Bali

Bali definitely lived up to the hype. We spent Christmas there, accompanied by our good friend Steve, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I don't think I've ever been anywhere that was so overtly geared toward tourists, but when you have beautiful beaches, lush vegetation, amazing culture, and friendly people, it's no wonder that the whole world wants to come and be a part of it.

Our trip started out in the south of the island in Sanur. We had picked the location for the child-friendly beach, and sure enough, the water was incredibly still, almost like a lake.

Nothing better than eating literally on the beach!

It's also a convenient way to entertain your child while you enjoy your food...

...and the sunset

We took a morning trip to the nearby capitol of Denpasar to take in the national museum and one of the big markets. The museum's best feature was its architecture--beautiful!

A couple was getting wedding pictures done here--good choice!

The major indoor market

Offerings for purchase

Back at the beach, locals enjoying the water

Beach bums

We really enjoyed the food, which was fresh and healthy, and very cheap. It was easy to be vegetarian there; every restaurant had meatless dishes, and tofu and tempeh are part of normal life for the Balinese.

This place's version of gado-gado, a kind of salad with peanut dressing

There was loads of fresh fruit and spices, since both thrive in that climate. I had some delicious drinks with lemongrass and ginger, and once I had turmeric sorbet! It was an experience. :)

Also, Bali is known for its spas and massages. We fell into a routine starting the very first day: after lunch when Evangeline would go down for her nap, we would take turns going to get massages. The cheapest we saw was around $6 USD for an hour--crazy! My favorites were the hot stone massages that I had. Another highlight was a 2 hour treatment including a body scrub, body mask, and traditional Balinese massage. Bliss!

We headed inland to Ubud for the next stage of our trip. Ubud is considered to be the cultural center of Bali, the home of countless artists and performers. There were literally ten or more performances happening every single night in Ubud, and the amount of stores selling woodwork, paintings, textiles, jewelry, and stonework was overwhelming. I especially liked the food in Ubud; there was a real emphasis on organic, and it was also very creative. The place we stayed was really special, a group of eco cottages in a gorgeous setting.

Our cottage

The organic garden, which supplied the restaurant

Petting the bunnies. There were also a bunch of goats!

Evangeline, of course, loved the pool the best

My favorite massages were here at the in-house spa

Ubud is known for its beautiful terraced rice paddies, as well. One morning we took a hike on the outskirts of town. It was hot but the views and the experience was well worth it.

Families bring their ducks to the paddies for the day, then bring them home at night

As you can imagine, Evangeline just loved them

A food stand where the man hacked open a young coconut for me

And it even had a swing!

I definitely earned my daily massage over the course of the morning

Rice paddy fam

The patio of this restaurant was right next to a rice paddy

My pictures of the traditional dance I went to turned out terribly, I'm afraid. I only took a few, and I don't know much about outdoor night photography. :) The performance was spellbinding, though. Something I'll never forget!

The gamelan accompaniment was on both sides of the "stage," Ubud Palace

But I think the main highlight for all of us was the trip we took to the Elephant Safari Park in the hills north of Ubud. Elephants are not native to Bali, but the ones from this park were rescued from logging camps in Sumatra, where they are a critically endangered species. Although not truly a preserve, since the elephants are still "working," at least they have a safe environment and seemed to be enjoying themselves. There were about 30 elephants of various ages, including three small ones that were born at the park a few years ago. It was incredible to be able to be so close to these amazing, gentle creatures.

These gals want some food!

Feeding them pieces of coconut palm

Trunk shot

Evangeline was in heaven; she could have fed them all day!

Me and a new friend

Evangeline with a three year-old male, Handsome

We also got to take a ride on the elephants through the nearby jungle. It was amazing, and also a good opportunity to talk to the handlers and learn about the lives of the elephants. Evangeline and I were on Ryan, a 15 year-old male who had been at the park for about seven years. The park has each elephant paired with a special handler who is with them all the time. Ryan and his handler had been together since the day he arrived from Sumatra. Steve and Joseph were on Miki, an older female who had given birth at the park about three years ago. We definitely noticed the difference in personalities between Ryan and Miki over the course of the ride. Ryan was a lot friskier and more vocal, which was fun to see.

