Wichmann Stories

San Francisco Trip - Part 2

2011-05-19T12:34:00.011-05:00

This one shouldn't be as long as yesterday's post, but I will load it up with more photos then the last one....Saturday morning we were up early and met up with Alex and Dr. Lim for breakfast, and then off to Napa Valley for a day of wine tasting. The day before I had dropped the three of them off from the rental car at the hotel and headed out to gas up the car, but what they didn't know is

Before our next trip, we tell you about our last one..

2011-05-18T19:20:00.016-05:00

Ok, so we are leaving for holiday this Friday to spend a week off enjoying the fun of this world, and I'm thinking that following that we will go back into some sort of regular posting. Only time will tell... So with that bit out of the way - on with a long post of what we did just about three weeks ago. As most of you who have been following our blog may already know - while we were in China

Key West Weekend

2011-01-29T11:01:00.009-06:00

Two weeks ago we had a three day weekend, so being in the cold Chicago weather we decided to make the most of it with a weekend trip to Key West, Florida.It's been a while since we've posted anything, and I'm not fully in the mood for typing a lot so we are just going to dump a ton of photos on here and maybe make a few comments - enjoy...Friday night we flew in and met our Friends Heather and

Talking about the past... part 3

2010-12-28T12:46:00.001-06:00

The final leg of our 4 country, 12 day vacation as a one night stop in Tokyo to see friends Holly and Skip, with their kids Skylar and Blayden. We took an overnight flight from Malaysia and arrived at their place early on Saturday morning.A quick shower to freshen up and we were off with Holly and the kids to wander the streets of Tokyo and see the little German Christmas market that was set up

Talking about the past... part 2

2010-12-26T12:13:00.002-06:00

From Xiamen we went down to Singapore for two quick nights, where we were supposed to meet up with The Mexican but just a few weeks prior he was transferred back to the States. We have been to Singapore before and seen most of the sights, so we used this unexpected break as a great bit of down time between to sections of our trip, oh and we went to the Singapore zoo.The latter part of the day

Talking about the past... part 1

2010-12-23T11:28:00.009-06:00

Yep, we're still here and occasionally thinking about writing posts to share with all of you... It's amazing how easy it is to get away from this, and then how hard it is to get back into posting.Alright, so let's take some time to go back and talk about the trip that we made over the Thanksgiving holiday in the States. We took advantage of the two days off and bundled it with a week of

Hey everyone....

2010-09-02T21:39:00.002-05:00

Wow, it sure has been a while since we've written a post here, I was thinking that I'd apologize for the lack of posts but that wouldn't be fair since I can't promise that it won't happen again. We've been busy, and for some strange reason being back in the States doesn't lend itself as easily to writing a quick post every day, or I suppose even once a week, or month…

One small thing about our return.

2010-01-28T14:51:00.004-06:00

Moving back from China the majority of our belongings were packed up several weeks before we left and shipped on a slow boat. We still had far too much luggage at the airport as we mentioned, but overall we thought that we did a fairly good job of packing. All of our summer clothes are packed in a container, and since we were doing our last minute purchasing of almost an entire wardrobe of

General thoughts on our return...

2010-01-27T19:55:00.004-06:00

So we've been back in the "real world" for just over three weeks now, and feel that it's time to try and get a quick update as to how we've adapted. It's been tough to get our thoughts together, and we have actually been quite busy since we've been back.In the 25 days that we've been back Tina has spent 5 days in Canada and 1 day in Philadelphia, and I while I joined her for 2 days in Canada I

Returning to Chicago.

2010-01-20T17:30:00.001-06:00

After celebrating the New Year in Hanoi we were up bright and early on the first for a flight to Hong Kong. We had one night to spend in Hong Kong, so we slowly meandered around the city, stopping at little markets and the like, but with nothing planned or that we felt we needed to see. For dinner we wandered over to the Soho area and were actually a little surprised by how many bars and

Ending 2009 in Hanoi.

2010-01-19T17:27:00.000-06:00

The final two days of 2009 we spent in Hanoi, having returned via the overnight train from Sapa. We arrived early in the morning to deserted streets and a slight drizzle. We made our way to the hotel and dropped off our bags, they told us that they could probably have a room ready for us around 08:00 - so we could take a much needed shower and change. We took a short stroll and loitered at a

Still talking about Sapa.

2010-01-18T12:05:00.008-06:00

I think we are finally getting settled into Chicago enough so that we can finish up writing about our trip to Vietnam - it's talking far longer to get this posted then we expected.After our nice three hour walk through the haze the day before we were pleasantly surprised by nice blue skies on our final day in Sapa. With the weather the way it was we went down and booked a trip to see to

Sapa Trek

2010-01-12T19:17:00.008-06:00

We've been a little crazy since arriving back to the U.S, so our blogging has been intermittent at best, so we do apologize.Zoom, our guide picked us up at 9:30 for a three hour trek through a couple villages in Sapa. We started walking to one village, Can Cat which was primarily a tourist trap, that sold trinkets, but once past that, you walk down to see a pretty waterfall. Here we had about 30

On to Sapa...

