Xian and the Terra-Cotta Warriors!

Xian is only a 2 hour flight from Shanghai which made it an easy destination to cram into our trip to China. Xian lies on the old Silk Route and is much smaller than Shanghai. The town has a very ancient, charming appeal and is very tourist friendly. We had an amazing trip visiting the Terra-Cotta Warriors, walking within the City Walls, and enjoying the local flavors!



The Bell Tower in the center of the City Wall....


Xian's ancient City Wall is a 14 km loop around Xian's old town.....it is the largest and best-preserved city wall in China...




The Drum Tower....


The Terra-Cotta Warriors.....Pit 1 has over 1,000 infantry in battle formation...

Emperor Qin Shi Huang's attempt to reconstruct his empire for his afterlife.....

The heads were hand molded so none of the faces appear the same...

Front row of warriors in Pit 1....

2 goofy tourists posing for more pictures.....



A great find for the food-lovers!!...

Dumpling Banquet at Da Fa Chang......18 different courses.....we definitely had our fill of dumplings

Street food in the market.....we played it safe and didn't try any!

Street Market near the Great Mosque.....

Da Qingzhensi (The Great Mosque) was founded during the Tang Dynasty in 742.....

The Great Mosque looks more like a Chinese Pagoda than a Mosque.....

Shanghai Continued....

We survived Typhoon Morakot....Shanghai only experienced some heavy rain and luckily we made all of our flights without any delays. Our favorite part of Shanghai was the acrobats. They were absolutely amazing and fantastic entertainment. We enjoyed Chinese tea and shopping for teapots at Tea City and the Jade Buddha Temple was full of activity.

The last day we took a 2 hour train to Hangzhou which is 115 miles SW of Shanghai. We were really proud that we managed to buy our tickets and get on the train without any difficulties since no one spoke English! Unfortunately the adventure was just beginning.....we kept getting kicked out of our seats by Chinese passengers and we finally managed to figure out that we didn't have seats.....but we found a place to sit in the dining car. Needless to say we were both pretty hot by that point. The Hangzhou train station was a complete circus and impossible to figure out what to do or where to go in the pouring rain. We caught a hired car to the Shangri-La Hotel to try to figure out what to do and then discovered that all of the trains back to Shanghai were sold out. They wrote a message for us in Mandarin and we hopped a taxi back to the train station, hoping to get anything available back to the city. Luckily we were able to buy the standing room only tickets again....except this time we knew what we were getting in to!!!




Shanghai acrobats.....



Balancing on top of 10 chairs......chairs are balancing on bottles......it was amazing!!


The Bund.....

Jade Buddha Temple....with lots of incense burning....

Shanghai sky scrapers.....



Quick drive around West Lake in Hangzhou while we were panicked to get back to Shanghai....

Shanghai Squeeze!

We just arrived in Shanghai this morning (August 7th).....it's really crowded and full of action. Even after 2 years in Asia, we still can't get used to the Asian view of personal space! The typhoon is scheduled to hit sometime tomorrow and should just be a heavy rain....at least we hope. It's pretty difficult to get around here....with the lack of English spoken and the swindler's around every corner waiting to pull a fast one on you. Luckily, Patty and I are outspoken and not afraid to tell them how we feel!


Waiting for the Typhoon to hit Shanghai.....!!!

Yu Yuan Garden.....

Shanghai's Old Town.....

Oriental Pearl TV Tower.....from the highest skywalk in the world @ Shanghai World Financial Center (100th floor).....

Dim Sum in Old Town....we love our dumplings!!

Saigon - 2009

Christina and I met Patrick in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon....as it's called by the locals) for a fun weekend - Aug. 1st and 2nd - of shopping and eating our favorite Vietnamese food. We walked around the city and enjoyed the chaos from all of the motorbikes! Vietnam was a really fun, hectic get-away!!

Enjoying Vietnamese food at Hoi An! Scallops, Fried Spring Rolls, and my absolute favorite....fresh spring rolls! Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of Patty with his favorite Vietnamese dish, Pho Bo.....even though he ate it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.....

Happy Hour with Mango Margaritas....wait it's only noon!

Patrick, Farah, and Tina.....

