The Kinetic Canuck

Day 7: “Ecotourism”

I consider myself a strong supporter of ecotourism. When planning a trip anywhere the first thing I do is look for the best ecotourism destinations within the country we’ve decided to visit. Then I look for companies that provide eco-friendly and eco-conscious options. In Indonesia, we discovered Bukit Lawang Jungle Trekking. In Thailand we discovered Elephant Nature Park.

As a strong supporter of Ecotourism, I am very opposed to the following activities:

Elephant riding (torture)
Tiger Parks (over-breeding & drugging animals as well as farming Tiger parts for TCM and other gross activities)
Any tour where wild animals are fed, touched or interacted with unnecessarily
Any experience that involves using animals as entertainment (unless you’re just watching them be animals…I find that quite entertaining, actually!)
Any tour that involves unnecessary damage to the environment
Any activity that promotes the destruction of natural habitats
Any activity that takes advantage of the poor, disabled or young
…..

Please don’t ride elephants! Chair or no chair… They were trained to do this through torture. It doesn’t matter if it’s fun or pretty or cool because it’s also cruel, and avoiding cruelty towards living things should be more important than “fun”. Have fun in a different way!

I typically do a lot of research before booking an eco tour with any company. I was in touch with the folks at Bukit Lawang Jungle Trekking for weeks before I booked. I wanted to make sure that my presense in the jungle wasn’t going to be harmful to the animals and I wanted to make sure that I was working with an ethical company that pays its employees fair wages and gives back to the community.

Even after our tour was done, we got together with the owner of the company and 2 of our guides to share some laughs over jungle trivia. These guys were so great. Writing this post just made me want to go back to Indonesia again!!

Our trip to Vietnam this time around didn’t have much on the itinerary, to be honest. We just wanted a low key holiday to relax and enjoy some sunshine. Of course, a lot of our time here has been cloudy (and therefore a bit cold), so we’ve been finding non-beach related things to do as we go.

I’ve spent a lot of time with my feet sitting in tumeric and cinnamon. Both are good for bringing down swelling.

Our last morning in Hoi’an was spent doing something that was labeled an “eco tour”. Now, given the price of this tour I wasn’t expecting much. I figured we’d go out in a little coconut boat for a bit, paddle around, admire some coconut trees and that would be all. I was wrong (and I HATE being wrong!)

Warning: there was NOTHING ‘eco’ about this tour!

We’ve run into this before. Many companies like to use the word “eco” to attract people, but never give a thought as to what “eco” is supposed to mean. For example, on a good eco tour, your guide will speak softly, so that they don’t disturb the local wildlife. This is what we experienced during our Hong Tour in Phucket. It was lovely and we ended up seeing several wild animals because no one was shouting and scaring them away.

Here in Hoi’an, we were told to poke at crabs with a stick….

In Indonesia, our guides picked up any garbage they saw in the jungle. Sardi, my favourite of our guides, even kept his cigarette butts and didn’t leave them behind, even though he easily could have.

In Hoi’an, there was garbage everywhere. There was also a layer of oil and chemicals on top of the water. It was disgusting

In Bukit Lawang, Phuket and Chiang Mai, culture was celebrated. Staff were treated well and we were taught about traditions and customs. In Bukit Lawang we got to hear our guides tell stories about how they grew up in the jungle village. We learned about their families and we compared Indonesian culture with Canada’s and China’s. In Thailand we learned about the ancient custom of releasing lanterns into the water. Our guide taught us how to make them so that they are 100% biodegradable so that there is no pollution left behind.

In Hoi’an, we watched villagers humiliate themselves, singing loudly over a ktv track to Gangham Style… All to make a buck

The easiest way to tell if you are in a “mass tourism” situation or if you’re on a legit eco tour is this: Ecotours typically feel relaxing. You feel like you’re part of something good. You remember your guide’s names. You remember little details that made you smile. You have time to really experience things.

