My mom has been getting on me to show off some pictures of our new apartment. It is very spartan right now, but we don't mind. After 5 years on a boat we are used to living without much clutter. The view is what we loved best about this apartment when we first viewed it. We look out onto a primary school to the west, on some big, beautiful trees...

Wake up calls came early again by 7:30am. We have a full day ahead of us as we will spend on half a day with Xuewu, Xin Xin and their gorgeous 4.5 year old daughter, Shang. We were constantly entertained and enjoyed the day. The weather was a little chiller today at lower 60's with some nice strong winds. We first visited the Red Gate Gallery (a...

Friday 31-08 The Beijing day has just started!!! And the first difference with the smart russian girls: As soon as we found a bar to drink some coffe and we planned the visits for the following days.Today we will walk and visit the main streets: including the food shops: the Beiahi park we had luch in a restaurant in the park and the Hutong area...

So, we left Rome yesterday morning and arrived here in Beijing this morning. We had to stopover in Helsinki on the way back for two hours. It wasn't any more pleasant the second time going there. Neither was Rome for that matter. The flight between Helsinki and Beijing was terrible- an overnight one. Sharon felt really sick on that flight due to...

DAY 1 - 30 June 2005 We arrived at Beijing airport amidst a huge crowd of Chinese waiting to welcome loved ones home, each waving a name-sign, searching for a familiar face. Just as we were lamenting how cool it would be if someone was waving our name I heard a familiar Scots voice shout "Nicola!" - Yay! It was Ron (username irax; on round the w...

Greetings from Bayanhongor, Mongolia. Doris, the German women who has been riding her bike through Kazakhstan to Mongolia just showed up at the internet cafe in Altay. So now there are 3 of us headed to Ulaan-Baatar and beyond. I was able to get ahold of the bank director in Altay and he agreed to open the bank for a few hours the next day even ...

Beijing is fantastic and developing by the day. Everything is very fast moving in this up and coming capital, it's difficult to keep up. We were there when it was chosen to host the Olympics and witnessed the grass being painted green! The sights here are so famous that they're hard to take in. Tiananmen Square is colosal and extremely powerful ...

Set out to Airport on Wednesday. Rucksack v. very heavy. Mostly full of all the medications that we had to bring with us!! Its typical, we are well for months and months before we go, then 2 days before I get strep throat and need antibiotics for that and Vinny has to go to eye and ear hospital to get his eye popped out due to ingrown eyelash(ey...