Best.Smoothie.Ever

At La Luciola in Seminyak, Bali:

Spent the weekend in Seminyak, stayed in a villa at the very lovely mostly excellent Elysian, rained the first morning but all in all was an excellent family weekend. I know it's been a while, but not to worry, The Teeny Travelers haven't stopped - Mama's just gotten lazy with the blog. Might be a pipe dream to think that I'll be able to go back and recap a bunch of recent trips, but you never know. Will get organized again one of these days...

Rawa Island

Since Lola was able to watch the kids last weekend, Mik and I decided to run off for a quick beachy getaway. We waited too long to make bookings, so flights to Bali or Phuket were wicked expensive; and everything on Bintan Island was fully booked. So we looked a bit further afield in Malaysia and more or less randomly settled on Rawa Island. Turns out that it would've actually made a great family weekend, though it was nice to be able to kayak, snorkel, kayak, snorkel (oh wait, yep, that's all there was to do), without having to worry about naptimes or bringing crayons and paper and things.

Just about everyone else at the resort had kids with them - the wide, white sand beach is perfect for little ones, and they even had a slide off the jetty for the bigger kids.

The reef is pretty close to shore, making for some easy snorkeling (though the visibility varied somewhat).

And there was some, ah, pretty cool wildlife to be seen. This was one of a family of 5-6 juvenile blacktip reef sharks, though "Mama" did swim by a bit later. We actually have a video of them swimming by, but it's too embarrassing to post as it includes audio of me yelling "AAAAAHHH! AAAAAH!" into my snorkel and then the camera jiggling around nauseatingly due to my climbing on top of Mik's back as he was trying to shoot the video.

The deets:

Rawa Safaris Island Resort - decent accommodations, so-so service, and fairly awful food in a gorgeous, kid-friendly setting. Hugely overpriced for what it is, frankly, but for the proximity and convenience, you can (just barely) justify the price. The "Book Online" button on their website doesn't work, but you can call and make a reservation fairly easily. They rent sit-on-top kayaks and those pedalboat things, but apparently their Hobie Cat has been out of commission since last year (though it's still listed as being available both on their website and on the activity price lists all over the island). They don't take very good care of their equipment - two of the masks we used leaked, and they didn't have any goggle defogger, so bring your own.

Getting there from Singapore: The resort has its own private ferry from Mersing to Rawa Island, so when you book, make sure to note the ferry times. We made the Johor Bahru checkpoint to Mersing in 1.5 hours, but that was with driving like a madwoman on 2-lane roads and having to turn off the a/c whenever we had to pass someone (we rented a 1.0-liter Chevy Spark). We could've gone at a much more leisurely pace had we left home just half an hour earlier, and had we remembered that there were immigration forms that had to be filled out before entering Malaysia. Sigh.

First things first: Saigon shopping

I was in Ho Chi Minh City for two and a half days, and the mission of the first day (when Mik and Bella had not yet arrived) was to get my shopping done. Most of the first day went by, taken up by a couple of baby naps, a trip to the market and dinner with friends, but lucky me, a couple of cool shops on my walk back to the hotel were still open at 8:30 on a Friday night.

At Nagu, the gorgeous kids' clothes and bags are made in Vietnam with local and Japanese materials. Lots of linen and cotton with simple but eye-catching embroidery detailing.

And, of course, I had to get a bag for me:Their card:There was also a more "traditional" kids' clothing store, with lots of embroidered and smocked dresses, shirts, nightgowns, literally thousands of dresses, hundreds of designs packed into this one store:I was also thrilled that they actually had cool boys' stuff too. I got Matias this cute t-shirt and another pair of overalls that he will probably wear once (because he spends most of his time in a t-shirt and diaper, or in onesies, but oh well):I am a sucker for embroidered seersucker.And then, a sweet green nightgown for Bella, and this white dress that I just unpacked, today belatedly realizing that it is a size too small. Gutted. Luckily we have a bunch of littler girl friends who would look super sweet in it.

Oh - and the coolest part - all told, the nightgown, dress, shirt and overalls = $35 USD. Score!

Nagu - HCMC and Hanoi, address and contact info on their card above.
NKid - On Le Loi, on the left side when walking from the market to the Opera House.
(Sorry, I threw away their card and the dress tags provide no info)

Horror-Strollerific Saigon

And the award for MOST STROLLER UN-FRIENDLY CITY WE HAVE EVER SEEN goes to... (drumroll please) Ho Chi Minh City!!!

