I boarded the ferry at Incheon on my way to Beijing and was approached by a young Korean man named Ho-Jun who was also on his way to China’s capital.

We quickly became friends and met a dozen other travelers on the boat who were on the voyage for the asme purpose. Ho-Jun speaks English, Korean and Manderin very

well and I quickly gave him the title of captain for the trip. I know, it sounds a little gay but I am on a ship and have delusions of actually being a pirate. Once in Beijing I learned that Ho-un was also not one to stand around idely adn look at his map when lost.

He would prefer to ask anyone - and everyone - for directions. I think he would speak to every one of the 1.3 billion people in China to ask for directions to the nearest subway station if given the chance. We spent a week in Beijing and met many others at the hostel.

One such traveler came in to our room one night where we were merrily drinking, eating noodles and Kimchi (which the Koreans did pack for their travels) covered in black dirt.

I asked if he had fallen down and rolled around for several hours while trying to get up.

He then told me his travel story: He, and 2 others rented a motorized tricycle and were touring te northern provinces of Shanxi and Shandong. So, they went from small mining town to mining town and had just arived from out of the cold. The dirt was soot from coal that collected on his jacket while on the road.

I have been in China for a month now and have pinned all the places I went to on the map and uploaded a few pics (it’s very hard to fnid an internet connection that’ll upload large pic files.)

I am now headed south to Vietnam and will be there for several weeks.

Happy New Year!

Robin