Shanghai Surprise

Eat, Pray, Love. Then Eat Some More.

2010-06-02T11:11:00.041+08:00

To celebrate Zach's graduation from the UC Berkeley MBA program, we flew out to Italy for a week.

We hit Rome, Florence, Siena and Venice. Zach's favorite city was Venice due to its beauty and charm and the "old-timey-ness" of the canals and narrow, stone streets. In a stunning reversal of her prior sentiments, Tiffany also loved Venice. We determined that the sunny, warm but not hot May weather, combined with the pre-summer tourist season, made for the perfect visiting environment.
For one, glorious week we wandered the classic, cobblestone streets of the Old World, never knowing if the next corner turned into a quaint piazza or reveal a beautiful cathedral. And if we got lost? Invariably there was a gelato and an espresso to comfort us until we found our way.

We also sighted a number of Chinese tourists and had the distinct role reversal pleasure of watching them lost in a foreign land for once, after three years of the Zach and Tiff comic relief show in China.

Here their group scrambles to touch the holy grail of Chinese retail, a non-knockoff luxury handbag. It was accompanied by many oohs and aahs filled with awe and amazement.

A typical evening out in Venice would entail dinner along the Grand Canal, accompanied by a bottle of wine, some cheese and pasta. We couldn't imagine a better ending to a long day of exploring and sight-seeing!

Chinese tourists in Piazza San Marco in Venice, balancing the classic desire to engage the famous pigeons without getting pooped on. The end result? Italian pigeons 1 : Chinese tourists 0.

Here Tiffany finds that the tiny people have fallen out of her pocket. Oh, you didn't know about the tiny people? She never travels anywhere without them.

Outside the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Tiffany found a long-lost cousin, perhaps?

A typical two-toned marble construction reminded me of Michael Keaton's costume in Beetlejuice.

Oh, did I mention the gelato? It was everywhere, we ate two a day, and it was sublime!

Zach experimented with flavors like melon, milk and frutti di bosco (which was just blackberry, I think, but so much fun to say!), while Tiffany stuck with strawberry and lemon and compared city to city (one in Rome was the best).

The non-stop activity even late into the night outside at Trevi Fountain in Rome.

One of our best meals was at a mozzarella bar in Rome, called Obika. I think they have a branch in New York, and it was a great meal and a lot of fun tasting different fresh mozzarellas side by side. With the accompanying bottle of wine and salumi platter, of course!

Senatus Populus que Romanus - the acronym SPQR now proudly serves as the seal on all the Roman sewer grates. One of us thought it looked really cool and spent the night taking pictures of "Gladiator"-emblazoned sewer covers. The other thought I was a nerd. Can you guess?

Tiffany had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enter a confessional in the Vatican church and have all her sins confessed and then expiated clean forever. Unfortunately she slightly misunderstood the instructions and spent the entire time advising the priest on which Perricone MD skin care products would work best for him.

Nevertheless, the whole visit inspired her and she felt a great light shining down on her, imbuing her with a holy glow. Or it could have just been the Perricone MD Cold Plasma lotion that she's been using religiously... (get it? "religiously"?)

Even though the lines are long at the Vatican, there was great people watching and always the chance of spotting the Pope Mobile.

Tiffany descends a very spiraly spiral staircase.

I have no idea what this picture represents, but we couldn't stop cracking up at this picture. Completely inappropriate, by the way, to be caught laughing inside the Vatican...

Not to mention imitating the holy papal sculptures. Yeesh, do we have time for another visit to the confessional?

We did find Tiffany's ancient Latin name, however, Tifernas. It means "the goofy one" in old Latin.

Of course, the food was one of the main highlights, and we ran into a number of open air markets that had great looking produce, including these purple artichokes. One of the great realizations was just how many restaurants would list on their menu some variation of "fresh vegetable of the day" or "whatever fresh thing we can find at the market".

We also noticed early on, while putting away a 3-4 pound bone-in steak monster, that the all-natural, grass-fed beef in Italy left us feeling pleasantly full and not the usual "ugh, I feel disgustingly ill" post-steak dinner sensation.

Italy beef makes Tiffany smile!

One of the ridiculously ornate hallways in the lead-up to the Sistene Chapel. Unfortunately no photos are allowed inside the Sistene Chapel, and a strict silence is requested. Ironically the guards are constantly calling out, "Silencio! Silencio! Silence, please!" way louder than the crowd whispering.

We examined the massive Colusseum and read about its violent history of pitting animal against animal (like bear vs. lion), and man vs. man and/or animal in epic battles to the death.

Tiffany was not impressed.

A solid brick wall is the only safeguard against whatever vicious beast the gladiator soon finds himself up against.

Small holes in the cement cage reveal the gladiator's deadly foe to be.... oh no! It's the dreaded Tifernas!

We also witnessed a protest march through the streets of Rome. It didn't seem particularly passionate, though, more like taking a day off to join a casual stroll through the city. We continued to see lazy stragglers for another five or ten minutes after we'd walked past the main "protest".

And so, happily stuffed with a week's worth of wine, pasta, gelato and espresso, we rolled ourselves onto a train to head back to Berkeley. We'll be back!

Where Did We Go?

2009-01-15T20:00:00.000+08:00

Tiffany and I thought that the blog would be over now that we're back in the US and no longer have exciting, international stories to tell you. Really, what could we say about our lives now? Documented trips to Costco and Target?

As it turns out, we received numerous, (politely) angry comments about the death of our blog, which surprised us. So while we won't be able to post as frequently as before, we will still try for periodic updates of our lives. Hope you enjoy this update of our first 4 months back!

As soon as we returned to the US in late August, we had some traveling to do. Tiffany went on a traveling spree through Denver, Chicago, and Iowa (apparently, 4 months of traveling just weren't enough for the girl). At the end of her American tour, Zach broke from his diligent social schedule, I mean, study schedule, to meet up with Tiffany on the East coast. While we were out there, Zach was able to meet up with his friend and ex-colleague from their DC days, Andrew. As you can see in the photo below, Andrew and his wife Amanda are very busy these days with their first kid, a very cute little girl! We went and visited the new 9/11 memorial by the Pentagon.

From DC we drove out to University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, for Tiffany's friend Miriam's wedding. Not only did Miriam and her new husband, Dave, throw a beautiful and fun wedding, they even performed for their guests!
Here Tiffany rests on the steps of a beautiful building on the UVA campus.
The other big highlight of the trip? The sweet ride Zach picked up and got to zoom around in all weekend! Not to mention a stop at an institution, the Waffle House :)
So what is Berkeley's Haas Business School all about, anyway? As Zach quickly found out, it was about "theme parties" and "costume parties", or preferably both. For Halloween, with the election looming, it only seemed appropriate to dress politically. Zach was your everyday "Joe Six-pack", and Tiffany was a (pretend) proud "Hockey Mom", which was so convincing that she actually got berated in San Francisco for supporting Sarah Palin. Extreme liberals as well, it turns out, have no sense of humor.
Zach's school then decided to celebrate the end of midterms with another party. The theme was "Monochrome". We drew many compliments in our matching ballerina outfits, and Zach contemplated a career change to a professional costume-party-goer.
Zach got to see his first 49ers' game in years. The Tom Brady-less Patriots still won easily, and Zach remembered why he hadn't been to a game in years.
Meanwhile, Tiffany was actively involved with the Haas "Partners Club", an organization comprised of the Berkeley MBA students' significant others. Tiffany had some of the international students over to learn how to bake cookies!
Then Zach threw a party for some of his classmates at his good friend Cali's house in San Francisco. Here he is, building relationships, literally, in the form of a human pyramid.
One of the great aspects of business school has been the opportunity to meet all sorts of people. And then convince them to take photos in ridiculous poses... Zach flew out to Omaha to meet with the "Oracle", Warren Buffet. While Zach didn't learn any investment secrets, he did get a once in a lifetime photo with the richest man in America.
And at a Berkeley conference on diversity, Zach met his longtime 49er idol, Ronnie Lott.
Tiffany landed a new job at a greeting card company, Cardstore.com, where she is the director of marketing. She utilized her new skills to create our Christmas tree for this year.

Of course, Berkeley wasn't about to let the holidays pass without throwing another party!
And here we are, enjoying Berkeley's wonderfully mild winter!
And finally, we rang in the New Year with friends in San Francisco's famous House of Prime Rib. There's no better way to ring in the New Year than with good friends, lots of champagne, and large portions of red meat!
Zach recently returned from a trip to Israel, so that will probably be the next blog entry in a week or so!

Our Favorite Things

2008-09-01T22:00:00.002+08:00

Looking back on our final post-China trip, there were highs (amazing views and incredible people) as well as lows (multiple bouts of food poisoning and 12 hour layovers). But the latter quickly faded to distant memories, as the former became embedded as some of the most incredible experiences of our lives.

As a wrap-up, we tried to narrow it down to a short list of our most incredible stops and experiences by country. Enjoy!

Ganges River Sunrise Boat Ride, Varanasi, India- Seeing masses of people who had made a pilgrimage to one of the most sacred spots for the Hindu religion was moving.
Camel Breeding Farm, Bikaner, India- Our first interaction with the one humped version. How can you not love the friendly, curious creatures? These 'young males' found Tiffany quite intriguing and couldn't help but come check her out at the gate.
Hobbiton, New Zealand- The set may have been partially torn down, but it sure was fun to reenact our favorite Lord of the Rings scenes here!
Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand- We can't tell which was our favorite part, cruising over the glaciers in a helicopter or actually landing on the glacier and getting to walk on it. The whole experience was kind of like jumping straight into the Discovery Channel.
Climbing the Harbor Bridge, Sydney, Australia- For Tiffany, the climb up to the top was the worst part of Sydney, but actually being on the top and safely descending it was the best.

Lord Nelson's Brewery, Sydney, Australia- Zach loved nothing better than to end our Sydney days with a nice cold pint and mashed potatoes topped with a meat pie topped with mushy peas. Leaping Tiger Gorge, Lijiang, China- Zach and Tiffany walked off all those meat pies on a two day hike through some of the most beautiful parts of China. This stop had Zach jumping for joy at the beautiful landscapes.
Food Markets, Xinjiang, China-Although it made Tiffany sick, the fruit and other cuisines available at the markets around Xinjiang were gorgeous to wander through and sample.
Kashgar, China- Wandering through the old town of Kashgar made us realize why part of the Kite Runner movie was filmed here. The roads were charming and the people (particularly the children) were gorgeous and friendly.
Gobi Steppes, Mongolia- Helping rescue a 3 month old foal who had lost her mother was incredible, almost like a Mongolian version of 'Bambi' (fortunately, the two of us don't get too emotional or attached to animals...).
Arbud Sands Camp Games, Mongolia- The camp horse hands insisted on us playing a range of 'amped up' children's' games. Zach was in heaven while Tiffany felt the experience was one shade away from Abu Graihb.
Paris, France- After a collective 5 cases of food poisoning, we thoroughly enjoyed putting back on the lost weight through a steady diet of crepes, pastries, and other goodies. Here, Zach enjoys his flower of gelato.
Paris, France- Here Zach bounds around a Paris treasure...
Chateau Andelot, France- We aren't sure what we loved most, our hosts or lounging around in luxury at a true French Chateau.
View from Room at Chateau Andelot, France- It just doesn't get more beautiful than that.
While we were sad to leave all of these incredible places and experiences, we were ready to retire a few things as soon as we set foot back in the US...

Our matching his 'n' hers Salomon travel shoes (the only pair of shoes each of us wore for 4 months)

And our trusty backpacks, which held all of our worldly possessions during our travels:

Stay tuned for one last entry on our life in the Bay!

Culture Shock! Back in the U.S.A.

2008-08-06T02:42:00.008+08:00

Weeeee'rrrrreeee Baaaaaacccckkk!!!! Unbelievably, we flew from Paris and landed in New York and passed through US customs without having plans to leave the country for the first time in 3 years. What a strange feeling it was. And against all odds, we completed four months of traveling around the world without once losing baggage.
We met up with Tiffany's friend from college, Peitra (on the left, above), and her friend Stephanie, and started to re-acquaint ourselves with life in America. There's no better place to experience native Americans in their natural habitat than New York! Our tour began with a nice walk across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan on a hot, sunny day.
We took a rest on the Staten Island Ferry, a great way to see New York City from the water, and FREE to ride. It was Zach and Tiffany's first time visiting the fifth borough of New York. Also on display right now in New York is a public art work called Waterfalls. Four waterfalls, each about 100 feet tall, were built along the water.
Tiffany also celebrated her 32nd birthday in New York. We went for lunch to Tao, for Chinese food ironically enough. Even though the converted movie theater boasted a 16-foot Buddha statue, Tiffany was not impressed, since she is now doomed to suffer from Snobby World Traveler's Comparison Syndrome. As in, "That's cute but have you seen the Reclining Buddha in Bangkok? 150 feet long and 50 feet high - Now that's impressive!"

The food, however, was delicious, and amazingly, the wait staff acknowledged our presence and actually brought us water (potable, too!) without us asking. Like a Chinese Dorothy, Tiffany said (to her Pekinese Toto), "We're not in Zhejiang Province anymore!"
We passed by the famous bull of Wall Street,
and Zach was reminded of his investment banking days in New York. We stopped by his old Credit Suisse office, where he lived during his first year after college.
For dinner it was Italian dining al fresco. We were apparently determined to regain any lost weight from our travels as quickly as possible!
Our good friends from Shanghai, Marc and Meredith, are now in New York and were kind enough to host us during our visit. Meredith was even kind enough to brave Times Square with us, a New Yorker's worst nightmare swimming through hordes of tourists.
We finished up by catching a show on Broadway, Avenue Q. Tiffany's initial fears of watching a boring children's show (the play features Sesame Street-like puppets) proved to be unfounded, as it turned out to be the raunchiest and most hilarious puppet show ever!

It was a great re-entry into America, because while we were sad that our international travels were over, we met up with good friends, discussed the fun and frustration of living abroad, and were reminded of all the great sights and experiences that the US also offers.

Next it was on to Chicago, where we stayed with Tiffany's parents and celebrated Tiffany's grandfather's 90th birthday party! Amazingly, her grandfather, aka Papa, is in fantastic shape and his heart was more than strong enough to survive the "This Is Your Life"-style birthday party, where Tiffany's parents arranged for various people from Papa's past to come out and surprise him.
A family picture around Papa and his wife, Nana, also still equally spry and lively, was taken with Nana and Papa holding a caricature of themselves. Tiffany had given a picture of her grandparents to an artist in Shanghai before we left. The artist then turned out a drawing of Nana and Papa in traditional Chinese dress, with the dress including Nana waving a traditional Chinese fan, and Papa executing a kung-fu kick!
After all that excitement, Tiffany and Zach headed for the Tomaszewski's vacation home, on the lake shore in La Porte, Indiana, about an hour from her Chicago home. There we met up with Tiffany's good friend Elizabeth for some rest and relaxation.
Tiffany's brother, Tommy, owns the sweetest, most adorable boxer dog, aptly named Cassius. Cassius was not left wanting for affection that weekend!
Here we are with Tiffany's parents (on the far left and right), and cousins Skip and Muffin. Skip and Muffin are twins, those are not their real names, and there was much good-natured arguing over the root of their nicknames.

Barbeques, swimming and boating on the lake, family reunion, and lots of time with dogs that we knew wouldn't give Tiffany rabies... We couldn't ask for a better way to return home!

From Chicago we fly to the San Francisco Bay Area, where we will settle in for the forseeable future! Wow, what a strange thought. We are going to try and post a "Tiff and Zach's Travel Favorites" blog entry to summarize some of our highlights from the past three years, but after that we're not sure if the blog has any future (ie. "today we found the neighborhood Whole Foods, yippee!") in America.

Well, if not, it has sure been a great ride, and thanks to all our loyal and faithful readers. You have inspired us to keep the blog going these past three years, to always carry a camera to catch any chance encounters with hanging underwear and other humorous cultural idiosyncrasies, and to force us to reflect upon the highs and lows, the absurdities and frustrations, and more than anything, the immeasurable value of our experiences.

This rollercoaster may be over, but there are other rides...

Chateau Andelot, The Anti-Shanghai

2008-07-22T23:44:00.011+08:00

From Paris we took a 2 hour train ride into the French countryside to visit our good friends Anne and Michael. Like us, Anne and Michael went abroad around the same time that we did. Unlike us, they chose to live in a quiet, unpolluted and peaceful city, Bourg-en-Bresse, to manage a French chateau and bed & breakfast. The medieval castle you see above? That is their Chateau (!) and it was about as opposite an experience to Shanghai as we could imagine.

The Chateau sat on top of a hill overlooking a picturesque French countryside.

You absolutely cannot help but sigh every morning in happy appreciation when this is the view you wake up to.

Zach found a relic sword which he found appropriate to carry around in a medieval home. The Chateau was built in the 1200's and one of the walls in their garden was originally constructed around 800!

Anne took us to visit the nearby town of Chateau Chalon, where we admired the quintessential French country town. We sampled wines and strolled the quaint streets all the while feeling as if on a movie set and waiting to see Juliette Binoche emerge from a doorway arm in arm with Gerard Depardieu.

Flowers were in full bloom and enhanced by the intricate wrought iron decorating the gardens.
Tiffany rests on a bench in front of a nicely decorated home.
We also stopped into town to enjoy the open plaza and check out the local stores.