2010-01-07T19:55:00.005-06:00

Waking up nice and early after staying at the home stay up in the small town in Lao Cai we enjoyed a great breakfast and then wandered back down to stroll through the small market that we had walked through the evening before. That next morning was completely different, with an incredible crowd gathered selling anything at all you could want.After finishing up snapping tons of photos we returned

Trip into Lao Cai, Vietnam

2010-01-06T19:26:00.010-06:00

After we spent Christmas day wandering around Hanoi we made our way later that evening to the luxury overnight train up to Lao Cai- the province in the northern corner of Vietnam. It was a great little room that we had to ourselves, with some extra snacks for us to enjoy on the trip.The only problem with the overnight train ride is that we pull into the station just after 05:00 and are then off

The Vietnam trip.

2010-01-05T06:21:00.010-06:00

Now that we are starting to get settled in here we have some time to catch up and tell stories about our final trip before we moved back to Chicago.After spending several fun hours in the Hong Kong airport we finally were able to take off to Hanoi. Because of the time crunch at the end of the year we had gone online and singed up to be able to get our visas once we landed in Vietnam, this added

Back in Chicago....

2010-01-02T19:17:00.003-06:00

Yep, it's early Saturday evening and we are trying to unpack and settle ourselves into what will be our temporary home for the next few months. We had a great time last week enjoying Vietnam and then we spent one night in Hong Kong before we hopped on the long flight back to Chicago. We had a quick layover in Tokyo and Skip and Holly brought their kids out to the airport to visit with us and to

...And we're off.

2009-12-24T00:38:00.003-06:00

Well it's been a fun two and a half years living in Xiamen, and although our last few weeks have been extremely hectic and busy we managed to get to the airport this morning for our flight down to Hong Kong. We will spend a week in Vietnam - with Christmas and New Year's Eve in Hanoi, and the middle of that time spent taking an overnight train up to Sapa and then doing a home stay.Our last two

Our list ..

2009-12-23T02:56:00.001-06:00

As many people leave China, bloggers will often have a list of things that they will miss, and what the won't. Well we're no exception...Things we will miss:1. The people - very warm and friendly2. Ba Shi - 8th market and Alleys3. Gu Lang Yu, with all of its historical charm4. The sunsets at Me and You 2, okay so the sangria's weren't bad either5. Massages, cupping, pedicures, for next to

Seeing the family again.

2009-12-22T03:44:00.001-06:00

Last night we had a family gathering as my little sister Min and family came to Xiamen for about a week. Luckily we were still here so that we could spend some time with her since we didn't have the opportunity when we were in Malaysia back in Sept..Sister Yih made the dinner reservations at a swanky Chinese restaurant, and like all good hosts, booked a private room for about 14 people. She had

Final Random Wanderings...

2009-12-21T09:05:00.005-06:00

The last two days have been some easy relaxing. The temperature in Xiamen is at record lows - about 6C - but since we are pretty much packed we are able to slow down and get in a few last strolls through the markets and alleys, along with a few other places that we felt we needed to get to again.First stop was to take the bus that Tina used to take every day whilst she was studying at University

Last hurrah, again...

2009-12-20T03:35:00.002-06:00

For the expats that hadn't left Xiamen, a few of us got together, for the last time, at one of our favorite haunts - Coyote.A couple of friends, believe it or not, had never been, so they have been missing out on their famous margaritas. Tiffany, being a very smart saleswomen, gave them 1/2 picture to try. Smart move, they never went back to beer.Tiffany showing how to drink margaritasMark,

Meeting with our landlord...

2009-12-19T04:56:00.005-06:00

Since we are leaving Xiamen on Thursday morning our landlord came down from Sanming to check out our freshly emptied and cleaned apartment. They came in on the train last night, a 6.5 hour ride, and they are taking the overnight train back tonight after they verified that we hadn't totally destroyed the place.The place all nice and clean.We have heard, or read, all sorts of horror stories about

More fun...

2009-12-18T04:18:00.004-06:00

Last night was nice in that we didn't have any plans where we needed to see people, so we enjoyed a relaxing dinner at Orange before heading back to our place. That's where the fun really is anyway, since now we need to figure out how to fit what we are bringing back with us into the luggage that we have.It looked like we set aside a very small amount when we were watching the movers pack

Farewell dinner...

2009-12-17T02:22:00.006-06:00

Now that our movers came to gather all of our belongings, my cooking days have come to an end in China, however, my cleaning duties continue....Yesterday, since I cleaned underneath the beds, dusted, mopped floors, and did laundry it was nice that we were taken out for dinner.My taiji teacher, Yang and his family invited us out for a farewell dinner. The choice was Xinjiang restaurant, and one

Packing up.

