...And we're off.

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 nights here were also filled with going away parties - Tuesday night going out with a good group of the people that I've worked with, and who have kept me sane with being able to understand what I'm saying and to then translate it. They were incredibly sweet and we came home with three boxes of Chinese teas that we had to figure out how to pack.

For our final night we met up with friends Howard and Dan at Me & You 2 (of course) to see the sunset one last time (supposedly good but we were late). From there we wandered over to the Sister's for a final meal, meeting up with Yih, Shelly, and Lugas. Shelly presented us with an outstanding tissue holder, and the Sister's presented Tina with a nice shawl. From there it was a quick stroll to Temptations to enjoy a Goh family gift - a sister prepared (Hong) and family delivered (Min and the rest) goodbye Christmas cake - which was outstanding.We tried to finish the night up over at a bar we didn't quite get to often enough during our time here - My Way - so that we could say goodbye to Gino. But Gino wasn't there and Ulf, from Me&You2, had told us that we needed to come back for a goodbye gift. We returned to find Ulf with a bouquet of flowers for Tina along with a bottle of champagne. Problem was, all we really wanted was bed - we muscled through a few glasses, along with a special drink concoction mixed by the bartender, and then wished them luck before we headed home....


So that's it, our China stories are done. Once we get back to Chicago in January we will do some quick updates to talk about Vietnam if we don't get a chance to post while we are there. We will probably also follow up with some China stories that we never quite got around to posting, along with any strange things that we notice as we transition back into life Stateside, before we let our posting on this blog dwindle down to few and far between, if at all.

It's been a great time, thanks to all of you who followed along, we have met some great people, seen some good friends leave, and are now leaving some good friends behind...

2-1/2 years of China in 2-1/2 minutes...

...with a lower quality version for the two of you with dial-up.

Seeing the family again.

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 asked if we could stop by Temptations and pick up the wine for the evening's dinner. Not a problem, since we were coming back from Gu Lang Yu. The wine of course was from their private selection, only the best for her family. Mark had the naughty idea, of exchanging the wines with the Blue Label wines to see if anyone would notice. The Blue Label is a decent wine, but not in the same league as Allen's private stock. I quickly squelched that idea, though it would have been funny to see Yih's face when she saw the bottles.

Not only did we get to see Min and family, we were able to meet Min's brother-in-law and family. The food was outstanding, crab, octopus, crispy duck, along with several other dishes that I cannot remember. After the meal, we went back to Temptations to enjoy more wine and catch up with everyone. While the conversation was entertaining, it was entertaining to all. Some of the kids decided the adult conversation was too boring, and chose to sleep instead.

Sister Min, me, and sister YihCharlotte and dadThe bored kids

It was great seeing and meeting the extended family as it will be awhile before we will see each other again. They were off today to spend the next week touring the Fujian province.

As we said our goodbye's we realized we were also saying goodbye to Temptations, our second home. It had great times there, and though it is soon coming to an end, our memories will continue.

A night at a charity event.

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 explain how their wines are made and what to pair with which kinds of food. The followed this presentation with some dancers.

Then a quick raffle of items - wines and a wine fridge, and back to the dancers.

After that the organized a auction of more wines. Overall they ended up getting about 30,000 RMB (4,400 USD), and one of the guys that bid on a magnum bottle of a nice wine just popped it open and shared it with most of the guests. It was a good time.

Nice, Sara, and Tina enjoying the evening.
A photo of Sara, myself, and Nice.

After that fun, Tina and I decided that we needed to head over to the Oriental Pub, since it was one of the places we used to go when we first moved here and there is not a lot of time remaining for us to visit all of the places we still want to see.

Well, that sounded good but when we got out of the taxi we ran into some of Tina's friends that we hadn't seen since the night before at JJ's heading over to the Londoner Pub. We ended up at the Londoner...

Meanwhile back in Xiamen...

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 either for a case of Tsingtao or for bottled water. It was a bit shocking to come back and find their entire store completely cleaned out, and to not even tell us just added insult to the injury.

Then we wandered over to pull out some cash, being the big spenders that we are, only to find out that the HSBC branch has lowered its maximum withdrawal amount by 500RMB. Now it's the same as the other banks and this lower withdrawal rate means that the 3USD that we are charged with each time we pull out will now become a larger percentage of our losses. This will add up to dollars worth of beer that I'll have to forgo.

