Moscow...yea

Our hotel came with matching shower caps.


D: Just as enchanting as it was seventeen years ago. This is what I was looking forward to the entire trip. Now, four days left. Yea.

B: Check another off my list of "places to see before I die." Red Square is not as big as I thought it would be or as it looks like on television. I'm finding that's true about a lot of things in life, but more on the Mao picture later.


B: We wanted some sushi pretty badly, so we found a decent place just off Red Square. We ordered a big sake, but turns out that a big Russian sake is a lot larger than a big American sake.

D: "I ain't sharin'!"


D: This is what we looked like after our big Russian sake. I told Bill not to pee in the pitcher!


B: The one thing Moscow has on New York: its subway system. It costs less than 50 cents to ride anywhere, you never wait more than three minutes for a train and the stations look like museums.

D: This subway station was supposed to be turned into a palace for royalty.


D: Each subway has its own story. This has a mosaic theme. All were very beautiful. Moreso than some of the museums we visited.


D: What is everyone looking at?


D: The changing of the guard was something in itself. These guys walked with such valor. They only change the guard at certain times of the day. We were lucky enough, standing in the hot sun for about twenty minutes, to get a front row view. Every single move was precise. You can hear the soliders coming about thirty feet away with gun in tow. It was amazing. Once we are able to upload video we have the entire five minutes on the blog.





They guard the tomb of the unknown solider.





D: "Hey ya'll! I'm from Texas!"





D: We came, we saw, we conquered Lenin's Tomb.

B: It's really cold and quiet down there.

BnD: HE IS REAL!!!! HE IS NOT MADE OF WAX!!!

Three more days till we're on our way out of Russia. Now what?


Stalin and a bunch of other Soviet leaders and heros are buried along the Kremlin wall behind Lenin's tomb.





D: I remember the story told to me was that Ivan the Terrible wanted a cathedral so grand that he would get it at any cost. Once St. Basil's was built it was the most beauiful ever created. To ensure that the creator could not ever build anything so grand ever again, Ivan had his eyes spooned out.


Climbing inside the church.

















You still see a lot of Lenin in Russia today.


D: This place...hmmmmmm. What can I say? I might have gotten food poisoning here? But damn was it good!!!!!!!! Russians do buffets a little bit different. Instead of paying for all you can eat, you pay by the plate full. So whatever you can get on your plate in one trip is all you get. So Bill went for a test rounds. It was not bad. So I get about five pounds, no kidding, of these beef tips and about three pounds of this coleslaw. Best coleslaw ever, even coming from the south. I left Bill in the dust eating everything on mine and his plate. It was not until about two days later I felt the rath of the "all-you-can-load-on-your-plate" buffet. Dang though, I think we would eat it right now.

B: It's true everybody. D has a great bod, but she can really put it away when she wants to.


Moscow was a blur.





B: This picture was taken after another round of sushi. We had it our first and last night in town.

D: Maybe this is were I got the Delhi Belly. Hey, free dinner is worth a belly ache sometimes. Ask us about that later too.

Novgorod...our home away from home

B: We didn't have a guidebook for Russia, other than our one for the Trans-Siberian, and it only covered St. Petersburg and Moscow. That meant that we had three weeks to spend in Russia and the only places we had any advanced information on were the two most expensive cities. We found out about Novgorod from a pamplet in St. Pete and decided to check it out. It was a couple hours south of the city. It's a smaller city, and the oldest in Russia, founded in 859. It's an alright place, but we found a decent hotel with reasonably friendly staff. We also found a cheap internet place where we did quite a bit of blogging and wore out our welcome.

D: We learned there is a reason why you don't put a bottle of hot champagne next to a computer in an un-air conditioned room. Anyone? Anyone? We really fell in love with this place...at first. A few of you know we left Novgorod-y to head to a holiday spot called Valday. Lets just say if you want water you have to walk a mile down a dirt road and pump it yourself. So we decide to head back to Novgorod for a second round and found it less romantic than before. Needless to say, us two little piggies still loved the food. Here are some shots of Novgorod through our eyes.


