New Mexico

What I was expecting: some adobe buildings, 0% humidity and dry skin, plenty of Mexican and Native American influences, vast desert expanses. What I've discovered: lots of adobe buildings (more than I was expecting!), incredible food, friendly and hard-working people, some pretty widespread poverty and inadequate education, spectacular landscapes from green flood planes to craggy canyons to massive mountains. This is New Mexico, and it is one hell of an interesting state. I've been brought down here for work, living two months here in the high desert between Los Alamos and Santa Fe. I'm definitely looking forward to getting home to Boulder, but I have had some good highlights and experiences here, which I'll share with you now.

Starting in Albuquerque, the largest city in the state, though at just over 500,000 people, it is not large by American city standards. The 845,000 people in the greater metropolitan area comprise around half of the state's population, so needless to say, there are some great big empty spaces here. Albuquerque is old too; it was founded in 1706 by the Spanish as an outpost. The two pictures above were taken in Old Town, which is exactly that..the oldest remaining part of town. This is where we started our Albuquerque exploring, in the Old Town square. There was a band playing and the buildings around made you feel like you had stumbled into the 1800's or something.

Some more old buildings in Old Town. The Basket Shop sells just about everything, from handmade blankets and ponchos to touristy shot glasses and t-shirts. Of course there are local Native American's who have set up shop selling silver and turquoise jewelry and handmade pottery as well. They do some amazing work, especially with the pottery. After Old Town we made our way out to a local restaurant, which is famous for "The Travis". The Travis is an enormous burrito, I'm talking huge here. There were 6 of us that went in there to eat, we ordered the Travis on a Silver Platter...the full Travis, and we couldn't even finish it! This burrito is about two feet in length and maybe 5-6 inches in diameter, stuffed with ground beef and red chile, covered with cheese and more chile, and then topped off with maybe two or three frier-baskets worth of fries. It was enormous, and delicious, and the price wasn't too bad either. We only ended up paying about 5 bux each for a meal that held us over for lunch and dinner.

Hatch chile peppers. This is the key ingredient to the state's incredible cuisine. These peppers are special. The best chiles come from Hatch, NM. It apparently has the perfect climate and soil conditions for them, and you definitely notice the difference. The joke goes that the state question is: "What color?" translating to out-of-staters as: What color chile do you want on your food. The options are green and red, and there are people who swear up and down by one over the other. I've found the green to be spicier, while the red is a bit more robust. All I know is I can't get enough of these things...they are incredible and so flavorful.

So the way it works is when you see one of these rotating roasters (and you see them all over in pretty random places...outside of stores, on corners, side of the street in what seems like the middle of nowhere...all over) you pull the car over and order up at whatever kind of makeshift counter they have running. When we stopped here in Albuquerque, the smallest order we could make was a garbage bag full of medium greens. Now, I can't even begin to describe the smell that engulfs you standing near these roasters...it's amazing. You can smell the fiery goodness of those peppers as they sizzle and roast in their own juices. When your order is done roasting, you walk off with upwards of 10 pounds of hot, roasted chiles. And what do you do with this many chiles you might ask? Well, use your imagination. We tried some just on their own...which is incredible, but a bit like Russian Roulette in that every once in a while you hit a landmine of a pepper, one that would definitely not qualify as medium in pretty much anyone's book. You can top burgers with them, eat them with chips and salsa, toss them in a variety of recipes. Use your imagination...the flavor is incredible and I haven't failed to be happy with whatever I've added them to so far. Just plane old stewed chiles is the way to go too...this spicy, saucy blend is incredible. I will definitely miss these things back in Colorado.

Albuquerque's strikingly communist-style flag flying outside the balloon museum. Ok flag first, when Maciej and I first saw the flag flying, our first reaction was "why the hell do they have a USSR flag flying in Albuquerque?!? Then we realize that was no hammer and sickle in the top left corner, it was a yellow sparrow, that just happens to really resemble a hammer and sickle. This is apparently the city flag.... I think they are trying to say something. Anyway, the balloon museum. Albuquerque hosts one of the largest hot air balloon festivals in the world every October. Balloonists from the city have also made history throughout the past century by being some of the first to circumnavigate the globe by balloon. The museum is actually really, really well done. I had no idea the history of hot air balloons was so interesting! Did you know they used to have scantily clad women parachute from hot air balloons without harnesses?!?! The parachute "rig" was just connected to a large hoop that the women would hang on to for the descent! This is just one of the countless interesting balloon facts throughout the museum. I'd highly recommend you check it out if you are ever in the area.

The Isotopes. We went to an Isotopes baseball game while we were there. New Mexico has no professional sports teams, so they take this AAA farm team to the LA Dodgers very seriously. The game was entertaining (the Isotopes won) and the park was quite nice. The next morning we ate breakfast at the famous Frontier, a massive 24 hour food joint near the university. The interior is decked out in random artwork, with a particular emphasis on John Wayne art. The food is amazing too. I had the huevos rancheros absolutely smothered in red chile. Delicious!

Shifting gears now. At the feet of the Sangre de Cristos in Northern New Mexico sits a famous old Native American pueblo (village): Taos Pueblo. Here visitors can come and wander around a living and working Native American community, who still live in the same style buildings as they have for hundreds of years and still pull their drinking water from the creek that runs through the pueblo. It's an incredible sight.

The little adobe domes in front of the buildings are cooking stoves. I loved the colors too...the blues in the doors just contrast so well with the adobe. Historically, they didn't have doors; people used to enter their homes through holes in the roof, which is why you'll see a lot of ladders around.

This is the main bulk of the pueblo and its huge. It reminds me of a hive of sorts...incredible.

Mmmmm, chiles.

The Pueblo church. Many of the locals are Christian, though a lot have a blended religion that incorporates a lot of their ancestral teachings.

The Rio Grande gorge near Taos. The gorge is so narrow, and the planes around it so flat that you don't even realize this massive rift in the earth is there until your practically falling into it. I also had no idea that the Rio Grande starts in Southern Colorado, in the San Juan mountains, before twisting its way all the way down through the massive state of New Mexico, going by Taos, Los Alamos, near Santa Fe, and right through the heart of Albuquerque before heading further south to define the border between Texas and Mexico.

Bandolier National Monument. The green canyon floors and honeycombed canyon walls in the area around the Pajarito Plateau, on which Los Alamos sits, was once home to a bustling Native American population. At Bandolier, you can check out the ruins of their settlements in the Frijoles Canyon. The pock-marked canyon walls are the result of this entire area once being part of a super-volcano, which now is referred to as the Jemez Mountains and the Valle Caldera. It's pretty impressive and the signs of old volcanic activity are all around...from the wile rock formations to places in the Caldera where the ground is glistening from all the obsidian. Pretty cool area.

