Chris and Camilla

We've Moved!

2009-07-14T01:17:00.001-07:00

Well websites at least... www.ontheroad.iblogger.org

Facebook and Twitter Blocked Due to Riots

2009-07-10T02:27:00.001-07:00

After the unfortunate events that occurred recently in Xinjiang, the Chinese government has decided to block access across China to Facebook and Twitter, in addition to the already blocked blog websites, including Blogger and Wordpress. According to "official" sources, the extremists who rioted in Xinjiang were being coordinated by messages on social networking sites, so the government's response was to block the whole country. Not so surprising for a country that doesn't value freedom of expression, but rather inconvenient for us.

We apologize if we are unable to respond to Facebook messages or post pictures. Hopefully the government will restore access to those sites soon. Recently, access to Google was blocked for a few days as the government wanted to send a "message" to encourage Google to block porn sites (and who knows what else). Fortunately access was restored quickly.

It is strange to us that as China modernizes, the crackdown on the internet seems to be getting worse. We can only hope that those in power do have the nation's best interests in mind, though we don't always agree with their methods. The riot in Xinjiang will only exacerbate existing ethnic tensions in a country where irrational nationalism is all too common. Our own home countries, Canada and the US, have their own spotted history dealing with racial violence, so we can hardly stand on a moral high ground when it comes to these matters, but we send them our pryers and well wishes as they try to deal with this situation and restore peace.

Doing Some Freelancing

2009-07-09T06:34:00.001-07:00

I (Camilla) have been trying to do some freelance writing on the web. I've always enjoyed writing and since I have some free time these days, I thought I would try my hand at it. I'm just trying to build up my portfolio at this point. I have gotten paid, but not much. Some people actually do make a living at it though, and we're hoping that will happen for me as I gain more experience.

One of my articles about the Yumberry won (to my utter astonishment) an Editor's Choice Award on Suite101.com! You can read it here:

http://cookingresources.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_yumberry

Check out some of my other articles on the site as well.

I am still writing for www.thecircumference.org, a travel site based in my native Toronto! Lately my article about Fujianese Tea Ceremony has appeared there:

http://www.thecircumference.org/experiences/chinese-tea-ceremony

I'm excited to see where this freelance writing thing takes me!

Village Life

2009-06-22T22:46:00.001-07:00

Chris and I spent a night last week in a Chinese village. A friend of ours goes periodically to her ancestral village to help tutor some of the kids in English and to encourage them to stay in school. This was the first time since we arrived in Xiamen that Chris and I got to go into a rural area of Fujian province. I had visited a village in Shanxi province before to help out with a school, so I had some idea of what to expect, but it was still an eye-opening experience.

Granite quarries are important in the industry here, so many of the village houses we saw were made of stone, and therefore were quite sturdily built. You could tell it was quite a prosperous village based on the quality of the houses, many of which had embellished tile roofs. The house we were staying at was quite large, with two stories, 4 small bedrooms and a central room that was open to the sky. It had electricity and running water too. Our friend told us that it was the house her grandfather had lived in, and was therefore probably close to a century old. Of course, it wasn’t like home. The beds were beautifully carved of wood, but were basically wooden benches on which a straw mat had been laid. It was pretty amazing to be staying in such a house though! Chris and I had brought air mattresses, and we managed to find a mosquito net for me, so we passed the night as comfortably as could be expected.

We spent most of our time hanging out with some of the local teenagers. When I first met them, I honestly thought they were maybe 12 or 13 years old. I was shocked to find out that they were all 16 or over (up to 18 years old)! I don’t know if it was undernourishment or other factors, but they all looked (and acted) much younger than their years. The crazy thing was that many of them, young and innocent as they were, had already been drawn into local gangs, survived drug abuse, or been approached to become prostitutes. I guess in this rural area the rule of law is little felt, and local gangs and criminals have been running the show for years. Within their own village, the kids were somewhat protected, but when they have to go to neighboring towns and villages to go to middle and high school, they are exposed to these bad influences. Many of the kids also don’t have much in the way of role models, with their parents working in far off cities, or who have mental problems, and who are generally uneducated themselves so don’t encourage their children very much in their education.

The kids were incredibly sweet though – none of this “too cool for you” attitude or pampered selfishness that many city kids have. The older kids took care of the younger kids with a parent-like affection, and many of them are running the household. It is strange – they are so child-like in some ways, and so mature in others. We tutored them for a bit in English, although none of them really seemed to see the point of staying in school, and they took us to a local temple and up the mountain to a beautiful lake where we jumped in (clothes and all) and went swimming. After their initial shyness, they became all talkative, especially after they figured out that I speak a bit of Chinese…then it was all chatter until we had to leave, at which they made me promise to come back and go swimming all day long with them. Two girls in particular really tugged at my heartstrings…one has survived an encounter with drug abuse and a stint in rehab, and her friend, her companion since they were born, has a mentally ill mother and brother, and is basically taking care of the family.

We only stayed for about 24 hours, but it was an exhausting and HOT 24 hours, and we felt like we had done enough for several days. In the midst of the playing and the learning and the surviving mosquitoes and hard beds though, were moments of real enjoyment and relaxation. The countryside is so beautiful, and the people so warm and simple. And although clearly there is a darker underbelly to rural China, the villages have their own charm that the cities cannot begin to emulate. And being in a situation where people have so many needs (they are far from destitute, yet there is still so much to be done in terms of the quality of life, and the choices and opportunities they have available to them), makes me rethink what I’m really doing with my life, and how I can best use the time I have here in China.

