Boracay, Philippines

We have been here for a few days now. The first day was spent settling in, and the seconda day was spent by the resorts private, very windy and choppy beach. I have started to develop a lovely tan, Kane has a red belly! Our resort here is lovely. It is only 1 year old and the people are sensational, very polite and willing to help. We are in a quite part of the island, but they have a shuttle into town and to the most popular beach called white beach. Its very long, calm and has heap of restraranuts around for eating and drinking - holiday heaven. We havn't taken any shots from the beach yet, but here are some of our resorts called Alta Vista de Boracay.

Chinese New Year

Oh what to say about Chinese New Year - from me, as someone who is sick of being in China... not much positive. Suzhou in January is a cold, grey and miserable place. Shops are closed and the firework are never ending, most of them sounds like bombs going off outside your window, create a huge amount of air pollution and you should see the piles of burnt ash and red paper - EVERYWHERE.

So I hope the year or the cow, (it's Cow & not Ox, Yin, not Yang) hurrys up and starts because I for one can not wait for July to get here so I get the the #^%* out of this place.

Bored and cold

Today school was cancelled.

Suzhou put out a severe weather warning and all the schools had to close.

Winds from 34kph predicted with -1, but feels like -8. So far it hasn't been too windy, but I am cold. I think I will pump the heater up soon.

I am so bored. We started watching the series Entourage from the States, based on Mark Wahlburg's life in LA, we have watch nearly 9 episodes already!!!! We've eaten, the house is clean, I can't go to the gym, I'm writing a blog posts, but that'll only take 10 minutes.... We have 3.5 more days of this until we fly to the Philippines on Tuesday morning. We are catching the bus to Shanghai Airport on Monday afternoon and staying the night at the Airport Hotel for RMB298. When we get to Manila on Tuesday, we are staying one night at Bianca's Garden, a boutique hotel that used to be the residence of a wealthy Spanish family, apparently it has numerous antiques in the rooms, before flying out a 5.50AM!!!! to Caticlan to get to Boracay for 10 nights before heading back again. The gym is closed for CNY, so I can't do that, shops are shutting down left, right and center for the holiday. It's depressing and cold, and grey.

There is really nothing we can do for the wedding planning, so that's out the window. We could sit down and try to word the invitations, but that'll have to be confirmed once we get back too.

What to do, what to do...

Zen - Our Favourite Restaurant

I am a little low on what to write about this week. We have been doing the usual, eat, sleep, work, etc, etc.

Kane has been really sick this week. We have had a flu go through the school with 4-7 teachers out each day with fever, chills, sweating, aching bones, cough and sore throat, and it has been really contagious. Kane started to feel ill on Tuesday and needed to take Thursday off from work. I had to change his clothes at 10.30pm Wednesday night as he'd soaked through 4 layers! He slept most of the day, but I made him go to the doctors who gave him some medicine to try and help him. Now, he still doesn't look 100%, and has a rough cough. It'll probably take him a week or 2 to really get over it. It's hard when it's so cold outside and everyone has heaters on, and I suppose being cold in Suzhou, going to warm Malaysia and back to cold Suzhou doesn't help. I hope the Philippines does not do the same.

On Wednesday night we had the annual Chinese New Year Dinner. If is huge for Chinese. It is nearly 10 courses, and school had something like 120 prizes to give away, not counting the door prize that everyone gets, this year it was a micro-fiber blanket. Kane was down to go, but was too sick, so I grabbed his to. Last year we got bowls and chopstick type things. I didn't win any of the drawn prizes, but it was fun, a lot better than last years effort which was in the snow. I got up on stage and danced to Latin music in front of everyone and got a fluffy mobile phone holder - which I lost!!!! But of course, what is a traditional Suzhou Chinese meal without a chicken head or chicken feet... here it is -

It's hard to believe that we will be flying to the Philippines in like 10 days. I know everyone will be thinking I am an idiot for saying this, but Kane and I are a bit over travelling! We are really looking forward to being home and boring :)

So my post today is about our favourite restaurant Zen. It is right around the corner from our apartment, and we usually go once a month. Today we went with two couples and we ordered way too much, but Kane was happy we got left overs, and I was happy I did not have to cook!

Here is Zen, it's quite a big restaurant.

We had all types of Dim Sum. Mostly we order Prawn based dumplings, here are some different ones below.

(Photo's to be added later - blogger being an @sshole)

Also, my teaching partner Becki is getting quite big now, she only has 8 weeks to go, six of which she is working/teaching. She is staring to get really uncomfortable as it's a big bub. I am so glad I am not having babies here, I couldn't stand working right up until the birth. I really took this photo cause I liked the colour she was wearing ;)

Gone...

That is what this week has just done.

Pffftt.... GONE!

And to think, we only have 2 more weeks before we go back on holidays, this time to Boracay, Philippines. Really, it is just way to close to the last holiday, that means for the rest of the year, we will only have a 1 week break in May, and that really is not enough for the children and the teacher/s who deal with their tiredness, crankiness, squabbling, (oh, am I talking about the students, or the teachers ;))!!!