Looking down at the main, round settlement ground from the old places along the canyon wall. This is definitely rattlesnake territory. I decided to do the 13 mile canyon rim trail, which takes one up on the far mesa seen here for just about seven miles west before dropping into the canyon itself to come 6 miles back through that to where you started. On my climb up the canyon, I nearly stepped on the first rattlesnake without even knowing it was there. My foot landed about eight inches away from it, which set it off nicely. When that rattle started from BEHIND me, I jumped and screamed like a small girl. The snake stayed coiled and rattling for a few moments while I shook in terror and shock from the safe distance to which I had leaped. Then it got out of there and disappeared under a big rock while I was still trying to process what had just happened and how close I had come to being bitten by the most dangerous snake in North America. I continued on in terror...realizing suddenly how much of a death trap this backcountry trail was...with its little narrow trail through dead leaves and fallen trees, massive rocks, and knee high scrub grass, all of which could be housing the next snake just ready to take a snap at me. I came across the second, much larger rattlesnake laying across the trail about 15 feet in front of me. At this point, I was well into the hike...about as far from help as I could be, so I'm thankful that I saw this snake from a far. It was huge. I'd guess about 4-4.5 feet long and about as thick as my forearm! It had no interest in moving either. It knew I was there but was obviously not worried. Since we were in a rock chute of sorts, I couldn't go around it. So I yelled, stamped my feet, and then finally resorted to tossing rocks at the ground near it. The rocks finally annoyed it and it slithered up out of the chute, which made me have to pass it within about 3 feet of my face. That was probably the most terrifying hike I've ever gone on. Supposedly seeing a snake is rare...but so far I've seen four here, two of which were diamondbacks, so I'm betting it's not that rare.

One of the old Native dwellings.

This wall once housed a long house. You can see the square shaped spots on the wall that used to be peoples homes. The round indents held the support beams.

Petroglyphs too.

The Kiva at the cliff dwelling. The Kiva was used for religious practices, basically their old version of a church.

The Upper Frijoles falls....beautiful and much higher than I was expecting. The Frijoles creek, which is responsible for the canyon, flows down to the Rio Grande (below). The hike down to the Rio Grande is a great one...though once again pretty terrifying when you start thinking about snakes.

I've been treated to some incredible sunsets here too.

Finally, Santa Fe...the oldest state capital in the country.

Burro Alley, now home to a French restaurant...Santa Fe is a quirky little city. It has an enormous artist population and a ton of wealthy retirees. This brings all sorts of cultural and yuppie influences with it. Overall, though, it is a cool little city to walk around, especially if you like art or architecture. They also have lots of public works of art, like the little Burro statue here.

The Lensic Theater...good example of the interesting architecture around town. Another great thing is that they have a city ordinance restricting the height of buildings and maintaining the old adobe styles.

The Cathedral.

A random hotel...lots of adobe buildings here in Santa Fe.

More public art.

A mural coated garage/shed along Canyon Road, which is just chock full of art galleries. There is also an awesome little teahouse down there, which makes great chai and sangria. I made an awesome afternoon around here, hanging out at the teahouse and doing some reading and then wandering from gallery to gallery taking in all the art. Incredible little place and some very interesting people around.

Around Colorado... Summer '09

Colorado. I really, really love this state! The following post is about some of the more exciting things we did in Colorado over this past summer. I'll start with the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Yes, Colorado has sand dunes...great ones. See the pictures above and below if you don't believe me. Above you have a 13er (on the right) and a couple 14ers (background on the left) and then some several hundred foot high dunes on the left. Below shows the dunes and the view out over the massive, flat San Luis Valley.

So you might find yourself asking, how did these dunes (the tallest in North America) end up in Colorado, which is not a desert state? The answer is clear when you consider the geography. The huge, flat San Luis Valley (check out the terrain feature on Google maps to get an idea of what I'm talking about) lies between the San Juan mountains to the southwest and the Sangre de Cristo mountains that make a massive spine running north-south to the immediate east (all the mountains seen in these pictures). The prevailing winds blow east and slightly north...so what happens is small particles of sand are picked up in the San Juan's and blow freely across the broad flat valley. The winds, however, don't have enough force to carry the sands up and over the barrier formed by the Sangre de Cristos, so the sands begin to pile up. The dunes have formed in a kink in the Sangre's, which acts as a collection point. Give a few million years of sand pile-up and badda-boom badda-bing, sand dunes. Picture taken by Missy (MLK)

They are a truly incredible sight...they are huge, at hundreds of feet in height and covering thousands of acres. Then you have the mountain backdrop, making for an incredibly dramatic landscape. (MLK)

The dunes are fun to play on too...just expect to be finding sand in different places for about the next week or so (or indefinitely in your camping gear). This is me taking a nice spread-eagle leap off the top of one of the steep-sided dunes...I highly recommend this. (MLK)

As you can see from this sign...the dunes shift regularly. (MLK)

Like I said...huge! (MLK)

Bailey and I enjoying the view. The others from our group are on top of High Dune in the distance. (MLK)

We had an afternoon thunderstorm our first day there, but then the sky cleared beautifully and gave us the most incredible light on the dunes for sunset. Maciej kept saying how we should show people the pictures and tell them we took a trip to Northern Africa. (MLK)

The next day, we drove north in the valley to the small town of Crestone, right at the foot of the mountains. We were using the trail here to access a high-alpine lake and 2 fourteeners.

The Willow Creek trail...it's quite steep climbing around 4000 feet in just over 4 miles...and with heavy packs on, that can get exhausting. It is a beautiful hike though.

Columbines! (MLK)

Looking back at where we came from...Crestone is the faint town on the valley floor in the center (above and slight to the right of the big green clearing). As I said...steep hike.

This bighorn sheep hung around us for quite some time.

Willow Lake with it's waterfall. This was a spectacular area up here, though it was infested with other backpackers.

We had another brilliant show for sunset.

OK, these pictures are now from a different weekend. Having a Sangre de Cristo theme this summer, in large part because I was down in New Mexico, we decided to go climb Mt. Lindsey, a 14er. This is a picture of the valley we used for access and the massive Blanca Peak glowing in the sunrise light.

Mt. Lindsey's false summit. Missy and I ended up hanging back at around 13,000 feet. She was happy to have made it that far and didn't want to mess with the intimidating looking Mt. Lindsey.

In the distance here you can see the peaks near where we were at Willow Lake: Kit Carson and Challenger Point, as well as the Crestones. This was taken near the top of the Iron Nipple, a 13er near Mt. Lindsey. I took a nice scramble up this mostly because I wanted to say I had climbed the Iron Nipple, which is just a hilarious name! This is some nice exposure though...a tumble here would have landed me about a thousand feet below.

The point of the Iron Nipple summit.

Blanca massif from the Iron Nipple. Blanca is enormous and was a very holy mountain to the Native Americans living in the area.

From yet another weekend excursion: main street of Cripple Creek, CO. An old mining town which has now embraced the casino business. It's an interesting place, especially considering it was once going to be the capital of the state (and it is at 8,000 something feet!).

Three of the casinos in Cripple Creek. They have done a great job preserving the old western-expansion era buildings. The town has an awesome feel to it...like you've stumbled into the old west (except for the cars).

11-Mile Reservoir, revisited. Missy and I love it here, so we decided to come back (the same weekend we went to Cripple Creek). Once again, we lucked out with the lighting at sunset.

We also took a nice hike around part of the reservoir this time...venturing significantly further than we had before. This area is incredible.

The camping was alright, though we had a pretty nasty storm...

and I managed to snag a shot of lightening, without even messing with the exposure time! After a really terrifying experience with lightening in the mountains earlier in the summer, I dragged Missy and Bailey back to the car for shelter while the storm blew over. From the safety of the car, we were treated to an incredible show! I figure that the closest strike was within about a quarter mile or so...pretty incredible showing of nature's power!