Ipod Touch

2009-06-21T03:32:00.000-07:00

I finally gave in a bought an Apple product. The Ipod Touch is well worth the $220 it costs. I outlined a few of the nice things about it here

Catching up with old friends

2009-06-17T21:06:00.005-07:00

Recently Chris and I went back to Shanghai to catch up with old friends. Chris is on holiday during the finals period between semesters, so we had a couple weeks off. Some of our teenagers from the KG group last year were graduating, and the timing worked out perfectly for us to go to their graduation! It was so wonderful to be able to share such a momentous day with them. I was also able to spend some time with my girls' small group that I led last year, and it was great to be able to see how the girls have grown, and to be able to mutually encourage each other.

Living in Shanghai is expensive! We didn't realize how much until we went to visit! Transportation, especially, is very expensive, especially as we had to take a taxi to the subway from where we were staying in Pudong with our friends. Additionally, there is so much good shopping and there are so many good Western restaurants that we spent more than we originally intended to. Fortunately, living in Xiamen is much cheaper and we're going to be frugal for the next few weeks =). It was worth it though, for real burgers, and the dark chocolate granita at Whisk...Mmmm!

Our friend Matt, who teaches at Xiamen U with us, also joined us, so we had fun exploring Shanghai with him and for the first time went to the Shanghai Museum! You know, going to museums isn't really something you do when you live IN the city, but now that we were there as tourists, we enjoyed it! Admission was free, and they had some extensive collections of ancient coins, paintings, etc...

After we spent some time in Shanghai, we took the fast train to Hangzhou. It was Matt's first time, and the first time Chris and I experienced nice weather there =). The West Lake is just exquisite. In spite of being one of China's prime tourist attractions, it is surprisingly un-Disneyfied. The classical architecture has been well preserved, and the grounds and gardens are well-kept. They should be - the gardens in Hangzhou have been being cultivated for a thousand years! The two causeways that you can walk to cross the lake and take in the sights were built 900 to 1200 years ago, by famous poet-governers of the Tang and Song dynasties. Everything is clean, and it's refreshing to be in China and be able to walk in the shade of towering bamboo, spruce and pine trees, and enjoy the sight of lotuses swaying in the breeze. Actually the lotuses really caught my eye this time, as it is early summer and they are just starting to bloom.

We also had the opportunity to go a little off the beaten track and hike through some of the tea fields just south of the West Lake. The low rows of tea bushes combing the valleys and hillsides were some of the loveliest natural sights we have seen in China. This is where the famous West Lake Longjing Tea is produced, a light green tea that is hand-cured in large heated woks. It was so quiet in these tea fields that we couldn't hear any sounds except for the crunch of our own footsteps in the dry leaves, the crickets chirping and the sound of songbirds. It was pretty hard to believe that we were only minutes away from the popular West Lake area. The path also took us through tea villages nestled in the hills. These groups of houses, built in the traditional Hangzhou style with whitewashed walls, latticed windows and black tile roofs, were such a far cry from the modern metropolis that Chris and I have come to know as China. The owners of family-run teahouses that dotted our route continually came out to ask us in for a cup of tea. Although we politely declined this time, it would be lovely to relax by the side of the road, take in the scenery, and enjoy the harvest of the tea fields.

I'm just about finished an article on Fujianese tea ceremony, popular in Xiamen, and I'm going to write one on on the Hangzhou tea fields soon. Stay tuned!

My article

2009-06-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

My article has appeared on The Circumference. Check it out: Experience 'Nam at the Cu Chi Tunnels.

Article coming up

2009-06-02T05:29:00.000-07:00

Camilla has joined the writing team on the website TheCircumference.org. Her first article is in the review process and should be published soon. Take a look at the interesting stories on this new travel website! We're excited - this will be Camilla's first time being published since a stint at her local newspaper in high school!

Camilla's Kitchen

2009-04-22T21:01:00.000-07:00

Camilla has started a cooking blog called Camilla's Kitchen.

I'm enjoying it, because I'm the recipient of many great foods!

She is really enjoying cooking and baking and making great use of our tiny kitchen. I wish I could take a picture of how small our kitchen is, but even with the wide-angle lens on, I can't back up enough to get much of a picture!

Here is a picture of one of the latest dishes she made, which you can read about on her blog...Bon Appetit!

China!

2009-04-20T03:27:00.000-07:00

China is such an interesting place. I love that the culture is so different, but sometimes it's difficult. My students are incredibly homogeneous in their views.
I think the idea of a national culture is difficult for Americans to grasp. When I first went to University I was amazed at how differently people from my own state could think and act. We had people from the central valley who grew up in places where agriculture was the big industry. These people have a totally different out-look on things.
Interestingly, when Camilla and I met, we were very surprised by how similar our cultures were even through we were from opposite sides of the continent. Everything in between our homes is very different, though.
America doesn't really have one culture (I know that we have some similar values, we also have American pride, but we are not one in culture). In my class I try to talk about "Western Culture", but what does that mean? To ask "what is the culture like in America?" is like asking "what is the weather like in China?" (extremely varied). But, I think in many ways you could ask the question "what is Chinese culture like?" and get as reasonable of an answer as a question like "whats the weather like in Southern California?" (generally mild!).

So, in my years in China I have been forming opinions and having them broken down, but in general I know more about Chinese culture than I ever did before I came to China. There are so many differences between Western and Chinese culture that I don't know where to begin, but here goes...