In addition to the "usual" disappearing sidewalks and twice-every-block construction sites, there were downed electric cables, giant potholes, cobblestones, and curbs that were always at least 1 foot high. Or: I might be biased, still reeling from the experience of having to untangle my stroller from the random coil of very thin (almost invisible) metal wire that was laying on the road, while dodging cars and evil, evil little motos. If planning a trip there with a baby, I have two words for you: BABY BJORN.

Angkor

Both Teeny Travelers stayed home for this trip, and my brother Vincent and I made a short hop over to Cambodia to see Angkor. Travel tips? Well, it was the right decision to leave both kids at home; it was blisteringly hot, and I can't imagine that the temples would hold much interest for any kids under the age of 8 or so (and that's only if they've seen Tomb Raider/Indiana Jones and can pretend to be treasure hunters). But AMAZING for adults, and there was certainly a wide range and many choices for food and accommodations. I used my usual combination of TripAdvisor (traveler reviews, recommendations, and, most importantly, photos), HotelsCombined (or Kayak, same thing), Lonely Planet (for "usual" itineraries and the highlights) and the Luxe Guide (which exercises far more editorial restraint in making its selections, and is highly entertaining to boot) to make plans, bookings, and reservations.

We hired a guide with a car/driver (not too terribly expensive at ~$60/day), which made the temple-hopping much more efficient. Rather than cram in as many temples as possible, we really only made it a point to see the highlights - Ankor Thom and Angkor Wat the first day, and on the second day, hiked up Phnom Bakheng in the dark for sunrise, and on to further-out Banteay Srey, and Ta Prom and Pre Rup afterwards. This left lots of time for good meals (at restaurants that we picked off the Luxe Guide, rather than letting our guide choose for us), refreshing beverages at the end of the day, and even a couple of foot massages and a somewhat disturbing fish pedicure.

One nice diversion from the temples that I'll mention, though, was The Happy Ranch. At the end of our last day, we rode through countryside and rice fields and villages to get to, well, another temple. The horses were healthy and obviously well-taken care of, and they were able to cater to different levels of riding experience. There's also something about having grit in your teeth and horse hair all over you that makes that gin and tonic at the end of the day extra-delicious.

After having been in Cambodia a few years ago, when for some strange reason we DIDN'T go to Angkor, it was great to finally be able to cross it off my list. Next? Mik votes for Borobodur...

Lion Dance

The real thing, at Bella's school, during Chinese New Year:

Papa and Vincent's interpretation:

Baby turtle release: Lombok, Indonesia

We happened to pick a strong swimmer who made a beeline for the open sea, so we tried to keep Bella focused on him/her, rather than the other baby turtles who kept repeatedly getting washed back onto shore by the (not very strong) surf. Ultimately, not sure how romantic this Valentine's Day activity was, thought up by the otherwise very nice Oberoi Lombok. Reminded me of those butterfly releases that people sometimes do for weddings, which I always thought was more traumatic than romantic.

Well, of course she ended up sitting in with the band

At the lovely Oberoi Lombok, which is here:

View Larger Map

Traveling with kids: Manila

An actual travel tip, for once. Actually, here are a couple:

We have family in the Manila area, but usually it's simpler for us to stay in a hotel, even if we're only there for the weekend. After trying quite a few of the major hotels in Makati, the business district, I've found THE one that hands-down, is the best with kids: The New World Hotel in Makati, also sometimes known as the Renaissance. The hotel itself is fine - in general, it's on par with the Mandarin or the Peninsula and maybe even the Shangri-La. But it's the location that's key--on the Makati Greenbelt, with gobs and gobs of cafes, restaurants, shops, and little gardens, most of which is actually stroller friendly and walkable (and if you've ever spent a lot of time in Manila/Makati, you know how uncommon that is!). Use hotelscombined.com to get an aggregator rate, then compare it with what they are offering on the site to get the best deal.

Matias and I flew to Manila from Singapore on discount carrier JetStar. The seats, unsurprisingly, were tiiiiiny, not much fun when holding a lap child for a 3.5 hour flight. But not many people know that you can get one of the "extra leg room" seats for only $20-30 more--you can actually book it ahead of time on their website, which I did for the Singapore-Jakarta leg of our recent trip to Indonesia. They have the first row marked as an exit row, which normally you can't occupy when holding or traveling with a child-- ignore that. Most of their Asian fleet are A-330s, on which the first row is actually a regular bulkhead row and not an exit row. On our trip to Manila, I hadn't booked ahead of time, but those seats were empty so I was able to move and paid the $30 on the spot. A no-brainer!

