The United States Constitution and Bill of Rights (all of them) still give me goosebumps.

This weekend, we were out for a walk through some of Beijing's older neighborhoods. I spotted this lovely older woman sitting in the sun and noticed her feet; they're very small, leading me to believe they were bound. Foot binding was a terrible practice in China of breaking and tying girls' feet so they would be very small and shaped in a particular way. It ended in the early part of the 20th century, apparently not soon enough for this woman.

While we were in Hua Hin, Thailand, we went elephant riding with our friends Kellie and Barbi. After all, we figured it was definitely a unique travel experience. So, with the help of the hotel concierge, we went to the Hutsadin Elephant Hospital for our adventure.

When we first started out, Michael (9) wasn't so sure about the whole thing. He was clinging to Michelle pretty tightly.

Andrew (12), by contrast, was much more comfortable with the whole thing and even rode bareback in the driver's seat. I think he looks like Mowgli from The Jungle Book here. (For the record, I also did the "sit bareback on the elephant" thing.)

Our drivers (mahouts) took us for a thirty minute loop around their property, which included some hilly terrain and nice views of the beach.

Our tour took us past the mahouts' homes.

Michael warmed up to the whole elephant thing and by the end was "chillaxing" (his words).

After the ride, the boys gave the elephants a treat (for a small fee, of course).

The elephants returned the favor with a little hat trick.

The whole experience was actually pretty cool, even if it was a bit manufactured. The elephants are really big; this seems obvious, but it's different when you're sitting on top. (It was definitely a great reminder than being on top doesn't mean you're in charge.) Their gait has a weird lurching, rolling feel, but they seem very sure footed even going down or side-hill. It was also pretty amazing to see how dexterous they were with their trunks. They were able to even find little bits of pineapple on the floor or accept a one hundred baht note...

The experience was a bit commercial with a push to buy elephant tooth jewelry while you're on the elephant (the boys each now have a necklace...), a photo (which wasn't bad actually), and fruit to feed the elephants (which was fun). The money is ostensibly used to take care of these elephants who they're rescuing from bad situations. It was a lot of fun in any case and ultimately not a lot of money, so we were very happy with the whole thing overall. It was definitely a highlight of the trip and one we're still talking about.

Our Bangkok friends John and Ann took us to see the the famous Chatuchak Weekend Market, affectionately known as the J.J. Market. You can buy everything from food to pets (not at the same stalls) to clothes to souvenirs to furniture and more. Here are a few snaps I took from this amazing, huge place.

 

Here's a set of stickers in the window of my cab in Bangkok this evening. I guess there's a lot of things they don't want you to do. I'm sad to report I did none of these (although I'm not sure what the bull skull one is.)

 

One of the most unique and enjoyable features in Bing is the custom homepage image we have each day. The photos are usually beautiful and have hotspots that link to interesting web info. (You can check out some of the previous images on the Bing Image Archive.)

Recently, my team in Beijing and Tokyo started doing images and hotspots specific to the Chinese and Japanese markets. I'm especially proud of image we posted today. The school in this photo is in Sichuan province (home of spicy food); it was destroyed in the horrible earthquake last year and rebuilt with the help of MSN China's Rainbow Action effort. Over the next few days we'll use the Bing home page and a series of new photos to drive more attention the survivors of the Sichuan earthquake and encourage people to help them recover. (On a technical note, this is the first time we've commissioned a photo for the Bing homepage; we normally use stock photos.)

Anyway, I encourage you to check it out at cn.bing.com and to donate to this effort on the Rainbow Action site (available in English and donations can be made through PayPal.) I'm often proud of the work we do technically, but it makes me even more happy when I can be proud of what Microsoft does for the community.

[Update: 2009-09-01 Apparently the MSN/PayPal collections for this phase are closed for now. It's still worth donating via other means.]

[Update: 2009-09-06 Shrunk the image down to fit on more screens.]

Hm, I didn't think even the Chinese gov't would want kids playing with nuclear beach balls. (Seen at the Beijing airport.)

I saw this awesome poster up at a cool bar/restaurant near our house. One of the cool things in China is that many restaurants have a kids' playroom. This one is just cooler than most. Everyone wins: parents, kids, and restaurant. Seems like a good idea for an XBox marketing campaign...

(taken with crappy camera phone)