Before we go offline for the next couple of days, we have a couple of announcements for you: our upcoming New Year’s celebrations at Hogmanay in Edinburgh and a giveaway featuring some of our travel photos.

Christmas in Berlin

As for us, we will spend Christmas and the next few days in Berlin, going offline (mostly) and taking a break with friends, plates full of Christmas cookies, pots full of tea, and a virtual stack of new books. This will be our time to be still and get ready for a new year filled with travel and projects across all corners of the globe.

But before we disconnect…

We’re kicking off the New Year at Hogmanay in Edinburgh!

In Scottish, hogmanay means the last day of the year. In more recent years, however, Hogmanay has been synonymous with Edinburgh’s new year’s festivities, torchlight processions, concerts, and fireworks that say goodbye to the old year and welcome in the new. And the Scots definitely know how to party, as celebrations last for days.

Photo courtesy of Edinburgh Hogmanay Press Office

We’re looking forward to taking part in this year’s Hogmanay. We are among a group of bloggers going to enjoy and share the event through the aptly named term Blogmanay. As we’ve never been to Scotland we’re excited to get a wee taste of Scottish spirit, music, and of course, whiskey. Oh, and kilts. (Stay tuned for embarrassing photos.)

Here’s a small preview of what’s in store for us during Hogmanay:

• Torchlight procession through the city (Dec. 29) – the photo above pretty much says it all for this one
• Concert in the Gardens (Dec. 31) – with Simple Minds as the headlining act
• Street Party (Dec. 31) – beneath Edinburgh castle with three stages, endless music acts, an estimated 80,000 dancers and midnight fireworks.
• Keilidh (Dec. 31) – Scottish music and dancing at its finest.
• Dogmanay (Jan. 1) – kicking off the new year with dog racing.
• Loony Dook (Jan. 1) – welcome the new year with a plunge into icy water anyone?

No shortage of activities and options, right? Exciting and overwhelming. We’ll do our best to live up to the task and live to tell the tale.

Once the new year is rung in properly, we’ll spend a few days exploring Scotland’s Loch Ness and Isle of Skye. It’s only a sample of Scotland, but we’re happy to have the opportunity now to see it in winter so we can plot some further exploration next time.

If you’d like to follow along in our (and others’) Hogmanay experience, keep your eye on the hashtag #blogmanay on Twitter and Instagram. The Blogmanay website will serve as a central repository for all this content from all corners of the Hogmanay-meets-blogmanay social media and online world so that you can take part in the celebrations from wherever you may be in the world.

Uncornered Market Travel Photography Printstagr.am Holiday Giveaway

This is for those of you who love travel photography and would like some inspiration in the new year. We’ve teamed up with Printstagr.am to deliver a selection of fun prints, a 365-day calendar and a mini-book made from a selection of photographs we’ve posted to Instagram (including from Japan, Nicaragua, Tanzania, Mexico, Egypt, Berlin, Amsterdam, etc.). Winners can choose to have us design their prize or design their own with our prints.

Absolutely anyone can enter. Shipping is international (and free, for winners). To enter: easy, just click here – Printstagr.am Giveaway

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Disclosure: This campaign is brought to you by Edinburgh’s Hogmanay and is sponsored by VisitScotland, ETAG, Edinburgh Festivals, Haggis Adventures and Skyscanner.

The campaign bloggers were sourced and managed by iambassador. As always, all opinions expressed here are entirely our own.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 12 comments

Wherever you may be, whatever you happen to celebrate, we hope your holidays and new year are filled with joy, peace and a little bit of adventure!

– Dan and Audrey

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 8 comments

“Buying flowers for every woman in the office on International Women’s Day” was technically not written into every man’s job description. Neither was “picking up bottles of champagne and cognac.” But both may as well have been.

All partying aside, International Women’s Day celebrates women and their roles and leadership in family, business and society. The occasion also brings awareness to the challenges and discrimination many women around the world continue to face.

In the spirit of this day, we bring you a mosaic of a few of the women we’ve met along our journey through Asia.

However you decide to celebrate, we wish you a Happy International Women’s Day!

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 2 comments

Steamed, fried or boiled; round, crescent, or amorphous; meat or veg; thin-skinned or thick, dumplings in China form a universe all their own.