Third tip is the little contraption clipped to the top of Matias' stroller in the picture above. A stroller fan with foam blades - it runs on two AA batteries, and has made a huge difference in Matias' comfort when out and about in the heat of the tropics. And because the blades are made of foam, I can clip it close to him with no worries about his little fingers or toes. There are more expensive ones around, but I bought this one for 6.95 SGD at Mothercare in Singapore, and have seen similar ones for sale at Watson's as well.

So that's my contribution to the world of usefulness for today.

And I thought I had heard it all (Subtitle: Please stop licking my baby)

When I was pregnant with Bella and living in Beijing, I was the recipient of a lot of unsolicited advice from a few acquaintances (and also quite a few complete strangers). From my Chinese teacher saying that I should walk four hours a day, to someone who told me to stay away from bananas, because they would give my baby epilepsy. Though I invariably would smile, nod, and say "I'll have to try that," it never really got under my skin because I knew I was going to ignore the advice anyway. And maybe write about it in my pregnancy journal/blog.

But what I considered the wackiest idea, and the set of advice I'd be least likely to follow, was the entire 30-day post-natal restriction on bathing, showering, brushing your teeth, or leaving the house. What the what?!?!?!?? Mik's theory is that it's a throwback to less hygienic times, when contact with water might increase your exposure to infection and illness. But 30 days of no showering? Ew. So imagine my surprise, on a recent trip to Manila, to learn that some of my own, younger relatives have actually LISTENED TO THEIR GREAT-AUNTS and followed this hoary tradition. The Philippines being the crossroads of so many cultures and traditions, I guess I shouldn'tve been surprised that the practice was followed there. But by people I know? People related to me? In that kind of heat? Yikes.

Anyway, this all came up because of a strange experience I had at the airport when Matias and I went to Manila last weekend. Matias, darling boy, is a happy smiley little fella, and upon arrival at Manila International Airport, he got a fair amount of attention in the Baby Bjorn carrier, facing outwards, where I had popped him so I could have my hands free for the luggage, stroller, etc etc. It was a busy morning at the airport, and when we got in the immigration queue, a woman who had been on my JetStar flight from Singapore was in line in front of us. I wasn't sure I had seen right at the time, but quick as a flash, it seemed like she had LICKED HER THUMB, and then touched my 3-month old on the foot. What the what?!?!?!?! I did a double take, sort of furrowed my brow at the lady, and jumped to another line. I won't lie - I also dug out my little bottle of antiseptic and doused both his feet liberally. We ended up in a queue with a group of merchant marines in front of and behind us, and soon enough, an affable type had struck up a conversation about my pale-skinned son with the Finnish father ("Hey, this kid's dad owns Nokia!"). As the man in front of us got to the immigration desk, the guy behind yelled out (and this will sound strange in translation, but it sounded just as strange to me in Tagalog), "Hey, dab some of your spit on this kid, he might get usog!!"

What the what?!?!?!?! I almost literally grabbed the guy and demanded, "WHAT IS THAT WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHY IS EVERYONE WANTING TO PUT THEIR SALIVA ON MY KID?!!!?"

Eventually it was explained to me that sometimes, when someone notices or greets a baby, especially a cute or gregarious one, it later gets sick or colicky and it's somehow attributed to the undue attention paid to the kid. This is also the reason why some people put a red dot on their baby's heads, between the eyes, or put on coral bracelets or red clothing-- to attract the evil spirits' attention instead of getting drawn to the baby. Uuuuuhhhhh...riiiiight. As if this wasn't nutty enough, the remedy to all this is apparently to put some of your saliva on the kid, IN ORDER TO ERASE ALL THOSE EVIL EFFECTS THAT YOU MAY HAVE UNINTENTIONALLY CAUSED WITH YOUR COOCHIECOOCHIECOOING.

I'm still so undone by all of this that I don't even have a pithy conclusion. This, from a culture where even as a child, the first thing I knew about babies is that you may NOT touch them on the hands or face, and that you may ONLY ever kiss a baby on the feet. In a country with average temps of 80 degrees, babies don't even go out without HATS, for criminy's sake. But if you say hi to a complete stranger's kid, it's acceptable-- no, it's your DUTY-- to put your bodily fluids on them to ward AWAY illness and danger?

To tell the truth, I LOVE the convoluted, multi-step ridiculousness of it all, but seriously - I'm without words.

