First Week in Sydney

Has it really been a week? And we only have a week left? Oh my goodness, where has time gone?! This week has been so much less stressful than I imagined, and I am putting off my sad goodbyes for as long as possible, so we will see what the next week has in store.

We are staying on the 41st floor at the Meriton on Kent St (the building in the middle).
 
A fantastic location downtown in a spacious 2 bedroom - thank you work trip. It is wonderful and fun to be staying right downtown but does make it feel like we are on holiday not coming home. I feel a bit country-less right now. When asked "where are you from?" what should I say? I live in Sydney, but haven't been there for 3 months and am transitioning out, I am from the US but haven't lived there in 5 years and haven't even visited in 1.5. It is a bit bizarre, but we are enjoying the comfort of Sydney and the ease of travelling around a country that we know so well.

This week has been a bit of the usual - Don is back at the office and I am doing my own laundry and cooking. But we have also managed to get out and do some fun things to keep it like we are on holidays.

We we have caught up with friends.

Makoa and I spent a night at the hospital for sleep study #2 (nothing like cramming in final doctor visits).

The kids have been super cute together. Makoa was wearing my jumper so Tasi wanted one too (she is wearing his) and then she got all silly, hugging and giggling with her brother.

We went to the first AFL game of the season to watch the Sydney Swans beat the new GWS Giants. Everyone in the stadium cheered for their first goal EVER!


We have explored our new neighborhood.
 
 Played toy battles in the hotel.

Gone to dinner (couldn't really be expected to make every meal after 3 months off!) I was impressed with how well my kids have gotten used to going out to restaurants. I was taking this photo of a little bit of Chico on the menu :)

And when I looked up Tas was playing a game with the silverware and Makoa's toys were doing this.

The kids have missed having Don around ALL the time so while we waited for food Tasi squeezed in some extra Daddy cuddles.

And today I took the kids to the Powerhouse Museum.

Wow, look at those excited face :) They were actually watching The Wiggles in the new exhibit and I tried to get them to look up without much luck!

We spent most of our time in the Wiggles area - all of the characters were there, along with some videos and games.

 
Did I mention the videos?!
 
Things have gone surprisingly calm and wonderful this week, so I am hoping for the same this week. Although it is freaking me out just a bit writing that there is only 1 more week before we will be in the US, ahhhhhhhhhhhhh I mean yay!

A Week in Bangkok

Tomorrow we are boarding a plane to Sydney . . . our holiday part of our transition is through. It feels like ages since we started in Malaysia, yet feels like we've only been gone a short time. I have had some ups and downs this week as I prepare for 2 weeks of final wrap ups in Australia before a week in California and then to Colorado. Earlier this week I was sad this leg was coming to an end, but now I am ready to go back and start the next stage. And I am so ready for some girl time and a little bit more space to spread out :)

Since our flight is tomorrow that means that we have been in Bangkok for a week and I have posted nothing, so sorry. I was sick the first 3 days we were here so we really didn't do much at all. We are staying at a beautiful hotel by the river called, Chatrium, so it was a good place to be sick I guess. We have a big room, there are 3 pools, and even a small playground nearby. Finally by day 4 I was feeling well enough to go out. At the airport I met a woman who gave me a tiny piece of paper with fun things to do with kids. First on the list, Funarium.

Are you surprised I found another indoor play area?! I know you are not shocked to learn the kids had a ball . . . for 8 hours :)

This was by far the best indoor play centre we have been to. It was new and clean, with a restaurant, arts and crafts room, and even a parents room with a TV and comfy couches (where Tasi took her nap!) There were bikes and scooters and roller blades.

I love that Tas walked her scooter! And of course there were tunnels and slides.

So much fun. We also took the hotels river taxi to the train station to a gigantic shopping centre called Siam Paragon. I am not much of a shopper, but I do enjoy air conditioning, access to restaurants, and the kids play areas that usually accompany Asian malls.

 The river taxi ride and our hotel at night.