Ryan strikes a pose

At the end of the ride, the elephants got to play in the pond a little bit

Ryan had fun cheekily spraying the bystanders

I wish I had taken a picture of the "wall of fame" inside the main building at the park. They had pictures of all the celebrities who had been there, which was hilarious. Not only had the park hosted A-listers like Julia Roberts and David Beckham, they had also had Dolph Lundgren pay them a visit! But seriously, we had such a good time and will always remember it. We had to practically drag Evangeline away!

Our last stop in Bali was Balangan Beach, in the far southwest of the island. We had a morning flight for our departure and wanted to be in reasonable driving distance from the airport. It was interesting to think about what that area would look like in another 20 years. Currently it isn't heavily developed, with the cliffs above the beach dotted with small operations like bungalows and guesthouses. Our bungalow was right next to a cow pasture, and we had groups of chickens and roosters wandering around

Steve hits the beach

Evangeline and me playing in the waves

What could be more fun than being buried in the sand?

Happy faces

The rough life

Joseph goes in for a dip

Dinner at the beach

Surfers at sunset

After the sun went down the clouds all turned pink--gorgeous!

The Jones Fam doesn't want to go home!

Truly, we were sad to go. I can see why there is such a large expat population in Bali, and so many people on extended vacations. We did a lot, but we barely scratched the surface. It's a good reason to go back, right? :)

10K at Disneyland Resort

Joseph had been itching to do a race here in Hong Kong, but understandably wanted to wait until the weather cooled off a bit. The perfect opportunity came up, a charity 10K at the Disneyland Resort in October benefiting Oxfam.

The racecourse didn't actually go through Disneyland, unfortunately, but Joseph said it was a scenic view, nevertheless. From the starting point in the parking lot area, they ran down to the harbor, around the park, and by a small lake. It turned out to be a big event, with multiple distances, a team event, and a special kids' race.

Evangeline and I left home the morning of the race later than Joseph, so we didn't see him start, but we did catch the beginning of the 5K:

As we should have expected since we are in Hong Kong, most of the runners were wearing fancy running gear, even those only running the 5K. Joseph looked like a scrub compared to them, since he was only in a T-shirt and general athletic shorts. :)

Luckily there was a lot to keep us entertained while we waited

A mock finish line for photo opps

Complimentary face painting

The winner of one of the categories for the 5K

There were a lot of trophies!

Here comes Joseph, chugging to the finish line!

Post-race smile

After the race we headed over to Inspiration Lake for a picnic. It's an artificial lake that serves a dual purpose as an irrigation reservoir for Disneyland as well as a recreational place. And it's free, which is always surprising when you're talking Disney.

There were paddleboats for rent as well an arboretum

The playground area

A Disney splash pad!

If there's one lesson you think I would have learned from this summer, it would be to carry her swimsuit around with us at all times! It seems like everywhere we go, there's some sort of water play opportunity. Luckily, this girl doesn't mind stripping down to her undies. And no one else was there to be offended. I don't think Hong Kongers are as tolerant of nudity as Europeans...

It was a really fun morning, and the lake was much nicer than we expected. It's too bad we don't live closer to take advantage of it more often. But still, it's nice to know that it is there!

Happy Halloween!

I hope all of you are having a delightfully spooky day. We managed to celebrate the holiday pretty well, even though there is no trick-or-treating in Hong Kong. And for the first time this season, the temperature was in the 60s when we woke up this morning! Perfect timing, since it's hard to feel properly Halloween-y in 80 degree weather.