On the Road Again: Melaka, Malaysia

We're back! The small one is now 3 months old, and we thought it was about time we took a weekend trip to Malaysia. Actually, we had gotten as far as renting a car in early December, but luckily remembered that Matias' passport wasn't ready yet, and we would be crossing an international border. Anyway, after less than 4 hours on the road (a piece of cake for the kids, after all the time we spent on I-95 in the U.S. at Christmastime - more on that later), we were in Melaka, Malaysia, a U.N. World Heritage City and bastion of Peranakan culture.

Since it was a bit of a last-minute decision to go, our first two choices for accommodations (the lovely-looking Hotel Puri and Courtyard @ Heeren) were fully booked, but we ended up finding a great deal on the Majestic Hotel on Expedia instead.

We arrived to find that a baby doll came free with the room! Ha ha, just kidding, that's the boy, Matias, lounging on the cool fluffy white sheets after the car ride.

More pics:

Happy to be back and on the road again!!

Double Secret Illegal Camping @ Chaoyang Park

We'd seen other people do it before, and at first we thought that the sign (see second from left, above) clearly indicated that this was, in fact, the place to pitch one's tent. So we pitched a tent on the big lawn on the north end of Chaoyang Park and had a little picnic on Saturday. Eventually a uniformed park guard (who looked approximately 13 years old) came over and told us we couldn't do that there, but couldn't say where it was posted. It's "in the regulations," apparently, that only he was privy to.

Later we realized that we had no idea what these signs actually meant... since there were no generators or potable water nearby; and if camping wasn't allowed... and wait, what's that helicopter and truck unloading all about? At least we agreed that fire (in red) is always bad and clearly you weren't supposed to start any bonfires. Luckily, living in China has made us accustomed to living with profound confusion, so we were able to shrug it off and go on our way.

Where are they now?

It's February 3rd, and in a short-term nostalgia tour, I decided to go back and look through Olympic month posts... and in the spirit of the upcoming Oscars....

Getting the GOLD for Most Notable Absence Six Months Later (drumroll please...)

Where oh where have the Hybrid taxis gone? I know there were only a few of them to begin with, but weren't they supposed to be making more of them??!?!?

Next you'll be asking me how the migrant workers of Beijing (who were suddenly and miraculously absent within the 5th ring road while the tourists were here) are doing in this economic downturn.

Thalpe Bird Life

[Thalpe, Sri Lanka] Every night around dusk, thousands of these little birds would nest in the trees around our villa, quite literally right above our heads. It's not clear whether they're hummingbirds or something swallow-like; they moved like hummingbirds, but their profiles didn't have that hummingbird look to them.

Also, since we had our dinner served on our veranda most nights, and all the dishes would have to be walked across open sky from the kitchen, we learned to wait to order dinner until after they had settled down for the night. Nothing ruins a good vacation like bird poop in your soup.

If you turn your sound up real high, you can hear Bella's commentary above the flapping feathery din.



Link to Google Video

Hellu bibi! (the Sri Lankan version)

One more thing to love about Sri Lanka: we had initially thought it was a bit odd that everywhere we went, at every hotel, every restaurant, and by every pool guy, gardener, or tuk-tuk driver, Bella would be referred to, universally, as "the baby": "Will you need a cot for the baby?" "Would the baby like to hold a baby turtle?" and, music to Bella's ears: "Would the baby like to have some sweets while you wait for supper?" This, despite the fact that she walks, talks, and complains like a person most definitely, if only recently, out of babyhood. Especially if you ask her opinion on the matter ("Nononono, Mama, Bella's a BIG girl").

We later found out that the supremely child-doting Sri Lankans refer to any child short of adolescence as a baby. I'm formulating a theory that links the friendliness of a country's inhabitants to the length of time they refer to a child as "baby." Or, in the case of the middle part of the Philippines, "bibi".

Our Bella's Back!

[Thalpe & Galle, Sri Lanka] After a few worrying days when Bella kept saying strange things like, "I want to lie down for a bit," and "No I don't want to go swimming," this morning we were relieved to see her singing and dancing and running around in circles in the sand again. Nothing like seeing spectacular displays of wanton waste of excess energy to reassure you that your kid has finally kicked an upper respiratory infection.