The third change was the most devastating. The special on wine over at Temptations had run its course and ended while we were away. We had been abusing this special as it made the overpriced amount for wine that one pays in China only slightly overpriced, and it was a good wine too. What now will we do? Can't easily switch to beer now that my favorite shop is gone...

Well, it was nice to see that at least one thing hadn't changed -
Nap time remains the same as it always did.

Semi-Farewell Dinner for Sister Yih

Last week while have a dinner at a very upscale restaurant in Xiamen, (yes they do have the odd one) Yih mentioned a place where she wanted to dine that sounded very interesting. She didn't give us all the details, such as the name of the restaurant or what type of food it was, nor where in Xiamen it was located, just that she wanted to go there and thought we would enjoy it. All we needed to know is that we had to wear something cool, as it would get hot, and wear old clothing. Alrighty then...

You see, Yih will be heading back to Malaysia this week, staying for some months so she figured she wanted to ger her last fixes in before she headed back.

Tuesday comes and we meet up at Temptations by 6pm as ordered. We get to this restaurant and it was a very local Xiamen restaurant near Zhongshan Park. There were about 6 tables, and you basically cook the food yourself, very similiar to a Korean BBQ. Yih did the ordering, and most of the food we cooked, though some dishes were done for us. We had fish paddies, toufu, oysters, shrimp, mussels, beef, greens, and mango dipped in soya sauce. There was a reason you needed to wear your old clothes. Oil was pretty much splattered everywhere but we didn't mind as the food was outstanding.





After dinner, we went back to Temptations, where we indulged in a couple of bottles of wine enjoying the evening before Yih's sabbatical back to Malaysia.




We'll miss you Yih!

We're in China, we don't tip..

Yesterday Mark and I were arranging for property management to come yet again to take a look and see the damage from Linfa. They like to visit our apartment, I think it's to check out what we have. Anyway, the young lady who has been assisting us, as she's the only one in the management office that speaks English, sends us a message that she and her colleague will be coming to our place today and oh, by the way forgot to mention we will also be collecting tips.

Tina: "Tips? what tips? We're in China we don't tip."
Mark: "That's what it says.."
Tina: "Send her a message and ask her what the deal is.."

Mark sends her another message. We then get a response from this gal, and I quote: "If someone service with you and you pay the tips, I mean this. I don't how to explain."

Mark then sends her another message stating that we have never tipped, so what's the deal?

Her response, "yes, before I never, this our new rules, I don't know my coworker can repair that in tomorrow, he can check."

Mark and I came to the agreement that since we are laowai they figure that can ask for tips. We then send her a message stating that the landlord can pay the tip. Now I understand why my dear sister Hong disliked going to the market. She always felt like she was getting ripped off, she's Chinese and speaks the language.

Since we were at Temptations yesterday (they were having a wine sale, and you know we couldn't resist), Yih and Shelly basically said what we said, there is no tipping in China and she was trying to get some extra cash.

Today Mark asked Rocky (co-worker and go to person in China) about it, and he too confirmed what we thought. Tips? he says, we don't tip in China.

Needless to say, when she did come today, she had an attitude, and didn't want to assist with getting a new hose for the drain pipe.

Maybe we should have tipped her....

next installment

Well it would appear I am the one chosen for the torture newsletters. Yesterday we went to have a foot message and it turned out to be more than Barb and I bargained for and Tina being the perfect host would not downplay the whole experience till we had tried it first. Well it started with boiling tea water and one may have thought it was for drinking but alas it was to soak your feet ahhhhh after a few moments it actually starts to feel good then the team of professional massage artists come in and start to massage our feet, nooooo it is our backs actually included in the experience big aaaahhhhh again ... hey maybe Tina has hit on something spectacular here. Well the hot rocks come out next and all to soon it comes to an end very enjoyable and relaxing but Tina in her infinite wisdom has suggested we go to gu lang yu for pearl shopping again the ultimate experience we came out of there like the pearl divers of old with quite a booty of goodies when all too soon it is time to meet Mark at yet another favourite spot Temptations, lets just say after dinner at a bbq place and the 5th bottle of wine things start to get a bit hazy but I think we all had a great time...

Barb and Nancy arrive in Xiamen...YAHOO!!!!

Well after all the months of planning Nancy and I finally arrived in Xiamen on Good Friday. It only took a 14 hour flight to Hong Kong and 4 hour layover and another 1 hour flight to Xiamen. Once we got in to Xiamen we only hoped we would not be pulled over and challenged on all of the loot we brought with us. We got through customs to be greeted by huge hugs from our pals Mark and Tina.

