Thailand Part One:

So Kristen spent her first week in Thailand in Phuket (on the West Coast of the Southern Peninsula) and Koh Tao (an island on the East Coast). She took a diving course on Koh Tao with Cam and Chelsea, and learned that she was meant to be underwater. Apparently she rocked the course, and was proficient at all the little skills and techniques she needed to master in order to get her certification. They saw lots of different tropical fish and coral, and thoroughly enjoyed learning how to breathe underwater. Chelsea and Cam even saw a shark (black tip) although Kristen wasn't around to see it at the time. Unfortunately our camera got chipped somehow, so was no longer water proof- this was not noticed until after a snorkeling session which means no pictures for now!!!!


The three amigos met Paul on Koh Phan Ngan (pronounced k-oh Pen Yang) after he survived 30 plus hours of travelling with no sleep. They tooled around the island for a day, and then decided to rent scooters to explore a little further.


The scooters were a blast, and we travelled the whole island, looking at waterfalls, seeing a monkey, elephants, back alleys and palm trees everywhere. Unfortunately, the day ended in disaster. A dog ran in front of the scooter while Paul was driving and Kristen was on the back. We weren't travelling incredibly fast, but the road had a skim of sand over it at that point, and when the brakes were applied, the bike slipped in the sand. We ended up on the ground and in serious pain.


Cam and Chels got us to a hospital, and they took good care of us. Unfortunately Kristen received some fairly serious road rash on her calf and backside, and minor abrasions on hands, knees and elbows to go along with some major bruising of her thigh and butt. Paul escaped with relatively minor cuts and scrapes but was fairly concussed by the fall (helmets were being worn) and still can't remember the period surrounding the crash. Both of us received great care at the hospital and from the nurse at the clinic near where we were staying and the wounds are well on their way to being healed. Paul's head is doing much much better and only the wound on Kristen's calf is still serious enough to keep her out of the water. Hopefully she will be able to join us for a swim in the next day or so. We are keeping everything clean and so far not even the slightest sign of infection in any cut or scrape (antibiotics might be helping!).


After a few days of taking it very very slow and licking our wounds (figuratively) we moved on to Krabi on the Andaman Coast (West side of the Malay peninsula). We have been lounging on the shell strewn beaches, eating at wonderful Thai restaurants and exploring some coves and beaches near the beach town of Ao Nang. We went on a Longtail boat ride to Hat Rae Lae yesterday to see some incredible limestone spires, swim on a wonderful beach and poke around in some caves. One of the caves had large carved phalli which the local fisherman leave there for the spirit of a princess who inhabits the cave. The hope is if they can keep her happy, she will help keep their catches full. Seems like a good idea!


Today we are supposed to be on the way to Malaysia, but things have been a little messed up with our travel plans. Hopefully our van will actually pick us up soon and will take us to Hat Yai where we will get on a bus to Penang. We are going to take a day or two there to look around and see what is what, and then we will head to the Perhentian islands in North Eastern Malaysia.


We will try to update you soon!

Goodbye for now China!

So this is it. I head off tomorrow to meet up with Kristen in Thai gau (Thailand to those who can't speak Mandarin). Its been a long, hard (that sounds dirty) couple of weeks, but I am finally finished marking the last of my 267 exams. I have packed up the place into vacuum bags and set out the dehumidifying desiccant packs (Jinshitan has 98% humidity for most of the summer and mold is a real problem), cleaned out the fridge and packed my bags.

The last few weeks have been a blur. I have been working on creating curriculum documents for the new program that I am in charge of next year. Who would have thought that four months into my teaching career I would be coming up with the theoretical and practical basis for a locally developed course? Pretty sweet, but tiring considering I still have had to teach a full course load and mark, mark, mark. I have over 260 students, and they were all finishing review papers, essays and handing in late homework assignments... oh and writing final exams. In any case it has been extremely busy.

We have also had to deal with some pretty extreme weather over the last couple of weeks. Not only has it been stiflingly hot, but we also got to experience our first typhoon. It actually may only have been a named storm, but the students all called it a typhoon (Meike or Meile was the storms name apparently). It rained for 24 hours straight. HARD. In fact it rained so hard that a retaining wall that was holding up a cliff beside the Junior high campus collapsed, bringing down tonnes of dirt and concrete and fence. Luckily it happened at night, and it hit a part of the building that is rarely used. As far as I know there has been no structural damage but neither has there been any sign of a cleanup attempt. In fact no one has even roped the area off. They are too busy putting in grass ( in the winter they take away all the grass on campus to store it in greenhouses and bring it back... now).

We have been given a bunch of things by teachers to lazy or slow to sell off their gently used appliances and items. Lamps, ovens, a dryer, vacuum, clothes racks, spices... you name it, people dumped it ( and we are really grateful! All the new toys are wonderful... and way cheaper than having to go shopping for them- THANKS TEACHERS!).