Vive la France: Paris, part un

Paris: I was here in July for 10 days to attend the ISSS9 conference. I really liked this city a lot more than I was expecting! It's beautiful, and despite their reputation, the people are just fine.

We were treated to this incredible sunset the night we (a few of the guys from the conference and myself) decided to go hang out at the Parc du Champ du Mars. Needless to say, we had a great view. The random lights on there were sparkling for a little while the glorious sunset painted the clouds.

Looking behind us at the park. This is one of the things I loved about France: the people really know how to relax and enjoy life. I loved it! They get together with their friends and just hang out and have a good time...most often in incredibly beautiful places!

Attention to detail....the Eiffel Tower is huge, an intricate tower of trusses. But they even made the steel-work fancy...impressive.

The tower is also graced with the names of some of France's most famous individuals...including many a physicist and mathematician!

It's quite a bit bigger than I was expecting really...and quite phallic too. One of our French friends kindly pointed that out to us.

Like the Parliament Building Tower in London....I couldn't take enough pictures of this iconic structure.

And moving on...cafes, bistros, and restaurants. Of course Paris has some amazing food. Our French friend Hugo took us to a little place for a traditional French meal, which was delicious. I was also a big fan of the Southeast Asian and African influences. I had Togoan cuisine for the first time in my life...and it too was delicious! People watching here is incredible too, but I preferred to be wandering while doing so...some of the cafes (which all have tables outside on the sidewalk) in the more people-scenic (or scenic-people?) areas were packed...I'm sure you probably had to sacrifice a small animal or profess your home country's inferiority to France in order to get a seat.

More relaxing in beautiful places...seriously, I love the French. This is in the Jardin des Tuileries, which used to be a palace facing the Louvre. It was destroyed during the Paris Commune in 1871 however. Now it is a very pleasant garden/park with lots and lots of monuments and statues.

One of the off-axis arch's...looking through to the Louvre, another old palace that is now the most famous museum in the world.

This is the same arch (Arc du triomphe du Carrousel), but now we are looking through the other way. The Louvre and this arch line up along the Jardin des Tuileries and further down along the Champs-Elysee. Here you can see Cleopatra's Obilysk and the Arc du Triomphe (both along the Champs-Elysee) in the distance. As with other history rich places, it was incredible to be wandering around this area.

The Louvre. I actually did NOT go inside on this trip....I'm saving it for when I come back in a couple years with Missy.

I like the pyramid. I think the blend of old and new is awesome, so long as it's done with taste (as is the case here in my opinion).

The Louvre is huge. Most people only think it's an art gallery thanks to it's most famous painting, but it is so much more than that....I did go to the Musee d'Orsay, which is also massive, but nowhere near the size of the Louvre. I spent a good 3-4 hours wandering and only saw one floor worth of paintings (which was incredible by the way). I will have to devote at least one full day just for the Louvre.

The River Seine. As part of the conference, we got to go on a river cruise on one of those glass ceiling boats (like the one seen here). It was pretty classy enjoying French cuisine while the beautiful city seemingly floats by.

The Metro. Paris' underground network is extensive, with stops so close together that you can sometimes see from one platform to the next underground! It's a great system, but it has a major problem. The vast majority of Paris' public transportation shuts down between midnight and one, which really puts a damper on any good, fun, late nights out on the town if you are staying outside of walking distance from the center. There are night buses, but they only run once an hour and have terribly confusing routes. Oh, and if you want to get a cab, you better speak perfect French WITH a Parisian accent or you can just forget about this service. Seriously, one of our French friends (not from Paris) had to haggle with a Parisian cabbie for a good 10 minutes or so to convince him NOT to rip us off and that he could indeed drive us to where we needed to go. Crazy...I just wish the Metro ran late.

Liberte. Egalite. Fraternite (put accents on all the e's except the one in the middle of Fraternite-->fraternit-ay). Anyway, this translates to "Liberty. Equality. Fraternity." if you don't speak French and couldn't already figure that out. This is the national motto of the Republic of France. This motto graces the Palais de justice de (Palace of Justice of) Paris on the Ile de la Cite. The Ile de la Cite is one of the oldest parts of the city. It is a small island on the river and is home to some beautiful old buildings, including Notre Dame.

It is also home to Sainte Chapelle, with its walls, yes...walls, of stained glass. If you are ever in Paris, you must go see this from inside. It is incredibly beautiful.

L'Arc du Triomphe and traffic in the cirque. There is always traffic in the cirque. It was still incredible to see this arch though....the details on it are incredible, and every time I see it, I think of those old WWII videos of Hitler and his Nazi army marching down the Champs-Elysee and through this very arch. I have heard, and have no idea if this is true, that Hitler originally planned to destroy the arch when he first conquered France. However, somewhere along the way, he changed his mind, and instead, he decided to build a much, much larger one in Berlin upon his utter victory in the war. Fortunately for the world, Hitler lost and the Arc du Triomphe still stands.

A capoeira demonstration near Montmartre.

View of the city center from Montmartre and the park at the base of the Basilique du Sacre Coeur (Basilica seen below...the park is another popular spot to bring some wine, cheese, and bread and enjoy a good sunset with friends). Paris was immensely more of an all-around beautiful city than I was expecting, and it is massive. It would take several lifetimes to uncover even half of it's secret places. I really enjoyed it here. I spent a lot of time wandering at night too, but I didn't take many pictures. There are countless little neighborhoods, each with their own feel...everything from the tres chic Champs Elysee to the flashy neon and working ladies of Pigalle, the red-light district (and home to the Moulin Rouge) to the notorious suburbs (we stayed in the suburbs, and yes, there are some hooligans...be wary walking around at night, but for the most part they are just teenagers looking to hang out and get drunk with their friends...and just remember: Je ne fume pas. Je n'ai pas une cigarette.) . The pictures here do nothing...absolutely nothing for a taste of the city. To see Paris is to wander aimlessly in it's labyrinth of streets and stumble from beautiful sight to sight, whether it be an incredible work of architecture, a quaint little winding street lined with restaurants, cafes, and artists' studios, or a vast green garden. Paris is an incredible city, and I look forward to coming back.

Vive la France: Paris, part deux

Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral, quite literally the heart of Paris and France too. It's not the biggest cathedral in the world. It doesn't have the highest towers or the largest crypt, and it surely doesn't dominate it's city's skyline. However, this is one of the originals. A marvel of architecture, and it is graced with details that just get better and better and better as you get closer to this ancient place of worship.

Construction started on this cathedral in 1163...yes...that's right it's going to be coming up on its 9th centennial in only a few decades. People, just like this guy here, have been walking by these doors for over 800 years. THAT is mind-bending for someone from North America! Even more amazing, this building doesn't stand in ruins; it's been renovated and repaired and is still a functioning cathedral. Paris, and France are proud of this building, and they should be.

Notre Dame IS Gothic architecture. Many of the techniques and designs used for this building were imitated throughout Europe's many, many other (newer) cathedrals. Architects hired to design and build a cathedral would travel to Paris from throughout France and neighboring countries to study this incredible feat of architecture and engineering.

The vaulted ceilings are high, thanks to the flying buttresses on the outside of the structure. It's amazing and utterly terrifying that those stones, weighing I have no idea how many tons, hold each other in place, distributing their collective mass down into the load-bearing columns. As an engineer looking at this, and even better, standing underneath them, I was simply in awe.

