Bangkok, Thailand in January

Sue's Perspective

After four long months, we finally got to meet Dave in Bangkok! It was a great reunion. It was strange waiting for Dave in the arrivals area. Seeing him come around the corner, with a big smile and a huge back pack, was the best feeling. While still in the airport we went to one of the Thai tourist booths, which help you organize tours and day trips. We booked a day trip that included a river boat ride in one of those James Bond boats with the really long prop coming off the motor, and a tour of some temples and the famous Reclining Buddha. We had a day to sleep in, relax and do some walking around Bangkok. Then we were picked up by our guide, Wan, who was a licensed tour guide and spoke very good English. 

The river boat ride took us past some very rich river side homes, as well as some homes built on stilts, half on land and half on water. We saw families cooking, doing laundry, and looking after their boats. Each home had a designated area for offerings, which they give three times each day without fail. These include burning incense, saying prayers, and leaving trays of food, drink, coins, clothes, etc. Anything that they think deceased family members might need in the other world. We could see beautiful temples with giant statues of Buddha along the river, as well as the King's Palace. 

We didn't visit the palace, but we did vist a few temples. One in particular had the steepest most treacherous staircase I've ever climbed. There's no way they'd allow people on it in Canada. Worker's Comp would be all over it! But the view from the top was great, and we survived both the up and the down trip without injury.

The Reclining Buddha was fantastic. Covered in gold leaf, it's 15m high and 43 m long. My favourite part was the huge feet, with swirls on the bottoms of the toes like fingerprints.

We also went to the Wat Traimit Temple. This temple houses a remarkable, solid gold Buddha with a neat history. While historians believe it was originally built in the 13-14th century, it was significantly altered in about 1767 when Thailand was under threat of invasion by the Burmese. To protect the solid gold Buddha from luting, the monks plastered over it with stucco, and decorated it with mosaics of broken glass. In 1954 it was being moved to a new location, when the ropes broke (they probably weren't expecting a stucco statue to weigh so much!) and some of the stucco broke off, revealing the gold. The monks removed the remaining stucco and discovered the beautiful statue underneath. The clever artisans who built it, had separated it into nine sections that were easily taken apart with a key, that was also found hidden in the stucco. This made it easy to transport the statue to it's new location at Wat Traimit Temple. In the picture you can see that this solid gold, 3m tall, 5.5 tonne statue sits upon a high pedestal that looks like a pile of cushions. At $1400 an ounce the gold is worth about $250 000 000, but of course, to the Thai people, it is a priceless piece of their history.

Along our way we found statues for the kids to pose with. Katie does have luck finding statues of cows!

For dinner, we went to a terrific sushi restaurant. We had mackeral tetaki, served with the bones of the fish beautifully and artfully displayed, showing the freshness of the fish.

We also snacked on the food cooked by street vendors. Usually this consisted of some sort of meat on a stick. One time, Cooper chose a stick that turned out to be chicken livers! It was actualy very tastey. This picture shows a lady selling bags of fresh fruit all peeled, cut up and ready to eat.

Finally, I can't miss mentioning the famous Tuk Tuks! What a great way to zip around town. And I mean ZIP! Our driver looked like he couldn't have been more than 16, and he drove like Enzo Ferrari! If visiting temples isn't your thing, spend the day eating food from the street vendors and zipping around town in a tuk tuk. Too fun!

A monk snoozing on a bus...

<font size="6">Barcelona</font>

Cooper's Thoughts

Barcelona is now one of my favorite places in the world! There was so much to see. We went on a "hop on hop off" bus tour from 9:00am to about 7:00pm two days in a row. I was soooooooo tired! The food there was amazing, we ate tapas with paella 3 nights in a row. It was sooooo delicious! We stayed in the gothic district of Barcelona, right next to the Christmas market. It had lots of cool Christmas stuff. 

Barcelona is a huge city, so we probably didn't even see half of it! Out of the places we did see the Sagrada Familia Church was my favorite. We also saw Guell Park and Casa Batllo. Visiting Barcelona was a great experience and I would love to go back sometime.  

The Sagrada Familia Church ceiling

Stained glass at Sagrada Familia Church

Guell Park

Casa Batllo

Some crazy guy photo bombing Katie's picture...

Spain

By Katie

We arrived in Spain on November 10 and stayed for about 2 and a half months. We stayed by a lovely beach in Puerto du la Duquesa near Manilva. We found lots of sea glass, and surprised mom at Christmas by turning a piece of blue glass into a pendant for her. We played on the beach quite a bit, but it was too cold for swimming.  

