Trip Of A Lifetime

                                                                 Trip Of A Lifetime

So obviously I dislike blogging, which is why my last entry was months ago. As you can imagine PLENTY has happenned. But honestly, how is one supposed to keep up with facebook and a blog??
We took this 2 week trip thru 3 countries and EVERYONE wants to hear about it, so here goes.......and BTW, I've broken it up into 3 posts. Enjoy~

                                                                  SINGAPORE

We flew to Singapore at night with 6 backpacks, one stroller, one baby backpack, 2 purses/bags and 5 kids. Matt had booked us in a hostel, because all the affordable hotels were taken. It was Chinese New Year (called 'Tet' in Vietnam), like our Christmas in the states. The hostel was less than happy that we had children and did not tell them so upon booking. So we took some grief, but I assured them that no, the baby does not cry. Of course, this is why we did not tell them we had children. The Betel Backpacker Hostel was definitely an experience, glad we got to give it a try, but really glad that the Lau family let us shack up with them for the next night. We are family afterall! :)

Sand, tankers and rain~it poured on us! I had Dalila bundled with me in the slight safety of the trees, she fell asleep~sweet baby that she is!

Brighton & Dylan, Oskar & Jacob

Siblings ~Soren & Sofia

The great thing about Singapore beaches are the tankers. Still very clean and nice tho. Of course, nothing like Thailand or San Diego for that matter.

We hung by the pool, went  to the beach and enjoyed great food~fish-n-chips, slurpees, Starbucks, Roti somethin somethin(SO GOOD I forgot the name), slurpees, starbucks..... And we had SO much fun chillin with Sarah and Peter, Dylan, Jacob and Jade. They are truly hosts with the most. We did a little exploring-the massive Boat casino place with the most beautiful mall ever. The Helix bridge over to some awesome Chinese New Year light displays and all kinds of food. The boat casino (name?) is most impressive. Impossible to even really get a decent photo, so we didn't try.  Oskar and Brighton stayed to play with Dylan and Jacob.

Traditional Singapore noodles

Sofia definitely wins the nike pose position

Yes, th Starbucks cup is there on purpose ;)

LLLLUVVVV

Cute, hip and happy

Love this dragon cuz it's made of teacups and plates

So many of these crazy lit up animals and such and people posing in front of every single one

Like us!

Just loved this mall light display~a few more on the link if you need inspiration

View from the Helix bridge of the light show.

More of my favorite mall display

photobucket.com/shepsing12  for the whole album of Singapore~if you just didn't get enough!
     
                                                   KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

                                                               Selamat Datang
From there we took the night bus to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. KL, is the capital of Malaysia. A big busy, thriving, bustling city. I have never seen a more pristine, nice, air-conditioned border crossing. Random I know. Getting off and on and off and on buses till we got thru the border to the bus station was an adventure, fortunately everyone spoke english. The bus station was the exact opposite of the border crossing buildings, but hey, there was a McDonalds that we chilled in til 1 am when our bus was due to leave. The bus was great. Fully reclining seats, with blasting AC and loud music.

Everything was obnoxious~music, A/C, crazy fabric design~but comfy!

Sofia gettin cozy and comfy

Selamat Pagi Kuala Lumpur~
 We slept little that night. Especially since we arrived in KL at 4 am. Why we thought it was all-nighter, who knows. The taxis(we needed 2 everywhere we went because so many of us and no big taxis like VN has, it was unnerving at times to lose the other taxi en route...) drove us around forever before spotting our hostel (that Matt had the foresight to book ahead). They most def took us for a ride, strangely, I didn't mind...... We checked in and went to sleep-some of us. Matt took Oskar and Brighton to the Petronas Towers to get tickets for us to go on the tour, then came back and got the rest of us. We headed on the train/metro to the Batu Caves. A hindu temple worshipping site that is built into a cave and the mountain side. We had to climb up about 200 steps, in FULL sun. It was hot and smelly and dirty and really cool.
                                                                          Batu Caves

Hindu god statue

A couple of the many temples/structures here.

BIG gold statue, but unfamiliar with the hindu gods and goddesses to be able to say which one.

This old womans hair is what is sitting in her lap. At least a foot thick and wrapped at least once around her.....she appeared as a statue-never moved. Eerie.....

Blury, but I liked this one.....we're inside the cave here

Dalila and Brighton holding hands

Kuala Lumpur in the Distance

Another temple. I had to get this shot~it came with a model :)

Then we hopped back on the train after some ice cream, exotic fruit juices and Sofias henna'd hand. We got to the petronas towers. They are the tallest twin towers in the world and are truly awesome. I'm not one to rant and rave about architecture, well actually I kinda am, but regardless, We were thoroughly impressed.

