Keepin' on!

Connor flew to Chengdu (capital of Sichuan province) on Sunday, while I flew back to Macau for a week of teaching. He spent a day or so in Chengdu & then hopped on a bus to Emi Shan, where he lodged at a monastery, climbed one of the most holy/spiritually significant mountains in China on a very narrow monorail the entire way up! & made a great friend from California. (Connor... if I got any of these details wrong, I am sorry!!) I met up with Connor on the Friday of that week back in Chengdu. We had a fantastic weekend - went to a football game, at some spicy sichuan food, went to the Mau statue, watched a Chinese Sichuan opera, walked around the Tibetan areas, ate Korean BBQ & went to what would have been a crazy open market (but it was closed :( I left Chengdu Sunday afternoon (... although my flight was delayed a few hours due to black rain in Macau & HK) & Connor hopped on a bus on his way to Kunming (Yunnan province).

We had a short week due the dragon boat festival, so we decided to meet Connor in Xi'an. Hong & I did the bus to Guangzhou, cab to the airport dance to take advantage of cheap flights again. I don't know if it was just the day that we arrived, or the poor timing. But it was near impossible to find a taxi & one that would use the meter. We made it to the airport with plenty of time, especially because our flight was delayed. Little did we know that right at that very moment, Connor was suffering what was supposed to be a 6 hour bus ride, ended up being about 12 hours I believe. Torture!

We successfully made it to our hostel in Xi'an & it turned out to be gorgeous!! Hong & I slept in a private double the first night with a shared bathroom & then got a triple en-suite for when Connor arrived. The hostel is in a 300+ year old Chinese style housing complex with original stone & wood furnishings. It was so cute (although quite large)! Our first day of touring, we went to the bell tower & the drum tower & wandered around the Muslim quarters in the evening. On our second day we took a local bus to the Terracotta warriors, where we spent most of the day. This was absolutely amazing!! This area is an archaeologist's dream! The first vault was by far the most spectacular as many of the warriors have been restored and have been put back into their 'original' position. On our third day, we went to see the Big Goose Pagoda, but opted out on going inside. (I think I was just being lazy!!) Our forth day was a great day. We spent it renting bikes at the top of the Xi'an city walls & biked the 14 km around. There were some amazing views of the city! That evening, we returned to the Muslim quarters & had hot pot! Mmm.. it was very tasty & the waiters were so friendly to us. We left for Zhuhai early the next morning & made the long trek back through the border gate lines into Macau (this was the most exhausting part of the whole trip, I think)!!

I have been so blessed over the past month & a half, having so many wonderful visitors to experience this part of the world with. Now that everyone's gone, I have way too much time on my hands, I don't know what to do with myself!!! Luckily, Hong & I have some time off next week, so we are going to Taipei (Taiwan) from Monday to Thursday!

I am slowly having to delete some older photos from my albums as I have maxed out my storage allowance... just in case you are wondering why they have disappeared - that is why :)