After taking an all-night train to Chiang Mai, we spent a couple of days exploring the many temples in town and enjoying the night markets and food. We then took a public bus and taxi to Tha Ton, near the border with Myanmar.
We have now been home for a little over four weeks. Lauren and Kristen have gone through all the questions that were sent and answered them.
We took a 17 day family trip to Japan in June 2002. It was the first time the girls had been to Asia, so it was a quite different experience for them.
Our first extended bullet train ride to Hiroshima was a great event. Once there, we spent time exploring the beauty of Miyajima Island and also visiting the important and sobering sights associated with the atomic bombing at the end of World War II.
Nearly everyone has heard of Japan’s famous bullet train. Our first experience was not actually riding one. Instead our first experience was in a train station. We were waiting for our train to come when, whoosh, one flew by at full speed.
China is a unique destination and we spent three weeks exploring this country. Our goal was to go from Beijing to Hong Kong, relying primarily on trains.
Beijing was the first stop on our three week trip. We visited the Forbidden City in addition to our day trip to the Great Wall.
My butt hurts and it’s only one hour into our 17 hour train ride from Xian to Chengdu. We only expected to spend two days in Xian but we had to stay three days because there weren’t any seats available to Chengdu.
After leaving the relaxation of Dali, we visited Kunming, another large Chinese city. The major highlight of this visit was a day trip to the Stone Forest.
Our last stop in China proper was in Yangshao, a short distance from Guilin. Here we enjoyed a variety of activities, including biking and hiking.