My Chinese Essay

2009-04-13T10:12:00.000-07:00

Okay I'm pretty proud of this so I thought I'd post it just for fun. My tutor has me writing an essay every week to practice using new words, and although I usually have some mistakes, it's pretty cool to be able to write something in Chinese, using my own ideas.

借债是不是好事？

在21世纪，很多中国人开始向银行贷款买车，买房子，等等。。。这样做，他们可以用明天的钱来实现今天的梦。以前，“信用”这个观念还没发现，很多人没办法买车，房子，等等。现在就可以。信用对经济，对个人都有好处。
不过，借债过日子不一定是一个好事。有的人工作不稳定，没有工作的时候，就不能按时还钱。那他们得借越来越多钱来生活。他们的信用会越来越差，银行不再借钱给他们。那他们怎么办？没办法还钱，他们不但丢人，而且连生命也可能没有！
看看美国的情况。在西方，很多人借债过日子。买房子的时候，只要付百分之五的房款。可是国家有困难的时候，经济差一点儿，收入就不稳定，有的人不能按时地还在银行借的钱。他们的房子就没了。
借债享受生活要多小心。信用有好处，可是如果经济的情况不好，这个好处可以变成不利条件。

I know there are some mistakes, but the gist of it is this:

Borrowing money - good or bad?

In the 21st century, many Chinese people are starting to take out loans at the bank to buy cars, apartments, etc... This way, they can use tomorrow's money to realize their dreams today. In the past, "credit" was an undiscovered concept; many people had no way to buy cars, houses, etc. Now they can. Credit has many benefits both for the economy and for the individual.
However, using credit for your daily needs isn't necessarily a good thing. Some people's jobs are not stable, and when they're out of a job, they can't make their payments promptly. Then they must borrow more and more money just to live. Their credit rating will get worse and worse, and the bank will no longer lend money to them. Then what will they do? Without any way to pay back the money, they will not only lose face, but perhaps even their lives (note: I know I'm being dramatic here but I wanted to use that word)!
Look at the US situation. In the west, many people borrow money for their daily needs. When you go to buy a house, you only have to pay 5% of the total cost. But when the nation is going through difficulties and the economy isn't good, their income isn't stable and they're unable to make their payments. Then they may lose their house.
You must be very careful when borrowing money to enjoy life. There are many benefits to using credit, but when the economical situation isn't good, the benefit may become a disadvantage.

Hikes, BBQs, and Tea tasting

2009-04-13T09:34:00.000-07:00

A few days ago it was our 6 month wedding anniversary (hard to believe, but true), and we celebrated by going to a Brazilian BBQ place in Xiamen. The service was pretty good, but I don't know if it truly deserved the title of "Brazilian" BBQ...unless fishballs, cuttlefish, and pineapple are common things to bbq in Brazil =). Nevertheless, there was some good meat...some pork and lamb, though the beef was tough and stringy, unfortunately. I don't know what it is with Xiamen, but they just don't tend to have very good beef. Maybe because it's an island? I haven't seen any cows around...

Anyway, although we did enjoy the Brazilian restaurant, our appetite for beef was not yet sated, so we decided to have a BBQ on our own to celebrate Easter Sunday. We set up our little bbq on our friend's balcony (we wanted to do it on the roof but it was too windy and dark). After a couple hours of trying to light the smoky Chinese charcoal (it seriously seemed to have fire-retardant properties), we finally got it going, and were able to roast a nice piece of steak and some chicken kabobs. Some experimenting on my part turned up some homemade honey-garlic bbq sauce, and we had quite a nice dinner with a few of our coworkers!

So that was our Easter Sunday...we also went to the morning service on the beach at the international fellowship, and enjoyed chatting with some of the young people there over brunch. I really think every service should be on the beach if the weather permits...it was so much nicer.

In other news, we have taken advantage of the nice weather to hike a few of the trails in the hills around our apartment. On one such occasion, we hiked up a nicely maintained trail and inadvertently snuck into the Botanical Gardens through a back path without paying the 40RMB entrance fee. The Xiamen Botanical Gardens are HUGE, and quite nicely maintained...they have lovely garbage cans in the shape of cartoon characters, just to match the natural scenery. Apparently some of our friends have been caught before while trying to sneak in, but I suppose since it was a Thursday, security was a bit lax.

On another so-called "mountain" we hiked up, we found a great spot where you can view pretty much the whole island from the top of a small pagoda. It would be a great place to bring visitors (hint hint come visit us) to show them what Xiamen looks like as a whole.

Last bit of news...we went again to Gulangyu island (a cute island just off Xiamen where motor vehicles are banned...except for electric people movers which play annoying Disneyland music...it is China after all), and had fun observing "bride beach". Literally dozens of brides and grooms go there on any given day to take their wedding pictures. I'll get Chris to post a pic of it. We also did a tea tasting and bought a Minnan tea set. "Minnan" is the term for the local people here, who speak Minnan dialect, and they all love to spend their afternoons imbibing tea from these miniature little tea sets. There is a whole ritual involved: you have to rinse the tea once, warm the tea cups by pouring hot water over them, then add more hot water to the tea pot. Once steeped, you use the lid to remove any bubbles, and pour the tea into a small jug, where you can observe the consistency of the tea as your pour it out into the tiny cups. Each cup is scarcely larger than a thimble, but the emphasis is on enjoying the fragrance and taste of the tea. You really can taste a huge difference between different grades of tea. And as impractical as the little tea sets are, EVERYONE here has them. Even the little street side restaurants have a little folding table out for the staff to enjoy their mini cups of tea in the afternoon.

