 Happy Holidays! |
December 2000 |
| Happy Holidays! |
December 2000 |
As Y2K rolled in and destroyed all the computers, bringing the world’s infrastructure to a grinding halt and causing mass hysteria and the breakdown of civilization as we know it, we were certainly glad that we had stockpiled all that water and gold coins to survive the New World Order.
(Not.)
Actually, our year did start out miles from the nearest computer, telephone, or even electricity grid: we were hiking on New Zealand’s Milford Track, about 33 miles away from civilization. It wasn’t our survivalist instincts that brought us there – we were simply enjoying a great hike in a stunning environment. It marked a return to Milford Sound, which we had visited four years before.
We spent the first of the New Year (and some of the end of the last) down in New Zealand, traveling through the South and part of the North Islands. Shelley’s parents joined us for much of it (not the hikes).
In February we returned to the USA for our annual trip back to Kansas City and Houston, catching a KU basketball game and visiting family and friends. In March, Steve’s sister Jean took her first visit to Asia, visiting us in Hong Kong for a few days.
We spent Easter in Cambodia, visiting the ancient temples around Angkor Wat and seeing the sad reality of the Khmer Rouge’s legacy outside Phnom Penh, the site of the Killing Fields. Easter Dinner was about $2 each for more Indian food we could possibly eat in a small open-air restaurant in the capital, geckos feasting on mosquitoes around bare light bulbs.
Shelley returned to the USA in May, passing her certification exams for the Certified Internal Auditor, Certified in Financial Management, and Certified Management Accountant. (Phew!) I’m not sure what all that means, but it looks very impressive on her business card. The trip extended to Shenendoah National Park with her parents, staying in mouse-infested cabins. Shelley and her mom went for a 3-hour hike in the rain on the Appalachian Trail; they returned after 5½ hours, just after her dad called the park rangers. (Where were those ubiquitous cell phones?). Shelley’s return flight to Hong Kong went through Germany to visit friends from our days living in Europe, enjoying a day in the sun on the Rhine.
Work took Shelley to Jakarta for much of June and July, so Steve took weekend trips to meet her in Singapore (a halfway point/oasis). It was nice to visit friends and familiar places from when we had lived there from 1995-97.
In July we visited South Korea and the DMZ at the North/South border just north of Seoul. We both enjoyed the trip, a combination of history and sightseeing. The two Koreas have been very much in the news here, and we wonder if reunification is just around the corner. The propaganda that is normally blasted from loudspeakers at the DMZ was toned down during our trip, which was just after the first historic summit. We found Seoul to be quite gracious, willing to give up seats on the subway and generally very polite – a contrast to the relative impatient outlook of the people in Hong Kong. On the way home we were upgraded to business class, which Steve was convinced was due to his numerous weekend trips to Singapore in the previous month. He was shattered to find out that none of those flights had been recorded in his account – it was all because of Shelley’s miles! (His superiority dance was funny to Shelley at the time; she knew who was the real frequent flier.)
September was a busy month for us – Shelley first taking a trip with her parents to Enterprise, Oregon, where her great-grandparents had lived. They visited the county courthouse and found records of the estate of her great grandfather, including fishing poles that her brother Scott still has.
Upon returning we had another visitor from the USA, our friend Joe from NJ, with whom we’ve shared many bike trips through the years. This time it was a mountain-bike tour of Bali – a fantastic way to get around the island. It was our second trip to Bali, and by far the most enjoyable (perhaps helped by avoiding the tourist areas). We cycled through the terraced hills green with growing rice, passed spices drying on the side of the road, visited temples and cultural shows, enjoyed scuba diving at a WWII wreck, and finished off many nights (in very nice $3/night rooms) with a massage and a few beers under a palm tree on the water. (For Joe’s take on the trip, see our web page.)
When we were upgraded to business class on the return flight from Bali, Steve had no illusions, contained his enthusiasm, and did not repeat his frequent-flier upgrade superiority dance. Poor Joe got only a taste of business class for desert. ("What kind of friends are they? They abandoned Joe in steerage class!", you might be thinking – but we did try to get him up in the front of the cabin for some of the flight.)
In October we took a trip to Xian, China to see the famous Terra-cotta soldiers – thousands of which were found buried in a field by a farmer digging a well about 25 years ago. It was interesting to see the manual farming techniques in action, including the drying of corn on the rooftops of every available shack in the countryside. Shelley followed this with a quick trip to the USA for more business and a quick visit to see family in Houston, playing baseball with her young nephew and scoring a batch of Grace’s famous camel-shaped cookies and Grandma’s Biscotti for the return flight.
We returned again to the USA in November for yet another whirlwind trip. On the itinerary: fly into New York to see KU win the Coaches vs. Cancer basketball tournament in Madison Square Garden – four games in 2 nights. It was great to see NYC again, especially on a beautiful fall day, and to visit with friends again (including Joe, who we saw just the month before on the other side of the world). After just two nights in NYC (we never slept, in accordance with the song), we flew to Kansas City to see the Kansas State vs. Nebraska football game – complete with snow, sleet and freezing rain. It was quite impressive to see KSU Stadium filled to capacity, something that never happened when we were in college! The next morning came too quickly for the flight back to Hong Kong – just 3 nights in the USA, about 35 hours in the air.
We finished November by skipping the traditional turkey dinner and instead visited Beijing, taking in trips to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Summer Palace and Tianamen Square. We visited two Great Wall sites - Simitai, about 2 hours north of Beijing, was more authentic, with crumbling towers and narrow stone steps. We were the only two people on the wall - with the exception of two persistent ladies wanting to sell us tourist books.
While we had plans to entertain Shelley’s parents in Hong Kong for Christmas this year, our plans are changing as I write. It now looks like our stay in Hong Kong will be coming to an end after nearly 2½ years, and we’ll be moving back to New Jersey in 1Q2001. Shelley will be returning to American Standard in Piscataway; Steve will look to either return to Bell Labs, stay with IBM, or find something else in the NJ/NYC area.
Our time overseas has been a wonderful experience – lasting over 5 years and living in 3 countries. We’ve been fortunate to see many new places, live in different cultures, and meet new friends from all over the world. However, at the same time we’re excited to be returning to the place that we still think of as our home. We’ve heard about ‘reverse culture shock’, and wonder what we’ll find new and strange when we return.
We hope that we might see some of you more often now that we’ll be back in the USA. It was a pleasure to see many of you while we were living overseas.
Best wishes for the New Year!
Love,