After scouring Gemma's blog for Beijing tips, we decided to check out Panjiayuan Antique Market. There was a lot of neat stuff to check out but we only walked away with a bird print.

Unfortunately, my memory of the market shall forever be tarnished by what happened next. We were leaving the market, en route to the subway station when I checked to make sure the iphone was in my purse. It was. A minute later (maybe even 30 seconds?), when I reached for it, it wasn't there. I'm constantly scaring myself by thinking it's lost but I always find it right away. However, this time it really was gone.

I started crying and a small crowd gathered. I'm sure they were wondering why this crazy white woman was crying. We spoke to a police officer etc etc but that phone was gone forever. I guess there's a lesson or two to learn from this (make sure the iphone is inaccessible as possible/don't check to make sure it's in my purse in public etc) but it was a big bummer regardless.

We checked out the silk market before we flew home, but my heart wasn't really in it. Mike was a real champ while I was moping about and helped me focus on the positive. It was a great trip! Worse things could have been stolen (like our camera!). So, let me end this post with this: we loved Beijing a lot more than we expected. We're excited to head to Hong Kong sometime next year. Until then, China!

We chose to visit the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. Apparently it's less crowded than other sections, but it was still quite busy. We escaped the crowds by spending a bit of time exploring an unrestored section of Mutianyu. It was mostly deserted except for a few brave souls who didn't mind the crumbling rocks and sheer drop-offs. It was easy to imagine what the Great Wall used to look like before it became a huge tourist detsination. That being said, I am of course grateful that they have restored sections of the wall so people can continue to enjoy it for centuries. It was so awe-inspiring and impressive.

This past weekend, we had Friday off so we flew to Beijing for the weekend. It was only a two hour flight so it ended up being an awesome place to go for such a short amount of time. Of course, we really could have used another day or two in the city, but we'll take what we can get!

On Friday afternoon, we braved the Beijing subway and went to go check out the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was the Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The place is just enormous so I feel like we saw only a small slice in a few hours. One of my favourite spots was the Imperial garden.

We rented a tilt-shift lens for the weekend, in case any of you are curious! :)

A Korean co-worker from school brought us out to her family cottage on Jang Bong Island a few weekends ago. I had been feeling tired and sort of regretting that I had said I would come. However, as soon as we were on the ferry out to the island - surrounded by crisp ocean air and seagulls eating right out of your hand - I knew I had made a good choice.

A few weeks ago, a group of us headed down south for the Jindo Sea Parting Festival. It's a crazy natural phenomenon; a few times a year, the sea separates and leaves a path of almost three kilometers. We all bought some of those stylish rain boats and made the trek. We had a bit of a late start so the path started to close up before we could make it to the nearby island, Modo. However, it was still quite the experience.

There were lots of other activities going on for the festival. We got our portrait done, held some cute jindo puppies, and did a little painting.

You can read more about the sea parting here.

I'm so behind on posting photos, so let's wrap up the Thailand posts!

Our second (and last, unfortunately) stop in Thailand was Koh Samet. It's one of the closest islands to Bangkok so it was a perfect location for our short trip. It was hot hot hot (even the water!), but we had a lot of fun. We drank banana shakes, went para-sailing, stayed in the ocean for hours, got burned despite our best efforts, took afternoon naps to escape the heat and ate lots of fresh mangos.

The floating markets of Damneon Saduak are definitely a tourist trap but still manage somehow to be quite pleasant. While we didn't buy any kitsch Thai souvenirs, we definitely liked people watching and marveling over all the food some of these women carted around in their boats.