wandering5

 

Before I delve into our travels in Australia, I do want to mention Christchurch – a cool city that is still building itself up after the devastating earthquake 4 years ago.  Like the other cities in NZ, it’s super chill and has a good vibe.  It was our last stop before we went onto Australia.  We stayed at a great hotel – The Hotel Montreal -which was a nice place to relax near Hagley Park and the Botanical Garden. Great trails to run on in the morning.    It had a kitchen, which is always a plus when traveling with kids.

We didn’t do too much in Christchurch- it was more of a relaxing time, but we did go to this great museum called the International Antarctic Centre.  Definitely worth going if you ever get to NZ.  It might be the closet you get to being in Antarctica – although now that I have been to the museum, I have to say that Antarctica might be on my bucket list.  Anyhow, I digress.

The cool thing about this museum is how interactive it is.  You get to take a ride on a Hagglund, which is the vehicle used by scientists in Antarctica to cover the rough terrain.  At the museum they take you on a ride over mounds and hills – one two stories high and into a deep lake so you can experience a little bit of what it might be like to be in Antarctica.

The other great experience is the Antarctic Storm.  Heavy coats with hoods are provided as well as covers to put on your shoes before you walk into a room that was roughly 14 degrees Farenheit to begin with.  Once the storm starts and the winds begin to blow, the temperature drops well below zero and you are experiencing what it would be like to live through a storm on Antarctica.  There was even an igloo you could run into to get out of the storm.

The museum was well done with movies showing you what a beautiful continent it is and how much work scientists are doing down there.  We even got to see the blue penguins of New Zealand, which the girls loved.

Well worth the time and will definitely make you think about making the trek down to Antarctica.  Of course to get there I have to go to New Zealand again 🙂

 

 

Happy New Year!!! It’s crazy to think we left 19 weeks ago!  We made it through the holidays and have come out on the other side ready to go to Australia and onto Europe.  The holidays were good.  We were sad not to be home with family and friends, but we enjoyed our time in Wellington, NZ, where we spent Christmas.  We opted for a hotel – the Intercontinental – so that we knew it would be decorated for the girls.  They were even kind enough to help me get a Christmas tree in our room, which made the holidays that much more special being away from home.

And Santa found us all the way in New Zealand!!!!  Thank goodness!  Christmas Eve day we went to see Star Wars – not traditional, but a great way to spend time as a family.  Then I wrapped presents.  Never left it all til Christmas Eve, but it all worked out okay.  Being away from home, gifts were small that could be carried with us.  Christmas morning was amazing and after presents and brunch at the hotel, we walked the waterfront and went to the Te Papa Museum.  So amazing – well thought out, peaceful, pretty – so different from what I feel I experience at home.  We went to the Dreamworks exhibit, which was amazing, and also saw the star of the museum – a giant squid!  We capped off an amazing Christmas watching Sound of Music and all in all we were pretty happy and had a nice Christmas.

We left Wellington and headed to the South Island – took us 3 hours on a ferry – very cool and beautiful.  Spent some times in a few cute towns – Picton, Nelson and Blenheim.  The best place we stayed was St. Leonard’s Cottage in Blenheim – a cute farm in the vineyards of Marlborough.

The girls were thrilled to be around animals again – sheep, chickens and even deer.  We stayed in the cutest cottage – the Shearer’s Cottage – that used to be where they actually sheared the sheep.  Wish we could have stayed there a month!!!

There was a grass tennis court where we spent two days playing as much as we could.  Michele and Marcus, who owned the cottages, said they had never had anyone play as much as we had.  It was a fun way to spend a couple of days.

New Year’s, however, wins the prize!  We woke up in the cute town of Blenheim in the South Island and drove about 20 minutes to Picton – the town where we landed on our ferry ride from the north to the south island.  We had an incredible day – crystal clear with calm waters.  We put on our wetsuits and got on a boat of about 15 people with Eko-tours.   We were searching for dolphins and if we found them, we would have the opportunity to swim in the wild with these amazing animals.

It took about 30 minutes for us to find a pod of dolphins.  I was a little worried – all I wanted was for the girls to at least see dolphins – swimming with them would be an added bonus that I was of course hoping for.  Once the dolphins were spotted, we had to be quick about getting in the water.  This was no ordinary dolphin encounter since we were looking for them in their wonderful, beautiful habitat of the Marlborough Sound, we were not sure how long they would hang around, if at all.  We didn’t really have time to think.  Claire went down the ladder and then I did – wanting to be in the water before the twins.  Next thing you know, you look down with snorkel masks and the dolphins are zooming underneath and around you.  It was truly amazing!!