And, of course, fuelling up on an espresso stop.
A beautiful vantage point overlooks the valley. Along with the nice bench shaded by the tree, all we needed was a good book, maybe some wine, fresh fruit and baguette...

In Shanghai, pedestrians are never allowed to step onto the grass at public gardens. I suppose it makes sense, since 1.3 billion people tramping all over the lawn would make for a very short-lived lawn. But here at the Chateau, a wide open expanse of grass is too good to resist, and Tiffany flaunted her freedom by prancing back and forth across the Chateau's lawn.
Dinner al fresco at the Chateau. Michael whipped up a delicious cold pasta dish, and we added some meat, cheese and bread, and popped open champagne to celebrate living abroad and the end of our "Big Trip".

Here and below are a few more pictures of the grounds of the Chateau. We had such a great time wandering around the Chateau, exploring the herb garden, and checking out different rooms of the castle.

We can't think of a better way to end our international travels: good food, great friends and gorgeous surroundings. And after spending most of the trip by ourselves, it was a true pleasure to swap stories with Anne and Michael, and compare tales of "Americans living abroad" and the contrasts between crazy Shanghai and classic, French countryside.

Next stop: New York City, US of A!!!!

J'adore Paris!

2008-07-19T07:35:00.000+08:00

It's hard to believe that our 3-year international adventure has come to an end. But what better place to end it than in France? We left Shanghai and arrived in Paris, and for the first few days wandered around in a daze and wonderment at both the classic architecture and the proliferation of non-Asians.
We found a great apartment to rent in the heart of St. Germain for only $99/night. And mind you, that's 99 US Dollars, not that naughty Euro which keeps running away from our poor, weakened greenback. Vacationinparis.com is the website, in case you're interested. Just remember, to some extent you do get what you pay for. As you can see above, we didn't have much space (yes that is a bunk above Tiffany). But for our purposes, it was perfect, great location and cheap.
That way we saved more money for one of the true pleasures of Paris -- the food! The exquisite gelato held in Zach's loving hand was carefully crafted into a flower petal form by the scooping artisan. In Paris, if you have a chance to be artistic and beautiful, carpe diem! seize the day! On the flip side, the process of serving wasn't the most efficient and resulted in quite a line stringing out the door. But such is the pace of life in Paris, and it was a welcome change from the frenzy of Shanghai.
Tiffany reunited with her old love, the Nutella crepe. For her, to munch on a fresh, warm crepe while strolling the streets of Paris is a romance that will never fade.
Almost everything in Paris had a certain "Old World", magical feel. Up the street from us we found a band holding court and entertaining an appreciative crowd with a lively jig. Even more amazing was the designated dancer, a 70-ish year old lady (in the green on the left), who whirled and hopped to the music with an enthusiasm and energy of a girl, much to the delight of her audience.
We found her counterpart across town, a smooth-stepping, older gentleman, who swung his partner consistently with panache to the sweet sounds of a jazzy French band.
We found ourselves exclaiming "Ooh, this is sooo cute!" ad nauseum, but really, there were very many things in Paris that were sooo cute, like this window display of an umbrella store.
Here we passed the legendary Moulin Rouge, the famous dance theater and title of one of Zach's favorite musical movies (starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor).
Life imitates art? Tiffany stikes a pose next to a group of sculptures in the Rodin museum garden.
There was plenty of time to muse over our journeys in the classic company of Rodin's masterpiece, The Thinker.
We explored the church, La Madeleine, in awe of its imposing neoclassical architecture.
Paris is littered with parks and we enjoyed exploring them and walking the quiet, tree-lined paths.
A classic town square. The fountain is running, sidewalk cafes are filled with expresso sipping, chain-smoking Parisians, and park benches are filled with pedestrians munching on fresh baguettes. "Je ne sais quoi" was never more relevant...
Inside the museum L'Orangerie, we walked the oval rooms paneled with Monet's famous Water Lilies paintings, which he completed over the course of 25 years of work.
Inside Paris' central garden, the Tuileries.

The finishing touch on Zach's finely crafted photo of a grouping of garden flowers: the unexpected insertion of a Tiffany head.
One of the unique metro signs marking an entrance to Paris' underground labyrinth of public transportation. Again, no opportunity for artistic expression left un-utilized.
Another outpouring-of-cute moment. Fuel efficient? Yes. Tiffany-sized? No.
An impressive lineup of cannons outside Les Invalides (the Army hospital and museum) with the Eiffel Tower looming in the background.
Even the windows are on guard duty at Les Invalides.
Sometimes jet lag can work to your advantage. We had the city all to ourselves and were able to enjoy the dawn light breaking the horizon and slowly spilling out over the River Seine.
Lest we forget our roots, Tiffany spotted a museum advertising the display of the Terracotta warriors of China.

After wearing our soles thin on the cobblestone streets of the City of Light, we understood why France is the number one tourist destination in the world. Delicious food, timeless art and immaculate gardens combine in the perfect recipe for romantic culture and nostalgic appreciation of European living at its finest.

3 Years Later, Ciao Ciao Shanghai!

2008-07-11T00:01:00.013+08:00

After wrapping up their dusty stint as Mongolian nomads, Tiffany and Zach eagerly returned to China for one last, relaxing visit to their favorite beach resort and to say farewell to the Motherland. The Hilton in Sanya has been one of their favorite get-a-ways during their time in China, and it was fitting that they celebrated their third anniversary there, as they had also celebrated their first anniversary there. It is a picturesque resort. The cool, aquamarine waters of the vast pool system that run throughout just beg you to jump in, and sweet scents of colorful, tropical flowers draw your eyes as well as tickle your nose as you walk around the grounds.

Zach cleaned up for the anniversary celebration with a long soak in the room's giant bathtub.

Then it was a romantic night of room service dining and duty-free pink champagne. Tiff and Zach came to grips with the astounding realization that 3 years had passed since getting married in Chicago that fateful day. And the evening was spent laughing and rehashing all the adventures of the 3 years since.

The time in Sanya passed quickly, as Tiff and Zach made sure to enjoy all of China's best offerings, like great massages, perfectly legal Cuban cigars, and a brand of drug-store ginger ale called Watson's that is hands-down the best ginger ale they ever drank.

After one last, long stroll down the pristine beach, satisfied and stuffed with non-Mongolian food, they headed up to Shanghai to say their final farewells:

Farewell Shanghai, with your towering, modern skyscrapers and your eager-to-be-pale Chinese toting sun umbrellas!

Farewell Shanghai, with your massive modern art constructions, laden with complex symbolism that no one understands but with which everyone is suitably impressed anyway!

Farewell Shanghai Centre co-workers and friends, who blessed Tiffany with their kindness and helpfulness, and kept her sane in the midst of working for a crazed management ruled by the idiosyncratic and the inane!

Ah, farewell Shanghai, for all of your practical nature and belief in air-dried laundry!
Farewell, Shanghai, and your odd sense of advertising pets with terrifying, Godzilla-like gerbil pictures!
Farewell, old home, Top of City (not "Top of THE City", mind you), where Tiff and Zach found comfort and solace and a place in China that they readily called "home"!
Farewell amusing English translations accompanied by equally amusing images!
And, finally, as they headed to the airport for the last time, farewell Credit Suisse van, who drove Zach all around Shanghai and completely spoiled him, and farewell Xiao Xu, the van's faithful driver, who eagerly arrived to escort them, not caring, or more likely not realizing, that Zach was no longer an employee!

Farewell Shanghai! Farewell China! Farewell!

Mongolia Part 2 - Boys Camp

2008-07-04T08:00:00.001+08:00

Before I forget, I wanted to mention that Mongolian is a very strange sounding language. They share a border and a lot of trade with Russia, and the influence, including a Cyrillic-based script, is evident when they speak. It sort of sounds like Russian with a heavy lisp. Imagine Sylvester the Cat with a Russian accent ("thhhssssufferin' thhsssuccotash comrade!"). And while the culture remains Asian, the fashion, especially in the main, capital city of Ulaanbaatar, is definitely western. All in all, very confusing to try and absorb.

Anyway, after leaving the Siberian taiga grasslands of Jalman Meadows, we continued on to the second half of our Mongolia journey, located in the Gobi steppes and where we arrived at Arburd Sands, or what we named "Boys Camp". The difference was evident that our second stay in the gers would be a little rougher. Run by a man who came from a long line of horse riding nomads, he had a motley crew of about 8 Mongolian boys and 2 women that did the cooking. Our tent got dirty the first day during a rainstorm, and pretty much remained that way the entire stay. The toilets didn't have the pleasant, odor-neutralizing potpourri spray of Jalman Meadows, either. But we soon came to love the easy-going, rough and tumble nature of the camp.

The staff showed us how the gers were built, and with me stuck in the middle, they quickly constructed a ger around me in about 10 minutes.

Here we are with the head of the camp (in the middle of Tiff and me), and some of the boys. We loved the fact that these tough guys were dressed in traditional Mongolian silk shirts, or the full gown with sash, often wearing bright, flashy colors.

But most evenings after dinner, they gave no quarter when it came to game time. Here we are engaged in the mortal combat of tug-o-war. Most of their games involved some sort of violent action, whether it was dodge ball (or "fish in a barrel", as they called it), marco polo (where one person was blindfolded and ran around trying to tag people, all the while getting pushed in the back and tripped by laughing friends), or even duck-duck-goose, where the chosen "it" person had a balled up scarf to throw at the opposing player.
I tried to teach them a less violent form of entertainment, with the classic "human pyramid". I think their favorite part was when the pyramid collapsed and crushed the people on the bottom.They taught us about the "Three Manly Sports", in which Mongolians compete every year in an annual Naadam Festival. Wrestling, Archery, and Horse riding are the three skills dearest to every Mongolian man. I tried to avoid the random wrestling matches that seemed to break out around camp every day, but I did work on my archery.
We had a few wicked storms pass through while we were there, part of the very welcome rain to hopefully end the 8-year drought that Mongolia was suffering through.
After the storm passed we enjoyed incredibly beautiful skies, with the vast landscape lit up by a multitude of colors, and particularly stunningly scenic sunsets.
As we tried to experience the nomadic life in the Gobi, we tried our hands at riding camels again. Luckily, unlike India, we didn't encounter any sandstorms this time. But the lack of saddles and only a few, thin layers of blanket between the camels' spine and our bottoms left us sore and eager to return back to camp. Both camel and rider were quite happy to be free from each other and back at camp.
After the last, terrifying experience riding horses in Jalman Meadows, we knew we had to try it again and bury those memories. The gentle horses, combined with the soft, sandy soil kept the horses' pace slow and Tiff and Zach very happy.

Tiffany befriended the youngest member of the staff, and he proudly showed her around the camp.
While Tiff was exploring the beauty of life at Arburd, I quickly reverted to my childhood, finding fascination in the artifacts of death around the desert. Bones and animal remains littered the desert sands, which exposed the reality of harsh life in the Gobi steppes.
I got into the swing of things, and jumped and ran around the sandy desert.

While Tiff maintained composure and calmly enjoyed the natural beauty of the land.

Another day dies out with a blaze of glory.

We took a day to visit a sacred Buddhist mountain, where many of the rare, native animals could be spotted. We were quite lucky and saw everything from gazelle sprinting across the fields, to ibex argali sheep (similar to gigantic bighorn sheep) perched high in the mountain tops.

When we stopped for lunch this adorable little beggar cleaned up with Tiff and me. Who could resist that face?!

As we drove through the valley splitting two mountain ranges, we continued to marvel at the vast, picturesque Mongolian land.

We were fortunate to run into our camp head's famous horse master father, Choidog, who at the spry age of 80, famously said, "While I have breath in my body, I will ride and train horses." He continues to breed and train race horses for the Naadam Festival.

We visited a few local nomadic families to experience Mongolian life. After the babies are separated from their mothers, the moms are lined up for their daily milking. Here Tiff helps release the moms after the milking is completed.
And then, in one of the cutest scenes we witnessed, the babies are let loose from their pen, and like a massive after school pickup, the babies bolt out of the pen, yelping for their mommies, while the moms bleat out "Here I am!" and everyone runs around until the proper parent-child match ups are made.

Space inside the gers is at a premium. "Now, where did I leave my handbag? Oh right, it's next to the slab of raw mutton..." And the hanging cord on the left between the blue mixing bowl and the stirrups? That would be the sheep intestines, squeezed out and looped together and sold for god knows what use. The ger family assured us that the sheep had been slaughtered that morning so all the meat was fresh. Whew!

The goat and sheep milk is turned into a variety of foods, from milk tea to yogurt, cheese and curds. And with all those animals running around, who needs firewood when you can use dung chips? The very casual way in which the ger mom shoveled out handfuls of the dung chips only served to reinforce the knowledge that we could never make it living as Mongolian nomads.

But the absolute highlight of our entire Mongolia trip came on our final day and was completely unplanned. On our first day driving to Arburd Sands, we came across the heart-breaking sight of a baby horse, trapped out in the pouring rain, timidly nuzzling the unmoving body of its mother, who, without sufficient strength and fat reserves after the years of drought, had apparently succumbed to the many consecutive days of cold rain. Full of supplies and bags, we had no room to squeeze in the poor foal. Although the head of the camp drove back to the site that day after dropping us off at camp, he reported back that the baby foal was gone.

Well, we had pretty much written off the chances of the baby foal surviving without her mother, but sure enough, three days later on our return drive, we spotted the weak baby. With nothing but a canvas cord and years of horse training experience, the camp head (with our tour guide) managed to capture the foal and secure her legs. We then lifted her into the back of our car and took her over to Choidog's ger camp.The two little boys at Choidog's were given the responsibility of convalescing the foal, and immediately their eyes lit up and they ran off to get her some water. She had lain so still in the car that we weren't sure just how weakened her state was, but she eagerly lapped up the offered drink, and the boys were already preparing some watered down sheep's milk to feed her in a few hours and discussed trying to find another mare in the next few days to try and nurse her back to health.
Tiff and I were thrilled to have had a small part in saving the little pony's life and, after determining that indeed the foal was too large to fit into our carry-on bags, made sure to give her lots of hugs and well-wishes before we had to depart.

Mongolia Part 1- Girls Camp

2008-06-30T01:00:00.000+08:00

Tired of spending the night in hotel room after hotel room, Zach and Tiffany decided to trade in the comforts of hot showers and heat for outdoor, nomadic-type living in traditional Mongolian ger camps. Our first 'ger' experience was at Jalman Meadows, located in the Siberian Taiga.

The camp was run by a strict and professional Mongolian woman and it showed in the camp. The ger Zach and I were assigned was beautifully decorated and sparkling clean.

The weather was chilly, particularly at night, but we soon became spoiled by the fire elves that snuck into our ger an hour before we woke up to light a fire in our stove.

No smelly outhouses here! The outhouses were constantly deodorized and stocked with toilet paper and even had a sink with soap!
Even the meals were dignified. We had tea time every afternoon, and meals were served with real plates and silverware. The meals were a bit heavy on mayonnaise-based dishes (everything from beets to carrots), mutton and meat fat, but we really couldn't complain since usual camping food consists of power bars and PB&J.

Although the region has been in an 8-year drought, our arrival seemed to please the rain gods, as it stormed a majority of our time in Mongolia. But there was just enough sun to power the solar panels, allowing us to get a lot of reading done.

We also spent plenty of time in the Genghis Khan library playing games with sheep ankle bones (apparently all the rage in the nomadic circles)...and dressing up like traditional nomadic herdsmen...During the few brief respites from the storms, we managed to befriend some of the furry locals. This guy looked pretty tough, but was quite friendly and gentle.

We even came across the remains of some furry animals, as the drought has been tough on many of the herds. Zach was eager to smuggle this home, but Tiffany was less than eager to integrate animal remains into the home decor.

Horses outnumber people 14-1 in Mongolia, and have been an integral part of life for centuries. So it was inevitable that at some point we'd suit up and give horse riding a try. We cavalierly overlooked the camp's warning of 'not recommended for unskilled riders', after all, we'd collectively ridden about 3 times in the past 5 years, that surely must put us solidly in the intermediate category.

We realized we might be in a bit over our head when the ger camp's horseman was sent out to round up our horses, as most of the time they roam freely. We found out through experience that Mongolian horses have a mind of their own and aren't one to follow commands, especially when they're coming from two green foreigners. To make matters worse, the saddles provided were missing pommels, as Mongolians traditionally hang on to the horse with only their legs. So when our horses broke into full-on galloping, something they did often, we had nothing but a corner of horse blanket under the saddle to cling to with our white knuckles. Needless to say, after a morning of each of our horses taking turn breaking away from our small group and galloping off into the vast, never ending expanse of grasslands, we both kissed the ground as soon as we dismounted.
While we were a bit disappointed with the weather, by the time we left for the Gobi desert, we had noticed a huge change in the grass. It had gone from a deadish brown hue to a bright green color after just 4 days!

Xinjiang - Muslim Chinese Farmers (pt. 2)

2008-06-22T22:18:00.004+08:00

It's been about 2 1/2 months since leaving Shanghai now, and we started feeling the first pangs of travel-weary since the start of our journeys. Above, at over 12,000 feet elevation, Tiffany walks the famous Karkoram Highway, which leads from Xinjiang into Pakistan, as the Silk Road winds through the 20,000 ft plus mountain pass. It didn't help that she'd gotten her first bout of food poisoning since India, which made her not so excited about Xinjiang food anymore. Or that we felt like we were never going to get out of the hot, sandy desert at times. But she toughed it out, and we were rewarded with some amazing scenery, friendly locals, and another blog entry! Back in town, we decided maybe no more buying bread off the street was a good policy.

