I got no time that I got to get to where I don't need to be...

Just a quick one... made it to the Philippines. It's pretty amazing here, and I will have good stories and pictures to share soon. The weather is very warm with some occasional wind and rain, but no typhoon action here. Spent the day yesterday napping and swimming and today on a "tricycle" (motorcycle with side car) exploring the area. So fun to see some familiar faces here, and I think I could definitely get used to the tropical temperatures.

More soon!!

Going where the weather suits my clothes...

In less than 12 hours I should be in the Philippines ("Lord willing and the creek don't rise"... I was going to say as my dad always says, but I think that expression is more accurately attributed to my great-grandpa?). Looking forward to getting out of this busy city. I'm really glad I came to Hong Kong, it's definitely something to see, but ready for something moving at a slower pace, I think. Also looking forward to warmer weather. Hong Kong has been lovely in the low 70's and I think it might be safe to say that I won't see temperatures much below that for the rest of my trip. Mark the time... I'm sure it's only a matter of weeks before I'm complaining that I'm too hot! :)

I'm not sure what my access to email or the blog will be while I'm the Philippines. I would imagine it will be infrequent. As of now, I have an onward ticket booked to Bangkok, Thailand for 10 December, so I could be out of the loop for awhile. I will keep you all posted as I can. I've updated the flickr site with pictures from Hong Kong, and I'm not sure how many of you even pay attention to this, but I also changed all the music on this site. I added some of the stuff I've been listening to lately. The Sara Bareilles song is my new favorite, and if you're not listening to Brett Dennen or the Weepies yet, I wish you would start. :)

I realize I haven't told you much about Hong Kong. Hmmm... it's fairly expensive here (as far as accommodation goes anyway), and there are more opportunities for shopping than anyplace I've been so far. There is the full gamut of shopping experience available here, from top-end designers to back-alley markets full of throwaway clothing. I have resisted all of that as I'm trying not to add anything to my already too heavy backpack. This is also quite the international city; such a difference from being in China where you really only see Chinese people, and perhaps the odd Western tourist. Hong Kong is full of people of all nationalities, you hear many different languages being spoken, although it does seem that absolutely everyone speaks English. You can find any kind of food here too... I had Mexican for lunch yesterday, and it was actually pretty good. I've been staying in a room that's probably 12x12 and has 3 sets of bunk beds in it. There's one tiny window, and one of those tiny bathrooms where the shower head just comes out of the wall opposite the toilet, no shower curtain, and everything in the bathroom just gets soaked every time someone takes a shower. My roommates for the past 3 days were a doctor from the Philippines who was here completing a training course in cosmetic surgery, a South African couple stopping over on their way to Australia, and a girl from Colombia who is completing a master's degree in logistics and working at a kindergarten. She's been living in the dorm room for the last 3 months because she can't find anyplace to rent; definitely made 3 days seem more than manageable. I still haven't told you much about the city, I suppose, but check out the pictures. Hope this finds you all doing well. Thanks so much for all the Happy Thanksgiving emails, and as always, for your very sweet comments.

More soon...

You'll know it's true that you are blessed and lucky...

Made it safely to Hong Kong. This city is going to be beautifully easy to navigate... feels like a bit of a break. I'll be here until Sunday when I plan to leave for the Philippines provided I can finally procure a ticket and there isn't any weather trouble there.

It's Thanksgiving Day today. So much to be thankful for this year, and I'm feeling especially grateful that I've been given this amazing opportunity to go see the world. It's been almost 2 1/2 months since I've left Seattle. Can you believe it? Looking back over the 2 weeks that I just spent in China, I've come up with some memorable moments to share with you... a "Top 10 List" if you will, although I'm presenting these in no particular order... please to enjoy:

- Standing at the "top" of the Great Wall of China after climbing 1,364 very tall steps to get there.
- Eating noodle soup for 65 cents a bowl at a card table in the street after just having watched the noodles be made fresh by hand.
- Sipping mandarin vodka & tonics in the Cloud 9 lounge on the 87th floor of the Jin Mao tower that each cost just more than I was paying for a night's accomodation while scoping out the spectacular Shanghai skyline (ooh... alliteration).
- Being well and truly ripped off at a hot-pot restaurant in Xi'an (for more than 3 times what the table next to us paid)and starting to be angry about it until realizing the entire bill still came to just around $20.
- Stepping off the Beijing Metro into Tian'anmen Square.
- Walking around the West Lake in Hangzhou and seeing the most beautiful and picturesque scenes that felt like they were straight out of a movie.
- The "soundtrack of China": brakes squealing, horns honking, people spitting (seriously!), and the ever-present "watch, bag, lady, you want watch? bag? cheaper, cheaper for you!"
- Giving into that constant call and haggling for some very cheap merchandise. I couldn't shop like that all the time, but I did score some good deals in Beijing and Shanghai.
-Oh, the signs, everywhere the signs. Some of my favorites "Look out the glasses" printed on the shower door at our hotel in Beijing, a sign directing you to buy tickets for "Pagoda Mounting", and the sign on the toilets in the trains "Unable to use at stabilization".
-Meeting people, particularly on the trains and in train stations. The 3 ladies on the train from Beijing to Xi'an that just pointed and giggled and reminded me equally of my aunts and that episode of Seinfield where Elaine takes Mr. Costanza to the nail salon with her so she can figure out what everyone is saying about her. The young guy from Hangzhou on his way to a Linkin Park concert in Shanghai. The sisters who shared their candy with me on the train from Xi'an to Hangzhou. The little old lady who yelled at the carriage attendant when she locked the bathrooms before a stop and convinced her to reopen them so we could sneak in. The Deaf man who shared my compartment from Shanghai to Hong Kong; he was in awe that I had lifted my backpack up above the beds to the storage shelf. Probably 3 or 4 times during our journey he reached out and tapped my shoulder, before grabbing my bicep, then making the "muscles" gesture and giving me a big grin and thumbs up. He was also very approving of the jasmine tea I had with me, correctly guessed that I was from the U.S. and explained where he lived, that one of his kids was in school in HK and that he works as a driver. I'm sure we were a sight with our wild gesturing. :)

