A little beach before home...

Will this be the last entry on biglittlejourney.com? We hope not, but it certainly will be for a while. We're heading home soon, now the last week of our trip is nearly over. We spent it on the beach in Thailand, a great way to end any trip - though we could have used more time!

Here is a picture of the 2 of us on the beach we spent our final days.


Another beach shot. This is on Hat Yuan on Koh Phangnan in Thailand. A great little beach... A little swing action...

And our last bungalow. A real nice little roof over our heads just off the beach. We couldn't have chosen a better spot.A few palm trees here as well. Anyway, thats it for us. We've had a great 10 months, although we both wish there could be a few more. We've seen a ton of places and had so many unforgetteble experiences, its hard to remember them all!

One more epic transit schedule, a boat back to the mainland, and night bus to Bangkok, and then 48 hours flying home after a crazy day of shopping to buy the last t-shirt, souvenir, etc... We'll miss our life on the road, but are excited to see everyone when we get back. Looking forward to catching up and hearing some of your stories of the past 10 months. See you soon!

Shanghai

Next was Shanghai after a brutal overnight train trip which we couldn't manage to obtain sleeper tickets. We were forced to ride 'hard seat' class, and let me tell you it is not the funnest way to spend an evening.

Either way, we made it and had 3 full days in Shanghai. Basically just enough time to scratch the surface in this city, but it sure seems to be a city for ladies because the name of the game here is 'shopping'! There is a ton of it.... Other than that there are sites such as Jade Buddha temple and the 'Old City' which we visited as well.

Below is probably one of the most photographed views in the city. The Bund is an area along the Yangzi river in Shanghai and it fills up with people night and day.
Across the river during the day from the Bund. And the Bund at night...One of Shanghais most famous shopping streets.Again, the same steet at night. And some great architecture which the city is full of. This is heading into the French Quarter in Shanghai

Shanghia is apparently a party town, and a great place to go out. But since we more-or-less broke the bank when we were in Beijing I have to admit we didn't find out for ourselves. Regardless, we had a great 3 days here and it is pretty much where we finished our time in China. We had train to Xiamen and then a flight from there to Bangkok shortly after our trains arrival. It was incredibly sad and hard to leave China, such a great country with still so much left behind to see. We loved the food, the people, and I would recommend anyone to travel here. You're guaranteed an unforgetable experience.

Beijing

From the far west of China in Xinjiang province we were off to Beijing via a flight from Urumchi. No train for that journey, as it would have taken 60+ hours, and time was starting to play a factor. We spent 6 days in Beijing in total, one of the longest stretches we have stayed anywhere on this trip. There are a ton of things to see and our days were completely full. Of the few main attractions which we'll include here is the Forbidden City. Below is the entrace and the massive picture of Mao above. The forbidden city itself was huge, and we probably needed more time than we allowed for it, but there was also a lot of construction happening so that stole away from a few of the sites. One of Jillenes favorite buildings in the Forbidden City.Another popular attraction we were glad we took in was the Lama temple. Some of its best features (i.e. it's large buddha) your not allowed to take photos of, so you'll have to go there yourself to verify, or just take our word for it.

We love our gargoyles... or whatevery you call these!
Next is the great wall, a definite must see when in Beijing. There are a ton of sections to see, we chose Simatai and were happy with our selection. It is the one with the most 'climbing' involved, and knowing this means it is a safe bet that it will draw the fewest Chinese tourists - whom mostly don't like to walk up hill unless there is a chairlift and bottled oxygen involved. We had the place more of less to ourselves - but I think the rain may have also had something to do with that!

And finally Canada Day. A memorable one for both of us I assure you. Saturday night we met up with my second cousin Matt whom lives in Beijing and we hit the town ending the night at a bar which was actually having a Canada day party - apparently. You'd never know it, except there were free shots for Canadians and an obscure countdown to Canada Day where balloons were dropped on the entire bar, yet wasn't actually well timed with midnight! Either way it was a fun night.

The next day (Sunday) - the nicest of all our days in Beijing - we headed out with Matt to the actual Canada Day celebration sponsored by the Canadian Consulate. It was a fun day of eating cold hot dogs, drinking Moosehead beer, and playing water balloon volleyball.

The highlight of the day however was the watermelon eating competition. I figured I could take this hands down, but it turns out that I am no match for the Chinese whom have mastered the art of sucking back food in record time without taking a breath. Despite my dismal display and poor representation of our fine country, I thought it was still worth including a few pics. Here is me getting ready...
And me wrapping up just finishing my plat of melon before time expired...