This year was the first time that Evangeline really seemed to "get" Halloween. The holiday is catching on more and more in Hong Kong with store displays being common. Our local supermarket even had a special Halloween candy section, which I don't remember them having last year. So with all of the decorations around, Evangeline was frequently talking about Halloween and what she was going to be. She decided that she was going to be a fairy. I'm not 100% sure where that came from, but at least it was easy, so I was thankful!

Evangeline's school didn't have a dress-up day, so we had to be a little creative. This afternoon we made pumpkin mini muffins, frosted them, and decorated them:

Sorry for the semi-nudity, by the way! After Evangeline gets home from school she takes off her uniform and doesn't want to put anything else on, so I roll with it unless we're leaving the house. Maybe she'll change her ways when it gets colder.

After the cupcakes were all decorated, we got her into her fairy costume! It couldn't have been easier; she already had the leotard and tights, so all I had to do was buy the wings and wand, which she'll love to play with again, and got a fairy-ish skirt at H&M.

We packed up our cupcakes and went reverse-trick-or-treating. That's right, instead of going out looking for treats, we stopped over at a few friends' places and dropped our treats off. Evangeline thought it was really fun. When we got to my friend Grace's flat, her daughter immediately got out her dress-up clothes too. Here are the kids posing:

Gustav didn't want to dress up, but did his "Superman Pose" for the picture

Luckily Evangeline doesn't know any different, and really thought she was trick-or-treating. She was yelling, "Trick-or-treat!" at everyone we passed by, much to their amusement.

For dinner, I made jack-o-lantern baked sweet potato fries to go with our split pea soup. Labor intensive but fun!

I hope you are all having a lovely holiday, too! BOO!

Shenzhen

Our visas for mainland China had one more entry and were due to expire, so we hopped across the border to visit our neighbor to the north, Shenzhen. We were very curious, as Shenzhen definitely has a certain reputation in Hong Kong; it's where people are stabbed, kidnapped, or die of the bird flu. To use a Star Wars analogy, Shenzhen is to South China as Mos Eisley is to Tatooine. As Obi Wan said, "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy." Would he be right? We set off to find out.

Shenzhen is a huge city literally right across the border from Hong Kong. Getting there couldn't have been easier, as the metro line that we live by terminates in Shenzhen. Although its population is around ten million, it's a migrant city, so almost half are factory workers who stay in dorms during the week and then go home on the weekends. Industry is booming, with a lot of business centers and tech development as well as the many factories. For instance, Walmart has its China headquarters in Shenzhen. There are quite a few Hong Kongers that commute to Shenzhen, but it seems most people go there to shop.

The plaza just outside of customs

Our first stop was the famous "Copy Mall" in Lo Wu, which is the building on the right of the above picture. True to its nickname, you go there to buy replications of name-brand handbags, watches, clothes, glasses, etc. 

Six floors of madness

Every floor was packed with little shops selling their specialized wares. Some of the shops had all of their merchandise on display, but the serious ones had an off-site location to store their huge inventory (maybe in trucks?). I was pulled--literally--into a handbag store where they had dozens and dozens of catalogs organized by luxury brand. You pick out the models that you would like to see, and then the shopkeeper has someone fetch them for you. A serious fashion maven would have a field day; I was completely overwhelmed, as I have next to no interest in purses.

Bargaining is expected and essential. We were told that since we were foreigners, we should try to get down to a third of the initial price, and to definitely pay no more than 50%, ever. Although I hate haggling, we did very well, especially using the walk-away technique. I think there was only one vendor who actually let us walk away; every other time they would shout at us down the hall until finally relenting. Maybe it helped that we weren't seriously shopping for need, just for fun. It's definitely my least favorite way to shop, but I have to admit to feeling the thrill of victory when I got them down to the 30% mark.

Looking through stacks of oils on canvas

Drumming at a toy stand

Shenzhen is famous for its tailors, much like Hong Kong was decades ago. You can bring favorite articles of clothing and they will match them perfectly for very reasonable prices. The husband of one of my friends is larger and has a hard time in Hong Kong, so he has almost all of his work clothes made in Shenzhen. It would have been fun to have something made, but that would require another trip to go pick it up, and we didn't want to have to get another visa just for that.