By no means are we experts in Chinese dumplings. That’s a life’s work. But we can offer a brief primer and the best of our dumpling experiences in China.

• Jiaozi – crescent-shaped dumplings generally folded from circles of thinly-rolled dough; served boiled or steamed.
• Guo Tie – pot stickers, or fried jiaozi.
• Bāozi – steamed buns. For contrast and flavor, meat bāozi occasionally feature a little nutmeg or star anise (if you notice something sweet).
• Xiaolongbao – smooth, translucent steamed buns made from unraised flour. Filled with meat, seafood, or vegetables and often a splash of broth.
• Shaomai – unsealed dumplings, meaning that the filling shows through the top. Stuffed with just about anything, including meat, vegetables or flavored sticky rice.
• Dim Sum – Cantonese-style (Guangdong Province) dumplings, often steamed and served as snacks or with tea.

1. Manti – Kashgar, Xinjiang: Similar to Central Asian manti. The seasonal variety served in Kashgar during our autumn visit featured sweet, diced pumpkin. Delicious when served with thick plain yogurt and roasted red pepper sesame oil.

2. Train Bāozi – Urumqi to Lanzhou: Tiring of noodle soup buckets on our 24-hour train ride from Urumqi to Lanzhou, Dan jumped off at one of the stations, rolled the dice on a bag of freshly steamed bāozi from a platform vendor, and scored. Filled with meat, carrots, onions and a tad of nutmeg, they provided a much-needed change for our train-weary tastebuds. And they went perfectly with a cold beer.

3. Tibetan Momos – Xiahe, Gansu: We were introduced to Tibetan dumplings (momos) at Gesar Restaurant near Labrang Monastery. The cabbage and carrot-stuffed variety delivered comfort and warmth on a cold night when paired with a zippy roasted red pepper sauce. Honorable Mention: A dessert of freshly made apple momos.

4. Midnight Dim Sum – Xi’an: Xin Wang’s Cantonese Dim Sum in downtown Xi’an serves dim sum from 9:30 PM – 2:00 AM. Is it worth the wait? Absolutely. The dim sum stuffed with shrimp and greens were exceptional. Scallops weren’t bad either. You can find Xin Wang’s Cantonese Dim Sum on Dong Dajie on the right-hand side as you walk from the Bell Tower (second floor in a huge shopping center).

5. Breakfast Dumplings – Pingyao: You might be asking, “Dumplings for breakfast?” Indeed. And more than once. Harmony Guest House (No.165 Nan Da Jie Street, Pingyao) serves up uniquely square-shaped pan-fried vegetarian bāozi all day long. Perfect with a little dip of soy sauce.

6. 5-Star and Local Dumplings – Beijing: The Beijing outpost of the world-famous Taiwanese Din Tai Fung restaurant chain served up our first dose of dumplings in the big city. Although decent, they were expensive by any measure. And here’s the thing: an unpretentious local cafe on a side street from Guanghua Lu (around the corner from Guomao metro station in the Chaoyang business district) served simple, tasty, dressed-down dumplings that were twice as good and 1/10 the price. We enjoy good food and we love good value. Lesson: food before fancy.

7. Qingdao Jiaozi: Everywhere we turned in Qingdao, we ran into dumpling restaurants. Da Yu’s menu featured some unintended humor, but offered a plate of 20 hand-made shrimp, pork and greens jiaozi for $1.70. Another restaurant on Zhongyuan Meishi offered a dozen different varieties for about the same price. A duo of women in the back cranked out trays of beautifully formed jiaozi in record time.

8. Chengdu Snack Food: Large transparent shaomai are stuffed with perfectly herbed pork and served with a soy and vinegar dipping sauce. Our favorite: Longchaoshou Canting on the corner of Chunxi Lu and Shandong Dajie in downtown Chengdu’s shopping district. The Zhong dumplings were also very tasty. Though not quite as good, the café at the Chendgu People’s Park features similar Chengdu-style snacks and dumplings.