Our guide in Thailand made this with us. His name was Ole. He told us that he made one of these pretty Krathongs every year of his life, since he was a little child.

Mass tourism, on the other hand, feel rushed. You’re on an assembly line. No one tells you their names, or if they do, it’s a formality and they never call you by yours. You’re rushed from one point to the next, they ask you for money many different times for many different reasons, and then you’re on your way.

Straight up ahead, in the white shorts, you can see our driver. I’m walking with a pretty bad limp at the moment, and he never even noticed. He just sped on ahead, so that he could get rid of us a bit faster to get the next people through.

If you’re reading this and wondering about those Coconut Tours… Please don’t waste your time or your money. Spend a bit of time online and look for something that is more dignified, because I promise you’ll enjoy yourself more.

Pro Tip: if you’re online and confused about which companies are doing real eco tours and which are just using the words to lure people in, here are some good things to look for:

The definition of Ecotourism somewhere in there website
Mentions of conservation or wildlife protection
mentions of building up their community or community projects that the company is currently working on
Ethical employment
Slightly higher costs (because they’re looking at quality of experience… Not quantity of guests)

An animal’s job is to be an animal. Not to entertain you. I’m glad though, that this particular elephant allowed us a selfie. This was my first close up with them, and I almost cried I was so happy. There were nearly some tears shed on the coconut tour as well, but if a different variety

If I want to look at the bright side, at least I can say that this was a good reminder of why we don’t do stuff like this anymore!

I’ll try and catch up tomorrow!!!

Day 6: Rest Stops

We took a little trip today and visited some ruins near Hoi’an. I’ll be writing more about that later, but today, I wanted to mention the tasty lunch we had on our way back home.

Rice noodles, peanut sauce, spicy fish sauce and chicken

One of my favourite things about Vietnam is that we can stop pretty much anywhere and find good food. Every little shop has a dish or two that they do really well. There are always fresh vegetables involved and almost always noodles to order, and today’s rest stop didn’t disappoint.

The thing to remember about Vietnamese food is that there is almost always a side of veggies that you can either put into the soup, or that you can use to wrap meat in. The textures of Vietnamese food are my primary reason for loving it so much, so this sort of mix-it-yourself dining suits me just fine!

This particular dish also came with a nice sesame cracker. A perfect mix of textures!

We also ordered iced coffee today with our meal, but it turned out they didn’t have any. Now, it China, we would have just been told “Mei You” (don’t have), and that would have been the end of it. But not in Vietnam!

They take service (and coffee!) seriously here!

They didn’t even tell us they were out… The owner just hopped on her motorbike and drove to another restaurant to get us some. Best of all though, she drove that same motorbike back 10 minutes later, with 2 cups of hot coffee in one hand (she steered with the other)!! They take coffee SERIOUSLY here!!!

Our coffees. That she carried. With one hand. On the motorbike.

The whole meal cost us about $5 Canadian. Best of all… I’ve had dozens of meals like this (sans the coffee/motorbike experience), and no matter how small the little shop and no matter how far out of the city we go…I never get sick. Anyone who reads my blog knows I’m prone to travel-related digestion problems… But these pit stops are never what do me in.

The Thai food we had for dinner a few nights ago wasn’t so kind to me…

So, here’s another pro-tip for anyone reading this and thinking about going to Vietnam:

Stop at those little mom and pop restaurants on the side of the road! The food is good and cheap plus, you’ll experience things you never would otherwise!!

Also, travel by motorbike. You get to see some pretty funny stuff!

Stay tuned! I’ll have more stories soon!!

Day 5: Lanterns

Lanterns can be found all over Asia. Different cultures have different shapes, sizes and colors of lanterns, but they seem to be everywhere we travel in Asia, and they’re always beautiful!

Chinese lanterns are mostly red, except for during the lantern festival each winter (usually in February, depending on the lunar calendar).

