First Thoughts on Beijing

We were really nervous headed into China - and not just because our flight was going to land at 1am and we weren't sure that our apartment would be open for us by the time we got there. We were concerned about the bustling nature of the city, that the kids would be overwhelmed, that we might get spit on (I'm not kidding - people spit all the time!), that it would be too cold, that the pollution would be overwhelming, that the kids would stop being adventurous with the food, that nobody would speak English, that our apartment would be dark and dingy, etc. While we certainly weren't wrong about all of the above, we have found ourselves very happy and content in Beijing, and considering staying a few extra days!

The pollution has become an obsession - our first few days were filled with blue skies, but we woke up on Day 3 to find that we could barely see out our window - the winds had moved the bad air to Beijing and it was considered hazardous to go outside. We have now downloaded an app that tells us the air quality in any part of China (0 = perfect, 500 = beyond bad; nice days are under 100, Day 3 was over 400). We are obsessed with checking it. Also amazing is that it changes day to day - and we have no idea what it will be like when we wake up each day! Makes planning a bit challenging, though.  Of course, the official Beijing Air Quality Index (AQI) reading and the US Embassy reading are never quite the same, but that is a whole different post!

Overall, we have found Beijingers (?) to be more friendly than we expected, although certainly not friendly like we have witnessed in Thailand or Bali.  However, the "rude factor" has been less than we prepared for, especially in regards to street vendors. When we visited the Great Wall last year during a brief Beijing layover, the vendors were very physical - we expected the same in Beijing, but haven't seen it at all, luckily.

Another amusing development has been the "celebrity" treatment of the kids at times.  We have had many (mostly in the tourist sites) people ask to take pictures with the kids - especially with Maggie.  While it is often parents who want to take pictures of their kids with our little blue-eyed blonde, we have even had adults who ask as well. Luckily, our girl has been a good sport and has obliged.  This has led to many interesting conversations with the kids who want to know the Chinese don't find it rude - after all, we would never just ask to take a picture with a random kid at home! We are chalking it up to a good cultural understanding....

The overall censorship has also made for some good conversations with the kids, who are struggling to understand why the Chinese don't demand their freedoms.  We talked a bit about Tiananmen Square while there today (luckily missed yesterday because of the smog, when what appears to be a suicide terrorist from another province killed and injured tourists where we were) and about the 1989 massacre, but our American-raised kids definitely have a ways to go to really understanding how to put themselves in someone else's shoes in such a dramatic way.  Luke especially keeps insisting how upset he would be if he were Chinese and "being lied to", but doesn't quite understand that it just a different perspective.  We are, however, enjoying the conversations that these topics lead to.

Singapore - Shopping, anyone?

One way in which we determine locations for this big trip is cost.  While there are lots of places that  we would like to see, we are trying to think of our year as life, not a vacation, so if we feel like there is a place that would be better as a future vacation spot, we take it off our itinerary and save it for another time. Africa is one example - our budget for this trip won't allow us to see Africa in the way we want to, so we will hold off (probably) until we can do Africa complete with safaris, etc (i.e. a vacation).

Singapore was on the list of "too expensive for this kind of trip". A few days before leaving, a Singaporean-American friend offered us her vacant (until next month) apartment for use while we are there - so we happily took advantage of their generous offer, and spent a few nights at the Chia/Kwan apartment.

We weren't sure what to expect in Singapore, and didn't have a lot of  time to explore, but we did learn a few things - Singapore is clean, their train system is well-run and pretty easy to follow, the food is delicious, and the national pastime has to be shopping. We struggled to find places to go in Singapore that weren't shopping malls - every train station, most restaurants, and most tourist sites - all malls.  We were happy to walk through the malls because of the air-conditioning, but since we are carrying everything we own with us, we didn't partake in much shopping. :(

One thing I did appreciate about Singapore was the architecture - lots of buildings with innovative and unusual shapes. Our favorite was this one that looked like a cruise ship fell out of the sky and landed on three buildings.  Here is Maggie holding up the ship:

Unfortunately, we didn't get a lot of Singapore pictures, but we do hope to return someday (on a vacation), where we can spend a little more money and see more of Singapore!

