Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou to Songpan

Let me start by taking back a little of what I said on the last post. Since leaving Beijing, we have run into some very nice people. In the "smaller" city of Chendu (9.1 million) we had a man intoduce himself in the middle of the road as an English speaker (we obviously looked lost). He proceeded to read the piece of paper that we had printed on in Kanji "Please take us to the massage center" (Only 15 Yuan/hour - It was no Scheiman but then again it was less than $2.00 to have someone touch my body for an hour:) for the taxi driver. The taxi driver didn't know of any in the area but the guy took us by the hand and brought us to one within walking distance. After he set us up there, he gave us his business card and told us to call us if we needed any more help. Most everyone outside of Beijing has been friendly so I liken it to a tourist perhaps going to New Yory City. Not to say that New Yorkers aren't nice, it's just that everyone seems to move a little faster in the big cities. I think that Tokyo is one of those rare exceptions.

Since leaving Xian (18 hour overnight sleeper train),

we went to Chengdu and visited the Panda Research Center.

and quickly headed north again to Jiuzhaigou (12 hour overnight bus) which is China's version of Yosemite. The scenery was beautiful (crystal clear blue lakes and waterfalls) and we caught it as the leaves were changing.

From there, we headed south (3 hours by bus) to Songpan where we did a 2 day horse trekking trip. We saw it all as far as weather was concerned (light snow on day 1 and clear blue skies on day 2). The scenery was great there and back but Erin and I agree that the time in between could have been better spent (it was freezing - our water bottles were frozen solid when we woke up the next morning).


We head to another national park tomorrow and will have some pictures up of that next time. Here are some pictures of the Great Wall and Xian that we didn't get up last time and some odds and ends.

FMP

Beijing and Xian China

We got into Beijing on Monday evening of this past week and immediately realized that China was very different from Japan. 1.3 billion people and they all seem to be right in front of us. The culture, although not rude, is not as friendly/polite as we had just experienced in Japan (no offense to any of our Chinese bretheren) and our lack of mandarin has proved to be quite a barrier. From the public bus en route to our youth hostile, we got off at the wrong stop, flagged down a taxi and luckily managed our way (almost through sign language) to get dropped off within walking distance of our place. We spent the night in our first dorm room (oh how we were spoiled in Tokyo with the Nagashimas) and found that it is not as inexpensive as we had hoped. Beds are anywhere between 60 to 80 Yuan per person in the dorms and our first Room in Xian cost us 170 Yuan (8 Yuan to the dollar). The food however has been very good and very much the opposite from Tokyo. Our breakfast this morning of tea, omelets, seafood fried rice and toast cost us only 35 Yuan.

We spent 3 days in Beijing and visited the Forbidden City and of course the Great Wall of China. We hiked a section which, because of it's location, is not frequented by many tourists. So we basically had that section of the wall to ourselves. It was only a 10K wall but it took nearly 5 hours as the wall was very steep in sections. It was truly 'GREAT'! We rented bikes one day and cruised the streets with the locals. Again, with 1.3 billion people in front of you, things felt hairy! We left for Xian on an overnight sleeper where we had tight accommodations on the top bunk. Got to Xian the next morning at 7 AM to quickly jump on a tour bus for a visit to the Army of Terracotta Warriors. Very impressive. We're off on another overnight sleeper (22 hours) to visit Chengdu. Until next time.

FMP

Have to run but here are 3 pics of the Forbidden City.

Konicihwa from Tokyo

Tokyo is a quite a contrast coming from a month in Micronesia and we have enjoyed every minute of it. But before I go any further, we would like to thank the Nagashima family (Shoji-san, Hitmoi, Moto-san,

Ki-san, Yuko-san, and Ao-san)

from the very bottom of our hearts. Our week would not have been the same as their hospitality was unparalled. Although we never met prior, they took us in to their homes and treated us as if we were old friends. Then they fed us, chaparoned us all over town and woke us each morning with breakfast and presents! We
have NEVER met anyone so kind and generous. We hope to return the favor when they come to visit us but in the meantime, please accept our gratitude. Domo arigato gozaimasu.

Tokyo is unlike any city that I have ever been to as it has all of the modern features

that one would expect from a 1st world metropolis, yet it still retains some of its old traditions and customs. For example, the train/subway system
is extensive, extremely punctual (we were told that trains run every 2 mins on weekdays and every 5 minutes on weekends) and can become overcrowded during rush hour (at certain stations, there are employees who's job is to push willing people into already jam packed trains so that the doors may close) . Yet, the trains remain very clean and during many of our shoulder to shoulder rides, you could almost hear a pin drop. Most people are respectful of other poeple's space so they make an effort not to talk too loud and definitely look down on talking on your cell phone in public places. Hopefully you get my parallel of modern
meets tradition
but maybe it's better that I say that they are just more respectful of others as a whole. We took a couple of day trips to Kamakura and Nikko to visit world heritage temples and shrines


and also went to the happiest place on earth - Tokyo Disneyland.

Erin was extremely happy about that. The other days were spent walking around the various districts to shop and people watch, visiting an onsen (public bath/spa) , participating in a tea ceremony, watching Kabuki theater, cruising the river, eating the local and traditional delacacies

and were lucky enough to witness the end of a traditional Japanese wedding on 2 separate occassions.

A week was not enough so we will definitely be back. Until then, sayonara. Off to Beijing tomorrow (10/17). Thank you to all of our friends and family that have visited the blog and sent us comments/emails along the way. It is ALWAYS great to hear from home and to keep a pulse on how you are all doing.

FMP

Palau - Eat, Sleep & Dive!!

That's pretty much what we've been doing for the last week. Palau is a "must do" under water playground for all you diving enthusiasts. With 4-5 dives per day, we saw everything from schooling barracuda to sea turtles, leaf fish and stingless jelly fish . We even spotted the mantas that we missed in Yap (unfortunately a little too far away for a photo op). We'll let the pictures do the talking. Out of our 2 weeks in Palau, the first was spent on land in Koror (A huge thanks to Junior Aten for letting us crash at your place and truck use and to Rose Kohama for your huge help while we were land based). We visited the nearby Ngardmau Water Falls and did an overnight kayaking camping trip on one of the many deserted beaches in the Rock Islands. The second week was on the Palau Aggressor live-a-board dive boat. We're off to Tokyo tonight (Sunday 10/9). Hope you are all doing well! We were also able to include a few photos from Yap that didn't make it onto our last posting.


The elusive mandarin fish - The Palau Aggressor II and Erin at the foot of the Ngardmau waterfalls.


Colorful soft corals at night - Scorpion Fish and schooling jack fish.

"Stitches" The resident Napoleon Wrasse, the Morrone family who put us up for the night in Guam & poolside at Yap Divers.

Mnuw restaurant at Yap Divers Resort, juvenile emperor fish & "selves" portrait while waiting for manta's in Yap.

Our private Idaho, crocodile fish & sea turtle.

Can you see the scorpion fish? Lion fish

Barracuda, Rock Arch &white and black leaf fish.

Grey reef shark with Bhoyet "da best dibe guide eber" in the background and Jelly Fish Lake.