Christmas Break

I wrote this last night but the internet was moving too slow to post it in any reasonable amount of time...


This is how we spend all of our plane rides. It is like playing catch.

As I sit here listening to the fireworks exploding, 32 minutes away from bringing in the New Year, I am wondering why I am still awake staring at my computer. Leah has long been in bed and I have very little desire to pull a Party Popper or swing one of those annoying cranks, (although I did just purchase a back scratcher that makes a funny sound). As much as I would like to say it is because I am really devoted to blogging and posting quality pictures for family and friends to see, it is sadly due to my neurotic impulses to organize and re-organize the photos on my computer.

Here are some pictures from our most recent adventures. For our Christmas break we went to Bangkok, Macau and Hong Kong. This was not actually any sort of adventure at all. In fact, it was possibly the worst vacation we have ever had. Nothing in particular made it bad and there were no terrible incidents, it was just the general boredoms and irritations of being in one large Asian city after another. Basically going to Bangkok from Jakarta is a step up, but only a step made for a leprechaun. We ate delicious food there and got around the city. We were there a little too long though. We have already been there a few times and it just isn’t as fun as it used to be. Plus Judah was sick and we basically couldn’t do anything with him.


Leah and Judah on a Tuk-tuk in Bangkok.



Looking out the window of the train in Thailand.





At the Buddhist temples in the old capital city of Thailand.




Judah meeting friends at a playground in Bangkok.





After Bangkok, we went to an island called Macau just a short ferry ride away from Hong Kong. Don’t jump to any conclusions. Island in this case does not mean sand and sun. Unless you are talking about The Sands Hotel. Casinos are the main attraction of this place. Macau is not the type of place that I would ever go to but it was cheaper to fly there than to fly directly into Hong Kong. However, had we known it was so expensive to take the ferry, we would have just flown straight to Hong Kong. The temperature in Macau was nice and it felt great to actually want to wear a sweatshirt. The city itself is pretty messy except for the nice touristy areas and the giant Wal-mart like structures that are the casinos. Another cool thing about Macau was that it was highly influenced by the Portuguese, so some parts of the city had an almost European flavor to them. The architecture in some areas was a welcome change of pace from the usual Asian concrete and shack cities.

The ruins of San Paolo Cathedral in Macau.



Christmas lights in the city center of Macau.






Judah checking out the fish.




We ended up taking the ferry into Hong Kong a few times instead of wasting our days in Macau. Basically, if you ever go to Macau you only need to be there for about 3 hours at the most. You can walk from one side of the island to the other in about 15 minutes.

Hong Kong is a great city. Super clean, super sheik, great parks, not too much traffic, excellent public transport, and most importantly, clean air. You could actually walk around downtown and not feel the pressure of exhaust and congestion in your lungs. There is lots of shopping and great food in this city. On the last night we were in Hong Kong we found the So-Ho district. This is an awesome area full of boutique shops and little diner cafes. For the little time we were in HK it actually felt a bit like being in any city in the States.

Hong Kong Park



Victoria's Peak in Hong Kong.


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Sadly for our wallets, we decided to cut our trip short and changed our tickets to come home the next day. This was a good decision on our part. We got back home and Judah could feel comfortable and get healthy. We spent Christmas at home and just relaxed.

Again sadly for our wallets, we are now bored with Jakarta and home again so we booked tickets to go to Bali. A few days on the beach is what we need to make it feel like we actually had a vacation and didn’t just sit around in giant cities the whole time. We leave tomorrow morning. I will fill you in on that trip when we get back on Saturday.

Well it is now midnight. Happy New Year! I am going to wrap this up and hopefully get to bed soon. I pray uploading these pictures won’t take too long.

I resolve nothing…

Extras

Here are some other pictures of the boy.



Grandpa Neil showing Judah the joys of spinning a coin.



What can you say about this?



It may be lame, but I actually enjoy going places when Judah and I both wear our Chucks.

Kawah Putih

When Leah's dad came to visit us, we took him to what we thought was going to be a lovely trip through Indonesian country-side and to a unique volcano, but ended up being a long journey through lots of traffic and more traffic. The volcano was called Kawah Putih and was interesting but not worthy of the ride. Kawah Putih means white volcano or something like that. The water in the cauldron is actually a glowing neon greenish color that reeks of sulfur. The Indos believe that if you take a dip in the water it will cure any skin problems you may have. It ended up pouring rain after we were there for about three minutes and we had to file into a little shack with about fifty indonesians.

The sign in this first picture means no smoking. It mentions nothing about swimming in the crater water.

Judah in the Park

Judah playing in the playground at school. Nothing too exciting to say about this. There is a little soccer field and he loves kicking the ball around.

Halloween!!!

Here are some pics from Halloween. Judah had fun carving a pumpkin and figuring out why the top of it's head came off.




We had a Halloween celebration at school. Judah and Leah went as a Monkey mom and baby. I was Indonesia's favorite hobby, a mosquito smashed between two giant bloody hands.

Bali trip part II

These pictures are of the Monkey Forrest in Ubud. This place is crazy. It is literally filled with hundreds of monkeys. They are pretty used to seeing people but you can't trust them. They apparently steal things from your pockets, jewelry, and anything that slightly resembles food. It was a little stressful bringing Judah in this place only because one of the bigger monkeys could easily pick him up and shred him to pieces. He was able to get pretty close to a smaller one and one even jumped on Leah's back while he stood and laughed.





Judah doing Judah things. Drinking mango juice and eating things that are not meant to be eaten.


One of the many incredible sites in Bali.

Idul Fitri Bali Trip

Here are a few pictures from our Idul Fitri trip to Bali. This took place in early October, so forgive me for taking so long to get them on.

The first stop on our trip we went to a beautiful resort on the west coast of Bali, called Gajah Mina which means Elephant Fish, don't ask me why. It was totally secluded and as you can see by a few of these pictures we there was no one else on this part of the island. The beaches were footprintless aside from a few stray dogs. Judah had a wonderful time playing in the sand...well mostly eating the sand. He was a bit scared of the waves as they were pretty big, but got his feet wet a few times.

This was an unbelievably relaxing stint of our little trip. The views from the cliffs were stunning, the breeze was to die for, and the peace was infinite. I would definitely recommend going there.