9. Street Dumplings – Kunming, Yunnan: Trays of steamed jiaozi and bāozi served with soy, hot pepper, vinegar and fresh cilantro dipping sauces form the cornerstone of a inexpensive, street-side restaurant on DaGuan Lu. Try also the freshly rolled rice noodles stuffed with pork floss (threads of pork).

10. Dumpling Salvation – Kaili, Guizhou: If you take the overnight train from Kunming to Kaili (Guizhou Province), hop the downtown bus when you arrive and alight in the midst of a line of stir fry and soup joints on Wenhua Beilu. Look for the stack of bamboo steamers to find great jiaozi and guo tie. The mother and daughter dumpling team – and their customers – laughed as we scarfed down two trays of steamed jiaozi served with a dipping sauce of roasted crushed chilies, spring onions, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, Sichuan pepper and a tad of sugar. We returned daily during our stay in Kaili.

View More Photos of Dumplings in China

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 9 comments

Two country buses later, we were completely removed from the big city and found ourselves thrust into the pastoral – a slower pace of life. And thanks to a friend’s generous offer, we were immersed in the eclectic-bucolic aesthetic of a remodeled Southern Bohemian schoolhouse from the early 1900s.

In Czech Southern Bohemia, where narrow tree-lined orchard roads bend through rolling hills, you are just as likely to see a distinct Soviet-era Lada or old Czechoslovak Skoda than today’s indistinct modern rides.

Skies were wide, men waved from tractors and the occasional deer ducked out from its lunch in the corn fields. Heat waves rolled over the pavement; I daydreamed in black and white and found myself believing – if only for a moment – that I was somewhere in the Czech countryside of Closely Watched Trains, an iconic 60s era Czechoslovak film.

Our daily routine, when we chose to abide by it, consisted of a bicycle ride to the nearest town to do our grocery shopping. Blond-haired, blue-eyed Czech toddlers stared at us wide-eyed from behind their mothers. Store clerks giggled at our broken Czech queries about things like bread and charcoal for the barbecue. People here were downright giddy with friendliness. Not that Prague is unfriendly, but the short distance between us and the big city connected two very different worlds.

The real sensory payoff, however, was the country house where we stayed. Recast in the late 1990s from a 1905 schoolhouse, it was anything but ordinary. At turns tasteful and playful, its interior recalled an Austro-Hungarian hunting lodge and was outfitted as much from long-lost toy trunks as it was from antique curio cabinets.

When we noticed a huge, hairy spider in the middle of the living room floor one day, we both wondered aloud: “Do you think it’s real?” A silly question perhaps, but in this house, hairy bugs could easily serve as well-placed décor.

A few prods with a stick and the spider skittered, proving otherwise – and reminding us that we were just in the countryside.

Enjoy the photos. You’ll understand why we found it difficult to leave.

More Photos: A Week in the Czech Countryside

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 4 comments

Though we weren’t in Beijing to report directly, we did pose **nine questions to a friend who was. Nguyen shares his first-hand Olympic experience — including scoring 110 tickets, the simple joy of giving some of them away, an explanation of the empty seats you saw on TV, and how the Chinese people love an underdog.

1. Best Olympic experience? For me, the best was the numerous times I was able to make someone’s Olympics dream come true, i.e. seeing gymnastics, diving, handball, or any event, etc., [by giving away tickets].

More from a recent online chat: The best moment was giving it [tickets] to some poor Chinese guy and his 8 yr old kid. He asked how much, and the tix were only 30 RMB ($5) so I said 60 RMB (less than $10) for 2. Then I didn’t even take his money – the look on his face was worth far more than the 60 RMB. The smile on his face was worth 100X more…the dad was on verge of tears. And the best part – the entire conversation was in Chinese because he didn’t speak a word of English.

…the best part for her (a woman who was a creative director at one of the Pavilions on the Central Green) was being able to give away so many day passes to get onto the Central Green. You had to have athletics, gymnastics, or diving tickets to get on the green. In other words, the most difficult tickets to get. No one was allowed on unless they had a ticket or a day pass. So she would go to the station each day to or from work and just walk around and randomly pass them out. That alone made the last 5 months of her job worth it.

