The other night, Mr. A and I had a bit of a Come to Jesus conversation about the big trip.  Every time I tried to ask him if he liked this idea or that idea, he would just shrug and say “Sure. That sounds fine.”   I think Mr. A is unwilling to commit mental energy to trip planning because he really doesn’t want to admit he job might be ending.  (This is the same reason he won’t start looking for a new job yet, which I find infuriating.)

In general, I like to have free reign to make decisions myself, but in this one instance, it is no go.  We are going to be tightly constrained by our budget and traveling with two shorties who will not have a lot of patience for they typical back-packer snafus that can delay progress from one location to another.

So Saturday night, Mr. A and I had a bit of a kerfluffle.  Actually, it was mostly me huffing and puffing and being irritated while he waited for me to calm down. (Not surprisingly, this is how many arguments at our house go.)  Then, on Sunday Mr. A and I had an actual grown up conversati0n about where we should go and for how long.

I had been mentally shrinking the trip length because I am worried about the money and Mr. A starting his new job (and making some money).  Mr. A is adamant that we go for two full months.  We will have to wait and see how it plays out, but two months was my original plan. Mr. A is also very against me traveling ahead by myself with the girls, but we will see how it plays out once we get to the ticket buying stage.

We have an additional problem planning because we don’t know which direction we will go.  Will we go Taiwan first or China?  If we go China first, do we go South-North  or North-South.    I think our final decision will rest on whether we can get plane tickets into one country and out the other.  To get between the two, I would like to take the ferry between Taipei and Xiamen to save ourselves about $1200 on plane fare.  I guess we could take it round trip, but it only comes once a week (thus constricting our schedule) and a ferry one time is fun, but twice is kind of a hassle.   I would do it if plane tix from China were super cheap though.  Also, if we are going to China first, I would like to start in Beijing and mail our winter clothing home when we get far enough south that we don’t need winter jackets.

Realizing this is only interesting to me, Below is our tentative list of places to visit.  They will be shuffled around based on our flights and when we travel.  The most important consideration is not traveling in China immediately before or at the beginning of Chinese New Year.  We hope to either be in Taiwan or hunkered down in a very quiet hotel somewhere in China during the travel craziness. It looks like we have about 6 weeks of stuff planned (loosely) but there will also be a bunch of train travel days in there.  Mr. A also wants to go to Hawaii on the way home, but I doubt we will be able to afford that after this much traveling.

Beijing (1 week)

• Great Wall
• Acrobat Show (unless we are definitely going to Shanghai and then we can see one there)
• Hutong tour
• Summer palace (for ice skating/sledding)
• Forbidden City
• Visit with our friends who are living there

Xian, Shaanxi (2-3 days)

• Terra Cotta Soldiers

Guilin & Yangshuo, Guangxi  (1 week)

• Hang out, see mountains and countryside
• do random crazy Chinese tourist crap
• For the love of god, do not go here during Chinese New Year

Hong Kong  (4-5 days)

• HK disneyland
• General sightseeing
• eat dimsum
  

L’s Province, provincial capital (3-4 days)

• Stay for a few days at the hotel we were in during our adoption trip. (Would be OK during CNY)
• Let the girls chill there in the park nearby
• Visit with our friend who lives in the area

L’s Hometown & Orphanage area (1 week)

• Try to visit the orphanage & take staff out for fancy dinner
• Try to locate L’s family
• Visit finding locations of other orphanage kids (if requested by their parents)
• Try local foods
• Visit countryside

Xiamen, Fujian

• Overnight ferry to Keelung (1 per week on Saturday_
• Alternative route: Fuzhou – Matsu Island – Keelung (daily)

Taipei, Taiwan (7 days)

• General sightseeing stuff

Taichung/Hometown Area (5 days)

• Visit relatives
• Visit dead relatives
• See points of interest (family stuff)

Other Taiwan (3 days)

• Sun Moon Lake
• Puli
• ?

Other possible stops:

Shanghai

• Stay with Mr. A’s uncle (free!)

Liuzhou, Guangxi

• See terrace farming

Kunming, Yunnan

• see local stuff because neither of us have been there