Oh, the places I've been and the food I've eaten!

We are now in final countdown mode. As of today we only have 2 more weeks left! I have mixed feelings about returning. There were times on this trip that I thought the day to go home would never come (such as after the bed bug incident in Perth). This has been an incredible trip and one that has made me re-evaluate what's important in my life. This will probably be my final blog. I hope that you've enjoyed reading it! Even though I managed to write quite a bit, it's still difficult to express just what it has meant to see places that I've been interested in for a while, some since I was a little girl. Not everything has sunk in yet and I'm still processing what happened weeks ago. Now onto some final thoughts about Guangzhou...

I've tried a lot of interesting food on this trip and the other night is just one example. Mark's cousins had invited us out to dinner to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival or in Cantonese "Dune um zi." They invited us over for lunch to eat the traditional food of the festival which is sticky rice wrapped in a bamboo leaf and then steamed. Inside the rice can be many different fillings, such as beans, peanuts and meat. In Cantonese, these are called "jong." But this was not the most interesting food of the day, in fact, Mark's parents often send us jong and we eat it regularly for dimsum.

For dinner, we were taken to a restaurant that specializes in emu meat. Yep, emu. You know, the Australian relative of the ostrich. It used to be popular for farm them for meat in Australia and New Zealand, but it fell out of favour a while back when there were too many people trying to get rich off of emu farming. I wasn't really sure what to expect from emu meat and was pleasantly surprised. And it's a good thing that I liked it because every single dish we had contained emu meat. I figured that we would try one dish and then the rest would be beef or chicken. We had emu hot pot and emu stirfry. I guess emu is really the speciality of that restaurant. Apparently, during the day you can see live emus across the pond. I'm kinda glad that we couldn't see them though. I don't even like to see the lobsters or crabs that we eat when we order them back home.

Australians joke that they are the only country that eats its coat of arms. (Their coat of arms contains both the kangaroo and the emu. I guess that I should be an honorary Aussie since I've eaten both now. I think I forgot to mention that we tried kangaroo meat while in Australia. It was in Darwin, our last stop. We found a small, cheap kangaroo fillet in the grocery store and decided to go for it. Ordering it from a restaurant was much too expensive, especially if we didn't end up enjoying it. It's supposed to be eaten quite raw and there is hardly any fat in it and it's actually a purplish colour. But we cooked it up really well - I'm not really a fan of raw meat. We ended up not liking it very much. It's hard to say if we just didn't like the meat or if it was the way we prepared it. Plus, it's really weird to be feeding a kangaroo one day and then have one feeding you the next. I just couldn't get over it.

Here are some other insights that I haven't previously shared (or I don't think I have). It seems that urban Asian women are obsessed with whitening themselves. I'm not joking - we saw this in the cities of Thailand, Malaysia and now in Hong Kong and China. Women go to great lengths to keep their skin from getting dark. Most carry umbrellas during the day to protect themselves from the sun rather than the rain. There are a plethora of whitening creams as well. I'm thinking that Michael Jackson must import them all from here. And it's not because they are afraid to get skin cancer - if that were the case sun screen would be the answer. These are creams that make you whiter. It's hard to believe, but I actually have more colour than a lot of the people here. Can you believe that?! Who would have thought that I'd stick out because I was darker than the Asians rather than whiter. Well, actually I still stick and people still know that I'm white. I just find it so ironic that North Americans spend so much time and money making themselves darker, while the Asians I've come across spend money to make themselves whiter. Truly an example of how the grass is always greener on the other side.

Another thing in Guangzhou that reminds me very much of Russia is how you need to be very careful when crossing the street. Public buses come seemingly out of no where and will have no problem running you down if you are in their way. And don't think that just because you have the signal to walk that means you're safe. Oh no, people making a left turn don't care and feel that they, not the pedestrians, have the right of way. It actually requires quite a bit of attention to cross the street.

