Yujiash....ah whatever...let's just call it the Stone Village

In April, my travel buddies, Matt & Keith and I went to Yujiashitoucun, a very old village made entirely out of stones gathered from the surrounding hills. The entire villages lineage can be traced back to 4 brothers and their wives.  This lineage has been carefully recorded on a gigantic tapestry.

This was by far the most interesting structure in the village...a "mad man" (according to the guide book) wanted to build a temple that went to heaven, but he would only work at night.  He built this temple as all other buildings in the village were constructed: by carefully selecting stones in the surrounding hills and stacking them, using mud to hold the stones together.

This was the Food Safety Grade Notification in the only restaurant in town...yes, we still ate there!

These hills were terraced for as far as I could see.  Locals have farmed the land by hand for hundreds of years.  We went on a lovely hike, meandered through the farmland and nobody seemed to mind--I love that about China, you are free to explore pretty much anywhere you like. 

We drove through this small town on our way to the stone village...it was a sort of sad and broken down place.  

Harbin Ice Festival Via Photos

In January, I attended the annual Harbin Snow & Ice Festival in Harbin, China. I am SO far behind on my blogging that I am going to simply tell the story of the ice festival through photos...

It takes 30,000 people three months to build this city.  Workers cut solid ice blocks out of the river and string LED lights throughout to create this....

We ran into a few friends from ISB...

Here's the river where the ice blocks come from. Apparently when they dismantle the city of ice, they just dump the blocks right back into the thawed-out river. It's an ENORMOUS river!

It was -40F!

Chinese New Year Part 2 -- Koh Phi Phi Island

The second half of our Chinese New Year holiday brought us by boat to Koh Phi Phi Island in Thailand.  I was expecting serenity and long, lazy days on the beach.  I was rather surprised to find the biggest frat party on earth!  I'm not much of a researcher when it comes to travel, and I'm sure if I'd have read any number of travel websites on Koh Phi Phi Island, I would have quickly learned what to expect...fire limbo and a plethora of 20-somethings on a would-be paradise drinking and fraternizing themselves silly.  

Here's what I saw my first night out...

But, I will admit the blazing kerosine-soaked jumprope didn't stop me from getting out on the dance floor and shaking my money maker!  These bars were right on the beach, the tide was all the way in and the water skirted the edges of where people dance and drank.  It was quite the scene.  

During the days, we'd mostly sit by the pool, which was 10 feet from the beach, and mostly be lazy.  It was difficult to say no to a pool like this...

One afternoon we took a tour on a long-tail boat.  These boats are traditional Thai fishing boats, here's some lined up along the beach...

These boats are quite beautiful with their colorful scarves, which I was told serve to keep the ghosts away.  On our tour, we stopped at a number of places, mostly on different islands very close to Koh Phi Phi.  We had lots of company as boat tours seem to be the thing to do!

This is a photo of a cave community--for lack of a better term!  There are people who actually live there!  No beaches, no nothing but the water, sheer rock walls, and hoards of tourist taking pictures of your home daily at 2:15 PM sharp!

We'd swim and snorkel in most of the bays we ducked into.  The coral wasn't much to look at, but the fish were amazingly brightly colored, varied and plentiful!  One of the beaches we stopped at was where the movie "The Beach", with Leonardo DiCaprio, was filmed.  I guess Koh Phi Phi didn't have much happening there until that movie was shot on one of the smaller islands nearby.  After the movie hit cinemas, the area hasn't been the same since.  

I couldn't get over how beautiful the water was!  I'm not sure "turquoise" does its color justice.   

One of the stops on our tour was called "Monkey Beach".  When the boats pulled in, monkey came out of nowhere, scaling the walls, climbing on top of one another and hanging onto whatever shrubbery and rock flake they could find.  Most people, myself included, had hopped in the water to get a better look.  Someone had brought a bunch on bananas and one had fallen into the water.  It was just floating there so I grabbed it and threw it up to one of the hundred monkeys hanging out, and...HE CAUGHT IT!!  Yes, the monkey caught the banana and started munching on it! 

Late in our trip, I discovered that people rock climbed on the island.  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go rock climbing in Thailand.  So, I signed up for a guided half-day and away I went the next afternoon.  Here's the wall that I was on.  
  

 

If you look closely, you can see me!  Shawn was on the beach and saw me pop out above the tree line.  He snapped a much appreciated photo.  Thanks, Shawn!

The view from up there was quite incredible.

Here are a few more photos to peruse...

Now, Granny, I know you're the ONLY ONE who looks at my blog, and even if someone else managed to stumble upon this, there's NO WAY they'd be reading all my writing.  I know you have read every word though :).  Love you and miss you!!!

Chinese New Year on Phuket Island in Thailand!

After our day in Seoul, we hopped on another airplane to meet our friends, Matt & Keith, on Phuket Island in Thailand! 

We stayed in Karon Beach at a beautiful hotel...

We all rented scooters one day and drove a bit around the island.  I was surprised at how BIG Phuket was!  

We did a lap around the island and on our way to see the Big Budda, we ran into "Nicole Kidman"!

This little bugger was two years old.  We paid $3 and got to feed her a basket of bananas.  Once the bananas were gone, she tried to eat my cell phone!  I LOVED HER!  She was so sweet and playful.  You can see our scooters in the background...when we were mounting up to leave, she started running towards us (that part was sort of scary) and her trainer yelled something at her and called her back.  I think she wanted to hop on the back of my scooter and come along for a ride!

Once we got up to the top, the Big Buddha was waiting! And MY, was Buddha BIG!!

It was a holy place, so I had to borrow a skirt from the bucket of skirts at the entrance.  My legs were just too bare I guess!

A view of Phuket from the top...

 

Down from the mountaintop, Shawn and Matt ate bugs!  They offered to share, but um....no.  

They're eating mealworms, crunchy and salty.  They nearly went back for a bag of fried crickets, but once Shawn found mealworm skin stuck between his teeth, he was pretty much done!Taxis in Phuket are unique, to say the LEAST!  When they zip from the curb, DISCO LIGHTS flash on and the latest in HIP HOP bumps from the 20 speakers crammed into every nook and cranny.

I referred to this little gem as the "Happiness Bus"!  I think I ordered a Blue Hawaii :)

Thanks Matt, Keith and Shawn for heaps of fun!

And next to come...Koh Phi Phi Island!