Oh finally, one more thing! This is kind of weird! Chris and I were invited to a free lunch at a 5-star hotel. Yeah I know, no such thing as a free lunch right? Turns out, they were filming a promotional video and wanted some white people to be in it! Hmm...guess I didn't really qualify, but I got to go anyway and have a free buffet lunch. It was a little strange to be having lunch while a cameraman is filming over your shoulder, but it was certainly interesting. Apparently the fact of being foreign entitles you to 5-star treatment in China. Of course, being Chinese-Canadian, I get kind of in a huff when people treat Chris like a star, and me like a nobody. Sometimes I bring Chris to do stuff with me (go shopping, order a coffee, get photocopies done) simply because we get such better service when he is with me. *Shrug* I tell myself I am privileged to get the "insider" treatment (on my good days at least...on my bad days I'm complainin' with the best of 'em!). Okay that was long, but that's it for now!

Enjoying the domestic life

2009-03-19T21:07:00.000-07:00

It's good. Life is good here in Xiamen. We are making a fraction of what we were making in Shanghai, but we feel like it is worth it. We've got a beautiful view of tree-covered mountains from our window (which we have yet to hike, but we probably should before it gets too hot), as well as a view of the local neighbourhood in all its ramshackle, noisy glory.

Life here is a bit more relaxed. We have a lot more time to study Chinese and (for Chris) to pursue his photography hobby. I've gotten a Chinese tutor (a student at the university) to meet with me once a week to keep me on track, and I'm doing pretty well with my goal of a lesson a week from my textbook.

We've been trying to cook at home most of the time, primarily to avoid the mounds of MSG dumped in every meal we eat out =p, and I've been challenged to make a lot of baked goods I never would have if necessity didn't prompt me. We have a little Midea toaster oven which is sufficient for making small portions of muffins, banana bread, cornbread, brownies, and cakes. With our limited resources, I'm forced to make them all from scratch, and I get such a feeling of achievement when something turns out right, and it's made from nothing more than some flour, oil, milk and eggs...and a few other things. It's like a miracle! Whoever invented baking was a genius! There are a few imported items we have at our disposal - pasta, tortilla shells, olive oil, a few varieties of cheese...but that is pretty much the extent of our western ingredients! We are growing herbs in some planter boxes for when we run out of the dried ones I brought from home. It's kind of a simpler life without all the pre-packaged processed foods we buy at home.

I DO miss all the good restaurants in Toronto though. I didn't realize before what a food mecca Toronto is, with so many authentic, reasonably priced restaurants! It really makes you miss things like real bread, bagels, beef, fresh pasta and authentic ethnic foods =p.

Anyway, Mr and Mrs Waffles are doing well. Mrs Waffles had a bald spot under her eye which has since filled in...yay! Today they took a bath in their water dish and they were flinging water everywhere as they dried their sodden, feathery little bodies. Now they are playing with a toilet paper roll. They are so cute!

Oh yes, one other thing. Yesterday Chris bought a little 50 RMB barbeque from Carrefour, and we put a bunch of things on skewers and tried to barbeque them on our balcony. Unfortunately, the Chinese charcoal smoked like a chimney, and our neighbours called security! Nothing much came of it - Chris pretended (well not really) not to understand anything, said sorry a bunch of times, and everybody laughed it off. I guess it wasn't the best footing for our first meeting with our neighbours, but oh well. Just another little adventure in the Middle Kingdom =).

Love Birds

2009-03-17T06:35:00.000-07:00

Click on the picture below and it should show a video :)

From Love Birds

Our New Apartment

2009-02-22T22:24:00.000-08:00

We moved into our new apartment! If you click on the slideshow below, you can see the pictures individually, or you can just watch the slideshow.

We also got some Love Birds...Mr. and Mrs. Waffles.

Back in China

2009-02-20T06:41:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Xiamen, China on February 9th and I started work on February 16th. That gave us less than a week to get to settled and used to things here in Xiamen. Luckily the transition went very smoothly, and we are having a great time. Since we have lived in China before, transitioning to a new city was not a big deal. The usual "This is China" difficulties apply, but they aren't so bad after a few months or years!

Xiamen is truly one of the nicer Chinese cities I have visited. There is a beach which is supposedly clean enough to swim at (in certain places). There are mountains with hiking trails. And there is a no honking rule in the city which makes a phenomenal impact on how enjoyable it is to stroll around downtown.

We were greeted at the bus station by a 3rd year student who was assigned to help us. She has been a pleasant and invaluable help to us especially during the first few days. She patiently and graciously gave up her time to take us to get a bank account, fill out paperwork, get a health examination, find places to eat, and find an apartment. We are very much indebted to her.

Now we have our own little apartment on the 20th floor of one of the newest buildings overlooking Xiamen. Our apartment came furnished, but we have been buying little things like kitchen appliances and pillows for the last few days. Tonight Camilla cooked our first dinner in our little kitchen.

Now that I have completed the first week of my job, I have a much better idea about what the next six months will look like. My students are great so far, although class sizes and class time are a down side. I have 14 different classes that range from five to 43 students (so far). The classes only meet for two 45 minute periods every other week. Basically, I am a facilitator of English. Lesson planning should be quite simple, but engaging 40 students in oral English with such a short amount of time is a major challenge. My students are luckily at a pretty high level and they are quite enthusiastic so far. I'm hoping to do some interesting discussions and really get them thinking and speaking.