Kashgar is famous for their Sunday Market, where farmers from all over bring their livestock and produce to trade and sell. We watched hundreds of market goers checking animal teeth, taking donkeys out for a test drive, and haggling for their life to finally complete a sale. In many cases, there is a 3rd party negotiator that acts as the go-between between buyer and seller.
These two guarded their family donkey.
Tiffany found her favorite animal, a brown fluffy donkey. We watched an under-1 year old donkey (about this size) that was touted for it's (relatively) calm demeanor, sold for 1700 RMB, or about $220. Not bad, unfortunately Tiff knew her donkey would never stand to be checked in at the airport, and had no chance of fitting into her carry-on bag. Hundreds of sheep lined up for sale. Farmers would shave their flock in a distinctive style, like a brand, for identification purposes.
Another part of the market specialized in various handicrafts, like these fancy versions of the common Uigher hat.

This area of Xinjiang is famous for the "smallest hat in the world". How they know that, who knows, it's not actually all that small, but whatever. Zach is styling a tiny black silk number, with baby blue topping.
We came across this colorful brood in the old town of Kashgar (most recently used in the Kite Runner film due to it's proximity to and resemblance of Afganistan). This was the first of about 50 photos that this giggly group of girls demanded to take, swarming Zach after each one to critique the result, then running back to pose for the next one.

Zach closes the deal with a knife salesman in a town outside of Kashgar, called Yengisar. The blades are hammered out by hand, along with various handle types made of wood, bone, even deer antlers, and inlaid or encrusted with jewels, mother-of-pearl or other decoration. The salesman then took us up the dirt road to his home, where his colleage sharpened each knife while we enjoyed looking around their simple home. At the knife salesman's house, Tiffany and our guide, Aliya, relax for a moment. The family was incredibly hospitable, offering to climb their tree to pick us some fresh apricots for a snack while we waited for the knives to be sharpened. Aliya was a fantastic guide and was interestingly enough a Muslim (but recently converted Christian) who competes in Hip Hop dancing competitions when not leading hapless tourists around Xinjiang.

Tiff half-heartedly prepares herself for another Uigher lunch. Zach loved the "lakh man", made of fresh, hand-pulled noodles and topped with tomato sauce and slices of lamb.

Noshing in China?? Uighers are famous for their "girde nan" and love to eat it in the mornings. They were delicious, thick and dense, sometimes baked with salt crystals in the dough, and always crisp and extra chewy on the bottom, where they dough sat in the hearths. If only they had some low-fat schmear to spread on it...
No vampires here!
Fresh lamb for sale.
It was like the Cirque du Soleil of chickens, hung like they were acrobatically balanced in the air. It always struck us how non-chalantly large sides of meat were hung in the street.

A rare sight in the officially "no religion" China. Friday afternoon brings a crowd of the largely Muslim population to pray at one of the many mosques we saw in Xinjiang.
The most fuel-efficient vehicle on the planet!

The standard package in one of our hotels, the swatter unfortunately came in very handy.
At a silk farm, we watched the silk eggs getting boiled and threads drawn out, for these weavers to form into various scarves and clothing.

Part of the Himalayan mountain range, the snow-capped peaks made for a stunning backdrop as we visited Karakul Lake. The vaunted K2 mountain (named for being the 2nd peak of the Karakoram range), second highest in the world, is nearby.
Out in the desert we explored the Thousand Buddha Caves, home to an ancient monastary of Buddhist monks with individual chambers carved into the stone face.
Top 10 Jobs Zach Wouldn't Last 2 Days At - In order to prevent the desert from completing overtaking and obscuring the road (this was the Cross-Desert Highway, an ardous 12-hour drive we undertook one day), the government decided to plant vegetation along the shoulder to trap and filter the grainy environment. Unfortunately, some poor souls need to be out there to water the plants. So two people are hired to live in one of these desolate, oven-like outposts in the middle of the desert -- and water the plants every day. These buildings dotted the highway every 3-5 miles or so. One tour of duty lasts 3 months (after that you fall prey to desert madness maybe?) and pays about $400/month. Food and fresh water have to be trucked in once a week to keep them alive. Unsurprisingly, the majority of desert gardeners are not locals, but immigrants from another province who are just poor and unknowing enough to sign up for the job. When not even the native desert folks want the job, you gotta wonder...
A minor delay in our journey across the Taklamakan desert caused by some wayward camels.
A mosque and burial ground for the sacred Islamic Yarkent King, about a 20 minute walk into the desert. A sandy wind is swirling around, and Tiffany was not happy.Amazingly, even out in the middle of this desert, Zach found a bright flower somehow flourishing.

Xinjiang - Meat and Melon (pt.1)

2008-06-15T00:00:00.000+08:00

From the cool mountains of Lijiang, we made our way back to the desert, into the furthest northwest region of China, a province called Xinjiang. Xinjiang is notable for being home to China's Muslim population, the native Uigher (pronounced "wee-gur") nation. They are a mix of ancient Ottoman and Mongolian civilizations. Xinjiang sits at the doorway to China for eastbound travelers on the Silk Road from Europe to Asia. It is a fascinating place, and very different from anywhere else we've been in China. Xinjiang produces much of China's fruit - and is famous for their watermelon (Tiffany enjoys this cup of fresh watermelon as much as for its sweet juicy flavor as for its economical 25 cent cost) as well as walnuts, grapes and a melon called Hami melon, from the Hami region. It's sort of like a crunchy, sweet canteloupe.
The Muslim influence can be seen in the nightly food markets, with savory smoke pouring off the lines of hot coals grilling lamb kebabs, along with fish and vegetables. This stand put together an artistic, if somewhat unsettling, display of the Xinjiang version of "Mary Had a Little Lamb (Kebab)"
Mountains of nuts and dried fruit provided flashes of color.

The province of Xinjiang comprises 16% of China's land, but only has a population of around 20 million. Considering that that is the same as Shanghai's population alone, we felt remarkably free and uncrowded, as can be seen by Tiffany stretching her legs along the deserted main highway which runs along the Silk Road.
The latest in Xinjiang's Baby Bjorn fashion. This one doubles as a high chair.
For a region that feels remarkably unchanged from the past, it is also quite advanced. While we have been traveling along the Silk Road, our Uigher guide has educated us on Xinjiang's ancient history. And it's been easy to imagine what life was like 1000, 2000 years ago, because for the most part we've witnessed the same, simple farming lifestyle, slow-paced life and easy-going people with a ready smile. At the same time, we've seen massive wind-power farms and oil and natural resource mining operations that point to the future development of this ancient region. We just hope they don't stop growing that delicious fruit!

Tiger Leaping Gorge - The Big Hike

2008-06-11T09:07:00.000+08:00

One of the biggest natural attractions in Yunnan, and really all of China, is the Tiger Leaping Gorge, just outside of Lijiang. A giant mountain range with peaks over 15,000 feet high is split by a diving canyon called the Tiger Leaping Gorge, at the bottom of which the mighty Yangtze River winds its way through. Inhabiting the Gorge and surrounding area are the local Naxi people, who are mostly farmers.

There is a 15-20 mile trail through the mountains from one end of the Gorge to the other, through steep terrain, and frequent hazards, from slippery waterfalls to narrow wood planks crossing gaps high over the canyon. Weather changes are frequent, with heavy rains leading to dangerous washout and landslide conditions, or alternatively bright, burning sun to parch your throat and cramp your muscles.
This is the foolhardy 2-day journey that Tiff and Zach decided to attempt.

It started innocently enough, with absolutely no intentions of doing anything other than taking a nice drive up to see the Gorge, and maybe an hour or two of hiking around before turning back and heading home. Unfortunately, the few hours from their starting point was almost straight up, so that by the time the terrain levelled out and the brilliant views became apparent, the last thing our two intrepid explorers wanted to do was climb right back down. As well, they ran into two fateful, Israeli backpackers who promised, in return for some heart attack-inducing ascents and ankle-breaking descents, natural beauty unheard of in China and heretofore unseen if we continued further along the high trail. And animals. Lots of animals. And with that, Tiffany sealed their fates with a firm, "It's GO time." The decision was made to "just hike a few more hours until we see some cute animals, then go back..."

They would never come back that way again.

As it turned out, they hiked along the high trail until reaching a mountain lodge guesthouse in the afternoon. Three beers later at around 10,000 feet altitude, and there was no more talk of returning that day. In the great economics of rural China, those drinks, the ensuing dinner, one night's lodging and the following day's breakfast cost our two hardcore backpackers an astonishing $35! Instantly, talks of retiring on the spot broke out, and after heated discussions, the idea was firmly placed into the "maybe later" category.

The rest of the trip was exactly as the prescient Israelis had foretold. Stunning scenery, mysteriously carved cliffsides (in the picture below, look for a broad-nosed man and veiled woman), spring flora and incredibly friendly, hardy local Naxi farmers along the way. Oh, and some animals.

A Land of Contrasts

2008-06-04T19:35:00.006+08:00

After spending 2 months, the longest consecutive amount of time outside of China in three years, in English-speaking countries, we were eager to come back to China. But, we were a little worried that we had gone soft. Had all those meat pies and western exposure spoiled us? Would we be able to stand up to the bustling crowds of millions we were sure to encounter? Would our stomachs still willingly accept the masses of MSG that would surely re-enter our diet? Aside from a bit of stomach protests, it's as if we never left.

Our first stop was Kunming, home to a paltry 5 million. We were greeted with many sites that made us feel right at home, such as....

Massive construction sites!
Dried meat hanging in the streets!

And other familiar scenes, like husbands lovingly cutting their wives' toenails in the town square, small children pointing at Tiffany screaming 'laowai' (foreigner), and locals befuddled that Zach doesn't speak Chinese fluently. It kind of feels like we never left!

After 2 days in comfortable, modern Kunming, we headed to a part of China we've rarely seen, the rural part of China.

Our first stop was the old town of Lijiang. The town was filled with old Naxi architecture and the streets were mazes of small cobblestone streets and quant streams and bridges. Here's Zach relaxing in our zen hotel courtyard.

After wandering through the quaint maze of streets in old town, we hopped on bikes and cruised around the surrounding farmlands.

We didn't get far before getting caught in some rush hour traffic...

It was amazing to bike by farmers working the land as their ancestors have for probably hundreds of years. It's about as far away from modern China as you can imagine.

The farms were so beautiful and surrounded by mountains. And the people we ran into were so friendly and nice, and they were quick to wave and smile at two random foreigners biking around their farms.It was such a peaceful and reassuring re-entry into China, and also fun to see such different sides of the country.

Home Sweet Home

2008-06-03T20:45:00.002+08:00

We safely made it back to China, and from the looks of this picture, SOMEONE sure missed her Chinese food! We're currently in Shangri-la recuperating from an intense 2-day hike through Tiger Leaping Gorge and will post more pictures soon!

Finishing Australia

2008-05-29T11:41:00.006+08:00

We finished up a great stay in Sydney and spent our last days walking as much as possible through this beautiful city. Lots of beautiful buildings, like St. Mary's Cathedral, above, left us in awe of this city which before now we'd known very little about.
Certainly the quality of food didn't hurt, either. Our favorite pub, Lord Nelson's, featured one of Australia's signature dishes, meat pie, and was adorned with smashed peas, mashed potatoes and a delicious gravy. This savory treat had us coming back time and time again, and was equally enhanced by the six different beers that were brewed on site. Ahhh, beer and meat pie; life doesn't get much better!
We spent the final leg of our Australia trip in Cairns, home to the Great Barrier Reef. The Reef is a UNESCO World Heritage site, is the world's biggest single structure composed of living organisms, and most importantly, was the site of Zach's first scuba dive ever.
Here is Tiffany with the Reef in the water behind her. Just days after our trip, we read about a couple that had been lost at sea for 19 hours after getting left behind on a scuba dive. Thank god I didn't read that before we went, or else I'd never have gone! The scuba diving experience was amazing, I have to say. It is such a strange sensation to be breathing 20-30 feet underwater with ocean life all around you. I only freaked out once, when I started thinking, "Wait a minute, I'm not supposed to be down here. I can't breathe underwater, what if my oxygen tank breaks?!" After a brief moment of terror and incontinence, I calmed down. Luckily, the beauty and breadth of underwater life at the Reef is such that I was quickly distracted from my fears. It was amazing to see the variety and combination of colors, which almost seemed impossible in their bright vivid streaks and gleaming florescence. The Great Barrier Reef was one, big underwater disco costume party, apparently.

We passed our last few days in Cairns relaxing at the beach, and enjoying nature at its finest. Our daily walks were definitely enhanced by the opportunity to witness some of Australia's unique wildlife! As we reluctantly leave our new favorite country, we are getting ready to re-enter China, the chaotic, exciting country we've called home for the past 3 years. With the unfortunate situations in Chengdu and Tibet, we're shifting our trip to Yunnan, the most southeastern province of China and home to Shangri-la. We're winging this part of the trip, so it will be interesting to see what kind of adventures (and in Tiffany's case, exotic animals) we can find! Stay tuned...

Our Favorite Convict Colony

2008-05-18T10:39:00.012+08:00

In an unlikely turn of historical events, Australia, originally a giant Alcatraz for Great Britain and filled with boatloads of unsavory criminals, took their abandoned lemons and turned them into great beer and meat pies.

We discovered in Sydney a wonderful city, full of great food, laid-back locals, and waterfront views wherever we walked.

First up on our list was climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which has been Tiffany's biggest concern of the trip. But after seeing pictures of a 100-year old woman's successful climb, she figured she'd overcome her fear of heights and give it a shot. As you can see, she made it! At the top, we were over 1,000 feet over the harbor. While Tiffany was happy to have made it, I still couldn't convince her to let me lift her up for the photo.

Sydney's other famous architectural highlight is the Opera House. All the arcs forming the structure can be combined to form one sphere. Or, as our bridge climb guide described it, "It's like a rugby scrum of nuns." Either way, it is stunning, and we enjoyed our behind the scenes tour of the site, which described how a 3-year, $7 million budgeted project was eventually completed in 15 years, at a cost of over $100 million (with the overrun paid for through a special "Opera House Lottery". And who said nothing good ever comes of gambling?!). The Opera House is home to not just opera performances, but also dance, symphony orchestra, theater, and even sumo wrestling and the finals of Australian Idol. We enjoyed a performance that evening of the Jerome Robbins ballet, which was like ballet for ADD sufferers, with 4 acts separated by 3 intermissions in a quick 2 hours. It was perfect for us!

Sydney also found international accord when they held the 2000 Olympics, widely known (especially within Australia) as "the best Olympics ever".

Truthfully, it is a beautifully landscaped site, with wide boulevards to stroll and striking stadiums dotting the Olympic park.

Interestingly, Australia has more Olympic athletes per capita than any other country (at around 20 million population for the entire country, they are about the size of Shanghai). And we were soon believers. Every where we walked, and at any time of day, we witnessed people running, swimming, playing volleyball, rugby, even boxing in the park. At lunchtime, workers would stream out of their office buildings in running shoes for a quick jog. And even though it wasn't that warm (maybe 60 degrees in the evening), we saw people swimming in the ocean. Without wetsuits. As our cabdriver replied when we mentioned that rugby looked like a crazy sport, "Well, you have to be crazy to be Australian."

We walked along the famous Bondi Beach and learned that Australian's idea of a swimming pool is to let the freezing Pacific Ocean water fill your pool and have at it. Never mind that the ocean waves keep crashing over the pool wall onto your head as you flip turn. At least the sharks can't get in. Hopefully.

And, as usual, Tiffany couldn't stay away from the bounty of animals to be found. From kangaroos to koalas, she got her hands on all of them.

Happy Mothers' Day! (And Goodbye New Zealand!)

2008-05-12T12:13:00.010+08:00

Our final leg of the New Zealand trip was a stop in Queenstown, the thrill-capital of the country, then a drive up to the famous Franz Joseph glaciers, and one final drive into Christschurch.

On the road into Queenstown were a number of "bench under a tree" signs notifying drivers of a nice spot to stop. These were everywhere in New Zealand, but they were certainly appropriate in Queenstown, one of the most beautiful towns we have ever seen.
It reminded me a little of Lake Tahoe (in northern California, for you uninitiated), but maybe 50 years ago, or whenever it was last a sleepy little ski town.
We were "forced" to pull over and avoid crashing our car while trying to stop staring at the incredible view. And no, that is not some fake backdrop behind Tiff.

In fact, Tiffany was so enamored she wanted to dive right into the incredible blue of the water.

We pulled into town, checked into our hotel, and immediately left to take a hike up to a viewpoint. This is what we arrived at, about 45 minutes walk from the center of town. Again, checking the camera for our photos, we were struck by the almost surreal beauty of the town's mountain and lake backdrop.

As it is fall down here in the southern hemisphere, we enjoyed a spectacular spectrum of trees changing their color guard. At first we laughed at how many benches the town had positioned all over the place, but we shortly realized they were quite necessary, as we frequently had to sit down and stop to enjoy the sublime nature all around us.

From Queenstown we drove about 5 hours north into glacier land. Thick slabs of ice sat on top of mountain ranges. The wet snow falls so heavily (almost 100 feet per year!) that it quickly compacts down into ice, which forms the glaciers.

We took a few walks around town and along different trails to appreciate the many features of the glaciers and their surroundings.

Even filling up for gas afforded this gorgeous, sunset view.

