We left Beijing for Hong Kong and it was a breath of fresh air.  Quite possibly because it literally was fresh air compared to mainland China.  Blue skies, white puffy clouds, and the sun shining.

Hong Kong is PACKED. Tons of people, cars, tourists everywhere!  Many hostels and hotels are located in things called ‘mansions.’  Unfortunately they are anything but what comes to mind when you think of a mansion.  These ‘mansions’ are actually high-rise buildings with all sorts of shops, homes and hotels located inside.

Some of the mansions are not bad, others are dingy and downright scary.  Our hostel was not in a one of these aforementioned mansions, but it was located in a high-rise building of sorts.  Before arriving to Hong Kong we had heard hotel rooms were notoriously small.  By that point we stayed in all sorts of accommodations; private rooms, shared rooms, camping, single beds, sharing beds, sleeping on air-mattresses, on the floor, in a tent, you name it.  We had seen it all.  The only hotel room we could find in our price range and in the area of the city we wanted to stay just had child-size bunk beds available.  We laughed a bit at the idea of bunk beds but thought, no problem.  Totally doable, we reasoned.

We arrived at our hotel after a long day of traveling and were shown to our room.  It felt like a joke when I opened the door. Our room was the size of a walk-in closet and had one little, teeny-tiny bed.   It was a bit bigger than a single bed.  The first thing out of Julia’s mouth was “I don’t know if we are even going to fit on that thing let alone sleep.”  I kindly reminded the hotel that I had booked us a room with bunk beds.  They kindly referred me to the booking information that clearly said the room I had booked was a double room-one bed. I think it was their mistake, but in all likelihood I could have messed up the booking.  Don’t tell Julia.

We decided to make the best of it.  Sure, there was nowhere to store our luggage other than in the “hallway” aka the 2×2 foot space between the bathroom and the bed.  Sure, the shower was really just a nozzle in the bathroom where the water sprayed into the toilet and drained into the floor.  Sure, there was no seating other than to perch oneself against the wall of the ‘hallway’ with feet up on the bathroom door; we were going to make the best of the situation regardless.

The first night we did just that.  We laid like statues.  Unmoving unless absolutely necessary and then only in the slowest and most well thought-out easing of the body from one position to another so as to not disturb the slumbering sister.  It was doable.

The second night however was a different story.  We, again, were lying like statues and I accidentally coughed on Julia.  I tried to shied the cough but it’s difficult to miss someone when their face is less than 3 inches from your own. “Theresa, you are coughing in my face.”  “Ooookay,” was my snotty (but actually just out-of-it and tired) response.  I rolled over and by “rolled over,” I mean made the equivalent of a 3-point K-turn to face the other direction. Now my face was 3 inches from the wall. Julia thought I was being rude.  I thought she was overreacting. It was 3 am and I said NO MORE!  The Wetherhold girls can have a flair for the dramatics, so I think there may have even been the statement “I can’t live like this anymore,” uttered into the darkness.

The next morning we booked a different hotel for the rest of our stay.  It was a bit further outside of the city, but one of the many things HK excels in is public transportation.  I just read an article citing HK with having the best metro system in the world, and although I can’t vouch for that extensive of a claim, I can say it is FANTASTIC!  Cheap, reliable, easy to navigate and always on time.  It was downright wonderful. With a good transit system why did we need to be downtown in a cramped little hotel room, coughing on each other all night?  Answer:  We didn’t.  We upgraded baby, and still for a bargain price if I do say so myself.

Hong Kong just has a cool feel to it.  The city seems to vibrate on a completely different frequency.  Julia and I noted numerous times that we felt we were in New York City.  It’s bustling, vibrant and exciting, while still maintaining a friendliness and accessibility.  By the end of our stay we felt like we “knew” where we were going and what we were doing.  It doesn’t hurt that having been under British control for many years, everything is written in English as well Chinese!

