Thailand: Elephants!

When we decided to travel to Thailand, I was so incredibly excited to ride an elephant!  It was the one thing that I just HAD to do!  So, we started looking for tours on Day 2 to make sure we didn't miss out.  Ryan worked his bargaining magic and got the price cut in half - 900 THB (about $30) for all of us!

When we arrived at the "jungle" (really just a hilly, rocky wooded area overlooking the water), we were able to feed a baby elephant and get our picture taken with it.  I was amazed how the elephant could peel a banana with it's trunk, eating the banana and throwing the peel on the ground!  Ava wasn't a big fan of the elephant, she was scared of the trunk, so we weren't sure how she was going to do on the ride.  But, we climbed the rickety 2 story deck and waited our turn.  She was a little apprehensive when we first got on the elephant, but it didn't take long before she was just saying "elephant" and pointing all around with a big smile!  Needless to say, she did great - until the elephant posed for a picture with his trunk up in the air (see the last picture)!  She got as close to me as possible and wouldn't keep her eyes off the elephant!

Overall, a very cool experience and I'm glad we did it!



ok, the elephant's trunk freaked me out a bit too! :)

 

 

Thailand: Our Resort!



I am finally getting around to posting about our wonderful Chinese New Year holiday - in Thailand!  First, I will talk about our resort.  When we were planning our trip, we were completely overwhelmed with all of the hotel/resort options.  Everything looked wonderful from the pictures and of course there were excellent and horrible reviews for every single option!

 



having fun at the resort!

After changing our mind about 10 times (no joke), we finally "settled" on the Holiday Inn Resort Patong Beach.  What a great choice we made!  I am sure we would have been happy with all of our runner up options too, but this resort was perfect!  The rooms were clean, the pools were great (especially the toddler AND kid pool - each had a water slide which Ava adored), the kid's club was a perfect way to escape the heat, the food and drinks were reasonably priced and the location was ideal!  We were right in the middle of town, so it was easy to cross the street to go to the beach, or take a walk down the street to go shopping and, if we didn't have an almost 2 year old with us, the bar scene would have been fantastic (located just outside our resort, although you couldn't hear all the craziness from our room or even the pools)!

Our flight was delayed getting into Thailand, so we didn't arrive to the hotel until about 5:30 am (as opposed to the planned 3 am arrival time).  However, as we pulled near our resort, you would have thought it was 5:30 pm with all of the people still out and about partying!  Everything was still so alive, it was crazy!  Luckily we were all able to take a few hour nap before exploring all of the pools! 



yum, chocolate milk!



Ava loving the slide!

and the water spouts!

The Year of the Horse!!!

It was quite strange being able to celebrate 2 New Years in the same month - one on January 1 and another on January 31!  The only thing I knew about the Chinese New Year before is that our Chinese suppliers would close for what felt like forever (compared to any of our American holidays) and we hoped our shipments left on time or we were in trouble!  Being in China this year, we were of course able to take advantage of that long holiday, but we were also able to learn a little bit about their tradition.

Chinese New Year (or you may also hear it referred to as the Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival) is a very traditional Chinese holiday celebrating the turn of the Chinese calendar and it lasts for 15 days!  I won't pretend to understand the Chinese calendar, but it is solar and has something to do with the moon phase ...  

Between online research and discussions with my coworkers, I have learned a few things about their holiday.  One of the most important things is to be with your family during Chinese New Year.  It is expected to arrive home no later than New Year's Eve to have a reunion dinner where you eat fish.  Since many people have to travel by plane, train (which sell out quickly) or automobile, many companies close a few days earlier to let their coworkers travel and make it home on time.  With that being said, cities like Wuxi become a ghost town pretty quickly and everything shuts down! 

I have also been told that you should thoroughly clean your house before the new year to get rid of any bad luck and make room for incoming good fortune!  Purchasing new clothes and shoes symbolizes a good start, but get that hair cut BEFORE the new year because cutting your hair cut on new year is considered bad luck!  It is very common to give money to people (especially those not married) in red envelopes and how could you have a Chinese holiday (or any other day for that matter) without some fireworks - and I mean fireworks and fireworks and fireworks - all day and all night - for days! 

Even though the holiday lasts until the 15th day of the new month, which happened to be on Valentine's Day this year, not all businesses are closed that long.  In fact, most reopen starting the 8th day.  Between New Year's Day and the 8th day, people are traveling around to see all of their family members.  I was told that they rotate amongst each other's houses because it is rare for someone to have a house large enough to host everyone at the same time. It sounds like a Thanksgiving or Christmas that never ends (and without the football)!   

One last interesting fact:  Each year represents a different animal, rotating between the following:  Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog & Pig.  This year is the year of the horse! 

Here are some pictures of Ava celebrating Chinese New Year in her Qipao (Chinese dress) while in Thailand!

Sunday Brunch

Every once in a while, when I REALLY miss my mom's waffles, Ryan, Ava & I take a 10 minute walk down the street and go to caffe bene for coffee and waffles!  This particular Sunday, Ava was in an especially good mood and we captured some fun photos.  I'm sure it wasn't from the sugary waffles!  lol

When in a pinch, straws make the best toys

Happy Girl!