Petronas Towers

The bridge connecting the 2 towers

Model of towers

Virtual tour like Star Wars style~so super cool!

Kids were trippin and trying to figure it out, mighta been the highlight for these two

Enjoying the view

Can't believe there is actually a pic of me!

Motley Crew

Top of one of the towers

They just couldn't get enough of this place

Another virtual reality~a game you play in front of a mirror using your ticket to line up to make these images appear~again, a highlight for the boys

We then hung out in the mall a bit and splurged at Chili's!!!!! Bottomless chips and salsa........

Soren watching a basketball game, what else!?

Matt and I put the kids to bed, walked the streets in some(name?) infamous district for a bit.  We got back to our hostel and left at 7 am the next morning for Penang.We didn't love hanging out in a big hot crazy city, so we decided to only spend the day and move on. KL is nice enough, and we liked seeing the caves and the towers, but I think at this point we were starting to get the itch for the beach and relaxation.
Selamat Tinggal Kuala Lumpur
Continue to the next post as we travel to Penang, Malaysia.....
And, if you want to see more pics of us in KL, here is the link~ photobucket.com/shepkl12
             

This could be THE deal breaker right here....

So much has happened since my last posting, but all I can think to write about are all the damn cockroachEs. I absolutely hate these things. They haunt me for a good couple hours after I kill them. And not because I feel bad about it either. And why in my kitchen, on my floor? At least have the decency to stay hidden! And why are they getting bigger? I killed 9 in one night. Soren helped. I was proud of us. Matt was in the states. The thing I have learned. Is that you have to kill them immediately or they get away and run and hide and haunt you even worse and they do eventually show up again. I've also learned that I have zero control of the profanities that escape my lips. I know this is a major shock to everyone. Okay well it felt good to get that out. Maybe now(soon) I can blog about something substantial. Peace out. Xoxoxo

DayTripping

  Dentistry
So we took the kids to the dentist because they were all complaining that they were sure they had cavities. -They were THAT bored. So we went to the ‘Dental Street’. I say that because here in Vietnam, multiple businesses of the same kind will set up shop all on the same street/area.  Competition be damned.  Sofia goes in first and I go with her. The dentist speaks English, but I could barely understand him.  Sofia’s teeth were fine, but one needed to come out(baby tooth). So I said ok and he pulled it. I think he put a topical anesthetic…. And presto just like that Sofia has a wad of gauze in her mouth and we’re out the door. Under 10 minutes easy. Then Oskar came in and the exact same thing-(except his teeth had some decay).  He was told to come back in 1 month to get the another one out. Soren’s teeth were perfectly fine. We were very surprised.  We asked if we should do x-rays, he didn’t understand the question. I think the total bill was US $5.  We took Soren to an orthodontist, on a different outing. He wanted to pull 2 teeth before doing braces. We hightailed it outta there. We maybe wanted a second opinion. All in all, we are quite satisfied with our dental experience. When the time comes for actual drilling/cavity filling, I hope we remain pleasantly surprised.….And yes, I do trust the dentist and his ability/knowledge. But I am now even more weary of Dentists and their  expensive ‘protocols and procedures’  in the USA. I might even think it all very unnecessary……a scam you might say.




                                 Natural History Museum, the Zoo, and Fresh Donuts
Yes, just like it sounds, we did all 3 on the same day. And we took the bus home. We’re crazy like that. The kids actually enjoyed the Museum. Except Brighton of course. It was fascinating how old a lot of the stuff was. I mean like FOREVER ago old. And from different Dynasties and Empires. Tons of  Hindu deities and of course Buddha aplenty. Amazingly preserved and kept. The zoo was depressing, but aren’t all of them? The donuts were a hit, though not like the US at all. But that’s the beauty of it I guess.
                                       (NO pics for this-yet)