2009-12-16T03:55:00.007-06:00

Yesterday morning at 09:00 a two man packing crew arrived and started boxing up our belongings. They worked pretty quickly to move through our main room and bedroom, but then seemed to slow down once they hit the back room and attacked packing up the bikes.They stopped for lunch and then returned to finish up with packing all of our kitchen supplies. All together it probably took them 4 hours

Another Monday Vacation

2009-12-15T03:06:00.005-06:00

Since this is our last full week in China time is running out to get things done, and having Monday off turned out to be no different. We were up bright and early so that we could head up to the area that sells bikes and purchase some for ourselves.We have wanted to do this for the last 6-9 months so that we could take the time to bike around and explore some other areas of the island, but we

A night at a charity event.

2009-12-14T03:35:00.001-06:00

Now that we are in our final weeks in China our sister Siew Yih invited us to a wine tasting / charity event. They were working to raise money for an orphanage, so we dressed up all nice and headed over to hang out with Yih and Allen and support a good cause.Yih and I at the start of the night.They had a sampling of wines from the Hope Estate in Australia, and one of their wine makers came up to

Farewell Party!

2009-12-13T05:31:00.006-06:00

One of our friends had asked earlier whether Mark and I would be throwing a farewell party before leaving Xiamen. Actually, we never thought of it. Then our friend Laura, told us about JJ Bar and Grill's 1st anniversary party, and the problem was solved.Why bother stressing ourselves out, when a bar pretty much did the work for us. Timing really is everything..... Friends, Kim and Pam Mark and

Our final day in Kathmandu...

2009-12-11T04:01:00.007-06:00

Our final day in Kathmandu we had lined up a taxi driver to meet us at the hotel and take us to two other squares that are must-see sights along with a monastery. We had a full day to us, with an overnight flight back that was leaving at 23:00.We were up, had enjoyed a quick breakfast, and were talking to the hotel staff about other things to see and how long it would take to get to the airport

Kathmandu and more of Nepal

2009-12-10T07:29:00.011-06:00

Sorry for the day off in posting this but work and coordinating a move home got in the way. Not a great excuse, but I'm sticking with it....Saturday morning we were up first thing and in a taxi to the airport. Our driver us off and told us to meet his brother when we came out of the airport to get a ride back to our hotel.Our flight was a quick mountain flight that Tina had booked once we knew

Kathmandu - Day 1

2009-12-08T03:25:00.008-06:00

As we warned you yesterday, posts our trip to Nepal are going to be a little photo heavy. Hopefully we've reduced them to a size where they load up quickly and if you don't feel like reading you are free to just scroll down and look at the photo titles.We took a flight out late in the afternoon last Thursday which got us into Kathmandu just before midnight. After dealing with the simple issues

Back from Kathmandu, Nepal

2009-12-07T06:12:00.003-06:00

Well, we made it back safely from our latest trip out - and as always we return with some stories that we rather wish we didn't have. As much as we enjoy saying "Well, this will make for a great post", that type of help is better when we are still sitting in Xiamen trying to think of something interesting to write. When we are off someplace so stunningly amazing that just tossing a few photos

Our next trip....

2009-12-03T03:12:00.004-06:00

Today we head out for a long weekend in Kathmandu, Nepal, where we will be in one of only two time zones that is off from universal time by an increment of 15 minutes. Yep, it'll be 2 hours and 15 minutes earlier then our standard China time, crazy huh? I'm guessing that we will be out of internet contact until we return back to Xiamen on Monday, but by then we should hopefully have some good

Pilates and Taijiquan

2009-12-01T20:53:00.006-06:00

It's hard to believe that less than a month we will be leaving our adopted home to move back to the U.S. Though first we decided to get one more trip in before heading back.During the past couple of months, knowing that we are returning I wanted to continue with some sort of a routine, basically to help with the insanity that will ensue.I've been taking Stott Pilates for the past month, and love

Sending the Mexican on his way, but first....

2009-12-01T03:12:00.022-06:00

...we needed to go to Gu Lang Yu. Some friends had made requests for some purchases, and since time is of the essence, Sunday was the best bet. We went to our favourite watch guy, and since he was quite busy, we told him we would come back later. That gave us an opportunity to wander around the island and see parts we hadn't see for awhile as well as new alleys we never saw before. I know, crazy,

A trip to Haicang...

2009-11-30T02:54:00.004-06:00

I took this Monday off, making up for working last Thursday and Friday while those we know back in the States were stuffing themselves with Turkey. I've still got a lot of vacation time that I need to use up before the end of the year, and we also have a lot of errands that we need to complete before movers come to pack up our belongings and ship them to the back.Todays main errand was to head

Trip update...