These dolphins are native to New Zealand – Dusky Dolphins.  They are the most acrobatic dolphins in the world besides the spinner dolphin.  What a once in a lifetime experience!  Once we got out of the water, the captain and first mate were so excited for us – they said it was the best swim they had seen in 3 months!!!!  Welcome to 2016 – I was so thankful that the girls and Dave and I were able to experience this!!!   Really to experience all of this.  I sometimes can’t believe what we are doing and how lucky we are to have this opportunity.

We then spent about an hour cruising around trying to find pods to watch and we were spoiled with what we saw.  All Grace said she wanted to see were dolphins jumping out of the water and we got a show from one dolphin that jumped along the boat for a few minutes.  Plus they were swimming so close to our boat, you just had to look over and there they were.

I am amazed at the experience and so thankful it worked in our favor.

Here’s a GoPro Video. When we got in the water we were told make as much noise as possible so the dolphins would be curious and find us interesting, so excuse the annoying noises.

We have now reached Christchurch after a beautiful 5 hour drive along the coast where we stopped to see a seal colony lounging in the rocks hear Kaikoura.

Something to see since in San Francisco we are so used to seeing them on the docks at Fisherman’s Wharf.

We hate to leave the amazing country in a couple of days, but know we will return someday soon.

 

 

 

We have done so much in this beautiful country!  We really love it here. It is very chill and relaxed.  We are already talking about what we will do when we come back since we won’t have time to see all that we want in the South Island.  I think if we didn’t have tickets to head to Australia already, we might just stay 🙂

We aren’t always on the go even though it may seem that way with what we post.  But in between all the fun activities, we have down time just like at home.  We spend days cruising the towns we are staying in, hitting the stores and reading our books, going to the movies.  But there are amazing things to do here in New Zealand and I want to catch you up on a couple more things we did in Rotorua after the others went Zorbing.

Zorbing Video!

I actually did something I was so terrified of, but had a amazing time – I went zip lining – and it was awesome!!  We all loved it!  We did it with a company called Rotorua Canopy Tours.  This is actually the only zip lining you can do in a native forest in New Zealand.  You are jumping out of platforms and walking on bridges way above the forest floor – the tallest jump was from a 500 year old remu tree –  72feet high!!!  It was good that we were in the canopy and could only see tops of trees – couldn’t really see the bottom of the forest floor so I didn’t know how far I really had to fall.  The longest zip line we did was 721 feet long from that same tree!!

I have always been slightly terrified of ziplining for the obvious fear of falling, but this outfit was legit and I felt really safe.  So safe that by the end I was hanging upside down on my last run – of course no pics of me, but I have one of Claire.  Dave attempted upside down, but only made it about half way.  It helped that my girls were jumping off no problem and having a blast!

In addition to the zip lining, this company is also a conservation program that has been working since they opened to help save birds native to NZ that are in danger of becoming extinct.  They work to trap the rodents that are killing them off and have seen great progress in the birds and sounds they see in their forest each day.  The guides actually go with the group (10 people max) and tell you all about it as you go.  It’s very cool addition to ziplining.

Another cool thing we did was visit a place called Wingspan National Bird of Prey Center.  This is another conservation program in the area.  This one works mainly with the conservation of the New Zealand falcon.  It rehabilitates falcons as well as other birds, like owls, and when possible release them back into the wild.

We got to see the birds up close and watch an interactive flying display.  Very cool!  These falcons are the fastest birds in New Zealand.  They were beautiful to watch.

 

Caw Caw!!!!

 

We have realized that what works with us on this trip is anything having to do with animals or art.  These are the things that most interest the  girls.  This particular day we learned a lot about the falcons and what they do at Wingspan.  They put the falcons though training each day to get them strong enough to go back to the wild. What they basically do is certain Falconry techniques that have been used for thousands of years. They use a long lure with wings on the end and the trainers swing it in the air. The falcons, thinking it is a bird, follow it and try to capture it.  The trainer continues to whip the lure around and around while the falcon tries to catch it.  Eventually the trainer lets them so that they can get their “reward” – typically raw chicken.