It's our last full day here in Thalpe, on the southern coast of Sri Lanka. Unlike our other vacations, we haven't DONE a lot on this trip. We've eaten a lot of great sri lankan food, hung out in the pool and on the beach, and ventured a few times out to "town" for dinner or lunch, but for the most part there's hasn't been much reason to stray very far from our beachfront/poolfront room with the big veranda. The first few days when Bella was sick and sleeping a lot in the room, at least Mik and I could still swim and watch the ocean and even take turns running down to the beach. I can't imagine what we would have done had we been staying in a room on the 15th floor of some chain hotel resort.

Yesterday was really the only exception, when we spent the day with our friend Federico, who brought us to a nearby beach (where Mama promptly got spin-cycled trying to ride some badass surf) and then to his beautiful house and plantation in Matara, where we had an amazing lunch and relaxed on his Dutch colonial-style verandas and cooled off in the natural stone pool. So, technically, we still didn't DO a whole lot, we just went SOMEWHERE ELSE to do not-a-whole-lot.

Probably still a few great photos to take today and tomorrow, but above is a slide show of the highlights so far, as well as the links for the three small boutique hotels in which we stayed - all of them faaaahbulous in a LUXE guide kind of way, yet still supremely child-friendly.

The hotels:

The Wallawwa, 15 minutes from the airport, a 14-room hotel in lush tropical gardens. They made up a "princess bed" (really a hot pink mosquito net over the room's sofa) that Bella will probably talk about for the next 2 months.

Fort Printers Hotel, inside the Galle Fort. The staff here got Bella ice cream for breakfast when her tonsils were swollen, and upgraded us to the best room in the house when they saw that we had a baby with us. When they found out how much Bella loves flowers, especially the white frangipani blossoms, they would gather up a bunch every mealtime for her.

The Frangipani Tree, in the town of Thalpe, just outside Galle. Owned by the same family as Fort Printers.

Bella Brought a Bug to Lanka

This week, The Teeny Traveler is in Sri Lanka. Above, in her "normal" mode on our second day (in the Galle Fort), below, just a few hours later when the upper respiratory infection that she had apparently brought with her from China started to kick in. High fever and uncharacteristic dopiness prompted us to call a friend for a doctor's recommendation, who then showed up at our hotel less than half an hour later. After an exam quickly showed that she had tonsils the size and color of cherry tomatoes, he prescribed antibiotics, which he then procured amongst a mass of bags and boxes in the trunk of his Mercedes E series. Doctor, pharmacy, and delivery service all in one.

She's slowly feeling better (we think), though sleeping a LOT and barely eating; the lovely staff at our hotel at the fort (Fort Printers hotel; BEAUTIFUL) managed to help us get some nutrients into her by procuring ice cream for breakfast and french fries any hour of the day. We're now further down the coast, in a town called Thalpe, and we're hoping that the drugs will do their thing and she'll be back to her crazy dancing self soon; in the meantime, there seem to be worse places to recuperate than on the porch of our beach villa, propped up by cushions and with ice cream on demand.

MANGO MANGO MANGOOO!

Bella's diet in Bohol: two mangoes per meal, plus a little rice on the side.

Hellu Bibi means you

So, Boholanos have this accent, I guess Visayans in general have it too, where “lady” becomes “lidi” and “baby” becomes “bibi”. I’ve found that even when she is at her grossest (half naked dirty fingernails, sand-and-snot-encrusted, unbrushed hair, mango goop smeared all over), strangers still try to get Bella’s attention. Lest she be taken as ill-natured and unfriendly, I’ve had to do a little coaching: “Bella, when you hear someone say, ‘Bibi!,’ that means you. They’re saying hi to you. You should say hi, okay?”

Hasn’t worked yet, but we still have a day and a half left.

Bohol Baby

This week, the Teeny Traveler is on Panglao island in Bohol. Here's where that is:

We're staying at the Bohol Beach Club, which got mixed reviews on TripAdvisor, but where we've found only one thing to complain about. More on that later. We have a huge suite right on the beach, with a  great porch where Mik and I can theoretically sit and enjoy the evening after Bella goes to sleep. That actually only happened the first night-- yesterday all three of us packed it in at 7:30, which is why I'm up writing at 4:30 this morning.

Yesterday was a rainy day, so we did some of the touristy sightseeing things, like seeing the Chocolate Hills and the two 400-year-old churches on the island. We stopped at a butterfly sanctuary on the way, where, true to form, Bella almost mushed a giant wingtail butterfly. I don't know why Lesson #1 for all guides and docents at insect "petting" places isn't "Never EVER hand the live animals over to kids under 4. They don't know how to DO gentle."