An example of the Chinese lantern festival in Philadelphia. They use many smaller and large lanterns and make huge parade-style floats of bright colors. I was lucky enough to experience Xiamen’s lantern festival in 2006, but I’ve never seen anything as beautiful as theirs since.

Hoi’an has had lanterns as a cultural artform for centuries, but historically, they were mostly circular and red, like traditional Chinese lantern. With increases in tourism in the 1990s though, Hoi’an started adding more shapes, colours and designs to their lanterns. The effects are spectacular.

Now, the lanterns in Ho’ian are a big draw for tourism. I’ve always wanted to see the lanterns of Ho’ian (I actually sort of booked this trip with them in mind!), and they didn’t lack in “wow factor”.

You see them in the shop windows for tourists to buy

You’ll see them hanging from Palm trees to decorate the city

You’ll see them on the boats that take tourists up the river

During celebrations, the city of Ho’ian instructs shops and houses to turn off their lights so that you can only see these beautiful lanterns along the river. I imagine it’s quite the sight!

This was River side during our stay. The camera doesn’t quite capture the beauty.

They’re also used to decorate restaurants all over the Old Historic part of town

Our time in Hoi’an has been filled with light!

Stay tuned for more on this beautiful lantern city!

Day 4: In Defense of Robusta Beans

Vietnamese coffee is some of my favorite coffee on Earth. It’s strong, rich and delicious whether served hot or cold. One of the first things we did when we woke up our first morning was to find some coffee.

So, it always annoys me when I see those signs that Starbucks has everywhere claiming that Arabica beans are far superior to all others. In fact, most Vietnamese coffee is made with Robusta Beans… Which happen to be delicious!

Now, Starbucks is an important part of my survival living abroad. I’m not knocking the Coffee Siren or her magical Arabica beans, but to state that Arabica is “better to drink” is simply wrong. It might be smoother and lighter, but if you want coffee that’s going to kick you in the pants and get you going, Robusta’s your bean!

Of course, there’s more to coffee than just the type of bean it’s made with. One crucial element of Vietnamese coffee is the sweetened condensed milk that’s served instead of regular fresh milk. It adds to the richness of the Robusta bean, packing your coffee with flavour!

This is how coffee is often served in Vietnam. They also bring you a bucket of ice for if you want it cold. Because Robusta Beans are so strongly flavoured, adding ice doesn’t water down the coffee the way it does with Arabica beans

There are also all sorts of specialty coffees served in Vietnam. My personal favorite is coconut coffee. They freeze coconut cream and blend it in with the coffee to make a sort of frappe. It’s delicious!!!

Egg coffee is one of Dave’s favourites. During wartime, dairy became scarce in Vietnam, so people started whipping eggs to create a meringue of sorts. It’s still served in Hanoi now, and you can find it in some cases further south as well.

We don’t seem to have any photos, so here’s some stock footage of this delicious Vietnamese specialty!

Today, Dave something new: a salted cheese coffee. We aren’t 100% sure not, but it’s likely made of a mixture of cream and cream cheese, frozen together into cubes and then added to iced coffee.

Even instant coffee here is more bearable! The only coffee we avoid in Vietnam is the weasel coffee. This isn’t because of how it’s produced, but rather because of the animal cruelty involved in producing it.

In the wild, civets eat coffee cherries as part of their diet, and then they poop them out, mostly whole and interact. Apparently, these beans taste great, so naturally, people have found a way to industrialize it. Unfortunately for the civets, they’re often kept in terrible conditions and are force fed the berries with little other food, more or less making the poor things sick. I won’t touch civet coffee based on the ethics behind how it’s produced

Vietnam has taught me that there’s more than one way to make a good cup of coffee. At this point, as long as my caffeinated beverage doesn’t come at the cost of an animal’s well-being, I’ll try any coffee Vietnam throws my way!

Tomorrow we head to Ho’ian!!

