aimsey and roelie

Hi all, Well we're back home...Amy soon to work, Roel to study...in other words, back to reality! But as you can see from the photos on the following pages, life in 'Toronto the good' is not treating us too badly. However, over the course of this entire blogging enterprise, we've talked an awful lot about ourselves and our time in 'Shanghai the bad' (and good:)...so now, as the title says, this last blog is for you, our faithful readers! Why is that you may ask? Well, your comments were invaluable, so blog number 36 (can you believe it?), will try to explain how much we enjoyed your input. In any case, for this, our last, final blog we've dedicated the content (and we're only sorry that we have so few pics!) to those who took the ... read more

Hi all, This blog is about one big Yin (look for part 2 shortly on the yins AND the yangs of two years in Asia) as we’ve devoted this entire penultimate blog to an homage and revisiting, if you like, of our visitors. For the visitors, we hope you enjoy…for the rest, please read on too…and plan to visit Shanghai at some time on your own. You won’t be sorry! Christmas! For our first Christmas when Chris visited, we were still getting the hang of the place, so we really appreciated his help at navigating the city with his excellent Chinese. As a result, it was sheer fun discovering new restaurants, museums and landmarks, and our introduction to Cotton’s, Sasha’s, Dagu Lu, and many museums, including the Art’s and Crafts Museum, were all with Chris. We ... read more

Hi all, Well, it was May Day…and the Chinese Government’s cutting of the traditional one-week holiday into long weekends posed a dilemma: what to do for only May 1-3? Then colleagues returning from a weekend getaway showed us their pictures of Pingyao--a walled city from the Ming and Qing Dynasty eras--and their enthusiasm for this so-called “China’s hidden gem” was intriguing. The truth of that phrase was immediately apparent, when in response to queries for more info most responses were, like, Pingyao? Huh? Even our bible, the Lonely Planet (herewith referred to as LP) didn’t reveal much more, except to confirm that the place is basically unknown to expats, and that it's located in the province of Shanxi (with one ‘a’) and not to be confused with the famous adjacent Shaanxi--home to Xi’an of the reknown ... read more

Hi all, By the time we cross the border into Cambodia it feels—apart from our one day layover in Ho Chi Minh City—like we’ve been in transit since we left (which we have) and that we’ve arrived via planes, boats, buses and even bikes (which we also have). So naturally we’re looking forward to some R & R, but we approach that prospect in Cambodia--the locale of the infamous killing fields, and Nixon and Kissinger’s secret 70’s bombing campaign--with a certain amount of trepidation. Knowing too that we're banned from Vietnam--except to hang out in the airport before our flight leaves from HCMC (isn’t there a Tom Hanks’ movie about a guy stuck in an airport?)--we feel that we’ll seriously need to get to know our new abode for the next 10 days. And during the ... read more

Or, in other words, happy new year! As you read this, Carly and Craig are safely enscounced back in their Georgetown home in Washington, D. C. and Roel and I are hunkering down for a spell of reality (i.e. back to work) before we take off again for two weeks for Chinese New Years holiday. Carly and Craig's flight home was much smoother than their extra long trip to Shanghai...and before they flew out on New Year's Day we watched the New Year come in, accompanied by the requisite fireworks both on T.V. and in the surrounding neighbourhood. On the day of their flight, before going to the airport we were able to watch the New Year arrive at Times Square in New York City, live on CNN...so we felt as if we'd welcomed in 2009 ... read more