Pre-Christmas Activities

In Macau, the days before Christmas are busy as they are in Canada. There has been last minute shopping to Senado Square which is beautifully decorated at this time of year. There have also been trips to the Venetian Hotel where the school choir (with Emily as a member) has been singing Christmas carols for all of the shoppers and tourists.
We would like to wish all of you a fantastic Christmas!!

U of A Centenial Celebration

The University of Alberta hosted a ceremony and banquet in Hong Kong in October to celebrate its 100th anniversary. The celebration was open to any current or previous graduates, so a number of us from the school decided to attend. I particularly enjoyed the experiences as all graduates were introduced and then allowed to walk across the stage to receive a commemorative certificate from the Dean of their respective faculty. I also received congratulations from the U of A President and was able to take a photo with her after the ceremony.

Terracotta Warriors

After visiting Beijing, we flew to Xian to see the Terracotta Warriors. While Xian (pronounced Tchee-ann) is a large city (eight million population) that has much more history than Beijing (it was a major stop in the silk road and has over 2000 years of history) most people visit Xian to see the Terracotta Warriors.
The Warriors did not disappoint as the Chinese have done an amazing job of displaying what some call the "8th Wonder of the World".
The Terracotta Warriors were discovered by a local farmer in 1974 who was out digging a well. Since then, three "pits" have been unearthed and opened to the public for viewing. Some of the warriors and horses unearthed are in incredibly good condition although their original color has faded. Some areas of the pits have yet to be fully excavated while some of the Warriors have been re-buried and preserved for future generations.
Overall, it was an amazing experience seeing an entire Terracotta army that was buried over 2000 years ago.

Bird's Nest and Watercube

Beijing is full of many historical sights but two modern structures are getting many visitors as well. We visited both the Bird's Nest and the Watercube and were able to go inside of both of these buildings. They looked as impressive in person as they did on TV during the Olympics!! We left the Watercube shortly after dark thus getting to see it lit up in the Beijing night.

The Great Wall

One of the must-see sights in the Beijing area is the Great Wall of China. As the wall is over 15,000 km long, there are many places to see the wall but there are a few popular ones that have been well maintained for the many sight-seers that visit.
The area we went to was called Ji Long and it offered two different sections of the wall to walk on; one steep and one very steep. The six of us took the less steep route however there were some sections of stairs that were almost vertical. We all walked as far as we could with the time we had (Danielle was the fastest) and enjoyed the beautiful fall colors the surroundings had to offer.
Overall it was an incredible experience for us all.

Trip to Beijing

The fall break saw the four of us plus Andrea and Marlene travel to Beijing with five others from the school to see the sights. On our first full day, we visited Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is the world's largest square (thankfully as is gets so many visitors) and it was very crowded when we were there. The majority of the people we saw were native Chinese visiting their countries capital city.
The Forbidden City was the countries imperial palace for approximately 600 years and it has been magnificently restored for everyone to see. The palace is incredibly large and makes royal palaces in Europe look very small indeed.

Family from Canada Arrive!

My mom Andrea and my sister Marlene arrived in Macau last Tuesday for a visit over the fall break. The girls were especially excited to see their "Gammy and Aunty" and get caught up in the cuddles department. Andrea and Marlene have already been out to explore the Venetian and the Wynn casinos and have visited some of the local shopping areas as well. We all leave Friday for a tour to Beijing and Xian; after this Jackie and I will take Marlene to Hong Kong for the weekend.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Although we are far from Canada one cannot live without Canadian traditions like Thanksgiving. Approximately thirty people (staff, spouses, and friends) met at a beach side restaurant for roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. The food was excellent as Danielle and Emily both had seconds before having dessert. Everyone had a wonderful afternoon.

Visitors from Edmonton

The last week of September saw my cousin Liz and her husband David visit us in Macau. This was the last stop on a trip that also had them traveling to Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Over a six-day period they saw almost everything Macau had to offer. They were great guests and we enjoyed their company while they were here.

Danielle's 6th Birthday

Danielle turns six on September 15 so we had a party for her last Sunday. The party was held at the swimming pool in our building and she invited several of her friends to join her. The kids swam for ninety minutes before digging into hot dogs, watermelon, and chocolate cake. This of course was followed by more swimming.
An added surprise for Danielle (and Emily) was a trip to the Venetian later that afternoon to see the Cirque show ZAIA. The day ended with Danielle choosing what we would all eat for dinner: pizza!

Back to School

Emily and Danielle are back at school and happy to be back with their friends. Emily is in grade four and her teacher is Mr. Boisjoli (he's from Alberta). Danielle is in grade one and her teacher is Ms. Elsa (she's from South Africa). Danielle is wearing her dress uniform while Emily is wearing her PE uniform.

