NickF

Interestingly, when I was shopping for fares for ChunMei in September I tried both FlyChina and Kayak and got exactly the same fares and flights.

And Social Security number.

tsap seui Thanks for the kind thoughts. I went through four years od increasing dementia with my father before he died, so I know what ChunMei's going through. her mother was beginning to experience symptoms at the time I first met her parents, and didn't have much interaction with me. Now ChunMei says she asks when I can come visit. I'm going to try to make the trip while ChunMei's there this spring. As or her father, he such a nice man. He speaks no English, so I've always communicated with him through ChunMei, but I felt comfortable with him the first day we met. When ChunMei took me to their apartment the first time I visited China, he was watching TV. The family socialized for a while (ChunMei has 3 sisters and a "brother" who is actually her cousin.) Then the ladies went into the other room to talk (about me, of course,) leaving me alone with her father. The first thing he did was change the TV channel to find a program with English sub-titles so I would feel more comfortable. That's when we bonded. Later ChunMei taught me the Cantonese phrases that I used to ask her dad permission to marry his daughter. He'll be 94 in January, and I'd seriously like to seem him live another 15 years at the least. He's had 2 strokes, and can't get around as well as he did when I first met him, but mentally he's as sharp as he ever was. When he dies it will be a little like losing my father again. Now with ChunMei going back for almost 5 months, I'm hoping that I can go visit for a couple of weeks in the spring next year when the Nanning weather's decent.

ChunMei goes back at least once a year, occasionally for an extended period. She's leaving this time on 11 January, and won't be back in the USA until 25 May. Her father will be 94 years old in January, and her mother is almost 80, and is in the early stages of dementia, so I certainly don't begrudge her wanting to spend whatever time she can with her parents. She's also said that when her parents die she might not go back to China at all, especially if her son can come here occasionally to visit.

Took only a little over 3 months for us.

Sadly, Denver doesn't have a Chinatown. http://www.denverpost.com/ci_18011216

Second after me and clean air, the thing ChunMei misses most when she's in China is "American toilets."

Three weeks ago ChunMei got a round trip ticket from Denver to Nanning and back, leaving on Jan 11 and returning on May 24. Best price she could find was $1483 through flychina.com. I just looked on kayak.com a few minutes ago, and an identical ticket is now $1191. Grrrr.

ChunMei has a habit of making things like that for me. At one point I asked her what was in the latest vile concoction she'd made, and her response was, "If I tell you then I don't think you drink."

I have a somewhat older Nuvi 255W that speaks and displays Mandarin. ChunMei doesn't drive, but likes to listen and watch it when we travel because it helps her become familiar with local areas. I purchased the lifetime updates package a couple of years back, and installed the local app on one of my PC's. I get notifications whenever there's a map update. I haul the GPS inside, plug it into a USB cable and tell the app to update. That's it. I have the USA and Canadian maps installed, but a couple of updates back the maps became too large to hold both countries, so I had to buy a SIMM card in order to load everything. I have noticed that sometimes there are routing issues. For example I regularly drive between Denver and Dallas, and the "fastest" route calculation adds about 250 miles to the trip. If I plot the route in segments from Denver to Raton, NM, to Wichita Falls to Dallas not only is it shorter, it's also faster than plotting directly. I reported this to Garmin a year ago, but it still happens. In any case the lifetime map updates ($80 when I bought it) is well worth the money. I have a built-in GPS in our other car, and each map update for it is $135.

Ordered the first book from Amazon. Supposed to arrive today. If she likes it I'll order more. She's been hooked on the HBO version, but also surprised by the casual nudity. Says that nobody in China can watch it because of that. Right!

ChunMei regularly uses qq interchangeable between her laptop, her tablet, and her phone to communicate with both people here in the US and friends and family in China with no problems. Not sure what's going on with yours. (She is using the Chinese client, though.)

Thanks, Dan. That's exactly what I was looking for.

ChunMei regularly flies from Denver to Nanning. We generally book through flychina.com.

We just came back from a two week road to the Pacific northwest, and spent a few days in Vancouver. The city is filled with Hong Kong expats with lots of money. Even more exotic cars on the streets than Dallas. Of course it helps that Vancouver's a beautiful city.