2. You ended up with 110 tickets! How did you manage that? It was a group effort with 2 other friends. There were 4 rounds of ticket sales. We were all unsuccessful in round 1. I had luck in round 2 and picked up about 16 tickets. [My friends] found luck in round 3, that brought our total up to 59. And then the monster luck came for me in round 4 sales of tickets during the Olympics. I would randomly check at times during the day, and always seemed to get lucky!

That’s how I scored tix for the premier events like gymnastics, beach volley, diving, athletics, handball, etc. Proud to say we didn’t have to resort to buying a single scalped ticket. Reaped the benefits of major good ticket karma throughout the years.

3. How much did tickets cost? The bulk of the tickets were in the $5 US to $10 US range (80 tix). A few in $20 range: women’s beach volley ball. There were a handful in the $30 range: ping pong, diving, athletics. The most I paid was $66 (face value) for front row men’s team gymnastics final (editor’s note: with seats in front of Glenn Close)

4. Any other stories to share? I think Americans went a long way in trying to repair our international image. We were surprisingly very subdued and limited with our “USA” chants and cheering. Other countries were far louder and boisterous cheering for their countries. There were several times I ran into obnoxious fans, and thankfully, it was never any Americans.

The Chinese love the underdog. I was baffled on numerous occasions, especially during boxing matches. The Chinese would switch who they were cheering for based on who was losing. In one match in particular, it was Spain-US boxers. They started out cheering for Spain. But then the Spaniard went up 7-2 (which is a healthy lead in boxing), so then they started cheering for the US boxer. Once the US boxer finally took the lead, the crowd quickly switched back to cheering for the Spaniard. This happened in quite a few other matches and sports.

5. Your favorite event? Beach volley and handball were the most exciting because the crowds were very lively and really into the matches, cheering loudly, doing the wave, etc.

6. Why did we see so many empty seats on TV? The official excuse was that many tix went to the corporate sponsors who had problems giving them to clients and employees, especially for the earlier matches. I think scalpers were a major factor. Tons of scalpers holding tons of unsold tickets outside the venues. It had been dubbed the “sold out” Olympics, but I think “scalped out” Olympics is more accurate.

I also felt the press areas were unusually large. The athletes’ sections also went mostly unused. Lastly, there were huge chunks of “photo shooting area” seats that hogged up some very prime seats that went mostly unused, since very few people bothered to go to those spots to take photos.

7. What was the best thing about being at Olympic events? The worst? The best was seeing the athletes compete, sharing the realization of dreams of so many of them. You could see the awe of many of them, excited just to be there. Also seeing many Chinese enjoying their first live sports events.

The worst part was how spread out the venues were. For the most part, transportation itself wasn’t a problem, between taxis, the new subway lines, and special Olympic buses, there were easy ways to get around. The distances between venues was the bad part.

8. Were the venues as cool as they looked on TV? The venues were amazing, between the Bird’s Nest, WaterCube, Wukesong (basketball), they were probably more awe-inspiring up close and in real life than on TV. Even the older, re-furbished arenas like Worker’s Gymnasium or Peking University Gymnasium looked really nice.

9. Did it live up to the hype? The Olympics experience exceeded my expectations, it really was a festive, and positive vibe. For the most part, it was a very well run operation.

A big thanks to our friend Nguyen for allowing to use his photos in this post and for taking the time out from his Olympic recovery schedule in Beijing to answer our questions.

**For an explanation of the significance of the number nine in Chinese culture, check this out.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 7 comments

Although we can’t succinctly recreate online the atmosphere of a Pilsner beer-driven discussion in a Czech pub, we can attempt to answer these questions with astounding brevity in case you’re also curious. [Twitter’s limit is 140 characters.]

1a. How do you stay sane while being together 24 hours a day? (Politically Correct Version)
Patience. Communication. Our hotel rooms were often barely larger than our beds; carve out separate mental space while sharing a small physical space.

1b. How do you stay sane while being together 24 hours a day? (Honestly)
Who said we were sane? While we wave divorce papers at one another every so often, we expect to write at length on this topic.

2. Most difficult or frightening experience?
Kazakhstan bears witness to both of these nightmares – one at the Uzbek border and the another in the Tian Shan mountains. Kazakh comic relief here.

