A sack of wood chips and a second story bathroom

We went on a 3 day horse trek to a place called Ice Mountain. The scenery was amazing and riding a horse seemed waaaay better than walking up the mountain. Basically all we had to do was stay on the horse and our guides did the rest. That proved difficult enough sometimes, as the trail was often muddy and we crossed a river about 20 times. However, no one fell off and apart from just generally freezing our butts off, there were no injuries either. Supposedly during the summer time, people usually stay in tents. We were fortunate enough to get to stay in a Tibetan home in a small village about 3 hours from Ice Mountain. We were soooo thankful that we would be out of the cold that we really didn't expect much in the way of beds. We figured we would be sleeping on the floor, which was fine with us since it was shielded from the wind. Imagine our surprise and utter delight when they showed us to our beds! We couldn't believe it! I was practically jumping for joy because I wouldn't have to sleep on the ground. We started to get into our beds, and that's when we noticed some interesting details about our bedding...

Hbf's bed was actually a piece of plywood with a layer of carpet on it. I fared a little better, as mine had a 1 inch mattress on the plywood. My bedding consisted of a light sleeping bag (Hbf wasn't lucky enough to get one), a Tibetan coat (think long, heavy jacket) and the canvas bags that doubled as saddle bags on our ride (read: it wreaked like horse). My pillow was a crumpled up piece of canvas. Funny thing is, my bed was voted the best. Hbf also had the same bedding as me minus the sleeping bag, but his pillow was a sack of wood chips. The English guy with us didn't even get a pillow. But hey, the beds were warm, and I even had a kitty curl up with me through out the night to keep me extra cozy.

I figured the house didn't have a regular toilet, so I tried not to think about what I was going to have to do to relieve myself. However, I was the first who had to go and the boys made me ask where the bathroom was. The host pointed to a door, and I bravely walked in, expecting the worst (a pile of waste maybe?) The bathroom was an enclosed deck on the second floor and in the middle of the deck, there was a hole cut out. And that was the bathroom. I flashed my light down the hole and sure enough, it went straight down to the yard with no pipe or chute to guide it to a destination. It was just a hole. It was actually one of the nicer squat toilets because the products were so far away (2 stories below) and there was no smell. I was quite happy with it until the next morning when I saw people had missed the hole. There was no light in the bathroom so I think they had difficulty with their aim in the dark.

All in all, it was a good trip. The last day was quite rough on me but I survived. Maybe someday I'll even be able to talk about it.. We're off to Chengdu at the crack of dawn tomorrow to see some pandas. Hooray!

Does sunblock come in soap?

We conquered The Jiuz today. Jiuzhaigou is known as China's Yosemite, and it lived up to its name. The place was just amazing, with the clearest water I have ever seen. The lakes had every shade of blue and green in them and would not have been out of place in the Caribbean. The Juiz is long though, about 20 miles. We didn't walk all of it, but we prolly walked about 15 miles. I have my withered up feet to prove it.

We've started the malaria pills since we are moving on to more rural areas. The pills are an antibiotic, and they have the following side effects: skin is more sensitive to sunlight, yeast infections, may make birth control ineffective, oh aaaaaand, it may give you nightmares. The side effect I'm mainly concerned about is nightmares, so we have started taking them with breakfast in hopes that no scary monsters will chase us 16 hours later. I have my share of night terrors without the pills, but so far so good. As some of you may know, I am very very white. Some call it pale, I call it pure. Anyways, I was out in the clouded sun for not even 5 minutes yesterday and lo and behold! My cheeks are aflame come night time. I got sunburned in like 2 minutes because of these pills. Ok I know some of you aren't very surprised, but I am! And I'm pissed! I'm going to have to bathe in 50 spf every day before I can step into sunlight. Maybe I should become a vampire. But I'll leave that career option open until I get back from this trip.

It's been 10 days now. What ever family member had 10 days in the 'How long will Booty last' pool loses! I'm not coming home quite yet and I just had a delicious dinner of toast, eggs and hot chocolate. I can find beige things to eat everywhere! My stomach may be a mess right now, but it will even out. I bought some medicine today and communicating with the pharmicist was a bit rough. I'm either supposed to take 1 pill at 6 in the morning, or 6 pills through out the day. I hope I choose the right one..

We're off to Songpan tomorrow for a horseback riding trek. I know my sister would love this and I wish she could be here! Apparently the guides set up camp for you and cook 3 meals a day. Basically all we have to do is stay on the horse and we are golden. I can't vouch for Hbf but I'm pretty sure I can handle that. I'll make sure to get pictures when he falls off. Or when I throw things at him to startle his horse and then he falls off. ;) I kid.