We spent a good amount of our time walking around the city, eating dim sum, and riding the metro to all the sightseeing spots

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We said goodbye to Trish, her family and Shanghai, loaded on the bullet train and set out for Beijing. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with Beijing.  Old memories of Olympic past came to mind when I thought about this city, but in recent years it has told a different story. And oh did Beijing have a story to tell.

When we got to the city the first thing that struck us was the air quality. This city is so smoggy!  The sun could barely break through.  It lived in a perpetual state of gloominess.  After being there 4-5 days we could really feel a difference in our physical well being.  Our throats were scratchy, noses were stuffed, and we just didn’t feel great.

The second thing that struck me was the cultural differences of the people.  There was such a disparity between what some people would perceive as appropriate physical space and how I would define it.  We heard the phrase “if there is space it will be filled” and this was very apparent throughout our visit.  Whereas in other parts of Asia queuing is a big thing, cutting in line is part of the culture here.  Walking down the street, standing in line, sight-seeing.  And the number one perpetrator? Women over the age of 60.  They would push and shove to get where they were going. Honestly though, can I blame them?  Typically standing 5 foot nothing and weighing 100 pounds soaking wet, these gals were feisty and probably needed to be.

When we finally asked why this culture was so “pushy,” we received some sobering stories of times ago.  The government would distribute food and goods throughout the cities and towns and only had so much to give.  When supplies were out they were out.  Therefore, being forceful was impartive.  It appears this attitude has perseverated the society in more ways than one.

The other interesting behavior we noted was constant staring.  It’s unlike anything else I had experienced.  Just a constant staring from strangers.  Sometimes people would randomly take a picture of Julia and I.  Walking down the street and cell phone snapping.  During this time Julia and I perfected our “awkward smile” pose.  We would use this whenever the staring became a bit too extended.  We aren’t total jerks, so this isn’t something we would do straight away if someone was looking at us.  It usually only came about after a certain number of looking back and forth at a person who wouldn’t break the stare.  Finally after 3-4 look backs, Julia and I would make eye contact with the person and give a tight-lipped, closed mouth awkward smile with a non-verbal “Hello.  How are you?” look.  Sometimes the person would smile back, sometimes they would look away, other times they would keep staring.

Our best day in Beijing was visiting the Great Wall.  We decided to take a bus about 3 hours outside of the city to a place called Jinshanling.  This part of the wall had both sections in ruins and parts that were restored.  We spent about 4 hours climbing over the wall and it was just remarkable.  Unlike other sections that can be packed with tourists, our group of about 20 were the only ones there.  People quickly spread out, walking at different paces and so there were times Julia and I were nearly alone. It was without a doubt one of the best experiences of the trip.

On one of the last days in Beijing we went to the Temple of Heaven, a beautiful temple in the city.  It was a gorgeous sight but even better was what happened in the park leading up to the temple.  This place was a like a senior citizen block party.  All these people congregate in the park chatting, playing games, and socializing.  Even Julia and I got in on the fun!

Then Julia takes the win:

Growing up, you often hear of kids having make-believe friends.  This was not something I ever did.  Being one of five kids (a family of 7, plus a cat, dog and a few fish,) there were enough things in the house to entertain me.  I didn’t need to create any more. Another person packed in the van ride down to the shore for vacation?  No thanks, I’ll pass.

On this trip, however, I notice myself often  referencing our “friends back in the hotel.”  I didn’t even realize I was doing it until one day Julia stated “Man, these friends at the hotel sure are a lazy bunch of losers. Do they ever leave the room?”   I asked her what she was talking about, utterly confused.  “These ‘friends’ you always need to ‘check in with’ before committing to any situation.” She was totally correct and I hadn’t even noticed I was doing it.  Whenever we would get pressed in a situation to buy a tour or do something we didn’t want to, without a second thought I’d say “Oh shoot.  Our friends are at the hotel right now, so we need to check with them first.  We’ll be sure to get back to you though.” Curtsey and exit stage left.

This lie must have been born when I was traveling alone at the start of my trip.  If I felt like someone was asking a bit too many questions or details, I’d casually remark about the friends I was visiting in the city.  I never wanted to appear vulnerable and always wanted to give a sense of confidence.  There is safety in numbers.  Even if those numbers are totally false and completely fabricated.

