On Friday night Larry and I boarded a rickety old train and spent the rest of the night (10 hours) being bumped and rocked around our 4-person "deluxe sleeper" on dirty mattresses which may have been nice 15 years ago. It was the beginning of our Sapa experience! We arrived at Lao Cai Station (on the Chinese-Vietnamese border) at 6:10am and boarded our 1-hour shuttle bus to Sapa. The ride was absolutely breathtaking! (LOL...Sometimes we lost our breath because of the beautiful scenery, other times it was because we thought our bus would fly over a high cliff when it zipped [View Full Entry]

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Although Larry and I were only in Hanoi for two days, we managed to squeeze a lot in. Arriving from Hong Kong mid-day, we spent our first afternoon checking out Hoa Lo Prison Museum (nicknamed the 'Hanoi Hilton' by US POWs during the American War); fighting with scam artists (a.k.a. taxi drivers); researching trips to Halong Bay (which we would depart for the next morning) and Sapa; and touring the epicentre of old Hanoi, Hoan Kiem Lake. By early evening we were exhausted, but still managed to catch a performance of traditional Vietnamese water puppets. Having previously read about this tra [View Full Entry]

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Pictures from our day trip to Macau (coming from Hong Kong)... [View Full Entry]

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For the next leg of our journey Larry and I headed to Hong Kong for a world-class skyline, delicious food (which was unfortunately sometimes accompanied with nauseating odors), and a quick reminder of the modern world as we recuperated from China and prepared for Vietnam. Getting to Hong Kong was an adventure in itself. We had originally planned to fly from Xi'an on Friday, August 22nd, but due to a massive typhoon ended up at the airport with tickets and luggage in hand and no way of getting there. Trying to make the most of our situation we fought with insurance [View Full Entry]

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In the early spring of 1974, local farmers - Peiyan Yang, Zhifa Yang, and Quanyi Yang - of XiYang village were drilling a series of wells in search of water. To their surprise, they discovered some pottery fragments and ancient bronze weapons.... no one ever expected that this accidental discovery would turn over a miraculous and brilliant leaf in history nor that it would unfold such a unique and majestic spectacle before the world! After years of drilling, excavation and textural research, the site of the terracotta army proved to be one of the biggest attendant burial pits of Chinese fe [View Full Entry]

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Arriving in Bejing on a Sunday afternoon, we dropped off our stuff at our friend Nicole's apartment and spent the rest of the afternoon registering with her building management and the local police. Nothing like visiting a communist country! Kicking off Beijing in style, we later feasted on a traditional Beijing meal of Peking Duck, dumplings, caramelized lotus root, bok choy, and various other sauteed vegetables. Monday morning was an adventure! We had signed up to take a tour to the Great Wall through a local hostel, but when we tried to find the hostel for our 7am departure..... we r [View Full Entry]

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Okay, I know that I wasn't going to post anymore Osaka or Kyoto blogs, but this is one that I couldn't omit.... Four wonderful, adventurous, and exciting years have passed while I have lived in Japan, and although I was constantly trying different things and visiting new places, there was one thing that took me forever to do.... become a maiko!!!!! After studying and observing Japanese culture for so long I have always wondered what I would look like dressed as a maiko-san (geisha-in-training), and so on August 16th (my second last day in Japan), I finally decided to visit a [View Full Entry]

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For everyone I haven't been in contact with recently, I have just finished my 3-year contract in Japan and have embarked on my last adventure before returning to Canada. My friend Larry (who flew over from Toronto) and I are on a 6-week, 7-country trip through Asia (from August 12th to September 20th). Our itinerary is as follows: Osaka & Kyoto, Japan --> Beijing (Olympics!!) & Xian, China --> Hong Kong --> Macau --> Vietnam --> Cambodia --> Thailand --> CANADA!!! We are traveling by train, plane, boat, moped and rickshaw ... really anything that gets us from p [View Full Entry]

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Ever wonder what a Dutch village would look like if constructed in Japan? ...Well, a Dutch village of course, packed with Japanese tourists! There are windmills, tulips (in spring), wooden shoes, Japanese restaurants, canals, tall ships, museums highlighting the Dutch-Japanese history, classic European cars, and little Japanese kids running around yelling "Sugoi!!!" ("Wow!!!"). It is quite the site! This past Saturday I was down in Nagasaki watching a friend play baseball and decided that while I was in the area I would check out Huis Ten Bosch ("House in the Forest"). Wit [View Full Entry]

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On Tuesday, April 22nd my family and I escaped the grassfire smoke choking Buenos Aires and headed to the historic old smugglers' port of Colonia del Sacramento. A designated World Heritage Site by UNESCO, the historic quarter of this town truly is worth a visit. From the cobblestone streets which were constructed in the 17th Century, to Iglesia Matriz, the oldest church in Uruguay (dating from 1695-99), a day in Colonia is like stepping back in time. The locals live their lives at a leisurely pace, and the general atmosphere is laidback and peaceful. No matter what kind of a mood [View Full Entry]

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