made in china

china has come and gone, and now malaysia has too. our blog is suffering. promise we'll be up to date by the end of the week!

XI'AN
who would have thought that a little city surrounded by walls would hold the most spectacular thing either of us have ever seen, the terracotta warriors (or as our tour guide pronounced them, "orriors"). a farmer stumbled upon them in 1974, come to find that they date back to 210BC! over 9,000 life-like and life-size soldiers, chariots and horses are believed to be buried in the pits- all to guard the soul of the first Qin emperor of China. everyone involved in the project was buried alive to keep the secret. it worked! pretty amazing. we finished the trip by riding bikes along the city walls with tunes blasting from the ipod. americans.

CHENGDU
we survived a 16 hour train ride in our hard sleeper (translation: squished like sardines in used sheets with the entire chinese population... of men) and arrived in chengdu! we were taken in by the dallas family, an american family who we met in tokyo. as if being spoiled with a real house, laundry machines, a chinese hair salon, a driver, maid and cook... we were part of a family! little gemma and angus stole our hearts and became our chinese translators, at ages 3 and 6. angus renamed nicole, and somehow "abella" stuck. we said hi to the pandas, visited beautiful temples and met some friends over sangria at The Bookworm. on our last day, we took a 2 hour ride with our new family to a little village affected by the Sichuan 7.9 earthquake from this past may. aswe got closer to the faultline, we were devastated by the damage and make-shift tents built upon the rubble that the families have been living in for the past 5 months, and for possibly 5 more years. we visited a small school and played with the local children, and slowly the entire community poured in, even the old women with deformed bodies and scoliosis from working the rice paddies their entire lives. it was quite an experience.

just as jenny sent us off with homemade apple pie in austria, kim sent us off with homemade pumpkin bread in china... and it lasted a whole 2 days.

HANGZHOU
when in hangzhou, spend the day biking around the picturesque lakes on cobblestone paths and bridges surrounded by willow trees- for a grand total of 12 cents. while you're at it, do as the locals do at the street eats strip and try everything from baked crab on a stick to beggar's chicken (make sure the head and claws are still attached) to fried rice inside a pineapple, finishing it off right with dragon's mustache, the local pastry. hangzhou was a peaceful haven very much needed, the most beautiful place to get lost at and enjoy some tea at a pavillion on the lake surrounded by lillypads.

SHANGHAI
we were met in metropolitan shanghai by a familiar face- nicole's good friend hamson. he took us to the top of building for wine and out for street eats with his friends, showed us where to find ridiculously cheap DVDs, and introduced us the most amazing food we've had on our trip so far- Yang's Dumplings (yes, we ate them for lunch AND dinner our last day). we snuck up to the top of the Radisson for an amazing 360degree view of the city (note to self: you get away with so much more when you speak Spanish in Asia) and got a 2 hour massage at midnight, for 5 bucks. and when the day was said and done, we couldn't wait to get back to our pepto-bismol colored room with golden drapes and a snoopy stuffed animal dressed in chanel boxers. welcome to china.

mulan

culture shock hit day one in beijing. no longer were we surrounded by clean and safe streets, helpful and smiley faces and a more westernized culture. instead we were being slammed into subways, hoping that the dumplings weren't stuffed with poodle, praying to not get run over by buses, taxis, bikes and even people, and overwhelmed by the smog and smells. it didn't help that it was the national holiday when apparently all of china flocks to beijing. as rough as the people appeared, the community and love was so evident- children out for a stroll with their grandparents, groups of old men squatting around tables playing cards on the streets, and community classes of tai chi, hackey sack and ballroom dancing late at night in the parks. from the Forbidden City dating back to 1406 to the current Bird's Nest at the Olympic Stadium, the history continues to blow our minds. our pride was crushed in thinking we could hike a good portion of the Great Wall. to our surprise, the steps were as high as our knees and some grandmas were more in shape than we were. it's amazing to think of all the thousands of workers who dedicated their lives to building the wall and imagining the soldiers running from post to post with smoke to warn the city of the enemy attacks. our intitial attitude toward Beijing changed when sweet Yangque let us crash with her and showed us some hidden treasures of her city.

just like the mother and daughter in Chocolat, we've left a city we've grown to love- off to new adventures in Xi'an and Chengdu...

i "rub" japan

Kyoto did not fall short of our expectations. Maybe we didn't sip tea with sumos, but geishas not only served us tea and cakes but we were chosen to be part of the traditional tea ceremony in Gion- the Geisha district. From sleeping on futons and squatting on Japanese toilets surrounded by a "rock garden" in our ryokan to golden pavilions and zen gardens to ringing our bells as we dodged people on our bikes with baskets along the canal, we fell in love with Kyoto. Our nights were spent indulging at the revolving sushi bar (tuna and raw quail eggs anyone?) and sampling mochi on the streets with all the same filling- mashed red beans. We have plenty of pictures to document this trip by-- meditations with Hindu gods, running through the Fushimi Inari shrines from Memoirs of a Geisha in our flea market kimonos, and most importantly spending hours at the anime photobooths with the entire Japanese teenage population adding bows, hats, cats and creatures to our glamour shots.

Back in Tokyo, we joined the millions at the busiest crosswalk in the world, snapped shots of the ridiculously clad Harajuku girls, passed by vending machines of used underwear and ate cow's tongue and sang karaoke at the top of our lungs with Wes and his Japanese friends (it took us a while to realize that "I rub you" was really "I love you"), and sat in the natural hot springs with 20 old ladies- oh, did we forget to mention in the nude?! When in Japan, do as the Japanese do.

Here is the link to some of our pictures from Japan, minus the hot springs. You may need to create an account to view the album, but it's easy and free: JAPAN