These birds are threatened for a variety of reasons – they breed on the ground and that makes their nests with eggs and babies easy targets for those animals that prey upon them, shooting from humans, electrocution from wires, just to name a few.  It’s good for the girls to hear about this and realize that there are many different ways they can make a difference in the world once they decide what they want to pursue.

So many great things to learn here in New Zealand! Caw Caw!!!

 

Hello!!!!  Grace again.  I haven’t blogged in a long time.  Right now we are in New Zealand.  In Rotorua we did this thing called Zorbing.  Zorbing is where you roll down hills in these giant blow up balls with water in them!!!!  The zorbes are one big ball with a small one inside that you sit in.  If you are claustrophobic don’t do this.

You drive up a hill to where it starts. I would advise to wear your swimsuits there, or you could bring them to change in to.  You wait on a platform and when it’s your turn you dive into the ball.

There are two courses – one which you roll straight down and the second one you roll down a curvy hill.  We were supposed to do one time straight and one time curvy.  It was too much fun though, so we did the curvy one again. The people who work there advise you to do the wet one not the dry one, which is no water in the big zorb.  You can do the dry one, but they say it isn’t that much fun.  You should bring an extra pair of clothes just  in case yours get wet.  There are hot tubs after so you can jump in – that was great!

The water in the ball is warm.  It might get a little steamy in there, so if they give you a go pro you can take it, but it might get steamy.

After you roll down the hill they will take pictures of you in the ball and out.  The videos and photos altogether are about fifty dollars or so.

We were told Zorbing began when the owner wanted to walk on water like Jesus.  So he made blow up shoes.  Then he fell in the water and couldn’t get back up with those on – weird, huh?  He then tried a blow up ball on the water and it worked.  So that is how it all started. 

Clairbear, Lauren and Daddy did it with me.  Mom gets motion sick so she didn’t do it.  You don’t roll like a hamster.  I mean you can try, you just will fall.  You don’t get motion sick.  It rolls around – you just slide.  Hope you all liked my blog!!!!!

ta ta

Grace

So it seems as if my fellow bloggers have deserted me – not even Dave seems to want to post.  He spends most of his down time learning Japanese, so it is left to me.  I will do my best to update as much as possible.  I know everyone likes Dave’s posts, but I’ll have to do 🙂  We are behind, there is no way around that.  Lack of internet will do that to you, so I am going to start with where we are and will work my way back and fill in what I can.

We are in New Zealand and we are loving it!  Before we set foot here, we did spend a week in Bondi Beach outside of Sydney, Australia (more on that in another post).  We were happy to step foot in our first English speaking country since we started.  And thank goodness things are all in English since we have now started on our road trip part of this journey. Dave as our driver has to drive on the “wrong” side of the road.  This would be all the more difficult if we didn’t understand the road signs.

We arrived in New Zealand last week and went straight to Waiheke Island.  It is a small island about a 30 minute ferry ride from Aukland and super mellow.  So mellow in fact that the one rental car place was closed when we got there and our friend’s friend had to call them to come and open up again.  They didn’t think they had any more renters for the day, so they closed up shop early – I think we got there at 3:30.  Our kind of living!!  We were fortunate enough to stay at this great house given to us by one of Dave’s client, Doug.  We loved it!  It was at Enclosure Bay and we felt right at home.  We were able to cook, which was great.  For some this might seem odd, but throughout Asia we stayed mostly at hotels and we have been ready for some home cooked meals for awhile now.   Girls were happy in their bunk beds with reading lights and we had about 150 stairs down to a little private beach.  Too cold to swim, but it was nice to walk down to each day.

We spent some time walking the cute streets and checking out the shops.  Had a nice lunch and great beer at a local pub called The Cove and the girls enjoyed yummy gelato a couple of times at Island Gelato.  We walked the local beach and collected shells – a favorite past time when we come to a beach.

One of the best days was our drive out to Man O War Vineyards.  We drove across the island about 40 minutes – 2o of which were on a dirt road.  Dave definitely thought I was getting him lost, but I take my job as navigator quite seriously – especially if a great glass of wine is waiting for me at the other end!!  The terrain of Waiheke is beautiful – rolling hills, sheep, cows, vines and it ended with the tasting room at the edge of Man O War Bay  – amazing!!  The girls were able to run around the grassy area, there were games and picnic tables and we were blessed with beautiful weather!  The wine was fantastic!!  We tried both the whites and the reds and weren’t disappointed.  Still have one bottle we bought with us – and actually broke it out tonight.