Day 3: Christmas in Da Nang

For the last 5 Christmases, I’ve gotten 1 day off from work to celebrate the holiday. It’s always Christmas day (China time), which isn’t actually great because my family is together to Skype with me on Boxing day (China time). With my change in jobs this year though, I got a Christmas holiday to enjoy! A full 2 weeks off to take a vacation and unwind.

Some pretty boats we stumbled across today on our adventures

It’s been great! This morning, we woke up early, went for a beautiful drive through the countryside and spent the afternoon on the beach. For Christmas dinner, we were faced with a few choices.

Find a hotel doing a traditional Western Christmas dinner.
Go on, business as usual, and enjoy a nice but normal dinner.
Celebrate Vietnam style: with a seafood feast, complete with noisy locals, tanks of live sea creatures and unbelievably good prices.

Naturally, we went with #3.

That’s my “I’m gonna eat sooo much seafood” face

We ended up at the busiest seafood restaurant we could find. It was huge, full and everything smelled incredible!

We sat down at a table near the back and we told to go choose our sea food. It was hard to choose just 1, so we chose 3!

There were so many tanks full of so many different types of seafood. They had three types of prawns alone….

These are all caught fresh. The turnover in that restaurant is huge so I very much doubt any of the fish stay in those tanks long

The prairie girl in me was VERY impressed!!!

I didn’t even know what some of these things were!!!

When we walked over to the seafood area it was all a bit overwhelming. Within a minute though, one of the employees had offered us help and gave us prices and info on the seafood. It turned out some of the prawns are from the river and others from the ocean. We went with the river prawns because we’d never them before. We also got some muscles and a fish.

The workers literally climb stairs to get to the tanks

They pull out whatever you want into a little basket. Some of the pickier clientele examine the contents of their baskets to make sure they got the best clams

Next, your basket goes into the scale. I was really grateful that the guy helping us kept giving us our totals. All the prices are per kg, so it was nice being able to tally it all. They were a lot more honest than I was expecting, too. The bill was less than we had mentally calculated.

Once you’ve chosen your food, it’s time to decide how it’s cooked! We had our

fish barbecued, the muscles steamed in Chilis and lemongrass and the prawns in a garlic chili stir-fry.

Not much to look at but these were SO tasty!!

The fish was topped with an array of Chilis and spices

The BBQ guys outside work on a big grill. With over 100 customers in that restaurant at a time… They keep busy!

We also ordered seafood fried rice and spinach for good measure. In total, the bill came to less than 1,000,000vdn ($60 Canadian). I still can’t believe it!!!

The fried rice had calamari and shrimp in it

Spinach doesn’t photograph particularly well, but wow it is tasty!!

Me…very impressed with the size of my delicious prawn

The fish was served in a very Vietnamese fashion. Along with our perfectly BBQed fish, we were also given big green leaves and a salted garlic sauce to dip it all in. Many Vietnamese foods are served this way. You make a little wrap out of a fresh green leaf. I love this style of eating! The flavor is fresh and the textures are great!!

Dip fish in sauce. Place fish in leaf. Wrap it all up and voila!

So that’s how we spent our Christmas! It was fab, and I’m going to be begging Dave to go back to that restaurant again before we leave Da Nang after New Year!!

Day 2: Locals

In every country, you’ll meet friendly and welcoming people, and you’ll also meet people who are looking for ways to rip you off. And of course, there are always the locals who find foreigners extremely amusing and just want to get their attention. Today, we seem to have met them all.

Our bartender at the pool today was keeping busy by practicing his bottle throwing. All I ordered was an iced coffee so he was pretty bored. He’s pretty good at tossing those bottles! I’m glad none of them broke!

The Good

With the pain in my leg being so bad lately, I found my way down to one of the many spas in Danang for a deep tissue massage. When the masseuse saw me flinch as she worked near my damaged shin (I was hit by an ebike nearly 4 years ago and have dealt with nerve damage ever since), she asked me about it…. Then, instead of avoiding the area, like most masseuses do… She dug in. She worked on that area and used Tiger balm and tried to bring down the swelling. In the end she did not charge me for the extra 15 minutes she spent on that leg. To her…I was not a piggy bank. I was someone in pain that she could help. So she did.