3. What’s it like being an American abroad these days?
The diplomatic response: our travels indicate that America’s image abroad is in need of some repair. Fortunately, most people respond to us as individuals.

4. Worst hotel?
Pestilential stink-hole with indentured servant boy in Ismaili, Azerbaijan. Honorable mention: Sikkimese village hut where a rat fell on Audrey’s shoulder in bed.

5. Which countries were your favorite(s)?
We had an enlightening time everywhere, really. Off-track surprises included: Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan (Pamirs), Laos, Cambodia, and Burma.

6. Were you sick a lot? (Translation: were you always praying to the porcelain god?)
Despite being street food junkies & eating a slaughtered goat, no. Exceptions: Vietnam-Sapa (D&A), Uzbekistan (Dan), Kazakhstan (Audrey).

7. How do you distribute the work?
D=Dan, A=Audrey: Writing=D&A, Videos=D, Photo Editing=A, Photo Captions=D&A, Format=A, Website/technology=D, PR=D&A

8. What’s it like to be back in Prague, once your home of five years?
A bit strange, sort of like we aren’t here. Everything is eerily familiar. And in dollar terms…too expensive!

9. Which cuisine was your favorite?
Difficult choice. Thai and Indian, with the edge to Indian. The diversity of food is incredible. Georgian cuisine is also terrific.

10. Any epiphanies yet on this journey?
Greatest epiphany to date: Epiphanies take time.

Got a question for us that’s not here? Feel free to ask in the comments below or send us an email (dna – at – uncorneredmarket.com).

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 2 comments

We first imagined this post being entitled Wishing You a Very Chinese Christmas, but a quick decision five days ago altered our trajectory and landed us in sunny Bangkok instead.

Visiting Thailand for the holidays may sound cliché. It conjures images of hordes of pasty westerners flocking to the beach and large chunks of the male persuasion indulging in Thailand’s infamous “female services.”

Regardless, landing here for the holidays somehow feels appropriate for us.

We thank the Qingdao outpost of the Chinese Police Security Bureau (PSB) for pushing us to do what we knew was right all along: traveling with – and not against – the seasons. We just needed a little nudge. After two months in China, our Chinese visas were about to expire and we hoped to apply for an extension. While we could have managed the paperwork and expense to extend it for 30 days, we decided the same money would be better spent getting a new visa for 60-90 days. We would also be better served returning to China in late spring as the weather warms and mountain passes begin to open.

Home For Christmas
This is our third Christmas in Thailand in the last four years. In Bangkok, we have our favorite neighborhood where we can get dim sum and Thai coffee for breakfast. We know where to get the best curries on the street. Oh, and the sunshine, warmth, cheap massages, endless varieties of fruit shakes and Thai smiles don’t hurt either.

So, while Bangkok is not the stuff of White Christmas dreams, our arrival here constitutes a return to our Asian home for the holidays.

Itinerary Overhaul
Our plan now is to visit Myanmar and Malaysia, parts of Southeast Asia we missed earlier in our journey. Then we’ll head to the Indian subcontinent to travel northward from Sri Lanka to Nepal. Though this doesn’t bear repeating, our itinerary is likely to evolve continually. After all, just a few days ago, we expected to be hanging with the pandas in Chengdu, China for Christmas.

So from our temporary home to yours, we wish you a joyful and peaceful Christmas holiday.

A Note on the Photo: The lead photo above comes to us courtesy of Dan’s niece and nephew and a winter storm that buried upstate New York earlier this month. For a twist, his niece and nephew topped their snowman with a kalpak (traditional Kyrgyz felt hat).

On a related note of trivia, a Swedish group (with a lot of time on their hands) recently performed a study to determine the location on Earth from which Santa could most efficiently base his operations. “Where?” you ask. Kyrgyzstan, of course.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 4 comments

We’re headed next to Qingdao to look for my grandfather’s birthplace and the house my great-grandparents built.

–explaining our travel plans in China to a group of expats at a Thanksgiving
dinner in Beijing.

The group appeared utterly confused. I don’t look like I’m of Chinese heritage in the least. So how is it that my grandfather was born in China?

