VIETNAM

Every once in a while, we come accross something or someplace that really tests my limits. Vietnam had a few of those. It was the BUSIEST place that I have ever been. The capital city of Saigon has over 4 million motorbikes which make crossing the street a real task. The 10 million people in the city makes it less than the cleanest place on earth, that is for sure. I can remember one meal in Saigon where we were watching cockroaches being chases by geecos on the tables and wall while waiting for our meal. That is a new limit even for me! Drinking from the bottle with the Colbra in it also was past my limit- sick. Ty had a glass of that wine (it is called snake wine...no thanks) One of the only things worse than seeing a snake for me would be to drink a liquid that a snake has been sitting in for a couple of years.

My last limit that was crossed was just outside of Saigon at the Cu Chi Tunnels. The tunnels that were done during the Vietnam war. The soldiers would hide out in there to avoid the bombings. There were two ways to get into them. You can see a solider sliding into one in the picture and you could also just crouch down and go in. You cannot stand up in the tunnels and they are pitch dark. Sometimes you even have to crawl through them....for-get-it! I kicked it into reverse out of that thing so fast....I am sure I set an Olympic record for moving in reverse as soon as I saw how small and dark it was. Ty- as you can see from some of the pictures did not have trouble with these things. Vietnam was cool, but definately pushes the envelope with comfort levels. It does have so many interesting things about it and the beaches (although we were forcing it by wearing a bikini in the winter) were beautiful. White sand and basically you had the beach to yourself.

VIETNAM

Vietnam was an interesting trip. The Halong Bay trip (with the moutain-like structures in the water) ranks up there on our TOP 10 things that we have ever seen. The people in Vietnam are very kind. We spent some time on the river, taking a stroll through the canals with the locals, and on a boat from Hanoi. The most memorable image from Vietnam is everyone having those things to carry what they are selling over one shoulder. They are everywhere.

CAMBODIA

Angkor Wat- Cambodia.

Probably the most different Christmas experience that I could have imagined. These temples were built between the 8-13 th century....pretty amazing. We spent Christmas Eve there.

This is one of the temples that you see here- there are over 200 temples in Cambodia.

As you can see we spared no expense at our hotel in Cambodia for Christmas. First Christmas without snow....very strange. I think I even got a sun-burn on Christmas Day, not everyone can say that!

We went to another place in Cambodia called Phenom Phen. They went through a civil war in the 1970's that was one of the most brutal memorials that we have ever seen. We are not posting any pictures from that city...as you can understand.

Shanghai with some sista's

Two of my sisters came to visit over the Christmas break and we were off to Shanghai. Shanghai is quickly becoming one of our favorite cities for a lot of reasons. Great food, great pace , great little cultural areas. In one of the pictures you can see the park close to our hotel packed with people doing Tai Chi at 7 am.

The GREAT WALL of China

The one and only GREAT WALL of China

It really is one of the most incredable accomplishments in human history. We have never seen anything like it. It is one of those things where it does not matter how many pictures you see or how many shows are on TV about it, when you are standing on the Great Wall, you are beside yourself. It is 6000 km long!! That is the distance from Vancouver to Nova Scotia...(ish)
All of you must make seeing the Great Wall one of the "must do's' of your life time. PLEASE!!