Book Review: The Lost Symbol

Picture from here.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Set in Washington DC, this book is of a tale of murder, revenge and of course, symbolism. However, other than the new setting and a different cult to learn about, this book is the same as the rest of the Dan Brown novels. The main character, Robert Landon, gets roped into helping the CIA stop a madman in the way of deciphering codes and teaching us the way of the Masons.

I do like how I learn something about the city that the book is set in, just as I did with his other novels. I also appreciate learning about the Masons and the symbolism that is behind the Order. The plot was thrilling enough, but as I said before, if you have read any of his other books, you know what is going to happen before Landon does. However, the historical and scientific aspects are interesting.

I give this book a 3 out of 5, because it taught me something new and kept me mostly entertained. However, it was the same cookie cutter book as all the rest he has written.

Two Pees in a Pod: Part I

Taken by me in Bolivia 2008

Disclaimer: if you are adverse to potty talk or the word "ass", you may want to skip this one.

Water, Water, Everywhere: Have you ever had to pee really bad but there was no place to go? How long can you hold it? I have found out on my travels that I can hold it for a very long time. Not a very comfortable thing to do, but it is possible. There have been several multi hour bus trips where the driver doesn’t stop very often and you are not sure when he is going to stop. Then he does stop and you run around like a chicken with it’s head cut off looking for the toilet. You find a person, any person and say “toilet??” Sometimes they understand you, sometimes they don’t. You mime peeing (legs crossed, pointing at groin). Still no response. You squat down on the ground. Maybe then they begin to understand.

The other day I was on a 2 hour boat ride with no facilities. Right after breakfast and two cups of coffee. It was like, “water water everywhere but not a….” place to pee! I contemplated (many times) asking the skipper to stop so I could jump in the ocean to pee. I was that desperate. Of course the fact that there IS water everywhere does not make it any easier to hold it either. I made it to the dock, but then did the aforementioned chicken dance.

Urinating in Public: I am from the mountains and sometimes you have to pee on a bush, but sometimes in other countries, you don’t even get a bush to pee on. I was in Vietnam a few years ago on a loooong (25 hours) bus ride and the bus never stopped. I had to go to the bathroom so bad. Finally the bus driver pulled over on the side of the highway and all the locals on the bus ran out and began to pee on the side of the road. I knew it was my only chance, so I too, bared my ass to the locals and did what I had to do.

This is not the only time this has happened. In Mozambique, a similar thing happened. The bus pulls over and I hear the driver say (and excuse me; my Portuguese is really Spanish), “senhoras, aca; senhores, alla” and everyone got off the bus. The ladies went to the back and the men went to the front. Just like that. Bare assed on the side of the road again.

In Bolivia, I was in a high plain area, I think it was about 16,000 feet. For some reason high altitude makes me have to go a lot! I tried to hold it but alas, it was not to be. “Senor” I said, “necessito ir al bano!” (thank goodness for 9th grade Spanish!) He pulled over and I showed my ass to all the Bolivians.

The best and most recent public wee was in China where “public restroom” takes another meaning. There are no partitions, only a row of 3 or 4 holes in the ground. You squat down next to your fellow woman and do what you have to do, right there in front of everyone. I was really nervous about peeing on my shoes in front of everyone; I was not as nervous (anymore!) about showing them my bum.

When in doubt, use the…Urinal?: Yup, I once had to use a urinal. Even better was that this was a “bathroom” with only three walls so when you are standing at the urinal, your back shows. Luckily I had a sarong and a friend to hold it up against the opening, acting like a 4th wall. How does this work, you may wonder. Well if you pull your pants all the way down and kind of straddle the urinal, its not really that bad at all. I was worried about peeing on my leg, but I narrowly escaped that fate.

Where is the weirdest place you have had to use the bathroom? What has been your most difficult pee story?

Books! (A list)

books!
Originally uploaded by kyria!

Note: if you have this in your reader twice, it's because for some reason blogger decided to post this before I was done. So, this one is the real one; the other one was just a draft! 

