Archive for September, 2007

Maximus Monk - the Lhasa Apso


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The new addition to our family and mostly my dog. He was a rescue pup and I adopted him from Furry Kids Refuge.

I’ve been looking for a dog after Kato left. It’s been a while since I obtained a dog so I had to do some research on which type I like and would be good for our family (with a young child and a dog). Before I left for our vacation, I was very interested in a Maltese or a mix of it (I was only going to adopt, so really whatever that I like that I find) because of it’s nature and I must just like hair dogs. They’re super cute too. But after emailing different rescues, none wanted to let me adopt one because of Emma’s age. Which is understandable but wish that it was more on a family basis… check out the kid first before deciding. So, I still didn’t want to buy a pup, just didn’t seem right. So last weekend, I told Drew that we’d just go to the city, visit a Petco or two, maybe a few shelters and see what they had.
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Driving in Germany


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This was our first experience driving in Germany and we were a bit overwhelmed. First of all, we we book our car rental, we booked an economy car. Just like we would here. Usually that’d get us a four door, enough luggage space, bla bla. Well, if you rent a car in Germany, make sure that you have a big enough engine to feel comfortable going with the flow of traffic.

Our car was a little four door Opel Corsa. Cute little car but it’s only got a 1.2 cc engine. SMALL! Driving around the city, it was great. Parking was awesome but take it to the Autobahn or uphill, man, you’re in for a treat but thank goodness we didn’t experience a lot of the above.

Here’s our mistake before going to Germany. We didn’t really learn enough German and to familiarize ourselves with the road signs. The basics signs are quite easy to follow but there are signs that just has words on them and you just have to guess it and hope you’re right. Also, we weren’t sure if there’s a German version of a 4-way stop since there were many 3 or 4 cross-sections where we weren’t sure who needed to go first.
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International Travel With A Toddler

Traveling with Emma wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be. I was quite stressed out about this. Imagining hours of little girl tantrums and boredom. But Emma was just an angel and we both are so proud of her and having super light toddler travel gears really helped us out a lot.
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Horn, Night 2


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Had a lovely breakfast at our zimmer today. It was the usual bread, cheese, meat, coffee, and such but we had some nice company, Dennis and his wife from Pennsylvania and a German gentleman who was there to hang-glide but just was not in the mood on this fine day. He works for Mercedes and drives a Grand Cherokee. Anyway, we had a nice conversation and breakfast, and after that we were off to the castles: Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau.

Since our zimmer was very close, about 1-2 km, to the castles, it didn’t take us long to get there. It was about 10 a.m. by the time we got to the ticket booth and the line wasn’t too bad, it was at the end of the ticket office, inside the building and probably took 10 minutes to get through. I met up with Dennis again in the line and with the little chit-chats, the line seemed to have gone quicker. Ticket price: €15/pp for the Royal Ticket… aka two castles… and free for Emma (or anybody under 18). At the ticket office, there are LCD screens that tells you what time your tour will start and a map that tells you how far each castles are if you are to hike up to it. The tours (required) are about 35 minutes, so you really have plenty of time after you get your ticket to walk up to Hohenschwangau (it took us less than 10 minutes to walk up there from the ticket office), take some scenic pictures around the castle and of the outside, go to the bathroom, and sit down for a few minutes before your tour starts.
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Neuschwanstein, Horn-Bavaria


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Sonnenhof is a big, woody, old house with four spacious, traditionally decorated rooms and a cheery garden. It’s a 15-minute walk through the fields to the castles. That’s per Rick Steve. We actually don’t have a Rick Steve book or have been looking at his website. We just accidentally stumbled upon it when we were looking for a hotel in the Schwangau - Fussen area.

Here’s a tip: on weekends, when you’re traveling to a very touristy place, book your hotel in advance. Winging it can cause a lot of grieve.

So we left Landsberg am Lech and traveling down to Fussen or really to the two well known Ludwig’s castles. This was Saturday. We left Landsberg at about 10 a.m., so really, earlier than usual. We stopped (of course) at a few different places, Shongau, Peiting, and Rottenbuch. We some magnificent churches and some nice views along the way. Really good ride.
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Singapore Night Safari


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Then off to the night zoo. We took the MRT and the bus and took us about 30 minutes to get there… maybe 45. We had to use the MRT’s bathroom and that place was the stinkiest bathroom that I’ve ever been in. You can sit on it, not too shabby (oh, there’s only one sit down toilet, the rest are squats), but the smell just reaked! But we did our thing and quickly left. From the MRT station, you have to take the escalator or elevator to go down to the basement of the MRT. From there you cross (under the street crossway) to the bus station. That’s where you catch the bus to the zoo. Once you’re in the bus, sit back and relax because your stop is the very last stop.