Snorkeling in the Bali Sea

After two weeks in Bali, we finally made it to the beach! We spent today snorkeling off Menjangan Island, with incredible coral gardens and fish of all colors, shapes and sizes. We rented an underwater camera so we could try to get some good pics, but quickly learned that it is hard to take pictures of fish - they move fast! Here are some pictures of the fish we *did* manage to snap, as well as some of the gorgeous coral, and of course, our little fishies!  Note: the puffer fish Maggie is holding in the last pic was handed to her by our guide - she didn't pick it up herself! :)

 

Reflections on Bali: Living a Life of Calm

While there are many parts of the Indonesian archipelago that looked fascinating, we decided to stick to the island of Bali, and find two places on the island that would give us different peeks into the lives here.  For our first week, Ubud was an easy choice. Ubud is well regarded as the cultural center of Bali, and while one could argue that it is becoming a little *too* touristy, there is still a lot to learn about the Balinese way of life by spending time in Ubud and its surrounding villages.

We chose to stay in a guesthouse called the Swallow Guesthouse outside of Ubud, in a village called Pesalakan Pejeng.  This guesthouse is in the midst of rice fields (we were pretty much the only house in sight), so we were able to see normal village life go on all around us.  We also relied a lot on Wayan and Putri, the fabulous hosts/managers of the guesthouse to show us around and teach us about life in a Balinese village.

And while I don't want to go all Eat, Pray, Love here, I must admit, there is an extreme sense of calm, kindness and beauty on Bali that really is a joy to live amidst.   I believe this is, in part, a result of two factors: the devotion to Hinduism, and the reliance on rice.

Hinduism is practiced by (I believe) approximately 95% of the Balinese. As a contrast. the rest of Indonesia is predominately Muslim, so Bali really is it's own island in Indonesia, both literally and religiously.   Bali is known as the island of the gods for good reason - the number of temples and shrines is mind-boggling.  Each family in a village (where most Balinese live) lives in a multi-generational family compound.  In their compound, each family has a temple that they use many times daily. Each village has 3 more temples, and on Bali, there are an additional 9 main temples (one pictured here).  

The most noticeable aspect of Hinduism to the outside eye is the amount of time spent daily making offerings to the gods - for pretty much everything.  You find offerings, both large and small, everywhere: on the ground, at the entrance to homes, on the sidewalk outside of stores, by cash registers at the grocery store, in small shrines by the rice fields, on the dashboards of cars, etc. Each one has a purpose - but they are all to thank the gods for what they have been given - prosperity, health, good harvests, family.....the list goes on.   Rather than bemoaning all that they don't have (and Westerners would find plenty for this list), they are grateful for what they do have - and they show their gratitude all day, every day. 

The other piece of Balinese life that I believe leads to a spirit of cooperation and harmony is the reliance on rice.  The morning after we arrived (late at night), we wandered the rice fields around our house.  We were happy to discover that day was a special day in their village, where each family was making offerings on their rice fields, and as we wandered slowly, we watched offerings being made.  

When we first started walking around, we assumed that rice was important because it is each family's livelihood - growing and selling (and exporting) their rice must be how each family makes money.  We learned, however, that each rice field (every family in every village has their own rice field) is actually for the family's rice consumption, as they eat rice at every meal. Wayan told us that his family goes through more than 2 kilos (almost 5 pounds) of rice each day.  Families don't sell rice - they eat it, thus they are reliant on their rice fields for their daily nourishment.  Rice fields are set up with an intricate irrigation system (developed in the 14th century, and is still used today - as Brian noted. sometimes you don't need to build a better mousetrap!) for each village that distributes the water for the fields based on size.  Each family relies on every other family to guarantee that the water distribution, rice planting, and rice harvesting will be beneficial to all - and it seems this spirit of cooperation and interdependence spills over into their daily lives and behavior, too.

Our experience on our last day in our guesthouse was a perfect example of the Balinese spirit.  Keep in mind, to get to our guesthouse, you have to park on the main road, and then walk 400 meters on a somewhat winding, paved walkway (surrounded on both sides by both the fields and the irrigation system) to get to the entrance of the house.  Bicycles and motorbikes often travel the walkway, but NEVER cars (I'm not good at suspense....you can see where this is going).  Wayan arranged for us to go white-water rafting (more on that later, but one of the best days we have EVER had!).  We offered to wait for the tour guide on the main road, but because the Balinese are so nice, Wayan insisted we wait at the house so that we would't be standing on the side of the road if the driver was running late.  Fifteen or so minutes after our arranged pickup time, the driver showed up at our house, looking a little flustered, muttering (in very broken English) about the walkway.   After we turned the first corner from our house, we saw it: he had driven on the walkway. And not just 10-20 feet in. He had actually turned off the first walkway and on to the second - which was about 2 inches wider than the width of the van. And driven for about 50 meters there. Until he got stuck. Really really stuck. And that is how we found the van.  Brian attempted to instruct him in the finer points of backing up, to no avail. The car looked about half an inch from falling into the rice field next to it.  Lots of onlookers showed up - all in disbelief as NO ONE has EVER tried driving on the pathway.  No one got angry or upset - they all either just watched, or offered to help.  Luckily, Wayan showed up after just a few minutes. With a smile on his face the whole time, he managed to back the van up (with help from Brian, the driver, and a bunch of village men) after about 30+ minutes of very careful work.  After that, smiles all around, and we were on our way.  