There are beautiful old churches all over the place. They're not very well maintained for the most part though. We did some reading and a lot of the old frescos were destroyed during World War II, or the Great Patriotic War, as the Russians call it, when the front line came very close to the area.


Just a moment while I wipe up my drool. We ate here three or four times. This place ROCKED!!! We would eat there right now. In this one of many pictures of me and food, I am having pork SMOTHERED in cheese, mushrooms, pickles, and tomatoes. I know what a lot of you are thinking...gag. Wait till you have had it though. Not to mention the mushrooms baked in cheese and the fried cheese we had for "zakuski"...appetizer.


This should speak for itself. No packaging or refrigeration of any kind in the grocery store without A/C. Keep in mind, Bill and I ate sausages nearly every morning for breakfast...until we saw this.


We also stopped eating pork cutlet as well...no we did not...but maybe we should have.


Outside of town is an old monastery. The main chapel is really really old but visited frequently by religious pilgrims like these ladies in the background. Deni and I lit a few candles ourselves and said a special prayer for her grandpa's brother.








D: A beautiful flower for a beautiful flower.


Near the monastery they've built an old-time wooden town like they used to have in Russia.


B: Hurry D, we have to get all the free pictures we can before the babuskas catch us! (We didn't pay the fee to take pictures.)


D: I have a weird obsession with bell towers and the amazing music that some of them play. We were walking through and heard this music that sounded like a ten piece bell choir coming from an old wooden bell tower. This one gentleman is playing about fifteen to twenty bells by himself. He looks like an old time one-man band with the kazoo in his mouth and cymbals between his legs while he bangs the drum. He played beautifully and with amazing prescision. He played at least two or three with his feet using a peddle, pulled about six to seven with his hands, and only the Lord knows what else he used to play the rest.





We waved at him from the ground and he invited us up to see his office.


D: We gave him a Texas pin and out of his backpack he pulls out his little bell. It seemed to have sentimental value to him. It was nothing shiny or new. Just something he carried with him everyday to work to do his amazing job. This dude was awesome!


What Bill is known best for and won several awards for. Beautiful and amazing scenery pictures. Looks just like we are in Okie-homa.


D: I cannot swear to it, but I do not think there was one "no smoking" sign in this place. I was worried and waiting for this place to go up in flames at any moment. The place was really nice though.









B: Traveling the world is not all fun, games and picture taking. In addition to our blog, we write a whole lot of postcards to our friends and family back home.

D: We sat here and licked about 200 stamps. Does anyone remember that Seinfeld episode? Licking envelopes amd kicking the bucket? We were worried for a while afterwards.

B:Typically, we'll sit down with a stack of them, our address list and a bottle of something and three hours later we'll be done.

D: Usually with a slight buzz jamming out to George Strait. By the way, did you know that Russians do not like him? Ask us another time and we will tell you. They may throw water on you if you try to sing anything George!


B: "Please please please Russian postal system, don't eat our postcards!"


D: Anyone for a nice gooey dip in the river? EVERYONE was out in the sludge swimming in it or drinking it. NO JOKE!


Our last supper in Novgorod.

D: We tried three times to get into this restaurant and on our fourth we were victorious. This was one of the best and felt like a good way to go out. Well, besides the waitress not giving us back our 500 rubles in change thinking that we left her a $20 tip. She insisted that she could not make any change for our 1000 rubles, so she got a $2 tip instead.


A toast to hopping on a train out of Russia in less than a week. Later that evening we boarded a night train to Moscow.





Again, Bill insisting on "hanging out" till we got to Moscow.

Well, this is a dent in the pictures we have left for Russia. I hope this settles everyone's appetite for now. We are waiting for nice Chinese lady to come with our change for our time on the internet. We have not seen her in about two hours. Hint?

