Upstream to Tha Ton
After a couple days in Chiang Rai, we woke up early, had a yummy breakfast buffet at Le Meridien hotel and then went down to an outdoor shack by the Kok River to haggle our way onto a wooden boat that would take us to Tha …
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Chiang Rai
After a few days of bustling Bangkok, we flew for an hour on Thai Airways up to Chiang Rai. We loved our hotel – Le Meridien in Chiang Rai – on the banks of the Kok River, with its open air lobby, infinity pool, balconies, comfy …
Thailand Adventure: Bangkok!
The volcano eruptions on Sumatra finally settled down enough for our flight to take off from Bali to Bangkok. We had an amazing Thai adventure of canal tours, temples, markets, elephant riding, flying gibbons, and seeing friends.
After a long ride from the airport to our hotel, we finally checked in to our suite with an amazing view of the Chao Phraya River at the Royal Orchid Sheraton.
We loved the convenience as well as the beautiful view of the river, tasty food, and evening entertainment at the hotel restaurant, Thara Thong, that we ate there a couple of nights.
Our first full day in Bangkok, Jenny, our guide from Tong Tong tours took us on a guided private tour of some Bangkok sites. Our first stop was at the flower market, where we all learned how to fold lotus flowers.
After buying some lotus flowers as offerings at the Temples, we smushed into a tuk tuk, for a ride to the Grand Palace and The Royal Temple of The Emerald Buddha.
The Palace was gilded, shiny, sparkly, and colorful! The Royal Palace was built in 1782, by Rama I, as his residence and office, when he moved the capital of Thailand to Bangkok (from Thonburi). The king and his court was based at the Royal Palace until 1925. The Grand Palace is made up of numerous halls, pavilions, lawns, gardens, and courtyards. It feels a bit like walking around a shiny heaven. It’s so peaceful relative to the bustles outside the white walls.
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Just south of the Grand Palace, to Wat Pho, The Temple of the Reclining Buddha – the largest reclining Buddha in the world! It is 46 meters long and 15 meters high!
The kids loved getting the bucket of coins to make offerings at the Temple.
In an interesting twist, Wat Pho is also the home of Thai Massage. This is a Hindu phallus that was used to pray for fertility.
Wat Pho was founded in the 1500’s and expanded by Rama I in 1789. It is believed that Rama’s ashes are hidden in the base of a bronze Buddha in this Temple.
Asher particularly liked the Marco Polo statue!
And of course, no trip to Bangkok would be complete for Ben without a trip to the Snake Farm at the Bangkok Red Cross Institute.
Our next day, we went for a private Canal Tour of Bangkok with Pandan Tours.
After taking a taxi to the train, we met our tour guide and hopped into our wooden boat for an interesting ride down the polluted canals of Bangkok.
Our first stop was at the Watsai markets to sample some street food and some fun and exotic fruits, like rambutans and Durian.
Then, we hopped back into our boat to see some Wats. Our next stop was Wat Absornsawan, which was a more traditional wat, right next door to Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen, which felt like a modern white lego space building.
On our way to our next adventure, we had an unexpected treat, when a man in a cowboy hat came putting up to us in his wooden ice cream boat! Forget the ice cream truck, this is the way to go – where the ice cream comes to you in a boat!
We saw some interesting wildlife on our way to the Orchid farm.
Then we went for our last stop at the Klongbangluang Community for some lunch and fish feeding on the river, before we had to take the big ferry back to our hotel.
Bali Holiday!
After an exciting 5 days in Borneo, we arrived in Bali on July 7. Cristina’s amazing driver, Kumang, picked us up and took us to Villa Zen in Canggu, so the kids could recover from the virus they picked up in Borneo. Our first day, …
Borneo Blues!
On Tuesday, we moved out of our Hong Kong apartment; and, two days later, we were on a flight to Kota Kinabalu, Borneo. While watching the safety briefing on our DragonAir flight to Kota Kinabalu, Asher exclaimed, “Hey, they copied the safety video from Cathay …
So Long, Hong Kong!
Well, it’s official: we moved out of our apartment at 80 Robinson Road on Tuesday June 30!
We are really going to miss passing by those smiling porters as we pull up to the entrance of Block 2.
Walking through our brightly lit lobby:
Riding on up to the 39th floor in the sky:
Entering our apartment, with our living area & eating nook to greet us:
Cooking (and doing laundry) in our tiny kitchen (which also had our combo washer/dryer):
Waking up to some spectacular views right outside our windows:
Having fun in our cozy spaces to sleep, play, and study:
And always admiring our amazing view: On a Clear Day
On a cloudy day:
With pollution:
At Sunrise:
And Sunset:
At Night:
Watching the light show:
And let’s not forget our bowling alley and indoor pool;
Goodbye 80 Robinson Road!
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Japanese Birthday Adventure!