The compression socks have been helping but they’re no where near enough. I’m planning to go back to see her a few more times before we leave Danang.

I can honestly say that I’ve met people like her in every country I’ve visited. There’s always someone who goes the extra mile and is extra helpful or extra nice to you; they see you as a guest in their country and try to help where they can. Whether it’s helping you find your way when you’re obviously lost (like we saw in Taiwan) or helping you choose the most representative dessert to bring back to your family (at a bakery in India), we always find kind people.

Something else we find is ridiculous t-shirts…. Everywhere we go in Asia…

The Annoying

As we arrived at the night market tonight, we parked the motorbike that we rented and the girl who takes payment for the parking came over and asked for 20,000 Dong. I laughed and said “no, the sign says 5,000…”. Her face stayed straight and she said “20,000”. I saw an older woman walk by who also worked there and I asked how much the fee was and she confirmed the price I had understood: 5,000. She gave the young girl heck for trying to rip us off, we paid our 5,000 Vietnamese Dong and carried on.

This giant helmet is worn to protect my giant brain. You’re not tricking THIS foreigner kiddo! This ain’t my first rodeo!!

It was nice that the older woman was being honest but it bothers me that a young kid, probably 14 or 15 is actively trying to rip people off. She learned that somewhere…

The other type of “annoying” we deal with involves “awkward laughers”: people who get uncomfortable around foreigners and laugh loudly and awkwardly as a result. We sat across the street from 4 or 5 of those types of people today at lunch. They were VERY amused that we were eating at a local food stand and not in the usual touristy area. The food was good… Everyone was happy. No laughter necessary. And yet…

The Less than Nice

20 minutes after renting our bike today, we were pulled over for a traffic violation. We had turned left onto a one way and hadn’t moved over to the right lane quickly enough, so we got ticketed for our infraction. It was rotten luck and we simply just didn’t know, but that’s not what made the situation “less than nice”.

In Vietnam, if you get pulled over by these guys, you pay the ticket right away. It’s nice having it over and done with but it all happens pretty quickly

Before we left the motorcycle rental agency they warned us that if we are pulled over and don’t have valid international driver’s licence, that the police would impound the vehicle and charge us 250USD.

An international driver’s license is not the same as your regular licence, by the way. No matter which country you’re from. It also needs to be renewed yearly for it to be valid. In Canada, you can do this at any CAA

I swear you could see the look of disappointment on that police officer’s face when we had our papers in order. He was hoping for a bribe, but we had been through this before, in Thailand, so we were prepared.

Our brief time in the left lane cost us 500,000vdn…. The equivalent of $30 Canadian

There are several morals to my story:

There are good people, annoying people and not so nice people EVERYWHERE.
Always renew your international licence if you’re going to drive in a different country.
Pay attention to signs so you can know what to expect to pay (and avoid getting ripped off)
Smile! Life is short and traveling is mostly a lot of fun. Don’t let every bad interaction get you down. After all… The police are trying to keep the streets safe and those kids at the parking lot are probably not getting paid very well and just trying to get some extra pocket money.

Tomorrow, we’ll be spending Christmas sight seeing and soaking in the beautiful views!

At the end of the day…I still got to swim in a rooftop pool in Vietnam… So how could I really complain!?

Vietnam Round 2: Day 1

As I’ve said many times in the last 6 years, I hate flying (but I love traveling!). Today was a travel day and by the end of it, I felt tired, sweaty, smelly and somewhat concerned I caught a cold while in the confines of those stuffy airplanes filled with sneezing children and adults who don’t cover their mouths.

How’s that for the start of my first post in wayyyy too long!?!?

I’ve been busy trying to find animals like Biscuit a home. Biscuit’s name is now Nacho and he has a forever family!

