Great Wall of China and Bicycles

- July 3-5, 2009 -

Today Ashley and I found our first hostel of the trip. We were really lucky because it is super nice! It is called Sanlitun Youth Hostel (http://www.hostels.com/hostels/beijing/sanlitun-youth-hostel/24985) right in the center of Beijing. For dinner we went to "Wan Fu Jing" street. They basically sell anything you can think of on a stick (seahorses, hearts, silk worms, scorpions and more). It is a place where tourists come to have some authentic dinner. Even though it was tempting we decided to eat at a Peking Duck restaurant. We basically had a three course meal and plenty of drinks for only $7!



The next day we went to the GREAT WALL OF CHINA! Ashley and I decided to climb to the top unlike most of the other people in our group who took the Gondola. The Great Wall was one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. Do you know that to walk the entire Great Wall it would take a person 3 years?!?! On the way down from the Great Wall we took a toboggan. This was so much fun! It is a must do if you ever visit the wall. That night we went to Hooters for dinner. It was nice to have American food. Believe it or not the Hooters in China is exactly like the ones in the United States. The only difference is that about every 30 minutes the Hooters girls stand in the middle of the restaurant and dance and sing. It was super fun!





On July 5th we rented bikes and rode from our hostel all the way to Tianamen Square. This was definitely an humbling sight to see because of all the history behind it. General Mao's portrait was right in the center of the building... After navigating our way through Beijing on a couple of bikes and only a very confusing Chinese map in hand we got back to the hostel packed our bags and headed to the airport. DUBAI HERE WE COME! GET READY ERIN AND MARK!

BBQ's and Dancing

- July 3, 2009 -

After a 13 hour flight to Hong Kong and a 3 hour flight to Beijing I went to pick up my bag and it was lost! Just my luck right?!?! I quickly filed a claim and jumped into a cab to go see my NACK! The 45 minute cab ride only cost 100 yuan which is equivalent to $15!

Right when I got to the hotel we went straight to the "silk market." The silk market is a place where they sell designer handbags, watches, sunglasses, etc. for super cheap! We bought some awesome stuff. After the silk market we went with Ashley's class to a Mongolian dinner and live performance. The food was crazy (I tried snail and fish intestines) and the dancing was amazing.

After dinner we went to the "English Circle." This is an outer corridor at a University in Beijing where every Friday the locals come to practice English. Once they step into the circle no more Chinese! Needless to say we were like celebrities there. Once we stepped into the circle 5 or 6 people approached each of us and we talked for about an hour... not a dull moment. It was a very fun and exciting experience.

Houston We Have a Problem!

- July 1, 2009 -

So, last night I go and pick up Ashley's bag and documents from her mother and guess what I figured out at 9:00pm!?!?! I DO NOT HAVE A CHINESE VISA! After an hour of freaking out and a glass of red Camille and I came up with a plan. I'd wake up at 6am the morning of my flight and go to the Chinese Embassy in San Francisco, wait in line, and cross my fingers they would give me a visa in less then 24 hours! 4 hours after entering the Embassy I waked out with a VISA in hand! I defiantly dodged that bullet!

MORAL OF THE STORY: If you want to travel to CHINA you need a visa!

P.S. sorry it took so long to update the blog... China restricts the website "blogspot.com" along with youtube.com and pandora.com

CHINA!!!

"Ni hao everyone!!!! (that's for you girls)

It's been really hectic the last few days which explains why I haven't given an update in 4 days. When we arrived to Shanghai the infamous quarantine inspectors loaded the plane. It was very scary!!! They were all wearing white suits head to toe with a face mask! Luckily, everyone made it past the inspectors without any problem. Straight from the airport we went to the SWFC. You should look it up online, www.swfc-observatory.com. It is more than 100 m taller than the empire state building and we went to the very top. The very top floor is the 100th floor and it has see-thru tiles on the floor so you can see all the way down to the street. I am def. not a big fan of heights, but looking out doesn't scare me too much. Being able to see all the way down below you is a whole other story! I couldn't even walk over the glass tiles, so I got down on my hands and knees haha! Needless to say, I only lasted a few minutes up there while I got my pictures and then decided I had had enough.

Saturday was a very long day with visits to Best Buy, Subway stores, and Jiao Tong University College of Distance. All the visits have been pretty interesting, but they pack so much in that it is soooo hard to stay awake during the presentations. Saturday night was our welcome dinner at this really yummy restaurant. The restaurant had karaoke and bai jo. Bai jo is something I should have stayed away from (talk to Mom, Dad, Kevin, or Aubz ;) sorry guys! Each table had a bottle and it was way stronger than 151. After dinner we headed to a club which overlooked the Huangpu River and the entire Shanghai skyline. It was on a roof and absolutely beautiful!

