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We are back in Raleigh, after uneventful flights last Friday from Shanghai to Atlanta to Raleigh. A million things can go wrong when you have a taxi ride to the airport, multiple bags packed to the weight limit (2 of which are marked fragile), veggie meals, customs to clear, connecting flights, and a rental car to pick up; but "smooth" was the word of the day.

This week we are busy fighting jet lag, buying a car, doing our taxes, stocking the fridge, unpacking, rearranging the furniture, fighting jet lag (did I repeat myself?), sorting through 14 months of unread mail, and getting hooked up to the Internet.

Thanks to our wonderful neighbors Karen & Dave and Tony & Kui for looking after our house.

Thanks for reading the blog and leaving comments and sending emails.

We will be home for the summer, so stop on by or give us a call.

Also, look for more photos of our trip on flickr, and more trip reports here on meckleyearth.

Back in Shanghai

We arrrived safely back in Shanghai on May 12 at 2:54 PM, less than 30 minutes after the earthquake hit Sichuan Province. Although tall buildings swayed in Shanghai, we felt nothing on the train.

Home stretch

After a whole month of rambling among minority villages in SE Guizhou, we are now making our way back to Shanghai via Fenghuang, a scenic ancient watertown and tourist mecca in Hunan Province.

On the 11th, we will take a 2hr bus ride to Huaihua and then a 20-hour train ride to Shanghai in 1st Class Sleeper Coach (called Soft Sleeper in China).

Typical long distance bus pickup in Guizhou. Just stand by the side of the road and flag down the bus. This guy was headed the opposite direction from us.


Fenghuang at night.

Bad weather

Weather has been not so good for us the lately.  The climate here is humid to start with.  When it's sunny, it's 34C/90F and muggy.  When it's rainy/cloudy, it's 18C/60F, damp, though this is rising each day.  We had two whole days of rain over the weekend and had to abandon our plan to trek to a village near Congjiang, Guizhou. 

On a very hot day near Rongjiang we are still in good spirits.


The view from our hotel balcony on a cold and rainy morning in Fenghuang, Hunan Province.

May Day

To celebrate the May 1st National Holiday, John got his first haircut of 2008. The locals here in Rongjiang County, Guizhou Province were celebrating by buying TV's and satellite dishes. It's only 100 days until the Beijing Olympics you know. These folks below got on the ferry with us to Baji Village.