Our imaginary friends were incredibly useful one day in China.  We were walking around Tiananmen Square when two women approached us.  They talked to us a bit, then proceeded to tell they were teachers who were learning English.  After a brief interaction, they asked Julia and I if we would like to  go to get coffee with them so they could practice their English.  We were so tired and exhausted from the day.  Neither of us wanted to do it and we just looked at one another.  “Ohh. We would love to,” I started as Julia watched me knowingly, “but our friends are waiting for us to go to dinner.”  “What restaurant?” they asked us.  Hmm kinda weird, I thought.  “We are meeting them back at the hotel so I don’t even know!” I said light-heartedly.  “What time?” they asked.  Well, now this is weird.  I had no idea what time it was.  Do I say 7:00? 6:30?  Aim low, I told myself. “Um, at 6:00 I think.”  The woman looked at her watch; 5:45. Nailed it. Despite having zero desire to get coffee with these girls, I still felt a bit guilty blowing off these aspiring English teachers.  I offered a small compromise and said,  “If you want to practice your English, you could walk with us for a bit while we walk to our hotel.”  “No thanks, bye,” they remarked while walking off.  It was a strange interaction, but international travel exchanges can be a bit strange at times, especially when dealing with a language barrier.

We got back to the hostel and mentioned the whole exchange to our friends at the front desk.  “Oh no,” they started,  “This scam is quite common and a major problem here!” They went on to explain:  People will approach to strike up a conversation, and say they would like to practice English.  They invite you to coffee or tea at a restaurant who is in on the scam.  Next, they order items without presenting a menu and thirty minutes later you are presented a bill of hundreds of dollars for the “special” tea or coffee you have just enjoyed.  I had never heard of it before, but apparently it’s a classic.  We felt like we had dodged a huge bullet.  On that day our imaginary friends came up big for the win.  Even if they are lazy group who never leaves the hotel.

We were terrible children.  Sorry Mom and Dad, but it’s true.  Well, let me clarify.  We weren’t necessarily terrible, but there are A LOT of us. AND we were crazy active kids.  My oldest brother Aaron was our ring leader.  He was the most ACTIVE out of the five of us.  When we hear stories of Aaron as a baby, we always marvel that our parents actually had FOUR more kids. I have two favorite ‘baby Aaron’ stories:  ONE:  His first word was “plug.”  Forget ‘mama’ or ‘dada,’ no this terror child loved to unplug all the lamps, televisions and kitchen appliances from their electrical outlets around the house, most likely pushing my poor mother to the brink of insanity by having to follow him around to keep his tiny fingers away from these death-traps.  TWO: When my parents were trying to ‘sleep train’ him, he would cry AND run his bottle over the rails of his crib essentially magnifying the dramatic portrayal of his nighttime ‘jail,’ aka crib. Back and forth, crying, back and forth.  I can only imagine! This was Aaron as a baby.  Now imagine him the oldest of five rambunctious kids.  Needless to say,  babysitting the Wetherhold kids could have been considered an Olympic sport. My favorite babysitter growing up was our neighbor Trish.  Trish’s family was just cool.  There were five kids (3 boys and 2 girls!) and they were the fun, older neighborhood kids.  They lived in the farm-house built before our neighborhood was constructed and her parents were the unofficial neighborhood leaders.  We had our annual neighborhood BBQ each summer at their house and pond. Trish was my favorite babysitter because she actually played with me.  I remember my mind being blown when my mom told me Trish would play Barbie’s with me.  My brothers never played Barbie’s. Unless you consider G.I Joe bombing Barbie’s Malibu vacation beach party. . . “playing.”  Trish was my favorite because she was sweet, fun and she could handle us.  I was talking to Aaron recently about this and he responded “I vaguely remember being 6 or 7 and mom ‘threatening me’ that if Trish quit and didn’t want to come back to babysit I was going to be in BIG trouble.  All the other teenage girls in the neighborhood had already tried it once and quit.” Since my parents moved 15 years ago, I had only seen Trish and her family a handful of times over the years. This past summer, my parents were back in the old neighborhood and they ran into her.  During the course of the conversation, my parents mentioned my year of traveling. Trish suggest I visit her, her husband and son who live in Shanghai, China.  My mom came home and exclaimed “Trish wants you to visit her in China.  I gave her your email and she is going to get in touch!” Amazing! Add China to the list!  Another one of the many, many reasons why flexibility in travel is AWESOME! Throughout these past few months, Trish has helped Julia and I with so many things Asia related.  She would email us with suggestions of where to go and what to see.  Little pointers and big pieces of advice.  Do this, skip that, don’t go there, don’t miss this!  (Random side note: Another source that I found immensely helpful while traveling around Asia was my friend Linda’s blog.  If you are going to Southeast Asia anytime soon check it out here! Lots of great advice and clear cut directions. Really good stuff!) Julia and I finally made it to Shanghai near the end of our Asia travels and it was great timing.  We were downright spoiled by Trish and her family.  We saw the sights, ate amazing food, and just had a wonderful introduction to China from one of my very favorite people from childhood.  It was all in all quite perfect!