Life has been crazy in Suzhou. My writing has been put to good use in the last few months. I’ve published an article in a local magazine about the animal shelter where I volunteer, and have published several food reviews as well. Unfortunately, that hasn’t meant much time for blogging. But here I am, committed to posting daily throughout this new adventure.

Finally, I get a break. Now, some of you may be wondering why we didn’t go back to Canada for Christmas. Although we would have loved to, it’s a very expensive trip and we would have only had about 10 days there. We can also really only afford to go home once per year, and I don’t want that to to be only a week and a half long. So…we decided to head on over to Vietnam for some much needed beach time!!

Spring Rolls also played a part in our decision

We chose Vietnam for a few reasons. It is a very cost affective country for one, and we adore the food here for another. We’ve been all over South East Asia at this point, but we never made it to Danang or Ho’ian, so it was a perfect choice for our Christmas trip.

The hearts are some of the cities we’ve already visited in South East Asia. The stars are the cities we are visiting this time around.

Vietnam is just as we left it 3 years ago: beautiful, warm and delicious! Our first meal didn’t disappoint and an order mix up allowed us to try a dish we’d never had before: Hoa Chuoi Tron Tom Thit. It was a delicious stirfry of light veggies and meat with fish oil and a hint of banana. Absolutely amazing!

We were a little annoyed that they charged us for this dish when we hadn’t ordered it, but in fairness… It was delish!

My handsome hubby with the streets of Danang as his backdrop

Tomorrow, the real adventure starts! Check back soon!!

Volunteering in China

We’ve been back from Europe now for over 2 months. We’ve been keeping busy, as always, but the last few months have seen some new activities and events added to our lives.

Warning: this post has a lot of cute animals in it! Photo courtesy of Evgeny Bakhchev.

I had a weird little lightbulb moment near the beginning of March, when I realized I might be able to combine 2 very important aspects of my life to create something good.

That’s how my weightloss challenge was born.

I pitched the idea to a few friends who quickly jumped on board. I expected maybe 20 people to get involved

In the end, we had 136 contestants in about 15 different cities

Businesses started contacting me as well to sponsor the event. I was able to collect nearly 400 prizes ranging from vouchers to wine to free meals!!

The idea was simple. Contestants paid 100rmb ($20 Canadian) to enter the challenge. I would spend two months leading a positive and encouraging group. We’d donate any money raised to a couple of animal shelters.

The idea quickly grew with the addition of all the extra prizes. I realized I could motivate people throughout the month by setting up mini challenges to keep contestants active.

Of course, all of this ended up being a whole lot of work for me. Every day, I get between 25 and 50 challenges to enter into my giant Excel sheet. On Tuesdays, contestants weigh in, so we can stay accountable to our goals, and then on Wednesdays, I draw names for mini prizes based on whatever goals I set for the week.

Some of my own challenge logs. I participated too!!

I’ve been excelling in the steps challenge. I find going to the gym to be much harder to fit into my schedule, but I’ve been trying to walk everywhere

When I am at the gym, I’ve been obsessed with the stair machine. It’s difficult and I’ve been getting stronger and stronger as I climb flight after flight

We also held a “Dogathon” to raise money forvthe shelters. There were 2 main cities involved in the Charity Challenge, so contestants in each city planned a giant walk for dogs and their owners. Similar to the Charity challenge itself, participants paid a small fee to join in, and all proceeds went to the animals.

Glory Goh, a teacher here in Suzhou, did most of the planning for the dogathon. She did an incredible job.

I got several of my students to come down and help with raffles and games

We had more than 100 people join in and we’ll definitely be doing it again next year!!

Some of the dogs who joined in. Sheila, the sheep dog, is one of my favorite dogs in Suzhou! She was adopted by Glory; the main planner of the dogathon

With the success of the challenge and the dogathon, I decided to take things one step further, and to begin organizing volunteer trips to the SAPA shelter, which is home to more than 1000 dogs and cats.

The flyer I made to get people involved in the trip. In total we had 16 people come with us that day, including 4 students.