More vaulted ceilings in a side-passage of the main hall.

One of the massive round stained-glass windows and the famous flying buttresses (the arching stone beams connected to the main walls along the portion of the structure in the middle of this picture). Notre Dame was one of the first buildings to use these additional support structures, which allowed them to build higher walls than what was thought possible at the time.

Notre Dame's facade is intricate. One of the many, many small details: I'd love to know who this guy is, and why he is standing on a person instead of a pedestal. I'm betting he was not a nice guy.

Above the central doors...this is huge by the way.

Lots and lots and lots of figures

At the Musee Rodin. The Thinker sculpture, which is world famous, is found here along (center in this picture) with many, many other works by Auguste Rodin.

The Musee Rodin consists of the old Hotel Biron and the surrounding grounds (which are now a beautiful garden populated with Rodin's works). The Hotel Biron was one of Rodin's favorite haunts...he even lived here for a time. When he died, he donated his works to the Republic of France under the condition that they turned the Hotel into a museum for the art.

La Porte de l'Enfer: The Gates of Hell. This was by far my favorite sculpture at the museum. Rodin died before completing this masterpiece, yet it looks incredible, with its maze of details and horde of figures. It's massive too, standing at nearly 20 feet high and more than 13 feet wide!

The inspiration for the work was Dante's Inferno, the first part of the Divine Comedy. You find yourself mesmerized by the details and the damned figures, who appear to be writhing and tempting from the fluid-like backdrop.

The Thinker makes a key appearance at the top center of the Gates. He is surrounded by naked female figures, who are engaged in a series of erotic and provocative poses, yet he seems too deep in thought to worry about that. Could this Thinker represent Satan, contemplating his eternal predicament? Or perhaps it is the lost soul focusing on how he ended up damned to Hell. According to Wikipedia, some people think it represents Dante, looking down on his characters...others think it represents Rodin or Adam (biblical Adam...the original man) concentrating on the original sin. Whoever it is, the figure is intriguing considering the chaos and temptation surrounding him. I particularly like the one figure with the skull for a head amidst the naked women. Can you find it in here?

Inside the Musee Rodin.

Rodin was a very famous sculptor. It really is true that sex sells.

The tri-color.

Versailles: the old imperial palace expanded to its present form under Louis the XIV, the Sun King. This is only a small part of the complex by the way. This place is huge. It's really no wonder that when the King and court were living in palaces like this (and the Louvre in Paris), the normal people revolted so fiercely. "A TOUTES LES GLOIRES DE LA FRANCE" seen in this picture translates to: "To all the glory of France". I don't think that was really the case though; it was more like: To all the glory of the absolute monarchy, we construct this haven and sanctuary to ignore our people and escape from reality.

Fortunately, the revolutionaries did a great job with the monarchs and managed to spare the buildings at Versailles, which is now a suburb of Paris (it was originally chosen for its location in the country, well away from Paris). While there, we only had the chance to tour the grounds, as we were on a tight schedule and there was a long line to see the extravagances inside. I've been told that Versailles takes multiple days worth of visits to fully explore. I barely scratched the surface in the gardens, and I look forward to spending a full day here when I return to France.

As with anywhere steeped in history, I loved Versailles, even with the hundreds and hundreds of tourists swarming the grounds. Louis the XIV was one of the greatest statesmen to ever live. He was immensely powerful. His court is famous for it's grandeur and intrigue, and this palace was where much of it all went down.

Looking at the backside of the palace.

Turn around 180 degrees from the previous picture and this is your new view. Looking out over the gardens. There are hedge mazes, massive greens, countless fountains and statues, hunting grounds, and a man-made lake (seen here in the center background).

Being July, the gardens were in full bloom, and the current caretakers have done an excellent job with them. The flowers were all soft pastel pink, rose, purples and off-whites. It had a very dream-like effect to it. It made you feel like you were no longer alive amongst the troubles of the world...instead you have escaped to some uber-pleasant world of soft grass, fragrant flowers, and singing birds. Even with all the other tourists around, it was easy to escape. Just like in the Forbidden City, you only have to go a short distance off the main-axis to find yourself mostly alone!

There are really a lot of people in this picture...take that into account to get a sense of how massive this place is.

In the hedge maze. This is a legit maze...those "hedges" are mostly small trees; the wall heights have to be around 20 feet or so.

Hm, golden gates. Nothing says "I'm filthy rich and I want the world to know it" like golden gates. Seriously, this royal family got what was coming to them. Let them eat cake? More like let you eat the cold, hard steel of the guillotine.

Hong Kong and the New Territories

Hong Kong. This was the last stop on our travels through China, and it was my least favorite by far. Hong Kong is a beautiful and bustling city. Though, like many large cities, it has a seedy underside...and thanks to the massive business opportunities that Hong Kong provides, this underside was much, much seedier than I have experienced before. The hostel/budget accommodation options are all pretty terrible. We ended up in the Chunking Mansions in Kowloon (across the harbor). I would never, ever recommend staying in Chunking Mansions or Miriador Mansions nearby either. They are not mansions. They are vertical slums, and it was this revelation that was one of my first strikes against Hong Kong, which boasts such better conditions compared to the mainland. There is a very wealthy ex-pat population, who are being paid disproportionate amounts of local currency for their occupations; in any Western country, they would be paid much less compared to the national average income. So sure, for these wealthy foreigners, the opportunities in Hong Kong abound. They are normal middle class people that are suddenly made millionaires. This heavily skews the system. Prices in many places are on a high, Western level (like that of a large American city). Though I have to admit, food and (some) beer prices weren't bad. The limited space, which drives real estate up to overwhelming levels, also plays a key role, especially in the housing options. Don't get me started on the "Hostel Association", which I genuinely believe is controlled by the Triads. Basically, what I'm getting at, is Hong Kong CAN be an incredible city, IF you have a lot of money to throw around.

So after that rant...Hong Kong. It is DEFINITELY a beautiful city. I didn't take too many pictures at all in the city itself. Missy and I ate some good food. We had Macanese food (from the nearby city of Macau) and I even found a French Canadian place that served decent poutine. I can't even find poutine in the States! Basically, you can get ANY kind of food you want in HK, and it is probably going to be good food too. I did like that. I also liked the Peak. Victoria Peak basically IS Hong Kong Island (the main bulk of it at least) and there is an amazing old tram that takes folks up to near the top. There is quite the establishment set up there for tourists. Missy and I enjoyed a coffee on the balcony with these views. Then we took a little stroll and waited for the sun to set to get the city lights. This was a really nice feature of the city. As you can also tell from the pictures above, our luck with the weather persisted in HK. It was overcast the entire day with periods of light rain.