Three days after Aliya and Asher’s school year ended at the Canadian International School in Hong Kong, we hopped on a plane on June 15th to Haneda Airport for a 2 week holiday in Japan. Fortunately, Raquel had found an amazing deal that gave us 2 …
Daddy Daughter Ball
Aliya and Ben went to their first Daddy Daughter Ball in Hong Kong at the Conrad Hotel on June 6th. It was a charity ball to help the Child Development Centre of Hong Kong. The theme was Arabian Nights! Aliya and Ben were guests of …
Modern, Clean, Adventure Parks Galore: Singapore!
Singapore is like a multicultural (Chinese, Malay, Indians, and Expats), modern, clean metropolis, rich in activities for kids, but somehow a bit sterile or at least lacking the gritty, rough around the edges, mystery behind every corner nature of Hong Kong. It is also incredibly flat! Think Houston flat!
Well, we picked a great long weekend to escape the Black Rain (see note below for more on Black Rain) of Hong Kong, to go to the relatively cooler, somewhat dryer Singapore. After a 4 hour weather delay on Friday night we (Aliya, Asher and I since Ben was still in the US) arrived at our hotel, the Pan Pacific, a little after midnight.
After a short nights’ sleep and a yummy breakfast at the most spread out breakfast buffet we have had during our travels, we decided to take advantage of the rainy morning and get wet! So we put our swimsuits on and head out to Adventure Cove water park for a fun day of water slides, splash pools, and dolphins.
We raced down slides,
Splashed in the Big Bucket Treehouse
And rode the waves of the wave pool
Although we loved the water rides, everyone’s favorite part of the day was the Dolphin Discovery where we were taken into a special dolphin lagoon in the park with just one other couple and a trainer to learn all about dolphins. Our dolphin Roni was the auntie to a new baby dolphin which was following her throughout the time we spent with her. We touched and rubbed the smooth rubbery skin of Roni. Roni even peed on Aliya! Yuck! But Aliya loves dolphins so much that she didn’t even mind. She even kissed Roni! There are a bunch of photos at Adventure Cove but we declined paying an extra $100+ for the photos! We kept the photos in our minds eye!
The next day, we slept in and then went down to our delicious buffet breakfast for a feast of fresh squeezed juices, cappuccino, fresh fruit, waffles & pancakes for Asher, ham & cheese omelette for Aliya, Dim Sum, pastries, and Indian food (which Raquel thought was the best part of the buffet). Then we set off for some animal sightings at the famous Singapore Zoo!
The Singapore Zoo had just received 6 new Koala Bears as a gift from Australia. But since the day we went was the first day the koalas were available for the public to see, the line was way too long for us to see them. But we did get to see some amazing gorillas, pygmy hippos, and white tigers.
What makes the Singapore Zoo so unique is that many of the animals are not in cages. For example, the monkeys were free to walk on ropes above our heads as we meandered on the path in search of the kiddie water zone to cool down our over heated bodies.
We didn’t bring swim suits but that didn’t stop us from running in the water.
Asher even had a chance to get close up and personal with some of the animals
And his favorite animal, the Cheetah, which he often says he will come back as when he is reincarnated (it was Buddha’s birthday after all when we were in Singapore!)
Ben flew into Singapore from the US to join us, so we went back to the hotel to meet him for some lunch and relaxation by the pool.
The kids loved the pool so much that we stayed long enough to watch the sunset.
One of my favorite parts of the hotel (besides the amazing pool) was the really cool lobby that had individual circular couches and tables inside lotus flower shaped pods, “floating” on water next to the glass elevator. It was artistic, cozy, personal, and very zen!
The next day, we walked down past the Flyer ferris wheel at the Marina and hopped on a Bum Boat for an architectural tour of Singapore on Marina Bay.
The first thing we saw as we started our tour was the Moshe Safdie (architect from Boston) designed Marina Bay Sands hotel with its double helix DNA bridge, 2.5 acre SkyPark pool deck, and lotus flower amphitheater.
We saw some great buildings from the Harbour and the famous Merlion at the Fullerton Hotel. But my favorite building was the Durian shaped Arts Center!
And the bronze statues of the kids jumping over the edge. It looked like they were suspended in mid air!
After our boat ride, we thought we would check out the multicultural side of Singapore. So we headed over to Little India and Kampong Glam (the Malay quarter, originally home to the Muslims and Arabs)
The next day we did a walking tour of Chinatown, where we saw Sri Mariamman Hindu Temple, the Buddhist Tooth Relic Temple and a market where we tried the famous Hainan Chicken Rice and Sugar Cane with Lemon.
And, of course, there are always the great signs!
Paddleboard Yoga in Hong Kong!
Today (May 18) was a wonderful Monday morning in Hong Kong! I am part of the CISPA (Canadian International School Parents Association) Monday morning hiking group. But since it has started to get a bit hot for our 20+ kilometer hikes up and down the …