The next day was pretty easy since we headed to the Yu Yuan temple to shop. It is really entertaining to bargain with them. All you have to do is keep going down and then walk away, and they drop the price by over 50%. It is hard to get used to bargaining on absolutely everything you buy, including water! To most of your surprise, I actually ate McDonald's that day because I needed some American food, even if it was sooo unhealthy.

Monday was another lonnng company day. We visited a company called sealed air; which is a packaging company. Apparently they are making cement with their leftover waste so I was very interested how the properties were affected. When i asked if it affected the strength or how long the cement lasted the guy said it didn't matter since it was just used for paving. He was OBVIOUSLY not an engineer ;). After 4 more company visits we went and stocked up on goods for the overnight train. That was a one of a kind experience. The train was very cramped, but we all had our cup of noodles and a bed, so most of us were happy.

We arrived this morning to Beijing very early and headed straight to the hotel. We visited the Great Wall of China and it was beyond words. I have plenty of pictures that I can't wait to show you all. I have now seen two wonders of the world!!! Tomorrow we go to see Tienanmen Square and the Silk Market, and then Nacky comes on Friday."

- Love,

Ashley

India!

Ashley Meets India:

"Today has been amazing so far and it isn't even over. To start off, we went and visited Maruti Suzuki and got to see the entire factory. Before we got there, we drove for about 45 minutes and were able to see how different India is from the U.S. First off, there are no formal rules of driving. There are lines on some of the roads but everyone seems to straddle them so they really serve no purpose. Contrary to the U.S, people pretty much use their horns instead of blinkers. People and cars are not the only things on the road...we had to share it with the many cows, stray dogs, and monkeys. It is such a different world here and I love it!

After seeing the entire process of how a suzuki car is made, we went to lunch at this really nice center called City Walk. It was basically a huge mall that also had a food court in it. I had no idea what any of the food was so I trusted Netu (one of the Cal Poly teacher's wife). I ended getting a masala dosa which is pretty much a gigantic crepe with potatoes and lots of spice. Needless to say, my stomach hasn't been the same since I arrived, but the food is soooo worth it! Not to mention my entire lunch only cost me a little over 2 dollars.

After lunch we went and visited Rockland Hospital. It was definitely a little difficult getting there! We ended up taking a wrong turn and having to turn around at the dead end. It probably would have been similar to Austin Powers 90-point turn except after 8 tries, these men whose truck was in the way were kind enough to move it. The truck wouldn't start so they actually had to push it out of the way. haha- I took a video which was pretty entertaining. The hospital was very nice, however, the tour was a little strange. The guide ended up taking us into the emergency room where families were, which I thought was a bit invasive.

On our way home from the hospital, our bus driver was able to bribe the police office to let us drive down a one-way street! I couldn't believe it, especially since he only had to pay the cop 1 dollar to let us pass! If only I could have used those tactics to avoid my 2 speeding tickets! We are now in the hotel and getting ready for dinner. Apparently, our dinner tonight is very special because the chef is lebanese and was flown in to India just for tonight. We are definitely in for some entertainment with the huka and some belly dancers."

Here at Last!!!

NACK ARRIVED SAFELY IN INDIA!

A special letter from Ashley:

"It is 11:30 PM and we just got into the hotel and settled. I am pretty well rested after a really lonnnnnng day- from the time I left LAX to when we got into Delhi it was about 30 hours!!!!! (that isn't even including my flight from san jose) anyways we only haev internet for an hour right now to split between all of us so I will make sure to come online tom. night. prob around 10 am your time or so. I just wanted to let you all know that I am safe and am very excited for the many adventures to come."

NACK's Graduation!!!

Ashley DuPuis Breneman graduated this past Saturday from CAL POLY with her MBA.  It was a fun filled beautiful weekend with friends!  The tradition at Cal Poly is to go to the bars at 6am... Surely enough we were in line to have a Mimosa at 6:30am.  Then after a few hours of drinking we got ready and saw Ashley walk the line and get "hooded."  After her graduation we had a fabulous time wine tasting at Edna Valley.  To make the day even better we ended our evening with a wonderful dinner overlooking the ocean at SPYGLASS.

Tomorrow at 4pm she is off to CHINDIA!  Congratulations ASHLEY!