Love you long time BEIJING

B: Nee-How (hello)! We crossed from Russia into China on my birthday (Aug 29). While we were waiting for them to switch the wheels to a more narrow guage used in China, Deni and I and a group of English speakers in our car went out to a great little Uzbekistan restaurant in the town. It was definitely one of my more unique experiences. The train was pretty interesting but now we're taking our time exploring Beijing. We got kinda down in Russia, but we've been rejuvenated since coming here. It is a pretty amazing city and we're having a lot of fun riding our bikes around and trying new foods.

Our original four night stay has turned into a couple of weeks. We've been moseying around the hutongs (traditional neighborhoods) and trying some delicious foods. We decided not to eat the still moving scorpion on a stick, but have enjoyed a number of dumplings and other fried things. We've been feasting on $5 meals-two entrees, couple rounds of beer, etc. Can't say enough about Asia so far and this is only the first place we've been. We've done all the tourist stuff you're supposed to do --Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Tian'anmen Square--only the wall is left, but mainly we like just looking around the city. Each day we get gutsier and gutsier when it come to dodging traffic (and our butts get more and more numb from the seats). After we get tired of Beijing we'll head south for Xi'an and the terracotta soldiers. We're undecided about Shanghai, but I still want to do the three gorges and see Hong Kong. From there, at this point at least, we'll head for Manilia and the beaches of the Philippines. But that's probably not for at least another month or so.


D: We have decided to extend our stay in china another 4 or 5 days. It is true what they say, if it ain't broke don't fix it. We are moving to another part of town. It is more traditional and not as many "round eyes" -- that is something Bill says. It was off some hutong and tucked away in the back. We are actually getting it for about $28 a night. Now our last place was about $35 and we got what we paid for, (roach on bed, dirty towels, unchanged sheets) but this other place had Polish people coming out who spoke English and they said it was nice, clean and good. That made it for us. They paid 240 RMB and we got them down to 200 RMB ($26.50/night). We just keep low-balling and get what we want. Works that way for absolutely everything -- kites, fruit, books, rooms, phone cards etc. Never pay what they tell you first. Pay half or three-quarters. Our main thing is sit-down toilet, one big bed, and A/C. Now I am adding to the list clean sheets. We are sweating black stuff everyday!!! Sometimes taking a shower does not help. But the hotel guy, Harry, insisted that they clean every day. They seem to cater more to the Asians and you know that a lot of Asians are pretty insistent on what they want. We try not to be, but we do want to be happy.

The people here are so nice! It is really unreal! I have started to call Bill "The dream crusher". There are a lot of people that just love Americans here and just want to chat like the day is long. They love our accents and love to hear about where we are from. One guy the other night in Tian'anmen Square had on an American flag belt and just came right up and talked to us! He just loved us. He wanted to know why we did not have blonde hair like in California and where we were from. All kind of typicals that I think foreigners think of when it comes to the USA. Also, a lot of people want to practice their English for the upcoming Olympic games and just to practice their grammar. Right as he is getting good at asking questions and is about to ask another, Bill just goes "Alright! it was nice to meet you!" and grabs my hand, dragging me, and walks very quickly off. I am still in mid-sentence with the person and as I am being dragged off I just see the brightness in his eyes fade and walk away head down. It makes me feel so bad. You know me, I'll talk to a wall if it talks back. I guess it comes from Texas Girls' Choir and always talking to people and I really enjoy it. I guess he does not as much. I always feel like they think "Oh! I got to talk to an AMERICAN today!!!" It does make me feel bad sometimes.

B: Now hold up a second D, tell everybody the tea story and why I'm a little wary.

