Pat and Doug Donaldson met in the Peace Corps in the 1960’s. They bonded over their love of travel during their Peace Corps stint in Africa. The couple got married abroad and moved to Albany, California where they’ve lived ever since. Pat is now a retired teacher and Doug is a mostly-retired lawyer who still takes on environmental regulation projects in the East Bay.
Although Pat and Doug now lead a peaceful life in Albany, the couple has never lost their zest for travel. Through a friend, they found a tourist agency called XY Tours that brings mostly Chinese Americans to China. Doug and Pat have taken a total of four trips with this agency, and have been the only ones present who do not speak either Mandarin or Cantonese dialects of the Chinese language.
They found that the rewards of being a part of a Chinese tour group outweighed the challenges. Being with a group of Chinese tourists allowed them to see parts of the country that are infrequently traveled and that they never would have seen on their own. While they missed some of the Tour Guides’ jokes, and narrative, the couple did plenty of research before their trip so that they knew something of the history of each destination they visited.
This trip to China was different from the past three because it included a tour of the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China.
To read more about Doug and Pat’s vacation, click on the following links:
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-28081-SF-Living-Abroad-Examiner~y2009m11d25-High-Altitudes
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-28081-SF-Living-Abroad-Examiner~y2009m11d25-A-long-way-from-home
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