The Great Wall

We got an early start this morning. We signed up to do a five hour hike on one of the more secluded parts of the Great Wall. As we approached the place where our hike would start, I noticed some strangely shaped jagged mountains. It wasn't until we were close up that I realized that the jagged "mountains" was actually the lines of the wall on top of the mountain range. Now, maybe it's just me, but I always pictured the Great Wall to be one big, relatively uniform wall cutting evenly across the mountains. I was surprised and amazed to see that it actually follows the contours of the mountain. It is incredible to see (and to think about how LONG it must have taken to make it).

There were 32 towers between where we started and where we ended. The towers aren't too fancy, but they do mark the top of the hills, which were steep. Jayde kept complaining that all the climbing was making her ill. This made it a little difficult to completely enjoy the scenery, but I had to agree with her that it was a LOT of climbing. I consider myself to relatively fit, but I was definitely winded. Some of the towers are just straight up stairs, others probably should have stairs.

The first half of the wall had been restored and looked completely intact. It wasn't until we reached the second half of the wall, which is slowly crumbling, that we realized how much work had been done to the first half. Some of the peaks were impassable and we had to detour around them.

Now, China may be a communist country, but its inhabitants sure have the capitalist system down. There were some very enterprising people making a lot of money on that not-so-short hike. We were warned by people who had done the hike before not to let any of the people who volunteered to "guide" (it is pretty hard to get lost . . . you follow the very large wall) you for free not to walk with you. After trying to discretely "lose" her several times, we politely told a woman following us that we really wanted to enjoy the wall by ourselves. At the midway mark, we saw several other people guilted into paying a lot of money for overpriced souveniers from the free guides crying that they had walked all this way, "Won't you please buy something? Not just a postcard. I have walked so far!" Also, we had to buy a ticket to walk from the beginning to the middle of the wall, from the middle to the end of the wall, and to cross a bridge between the end of the wall and where we met our bus.

All-in-all, it was still worth it. There is no doubt in my mind why the the Great Wall of China is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It's breathtaking (literally).

The Olympics are ruining Beijing

After the long ride to Beijing, we had a LONG night in a full hostel room with a sick girl. it was hard to sleep with all the puking noises. After discretely changing rooms, we went straight to the bank. While telling our sob story to the friendly people in line with us, they explained that only certain people in China can have foreign currency. That would explain why no one would take our dollars!



After a quick breakfast at the Traveler's Den, we went walked through Tiannamen Square towards the giant Chairman Mao flag to the the Forbidden City. We explored until our feet were ready to fall off. It is so huge; everything starts to look similar after the thirtieth ornate building. Our favorite part, though, was the park we got lost in while we were trying to find the Forbidden City.



Strangely, several people asked if we would take pictures with them. We were getting so used to our superstar status that when a couple asked us to take a picture of them, Jayde lit up and started to pose before realizing she wouldn't be in this picture.



We tried to shop on Quianmen St., which according to our guide is a happening street market. In addition to Mao's Tomb, and several of the buildings in the Forbidden City, the Quianmen St. Market is another victim of the Olympics. Many of the buildings had been torn down with scaffolding up the sides and huge screens with pictures of nice buildings to hide the wreckage from the street.

We were disappointed with the lack of shopping, but we made up for it later that night. Roi and Colby, two guys from Israel, took us with them to the Silk Street Market, aka Heaven! It has whole floors dedicated to high-end shoes, purses, electronics, clothes, pearls, and SO much more. To be honest, we didn't make it off the purse floor. :)

Ever After

For those of you that are interested in my life outside of my trips, please check out my (non-travel) blog: Ever After .

A week to remember

Sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled program (for those that are just tuning in, I have been posting excerpts from my journal about a trip that I took in April), but this week has been just too incredible not to write about it now. It started with an amazing opportunity from one of my clients (Thanks Bruce!) to take a Blackhawk helicopter ride. We took off right as the sun was coming up and flew through Provo Canyon. The pilots were having a lot of fun swooping, dipping, and basically making us all squeal. More than one person lost their lunch. At one point, the helicopter dropped so rapidly that I lifted off of my seat. It was like a roller coaster ride with all of the thrills but none of the safety. The view was spectacular (my pictures don’t do them justice). The snow on the mountains was a remarkable contrast to the beautiful fall leaves on the trees at the bottom. After the ride, I attended the VIP breakfast where Mary Kay Huntsman was the keynote speaker.