When we got back to the guesthouse later that day, we walked by the 10 foot piece of walkway where the van was originally stuck - and it was ruined! Concrete pieces everywhere, big chunks missing, clearly in need of a complete renovation. When I asked Wayan what would happen, he just smiled, shrugged, and said, "oh, we'll just fix it." They weren't angry with the driver (who was clearly told NOT to drive on the walkway), nor were they planning to make the tour company pay for the repairs, nor did they seem the least bit frustrated that they would have to fix something they didn't break. We were floored. I tried explaining to Wayan and Putri that in America, people would be upset by what happened, and the tour guide or company would be responsible for fixing the walkway....they just laughed, and shook their heads at the silliness of blaming someone for a mistake.

Bali River Rafting

Had one of our absolutely most fun days here in Bali a few days ago when we went river rafting.  Our guides were hilarious and kept us laughing and soaked the entire time.  The rafting itself would have been enough, but add in the scenery (incredible - pictures can't capture the Disney-esque feel of the narrow river running through perfect stone cliffs) and some "cliff-jumping", and it was easily one of our best days yet!

Ready to go!

 

Luke and I hit one of the rapids, followed by Brian, Jacob and Maggie in their boat:

Jumping off the cliff into the river below - so fun that even I got into it:

 

The boys must have jumped 10 times each:

But our award for favorite cliff-jumping picture goes to Maggie, who didn't know another raft was on its way. I swear this isn't photoshopped!!

A Day of Learning in Bali

The manager of our guesthouse, Wayan, took us out for a long day of touring - we learned so much!

Learning all about, and tasting, Luwar Coffee - known in gourmet coffee drinking circles as "cat poop coffee." It was delicious and not poop-tasting at all! :) Our favorites were the ginseng coffee, chocolate coffee, and lemongrass tea.

 


 Visiting one of the 9 sacred temples in Bali, and feeding the koi there:

We went to a traditional silversmith/jewelry maker where the kids made rings from scratch! They were each given little balls of silver and copper, and were shown, step by step, how to make jewelry.

Luke learning about the process from the "master":

Jacob and Maggie also took turns melting down their silver/copper into a liquid state:

 

 Three and half hours of work later, the finished products! Kids couldn't be prouder!

Adventures in Borneo, Part 2

All of the "attractions" in Sarawak (with the exception of the first day) are about an hour's drive away from The Kebun. This meant lots of time in the Green Bunny, but it also meant we weren't able to see everything we wanted to see.  While we missed out on Bako National Park which is supposed to be amazing (and I really wanted to see the proboscis monkeys), we felt like we saw enough to give us a good sense of the flora and fauna of Borneo.

Another favorite adventure in Borneo was visiting the Fairy Cave and Wind Caves.  As usual, we weren't sure what to expect, but our expectations were greatly surpassed. Not to diminish the incredibleness of them both, but in many ways they felt like Disneyland - except they weren't figments of someone's imagination.  We really felt like we had entered worlds that someone had created - because we couldn't imagine places like this actually exist.  These posts won't do them justice - you'll have to go see for yourselves!

The Fairy Cave was my favorite.  We walked up 5 flights of stairs in what looked like an old building attached to a mountain, and entered a light-filled cave  with colors and views that the photos can't do justice to. Maggie and I talked about how it looked like what we pictured the scenery to be in her book about China that we had just read:

From there, we were on to the Wind Caves.   The Wind Caves aren't beautiful - they are dark and full of bats.  The screeching of bats echoed through the first cave, and once we convinced Luke and Maggie (Jacob was completely nonplussed by the sound) that fruit bats aren't carnivorous, we walked (briskly) through cave #1.  Cave #2 was full of micro-bats and the kids learned about echolocation (how bats "see") and guano (bat poop).   Here is Maggie in Cave #1 (note: just like bats, you can't see much, but you can hear the video!).

