Safe and Sound in China

Welcome to China !




Ha.. funny story.. click on the photo to make it large enough to read, hopefully. Anyways we were on the plane and we came accross this comic and it was too funny not to post.. but dont worry we're safe, we're SAFE!!!



Well it is currently 6pm here, which translates into 4am there, and with little more than a short nap or two on the plane we've arrived with no hickups, it was almost too easy... hehe. The airplane food I think has gotten worse, and 8 month old childern cry, well some of them do anyways. Dreamgirls, not a good movie, Erogen wasn't either for that matter. Anyways Chinese customs was a breeze, the guy with our sign was waiting right where he said he would be, and bam, we're at the hostel. Driving through Beijing was amazing. Everywhere I looked they were taking down beautiful brick building and building 20+ story office and condo buildings. After checking in we walked through some market streets to a gate near Tiamen square, I'll figure out what one it is tomorrow. It took a minute or two, or 15 to get use to the market atmosphere again, but after that, it was a great walk. I kept wanting to duck down alleyways, but I'll leave that till tomorrow. The one thing that sums up Beijing in the 20 minutes I've spent in it, is clean. For a city the that houses the population of half of Canada, this place on the streets is cleaner than the inside of Canadian malls. So that is what I've seen, but I'll let Sara tell her point of view now.

Later, Tyson

Ha.. funny man that Tyson was.. he is right about a few things, the airplane ride was good, the food was mediocore but the crying babies were a little cute.. It has been a total of 20 hours travelling time and i feel like a walking zombie, but Tyson won't let me go to bed untill 8pm Beijing time.. !!!! Umm well since i have never been to a place like this the first thing that i noticed was well there is no seat belts in the back of cars.. Don't worry mom they can sure drive through the narrowest streets in town and not hit anything, im sure i would have hit like 10 people, a wall, and a roasting duck along the way! But other than that we are safe and sound.
Here are a few things that I have noticed about Beijing so far
1) If you do not get out of the way of a honking moving vehicle/rickshaw your dead! See in Canada we use our horns to tell someone to F--- off! but in beijing its a survival tool!

2) Water is 25 cents.. yah!

3) They listen to 90's music, oh yeah TLC!!!

4) Anything you want you can get in this city! (the 2 blocks that we walked, i almost bought a pet turtle.. haha)

5) ITS HOT OUT!!!! plus 28 with humidity... toasty!

6) There are green bananas mom just the way you like them!!

That is all i have to say for now, im soo tired..

Thanks for all of you who emailed us and commented it was GREAT to hear from people from home!

Look forward to writing more tomorrow!

Love Sara:)













PS: More Pictures to come, the internet connection is going really slow so tomorow we will try again.

9.5 Hours!!!!

There they are, the three amigos that will be accompanying us for 4 months, we better make good friends with them

This one is mine, i am not sure how much it weighs but it is semi heavy, might have to throw things out along the way ;)

Well this explains it all, hes ready to go, while im crying off and on.. yep that sums it up!!!

Here we go!!!!! The adventure begins in 9.5 hours. We will be boarding our plane to our first stop Vancouver.. whoo.. ok doing good so far still in Canada, and then BAM 11 hours later we will be in China. Packing and things were going good, until I hugged my mom and I've been crying off and on ever since... (poor Tyson)... So many mixed emotions going on.. ahh.. Anyways besides that everything is good to go, Tyson is just putting the finishing last touches on waxing the hiking boots and then we will be off to bed.

See you all in China :)

Love Sara

Tyson says, he loves everybody and to have a great summer!!! He also wishes to be updated on the Vancouver Canucks pitiful playing.

2 weeks to go, and this is the only entry you'll read

Hello,
Believe it or not, but in two weeks Sara and myself will be on a plane going west towards China. The email that myself or Sara sent out has found you, and peaked your interest just enough to come take a look. The goal of this blog is to tell some of the adventures that happen to us, share some pictures with you, stir the odd travel bug off their seat, and to show that we are still alive. A detailed list of places we plan on going to is attached on a previous blog, below this one. Are we crazy, probably a little, but what is better than watching that? Plus we've been amazed by the blogs of some of our friends who have travelled, and are going to attempt to put something together that comes out looking as good as Matt's blog. Check out Matt's recently completed adventures here: http://mattsasianodyssey.blogspot.com/

We will try to write on this blog at least once a week, as Internet facilities provide.
We will try our very best to respond to emails sent to us. Our travel email attached to this blog is sjbtvl@gmail.com
You can also comment directly on this blog if you have Gmail account.
Please forward this blog address on to anyone who may be interested.

