Back in Business

 Hello all!  Since we couldn't give you a lot of info about our China segment (other than the Great Wall and Hong Kong pics), here's what we've been up to since the last post.  In Hong Kong, we took the Peak Tram to the highest point in the city....a hill used as a vantage point during WWII....also ingeniously named "The Peak."  It was foggy, but the view was pretty incredible and really shows the size of this massive city!  From there, we took a train to Guangzhou and decided to stay for 2 days before heading to Guilin.  We were amazed to find out it's almost as large as Beijing..20 million people live here!  We found ourselves at the top of the Four Season Hotel (located at the top of the second tallest building in the city) on the 70th floor and had another amazing view.  Unfortunately, we managed to forget all of our 4 picture taking devices! We stayed in a hostel located in a family home and were invited to eat dinner with them.  Rice, thin potatoes, stewed duck (spicy!) and cabbage was on the menu and it was wonderful.  Ashley also got her first haircut on the trip!  Only $5 and it came with a lovely scalp/shoulder massage!  Next came the overnight train to Guilin (another first for Ash) and that was an experience.  Apparently it is socially "OK" to smoke and spit (not just on the train-everywhere).  We arrived in Guilin and first impressions were not so great.  But, after walking around and finding the scenic area, the town started to grow on us.  We rented an apartment- ignore the mess in the pictures, we were packing to leave!  It was a small studio with a lofted bed and once we figured out how the heat, hot water, washing machine and hot plate worked, it grew on us too!  Most exciting was the hot water...which worked through a battery powered gas heater. Yeah, weird.  You turned the gas tank on, then turned on the water faucet.  I guess the water flow ignites the flame in the water heater and it goes BOOM!  Seriously, a small explosion occurred every time we needed hot water.  One time it even rattled a window upstairs off of its hinges!  The city of Guilin is in a beautiful part of the country, but we suggest not going in winter.  The fog and rain made it difficult to see the gorgeous mountains and rivers that you see on the post cards.  Nevertheless, we saw Elephant Trunk Hill, the Prince's Palace, and Solitary Beauty Peak which were great!  There was also a fabulous food street/alley where we found a great Indian Restaurant! On Tuesday we took a 6 hour train to Nanning to catch the 10 hr train to Hanoi, Vietnam.  We sprang for the soft sleeper this time!  Our sleep was a little interrupted because of customs/border checks at midnight and 1am, but we made it to Hanoi at 4:30am!  We checked into our hotel and explored the city, but those adventures will come later!  Enjoy the pictures from our China Adventure!


Who would've guessed this was at the top of The Peak in Hong Kong?!

                                                                                                                      Pagodas in Guilin

Out of China, back to real internet!

Hey everyone! We have made it out of China and are now in Vietnam. China has a very strict social media block on all internet servers so we have not been able to update the blog for about two weeks. Vietnam has no such block so get ready for lots and lots of blog posts about China! Just a heads up and we hope everyone had a great New Years!
Ashley and Derek

Not Quite China, but Close: Hong Kong

Hong Kong is crazy... Crazy cool, crazy fun and definitely crazy expensive. But, we are still managing to have some fun! Today we saw both The Hobbit AND Les Miserables... For those of you who haven't seen them, go! We strolled around the largest mall (on that side of the bay) and I (Ashley) bought a new shirt from H&M! We found a great (and cheap) breakfast place that serves a soup made from onion broth, macaroni noodles, egg and ham.  Sounds weird, but it's good.  Even McDonald's serves it!  We saw the sun setting over the bay last night...almost blinding when it reflects off the thousands of skyscrapers lining the horizon.  One of the most humbling moments hit us the other day in Beijing:  The population of the city of Beijing is over 22 million people. The population of the entire state of SC is 4.6 million.  Pretty wild.  Welcome to China, the land where everything is over the top and larger than life!

"Nihao"

                                            Frozen river/moat around the Forbidden City!