We also made some new friends with the caretakers of our house, Chris and Margaret, who were kind enough to invite the 5 of us over for a delicious home cooked meal.  Always nice when we can meet locals and get a taste of real life wherever we are.  They were too kind and took good care of all of us.  We are enjoying the olive oil they gave us for our road trip from their own olive trees grown on the island.  Claire wishes she had a whole vat!!

We were sad to leave our little piece of NZ paradise, but headed back to Aukland for a few days.  A sleepy little town.  Dave and I both loved it – reminded us of Portland.  It seemed old school, not yet gentrified, but cool.  We really just had some down days – strolling the streets and shops. That always gives you a feel for how locals live.  The shops seemed to close early – I think 8pm on Saturday night – unheard of on the streets of San Francisco so close to the holidays.  Speaking of holidays, we were happy to find Christmas windows at the local department store all decorated, so we didn’t feel so far from the downtown Macy’s.  Plus there was a huge Santa gracing the corner of Queen Street where there was also a local playing the didgeridoo.  Pretty cool!  And we have managed to decorate a little at each place with stockings and a small tree. Plus our elf managed to find us all the way down here thankfully!!!  I have to say, while I miss the Christmas spirit with family and friends, there something to say about taking it easy for the holidays and not running around like a crazy person as I normally do getting everything done – gifts, cards, cookies, etc.  We will miss your Christmas cards, so feel free to email us a picture of it 🙂

We went up to the Sky Tower and looked out over the city.  Through the windows not only could you see the landscape dotted with now dormant volcanoes, but you could watch people bungee jumping from the top of the tower!  Crazy!!

And now we have rented our green and purple Jucy mobile and have hit the road!

We won’t fly again until we get to Christchurch on January 5th.  Currently we are in Rotorua staying at Cedarwood Lakeside Motel right on the lake.

It is has trampolines and swings, so everyone is happy.  And happy is key right now.  It did get ugly for a couple of days in Waiheke and we wondered if we were going to have to throw in the towel on the trip, but we had a family come to Jesus moment and decided we were continuing on.  I think that coming down from all the time in Asia was more than we thought it would be.  But we seem to be in a good place now.  We are definitely trying to change up our itineraries a bit and slow things down.  It isn’t worth it to move around too much when you are gone for so long.  But here in NZ and Australia, there are many things we want to see and we are trying to work it out.  Once we get to Europe in February we have decided to try to stay in one town/city for at least a month at a time.  We’ll see how it goes.

I’m going to end with the great adventure Dave and the girls had today – Zorbing!!  What a crazy experience where you roll down a hill in these gigantic inflated balls with water inside – just like a hamster in a hot tub 🙂  They loved their first two rides so much, they did a third.

We are taking a break before going to learn about the local Maori culture tonight – girls are rewatching Return of the Jedi so we can be ready for the news Star Wars movie when it comes out.  Can’t wait!!

And stay tuned – we are scheduled to zip line on Friday – definitely out of my comfort zone, but I’m ready…….I think!

 

 

We are a little behind on the blog.  Our time in Bali got away from us and once in Ubud, internet was spotty.  We will be updating as much as we can.  Might be a little our of order, but it will all be there none the less.

Bali is a lot different than Dave and I expected, mainly bigger and more crowded.  I think we were thinking it would be along the lines of Hawaii, and I’m sure there are places that are much quieter, but we spent time at the beach in Seminyak and there are a lot more people than we expected.  And it’s hot!!!!  When we say hot, crazy hot for us San Franciscans!!  Easily low 90’s with close to 80-90%% humidity.  Took us a few days to get used it that, although I never fully did.

Samaja Villas – We stayed at a great place close to the beach.  Probably a 5-8 minute walk or a quick bike ride on the two bikes they had to use.  The staff couldn’t have been nicer.   A little bit of indoor/outdoor living, which took some getting used to since the eating area and living room was outside with no AC and I already mentioned how hot it was.  But the pool was amazing to have in the afternoons when we needed to cool off.