I wanted to keep a list of the books I have read this year. I may update this every few months. So, as of today, here are the books I have read so far. Like I have said before, when I am on the road, I pretty much read whatever I can get my hands on in English...so excuse me if they are a little strange! I put stars behind the ones I have not or probably will not review (based on 5 star system: 1 - bad, 2 - okay, 3 - good, 4 - very good, 5 - excellent)

January:
Blink - Malcolm Gladwell (review here)
The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown (review on its way)
Big Cherry Holler - Adriana Trigiani **
The Mummy - Anne Rice ***
Twilight - Stephanie Meyer *** (finally read it and surprisingly like it!)
Love Rosie - Cecilia Ahern *** (beach read - romance, fluff etc)
Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts (review to come)

February:
Stories We Could Tell - Tony Parsons **
The Essence of the Thing - Madeline St John **

As you can see, I have slowed down in February. The last two were pretty unexciting and then I tried to read a fantasy book and there were so many names and places and I had no idea what they were talking about. So finally, against my will, I quit in the middle and gave it to a used book store. Seriously. Gave it. They wouldn't even buy it back! It was that bad. And I almost never quit a book, no matter how bad it is.

What I am reading now:
Around Africa on My Bicycle - Riaan Manser
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (a FREE ebook from Amazon!)

Additional Note: AubrieAnne over at Who's Your Editor is doing a Bookmark Break Challenge 2011 where you list all the books you read this year. You can find the complete list over on my Pages. I will be updating it as much as I can. If I read more books than she does, I win a prize! Wish me luck!

Chinglish

In China, they sometimes put English on signs. The funny thing is they don't always get the spacing or wording right. Here are a few funny signs we saw while we were there.

Forbidden

I am not sure what this dish is!

Needs no words. Really.

One word only. Saves money on spaces.

Do you turn it off when you start?

Whatever it is, it is fast.

Ruined!

A few notes: firstly, I started this blog about 5 years ago from Cambodia to try to find out what was going on at home and share what I was doing abroad. HERE is my first post. I had no idea what I was doing. I thought you wrote the blog in the comments. I was clueless really. I guess what I thought was that I would ask a question and people would answer in the comments. Or we would have a dialogue in the comments. I am not really sure what I was thinking. Anyway, I just wanted to say that it seems I have come "full circle". I am back where I started from and this blog has become more (obviously) that I thought it would.

I have written about Angkor Wat before. But this is a place that not only can you visit again and again, and see new things when you do, but you can write about it several times with no problem. Every time I go to a place I learn something new that I didn't know before. For example Angkor Wat means "city temple" and was built in the early 12th century as the king's state temple and capital city.

It is huge. You could try to walk around the entire complex, but you would probably need many days to do so. We rented a tuk-tuk, which if you haven't heard of this, is an interesting way to get around. It is a guy driving a motorcycle with a people "trailer" (that fits 4) hitched to the back. No joke. I have a photo but have not downloaded them from my camera, so below is one I borrowed.

I got this photo HERE.

We rented a tuk-tuk for about 20 dollars for the day for four people and he took us around from temple to temple. The temples are all beautiful, although some of them are in worse disrepair than others. Actually, they are in the process of renovating many of them right now. We got to the main complex before sunrise, as the best views are during sunrise. There is a nice pool that reflects the temple in the water. I am sure you have seen photos of it. In fact, if you go to Wikipedia, you will see the very photo I am speaking of.

It was pretty hot, and soon we had seen enough ruins for the day. We headed back to Siem Reap for some 50 cent draft beers and some Khmer food (similar to Thai in many ways). The town of Siem Reap is quite bustling, with a range of hotels (they even have a Sheraton!) as well as many lower budget guesthouses (like where we stayed!) They have a range of food; we even had pizza one day. They have a lot of people begging, especially ones with no limbs. The Cambodians only recently ended civil warring, and there are still many unexploded mines in the countryside. Unfortunately, you are not supposed to walk off the beaten trail or you may have an accident.

So, second time around = still good. 