Of course, heavy snowfall melts at the bottom and results in some gushing waterfalls. If you look closely, you can pick me out at the bottom of these three.

Once we had properly prepared ourselves, we took a helicopter ride around the glaciers and landed on the Franz Joseph glacier to try and get a sense of its enormity and beauty up close.

Ok, this has nothing to do with glaciers, but we spotted this rental van, and what can I say? It spoke to my heart. Or rather, my...

We calculated that over our 20 days in Kiwi country, we'd driven about 1,800 miles, and shouted with outstretched, pointing arm to each other, "Ohmygod, look at that!" approximately 3,600 times. It's quite easy to pick out the tourists in New Zealand, they're the ones walking around with their heads on a swivel, in a futile attempt to take in all of the natural beauty that exists on these two small islands, constantly shouting and pointing to look here and there.

Although we logged around 30 hours of driving all told, it honestly flew by. Every day we were treated to new landscapes. Mountains, animals, fields, and irrationally bright hues of green grass and blue skies all conspired to such arresting beauty that we stopped discerning between journey and destination. Long periods without conversation were required while our overloaded brains desperately logged image after image, and our mouths' only contribution was "Ooohh... ahhhh..."

Surprisingly, we were held up by a cattle crossing. Apparently, cows seem to follow us in whichever country we're in!

Our pictures do not nearly bring justice to the countryside, but here are a few of the photos just taken on the last leg from Franz Joseph to Christschurch.

Good On You Mate!

2008-05-06T15:56:00.003+08:00

The New Zealand road trip continued around the east coast of the North Island into Napier, which is located in one of the best wine growing regions of the country, and brags the best collection of Art Deco buildings. The entire town was destroyed by a huge earthquake in the 1930's. As Deco was the popular trend at the time, the majority of the town was rebuilt at the same time in that style. Napier is nestled in Hawkes Bay, an area filled with wineries. In true New Zealand form, even the vineyards have been taken over by sheep.
While in Napier, we also spent the night at the Napier prison, which supposedly had been transformed into a hostel. Our impression was that it still felt like jail. It probably didn't help that we were the only travelers that evening. The rest of the inmates, oops I mean guests, were local native New Zealanders from a nearby island staying for six months during the grape picking season. The manager of the prison made a number of warnings to us to not use the public showers and explained that while almost all the guests were married men, there were a number of women who we would see socializing with them. This included a man with hatchet scars on his face and body, apparently administered by his wife after she found out he was picking up more than just grapes. We weren't sure why she felt the need to explain this particular local custom of infidelity, but we were sufficiently nervous when the sun went down.
Lots of sporadic rain throughout our trip has allowed us to see sights like this from the road. This was shot while driving through the front windshield.

After a night in Wellington, we ventured to the South Island and headed straight for a small town called Oamaru (for some reason rhymes with 'kangaroo'). Oamaru is famous for their little blue penguin colony.
These penguins weigh about 2 pounds, and only emerge from the ocean at dusk. They climb up this steep hill, then wait in groups called rafts before darting across to their nests. They're known to be crabby little suckers, and bore a striking resemblance to those sneaky mafioso penguins in 'Madagascar'.

One roadside tourist stop to break up the driving featured these alien-looking smooth boulders jutting out of the cliff walls and laying in the sand along the beach. This is supposed to look like I'm Atlas, shouldering the world, but it looks more like I'm just relaxing, and leaning up against it.

In Dunedin, a large Scottish-settled town along the southeast coast, Tiff and I toured the Cadbury chocolate factory, complete with many free chocolate samples, and a gift shop where we picked up another 10 pounds of chocolate or so. Frighteningly, we don't have all that much left by now. I blame Tiff for eating it all, she claims I ate it all, and we both feel a little better.
New Zealand also brews some fantastic beers, none of which we'd ever tried before. Also in Dunedin is the Speight's brewery, which ends in a nice little pub for free sampling of six of their fine beers. Don't ever leave me behind the bar with the beer taps running. It's not a good idea. Luckily Tiff was too busy picking me up off the floor and carrying me home to take any compromising photos. Free chocolate and free beer; now that was a fantastic day!

In the town of Te Anau, outside of Milford Sound, we stayed at one of my favorite motels so far, for obvious reasons. I practiced my "Matrix" moves for the next sequel and am ready for the casting call.
The beauty of Milford Sound was a joy to experience and we took many deep breaths of clean crisp air, to get all remnants of India dust out of our lungs. The vast grandeur of Milford Sound is such that even these falls, which are three times the height of Niagara, are dwarfed by the size of the surrounding mountains.
Large bottle nose dolphins swam alongside our boat and even performed a few jumps and tricks for our entertainment.
Some braver passengers went on deck to feel the brunt of a 50-story high waterfall crashing down with icy waters on their heads. Tiff and I remained safely inside the boat, and tried to figure out what was wrong with these people.
Tiff's favorite: a cute little seal posed for us on a rock.

New Zealand - Kiwis, Sheep and Meat Pies!

2008-04-29T13:37:00.012+08:00

Ahh! Clean air, orderly traffic and no animals running free through the streets. Auckland, New Zealand welcomed our India-weary bodies with open arms and potable water. It was with sheer joy and newly gained appreciation that we leisurely strolled the streets of Auckland, admired the fall foliage (southern hemisphere, reverse seasons, you know) and giddily ate and drank whatever we pleased. Auckland's Sky Tower lights up the downtown city center. A combination of restaurants, bungee jumping from the top, and casino, it's a fan favorite of the large Asian population we've found here. The Auckland University is nicely laid out and has many beautiful architectural highlights, like this church.

And, it seems, water is everywhere. Here is the Auckland harbor, viewed from the museum up on a hilltop. The city reminded us a lot of San Francisco, actually, with the hilly streets, bay views, cool, misty temperature, and genial, laid back atmosphere.In the middle of the city is a large jungle featuring many lush walking paths, where one can easily get lost (or hide!) among the all the greenery and forget that you are still in the middle of the country's largest city. We found new fauna as well, such as this two-tone gerbil-like animal taking a midday snack. After a few days to recoup and explore Auckland, Tiff and I rented a car and our real New Zealand "tramp" (their word for adventure) began! The Kiwis drive by English tradition, on the left side of the road with steering wheel on the right. After a number of misadventures in the wrong lane, and a few bruised curbs left in our trail, we've adjusted fairly well. For the most part we just drive very slowly; luckily, as they say here, you'll see more sheep than people in your travels!Our first stop was Mata Mata, home to Hobbiton, the only remaining set preserved from the filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy by Peter Jackson, New Zealand's favorite son. It was a great tour, with fanatically devoted tour guides quoting passages from the movies verbatim, citing minute differences between the original novels and the movie, and even encouraging us to put on our costumes if we'd brought them (and apparently many of their guests do, in order to recreate famous scenes!) We'd found New Zealand's version of "Trekkies". And with the high spirits of the guides and beautiful scenery all around us, we couldn't help but get swept up in the magic. In the cafe waiting to start the tour, Tiff catches me checking a wall mural for Hobbits.

Underneath the famous Party Tree, where Bilbo Baggins celebrates his 111th birthday in the first Lord of the Rings movie, Tiffany recreates some of the heel-clicking party.17 Hobbit homes were preserved in the hillside and available for our viewing pleasure.

Nowadays they are guarded by 12,000 sheep that roam the privately owned farm. For the movie, though, which was supposed to take place in England, English sheep were flown in for the movies. How's that for authenticity!?! According to our guide, the New Zealand sheep are still reeling from the embarrassment of not making the final cut. Tiff and I found a new vacation home, right here in Hobbiton!

Being that this was, and still is, a working 1,200 acre sheep farm, the tour included a demonstration of sheep shearing by Matt, the local sheep expert, and let us try our hand at bottle feeding some of the young lambs. This sheep is clearly uncomfortable knowing that Matt is about to shear her naked in front of a bunch of dorky Hobbit fans.
Post-shearing - We had to take this picture twice - the first time Tiff thought the sheep hadn't been shorn when she accidentally pet Matt's woolly chest. The look on her face? Priceless.

This photogenic lamb must be the spokesperson for Sheep Against Lamb Chops.

Our drive led on to Rotorua, a scenic lakeside town that featured sulphur hot springs and smelled mildly of rotten eggs throughout the town.
The lake, however, was beautiful, and Tiffany got a chance to check out their famous black swans up close.

We have been starved for clear blue, pollution free skies for almost 3 years now, and spent a long time strolling along the lake and soaking up the natural beauty. Now we are in Lake Taupo, another, you guessed it, waterside town. Here Tiffany admires the Huka Falls, a stunningly blue rapids that runs through town.

After Huka Falls we visited Craters of the Moon, where we walked through what seemed to be a prehistoric preserve, full of smoking sulphur pits and colorful craters, still alive with bubbling mud lava and periodic eruptions of pumice and ash. Tiffany sampled her first meat pie, a local culinary favorite. These tasty treats also cause uncontrollable napping, and Tiff was fast asleep 30 minutes after her last bite.

New Zealand is divided into two islands, North and South. We are about midway through North Island and have about 4 more days before we head to South Island, where ice glaciers and penguins await!

India - A Country of Extremes

2008-04-23T18:39:00.015+08:00

From the desert... to the mountains... I think that's the line in some 'back in the school day' song. Tiff and I escaped the heat, and flew from the deserts of Rajasthan to the crisp, cool mountains of Darjeeling, the old British-colonial hill station at the foot of the Himalayas. Famous of course for their Darjeeling tea, Tiff and I watched ladies spry as mountain goats scaling the steep hills to hand pick the tea leaves. Only women pick tea, apparently, as men have not enough patience and mess up the picking! Here, I try my hand at it. Sure enough, I over picked, or mis-picked, and was shortly hereafter removed from the tea-picking premises.One of the most interesting findings were the people. It was like one big set of "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle" understudies, with a distinct mix of Indian and more Chinese looking residents strolling around town. The town borders Nepal, China, Bhutan, thus, the Chinese influence. Above, a young monk makes a breakthrough on the path to enlightenment and excitedly runs to find the other monks, so he can rub their noses in it, thereby forfeiting all the day's gains. Oh well, easy come, easy go.This shot, entitled Happy Buddha's 3G SIM Card, was taken at another one of the many Buddhist monasteries we visited, and reminded me of my dad, at the intersection of spiritual and technological connectivity. The Dalai Lama is widely revered in this part of India and here Tiffany pays her respects.We awoke at 4am to drive up to Tiger Hill for the famous sunrise. It was a little misty, but we could make out 4 of the 5 peaks of Mount Kanchendzonga, the 3rd highest peak in the world (after Everest and K2). On a clear day, we were told, you can see Everest from Tiger Hill as well. Even on this misty morning, the views were breathtaking; we watched the brisk wind blow away the clouds just as the sun broke the horizon and everybody cheered as the day's first light spilled out and the mountain peaks revealed themselves.Tiff was quite the celebrity around town. After signing on as a pledge donor for multiple kids on a school fundraising drive, she quickly gained renown as The White Girl With Loose Pockets and was trailed like the pied piper by little rug rat schoolchildren wherever we went.Our final stop was Lake Tsomgo in Gangtok, at 12,400 ft. elevation and a few hours drive from Darjeeling. Gangtok is only about 15 miles from the China border and we saw heavy military presence wherever we went, and had to get special permits to enter. A great way to finish off India, we hiked through the snow covered trails around the scenic lake, and contemplated all the diversity and wonders that we'd witnessed in this country. Tiff found a similarly blond-haired friend, one of the many yaks available for riding around the lake.
For the record, my shoes apparently have poop magnets attached to their soles. Tiff caught me on camera here discovering Zach's First Yak Poo. As far as summarizing India, I can categorize my experience by the approximately 5 different types of poop in which I stepped over the course of our travels (somehow Tiffany danced around all of it). I won't bore you with the details, but suffice to say, the drier the better. Camel and elephant poop (encountered in the desert) trump cow and yak (with the urban humidity and mountain moisture). And human is always bad.

On that note, we are off to New Zealand for a welcome respite from overpopulation. Humans - 3.5 million, sheep - 50 million. Or something like that.

I wonder what sheep poop is like...

Hot...Sandy...Desert...

2008-04-16T18:20:00.011+08:00

Tiffany and I finished our tour of the major India sights and the Indian desert, traveling from Delhi, then back and forth through the hot, arid state of Rajasthan. We started off in Delhi, the nation's capital, and visited a religious Sikh temple, which also doubles as a soup kitchen (or a naan and curry kitchen, in this case). They let us help stir a giant pot of curry stew but more out of generosity for the photo op than our actual ability to help cook. They offer free food all year around to anyone and everyone, serving 20-40,000 meals every day!

Next stop, the religious center of India, Varanasi. Varanasi is the Mecca of India, with all Indians striving to travel there at least once in their lifetime. Crowds of colorfully dressed folks of all ages come at dawn to bathe themselves in the sacred river Ganges, which is supposed to absolve sins and cure illness, as well as spread the ashes of their cremated loved ones. It also happens to be filthy, as it receives a substantial amount of sewage along with aforementioned ashes. But that is no deterrent to the millions of faithful (Tiffany and I not among them) who plunge headlong into the river every day. Our first overnight train experience in India was not a pleasant one. We were crammed into a four person, double bunk section about the size of walk in closet, and only separated from the rest of the train car by a sheet divider. As the other couple was a kindly, older Indian couple, Tiffany and I offered to take top bunks. As you can see, they allowed for very little maneuvering space. And these were the second best accomodations on the train! We slept very little that night, as the foot traffic bumping into us throughout the car combined with the deafening snoring of the "kindly" Indian man sleeping below Tiffany.

From Varanasi, we took the train to Agra, home of the famous Taj Mahal, the world's greatest monument to love. Constructed in 12 years by the Emperor Shah Jehan for his wife as a memorial (she died after giving birth to 14 children in 19 years of marriage!), the Taj Mahal is a stunning architectural masterpiece, and was glowing in the dawn sunlight as we watched the first rays of sun strike the glinting stones inlaid around the marble domes.

Here, Tiffany manages to "grasp" the significance of the Taj. In Agra we picked up our trusty driver Rana, who would accompany us and transport us safely through the desert for the next 10 days. Unfortunately, both Tiffany and I were struck down by our first India stomach sickness and spent most of the evening in Agra running to the bathroom, crawling out, and then running back in. As a side benefit, I think I've lost at least 5 pounds so far!

Our first desert stop was Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. Below, we visited the giant astronomy park built by a king, or maharajah. He built amazingly accurate sun dials that told time to a 20-second accuracy. Below is a neat looking apparatus that does god-knows what, but it looks neat.For our next overnight train, from Jaipur to Udaipur, I insisted that we upgrade to the best class on the train. Not that I'm a complete wimp (partial, yes) but the price differential was about $40. And Tiffany's peace of mind not having to listen to me whine all night? Priceless. We got the same size cabin but only the two of us, and a sliding glass door to complete our privacy.
Our next stop was perhaps my favorite city so far, Udaipur. Sitting on a huge, man-made lake, the city was serene and quiet in comparison with everything we'd seen so far in India. Below is the Lake Palace hotel, which sits in the middle of the lake and is only accessible by ferry boat. After a sunset boat tour around the lake, Tiffany and I enjoyed the end of our day sipping fresh lime sodas (an India specialty) at a restaurant/bar in the middle of the lake. Now this was more like it! Udaipur is also famous as the setting of the James Bond movie, Octopussy. Every local hotel and restaurant plays the movie every night at 7pm, with complete disregard for Roger Moore's terrible portrayal of 007.

From Udaipur we drove to Jodhpur, the "Blue City", so nicknamed for the number of homes painted blue. Formerly the color of the elite, Brahmin class of priests, it became popular for citizens of all castes to adopt this color paint, perhaps when it became known for its mosquito-repellant quality.
From Jodhpur we drove to Jaisalmer, where Tiffany fell in love with yet another animal, the camel (or technically dromedary, as the one-humped variety are called). We took an ill-advised camel ride into the face of a whipping sandstorm, and even though Tiffany spent most of the time with her eyes closed, our faithful underaged camel guides pulled us through safely. Below is Tiffany with the poor boy that had to drag her camel though the hot, blistering sand, and looking none too happy after the ordeal. By the way, it is just incredible the way animal life and human life are so intertwined here. We see cows, goats, donkeys, camels, dogs, rats and sheep freely roaming city streets, cars swerving and screeching to a halt to avoid them.From Jaisalmer we drove to Bikaner, and rather than visiting the infamous Temple of the Rats, where thousands of rats scurry along the floor of a temple and religious adherents celebrate having their bare feet run across by the furry disease carriers (an even better good luck omen is eating something with rat saliva on it, I kid you not), we decided to visit a camel breeding farm. Tiffany clearly enjoyed the attention of the adolescent camels below, much more I'm guessing than from rats of any age!
So we are now out of the desert, having logged approximately 30 hours in the car and 2 overnight train rides. Tomorrow we fly to Darjeeling and get a close up of the Himalayas to wrap up the India leg of our trip!

Holy Cow!

2008-04-08T19:19:00.003+08:00

Before coming to India, I knew cows were sacred, and that they were often found wandering around the neighborhood. But it didn’t prepare me for what it’s like to see cows all over even the busiest cities, meandering through traffic of even the largest cities in India. It’s something you have to see to believe! If you’re a cow in India and you feel like laying down in the middle of a busy intersection, no problem! Cars, rickshaws, bikes and pedestrians will gladly tangle themselves into tons of traffic without a second thought. If a cow in India and you feel like entering a shop to cool off, go for it! The people will probably even feed you!