Also, because labor is so cheap, spa services are very inexpensive. If massages are your thing, you can get them at rock bottom prices. Evangeline and I decided to get our nails done, so she had a manicure and I had a pedicure.

She chose green, her favorite color

Pretty flowers!

I paid extra to get the "high quality" pedicure, and I was amazed at how well it lasted. I didn't have so much as a hint of a chip, even though I do a lot of walking here and can really put my feet through the wringer. However, when my nails started to grow out, I tried to take the polish off. Scarily enough, I could not make a dent in the polish, no matter which remover I used. I scoured the internet for suggestions and nothing worked. They must have used some sort of industrial-strength paint, which I'm trying not to think about too much for fear of freaking out. Needless to say, I don't think I'll be getting a pedicure again without knowing in advance what kind of polish they're using...

Shenzhen isn't a huge tourist destination, so there isn't a ton to see, but we tried to get around the city a bit to get a feel for it. We walked around the Dongmen area, where a lot of locals like to shop.

A lot of people in Asia like to have shirts with Western letters on them. They don't have to be coherent, although sometimes they're much funnier when they are. There was a classy looking middle-aged lady in our estate whose shirt read in cursive letters, "Life's a bitch and then you die." It was really hard for me not to burst out laughing. Another favorite of mine are the many older ladies who walk around in shirts with obvious marijuana leaves on them. Pot isn't very popular here, so people don't realize what they're advertising. There was a lady in our supermarket last week who had a huge Pepsi logo on her shirt with a marijuana leaf overlay. Classic combo! I'm sure Pepsi would be horrified. :) In Shenzhen, there were many examples of the nonsense shirts:

We also saw a lot of people sleeping on the ground, which you don't see here in Hong Kong:

Meat on a stick was very big, with stalls everywhere we looked

Crabs, anyone?

The best sign of the trip

There are very few buskers in HK, so it was nice to see this guy and his guitar living the dream

All in all, we were glad to go back to Hong Kong. And I can see where the superiority complex of the Hong Kongers comes from. Hong Kong can smell bad, but Shenzhen smells worse. Hong Kong has bad air, but Shenzhen's is even nastier. We didn't see any stabbings or kidnappings while we were there, but maybe next time. :)

School's In!

I'm happy to say that school has been a success so far for Evangeline. As you may recall, we had some choices to make as to what type of school to send her to for kindergarten (In Hong Kong, the school system starts at age three with three years of "kindergarten" before going to primary school at age six). In the end, we went with the "local" school option, a Lutheran kindergarten in our village where the primary language of instruction is Cantonese. What were some of the factors that contributed to our decision?

1. Language. We really wanted to take advantage of being in another country and have her learn another language. Even if she doesn't retain very much of it when we move back to the States (although we'll try!), it's proven that speaking another language early in life makes positive changes to your brain that last forever. A lot of early childhood specialists think that age three is the perfect time to start an immersion program. Even if Mandarin is a "better" language to learn, we didn't see any programs in our area that guaranteed fluency, even after the full three years of kindergarten. Besides, we place a high value on her being able to speak the same language as everyone around us. Someone in our family should, after all!
2. Location. It's really nice to have her within walking distance, even if she takes the school bus most of the time. Some families here shuttle their kids all over the city to have them go to the right school. Besides, it's nice to be part of our village community. We've already seen several of her classmates and their moms when we've been out and about, which is fun.
3. Price. Because her school is non-profit, the students get a voucher from the Hong Kong government which greatly reduces tuition. After adding her school bus fee, we're still only paying around $130 USD per month. I think I've blocked most of the cost of international school out of my mind because I was so shocked by the prices, but they were much higher. One of the more exclusive Christian international schools in our area charges around $120 USD just to apply. And they can get away with it because Hong Kongers are so desperate to have their children get ahead that they're willing to pay anything. Call me naive, but I can't help thinking that it's just preschool! 