Hello or nihao from China!  Boy is it freezing here....wind chill is around 10 degrees!! We were finally able to access our blog from over here and wanted to update everyone about our Chinese adventures!  We landed on Friday around 5 am (we managed to skip Thursday due to the time change..yay for our budget haha!) After settling at the hostel, we ventured out and had some dumplings and soup for breakfast.  Then we saw Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City, which was amazing.  It's so big!  We mistakenly came back to our room to 'rest.'  I closed my eyes for one minute and the next thing I knew it was dark outside...Whoops!  Yesterday we woke up and went to the Great Wall with our two roommates.  The roads were a bit icy so the public buses weren't running. We took a cab and fortunately, there were hardly any tourists at the wall so we got some fabulous pictures!!  We then toured the Olympic area, went to a night market that sells normal food (starfish, seahorses, scorpions and snake to name a few!), walked around a huge mall and finally called it a night with a big glass of beer!  We stayed up till 10pm last night, woohoo!  Today is New Years Eve and we'll see what we can find to do....the worldwide new year is not nearly as celebrated as the Chinese New Year, which is Feb. 10 this year so there are no major fireworks or parties, but I'm sure we can find something! Enjoy these few pictures...more will come in the next few days. Off to Hong Kong on Wednesday!!

                                                  Forbidden City

                                                                Beautiful details!!

                                                    Check out the height of some of the steps!

                                                    A view of the mountains from the Great Wall

                                       If you're not careful.....steepest stairs we've ever seen!

                                                                         We made it!!

Off to China!!

Alright folks, it's that time again! We are headed into Guatemala City tonight so we won't have to go far to catch our flight to LA at 6:40am. We then have a lovely 14 hour layover in LA, but no worries, we have lots of things to mail home and we're going to see a movie (or two or three). We have even found a nearby hostel so we can shower before our flight to Beijing at midnight! Because of the Internet restrictions in china, we aren't sure if we can access the blog and Skype... But you will get emails from us for sure! We love you all and can't wait to share this really,really new experience! Time for some culture shock!

"It's the End of the World As We Know It"

Well, what do you know? It's December 21 and we're still here!  While in Tikal we asked if the gods would please hold off on the whole "ending the world" thing for a few thousand years.  Guess they agreed, your welcome.  Ha, well in any case, our trip to Tikal was pretty amazing.  You don't realize how huge some of these temples are until you are there.  To think it was all done by hand thousands of years ago is mind blowing! (unless you subscribe to the alien assistance theory) We spent 8 hours in the park walking around, under and over some of these structures and took some fabulous photos of the monuments and a few animal friends....take a look and see for yourself!

 Derek thought it would be funny to give me a "temple hat."

Antigua and Lake Atitlan

So we've changed the blog again! We know the previous format wasn't working for everyone so hopefully this will be like the original!  Below are a few pictures of Antigua and Lake Atitlan.  We had a wonderful 2 day side trip to one of the deepest lakes in the world and went horseback riding and kayaking! Click See More below to view the rest of the photos!!

Derek’s first haircut overseas

So I have traveled a good amount, but never long enough to need a haircut. Most of the time I just shave my hair off (much to the dismay of my family) so I don’t have to deal with it when traveling. Sadly however, Ashley would not want to be seen with me in public if I had a shinny, bald head, so I knew that sooner or later I would need to get a haircut.

The Mighty Mt. Chirripo (a long story)

***Disclaimer:  Though mostly true, parts of this adventure have been exaggerated for your entertainment purposes!

Once upon a time in Costa Rica, there were three young heroes who decided to prove to everyone how tough they were by conquering the mighty mountain of Chirripo. Now, normally a mountain would not be a challenge for the fit young heroes, because after all, they grew up in very mountainous areas, such as Charleston and Holland. What is the tallest mountain in Costa Rica compared Mt. Pleasant, SC… nothing they thought! One thing they didn’t realize is that Mt. Chirripo is the tallest mountain in all of Central America…much taller than the mountain in Mt. Pleasant.

Our Apartment in Antigua!

Pretty crazy we have posted 3 times today...that's what happens we we actually have internet!!  We found this adorable apartment about 5 blocks from the center of Antigua.  We also found out the other day that the 'blocks' here are much larger than those we're used to in the US, but we are still within an easy walking distance from everything in town without having to hear the noise.  We wake up the sounds of birds and wind and have the most gorgeous view from our balconies.  Not sure we are going to want to leave....check out the ceilings!