Hanoi, Vietnam

Well, we've made it out of China to a more user-friendly communist country and can finally post on our own. Many thanks to those who posted for us while we were being suppressed. We'll try to get back to our previous posting schedule of at least once a week.

So after the Korey's left Beijing, we managed to get the last two seats on a 26-hour train ride to Chengdu. Like most cities in China, Chengdu is about twice the size of New York and nobody's ever heard of it. However, this city in southwestern China was in our sights for one simple reason: The Chengdu Panda Research and Breeding Center (aka Panda World). In fact, during the initial planning of this trip, we intended only to go through Australia and New Zealand. However, after becoming panda fanatics, we added China to the list and the journey in this incarnation began to take form. Needless to say, Panda World was a VERY big deal for us.

We got to Panda World early in the morning to see the pandas feeding - there must have been at least 40 in the park. Although there were some fences, we were able to get about 10 yards from some of the adults. There was also a panda nursery that housed about 5 newborns that were all less than a month old. Pictures weren't allowed, but we got to watch the staff members feed the little furballs out of a bottle. Pretty cute.

As we exited the nursery, we saw a group of tourists crowded around an employee entrance and quickly realized that we had found our mecca - the panda holding area. For a stack of what looked like monopoly money (some of which suspiciuosly went to our cab driver as a kickback), we were escorted into the caged area and draped with surgeon's outfits. Before we could realize what was happening, a one-year-old, 60 pound panda was placed on my lap and after a few minutes, it was Erin's turn. Although we read that it "was like touching a unicorn," I would compare it more to meeting a real-life Jim Henson character. As it was eating bamboo and I was rubbing its belly, it was hard to believe it wasn't fake. Truly unreal. Erin and I were both in a daze for hours.

Thus, with our trip to China - and pretty much all of Asia - seemingly complete, we were at a total loss as to what to do next. We decided to fly east across the country to Guilin and take a taxi down to Yangshuo. Yangshuo is actually a small town and somewhat of a backpacker haven. It is notable for its strange landscape of limestone karsts jutting out of flat rice fields. There are also many outdoor activities. For example, you can kayak down the rivers, mountain bike through rice fields and return to town on a bamboo raft. You can even finish the day with a Budweiser and a Philly cheesesteak. Of course, we did all of this and really enjoyed our time in Yangshuo in the process. We were there for about 5 days and it was a good break from the business (and pollution) that is appraently the rest of China.

Our visas for Vietnam now ripe, we arranged a bus journey from Yangshuo to Nanning (near the border), a night in Nanning and another bus journey from Nanning to Hanoi that included our first border crossing on land. Although no English was spoken by anyone other than us in this process, we managed to get to Hanoi completely without issue and are, frankly, a bit impressed with ourselves. I think we're finally starting to get a hang of this - not too bad after missing our first flight months back in an English-speaking country (Ireland).

Although we've managed to dodge miserable weather events in about 5 different countries already, we finally seem to have hit one head-on as a tropical storm of some sort is heading our direction. This may mean we won't be able to make it east to Halong Bay and that we may need to head south sooner than planned. Serendipity, however, seems to be on our side. Although the rain may also keep us in our hotel room for a few days, our $16 room includes ESPN - on which the revolution will be televised - that is, the Phillies' playoff games! GO PHILS!

Here's a big block of photos from our time in China. Thanks again for hangin' with us during our radio silence.

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