Look forward to sharing some of the world with you,

Tyson

PS. By the way I finished all my exams yesterday, and as I write this I am done my engineering degree!!

3 Weeks... are you kidding me?

Look how professional that swewing looks ha-ha.

This is how happy i was after i was done sewing it on.. YAY! Very little prick marks too.

This bikini is going to look sooooo amazin lying on a Greek Island... Well worth the purchase.

Good Afternoon, NAMASTE

Happy Easter everyone!!! I hope you all found your easter eggs that the easter bunny hid, I know i did :). So it had dawned on me that well i am about to board a plane in 3 weeks. Now let me remind you that when you actually count down the days it is more like 22 days. When you say 22 days it feels like forever, it makes you go, "oh thats tons of time to get everything ready and to do all this stuff", and then in the back of your mind a little hand comes and slaps you in the head and says "HEY!!!! you do realize that, that is only 3 weeks away." Then you sit and try to trick yourself into thinking you have more time to prepare then you really do. That saying I did manage to sneak off to MEC yesterday without Tyson and although i reassured him that i was only going to pick up a "few" things and little things at that, such as sunscreen, lip chap, small things like that. So all was well until i was mingling around in the clothes area, not really thinking i was going to find anything really ( I mean i love everything at MEC but i told myself this is not the time, maybe once i get a job and have more money) so anyways back to what im getting at, i came accross a super fly bikini top. I naturally picked up the top just to have a look at it, because i was curious. Well not only did i pick it up, i had to try it on. So in i went trying it on and well it was love at first sight what can i say. It is a surfing/paddling type of top that is nice and secure and virtually no way its going to fall off while i baske in the sun on the greek islands while making sand castles and throwing Tyson in the water. So it was fulfilled, i bought the bikini top and now I HAVE to go travelling, there is no turning back. This was the TSN turning point of the "im scared/excited part of travelling". Now im just pure excited!!! 3 weeks, 3 WEEKS!!! There are only 14 days of my practicum left which is sweet. I wish i had more time off like Tyson does to prepare but thats just the way things work. He will be busy getting last minute things together and making me dinners haha :). The weather here is brutalness.. well its really windy which makes it chilly and its kind of depressing when its almost double digits of april and you really want it to be nice out so you can take your Phys. Ed. classes outside. Today being Easter and all we will cook a nice dinner for the two of us and just relax and spend some time together. Also if you have not seen the movie Babel you should, it made me realize some things about this world. Well I must go now and enjoy the day and the rest of this weekend.

Lates,

Sara :)

PS. Marylin you would be so proud I learned how to sew and I sewed on one Canadian flag already and its pretty steardy.

One Month to go...

I am now married to my profession... Sorry Sara

One ring young Frodo, all the power is in your hands.

15 days of school remaining until I own a degree..
27 days of teaching before Sara owns her second degree..
30 days until we leave for China..
2-3 visas still to obtain
The countdown is on.

This weekend my parents drove over from Quesnel to come see my iron ring ceremony. It was nice to see them again, the last time till after we return from travelling. We had all the parents meet for the first time Saturday, which was great, except that the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames were playing each other that evening. I have to learn to stop taking bets with Ken, because every time I do the Canucks seem to lose. Now I have to drive around with a Calgary Flames sticker on my car for a week.

As for travel planning my head isn't really in the game right now. Being very busy with school, big final projects and all. I guess I figure that once I'm done school in a little over two weeks I'll have the time to get things organized. I guess the only thing that I'm really worried about is not getting all of our visas in time. But since that is out of my hands... I only worry about it a couple of times a day.

Spring here in Edmonton thinks it wants to start, but then turns around and says nay, not yet. Earlier this week I heard, not that I get outside much these days, but I heard that it was really quite warm outside, and then yesterday it's snowing, and today, well today there is a cold biting wind outside.

Well I better stop procrastinating and get some homework done. It's been interesting seeing how my thought flow onto this thing.

Tyson

Mug Shots!!!