So this is a bit of a story. You probably find yourself thinking, ok, Drew has gone mad. These pictures are not of Hong Kong. First of all, I did go mad in Hong Kong. I genuinely hated the double bed-sized, solid tile (to keep pest levels low) closet that Missy and I had for a room in the Chunking vertical slum. I could not spend another night there, and I was also upset with the weather. So Missy and I decided the next morning to check out early, and get the hell out of the city. We had heard of an amazing place called the Sai Kung Peninsula, which is a territorial park that occupies the east of the New Territories. We also heard that we could camp on the beach there, which we were both excited about. So, we decided to do something random. We spent the morning looking for a place to rent/buy a tent, which is a lot harder than you think it would be in such a big city. Apparently, there aren't THAT many outdoor enthusiasts in HK. We finally found a decent place that sold tents. So, we bought one. I was very, very upset that despite the fact that this tent was made in China (like everything else), it was not sold at Chinese prices. No, it was sold at Western prices...just about 90% what I would pay for this tent at REI. Frustration. Then came the ordeal of finding a place to store our excess baggage. We found out that one of the main train stations (and only one) had such a service. Fortunately, it was on our way to get to Sai Kung. So, we consolidated our necessities into my backpack (including the tent) and a small pack for Missy. We stored Missy's pack and an extra bag with a whole lot of extras (mostly our various souvenirs picked up along the way) at the train station. Then we were off, for what turned out to be an interesting adventure.

We got to Sai Kung town in the mid-afternoon after a couple rounds on the subway system and a long distance bus. We quickly found ourselves in a cafe, which had amazing burgers (to Missy's delight) AND local seafood dishes (to my enjoyment). The cafe owner was a very nice and friendly woman. She was intrigued to see us show up as we were, with our plans to get to the park and hike in before dark (which was still possible at this time). She even helped us get a cab, which would take us in and drop us off along the park's main (and pretty much, only) road. So we were off again after a very filling meal and a quick stop at a 7-11 to get some extra food and water. The cab ride took us into the park and literally dropped us off along the side of the road, in the middle of a Southeast Asian jungle. This was the trailhead, and we started on our 5 km hike to the beach. I also had a nice map of the park from the store we bought the tent at. Anyway, I was shocked to find that the trail was paved most of the way in, and also to find a couple ghost villages and livestock along the trail. Missy and I were scared to the point of loud screams by a cow (or bull? ...we couldn't see it through the dense underbrush) that DID NOT like us walking where we were, but we quickly realized it was (somewhat) domesticated and got by quickly. We finally got to Ham Tin beach, seen throughout these beach pictures. It didn't look like this at the time though as we got there just about at sunset and there were thunderstorms rolling in. We got our tent set up and a small fire started just in time to make a mad dash for the tent due to a large thunderstorm (NOT fun). We were tent bound the rest of the night thanks to the rain and lightning.

We woke up the next morning to more dreary, cloudy skies. Hooray. I was not happy. We decided to wait it out another day (the weather forecast had only said 30% chance of rain with scattered thunderstorms...) to see if the weather improved. We took a short walk up and over one of the hills to a more remote beach nearby. I say more remote because we had the luxury of "a small fishing community" (we only ever saw one fisherman and his daughter). You can see their buildings in the second beach picture, with the dominating Sharp Peak in the background (we saw this and the peaks around us get struck repeatedly by lightning the night before). The fisherman provided food and drink for very, very good prices. He also rents sleeping bags and sleeping pads, but it was so hot and humid, and the sand was soft, so we didn't need these. Missy and I ate brunch and dinner here, and the food was amazing. Once again, the meat and seafood were as fresh as it gets. The beef probably slaughtered and cut up by a neighbor somewhere up the valley and the seafood was whatever he caught that morning. Amazing. There was beer too, which was a delight. So we hung out with the fisherman and his daughter for the day. Some ex-pat and local hikers came through, and we were briefly entertained by another local fisherman, who was really friendly and quite the character, in his big broad-rimmed round glasses and what appeared to be a massive diaper (really his form of a bathing suit...if you've ever seen old Japanese movies, you'll have an idea of what I'm talking about).

That night, we had just got the fire started when we started to notice that we were being bothered by some kind of winged bug, which we couldn't see well in the dim light. The problem got worse, much worse. It got to the point where Missy and I were literally slapping ourselves silly to keep the building swarm off us and running around the fire screaming "What are these things?!?!" We got in the tent and spent about the next half our killing all of the bugs that were on us and that got in the tent for the brief seconds we had the flap open. We had no idea what they were. I called them "zombie bugs". They were a somewhat transparent orange, about a quarter inch long, with much longer wings. I referred to them as "zombies" because their wings fell off very, very easily (turned out they shed them), but the little creatures would just keep crawling around as if nothing had happened. As far as Missy and I could tell, we hadn't been bitten, but it seemed they were definitely attracted to us and wanted to get in the tent. With our headlamps, we could see thousands, yes thousands, of the little things swarming the outside of the tent. This was somewhat unnerving. And by somewhat unnerving I mean pretty damned scary. The things reminded me of flying ants (the male/new queen versions), and that made me think of termites. However, I'd never heard of flying termite swarms, so I continued to be on edge about the situation. After being absolutely certain that there were not any more living zombie bugs in the tent (I did NOT want to find out the next day that these were some kind of horrible insect that burrows into skin, or even worse, orifices...yea, use your imaginations on that one), we fell into a very uneasy sleep. Missy and I both had nightmares involving bugs. When we woke up in the morning, the only evidence that we weren't absolutely insane were the dead zombie bugs in the tent, and lots and lots and lots of wings scattered in the sand around the tent and the fire pit. When we stumbled our tired and terrified and confused selves up to the fisherman's hut, we found lots more wings and even a few live specimens. Unfortunately, the fisherman could not speak too much English, definitely not enough to tell me what they were. And I had no Cantonese, so we essentially could not communicate outside of the English/Canto menu. The real kick-to-the-you-know-where came in that we woke up to clear, blue skies. All of the pictures you see here were taken that morning.

Needless to say, after the experience with the zombie bugs, we wanted to get the hell out of there. We had no idea if the bugs would return at night. Frankly, at that point, I was ready to head home to Colorado. I really, really was not liking HK and the New Territories. We took a quick hike up the trail to get a nice view of Ham Tin beach and the coastline before packing up and going. Once again, it was teasing us with how beautiful it was. The hike out was mostly uneventful other than the two cobras along the trail. Yes, cobras. Missy and I were making great time in the lovely weather getting out of that zombie bug infested paradise when I saw off about six feet to our left, just off the paved trail, two very large black snakes. Then, the instant I put my arm out to halt Missy and said "wait, snakes" they let me know what they were by putting their hoods out. They didn't stand up to eye level (which they nearly could have done...these were very, very large snakes...I estimate an easy six feet if not more), they just laid there and simply put their hoods out. Well at that moment, I somehow avoided soiling myself and said: "Holy $h!t Missy those are cobras!". Then I had the awful realization that I didn't know what continent spitting cobras lived on...I knew that it was EITHER Africa OR Asia, but I didn't know which. That was scary. So I told Missy not to look at them, I got between her and the snakes, and we very quickly shuffled past them. We got far up trail before we turned around and stopped to think about what we just experienced. I apologize now that I have no photographic evidence, but Missy had the cameras and she absolutely refused to let me go back to get a picture (which I was honestly debating). If I had known then that these were King Cobras and NOT spitting cobras, I would have insisted, but I couldn't remember under those conditions that spitting cobras are only found on the African continent. I also didn't know that King Cobras are found in the New Territories and Southeast China, though they are supposedly very rare. I have troubles believing the rarity considering we saw TWO very large ones on a well traveled hiking trail.