2009-11-29T03:47:00.004-06:00

A few weeks ago we asked where we should head on our last long weekend trip before we leave China at the end of the year. We listed the following places:1. Quindao2. Hongcun3. Sanming4. Tiger Leaping GorgeAll of the information we that received pointed to option #4 but we were still thinking of just tossing all the names into a hat and seeing what we pulled out. But the other night we were

Off to Gulang yu

2009-11-28T02:28:00.004-06:00

Lately is seems like there are more and more tours to the little island off the island - Gulang yu. Last time we wanted to head over the lines for the ferry were packed, heading all the way up the ramp, and as much fun as fighting the crowd is, we decided we wanted no part of that.The solution? Instead of a free 8 minute ferry ride is to hop on one of the many speed boats that are always

Thanksgiving...

2009-11-27T03:21:00.003-06:00

Since yesterday was the nice American holiday of Thanksgiving, and we are without a real oven in our apartment, we were forced into going out if we wanted to enjoy a nice turkey meal.Luckily there are enough places on the island that offer up Thanksgiving specials, and we decided that we would go over to the Coyote for the full buffet that they were putting together. Coyote makes sense since it

You would think it would be easy....

2009-11-25T23:52:00.009-06:00

After filling our tummies at Yih and Allen's place, we ventured over to Gu Lang Yu to meet up with friends and help the Mexican and his charming wife look for some small Chinese folding fans.Next year is Alejandra's 15th birthday, and in Mexico it's a very big deal, something similar to our sweet 16th birthdays, but on a grandeur scale. The fans were to be in a specific colour, and though it

Brunch

2009-11-25T03:40:00.000-06:00

Sunday morning we wandered over to sister Siew Yih and Allen's place for brunch. Yih had just come back from an extended stay with family in Malaysia a few weeks ago. Seeing as we hadn't had a chance to catch up with her when she suggested coming over to their place so she could cook for us we jumped at the opportunity.It was a small group of us, and the food was some good tasty.They've also

Back to the Londoner

2009-11-24T03:44:00.003-06:00

Last week whilst Tina was running errands she ran into her friend Amy who made sure to let us know that Saturday night The Londoner pub was putting together a barbecue. That's good to know, as it would have been awful if we hadn't any plans for a weekend night. We spent our Saturday sleeping in late and then running around getting some small things completed before finding ourselves seated over

Shanghai

2009-11-23T04:09:00.002-06:00

After our fun weekend in Harbin, we travelled to Shanghai, Mark for work, and me for some last minute shopping and sightseeing.The weather was not however co-operating, which is unusual for us, so instead of going to the Pearl Tower to get one last view of Shanghai, I went to the Musuem of the National Party's First Congress. Interesting propaganda.Wandered around the French Concession for awhile

The rest of our Harbin trip.

2009-11-21T03:55:00.001-06:00

The one thing we do take for granted back in Xiamen, is the lack of cars constantly beeping their horns. How Mark slept through that I still haven't quite figured out.Searching for sites was a bit difficult if you weren't going to Harbin for the ice festival but we managed to find a few sights that sounded interesting.We found a very charming Russian cafe and had breakfast/lunch. The building

Sorry for the hiatus...

2009-11-19T08:20:00.003-06:00

We thought that we would have gotten more of our Harbin trip written up and in the pipeline so that they would automatically post, but somehow that didn't happen.I'm up in Shanghai this week for work, and Tina is now back in Xiamen holding down the home front. We've got post ideas but I've got the photos and not a lot of time to post, and while Tina has time we understand that most of our

Harbin Day 1

2009-11-17T04:47:00.004-06:00

After walking the main pedestrian street in the old town, and checking out Sophie’s Church we tried looking for breakfast. I don’t know what it is about us, every time we try and look for food we can never find a place. Apparently people in Harbin don’t eat, or eat at home. We finally found a small little restaurant that sold boazis (meat dumplings). It held about 8 people, so Mark and I ordered

Maybe we should listen to each other...

2009-11-15T08:55:00.004-06:00

So today, as we were enjoying our last afternoon in Harbin before going to the airport to heading down to Shanghai, we were discussing all of the travels that we had been able to do this year. As we listed off the places that we had gotten to see and how lucky we were Tina mentioned that my earlier post about how I was just following her to places she wanted to go and see, after we went to Laos

Let it snow...

2009-11-13T21:29:00.003-06:00

We were up and out to a brisk beautiful morning our first day in Harbin...But around noon the skies began to cloud up and by 15:00 we started seeing tiny little flakes coming out of the sky. First snow in Harbin this year we were told.The snow continued on into night, at times heavy but usually just a light dusting. Still beautiful, and a welcome change from the heat of Xiamen.

Travel Warning.

2009-11-12T00:34:00.000-06:00

Today we are off yet again on a short holiday, before I get to spend a week in Shanghai for work, and Tina just receives the following travel notice:Summary Heavy snow has resulted in extensive air travel disruptions and highway closures in northern China, especially in the capital of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei, Shanxi, Ningxia and Xinjiang provinces, since late Nov. 9.