Arriving in Xiamen at night is pretty spectacular with the neon everywhere and all the cars and people. We finally arriving at the apartment and unpacked all the loot and proceeded to drink 5 bottles of wine and 1 1/2 bottles of port. We certainly stayed up but we suffered the next day. Oh well...such is life. There was a broken toilet issue but we will not go into that here as I am sure Mark and Tina will comment on this...suffice to say the Chinese do not bolt their toilets to the floor..I think they just glue them. lol

Saturday we went to the food market and you would have thought that the aliens had landed. Talk about being the minority. Little kids had their eyes glued to us and were falling down, it was quite interesting and funny. Tina then bought us some chinese buns and we went to Temptations and ate our breakfast. Later in the day we went to the fabric market and you would not believe what we saw..my goodness..the colours and type of fabrics...we went mad I tell you...mad.



Nancy and I each are having 6 items of clothing made and we are going to be regular fashion plates. We then met Mark for drinks at "Me and You Too" and then we went for all you can each sushi (in China) and then Nancy and I started to fall asleep and Tina and Mark brought us home and put us to bed.

Today is Sunday and we are rested and refreshed and heading to the Botannical gardens...we all know there must be floral and fauna for Miss Nancy. Then all you can drink at "Le Petite Cafe" tonight from 3-9pm.

Thats all for now. We are attaching a couple of pictures from the fabric market and tomorrow we head for Beijing. Barb and Nancy

Children's names...

Last weekend we were racking our brains trying to come up with some good names, and now we understand why people say that it's sometimes hard to figure out. You can go to websites that list the most popular names by year, but nothing jumps at you. You can think about naming someone after somebody famous like an actor (Clint, Audrey), someone from a band (Geddy, Ringo), an athlete (Brady), or maybe even make a statement with a political figure (Nelson, Koffi, Stalin).

But really, would you want to do that to somebody? That's a name they will carry for the rest of their lives. As much fun as that seems, in the long run that's not worth it. So we decided to take the short route that most people do and honor somebody close to us - a good friend or relative...

So for guys our short list ended up as Gottfried (Fred), Charles (Charlie), Wilford (Willy), and Matthew (Matt).

That's all we needed, as it was only men that we had the honor of naming. Siew Yih has some new staff, four new guys that didn't already have western names, and for reasons we can't explain she asked us for help.

This should be easy for us to name them, let's just match their personalities -
Willy - the guy who likes to drink
Matt - the storyteller
Charlie - the jokester
and Fred - the one most likely to steal a plane

All good, except that Willy was rejected because it is hard to say with a Chinese accent, so we then moved on the Edward, Gabriele (Gabe), and Alex. When we last left Temptations the we deep into discussions as to what names they wanted. What fun.

As if we don't go there enough, now it will be like seeing family....

Still playing tour guide.

Although Joe spent more time in Xiamen then we have, we have still managed to pick up a few things to do that aren't always standard touristy things to do, and thus we offered to tag along with him and his tour group so that we could share our knowledge. Yes, most of our non-touristy knowledge is based around local watering holes, but that's just what this group needed.
Of course, the number one item on the tour is Gu Lang Yu - that's not the bit of our information, but we figured we would head over with them and tour around.
This time we actually hiked all the way up to Sunlight Rock, I don't think that we've climbed up there since Matt was here to visit almost a year ago. It does help that we've gotten another cold front here, as it is much easier to hike up all those steps in 20C instead of 27-30C, the downside to the cold being that it was also very hazy - not as nice for enjoying the view.
But after the trip to Gu Lang Yu, that's when Tina's tour guide instincts kick in and take over. Any regular reader should have a guess as to where we went afterwards - and if you guessed Temptations you would be mostly correct. We swung by Temptations to grab some wine to take with us to dinner, and for dinner we went to the prawn restaurant.
This was one of our better outings at this place, with each of us catching at least 3 shrimp. I think overall our haul was somewhere over 20 prawns. Enough to get the order split and have them cooked in 2 of the 18 ways they will prepare them - we went with garlic prawns and the salt-caked prawns. Happiness, and we've finally gotten to a point where we can order the food without having to call for help, and stepping up to a fine wine with dinner was a definite improvement.

From there we head back over to our favorite local little bar, My Way, for a quick drink and to say hi to Gino...

Today's the day....