While the cows don’t help the efficiency in the overcrowded cities we’ve been to, their majestic presence and slow gait does have a calming effect on the craziness of Indian city life. That is, in all but one of the cases we’ve seen…..

We spent two days in Varanasi, one of the most holy cities in India and home to the Ganges River, a famous pilgrimage for Hindus. We were being lead through the narrow streets of the old town by our guide during our first night in town. The lanes are so narrow, that if you stand in the middle, you can stretch your arms out and touch the shop doors on both sides. As we made our way though the tiny streets, we heard a thunder of hooves. Looking ahead, we saw three spooked cows racing towards us. We were able to duck into doorways just in time, but one of the poor old pilgrims wasn’t so lucky and got a bit of a trampling. It’s been our closest near death experience yet, but we figure if we have to go, it might as well be in the most sacred place in India at the hands of the most sacred animal!

Live, from Bollywood!

2008-04-06T14:48:00.002+08:00

We made it to India! Approximately 16 hours after leaving Shanghai, we arrived in Delhi, India, ready to start our adventure.

The comparisons to China are inevitable, and our tour guide, who picked us up from the airport, spent the entire drive to town trying to figure out how India stacks up against China. We figured out part of his motivation later -- he went into a speech about how much less working class (particularly those unfortunate enough to be in the tourism industry!) folks in India made compared with China, and how it was because of the Indian reliance on tipping. He added some colorful language about tradition and history in an attempt to romanticize it, but yeah, they're all looking for tips. I tried to lower his expectations by relating our 2 1/2 years in China, where tips are verboten, and how that was the custom, etc., but to no avail.

Luckily, our friends Marc and Meredith were here recently and gave us tipping guidelines. So far, its 100 rupees (about $2.50) for the slick talking guide and 100 for the driver. Yes, it took 2 people to pick us up for some reason. And 50 for the hotel bellhop.

Anyway, Tiffany is happy, because animals abound! We are in Varanasi right now, land of the holy Ganges river, and have seen cows, dogs, cats, monkeys and goats freely roaming the streets, in traffic, even a large cow taking up residence in a store.

We hope to post pics later, but that's it for now!

Ciao Ciao Shanghai

2008-04-02T17:27:00.009+08:00

Sadly, this will be our last blog entry from China. Tomorrow morning we leave on our trip and depart the country that we have called home for the last 2 ½ years. It is with mixed feelings that we leave China. On the one hand, we are so excited to return to the US and our friends and family, clean air and blue skies, and not walking down the street worrying about having your shoes spit upon by accident. And yet on the other hand, we will sincerely miss the excitement and wonder of life in China, the blissful ignorance of not understanding 90% of what people are saying, and the feeling when you get out of bed each morning that an adventure awaits you just outside your door.

Why even today, Tiff and I were in a cab and watched a fight breakout on a street corner. Four women paired off in a tag team match and were fiercely attacking one another in a contest worthy of a GLOW bout (Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling for those of you who have forgotten already!) One pair was locked in close combat, each grabbing fistfuls of hair and pulling the other’s head down, like two bulls locking horns. The other pair traded blows with bamboo sticks they’d found laying around. It was truly mortal combat in the purest form. Now where are we ever going to witness that in California?? And not only did these women fight, but bystanders quickly gathered around. Not to break them up, mind you, but to watch in equal fascination to ours. I believe one old man was quickly appointed bookie as bets were made and money traded hands.

In any event, Tiffany and I have spent the last few weeks reminiscing over good times and bad, lots of “Remember that time when…” stories, and attempting to summarize our experience in China, to roll our last 2 ½ years into one neat, efficient, fortune-cookie metaphor. And we have struggled. We realize that these were the first years of our marriage. And we realize that it has been an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime adventure. But what does it all mean? we wonder.

Who knows, really. Our gut instinct is that our time here will continue to affect and inform us for the rest of our lives, and we will always look back fondly on our days in China. We will remember the struggles and frustrations, the triumphs and failures, and continue to periodically recall our experience with “Remember that time in China when…”

At least one thing is for certain: We have had a damn good time relating our adventures to you all through this blog! And we will try to keep posting our epilogue a little longer while on the road for the next 4 months. Below is our schedule, and we hope to find Internet access along the way.

Thank you for reading, and see you all soon,
Zach and Tiffany

April 3-23 India Tour (Rajasthan, Dehli, Darjheeling and Agra)
April 23-24 Traveling to New Zealand via Malaysia
April 24-May 13 New Zealand (driving around the North and South islands)
May 13- 19 Sydney
May 19-27 Cairnes (Great Barrier Reef)
May 27-28 Chengdu, China via Hong Kong
May 28-June 6 TBD, Chengdu and possibly Tibet or Yunnan Province
June 6-17 Xinjiang Tour- NW region of China, visiting Urumuqi, Turpan, Kashgar and other cities along the Silk Road
June 17-29 Mongolia Tour
June 29-30 Beijing
June 30-July 5 Sanya- Chinese beach town for Zach to recover from Mongolia
July 5-9 Shanghai
July 9-17 France – to visit our friends Anne and Michael, who went abroad the same time we did, to manage a B&B outside Paris.
July 17-22 New York
July 22-29 Chicago
July 29-? San Francisco

The Li River Runs Through It

2008-03-30T16:00:00.004+08:00

Tiffany and I celebrated our last day of work on Friday the 21st of March. The next day we flew down to Guilin in the south of China to experience the famous Li River boat cruise to Yangshuo, where we spent four days celebrating the end of our China careers.

Along the Li River cruise are some incredible landscapes, and the boats floating slowly down the calm waters are dwarfed by sheer, craggy mountains on both sides. The scenery along the river has famously been memorialized in countless Chinese scroll paintings and landscapes, as well as on the back of their 20 dollar bill.

Yangshuo is a sleepy little river town that has become somewhat of a mecca for Chinese tourists and foreign backpackers. The food is excellent, and the hotels cheap. Many outdoor activities are available, including biking around town to see some of the beautiful-to-the-point-of-surreal landscapes, rafting down the river, hiking and rock climbing.

Tiffany and I focused our efforts on maximum relaxation and spent many happy hours reading on our balcony, and wandering aimlessly around the area and admiring the many stunning views. You can see the view from the balcony in our room, and I am sunning myself contentedly.

Here Tiffany bikes along a country road to nowhere, always on the lookout for cute animals that she shouldn't approach but invariably will.

Above and behind me you can see Moon Hill, with the hole in the mountain at the top forming the shape of a rising moon. We hiked up to the top to take a closer look, after fending off a flock of aggressive Chinese ladies selling drinks. We gave in early and bought 2 bottles of water for a dollar, in return for their agreement not to follow us up the mountain, like they did with all the other hikers we saw.

At the top of the mountain was not only an impressive rock formation, but some brave rock climbers who were busy ascending it. If you look closely you can see the climber on his descent. He had just finished climbing the underbelly of the arch, which, given gravity's annoying persistence, is extremely difficult. (For all the rock climbers out there -- I asked him about the climb and he said it was rated a 5.13b.)

It is really an amazing sight, to see these mountains. Imagine you were high above up in the sky and had a handful of mountains in your hand. If you were to let them spill out of your hand, and watched them tumble to earth, and plunk into the ground at random angles and patterns, that is pretty much how Yangshuo would appear.

It was the perfect way for Tiffany and me to wrap up our China careers. We had a nice long weekend to rest and relax, and contemplate what a fascinating experience China has been.

And what better place to sit and think than Guilin and Yangshuo, whose breathtaking sights have served as inspiration to philosophers, artists and very appreciative travelers for centuries.

Models vs. Real People

2008-03-14T14:04:00.004+08:00

Last week, I somehow got talked into taking part in a International Women's Day fashion show featuring a group of Shanghai's female professionals. They tempted me with free clothing, how could I say no?

I arrived at 4PM sharp for almost 3 hours of hair, make-up and practice. I was one of three western women, as all of the other 'models' were Shanghainese movers and shakers.

The hair stylist apparently thought most of the women were too short for the runway, and took the liberty of adding 3-4 inches of hair height.

With lots of ratting and hairspray, the hair stylist unknowingly re-created my 8th Grade Dance Hair (circa 1990) . Needless to say, that style remains a low point (right next to the spiral perm and big bangs) in my hair history.

The show started at 6:30, and it was my understanding that I could do the fashion show and cut out after. But, as happens so many times in China, I misunderstood the situation, and ended up having to sit down to a formal dinner, listen to many speeches (in Mandarin of course), and watch several cultural performances before my runway debut.

After dinner, speeches, entertainment, and several toasts of orange soda (apparently the drink of choice for Women's Day events), it was time for the 'Fashion Show by Elegant Women Elites', my big runway debut. I felt pretty good, as I had at least 4 inches on all of the other participants and was by far the youngest of the group by at least a decade, and while I wasn't a big fan of my hair, looking at the other participants, it seemed I had gotten off easy. With my ego puffing up by the moment, I took my place in line, trying to remember all of the instructions barked at me during our 45 minute practice (of which I had understood about 20% since they were all in mandarin) and hoping I wouldn't fall.

Then something even more unexpected than having to sit through a formal dinner with ridiculous amounts of orange soda happened. A gaggle of real models breezed right past onto the stage. I immediately had a flashback to an old Sex & the City episode, as I realized there were 'real' models followed by us, the 'real' people. Let me tell you, there's no bigger reminder that you're NOT a model then having to follow a bunch of real models on a runway in front of an audience of 400+ people.

I was able to scrape a bit of my ego off the floor when after the show a very kind man from the audience asked to take his picture with me. He was pretty surprised when I asked him if I could take a picture of the two of us with my camera as well. I figured what the heck, I may not be a model, but at least I've got a fan, and I've got the picture to prove it!

Soaking Up The Culture

2008-03-10T22:15:00.002+08:00

Tiff and I are now in the "final round-up" phase of our China adventure. That means hitting a few off-the-radar places we always wanted to visit, one last trip to favorite restaurants, and covering any potentially embarrassing omissions.

A few weekends ago fell into the last category. During our time in China, I have been to Beijing probably 15 times. However it was always been for work and I had never seen some of China's greatest cultural attractions. Namely, the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and the Summer Palace.

It's ridiculous because almost all of our visitors at least made it up to Beijing to see those three, great sites. But until our recent trip, I had never been. So Tiff and I had a full cultural weekend in Beijing and I am happy to now report that I have seen all three of those fantastic, historical places.

Our first stop was the Great Wall. Here, of course, you can see the pitfalls of asking a friendly passerby to take your photo. This one apparently was only in the mood for candids. I think he was the same tourist who, after explaining that the Wall protected China from invaders, answered his child's question of, "Where did the invaders come from?" with the brilliant response, after a pause, of, "Well... from both sides..." and then proceeded to cut off any follow up questions by pointing out with forced enthusiasm the location of the public restrooms.

The Wall sits on a mountain ridge and was breathtaking as we walked all along it, with beautiful views of the countryside "on both sides" of the Wall. The amazing thing was that, after hiking along for quite some time, we eventually tired, and looked around and at the map, and realized that we had walked just the tiniest fraction of the full length of this massive, ancient barricade.

We took the slide down, which was a thrilling way to end our hike. Basically you sit on a metal sled and with zero steering and limited braking ability, you fly (no protective helmet or seat belt of course) down a winding steel slide to the base of the mountain. I wish I had a picture to show you, but of course, both my white-knuckled fists were gripping the ineffective brake handle for dear life the entire time! The whole way down, I was re-thinking the insurance option we had waived. Of course, it was only 1 RMB (about 15 cents), so probably wouldn't have done much in an accident.

Our next stop was the Summer Palace, where centuries of ruling Chinese came to rest and relax. It is a sprawling spread of over 700 acres of trees, hills, water. We had a nice, tranquil stroll along the lakeside and through the graceful, hilly landscapes, imagining life as part of the royal, ruling families of China during feudal times.

Finally, back in the center of Beijing we experienced China, old and new. The old we saw first, at Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Again, it was hard to conceptualize the sheer enormity of the construction, and as we passed under Mao's watchful eye at the Forbidden City entrance, we walked through gate after gate, into seemingly endless numbers of vast, open courtyards.

The Forbidden City was the former imperial palace which was the home to twenty-four Chinese emperors over 491 years between 1420 and 1911. The Forbidden City is now known as the Palace Museum and is open to Beijing's visitors. The well guarded palace is surrounded by a moat 3,800 metres long and 52 metres wide. Intruders were discouraged by guards in watchtowers with bow and arrows.

And we saw new China being built around us all weekend, from the gravity-defying CCTV building under construction, to the "Bubble", as they are calling the Olympic swimming and diving center, along with the "Bird's Nest", the main Olympic stadium.

The Bird's Nest is the perfect symbol of China advancing into the future, with a complex weaving of steel and concrete, built to modern architectural perfection, in the form of an old China favorite.

The weekend was a great opportunity for me to see what Beijing has to offer outside of hotels and conference rooms.

Wild Wild World of Tiffany

2008-03-04T17:32:00.004+08:00

One of the coolest things about our Asian travels is our access to animals. As many of you know, I'm a HUGE fan of animals. Due unknown reasons (possibly a weak PETA presence and legal systems that don't allow people to sue over missing fingers and rabies), I've had lots of opportunities to get my hands on lots of neat critters during the last few years. Here's a list of some of my favorites:

1. My best friend Kimmy and I came across a daily 'March of the Penguins' at a Japanese aquarium during our trip to Miyajima. Kim had to politely but firmly peel my fingers off this little guy in order to give the huge line of kids behind me a chance to get up close and personal with the little guy.

2. Sticking with aquatic themes, here I got to pet a very friendly dolphin in Indonesia. So soft and slippery!

3. After the dolphin incident, one of the trainers introduced me to Sandy, a quasi-pet monkey they had tied up. Zach was mentally chiding himself for not making me get rabies shots before moving to Asia as he saw me get up close and personal with Sandy. This was done with good reason, as right after this picture was taken, she but my finger. Fortunately, she didn't break the skin, as a safety precaution, we doused it with Purell and Zach watched me closely for a foaming mouth for a good week.

4. Zach kept me on a tight leash around monkeys after the biting incident, especially on our Cambodia trip, where they were often found meandering in the parks. Here I'm safely abiding by his monkey to Tiffany distance requests.

5. I got handed this adorable ball of fur during our trip to the Ice Festival in Haerbin. It was a money making ploy, but they picked the right target, as how could I not pay for a picture with this beautiful powder puff?

6. These guys weren't the softest, but they are the largest animals I've managed to pet (and bathe, and feed, and swim with). The Elephant Conservation Park in Thailand has by far been one of the coolest place we've visited on any of our trips, at least in my mind!

Next up on my animal wish-list: Koalas and Pandas!

Something Wicked This Way Comes

2008-02-22T16:17:00.002+08:00

Zach received the following email from the head of his office last week. The funniest part is the somewhat 'posed' photograph of the supposed threatening subject that was captured on the security cameras.

Dear colleagues,
Some of you may have been aware that a strange lady visited CS offices on the 17th floor of Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) for a few times during and after the Chinese New Year holidays. The lady called herself Eva and apparently was in mental disorder. Upon our request, property management of the building has enhanced security measures to prevent further access attempts by this lady. The lady may be harmless in all probability, however, mentally imbalanced individuals can sometimes turn violent with little or no provocation and/or warning. Accordingly, to be safe, it is recommended that our staff avoid all contacts with this lady if you encounter her in or near the building. Please also call the building security immediately if you see her in SSE. A photo of the lady is attached below for your reference.

Best regards
Michael

Goooood Morning Vietnam!!

2008-02-14T20:35:00.001+08:00

Tiffany and I just returned from Vietnam, where we celebrated Tet, or Vietnam's version of Chinese New Year. Thankfully we made it out just in time, as bad weather conditions across China were jamming up transportation everywhere, and right at the busiest travel time of the year.

Here, can you pick out Tiff and me in the crowd?Just kidding, that was the situation at the Guangzhou train station the day we left, where around 500,000 people were trying to get out of Shanghai! Luckily we were flying. Here we are during our stop at the Guangzhou airport:
(insert cricket noises here.) Lesson learned: Air trumps train travel in China during the holiday season, particularly during fluke, country-wide cold snaps.

We were expecting to warm up in Vietnam and duck the Chinese New Year's crowds. Little did we know, Vietnam was hit by the same cold weather as China, and they were celebrating Tet, Vietnamese New Year!

Here is Tiffany wearing 6 layers of clothes and feeling quite at home with all the traffic.

We visited the infamous Hanoi Hilton, built by the French during colonial times. It was flipped by the Vietnamese and used during the Vietnam War to hold American troops. Sort of looks like a nice French bakery!

I would never make it in the Big House...

They have kept on display the jumpsuit of John McCain, from when he was shot down during the war and held here. The placard next to this flight suit indicated that it belonged to the next US president! Tiffany was befuddled as she thought it looked a bit small for Barak Obama.....but then I jumped in and pointed out that it would fit Hillary perfectly.....

We then went to visit Ho Chi Minh, or as the locals call him, Uncle Ho in his mausoleum. He looked a bit shiny, and the rumor is they send the body back to Russia for an annual tune-up. We had a sneaking suspicion 'Russia' is a code name for Madame Tussaud's in Hong Kong.
Bobby Chinn, famous for World Cafe Asia on Discovery Travel and Living, has a restaurant in Hanoi. The food is a fusion of Egyptian and Vietnamese, and the restaurant has an interesting 'love den' feel (note the rose petals).