One of the things we have picked up are two bikes. I have been out on the bike a lot recently because it has been so nice out and it has been a real treat to have some added mobility. Unfortunately I had a run in with a crazy taxi driver who tried to overtake a kelp truck (yes a truck hauling kelp to the market). For some reason he chose to overtake on the shoulder, where I happened to be riding. Like all drivers in China he was relying on his echolocation- his horn was going off in repeated beeps and blares- so I knew he was coming for some time. Unfortunately the curb was about two feet high so there was nothing I could do except jump off my bike as fast as I could. Needless to say I was halfway off the bike when his rear panel hit my pedal and handle bars and sent me for a little spill. Not damage to me besides a scraped arm and a bruised knee. The bike... well the pedal busted off and the handlebar got a little mangled, but all in all it survived relatively unscathed. Trusting to the old maxim of "get back on the horse as soon as you can" I jumped back on the bike and took off on an hour bike ride along the beach.

I also had a chance to go out for dinner with the High School Principal and his lovely wife. We went to a hole in the wall restaurant (one of my favourites: it serves mashed potatoes with cilantro, chili and gravy... along with donkey dumplings and "race dog") with the only other Canadians still in Jinshitan. It was great to hang out with "the authority figure" in a more relaxed setting as he is someone I actually really enjoy talking to. His wife is an absolute gem as well, and one of the sweetest people we have met here.

To cap off this last blog entry of the first six months in China... some observations:

1- Things that are ostensibly food are really not meant to be eaten despite their avouched nutritive properties.

2- Never, ever will we attempt to drive in China.

3- Every time you think you have found the dirtiest washroom, you are always surprised by an even more putrid one.

4- China is not a place for the question "why?"

5- When speaking Mandarin, it is best to be forceful and bluster your way through any attempted phrase... in any case you won't be understood by your intended recipient, but you might impress them with your manner.

These four months have been a shock, an adventure, a challenge, an eye opener, a hell of a lot of hard work and a lot of fun. There have been a few times when we have been so frustrated that there was shouting, fewer times when tears were shed, and a few times when we wanted to pack it in and call it quits. But there have also been times that have been magical, that have been exciting and interesting and strange all rolled up into one. And so, even though we are leaving China for a few months, we will be back to do it again for one more year....

Vehicles of China




There are so many strange things about China, but we have now become accustomed to many of them. The cars however, are not in this category. I think it is because they honk so loudly at us all the time as we are peacefully walking down the sidewalk minding our own business. There are so many cars and trucks and buses here that would have long since been decommissioned in North America. They are rusty, falling apart, and they smoke when they are turned on. Unfortunately, we usually see the best ones when we DO NOT have the camera with us (clearly we need iphones), but here are a few that we have managed to capture on film.

These little beauties are EVERYWHERE, they haul families, seaweed, garbage....you name it.




This is the pedal version of the previous one. They seem to last forever! 



"The Blue ones DON'T stop" These are the taxis. Yes the are ALL blue and YES they are the most dangerous vehicles on the road.

This is a typical bike in Jinshitan, the village where we live.

This is Timio and Paul on Tim's Scoot-scoot. I dont think there is anything else to say here.

This is a SIX seater POLICE golf cart. WTC!

This is a "traditional" bamboo raft made out of PVC pipe. Yay environment!

The China version of the Dodge MPV van. The seat you can see in the slider door, folds down, so you can cram more people in.

This is a Man. A Mini-van. It has 3 wheels and a joy stick. Yes the men standing in front have bowed their heads to its awesome-ness.

F.C. Dalian Shide

Last weekend we went with a group of teachers to Jinzhou to watch some “football.” Dalian’s professional soccer team – F.C. Dalian Shide (pronounced shh-dah)- was once the best in Asia, and won 8 consecutive Asian cup championships. Now they have been picked clean of their most highly talented players by European teams, but they still provide an incredibly entertaining spectacle most nights.

To get to Jinzhou we had to take the light rail line from Kaifaqu. Jinzhou is basically another suburb of Dalian, but is much more “Chinese” than Kaifaqu. It has less of the high end malls and development, and more grimy highrise apartments, neighbourhoods and little mom and pop noodle-shops.

When we arrived at the stadium, the first thing we saw were two haggard looking goats tied up next to a bbq stand. The stand was selling “young-rou” which means either goat or lamb... in this case it was pretty obviously goat. Alongside the goats there were masses of people filing into the stadium, huge earthenware cooking vessels where people were cooking yams and seafood, old ladies selling seat cushions and noisemakers and a sizeable police presence.

When we got into the stadium the game had already started. We had hoped to order some beer, but were disappointed to find that they were not selling any inside the stadium. All there was to drink was pepsi that you could buy in paper cups that were thoughtfully labelled “cups”. By the end of the game it became apparent why.