We went on hikes up in the mountains with a lady named Johanna who had a hiking company called Sur Walks. She showed us the culture and beauty of Spain. We enjoyed tapas, delicious olives and even drided pork legs! She took us to a cave with neolithic cave drawings that was really amazing. The tour guide said that the cave was about 250 m long! It was very dark and we had to use giant flash lights to see. They didn't put any permanent lights in because over time it could make the drawings lose their colour and disappear. The cave ws also very wet and quite slippery so we had to be very careful, especially on the steps. The outside temperature was very cold compared to the inside of the cave which was about 16 degrees. There were lots of stalagmites and stalactites wich were so amazing considering one cm. takes about 100 years to form!!! Some were even connecting from the ceiling to the floor! There was also two small ponds in the cave that did not have any fish or bugs in them but they were still cool to see. I thought it was so cool to see drawings that were made so long ago! I'm really happy we went.

My favourite place, though, was the city of Ronda. I loved the look of the truly Spanish town. White houses with red roofs and cobble stone streets! Old bridges and bull fighting arenas, happy people and beautiful veiws! Our hike took us through an olive tree farm and up a long hill to some stabels where you could ride horses!  The town had an old bridge built in the 9th century and the "new" brige built in the 13th century!  The old bridge also doubled as a prison to put the bad guys. We ate a beautiful Spanish tapas lunch in Ronda. The restaurant was built of old stone and had tall archways and exposed wood beams. We had delicious potato cakes, dried pork leg slices with cheese, salad with oil and vinegar, and sausage slices in a red sauce. If I were to go back to Spain I would probably live in Ronda and eat lunch at Bodega De La Veradad.

Of course we couldn't go to Spain without seeing Barcelona and some of Gaudi's works of art! Barcelona was drop dead gorgeous! Gaudi's buildings were elaborate and well, Gaudi ! My favorite building and probably his most famouse was the Sagrada Familia Church, which means sacred family in Spanish. It was so tall, and it wasn't even finished ! It ws Gaudi's life's work and he only got to work on it for 40 years of his life. His goal was to make 12 tiny towers representing the 12 apostles, two larger towers representing Mary and Joseph and one final tower, the largest, representing Jesus. We were able to walk up one of the towers and had a magnificent view! Inside, the first thing you notice is the elaborate and beautiful  stained glass windows! They are extremely tall and flowed in colours of cool blue, warm red, sunny orange, lush green and bright yellow. Looking at them you might forget to look up and see the beauty of the arched ceilings! Tall pillars reach to the top and detailed paintings look down at you. Smooth rock and soft colours bring the wide room to a comfortable and beautiful place! 

We celebrated a Spanish Christmas back in Puerto Du La Duquesa with my Aunty Kyla and Uncle Tom. It was so nice to have them come visit us for the holiday! I made a small origami nativity scene to put under our 2 foot tall Christmas tree and an angel to put on top of it. Mom made an extraordinary dinner with a little help from Cooper and I. Uncle Tom and Aunty Kyla brought Stove Top Stuffing along from home, which was the added touch we needed. We played games and had lots of fun.

Spain was beautiful and even though I would have loved to learn more Spanish!!

Spain

By Sue

We arrived in Spain on November 10th. We had a terrific condo right on the Sea! Beautiful sunrises every morning. Manilva was the town up the hill and Sabinillas bordered us along the sea. We often walked to Sabinillas, but the next big town, Marbella, required a bus ride or taxi. Taxi's we're pretty costly and buses always seemed unreliable. It was hard to find a schedule online, and if you did it wasn't always up to date. One day, in Manilva, we sat at the bus stop for half an hour. No bus came so we went in to the nearest tapas bar and asked about it. They said there was no bus. I showed them the schedule but they just shrugged and said that those schedules aren't always right. If you go, I would recommend a rental car. If you shop around, you can get very reasonable rates, and you have the freedom to visit all the beautiful little towns that dot the hills and coast.

Our Beach

View from Our Balcony

Fish Market in Marbella

Smoked pork legs are available in all shops and most tapas bars.

I was really happy to find Johanna, a wonderful lady who organizes hikes through her company, Sur Walks. Unfortunately I didn't find her until only a few weeks before we left, so we weren't able to do all of her hikes. The ones we did go on were terrific. I highly recommend tracking her down if you are in southern Spain. Her website address is http://www.sur-walks.com/index.php.

