In Beijing

Living in Beijing with the Johnston's...

We've spent the past two weeks here in Beijing, China being complete tourists and discovering the city.  We have been staying with an American family who have been living here for the past 6 years.  We are staying in the second floor of their apartment which is on the top floor of their building.  We have great views of the city (when the pollution allows).The boys have loved it because they have 2 boys, Nate and Noah, who are similar in age and love to play.  We've enjoyed it because Jenni and TJ and their Chinese friends have helped us with discovering so much about Beijing.  We have lots of great stories to share like; Alex flying kites in "secret spots" with other kite flyers, old men and women in the mornings and night in the parks dancing, sword and whip exercises, and table tennis, to experiencing the Great Wall with Lee and his Chinese friends, to ordering and eating with everyone watching us, to discovering the street nightlife and foods, to hot pot, to Zach and Alex being stopped for pictures, and so much more!!!  We've checked out so many sights here in Beijing; the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, National Galleries (both art and culture), and the Birds Nest and Water Cube at the Olympic Park.  We saw some awesome shows...a Kung Fu show and Acrobatics show and experienced hutongs all over areas of Beijing.   The food was something to acquire a taste for and we ate our fair share of noodles but it was the "delicacies" that was the most interesting.  Ask Zach, Alex or Mark about how fried scorpion on a stick tastes next time you see them!  

Now we're heading "back in time" and flying for Vancouver (going backwards in time zones).  It's a bit sad to be leaving Asia after such great adventures and experiences in Nepal, Thailand, and China.  It's always hard to say goodbye when traveling, and Zach especially never wants to leave the place we're in.  However we are looking forward to heading to Alaska and the Yukon for the month of July and our camping adventures in the wild.  

Culture Shock

Welcome to China, Major Culture Shock!

"No you tube, google, gmail, or Facebook in China as it is banned" was the first sign we saw at our hotel in Shanghai.  We are quickly noticing a big difference here in China to the other countries we've been in.   Very few people speak English and everyone expects you to speak and understand Chinese.  Everyone speaks Chinese to us and when we don't understand, they speak slower or even point to the Chinese characters as they are speaking (like we can read Chinese😳).  Finally, not too many people travel without a tour group here in China.  Things are not set up for foreigner tourists without a guide or interpreter.  Looks like it is going to be an interesting few weeks for us!  We have lots to learn!

Welcome to China

Our First Stop in China

First off, cities in China are big.  Really big!  As in lots of people and lots of skyscrapers!  We had a glimpse of Shanghai at night as we zoomed through the streets to our hotel (our taxi driver had 3 electronic devices on the go and we had an interactive tv in the taxi).  We were staying in the Bund area where so many of the really tall skyscrapers are, and at night they are all lit up and the skyline is amazing!  It was really cool.  In the morning we navigated our way around the area and were in awe of the huge structures.  Check out a you tube video of the top ten skyscrapers and you'll see two in the top ten in Shanghai.  Also, another was being built that dwarfed the biggest one!  We found a food market to try out our first meal in China.  Seeing that everything was in Chinese and nobody spoke in English, it was a bit of a guessing game as to what we were eating.  Mostly, everything we had tasted was fishy even though we thought we were in a noodle shop.  Finally, we ended our day with a high speed train to Beijing!  It was pretty impressive to be travelling so fast through the countryside (although nothing really seemed to be "country, as in rural" as one city just morphed into another).  The most interesting part was a 5-10 km section where there must have been 100 skyscrapers all at the same stage of being built, all with cranes hovering over them, just one after another.  Our hosts that we are staying with here in Beijing tell us that is normal to see here in China, as it might be a new city being "built"!  Now we have a few weeks to settle in and discover Beijing, the capital city of China (with over 20 million people).

Pictures of Thailand

 The beautiful sunsets from our beach in Koh Samui

 We loved Thai food!  Pad Thai was a favourite

 Beach time and seeking out the shade to rest from the 44 degree heat each day.

 The boys favourite drinks...smoothies at every meal!

 Touring around Koh Tao for snorkelling

 Finding secluded beaches via our water taxi for snorkelling and lunch

 Koh Tao, our favourite island.  This was the view from our bungalow.

 Koh Tao beach where there was amazing snorkelling.  Views of our bungalow from the beach.

 Alex loved to make sandcastles each morning - the beach right at our place in Koh Samui.

 The monkeys that woke us up while camping in Angthong National Marine Park.

 Zach learning Muay Thai.

 Views from the top of the island of Angthong National Marie Park

 Climbing up to the top for views!  Hot and humid and steep.

 Zach getting his tattoo on the beach.

 We love Thailand.

 Playing in the waves is a great way to cool off.

Even roosters travel in style in Thailand...returning to Koh Samui on the ferry.

Our Top Five

Our Top Five 

We're waiting at the airport now to head off to Shanghai, China.  We had so many favourite moments to write about during our island time here in Thailand that we each put together a top 5 list to share.  Here you go....our top five....

Alex

5. Getting a gecko tattoo on the beach 

4. Building giant sandcastles each morning 

3. Swimming with sharks

2. Monkeys everywhere in Angthong 

And ...

1. Fresh coconuts every day

Zach

5.  Tattoo on the beach

4.  Driving the scooter

3.  OREO smoothies at SOM restaurant

2.  Seeing sharks

And ...

1.  Muay Thai lessons!

Mark

5.  Fisherman's Market

4.  7 "fried" egg breakfast

3.  Cool hiding coral (turbinaria coral?)

2.  View from the top of Angthong 

And ...

1.  Snorkelling with the sea turtle

Jenn

5.  Travelling to all beaches and markets scooter style!

4.  All Thai food...restaurants and street food

3.  Walking down our beach to get our dinners in sunset

2.  Thai massages on the beach

And...

1.  Koh Tao...everything!

Happy Birthday, Thai Island Style

Happy Birthday, Thai Island Style!

We set off at the end of May for some snorkelling and more beach fun in Koh Tao.  It's a smaller island in the Gulf of Thailand, about a 3 hour ferry ride from Koh Samui.  We ended up staying in a beautiful bay named Aow Leuk.  The white beach, crystal clear water with varying shades of blue, coral reefs on both sides, Shark Island in the background, and a perfect bungalow (complete with hammock!) overlooking the surf and rocks made it a perfect spot to spend my birthday.  We hired a long tail water taxi one day to take us to all the best snorkelling spots around the island. During our first stop our driver told us to go quick to see the sharks.  I asked him if they'd be little sharks and his response was, "yeah, big sharks" and then turned around and mumbled, "big, big sharks".  We just looked at each other, but then jumped in!  Zach spotted 3 black tipped reef sharks immediately!  It was so cool!  We had great snorkelling all day and even some cliff jumping for the boys.  In our bay we saw lots of fish (grouper, barracudas, longfin bannerfish, pink anemone fish, puffer fish, and tons of coral fish of all colours), stunning coral, more sharks, and Mark got to see a Hawksbill Turtle on one of his early morning snorkels.  Last night we feasted on all our favourite Thai dishes to end my birthday.  We're headed back now to Koh Samui for a few days before heading to another island, Angthong National Marine Park for a day or two.  Island life seems to suit us all and will be very hard to leave!