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!]

Sherry - Today we were taking it slow. We didn't even wake up until about 11:30 am, which is quite unusual for us. Bill and I tend to wake up around 6 or 7 am everyday, even on weekends, so we had no idea that it was already nearly noon by the time we got up!

Mum and Dad made simple noodles and dumplings for lunch, which was a welcome relief after all the feasts we've been shovelling into our faces over the past week. Then we went to the travel agency to pay for our Hong Kong trip. It costs a total of NT$22,900 for the airfare and 3 nights hotel at the Ramada, which is approximately C$410 per person.

Then, Dad dropped us off at Tesco, which is a shopping combo of Cosco, Walmart and Loblaws. We got to hang there for an hour and half. Funnily enough, I kind of wish we had that kind of time when we were at the Forbidden Palace and the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, instead of getting rushed through all those incredible historical sites at breakneck speed.

Dinner was a homecooked meal, with loads of veggies, shrimp, 'lion's mane', beef tendon and rice the way I like it. Man to I ever miss mom's cooking. Somehow I eat much more when I come here, but because it's so healthy, I end up losing weight. Note to self: figure out how to do that in Toronto. I've become so fat eating North American style. (I suppose the lack of exercise has something to do with it as well.)

Bill has made a commitment to learn Chinese. I think that has in part to do with the fact that he inherently doesn't trust my interpretations (smart boy), but more than that, I think he wants to be able to be able to ask questions when he has them, as opposed to waiting for me to do it on his behalf. He has an ear for tone and beat, so, so far, he's learned what I teach him quite quickly. He's just found the Rosetta Stone via the internet and has been playing with it all afternoon. It's quite interesting how quickly someone can learn a language when he's decided he is going to do it! I'm very impressed with his progress.

Tomorrow, we're off to Hong Kong. I can't wait to get on Cathay Pacific Airlines, probably one of the best airlines in the world! And of course, I can't wait to see my cute nephew and neice. :)

Back in Taipei. Then tomorrow we fly back to Hong Kong for a four day stint there.

The last couple of days in Beijing were more relaxed; we visited a couple of temples and did some shopping. Our guide fully briefed us on haggling techniques before we entered the shopping centre, so we were fully armed with knowledge before entering the fray.

Retail shopping outside of government regulated department stores is a full-body contact sport in Beijing. I'm sure "shopping for luggage" will make it into the Beijing 2008 olympics. Shopkeepers run out yelling at you, and if you make even the most casual glance at their wares you're whisked into the cubicle against your will and shown everything more expensive than what you want. After nailing down a few bargains we heard a few mumbles from sellers about how we were too good at negotiating.

Today it is raining mao's and go's outside so it's a good day to stay in and relax. Tomorrow, Hong Kong.

A totally exhausted Sherry here. Yesterday, the climb up a short length of the Great Wall has decimated out-of-shape me. We took the bus to Badaling (the best preserved part of the Great Wall and the first part that was opened up for tourists). I managed to overcome my fear of heights and made it to the first sentry tower; I'm always completely in awe of what people back then were capable of doing. Firstly, they built the Great Wall by hand... and when someone died, they just tossed them right into the wall. Secondly, once built (steps at different heights and widths), soldiers ran up and down walls. Seriously, after that first section, which took half an hour of upward stair climbing, I think my heart was about to explode out of my chest. I sat there and kept greeting out of breath tourists while 70 year old healthy people whipped by us. Bill kept going for a couple more sections before he came back down to pick me up.


Then our guide took us to a famous health centre, focused on Chinese medicine. They had Chinese doctors do free 'ba mai' to check your health. Bill was told that his liver wasn't good - no more alcohol for him! The Chinese doctor told me that my cholesterol was high... so no more red meat and seafood for me! We didn't end up buying any Chinese medicine, but we both decided to partake in the foot massage. I was quite surprised that Bill agreed to do it and then... he enjoyed it! At the end of the evening, there was a traditional Chinese variety show with girls twirling plates, boys jumping through hoops and a 'change face' performance. While much of the show was incredible, there were quite a few errors (which I found surprising). Our guide later told us that it was a new stage that the performers were getting used to and they had only just started up the shows again after a winter hiatus. Oh well.

And it's food, food and more food... they just keep feeding us. Dumplings one day, Peiking Roast Duck another... tonight it was Szechuan food in an restaurant with the old Chinese style interior.

Bill- So much Chinese food. I really should be speaking the language by now, I've shoved so much of the food into my face. It's all been really good, I wasn't expecting the restaurants to be such good quality. But the tour has been taking us to 4 star restaurants that have been pretty spectacular in both food and atmosphere.