D: There is a back story to this though...in Tian'anmen Sq. Well, Forbidden City, we met this couple. Tom and Lucy. About 18-19 years old about to head to university. They were here on holiday. They recognized that we were foreign and started talking to us. Asking us every question you could think of with exception of how much we weighed. In the Lonely Planet book, they warn of pesky "art students" trying to sell fake or over priced art. They seemed very genuine and sincere. At first Bill was like..."DENI!" Then I explained to him that they just wanted to chat and practice English. Well, the boy was VERY insistant that we ditch our plans at the Forbidden City to have tea and hang out with them. We were kinda like, hmmmm, but we just waved it off and told them we had a schedule to maintain. About 30 mins later I notice Lucy give Tom a nudge and say something. I caught it but just shrugged it off not thinking a thing about it. We insisted that they meet us for dinner and that we would even pay. I mean, who turns down a free dinner? Not ever us! They could just not make any of the plans we made and so we just told them we would catch them on the flip side. Seems innocent, eh? Well maybe, maybe not. Hanging out at a little dive bar here we met another American, Jeff, who has moved out here just for grins. He was telling us about when he first got here and got scammed big time out of about 1500 RMB's ($200) at a tea shop. You remember I mentioned that they were insistent that we catch some tea with them right then???? Are you putting two and two together like we did? Jeff said that they had him try all these teas and I am not sure of the details but these people can be very sneaky. Then I mentioned to Bill about that "nudge" I saw Lucy give to Tom. I feel as though, if they were scamming us, that she got the hint we weren't interested in tea. I really hate to think that they were scamming us, especially since we spent all that time and thought they were really friendly. But who knows?

B: Heck, we even gave them a Texas pin.

D: There was also another guy...Near our old hotel there is a lake with touristy bars and you can buy floating lanterns. They are paper lanterns with a patty that burns, and heats the air inside a paper sack until it floats away. You write a wish on it and send it to the heavens. Also, they say that when someone passes away you send up a floating lantern and you can see their soul pass into heaven. We wanted to do one. They are huge here and a lot of fun. This one guy wanted 50 RMB, no bartering. We said forget it! We walk off and he asks if Bill is a special friend. I said he isn't "special," but he was my fiancee. So the guys took the lanterns and said to follow. He has Bill hold one side and me light the thing. As we are walking over I say to Bill, "I ain't paying for this shit". We set the lantern off. Lots of smiles and clapping. We stand there and and decide to go ahead and buy one. The guy said okay, 100 RMB. I look at Bill and say that it should only be 50. Bill has no clue what is going on. He didn't seem to understand that I expected some change for my 100RMB note. I notice the guy turned away to split some money with another guy and I tell Bill to RUN!!!! I mean, HE , the guy, was the one that set it off! I was not going to pay for it. They make it seem like they are doing it to show you then charge you. I am not hip to that and I WILL NOT pay for some stupid schemes they must play on other travelers. I am a bit smarter than they think I am. We found a guy that did two for 40. Then last night we found him again and got five for 60. It took a while to haggle but we told him that another lady down they way has one for 10 and we came back to him cause we like him. We wanted five for 50 (10 a piece) but we got five for 60. Extra 10, he was a good guy

B: Deni always calls him "homeboy."

I met a reporter from the China radio news at a bar the other night. I had a very interesting conversation with him. His job is to go to events like a factory opening and write about how great it is and how the government is doing good. He knows it's all BS and doesn't care. Said China is too big for a democracy and that its people have to all work together. He has spent a lot of time in Canada and thinks that white people are lazy. From what I've seen, he's probably a bit right and China will probably be calling the shots soon. They really have their act together. The reporter said that you're not too worried about democracy and rights when you still have millions of people too poor to get their hands on some rice. It really made Deni and I think because in America we're taught to assume that everyone wants the same rights and freedoms that we do, but that's not the case everywhere. We're scandalized that we can't even read our blog here (only post as we're doing now).

We had a realization the other night when we saw four white American guys standing in the middle of the street with a beer talking loudly that they looked weird to us and out of place and that we've kind of crossed that point where we don't identify readily with the rest of the white "round eyes" we bump into occassionally. We feel much more like travelers than tourists.

D: Man, sometimes we Americans are annoying. But that is just a few of the good things going on here. We found a Subway (the restaurant), the Chinese must eat fresh too. It's the only place we've seen anyone in this country eating a sandwich. Of course, we run into more white people there. There were two very nice English couples having a sandwich that we talked to for a while. They actually lived only a couple miles from the English family we met on the cruise. Small world. We're excited and enjoying Beijing and trying hard to do some blogging, but having enough fun to where are not blogging as much. It is not as much fun when you cannot even see what you've written, read comments or upload pictures. We have so many. We are working on it. Bill is watching Maury Povitch on youtube right now. Why did I ever get him started on Maury????