Cambodian Time

I am impatient. One of my biggest pet peeves is people who are late. People who have decided their time is more important than yours. People who say they are going to meet up with you and then don't come, don't call and obviously...don't care.

However, I have had to learn (a little bit) to be patient in Cambodia. The first day we arrived, we crossed over from Thailand with no problems, entered Cambodia fairly painlessly and then went to our bus which would take us to Siem Reap (home of Angkor Wat). Unfortunately, when you take a bus between countries, oftentimes you can't stay on one bus; you have to transfer once you cross the border and you end up using two different bus companies. We were told that the ride from the border to Siem Reap would take about 3 hours and that we would arrive around 5 pm. This seems simple enough -- we need to leave by 2 pm to make it on schedule.

We arrived at the border at 12:30 pm. There were about 5 of us and we were the first ones to the bus. The guy said, "lucky you, you are the first ones on the bus, you can pick whatever seat you want." We thought that was great. Then he said, "we are waiting for another group of people who are crossing the border now. We will leave when they get here. It should be about a half an hour". A half an hour went by. A few more people got on the bus. Then another half an hour went by, and a few MORE people got on....etc. This lasted until about 4:30 pm. We finally left then. We didn't end up arriving in Siem Reap until about 8:30 pm (we also stopped for dinner along the way as well).

The thing is, I don't mind arriving at 8:30. What I mind is that I got up at 6 to take a bus at 7 in order to sit and wait for...4 hours...at the border. If I would have known, maybe I would have taken the later morning bus, or maybe went and had some lunch instead of sitting on the bus thinking that we would be leaving "any minute".

This was not the end. From Siem Reap we took a bus to a town called Sihanoukville. A guy was supposed to come and pick us up from our hostel at 6:30 to catch a 7:30 bus. He ended up not coming until almost 8. We were freaking out...we didn't know if we should try to go to the bus station, whether or not we had missed the bus..or what. When we arrived at the bus station around 8:30, the bus didn't even leave for another half and hour! It's the same thing. I could have slept, or eaten (we didn't) or called my mom!

Anyway, I won't go on and on, but this has happened several more times over the last week and it is hard for me to get "used to" it. I mean, if the bus isn't leaving until 9, why can't I just come at 8:45? Why do you tell me it leaves at 7 when you KNOW it is not going to leave at 7? Do you think it EVER leaves on time? Or is "on time" actually 9? I don't know what they are thinking.

Have you ever been someplace where they are on "island time" or the equivalent? Do you cope well with that? How do you feel about tardiness?

View From The Lizard Bungalow

Wee Beasties

I have a lot to catch up on. I have been on an island with no power, and definitely no internet! We did some diving, which is probably going to be another post on it's own, and spent some time on the beach hanging out, meeting people, and trying to stay mostly in the shade.

We arrived in Cambodia and spent some time at Angkor Wat (this will be a future post). Then we came to the south, where we took a rickety fishing boat for two hours to get to the island of Koh Rong.

We stayed in a wood and palm thatch bungalow, which wasn't exactly what you would call airtight. However, it had a beautiful view of the ocean and a nice porch from which to sit and stare at said ocean.

The first night we heard a rustling sound in the middle of the night and were not sure what it was, since there is no power. We got out our headlights and searched around but didn't find anything. The next day in the middle of the day I found that the bag of peanuts in my backpack was chewed into and eaten. Also my bar of soap had what looked like teethmarks in it. I assumed it was a rat.

The next night we decided to trap the animal, whatever it was. We put the peanuts in the trash and the trash in a large bucket, thinking that the animal would get trapped in and not be able to climb out of the bucket. THe next morning, the peanuts had been eaten, but there was no animal in the bucket.

So I went about my business and was about to use the bathroom when I heard a scrabbling behind the door. I swung it open and there was a HUGE lizard behind the door eating a centipede. It was pretty cool actually. The lizard must have been about a foot long and the centipede was probably almost a foot as well. They were battling it out and when I opened the door the centipede got away! Oops!

Now we are back on the mainland, trying to stay away from large lizards. More about this later.