We got home from the Caves and the kids decided to try fishing in the Fish Ponds. They were hooked, no pun intended.  Jacob and Luke both caught fish the first day, and Maggie caught one the next day. While Luke's fish made an impressive getaway when Brian tried to get it into the bucket, the fish caught by Maggie and Jacob were cleaned, cooked, and eaten by my mini-fishermen (and girl).

Our last great Bornean adventure was to see the famous Rafflesia, which boasts the largest single bloom flower on Earth.  Rafflesias only bloom for a few days, so trekking to see one that has bloomed is an important part of Sarawak tourism.  We got to Gunung Gading National Park (the only place this species grows) just as the rain clouds burst, so after waiting out the worst of the storm under a shelter, we traipsed through part of the forest to see a newly bloomed Rafflesia that hadn't finished blooming, but was the biggest in the park that day.

We also encountered a millipede who took a liking to the kids.  Brian and I weren't going anywhere near it, but the kids would have kept it as a pet, I think!

Adventures in Borneo, Part 1.

What an adventurous time we had in Borneo! While we enjoyed it thoroughly, I think all five of us were ready to get back to civilization after a hot, busy, bug-filled journey!  Lack of strong wifi meant that we couldn't blog about it until we left, but I think our memories will hold for a while!

For those who don't know much about Borneo, it is a large island in Southeast Asia divided into 3 sections. Most of the northern section is considered part of Malaysia, the central and southern regions belong to Indonesia, with a small area in the midst of Malaysian Borneo that is the country of Brunei.  We spent our time in the Malaysian region - in the state of Sarawak, outside of the main city of Kuching.  We chose to stay at a local farm/homestay called The Kebun, where our accommodations were small, open-air (hence the buggy) rooms in a replica of a typical Iban longhouse.  Lots to love about the longhouse, although we could have done without the ever-present mosquitos, the trek to the bathroom, the sign that warned "watch out for crocodiles" about 10 feet from us, and the 24-hour power outage that hit on our 3rd night.  While we certainly had our moments of frustration, we think we did an admirable job of remembering that it was all part of the adventure.  Pictured here is the longhouse. Our rooms were all the way at the end.

One of the great parts about The Kebun is that it comes with a rental car, affectionately named the Green Bunny by the owners. It was an early 80s green corolla with a stick shift, purple shag "carpeting" on the dashboard, and a pre-programmed Garmin Nav that took us everywhere we wanted to go in Sarawak.  Keep in mind, they drive on the left side in Malaysia, so Brian had to re-master a stick shift with the clutch on the opposite side - we were impressed!

The first day we didn't venture too far from The Kebun (letting Brian get used to the car), and went to a somewhat sad animal rehabilitation center in the morning, followed by a beautiful and challenging (read: crazy steep and crazy humid) hike through the Kubah rainforest to a glorious waterfall where the kids quickly changed into bathing suits and jumped into the clear, cold pools.  Somehow the hike back also felt like it was uphill the whole way, and both Brian and I were quickly reminded that we are not 25 years old anymore.

The next day we woke up early to learn more about the wildlife of Borneo.  First stop was Jong's Crocodile Farm.  We were somewhat expecting a sad "zoo" of crocodiles, but were shocked to discover an entire habitat dedicated to breeding all members of the crocodile family.  There must have been hundreds of crocs there - from babies to "grandpa"- in all shapes and sizes.  We got closer to them than we imagined we would, but never felt that we were too close.  The habitats were enclosed, but huge - and  the crocs seemed well taken care of.

From there, we were off to Semenggoh Orangutan Center, dedicating to rehabilitating orangutans so they can be released back into the wild. Unlike Matang, where we had visited the day before, there were no cages or enclosures.  Semenggoh is a sanctuary where visitors can watch these amazing creatures in their natural settings - with the addition of special ropes for them to climb, and twice-daily feedings by the park rangers.  Hard to explain how breathtaking it was to watch these great apes, but we were all in awe.  They steered clear of the tourists (although we were warned that if one approached and tried to steal our camera, Don't Fight Back!), and seemed very content swinging from the ropes with their babies attached, and letting the babies give it a go on the ropes as well.   We were sad to leave, but visiting hours are limited at Semenggoh to 1 hour, twice a day, in order to allow the orangutans a less stressful environment.