Down Under

2009-01-31T20:26:00.001-08:00

We spent a wonderful two weeks in New Zealand. It is a beautiful country, and all the beautiful spots and all close together, so we were able to see quite a lot. There are lovely scenic drives all along the coast and through the pastoral countryside, where you could see fluffy white sheep grazing peacefully in the fields. We climbed Mt Doom, aka the mountain used in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy to represent the evil volcano of Mordor. At least, we climbed partway up before the weather got bad. Among other highlights, we bathed in a natural thermal river! The temperature was perfect...about 40 degrees, and it was just like a jacuzzi except it was a flowing river surrounded by lush natural vegetation!

We enjoyed wine tasting in the wine region of Marlborough, and then drove down to Dunedin where we visited my aunt and her husband. They were very gracious hosts and they were sorry we could only stay one night! Our schedule was tight. We drove through the Fjordlands and camped by a lakeside with a beautiful mountain view. Then we did a hike through the valley near Mount Cook and had a marvellous view of that famous peak. All in all, it was mainly just beautiful scenery. Kiwis are really fond of the outdoors and they have a lot of infrastructure and tourist information set up to help you enjoy it.

We enjoyed the busker festival in Christchurch before flying to Sydney, where we spent the morning walking around the harbourfront. The Sydney opera house was kind of cool, but not amazingly impressive in real life. Then we drove into the Blue Mountains for more beautiful views (and some bright coloured parrots!), and camped a night near some noisy drunk tourists (grr)! In the coolness of the morning we went to a few lookouts on the mountains, and then decided to drive back to the Australian coast. It's too HOT to not be near the beach!

Fun times in Singapore

2009-01-15T06:22:00.000-08:00

It was a relief to enter the sterile shiny world that is Singapore. Not sterile as in character-less. Sterile as in.......clean, germ-free, modern, GLEAMING! Singapore is truly a first world city, with first world prices to boot! We had to spend $40 a night to sleep in a concrete box with a mattress on the floor at the hostel we booked. Nevertheless, it was CLEAN and homey.

We stayed for 6 nights, explored the city and visited a friend of mine (Camilla) from college. Singapore is a really interesting city, with a variety of different ethnic groups. We had fun exploring Little India, the Arab Quarter, and Chinatown (which is alight with glowing red lanterns and loud chinese music and hordes of shoppers for Chinese New Year). The subway is efficient and modern (it reminded us of the subway in Shanghai), and reasonably priced.

My friend Nadine took us to Sentosa island, where they have created several beaches out of sand imported from Indonesia. The beaches are very nice and clean, but feel kind of artificial...like Disneyland or something. We went to the Aquarium on the island and walked through the shark tunnel, as well as saw all sorts of other strange and wondrous creatures.

After our week in Singapore, we crossed the border to Malaysia (which was a easy and pain-free experience) and are staying in the border town of Johor Bharu. Today we went to Carrefour and bought lots of cheap camping equipment for our trip to New Zealand and Australia.

We fly tomorrow to the Gold Coast in Australia and will spend a day there before catching another flight to Auckland, New Zealand. We have a car rented there and will have about 12 days to drive from Auckland to Christchurch. We also look forward to visiting my aunt in Dunedin, a mysterious character whom I have never met, though she has always been thoughtful and generous with birthdays and special occasions. Exciting!

We then will fly from Christchurch to Sydney and have a little less than a week to get back to the Gold Coast, from whence we will fly back to Malaysia, Hong Kong, and...our final destination, CHINA. WHOO HOO.

Uncle Ho's Kingdom

2009-01-06T20:45:00.000-08:00

We are just finishing off our time in Saigon, flying for Singapore tomorrow. We were going to go to Cambodia, but because my (Camilla's) passport is running majorly low on pages, we'll have to skip it since it requires a full page visa. The Canadian consulate is singularly unhelpful when it comes to running out of pages in your passport. You can't add pages, and it takes 3 weeks to get a new passport. ALSO, you need to have your original birth certificate, as well as someone living in the jurisdiction of that consulate who has known you for 2 years and who is a magistrate, lawyer, doctor, dentist, mayor (?!), judge, or public notary. It's ridonkulous. So I may have to apply for a new passport when we arrive in Hong Kong in early February, and Chris and I may have to be separated for 2 or 3 weeks while I wait for it (since he has to arrive in China to start work)!!! So sad!!!

Vietnam has been interesting. There is lots here to capture your interest. They've got an interesting history, cool handicrafts, Ho Chi Minh's embalmed body, museums, good food... The only problem is, it's really frustrating getting ripped off at every turn. Even trying to buy a Coke on the street is an exercise in getting ridiculously cheated! There are 2 prices for everything, and the "tourist" price is completely unreasonable. And unlike in China, they don't sheepishly tell you a more reasonable price when you call their bluff and walk away. No, they are completely shameless here.

Nevertheless, we've had some good experiences. In Hanoi we went on a shopping spree and bought lots of neat local handicrafts and shipped them home. We went to a water-puppet show with traditional music, which was really fun. We also got the chance to see Ho Chi Minh's (aka "Uncle Ho") mummified body lying in a glass case. It was pretty creepy. They did a really good job embalming him, and he seriously looked like he was just dozing. Maybe it was the ripples in the glass surrounding him that distorted his image as we walked past, but I could almost swear I saw him move!!! Every time I snuck a glance at him, I kept expecting him to sit up and start giving orders. Thankfully, Uncle Ho stayed dead.

