From Aussie to Tassie

Our trip concluded with a short three days with Jeff and Sam in Tasmania -- an hour flight south of Melbourne.  In this laid back area of Australia we rented a car and drove around the island -- including visiting beautiful Launceston Gorge and Wineglass Bay (three pictures on the right side). One of the famous stops in Tasmania is the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA). Lots of really unique pieces.  One of Mel's favorite was the "Fat Car" which was a sort of artistic statement about modern materialism. Or maybe it was just a car with bulges (left).  Other MONA highlights for us included a robotic digestive system (second from left) and the "White Library".

One of the highlights for us was attending an evening feeding at Bonorong wildlife sanctuary where we were greeted by many friendly (and hungry) kangaroos, fed raw meat to a Tasmanian Devil (they look nothing like the cartoons), hold a baby wombat named Max, and observe other unique Australian animals!

We were super-grateful for our hosts/travel companions Jeff and Sam and for the chance to visit this amazing part of the world.  

(From Mel):  An extra special aspect to our trip was that Sam and I are both expecting additions to the family in May!  Traveling with a fellow preggers was super helpful as we had to eat every 3 hours and definitely had to take an easier pace than our previous vacation together hiking in Peru. 

Belated post on the first part of our trip to Hong Kong/Macau coming soon.

It's Pronounced "Mel-bin"

We were so fortunate to have a week in January to visit Melbourne, Australia along with several friends. We (five of us) invaded Jeff and Sam's house, with rambunctious Bailey (dog pictured) and cuddly Nora (their other dog). They were gracious and generous hosts in this beautiful city including showing us the local market eats (oysters and sausages pictured), the public street art (middle) and beautiful parks (bottom right). 

A big highlight included spending two days at the Australian Open which was one of my (Warren's) lifelong goals. Despite the ridiculously hot weather on the first day (106 degrees) it was everybody's first time at the tournament - and we drank in the whole experience!  

The matches ranged from scintillating (Ivanovic upsetting Serena Williams) to somewhat boring (Djokovic crushing Fognini) -- the great thing is that you can always wander the grounds to see other matches.  We even saw two retired legends - Martina Navratilova and Martina Hingis!  Afterwards, we were inspired to go play on the local clay courts and do our best Nadal on clay impression.

An unforgettable experience. 

Wonders of the World…well, we think

While our international wandering has slowed down since we arrived in San Francisco, Warren and I just came back from an amazing trip to Brazil and Argentina.  We visited 2 wonders of the world (well...depending on which "official" list that you read). 

Our trip started with a visit to Iguassu Falls, which is located on the border between Argentina and Brazil. The pictures cannot truly show how amazing it was to see this view in all directions.  It felt a daydream filled with waterfalls, butterflies, and rainbows. 


(photo courtesy of Brian's iphone) 

After our encounter with the beautiful outdoors, we headed for the big city life of Rio de Janeiro.  We've been told that Rio is one of the greatest cities in the world and it definitely met our expectations.  We rode bikes along the famous Ipanema and Copacabana beaches (bottom right), hiked in the Tijuca forest (middle), and went to a samba club (top left).  And of course, we visited the iconic Christ the Redeemer (bottom left).  


We also ate lots of Brazilian beef / bbq and my favorite dessert was a fresh churro filled with chocolate - probably just because I was eating gluten during the vacation.    


The national cocktail of Brazil is a caipirinha - made of cachaca, sugar, and lime.  In order to find the best one in the city, we tried (at least) one every day.  Obviously a scientific approach!  


While the days were filled with fun activities, our evenings were filled playing games with our friends, Jane and Brian.  We battled in 24, scramble with friends, and scattergories.  There were also countless hours of watching, quoting, or singing Pitch Perfect.  There's no shame in the teeny-boppy awesomeness.  

As for our next adventure, perhaps we'll check off some additional wonders of the world...

Today is today; tomorrow is tomorrow.

I (Melissa) had quite a bit of anxiety about this 4 day, 26-mile, high altitude, 10,000 step, no shower Inca Trail hike. But each day, we heard the same answer from our guide – today is today; tomorrow is tomorrow. As I started to think about this saying when we returned, I realized it was quite fitting for the entire last year…more updates on that after we share about our stop to the 6^th continent.

We arrived in Cuzco, Peru a few days before the hike. We followed our fearless unofficial tour guide (and friend) Jeff around the city and hiked to the top for a magnificent view. As you can see, it was a gorgeous day with blue skies all around.

We even ran into some furry friends along the way – llamas, alpacas, and lambs.

After touring Cuzco and Ollantaytambo, we (Warren, Mel, Jeff, Sam, and Jung) prepared ourselves to start the hike. We experienced every kind of weather from the scorching summer sun to mysterious clouds to the winter rains. It kept the trail alive and challenging. The “screensaver” nature backdrop seemed to change from minute to minute.

There were lots of emotional & physical ups and downs throughout the hike, but we all made it to the summit at Dead Woman’s Pass on Day 2 and emerged at Machu Picchu for a great tour on Day 4.

The scenery was beautiful and there were some interesting Incan sites along the way. (And yes, we do know there’s a train that goes directly to Machu Picchu.) “Finding” the lost city after hiking the trail made visiting the site a huge reward!

What the pictures cannot show are the awesome hours of conversations, the bonding experience of camping in the woods, playing Big 2 during our downtime, or our delirium by the end.

