to a theatre near you; TheGreatCoconut.com; The Ig and James take on hiking every inch of the mean beaches of Mauii!!

Okay, that’s not true, but the change in travel plans does have both of us hiking again…

The Sesame Street song “These Are The People In My Neighborhood” plays in a continual loop through my mind as I sit on the porch of my bungalow

and people-watch.

[read on]

Alright guys, I sacrificed two precious hours of beach time, but I’ve finally loaded the pics from the last day of the hike under Random Photos, “Shanhaiguan; the last day”.
Enjoy!.

After hopping flights, busses, taxis, tuk-tuks and one ferry,

we’ve finally made it to Koh Chang, an island in the Gulf of Thailand. As you can see from the photos below, we’re really toughing it out and are quite busy, so don’t sit up waiting for many posts in the near future. ;~)

On the agenda tonight; another splash in the ocean followed by a rigorous game of frisbee in the water. Dinner at the tiki restaraunt next door that has hammocks, then drinks on the beach.
That said, whatchya’ll up to and what’s the weather like? :~)

It’s been a bit of a whirlwind of scootin’ around this past week; a 30 hour train ride to Mongolia, a 25 hour train ride to Hohot, and a 9.5 hour train ride to Yinchuan.
We’ve had a great few days here with the other Wallnuts here in Yinchuan. One of the coolest things was their surprise for us; a big cake with “Congratulations Wallnuts” written in Mandarin, and “The Monkey King” movie–a dvd with Shibble himself! Woot! Wallnuts rock!
Be sure to keep checkin’ their blog ( sorry, can’t get the insert link button to cooperate http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/walkingthewall/) and posting comments–it gives Wallnuts great mental fuel!
We’re off to catch our flight to Beijing in a couple hours, then tommorrow we catch our flight to Thailand, where we’ll be lazing on the beach, baby!
Catchyas from warmer climates!

Just wanted to let everyone know there’s been a massive change in my travel plans. Although I can’t yet tell ya’ll what’s going on, just know that you should stay tuned, because this one’s big.
The only thing I’m actually gonna say is, the Fat Lady may have done her singing, but she now recants.

Plopping down at the top of a small hill in Terelj National Park, Mongolia, I looked down at the gently sloped, snow-covered trail I’d just trudged up.

Like an ancient, delapidated accordian, I wheezed into the crisp air and cursed my noodly legs and labored breath. 

[read on]

HOW I SPENT MY MONGOLIAN VACATION
by Ig

Let me start by letting you in on a couple facts. One: Mongolia is COLD. Not cold, but COLD. We’re talking highs around 10F, lows in the -20′s. In fact, Ulaan Baatar is the coldest Capital in the world (thx Jamie). Two, most of the really interesting stuff in Mongolia is scattered across the very large landscape.

Now, on the train from Beijing, I was just as eager as Jamie to go out and visit a ger camp. See the REAL Mongolia, I thought. When we talked to the lady at the hostel, however, my enthusiasm waned.

“You can hike in the mountains,” she said.

Uh-huh. Been doing that alot lately. And did I mention it’s COLD?
[read on]

Once again I have to wave the white flag of surrender to technology; ready to make a post about my fantabulous ger experience, my camera battery of course died and I can’t get the photos loaded.

We’re on our way back to China tonight (and me with a nasty cold), so sometime within the next few days I’ll post both the ger camp photos and the rest from the end of the trek as well.

After meeting up with the other Wallnuts in Yinchuan, it’s off to Thailand and lazing on the beach…finally!!