Two Canadians living in the tropics is worthy of an anthropological study. For instance, the favourite topic of discussion for Canadians is the weather, and our favourite pastime is choosing the best outfit to survive the day’s many weather changes, and we are all closet meteorologists. We all think we could do a better job than the person on TV, but it seems in Canada, you need to be a curling star, synchronized swimmer or from some other sport where you are protected from the elements to actually be a successful weather reporter. And so the rest of us, we like to peer out the window every morning, and use our finely tuned intuition to predict how many layers of clothing we will need, whether we will need something waterproof, windproof, or even better, whether we ... read more

Despite our flight being delayed due to strong rains (KL mid-afternoon regular occurence), we landed in Hanoi without any real hassles, quickly made it through customs, picked up our bags in record fast time and headed to the ATM where we proceeded to withdraw the some of 2 million dong. Its a strange feeling to hold in your hands, the sum of 2 million, even if the exchange rate is 17 000 to 1. Our taxi driver started teaching us Vietnemese on the way into town. We discovered elements of French and Chinese incorporated into the language, so I'm not sure I'll ever be able to fully compartamentalize all these languages again. It's fun to once again be called "Madame" after 18 months French free. We have already resigned ourselves to gaining much weight on this ... read more

Combining the quirkyness of China with the conveniences of Malaysia, Bangkok is a really fun city. The food is amazing, everything is cheap and the city vibrates with energy...and not just from the protests occurring outside the British Embassy at the time. Our favourite part was a bicycle tour that took us through the twists and turns of black alleys in China Town, narrow enough for only one bicycle at a time. We went through markets, school yards, and past temples galore. Around any corner you might see one of the many monks is orange robes doing any number of things, I saw them sleeping on benches, drinking soda pop from a glass bottle with a straw and smoking a cigarette. For some reason I find it fascinating to see them doing anything "normal". We plopped ... read more

We have been trying to make the effort to go out and discover our new surroundings. The first few weeks this really entails where can you buy this, get that, take care of whatever bill. But now we are more concerned with what there is to do in KL. Here is an overview of some of our recent adventures. Pulau Ketam - Crab Island At the end of the KTM line (which is directly behind our apartment) is Port Klang. Here you board a strange half-submerged old rusty ferry and travel to Pulau Ketam for a leisurely day. Its a Chinese fishing village on an island covered in Mangrove trees. The houses are all on stilts and a narrow set of sidewalks runs between them. The island has a full sized school, several temples and stores ... read more

The Chinese customs officer is reviewing my exit information carefully. I fidget hoping he won't notice my answer to question #12, the last question, but when he gets to it he goes rigid and slowly looks up at me, staring me directly in the eyes. "It says here you have not hiked any section of the Great Wall of China. Is this true?" he asks. "Well I intended to" I assure him, "friends and family had said they were going to visit, so we kept postponing the moment to share with others...but ...but... nobody came over and we ran out of time!" He squares his shoulders and states without hesitation, "Your exit is not approved. Come back with evidence you have not spent an entire year in China ignoring our national treasure!" And with that he ... read more