Today I went out to the Summer Palace.  The Summer Palace is a massive, 700-acre complex where the Chinese emperor would spend holidays, getting away from the city for a while.  Today, Beijing has expanded so much that the Palace is now considered inside Beijing, though it is a ways out from the city.  Out …

Greg had meetings today, so I was on my own in the city.  I awoke this morning just barely in time for breakfast, and then I headed out.  My first stop was the Forbidden City.  I went to the north gate, which is less visited than the south gate, both so I could go through …

Today we went out and checked out some of the shops and markets around Beijing.  Greg was planning on having a meeting today, but the other person got stuck in Hong Kong, so we had extra time.  Our first stop was Walmart.  Yes, Walmart.  Though we were actually dropped off a few blocks away, as …

This morning I awoke to the sound of Greg’s blaring alarm.  He, of course, was already awake and chugging away at work emails.  I had to get up so we could get out and on the road to the Great Wall.  After breakfast, we headed down to the lobby and met up with Daphne, our …

Since our flight to Beijing was at 5:00pm today, and we had been so busy over the last few weeks, Greg and I decided to not do much today, but rather relax before going off to Beijing.  After sleeping “late” (9:30am), I went to breakfast and then Skyped with my mom, who was anxious to …

After all of the hassle yesterday, we finally got on our flight to Hong Kong.  To my pleasant surprise, the seats on the flight were by far the best I have ever been in, with much more width and leg room than normal.  Even better, there was no one in the seat between us, giving …

I am very, incredibly, totally secured.  This morning we left early for the airport in Pokhara for out first flight, back to Kathmandu.  Other than the hotel giving away the taxi we reserved, everything went surprisingly smoothly.  We got checked in, went through security, and soon we were on our flight. The flight had some …

Today we headed off to do some hiking in hopes of getting better views of the tall Himalayan mountains.  We had talked with a couple of trekking companies last night, so we headed to one this morning and told them where we wanted to hike, and that we wanted to be gone about six hours.  …

After breakfast this morning, we left for the Kathmandu airport for our flight to Pokhara, Nepal.  As a domestic flight, taking the trip meant using the domestic terminal, which was crazy.  The entire terminal had two gates and a small waiting area.  Outside of security, people were everywhere and things were crazy.  Also, we spent …

Today it rained.  A lot.  Then it rained some more.  When that finished, we decided to start our hike for the day.  Then it rained again.  It finished raining just about the time we got back to the hotel in the afternoon. We decided last night to hike with our guide and an Indian couple …