Our yummy waffles and coffee!  I cannot imagine the amount of calories in this breakfast, so it is definitely a "once in a blue moon" treat!

Parker's Annual Dinner



Of course Ava LOVED the stage!



I am so happy I was able to experience Parker's Annual Dinner this year in Wuxi!  This dinner is a pretty big deal in China as it celebrates the Chinese New Year.  This year, all of the Parker Wuxi facilities combined efforts and held one large party with over 1000 employees, including my family!  Not only was there a huge feast - the food just kept coming and coming all night long - but there was also lots of entertainment from the employees of each division!  From singing to dancing, from fashion shows (with clothes made out of rubber flash and plastic bags!) to comedy acts, there was something for everyone!  I will not lie, there were moments when I wondered if what I saw was appropriate for a work gathering (I'm pretty sure it would not have flown at my home division), but all of the employees had a marvelous time!  There was even a "lucky draw" (i.e. raffle) and lots of prizes were given away!  I actually won a bike!  Two lucky people won the grand prize - a gold bar weighing 10 grams!

Oh, some of you may be wondering if we ate anything weird ... sure enough we did (at least to our standards).  Of course the typical chicken feet dish was present, as it is at every Chinese dinner I've attended, however, I have yet to try it.  So, the strangest thing we ate that night you ask? drum roll please ...  pig blood!  I will start out by saying I did not know it was pig blood when I tried it!  And I hope to never eat it again.  Besides the fact that it's pig BLOOD, I really didn't like the texture at all.  And in case you are wondering how to make pig blood - you know, for the next time you slaughter a live pig and want to save the blood - I guess it is pretty easy.  Just let the blood harden and then cut it into rectangular pieces and cook it!

Anyway, here are some pictures from the night!


Fashion Show!



Comedy Act

 

Traditional Chinese Dancing



Playing the Guzheng



Not so traditional Chinese dancing



Ice & Snow Festival: Harbin, China

Iceland, China, Italy, USA - never thought we could be in four countries at the same time!  It is possible at Harbin's Ice & Snow Festival where they replicated an Icelandic Church, the Great Wall of China, the Roman Colosseum and the Empire State Building using ice! 

Our expectations were far exceeded after seeing the Ice & Snow Festival in Harbin, China!  Located about 350 miles south of Russia, about 450 miles east of Mongolia and maybe 375 miles north of North Korea, sits one of China's largest cities (top 10), Harbin!  As you will see in the pictures below, Haerbin is known for it's beautiful snow and ice sculptures during the winter months. The festival begins in early January and will last as long as the weather allows - sometimes to March!

After some research, I learned that nearly 10,000 workers were employeed to build the ice and snow sculptures, which required about 590,000 square feet of ice and 492,000 square feet of snow!  How in the world did they do it?!  Swing saws were used to carve ice into blocks, taken from the frozen surface of the Songhua River.  Chisels, ice picks and various types of saws were then used by ice sculptors to carve out large scaled ice sculptures (see pictures below).  These artists worked day and night to complete their masterpieces!  Deionised water can also be used, producing ice blocks as transparent as glass to make clear sculptures rather than translucent ones.  Multicolored lights were also used to give color to the ice, creating a spectacular vision when lit up, especially at night!




Replica of the Hallgrimskirkja Church in Reykjavik, Iceland)


According to organizers, the structure pictured above is the tallest ice sculpture in China (46 meters / 151 ft) and was made with 12,000 meters (over 39,000 ft) of ice!


Roman Colosseum

 

Nearing -30 degrees Celsuis

Snow Fox

Tiger Park: Harbin, China

While in Harbin, we decided to also check out the Siberia Tiger Park!  Ava loved seeing the animals and was very intrigued by all of the tigers, lions and other large cats. 

When we first got to the park, we had to wait for the bus to drive us around the park.  Finally they said the bus was here and we could go outside.  We walked out and this truck with chairs on the back pulled up.  We looked at each other and thought, "ummm, this does NOT seem safe!"  As we were about to climb on, a Chinese man tapped our shoulder and pointed over to a group of actual buses!  We all let out a big sigh of relief and had to laugh!  It just seemed so China to ride on something like this through a tiger park!    

At first the park was a little boring.  We saw lots of tigers while on the bus, but it always seemed like we were on the wrong side of the bus to get a good picture and most of the tigers were just laying around.  Luckily Katie got some great pictures to share with us!  



One way to block traffic!

After the bus ride, we were able to walk along a skywalk type thing and watch the tigers play.  Here we could also buy a live animal to feed to the tigers!  There were several different options with varying prices, from a live chicken for $10 (US) to cattle for just over $450 (US).  We decided that we had to at least buy a chicken for this unusual experience.  It was crazy how quick that chicken was snatched up and taken away by one of the tigers. At least it was a quick death.

any last words Mr. Chicken?

About to "walk the plank"

Hope it's a quick death Mr. Chicken



Chasing his tail!!

Overall, the tiger park was worth it and we would recommend going if you are in Harbin.  You don't need a lot of time there - 1 to 1.5 hours is enough.