Home Sweet Home

We've been home for a few weeks now and there really is no place like home.  The bed is perfect - not too hard and not too soft.  The fridge has all the foods we like.  Everything is just right.

We've been thinking about all the big and small things we learned as we roamed the world.  Here's a first cut at our top four list.

#1 - Canada is definitely the best place in the world to live

We always knew Canada was a good place to live.  After seeing a good chunk of the world, we now know it's the best place to live.  There isn't anywhere else in the world that has everything Canada has - opportunities (jobs, education), equality (gender, race, age), health (universal healthcare, environmental cleanliness) and multiculturalism.  Canada is the only country we've seen where all of these things come together.

When we'd tell someone we were from Canada, their reaction was almost always the same - "you live in a wonderful country".  We agree.  

Spring weather in Canada isn't always great but everything else is

#2 - English can get you just about everywhere

English is the primary or secondary language on every airline that we flew with.  There were English signs in every airport.  On the ground, we were amazed how many people spoke good or perfect English.  We got by with just the basics in each local language (hello, goodbye, thank you, toilet).

Directions in both Lao and English on a Lao Airlines flight

#3 - Picky eaters can travel the world

We may not be the pickiest eaters in the world but we're close.  We had a few challenges finding food that was to our liking but this was fairly rare.  Breakfast buffets at hotels are almost identical all over the world and are very similar to what you'd find in North America.  We found italian restaurants all over the world and, in case of emergency, there was often a Subway or Starbucks nearby (McDonalds was too but we avoid them).

We did sample local cuisine a few times and yes we liked it!  We made sure we took pictures as evidence. Here are a couple examples.

Our testi kabob (Turkish stew) in Istanbul

Enjoying lunch in Kyoto, Japan

#4 - You really should go to Turkey, Kenya, Tanzania, Cambodia and South America

These were our favourite spots.  They are "a little ways off the beaten path" and we were a bit intimidated before we visited them but looking back there was absolutely nothing to worry about.  The sights are amazing and the people are great.

"I'll be waiting right here for you"

All of the things we learned led to one conclusion - travelling is awesome!  We were hooked on travelling before we left and we are totally addicted now.  We'll be back on the road as soon as we can replenish our bank account.

Here are a few quick facts about our trip:

Number of countries visited = 27
Number of days travelling = 246
Number of flights = 70
Number of kilometres flown = ? but enough to circle the globe at least a couple times
Number of times our luggage was lost = 0 (our bags were delayed once)
Hottest day = +40 Celsius (in Dubai and also in the Amazon)
Coldest day = -2 Celsius (when we were on the Great Wall of China)
Northernmost point on our trip = St. Petersburg, Russia (59 degrees north; Edmonton is 53 degrees)
Southernmost point on our trip = Punta Arenas, Chile (53 degrees south)
Number of times we were pickpocketed = 0
Oldest thing we saw = 7,000 year old pottery in Shanghai
Youngest thing we saw = hours old baby sea lion in Galapagos
Favorite country = Vanessa - Kenya; Blake - Turkey
Number of fights we had = 0 (what happens on the road stays on the road!)

Before we close our blog, we want to say thank you, thank you, thank you to the people who made our trip special.

Thank you to Vanessa's mom Cecile.  She had the most important job of all - looking after our cat Ginger. Cecile had Ginger as her house guest while we were away and she gave Ginger got lots of love and plenty (too much!) of food.  Cecile also made sure that our house was looked after.

Thank you to Sue Flemming.  Sue is our most excellent travel agent.  She did much more than just book flights and hotels.  She was a huge help in identifying the best places to go, the best places to stay and the best things to do.

Thank you to all the people along our route who made our journey special.  We were extremely fortunate to always have guides who were knowledgeable and entertaining and hotel staff who were friendly and helpful. Many people shared their personal stories with us and these will be lasting memories from our trip.

Thank you to TripAdvisor and the folks who contribute to it.  We consulted TripAdvisor on almost every hotel and restaurant that we went to.

Thank you to Wikipedia and the folks who contribute to it.  We wouldn't have been able to write the blog without it.

Thank you to all of you who followed us along the way.  It was great to have people to share our experiences with.  We look forward to seeing you.  You can always reach us at vanessaandblake@shaw.ca.

We started our blog with a photo of our cat Ginger and we'll finish the same way.

There's no place like home!

Vanessa and Blake  

Shanghai, China

The last stop on our China tour was Shanghai.  Our tour operator saved the best for last as Shanghai was easily the nicest place we visited on the tour.  Shanghai is a great blend of old and new and western and eastern influences.

We started and finished our stay in Shanghai with a visit to the Bund, the riverfront area in central Shanghai.  It was pouring rain during our first visit so we made a second trip.

On one side of the river, there are historic buildings - former banks and trading houses built by European nations in the late 19th century.  On the other side, there are modern office towers and luxury apartments.

The Bund in the rain

The Bund on a drier but not clearer day

The "European" side of the river 

An example of the European architecture

A smog-filled look across the Huangpu River at the modern downtown area

The bottle opener shaped building in the middle of downtown is 101 stories high

On our second trip to the Bund, we spent more time there than we planned because we were travelling with a celebrity - our friend Sue.  She was mobbed by Chinese people who loved her red hair and all of them wanted their picture taken with her.  Vanessa had her picture taken a number of times as well - a girl even pretended to be a street vendor so she could get close enough to Vanessa so that her boyfriend could take a photo.

We found out afterwards that most of the Chinese people on the Bund were tourists from outside of Shanghai. They rarely, if ever, see Caucasian people in person, so they were really excited when we let them take photos of us.  Sue and Vanessa felt like movie stars!