One last note, it's becoming more and more apparent that the people of Guangzhou do not have much contact with western foreigners. I regularly get stared at on the subway, in local restaurants...actually anywhere. Anyone who knows a bit of English will say hello and then giggle when I respond...sometimes I respond in Cantonese just to throw them off. I didn't think I'd be such a big attraction here. It didn't really happen anywhere else in Asia and I didn't expect it here. Mark's relatives have also told him that they have never met a foreigner who was so easy to get along with as I seem to be. I found that really shocking. Apparently there aren't many foreigners in Guangzhou who are representing themselves or their countries very well.

Well, I guess that's all. Take care and I'll see everyone soon!

Guangzhou, China

We arrived in China a little over a week ago and are still trying to orient ourselves to this huge city. Our guidebook, which is a couple of years old, puts the population at 10 million. Mark was last here 13 years ago and he was very surprised at how much this place has changed. For example, the train station we arrived at is now a bustling section of the city with expensive hotels and shopping centres. 13 years ago it was a dirt road with a hut. The school he attended years ago only had a dirt road around it, now there's highways all around it. It's quite evident that China's economy, at least in southen China, is thriving. Guangzhou and the Guangdong province are know to be quite wealthy. It seems that people in the cities now have some discretionary income. In fact, there's something else different now than from years ago. Before, movement between cities was restricted, but that has since changed and people are free to move where they'd like. What this has meant for Guangzhou is an influx of people coming from Mandarin speaking areas. Cantonese is the main spoken language in the Guangdong province. Mandarin speakers often times get the low paying service positions, such as working the reception counter in hotels, waitresses and so forth. What this means for us is that we have a very difficult time communicating with people in the hotels and restaurants. Mark knows only a little Mandarin and can only read a little bit as well.

Some things about China remind me very much of my experiences in Russia. There is so much beaurocracy and officialness attached to everything from checking into a hotel to changing money and opening a bank account. And yes, we actually opened a bank account. Believe it or not, that is actually the easiest way for us to access money while here. Mark has an ATM card and everything. There is only 1 Bank of China in Guangzhou that exchanges traveller's cheques and it's not exactly convienent to go to often. On top of that, the bank is always full of people making the lines long. There was a ton of paper work to first open the account and then cash the travellers cheques. Mark thinks that this may come in handy in the future if the Chinese government floats the yuan. Right now the yuan is attached to the US dollar, but if it floats it could do very well.

We spent the first week in an area of the city near Bei Jing Road. This is a very large commercial area. There are lots of shopping malls, restaurants, clothing stores and about 3 McDonalds within close proximity of each other. Clothing seems to be quite popular here. In Thailand, we encountered about 50 mobile stores whereever we turned, but you don't find that in China. Perhaps, because it's government controlled. You also don't find many internet cafes either, but the library is a cheap and reliable place to go for interent. This area was ok, but there was no way we could afford to stay because the food in this area was much too expensive. It seems that trendy foreign cuisine restaurants are quite popular. Western, Thai, Korean and Vietnamese seem to be big, but this also means a higher price for average food. These were pretty much the only option in the Bei Jing Road area. However, we did eat at a very popular place that specialized in Cheung Fun. It's usually a dim sum dish of rice noodles stuffed with beef or various other foods, such as shrimp, pork or veggies.

We've now moved to a much more residential area and are finding the choice of eateries to be much more to our liking and budget. Yesterday the total bill for lunch was a little over a dollar and we both got 2 soup noodles and pop.

So far we've met quite a few of Mark's relatives. His Mom's older sister and her 2 children and their families live here. His Mom's younger brother is also coming in from the village later this week to see us. His Dad's "younger brother" and his 2 children and their families are also here. We all went out to dinner the other night and had a very good time. They were all very impressed with my chopstick skills and the fact that I ate Chinese food. When Mark told them that I'm quite good at cooking certain asian vegetables they were all quite floored, either that or they thought he was lying. I put younger brother in quotation marks because it's really his dad's cousin, but in the Chinese culture cousins are considered siblings. In fact, his "uncle's" children all call Mark "big brother."