We also checked out the Temple of Literature, ancient collection of buildings, gardens and statues dedicated to scholars.

Tiffany goes nose to nose with one of the many turtles (a symbol of wisdom) that filled the temple grounds, while I search for inner peace through the sweet scent of incense.

Here Tiffany caught me looking debonair sipping coffee at Cafe Moca, a cool restaurant in which of my best friend's, Cali, has invested.We then headed to Halong Bay and spent the night on a Junk. It sounded a bit too close to camping for me, but Tiffany was sure to book us on a boat with individual cabins that included private bathrooms and heat. The views were fantastic.

We then headed south to Hoi An, a Unesco World Heritage site.

The city had beautiful architecture and was a nice break from bustling Hanoi.
We also welcomed in the New Year in Hoi An with plenty of fireworks (just in case we were homesick for China). After the show, we walked back through the deserted main market and came across a giant rat looking for food. We tried to keep our disgust at bay and told ourselves it was an auspicious sign for the year of the rat. Tiffany wasn't convinced, particularly when she almost stepped on a flattened mouse a few minutes later.
We also grabbed bikes and rode around the countryside.

And took a cooking class to perfect a few Vietnamese Dishes.
Unfortunately, the cooking class didn't go so well, as I got food poisoning the next day.While I was recovering, Tiffany trekked out to My Son, the ancient imperial village from the Cham Dynasty.

It reminded her of our trip to Angkor Wat.
Unfortunately, part of the area was bombed heavily by the US since the Viet Kong used the area as a hideout during the war. But it was still a beautiful and peaceful walk through the ancient ruins. Historians still haven’t figured out how the original builders managed to hold the big stone pieces together.

All in all, great trip, great country!

Welcoming The New Year with Hats and Rats

2008-01-31T15:52:00.000+08:00

It's that time again, Chinese New Year. Leaving the year of the Pig and entering the year of the Rat means it's Company Annual Party time! During the previous 2 annual company parties, I've been made to do embarrassing things, like sing impromptu accapella in front of hundreds of employees or participate in games that I don't quite understand but that the Chinese seem to find hilarious. This year was no different, as our HR team made each department do some kind of performance. My marketing team (above) chose to reinact a joke onstage. The joke seemed to be on me, as I was forced to dress up as a traditional bachelor and had the most mandarin lines of the entire group.

Initially, the theme was going to be 'Roll Into the New Year' and everyone was to 'roll' into the ballroom. I'm not quite sure who came up with that idea, but it was fortunately changed to 'Hats'. I'm wearing a parrot on my head to go along with our skit, and the engineering guy next to me was creative enough to make a Rat Hat out of paper maiche, while Grace our HR director, channeled 'Pirates of the Carribean'.

One of the most entertaining things I've noticed in China is how much people love to sing. They sing all the time, walking down the street, at their desks, in the bathroom, pretty much anywhere's fair game. The kicker is they don't care if it sounds good or not. According to one of the girls on my team, she said singing makes people happy, so they love to do it even if they have terrible voices. As I mentioned before, performances were required from each department, and there was A LOT of singing. While some voices were great, a lot of them resembled bad American Idol auditions.
Dancing was also popular, and departments practiced for months with professional instructors. HR did a beautiful waltz.....

And some groups combine the singing and dancing. In order to fully focus on both, they actually tape their vocal part before the performance, and then play their voices over the speaker system so they lip synch to themselves while they dance. the funny thing is, a lot of them don't even bother to do the lipsynching part, but just dance along to their pre-recorded voices without moving their mouths.
The HR team took the performance seriously and spent a lot of time and money on their costumes....

They even taped on their shoes!
More hats....

All in all, it was another great annual party. Now Zach and I are off to Vietnam to really celebrate the Year of the Rat! Happy Chinese New Year! Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Who Is Al Gore Kidding?

2008-01-28T21:00:00.000+08:00

Global warming took a vacation here in China, as snow blanketed the country in amounts unseen in recent years. This is the most snow Tiff and I have seen since we’ve been here. Shanghai usually never gets any snow, or if it does, it’s a few of those wet flakes that melt upon ground impact. But this week the mercury dropped, and we’ve actually gotten a slight accumulation of the white stuff, which has had mixed reactions from the locals.
On the one hand we’ve seen crowds of delighted children dancing around in the falling snow. Trying to form snowballs as it melts into mush in their hands and throwing goopy handfuls of snow slushee has not diminished their enthusiasm. Amateur photographers emerged from around the city to capture this rare event from all angles. And generally curious pedestrians bundled up and braved the elements to wander the city transformed into a grey/brownish/white winter wonderland. Umbrella sellers enjoyed record profits as couples huddled under cheap Burberry knockoff umbrellas found that sudden gusts easily snapped their snow shields and forced them to shell out another $2.50 for a replacement Gucci-branded parasol. For others, however, the snow can’t disappear fast enough. Armies of public workers received the call to duty to sweep away the snow, a task worthy of Sisyphus as each completed sweeping of a block was rewarded with a return trip to sweep away the equally messy snow pile that built up in the interim. The everyday bike peddlers and outdoor laborers were granted no respite and performed the same grueling work under colder, markedly worse conditions. And street intersections were manned by squads of traffic police, tasked with the thankless job of directing the unruly demolition derby of Shanghai drivers. I watched one particularly harried policeman (at a four way intersection that had traffic flying in eight different directions) alternately hop around to keep warm and jump aside to avoid getting run over, all the while attempting to establish some order of traffic flow. My instinct was to give him a tip, at least enough to get a mug of hot cocoa, but from the warm cocoon of our heated van, I couldn’t bear to open the door and expose myself to the cruel cold. So instead we drove on, and as I looked back through the rear window, I said a silent prayer to the weather and traffic gods instead, to keep watch over him.
Hopefully this cold front will move on soon, and in any event we leave Friday for Chinese New Year’s holiday, which we will be spending in tropical Vietnam!

Welcome to the Jungle

2008-01-09T18:12:00.000+08:00

We got fun and games...

On the island of Bali, where Tiff and I retreated into the lush quiet of the tropical forest for some R&R following our one week, whirlwind U.S. Christmas tour, we found nothing so dramatic as a GNR concert. Instead, we found maybe our favorite hotel in Asia.

While trying to sort out the disorientation from crossing back from US to Asia time zones on New Year's Eve, we toasted the New Year on a flight from Shanghai to Bali, and arrived at Nusa Dua, which is home to Bali's luxury resorts and beaches. The first few days were a relaxing blur of falling dead asleep at 3pm, waking up starving at 5am, and generally just enjoying our task of doing nothing but readjusting in a beautiful environment.

After that, we headed deeper inland to Ubud, where much of the historic culture of Indonesia is still maintained, and less tainted by the stink of commercialization for the sake of foreigners like us. Which is not to say that it is completely untouched, for that would have meant that we would potentially have slept in huts among the rice paddies with the locals. And while Tiff may have found that adventurous, the thought of accommodation sans hot water, fresh sheets and room service is too horrific for me to contemplate ;)

Ubud turned out to be incredibly lush and green, with winding roads taking us into dense, leafy forests, which then gave way to vast open fields of flooded rice paddies packed with sprouting green stalks and then back into more forest. All along the way we spotted a colorful array of tropical flowers and plants streaked across the green backdrop. Enveloped in a blanket of warm, humid air, we also ran for cover with everyone else at least five times a day, when sheets of rain came falling out of nowhere to water the jungle.

Ubud is predominantly Hindu, although a modified "Balinese" Hindu is what we were told, meaning that beef was still on the menu. But they did make a traditional offering twice a day to the various gods, to both good gods for luck and blessing, and bad gods for appeasement and mercy.

The population in Ubud was divided into very small villages. In a brief tour driving through the countryside, we probably passed 30-40 different villages, each of which may have comprised a clump of only 10-20 families. But each village had at least two different temples, for different gods. And in front of each temple, and in front of each home, we saw the little offering dishes, usually made out of leaves and containing some rice, and a combination that seemed to comprise whatever was in the house, which ranged from flowers, to crackers, cookies and incense sticks, to cigarettes. We were told that offerings didn't have to be big (and at two times a day who can afford it?!) and it was more the thought that counted.

Also, one's responsibility ended as soon as the offering was put down. This became apparent when we watched the large number of dogs roaming around, sniffing at each offering and snacking on them at their leisure. Here you can see me getting stared down by a furry local over a collection of offerings in the doorway.

Our hotel in Ubud was an unbelievable blend of subtle comfort and Balinese culture. Each of the villas were hidden from the naked eye among the natural blend of trees, flowers and stone carvings. You can see the thatched roofs of the villas below emeshed in the trees.It felt a bit like staying in one of the temples from Tomb Raider. We stayed in a villa built into the upper part of a hill, with a large outdoor balcony that enjoyed a beautiful view across the valley. With our stack of gossip and fashion magazines from the US, we plopped ourselves on the balcony couches and alternated between reading and napping. It was the perfect antidote to jet lag!

Merry Christmas from China!

2007-12-24T10:45:00.000+08:00

This year we couldn't decide on one version of our Christmas card, so we ended up doing three. Enjoy!

Wishing you a peaceful environment this holiday season!

Merry Christmas Comrade!

Livin' La Vida Local in Shanghai!

See you in 2008, Year of the Mouse!!!

Nothing Says Christmas Like Owls and Spoons

2007-12-18T13:00:00.000+08:00

It's the holiday season and Shanghai is definitely getting in the spirit! We walked around town last weekend to see a sampling of what our city had to offer in terms of Christmas cheer. While not necessarily traditional, the decorations were oddly entertaining......

Pretty in Pink!

We couldn't figure out if this mother/daughter couple is dancing or dueling with a fork and spoon...but we dig the lemon-yellow bell bottoms and the pilgrim outfit!

Who knew owls were a popular Christmas animal? In this picture, the owl's house is the main centerpiece of the decoration. But look closer in the lower left had corner....

Santa appears to be springing an elfin girl trapped in what appears to be a birdcage. Perhaps this is what happens to kids on the 'naughty' list....

A HUGE tree made of ornaments, Tiffany is in the middle with a white scarf for perspective on how large this tree is...

And finally, what Christmas wouldn't be complete without the 7 dwarfs with hatchets making their way into a huge stocking?

We hope you're enjoying your surrounding holiday decorations as much as we are!

Time For Me To Fly

2007-12-07T15:50:00.000+08:00

From our experience, the Chinese seem to be on the emotionally expressive side in their writing. This could not be more evident than in the mass, company-wide 'goodbye' emails some of our colleagues have sent out as they've moved on to better opportunities:

Example 1.
RE: Ciao Ciao Shanghai Centre, Ciao my friend
Dear all,
Tomorrow will be my last working day in Shanghai Centre, up to now it’s complicated mood in my heart as the people who likes you no matter know me or not know me it’s all in a bravo memory, I will recall those time when we were together.

I wish all of you will have a great life like chocolate’s sweet!

Keep in touch and all the best!
XXX

Example 2.
Re: Farewell
I am so happy to be working with you guys for five months. Now I am leaving and I wanna say Thank You to everybody here who has ever helped me.

Winky, Your humour is the flavour in our life.

Vivian, Cute and nice girl. Like you very much.

Amy, I hope one day I could be as elegant as you and have half of your equanimity when in a panic.

George, You are like a senior friend and sometimes silent observer.

Elian, Quiet impressed by your big and watery eyes. Thank you for your encouragement when I am in depression.

Tiffany, The most pleasant and considerate “lao wai” I’ve ever met. If only I could have a boss like you!

Sophie, You are sweet and your daughter is sweeter.

Although we are going to be apart far away from each other, I trust our friendship will last forever.

Yours Faithfully,
XXX

Zach and I plan to use thesaurus.com heavily for our eventual 'farewell' emails, something tells me the usual 'nice working with you, here's my personal email address' note won't quite cut it here.

Elephants, Tigers and Lionel

2007-11-28T20:02:00.000+08:00

It's easy to see where Zach got his interest in international travel. His parents, Lionel and Lorraine recently took a wildlife-filled trip through Asia. They spent a few days visiting us in the urban jungle of Shanghai...

Then won the hearts of the elephants by handing out watermelons and pumpkins at the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand......

And taught some tigers how to meditate in Bangkok, Thailand.

Lionel and Lorraine have learned what we've been finding all along, the idea of 'human handling' limits is not very prevalent when it comes to wild animals in Asia. While I'm sure organized animal rights groups would protest and throw fake blood on us if they saw what we've been doing (holding penguins, feeding monkeys, etc.), we've decided to take our chances. Who knows when we'll be able to get up close and personal with such incredible animals again!

One Night In Shanghai

2007-11-25T22:09:00.000+08:00

All of Shanghai was abuzz last Thursday with the arrival of the Most Inexplicably Famous Person in America, Paris Hilton. Apparently in town for an MTV event, Paris shunned her family's own Shanghai Hilton for the newer, recently opened Grand Hyatt on the Bund.

In any event, Tiffany and I were too busy with our own big party -- Thanksgiving at our house! We hosted my Credit Suisse colleagues as well as Tiff's Shanghai Centre co-workers, about 15 people in all, to celebrate and give thanks. Most of our guests were native Chinese and were excited to be celebrating their first Thanksgiving.

One of Tiffany's coworkers brought her 5 year old daughter, Yao Yao, who provided much of the entertainment for the evening. The turkeys arrived in an insulated styrofoam carrying case, and little Yao Yao was curious and scared that when I opened the case, the turkey would fly out and start sqwuaking! You can see her cowering behind her mom in the picture. She soon learned it was a little too late for the poor turkeys. Yao Yao also discovered a love for corn. After polishing off her plate, we caught her later shoveling corn directly from the serving bowl on the food table into her mouth! Luckily everyone else had already served themselves corn.

Tiffany took the opportunity to work on her cooking skills and spent Wednesday and Thursday cooking up a feast. We found an American diner to order in the turkeys (we ordered two, 14-pound birds), sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes, but Tiffany whipped up homemade cranberry dressing, corn bread, herb vegetables, brown-sugar honey coated carrots and a honey-lime-ginger coated fruit salad. She also cleaned out some leftover foods from my cousin Josh and our friend Meredith, by preparing the corn, carmel yams, baked beans and a vegetable curry that we inherited from them.

We gave thanks for something that is rare in China, our kitchen oven. Not a common item in Chinese households, we are the only people from both our works to have an oven in their home! Amazing how the Chinese make do with steamers and a few stovetop burners. But we wanted to show them what they were missing.

Tiffany bought two large cans of pumpkin pie filling and found a recipe for homemade crust using olive oil. The recipe for the pie was somewhat generous, and she ended up baking eight pumpkin pies! She also baked a blueberry and peach crumble. My contribution was my world-famous homemade cookies (I am generously assuming that if people have eaten them in both the US and China that they are now "world famous" :) I baked an assortment using chocolate chips, oatmeal, dried cranberries and macadamia nuts.

I think it is safe to say that we have now left an American footprint on the waistlines of China!

Everyone had a great dinner - most of them were tasting these traditional Thanksgiving dishes for the first time. And we explained in the other Thanksgiving tradition, everyone had to take home leftovers. Some people we even convinced to take entire pies. All in all it was a huge success.

We'd like to wish all of our family, friends and blog readers a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Bootylicious Kimchee

2007-11-09T10:43:00.000+08:00

Actually there are two separate recent events combined into this one entry, our trip to Korea, and the night Beyonce came to Shanghai.

We spent a beautiful weekend in Seoul, Korea, wandering around the streets, visiting palaces, and finding non-Korean foods to eat. I actually had a business dinner one night and ate possibly the worst dish I've ever tasted. Even the Koreans admitted it was pretty horrible, but said it was one of those "acquired tastes". I noticed not even they were eating it, though! Basically it was a cold fish dish that smelled and tasted like ammonia, bitter and sour, like it had been left out to rot for a few weeks before serving. Anyway, all the Koreans had a good laugh watching my eyes tear up as I struggled not to throw up on myself.

Suffice to say, Tiff and I stuck to more pedestrian fare the rest of the time. Luckily, it turned out that Seoul did have great French and Italian food readily available. And even better for Tiffany, they had Dunkin' Donuts, where we binged like Homer Simpson.

It was a perfect fall weekend and we were able to walk around a nearby mountain to enjoy the changing colors of foliage. The air was crisp and clean, and the trails remarkably quiet. A very nice change of pace from Shanghai for sure!

We toured the last Korean palace grounds, which included this "secret garden" area where the royalty could retreat to for some peace and relaxation.

Here I am in front of the main palace receiving hall, still feeling slightly hung over from the post-Dunkin Donuts sugar crash.

Tiffany found a friend in one of the local guards!

A day after returning from Seoul, we saw Beyonce in her first Shanghai concert ever. I don't know what it is, but seeing concerts in Shanghai is remarkably hassle-free. I guess it's because we can take the subway there, the concerts are exactly two hours long, there are no opening acts and the shows always start and end right on time, but we've seen way more concerts than we normally do in the US. And it's fun to watch all the Chinese singing along to "Bootylicious"...

Hiking with the Masses

2007-10-24T09:40:00.000+08:00

It's particularly common with Chinese companies to treat their employees to an annual outing. The outing is usually a 2-3 day vacation taken with colleagues (and sometimes their spouses) and paid for by the company. This past weekend, the two of us went with Zach's company to Huangshan to see the famous Yellow Mountain area, a popular tourist destination and a place we've been wanting to visit for a while.

