Now for the Fun Stories

Now that you've heard the background, it's story time. It wouldn't be a Kim (Appel) Turner adventure without a few great stories along the way. I'll give you a listing of my favorites. Some funny, some not so funny. Eventually, I'll record the details of the best stories in my blog. They are in order based on our itinerary.

Memories from Hong Kong
1. Riding a glass bottom cable car nine miles through the mountains.
2. Seeing the world's largest sitting Buddha.
3. Eating lunch with monks in a Buddhist monastery. Tofu and spicy peas are not my friends.
4. Being asked, for literally the 10,000th time, if we wanted to buy a custom made business suit. Do we look like we wear business suits?

5. Smelling, having sweat stains on my clothes, wearing the same shorts for the third straight day and asking a $1000 a night hotel if we met the dress code to have afternoon tea at their restaurant. The answer...yes, because my sandals were closed-toed. The answer to the extremely dressed-up, affluent women behind us...no, because one of them had on strappy sandals with heels.

6. Seeing 7 Elevens and Circle K convenience stores everywhere.

Memories from Xi'an
1. Not being let into the country (Hong Kong is not really considered China) because Jim supposedly had the swine flu.
2. Jim being taken away by a military nurse for testing of swine flu.
3. Me being held "captive" by a military man with a machine gun because I was traveling with someone who "had" the swine flu.
4. Being the last people in the airport at midnight in a country that didn't speak English.
5. Taking a "disco" cab into town and thinking we had been kidnapped.
6. Staying in an 1980s style dumpy hotel with shag carpet.
7. Arriving at the city bus station with literally 20,000 other people and trying to find the right bus.
8. Riding a city bus for one hour to get to the Terra Cotta Warriors.
9. Seeing the Terra Cotta Warriors in all their splendor. I mean that - it was truly breathtaking.
10. Riding a bicycle built for two in the rain on the old city wall.
11. Eating dumplings shaped like little animals...and full of ground up little animals (chicken, duck, frog, fish, etc.).
12. Going to a Chinese theatre and music show and having my husband fall asleep on the front row.
13. Being glad that we were only staying in Xi'an for 36 hours.


Memories from Beijing
1. The smog. We never saw the sky.
2. Seeing the Bird's Nest and Water Cube Olympic venues.
3. Having people ask to take their picture with us in the Olympic venues.
4. Staying at a hotel where you can shower while sitting on the toilet.
5. Finding the world's best Italian food...in China.
6. Going to Tienanmen Square.
7. Waiting over an hour just to walk into the Forbidden City because there are so many people in China.
8. Going to the Temple of Heaven and feeling like we were at Epcot.
9. Attending an acrobatic show in a "theatre."
10. Journeying to the Summer Palace and climbing what felt like a million stairs to a temple overlooking the entire park.
11. Showing off my bargaining skills to Jim by bartering with local vendors.
12. Going to the night market to sample some local delicacies -- fried roaches, starfish, seahorses, baby birds, etc....and wimping out.
13. Finding the world's best Kung Pao Chicken.
14. Riding the city bus over an hour to the Great Wall.
15. Meeting an English-speaking friend (from eastern Europe) on the bus to the Great Wall.
16. Watching my new friend get hit by a moped while we were searching for a taxi for the last leg of our journey to the Great Wall.
17. Watching Jim get run over by a bike while tending to our new friend's moped-accident injuries.
18. Seeing the Great Wall for the first time.
19. Hiking the Great Wall in the most extreme heat ever.
20. Stepping in human poop at the Great Wall and having my sandals smell for days.
21. Riding a bobsled down the Great Wall...and being told to "slow down."
22. Seeing a man who had been dead 20+ years lie in a glass box.
23. Watching people wail over the dead body of the person who oppressed their lives by imposing Communism on them.


Memories from Shanghai
1. Staying in a 5-star hotel...for $70 a night.
2. Being in a city with a population of 16.7 million people.
3. Going up the second tallest building in the world...and once at the top, looking UP at the tallest building in the world.
4. Taking a shady train to an even shadier city known for its Chinese gardens.
5. Sitting eight cars away from Jim on the shady train.
6. Sitting next to the only English-speaking woman on the entire shady train...and being dressed EXACTLY alike.
7. Being grateful for Burger King.
8. Getting dropped off at the "Hard Rock Cafe," which was like a hookah lounge named "Hard Rock Cafe." They did not serve American food or have rock and roll artifacts.
9. Convincing Chinese people that we know Yao Ming personally.
10. Taking the world's fastest train to the airport.
11. Arriving in Chicago 40 minutes after we left Shanghai.
12. Eating Mexican food when we got back to DFW.