Time with the Mexican

2009-11-11T03:56:00.005-06:00

Now that the Mexican has been over here working for almost 4 months, he decided to bring his wife and daughter over to Xiamen for a quick week. They get to catch up with their old friends from when they lived here; he gets to see his family and all that other good stuff...Last Saturday we took Laura and Rene out to a new restaurant in town, Antoine's, which is a fine dining / jazz bar type of

Coyote's First Anniversary Party

2009-11-09T03:17:00.006-06:00

A few weeks back, our favourite Mexican restaurant had their first anniversary party here in Xiamen.By the time Mark and I arrived, which was around 6:30pm the place was packed, so Mark and I stood by the bar where we met some of our friends. This place is very popular with the expats missing their burrito fixes, or more than likely their margaritas. Yea, it's probably the latter.There were food

Mexican Dining...

2009-11-08T00:47:00.004-06:00

Last week the Mexican invited over to his hotel so that he could cook for us. He had been bragging about how good his shrimp is and of course we had to see for ourselves how good his cooking really was.PreperationCookingHe cooked up a few kilos of shrimp and two red snappers, it was excellent and we managed to eat our fill...Then this Friday the Mexicans wife flew in with his daughter to spend a

Censorship...

2009-11-07T02:50:00.006-06:00

One thing that we yearn for here is good old fashioned magazines in English, and one that we quite enjoy is the Economist. We've actually gotten to the point that when we have guests we ask them to bring in copies along with the wine that is required for entry into our small home. We used to be able to pick English magazines up at the airport but about three months ago all of the English items

Final post on our Hunan Trip...

2009-11-06T05:29:00.013-06:00

We got up early the next day, after we had left Fenghuang early because all the bars started cranking out loud music, figuring that we would get some nice photos of the city in the early morning light. We we opened our blinds in the hotel the fog was so thick we couldn't even down to the parking lot from our room on the 11th floor. Not going to walk into the city just to look at mist.Around 10:

Fenghuang

2009-11-04T03:49:00.007-06:00

Fenghuang was about an hour's drive from the market. Once there our driver wanted to eat, check in to our hotel, and then wander into the old town. Mark and I suggested we check in, and then eat in the old town - again confusion ensued, but we managed to get things squared away.After lunch, Ray showed us some of the sights, and wanted to show us the museum and a few memorial halls, we took a pass

Zhanjiang

2009-11-03T23:20:00.006-06:00

Today's adventure was a four hour drive to Zhangjian. We ended up getting lost on our way to the local market. Actually we drove past it, and Mark thought they were taking us to another one, so after an hour or so, when the roads became worse, it dawned on our guide and driver that we may be going the wrong way. Turned around and went to the village we past.The first stop was to see Miao village

Day 2 in the Hunan Province.

2009-11-03T03:44:00.011-06:00

Ah, our second day in the immensely large park at Zhangjiajie and while the weather still wasn't great, at least it wasn't raining. It was a long day, and I'm tired just thinking about it as we walked at least 15 km as we toured the area. That said I'm just going to dump a lot of photos for you all to enjoy and not fill this post with too much text.The starting point in the morning.We walked

Wulingyuan

2009-11-02T01:51:00.008-06:00

After the early morning excitement, we arrived into Changsha, Hunan at 8:30am, the province where Mao was born, but we weren't there to visit his home, we were off to see Zhangjiajie National Park. These mountains were 4 hours from Changsha which meant Mark and I caught up on our sleep.Zhangjiajie is a Unesco site which covers about 9600 square kilometers. According to our guide, Ray, this

How not to start a holiday...

2009-10-28T07:01:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I mentioned that we were flying out today for a short 5 day holiday in the Hunan Province, what I don't think I mentioned was just how early our flight was.Apparently there is a lot to see here and there is a few flights a day to Changsha, and the only morning flight leaves at 07:00. That would get us into town around 08:30 and then right into the car for a 4 hour ride up to our first

Weekend in Hong Kong.

2009-10-27T05:31:00.000-05:00

Hong Kong was the final stop out our trip out of China during their National Holiday, and here we just spent a short weekend so that we could make some quick purchases at their local electronics stores. We find that we trust them slightly more then the electronics that we could buy here in China, but who knows if it really is any better... We fly in late on Thursday night, getting into the

We did what?

2009-10-26T04:50:00.004-05:00

We had a full day just relaxing in Luang Prabang before we headed out on the next leg of our holiday so instead of sleeping in and lazily enjoying the town we signed up for a cooking class and got up early so that we could be there at the early morning time of 08:00.First they took us to the local market so that we could learn bits about how to select the proper ingredients.Learning more than I

From Phonsavan to Luang Prabang...

2009-10-23T03:35:00.010-05:00

Ok, we're back again and hopefully now our VPN issues have been corrected and we can return to a somewhat more regular schedule of postings. After our day traipsing around the stone jars we hopped back in the van for the long ride back to Luang Prabang, and we told our driver that we would want to make some stops at picturesque little villages that line the road and cling to the upper ridges of

Finally... stories about jars.

