bear hug

I am completely addicted to the Travel Channel right now. As we have no idea what countries we'll be visiting or when, I watch pretty much every show that deals with foreign countries. I adore Anthony Bourdain, enjoy Andrew Zimmer and tolerate Samantha Brown. She's kinda the Rachel Ray of the Travel Channel. A little too freaking perky for my taste. However, she gives a lot of great hotel/travel tips and all from a woman's perspective. Not to mention she has like 129 different travel shows so it is hard to avoid her.

With the Olympics on the horizon TC is doing a week of China shows. So of course Samantha Brown has a new show "Passport to China". I watched her Beijing episode on Monday night. It was pretty interesting. But what really got me was the commercial for an upcoming show that shows her hugging a panda. Let me correct myself, a baby panda.

Okay so lets lay out the facts:

1. Panda bears are cute.
2. Baby panda bears are disgustingly cute.

There are big operations in China and it is highly likely that we'll go there at least once, so after seeing Samantha Brown cuddle this panda like a stuffed toy I was thrilled.

Me: "Oh my God Baby! I just saw Samantha Brown hug a panda!!! I am so going to do that when we go to China!!

Wife: "Uh, no you're not. Remember due to the shortage we can't get the rabies vaccines right now so you're not hugging a panda. It will bite you."

Me: "Are you kidding me?"

Wife: "No"

Me: "Honey I think I'd have bigger things to worry about if a bear bites me, like my missing limb. Not to mention you don't even know if they carry rabies."

Wife: "Well okay, you can research it, but remember you can't pet any monkeys."

Me: "Awesome!!"

So here it is in black and white. If we go to China no monkey petting allowed, but I'm cleared for hugging a baby panda! Which I am seriously more excited about than seeing the Great Wall. Seriously...