Back in civilization. We had a rather shell-shocked lunch in the nice lady's cafe again. Then we wandered around Sai Kung town a bit, while debating where we were going to head to. I'm one to normally have a good plan and book a hostel ahead at least by a few days. Not so for this leg of the trip. Sai Kung is awesome, I wish we could have stayed there the rest of the trip. It is a cool little town surrounded by water and these amazing mountains, but for some very, very odd reason it has absolutely no public accommodation. This is really odd; it is a significantly large coastal town (I'm talking 10's of thousands of people here), well known for its amazing seafood, and definitely is well known amongst the yachting and sailing communities. Many of the seafood places, with their tanks and tanks of all sorts of live shellfish and fish of all kinds swimming around in them, are quite expensive simply because their primary clientele consists of wealthy yacht/sailing ship owners who just pull in and eat. There are NO hotels, NO guest houses, NO BnBs, and NO hostels. It's an outrage, and I highly recommend getting to Sai Kung, and it's territory park peninsula. It turned out the zombie bugs were a swarm of termites, which is apparently not common either (we just had exceptionally poor wildlife timing on this part of our trip). They are mostly harmless, unless you live in a wooden structure they can infest and cause to collapse down on top of you. Supposedly, there are similar swarms in other semi-tropical areas, including the southeast US. Once again, we apparently had really bad luck with our timing here.

So, with Hong Kong city off the list of places, and absolutely no accommodation in Sai Kung. We headed for Lantau Island. I tried to book a hostel near Lantau's giant Buddha statue, which was supposed to be quite nice, but that involved dealing with the mafia, aka the Hong Kong Hostel Association. It's impossible to deal with them. There are random closures of the hostels, and the "managers" are apparently never in. The hostel owners that I talked to were not big fans of the "Association", to which they had to pay fees for "services" that did not work (like calling to book ahead). They also block much access to booking online, which really made the whole thing frustrating and kind of scary since we had no idea if we could get a room when we showed up. Anyway, Lantau is a heavily forested and mountainous island to the west of Hong Kong. HK's airport and HK Disney World are both also on the island. We took the subway out to it, which is awesome, and then took the long cable car ride up the mountain to the Giant Buddha statue complex.

People clamming/shrimping in the shallow bay below us. It was funny to see them halfway across the bay and still standing waist deep in the water. It was also cool to see their mud trails being taken by the currents.

We got up to the Buddha just in time for another torrential downpour. We had a quick bite at the overly priced restaurants between the statue and the cable car complex before making our way out to the hostel, which was in the middle of the jungle on the next hill over from the Buddha. I thought it was abandoned when we got there, and we were both nervous about the warning signs for mosquito-borne illnesses like Japanese Encephalitis and Dengue Fever. The owner was there however, and we were the only people staying there, up on the mountain in the middle of the jungle, with him. It was kind of like the Bates Motel, Hong Kong style. Yay. Honestly, the owner was nice though, and I really felt bad for him since he said a lot of troubles were caused by the "Association" and their fees and "services". The hostel was really decrepit, with cracks in the walls and inescapable dampness thanks to the ongoing rain. It was just another uncomfortable night, but at least there were no bugs!

The giant Buddha statue. It's actually quite amazing to see, even in the rain. They were doing construction on the site though, which really, really took away from the atmosphere. Somehow, heavy machinery and jack-hammers just don't seem to go with Buddhist Monasteries in my mind. Maybe I'm just weird. Anyway, once again, we found ourselves getting the hell out of there the next morning. It was raining, tropical storm style. We took the first public bus out to Mui Wo, on Lantau Island's Southeast corner. Silver Mine Bay there was supposed to be beautiful with a nice beach. Once again, Lantau is a beautiful island, heavily forested and mountainous. Mui Wo seemed like a cool little town and we ended up just splurging for a night at the Silver Mine Beach Hotel. We paid a decent price and got a great room that looked down over the beach and bay. However, the torrential rains continued the ENTIRE day. We braved the storm to go get lunch at an ex-pat pub and also to wander the town market, which was not bustling and exciting thanks to the weather. Then we just headed back to the hotel to watch the dragon boat races from our room, which was awesome. Dragon boat racing is a big thing in China, and HK was having it's big annual festival for the races. It was incredible to watch the teams training and racing, all in the downpour, loud drums and all. It reminded me that as much as I did not like my experience in Hong Kong, it was still an amazing place with an incredible culture and history. We flew back home the next day, after our 3+ week journey through China. I don't know if I'll get back to Hong Kong at some point in the future. If I do, hopefully I'll have more money at that point to afford staying in hotels, or maybe they will improve their hostel situation between now and then. I definitely hope the weather is more cooperative.

China: Xingping, Guangxi Province

As I mentioned in the previous post, we did not stay in Yangshuo since we found it too big and bustling for the relaxation we had planned. Instead, we went back upstream to the small village of Xingping. This is an old, but well-known village. The image on the back of the 20 yuan note was taken from the scenery near Xingping. It is right at the heart of the karst mountains, and Missy and I stayed here for four days. This was the view from our hostel's rooftop patio.

And this was the view from our room. Not too shabby.

Looking down at one of Xingping's streets from the hostel roof. This is one of the "new" sections of town, that has sprung up as a result of tourist money. Still, the town has only about a dozen streets and only takes ~5-10 mins to walk across the entire thing. Missy and I found it to be perfect.

Bamboo graffiti. Bamboo is a very important plant to China, and especially so along the Li river where it is used for construction and, of course, bamboo rafts.

Near Xingping's docks. The only thing we didn't like about the place was the nearly constant barrage of "you like bamboo?" or "you want bamboo?" from the various people trying to sell a ride along the river on their bamboo rafts. It was mostly women (often the wives of the raft operators) offering, and they would show you a little picture of the river scenery with a raft and happy tourists on board. I told them again and again (in Chinese) that we were waiting to take a ride when the weather was nice, and they consistently answered that the weather was better upstream (I guarantee it was not). Also, never, never take the first price they offer. As with anything, bargain. They want your business. Make sure you check a guidebook for a fair price though, this is the major source of income for a lot of these people.

There is a little cafe on the corner here, which served both Chinese AND Western breakfasts. We ate there quite a few times.

Xingping is old. The town originated over 1000 years ago, and it was once the largest town along the river. The village has a very, very rustic feel...not run down. You can tell that each place is lived in and maintained. The restaurants here were great too. The food was incredible and SO FRESH! You could tell everything, all the ingredients, probably came from within a 20 mile radius of the place. The chicken and beef were especially flavorful. Missy and I found a favorite in the sweet and sour chicken, which is not at all what anyone familiar with Chinese food in North America thinks of. I also really liked the Sichuan beef and the spicy snails, which were just fried up, shell and all, in a beautifully spicy/tangy brown pepper sauce and were meant to be eaten by picking them up and sucking them out of the shells.

The sunset's from the rooftop patio were absolutely perfect. Missy and I would grab a couple beers or coconut juice (so good there!) and just relax up there watching the sun go down behind those jagged peaks. You can see here too that the sun went down just perfectly between the mountains.

We rented bikes from the hostel (only US$1.50 for the day!) and took a good ride through the hamlets and countryside around town.

The Li River Valley with the mountains fading in the distance.

Alongside the river, much of the land is quite flat, which allows for a great deal of farming.

Did I mention these mountains are huge? They rise up thousands of feet from the base plains (or the river). This is also becoming a popular area for rock climbers, as it should, and of course, the Chinese are embracing that in good entrepreneurial fashion.