The Great Wall is just that. It's unfortunate that the section we went to is such an arduous climb right at the start, it goes almost straight up right at the get go. It's also highly renovated: I'd like to try next time to get to a lesser known section and see some more authentic and scenic parts of it. Another lesson for next time: better physical preparation next time. Like running up and down the CN Tower stairwell a few times. I managed to make it to the third sentry, but the climb to the fourth was too long. There was even a lady who stopped and grabbed the railing and refused to climb down, even under the cajoling of passers by.

Tomorrow is our last day in Beijing. It's a half day; the morning will be a visit to a Buddhist temple, and lunch will be a Yunnan show. Then it's a flight back to Taipei and a day of rest before the madness of Hong Kong.

So, Tien'anmen, The Forbidden City and The Imperial Summer Palace yesterday. The guide said that was the worst day for walking, but today we walk the Great Wall so I'll take his comment with a grain of salt. Speaking of our guide, even with my wife's average of around 40 percent accurate translation, I can tell that he's got a great way with making history come alive. As we toured the sites, our small group of 13 would swell to 3 times that as people listened to him speak. It got to the point where I asked Sherry to teach me a phrase: "Ni you may yo fu chen? May yo?! Guen kai!" It translates to "Have you paid money for this? No?! Then get lost!". [Note from Sherry: Luckily Bill didn't have to use the phrase yet, although we came close a couple of times. When I told the guide what I taught Bill, he gently said "Uh, you should probably not use the phrase 'guen kai' - it's a bit rude; you should say 'tsou kai' instead." I guess telling someone to walk away rather than get lost is slightly more appropriate when we're guests in their country!]

In front of Mao's Tomb ...[Tallest flagpole in the country - no other flagpole is allowed to be this tall. The guys in front are on guard for 15 minutes at a time and can only move their eyeballs. The trick, the box they stand in blows cool air in the summer and heat in the winter!]

Tien'anmen Square was a trip, I'm not a globetrotting Square connoisseur but it's definitely one big public square. The biggest highlight is Mao Zedong's tomb, or more specifically the 5000+ people lined up to enter it. It's the queue to end all queues: the tomb is massive, it must be a city block in size, and the line snakes out of it, goes completely around the building and off a good distance still. I'll never complain about the line-ups at Disney World again. [Sherry's note: Keep in mind that you would be in line for over an hour and then get shuffled through inside for a total of 30 seconds, straining your head to see the body of Mao. The guide suggested that waiting in line for that long was not going to be so enjoyable for us! So we skipped it.]

Forbidden City, what else can I say? Great architecture, great history. Sherry finally ran out of steam trying to concentrate on translating for me, so I got the English audio guide. It's a pretty nifty system where you carry what amounts to an electronic map that tracks your position in the palace and starts up when you approach an audio highlight. The information is pretty good too, although I think I'm missing a lot of neat details that the guide is providing in Chinese. Still, Sherry has been a great sport about it and I really appreciate her efforts. [Sherry's note: It was well worth the RMB 40 to be able to concentrate on just understanding the guide for myself! My Chinese is really not that good, so I can understand about 80% of what the guide says and then because he talks so fast and my simultaneous interpretation skills are a bit rusty, Bill gets about 50% of what I got, hence the 40% he ends up hearing from me in my broken Grade 3 comprehension of Chinese!]

In some ways, I found the Summer Palace even more interesting than the Forbidden City, in the imprint that the Dowager Empress has left on it. If you go to the site and follow the history, you'll know what I mean. She really was a power-hungry drama queen. There are a lot of renovation going on in preparation for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, so Sherry and I have plans to come back in 2009, when everything is finished and accessible. If you're planning on seeing these cultural artifacts, you better hurry too. There were SO many people there, and all of that tourist poundings are tearing the places apart.

Today, the Great Wall. I can't wait.

Sherry here: Seriously, sometimes we're so smart, I just can't get over ourselves. When I used to live in Hong Kong (years ago) I considered myself a seasoned traveller. I could pack half an hour before leaving for the airport and I usually managed to ensure that I had everything I needed. This time, we brought Advil (gel, the only way to go, by the way), allergy pills (for Bill), etc. etc. and our camera. What we didn't bring: cold medicine for runny noses, bandages and the battery charger for the camera. So much for being prepared.

That foot massage was wonderful! I think I just may have to get a body massage some time this week.

Last night, the phone rang, but as soon as I picked it up, it went dead in my hand. The next time the phone rang, Bill answered and again no one responded to his greeting. I found out later that these calls are made from an external supplier of 'massages' and they were trolling for takers. Intallesting.

