planes, trains and automobiles

disclaimer: in any and all posts about china, please disregard my unkempt hair and sweaty face. 95 degrees and nearly 100% humidity do mean, mean things to my already naturally frizzy hair.

wow. transportation in china was a big eye-opener for me...but in retrospect, lots of fun.

we started off with a beautiful 13 hour flight. and actually, it wasn't all that bad. julia brought sleeping pills for everyone. and they worked great for everyone...but me. note to self: sleeping pills make maren very NOT sleepy. i was so wired! good thing lovely cathay pacific provided individual screens to play games and watch movies the entire flight. i think we look pretty good after 13 hours of flying. we landed at 5:30 am sunday morning hong kong time (2:30 pm CA time saturday afternoon).

and i got my very first stamp in my passport. yay!

this is the little beauty that brought us back home...that story will come later...

we had a great time on subways...and we let everyone know where the gun shows were...

...and in this picture you see jona and i just getting off of a subway after missing the subway that ryan and julia had already boarded. good thing it was nearly our last day in hong kong so we knew where we needed to go. the lady behind us told jonathan he needed to "push harder next time" on the subway door. um, i'm pretty sure jona is happier with four limbs than he would have been had he pushed harder.

in every subway station, there were FAST escalators. they make escalators in the U.S. look like weenies. we LOVED them. and a nice lady always reminded us to "please hold the hand RAIL" so as to not hurt ourselves. here is our creative photo taking in the mirror above us.

we rode ferries...this is the wades waiting for one...

we rode "ding dings" or trolleys...

bullet trains...

gondolas...

and, most importantly...we WALKED and WALKED and WALKED and WALKED and WALKED. We felt a bit like pioneer children, but in much comfier shoes. So many people in china walk everywhere. this is one of the busiest pedestrian intersections in the world at causeway bay. and the picture doesn't do it justice. i'll try to upload a video.

This is a picture of our beautiful walked-out feet on the great wall of china.

oh, and the most entertaining form of transportation was the taxi. that probably deserves its own post and i don't have anything but video of it. funny, funny video.