2009-10-21T05:32:00.032-05:00

Alright, after days of fighting to try and get our VPN service to allow us to connect to Blogger we are finally able to post. It was more the VPN then China, and we are still having some slight issues that make posting more difficult then it should be, but you guys are worth it... Don't be surprised if it takes us another 3 days to post again, as loading photos has been quite a fight lately.

Blogger Issues...

2009-10-20T05:32:00.002-05:00

Sorry - right after our friends left to head back to Japan we tried to get back to talking about our trip to Laos over the Chinese National Holiday, but China apparently has different plans and we found several of our paths that we use to get into Blogger had been closed off. We are still working on it and think that we have finally figured out something - so hopefully tomorrow when I am back at

Guest Blogger - Holly - Day 2

2009-10-17T20:18:00.004-05:00

Day two well really three...sadly we leave today - but, of course, before we go, I need to get my pedicure for $10 compared to the $85 it would cost in japan! That said, we'll miss our foot massage because we painted the town and island red yesterday. Between bargain shopping for Prada, Channel and others we enjoyed a few great buys on beautiful pearls and artwork. We've had a fantastic visit and

Guest Blogger - Holly

2009-10-16T19:17:00.002-05:00

Today is Saturday 17 October 2009. We've enlightened Tina and Mark to the world of not just one but two children! Skylar 3.5 and Blayden 8 months have stormed their house (which, by the way, is amazing). Skylar has been counting down the days till we go to China since Early September. Imagine six weeks of marking days off the calendar, we're finally here and it was worth it.We had a fantastic

Luang Prabang to Phonsavan.

2009-10-15T05:37:00.007-05:00

Just a quick post today on the long drive from Luang Prabang over to Phonsavan in the eastern section of northern Laos. We have guests arriving tomorrow for a quick weekend, so hopefully we will interrupt these stories with their guest posting. If they are too tired, don't expect a post tomorrow - the Laos stories will return on Monday. We think...So for the ride to Phonsavan, it's a little

Beerlao and boat races...

2009-10-14T06:03:00.010-05:00

After a full day of traveling - Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Hanoi, and finally Luang Prabang - once we checked into the hotel we just wandered up the main street and enjoyed a bottle of wine at one of the many outdoor seating bars ant restaurants that line the main street before returning and heading quickly to bed.The next day we awoke fully refreshed, enjoyed a good breakfast at the hotel

More Ipoh...

2009-10-13T05:49:00.010-05:00

So after seeing Alex play in Kuala Lumpur we drove back up to Ipoh the following day with Landis and Ying, so that we could see the rest of the family. We stayed in Ipoh for two nights and got to spend some good time talking, enjoying wine, and bothering all of their kids. It was nice and relaxing since this time we weren't there for mom's birthday or Chinese New Year, just a few days in the

Malaysia.... again.

2009-10-12T05:39:00.006-05:00

A while back Tina and I left for a nice holiday, starting it off with a trip to Malaysia to visit our adopted Asian family. Normally it's white families that adopt Asian kids, however we were lucky enough to find a family that wanted to adopt two slightly damaged Caucasian adults. It's worked out well for us.We left on Tuesday to fly down to Kuala Lumpur so that we could see our brother Alex,

Xi'an Story

2009-10-09T04:48:00.003-05:00

I figured that I've save this story until we were in desperate need of something to post, but we want to keep you all entertained whilst we are out touring Laos.When we were returning from our last vacation to the Xinjiang region we had about a 3 hour layover in Xi'an. We're getting better and now we spend airport time sorting through photos or trying to write a funny blog post, so we settled

Mexican Torture

2009-10-07T05:37:00.000-05:00

As we mentioned earlier Rene was back in town and we've been enjoying hanging out with him these last few weeks, and we figured that we give him a chance to experience the full fun of China....That's right, we took him for massage and cupping...Mexican after the tortureHe screamed like a little girl when the cups were applied. He actually snored during the massage, so that couldn't have been

Weekend in Paradise....

2009-10-05T05:13:00.000-05:00

A while ago Tina was presented with two coupons for us to enjoy the poolside BBQ at the Seaview hotel (or you can check out their English website), which is one of the top hotel resorts in all of China.We only sat by the pool, but that itself was impressive...Nice infinity pool, notice how they included half a moon for our photographing pleasure.You could look out and see the ocean and over to

Birthday Luncheon

2009-10-03T04:49:00.000-05:00

Last week a few of us had the opportunity to celebrate three birthdays, granted Tone's was belated, but Pam and Alicia's were in the same week.The restaurant that Pam had chosen happen to be one that Mark and I wanted to try, so it was a great excuse to check it out and of course to see the gals again. Mama's House is located next to the ferry terminal, which meant the view would be overlooking

Final Post on our Xinjiang trip...