Then we flew down to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon), where there is more of a backpacker scene and therefore prices were a little more reasonable. We visited the War Remnants Museum, which displayed the horrors of the Vietnam War (with an obvious bias towards the Vietcong side, not surprisingly) as well as various models of US airplanes, helicopters and tanks. We also took a day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels, which are a network of tiny little tunnels used by the Vietcong during the war. I (Camilla) crawled into a little trapdoor in the ground (Chris wouldn't fit) that was used as a hidden entrance to the tunnels. There were also displays of all sorts of grisly traps used to injure and kill US soldiers...lots of spikes. On the same trip, we visited a Caodai Temple, a supposedly "indigenous" religion...which basically means it's a combination of Catholicism, Buddhism, Eastern Mysticism, Islam, Hinduism...anything you can imagine. The temple was a hideous, gaudy big building. It was just one of the interesting elements mentioned in the book "The Quiet American" which we've both been reading.

The weather was a lot nicer in Saigon, which is in the south of Vietnam. We took a couple days trip to the beach at Mui Ne, a fishing village-turned-resort town. The beach was nice, the weather was great, and we have a couple dozen mosquito bites as a souvenir of our sojourn there.

Today is our last day in Saigon and we plan to spend it eating good food, drinking the remarkably drinkable Vietnamese coffee (at least Camilla is), visiting the Fine Arts museum and maybe seeing our friend Sara (whom we taught with in Shanghai) if we manage to meet up. It's been quite a ride in Uncle Ho's kingdom, and while we'll miss some aspects of it, we're also looking forward to our next adventures.

New Pics!

2008-12-26T04:00:00.000-08:00

I finally got a good internet connection, so I uploaded a good portion of my pictures. I'll put them into the correct order later, but keep them at the top so you don't miss them :)

Vietnam

2008-12-26T03:39:00.000-08:00

Laos

2008-12-26T03:37:00.000-08:00

Malaysia (second time)

2008-12-26T03:36:00.000-08:00

Thailand

2008-12-26T03:35:00.000-08:00

Malaysia (first round)

2008-12-26T03:30:00.000-08:00

Good Morning Vietnam

2008-12-26T02:32:00.000-08:00

After a short flight from Laos, we arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam. I went to the ATM and withdrew 2,000,000 Dong which should cover us for a while. A bottle of water cost 10,000 Dong, so the money goes a little faster than you might expect. We took a minibus to the Old Town and arrived just after dark. The streets are crowded, noisy and dirty. We found a not so great hotel for the night, but have upgraded since. We need to apply for our Chinese visas, so we are trying to get that done here. It's a hassle since we are getting special visas for working which means we need a letter. The good news is that we just found out that we don't need the original letter, the bad news is we have to wait until Monday to apply, since the Chinese Embassy only works until 11AM M-F and we came around 11:30 Friday. :(

Our plan now is to do things around the area. We will probably go to Ha Long Bay for 3 days once we turn in our visa applications.

Hanoi is not a nice place to walk around. The streets are crowded with honking, swerving scooters and the sidewalks are crowded with everything but room for walking. If you want to cross the street you cross your fingers and walk slowly. (I've lived in China for 2 years, Hanoi is much worse). The street is always littered with trash and wet. Besides the getting around, its a nice town. The people have all been friendly, the food is good and the hotels are decent for the price.

Luang Prabang

2008-12-23T06:05:00.000-08:00

We are currently in Luang Prabang, Laos. We flew from Malaysia to the capitol of Laos on the 18th in the morning. Explored the city a bit and ate a nice lunch by the bank of the Mekong, looking across the broad river at Thailand on the other side. That evening we boarded a "VIP" bus to Luang Prabang. If there is anything I have learned traveling, its that when a bus touts a name like "VIP", it will ceartainly not be for very important persons. I can guarentee that the president of Laos doesn't got "VIP". Maybe there is a "Super VIP" for him. ANyway, we got to our seats for the 10-11 hour bus ride, and found that, of course, the leg room between our seats and the one in front was much less than the other seats on the bus. They alwasy try to cram in an extra seat at my expense it seems. Eric and I experienced this in Bolivia quite a few times. It caused us to fly the one internal flight we did in three months in South America. Needless to say we decided, because of multiple reasons, we are going to fly to Vietnam. But back to the bus ride! I saw our seat and immediately asked the ticket guy if there were any other seats available. He said there were three left at the back. We went quickly and claimed them, thinking we were lucky because we had three seats. This brings me to lesson two: don't count your chickens... If there are available seats, they will be filled, even if it means the bus leaves hours late. Not only did all the seats get filled, but a few people stood in the aisle. Which reminds we of a time in Guatemale, but we'll save that for another time.
After many events, including sitting next to a man with a rifle (we found out later that he was the security guard), we made a bumpy, dusty, noisy, loooong, trip to Luang Prabang. This place was a great rest break last time I was here, and its a great now. Camilla loved it immediately, but unfortunately, she has been a little under the weather. She's resting and starting to feel a little better. We have done pretty well so far and have not had any major sicknesses of food poisoning.

More to follow, we fly to Hanoi on the 25th. It will be a Lao/Vietnamese Christmas.

In KL again

2008-12-16T20:11:00.000-08:00

We spent a lovely couple days in Thailand relaxing at a snazzy resort. There was a beautiful pool, buffet breakfast, etc... Quite a change from the backpacker style bungalows and hostels we've been living in.

