Xi'An is amazing-and that's just the food

We thought Xi'an would be a dumpy little town, and we only came to see the terra cotta warriors. But it turns out, the city is great, and the food so good, that we didn't even make it out to the warriors site yesterday. Instead, when our overnight train got in at 8 am, we found a youth hostel and spent the morning walking through the Muslim quarter, an area of old Ming-era houses and shops with the most amazing street food ever. Flat bread baked over an open fire and covered with chili oil and cumin; noodles with thin slices of mutton and spicy oil and cilantro, steamed buns and pastry stuffed with onion and lamb. Yum!

Photos! Take 1.

First Day in China--Tiananmen Square and the forbidden city. Mao looks down on us-I think he likes us. Antha and Sam on the Great Wall. We did a 6+ mile hike along the wall between two small towns in Inner Mongolia-parts of the wall were nearly rubble.

Franz Joseph Glacier, West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. Brr.

Milford Sound. Thanks to Tom Novick and Lisa Archer for this recommendation. The Milford Track hike was a highlight of our trip so far.

Day 2 on the Milford Track in New Zealand. 11 miles through a ravine with mountains rising on both sides--and our first glimpses of the McKinnon Pass (behind us).

Hello from China

Sorry for the lack of news, but we're in China and having a great time. We did a 10K hike on the Great Wall yesterday and have been enjoying the great food-- Peking Duck for Thanksgiving Dinner.
To rewind a bit- we landed in New Zealand after 31 hours of flights and hiked the Milford Track for the next 4 days. It really is amazingly beautiful and we saw at least 700 waterfalls (especially on day 3 when it rained nonstop). After the hike--which successfully got rid of our jet lag--we headed up the west coast of the south island and than into wine country before hitting Kaikoura on the east coast to see some whales and dolphins. NZ was over too quickly and we'd like to get back.
Tonight we're on the overnight train to Xian--home of the terra cotta warriors--than making our way to Guangzhou. There has also been a change of plans, we're now flying into Hanoi (instead of Bangkok--to avoid the protests that have shut down the airport). Miss you all lots enjoy some of the pictures

Itinerary!

Nov. 11th: Leave NYC fly to New Zealand through Seattle & Seoul.  

Nov. 26th: Leave NZ fly to China through Seoul.

Dec. 9th: Leave China fly to Bangkok. We'll go to Cambodia, Vietnam & Laos.  

Jan. 13th: Leave from Singapore fly to Delhi through Paris. 

Feb. 3rd: Leave India fly to Cairo.  We'll go to Jordan & Israel.  

Feb. 24th: Leave Egypt fly to South Africa. We'll go to Namibia & Botswana.  

March 29th: Leave South Africa to NYC.