Although the Blackhawk ride was the experience of a lifetime, it was completely eclipsed by the life-changing moment I experienced when I came home Wednesday night. I had just finished seeing Paint Your Wagon with some friends at the Pioneer Theater and it was late. I was worried about getting everything packed before Rod and I left early the next morning for Louisiana. I forgot all about my angst, however, when I opened the front door. There was a pathway of candles leading me up the stairs. When I got to the top, there were roses everywhere and our (Rod and my) song (When You Say Nothing At All) was playing on the stereo. The pathway of candles led me to our coffee table, which had a vase full of red roses and a letter that said read me sitting below it. Without sharing this very intimate card with everyone, it basically said that the time he had spent with me had been the happiest in his life and he wanted to make sure that he got to spend the rest of his life with me. When I turned around, Rod stepped out of the dining room and got down on one knee, “Will you marry me?” I was so surprised and excited I pulled him up and just started kissing him. When we stopped, he said, “So will you?” I thought my answer had been pretty clear, but I told him that he better get down on one knee again. :) He asked me again and slipped the ring on my finger. I can’t imagine a life happier than the one that we are going to have together. I said “YES!” of course. Then I started crying and we danced to our song.


Now, believe it or not, my exciting week was not over there. Again, it was nothing compared to getting engaged to the love of my life, but on Sat. night, Rod and I went with his family to the wildest, craziest, loudest, most exciting football game: LSU v. Florida Gators. For most of the game, we were not happy campers. Florida was winning and our defense was not doing much to stop them. Rod and his brother Stephen had given up, but I never gave up hope. I think I have watched one too many inspirational football movies. I told Rod at halftime that the defense was going to get the motivational speech at half time and come back out ready to stop the Gators. Well . . . it wasn’t quite that easy, but as soon as Florida fumbled the ball, the momentum of the game changed. When they announced that USC, who was competing with LSU for first in the rankings, lost, the crowd went crazy! The clip below shows how loud it was minutes after the announcement. The crowd cheered even louder than when we scored! The real heart-attack moment, though, was when Les Miles decided to go for it on the Fourth down when the tigers were within field goal range. I knew that it was going to be either glorious or Les was going to get crucified the next day. Luckily, we got first down, made a touchdown, and managed to keep the Gators from scoring during the last 1:09. I screamed so much that I was hoarse for two days!
WHAT A WEEK!

The Long Road to China

An uncomfortable and somewhat scary encounter with the manager at our hostel made us VERY glad that this was our last day in Hong Kong. We had planned on staying longer, but the train schedule just didn't work out that way. We spent the morning shopping. Shocking, I know.

Since the train ride was supposed to be for 24 hours (it ended up being 26 hours), we splurged and got the soft sleeper cars. The cars were . . . pink, but otherwise private and comfortable. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to handle Jayde's whining for the whole trip so I gave her motion sickness pills. They knocked her right out, and gave me some time to catch up on my peace and quiet.

I was hoping for a scenic ride through the country side. Either the places around the train tracks are pretty bleak or I just slept through all the pretty places. The food was atrocious! We could not finish our first (and only) meal on the train because it so slimy/greasy. It was so bad that we opted to starve rather than eat the food. The two granola bars I had in my bad did not really tide us over.

By the next day, when we arrived in Beijing, we were tired and hungry. We caught the first cab we found. Not smart. It was gypsy cab and way overcharged us. After throwing our stuff in our lockers in the hostel, we headed out to find two things: 1) Money and 2) Food. We learned the hard way that the Chinese ATMs do not accept American ATM cards. The banks were closed. None of the restaurants accepted credit cards (or traveler's checks or American dollars). Our feet hurt, we were tired, and I could have ate a horse. Anyone who knows me, knows that this is a lethal combination. We decided to try one more restaurant before I started throwing a tantrum.

***The Traveler's Den***


Not only does this restaurant have good food and good atmosphere, it takes pity on despondent American travelers. We ate an incredible pepperoni pizza! We ended up eating there at least once a day. :)