She's getting a foot message right now. 15 bucks CDN for a 45 message and they come right up to the room to do it. Nice.

It's also nice being in a culture where people in the service industry come running to your aid as soon as you walk in the establishment, instead of giving you a sneer and continue yakking to their friends on their cellphone for 10 minutes before "serving" you.

Sherry here for Bill.

We made it to Beijing! After a 1 h 20 m flight to Hong Kong, a one-hour layover and a 2 h 35 m flight to Beijing... we arrived in the capital of China in one piece. The flights with Dragon Air were fairly easy, especially after our long haul over the Pacific flight from San Francisco to Tokyo. Unfortunately, Bill seems to have picked up a bit of a runny nose from all the travels, so he's not at his best. I must say, though, he a very good sport.

So, here I am, not the best in Chinese, doing an instantaneous interpretation from Chinese to English for Bill while the tour guide says things like "Beijing has phenomenal fung shui; all those who make it their capital reign for over 100 years, while those who chose other sites, like down south only reign for 50 years." All I usually manage to translate into English for Bill is something like this: Beijing, good fung shui, long reigning. He, not knowing any better shows his appreciation of my good work by nodding and smiling.

Our tour guide brought us to a hot pot restaurant where we ate lamb, beef, veggies and tofu, which was great. But after breakfast, TWO lunches from our two flights and just plain sitting on our butts all day, we were not hungry... just tired. The hotel we are staying in is a neat combination of apartment rental, condos and hotel rooms. It is an apartment style set up with a washing machine, gas stove and microwave! Vendors are parked outside, selling fresh fruit and there is a huge supermarket in the complex. We're going to head out for a quick look see before going to bed. Then it's 7:00 am morning call, 7:30 am buffet breakfast and 8:00 am set off time.


If I can find a place where they do foot massages, I'm IN! Sherry out.

First post in a while, been having Internet snafus at the in-laws place in Taipei. [Note from Sherry: Actually, we bought mum a wireless router, but the software is all in Chinese... so while Bill is trying to figure it out, I've not been all that helpful with comments like "it says, type in the something IP something network."]

Trip from SFO to Tokyo was arduous for a 6'3" guilo like me, but I have to say this: I love Asian airlines! Very service oriented, and always ontime. Not once have we had a gate change at a terminal, whereas with Air Canada I usually get at least one a trip. We had very good food on the overseas JAL flight, but I think I actually ate too much. The trip from Tokyo to Taipei was much better for me as the flight was less crowded and I was able to stretch out. [Note from Sherry: In my family, I'm the big one. My three sisters are all tiny, so usually I get them to give up space for me... and I get to stretch out into their space. Well, being 5"4' and smaller than Bill, guess who has to give her space now?!?!]

My wife's parents, Mike and Julia, have a very nice condo in Taipei. They're located very close to CKS airport, but it makes for a long trip to head into town. It's very busy over here, and I'll never think that Toronto has a lot of traffic. The height of rush-hour is lazy compared to the roads of Taipei. [Note from Sherry: Yes... I've been trying to tell him why I just don't really get bugged by Toronto traffic all this time!]

Mom & Dad's place in Taoyuan Taipei Traffic!

Went up the Taipei 101, currently this hour the tallest building in the world, but it was so smoggy you couldn't see much past the bottom of the building. The most impressive part of the 101 is the elevator, rated in Guinness as the fastest elevator in the world. It took all of 37 seconds to travel 91 floors. The ears pop something fierce during the ride though.

The Chaing Kai Shek memorial was an impressive visit too. It's a huge square with a seperate concert hall and theatre, with the massive memorial at it's base. We had a very nice dinner with Sherry's friends and relatives last night, as we celebrated her grandmother's 89th birthday. I guess with that kind of lineage I can look forward to several more decades of rolling-pin clobberings from Sherry! [Note from Sherry: You'd better believe it! But I think I would modify that to chop stick poking rather than rolling-pin clobberings. :) ]

Sorry for the lack of photos, as I'm creating this blog on a public laptop with internet access at the airport. We're off for 5 days in Beijing! [Fixed!]

[Bill with the National Palace Museum as a backdrop... he's got a receipt for his lemon tea in his left hand (the government implemented a standardized receipt system that includes a lottery to encourage everyone to requests receipts from all vendors - great way to ensure that all revenues are captured and taxed).]

San Francisco is a great city. It's a place I've always wanted to visit, and now I'm glad I finally have. Although we already have plans to come back for a longer stay. Typical for a PC gamer, I keep finding it how eerie the accuracy of the city's re-creation in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is. San Fiero in that game is a spitting image of the real thing. I actually recognize landmarks by what I saw in the game. I keep having to suppress the urge to yank the driver of the first car I see out by their hair and start driving pell-mell through the hilly streets like a maniac.