We haven't really done any sight seeing since we've been here. We were too busy trying to find a school for us to learn some Chinese, but that didn't happen. All of the summer programs start in July. But we did get tutors, they are university students who wanted to make some extra money. I'm learning Cantonese and Mark is brushing up his Mandarin or putonhua as it is called. It's been interesting and I've learned lots of new vocabulary, but as good as it as I thought I would be. In fact, my first lesson I felt like I was in that episode of Friends where Pheobe is trying to teach Joey French and he completely says the wrong thing. My tutor just looked at me like whatever was coming out of my mouth was so way off from what she had said, but to me it sounded the same. I've gotten a little better over the past few lessons, but I have a long way to go before I'll ever be able to join a conversation with Mark's family. Good thing his parents already like me because I will definitely not be impressing them with my Cantonese skills at the end of this trip. Although, his Dad did say that it's enough I know how to say "hello, how are you?"

Well, I need to get going. Hope everyone is doing well!

P.S. I just found out today that I did officially graduate on June 1st!!! My diploma will be waiting for me when I return.

Southern Thailand

From Northern Malaysia we set off and headed back to Thailand, this time to see the islands in the south on the Andaman Sea. Now for all those who are wondering, not every Thai island was devastated by the tsunami. In fact, we visited plenty of areas that weren't touched or only recorded large waves and water damage. However, those that were hit, were hit hard. On Ko Phi Phi (pronounced Pee Pee) there are only about 2 concrete structures that remain.

To get from land to island, we needed to stop in certain towns along the way. The first being Hat Yai. Hat Yai is a few hours from the border of Thailand and Malaysia. Our guidebooks warned that there wasn't much in Hat Yai except garbage and sleaze. Apparently it is popular with Malaysians looking to find a prostitute. However, we found neither garbage nor sleaze, perhaps because we weren't looking for it and it wasn't looking for us, but nonetheless Hat Yai was actually quite pleasant. Hat Yai also has a significant Muslim population and I was able to keep up my habit of eating Roti Canai for breakfast that I had started in Malaysia.

From Hat Yai we went to Trang town which is the gateway to the islands in the Trang region. From Trang we spent 2 nights on the island of Ko Ngai. We were a bit disappointed though. We were promised great snorkeling off the beach in front of the resort, but since it was monsoon season the visibility wasn't that great and quite frankly neither was the reef. We were staying at a resort that was hosting the crew of a European gameshow. We think it was something like a Dutch Survivor. The contestants were apparently on the islands near Ko Ngai, but we never saw anything. We figured that European reality shows must not bring in as much money as the American ones as the crew was staying at the same resort we were. It was a nice place, but I figure that Mark Burnett and his crew probably would have put out for the top notch resort at the next beach over...or at least one that had hot water.

From Ko Ngai we went to Ko Muk. We ended up spending 1 night here and on our first day we headed out on a trip that took us to many snorkeling sights and the Emerald Cave. The Emerald Cave is located on Ko Muk. It's an area where a cave has been eroded from the limestone rock. (In the South of Thailand there are tons of limestone outcrops throughout the sea.) However, the top of the rock has also been eroded so that the cave is open. What you get is a secluded beach that can only be reached by swimming into it. When the sun shines down into the cave the water looks emerald green, hence the name. It was quite nice to see, but something I'd never do again. A once in a lifetime thing, if you must. The swim into the cave was treacherous and neither Mark or I would be here today if it weren't for the lifejackets provided. Plus, there's about 10 meters of complete darkness to swim through until you reach the beach. Again, not so great for those who don't like deep water, wavy oceans or the dark. (As an aside...when we were in New Zealand and we did the cave tour, they company had us fill out a form that asked a bunch of questions about our health and swimming ability. Not one question ever asked if we were afraid of the dark. A lot of the tour takes place in the dark and I was not too happy. We had head lamps, but to be able to see the stupid glowworms we had to turn our lights off! I thought that should be the first question they ask...are you afraid of the dark!) From the cave we went to many different snorkeling sights. The visibility was much better, but we ended up seeing the same tiger fish over and over. Tiger fish love to eat anything you give them and will bite you if they think you even have food.