The trip was incredible. The SAPA is a noisy, smelly and magical place. The animals there are quite well cared for and mostly very friendly. You get the feeling while you’re there, that you are the best thing that has happened to those dogs all week. And that’s a nice feeling.

We had a very talented photographer join us on that first trip, and he did such an incredible job of capturing the beauty and sadness of that shelter.

This beautiful mastiff easily weighs 40kgs (80+ pounds). She’s enormous and will never find a home in China because she’s an illegal breed. Her home will be the shelter until someone can adopt her from abroad. Photo courtesy of Evgeny Bakhchev.

Most of the dogs are mixed breeds. They are mostly friendly but some are quite shy. Photo courtesy of Evgeny Bakhchev.

1000 dogs is not something I can really explain. It’s something you have to see, hear and smell to properly understand. Photo Courtesy of Evgeny Bakhchev

Most of the dogs are in large cages with 20 or so other dogs. Some of them are kept separate though, due to surgeries or aggression. Some dogs were badly abused or used for fighting. Those dogs crush my heart with sadness. Photo courtesy of Evgeny Bakhchev

There are very few puppies at the shelter, surprisingly enough. They’re clearly doing something right. My guess is that they have a vet doing spaying a neutering. Photo courtesy of Evgeny Bakhchev

Everyone there left a part of their hearts behind. There were 2 animals that really stood out to me. One was a small male dog with a scar around his snout. He likely had his mouth wired shut by an abuser. He is the sweetest little dog but SO afraid of people. It took me 20 minutes of sitting there with him before he finally had the bravery to come over to me. He melted into my lap as soon as I touched him. It was like he had been waiting forever for a bit of affection.

Some dogs never really come around. They just stare at you sadly while you clean their cage. I make sure to talk to them nicely while I mop, but they run away as soon as I get too close

I dubbed my little black sweetheart “Wiggle Bum” because of the way he wiggled back and forth for 20 minutes trying to decide whether or not to come see me. You can see him in the video below. It’s not the best video, but it gives you an idea of what the shelter is like. He was also much less scared when I was there the second time. I wonder if he remembered me and remembered that I was kind to him.

The other animal that I really fell for was a beautiful, blind ginger cat. He was SO affectionate and so darn sweet. My friend Kim spent most of her time at SAPA cuddled up with him. I made sure to get lots of pictures of him and later that night, I made a flyer to try and find him an adopter, or at least to raise funds to get him healthy.

I called him Oliver, after Oliver & Company (the Disney movie)

No one was able to foster him, but a lot of people donated, so Dave and I had him moved from the shelter to our vet, where he was quarantined for a week and treated for mites, fleas, ear fungus, a sinus infection and a few other little problems.

Oliver at the vet. He looked pretty happy to be on vacation from the noisy shelter

Now, he’s staying with us and learning how to be a good house cat. He’s sweet as ever and becoming so incredibly confident!

We found out later than he was born at SAPA. His mother arrived there very malnourished and pregnant. She and Oliver’s brother both died within a year at SAPA. Oliver survived for 2.5 years!!

One of his eyes had to be removed a while back. His remaining eye doesn’t have an outer eyelid. He will need ointment for the rest of his life but is mostly fine

I spend a lot of time with him … Just watching him navigate around. He’s such an adventurous little spirit and he never seems to run out of affection to give. He’s absolutely wonderful

Since my first trip to the shelter, I’ve organized a group that people can join if they want to volunteer but don’t really know what to do or where to go. I organize buses to and from the SAPA and bring up to 25 people at a time. I’m going tomorrow again and I can’t wait!!

The group of volunteers that came down to SAPA with me on Thursday this week. It’s a holiday here in Suzhou, so I decided to make good use of the time!

Next week, the Charity challenge ends. In total, we’ve raised more than 40,000rmb ($8000 Canadian) and lost more than 225kgs (about 500 pounds) in weight!!! I’d call that a success!!!!

