ZaiJian!!!!!!

Once again its been a while since we blogged.. After a relaxing week spent in Thailand and a few nights enjoying the air conditioning in our Bangkok hotel, we headed back to Shenzhen. We spent the last two days doing some serious shopping.. China is no Paris, but they do have some amazing stuff here, if you have the patience to bargain for a good price and time to weed out the good fakes from the bad. Thank God for Leon because we would pick out what we wanted and then leave the store why he vehemently argued for a good price. Yelling would be concluded with smiles from both parties; we paid 30% of their original price and they would smile knowing that we just bought something for about 10 times its actual worth. But we have to give Leon credit.. all the Chinese people would tell us that he was great at bargaining. The guy would not back down.. there were def points we thought fists might be thrown. Pretty much everything in China is fake... but paying $10 versus $500 is very rewarding. Audge and I were in heaven with all the shops! We also came to the conclusion that we are significantly cooler after shopping and a few drinks.....

Our great day of shopping was also followed by the BEST MEAL EVER... i mean gluttony is a pretty good description for what took place at the table. People do eat some crazy stuff over here, but the Chinese food (esp Sichuan food) is incredible. If you are ever in China and have the chance to order green beans and eggplant, we highly recommend it!! We left China on a high note and were, honestly, sad to go.

Highlights of the trip: The Great Wall at Si Ma Tai, and Beijing in general because of all the history... our train ride from Beijing to Shanghai..the shopping in Shenzhen...the Full Moon Party...Singha (Thai beer), and Sichuan food.

Lowlight of the trip: Unbearable temperatures in Thailand, esp Bangkok.

Carnivale, Mardi Gras, Full Moon Party

Sorry for the recent absence we've taken from blogging, but our relaxation on the beaches in Koh Samui, Thailand have drained all of our humorous personalities. Much of our time here has been spent zip lining through the jungle (minus Ashley ;), jet skiing, riding our scooters around town, laying out, and trying to avoid the sauna-like environment that exists at all hours of the day. You can forget showering because as soon as you step outside the sweating begins.

The Thai food has been some of our favorite, but Ashley wouldn't recommend eating extremely spicey curry in 100 degree weather. Trust me, her taste buds revolted and her sweat glands lacked any control for a solid hour afterwards.

The Full Moon Party was the first night that we got to Thailand and we had to take a boat to Koh Phangan to get there, which takes about 15 mins. Of course we sit next to a group of French folks who didn't realize they were sitting next to some mildly obnoxious Americans. After a few "you want French kiss?" we were chanting USA and even giving GW a shout out (despite your political views, this was semi-entertaining due to the rise we received from our new French friends). Don't let me forget that in order to even get on the boat in the first place we raced on the dock while jammed like sardines = no bueno.



Now to the craziness (don't worry Mama Falk and Schellhas, we were well behaved)...upon stepping off the boat we had entered Vanderbilt's Sigma Chi paint party on crack times about 100. There were people all over the streets with neon body paint and buckets filled with your liquor drink of choice. The beach was overflowing with people and music. There must have been 10,000 people...not to mention the scattered bodies sleeping on the sand (you can only imagine how they "passed" out there), crowds of Europeans chanting drinking songs, and the unfortunate few who were not wearing shoes. We did our fair share of dancing (naturally) and made it home alive, safe, and covered in paint...



Since then, we've been bumming around the island and relaxing. Surprisingly, it's rather tiring being lazy in the hot sun all day. The only thing that might be more interesting than the people passed out on the beach were the "lady boys" (who were not as attractive as Leon led us to believe :) and amount of white guys here looking for a "wifey" (no additional comments).

We're off to Bangkok and we're praying that the shopping gets better, and by better we mean decent. So long for now...

Spa: Asian style

So we came back to Shenzhen prior to leaving for Thailand and we were all in a slightly irritated mood at this point and slightly annoyed with each other, naturally (other than Ashley and I since we live on our own planet). After talking about it for a week, Leon suggested we spend the night at the spa in Shenzhen, which he rated a "13" on a scale of 1 to 10. Ashley and I are pretty stoked thinking that it must dwarf the Four Seasons US spas. What I didn't realize is that a "13" in China equals matching pin striped smocks and serial numbers to identify us from the mass quantities of Asians we were surrounded by throughout the entire night. What we thought was going to be really relaxing turned into a highly stressful situation out of concern that the foam underwear we were issued along with our prison outfits labeled 2251 and 2235 would result in a "full body Herpes outbreak or a mild case of foot and mouth disease" according to Ashley.

What won us over was the delicious strawberry ice cream and mini mangos that were served at the juice bar for free. In all seriousness, after getting over the initial shock of Asian spas, the trip to the spa turned out to be great. After 3 hours of massages (Thai and Chinese) by darling Chinese women, pedicures and manicures, and private sleeping rooms, we could have gotten real used to that. Everyone was so nice and the best part was that it all cost 113 US dollars in total. If I ever came back to China, it would definitely be worth taking anyone there.

As a side note, Shenzhen has the best Chinese food we have tasted so far and Shanghai had the worst, despite what our trusty travel guide book told us. The best part is that all of our meals have been under 15 US dollars for a party of 3.

All in all, everything has been amazing so far. I'm sure we are leaving out some other good stories that we'll write about later, but our minds are already in Thailand on the beach. We'll write soon...