Finally, after all of our waiting - Temptation's wine and coffee opens up again. It would have been a rough week since we returned from our Chinese New Year holiday in Malaysia, but while we were there Siew gave us the number of their manager and told us that we could call her and make her open up to store to sell us some wine. That was nice...

So today they should be rolling up the metal grating that made their place look closed for these last few weeks and starting up with the selling of the wine, cheesecake and meals. We were lucky that we knew the owners and were able to have the manager open up for us to make some purchases, had we not gone to Ipoh we would have just assumed that they were reopening last week like so many other Chinese shops.

We can only wonder how many other foreigners and locals tried to buy wine last week and presumed that Temptations had gone the way so many other Chinese shops and succumbed to the weakening economy....

Yih's Arabian Birthday

Ah, hard to believe that it has been a full year since we went to Yih's polka dot & seventies party. The time went so quickly, but its been a full year and now we needed to drink to celebrate the fact that Yih managed to stay alive for another full 12 months.

This year, the theme was an Arabian night. Siew Hong did a great job, as she always does, with the cakes, food, and with the decorations. We did our part and went online and downloaded 3 CD's (just under 3 hours) of Arabian music to play. Check out the very Arabian feel with the sheer fabric and fancy carpets....
Of course with these theme parties, everyone needs to be dressed for the event.Siew Hong and Yih both were dressed for it, and Tina fully got into the look. Even a lot of Siew Yih's friends came in fully belly dance styles...
Yih had a great group of friends that came over, and there was much happiness.We commandeered a corner table and had a lot of fun at the party. Tina made sangria's from one of our Spanish friends recipes, and Siew Hong made margarita's, pina colada's, and long island iced teas.
Also, because Siew Hong is leaving us heading back home to Malaysia - a lot of her friends stopped by during the course of the evening to say goodbye to her. It made for an excellent night of good friends, good food, and great drink...

The return of Big Red.

Well, we did manage to enjoy a few days a peace and quiet. Starting from Saturday we also made a good dent in watching the movies that we had laying around, and amazingly this last bunch that we went through all worked without any major problems. It's always a bit of a disappointment when we start watching something only to find out that it's all in Chinese or some other foreign language and only include Chinese and Thai subtitles...

But that peace all ended today. Siew Hong came back from Hong Kong yesterday and apparently she missed us a little. We had her computer so that we could download all of the photos we've taken of her and the kids so Tina did need to return that to her now that she was back.

When I left for work the plan was that Tina was going to cook up a nice Chinese style dinner when I got home, and that she would meet up with Siew Hong for coffee sometime in the day to return the computer. Just before I left work I received the following text - "With sis, just meet us at Temptations."

Huh, who'd have thought that.

Another guest done...

Wow - it seemed quicker then our usual guest visits, but Emily left us this morning for that nice long flight back to the States. This trip seemed much more intense, and Tina and Emily were always busy. I'm mainly talking about the fact that we didn't get nearly as many guest posts out of Emily as we did last time - we were a little disappointed.

Emily is quick to point out that last year when she visited Tina would go off to school in the mornings or the afternoon and leave her alone for several hours where she could easily write without any interruptions. This trip Tina was always rushing her out to the market or the tailor or some other place that they needed to see. I suppose that's a valid argument, but we still would have enjoyed it slightly more if she had had time to write one of two more so that we could enjoy our time off of posting for just another day or two.

Not that I'm saying we don't love writing the blog, because I know you mainly read to know what we are thinking and doing over here....

Friday Tina took Emily for a foot massage and a return trip to the tailor so that Emily could pick up the goods that she ordered, and then I guess a lot of other things that managed to keep them busy.

Emily's final foot massage - notice that nice new purse of hers....

From there we all went over to, you should all know this by now, Temptations for dinner and some wine.

Tina, Siew Hong, Emily, Siew Yih, and Mark

They had a barbecue with meat, vegetable, and seafood kabobs, an excellent salad and then a nice lemon tart. All was happiness, and a was just a simple nice relaxing final dinner for Emily's trip to China.

Tina and I with Siew Yih.

We came back early so that we could download photos and I could work to transfer all of ours to a memory stick for Emily to take back with her. We are getting better prepared and now are able to have our guest leave with a complete set of photos to remember the great time that they had with us. It only took us seven guests to figure this out - but those comment cards we make you fill out at the Wichmann B&B do actually serve a purpose...

Wichmann B&B overall rating is now a pretty good 8.5 out of 10.