Now that we've moved on to Thailand, we thought we should catch up on our China blogs, starting with our unplanned detour to Chengdu. First off, the Panda Breeding Reserve in Chengdu puts the Beijing Zoo to shame (Stefanie nearly cried seeing some of the disgusting conditions at that zoo). The Breeding Reserve was like an entire zoo with every exhibit dedicated to pandas. I have never seen so many giant pandas, red pandas, and panda babies in one place before....

During our time in Beijing and Xi'an (pronounced "she-ahn"), we had lots of opportunities to explore China's history. The two most impressive sites also happen to be two of the most well-known: the Great Wall and the Terracotta Army. Rather than visiting the most popular sections of the great wall, where the wall is usually obscured by ridiculous numbers of people and annoying vendors, we chose to do a tour our hostel called "Ancient Wall to Secret Wall." It c...

We've begun the next exciting leg of our journey: China! As the last days passed by in New Zealand, we started getting anxious about what might lay ahead for us in Asia. Needless to say, the language barrier felt pretty daunting. However, I'm happy to report that so far it hasn't been so bad! In fact, for the most part, we're loving China! Here's a little run down on the good, the bad, and the tasty. The Good Navigating the airports in Guangzhou and Bei...

New Zealand is trying to kiss and make nice! I think it overheard us complain about the unusual rain once or twice and wanted to make a better impression. If that's the case, it definitely succeeded! Jeff already mentioned the amount of rain we've seen since arriving in New Zealand, especially on the south island, so as we headed to Milford Sound (known to be very wet), we tried not to get our hopes up. However, out of our three day stay, it only rained one d...

We have made it over to the South Island of New Zealand. After two full days of non-stop rain, followed by days of clouds and scattered showers and then more downpours, we are now fully aware why New Zealand is so green! Even so, the South Island is exceptionally scenic. Here is a run-down on some of the things we have been up to since arriving on the South Island 12 days ago. Driving and Walking in Abel Tasman National Park - glad we weren't with the tour gr...