Beach days – we had many.  The girls spent hours playing in the waves, boogie boarding and Claire tried surfing again, which she loves.  Dave did too, but has decided surfing isn’t for him 🙂 We had to be in the water while we were at the beach other wise it was just too hot – so no sunbathing on the many lounge chairs set up on the beach, but we found many seas shells and treasures walking the beach and playing the waves.

 

Horseback riding – The girls have been asking to ride horses this whole trip and we had to walk right by Mesari Stables each day to get to the beach, so we really didn’t have any more excuses.  The girls and I chose to go for a sunset ride when it was cooler and there was a nice breeze.  They had a great time!! Claire was in her glory and the twins are now horse lovers like Claire.  And sunsets on Seminyak are quite a thing to see both for the beauty and for all of the people who come to see it.  The beach side bars and restaurants are filled with people.  Each restaurant has large bean bags and umbrellas set up so that everyone can enjoy the sunset – it is really something to see.

Massages – I am loving the massages throughout Asia – it has been a treat. And in Seminyak was no different.   We were introduced to a woman named Susan who owns Jari Menari Massage through a friend. She sent us pages of information before we left about place to go, places to stay, restaurants, etc.  We definitely had to try a massage at JM and we were not disappointed!!!  We loved it so much we went back twice!  If ever in Seminyak, that’s the place to go!  And we made a new friend in Susan who even had us up to her beautiful home for our first home cooked meal of the trip.  We were in heaven!  She had dogs and a pool and couldn’t have been nicer.  She even gave us tips on where to go once we left Seminyak and headed to Ubud.  We will be meeting her cousin up here who paints on silks, which the girls will love.  We love the friendliness and hospitality of all the people we have met.  We have pages of information from Susan and another friend of a friend, Amy, who lives in Seminyak as well, if you ever need tips for a trip to Bali, let me know.

Thanksgiving – We couldn’t miss our favorite holiday, Lauren would not let us if we tried.  So we found a hotel in the area that was serving a traditional Thanksgiving dinner – the L Hotel.  A beautiful rooftop setting  with almost all we could imagine – pumpkin soup, turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and apple pie.  The only thing missing was the stuffing, but we survived and had our first Thanksgiving as a family away from home.  We missed being with the rest of our family, but we know this is only temporary and we were blessed to be together in a beautiful place on an amazing adventure.

Tour day – We had a driver take us all around for the day. We started at Padang Padang beach where we swam amongst tons of seaweed, but it was beautiful for sure.  And there were some caves that Claire, Grace and Dave explored.  Again, Claire was in her glory and wanted to go back again.

We also went to Uluwatu temple which is an amazing temple on a cliff – truly something to see.  There were some crazy monkeys – one that grabbed at Grace’s foot, so we didn’t spend long, but are glad we were able to see it.

Our last stop was Jimbaran Bay for fresh grilled seafood at Cafe Made Bagus, which Susan has suggested.  Amazing!!!  We saw the fresh fish as we walked in the restaurant as well as the coconut husks that they grill them on.  We chose to have a little of everything – prawns, lobster, clams, squid and white snapper.  So delicious and the view was amazing and the beach was relatively quiet.

We are now in Ubud and have much to tell you – more to come soon!

 

I think this is one of the best activities we have done as a family and we have been together almost 3 months.  We took a cooking class in Thailand and we all had the best time!  It was something each of us could do, even if the girls hadn’t ever used a full size butcher knife before.  Should I have been worried? Fortunately they came away with all of their fingers. 🙂

We chose the Siam Rice Thai Cookery based upon reviews we had read, and we were not disappointed.  We chose to do just the afternoon class so that they girls would be able to make it through the entire thing.  It didn’t include the trip to the farmer’s market, but we were okay with that.  We reaped the rewards of those who went and had the freshest ingredients.

We chose our dishes once we arrived.  Each of us got to prepare 3 dishes, one noodle, one chicken and one curry.  We had a combination of the following on our table – Pad Thai, Big Fried Noodles, Fried Holy Basil with Chicken, Fried Ginger with Chicken, Khao Soy Curry and Green Curry.  Because we were not doing the full day class, we weren’t supposed to make dessert, but Dave had to have the chance to learn to make his favorite dessert – Mango Sticky Rice, so we were treated to that as well.

All of the cooking was done at outside work stations.

We chopped and diced each ingredient.  They had plated the ingredients for each of us before hand, so they were all ready for each dish.  Our instructor was great and helped the girls out when they needed it.

