danger, danger

Some of the sidewalks in Bali are in desperate need of repair. This is a prime example, yikes! I am going to really enjoy spending time in Singapore this week even if it just to appreciate the safe sidewalks without holes.

a monkey riding a bike

I saw this monkey and his trainer in Kuta, Bali. It was actually kind of a funny performance. The little guy was trained to fall off the bike when prompted with the word " accident." Once the monkey heard the word " accident" he pretended to fall and then rolled around on the ground, silly stuff.

slow internet

I think I might post a little more often if my internet was faster. The tortuous event of uploading a photo is a bit much...errrr. Just a small complaint.

Expenses

Electricity Bill for a month: $2.80. Definately the smallest electrical bill I have ever paid. Some things are very inexpensive in Bali.

Funeral Procession

I managed to view this procession heading down a street in Sanur. It was really amazing to see and I was glad to be in the right place at the right time.

New House

I am finally in our new house. We have a mango tree in the yard and it is the first year it is producing fruit. Right now, the baby mangoes are about the size of a pea; but, I am hoping they make it to full size. I am going to do research on what to do with a surplus of mangoes.....I am not sure? My parent's had an apple tree and the obvious answer was: apple crisp, apple sauce, apple pie ... Regardless, I am excited. Delicious mangoes!!

Waiting..

I am waiting to move into our new place. It will be nice to finally have a home again....and internet!!!! Kate, I managed to read your blog recently... and I wish I could have been at the Handsome Family concert- it would have been so much fun!! I am definately missing home this week...

snorkeling - Gili Meno

This was my first time snorkeling and it was amazing. The water was clear and calm. I saw sea turtles, small colourful fish, and coral.

no camera

Our camera seems to be beyond repair. I mentioned it was dropped in a drainage ditch and we thought it might eventually dry out, doesn't seem like it is going to happen. When it fell in, due to a series of clumsy events, I had no intention of plunging my arm into the water, no way!! But, Regan laid down on the road and sunk his arm straight in to retrieve the camera. ( Regan explained that it is mostly for water overflow from rain so the roads don't flood...but I have an imagination...I used baby wipes to wash his hands and arms.....) Anyway, it was a good thing he managed to get it back because our memory card was fine, whew.. Clumsy events were: standing by our car in the pouring rain and trying to find the keys in my purse, the camera rolling out, Regan trying to hand Marije to me and I was too flustered to react.... and....camera into ditch....aahh.

Gili Meno and Gili T, small Islands off of Lombok, Indonesia

From a North American perspective, the amount of scooters in Bali is really astounding. You feel like you have an escort wherever you go (because of all the scooter surrounding your vehicle). When we went to Gili Meno and Gili T it was a 4 day break from the busy traffic; there are no motorbikes or cars on these islands, just pony carts (Cidomono).

The beginning of our trip started with a 6 am pickup from this van, the one Marije is trying to climb out of. We originally were told we would be picked up at 7 am and then told, because of our location, that we would be picked up earlier. The last we heard, the pick up time was 8 am. Due to the confusion we got out of bed at 5 am, ate breakfast, and made sure we would be ready for our ride anytime it would arrive.....and the transport arrived at six am, 2hrs before they specified. After loading into the car the driver drove for 15 minutes and then parked and left the van, we were not too sure what was happening. We sat for about a half hour while Marije tried to climb out the window and waved at a little girl across the street. Once the driver returned we continued on the journey....the next stop was at a villa and we picked up three Russians, and 2 Balinese surfers. The Russians, 1 male and 2 females, climbed into the van and the male, with a boombox on his shoulder ( I am not kidding!!), sat down in the middle seating area and played electronic music, no idea of specific genre, the whole hr ride to the fast ferry terminal. I really wanted to take a picture but I was not brave enough. You will just have to imagine a tall Russian with skull necklace, skull bandana, and skull baseball cap with a large ghettoblaster/boombox on his lap.