The centerpiece of Old Shanghai is Yu Garden which dates back to the 16th century.

The shopping area next to the garden looks really cool but isn't particularly historic.

We attended an unbelievably good performance by the Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe.  The performers were as talented as the ones you see in Cirque du Soleil shows.

We also had time for a quick visit with Blake's friend Ward, his wife Winnie and their twins Naomi and Isaiah. Ward and Blake did their MBAs together and Ward is now working in Shanghai.  They took us to a beautiful cafe and it was great to get caught up with them.

Here's one last photo from Shanghai.  It was taken on a spiral staircase in our hotel.

That was it for Shanghai and, as hard as it is to believe, that was it for our world trip.  Our next and last destination was home.  It felt very weird to pack our bags knowing that it would be the last time we'd have to do that for a while and our next sleep would be in our own bed.

Even though we're home, we've still got some blogging left so we hope you'll tune in.

Blake and Vanessa

Yangtze River, China

The next leg of our China adventure was a cruise on the Yangtze River.  The Yangtze is the largest river in Asia and a very important part of China's history and economy.

We boarded the cruise ship at Chongqing in south central China.  We didn't spend any time in Chongqing and we were quickly on our way down the river heading east towards China's east coast.

Our cruise ship (on the left) with one of its sister ships

Our first stop was Shibaozhai Temple.  It's a 350 year old temple built into the side of a rock wall.  In addition to the temple, the other noteworthy part of the site is a giant retaining wall that was recently built around the site.  The wall keeps the site from flooding as water levels have risen since the Three Gorges Dam was built.

The site with the temple on the left

The colourful bridge that takes you to the site

Us and the temple

A good view of the temple clinging to the rock wall 

Russ and Sue making their way to the top of the temple

This photo shows the original ground level and the new retaining wall on the left 

Blake chatting with one of the locals

The ship's dock had its own guard dog 

Next up was a short side trip through the canyons of the Lesser Three Gorges.

The smog dulled the colours of the canyons

The colour enhance feature on Vanessa's camera brightened it a little

The four of us on our trip through the Lesser Three Gorges

View of the high canyon walls

As we cruised through the Lesser Three Gorges, we saw some agricultural activity but not too much. Somewhere between 50 and 70% of China's population are farmers but this number is decreasing rapidly as people migrate to the cities.  In addition to people who migrate to cities permanently, there are also between 150 and 200 million rural folks who work for part of the year in the cities.  The influx of cheap labour from the farms to the cities has helped make China the largest manufacturer in the world.

A farm along the Lesser Three Gorges

 
You probably noticed the grey sky in our photos from the Lesser Three Gorges and all the other spots we'd visited so far in China.  Air pollution is a big problem - China gets most of its energy from burning coal and this pollution combined with the bad stuff coming from the large and growing number of factories and cars has created a mess.  Air pollution is on its way to becoming China's biggest health threat.  Several folks on our tour developed respiratory issues after being in China for just a few days.

The pollution is so bad that it can even hide one of the biggest of all the big stuff in China - the Three Gorges Dam.

The dam is two kilometres across but this is all you can see

You can see down the locks used by ships to go around the dam

One of the locks was closed for cleaning

A model showing what the dam and surrounding area should look like on a clear day

The dam cost a whopping $22 billion to build and it does lots of great things for China - it generates hydroelectric power, controls flooding on the Yangtze and increases the river's shipping capacity.  On the bad side, the dam raised water levels by 100 metres (300 feet) upstream of the dam.  This forced the relocation of over 1 million residents who lived along the river and flooded large amounts of agricultural land.

We reached the end of our four day river cruise at Wuhan.  We made a quick stop at the Hubei Provincial Museum to see and hear their famous bronze bells.

The bells are 2,500 years old and are still fully playable

The original bells aren't played anymore but we listened to a performance with replicas

From there, it was onto one more plane for a short flight to China's biggest city - Shanghai.

Vanessa and Blake

Xian, China

There were three primary things we wanted to see in China.  We saw two of the three in Beijing - the Great Wall of China and the giant pandas.  We'd see the third - the Terracotta Army - in Xian.

Xian was home to China's first emperor 2,200 years ago and the emperor is buried 30 kilometres from Xian. His tomb has never been opened for a number of reasons.  There are concerns about how to get in as the tomb is believed to be rigged with traps and filled with rivers of mercury.  There are also concerns that treasures inside the tomb will be damaged or stolen if the tomb is opened.

You can't visit the emperor's tomb but you can see his terracotta (clay) army and it's an amazing sight.  The army of 8,000 soldiers was assembled to ensure the emperor was well protected in the afterlife.  They're buried 1.6 kilometres from the emperor's tomb.

The main excavation pit with rows and rows of soldiers

A closer look at one of the rows of soldiers

Soldiers are life size and modelled after real soldiers from the emperor's army

Each soldier has a unique face

There's incredible detail in the face and clothing of each soldier 

The terracotta army has horses just like the real army

Most of the soldiers get broken when they're excavated - these are being reassembled

View of the army from the back of the excavation area

One of the secondary excavation areas - some assembly required

Us with replicas of the soldiers

In addition to being home to China's first emperor and his terracotta army, Xian was also the center of the Tang Dynasty that ruled China between the 7th and 10th centuries.  We attended a performance of music and dance from that era.

This was the end of our quick one day stop in Xian and we were off again to the airport.  We headed south to Chongqing where we boarded a ship for a cruise down the Yangtze River.

Vanessa and Blake