There are a few truths to every Chinese outing. First, there must be a flag present. And that flag is always held by a tour guide that likes to talk. Loudly. And Constantly. On all of the annual outings we've attended (this is our 4th), we usually tend to be the only foreigners, so we can't understand the tour guide, and never really know what is going on or where we're supposed to be. Fortunately, our co-workers know this, and are kind enough to let us know what time we need to get up (always before 7am) and when we're eating.

We were fortunate to have clear, crisp autumn weather for the trip.

Unfortunately we had to share it with a huge percentage of the Chinese population. We had to wait over 2 hours for the cable car just to get up to the hiking trails.

And once we got to the hiking trails (which are really just miles of cement staircases placed up and down the mountain), it didn't seem to get any better.

A picture of Tiffany waiting patiently on the steps to get to the top of the mountain.

Who knew you could feel even more claustrophobic outside of Shanghai?

Gorgeous mountain scene, but note the small, ant-like line of people on the staircase to get up the mountain.

So much for enjoying some peace and quiet in the mountains. These people were vicious, elbows were constantly thrown and cigarette stops put a hamper in that fresh outdoor air we were hoping to experience. Not to mention, there was a crossover of tour guides with their megaphones each giving their own individual commentaries.

Tiffany really misses her less populated, smoke-free Colorado hikes.

What a fantastic view. And gloriously highlighted by the yellow flag!

Alone at last!

The saying 'Give a Hoot, Don't Pollute' hasn't seem to hit China yet, so there were plenty of workers around to pick up litter and sweep the steps (in between crowds, of course).

There are a few hotels at the top of the mountain, and the only way to get there is on foot. Supplies for the hotels and restaurants must be carried up by porters like this one. Things we saw porters carrying: budles of sheets and towels, crates of beer, construction material, a flat screen tv, even canisters of propane! Luggage must be carried long distances by guests, as the hotels are at least an hour hike from the top of the cable car. Of course, you can always pay someone to carry your bags. Fortunately, we packed light!

Zach enjoying the sunset.

Regardless of crowds, the views were gorgeous.

The 2 hotels at the top leave a lot to be desired. Mr.'If it's not 5-star, I'm not staying here' Zach almost had a heart attack when he saw the door open to our neighboring room and thought we may be sharing our room with strangers. Fortunately, we had a double, unfortunately, we still had to share it with the bugs...

After a 7 hour day of non-stop stair climbing and crowds, we spent the 2nd day in Huangshan at a small village called Hongcun. The water town was the setting for part of the film 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'. The town was lovely, but we (and our sore calves) were more relieved that it was flat and stair-free.

All in all, the trip was another eye-opening China experience, and allowed us to check off another place on our 'Must-See' List!

Our Own Personal Typhoon-The Fallout

2007-10-17T14:26:00.000+08:00

As mentioned in a previous entry, we had a bit of a flooding problem a few weeks ago. After 4 days of hotel living, we were able to get our electricity and water turned on and moved back into our apartment. The wooden floors were quite warped, but after repeatedly voicing how grateful we were to be renters and not owners of not only the apartment, but also all the furniture, we sorted through the mess and moved on.

While on vacation, we received an email from our landlord informing us that they had found 6cm. of water between the concrete foundation and the wooden floor leftover from the flood. They had taken the liberty of moving all of our furniture and personal belongings to the balconies and covered them with a tarp (note our things under the red tarp on the balcony-not the most settling news considering it's typhoon season) so they could rip up and replace the floor. They were nice enough to put us up in an apartment within our complex for the remaining 2 weeks after we returned from vacation, and we did manage to sneak into our apartment to grab some work clothes to supplement our vacation attire.

As you can see by the pictures, our place is a mess. The workers have moved in to the apartment, and we had to laugh when we saw them smoking like chimneys as they laid down the wooden slats, drilling them into the concrete. We can only hope that the noise is irritating Tiffany's nemesis next door... The workers are leaving a healthy dose of cigarette butts between the slats, something we're sure will be left there underneath the floor providing us with kind of a built in air freshening system. We look forward to moving back in to our apartment, and again, cannot count how many times we've said 'thank goodness we're just renters'!

More Japan Pictures

2007-10-14T11:48:00.000+08:00

If the last blog entry wasn't enough for you, check out more pictures from our trip at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiffandzach/. Enjoy!

I Think I'm Turning Japanese

2007-10-10T19:52:00.000+08:00

Here is what Tiffany and I discovered about Japan during our Golden Week Holiday to Osaka and Kyoto:

- Japanese like wooden houses for their temples (like this Buddhist temple from the town of Nara) and homes, even when they keep burning down. The Imperial Palace in Kyoto is actually not the original palace. It is, in fact, the place where the royal family used to go when the real palace had burned down and they were waiting for it to be rebuilt. That's right, the palace burned down so many times that they had to designate a special place to stay in the interim. Our tour guide attributed this to not only the wooden construction, but the fact that all the buildings were connected, so when one went up in flames, they all went up.

- There are a lot of deer in Nara, that are not afraid of humans. It was even safe for Tiffany to be around them. She did not get hurt for once!

- We stopped in Kobe for the famous Kobe beef. It was delicious, if a bit artery-clogging. Also, a lot of fire was used in the cooking, as you can see here, where it looks like one of the chef's heads is on fire. Don't worry, no Japanese chefs were harmed in the preparing of our meals.

- In Himeji there was this huge white castle that was built a very long time ago and managed not to burn down. Tiff and I climbed to the very top and there were lots of trap doors and hiding places for samurai in case the castle came under attack. It reminded me of that arcade game Kung Fu, where you had to keep advancing up levels. Or Game of Death, the Bruce Lee movie, where at the very top was the toughest opponent of all, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Tiffany thought the hiding places were excellent napping spots...

- Japanese have a very unique appetite, for items like these, melon Fanta soda and Roots, a cold coffee drink. Basically their appetite was about 180 degrees from Tiffany's. But she was a trooper and only ate at McDonald's twice and KFC once. I had sushi as much as possible and I can tell you for certain that sushi in Japan is AWESOME! Waaaay better than anything in the US. I really couldn't believe it and I have no idea why, but it is truly fantastic.

- There are cheap tourist attractions in any country. In Japan you could hire these runners to pull you around town. But it's so hilly that most of the time you'd be better off walking.

- It is true that Japanese people are VERY quirky dressers. All the weird Hello Kitty stereotypes about Japanese? True!

- There are all the bright, neon lit streets that you could want, packed with people at night.

- These two were perfectly dressed for a day of temple touring in last night's club wear.

- There are plenty of Mr. Miyagi-type old people who look very peaceful and happy, and spend their days painting, fishing and generally living relaxing lives. But if Cobra-kan ever comes looking for trouble... watch out!

- Tiffany peeking out at the Golden Pavilion temple in Kyoto.

- Cute traditional Gion neighborhood in Kyoto. We saw a few geisha shuffling through the streets.

- View from temple overlooking Kyoto.

- Homey little Japanese diner we found in Osaka's Minami district. A great combination of kitsch and noodles!

- A family of statues in a small shrine in Kyoto.

- Kyoto Station, a modern steel construction, 11 stories high, with train station, hotel, department store and tons of restaurants. Tiffany frequented the Mr. Donut daily to supplement her rice-only Japanese meals :o

- The Japanese LOVE gardens. And they are very skilled at creating them. We saw some of the most beautiful, lush gardens of incredibly intricate design. Can you find Tiffany in this picture?

- The gardens always featured carp, however, which eagerly gaped at our hands in hopes of some fish food, and scared the bejeezus out of Tiffany. I was hoping there might be mutant fish mounted with lasers, but there were not. They did seem ill-tempered, at least.

- The sky is beautiful in Japan. We had some rain the first few days and then it cleared up into the most amazing, non-China polluted skies we had seen in a very long time.

- Here is a very interesting modern building in Osaka. There are two long escalators that go to what they called the Hanging Garden, because it feels like at the top you are suspended in air.

- And at the top we found this interesting model that didn't have anything whatsoever to do with the modern building and its hanging garden. But it sure looked neat.

- "Okonomoyaki" a classic Japanese dish which I tried for the first time. Fair tasting, but not worth its stomach space in sushi, in my book.

- We HEART Japan!

Our Own Personal Typhoon

2007-09-24T09:44:00.000+08:00

Last week, Shanghai was in a panic about a 'Super Typhoon' that was supposed to be the biggest typhoon that had hit Shanghai in decades. School was cancelled for two days, and some offices were closed (unfortunately, our companies decided to take the risk and remain open). We also received lots of emails from concerned friends, as apparently the Super Typhoon was front page news around the world. While Tuesday and Wednesday did bring bouts of torrential rain, the whole experience was nothing close to a natural disaster.

Unfortunately, we had our own typhoon to deal with on Thursday. I was at work when I received a call from our apartment building management office telling me to 'come home immediately, a water pipe has eruptus'. That last word is not a typo, it was the official diagnosis of the property agent. I rushed home and was met with a flooded lobby and a waterfall coming out of the elevator bank, not a good sign considering we're on the 16th floor. Since the elevator was out of commission, I walked up 16 flights of stairs (not an easy feat in heels and a suit). The water that was pouring down the steps made me feel like I was in some terribly bad horror movie. I finally got to my apartment and was met by 10 people waiting for me to open the door. As soon as we entered, they found the busted hot water pipe and shut it off, leaving all of us up to our ankles in water and the apartment full of hot steam. The rest of the crew spent a good 5 hours squeegee-ing our now buckled wood floors as Zach and I tried to salvage our floating belongings. On a side note, the 10-person emergency crew working in steam bath conditions for 5 hours only cost us $25!

Zach and I immediately fled to the nearest hotel and spent the weekend consoling each other over buffet meals. The real hero of the weekend was our ayi (housekeeper). After arriving on her usual Friday cleaning day only to find a sopping aftermath with no electricity or running water in our apartment, she sprung into action. She spent the day yelling on the phone, and then left, only to return Saturday. I returned home to check out the situation and found her screaming at someone on the phone. Five minutes later an extemely cowed electrician arrived to turn on the electricity, and ayi assured me that running water was soon to follow. The moral of the story is "Do not unleash the wrath of ayi." She had an apartment to clean and you'd best not get in her way!

After 3 days of hotel living, we've got our electricity and cold water turned back on. We're hoping for hot water by tomorrow, but you never know in China. Thankfully, with ayi on our side, we are in good hands!

Comings and Goings

2007-09-20T11:00:00.000+08:00

September has been quite busy at the Chan/Tomaszewski household in terms of guests. We had the privilege of hosting one of our best friends here in China, Meredith, during her last few weeks in China. We had a lot of fun with our extra roommate, and even though she's only been gone a few days, we miss her already!

She's now making her way back west to start her new life in NYC, and is taking the long route home and stopping in India, Dubai, Turkey, and Croatia.

Earlier in the month, we were also happy to meet up with our China friends, Ting (Rachel) and Stacey. Ting is currently going to school and working in Manchester. and continues to be baffled by the fact that people pay to get tan, since whitened, pale skin is so envied in the East. She is also living with a group of Muslim guys, and had plenty of entertaining cross-cultural stories to share. She has a new appreciation for the utter confusion Zach and I felt when first arriving in China, and we had a good laugh about being the 'clueless foreigners' and discussed how humbling and challenging living abroad can be, regardless of where you're from.

And we finally had our first non-family, repeat guest, Superstar Deb Heydel! Deb is a Georgetown friend, and made the trip to visit us in June, 2006. She was back in Asia this month for a meeting in Japan, and was sweet enough to skip over to Shanghai for a few days to catch up with us. We had a great time reminiscing about DC days, ahh grad school....

We're guest-free for October (as far as we know), but look forward to more visitors in November!

A Day in the Life of Zach

2007-09-09T20:58:00.000+08:00

A quick "day in the life" entry. Here I am heading out the subway escalator in the morning. It takes me about 30-40 minutes door to door in the morning. Not bad, I just had to get used to the crush of bodies on the subway. And honestly, I have noticed it getting more crowded over the last year. It's been like literally watching China grow.

Speaking of which, the most visible sign of growth has been the new construction of high rise buildings going on. Here is where I emerge from the subway, and straight in front of me is the ongoing construction of the World Financial Centre, or WFC building. To the right is an elementary school. I was just walking by today and realized the entire school had been razed to the ground. Literally I think they did it over the weekend or something.

Walking to the Credit Suisse office every morning, I pass the Jin Mao Building, which was the highest office building in Shanghai. Right next to it is a construction site for the World Financial Centre, which will be about 60 feet taller, and the highest building in the world. At least for a month or so. I think Dubai is building a tower right now as well that will be even taller. WFC, as it is known, is on the right and looks like a giant bottle opener. The opening at the top used to be designed as a circle, but the developer is a Japanese firm called Mori, and so the circle was supposed to symbolize the sun from the Japanese flag, and that caused a huge political uproar. So Mori was forced to change the design to a more square, bottle opener looking top.

This is the view of WFC on my way to work. This was back in about May. You can see Jin Mao to the right of it, which was still taller at the time. Pretty much all hours of the day and night you can see welding torches sparkling on the upper floors. It is absolutely amazing to think that this entire structure was built during our time in China. I think none of it was there when I first started work in Feb 2006.

Here's a shot of the WFC today. It has been "topped out" at this point, which means the structure is complete. Now all that remains is to finish the glass wall exterior, and all the interior stuff. It should be done around June of next year I think. We are hoping to move our office there, but they are asking about 5 times the rent we are paying now. Then again, our current office is a run down old circa 1996 building, which is ancient by Shanghai standards!

Here is my current office building, the Shanghai Stock Exchange, where every day people stand around the big stock index board and watch their fortunes rise. I think the index rose 130% last year and is up about 98% this year. Unfortunately you have to be a Chinese citizen to invest :(

This is the lobby of the building. Every time a new company lists on the stock exchange (about once a week it seems), the lobby fills up with celebratory flowers and signs and there are big signing ceremonies, balloons and such.

And here is my humble, Class B office. Our space is getting a bit tight, so they took the corner office and tore it down, replacing it with smaller desks that hold another 5 people!

Oh, and the bathrooms reek of cigarette smoke. Ever since they banned smoking in the hallways (God forbid I know), the boys have reverted to their high school ways and created an opaque, nicotine fog in the bathroom, as if the pollution outside our office wasn't bad enough!

And here is my cubicle. The cubicle walls and even my chair are the exact same color, brand and size as my cube in New York from 10 YEARS AGO. I don't know what was creepier, seeing the same replica office furniture as New York but in China, or realizing that I started working ten years ago... which, by the way, my summer intern asked me the other day what kind of music I listened to, whether it was "stuff from my era" or not. "Era?!?" I screamed. Then I made him run laps around the building in the 95 degree sticky heat for the rest of the afternoon in his bare feet. At least in my head.

And here is Fanny. No that is not her real name, she has a Chinese name. Ok, yes, she did choose Fanny as her English name... Fanny, in this picture, is about 7 months pregnant I think. Notice she is wearing her navy blue pregnancy smock. It is a very trendy and popular accessory for pregnant ladies to keep the pregnancy cover-up on every day during the pregnancy. Can you guess why? It is because it protects the baby from all the dangerous electromagnetic waves, invisible, but flying around recklessly through the atmosphere. You know, cell phones, Xerox machines, computers, you name it. At first I thought it must be a lead jacket then, but no, it feels just like cotton. But it is "special" fabric they tell me. It seems to be one of those crazy things that everyone just started doing and so you better do it too, just in case, you know.

Anyway, that is a quick day in the life of Zach and Credit Suisse!

We've Come A Long Way Baby!

2007-09-03T16:47:00.000+08:00

September 2nd marked our two year anniversary in China. To recap, over the past two years we:

- have gotten used to seeing people in the street who are wearing pj's at 3PM, spitting pretty much everywhere (including right in front of us), and parents cradling their children over plastic shopping bags and encouraging them to "take care of their business".

- realized that Chinese traffic laws actually make sense. Bigger is better: trucks before cars before motorcycles before bikes. Pedestrians, of course, rank last, and always have to make way.

- made it through hundreds and hundreds of DVD's of old movies, new movies, bad movies, and all manner of television series.

- started out at internships making $2-3/hr and then made like the Jeffersons and "moved it on up", not exactly to the East side, but we managed to get real jobs with companies that didn't consider using Google as "consulting". Oh, and we now have air conditioning and heating that actually works!

-wrote 154 blog entries.

- visited 9 different countries and territories (China, Japan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, plus Hong Kong and Macau).

-ate many strange foods: animal parts ranging from pig ear to stomach, intestine, duck neck, "smelly" tofu (why anyone would eat a food with a name like that we have no idea), and durian, possibly one of the worst smelling and tasting fruits of all time, to the point where it is restricted from being eaten in many public places.

-had 34 different visitors.

-undergone 1 major surgery performed by a local Chinese doctor.

- spent many more hours at the "Fabmo", or fabric market, than we care to remember, ordering over 16 suits, countless shirts, costumes, jackets, pashminas and a mountain of silk products. And of course we may have supplemented our wardrobes with a few knockoff brand name items here and there. Zach in particular couldn't resist the $65 Armani suits!

- had our bodies pounded and massaged for somewhere in the range of 150 hours.

-seen more Broadway musicals in Shanghai than Zach saw during his 5 years living in NYC.