                                                                   Rosie the Elephant

Independence Day and Rosie the Elephant

I wanted to take the kids out o Independence Day, cause it was a day off and we had to do something. So we went to the ‘Backpackers’ area. There are fun souvenir shops, lots of westerners and western food. There is also a circus near there and I knew they had an elephant that has been captive for 18 years,. We went in the evening and when we go there we found out the circus was on a 2 week hiatus. But they let us in to see ‘Rosie‘-the kids named her. She is on a 15 inch chain and in a chain link enclosure.  About a year ago, an American woman paid for her to be in a covered enclosure. Not sure how the conditions were before that. There is a group trying to get her freed-into a zoo, I guess…. I’m not even sure if she is in the circus anymore, but I’ve been told that they won’t just release her/give her up-have to save face, or something like that. Very lonely elephant to say the least. We took her fruit and egg sandwiches and threw them over the fence for her. She wanted more and spit on us. I thought it was funny.  A caretaker on the grounds walked by and said “She crazy, elephant crazy”. I was annoyed and said, “Yes, because shes on a very short chain!” complete with hand motions and irritated tone. Sofia couldn’t gwet ovewer the saddness and injustive of it all and was dwelling on it forever. It’s a tough deal, because you can do nothing and it seems entirely senseless. 

 

We then enjoyed walking into all the fun shops and tour companies. I’ve got it all planned 
out for when/if  we have visitors. We enjoyed a nice meal of burgers and fries for the boys and curry for Sofia and I.

                                                                         

    If you look close enough you can see all the flags,......


Of course we decided to take the public bus home, so we have to walk a few blocks. We stopped for refreshment and picture taking along the way. We especially appreciated the Vietnamese Flags being displayed at every business. We take up a lot of space, even the whole of the bus stop benches.  It took us about 10 minutes to realize that it was too late for the buses, so we just hopped into a taxi.  

Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

We attended a small gathering at the church and ate some amazing food and the kids played games. All the  young single adults set it up and organized everything. We had some small but loud drums and some fun lanterns in shapes and colors of fish, elephants, birds, peacocks, etc. They even had real candles

-LIT- in the church, what a concept. Fun and festive and the kids loved it. 

                                                           

                                                                              Moon Cake

Looks are everything~we haven't tasted 1 we like! (reminds of the 'fruit cake' thing at Christmas~does anyone really like those.....?)

Here's a link to what it's all about.

Mid-Autumn Festival

Lacquer Factory Tour

There is a Vietnamese lady in the ILV group that I belong to, and she owns and operates a Lacquer factory. Lacquer here in Vietnam is huge. All kinds of designs and all sorts of items. She exports 95% and has a small store in Saigon where she sells her excess. She allowed us to tour her factory. She hires the artists straight out of design school. The artwork is amazing and though they produce many of the same design, each one is hand done and therefore an original. It was fascinating to see how many steps and painstaking detail goes into each piece.  They were doing inlay eggshell as well as mother-of-pearl. Each little piece is carefully positioned.  Nga, the owner, is successful and humble and fun to be around. She started all of it on her own and built it up by herself. Love me a successful entrepreneurial business woman! She gave us all a gift-necklaces made out of water buffalo horn(I think-I had Dalila with me, and missed some minor details….). We then went to her shop and to lunch!

 Crazy shaped chest of drawers






                                                                                                      The drawers--------------------------->

                                                            Round chest of drawers

 pools of water where they wash and fine sand the product. And to the right, more drawers.

                                                               Artists at work.

 I love this pic because the guy has his cell phone sitting in the middle of it. Of course we teased him about it.

 The pools again, guys would just squat on these boards, dunking and sanding away.....

                                Egg shale inlay--------------->

Piles of pieces to be painted....... 











                                                                   Americans go Shopping
We 3 Americans~Ruthie, Lyndsay, and I, took off to the fabric markets.  I love going, but am always so overwhelmed by all the fabric. I have similar problems in the states going to JoAnns fabric, but this is to the 100th degree.  One of these days I’m going to pick out loads of great fabrics and take it all t a tailor and have some fabulous custom made clothes. All the people are doing it. We conquered 3 markets and got very turned  around, not lost really, but definitely not where we wanted to be. So we hopped in a taxi and found our way. We topped it off with an authentic lunch from Pizza Hut ;) Here are some pics, but really they don’t do the ginormousness of the markets and the quantity within, justice

                                        This is a Chinese Pagoda we saw while lost/confused.

                                                        Endless Fabric Samples

 I felt a bit foolish taking pictures here. Very close quarters and it's not like I don't already stick out....but then I remembered that the previous day, we were in a restaurant and the employees grabbed Dalila and all took turns posing in pictures with her-using their phones.



                                                  International Ladies of Vietnam….

A large group of us dined at some upscale(overpriced) French restaurant. Great view, mediocre food, hi-class service and  most importantly, Incredible company.  Many nationalities represented here, American, Vietnamese, Korean, Malaysian and Chinese from Singapore. Seriously some of the BEST laughs since my arrival.

                                               She now has 11 teeth, and I just had to put these pictures up!

First day of school!