Motorcycle Survival Tips

I have always wanted to be a biker. However, I am a tad scared of the bike (motorcycle). What if I fall and scrape half my face off? What if I run into a wall or a truck or fall off a cliff? My parents have a lot of friends who ride Harleys and they have had some bad accidents, some resulting in death. I have that in the back of my mind every time I consider getting on a bike. When I lived in San Francisco, I heard a crash and a scream and I ran outside to see what had happened. A girl on a bike had been sideswiped and flew about 30 feet in the air before landing in a very weird position.

So, as you can see, I have some fears. However, when I was a kid my dad taught me to ride a Honda 70 and I loved it. But one time it fell over on me and I think my Mom wouldn't let me ride anymore after that.

So, since I was 15, I haven't ridden a motorcycle.

Today, I decided to buck up and try again. Luckily in Thailand, it only costs about 5 dollars to rent a bike for the day, so if I hated it, no harm, no foul and barely any money. Everyone here rides them. If a Thai lady and her three kids (and dog) can ride a scooter, so can I! And that's what these are. They are not "motorcycles"; they are "scooters". I think mine was 100cc. Tiny and not too fast. Perfect.

It's easy enough: gas on the right, back brake on the left, front brake on the right. Easy, right? Mostly it was, except one time when I was trying to park the bike and it almost fell over and so I grabbed the right handle and WHOOPS, gave it gas and it jumped a curb and almost went into a restaurant window. Other than that, it's no problem.

Also there were steep downhills and uphills with curves and that was a little hard to maneuver. Especially since at the same time two cars AND the Thai lady with her kids and dog are trying pass you while traffic is coming the other way. Other than that, it was simple.

So, it really wasn't that bad. But I don't think I am quite ready to get a Harley yet. 

In a Sunburned Body

I am white. Okay, I don't mean this in a "check your ethnicity in the box" kind of way. I mean it in a "you can almost see through my skin in the winter time" kind of way. A few days ago, we arrived on Thailand's Koh Chang island, which is about 7 hours from Bangkok by bus.

After being in Beijing, where the average temperature was about 10 degrees, it was a nice change to be on the beach in 85 degree weather, with the sun shining down upon my upturned face.

I KNOW that I am white; I KNOW I sunburn easily, especially on the first couple of days. So I did everything right. First, I strip down naked. Yes, this is the best way to put on sunscreen. Then you don't miss any parts where there are straps or watches or whatever. Then I apply a thick layer of sunscreen over my entire body, rubbing it in all the way, just like the directions state. I never buy sunscreen that is not waterproof. However, I reapply after going in the water, toweling etc. I KNOW the rules. However, somewhere, somehow there was a glitch. I don't know how, but I am so very red now! You can call me Rudolph.

I think I may have figured it out. While usually I would swear by Target's home brand, Up and Up, this time they fell flat. I always buy their Aveeno copy lotion, tissues, face-wipes and more. However, this sunscreen, which was supposed to be like Banana Boat's Sport line, does not work as well. I did everything right. It let me down.

So, I will be staying (mostly) out of the sun for the next couple of days, perfecting my reading instead of my tan! But a word to the wise, don't buy the Up and Up Banana Boat copy sunscreen unless you want to look like a lobster, like I do! 

Ten on Tuesday (5) (on Wednesday...or Thursday)

1. Do you decorate for Valentine’s Day? 
Valentines what? 

2. Does your desktop have a picture or a computer graphic? Is it organized? 
It has a photo I took of a place I love near my family's house. It is organized -- I have absolutely NO icons on my desktop.

3. Do you use a paper planner, electronic planner, or no planner at all?
Paper AND electronic. But I love my paper planner the best. 

4. Do you change purses or bags often, or stick with a good thing? 
 One purse. Only. Why switch? Then I will forget something!!

