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:

Cambodia - Day 2

On the second day we went to the temples. So incredible. They're HUGE and old (built between the 8th and 13th century). How did they build such amazing temples without modern machinery? There were so many intricate carvings and big bas-reliefs. Just an awe inspiring place. Wow.

Below are loads of pix. The wats at Siem Reap are a photographer's dream. I just have a Canon Elph point and shoot. I wish I had a digital SLR with major lenses.

In the afternoon we went Quad riding - very fun! Another fun way to see "real" Siem Reap. We stopped at a rice paddy and learned how to harvest rice. It's harder than it looks! Can't imagine doing that all day in the super hot Cambodian sun. The kid that showed us how to do it was 14 years old. We had 3 kids with us - 11, 13 and barely 15. It makes you think. (Ya know, of using your kids for labor. I could be making some money off these slackers.) There are some Night Market pix at the end, including crispy cricket snacks!

Cambodia - WOW!

I've wanted to go to Angkor Wat since I moved to Asia over 4 years ago. I finally got to go this week and - WOW! - that's all I can say is WOW! Amazing temple ruins and a great town. If you ever get a chance GO to Siem Reap, Cambodia. (I'm going to break this vacation into several posts because it'll be too long and I don't have time to finish it right now.)

On the first day, we went on a long horseback ride. I'm afraid of horses, so I volunteered to ride a horse that barely liked to move. Not a good choice because he kept stopping to eat and generally wouldn't move. I had to keep pulling up his head - not easy! - and kicking him to get him to move - not easy! It would have been easier for me to give the horse a horseback ride! Aidan and I switched horses and I got one that just followed the horse in front of him - easy! I road Rinaldo the rest of the way. My latin lover horse was a good ride, but to be perfectly honest, I don't really enjoy horseback riding. I always think I will, but I don't. I grew up in Jersey, what do you expect? It was a great way to see the back country of Siem Reap. Kids kept running out to the road yelling, "Hello! Hello!"


We celebrated Aidan's 15th birthday in Siem Reap that day (Dec. 27th). We ate at Viva Mexican, which was EXCELLENT, went to the night market and then had birthday ice-cream at The Blue Pumpkin. Hard to believe my cuddly little baby is now a hairy 15 year old! 

Our friends from Shanghai, Jeff and Faye, walked by while we were eating dinner! Such a small world! It was great to see them again.  :o)

Vacation: Intrigue, Deceit and VICTORY!

I can't believe I forgot to post this picture in my first vacation post. Brenna loves to play Spy Alley and I stink at it! Spy Alley is a game where you pick a card that tells you your spy identity - which country you're from. It's a secret, of course. The object is to gather up spy items (passwords, keys, codes and disguises) and make it to your embassy before someone correctly guesses what country you're from. You make decisions to throw people off, etc.

Here's a typical game for me:

1. I randomly pick a card - Germany - and NO ONE sees.

2. I pick up the die to roll for my first roll of the game. I have an empty board and I'm still on Start. I shake the die in my hand like a pile of salted peanuts.

3. Before I even roll the die Brenna says, "You're German!"

4. Now I have to play it cool and not show the shock and disbelief on my face, so I reply with, "Yup, I'm German." or "Why don't you guess right now?" - If a player makes an incorrect guess, they're out. What I really want to say is, "For the love of God, how do you ALWAYS know my identity???"

5. I make it through the game until Brenna lands on the safety spot. This is where players can guess the identity of another player and if they guess incorrectly they stay in the game. Brenna excitedly blurts out, "Mom's German!" and I hand over all my money and spy items to my 11 year old Spy Alley whiz kid.

6. I ask Bren, "How do you always know what I am?" She replies, "I can just tell!" Huh? "You just look German." What does that mean??? Makes me a tad suspicious. Is my sweet, fun daughter a Spy Alley cheater? I don't think so. I've kept control of the spy cards and shuffled and made sure everything was top secret and she still guesses correctly.

Tuesday, December 23rd was a good day. The sun was shining, the air was clean, something magical was in the air and I WON AT SPY ALLEY!!! I was playing with Hannah and Brenna and here's the victory photo I took. As you can see, my opponents were not thrilled with my victory!

Vacation: Part 1. So Far, So Good!

Our 3 week winter break officially began at 12:30 on Friday! Woo-hoo! Mike and I started our vacation with lunch at a local pub with a bunch of other teachers. Then Mike went to get a haircut which includes 45 minutes (or more!) of an incredible head massage/shampoo.  I went downtown with 3 friends and got a foot, head, arm, back massage at Royal Foot Massage. It ended with an awesome back massage that looked painful, but felt great. Ahhh!

Left: Long row of massage gals giving foot massages. 70 minutes of bliss for $7. Nice!

On Sunday night, my friend Laura from SAS came to spend the night. It was so fantastic to spend time with her! Luckily she enjoys playing card games. Brenna is a card game addict and she taught Laura a couple new games. Laura then beat us at most of the games. Geez! We played A LOT of games!
Left: Brenna teaching Laura how to play Rat-a-Tat Cat on our rooftop terrace.

Left: Laura heading back to the airport. She loooooves Vietnam, so hopefully this wasn't her only stay at Chateau Williams!

Last night (Monday night) Mike's brother Dan and his daughter Hannah arrived close to midnight. I thought they would be zombies today, but they were amazing! We went to The Gourmet Shop for breakfast (left).

After a leisurely breakfast and of course a stop at the smoothie stand, I took Brenna and Hannah to get our nails painted. The girls had a lot of choices to make. What color?? What designs??

They watched TV while being pampered. Not a bad life for an 11 & 13 year old!!!

The final result! Christmas trees, snowmen, wreaths, snowflakes. Soooo cute and festive!  :o)  I got french tips with a Christmas tree on each thumb!

In the afternoon we went downtown. We walked around the backpacker area, shopped at Ben Thanh market and went to an early dinner at Quan An Ngon, a delicious restaurant with very local food. The owner took the best street stall cooks and created a restaurant. They all work in their own area. The menu is extensive with both food and drink and it's very cheap. Mike and I love the vermicelli with friend spring rolls and it's less than $2.00.

Stupid Box Jellyfish!

So I was really excited for our trip to Phuket next month - beautiful beaches, sunny weather, Thai food - paradise! I was also really excited to discover an e-mail from my sister-in-law in my Facebook Inbox. Hey! A message from Lisa! Rock on! 

Then it all changed...

Apparently there's an animal called a Box Jellyfish. Lisa told me that the intriguing looking boxies (see photo - gorgeous, eh?) are deadly and on the move. Well, the stinking boxies are already vacationing in Phuket. I guess they heard about the beautiful beaches, warm weather and Thai food, too. Who can resist green curry chicken? The deadly, gooey animals are on the east coast of Phuket and we'll be staying on the west coast. Do I want to spend my vacation worrying about a deadly swim? No thanks! I better get a plan B in case the boxies don't head back home to Australia or where ever else they normally hang out. Great. The one year I plan out our winter vacation early, it totally backfires. 

Stupid Box Jellyfish.