Hi there! If you're reading this for the first time... start with the Saturday, March 11 entry and work your way back up. (On the bottom right side, click on the March Archives and then go to the very bottom.) Have fun!

A few photos from Taipei...


Sherry's grandmother turning 89 and her god-daughter visiting from Vancouver (and god-daugher's sister).




Aunt and Uncles...


Our dinner with friends and family in Taipei - cousin Stella and her friend.

Chiang Kai Shek.

Kids playing on the steps going up to Chiang Kai Shek's Memorial.

Beautiful garden outside surrounding Chiang Kai Shek...

The Shing Kwang Tower near the train station in the background of the National Theatre in the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial. It is second tallest building in Taiwan.
The gates into the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial.


The National Music Hall at the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial.


Bill on his way to Tam Shui on the Taipei subway with Sherry's Mom.

Okay, I know that everyone wants to hear from Bill. However, unfortunately for all you fans out there, he's got his computer back. Poor thing had the love of his life (I mean the second love of his life, second to me, of course) taken back to Canada Computers in January to get fixed. Most of you think that it means he might actually work on the blog, but really... it means that he's back playing SWAT and some new fantasy game that just came out last month. If he didn't pay as much attention to me as he actually does (in between the shooting and mystery solvings), I'd call myself a computer widow!

By the way, yes, to answer Anthony, we're back in TO now and have been back at work for the past week. Bill is now over his cold.

He has announced that we are not going to eat Asian food for the next few weeks, as he's had LOTS while in Greater China.

Anyway, I'll keep working on him to finish the blog and post up our photos!!!

I got the seats! Supposedly... Sherry said the check-in agent gave some kind of caveat when she printed the boarding passes. Perhaps I'll spend the flight from Taipei to SanFran in the baggage hold?

Sherry here - We're on our last leg of our big Asian adventure and we're happy, but tired. I'm looking forward to getting back to the T dot, where I now live my boring North American life. Work... home... work... home. Seeing my friends in Hong Kong and Taipei makes me remember the crazy life I used to lead, only half a decade ago, before I moved to Canada... travelling all over Asia for work and play, hanging out late into the night, working insane hours, eating all the time, but not gaining weight the way I do in North America. Roads and buildings being developed all the time, stores coming and going, people coming and going, gadgets galore and food and more food.

Yesterday my aunt and uncle took us out for lunch at Ying Yi, which is a famous restaurant. Unfortunately, I somehow collected a bug that doesn't allow food (or water for that matter) stay in my system for long. I'll not go into gory details. In any case, I sat through probably one of the best meals of our trip and didn't get to eat any of it! Bill had to eat my fill as well. Funnily enough, I think he's losing weight... he's definitely eating fruit and vegetables, which is not his usual mode d'operandi - while doing a lot of walking.

After lunch, Dad dropped us off at Eslite, one of the biggest/coolest bookstores around in Taiwan. I had afternoon tea (well, I drank hot water and light tea) with my friend Ellen, while Mom took Bill to try out the local subway system. After an hour I started wondering where the heck they were! Mom took Bill all the way out to Tam Shui, which is a bay pretty far north of Taipei. I'm so glad that Bill and Mom got to spend some quality time together, which is also part of the reason for this trip.

The first time we came to Taipei, Bill bought himself a ping pong paddle at Gwang Hwa Market (where all the comptuers and gadgets are sold), but we didn't get a chance to challenge mom and dad, who are very good at ping pong, while Bill and I are bareful beginners. We plan to get good, so... to all you ping pong players out there... come visit us in Toronto! We have a guest room for you and we'll play ping pong.

So, here we are, sitting side by side at the free internet room in the CKS International Airport in Taipei, surfing, blogging, checking email... the way we are happiest. We had a great trip to Taipei, Hong Kong and Beijing. Hope you've enjoyed our journey as much as we have and hopefully you can join us during our next trip. Sherry signing off!

Our last day in Asia. We will fly JAA out to Narita and then connect to an overseas flight back to SFO. I won't be drinking nearly as much beer on the plane than I did flying in. [Note from Sherry: Bill's sworn off alcohol and I've sworn off red meat. We'll see how that goes!]

We definitely appreciated Sherry's mom and dad putting us up in Taipei, but it will really be great to get back home to Toronto.

Now, pray that the 6'3" gwielo gets the emergency exit seat on the way home.

Back at HKIA. We'll fly back to Taipei tonight, fly out to Tokyo/SanFran tomorrow morning.

Hong Kong was fun, but the weather was lousy. Met a lot of Sherry's friends and co-workers.


One thing I'm taking away from HK is a love of the fantastic subway system. Efficient, easy to get around, a pleasure to use. Toronto could definitely take some lessons from the MRT. Ideas like a smart card that you can reload, clear signage to places of interest, more information to the riders of what trains are going where and when they will arive.

Please, TTC. Take a lesson from HK.

Had High Tea with Sandra and Kevin and the kids at the Mariott today. It was pretty darn posh. I always thought high tea consisted of sipping Earl Gray and nibbling on crustless finger sandwiches; they had a huge spread that included a sushi bar, peking duck and a giant dessert bar.

Weather is still the pits, the rain is pounding against our window tonight. But since SOP on this trip is leaving a place the day the weather is the best, it should turn out to be a spectacularly nice day tomorrow.

It's Sherry's birthday today. Join me in wishing her many, many more.

Coming to you from the Internet terminals at Pacific Coffee Company at the IFC in Hong Kong. Definitely the best Vanilla Latte of the trip so far. [Note from Sherry: This is one of my all time favourite places in Hong Kong... it's right above the Airport Express and so I would hang out here a LOT before heading off on a flight somewhere in South East Asia. They were here in Hong Kong LONG before Starbucks came and I have always thought that their coffee was better.]

Yesterday we held a little get-together of Sherry's friends from when she lived in here in HK. We had food catered in, and it looked like enough for me but of course Sherry didn't think there was enough so we doubled up on everything and naturally there was too much food left at the end. Some of the people I had met already, some I had not, but it was a fun night all around.

The wildest part of Hong Kong are the electric trams. Big, rickety wooden double-decker trams that rattle down the street like an ancient wooden roller-coaster barely staying on the tracks. [He's taken the Star Ferry across the harbour, the MTR subway back , the trams to and from the hotel and the double decker buses. There are so many ways of getting around in Hong Kong - all efficient and easy to pay, using the smart card technology - the Octopus card. We really wish that they would get Dexit sorted in Toronto! If the weather would just get slightly better, I'd really like to take him up to Victoria Peak to see the Hong Kong skyline. The tram going up is literally at a 50 degree angle up! But if we go up now, the fog is so bad, we won't even be able to see the front of our noses! Keep your fingers crossed for us tonight.]

Weather in HK is lousy. We're hoping the fog burns off before we have to leave tomorrow evening. [Originally we were thinking about going to Disney with Sandra and the kids on Monday, but I think that since 1) it's a tiny Disney and can be done in half a day, 2) the price of it is still a whopping HK$300 and 3) the weather is TERRIBLE... no thanks!]