So... if you've ever wanted to see a Vietnamese Visa... well, here 'ya go. Good for a month, although I'll only be in Vietnam for about a week. I've been spending a lot of my nights & weekends looking in the guidebooks, visiting travel forums, etc., and can already tell this probably will not be my only trip to Vietnam.

This is getting to be old hat for me - although this visit will be the first time in the summer. Yeah, that's right, I've visited in the middle of winter all the other times. Crazy, huh?

I'm not quite sure what got me interested in Russia, other than the fact that most Americans don't vacation there. I like going places where most other people don't. Also, I suppose, it's probably tied to the fact that I grew up in the cold war era and remember learning as a kid that the "russians" were our enemy. It didn't get any better when I was in the Army in Alaska in the early 80s - all we did was sit around and wait for the Russians to come over the pole to get us. How stupid was that? It's great to know that we've all survived and didn't blow up the planet.

I have photos of the January 2004 trip posted to my smugmug account http://danbrew.smugmug.com/gallery/2252365/1/117546107). There's some details on how to do it yourself if you feel like taking the same kind of trip.

Here's my Chinese vias. Interestingly enough, I had a valid Chinese visa in my passport from the January trip that I didn't use - it expired in July, I think. The folks at the Chinese Embassy simply stuck this new visa on top of the old one.

Really looking forward to China - I think I'm going to overnight on the Great Wall somewhere. How cool is that?

Life is pretty funny sometimes - it never works out the way you think it will. You know the old saying, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans?" Seems appropriate here.

I had planned on riding the trans-siberian from Moscow to Beijing, arriving in China from Mongolia. Well... things happen. My train ticket broker (essentially a scalper) came back to me at the last minute and said that he couldn't get me tickets for the train that he said I would have guaranteed tickets on way back in April. I thought about giving up on the entire trip - the train was a big part of it. But in the end I decided to simply fly to Beijing and begin my journey there and continue on with the Beijing & Vietnam portions of my trip.

I flew Air China non-stop from Chicago to Beijing on Saturday, the 18th of August. It was a 12 1/2 hour flight and was long long long. Interestingly enough, though, it was really a United flight that is code shared with United & Air China. I had to purchase a last minute ticket because of the snafu with the train guy, so went to Expedia.com and United.com on the 8th of August. The ticket on United was $1500 - the ticket on Air China was $950. Hmmm. Don't ask me, but I bought Air China. I wonder if I'll get United frequent flyer miles? The # was printed on the ticket. I supposed I'd rather have the $550 more than the 6500 miles. (an update - I *did* receive the frequent flyer miles...!)

Another interesting fact - this flight goes due north out of Chicago and then goes over the pole (or close to it) - making it a 12 1/2 flight instead of a 18-22 hour flight with connections.

Pretty cool, huh?

Somewhere well north of eastern Siberia.

Somewhere near Beijing - I was playing with an interesting little Fisheye Lens I picked up recently http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/105fe.htm). I was just goofing off here, but am cautiously optimisic that I'll get some fun pics with it on this trip.

Park Plaza Hotel, within walking distance of Tian'anmen Square. It's always a crap shoot picking hotels online and on the travel websites - this is $80/night and is actually very nice.

I'm off to tour Hutongs this morning and will then visit Jinshanling and then will overnight on the Great Wall. I'm hugely excited about the photo opportunities in evening and early morning when there aren't masses of people about. Tomorrow I'm walking (!) from Jinshanling to Simatai and will be back at the Park Plaza tomorrow night. I don't typically go in for tours, but this one sounds like 'da bomb -http://www.thechinaguide.com/great_wall_of_china/accommodation_great_wall_of_china.html.

Check back tomorrow for some great pictures...

:)

So... it was a great two days. I met some cool people that were also doing the tours and saw some neat stuff on the wall. Ah, yeah, the wall kicked my ass. There are a lot of steps on the wall and the route between Jinshanling and Simatai traverse three mountain ranges. Screw that, I took the car. But not before getting lots of neat pictures. Enjoy!

:)

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