But, after CNY holiday, they year will zip on by. A few changes will happen for me. My pod partner has 10 weeks to go until she is due to give birth, so she will work right up until her due date and then I will either be teaching with a new person or her class will be split. Either way it will be a big difference as we teach and plan everything together, and I don't think I want to do that with a new person, not when Becki and I get along so well together. And in the other scenario, I will get two of her students. - We will see what happens. After that will happen there is April, May and June to go. In those months Kane and I will really be winding down, organising and packing to come home. Also Dahle and Jenny (newly engaged!), Kane's Dad, will come for a visit too.

It is really cold this weekend. Tonight it is supposed to get down to -10, with a wind chill to make it -18!!!! Can you believe it? With that, I went a finally caved... I bought an electric blanket and it is warming the bed as I speak. I won't be bringing it back to Aus though as it has the wrong socket. I don't think I'll trust an electric appliance that we sleep on that is made in China for too long anyway :)

Kane is out tonight wetting a babies head with another Australian Gerard, who comes from Myrtleford. I think I wrote about them awhile ago, the couple had a baby in early December. I am not sure what time he will be back, but he has be complaining of belly aches and feeling a bit dull this week, so I hope not too late, or he'll be a big baby all weekend, (Sorry Kane - but you know it's true xxxx)

Take care everyone,
I am looking forward to next summer with the boat working in Yack and the new jet skis!
Luv
Kelly
xxx

Tanjung Rhu Beach 31st Dec 08

This is the most beautiful beach that I've ever been to. It is at the top of Langkawi and as you look out you'd be looking towards Phi Phi Island in Thailand. It was in a small bay surrounded by tall limestone cliffs and islands and is where the most exclusive resorts are. We had a yummy lunch here and stayed for a few hours. Both of us got a little burnt, but the water was so beautiful. And OMG, was it hot!

Langkawi Cable Car 30th Dec 08

A map of Langkawi

More information on Langkawi here

In our 4 days there, we pretty much went all over the island on the roads available. We hired a little scooter called Rooter Scooter, and off we went!

We went driving on our first day in Langkawi and came across this cable car ride. We had heard a little about it and thought we'd give it a go. How fantastic was it, it too you up 500-700 meter depending which platform you stopped at, there were a few.

Below are some pictures of going up the cable car

Here are some pictures at the top

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One of Kane's wonderful photos of a bay in the cable car.

Georgetown Penang 28th Dec 08

This is the place we stayed at in Georgetown, which is the capital of the state Penang. You can see where Georgetown is by looking at the map on the post below.

The street outside the hotel


An Indian restaurant we ate at for lunch

An Indian restaurant we ate at for dinner - very good food!

Jarajak Resort Penang Island 27th Jan 08

We stayed at this resort when we first got to Penang. It was called Jerajak Resort and it was on Jerajak Island which started with a shady past. It was a penal colony, a hospital for lepers and other contagious diseases, a quarantine station and finally a jail, know as the Alcatraz of Malaysia!

Kane in the infinity pool, it had 2 pools.

The pool from another angle, I saw an eagle flying around from this pool.

Me in the pool

In the top of hill pool balcony, with a view of Penang Island in the background.

Mt Kinabalu National Park 25th Dec 08

- This is how we spent Christmas Day 2008 -

Mt Kinabalu 4,095 metres above sea level. We drove/walked to the park headquarters at 1,563 meters. Click here to go to the Wikipedia page about Mt Kinabalu.

Kane having a snack on Malaysian saladas on a hike trail at Mt Kinabalu Park to see a huge waterfall.


The waterfall in the distance

A rapid at Poring Hot springs, it was a ghostly blue/green/white colour... beautiful. Poring hot springs was built during Japanese occupation of Borneo and is now a major tourist attraction. It also has some hikes to waterfalls, a canopy walk high up in the rain forest, a butterfly farm, orchid farm and a few other attractions. It too is part of the Mt Kinabalu National Park.

Kane on the canopy walk platform which is really a steel and rope suspension system and you walk on wooden boards, it was really scary.

Me on the canopy walk

A photo of us on the canopy walk

Kane in a fresh water pool next to a waterfall. It was pretty cold he told me. There were heaps of Muslim's around and so I didn't want to strip down in front of them. You can see from the other 3 heads that they are covered in hajib.

Lok Kawi Wildlife Park 24th Dec 08

Eagle's are the Malaysia's national bird, you can see them flying around

Elephant swimming in the smelly water!

An orangutan we met

The first snake I've ever touched, it was a baby python

Cooling of by a stream after a hike up a hill

Island Hopping Kota Kinabalu 23rd Dec 08

A Map of Sabah on Borneo

Welcome to Kota Kinabalu

Manukan Island Kota Kinabalu. This island is one of four islands that form the Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park. You can see more here.





Fish in the water Manukan Island




Leaving Manukan Island




Sapi Island Kota Kinabalu

Holiday almost over

Kane and I are sitting at the computer about to get a taxi to the Langkawi Airport. We are catching a plane tonight at 10.30 and should get into Kuala Lumpur at 11.40pm. We are going to just stay at the airport as our next flight is to Hangzhou in China at 8.00am. We thought staying at the airport was a much more sensible idea than the 1 hour trip into town, sleep for only 4 hours and another 1 hour trip back to the airport. We are both tired, but have had a wonderful trip. I am sure we've done at least 200km on a little motor scooter/bike around Langkawi Island in the last 3 days. My bum is sore! 2 bugs found Kane's eyes as well :)

I will write a bit more and add some photos when we get back to Suzhou.

PS - Kane took back his uno crown... :(