5. What’s your favorite YouTube video? 
I dont watch YouTube.

6. Do you use Turbo Tax or a real person to pay your taxes? 
Turbotax. It's so easy!

7. How many states have you stepped foot (or tire) into? Which ones? 
We have rules. If you drove through, it doesn't count. You have to eat or sleep in the place for it to count as a state that you actually WENT to. I've been to CA, NV, WA, OR, AZ, NM, CO, UT, IA, IL, WY, KS, NE, MA, ME, FL, LA, MS, AL, CT, VT, NH, MD, PA, NY, TX, VA, TN....I think that's 27, maybe I missed or added one...

8. How many countries have you been in? Which ones?
I am not going to list this. You can read my blog. On the side there are tags...check them out.

9. How many pillows are in your house? (Sleeping or decorative) 
I sleep with two.  The end.

10. How cold is too cold for flip-flops? 
I pretty much wear them all the time. Well not when it's snowing. But otherwise, bring it on!

*Hosted by Chelsea

Flat Stanley Climbs the Wall

Have any of you ever heard of Flat Stanley? Me neither. Until a little while ago. Mr. Lovely's very lovely niece is doing a project in school where you have to draw a person (aka Stanley), color him in and then send him to your relatives and friends. Then they take him somewhere, Disneyland or the Golden Gate Bridge, and take a photo of him living it up in said place.

We took Stanley to the Great Wall. He complained about the cold and the 4 mile hike the entire time, but he was still smiling in all the photos! Of course we had to go with him. I mean, I didn't really want to go, but since Stanley was insisting, I finally gave in. We went to a town called Jinshanling and hiked 6 km (roughly 4 miles) to the town of Simatai along the wall. It was about 15 degrees and windy, although it was sunny so it wasn't too bad. This is a great way to see a lot of the wall, instead of just getting dropped at one town and going to the wall, taking photos and leaving. You really get a nice feel for the wall. It was great, no pun intended!!!


So, did you know the wall is actually 8800 km (about 5000 miles) long? That's pretty long. So we only covered a fraction of a percentage of it! Several walls have been built since the 5th century BC that are referred to collectively as the Great Wall, which has been rebuilt and maintained from the 5th century BC through the 16th century. One of the most famous is the wall built between 220–206 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. Little of that wall remains; the majority of the existing wall was built during the Ming Dynasty.

Okay so that concludes my history portion. The dynasties of China are confusing enough!

PS Just for fun I googled "flat stanley" and there is a website!! haha. You can read more about it HERE. I am SOOOO out of the loop!

Notes On China

I am going to have to do a few China recaps, since I couldn't get onto blogger, I didnt really post too much. However, today I am short of time, so I will leave you with a few random facts about China.

- % of population under the poverty line (US$1/day) in 1979: 64%

-% of population under the poverty line in 2007: 10%

-Average annual income in Shanghai 2007: US$3090

- Average annual income in urban areas 2007: $1819

- Average annual income in rural areas 2007: $545

And my favorite:

Number of fingers lost in factory accidents in the Pearl River Delta in 2004: 40,000

Book Review: Blink

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Right from the beginning, this book caught my attention. In the first chapter, he talks about relationships and how a psychologist named Gottman can predict the success or failure of a couple's relationship just by listening to them for mere seconds. I found myself going down the list of reasons why he states couples fail and trying to see if my boyfriend and I have done any of the things on it.

Watching a normal conversation such as "should we get a dog or not?" he interprets the couple's facial movements during the conversation and gives them each a code. Disgust for example is a 1. He then translates EVERY second into a number, which then is translated yet again to a complex equation. His success rate is usually above 90%.

The premise of this book is that people can actually make very rational decisions in a very short amount of time. Gladwell believes that you should go with your first instinct, which he calls "thin slicing". He states that sometimes when you over think things, you can actually come up with the wrong decision more likely that you would have if you used snap judgment. 

I found this book very interesting, as even though I consider myself a rational over thinker (I am almost never spontaneous), I realize that even I too make snap decisions. I have picked a book from the shelf without knowing why (the packaging); I have decided I like Coke better than Pepsi (flavor, marketing, packaging); I have decided in the blink of the eye whether I like a new coworker (a certain facial expression, a hidden sneer). There are many things we do without even realizing it.

