Olympic fever

Ni hoa!! Beijing was GREAT! It lasted about a week. We visited the great wall, the forbidden city and Tian na men square. All of which were AWESOME! Then, it was OLYMPIC FEVER!! and let me tell you, we were infected! All three of us meese were in full fledged canadian outfits which led to a papparazzi photoshoot that would outdue Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's mysterious affair with a texan midget and his seven foot bearded wife. Can you just picture Justin in his clown mask making faces to the sea of Asians?!?! We then headed to a man made lake surrounded by bars and joined the hundreds of people dancing in the courtyard. We grabbed a bite to eat and played a chinese version of hacky sack for hours on end. Also, at another bar strip we met the middle eastern guy from 'This hour has 22 mins'.He was there filming skits and we were the only ones to recognize him. We ended up buying tickets for the track and field finals from a scalper(dont ask how much!)where we were the rowdiest group in the whole birds nest. We truly dont know how CBC missed us. Thanks for nothing Ron! Beijing Beijing wor ai Beijing!! To give an idea of how big Beijing is, we watched the closing ceremonies fireworks on tv, and only heard them once it was done being aired. It sounded like the city was under attack!
We just arrived at my cousins Kendra's place in Shanghai where we plan to stay with her and her GORGEOUS roomates for a couple nights till we figure out our plan of attack for Shanghai.
Peace!

Mongolia/China

Hey folks. Last update was from Lake Baikal, Russia. Later that day, we went to Irkuustk and did a little sightseeing, then hopped on a train that would cross the Mongolian border to Ulaanbataar overnight. This was the first time we really started seeing lots of other backpackers, and it hasn't really stopped. Quite a community of travellers out here. The border crossing actually took a while, with passport checks and custom declarations on either side, so we had 6 hours in a small russian border town. After several hours killing time in the hot sun, we decided to bust out the guitars and entertain the train full of passengers sitting around the platform. Everyone gathered round, clapped, swayed and sang as we played for the 40 or 50 people from all walks of life. One guy in particular joined in by making up lyrics in Korean....a really cool moment where language barriers didn't exist. Anyhoo, we made it to Ulaanbatar the next day and were swept away to the a national park on the outskirts, where we did some bad ass/horse back riding (not that sissy walking in a row stuff...these horses could giver..."choo!"), some hiking, some fine dinning, even some basketball. Incredibly friendly people out there. Then we spent a few days roaming Ulaanbataar, capital of Mongolia, and saw stuff like the Black Market, a buddhist temple, a Mongolian rock band at an Irish Pub, and some more night life. Lots of coverless manholes in that city..watch your step. Then, overnight train again to the Chinese border, another long wait, then onto a Chinese Sleeper Bus with like 40 beds, each one seemingly designed for midgets. No joke, the bed ended just below my knees. Overnight on that thing, with about 5 random stops for passports throughout the night (Olympic security), and now we're in Beijing. Feel somewhat like a celebrity out here, because we get way more stares and waves here than anywhere else so far. Some people ask for pictures, especially if we're playing guitar. They also like our arm hair. Gonna hike on the Great Wall tomorrow, and maybe the Forbidden City, and try to get some tickets for the Olympics. Next update will probably be from Shanghai. All the best to the west! Pictures to come...

Goodbye Russia

Hey all. Well, our time in Russia has nearly come to an end. After St Petersburg, we took the overnight train to Moscow, and trust us, Moscow never sleeps. Did the tourist stuff (the Kremlin, Red Square, Lenin's Tomb, Cathedrals, boat rides, you name it) but also had the real Russia experience of an attempted mugging, a near arrest, a subway pervert, and defending an innocent woman from her abusive boyfriend, all the while drunk as skunks. That sounds bad, but it was all in 1 night. The good far outweighed the bad! Good = amazing sites, beautiful woman, good food, fantastic company, and vodka. One of the sweetest things about Moscow is the Metro system, very cool. We parted from Aussie Drew and Ray from TO, and jumped on train to Lake Baikal (3.5 day ride!)with the other 3 guys in our group (2 Brits and 1 Prairie boy). The train ride itself was something else. Now we're at the end of a 4 day stay at a small village near Lake Baikal, the biggest/oldest lake in the world, holding 1/5 of the global freshwater supply. Did some hiking, same bartering at the market, ate fish, went swimming (brrrrrr), snuck bikes out in the middle of the night and met many locals. Now we're heading back to Irkuust for the day and jumping on a train yet again to Ulaanbatar, the capital of Mongolia, and will be camping for a few days. Won't have access to any technology while we're there, so the next you'll hear from us, we'll be in Beijing. Watch for us painted red at the Olympics, screaming "CAAAANNNNAADDAAAAA!!!!". We'll try to update you on the event we'll be watching (whatevers cheapest). For now, thanks for the patience in waiting for an update, and we'll talk soon! Justin, Kyle and Mike.

How are things?

Justin, let us know how things are going...we are very interested....

 

Nat, Bob & Joel

Continued from Sweeden

sweeden Rocked. Beautifull people. We had a blast are first night in Russia. Chilled out at the hotel met some locals and drank. One of them happend to be secret military police, showing us his id and then the gun. Later that evening I had the chance to shoot it off as we saluted Canada and Russia relations. People love us as soon as we tell them were Canadians. It's still all catching up to us so will digest then talk more but for now know that we are the Canadian sensations.