The Red Victorian, our lodging, is a pretty famous B&B in the Haight-Ashbury district. It started as a hotel called the Jefferson in 1904, and was purchased, renovated and re-opened as the Red Vic in 1977 by an amazing woman named Sami Sunchild. Talking with her is an experience; she personifies the spirit of peace, love and understanding that one associates with the area. Hers is an incredible story, and she has created something very special.

The morning started out wonderfully sunny as we walked a bit to take in our surroundings, but the weather rapidly degenerated to on-off heavy showers of rain that put an edge on the cool temperatures. As we made our way down to the water by the Golden Gate Bridge, I was forced to rethink my optimistic clothing choice of short-sleeved shirt and light windbreaker and buy a fleece pullover at a gift shop.

The bridge is a site to behold, bracketed by steep cliffs on either side. It's funny; through movies and TV I always thought GGB was red, but in person you find that it's actually painted what they call 'International Orange', a dull almost-rust colour that still somehow seems to work for it. They must like it, because they keep repainting it the same colour time after time as the ocean salt has its way with the structure.

Fort Point, at the base of the bridge, is worth a visit too. It's the only brick fort of such a design on the West coast, and was such a unique structure that the designer of the GGB built a mini-span over it at the end to keep from demolishing it. We were fortunate enough to arrive at the fort just in time for a guided tour, which was very interesting even though no shots were ever fired from Fort Point in combat.

We then had a great lunch of chowder in a bread bowl over at Fisherman's Wharf, but by the time we were finished it was solid rain coming down, so instead of a cable car tour we just took a streetcar to within shouting distance of Haight street and walked our way back down to the Vic in weather that had at least improved to 'not-showers'. Still a bit chilly though, by the time we arrived back to the B&B we were chilled to the bone. We'll probably just stay close to the Vic tonight, as it's an early start tomorrow for our 14 hour flight (yipee) to Tokyo and Taipei.

I'd close by saying I left my heart in San Francisco, if Sherry didn't already own it lock, stock and barrel.

Signage by a not too big a fan of the internal combustion engine.

Pointing at Fort Point. Get it? Man, we're clever. No one else has ever done that!

'

One more of the bridge. It really is a marvel to see.

We landed safe in San Francisco last night, Air Canada delivered us safe and sound with not as much turbulence I was led to expect. The meals sucked, you had to pay for them and they would have made the most neglegent high school cafeteria worker hang their head in shame.

Much scarier was the cab ride from the airport, our driver was doing his tryouts for the Indy 500 and was treating his Caravan as a formula 1 racer.

Our residence here in SF is interesting, it's the Red Victorian B&B on Haight street in the famous Haight-Ashbury district. So many rooms! We're staying in the Sunshine Room. Here's some photos from inside our room.


Sunroof


Old Mr. Sun looking down on us as we sleep

Well, maybe not paranoid, but at least a tad nervous. But it makes for a great reference to my favourite band! (Pink Floyd).

I'm Bill, and I'm going to restyle this blog into a running commentary of a three-week trip to Asia I'm taking with my wife, Sherry. It's a combination vacation and delayed honeymoon, as we were married on July 11 of last year. It will be the first time in about 28 years that I will be leaving North America. I currently live in Toronto, a city that I love and loathe to leave. Especially on what has to be the nicest day in terms of weather we've had this year. Ah well, c'est la vie.

We will fly from Pearson Airport in Toronto to San Francisco, spend a few days there and then fly out to Tokyo and connect to Taipei, where my wife's parents live. After a few days there, we go on a 5-day tour of Beijing. Then for some reason it's back to Taipei and then fly from there to Hong Kong. Then BACK to Taipei and fly back home from there.

Yes, it's one wonderfully complicated itinerary guaranteed to keep a nervous flyer crawling the airframe interior. It's also great that I actually work in an airport (Pearson), and will be spending a good 1/3 of my vacation inside one or another.

The first leg of our trip starts in dingy Terminal 2 of Pearson. I'm glad they'll be demolishing this building in a year or two, because it is an embarrassment to all Canadians as a first view of our country by foreigners. Since this is the start of March break, and all the media outlets had nightmare tales of mayhem and long lines at the Airport, I insisted that we arrive at the terminal by 2pm, for our 6pm flight. We checked in, progressed through customs, and 20 minutes later are sitting in the boarding lounge with 4 hours to kill. Ooops. Sure beats being late, though.

Sherry enjoying some fine literature

The daring duo

Now, on to San Francisco!