Childhood Stories
When I was a kid, I remember going out for Chinese food during extended family gatherings in Asheville, North Carolina. The repeated joke: a family member would point to a Tsingtao beer and say, “This is where your grandfather was born.” While I enjoyed hearing this and other family stories related to China, it didn’t mean much to me at the time.

Until now, I have not been particularly interested in genealogy or researching my family’s past. Perhaps it’s that virtually all of the research has already been done. There are family trees that go back hundreds of years and my grandfather has written a book about his own life. Unlike many families, including Dan’s, few, if any, mysteries seem to remain about mine. As a result, my search for the house that my great-grandparents built in Qingdao, China began as a simple task that I embarked on in order to please my family rather than something I pursued of my own burning interest.

THE House
We believe the house (pictured left) still exists; a distant relative located it on her trip to Qingdao in the early 1990s. However, we have little information to go on other than a rumor that the house is a now a hospital for Chinese naval officers. In order to jog my 92-year-old grandfather’s memory, my father showed him Qingdao on Google Earth and tried to help narrow down where the house could be located in relation to landmarks like the ocean and the Protestant church.

Finding a house built over 70 years ago in Qingdao, China (now a city of 1.6 million people) without an address will not be an easy task. China’s recent affinity for sending a wrecking ball towards anything old and rebuilding only makes it that much more difficult. But, we’re going to give it our best shot.

Myth vs. Reality
The myth behind the residence that my great-grandparents built in Qingdao was that it was a vital source of Scott family history and memories and a place of important family gatherings. The reality that has emerged based on my father’s recent inquiries is that my grandfather never lived in the house, there were never any family reunions within its walls or gardens, and my great-grandparents never saw it completed because they had to flee China in the face of the approach of Mao’s army in 1939. Apparently, my great-grandparents gave some money to a White Russian man to complete the house, but he was forced to turn it over to the Communists after they seized power.

Rather than dampening my interest, this unexpected twist has piqued my curiosity in my grandfather’s childhood and his family’s experiences in China in the early 20th century.

Digging Deeper
My great-grandparents moved to China in 1907 when my great-grandfather accepted a position as a Presbyterian missionary in the German colony town of Tsingtao (now Qingdao). The family included five children, my grandfather being the youngest of the bunch.

China was not always kind to the Scott family, especially during the Chinese Civil War (1927-1950) when Communist forces gradually gained control over the country. For example, my grandfather’s sister, Betty Stam, and her husband were decapitated by Communist forces in 1934 in Miaosheo, a town close to Jingde where they had been working as missionaries. Their 3-month old baby, Helen, survived after a prisoner gave his life for her. Two days after the beheading, she was found by a Chinese Christian who secretly took her to the missionary compound in Wuhu to reunite her with her grandparents (my great-grandparents) in Qingdao.

My great-grandparents eventually fled China five years later. My great-uncle Lad and his family were the last of the Scott clan to leave China and were evacuated by rescue flight from Central China in 1943.

My Grandfather’s Story
My grandfather was born in Tsingtao (Qingdao) in 1916, but the family moved when he was two years old to Tsinan (currently Jinan). He lived in this house (pictured left) until he went to boarding school in PyongYang, Korea from 7th-10th grade (1927-1931), in part to escape from the civil war that had broken out in China. My grandfather left China in 1931 to finish his last two years of high school in the United States and he remained there to attend university. He did see the infamous Scott residence of Qingdao being built during his return in 1935 for a family reunion.

He returned to China in late 1943 as a 1st Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in the China Burma India (CBI) Theater of World War II. After receiving some preliminary training in India, he flew to Kunming, China and continued along the Burma road to Chiang Kai Shek’s Second Army headquarters. He remained in China until early 1945 and returned to the U.S. thereafter to rejoin my grandmother.

One of my favorite “grandpa stories” is the one where the U.S. Army gave him and his fellow officers, many of them former China missionary kids with a basic knowledge of Chinese language skills, a brush-up language course on the boat from San Francisco to Bombay, India, before their transfer to China.

Along the way, the U.S. Army taught them the Chinese Nationalist anthem so that they could impress the Chinese Nationalist Army upon their arrival. After they arrived in China, they were greeted by their counterparts in the Chinese Nationalist Army. The members of my grandfather’s unit then put on the best show they could, belting out the anthem they had just learned with verve and gusto.