Once on the fast ferry to Gili T, with the Russian still playing his music, we looked out the windows in the hope we would see dolphins. Apparently, you can sometimes see dolphins on this route but we were not so lucky. Next time I hope. But, the bright blue ocean was lovely- wow! ( Note, trying to use a small bathroom on a boat is very challenging)

The fast ferry delivered us to Gili T. It is known as a party island and that is what it did seem like, with first impression. There were a lot a lot of hippie tourists, pony carts, small hotels and restaurants, and many signs for magic mushrooms..... and a lot of garbage lining the one main road. When initially planning this trip we did not plan on staying on this island and after taking a tour around Gili T we decided that heading to Gili Meno was a good idea, we wanted somewhere quieter.

......in the next post I will talk about Gili Meno...kind of tired and I have already said way too much.

Bali bird park...

Two weeks ago we visited the Bali bird park. It really is a nice place to walk around; but, I did feel like I had to be cautiously on guard as there were many large birds just hanging out. To be honest, I was not sure how confident I felt about wandering around with all the birds: parrots, cranes, pidgeons... just ready to peck me. I was especially afraid of a particular one winged crane, who I believe, was following us. Regan laughed at me because I was acting so jumpy. I imagine it was amusing to see me flinch or duck everytime a bird walked or flew by, especially since the baby seemed a lot more brave. However, she did not like the parrots, the sound of them made her cry, and the picture I have included shows her ducking. In this park, it is possible to stand very near all the wildlife, as you can see by the close proximity to the Bird's of paradise, one of them flew over me and I swear it brushed the top of my head, exciting (or scarey)!

........ There are baby finches building nests in my back yard. I love it! I would take a picture but I recently dropped our camera in a drainage ditch and it has not recovered.

Aventures with Air Asia..

I have learnt a couple things about flying with Air Asia. Firstly, it is really essential to pay for your lugguge online and not at the airport- whew, what a mistake!!! My family took two seperate Air Asia flights in one day and each time we had to pay lugggage fees. For the first flight, we checked in at Hong Kong airport to fly to Kuala Lumpur and then in the afternoon we were catching a flight to Bali from Kuala Lumpur. Catching our first flight was no problem. We checked in and paid our extra fees and we were shortly on the first leg of our journey. Of course, earlier that day we had tried to check in our baggage at the train station, a nice service that Hong Kong airport has; but, the Air Asia counter was closed. So, we had to take all our lugguge to the airport and check in the old fashioned way....at the airport... the first irritating moment of our day. Once arriving in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia we had a flight to be on in 1 hour. This is when the confusion began...... We had to go through customs, collect our baggage, and then go through the whole process of checking in. I felt a bit afraid when I saw the huge lineup for customs but we managed to get through quickly. Earlier, when exiting the airplane there had been some confusion of where our stroller would be; so, we had left the plane and then had to go back to the airplane to find the stroller as, for some reason, it was not with our normal baggage... confusing...... Once we finally had all our lugguge we had to find the appropriate international Air Asia counter, it was not easy. Then, we had to get out money to pay for our luggage, again. Regan went to go get money while I waited for our airline boarding passes. Once I had the airline boarding passes in hand we ran to our gate. By this point, we were already late for our flight. At the gate, we realized we were missing a boarding pass. I had no idea if they had either neglected to print one or if we had dropped one in the rush to the gate. So, Regan ran back to get a new boarding pass and, of course, they did not want to print one for him. After some arguement we had a new boarding pass and we were finally ready to catch the flight to Bali. The next thing that was quite funny, we were escorted onto the wrong airplane.....we almost went to Saigon, haha! We suspected we were on the wrong airplane as our seats were taken. I cannot believe we eventually made our flight. I think in the end we were about half an hour or more late for our flight. None of the other customers yelled at me.....a good thing. The airline staff were annoyed because they had to unload our baby stroller from the airplane to Saigon and reload it onto the flight to Bali. To say the least, it was a very long day and I was very relieved to arrive safely in Bali. When I fly with them again I will definately not take two flights in one day or take more than one very small bag......but, the flights are a great value!