You are...NOT the father!

Miss and love you all. Our new number is 51693535-800 or 51693535-816. You may have to experiment with those numbers to make it work. The place is called the Forest and Land Hotel Beijing.

http://www.asiatravel.com/china/beijing/forestandland/index.html

The brochure promises "So comfortable situation, big light hell, which make natural feeling for you." Chinese translation into English is funny. The other night at dinner the menu offered "fried crap." We hope they meant "carp." They also have "pork in bowel," but we hope they mean "bowl." We do not have our room number just yet so you can ask for Beer Schneider.

Probably Roy Schneider.

Just ask for Snyder.

Where to start????

That is the question??? The train? Seven days without taking a shower? Mashed potatos and top ramen every night? Trying to pee (and poo) standing up in a train going about 60 mph? Okay...first things first.

The night we are supposed to leave I, deni d, get DEHLI BELLY!!!!! You guys may know it as Montezuma's Revenge and boy was he pissed at me! I cannot think of anything that was so painful in my life. NO JOKE! It is not so much the potty time I invested but the stomach cramping. It was horrible!!!! And only to think, "HEY...I am about to get on a train for 7 days! YIPPEE!!!!". Not. I lie in bed all day long and at about 6ish we start getting ready to head to the train station thinking that if we get there early we can check in early. 90 degree heat, no A/C in the station, and did you know that homeless people do not take showers OR clean there socks??? The smell in the joint was outrageous!!! The heat only made it worse. I am not one to pick on homeless people but the guy could have kept his shoes on! So we actually do not check into the train till about 15 minutes before departure time. We get on and had a "what have we gotten ourselves into" moment. You know in the movies were they both look at each other at the same time in complete fear. All i could think was i was going to have to be sick on this thing for 7 days. Again, no A/C at least until the train started moving. I saw the look on some of the other english speaking people faces as well and they were just as terrified. I plopped my butt down on our little bench/bed and sulked in my own pitiful sickness. Did I mention departure time was 23:55...11:55 pm? So the minute we got on the thing we were to go to bed. For a moment I think we both thought, " you know, flyin' ain't a bad idea?" but the money was already spent. Honestly, we both knew that when we went to sleep that we were one day down so that was a good thing.

So, the only thing free on the train was hot water. No bread, no "hello's", no smiles. We pretty much knew to expect that. We were told by another lady who spoke Russian that they were quite nice, but when someone constantly has that "sh*t smell" on their face you really start to question that. Luckily Bill and I invested money into tons of tiny little top ramens and mashed potato cups. DELICIOUS!!!! No joke. I would never eat it at home but the stuff here is awesome. And the potatos??? Everyone needs to write their senator and get these little babies. Instant mashed potatos have never been so good. We bought a couple bottles of wine, vodka, and some tea and coffee. We were set. Just ready to sit on the train...for 6 more days...and sleep...and sit...read a book...sit again...for 6 more days...

So lets get to the part I know a lot of you want to know about...THE BATHROOM SITUATION. What bathroom? It was more like a room full of urine all over the place. No joke. Porta potts at rock concerts have been cleaner. Trying to use the bathroom was like trying to pee during an earthquake. Toilet paper? Why? Your in Russia! NO one uses it! Just use...nothing? It was truly a good thing that we had brought our own because out of the 6 days on the train there was TP only three. I also do not think I have gone without a shower in 6 days since I was a kid and somehow got away with it. Just a rag. There was a bar of soap in the RR, but too many short and curlies were on it if you get my drift.

Now, this might be sounding a bit pessimistic. I am only giving you the truth. I could say it was the best experience of my life and some parts of this were. I also want you all to know the not so good parts too. Bill would agree with me so far...