Then we took it all to our own individual wok stations.  The girls did a great job stir frying for the first time!  Dave can’t wait until they can cook for him once we get home.

AWESOME LAUREN was the curry master.  She was the first one finished.  She rocked and was very proud!  (By: Lauren)

And pounding the ingredients with a mortar and pestle is no easy feat!

 

Finally, we were able to taste the fruits of our labor and it was delicious!!!!  Grace’s favorite was the ginger chicken.

Lauren liked the basil chicken.  I have never seen her eat so much!

Claire loved the pad thai.

Dave’s favorite was of course the mango sticky rice!  

Unfortunately no picture of me, just my plates, but I loved the Khao Soy Curry.  And don’t they look yummy?!

We all said we couldn’t wait to cook this back at home.  The great thing about it is that with the food allergies the girls have, peanuts and seeds, it was nice to know exactly what went in to each dish and no one was worried.  And the girls ate it all – well as much as they could because there was so much food – happy to eat what their hands had made.

We are looking forward to more cooking classes on this journey – possibly Spain and Italy.  Bon appetit!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Disclaimer-This post is out of chronological order but I’m sure you don’t mind)

Siem Reap, Cambodia-This is as close as I’m ever going to get to feeling like Indiana Jones.

Cambodia is probably the poorest country we will probably visit on this journey. Its a country that has been to hell and back, just a brutal recent history. The six days we spend here though-all in Siem Reap-was pretty awe inspiring. We were here to mainly visit the Temples of Angkor and they did not disappoint.

Its hard to convey the scale of it all. Kinda mind blowing to think that this was probably the largest city in the world a 1,000 years ago, with a population close to 1 million at a time when London had a population of about 50,000.  All built without the use of mortar, several stories high, in about 30 years. European cathedrals took hundreds of years to build. What the hell? Then the whole place gets abandoned, the jungle swallows it up, and it’s then rediscovered (by Europeans at least) in the mid 1850’s. Could you imagine stumbling onto this place?

It gets to a point where you just keep taking pictures and everything looks so amazing to you that it gets downright silly. Not that any of the pictures really do it justice.

We hired a great guide named Picheth. The tour guides here remind me of Park Rangers back home, they all wear the same uniform, but they meet you at the hotel. They charge about $40 a day. Having a guide with us made a world of difference. Picheth was great!1  We tried to avoid the mid day head and spend time in the hotel or by the pool. It’s the most oppressive heat I’ve experienced in a while-and it wasn’t even the hottest time of the year. By 10:30am or so you pretty much feel like you are in a sauna. We had plenty of meltdowns due to the heat- I would too if I were only 8. Thankfully our driver had cold water and cold towels at every stop.

We visited the 3 main temple sites- Angkor Tom (lots of Buddha heads), Ta Prohm (still covered by the jungle), and Angkor Wat (the most famous, the most well preserved). They were all cool for different reasons.

Here is Angkor Tom-

 

Ta Prohm was my favorite as it showed how the temple probably looked as it was rediscovered by Westerners.  It is also where the film Tomb Raider was shot.

Angkor Wat (all the pictures on the internet are better)

This is not a river-its a gigantic MAN MADE moat

The precursor to Uber

We also went on a trip to see a floating village. There are two seasons-wet and dry.  When the rain comes, the river gets too full, that it pushes back up towards Siem Reap and floods, making the river a lake for part of the year.  During the wet season they fish, and when the water recedes, they plant rice.  You have to build your house on stilts. It was crazy to see a wooden boat full of uniformed school kids heading to class on the river.

We also visited an orphanage in Siem Reap. Our hotel arranged it and we brought them a huge bag of rice ($30 worth) and some school supplies (Notebooks, pens, colored pencils). We hung out with the kids (of all ages) for a couple of hours in the afternoon. They all spoke pretty good english. We all sat down with the head of the orphanage to ask him questions. It was pretty heavy hearing about the all the situations that brought the kids there, but it was good for the girls to hear it and see how they lived. It was just one afternoon, but they all seemed pretty happy, they did tons of origami and made paper airplanes with the girls and they played monkey in the middle with them as well.

We really didn’t wander around the city too much. We were busy seeing the temples and swimming to save us from the heat.

Our hotel lobby had giant lily pads. Go ask Alice….when she’s ten feet tall….