Johanna with the kids at the sulphur bath in Cesares where Julius Ceasar bathed

I'm torn about which hike was my favourite. One day we hiked around the city of Ronda in the morning and then went into the city for lunch. It was beautiful. We saw a gentleman knocking olives out of his trees the way they've done it for centuries. He seemed quite pleased to have his picture taken. We also stopped by a beautiful horse ranch and watched a ferrier at work. We visited the ancient Roman baths and and the bull fighting ring. Back in town, I got a kick out of the way the people there refer to their two main bridges as the old bridge and the new bridge, since the new bridge was built in the 13th century!

Old Bridge

New Bridge

Olive Farmer

Ferrier

I do think I have to give the edge to our hike up to the La Pileta cave, followed by a hike down along the Guadiaro River with lunch in Jimera. The cave was such an unexpected surprise. There is only one other cave in the wold, discovered so far, that has drawings as old as these, and that one is in France. The drawings were of mainly two types, red, which were neolithic, and black, which were Paleolithic. The stalagmites and stalactites were also incredible, especially when you think that they grow about 1cm every 100 years! We weren't allowed to take pictures, as the light damages the drawings, but I bought some postcards, and this image is from one of those postcards...

The hike along the Gaudiaro River was beautiful. We saw goats and birds, and we found loads of acorns. The hills were green and their were huge fish in the river. When we arrived in Jimera, we were starving. I loved the atmosphere of the restaurant as it was in an old train car service building, with huge wooden sliding doors and a fire burning away in the fireplace. The food was another pleasant surprise. Gourmet, but at a reasonable price. The company we shared also made it special. Johanna is a kind hearted, nature and animal lover. I felt like I'd known her forever. A lovely German couple, Roman and Juta, had joined our hike that day, and we enjoyed their company as well. 

After being in Spain for about five weeks, and two months in Croatia and Turkey before that, we were sure starting to get homesick! But we had something great to look forward to... Kyla and Tom we're coming for Christmas! Their visit was awesome and helped us get through those last few weeks before meeting Dave in Thailand. What a fantastic Christmas! They brought Stove Top Stuffing for our turkey dinner, which I don't mind saying, turned out terrific! And they brought all kinds of other surprises... Cheese Whiz, peanut butter, and lots of Christmas treats, like brightly coloured socks (I'll never wear boring old white again!) and this terrific oil called Peppermint Halo. We played charades and a blind drawing game and had lots of laughs. Kyla and Tom made Christmas extra special.

While Kyla and Tom were here, we rented a car and visited Tangiers in Africa, Ronda, Seville, and Granada. The Alhambra Palace in Granada is a must see. In Seville I liked seeing the Metropol Parasol in La Encarnación Square, which claims to be the largest wooden structure in the world. I wish Dave could've seen it. We also shopped. And shopped and shopped! I think we saw every shoe store Spain had to offer, some of them twice! Katie and I both bought a pair of boots, but I think Tom was the winner with several pairs of desert boots, in a variety of colours. While we were in Tangiers Tom, Kyla and I all bought Jelabas, a hooded, floor length, long sleeved tunic. I bought one for Dave as well. It's rare to see a man there not wearing one or some version of one. Cooper was very patient through all of this shopping, never complaining once. 

A Bakery in Tangiers

Dressing Up Tangiers Style

Thread Store in Tangiers

Street Performers doing a Flamenco Dance in Granada

The Alhambra Palace in Granada

After Tom and Kyla left, the kids and I visited Gibraltar. We saw the rock, St. Michael's Cave, and the monkeys. We ate fish and chips, spent British pounds, and posed for a picture by a classic London style phone booth. It was like being in Britain for the day, but only took us about an hour and a half by bus to get there. It was a fun day, and a good break from school work. 

Overall our time in Spain was a great experience. We stayed in the Manilva condo because we had a connection that helped us arrange it. It was way nicer than any other place we had stayed in, and was within our budget. If I had it to do over, however, I would probably choose a smaller town near Seville or Granada, where there are fewer British expats. We didn't learn any Spanish, but I think we ended up with British accents! Haha!

Just a Couple More Pics!

Amazing Turkey

                                                                            by Katie 

Turkey was awesome! We got to stay for a whole month and it was definitely worth it. We went to a lot of cool places and did some amazing things! I really enjoyed seeing their flag around so much and I wish we had ours around more at home. They have a lot of parades and a ton of rugs! I enjoyed Turkey a lot !

