B...aaaaaaaaah...LI!

We spent spring break in Bali, Indonesia. We'd heard a lot about Bali over the years, but this was our first trip there. It won't be our last.  The beaches aren't nearly as beautifl as Phuket, Thailand or Boracay, Philippines, but Bali has an almost magical feel about it. There's art and spirituality at every turn...unless you never leave Kuta, in which case there are bars and probably hookers at every turn!

Ubud Villa

We spent the first half of the week at an amazing villa outside Ubud. We traveled with another family (The Weiss family: Serge, Sally, Westen & Anika) who also had 2 kids, same ages as Aidan & Brenna. Our kids were friends at Shanghai American School. The villa was huge - 3 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, kitchen, dining area, living rooms, a couple of balconies, our own pool, etc. Plenty of room for the 8 of us. 

Below: the kids enjoying our pool and that entire house behind them is our villa! 

There were a few other villas in the compound. Here's a picture of Brenna helping Devey (a very friendly worker who totally fell in love with Brenna, aka Baby!) put offerings near around the grounds our first morning in Bali:

Here are more pix from the villa and Bali:



I could go on and on about the villa and Bali, but I'll cut to the highlights of the trip...

White Water Rafting

We went white water rafting on the Telaga Waja River. The 2 hour trip was full of class 3 and 4 rapids,  waterfalls that we boated under and it ended with a 12 foot drop off a water damn! Very fun!

We had a girls raft and a boys raft:

Westen and Aidan chilling under a waterfall during our half-time break!

Anika and Brenna in the waterfall:

The Williams-Weiss gang riverside:

More pix of rafting:

Surfing in Kuta

On Wednesday we moved to Nusa Dua and stayed in a hotel on the beach. The kids took surfing lessons on Kuta Beach on Thursday. Westen and Anika had already taken a surf lesson in Australia, but Aidan and Brenna were total novices. I was amazed at how quickly all 4 kids picked it up. They were hanging 10 in no time! I have so many pix, it's hard to choose. I'll put a few here and then put a surf slide show.

Aidan catching a wave:

Brenna:

More Surfing Pix:



SAS Reunion

Another highlight of the trip was meeting up with friends from Shanghai. We lived across the hall from Amy, Scott and Blake for 4 years. Well, we only lived across from Blake for about a year and a half, but he was with us in spirit for the full 4 years!!! We worked with Cody & Lynsey for 4 years and only lived a couple of buildings away. They have cute little Ben, who's almost 2. We met up with them 3 times while we were in Nusa Dua and had a great time being together.

Here's the gang:

The 9th floor kids, together again:

Surprise SAS Reunion: It's a Small World After All!
The Williams-Weiss gang met up with the Hossack-Howitt gang on our last night in Bali. We met at Uno, a western Italian restaurant in Nusa Dua. We were sitting at a big, long table, when lo and behold, we see former SAS students that moved to Singapore a year ago January! What a crazily small world. Their son, Michael was friends with Aidan and Westen.

Here's a picture of all 3 of them. (L-R Aidan, Westen, Michael) Apparently they all go to the same barber!

Random Bali pix - coffee plantation, pool time, friends, etc.:


Here are pix from a trip to some temples:

Hanging With my Peeps!

Last weekend I went to an excellent tech conference at the International School Bangkok. Even better, my peeps from SAS were there! It was fantastic to spend time with them, but I wish it could have been longer. Here are some pix of me and my peeps.

Is That a WLF in our Backyard??? How did that get there???

If you read my blog a little regularly, you might have read about the humongo snail that Loca found by our front door. Huge snail. Snail on steroids. The snail that ate Saigon. Big.

Well the other morning, Loca was doing a quiet, informative bark. I thought it was her, "I really want to be out in the sunshine" bark, but when I came downstairs, she was at the back door. Hmmm. That's unusual.

I looked out the door and saw...what is that? Could it be? It kind of looks like one, but how did it get in our backyard?

I opened the back door and yes, it was, a weird looking fish! I'm not talking a goldfish from some kid's tank. I'm talking 6 inches long, lots of fins, prehistoric looking thing that is probably served in local restaurants. I immediately looked up to the sky! Why?!? Did I think it was raining fish? Did I think that fish were falling from trees? Not sure, but that was my first reaction. Honest to God.



My second reaction was to see if Weird Little Fish was alive. A little kick and it wiggled its tail. Hmmm. A live fish near my back door and we live far from a water source. There was no water trail, so he didn't squirm his way from the Mekong River. Was it going to be someone's breakfast and it made a run for it? So many questions for 7am on a Sunday.


Our teeny tiny backyard area is walled off on all sides. There's no way Weird Little Fish could have gotten there on his own volition. I think one of our neighbors threw Weird Little Fish by our back door! Ha! Maybe it's a Vietnamese custom for long life and prosperity. I hope it doesn't mean "This fish is rotten! We can't eat it for breakfast. Throw it near the round eye's back door. She'll think it's a symbol of long life and prosperity. Silly round eye!"

So what do you do with a live, orphan fish? I pondered the humane thing to do. I considered a rescue mission, but we don't have a fish tank. Even if I was able to keep it alive, where would I eventually put it? I decided to let nature take its course. Had I came down 15 minutes later, the fish would have been dead. Who am I to mess with his fate?

Sorry, Weird Little Fish.

Herding Ducks!

We came across a duck farmer herding baby ducks while we were on a quad (4 wheeler) ride in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Brenna shot a video and it's sooooo cute!!!! If it's loading slowly, just turn off the volume, let it ride and then watch from the beginning.