Double Trouble-happy times in an air conditioned room

Random thoughts on Cambodia

-Everyone here uses the good ole U.S. Dollar and the prices aren’t as cheap as I thought they would be-probably because it’s the biggest tourist oriented city in the country.

-Every room in our hotel had a copy of Angelina Jolie’s Tomb Raider.

-Sad to see the decapitated Buddha statues in the temples, a product of foreign demand and people trying to make a living during/after a brutal civil war.

-Our guide mentioned that the global real estate bull market is alive and well in Siem Reap

Siem Reap is a really cool place. Really glad we could see it, especially at this time. With the increase in tourism to the temples you would have to think at some point they wouldn’t just let you walk around where ever you wanted. I hope that Cambodia can continue to move forward.

Until Next Time Cambodia! From the Funky Pants Club

I want to tell you about an amazing day we had in Thailand.  We were fortunate enough to be able to “own” an elephant for a day. It took place at Patara Farm outside of Chiang Mai, which rescues elephants purely because they love them.  We got to feed them, bathe them and ride them.  All in all it was a great experience. All of the elephants there were Asian elephants, you can tell by their spotted ears and trunks.

To begin, everyone participating got a basket of bananas and sugarcane. Then we got assigned to a certain elephant, based on our age and personality.  My elephant was named Tap Tong.  She had a few spots on her trunk, and her ears.  She was rescued ten years ago from an illegal logging camp.  Our trainer held the basket and handed us the food one by one. I held my hand up high and yelled, “Boon!”  The elephants would lift their trunks, and you would put the food in their mouths. Tap Tong liked to use her trunk to get the food too.

We learned how to care for our elephants and how to check four things to make sure our elephants were heathy and happy.  If an elephant is happy its ears are flappy and its tail is swinging.  To check if it’s heathy you have to make sure that its eyes are watering at the same rate.  Elephants don’t have tear ducts, so they don’t cry like us so this is a way to be sure their eyes are okay and not too dry.  Another thing to check for is if they sweat. Elephants only sweat on the skin right above their toe nails and it should be a bit damp when you check.  The last two things to look for are their sleeping patterns and their poop.  You can tell if an elephant’s sleeping pattern is regular once she wakes up.  When elephants sleep they sleep for four hours at a time. They sleep on one side, take a break, then sleep on the other side.  So when they wake up, the elephant should have dirt on both of its sides.  You also need to check the poo….that’s right, their poo.  First you check the color. It should be a greenish yellow, because an elephant eats greens and drinks water. 🐘⬅️🌱💧  The second thing to check for is the quantity. Six or seven balls of poop is just right each time an elephant poops. 💩💩💩💩💩💩💩  You should also should check how much water your elephants has been drinking. You can do that by taking a small piece of the poo, and squeezing it, water should drain out of the poo.😬 Another thing to check on is the smell. It should smell like soggy grass, or wet dogs. 🐶 💧🌱 A fun fact is that poo with smaller fiber is from a smaller elephant. 🐘

It was really fun bathing the elephants.  I was the first one in the water.  You had to take your shoes off and the trainer told me when to wade over to Tap Tong.  When I got over there I was waist deep in water and the trainer gave me a boost up.  When you sit on an elephants you sit atop the head, not the neck bone.  Then the trainer scooped  water up and poured it over the elephant while I brushed its face.  We don’t have pictures of us bathing them since we couldn’t have our cameras down there, but it was pretty cool.

The trainer then pulled on the ear and shouted, “Ma!!”  Which is the command for go.  When we got to shallower water we got off, and brushed Tap Tong’s legs, torso, trunk, and tail.  We also brushed her ears.  Then the elephants stepped over a ledge and we used a kind of weaved bucket to splash them with water.  Then they lined up in front of the elephants with our backs turned, and the elephants sprayed us!!!!  I was really wet, but it was super fun!

When you ride an elephant, you can get up two ways, and you don’t get to choose.  The elephant picks you up, however it was trained.  An elephant can pick you up by lifting its leg like a stair, or by you climbing is trunk.  Then, when you are riding, you put your knees behind its big flappy ears, which are surprisingly strong.  There is also a rope tied around the elephant that you can hold onto if you need to.  You have to wear riding pants, so that the elephant’s rough skin doesn’t scratch you.  Personally, I thought the skin felt like a vinyl chair with hair.  Also, I felt very safe riding an elephant.  You should definitely  try it if you ever have the chance!