I would recommend this book and give it a 3 out of 5.

Kung Fu Fighting

Have you ever taken the subway in a big city? Have you done it during rush hour? With your next 6 months worth of clothing on your back? We usually try to avoid the subways during rush hour times and sometimes if we do have our luggage, we will walk or even spring for a cab rather than bashing people with our items.

However, when you live in a country with approximately 1.5 billion people, you get bumped around no matter what. The subways are always full; people are rushing on and off and up and down the stairs. It is quite a sight. But the best was today, when we HAD to ride during rush hour. We were smashed into the car (luckily without bags!) with about oh, maybe 1.4 billion other people. You can't move or hold on to anything; you just hope that if the train stops the other 1.39 billion people will hold you up.

This has happened to me before. In San Francisco coming home on the MUNI after a Giants game is a pretty tight squeeze. I have ridden a non-air conditioned packed full (smelly) subway in Paris. In Japan, they have an attendant with a cattle prod who keeps pushing more and more (and more!) people into the train. However, I think China tops them all. Not only were we smashed in so tightly, but if someone in the middle wants to get out they just squirm their way to the edge. Even better was something else I saw today; it was basically a mosh pit of subway riders. When the train stopped, people were trying to run off the train; others were trying to run on…It was like they were fighting. Everyone was shifting and leaning and pushing and jumping and swaying and GWWWWARRRR! I felt like body slamming someone. Everyone else seemed to be having fun doing it.

As funny as this is when you are only doing it once in a while, the sheer excess of people in China has also caused us a little problem. February 3rd is Chinese New Year. That and the (basically) two week period before that are called the Spring Festival. This means: starting Wednesday the 19th and going until February 3rd, people are on vacation. Kids are out of school; people in the cities go home to visit their families; EVERYONE travels somewhere. What does this mean for us? This means we cannot get a train, bus, boat OR car out of Beijing. It's like a bad movie.

Our plan was to go from Beijing south, eventually ending up in Macau, where we would celebrate the New Year and then go to Vietnam. CHANGE IN PLANS!!! We can't get out. Even if we do get out somehow, we won't be able to go anywhere from there. So we have decided to, unfortunately, leave China early. Bangkok (and about a 70 degree raise in temperature) here we come!!! Instead of heading south from China to Vietnam, we will head north from Thailand to Vietnam. Crisis (and cold weather) averted. Phew.

Have you ever been stuck somewhere? Was it because of weather…or…? Did it ruin your trip? Are you a calm traveler or do you freak out in situations like this?

Summer Palace in Winter

Near Beijing, there is a palace that the royals used to use in the summertime. it is called the Summer Palace.  It gets really hot in the summertime in the city, so they enlarged Kunming lake and built a palace on the hill next to it, where they went to swim and relax. Today we went to see this marvelous place. However, as you may be aware, it is not summertime (in fact, it's downright freezing here!) You may think this may make it worse, but it actually is a sight to be seen. The entire lake is frozen over, along with all of the little channels that run through the property. People ice skate and sled on the ice.

The architecture is gorgeous. The roofs are all hip and gable and have jade statues of dragons and different sorts of other animals on the peaks. There are arched stone bridges across the channels. The interiors of the buildings are all carved woodwork, meticulously painted. The palace sits on a hill where you can see for miles and has a great view of the frozen lake with all the little skaters on it.

However, even though all of this was great, my favorite (or maybe the thing that amused me the most) was the names of things. Here are a few examples. See if you can guess what kind of structure these are.

The Realm of Multitudinous Fragrance: If your answer was "a stone and brick archway", you are right! Apparently it was thought that it resembled the holy land of the Buddha, hence the name.

Hall of Dispelling Clouds: Yup, it's a hall. It was built to celebrate the Empress' birthday.

Garden of Harmonious Interests: Yup, it's a garden. I guess you can't go there with anyone you don't agree with? P.S. Mr. Lovely and I did not go there.