Author’s Note: I want to clarify that although Aaron was a nightmare child, he is a wonderful human being currently.  Supportive, kind, funny, a great big brother, and still loving all things electrical.

Cambodia came in like a punch to the gut.  The first day we were up early at 5:00 am (along with every other Siem Reap tourist) to see sunrise over Angkor Wat.  Noted as one of the seven great wonders, Angkor Wat is a feast to behold.  It is a holy site ruin and in many felt like Machu Pitchu to me.  Ruins and religious undertones.

Angkor Wat was beautiful and peaceful but I can’t say the same for the surrounding area.  Walking between temples, there was constant haggling from locals to buy stuff.  Unfortunately, some of the worst of it was from the children.  There were so many kids running around the temples. It’s so hard to say no to them (which is the obvious reason their parents are sending out to work the troves of tourists.)

The kids come up selling postcards, guide books, magnets, anything really.  They’ll begin a speech on whatever they are selling: “Buy these. Only one dollar.  Two for three.  Good price.  Please buy lady.  Good price for you. One for one dollar, two for three dollar.  Good price lady, you buy.”  We are talking 4, 5, 6 year olds.  I can pretty much guarantee that these little ones have zero comprehension of the words they are saying.  I’m sure it’s a script rehearsed day after day.  A song of sorts, like the ABCs.

At one point, Julia and I were going into a public bathroom at one of the temples and there was a little boy sitting next to a sign saying we had to pay.  A girl walking in front of us told the boy that she wasn’t going to give him money because she had a ticket to the temple.  She was most likely correct.  Many locals set up shop in front public places and attempt to get tourists to pay to enter.  The woman refused and walked into the toilet.  This little guy was so upset, he followed her yelling at her to pay.   He was so upset and on the verge of tears.  Finally he looked at his dad who shook his head and pulled him back from the lady.

These types of things really bother me. It’s difficult not assigning judgement to a situation like this or a culture who expects this from it’s children.  It’s a challenge for me to remain an unbiased observer. What’s the right thing to do at this point? Do you pay the money?  The toilet was free, but we are talking about 25-50 cents here.  Does paying help?  Does that improve the situation? Does it give a poor family the little income they need to survive? Does it encourage parents to not send their children to school because they know their children will garner more money than they ever could? Do you try to explain to the little boy why we weren’t going to pay? I have a lot of questions and not many answers.  I truly don’t know the answer.

Julia and I were exhausted after only a few days in Siem Reap. It was hot, bustling and emotionally taxing.  On the way home from the temples the first day I was processing everything I had seen.  A holy site, massive amounts of people, unsurprised children walking around selling things and handling large amounts of cash, ruins, cars, people.   I looked off into the distance and saw a bunch of kids in huddle.  Great more kids working, I thought bitterly.  But these children were different.  They were laughing, running, smiling, yelling.  They were doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing. I looked a little closer and realized they were playing tag.