..finding a hotel

We tried to book a hotel in Hong Kong before leaving but, it did not happen. So, once arriving and carting way too much stuff : baby car seat, stroller, suitcases... we hailed a cab and asked to be taken to the hotel we wanted. The hotel was chosen due to its close proximity to a friend's house. Unfortunately, the taxi driver did not know where the hotel was and actually was furious that we had no address. This is one of the first times I have had a taxi driver mad at me......and as we wanted to get out of the cab as quick as possible we asked to be taken to the closest hotel. We were dropped at this hotel: http://www.asiatravel.com/hongkong/sohotel/index.html and it turned out to be quite nice. The room was small but very tasteful and the shower was great and it included breakfast!!! Luckily, the Sohotel was very pleasant and the angry driver directed us to a good place.

prices in Bali

Today I bought 1030 grams of fresh tomatoes for 60 cents. There are better deals to be had as these were bought at a market that mostly tourists shop at.

flight to Hong Kong

I know this is not the best picture, it is kind of fuzzy; but, I think it definately captures how I felt about the flight. My baby, Marije, surprisingly was very good on such a long airplane ride, 13 hours. She did a lot of walking up and down the aisles, made a lot of friends, and napped for a good portion- which was great for me! There were a couple moments when she was very upset at having to sit still..... as this photo illustrates! But, Air canada gave us an extra seat to deal with the baby, as there were empty seats on the flight, and this meant Regan, my husband, got to fully extend his legs.....yay!

Travel

So, I have been travelling for a few weeks now.... and I have to say... it is very odd to try and be adventureous and experience new things when I am the kind of person that is always anxious and always afraid of doing simple things, like using a public bathroom. In fact, I think travel books should revolve around bathrooms and where the best one's are. For example, "...this restaurant has great food but the bathroom only gets a three star rating...etc" I think a lot of people would really appreciate a reference guide that directs you to all the clean bathrooms in a city, or I would appreciate it.

Today

I am coughing and feeling hot from a slight fever. I look forward to this flu passing. For now, I am sitting on the couch listening to the sound of a sick baby snoring.

walking, walking, and baking

Trying to make a perfect baguette and walking a baby EVERYWHERE, and if I don't she cries, have been my two main activities for the last three weeks. I guess I can't call her a baby much longer and as for the bread I have not found the right recipe........ yet. I need suggestions!!

No more waste

I have been thinking a lot about the amount of garbage that is produced. I find it so sad to think about the animals that suffer from all the waste. I would personally like to really make a change..... have my own garden, compost everything I can, and recycle the rest. Hmmm... so far I don't have anywhere for my garden or compost so a few preliminary steps need to be made. I need to buy land... or for an immediate solution... maybe just a huge planter box and a bucket of worms for my compost. Yikes, worms in the house! Anyway, something to think about.

serendipity

In the process of feeding my ten month old "grown up" food she leaned over and gave me some surprise kisses. As I am an emotional person this cute gift was well received. I have to admit- my eyes welled up!

another felt hat

This is my recent felting project: a brown merino wool hat. I still need to add some detailing....however, I am quite pleased with how it turned out. As and added bonus, it is very cosy to wear.

Owls

One of my favourite hobbies has been put on hold since having a baby, owl watching. My fiance and I would go out late, around 2 am, for owl spotting. We would slowly drive around the area of Boundary Bay and listen to music, drink coffee or hot chocolate, and would not give up until we had seen at least one. On the electrical wires were the usual place we would spot owls; but, sometimes we would find them closer to eye level either on a fencepost or traffic sign, thrilling! Mostly we spotted barn owls but once we did see a great horned owl! Unfortunately, no photos as I do not have a proper camera for taking photos at night. One night we saw 10 owls, or more. It is hard to say if we kept seeing the same ones over and over. Regardless, there were a lot of owls out that night, wonderful!

Soon I plan on taking sweet baby out for an adventure to spot Snowy Owls. This will be a daytime adventure involving a lot of layers and a camera. I hope to get some nice pictures if we are lucky enough to find them!

Felt Hat

Here is a felt hat that I made for my baby. It is hand felted out of merino wool. If only she enjoyed wearing hats!