Okay the last two weren't that difficult. But isn't that fun? Don't you want to visit those places? Doesn't it seem like nothing but good could come to you here? Have you read Anne of Green Gables? Don't those names sound like something she would make up? There are also names such as The Hall of Benevolence and Longevity, The Hill of Longevity, The Temple of the Sea of Wisdom and many more.

I guess what I am trying to say is, even if you come to Beijing in the winter time, don't let the name fool you; the Summer Palace is just as fun in the wintertime!!

What is your favorite place to go in the summer/winter? What is your favorite fun(ny) name of a place near you? (P.S. Near my parents' house are the towns of Cool, CA and Maybe, CA.)

Ten on Tuesday (4)

Another set of questions from Chelsea of Roots and Rings!

1. Is there a band/artist that you HATE?
Nickleback....he is so whiny and annoying.

2. What do you do when you get a gift that you do not like? How do you react?
I try to pretend I like it, although I am not very good at pretending.

3. How is your work office/cubicle decorated?
I had a calendar from my aunt and a photo that a friend of mine took of the French Quarter. I have an anal retentive calendar of my own with days marked in different colors depending on category of the item.

4. Do you use all of your vacation every year?
Yes. And then I take more unpaid vacation. I like vacation.

5. Did you have a real or fake Christmas tree?
Real...when I have one. They smell so good! We even go and chop them down ourselves. That's half the fun.

6. If you could have anything for dinner tonight, what would it be?
Pizza. REAL pizza, thin crust. MMmmmm...

7. Do you bite your fingernails?
Never. I keep them cut really short.

8. How many cups of coffee do you drink each day?
1 - infinity, depending on where I am and what I am doing. I can easily drink a pot without realizing it.

9. Do you have a nervous tick?
I don't think so.

10. How often do you vacuum?
Never. Well, when you are on the road/staying in hotels and hostels all the time, you dont have to!

Blocked! and other China randoms

- Not only is Blogger blocked in China, but also these sites as well: Facebook, Goodreads, Wordpress. I am sure there are many more; I won't find out until I try to use them. At least Flickr works.

- The number one MUST HAVE item in China -- a shiny poofy jacket with a fur lined hood. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE has one. Old, young, boys, girls and everything in between. EVERYONE has one. Except me. THIS is a good example of what I am talking about. Are people wearing these at home? I am so behind in the fashion world.

- I am happy to report that ALL BOOTS are now in style. I have seen short ones, tall ones, brown, black, slipper style, high heel, low heel, no heel, furry, pointed, round, square....etc. No matter your boot style, all is good!! Now would be a good time to stock up on all of your favorites. Maybe I need a bigger backpack. Or a Chinese Lady Bag. I guess I am in the right place for that.

- Best thing about China? Meat on sticks. Pork buns on the street. Dumplings on the street. So I guess what I mean to say is...street food. For about a dollar, you can get 2 chicken on a stick, 6 pork bun or 6 dumpling. I have eaten about 100 of each already.

- NOT cheap? Coffee!!!! Darn it. I tried to live without it for a few days and had a huge headache. So, I am living on Nescafe instant coffee for now (and supplementing with a treat of a mocha from time to time)

- A couple of Chinese words (and totally butchered spelling I am sure) I have learned: Thank you = Xiexie (pronounced shay-shay), Hello = ni how

- Price of a beer = .50 cents
- Price of a Starbucks coffee = $4.50
- Price of a clean room, with heat and a hot shower = $12
- Price of a clean room, without heat and who knows if the shower was hot because I wasn't about to try it = $7
- Price of a sleeper bed on a train from Shanghai to Beijing (~650 miles) = $50

That's it for now! I am still emailing posts in and am going to try to hopefully have a couple pictures included here! Please let me know if they don't show up! The round door is in Little Likeng, Wuyuan Province. The tower is the Oriental Pearl in Shanghai.

El Willy Food Review

When we are traveling, we generally eat a lot of top ramen. For less than 50 cents a meal, or $1.50 a day, this is how we can afford to travel. Seriously. By saving on food, we gain an extra day  here or there to do the things we want to do. SO… top ramen is my friend.