2009-10-01T05:51:00.001-05:00

Just one last post about our trip at the beginning of the month to Urumqi, Kashgar, and other stops in the Xinjiang Province. What we may have slightly understood but didn't fully grasp was how much of the original Silk Road we were traveling.The stops that we did - Kashgar, Urumqi, Turpan, Dunhuang, Jiayuguan, and even Xi'an (we will count our airline stopover, and we had been there before)

It's holiday time.....

2009-09-29T05:16:00.001-05:00

As I'm sure that the whole world is aware, October 1st is the Chinese National Holiday and this year marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the current version of China. And the few of you the have been reading this blog for a while know that whenever a billion people get a holiday in China we opt to leave the country.But this year is the 60th anniversary, and thus different plans had to

Construction Update

2009-09-28T04:50:00.000-05:00

It's been a long time since we've written about the construction that spent months keeping us from getting a good nights sleep, but once they finished pouring all the concrete supports the movement about the site slowed down dramatically. We talked about how they had just recently started digging down and doing more work to build a retaining wall, but now they've stepped the levels of production

Last weekend...

2009-09-27T03:00:00.005-05:00

So in returning to talking about our regular life here in Xiamen, we will share with you the things that we have been doing. First, as we mentioned before we left for Xinjiang, our friend the Crazy Mexican - Rene, is back in Xiamen for a few months with work. Although it's not the same as when we would head over to the villa that his family was staying in last year, it's still good to catch up

Meanwhile back in Xiamen...

2009-09-25T04:35:00.007-05:00

Things changed here in Xiamen while we were away for those 10 days in Xinjiang, it was like coming home to a new city.We came back to find that the small store on the first floor in the building next to us was gone. I had just bought a case of beer there the week before we left and Tina commented "They're sweet, they'll probably miss you when we're gone." They know that when we come in it's

Xinjiang Wrapup....

2009-09-24T09:44:00.004-05:00

So, we hope you all enjoyed reading about our short trip over to the crazy Uyghur occupied world of North-Western China and the Xinjiang Province. Overall this is easily our best trip ever within China, and we are trying to figure out where it goes in our overall list of top trips. That's top trips since we've known each other since earlier Tina already had the pyramids of Egypt and I had trips

Day 9 - Dunhuang

2009-09-23T04:42:00.010-05:00

After a night a relaxing and hoping for some good weather, we found our way up to the rooftop restaurant for the breakfast buffet. The weather was a little cool, but it looked to be a fairly clear day.Hotel rooftop restaurant looking towards the sand dunes.About a 90 minute drive out of Dunhuang is the westernmost section of China's Great Wall, so we called an audible and added this to our

Day 8 - Jiayuguan

2009-09-22T00:11:00.017-05:00

Since Mark was not at his best, due to the donkey episode from the day before, he hadn't slept much, as he was concerned we would miss our stop. The young lady working on the train, woke us up to advise us that our stop would be next. Somehow Mark thought it meant now, and woke quickly woke me, and started panicking. We had 45 more minutes before we needed to disembark. Way too early for this.

Day 7 - Donkey Attack

2009-09-21T08:09:00.006-05:00

Ah, our final day in Turpan and it was another full one. We will once again inundate you all with far too many photos, so get ready for it...First up was a trip to the Astana Graves, this is where they had pulled some of the mummies out that we saw back in Urumqi back on day 2 of our trip. They don't allow photos when you climb down inside of the actual tombs or of the mummies that are still

Day 6 –Turpan

2009-09-20T03:44:00.005-05:00

After our fitful sleep we arrived in Turpan at 1:00pm. Turpan is situated in a basin, so it gets extremely hot in the summer (they call this the furnace of China, but then they say that about Nanjing as well) and extremely cold in the winter. The city itself is 150 below sea level, second only to the Dead Sea. This area was has approximately 3 million people who are in the armed forces here in

Day 5 - Last day in Kashgar

2009-09-19T04:06:00.001-05:00

Day five on our trip was our last day in Kashgar, as we were boarding the overnight train to Turfan which is back towards Urumqi. We started with a trip to the Id kah Mosque, which is the largest mosque in all of China, it was built in 1442 and holds 7,000 people. It was a dreary overcast day, so the greens and yellows didn’t stand out as much as you could tell that they must when bathed in

Quick Interruption of our Xinjiang trip stories...