The game was very entertaining. Two weak red cards were called (which had the crowd up in arms), a penalty shot was missed (Paul started the whole crowd booing the opposing player who was shooting on the Dalian goal- he is taking full credit for causing the player to choke), two goals were scored and the crows on the far side has to be subdued by the riot police. Perhaps our favourite part was when a small man/large boy somehow slipped under the protective netting that separated fans from the field, and started chasing the 6 foot tall ref around the field. The tiny person was flailing his arms comically, and pretending to kick the ref as he chased him around the field, he then avoided capture by players and police for a solid minute before being taken down hard near the goal line.

At the end of the game, fans were incensed by the poor reffing and the diving of the Tianjin team and started throwing their seat cushions over the netting. It was pretty easy to see at that point why no bottles or beer were allowed in the stadium.

We had a great time watching and ended up going into Kaifaqu for some beer, sushi and pizza after the game. It was definitely a wonderful night and something we will be repeating next year.

RieuBienvenu Whirl Wind BC Tour 2011 Schedule

Hello Peeps,

OK so here is the RieuBienvenu Whirl Wind BC Tour 2011 Schedule:

Aug 9^th Land in Vancouver

Aug 10^th Head to Comox              

Aug 12^th Head to Victoria (party chez linda that night)

Aug 12- 18^th in Victoria (reserve your preferred dates early!)

Aug 19^th Head to Vancouver (ps Dre we need a ride)

Aug 19^th – 24^th in Vancouver

SING and SWIM 4 is on Aug 20^th.....ALL KNOWN ASSOCIATES are WELCOME to come!

Aug.25 Fly Back to China

Ok so here is other information you might want, no we are NOT planning to sleep. YES we do have to do errands like the dentist and doctor, NO we aren’t coming back any ealier from Thailand.

If you have plans like a wine tour or camping let us know ASAP so we can figure it out!

Much Love,

Dale & Tracy @ Sing and Swim 2, looks like fun eh?

Tracy and the Daughters @ Sing and Swim 3! Yay Jars!

Spencers band, main stage at Sing and Swim 3

The Chinese RieuBienvenu’s

(P.S. When you leave an anyonymous comment TYPE your name)

We are all Canucks?

Well Paul certainly isn’t. But, in the name of seeing the Boston Bruins lose and the cup return to Canada, he is jumping on the bandwagon.

So many of the Canadian teachers are Canuck fans and with the lack of t.v., we have all been streaming the games on our computers. This weekend, Kristen had the great idea of borrowing a projector from the school and inviting a bunch of people over to watch the game. Breakfast was involved, so we got a full turnout (not to mention French toast, eggs bennie, bacon, cheese plates, fruit salad, sweet buns, chicken nuggets and fried potatoes).

Mad Max scoring his goal on our wall curtesy of a projector and cbc.ca

It was awesome to have so many people together to watch a game and although it wasn’t the best performance by the Canucks, they still managed the win. Which means only one more win until the Bruins go home to lick their wounds.

It has been a year already?

We were caught a little off guard when we realized that our first anniversary was fast approaching. It seems like such a short time ago that we were planning for our wedding and running back and forth between Poco and Victoria.

To celebrate, we decided to spend the weekend in Dalian (the biggest city nearby –around 6.5 million people) which is about an hour and a half away by train. On Friday the 3^rd we headed into town on the light rail train immediately after work.

We splurged a little this weekend, and booked ourselves into the nicest hotel that this part of Northern China has to offer. Suffice it to say that we felt underdressed much of the time we were there. The view wasn’t great, but the room we stayed in was one of the best we have ever been in- perhaps the best! The bathroom wall slid into a recess to make the gigantic soaker tub sit in the center of the room. The rain shower was wonderful, the huge television was fun to watch real English shows on, the bed was soft and the pillows were plushy. Oh and the breakfast buffet and spa style swimming pool were fabulous! All this for under $120 Canadian.

 We spent Saturday walking around Labour park, enjoying the music from the full brass band, the waltzing older Chinese couples, the cages of cranes (yes the endangered species- on display in metal houses), the rose gardens and children’s amusement park. Later we went for massages at a Thai massage spa. So decadent! That night we headed to the top of a hill to the nicest restaurant in Dalian. The restaurant was Italian, the food delicious, the drinks cold, the service attentive (they pulled out our chairs and folded napkins in our laps- not typical Chinese waiters here), the view fairly good and the decor relaxing.

A different type of crane from the ones we see all over China.

Does Disney know about this???

Fishing for goldfish!

In all, the weekend was great. We had a chance to think back on the first year of our marriage, chat about how much fun our wedding was, and how great it was to have all of our family and friends give us so much love and support for our marriage.