After our brief tour of the Thai islands we headed to Krabi town. Not many tourists venture to Krabi town, most stay in the beach area which is a good 45 minutes from town. We also enjoyed Krabi. Right outside of the hotel was a great night market where all of the town seemed to gather in the evenings. Not only did we eat supper there every night, but it was full of goodies and snacks. For those wondering about the cleanliness of food and food prepartion in markets or food stalls, I can say that in Thailand, people keep their stalls immaculate. You'd never tell that this food was prepared where it was.

We spent our last 2 nights in Thailand in Phuket town (pronounced Pooket). Again, most tourists go straight to the beach, but the two suited our needs more. (In truth, the town had an English movie cinema and both of us wanted to catch the new Star Wars movie before we left for China.) We miss Thailand...a lot. The people are wonderful and the food is excellent and inexpensive. Plus, it's hard not to love a country that has so much fruit readily available. I've never eaten more fruit in my life than what I ate every day in Thailand. Any place where food and snacks are loved that much is definitely the place for me!

Hong Kong

We flew from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur and from KL to Hong Kong. Flying over the islands was beautiful, but just made me want to be back on one again. And I have to say that after all of that snorkeling I think I may be ready to attempt scubadiving again. Some of you may know that I tried scubadiving in a pool and it didn't go so well so I never made it to the ocean. But now that I've got the hang of snorkeling I think I'm ready to move on.

Flying into HK late at night and in the middle of a thunderstorm was not exactly what I was hoping for. Lightning was all around us or so it seemed. The pilot said that we were flying around the storm to avoid it, but he certainly wasn't seeing all of the lightning right outside my window. I had one hand gripping Mark's and the other on my life jacket just in case.

HK was as I expected, crowded and expensive, but still neat to see nonetheless. We only spent about a day and a half, but we covered a lot of ground. We staying in North Point which is on Hong Kong island. This is where the main business district is located. On the way to the hotel we passed many of the famous buildings in the skyline. Mark was even surprised to see new buildings that have been added since he was here 13 years ago. We stayed at the Ibis North Point hotel. Ibis is a European chain of 2 or 3 star hotels. We discovered them in Morocco and have been big fans ever since. They tend to place themselves convienently near public transport. (In Morocco, most Ibis' are right next to the train station.) And they can be counted on for clean, simple accomodation. Ibis North Point was no different, except that with space being a precious commodity in HK the rooms are very small. How small you ask? Well, there's not much else besides a bed and they utilize every imaginable space. It wasn't so bad and we fit all of our stuff with no problem and had room to move. Mark says that the small guesthouses will have rooms that are 1/3 the size of our room. I'm guessing that those roomse fit only a single bed...and let me tell you they aren't that cheap!

We took the Star Ferry and wandered around the shopping district in Kowloon. Mark was looking for some electronics, but it seems that HK is not longer the place to get the best deal. The U.S. now has the best deal on electronics and computer supplies, at least the online stores do anyways.

Changing money in HK was quite the ordeal. Most banks charge outrageous service fees and offer down right lousy exchage rates. (50 to 100 HK dollars...divide that by 3 and you have the CDN dollar equivilant!)

On Sunday, we found ourselves at a very busy dim sum restaurant and I ordered my favourite dish (si lo bao) pork filled dumplings, all by myself in Chinese!

Well, that's about it for HK. We are currently in China and I'll have a blog up as soon as I can.

Take care,

Nicole