It's been a wild ride, and we've enjoyed every minute of it. We hope you've enjoyed reading about all of our adventures, and we look forward to recording plenty more as we enter our third year in the 'Middle Kingdom'.

Thanks to all of you for reading!!!

Kill a Chicken to Scare the Monkeys

2007-08-23T16:40:00.000+08:00

So the title has nothing to do with the theme of the blog entry, but was a saying I heard in my management meeting today. It is apparently a very famous Chinese saying, and has something to do with giving a strong message to the employees, but it just made me giggle.

Anyway, the real theme of this entry is two of our favorite things, visitors and vacation!

We had the pleasure of hosting Adam and Lilly for a weekend at the end of last month. They are friends from San Fran, and were visiting China and stopped in Shanghai to visit us. It was great to see them, and Lilly, who's originally from China, put Zach and I to shame with her bargaining skills. We were impressed!

At the beginning of the month, we headed back to the States for a week at the Tomaszewski cottage on Stone Lake. The cottage is in a town that is pretty much the complete opposite of Shanghai, it's small, very green, and not crowded at all. Located in La Porte, Indiana, our trip was highlighted by trips to Dairy Queen and Steak n' Shake, and finding out that the local movie theater prices have actually gone down (!) since our last visit. When was the last time you saw that?? Evening shows are $1.50, and matinees are $1. Our friends Kim and Elizabeth also joined us at the cottage and we spent one morning out blueberry picking. It was fun, but we only lasted about 20 minutes in the summer heat before we called it quits. We will never again take blueberry pickers for granted!

We also spent some time in Flossmoor with my grandparents and they are doing great, and splitting their time between Flossmoor and Florida in the winter. My grandfather just turned 89, can you believe it?

After a week of stuffing ourselves with all our favorite American foods it was time for me to return to Shanghai. Zach spent another week out in California visiting friends and family and ate lots of burritos and his other favorite Californian foods! He also got to spend time with family members, and even walked the Golden Gate Bridge with his grandmother. He could barely keep up!

So now we're settling back into our China lives, and happy to finally be over jet lag. Next weekend is a trip out to Hangzhou with my company. They mentioned something about a water park? I'm sure we will have some interesting pictures and stories to share about that!

ON SALE NOW!

2007-07-31T16:01:00.000+08:00

Tiffany turned 31 on July 21st and what better way to celebrate than with a frenzied end-of-summer-sales shopping spree in Hong Kong? And Tiffany even got to buy some things, too!

We enjoyed a very relaxing weekend at the Four Seasons in Hong Kong, and explored all the efficiencies of the island city. It is relentlessly hot and humid right now, so we really appreciated the hermetically sealed shopping environment. The hotel is connected to the famous IFC Mall, which is also connected to the high speed train that brings you in to the city directly from the airport. Pretty much the only time we went outside was to go for a swim in their refreshing infinity pool, which overlooks the Victoria Harbour (that's how they spell it there, all British and everything) that separates Hong Kong island from Kowloon and the mainland.

Here is Tiffany showing off the chocolate birthday cake that the hotel staff sent up. Our room had an unbelievable view of the water. Please also note the beee-yuuu-teee-full flowers next to her. Who's a great boyfriend?? or husband, now, is it?

Hong Kong has a great ferry transport that takes you between the island and Kowloon running constantly throughout the day. It'll cost you something like 20 cents for one of the most scenic rides in Asia.

Here we are relaxing by the pool after our massage. It was very tiring trying to keep up with the busy birthday pampering schedule! As you can see, my hair is suffering as a result.

Birthday dinner at Felix, a Philippe Starck-designed restaurant at the top of the Peninsula Hotel. If you ever get a chance, you should check out the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong. It has a really grand entrance and when you enter, you feel like you've stepped back in time, warped back to the 1920's or 30's or whenever the peak of Hong Kong's colonial era was. Soaring ceilings are held up by massive white columns, huge glass chandeliers hang from high above and shimmer softly to the classic songs being played by the live jazz band.

Oh, and the low, marble stone toilets in Felix are pressed right up against the floor to ceiling windows, which gives one a sort of gleeful vertigo while "taking care of business".

Our friends Kevin and Melissa were in Hong Kong, too, and met up with us for a tea and crumpets dessert. If crumpets means cheesecake, anyway... I know we had tea at least.

It was great to see them since they've moved on from Shanghai, with Kevin taking a job at a Hong Kong law firm and Melissa relocating with the US Consulate to her new position in Bangkok.

What a great way to take a break from the madness of Shanghai! A fun, birthday weekend in peaceful, orderly, quite proper Hong Kong.

Don't Mess With The White Girl

2007-07-18T19:44:00.000+08:00

We share a hallway with one other apartment. Being extremely conscious of the environment, I often turn off the hallway lights, particularly during the day when there's plenty of sunlight. I also have harbored a secret hope that this custom will curb the child discipline habits used by our neighbors, which entail them putting their 3 year old child, who has a penchant for screaming, in the hallway until he stops. While our walls are thick, the front door is not, so the child (who I like to refer to as 'the evil one') can be heard through our entire apartment. I've been known to open the door and give him the 'evil blue-eyed stare', which is usually pretty effective in getting him to pipe down (and is probably instilling quite a fear into him of tall, pale faced women).

One day, after returning from work, I routinely turned off the hallway light as I entered my apartment. Less than a moment after entering, someone started frantically beating on my door. I opened the door to a woman that got in my face and proceeded to scream at me in Shanghainese (now I know where her son gets his expansive lung capacity). She kept gesturing at the light switch, indicating that she was not happy that I had turned off the light. If she had been able to speak English, or had approached me in a less aggressive manner, I would have tried to either explain or mime to her that the light isn't really necessary during the day, and that energy conservation is both economical and environmentally-friendly. But this lady was looking for a fight, so I gave it to her. I don't consider myself a screamer or aggressive, but this lady really pushed my buttons, so the two of us yelled at each other for a good ten minutes. I have no idea what she was saying, or really what I was saying for that matter, but it was loud and I used vocal chords I'm not sure I knew I had. After ten minutes of screaming and getting nowhere, she started making hand gestures for what I assume meant you're crazy', at which point I called her the only Mandarin swear word I know, the number 250. I was taught this word meant crazy, not in a 'girlfriend, you so crazy' way, but in a very mean, 'you need to be institutionalized' way. Once I called her that, she gave me a look of death and went back into her apartment.

The next day, I received a call from our building's property management desk informing me that a formal complaint had been filed against me for turning off the lights in the common area. After some explanation, the service person agreed that the lights would be turned off during the day, and kept on at night.

So now, whenever I pass our neighbor in our hallway, she gives me nasty looks and starts calling me what I assume are mean names that rival 250. I just give her a calm stare, and try to be the bigger person (not hard to do, considering I've got a good 5 inches on her and could take her if I needed to).

Not an actual photo of my neighbor, but you get the idea...

Making a Name for Herself in Shanghai

2007-07-11T15:36:00.000+08:00

We were lucky to have our friend and bridesmaid Elizabeth DeLion travel all the way from Chicago to celebrate our 2nd anniversary with us in Shanghai this past week. Well, she did stop in Vietnam, Cambodia and Hong Kong on her way here, but we like to think that the highlight of her trip was sitting down with us on July 3rd and watching the wedding video for the first time. Well, first time for her, probably about the 50th time for me and Zach.

Elizabeth braved the heat and humidity and hit all the usual Shanghai spots, the museums, the parks, the Bund, and most importantly, the shops and markets! She managed to outfit herself with plenty of new school outfits, just in time for her first day of PT school next month.

We also had fun navigating her through Shanghai Cuisine. Her favorite dish? The famous Shanghai Xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) from Din Tai Feng. We left plenty of comment cards filled with pleas to open an outlet in Chicago.

We braved the rain to snap an evening shot on one of the restaurant rooftops on the Bund.

After almost a week of hanging out with us in Shanghai, Elizabeth moved on to Beijing to check out the Great Wall and other Chinese landmarks. Thanks for making the trip Elizabeth!

Beach Escape - Hainan, China

2007-07-02T14:00:00.000+08:00

Tiffany, Meredith and I took a much needed break from the heat and noise of Shanghai in the summer with a weekend getaway to Hainan, an island along the southern coast of China. We spent a relaxing weekend reading along the beach and sleeping on the heavenly soft Marriott beds.

China doesn't have much in the way of beach vacation spots, which could be partly due to most Chinese having a severe aversion to the sun, but who knows, and so Hainan is like the Hawaii of China, but with no crowds.

Of course Meredith learned from the Chinese about covering up in the sun. Tiffany of course learned that if you are going to be in the sun then at least apply sunscreen heavily. I, unfortunately, didn't learn anything and happily swam around the entire first day and got burnt to a crisp by that afternoon.

The beaches were absolutely pristine and the water was warm, and the waves weren't too big as we were in a bay protected from the ocean.

The Marriott had a nice Vietnamese restaurant - here Tiffany can barely hold back her excitement for the food, and for the waitstaff, which actually responded happily when she asks for a glass of water, versus the usual cold, crusty Shanghai service she is used to.

Here Tiffany and Meredith pose in front of the Marriott, a huge, colonial-style building with a big, outdoor balcony for enjoying afternoon cocktails with the ocean view.

And the view from the balcony...

It was nice to see the blue sky and know that those white puffs were clouds and not pollution....

Tiffany and Meredith alternated the entire day between reading for the first 15 minutes of each hour and dozing off for the next 45 minutes. Could not have been happier, too!

X-Tina Takes Shanghai

2007-06-28T16:41:00.000+08:00

Recently, the Shanghai Government took the bold move of looking past Christina Aguilera's DIRRRRTY lyrics, and allowed her to bring her 'Back to Basics' tour to Shanghai. There was some concern, as it was less than a year ago a Jay-Z concert scheduled for Shanghai was cancelled once the government figured out what his lyrics actually meant. While not huge fans of the former mouseketeer, a musical performance where we can understand the language is a real treat, so we loaded up our IPods with her newest CD (provided exclusively by our local pirated DVD shop) and bought tickets.

The show did not disappoint. No lip-synching and plenty of cool costume changes, circus performers, elaborate sets, and fantastic dancers. The latter had such an effect on Zach, he's now contemplating how he can parlay his banking career into back-up dancer.....watch out K-Fed...

For all you US Weekly readers out there, we focused heavily on the 'is she or isn't she' expecting question. The post-show consensus was there was no true 'baby bump', just a very unfortunate pair of pants combined with a tight belt that would bunch a bit on even the tiniest of people.

The fans were in rare form, particularly during the ballads, as the Chinese seem to prefer love songs (particularly when they're Karaoke-ing or singing a capella in the streets). A neighboring seat mate seemed to be half asleep during parts of the concert, but at random intervals would perk up and scream 'I Love You Christina' at the top of his lungs. Glow sticks and lit-up devils ears (?) were out in full force, and one lucky fan managed to get her Hello Kitty doll picked up by the star.

THE “SH-OLLYWOOD” REPORTER

2007-06-19T21:11:00.000+08:00

The stars shined brightly last Saturday at the red carpet opening ceremony of the 10th annual Shanghai International Film Festival at Shanghai’s Grand Theatre. Tiffany, Zach and their friend Meredith, aka THE THREE, were on hand to enjoy the legions of screaming fans massed along the street and the continuous rapid-fire camera flashes of the paparazzi, from inside the velvet rope. Thanks to insider connections and clout, none of which came from Zach, THE THREE were able to score highly-prized tickets to the opening ceremony and the celebrity-packed after-party on the Bund.

The opening ceremony was a chance to see some of Asia’s film stars walk the red carpet in all their glitz and glamour. While completely unknown to THE THREE, it was apparent by the increase in “screech factor” and intensity in flashbulbs who the more popular stars were. The runway procession did include two American stars, film star Sharon Stone and Michelle Rodriguez, star of the film “Girlfight” and TV show “Lost”. Interestingly, the evening’s Master of Ceremonies gave a brief description of each star as they walked the carpet, and gave an English translation for the two Americans. Sharon Stone’s introduction included something along the lines of “famous American sex symbol” and “naked film star”.

Inside the theater, the opening ceremony featured a few dance numbers, an award given to Maggie Cheung (from Jet Li’s “Hero” and Jackie Chan’s “Supercop”), the only Asian actor recognized by Zach, some very nice speeches in Chinese that only Meredith could understand, and a performance of Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma” by a Chinese opera singer, sung at a volume that led to Tiffany plugging her ears.

The highlight of the night was the even more exclusive after-party, the entrance to which was heavily guarded and covered with flash happy photographers shooting everybody that entered on the off-chance he or she was a celebrity, socialite or somehow famous. Though none of the above, THE THREE basked in the artificial glow of celebrity nonetheless.

Inside the party the atmosphere was as rare and stratified as China had to offer. The peak of the affair came when Tiffany was approached by a Chinese girl, aka THE FAN, who proceeded to gush compliments to Tiffany in an excited stream of Mandarin Chinese. While flattered by her apparent admiration, Tiffany unfortunately couldn’t understand why. When the language barrier became apparent, THE FAN switched to English and confessed to Tiffany that she loved her show. Tiffany, feeling glamorous from all the champagne and flashbulbs, ingeniously responded ‘You must be mistaken, I’m not an actress, I’m in marketing’. THE FAN was embarrassed when she realized that she had fallen victim to the common stereotype known as “They all look alike,” but Tiffany was unfazed and they proceeded to talk amiably with THE FAN about the actual TV star (a well-known Caucasian woman who spoke fluent Chinese) and her show.

Although THE THREE never saw Sharon Stone at the after party, and thus Zach never got to use his suave opening line of, "I loved you in ‘Bobby’!" (which he never saw), it was a memorable evening nonetheless, with memories of beautiful yet unknown celebrities, high fashion, legions of high-pitched shrieking fans, the attendant paparazzi, and a brief encounter with fame to carry with them for many days to come.

Capitalizing Communism

2007-06-04T19:24:00.000+08:00

Growing up a kid in the 80's, the word 'communism' had extremely negative connotations. I wasn't quite sure why communists were bad, but they looked scary in Rocky movies, and Ronald Reagan sure didn't like them. I was convinced the reason red m&m's were no longer in production had more to do with their political party affiliation than an FDA food dye ban.

Flash forward twenty years. Both the Wall and communism fell in Eastern Europe, and the much feared 'Reds' have conveniently been replaced by Al Qaeida. But still, when I moved to China, I found it interesting to pull back the curtain and see how a real live communist country worked. Would everyone really wear gray mao suits and refer to each other as comrades? Would people laugh at silly tales of home ownership and mortgages? Would I be ridiculed coming from such a consumerist, capitalist culture and be routinely mocked because I had an MBA?

Well, I have to say, the political party has not lived up to the hype, at least in Shanghai. From what I've seen over the past 18 months, there's a whole lot of capitalism flying around everything from the real estate market to the stock market. Case in point, the 'Millionaire's Fair' that we recently attended. The event was held at the Shanghai Exhibition Center, a popular venue for communist party meetings. The weekend event was touted as offering a 'cornucopia of all the most beautiful and luxurious things the world has to offer....for the lover of the luxurious life'. We accepted free tickets from a client in order to attend and test the theory that if we were in a true communist country, the event would be empty. After all, there's no way the 1.3B Chinese citizens, allegedly living equal could declare 100% of the population 'millionaire status', considering the average Shanghainese salary is less than $500/mo.

Much to our surprise, there was a huge crowd clamouring at the gate to pay the $80 entrance fee.....

The opening night event, dubbed 'Nuit Blanche', was filled with 'living art' and an appearance by Super Girl, the Chinese Equivalent of American Idol.

And what do Millionaires in China crave? Hotdogs?!?!?

Like many of our China experiences, this night was strange and not quite what we expected, but, as usual, provided much entertainment. Who would have thought, not more than 50 years after such communistic initiatives as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, a Millionaire's Fair would take place in China? I find it hard not to believe that Mao's not turning over in his temperature controlled mausoleum up in Beijing.

Get Fit, Play Darts

2007-05-25T15:08:00.000+08:00

During a recent employee health check, it was brought to our HR department’s attention that our staff falls on the unhealthy side of the Shanghai average. As a response to get our employees in shape, our HR department organized a month's worth of activities to promote fitness. It’s always interesting for me to see a Chinese interpretation of corporate initiatives such as this. In my mind, a great way to improve staff health would be to provide gym membership discounts, pass out nicorette patches to the countless staff that smoke constantly, or organize a company run. What actually happened was a series of competitions that included the following:

See how many times a shuttlecock can be bounced on a badminton racket for 2 minutes...

Darts (which was won by yours truly.....I guess all those bar games really do pay off)...

Bounce a huge, birdlike hacky-sack with your feet for two minutes...

Badminton (the only event that actually made me break a sweat...kind of)

And the ever popular workout, Tug of War...

As you may have noticed, with the exception of the badminton, all events took place in our building's underground garage. The venue was less than ideal, considering the constant exhaust smell and frequent car alarms being set off. Fortunately, people barely noticed, as it wasn't much different than the traffic and honking filled streets of Shanghai. While I have a feeling the month of activities won't cause a huge reduction in our company's health care premiums, it sure was a lot of fun. And thanks to my fluke-ish dart competition win, my Chinese colleagues not only point and stare at me with admiration when I walk through the halls, but I am also the prize winner of a brand new backpack to hold all my 'fitness' gear (darts, ping pong paddle, etc.).