The weather was quite nice (relatively) the day we rented the bikes, so we decided to make a couple people's days and go for a "bamboo" ride upstream to Yangdi and back.

Many of the mountains have been given interesting names like Moon Hill, Snail Hill, and Nine Horse Fresco Hill. I'm pretty sure there are some good legends about most of them as well.

I had a conversation with our raft drivers wife. It was pretty basic, since she spoke no English, but in it, I told her how beautiful Missy and I found their home (the Li River area) to be. She said: "Yes, it is beautiful, but we don't have any money." That really stuck me...I wondered what she and her husband must think of Missy and I. There were some people we came across who understood well that we, as students, really didn't have much money compared to many other Westerners, but to this woman and her husband, we were quite wealthy. That really got to me... it just isn't fair really how we are born into different lives, some of us given nearly endless bounds, while others have to struggle under extreme limitations just to get by.

Some river traffic.

If I remember correctly, this is Nine Horse Fresco Hill, just taken at an off-angle. The hill, when viewed perpendicularly to the face, is really quite wide and absolutely massive.

Back at the hostel, enjoying some good lighting.

Beijing Opera masks aren't just found in Beijing apparently...

One of the older streets in the village. It was amazing how the villagers timing was set up around the tourist influx, from around 10 AM to about 3 or 4 PM. Most people only come to Xingping as a tiny side-trip from Yangshuo on arranged tours. The tourists are mostly relatively wealthy Chinese, and the money is great for the people of Xingping.

Rice paddies just outside of town.

There were many, many old graveyards around the village. This is one of them. The people believe that the dead should be buried on hillsides, the higher the better for the spirit.

Missy and I said a quick hello ("Ni hao!") to this farmer. He was shocked that we spoke Chinese, and tried to start up a conversation. As normal with me, I made it about 4 questions in before I had to apologize for not understanding. It was quite frustrating at this point; there were many people like this farmer (and like the raft driver and his wife) who I found to be intriguing, and I would have loved to have a good conversation with them about their lives. I guess I'll just have to wait until the next time I go to China, when hopefully my grasp of Chinese will be better.

Missy and I decided to take a hike after sitting in the hostel for half a day of strong rain. It took us some time to actually find the trail through the mountains to a fishing village, but we eventually did (it was tucked in between a couple of farmers houses and honestly looked like a private lane for them).

Just about halfway along our trek, the skies opened up and we were blessed with beautiful sunshine and blue skies!

We also got some nice views of the river, which was in heavy flood after the rains.

The fishing village was small. It took us longer to get there than we had expected, and we were hoping to be able to pay a raftman to take us back to Xingping, but apparently they weren't running any boats because of the high and fast waters in the swollen river. We wanted to stick around and see their village (access to which was 5 yuan each), but we had to apologize and depart quickly so that we didn't get stuck up in the mountains after dark.

We got some more nice scenery and lighting on the way back too...and we made it back in time for sunset.

Looking out over pretty much the entirety of Xingping from the hostel rooftop.

It is such a quaint little village. The people are beyond friendly, the food is fresh and delicious, and the scenery is like something out of a fantasy. I honestly hope this place does not just become another bustling tourist hub like Yangshuo. Missy and I hope to return there at some point in our lives for another period of relaxation, and we honestly hope that the only thing about it that has changed when we do return, is that the locals are blessed with a bit more money and comfort.

Xingping, one of the brightest highlights of our trip.

China: Li River area, Guangxi Province

This area was one that Missy and I were looking forward to most on our trip through China. We'd seen plenty of pictures of this picturesque river basin, but we knew it would be more spectacular in person. We ended up staying five days here, and it didn't let us down.

We first arrived in Guilin by air from Xian. We got in at night and had an interesting time finding our hostel. We ran into two travelers from Spain who spoke great English but no Chinese. Turned out they were staying at the same hostel, and thus, I became responsible for trying to use my broken Chinese to figure out first which bus stop to take (Guilin is much bigger than I was expecting) and then how to get a cab to our hostel. I had some help from a friendly Chinese businessman on the bus, whose English was just slightly better than my Chinese. We managed to get to our hostel (despite it being marked on the wrong place on the map in my guidebook...tsk tsk Rough Guides...), and we ended up wandering down one of the main streets and strolling through a nightmarket. Oh yea, and the hostel was well worth it! It was a bit like a hotel, but Missy and I were not complaining; our room even had a balcony that overlooked one of the rivers (Guilin has several)! The picture above is of Elephant Trunk Hill. If you haven't already figured out, the Li River area is blessed with these jagged, karst mountains. The birds and the raft in the foreground are popular in the region, where the river defines daily life. The birds, cormorants, were used historically as fishing birds; cormorant fishermen would tie loose ropes around the birds necks so that when they dove to catch fish, they would be unable to swallow them. The fishermen would treat the birds to every seventh fish they caught. While some people still fish by this method, it has become more of a show for tourists.

Once again, the river defines life in the area. Mostly everyone lives off of it in someway and most definitely gets the majority of their diet from it (or the livestock and fields that it nourishes).

We didn't stay in Guilin long (only overnight); it is a very, very big tourist city, which we wanted to avoid. Many more adventurous travelers head downstream to the bustling tourist town of Yangshuo, which is smaller than Guilin and closer to the heart of the densest mountain scenery and is the town where most of the large river cruises end at. We decided that this town was still too big for us and moved on from here, but not after wandering around a bit first.

I'm lovin' it...the mountains that is. Plus, here in Yangshuo, we were treated to our first truly blue skies of the trip!

The town sits in a valley that is surrounded on three sides by the mountains and the other by the river. It is a beautiful little place and has a lot of neat shops and market stalls, though some of them are quite spoiled by rich tourists who don't know how to bargain.

At the docks, looking upstream towards the heart of the karst mountains. It was up that way, in a small village, that Missy and I decided to lose ourselves in for a few days.

It's amazing seeing the river being shared by fisherman on those tiny bamboo rafts right alongside the massive sightseeing boats, which can hold a few hundred people!

This cormorant fisherman didn't do too much fishing with his birds, more posing with tourists for a few yuan. He was very friendly though, and really, the pictures are worth it!

I would highly recommend checking out Yangshuo on a market day. There is a vegetable market (with fruit, fish, and other river goodies included) as well as a meat market. The vegetable market is well lit and very colorful, as you will see in the next few pictures, while the meat market is dark and dank. Missy made it about two steps into the meat market before turning around, much to my disappointment. There was pretty much every part of a variety of animals available for sale, with much of the butchering being done on the spot. I was quite intrigued! However, we did spend some time wandering the vegie market. The picture above shows some of the edible delights from the river, namely, snails, toads, eels, crayfish, freshwater shrimp, and the odd fish or two. I had the snails and shrimp while there, and I must say, the snails were superb in a spice pepper sauce.

Ah, the colors of market...and the peppers too!

China: Xian, Shaanxi Province

Xian is another city graced by a full ring of ancient city walls, but that is about as much as it has in common with Pingyao. Xian is a much, much larger city. It was another important city along the old silk road, and it was one of the ancient capitals of China. We spent three days here on our trip, which wasn't nearly enough to take in all that the city and the surrounding area have to offer. Unfortunately, the wet weather came with us here, but it still worked out well. Overall, we had a really good time in Xian.

Songbirds are popular pets in China. People keep the birds caged, but they also take them for walks and to parks to socialize with other people's pet birds.