You can check out anytime you want, but you can never leave...

Be careful what you wish for... I said I wanted to see what it would be like to be in a place where no one really spoke English, and guess what? It's pretty hard. I'm in Hangzhou, China, which is really only a bit off "the beaten path" but much more difficult to navigate than Xi'an. I spent nearly the whole day trying to book onward tickets from here. My plan as of this minute is to take the train to Shanghai tomorrow and then hopefully get a train to Hong Kong on Monday. Hong Kong wasn't a scheduled stop on this journey, but I decided to add it in as well as a side trip to Cebu, Philippines. I've found so far that some of the places that I hadn't planned on visiting have been some of my favorites, and I hope this trend continues.

I am not able to log onto the blog itself from China (not sure why that is?) but I think the last post I put up has disappeared. The gist of it was that I was leaving Xi'an and still traveling with Dave, one of the British guys from the train trip. We will go our separate ways from Shanghai, but it has definitely been nice to have someone to help gesture and point these past few days. :) I have also put a sampling of photos up on flickr from Mongolia and China. There are lots more that I'll put up later and the quality of the ones I uploaded isn't great, but should give you some idea of what I'm seeing and doing.

I am having a great time and so looking forward to what's next. More soon...

To keep out the foreigners they made it strong...

Busy ticking things off my "I never, never list"... as of today, I have to cross off "I never, never made a phone call while standing atop the Great Wall of China". Dad, it was great to talk to you, however briefly. :)

I also visited the Ming Tombs today and spent yesterday at the Temple of Heaven, Tian'anmen Square, and exploring the Forbidden City. I sampled a little Peking (Beijing) Duck and visited the night market where I watched people braver than I am eat things we don't generally consider food. I took a rickshaw tour through the Hutong, but passed on seeing Mao's masoleum... I'm working on the "seen one dead communist leader, seen 'em all" principle here.

Beijing is huge. There is so much to see, and I know I've only scratched the surface, so I suppose I'll have to come back. This was the last stop on the tour, so the gang of 12 is slowly disbanding. I have been pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this experience (meaning the group tour), although I'd have to say I prefer the less organized/structured travel experience.

I'm off to Xi'an on an overnight train tomorrow, and then, who knows?? Probably a couple more stops in China before Vietnam.

Baby, it's cold outside...

It looks like a double post today. I somehow couldn't put all the fun tourist stuff in with the previous. I do find I'm having a bit of trouble with this blog format. I keep a journal for myself, but I don't often want to post all of that... and trust me, you don't want to read it either, it's not that interesting. :) But I do feel like there's a lot more I could be telling you; I just don't ever feel like I have the time to sit and write it all out properly. I suppose I need to just stop worrying about making it perfect and just jot down notes as I can.

My Lonely Planet guidebook refers to Ulaanbaatar as "an ugly scar on an otherwise beautiful country"... having just returned this morning from the national park, I'd have to agree. This city is crowded and polluted, but the countryside is just beautiful. We spent the day yesterday visiting a traditional ger camp, riding horses in the freezing cold, and exploring some of the landscape. There was a moment yesterday, leading my horse through the woods, that I thought to myself, "I am riding a horse, in the snow, in Mongolia." It was a bit surreal. I got to fill up on traditional Mongolian food (lots 'o meat and fried dough) and slept in a ger tent (this is just a big round structure made of felt... pictures to come). We had all been so afraid that we would be too cold, but as it turns out these gers are amazingly well-insulated, and we were not aware that there would be someone coming in during the night to rebuild the fire in the wood stove. One of my favorite memories of Mongolia will have to be sitting up last night at 2am giggling with Tracey, Sara, and Amy because the temperature in the ger was at near sauna level. We had all gone to sleep around 11:30 or so, and were up a few hours later finding it impossible to sleep because it was so hot. We had the door to the tent wide open (in the -20 C weather), but were all sweating. It was a beautiful, clear night last night, and I don't remember the last time I saw so many stars; they made the middle of the night trek to the scary outhouse almost bearable. :)