Shanghai: Western anomaly

We took an overnight train from Beijing to Shanghai, which was surprisingly really nice. Ashley and I slept in a soft sleeper car with two Chinese men who didn't speak any English. We spent the whole night in the dining car eating fried rice (what I eat for almost every meal, literally), drinking a few Tsing Tao's, and playing card games.

Shanghai was definitely the most Westernized city in China...in fact, the book Ashley has calls it the "whore" of China. We didn't do much site seeing here, but we did try to do some shopping until we realized (which we should have since we stepped off the plane here) that the Chinese have some of the worst fashion I have ever seen. I even tried to buy a pair of new running shoes since we've been working out or doing something active almost everyday, but the biggest size they have is a 7 so not condusive for us taller girls.

We went to some really cool bars, including a bar that had a view of the entire city. Our hotel was nice, but looked like a scene out of the Shining with a weird colonial feeling to it. Leon just chimed in and noted that Albert Einstein stayed in our hotel and was built in 1846 (thanks Leon). When we first got in only one room was ready, so we made ourselves comfortable, but as soon as the other room was available and we realized how much nicer that room was...Ashley and I gladly stole that room from them. Leon and Isaac deserve an award for how well they have handled Ashley and I together (I would explain more on that, but if you have ever witnessed us together, you know exactly what I'm talking about right now :).

Respecting the monuments: kid poops outside of the Forbidden City

We haven't been able to write because China has some crazy Internet restrictions over here so we have a lot to catch up on...but, we thought we'd start with the things that stick out in our mind over the last week. We flew to Beijing, which is huge, and extremely polluted. The coolest thing we did was take a trip to the Great Wall. After a 5 hour bus ride we got to hike the Great Wall to Si Ma Tai, which took us about 3 hours. We all kept thinking that Americans would never let people hike this due to the lack of guard rails and any sort of death protection devices. The best part was watching Ashley scale down the steep steps while holding onto anything for dear life, including the Mongolian "tour guides" who followed us the whole time and kept asking if we wanted beer. I mean I know we look like we like to have a good time, but drinking while scaling the Great Wall = a disaster. The hike was actually pretty hard, but it was a once in a lifetime experience and the views were truly amazing. Unfortunately the zip lining place was closed that day, which Leon and I were disappointed with while Ashley was secretly doing a cartwheel inside due to her intense fear of heights.



The next day we walked around Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden city. As we were walking into the Forbidden city we casually were admiring the sights and taking the Chinese culture in when I happened to look to my right. What did I find? To my surpise we witnessed an adolescent child squatting in the middle of a large area on top of some newsletter. I won't gross anyone out with the details, but you can catch my drift. I guess I had this impression that Chinese people were very well mannered, respectful of their environment, and pretty private natured. I was proven wrong after this experience, not to mention that everyone spits at any time and any where.



We tried to go see the Olympic venues, but the security was pretty tight. Apparently there have been a lot of people who have died building these new facilities as they are a pretty amazing site.

In Hong Kong...

Well, it's 4am here and Ashley and I are already up after falling asleep at 7pm last night. I guess you can say that our bodies still haven't adjusted to the time change.

The plane ride was a little miserable, not going to lie. Ironically, Rachael Holbrook (Emily Verkamp's sister in law) was on my flight to Seoul. Such a small world sometimes. She was in first class and I on the other hand was in a middle seat next to a little Korean girl who wiggled around for 15 hours and picker her nose the whole time. Korean airlines might be the nicest airline that I've been on, the service was great and they definitely got a kick trying to watch me eat their Korean cuisine and figure out what exactly it was.

So I arrived in Hong Kong and somehow felt surprisingly well enough to hit the town a little bit. This city is huge and I've never seen more skyscrapers. We walked around yesterday, ate at an amazing Mongolian bbg spot, and took a cable car up to Victoria's Peak (the highest point in Hong Kong). Today we're going to Lama island for a hike to see the giant Bhudda and then going to the jade markets in the afternoon. The best part is that everything is sooo cheap!



While Hong Kong is great and kind of reminds me of an NYC over here, and I think we're definitely excited to head to Shenzhen (supposively has the best markets for bargaining) tomorrow, where Leon lives. The pollution is pretty bad and you definitely have to leave your manners behind when it comes to getting on the trains. There's no "excuse me Ma'am" or "ladies first"...it's too each his own. So far it seems like the people are in their own world when walking around, it's bizarre, and I can't quite explain it. Thank God Leon is with us because he knows his way around so well...

Alright, we're about to get our day started so I'll write more later...

Before we go...

Ashley and I are about to leave for a 3 week adventure through China and Thailand, starting on May 10th with a 19 hour plane ride to Hong Kong. We are meeting our great friend Leon and his roommate Isaac, who are currently teaching English in Shenzhen, a ferry ride from Hong Kong.

We'll be traveling together to Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Bangkok, Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, and Koh Tao.

In China, we plan to visit Tiananmen Square, Olympic venues, the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall. In Thailand we are staying at an amazing beachside bungalow on Koh Samui(http://www.secretgarden.co.th/accommodation/details.php?type=beachside&ref), attending the infamous Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan (http://fullmoonparty-thailand.com/), and diving off Koh Tao at the Japanese Garden site.

We will try to keep everyone posted as often as possible. All of our hotels should have internet access so we should be able to email often and Skype if anyone uses this (my screen name is Audge33183). Hope you all enjoy our crazy ride over the next 3 weeks. Much love to you all!