2009-09-18T04:53:00.003-05:00

Right after we returned from our trip we found this new article posted on What's On Xiamen -Xiamen water supply disruption (18th - 22nd Sep. 2009) - which is nice enough to state the following:Xiamen will restrict its urban water supply in Siming District and Huli District, from 23:00pm, Sept. 18th to 23:00pm Sept. 22nd, as a result of the moving and reconnecting of some main water supply

Day 4 – Karakul Lake

2009-09-17T05:00:00.010-05:00

We were up early on our fourth day, as we knew that we had a long drive up into the mountains to get to Karakul lake. That and I misunderstood our guide and had Tina and I waiting in the lobby a full hour before our guide agreed to meet us.Once we finally got started we were a little worried as it was a cloudy day and it was just starting to rain. Our guide mentioned that it could probably even

Day 3 – Kashgar

2009-09-16T02:47:00.011-05:00

After our late night flight from Urumqi to Kashgar we were up and ready by 10:00 to explore the city. First stop was the livestock market just about 15 minutes from the center of town. When we arrived it was still too early for most of the people, as it takes them hours to get into the market from their local areas. We wandered around the outside where it was mainly melon sellers and a few

Day 2 – Urumqi Regional Museum and Tianzi (Heavenly Lake)

2009-09-15T05:44:00.006-05:00

After our interesting encounter with the cops, who basically told us we are no longer allowed to take pictures in Urumqi, we were quite happy to leave and head to Tianzi, but first, our guide recommended that we go to the museum.Originally this was not on the agenda but Mohemmed, strongly recommended that we visit it. At this point Mark and I were pretty much done with museums, as we have been

Day 1 - Urumqi, and an excursion we would rather not repeat...

2009-09-14T03:56:00.005-05:00

If you’ve only got one day of sightseeing in Urumqi, we only had 5-6 hours of time here, there are probably better things to do then spending 3 hours of that time sitting in a squalid police station or, at least, we presume there are better things to see…Let’s just back up a bit to last Friday, we were up bright and early and sitting at the Xiamen airport by 06:30 waiting for our 7 hour flight up

Xinjiang Vacation

2009-09-03T16:34:00.004-05:00

Okay - Just back from our short vacation, we will start to talk about the trip tomorrow (09/14/2009). Just noticed today that the blog post I wrote last week before we left was still in draft mode and never published, that was my mistake - read this now as if it was posted a week ago (because if you look I backdated the post to when we actually left):Today we leave for a week long trip to the

The fun of zhi zi...

2009-09-03T05:00:00.001-05:00

We have been in China for over two years, and one thing that I will probably never get, is this language. As much as I try, when you live in the southern part of China the dialects make it near impossible. Learning Chinese the correct way is one thing, having the Chinese understand you is a whole new ball game.Generally when we travel, I will try and learn a new phrase or words when speaking with

Expat Excursion

2009-09-02T02:15:00.008-05:00

Now that the expats are back in town and their kids are back in school, it's time for the women to do their weekly excursions. Some times it's an outing on our little island and other times exploring the Fujian province.Today's trip actually included two sites, Anping Bridge and Family Cai's Ancient Residential Complex. We met up at 8am and headed quickly since we werent' sure about timing and

Weekend in Xiamen

2009-09-01T04:44:00.011-05:00

Saturday we actually had a lot of activities planned, so we were up and out of the house as soon as the Red Sox game we were listening to ended. A run over to the bank to deposit money into our electrical and water accounts, then over to the other bank to pull out some cash, and a quick jaunt over to Gulang yu so that I can get a watch that Tina bought for me adjusted.As long as we were on

Last post on our Henan trip.

2009-08-31T04:43:00.005-05:00

We sure packed a lot of touring into such a short 3-day weekend trip, so far we've only talked about Friday and Saturday. We still have another full day to post about... After we finished touring the home that was carved down into the earth we had about an hour ride to the hotel in Louyang and our guide explained to us that the only item on the itinerary for Sunday was to head back to Zhengzhou

Bai Ma Si and Cave Dwelling

2009-08-30T04:22:00.000-05:00

Having spent the morning in awe of the Longmen Grottos, next on the quick Henan itinerary was 白马寺, or Bai Ma Si. This temple is the first Buddhist temple built on Chinese soil back in 68A.D. and unlike Shaolin Temple it is much more impressive.According to legend, an Emperor dreamed a spirit entered his palace so he sent some scholars to India to bring back the sutras. After a few years, a couple

Longmen Grottos

2009-08-29T04:34:00.008-05:00

Another long post about last weekend, but I think this one may be worth it. Last weekend we realized that this was definitely in our top 3 or 4 trips...Last year our friend, that doesn't know how to eat fruit, sent us a link to a Conde Nast article about these Buddhist caves carved into the mountains. Neat we thought and just put it into the depths of our memory banks, too much to see and not

Goodbye Chicago, Hello Taiwan

2009-08-27T19:21:00.005-05:00

One of our first guests that came to visit us here in China, was my friend Emily. She loved it so much she came three times so far, always enjoying herself here in the middle kingdom. Her first visit, we took her to the usual places including the Xiamen university where I was studying Chinese. Emily had the opportunity to sit with me in some classes and I think that may have put her on the

Songshan

2009-08-27T04:45:00.006-05:00

Yeah, we are still telling stories from the first day of our 3-day trip to the Henan Province - I warned you that it was a full day. After seeing the kungfu show, Shaolin Temple, and then wandering through the pagoda forest it was time to head up Songshan - one of the 5 sacred mountains that exist within China.We wander over to the cable car that take you up to, what we thought was, the top of