Our final destination in Thailand were the islands.  We saved the best for last.  This place is heaven on earth. There are so many islands to choose from choosing was our first predicament.  They all sound similar to!  Koh: Koh Lanta, Koh Muk, Koh Phi Phi, Koh Phangan.  How does one decide?  We knew we didn’t want to be overrun by tourists so we picked a well reviewed island that seemed to have a little bit of everything.  Our island base was Koh Lanta with trips to Koh Ruk and Koh Muk.  I’ll let the pictures do the talking, but essentially we spent the week relaxing on the beach, reading, swimming, sun-bathing and enjoying this paradise.

Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand, was a really special place.  We spent about a week there and in the surrounding areas.  We visited many temples and walked around the world renown night market-go on a Sunday if you plan to go.  It’s amazing!

One of the first activities we participated in was “Monk Chat.”  This is run by the local temple as a way for their monks to practice their English skills.  We met with two monks and were able to ask they a variety of questions about their lives. Many of these young men are expected by their families to become monks.  Especially if they are the oldest boy or the only boy in their family.  We talked a lot about the Buddhist religion and their belief of re-birth and reaching enlightenment.  These men will typically only eat food offered by the towns people and tourist during a morning ceremony known as “giving alms” and will usually stop eating around mid-day.  They told us about how they love to watch soccer and other sports but won’t play these games.  They are ‘soldiers of Buddha’ and are to be respected as such.  Therefor they won’t participate in games and activities like ‘common people.’

Another day we went to a Thai cooking class outside the city at an organic farm.  Yes, that’s right family and friends. . .I can cook you an authentic thai meal when I am back stateside!  It was a super fun day and also quite eye-opening to realize just how much work is put into the layering of flavors for these delicious delicacies.

We also went to traditional Thai massages.  Essentially you were scrub-like outfits and get stretched, massaged and downright man-handled by a little Thai woman for 60 minutes.

Another day we biked around the city, taking in the sights.

On our last day we wanted to  visit Doi Inthanon National Park.  We were tired of the bus, van, train options so instead we found a tour group literally called “Something Different.”  Our group was led up into the mountains with a guide and a motorbike.  The result: an adventure packed day zipping through the national park,  stopping to swim at waterfalls and pick strawberries on the hillside.  Sometimes it pays to do something different!

Julia and I were lucky enough to spend a few days at an elephant sanctuary in Northern Thailand.  For being one of Thailand’s most revered animals domesticated elephants are treated incredibly inhumanely in Thailand.  Throughout our  trip through south-east asia we saw many tourists riding these gentle giants.  It may be tempting to do, but when you see it up close and personal it’s actually quite sad.  Many have a mental ‘seat’ strapped to their backs, while 2 or 3 tourists sit on them as well as a mahout (Thai word for trainer.)  They are pulled by the ears and hit to keep moving or to follow directions.

The sanctuary that we visited takes retired or disabled elephants and allows them to live out the rest of their lives in peace and safety, free from abuse or work.  There have even been a couple of baby elephants born at the sanctuary!  These guys were too cute for words.

We saw many elephants at the park with spine deformities after years of work at ‘trekking camps.’ We learned that in order for an elephant to be trained, it is cruelly taken away from its mother as a baby and beaten into submission during a practice known as Phajaan, translated to “breaking the spirit.”  It was heartbreaking to learn this information, but also heartwarming to see these happy, rescued animals.

We must have put good vibes into the universe because later that week Ringling Bros Barnum and Bailey announced it was ending all elephant shows and retiring their circus elephants by 2018.  This is such awesome news for these beautiful creatures.  Help the cause by refusing to ride elephants or attend ‘shows’ where these animals participate in acts like painting, playing instruments or other tricks.  The actual act that they are performing may not be injuring them, but to train them to be submissive enough to follow these directions they were most likely beaten, or treated horribly.

Do your research and support organization that truly have these animals best welfare at heart.  Reputable sanctuaries are the way to go!