Xian is well known throughout China for its great food. There is a strong Muslim population in the city, with an entire quarter of the walled portion named after this fact. The Muslim Quarter is a great place to wander, and the central Asian influence on the food is amazing. They thouroughly enjoy their barbequed meats, which are always done out in front of the restaurants...so you can just imagine all the amazing smells you encounter as you wander around. Having such a great love of barbequed meats, the Quarter is also home to a great deal of butchers shops, which are almost all open to the street so that passersby can see all the raw, butchered animals and parts (which I really enjoyed honestly). My favorite meals here were all in the Muslim Quarter. The barbequed leg of lamb was incredible. They use this amazing mix of spices for the bbq'd meats...so spicy and so good. Also, late at night vendors with carts come out to make fried meat and vegetable sandwiches, which were literally life-changingly good.

In the mornings, breads and soups are popular. We had a great meal of meatball soup, gelatinous chicken soup, bread, rice, and salad at a tiny little place in the Muslim Quarter. The place was obviously family owned (the Mom ran the show, Dad cooked the soups, and the kids just enjoyed us foreigners stumbling in and loving the food....the family obviously lived upstairs), and despite them speaking no English and my Chinese being absolutely terrible, we managed just fine. The best is that the whole meal came out to $0.80 each! Can't beat that.

A tiny alley lined with market goods. Bargaining is a must in Chinese markets (just not in official, government stores and most official food markets or quick-stops), and I had a great time doing it there.

A normal backstreet scene in Xian.

Xian has two old city towers...the central Bell Tower, seen here, which lies right in the heart of the city, and the Drum Tower, seen below, which lies on the border of the Muslim Quarter. The pedestrian only street that runs north behind the Drum Tower into the Muslim Quarter is lined with amazingly delicious bbq restaurants.

About an hour bus ride from Xian is the Terracotta Army sites. Missy and I were going to skip this to go check out Hua Shan, a holy mountain, instead, but due to the rain, we changed plans.

This site is truly amazing, despite the throngs of tourists. The army is split up over three "pits". The largest is the first (shown in these pics), and I would recommend, should you ever go, doing the pits in reverse. Start with the third and then work back down to the first. This is what we did, and each pit gets more and more impressive this way. I'm not going to give too many details here, if you are interested, just look it up.

There are just row after row of soldiers, horses, and charriots. The army was built by Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, to guard his tomb. It was never supposed to be seen by living people, though since his death, it has been raided by enemy armies and most recently discovered by a peasant in the 1970's and excavated to the state it is in today. I wonder what the Emperor would think if he knew that thousands and thousands of people visit his "secret army" every week?

This is the second pit, which is also huge...though not fully excavated. Also, a lot of the figures here are broken.

The small, but important, third pit.

Each figure's face is different!

Back in Xian, at the Great Mosque, the largest of its kind in China. It was absolutely amazing to see the mix of Arabic and Chinese architectures and written language.

The roofs were tiled in blue...pretty cool. The complex is huge and well worth taking the time to wander and just relax, it is a very peaceful place. Also, the staff is very friendly and welcoming. The old Chinese guy that took our tickets spoke excellent English and French and I believe we also heard him greeting a couple in Spanish!

China: Pingyao, Shanxi Province

Pingyao, it is a small town to the southwest of Beijing, about halfway between Beijing and Xian. It's historical city center is a nearly perfectly preserved Ming Dynasty walled city. Thanks to this, it is very, very popular with Chinese tourists as well as the odd Western one.

As I said, the city center is well preserved, and we can now benefit from the recently repaved streets, which are beautiful. We had quite a bit of rain for the couple days we spent here, and I was very thankful for those paved streets. Many of them used to be dirt, and with the amount of rain we had (quite unusual for the normally dry Shanxi Province), they would have been very, very muddy if they were still in their old form. Anyway, our hostel was the first building here on the left (look for the Hosteling International triangular sign), and like many of the "Western Hostels" here in Pingyao, it is an old Ming-era mansion. Ours was specifically built as a residence for the Emperor when he came on trips to Pingyao (though he never got to stay there unfortunately).

The courtyard at our hostel. It was beautiful, though unfortunately, it wasn't well maintained. We even had an issue with bedbugs in our first room, but fortunately I caught the little buggers before we went to sleep, so neither Missy nor I were bitten. When we moved rooms (across the courtyard), we had no problem.

Pingyao was an important city along the old silk road. Because of it's key location along this important trade route, it sprung up as the financial center during the late Qing era in China (the Qing Dynasty, aka Manchu Dynasty, was from ~1644-1912 AD and came after the Ming Dynasty). The city now has many, many museums and historical sites (other than the city ITSELF which is one big historical site). This is inside the old county capital complex.

Symmetry...always key.

This is the old county prison. The character translates to "prison".

Courtyard at the county seat.

Typical main street in Old Pingyao.

One of the few gates through the old city walls.

Outside the old city walls. A fun thing to do in nice weather is rent a bike and go around the full circumference on top of the wall.

Entrance to the Confucian Temple. The fact that so much here survived the Cultural Revolution is a miracle.

Bridge inside the Confucian Temple.

The little red things hanging everywhere are apparently people's prayers, written down and then hung up in the temple.

Incense offereings.

There was plenty of greenery in the temple grounds, which was nice.

A Christian Church...this was unique, though Christianity is a somewhat popular religion in China.

Pingyao rooftops from the central tower.

Pingyao street in the rain.

This was in the old guard training complex. Since Pingyao was a financial center with plenty of banks and large markets, lots of money, wealthy people, and goods came through here. Thus, body guards and armored carrier services were necessary. This old complex is one of the many museums in town and it is one of the places used to train and house the mercenaries used to protect wealth while in transit between cities. It is an interesting little complex, though I must say the highlight is being able to shoot real bows and arrows in the back courtyard (pictured here) for only 10 yuan for 5 arrows! Fun, even in the rain!

Like I said, lots of rain...I would have loved to see this town with bright blue skies, but oh well. It was still incredible.

Our hostel from the outside at night. I'll say some stuff about the food now. Shanxi is famous throughout China for it's various noodle and sauce dishes. While Missy and I were in Beijing, we ate at a Shanxi noodle joint called the Noodle Loft (Mian Ku), which I would highly, highly recommend. You can get a massive bowl of noodles (all different types, shapes and sizes too) for 12 Yuan (~$1.75) and then help yourself to a plethora of different, and delicious sauces. The food uses a lot of dark vinegar and tomatoes, though the sauces ranged from a very beef-gravy like thing to a very-marinara like tomato sauce. Anyway, the famous noodles are the cat's ear noodles (triangular and somewhat flat) and the very long (several meters) green noodles. In addition, Pingyao is famous for it's beef. Needless to say, while we were here, we sampled a lot of the local style dishes in the smaller cafes and restaurants sprinkled around town. This particular style of Chinese food was one of my favorites!

The city tower by night.

Many of the shops stayed open late. Notice the dry streets too; it was incredible how fast everything dried up after a day and a half of nearly constant rain! This is testament to how dry the area normally is. Overall, I would highly recommend a short stop over in Pingyao. It is a beautiful old city, and though we didn't get the chance thanks to the weather, there are supposedly many beautiful things to see in the countryside around the city. Pingyao is definitely worth about a day or two stopover.