But as confident as we were heading into the school year, I definitely had a small freak-out when we were actually there on the first day. The school had an extremely gradual introduction to school life, so the first three days, the kids were only there for an hour per day and the parents were with them for most of the time. As I was sitting there with Evangeline, listening to a stream of unintelligible Cantonese, I wondered what had we been thinking? How could anyone pick this up? But Evangeline wasn't fazed at all, which gave me some courage. The next week, she was in school for an hour per day without me, which went just fine. The week after that was two hours, and then finally they started their normal schedule of three hours per morning. 

And she has been thriving. She has a little "best friend" already, a girl called Ma Te. Evangeline is excited to go to school every morning, especially because she gets to ride the school bus. It's hard to tell how much Cantonese she's picking up. She's singing a lot of new songs in Cantonese, and she definitely knows the words for stickers and for a kind of fruit they often eat for snack. But apart from that, we're clueless. The most important thing is that she is happy!

First day, wearing her dress uniform (Tuesdays and Thursdays)

Waiting for the school bus in her sport uniform (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)

Getting on the bus with the help of the "bus nanny"

Her triumphant return!

Special uniform for Activity Days

Oh, and a note about that last picture. She's carrying a lantern that we made for a school project. The parents were supposed to collaborate with the kids and make a lantern together. As you can guess, Evangeline's only real contribution was liking pumpkins; she just played the whole time. Oh well! The kids in the school are divided up into four houses (just like Hogwarts!), and they wear colored house polo shirts on Activity Day. Evangeline is in the "Believe" house, so she has a red polo. I couldn't get very much information from her about what they actually do on Activity Day, other than it was fun. 

I'll keep you posted as the school year progresses. It's been interesting so far, to say the least!

Munich

This was the end of the line in Europe for us. Evangeline and I were only there for a few days before heading back to the States, but Joseph stayed a week longer to have some more archive fun before returning to Hong Kong. The best thing about Munich was seeing our good friends Mandy and Iain again! And to make our reunion even more exciting, we got to meet their four month-old IDENTICAL twin girls, Rachel and Clara. They were like perfect models of babies: adorable (obviously!), cuddly, friendly, and curious. A real delight to be around. We had dinner at the Hofbräukeller, which had a free babysitting room. Evangeline was in heaven! I wish I had taken a picture of it, but to be honest I was so excited to see Mandy and Iain that I forgot to take pictures until the end of the night.

All three girls

Clara and me

So nice to be together again!

Post-dinner smiles

And of course, no trip to Munich would be complete without a trip to the Englischer Garten. We enjoyed walking around and hanging out at the biergarten by the Chinesischer Turm.

An antique, still functioning carousel

It was hard to decide which animal to ride

Yum!

Woo hoo!

Unfortunately, our trip ended on a low note due to Joseph having a kidney stone. He had started having lower back pain on and off in Vienna, and wondered if he was having back spasms or something. The day before Evangeline and I were due to leave Munich, the pain got much more intense, so much so that he couldn't even sit down at the archives that morning. He came home and I talked him into going to the hospital by our apartment. Luckily, German health care is awesome and they quickly found the kidney stone. The doctor thought he would pass it in the next few days. I didn't like leaving Joseph in that situation, but I felt a little better knowing Mandy and Iain were close by. Joseph's symptoms improved dramatically after that, so he thought that he must have passed the stone. That was wishful thinking, however. It's still there, as he discovered during another very painful episode a few weeks ago. He saw a urologist here in Hong Kong, who also thought that it would pass soon, but no such luck. We don't know why that stone likes it in there so much, but it doesn't seem to want to go anywhere. We're hoping and praying that one of these days it will decide to continue its journey and be out of Joseph's life for good!