Boy my dogs are tired.
One of the few things that my aging memory gets right about the last big trip we took was that we walked ourselves silly most days while we were out and about.
I assumed that there would be a similar amount of walking involved in this trip but was I ever wrong. The Chinese build things big. With over a billion people in the country they understand crowd control. One way they accomplish this is with the enormous scale of their tourist sites. Whoppers they are. With no easy way to get from point A to point B. So we are forced to hoof it for miles every day. Unless it's a travel or planning day, we realized that we are walking a minimum of 5 and up to 10 hours every day. Woof.
Random observations:
Guy with roles of tissue stuffed up his nose while he was working because he had a cold. The ubiquitous male belly proudly displayed to all ,,regardless of its girth because its hot out. Entire outfits made from the same name brand manufacturer, shoes, socks, shorts, shirt and I assume undies. The male or female counterpart to this fashion bonanza will be wearing the same ensemble from another manufacturer. Spitting. Everywhere , anytime. I think it means hello or something. Couples wearing the same outfit. Same undies assumption? Hmmmm. All the women wear pantyhose socks regardless of what else they are wearing. Taxi drivers don't like to open the trunk of their cabs. McDonalds and Starbucks are always packed. Shirts worn generally by the tragically hip and young with nonsense English phrases on them. Some weird spa treatment that involves sticking a candle in your ear. That I don't look in the mirror very often anymore. That it's possible to layer blisters on top of each other. There are as many older than 30 travelers in hostels these days than younger travelers. Beer comes in 600 ml bottles. Love that one. Play slapping is a large form of flirting. Netbooks are an essential accessory of all travelers. Americans are still really loud, sound really stupid and like to proselytize about all sorts of shit they know nothing about to anyone they can trap into listening.