                                                        

Our first stop in Turkey was Istanbul. I wasn't quite sure what to expect when our plane landed, but when our shuttle picked us up to drive us to our hotel I was pleasantly surprised to see the beautiful flower displays and busy people. I didn't feel afraid at all when we were in Turkey. There was a few things that we had to get used to, like the prayers that were shouted out three times a day or how every other shop you walked by sold rugs and only rugs! Every person we met wanted to help us... maybe to get you to buy their rugs! We ate wonderful Turkish food, which means a lot of shish kababs, and a lot of ladies there dress in traditional robes and head coverings.

                                                                               

When we toured the Blue Mousqe mom and I had to put on scarfs and long cloaks so we didnt show our skin, and no shoes were allowed! The next mousqe we went to was Ayaspophia. It was originally a church but was burnt down, then was rebuilt with beautiful mosaics. In about 450 BC it was made into a mousqe, but inside a mosque they cannot depict faces so the mosaics on the walls had to be plastered over. In Roman times it was made back into a church, so off came the plaaster. In about 1500 it became a mosque again... so more plaster! In the 1930 the Turk's beloved leader, Ataturk, made the mosque into a museum and some of the mosaics were un covered. In the center of the mosque there was a big dome, so on the floor they put little X marks to show where the dome started and ended. It was huge! 

 

One of my favourite places was the spice market. Most of it was inside running through hallways, and boy did it smell good in there! Lots of spices, lamps, rugs and Turkish delight! I bought some pillow cases that I really love! The funny thing is that a man had to tell us where the spice market was, when we were right beside it! You couldn't even tell it was there from the outside! Istanbul was great but I also toured a lot of other awesome places, like Capadocia!

                                                

In Turkish, Capadocia means land of the beautiful horses. Capadocia (cap a DOE kee ah)is famous for its under ground caves and fairy chimneys. Fairy chimneys are like the hoodoos in Drumheller, Alberta. In the time when Romans ruled they would come to Capadocia to persecute the Christians, who built under ground cities to hide in. The under ground cities could hold about 50 thousand people at a time but they would only stay there for a few days, or until the Romans left. The people made a well, wine cellar and pantries. They would bring everyone down, even the animals! If the Romans did find the passage way to their city the people made booby traps like giant holes in the floor and huge stone barricades they could roll into place. It felt like being in an Indiana Jones movie! 

                                         

That wasn't even the coolest part about Capadocia! My favorite thing we did in Capadocia was go on a hot air balloon ride! We got up really early in the morning and a car came to pick us up. It looked so beautiful with all the other balloons illuminated in the dark. We were one of the first ones up. We went really high and dipped in and out of the fairy chimneys. The sunrise was beautiful and the landing was perfect. The pilot had to land on the back of a truck! Then we drove on the back of the truck in the hot air balloon basket! later we had champane and juice. A beautiful start to a day! 

    

Next up came Ephesus. My favorite part was the Library of Celsus. The library was built by the son of Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus. His son built the library to honour his father and when Tiberius died he was buried under the library. The Library could hold 12 000 scrolls! Sadly, it was destroyed first by a large fire and then a massive earthquake. The libray is still in fairly good condition considering what happened to it! Ephesus itself was a harbour city that housed about 56 000 people! But after the devastating earthquake the harbour filled up with silt and could no longer be used so the city was abandoned. The very famous temple of Artemis was also in Ephesus, but it was destroyed many times by both natural and human causes. Only one of the original 121 columns still stands. The temple was named one of the 7 wonders of the aincent world. Ephesus, with its beautiful mosaics and sculptures was a really unique way to get a glimpse at what life was like for these ancient people.

While we were in Selcuk (SELL chuck) we visited Pamukkale (pam oo CALL eh) That was my favourite place even though the hot air balloon ride was tough to beat! We had to drive pretty far to get to Pamukkale and when we got there it was not what I was expecting. At first glance it looked like a mountain of snow but it was actually a giant calcium deposit! We had to take our shoes off to walk up to the top because there was a thin weaterfall flowing all the way down! When we got higher up the water got warmer because under neath the deposit is a naturall hot spring! Once you reach the top you can swim in a man made pool. The pool and area around it was built by the Romans as a spa. At the bottom of the pool are ancient pillars you can swim over, or sit on! Behind the pool there was also a really neat old theater that you could go sit in and pretend to wach a play. This was my favorite thing we did in Turkey and if you are planning on going I would strongly suggest you visit Pamukkale.

Turkey was a fantastic adventure. I love the rugs, flags and tea that you can get and see everywhere! The food was excellent and the people were so kind to us. I had a wonderfull time in Turkey and learned a whole bunch about the sites and culture.