And I thought Hbf could be disgusting..

Before I begin my shining reviews of all the things I've seen and places we've been, I need to take a turn to Negative Town for just a minute. There are some things that have just been bothering me and Hbf tunes me out when I start talking about them. Debby Downer, he calls me. And I say Hey Positive Pete, someone needs to keep us real. My first gripe is with the beds. They are sooooo hard! It's like sleeping on pavement with a sheet laid down on it. There's no way to sleep on your side unless you want hip dysplasia in 2 days. Good thing they have massages for cheap here or else I think I would be stiff and sore until we get to Vietnam. The second problem I have is with the Chinese people and their seemingly never ending need to hock loogies and shoot snot rockets WHEREVER they are. Outside, in a restaurant, on a train! There's no place where you won't hear or see someone spitting, blowing, or coughing whatever the hell they have in their throats up. If I ever get hungry, I only have to wait about 2 minutes and someone will begin hacking up a lung right next to me. Instant appetite suppressant. I guess the government is trying to discourage the behavior, which scares me. What would it be like if they weren't discouraging it? I shudder to think. And throw up in my mouth a little bit. That being said, there is one more thing that disgusts me more than the loogies. I have what some would consider a freakishly good sense of smell. For better or worse, I can smell almost everything, and do, especially before eating it. Walking around China, especially Datong, I have smelled the worst possible smells ever known to mankind. Now, I know my little brother is thinking, no way! We once smelled this toilet in Spain that was really bad. We crawled around on the floor gagging and coughing, trying to spit out any remnants . But to him I say, um yeah.. this is like a Billion times worse. That's a capital B. At first Hbf didn't notice it, which proved my theory that he had no sense of smell. I thought for sure no person on earth could ignore these smells. Each time I got a whiff, I wanted to throw up, then curl up in a little ball and die. But then the next second it would be gone and I would decide that I want to live after all. In Datong though, Hbf started to notice the smells. We went on a walk through the town, only to find out we were on the foulest smelling street in the city. I had my nose in my shirt, breathing through my mouth and I could even taste it. Luckily I just ate or I don't think I could even be writing about this stuff. I'm not sure what the hell those smells are, but it may be a mix of dead animals, poop and rotting food. That's just a guess though. Apparently the Chinese have no sense of smell because no one notices. I didn't see anyone gagging or covering their noses like we were.. These smells must have singed off their nose hairs and destroyed their odor sensors by the time they were toddlers. Alright, enough of my detour. I've got that out of my system and I am back on track. We are in Xi'an now and so far, so good. Tomorrow we see the terracotta warriors and we will also be enjoying some hot springs. I'm hoping there is a no spitting sign in the pools..

Where are all the big dogs?

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.. There were a lot of firsts yesterday. Don't fall out of your chair, but yesterday I ate my first authentic Chinese meal... wait for it.. with Chopsticks! I actually got some in my mouth too! We were on a tour at the Great Wall and they fed us this extravagant lunch with 9 different dishes and I actually liked 4 out of the 9. I couldn't get any of the rice in my mouth with the chopsticks, so I ended up using my soup spoon to shovel it in. However, I ate everything else with chopsticks although my form fell apart early. I adapted well though, and I give myself 4 out of 5 stars for effort. I lost a star for using the soup spoon for something other than soup. Another 1st came about 12 hours later and I lost the bet as to who would get sick first. They call it Montezuma's Revenge in Mexico.. I guess here it would be called Mao's Revenge.
We bought our first souvenirs yesterday. Or rather, I begged hbf to buy me an I <3 Beijing shirt and a watch that has Mao waving on the face, and he conceded. It wasn't easy, but I'm not one to give up when it comes to hbf buying me things, ESPECIALLY when it's a watch that has Mao waving to me whenever I look at the time. The I <3 Beijing shirt was the only shirt I found with Chinese characters on it so I just had to have it.
Sunday morning we went to a park where tons of people gathered to sing, dance, and squat thrust together (no joke). It was like walking into the book 1984, except everyone had a smile on their face and seemed to enjoy the camaraderie. Since they were all speaking mandarin, I couldn't distinguish if they were actually talking in Newspeak, but it wouldn't surprise me.. Actually, that park was such a pleasure to be in. Happy noises filled the atmosphere and all the dancers and singers looked like they truly enjoyed their craft. But of course, Big Brother is always watching.. Right?
We are leaving Beijing today for the west and hopefully it will be less expensive. A cool wind has blown the smog away for the last couple of days so we were able to actually see the sun! We didn't think it would happen, but apparently the wind gods had mercy and did us a favor. It really is a beautiful city even though you can't see 100 yards in front of you. I have noticed an alarming trend though. There are only small dogs here in Beijing. I have seen probably 20 dogs, and none of them have been bigger than a miniature poodle. Is that because the small ones have no delicious meat on their body? They are all tendon and bone and not worth the effort to cook, apparently. I had read that over 120 restaurants took dog off the menu for the Olympics, but we couldn't find out whether they had put it back on the menu yet. I suppose they have.. I should probably be memorizing the most important sentence in our phrase book: I don't eat dog.