B: Yes, she's telling the truth everybody. In fact, when you "flush" a little door opens in the bottom of the toilet and it goes out onto the tracks. You can see all the way to the rails. They lock the doors when the train is in station so at least people aren't "flushing" in the railyard. Dad said they used to do this America until some train crew was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Maybe this is why Russia is not the most pleasent smelling place? Well, it is a start. So, the good part...we got to China? No. There were good things. There were 6 other people that we met that suffered along with us. "The Spainards", Mareia and Rueben. "The Aussies", Jenny and Gary. Then Rita and her daughter Alexandra "The lifesavers". So we were not the only English speaking people that were a bit scared. We all had an idea in our heads but it was not quite what we expected and we chatted about it everday over some wine, vodka, and some delicous little eats we bought from the babushkas at every train stop. This really helped us all keep our sanity. I think we were all a bit worried but a few drinks and a few eat always makes everyone a bit more at ease. At every train stop, which was only about 15-25 minutes, you had the option to get off and explore a bit. This usually made me worry when Bill got off by himself because if you know Bill...well, lets just say that I do not think they have airports in the middle of Siberia and will not hesitate to leave you! The babushkas swarmed us!!! This is their livliehood and they knew our train schedule better than us. They has delicious eats and drinks native to their part of Russia. Anything from perogis to fried bread filled with mincemeat, to boiled peanuts and fresh fruits and vegitables. On hot days there were ladies selling yummy ice pops. Bill and I were always looking forward to a new stop because we wanted to see what the babs. were selling. So what we have enough dried food to feed an army? I want fried bread and blinys! We always got better food than the others because we did a bit more exploring. We looked like vultures at times because when we got the food we started devouring it on the spot. We had this thought in mind...If it was good, buy more! When is the next time we will ever be over here? Ummmm, NEVER, so buy another one!

B: It was all super cheap, never more than a couple bucks.

D: Oh yeah, not only was the food good but the scenery was as well. We saw some absoutely amazing parts of Russia that we felt like we were the only people who had ever seen it. It was breathtaking. It started out very barren and turned into lush green mountains speckled with little houses and huges gardens. Some houses were grand and a lot more were shanties. We thought every once in a mile, "how do they live like that?" But to them it was home and i am sure they think the same thing. It made us miss home every once in a mile too.

B: When we hit the Russian border we hopped off the train with the rest of the English speakers and went for a good meal. With Rita and Alexandra at our side speaking Russian, we were actually able to find out where the best place to eat in the border town. We had Uzbekistan food for my birthday and it was awesome.

We had time to kill because the rails Russian trains go on are wider than the Chinese ones. So we were killing time while they lifted the cars up and placed them on different sized wheels. Once they let us back on we had to talk to the customs guys who came on the train and crawled all over it. Finally, on our way to China.

I knew that China would be a lot better than Russia as soon as we crossed the border. Their customs officials were polite, well groomed and spoke decent English. We got to wander around the station for a couple hours and the guards there actually smiled (something we'd not seen at all in Russia). However, we still had a day and a half till we would arrive in Beijing.

We arrived at 6am at the main train station. We hopped off and practically ran for a taxi. We negotiated a price (negotiate for everything here) and went straight to the Holiday Inn bed that Mom booked us for my birthday present (thanks Mom!).

China's great by the way. We're having a lot of fun here riding our bikes around the little neighboorhoods and checking out the usual sights like the Forbidden City and all that. We only booked four nights at first and then we added four more. We'll probably go ahead and do a whole two weeks before finally getting on south to Xi'an. We'll keep ya'll posted and get back in the groove of blogging.

We're in Beijing...

Hey all, just a quick note to let ya'll know we made it to Beijing, China. We really like it here so far and are having a lot of fun. We really want to update the blog and fill you in on wha'ts been going on, but we've had some trouble. I don't know if it's us or if it's the Chinese government limiting access to blogs....I don't know, but I can't even bring the site up on some computers. I'm just hoping it works now. Anyway, thank you all for your loyalty in coming back to the site and your prayers and thoughts. We'll be back online as soon as possible.
BnD