Pit Stop in KL

Our return back to Macau had us landing in Kuala Lumpur so we planned to stay for a few days to check out the city. KL as it is often called, in Malaysia's capital with approximately 8 million inhabitants.
We found it to be a very cosmopolitan city with people living and visiting there from all over the globe. We were all quite tired from Bali so we probably didn't do the city any justice but some of the interesting points were:
1) The Petronas Twin Towers
2) The Butterfly Park (lots of butterflys and skinks)
3) The shopping (made West Edmonton Mall look like a second rate strip mall)
4) The restaurants; every type of food imaginable from all over the globe

Sea Turtle Sanctuary

A popular place for Danielle and Emily to visit on Gili Meno was the Sea Turtle Sanctuary. This is an undertaking of one of the locals named Carlos. He would regularly go out and remove turtle eggs from nests before poachers or other locals could get at them. The turtles would later hatch and be raised until they were eight months old. At that point, they would be released into the ocean.
Each morning after breakfast, the girls would run down to see Carlos and the turtles and help feed all of them. In between feedings both girls couldn't keep themselves from picking up the youngest ones, "just to have a little look".

Snorkeling Around Gili Meno

One of the memorable experiences at Gili Meno was the snorkeling. The island is surrounded by coral so one can just swim off shore to enjoy the beautiful underwater scenery. One morning we all boarded a glass-bottom boat to explore the coral wall and do some snorkeling. I ventured far and wide amongst the coral being pulled along by the strong current. Jackie and Emily snorkeled near the boat while Danielle stayed in the boat and watched the coral, fish, and turtles through the glass bottom.
The hilight for me was swimming up behind a big green sea turtle (about 2m away) and taking its photo before it swam off. The photos here were taken with a Kodak underwater disposal camera.

Gili Meno

The next part of our holiday had us travel to a small island off the NE coast of Bali called Gili Meno. This island is part of a group of three islands found between Bali and the island of Lombok.
Gili Meno is quite small as we walked around it one day in about three hours. It is a very quiet place as there are very few inhabitants and the only modes of transportation are bicycles and horses with buggies.
The island is known for the great snorkeling within the coral wall that surrounds the island.
It was pure relaxation for us all as we spent our time sunbathing, swimming, reading, and eating fresh food at the small restaurants scattered along the beach.

Swimming with Triton

After leaving Ubud, we headed for an area called Tanjung Benoa. This is a harbor area on the southeast coast of Bali known for its Dolphin cruises. We intended to join an early morning cruise to see some dolphins but we found out about something new called the "Dolphin Experience".
The dolphin experience allowed us some one-on-one interaction with a dolphin (and it's trainer) for a forty-five minute period. Our dolphin was named Triton, a ten year old bottlenose dolphin.
After a five minute boat ride from shore we entered the dolphin enclosure and we then lowered ourselves onto an underwater platform to meet Triton. We found him to be a very friendly and gentle creature. We all received many dolphin kisses and even hugs as Triton would swim up to us and put his head on our shoulders. After a brief tutorial from the trainer, we could instruct Triton to retrieve small pebbles, basketballs, and small hoops. We were also able to get Triton to jump high out of the water and touch a suspended ball.
We took turns rubbing Triton"s tummy, touching his teeth, and even feeling his tongue.
We of course had to feed him bits of tuna after each trick because as the trainer told us "Triton doesn't work for free".
Overall, this was an incredible experience for us all.

Monkey Forest

Another popular attraction in Ubud is the "Monkey Forest". It is a large piece of jungle containing a few temples and hundreds of wild Macaques. It was great fun to observe the monkeys as they ate, played, slept, and even fought amongst one another. Now while these monkeys look cute and cuddly, (most are) they were also very adept at stealing ones water bottle or bag of bananas. Some also had no fear as Emily, Danielle, and I all had monkeys approach us and jump on us looking for a free meal!! No one was hurt rather just surprised at how unafraid the macaques were of all of us.

Visit to Ubud

After a week on the beach, we headed inland to the village of Ubud. This popular tourist site is known for its cultural attributes such as painting, dance, and carving. During out three day visit we saw a Balinese Fire Dance, a volcano, rice terraces, and incredible amounts of stone and wood carvings. We stayed in a lovely hotel that had traditional Balinese architecture as the door to our suite was like something you might find on a castle. We had a lovely large patio as well where they served us breakfast each day. It was definitely a place to relax and enjoy ones surroundings.

Bali Zoo

Another great attraction in Bali was the local zoo. It had a wide range of birds and animals to observe but the best part was that visitors are able to hold or handle a wide variety of them.
Hi everybody. This is Emily. The Bali Zoo was a blast. We got to see a lot of different animals at the Bali Zoo. We got to feed deer and a fruit bat (the biggest bat in the WORLD!). And we got to feed a camel. The funniest thing was an orangutan threw poop at us! And he had really, really good aim. And the orangutan almost got my dad!!! He He. At the front of the restaurant where we were eating lunch me, Danielle and my dad got to hold a very interesting creature. His name was slow lory. He had little padded toes and very big eyes. There's a picture of me with him. He was also quite slow.
by-by