And AWAY we GO!

So it’s that time… time to leave Taiwan. We’ve both had a fabulous year and will take a way a million memories. We’re now getting ready for our 9 week trip through China and the Northern part of South-East Asia. We’re going to fly to Hong Kong and use trains and buses from then on. Here’s a rough itinerary and we’re hoping to update the site as we go so you can keep tabs on us.

China – 2.5 weeks
• We are leaving Taiwan for Hong Kong at 8:30am on Sept 1st where we will be meeting up with Michael, who we worked with this past year. He will be with us for Hong Kong, Beijing and Xi’an and will decide what to do from there.
• After 3 days in Hong Kong we will be riding a 26 hour train up to Beijing to see, among other highlights, The Great Wall of China.
• Following 4 days in Beijing, we will head South West to Xi’an (Shee-an) to see the Terracotta Soldiers (among other things).
• From Xi’an, we will go to Chengdu to see Panda Bears and some other sights outside the city.
• Then to Leshan for the famous 200+ ft. Buddha carved into a mountain beside a river (it took 90 years to carve!).
• We’ll then head down to Kunming, our last stop in China, before to entering Vietnam.

Vietnam – 2.5 weeks
• We will cross into LoCai, Vietnam around Sept. 20th for 3 days of relaxing in the mountains.
• Then to Hanoi and out for a mini-trip to Halong Bay for a night or two out on the ocean, visiting islands, snorkeling and sleeping on the boat.
• Back to Hanoi and then down the East Coast of Vietnam with stops in the beach towns of Hoi An and Nah Trang
• Finally we’ll head to Saigon (Ho Chi Min City) to see the Chi-Chi war tunnels and maybe a cruise on the Saigon River.
• From Saigon, we hope to hook up on a Mekong Delta trip that will take us into Cambodia around October 12th.

Cambodia – 1 week
• Our first stop in Cambodia will be in the capital city of Phnom Penh.
• We’ll spend a few days there and then will head north to Siem Reap to see the famous Angkor Wat (ancient temple ruins).
• We plan to stay in Cambodia for about 1 week and will hopefully enter Thailand around October 19th.

Thailand – 3 weeks
• First to Bangkok to visit our friend Lisa and book our flights onward.
• Bangkok, north to Chang Mai (jungles and elephants) and then back down to Bangkok with a for-sure stop in Ayuthya, the ancient capital.
• We’ll then head south down to the beach-resort areas of Phuket, Phi-Phi (from the movie “The Beach”), and Krabi.
• We will both head back to Bangkok a few weeks later where Mark will fly to Vancouver and Allison will head to Sydney, Australia. We plan to leave Thailand around November 7th.

Birthday Weekend in Kenting

The birthday girl and Beth - doing their own Macho thang with bad-ass Batman tatoos!

This was funny - these two Taiwanese girls were over by a rock, doing this photo shoot like they were posing for the cover of Sports Illustrated. They had poses galore, accessories to accentuate and they LOVVEED the camera. Naturally, George and Will wanted to join in on the fun...The girls loved it!

We spent all day Saturday on the beach with Beth, George and Will, drinking beers and enjoying the warm sun. Luckily the beach was open but we were still unable to swim due to dangerous waves and undertow (so the non-swimming Taiwanese told us).

On Friday night while we celebrated Al's birthday in style (sitting on a picnic table outside 7-11 with $1.00 beers), we met these two dudes - George and Will. They turned out to be two super guys from Hamilton, On. who we got along with really well. George is working up in Taipei and Will was visiting from Japan. We gave them a lift back to Taipei when we went to drop Beth off at the airport and then Will and I joined George's soccer team for a game.

Very macho!

We were out celebrating Al's birthday and decided to get a picture with this dude. Keting has several bars that put on 'shows' - they usually advertise them as "TWO BEAUTIFUL LADIES AND ONE MACHO MAN'. I'm sure you can tell that this is the MACHO MAN and we couldn't resist a pic. Check the white boots!

As the beaches were closed on Friday due to dangerous waters, we found ourselves driving around exploring the greater Kenting area. We found an ocean side tourist area where we walked along and saw some nice sights. Among the highlights were waterfalls, monkeys and dress-wearing mountain climbers.

Our friend from university, Beth, is currently working in South Korea. She had vacation time and came down to Taiwan for a visit. Having just recently been to Kenting, we knew she'd love it so we went back. We arrived on the tail end of a typhoon so the weather was not the greatest. Nonetheless, a good time was had by all and it was just good to see our buddy Beth.