cement cubbies that the locals call home. This is nothing like Japan. The air quality is horrible, and the city is so much dirtier than Tokyo. People are riding bikes and pulling wagon platforms that are stacked with various items. The hostel is clean enough, and has been created from an old shrine. There are six beds in my room.
Day one I head out to see the sites. I approach the gate to what looks like an enclosed park. As I'm standing there trying to figure out what it is, a young English guy approaches me to ask if I know anything about it. I don't, so we decide to blow the place off and go to the forbidden city together. We talk about our travels, and where we're from. Have lengthy discussion about various subjects, and two hours into our friendship realize that we don't know each others' name. We have a formal introduction and then laugh about how common it is to travel with somebody and not have a clue what their name is. In the normal world names come first. In the travel world, where you've been and where you're going are often the first things you learn about a person.
So Mike and I head off to the Silk and Pearl market only to be stopped in the middle of the street by two Chinese students. The guy speaks english very well and the girl speaks hardly any english. They invite themselves to join us on our little tour around Beijing. At first I'm skeptical. I've heard of students approaching toursits and trying to get them to go see different exhibitions against the government. This would be fine in the America, but here the people aren't free to speak out against their government. In fact they don't even allow facebook.
We walk around a bit as the students show us some little sites here and there along the road we met on. They want to go have tea or a beer with us, so we choose tea. We are ushered into a traditional tea house where they seat us in a room only a bit bigger than the table at which we all sit. A chinese girl with short hair and a traditional silk chinese top gives us an entire tea ceremony. Ten different teas all from different flowers, roots and fruits are passed in front of our noses before she make us the next mixture to be poured into our tiny tea cups. We are taught that the women hold the cups a certain way, and the men another.
We have a wonderful time drinking and tasting tea, and learning a bit of Mandarin Chinese to the aroma of jasmine, rose, orange and lavender. When we finish up, the bill comes...and it's a whopping THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!! Mike and I are pissed. We can't believe the price of these tiny samples of tea plus a pot of tea of our choice at the end. We settle on paying what we can, and the chinese guy ends up paying most of it. By the end of this horribly awkward situation, we're just glad to leave the students. We couldn't help but wonder if it was some kind of tea house scandal. Were the students in on this? Who knows, but we say our awkeard goodbyes and head to the Beijing Olympic Stadium.
Outside of the stadium is where I get my first taste of Chinese tourists wanting their photo taken with a westerner. Multiple people come up and ask to have their photo taken with Mike and me. They say "You're so beautiful" over and over. I could get used to this, but something about it makes me feel like they are taught that only western is beautiful and therefore have a skewed perception of beauty. One boy even gives me a lollypop after I take a photo with him. Some lady hands me her child for a photo. I feel like the Pope.
Mike and I finish up with our new found fame, and head off for dinner. He just wants some duck before he heads off to England again, so I'm more than willing to go on the search with him. After searching long after the restaurants have closed, we end the day under the golden arches of McDonald's.
At 1:00am after searching for my hostel for an hour, Mike and I say goodbye and agree to meet up in London when I'm next in town.

Tokyo A-Go-Go

After my amazing journey through Japan it's time to head back to Tokyo and finish up. The last couple of days are spent in different districts of Japan. I had planned to go to a sumo match, but it turns out sumo is extremely popular and I won't be able to get tickets. Who knew aggressive naked men hugging in diapers was so highly sought after? I head down to the electronic district for some serious gaming in the arcades. This is the Japan that most American nerds dream about, and save every precious dollar for. To come game in Akihabra (the electronic district).
I later head on to Asakusa, another Tokyo district, and check out their old traditional Japanese architecture. This area is so cute, and has a long market to shop for various silk fans and perfume bottles.
The last day, Jen and I walk all around Tokyo and she shows me the places I haven't seen yet. That night we decide to do antoher traditional Japanese bath. This one is huge and has a little less of a traditional feel than the one I went to in Miyajima. We sit in these huge buckets of water and have conversation about her trips to Vietnam as a child. We laugh and talk, and try out all of the different baths they offer.
The next day it's off to Beijing China for a completely different experience.