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Overview 7/20
July 2001 January - June,2001 June - December,2000 March - May, 2000

Where Next?

March,April, May 2000

We left China in a rush on March 23 because Jan's mother was in the hospital. In 1995 she had had a cancerous lung removed. Year by year she had grown stronger but suddenly it all unravelled when her remaining lung had a tear in it and collapsed. After a week in the hospital she died — just about at the time we were landing at Heathrow Airport. At the same hour Jan's brother Dave and his wife were arriving in Amsterdam on a flight from their home in Thailand. All four of us arrived almost at the same time in Darlington. The funeral was held four days after the death and it was followed by cremation. Lots and lots of our friends sent their regards and we want all of you to know how much they were appreciated.

We've been in Darlington four weeks now. It has given us a chance to be with all the many relatives here and especially to see how the younger nieces and nephews are growing. We left a China that had finally warmed up enough that we could enjoy the weather — it was about 16-20 C when we left — for an England that was still in the grip of winter. Our second or third day it snowed and most days since it has been cold and/or rainy. April has broken all records for rain. When the sun is out we make a walk to town or go visiting, but we have done a lot of staying home. That is partly due to a succession of colds; as one clears up another seems to arrive. But we have been having fun reading the newspapers and books and computer magzaines.

Since we've been here Gerry (and iTech Consultants) has been offered some more work in China. He's accepted, but such details as when he'll start, what he will do, and where he will do it, are not yet settled. By mid or late May we may be back in China at work.

June 2000 - January 2001

We spent all of this time based in Shenzhen, China, just across the border from Hong Kong. Gerry was doing some consulting work for one of China's telecom equipment companies. He worked approximately one month out of two and the other month we travelled in China.

In August we started in Wuhan, took a cruise up the Yangtse river to Chongqing, then visited the Dazu sculptures before boarding a train to Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou province. After that we took another train to Guilin then flew back to Shenzhen.

In September/October we flew to Ningbo then took a boat to Putuoshan Island. From Putuoshan we took buses and boats to get to Hangzhou for a return visit, then on to Huangshan and Jiuhuashan (soon to be site of the world's tallest Buddha we hear). From there by bus to Hefei and the walled city of Kaifeng. Train to Luoyang to see the famous grottoes (not as nice as Dazu in our humble opinion) then bus to Huashan (another famous mountain) and finally to Xian for a return visit after 17 years before flying back to Shenzhen.

In December, we took two weeks to fly to Thailand to visit with Jan's brother Dave, his wife Jhap and their family in Ban Sang, near Phayao in northern Thailand. After a week of family visits we headed south through Bangkok to Hua Hin for a week on the beach.

January-June 2001

In mid-January, we said goodbye to our Chinese colleagues and took a train to Guangzhou (Canton), capital of Guangdong province. We spent three weeks in the city and its surroundings learning to be full-time travellers again. After Guangzhou we worked our way west and southwest until we got to Nanning, the capital of Guangxi province and from there crossed the border into Vietnam.

To our surprise, we spent the next three months in Vietnam. Roughly speaking we spent the first month in the south, the second in the central highlands, and the third in the mountainous tribal country of the northwest.

From Vietnam on May 15, we took a 20-hour bus ride to Vientiane, capital of Laos. There we spent a very pleasant month visiting lots of Wats (temples ), tubing down a tributary of the Mekong to admire the nearby limestone formations (just like Guilin), buying up hand-loomed fabrics, and getting fat and happy on good food and cheap prices. We also had some adventure. We rented a van with driver and drove from Luang Prabang to Phonsavane to see the archeological remains on the Plain of Jars. The journey was over some fairly rough mountain roads that passed through some quite remote and very picturesque villages. For our swan song, we travelled up the Mekong River for two days to get to the Lao/Thai border at Huay Xai/Chiang Khong. Since then, we have been back in Ban Sang, Phayao staying with the family of Jan's brother Dave.

July 2001

After a brief hiatus from travelling in Ban Sang, near Phayao, Thailand, we spent a week doing some travelling in and around  Chiang Rai, notably in the Wawi Valley. On July 4, U.S. Independence Day, we crossed the border back into Laos and took a seven-hour pickup-bus ride to Luang Nam Tha. From there we pushed on to Muang Sing, a center of ethnic hilltribe culture only 10km from the Chinese border.