The last 2 days we have spent by the pool and now the boys are off playing computer games at an internet cafe. We are soaking up our last few moments of vacation by being lazy! Oh and enjoying giant guavas

and trying not to care about my 'last-days-of-holiday-frizz-and-have-no-more-hair-product-in-humid-Asia' hair.

I mean seriously, how am I supposed to work with this!!

Tini World - we love indoor play centres!

We do love finding these places! We have now been twice to Tini World already and I am sure if I asked Makoa he would want to go again :) 

I got to talking to another guest with little kids and he told me about this place and I knew we had to go. (Turns out he is from Colorado and lived in Monterey the year after Don and I moved - small world!) The shopping area is small but there is a grocery store is large and there is a good pizza place downstairs, we spent ALL day there today.

There is a giant ball pit.

Tunnels and slides.

Computers with Plant vs Zombies.

 

Puzzles, books, and a big Lego pit.

Not sure which of my boys liked building their spaceship more!

Budget:

Accommodation - $124

Taxi - $4 each way

Entry - $2.25/each kid then got free passes that we used today! What a bargain :)

National Park Tour

We left nice and early Wednesday morning for an overnight tour of Cuc Phuong National Park and Ninh Binh Province. I had booked this tour (and our Halong Bay trip) through Private Asia Tours and we were able to see some really neat stuff as there was so much packed into 2 days.

First stop was the Endangered Primate Rescue Centre.
 
 The researchers here rescue monkeys, langurs, and gibbons from the illegal wildlife trade. Many of these animals are near extinction. They are rescued and researched and hopefully make a family (many are living alone in captivity - not helping the population).
 
Then they live in the microhabitat to learn to flee from hunters and other dangers and how to forage for food on their own, before being placed back in the wild. It is an amazing program, and the kids liked seeing all the monkeys (Tasi pretty much shouted 'MONKEY' for the whole time we were there!)

After lunch outside

 
We hiked to The Cave of Prehistoric Man.
 
In the picture you can kind of make out the 3 tombs containing remains of prehistoric men dating about 7500 years ago.

 
My family enjoyed exploring and testing out the echos!

At the next stop Tasi was pretty tired so Don and Koa went on a short walk before deciding to stop and make a few dams.

 
As I said, Tas was pretty tired and in the car she got the sillies :)

Don and I enjoyed the views of the countryside as the kids napped on the drive to Ninh Binh. We checked out the local market and Tasi liked the crabs. The picture isn't good, but the stallholder put a crab in a little bag so Tas could get a better look - she like that until it moved!
 
My kids have found new ways to entertain themselves at restaurants. You didn't expect them to be well behaved ALL of the time did you!

Here is Tas at the hotel.

No she hasn't grown that much - this is the door to the room where the drivers and tour guides sleep, and I am glad I saw it with the door open so I could see that it had 2 steps down once inside. It reminded me of the half floor in that movie - maybe from Being John Malkovich.

Anyway, back to our tour and after a short drive we got on a boat to see the Tam Coc caves.
  
The four of us were on the boat, along with a father-daughter rower-guide team. A lot of other rowers were teasing ours because he had so many people - apparently 4 Vietnamese are allowed, or 2 foreigners, or 1 American!! Ha ha, poor rowers!

We saw some beautiful scenery.
 
Rowed through three caves.

And saw a laundry line in the most unexpected place.
 
After lunch we boarded another boat on the Hoang Long River. At the dock Makoa let me take a series of photos of him and this rock!
 
The kids were snuggled up with me.

So Don pretended he was on a boat on a holiday all by himself, until I was talking to him and taking his photo that is!

I thought of my dad when I saw this lady irrigating her pastures, glad this isn't the way we had to do things at our house!

And I am assuming she got here by bicycle.

The scenery was again breathtaking. We visited a fishing village and we impressed with the concrete boats.


It was a lovely trip and it was nice to explore the countryside and national parks.

Budget:
Tour: $360
Tip: $31
Extras: $30
Accommodation (Thurs) - $124
Dinner in Hanoi - $27