But here’s a picture that does capture our excitement for the trip.

(Errr…and some bloopers below.) We are so grateful for a safe and amazing trip to Peru!

---About life ---

One year after we finished the last stop of our peregrination, I’m quite surprised to find ourselves in a relatively normal life in San Francisco. Warren landed his dream job directing a summer program for students from under-resourced backgrounds at Stanford. (Note that it’s his dream job, NOT dream school). =P I am working in human resources at a start up called Meraki. It’s a great role for me and actually my 2^nd job in Cali after a false start. We are living in community with our dear friends and old housemates from Boston. Similar to the anxiety of anticipating the challenges of hiking the Inca Trail, the last year has held many unknowns as we were “homeless and jobless”. I’m thankful where we landed even though there were many ups and downs. And who knows if we will continue to like our jobs or our new city, but I know that today is today; tomorrow is tomorrow. And that’s enough to know for now.

A Last Hurrah...

Alas, tomorrow evening we head back to California. We have spent a fabulous thirteen weeks in Asia and cannot believe how time has just flown by. We have had such an amazing experience. Reflecting on our time abroad, we felt it would be appropriate to hand out some awards to our favorite memories and places. Without further delay, the Oscar goes to…

“Favorite City Award”: Chiang Mai, Thailand. Can we come back? Please? Pretty, pretty, please? Honorable Mention: Singapore. Hard to imagine a more livable and modern city.

“Hawker Stall Award” (for favorite street meal): Gua Bao (near National Taiwan University). This consists of a Steamed Flour Bun (Manto) containing pork + fatty pork + pickled vegetables + peanuts + cilantro. Don’t ever visit Taipei without trying.

“Frequent Flier Award”: Air Asia. Of our 18 flights we used Air Asia 7 times. Gotta love discount airlines – even if you have to pay for anything extra (carry-on limit: 7 kg).
“Best Dessert”: Mango Sticky Rice, Thailand.



“Bummer Award” (travel frustrations): Yue Lai Restaurant, Shanghai. For overly aggressive tactics and conveniently lying to us several times about smoke in the establishment. Honorable Mention: Thailand Taxi Drivers. While your capitalist sensibilities are understandable, your comfort and willingness to rip off anyone at 500% markup is questionable.


“Tourism Award” (best tourist attraction): Patara Elephant Farm, Chiang Mai and Tobogganning down the Great Wall of China, MuTienYu.




“I Heart Taiwan Award” (for the most “Taiwanese” consumer purchase): Warren’s new wood frames and Melissa’s cute grey hat. Question is, will these pass in the States?



Total Countries Visited: 10

Stamps currently in Mel’s passport: 46

Total Spent on Visas: $820

Total Spent on Flights: $5500

Thanks to all of you who followed along in our travels. We feel so privileged to have had the chance to visit family members, learn about cultures and histories, and explore so many different cuisines.

Asia, we will miss you =)

Yeah for more Yeh's

We spent the 2nd week of our family vacation in Taiwan. I have to say it was a breath of fresh air to return back to familiar and polite Taiwan.

In Taipei, we hit a few of the hot tourist spots – Flora Expo (top right) and went to the top of Taipei 101 (bottom right). We also did a LOT of shopping, including picking up some new glasses for most of the fam (top left). Don’t worry, we didn’t actually purchase those glasses for Warren…they were to measure his prescription. One of the nights, Warrens’ family had us over for dinner and in typical Yeh fashion, my dad got the group singing around the piano (bottom left).

We also drove down to Taichung to visit more family. The top right pic is my grand-uncle. The last time I saw him (or rather the last time he saw me since I don’t remember much) was more than 25 years ago. It was great hearing about some old stories of my dad and his uncle. We also visited a Glass Museum while we were there, so you can see Megan a gazillion times (bottom right). To end our visit, my grand-uncle and grand-aunt treated us to a 10 course lunch, which crazily was our third 10-course meal in 3 days!! While we were in Central Taiwan, we also went to Sun Moon Lake for a boat ride around the area to catch the sunrise and scenery.

We are officially in the home stretch of our travels. =( But we are getting more excited about adventures ahead in SF.

Anhui & Shanghai - China Part II

During our trip to China, I (Mel) had the opportunity to visit the “great-grand” motherland in Anhui province and pay respects to my great-grandparents (bottom left). My dad’s side of the family is originally from this area, but moved to Taiwan before the Cultural Revolution. While I always knew education was important, it became clear that there is an even higher value for education from this province. We went to a performance that shares about the local history where they had a dance dedicated to education…awesome! Check out the abacus dance in the bottom right pic. The Anhui province is also known for the beautiful Yellow Mountains which inspires a lot of the mountain scenery in Chinese art. We spent a few days hiking this picturesque area (top pics).

We had an abrupt change from the serene Anhui to the city life in Shanghai. We took a night boat tour around the Bund to see all the buildings at night (bottom left & middle). There was a brief oasis from the sky scrapers in Yu Garden (top right pics). While I’ve only seen China post-Olympics and post-World Expo, it’s obvious that China is developing at a speed that is unparalleled in any other country. I should definitely continue practicing my Chinese.



We had the chance to try many new dishes in Anhui and Shanghai – deep fried dumplings (top left), whole frogs…I’ve had frog legs before (bottom left), soft stinky tofu (bottom middle), and ginormous soup dumplings (bottom right, top left). We are now back in Taiwan for family vaca, part 2 minus Michael.