Their show of camaraderie was met with total shock, however. As it turns out, the U.S. Army trained my grandfather and his unit in the Chinese Communist anthem instead of the Chinese Nationalist anthem. Nowadays, when my grandfather tells the story, he finishes it off by standing up straight as an arrow and delivering the Chinese Communist anthem with astounding clarity. He insists it’s just not possible to sing it sitting down.

Unresolved
My grandfather took his last trip to China in 1990. He searched for both houses during his visit, but he was never able to find them.

The big question that has emerged: Why did my great-grandparents spend all their money on building a huge house in Qingdao when it looked like the winds of change were blowing rather favorably in the direction of a Communist victory?

They must have held out hope that things would eventually return to the way they were. After all, they gave money for the house to be completed after they fled the country. What was it about China that made them want to stay? Was it the place? The people? The dedication to their work?

Moving Forward
Now I’m curious about my grandfather’s life growing up in China, including his interactions with the country and its people. Likewise, my grandfather is curious about our experiences and interactions here in China. Apparently, he’s been following our journey across the country, taking out a National Geographic map and marking our route as we make our way around.

I’m uncovering bits of China’s past through my family’s stories that make the country’s history somehow feel more alive — a challenge here due to the modern Chinese practice of tearing down the old and building anew. I’m also finding something here in China that I did not expect, a family connection.

More Family History to Discover
When we travel to Argentina next year we’ll have an opportunity to discover my mother’s and grandmother’s birthplace, and hopefully learn more about my maternal great-grandparents who emigrated to Argentina from Switzerland in the early 20th century. Similarly, Dan’s family roots will likely take us back to eastern Slovakia next summer.

One unintended outcome of this entire journey may be that we learn more about our families, where they came from and why they continually chose to discover, to move, and to continually redefine their lives. These choices resonate strongly with us today.

A special thanks goes to my father for his dedication in collecting details from my grandfather and attempting to determine where *the* house is located as I assembled this piece.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 12 comments

Note: this fantasy interlude does not represent a “best of” and is in no particular order. Deprivation knows no logic or sequence!

• Pizzeria Italia in Palermo, Italy – the Bella Napoli pizza – with buffalo mozzarella, the world’s sweetest cherry tomatoes and a dollop of olive oil – vies for the “best pizza in the world” honors.
• The Night Market in Krabi, Thailand – read this and you’ll understand why it makes the list.
• La Campana, Malaga – getting a spot at this popular seafood tapas bar is tough, but the reward is great – seafood pinchitos (skewers) and a choice of sherries straight from the barrel.
• Pancho Villa on 16th street in the Mission, San Francisco – huge burritos (urban food logs, if you like) wrapped in soft, steamed tortillas and stuffed with an endless array of fresh fillings and salsas.
• Monarch Wine and Cheese Bar, Na Perstyne Street in Prague – bring on the tete de moine with a chilled bottle of crisp New Zealand white, please!
• A real deli sandwich – from just about any real American deli will do. Molinari, Lucca, or even Freddie’s in San Francisco would work. Audrey has a soft spot for Take It Away in Charlottesville.
• Sushi - for quantity and value (and freshness of memory) we’d vote for Patong’s Carrefour sushi department right about now.
• Vik’s Chaat House, Berkeley or Naan N’ Curry, San Francisco – both are a little low on ambiance, but high on taste and authenticity. Impossible to decide between these two Bay Area subcontinental food meccas, so both stay. Uh, yeah, we’ll take the perfectly smoky Chicken Tikka Masala from Naan N’ Curry and some Pav Bhaji and Somosas Cholle from Vik’s.
• Lebanese Taverna in Northern Virginia or Washington, D.C. – sets a high bar for mezze platters and Lebanese treats. A regular stop when we visit the DC metro area.
• Mario’s Bohemian Cigar Cafe – eggplant parmigiana focaccia sandwich + laid back environment = perfect.

Allow us to dream just a few moments longer and dinner would be followed by a latte from Caffe Trieste and a piece of tiramisu from Stella Pastry, both in San Francisco’s North Beach.

Now back to reality…and packing for tomorrow’s bus to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 8 comments