Travels in Yunnan, China

The uncertainty of 2020 has meant that we needed to refocus our summer travels on China instead of returning to Canada. While this is certainly bittersweet, we've made the most of our 33 days of freedom. Beginning Dali, Yunnan, our route was expertly planned by LeeAnne to increase our altitude gently as we traveled from Dali to Shaaxi then Tiger Leaping Gorge then Baoshan stone village then overland to Lugu Lake then Shangri La then Yubeng and, finally, Lijiang. Our guide for much of the journey was the intrepid Mr Mu and our companions for the first 3 weeks were our good buddies, the Turners. This video captures much of our high-altitude fun from jaw-dropping canyons to a glacier lake at nearly 4000m.

Unexpected Travels of 2020

Our journey ends pretty much where it began: Shanghai. If, indeed, the journey is more important than the destination, then here's the fuller version:

Stop #1: HoiAn, Vietnam: When we left China on January 23 we went to a part of Vietnam we hadn't seen before: HoiAn - in pretty much the middle of the east coast. We stayed in a small private home for a few days and enjoyed the local culture, including Tet foods made by our generous host. Three days later, we relocated to a fancy resort down the beach to celebrate the 50th birthday of a friend of ours whom we met through friends here in Shanghai. It was a fun gathering and a place that was definitely an upscale move for us. HoiAn old town was fun, also, but was absolutely packed with tourists for the new year. It was nice to hang around a few days after the crowds disappeared.

Stop #2: Bangkok, Thailand: When we got the word that the virus was keeping school online we headed for Bangkok as that is a great air hub. After a few days of eating our weight in mango and sticky rice we headed for our next stop.

Stop #3: Koh Lanta, Thailand: Having never been beach vacay people we thought we'd give it a shot. We had a lot of work to do getting our courses online so we went to Koh Lanta without a big plan. LeeAnne found a rustic beach cabin that was literally on the beach so we fell in love with the beach vacation. We adored the clear water and lovely people. We got on top of our workload and enjoyed the quiet life at the same time. 

Further up the beach things were rocking, but we were happy in our little Kantiang Bay place. The extent of the nightlife is a single fire show that is the pride of the town. We did rent scooters a couple of days so we saw the old town and a few quieter parts of the island - as if it could get quieter. We hated to leave but we knew that other adventures awaited. 

Stop #4: Sri Lanka: With an open-ended plan (face-to-face school return depended on the situation in China) we visited Colombo, Sri Lanka for a few days. There are a few historic places to see but quieter places were calling. On our way to Mirissa, a beach town about 170k outside Colombo, we stopped in Galle to see the old fort. Amazingly, it's like Quebec city with most of the old town inside the fortress walls. The place is in varying stages of repair as a tsunami hit it pretty badly a few years back. The beach town of Mirissa was a very busy place with many restaurants offering tables on the sand. The sprawling beach was lovely. It is a favourite with surfers because of the epic waves. The ultra inexpensive guest house we stayed at was run by a young French couple that lived for surfing. No A/C but it was still great. From there we headed to tea country. Our time in Ella was amazing - a true highlight of our travels. It reminded us of Kenya in so many ways (former British territory, tea everywhere, disparity everywhere, but also optimism and resourcefulness). The town of Ella has some lovely trekking in the area, too. We stayed for about a week in a little cabin overlooking the fields. From Ella we did an epic train trip to get to Kandy, a picturesque city in the middle of the country. Our friend, Sanj, was born in Kandy so we found the hospital and took a photo just for fun. Our accommodation was a homestay so we had breakfast with the owners every day of our stay. The buddhist Temple of the Sacred Tooth is located in Kandy, plus the town is culturally interesting on so many other levels. Plus work continued, so there was a balance to our touring. Our next stop was for several days in Polonnaruwa, one of the ancient capitals of Sri Lanka. There weren't a lot of low-end rentals that weren't sketchy so we splurged on a stay at the EKHO Lake house - the same place that hosted the Queen on a royal visit back in the late 50s. They let us check out the royal suite and they even upgraded us to a larger room right next door. We really engaged with the staff there as they were attentive but also genuinely friendly. After a side-trip to Anuradhapura, another stunning ancient capital, our final stop in Sri Lanka was the west coast about a 40 minute drive from Colombo. We checked in there for about a week to get a fuller handle on work (online school is really hard and the Advanced Placement program was holding to their schedule at that point). Our final Sri Lankan "office" faced west and we watched the sun plunge into the sea every day as we tended to our online classes. After a failed attempt to get to both India then Taiwan, we opted for a return journey to our home in Shanghai. The self-quarantine has gone well and our neighbourhood continues with an incremental return to normal. 

It's been a 2 month loop that was anything but boring. The daily conversations about "what's next" were difficult because this event is unprecedented in our lifetime. If we knew we had a guaranteed 2 months away from home, we might have made slightly different choices in our packing. It's amazing that one can live out of a carry-on bag for 8 weeks! Amazingly, a few stowaway items still made it home! Online school continues as we await the news of a return to campus life.

Orangutan Trekking in Sumatra

With Sumatra in basically in the same time zone as Shanghai, it seemed a shame not to visit this last wild refuge for orangutans while we're on this side of the world. As close cousins to the mountain gorillas of Rwanda, these animals live inside a somewhat large and highly protected forest that's hemmed in by rubber and palm plantations in the island's interior. The local people we met value the orangutans as the backbone of eco-tourism so they're keen to protect the environment while sharing their great apes with visitors. Bukit Lawang literally means "doorway to the hills" and, as we stepped through this figurative doorway, we found lar gibbons, Thomas's langurs, pig-tailed macaques, long-tailed macaques, white-handed gibbons, river turtles and of course, the Sumatran orangutans. Most of those made it to our highlight video:

Wonderful Norway

Self-made videos have always been our way to express joy and thankfulness for the blessing of travel. The best 30 seconds per day (on average) has been selected to represent our two-week travels in just a small part of Norway. Oslo, Bergen and Stavanger feature prominently in this.

If you have the time, join us on the journey...

Shanghai Happenings

For the past few months, our "in between work" hours have been punctuated with interesting adventures in this beautiful city of 23 million. From street food to art galleries, Shanghai has it going on. There's even a short, fun video that we put together to highlight a rainy spring day adventure.