However, once every blue moon we like to go out for a "real shebang" and eat at a nice restaurant, if one is available. January's pick of the month was El Willy, in Shanghai. El Willy is a tapas joint and we saw it on the ONE English channel in China that we get, CCTV. We decided to see if it was any good.

By the way, if any of these are spelled wrong, its because this computer doesn't know any Spanish or Italian, and I am not good at spelling. I apologize in advance.

What we ordered:
Pickled anchovies
Octopus with Iberian Ham and garlic aioli (photo at bottom)
Crispy suckling pig, cooked 12 hours
Seared Fois Gras
Pork Loin with arugula and parmesan
Layered Fois Gras pate with croustini

Our Ratings, out of 10:  (*=Mr Lovely, & = me)

Food Quality and Taste: *9, &8 (great food, some dishes were small)
Ambiance: *9, &9 (very open space, warm and friendly)
Service: *7, &8 (waiter was very nice, coffee and wine were a little slow to arrive)
Price: *7, &6 (it was a little too expensive for the size of the plate)
Location: *6, &6m (could walk easily to restaurant, however, it had no view whatsoever)

Total: 75  Average = 7.5/10

I would recommend this place to anyone if they are ever in Shanghai and want a nice Spanish meal. My favorite dish sways between the crispy pork and the first fois gras dish. However, if you are looking for a water view, this is not the place for you. If you want huge portions, this is also not where you should go. Stick with the traditional Chinese, family style portions. Mr Lovely had to get a hamburger after eating here.

Please let me know, as I am emailing due to blogger issues: Is there a picture below? Are there any links? I have no idea if anything is working and will be in China with problems for another few weeks.

The photo below should be of the Iberian ham wrapped Octopus. Yum! Hopefully the photo, if it is there, is not super huge.


Big Trouble in Little China

If you ever wondered, and I know you did, why I am not blogging so much lately, I will tell you why.

Did you know that in China they DO NOT LIKE BLOGGER. In fact, they block it. You cannot get on any blogspot sites (sorry guys, but I am still checking you out in Reader); you cannot get onto blogger.com to post your blogs. So, I am going to try to post by email; hopefully the formatting isn't totally messed up because I have had that experience before when emailing. We shall see. The saddest part is that I can't even access my blog to make sure it posted okay and I can't access anyone else's to comment!!!! This sucks.

I guess you can help me. Is my format messed up? Do you know how to get around the blogger ban in China? I am sorry I am not commenting on anyone's posts!!

Besides that, being in China is interesting. First of all, barely anything is in English; barely anyone speaks English. We always pretty much do all our travel on our own; we don't use tours. Here it is a little bit difficult. You should have seen us when we first arrived at the Guangzhou train station and ALL THE INFORMATION was in Chinese. With kanji (Chinese characters), NOT Latin letters. To top it off, it is almost Chinese New Years, so we arrived and there were 17 mile lines at all the ticket booths. We sat and scratched our heads for a while, let me tell you.  We are using a lot of pointing, sign language and nodding etc.

We finally figured it out, paid too much for our train ticket, and were on our way. Next we wanted to do a tour of an area where there were a lot of little towns and ancient architecture. We got our tour, complete with an overpriced driver who didn't speak ANY English! Its been an interesting adventure! Ordering food is a lot of grunting and pointing at pictures, if there are any. Luckily I know how to say Chow Mien (fried noodles) so that is my fall back plan. Hopefully I don't hurt myself, because asking for the hospital would be downright impossible.

To top it off, it is winter. I mean, snowing and freezing cold winter. Many of the places where we, gung ho as we were, thought we would "go hiking", are frozen solid. You can't get in or out and the locals don't have any water or electricity. But it is beautiful all the same. We are in Shanghai now, more on that later, and heading for Beijing in a few days, more on that later as well.

I hope it is warmer where you are than it is here! Please let me know if anyone has any tech savvy Chinese blogger evasion tips!!!

I am attempting to post a photo below. Please let me know if there isn't one!!! It is Shanghai at night.