It's my last full day in Mongolia today, so here are some facts about the country for you (count this as your "you learn something new every day" moment for today). It's one of the least densly populated countries in the world with only 2.8 million people spread out over 1.56 million square miles, and over 1 million of those people living in Ulaanbaatar (contrast this with China, where there are 1.3 billion people in an area of 9.3 million square miles). Other than UB there are only 2 other "major" cities, I think. I was surprised to learn that there are nearly 1 million Mongolians that still lead a nomadic lifestyle, moving, with their livestock, from season to season, and living in traditional ger (yurt) camps. Only about 1/2 of Mongolians have access to clean drinking water and about 1/3 of them live below the poverty line. But... they have a suprisingly high literacy rate (over 95%).

So, it's off to Beijing tomorrow. I'm not quite sure what to expect from China. I can't say I'm really looking forward to the 30 hour train journey to get there, but I have to believe it will go by in a flash compared to the last. I have really enjoyed the group of people I'm traveling with. They seem to be tolerating me, and I have grown accustomed to all the teasing (one of them just refers to me as "America" and I continue to have my "accent" made fun of, although Tracey assures me I speak good English, for an American).

Having trouble uploading pictures here, but will get to all of those in China. More soon!

Oh for the price of a coke or a smoke, keep alive those hungry eyes...

Walking through Ulaanbaatar on Monday, the temperature was around -10 degrees celcius. I'm still a bit shaky on the conversion, but I think that's around 11 degrees farenheight. As I walked up the "Avenue of Peace", the main drag here in UB, I passed a little boy sitting on the ground, sort of leaning against a fence across the street from the main square. He looked to be about 10 years old and he was holding a younger child in his lap; I assume it was his brother. He was singing loud and clear and rocking back and forth while his brother sat silently, staring blankly. An upturned hat sat in front of the two, holding a few small bills. I stared, I know I stared, as much as I just wanted to look away, as I passed these two small children, looking at their wind-chapped faces, not wanting to think about how long they'd been sitting in this place or where they would go at the end of the day. I've had a hard time shaking this image. I just can't stop thinking about how bitterly cold it is here, and every time I see another child with their hand out, or singing, or trying to stuff a packet of birdseed in my pocket at the monastery so that I'll hand over a few Mongolian togrogs, I feel a bit sick. I know there is no perfect choice for me here. Giving the money won't really change anything, but not giving the money feels heartless. I feel like this is some kind of traveler's cliche... I know this is something I will continue to face to some degree or another for the rest of this trip... and who doesn't have a reaction to this kind of thing? But it just makes me so sad. I think about the rest of the children all over the world who are sitting on the street, who either don't have a home to return to or have been sent out to beg by parents facing a desperation I surely can't imagine. So what do we do? How can we fix it? I know there are organizations out there that are doing the kind of work that accomplishes things, that solves problems that my handing over a dollar in change never could. Maybe they'll find this boy and his brother and wash them and warm them and give them another choice. But all I can think about as I lie on top of my warm, clean bed in my tourist hotel (however modest) is how unfair life is, and how I wish I could have taken those boys by their hands and led them to somewhere better.

Going off the rails...

Hello from Ulaanbaatar. Don't have much time to post, but thought I'd just give you a brief overview of some fun facts about the trans-Siberian journey.

Hours spent on the train from Moscow to UB: 101
Number of people in my cabin: 4
Days without a shower: 5
Packets of instant noodles consumed: 6
Number of baboushkas selling hot meals on the train platforms: 0 (this was definitely misrepresented in the literature we all received about the train!)
Bottles of vodka drunk (drank?): 2 (ok, not on my own)
Price of a 5 liter (that's right) bottle of beer at a kiosk along the way: 140 RR (<$6)
Number of Americans on the train: 1 (yep... just me)
Hours spent at the border between Russia and Mongolia (with the bathrooms locked): 6.5
"Choco-cakes" consumed by the four passengers in my compartment: More than 20
Number of fellow travelers that were assaulted on the train platform during a middle of the night stop: 1 (young Australian, punched in the face by a very drunk Mongolian fellow who was later apprehended on the train by the police and forced to pay his victim 1000 roubles or about $40 for those of you who, like me, are having difficulty with the exchange rate).
Hands of gin rummy played: ???
Books read: 2.5 (Finally finished Midnight's Children and read Stephen King's On Writing, which I highly recommend.)

Glad to be back on solid ground, if only for a couple of days. We were all ready to get off the train this morning, but everyone was in surprisingly good spirits given the very close quarters, long hours, and lack of access to showers. :) The computer here in Ulaanbaatar won't recognize my camera, so I can't post pictures now, but hope to do so soon. Thank you all for the comments and emails...

Much love.