Klong Ride

One of the things that I have made a conscious decision to do is explore the klong even more than we have. It's not really doable after dark but it's always an adventure and you can go on for ever. We had a big gang a couple of weeks ago...the regulars which include two little ones.

The khlong in the early morning. So peaceful.

A bridge to a house. I never get tired of these doors.

The bridges that get you from one side to the other.

Waiting for Paul. Confusion of which mosque we were meeting at. 

Found Paul!

Kay: Art teacher, yoga teacher, person extrordinaire.

Little Evelyn on the back of her Dad's bike. Crystal, a new psychologist.

The whole gang

Proof that I was actually there. We think that we have almost made it to our destination which is a green painted 23 km loop around the airport. It was getting too late and too hot...next time.

 I have never seen bananas like this.

Closeup.

Trying out a Thai Exercise Class.

I'm pretty sure I already wrote this one but maybe not. To put things in context, we live in the suburbs of Bangkok so with the exception of a couple of western restaurants and grocery stores everything else is run Thai style which is great. The idea of exercise as a recreation has not been around as long as other countries so it's just different. We live near a gym which offers classes and my friend Alis and I went a couple of times....she is still going weekly but I only go once in a while.

We became celebrities one night.

The whole gang. Posing is the key and it's all about air boxing.

Alis, me and the instructor.

Swim Meet in Hong Kong

I coach swimming to 6-12 year olds and at the end of February, I was lucky enough to be asked to go with the team to the South East Asia swimming competition in Hong Kong. We are not a big school and our program is fairly recreative rather than competitive but they swam well. 

It was host by non other than the Canadian International School of Hong Kong which was pretty nostalgic for me. 

A very Canadian entrance.

On one of their bulletin boards....love it.

Hong Kong is incredibly hilly and I am completely intrigued by it. This is the view of the soccer field at Canadian Int. School.

We actually used a community pool which was beautiful.

Here's our awesome little team.

The Canadian Team jacket. We sat right behind them. 

The buildings are more dense than I even imagined.

I am not so familiar with the HK cuisine except that we ate really well and almost always noodles. Stores like this had ever dried type of seafood imaginable.

Victoria Peak is like Montreal's Mount Royal only steeper and I think higher. We took the local bus up and a crazy tram down. Those are our swimmers on the terrace. One of the kids uncles is a tour guide in HK and he offered to take us out and about which was a real thrill for teh kids since we had a full day to spare before heading home.

That's me...wish I had another sweater.

Beautiful views.

Of course some shopping was involved.

We took the tram, bus, subway...all incredibly well organized and easy to use. You can see forever down the aisles.

Our end.

So many people!

We walked as a group through here and I have no idea how we didn't lose anyone.

Moi 

Chinese New Year

After a delicious lunch at a Lebanese restaurant, Vince and I took the subway over to China town to check out the sites for Chinese New Year. Red is the colour of the day.

 The Golden Buddah is inside but we didn't get to see it-will have to come back. This is when we started hearing that the Princess was coming.

Waiting for the princess. Beautiful red lanterns.

After an hour, we decided to walk back to the subway and head home. We were blocked off so took the alleyway out.

This is one of four tramcars that went by and we are pretty sure that the princess was in the first one. We were not allowed to take pictures of her but there were 20+ security men running beside it.

A visit to the mall on the way home (Terminal 21) to get Vince's phone fixed. Saw this view and wondered why I have not seen this lake before. Have to check it out.

A dizzying look down from the top floor of the mall.

Examples of the bling that many girls use to decorate their phones.

Our vine covered townhouse. In theory, we can now sit outside with some privacy. In reality, 35 deg (and climbing) and mosquitoes doesn't really make it attractive. I think it's getting a little out of control.

Long Weekend in India

The floor in Vince's office.....organizing all his trips for the next six weeks. 

We took a long weekend to visit our friend, Soureche from Waterville who heads to India every year to visit his mother for a couple of months. Ponicherry, where she lives is near Chennai and at the same latitude as Bangkok which means that it was really only a 3.5 hr flight for us. I had a few weeks to psych myself up for the fact that we would return to our house at 4:30 am Monday morning and be at work by 7am. We lucked out and got an empty seat between us and I was asleep as the seatbelt sign went off. It was a long day but hogged 11 hours of sleep the next night and was well on my way.

An Indian gecko. Feels like Bangkok.

Granite carving is huge in the area we were visiting. Beautiful.

The nearby beach-Bay of Bengal.

Visiting the Shore Temple in Pondicherry

Many of the temples weren't finished due to invasions by the colonies. Time to read up on my history.

Taking a break with Soureche.  

Makes you wonder if/when it will tip and roll. 

 Beautiful carvings.

Harvesting salt. The water is divided into sections and left to evaporate, leaving salt.

Salt.

Vince put to work.

A classic street full of motorcycles, trucks and anything that moves.

Tea stop-extra large menu.

The road along the shore is closed every night from 7pm (I think) to 7 am allowing people to exercise and enjoy the quiet shore.  So we took part and went for a nice early morning walk to gain a breakfast appetite.

Ghandi. 

French influence in the architecture. Which also meant that there were a few amazing bakeries. 

This reminded us of New Orleans.

Street dogs-just like home. 

Street cows. This was my biggest surprise. They live on the street just like the dogs...and goats.

 

Many doorways have drawings outside of them an from what I understand they are to welcome people and ward off bad things. 

This is very much like living in Minburi where we shop at the market daily. We joined Soureche on his morning visit.

Buying fish.

These ladies cut and prepare the freshly bought fish. 

The noise and activity was amazing.

 Off to the fruit/vegetable which was interestingly more quiet.

The sheer volume was incredible.

Flowers are a huge part of the culture and I don't think I have ever seen so many in one place.

Visiting Botanical Gardens/Aquarium.

Vince's new friend.

School trip. Nothing like the laughter and excitement of kids on a field trip.

I wanted a ride on the train but alas, it did not come by.

Beer truck

Bananas galore.

Bus...I think.

 You could buy anything at this market...anything. 

Soureche tried to take us to this coffee place but it was closed and then we tried later...closed. Apparently great cheap coffee.....will have to try again.

Vince's wheels for the day. A fabulous way to get around. the city wasn't too big and it was a good pace.

 These were the most interesting temples. beautiful use of colour and artistry.

The canal running though the heart of the town.

Our hotel. Perfect location and super spot to stay.