The challenge is nearly over, but the mission will continue!!!

If you’re reading this and wondering how you can help, drop me a line in the comments section!

Evgeny Bakhchev, our talented photographer, also put together a beautiful video about our visit, with the help of his lovely wife, Daria. Enjoy!!

Day 25: Walking

We’ve been back in China for a few days now, and the new term is underway, but I still wanted to write about our last day of holidays. It was, after all, one of our best days in Spain!

I scheduled one day in Madrid for the end of our trip for shopping, but as it turned out, we didn’t have much shopping to do, so we went sight seeing instead.

My favourite way to see a city is on foot. You see so much more than you would if you were driving around. There are so many little things to notice when you’re up close and personal with a city.

This building was behind a bunch of other buildings and I loved the lion.

Dave and I considered a few places for our final day. There are so many art galleries, museums and Historical buildings to explore in Madrid, but we really wanted to be outside, enjoying the sun!

Suzhou is either polluted or rainy in winter, so we wanted to take advantage of the sun and clean air as much as we could before leaving Europe.

We went through from a different area of the park and saw some new things. We also saw some old things from a new angle, which is always important!

We also walked our way through dinner, stopping at several of our favorite Tapas Bars.

We found ourselves back at Claxon for more pork belly!

Across the street there is a tapas bar that is more than 100 years old! They make wicked Spanish omelettes and their mushroom caps were great too!

By the end of the day, we had taken nearly 30,000 steps, but had seen so much more of the city. I wouldn’t change a single thing about the way we spent Valentine’s Day! It was truely a Dave and Marie sort of way to celebrate!

I’m back in Suzhou now. The pollution has been bad enough the last few days that my eyes are itchy and watering. At least the rain stopped…

Now I’m working on a new idea that synergizes two of my biggest passions in life: Staying healthy enough that I can continue doing awesome things and helping animals in need!

We have 43 contestants so far! Can’t wait to see how many more sign up this week!!

I’ll be back soon with some more in depth posts about our travels. I’ll be writing about:

– Madrid City and all its sights

– Segovia, Avila & Toledo: City Walls, Castles & Cathedrals!

– Our Tri-Country Roadtrip

– Poland

Stay tuned!!

Day 24: Flights

With budget airlines charging so much for luggage, Dave and I opted to pack light and save all of our shopping for the way home (international flights get better luggage allowances).

Ryan Air: too cheap in include a pocket for you to keep your stuff in during flights…

To make that happen, I scheduled a “bonus day” in Madrid after Poland, which worked out really well because we LOVED Madrid! It also meant we got to divide our flights home to make our travel days easier.

I did use our travel time well… Making posters for a couple of puppies that need homes

On this trip, we had the following flights:

– Shanghai to Paris (12 hours)

– Paris to Madrid (2 hours)

– Madrid to Barcelona (1 hour)

– Barcelona to Warsaw (3 hours)

– Warsaw to Lisbon (4 hours)

– Lisbon to Madrid (1 hour)

– Madrid to Paris (2 hours)

– Paris to Shanghai (12 hours)

That’s 37 hours of flying. When you add in layovers, we easily spent 2 full days of our holiday in airports. I Actually much prefer taking the train when possible, but flights save so much time that it’s often a no-brainer.

Our airport Facebook posts are My least favorite selfies lol. Dave always makes me, but I always look tired and cranky. This one was at least for a short flight so it wasn’t too bad

Still, flight days are useful… I often spend the time catching up with my journal, or writing up post cards. I also read. This year I reread The Diary of a Young Girl, while we were on our way to Poland. I feel like it was a good way to set the mood for some of the things we saw there.

Sometimes our post cards arrive in Canada before we make it back to China!

All of this is to say that flights and travel days are a necessary part of traveling the world.

I am grateful that we missed the bulk of the Chinese New Year Travellers! I’ve been in stations and airports this busy…. It is not a fun time!

My last post will be up soon!