We've now arrived in a surprise stop--Pingyao. It's a UNESCO World Heritage site and it seems pretty neat so far. We only arrived this afternoon, after an 8-hour bus ride. The distances in China are unfathomable. Until you jump in a bus and have to travel them.

China is...interesting. I would say that it's definitely our most intense travel experience yet (Lesotho being an intense living experience). It's hard to get used to the staring and poking and prodding. Okay, maybe it's not that bad, but some days it feels like it! Joel is constantly being stared at because he's so tall. I revel in my new-found celebrity status. He's still a bit unsure about it :)

Let me set the current scene for you: Im' in a hotel, using the internet. It';s situated in their restaurant. Currently, directly behind me is a family slurping noodles, snuffling, spitting, and generally doing things we in the West find disgusting. But it's the norm here. China will take some getting used to. Oh, and they're all "reading" over my shoulder. Luckily, none of them speak English :)

We spent a few days in Datong, a quite unremarkable city. We went to a hanging monastery, which was just as amazing as we were hoping. We also saw the Yungang Caves (google it, it's worth the time). The caves stretch for 1km and contain more than 50,000 carved Buddhas. By the time we left, we felt a bit Buddha-ed out. The dedication of those Buddhists is amazing.

Datong didn't really hold much else for us, so we tried to spend a day working on logistics. We're trying to get visas to visit Vietnam, which is proving difficult. We want to mail our passports to the embassy and pick them up in a few weeks. But can the people at the post office help us? Nope. And our Lonely Planet guide book doesn't have a handy phrase decoder telling us how to say "We need to send this to the Vietnamese Embassy ASAP!". Go figure.

I'm quickly running out of time, so I'll jjust metion our next few stops:

Xian--Terracotta warriors, various temples

Changdu--PANDAS!!!

Chongqing--start of a boat tour on the Yangzi River to visit the Three Gorges

After that, who knows?

Take care.

:) m & j