Warning, Warning, If you see these pictures on the news please phone in and say you know these two ridiculously good looking people. Well hopefully you never have to see these 2 pictures on the news. We thought we would post our mug shots (a.k.a our Visa photos) so that many of you could laugh , i think i look like i am about to cry, while tyson sort of looks like a serial killer.. shh don't tell him i said that. Would you let these two people into your country? I think that's why the Chinese consulate took their time in giving us a visa they were probably contemplating and doing many background checks haha. Hopefully the Russians are a little quicker in making their decision, i swear i do not want to go into your country to stir any trouble i just want to try your baking. That's right, I have made it my goal that in every country we go to i will try out their bakeries while it may be an odd thing to do, i can't see myself trying various types of meals, eww fish tasting broth for soup YUCK!!! Anyways speaking of baking, I must go to Starbucks and get my fill of Chi latte and a delicious scone... ok so maybe i am becoming a little "yuppyish" as my father would like to say. Whatever dad, you just bought new glasses at a hip store on whyte ave, who is the "yuppy" now?

Lates,

Sara & Tyson

Tick Tock Tick Tock!!!

So its been awhile since we updated! Mostly because we have been uber busy with finishing school and just finding enough time to eat and sleep!!! Travel plans are coming along and in a SHORT 7 weeks we will be on our flight to Beijing!!! Where does the time go?????? Tyson has pretty much been living at school trying to finish his big design project, and i said i was going to buy him a pull out cot so that he can just sleep at school because he spends a lot of time there... sometimes too much time!!! We are getting shot up on friday... no no not any drugs or anything just immunizations and stuff. We now have our Chinese Visas and have sent the paper work off for the rest of the visas that we need. Anyways, here is a map of where we are going and a tentative itinerary for our journey... i still can't believe he roped me into doing this! Seriously, i must have been half a sleep when he asked me to go to these places! Take a look at where we are going and if you want anything, you have to tell us because we can't read minds.. and we have very limited room in our packs so be cautious of that!

NOTE: Dots are for Flying, and lines are for overland.

Trip Plan

May 1 – Leave Edmonton and fly to Beijing
May 2 – Arrive Beijing
4 full days in Beijing
May 7 – Leave Beijing and fly to Chengdu
1 full day in Chengdu
May 9 – Leave Chengdu and fly to Lhasa
Approximately 6 days in and around Lhasa acclimatizing
13 full days hiking and exploring Tibet
May 29 – Depart Lhasa by train to Golmud, Qinghai Province, China
May 30 – Depart Golmud by bus to Dunhuang, Gansu Province, China
3 full days in Dunhuang
June 3 – Depart Dunhuang via mini bus then train to Turpan, Xinjiang Province, China
June 4- Arrive in Turpan
1 full day in Turpan
June 6 – Depart Turpan by train to Kashgar, Xingjiang Province, China
June 7 – Arrive in Kashgar
3 full days in Kashgar
June 11/12 – Depart Kashgar over the Torugut Pass to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
20 full days in Kyrgyzstan - Bishkek, Lake Issyk-Kol, Karakol, and Song-Kol
July 2/3 – Depart Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan by bus to Almaty Kazakhstan
6 full days in/around Almaty Kazakhstan
July 10 – Leave Almaty to go to Astana, Kazakhstan
2 full days in Astana, Kazakhstan
July 13 – Leave Astana to go to Lake Burnaby, Kazakhstan
July 14 – Leave Lake Burnaby to go to Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan
2 full days of extra time built in for delays or additional exploring
July 17 – Leave Petropavlovsk via train to Moscow, Russia
July 19 – Arrive in Moscow, Russia
3 full days in Moscow
July 23 – Leave Moscow, Russia by train to St. Petersburg
July 24 – Arrive in St. Petersburg
2 full days in St. Petersburg
July 27 – Leave St. Petersburg, Russia by train to Kiev, Ukraine
July 28 - Arrive in Kiev, Ukraine
4 full days in Kiev
August 2 – Leave Kiev, Ukraine, and go to Odessa, Ukraine
1 full day in Odessa
August 4 – Leave Odessa, Ukraine by ferry to go to Istanbul, Turkey
August 6 – Arrive in Istanbul, Turkey
5 full days in Istanbul
August 12 – Leave Istanbul, Turkey and travel by bus then ferry to the Greek Islands
12 full days on Greek Islands
August 25 – Leave Greek Islands and travel to Athens, Greece
1 full day in Athens
August 27 – Leave Athens, Greece and fly to Edmonton, Canada

Lates,

SBRO and TDOT