The night zoo was quite entertaining. There were good looking guys dancing around in just their underwear :D Well, they’re old fashion clothes pants. Think of tribal garbs. They were blowing fire out of their mouths and Emma thought that was just cool. From there we went to the animal show. It was short but not bad. If you are interested in the show, sit in the middle/front left. Trust me! From there we got in line for the tram ride. The lady at the ticket counter said that it’d take us a couple hours to walk the zoo and 45 minutes for the tram ride. If we hadn’t been walking around Singapore we’d probably would have walk but since our legs and feet were pooped, we opted for the tram.
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Singapore

Loved Singapore. We stayed at the Grande Mercure and that was very nice . The first day we just relaxed. Got to the hotel at around 2 p.m. (they have an airport shuttle) and Emma couldn’t wait to go swimming. So we checked out the swimming pool and an hour of pool fun triggered our hunger. After getting cleaned up, we went to the hawker stalls across the street. Had one of the best spring rolls and the cheapest bubble tea ($S1 or $.75 US) ever. I should have gotten more but really shouldn’t… watching my figure ya know :D We walked around, crossed the street (through an underground walkway) to the East Side Beach and for the first time Emma played on the beach. She had a really great time and we will go again, maybe Mexico. Since it was our first day and Indonesia has been a trip, we went back to the hotel, ordered dining service, and went to bed.
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Indonesia, Conclusion

Well, despite all the discomfort, the visit was nice. It was great to see Emma and my parents together for the first time. Emma was grandpa’s little girl. Not too crazy about my mom but she loved Grandpa Swan.

I got to see my brother and his wife and also got to visit Malang where I visited my high school and uncle’s family. I saw many of my past teachers. Of course many couldn’t exactly remember my name (I wasn’t the brightest or the naughtiest) but those whom I was very fond of remembered me. It was very nice. Seeing the rest of my cousins and aunts and uncles were nice too. Many were still so young and now they’re close to getting married and having a family of their own.
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Public Squat Toilets

I hate squat toilets. Ever since I was a little girl, I have always been afraid of the Indonesian public toilets. Beside the fact that you have to squat, many are dirty, smelly, and wet. They never use to bother me but ever since I lived in the U.S. and experienced the clean, dry, sit-down toilet, the squat became less desirable.

On this trip, I was surprised to find many modern bathrooms BUT the squat still exists and some are just as nasty as I remembered them. I’ve been really lucky that I have not had to do #2 in the squat. Emma did though but again I was lucky to have my mom. She took care of Emma when she had to poo and squat. Drew on the other hand, had a nasty experience that he wished to not ever talk about. I think he might even kill me if he knew I mentioned it here :D

Here is a good squat toilet tip (hilarious):
Using the Squat Toilet

Indonesia Part II

After a few days in Tasik, we went on a road trip to East Java. WRONG IDEA!!! NEVER, unless you have a strong heart and ass, drive for a very long time in Indonesia. You’d want to kill somebody by the end of the day! First of all my dad’s car is so uncomfortable. It’s an SUV with horrible back seats!!! The way people drive there is TERRIBLE and very hard to explain; you just have to experience it. It’s like playing a video game, drive fast, dodge, and you win if you make it alive to your destination. The roads are super small too. A two lane road but it can become a three lane. Our driving distance was short, maybe 250 miles, so about a four hour drive here. But with the road situation it was a 10 hour drive for us. By the time we got to Solo, Drew wanted to go back to Tasik, by train, and just stay there until we had to leave. I was quite upset too. The reason for the long drive was because my parents felt bad because Emma wanted to see the beach and we had no plans on going to any. So, they decided to go to the (this butt ugly) beach so that Emma can see the beach. When we got there it was so disappointing, a waste of time to be honest.
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Indonesia Part I

We made it to Indonesia!! We left at 5:15 a.m. Friday and made it to Indonesia at 11 p.m. Saturday. How much sleep on the plane? Emma had the usual and mom and dad got minimum rest. We (well Emma wouldn’t have cared less) were glad that we requested a 3.5 hours layover in Singapore so that we can freshen up. We went upstairs to the transit lounge and bought shower tickets. The showers were small but clean and the most important was that we got a whole day (and more) of traveling out of our outer bodies. We are now ready to see the parents and who knows what else was in-store (or so we thought).
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