Uncle Ho statue outside of our hotel....(Ho Chi Minh)!

Weekend in Kuala Lumpur

We spent the weekend in Kuala Lumpur (or KL as everyone in Asia calls it) July 11th and 12th. Patrick went during the week for work and I met him there for a short weekend get-away. We enjoyed the views of the skyline from the KL Tower, the Petronas Twin Towers were amazing, and we had dinner with a wonderful couple from Scotland that Patrick met through work. It was a really nice, short escape from Singapore!


Petronas Twin Towers....they were the tallest buildings in the world until Taipei 101 was built!

View of the city from KL Tower.....

Friends in Singapore

We've made some great friends over the past few years in Singapore, mostly through family connections or people we've met through work. We're starting to say goodbye to some of them as they move to other locations for work.

Bar on the 70th floor of the Swissotel with the Kirkham's,

Dunlap's, and Lauren.....


Coldplay concert with Matt and Laura........

Our girl's group (starting from the left): Claudia, Laura, Christina, Kim, and me! We all met through my company, FMC Technologies. Claudia, Kim, and I work there and Laura and Christina's husbands work there too. Kim and Kaes moved to Perth this week, Laura and Matt move to Perth in a few weeks, and Claudia and Julio move back to Houston in a few weeks! Christina, Lou Anne (not in the picture), and I will be the only ones left!

Belgian pub in Singapore with the Dulaney's, Dunlap's, Kirkham's, Andy, and Lauren visiting from Dallas....

Lauren had an eventful visit to Singapore.....she became sick during the past few days of her visit, and when she went to the local doctor they panicked....sending her to the Center for Disease Control on suspicion of having H1N1. They quarantined her for 10 hours while they confirmed that she only had a sinus infection. Lauren was surprisingly positive about the awful situation!! In general, Singapore has taken the H1N1 situation to a whole new level!

Temples of Cambodia

We visited Siem Reap in Cambodia in January during our Chinese New Year holidays. The town of Siem Reap is located 20 minutes from the ancient temples of Angkor. Many of the temples were built in the 12th century and remained undiscovered by the outside world until the 19th century. Because the temples were hidden in the dense jungle, they were very well preserved.

Patrick and I spent four days touring as many temples as possible. It was an amazing and unforgettable experience.

Main temple complex of Angkor Wat....

Temple of Ta Prohm, used to film Tomb Raider....

Handing out candy and coloring books to children in a poor

village near the temples...

Faces of Bayon Temple....


Gate leading into Angkor Thom, the capital city of the

Khmer empire.......

Statues outside Victory Gate leading into Angkor Thom...

Trip to Australia

We visited Australia with Patrick's parents in early April. We started the week in Sydney with an early morning start after an all night flight from Singapore. We visited the Sydney Aquarium, saw a Symphony at the Sydney Opera House, enjoyed an amazing boat tour of the Sydney Harbour, shopped at the Rock's Market, and had a blast at the zoo! It was a busy few days of sightseeing. Sydney is such a beautiful city and the harbour is fantastic!

Sydney Opera House on a beautiful, sunny day.....

Amazing view of Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge at night!....

Sydney Harbour Bridge......

A night out on the town....with Charliene and Phil.....

The last day in Sydney we rented a car and drove to the Blue Mountains (100 km west of Sydney) for a day trip. We took the Scenic Railway (415 m descent) down to the Jamison Valley and rode the cable car for a great view of the Three Sisters rock formation. The cooler weather was a wonderful change from the heat of Southeast Asia!!


Three Sisters rock formation.....

View of the Blue Mountains.....

The next day we hit the road for the Hunter Valley (120 km north of Sydney) for relaxation in the Wine Country. We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast surrounded by wineries and packed in as many tastings as possible!....we love our wine!!!

Enjoying red wine at Oakvale.....

Scenic view of the Hunter Valley.....

Running into kangaroos in between wine tastings!!!

We ended our week in Australia with a flight up north to the Great Barrier Reef. We stayed on the beach in Palm Cove with great shopping and restaurants and we took the Quick Silver catamaran to the Agincourt Reef (outer edge of the Barrier Reef). The snorkeling was fantastic!!