Then we tried to catch a bus back to Malaysia. Heh heh heh. Well...it was an interesting adventure...that left us stranded in a Malaysian border town with no transportation. Luckily we fell in with a bus that just happened to be stopped by the side of the road, and coincidentally they were headed in the direction we were headed! We negotiated a price, and hopped on.

We spent a day exploring Penang on a motorcycle and had an interesting hike in a "National Park". I think the definition of national park in Malaysian is a little different from ours. There was a family having lunch there, and not only were they leaving their garbage all over the place, but the father threw his leftover garbage into the trees for the monkeys. Then, when a monkey came closer to try and grab some of the food at the table, the crazy fool whipped a log at the little creature!

We also saw some giant lizard in the water...it was probably four feet long. We speculated that it might be a komodo dragon that would drag us to its lair and devour us, but we decided it probably wasn't.

The next day we caught a bus to Kuala Lumpur, and here we are. Today we're going to explore the town, and tomorrow we fly to Laos! That's when the real adventure starts...dum dum DUMMMMM!!!!!

Kickin it in Thailand

2008-12-10T05:17:00.000-08:00

We left from Penang, Malaysia and took a long-distance bus to Hat Yai, Thailand, and from there traveled to Surat Thani and from there to the lovely tropical island of Ko Pha Ngan.

We've got a bungalow right on the beach and we can hear the sounds of the waves lapping the shore as we snooze with our feet up on the porch. We've rented a motor scooter, so we've been having fun scootin' around the island and exploring. Even I (Camilla) got the (scary) opportunity to drive it around. It was fun...just like riding a bike, but a lot faster!!!

Tomorrow we're going to live it up on one of the beach resorts. We'll have a nice room, hot showers, TV, pool, fridge and American breakfast buffet, right on the beach, for $30 US dollars. Yep, we can only afford that kind of luxury living for one night. Let you know how it goes.

Malaysia

2008-12-06T05:47:00.000-08:00

We arrived safely in Malaysia after about a four hour flight from Hong Kong. It was getting pretty late, by the time we got our backpacks and went through customs, so we decided to stay in the airport (with many other fellow travellers) until morning. At about 6:30 we tried a bus to train to bus to bus route by passing Kuala Lumpur to get to Melaka on the southern west coast of peninsular Malaysia. It was worth the trip south. Melaka is a colorful town with a myriad of cultural influences. Cheng Ho the famous Chinese explorer landed in 1405, the Dutch set up camp in the 1500's, the Portuguese in the 1600's and the British in the 1700's (if I remember correctly). All of these groups along with the Sumatra Indonesians just across the water, have influenced Melaka. Today it is a booming tourist town with the majority of tourists coming from nearby Singapore.
As with all of Malaysia there is a mix of people living there. Mostly Chinese (Buddhists), Malay (Muslims), and Indian (Hindus). It is amazing to see such a swirl of cultures mixed together harmoniously.
We walked around the streets of China town marveling at the old beautiful architecture. Our guesthouse provided free bikes to use, so we went for a cruise around the town. We even caught the newest Bond movie in the local theater (which I don't recommend unless you like great action with no plot) for 6 Ringgit, roughly $1.75.
We headed out after two nights for the Cameron Highlands in the interior of Malaysia's mountains. We are staying at a cheap hostel with lots of noisy guests as I speak, and will be heading out for Penang, the island on the northwestern coast tomorrow morning.
The Cameron Highlands is at the top of a mountain range the runs north-south through the interior of Malaysia, a little closer to the west coast. The area is famous for beautiful views, cooler weather, and tea farming.
Yesterday was sunny, and beautiful, about 80 degrees (Melaka was probably 95). We walked around, seeing the nearby town and realizing that the bus system is quite inadequate and that we would need to find some transportation or go on a tour if we were going to see anything.
So, after seeing the prices on the somewhat overpriced tours, we decided to rent a scooter the next day (today). Unfortunately today was grey and rainy. We went anyway, got wet, and had a blast. This was Camilla's first time on a scooter, she was a little scared at first, but by the time we were through, we were talking about maybe getting one in China. It was my first time driving on the wrong side of the road. Camilla had to keep reminding me to stay left! I guess I have to get used to it, since we plan to rent a car in Australia.
We rode to the Boh Tea farm. I guess it is the most famous tea brand in Malaysia. They had a great tourist facility set up, with a little tea factory exhibit. (There are tons of tourists, everywhere we go, we finally found out, its because it is a school holiday now.) Despite all of the tourists, it was a nice place, but the rain made it so we couldn't walk trough the tea fields :(
We saw a temple and a few other things and called it a day, since we were cold and wet, and the hostel had hot showers.
I'll update more when we get a chance. We might be heading to Thailand afterall, just to go to the southern islands, since the political situation seems to be resolved for now. Unfortunately, we already bought a ticket from KL to Laos, thinking we would stay in Malaysia.

Plans thwarted, new plans made

2008-11-30T23:32:00.000-08:00

Well, we were planning to fly to Bangkok. Yeah, I know. Great timing. Not sure if this made headlines back home, but apparently there are some protesters in Bangkok who want to force the Prime Minister to step down. So they stormed the international airport, took it over, and disrupted flights all over the country, thereby destroying the tourism industry and the economic backbone of their country.

