Hello from Beijing.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
The incomparable duo of Cat and Leanne came, saw, and conquered China. They demanded everything the country had to offer -- Purses! Dumplings! Neon! Rock shows! -- and, I think, were not disappointed. And now, this tour guide is hanging up her visor and little red flag and retiring.
Not that I want to give anything away -- as Cat is in the middle of an impressive (and impressively thorough) day-by-day recap of the trip -- but I cannot resist putting up some of these pictures. (Who doesn't love a camel??) And now, I have boxes to pack, and junk (so much junk) to sort, and pandas to think about, as we're heading to the far Western wilds for a week on Saturday for our last big China fling. Yes, baby pandas will be hugged, and Tibetan villages will be explored, and then we will pop off to Shanghai for some shiny buildings and delicious dumplings. And that will pretty much be the end of the great China adventure. At least for now.
crazy looking contingent of red-shirted people on the wall
people of China are totally interested in having their picture taken with blondes (er. "blondes"?)
immediately after de-saddling the camel, cat declared that all future trips would now have some sort of animal element. not that this is too suprising: she *does* love the Six Flags Safari Kingdom more than anyone I know.
in the back alleys of shanghai
gamely posing in my favorite phone booth
chinese metal rock rules!
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
The giant, awesome, reclining Buddha at Wat Po.
I am nearing the end of nearly two weeks hopping around Bangkok (a very cool but very hot city). It might not be obvious right away, but betsygoestochina.com is coming at you completely new and improved (or, at least, Betsy is). I had my eyes Lasiked last weekend, and now the days of being called "Four Eyes" are a thing of the past. (Seriously: The left eye is rocking 20/16 vision! The right eye is only at a paltry 20/20.) I know many of you are a bit freaked out by the "flaps" and the "slicing" and the "lasering", but I have to say, you probably could not be more freaked out than I was, and I am fine. (It is over so incredbily quickly, you barely have time to panic.) Glasses, I am not sorry to see you go. Many thanks to the fine folks at TRSC for not treating me like a weirdo during the times when I was clearly very scared.
The rest of my time has been spent shopping (there were so many cool designers in Thailand), eating, and walking around. A lot. The traffic in this town is awful -- it's much easier to walk as much as possible. It's also completely, utterly exhausting... but good justification for a regular naptime.
Next up! Miss Catherine and Miss Leanne arrive Friday afternoon. They will be our last guests (er, as far as I know?) before we start packing up our stuff and preparing to ship out. Hard to believe nearly two years have passed already. And I still have not seen a panda! But not to worry: We are working to remedy this asap.
Buddha toes!
Apparently, you should put one little coin in each pot.
Bangkok's Grand Palace. It really is quite grand.
Pretty. And pretty creepy.
Just pretty!
That's me!
So hard to fit it in with one shot.
Did I mention Mike has new eyes too? He went first, a week before me. We celebrated with a martini afterwards.
One last pic with the glasses, in Chinatown about an hour before I went under the laser.
The cocktail tradition continues: Looking totally hot post-surgery.
Me today at the Grand Palace. Still pretty goofy, but not because of any glasses!
|
