ALASTAIR + LALEINIA

Sneaking out of your classroom to sneak into the other foreign teachers' classes just to scare the living daylights out of the students... BEST HALLOWEEN EVER! You should have seen the look on their faces.

Longmen Grottoes is one of the most spectacular places I have ever been. Alastair and I don't know much about Buddhism, but we can sure appreciate it. The most important thing to understand is that Luoyang is old and filled with history. There's much to see pertaining to historical events, but Luoyang has one gem; Longmen Grottoes. There's a cliff face along a river that has been carved out with Buddha's of all shapes and sizes. Small, medium, and large Buddhas. They are everywhere! Buddhas are along the sides of the walls and standing prominently in caves. They were once painted, but now are weathered from the elements. The most unfortunate thing about this place is that a while ago, people carved the Buddhas out to make a little cash. This is now a world heritage site, so they are doing all they can to preserve. The faces and missing Buddhas will never be returned, but we can admire what has remained.  They have added features to make this place more spec...

Did you know there was an Aquarium in the middle of China? From sharks, sea turtles, mermaids and mermen, the best part of Ocean Park, Luoyang, China, was the sea lion show. For 10 Yuan, you can get a picture with this slippery thespian, but watch out... he will getcha. And if you play your cards right, he will give you a smooch, right in your hair, in between fishy snacks. It's sad, we didn't even get its name.

What a wonderful eighteen months of marriage it has been! We are adding to our travel log, and have now traveled in 5 different countries, or regions, being the USA, Canada, China, Hong Kong and the Philippines! We are really enjoying our time in Asia. We don't have huge travel plans for the next six months, apart from going back to Rexburg for school, but you never know. We will probably go somewhere interesting in China before we head back to America.

Tradition holds Luoyang as the origin of Chinese Buddhism. We spent the day visiting White Horse Temple, with the many different buildings that were really interesting. Since we do not speak Chinese, and no one was there to translate for us, we basically just wandered around, admiring the beautiful scenery. We conversed about the few facts that we had learned beforehand, and tried to soak it all in. At one point, we saw three white pigeons, which looked so peaceful and happy. As we were trying to be one with nature (mostly because we didn't understand anything else), Alastair tried to summon the birds, albeit with little to no success. NO IDEA why Alastair's shirt is tucked in Along with the ancient White Horse Temple, there are new temples being built that represent Buddhist temples from other countries. We were able to go inside a Thai temple, and also an Indian temple, which were both very interesting. They both were ornate with their own cultural trimmings, s...

Back to Hong Kong we went for another adventure. Our first stop was to go and see the big Buddha on Lantau Island. Bear in mind that throughout our whole vacation, planning was not of paramount importance, but somehow we always managed to get where we wanted! It was really cool seeing one of those lampposts that show the direction of other cities, along with their distance. Safe to say, we are very far away from familiarity, but we are loving every minute of it! We had to walk up 240-ish steps to get to the top, but it really was cool. We were amazed at just how big big Buddha is! Lantau Island is really different to the stereotypical Hong Kong. There were many many trees and winding roads, and we also passed some small beaches. It was all very peaceful, a place that we could see ourselves living if we have a ended up in the Hong Kong area. In fact, it was so peaceful that we ended up sleeping for most of the bus ride there and back. We were very tired! After doing a little...

Eats While in Boracay, we were sure to treat ourselves to some great food! We made sure that we did not eat any Chinese food while we were away. We love Chinese food, but it was time for a break. We had some Filipino food, which of course was a necessity. We also treated ourselves to some Mexican food, fish and chips, crepes, and Italian style pizza. Yum! Necesito un Burrito Lobster in my belly! Dried Mango from the bag Breakfast - incl. Bacon Sweet, Rich Chocolate Cinnamon Roll Filipino food at Puka Beach Fought a good fight Treats Every once in a while you just need to get pampered. The Philippines was the best because everyone was so friendly and everything was so cheap, so we took the opportunity for some R&R! Manicure Therafish - they eat your crusty crusts. It was weird, but worth it! 'Hilot' massage Pedicure on the beach   Seats There were many forms of transportation needed to make...

Tough contender for the best holiday ever - enjoy the video!

We have all seen those photos online, where a boat appears to sit on top of crystal clear water, and we try to decide how photoshopped the picture is, or if it is just an optical illusion or something. What with all of the tourism and development that is going on everywhere that once was beautiful in the world, I have often wondered if perfect beaches and crystal clear water still exist. Well, we are pleased to report that such a place exists! Boracay! As part of our exodus from China to renew our Visa, we took a trip to the Philippines, somewhere that Laleinia has always wanted to visit. I (Alastair) was more than happy to go too! Neither of us had ever seen such amazing beaches. Santa Monica, Playa del Ingles, Busua Beach, none of these distant memories even came close to White Beach in Boracay, Philippines. The water looked like it should have been drinkable (apart from salt – it was the ocean after all). We frolicked around in the Ocean for ho...

Topping our to-do list in Boracay was a trip to Ariel's Point, a place where you can eat, drink, cliff dive, kayak, snorkel and just hang out. Everything is included in one price, so you basically just pay your money and then spend the rest of the day without having to worry about any price tags. Sadly, some money was stolen from our bag while we were there, but what can you do! Ariel's Point was an hour boat ride from Boracay on a two story boat. In order to get on the boat however, we had to wade out from White Beach, jumping over small waves as we got deeper and deeper into the ocean. We arrived at the boat just as the water was up to our necks. Keeping our backpack and camera dry was a challenge, but we managed!   The weather was lovely as we left Boracay Island, but as we progressed towards Ariel's Point, the weather took a turn for the worse. Being the off-season, we passed right through a storm, which seemed to threaten our entire day! The heavy rain...