Since our flights were cancelled, our discount air carriers graciously gave us our credit back (yes, Southeast Asian discount air carriers seem to have better customer service than stupid Air Canada...that's another story for another time). As a result we are now flying to Malaysia. We'll be exploring the West Coast, possibly Melaka and Penang. We have to stay on the West Coast because we heard it's the monsoon season on the East Coast (a bit disappointed about that as we wanted to go to Pulau Perhentian, the islands where we spent our engagement week).

After a couple weeks in Malaysia, we'll be flying to Laos, over land to Vietnam, and then to Cambodia. We'll keep you updated when we get there! Miss you all!

Accomplishments

2008-11-25T01:02:00.000-08:00

Today we got a few things taken care of:

I booked us a flight directly from Bangkok to Samui, so we don't even have to go into Bangkok. We have to spend about 6 hours in the airport.

We heard back from our would be employer that they have finally received all of the needed documents and will be sending a contract in about three weeks. After many hiccups, it looks like things might work out, and I will be starting at Xiamen University around February 15th.

We also went to the Vietnamese Embassy and dropped off our passports for visa stamps. It cost 300HKD and should be ready by Friday.

Hong Kong

2008-11-20T17:19:00.000-08:00

We made it to Hong Kong after 24 hours of travel on 3 hours of sleep. The great thing about modern air travel is that you get your own personal little TV screen, so you barely notice how long the flight is. We watched "Wall-E", which I recommend to anyone who hasn't seen it. It makes robots and cockroaches look cute and beyond that has a strong message about pollution and human laziness.

When we arrived, some of Cam's relatives were at the airport to pick us up, which was really nice since we had over 200 lbs. in luggage. Now we are staying at her Aunt's house in a high-rise apartment complex on Hong Kong Island. It's nice to be right in the middle of everything.

Resurrecting the Blog

2008-11-18T12:03:00.000-08:00

We are off again! Camilla and I are sitting in front of Tim Hortons (the Canadian fast food craze), eating doughnut holes (aka: Tim bits) and drinking a half coffee/half hot chocolate (Cam's favorite).
We are here in Canada for a three hour layover in Vancouver on our way from LA to Hong Kong

A lot has happened in the past few months, so I'll breeze through some of the highlights:
-Camilla and I left California in July to head to New Jersey for Eric and Joanne's wedding
-Along the way we visited various friends, stopping in over 20 states.
-From the Eric and Jo's wedding we headed back to Toronto to stay with Camilla's family until our wedding.
-My parents visited and so they could meet Camilla's family before the wedding and see a bit of Canada
-We drove to Montreal and Quebec City
-Friends and family flew in to town for the wedding October 11th
-Camilla and I drove back to California for a second wedding reception and and extended visit in California.
-Camilla's family came for the reception and we visited Yosemite and San Francisco.
-After seeing a bunch of family friends and driving 17,000 miles, through35 states, we are back on the road to Asia.
-From Hong Kong we will fly to Bangkok and visit SE Asia for about a month and a half. Our plan is to see Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, then fly to Australia and New Zealand before heading back to China.
-The eventual plan, if all works out, is for me to teach oral English at Xiamen University and for Camilla to study Mandarin and tutor English in her spare time. Xiamen is on the coast of China between Hong Kong and Shanghai, closer to Hong Kong, straight across from Taiwan.

Just Married!

2008-10-11T17:44:00.000-07:00

After our wedding, we headed back to California for our second reception. These are some pictures of the trip back. We went through Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone.

Roadtrip from California to New Jersey

2008-07-12T17:38:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics from our road trip to Eric and Joanne's wedding in New Jersey. We spent a few days in California before we took off across the nation. After New Jersey we headed up to Camilla's parent's house in Toronto.

Camilla's Perspective

2008-03-28T22:42:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I'm writing you from MALAYSIA right now in a little town called Kota Bharu near the northern coast. Guess what's on my hand??? A diamond ring!!! UH HUH! We're engaged!

I will tell you guys all the details later, but suffice to say...Chris had the whole surprise planned out. He took me on a "surprise" day trip to Hangzhou (after a "surprise" massage with our friend Angelia) and proposed in a little gazebo near the top of a mountain in Zhongshan Park. Little did I know that 7 of our friends had followed us to HZ and unbeknownst to me, were stalking us like NINJAS taking pictures and videos the whole time. They jumped out in true ninja-like fashion from behind a screen of umbrellas when we returned to the gazebo to take some photos, nearly causing me to have a heart attack, but I didn't.

Next, they surprised me again when we got to the train station, ostensibly to return to SH, by whipping out a couple of backpacks. "We're going to Malaysia!" said Chris. From Hangzhou airport (which I was not expecting because international flights hardly ever leave from there!)!

So we flew to Kuala Lumpur, flew again to Kota Bharu, took a boat to the Perhentian Islands where we spent a few days on a BEYOOOTIFUL white sand beach. I got to surf, snorkel and eat shark for the first time =), and then we came back to KB to experience everday Malaysian life. Our next stop is Kuala Lumpur, and from there, back to SH!

More details later (such as the mouse that ate a hole in my backpack...or was it a gecko...I know you're dying to find out, but the mystery will be unveiled later!).

Engaged!

2008-03-02T22:15:00.000-08:00

Chris and Camilla got engaged February 22nd, 2008 in Hangzhou, China in a Chinese pagoda atop the lone hill in Zhong Shan Park next to Xi Hu (West Lake).
What a discription, huh!

We then flew to Malaysia for a week long rest at the beach and exploring Malay culture. The beach was beautiful, the water was warm and clear and the weather was wonderful. We had an awesome trip and are back to work again, teaching eager minds!