Where to begin

Hello everyone!

I am writing from a little internet cafe in Chengdu. It's been a great effort for my sister and I to get here, but we've finally made it to our official point of depareture. From Montreal to Toronto, Vancouver, San Francisco, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and now Chengdu, I feel very far from home to say the least. Though I have yet to bike a single kilometer, I've already had my fair share of amazements.
Delights I've eaten so far:
- Duck's tongue (Minus the cartilage, pretty tasty. I ate this in the restaurant of the infamous hotel where SARS first broke out in Hong Kong. Don't worry! SARS is long gone from here).
- A tuna bun roll with seaweed (From a local bakery...mmm....I wanted more).
- Pig hoof (An apparent specialty in a humble Chengdu restaurant. Everyone was eating it. The menu was all in Mandarin, the waiters spoke no English. Pointing blindly at the menu, we waited for our surprise. I'd call it an acquired taste.)

I arrived to Hong Kong at night on the 12th and was met by Michelle, my sister's McGill friend. What an amazing city. While several cities have more habitants that Hong Kong's 7+ million, I doubt they are as condensed. Rows and rows of buildings, street after street. If you don't like crowds, this is not the place for you. People are everywhere! But for the first time, I felt like a tall person. :) I enjoyed my runs here. It was quite humid, but I did not mind. And spitting is illegal, which proved to be quite a difficult test of restraint. Spitting is a runner's habit that is hard to control.
Though I was fascinated by the city scene, all the sights and smells, I was eager to get on my bike and head for the mountains.
We arrived to Chengdu late last night. Feeling smart, we emailed a recommended guesthouse prior to our arrival and reserved a room. We arrived however, to a NO VACANCY sign and a stubborn man. We luckily found another hotel, carried our bikes and luggage to our room and passed out on the beds. We had completely taken apart our bikes to fit them in as small a box as we could. To my amazement, we were not charged for excess luggage in any of our flights. It would have cost us $630 had our boxes been slightly bigger.
Today, we ate pig hoof and spent the day building our bikes. Tomorrow we will take a day trip to test out the bikes, make any additional changes and buy our supplies. The day after, we'll wake up with the sun and head north to the mountains. The journey begins!
To those I've spoken to, thanks for writing. Until the next posting.......
best regards.

p.s. A special thanks to my wonderful hosts in Hong Kong and in San Francisco. What a great way to start my trip.