Don't Get Crabs*

*Parting words from my mom on my first phone call to the rents from Beijing. Wise words from a wise lady, indeed. I can definitely say with all honesty I will do my best not to get crabs. But things happen, ya know?

We made it to Beijing unscathed. I thought for sure there would be some sort of hitch in our travel but it went very smoothly. I popped my pills and slept blissfully through the flight, finally waking up to the rich aroma of a Cup o' Noodle with chopsticks shoved in it. Apparently this is what passes for a hot meal on Air Canada, but I can't complain. Who doesn't love Cup o' Noodle? If it's beige, I'm into it. As far as meals go, I haven't had the best luck. The first night I had butter cookies and jerky (Thank you lord for hbf bringing the jerky!). Yesterday, meals consisted of sweet rolls, rice, minestrone soup (spicy tomato water?) and bread. I am still alive and I still have energy so I am calling that a success.

Beijing is a hot mess of buildings, people, cars and bikes. We decided we wanted to flirt with death so we rented bicycles and rode all around the city yesterday. I think my mouth was gaping open 95% of the time. It is just so different from anything I have ever seen before. There is old world, chinese architecture side by side high rise buildings. There are motorcycles in the bike lanes, along with scooters, rickshaws, and people walking. Luckily all the bikes come with an annoying bell so you can incessantly alert people to your approach. Not that they move out of the way or even look back, but if they get in your way, you don't have to feel bad because you rang your bell.

We toured the Forbidden City yesterday, which was truly amazing. It's HUGE! I kind of want my house to look like the Hall of Supreme Harmony. There were rich greens and vivid blues, along with gold dragons painted everywhere. If it's good enough for some emperors, it's good enough for the princess. We walked all over the Forbidden City, and hbf didn't need to drag me around once. It's early though.

So, just a side note. Both facebook and my blog site are blocked by China. No facebook you say?! I don't want to live!! What will I do without Mafia Wars?! But then I remembered that I'm traveling around SE Asia for the next 6 months and I came down off the ledge. I am emailing my blog entries to a certain Venezuelan yogini and she will be posting them for me. Thanks a bunch, my dear! I hope to be back on facebook and posting my own blog entries when we get to Vietnam, but that isn't for awhile.

Packing, Unpacking and Packing Again

It's the calm before the storm. Tomorrow morning is the beginning of possibly the greatest adventure in my life, but I'm hoping there will be more opportunities like this in the future. Hbf finally made it to Oregon, sans his beautiful dark curls, but his hair was getting so long that my mom thought he looked like a terrorist. I guess it was best he cut them off because I don't think he is a fan of cavity searches (I think?).

I've gotten a lot of the same questions while seeing friends and family in the past couple of days. Am I nervous? No, I don't think so. I mean, my insides are constantly quivering with anticipation and there's always a lump in my throat. But nervous? No. Way. What am I going to eat? Well, I'm not sure. Hbf likes to laughingly tell me I'll eventually eat dog, but then I slap him in the face and he stops laughing. I think I'll eat a lot of rice. I'll also search out any kind of bread I can find. But, there is a slight chance I'll open my mind (and mouth) and taste something different. It really depends on how hungry I get and how desperate I am. Never say never, I suppose, but I really want to say I'll never eat bugs, dogs or innards of any kind. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. And finally, what is our first destination? Beijing! The Forbidden City, the Great Wall, Beijing has it all.

The rest of the day will be filled with packing, my least favorite thing to do. There's something about trying to choose the 4 shirts I will live in for the next 6 months that makes me want to take a nap. Our plane leaves at 7 AM and I don't really think I will get much sleep tonight. My mind doesn't like to quiet down when there is something epic on the horizon. Don't worry though! I have pills to force sleep on the plane. Everybody wins!