Chinese New Year

The "Year of the Rat" is fast approaching and everywhere you look you see red lanterns, decorations and images of a rat. The school held its Chinese New Year celebrations on January 25. Both Emily's and Danielle's Mandarin classes performed a Chinese dance during a school-wide assembly celebrating the upcoming new year. Both girls wore their new Chinese dresses; they were very keen to show them off!

Emily's 8th Birthday

Emily turned eight on January 14th. She was very lucky this year as she had two parties; one with her grandparents before they returned to Canada and another with some of her friends from school.

Grandparents Depart

After visiting for three weeks, my parents returned back to Canada. They enjoyed their time with all of us immensely. Macau, Thailand, Hong Kong, and mainland China all had so much to see; my mom was especially impressed with the amazing shopping in Asia! On top of the travel Chuck and Andrea were able to check out several of the top casinos in Macau. My mother is already contemplating a return visit in October when we all plan to travel to Beijing.

Phi Phi Islands

Our second excursion in Thailand was a day-trip via speed boat to the Phi Phi (pronounced pee-pee...really) Islands. The first stop was Phi Phi Le where the movie "The Beach" was filmed. We strolled the beach and swam here before boating around to the other side of the island for some snorkeling. The next stop was at Phi Phi Don which had a beautiful beach as well as wild monkeys. Everyone enjoyed feeding the monkeys bananas and corn on the cob. The last stop of the day was at Kai Nai Island which was incredibly small; only the size of one city block. We swam and snorkeled here as well.

Elephant Trekking

One of the more popular excursions in Phuket is elephant trekking. We joined a group called Siam Safari that took us to their young elephant training center. Prior to the trek we met three young elephants and their trainers and learned about Asian elephants in Thailand. The young elephants danced, played soccer, and even gave out some elephant kisses (lots of suction in those trunks). The trek itself lasted 45 minutes and it allowed us to see a typical Thailand forest and the many rubber trees found there. We also got to see some wonderful scenery during the trek. Each elephant has its own Mahoud (trainer/caretaker) with it at all times throughout the trek.

Thailand Day 1

We arrived late in the evening of the 27th, too late to see any of Thailand. After breakfast the next day we headed to the beach to catch some rays and swim in the warm, clear Adaman Sea. Our resort was a five minute walk from Karon Beach, one of several popular beaches on the island of Phuket. The beach and water were amazing and one could even see small fish swimming amongst us.