Intermission Over - Blog by Diane

Dear McPhee Travel Blog Readers...

Where have we been?!

We apologize for the long intermission but admit we don't regret spending less face time with the computer while journeying through exotic and exciting places.

After the four of us spent almost three lovely weeks in beautiful, lush Malaysia, Rob and Matthew returned home on February 6 so Matthew could get back to "regular" school and life. The travels were great experience for him and we proved to ourselves the education was valuable and enriching. We also found out that it's not easy to return to your same educational system having learned different things than your piers but a little challenge once in a while can only help expand our abilities!

Here is the hotel we spent most of our relaxing time at in Penang. Flamingo by the Beach. Ahhhh. Spoiled!

Malyasia was a great place to visit. I had the impression from talking to so many experienced travellers that it's the place to skip and is kind of boring compared to it's beachful and more exciting neighbors. The two big cities we visited, Kuala Lumpur and Georgetown (Penang) have three very obvious cultures. Malaysian, Indian, and Chinese. There are festivals going on all the time! The people are great, the food is diverse and very tasty and the land is full of lush green oil palm plantations. Our first taxi driver enjoyed telling Matthew that the plantation owners like to have big pythons on their land to eat the rats that eat the fruit. A nice big snake means a good harvest! We even saw our share of rats in the cities but glad that cars just run them over instead of snakes having them for lunch. Then there was the story in the paper about the eight meter cobra trying to eat the four meter python. The two were captured while fighting IN A PLAYGROUND. I had to stop reading the paper.

Here are the boys trying out new types of roti.

Georgetown tour day was fun.

City Hall.

Town Hall right next door...

Fort Cornwallis was interesting too.

The toilets were much more 'western' at our hotel than this one.

We visited Tropical Spice Garden where they emphasize how important and significant the spice trade has been in the history of Europe and Asia.

The Butterfly Farm was definitely the hightlight! The stick bug and moving leaf bug were almost as spectacular as the orchid mantis. But the thorny branch bug that can curl it's tail like a scorpion just in case the branch disguise doesn't work was cool too.

Continuing on....

Sarah and Diane continue on the journey around the world. Since the boys went home we have had many adventures through Northern Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. All this was gladly shared with Chi-Mene whom we are very grateful to for tolerating us and making our travel "group" a really fun one!! The three of us fed, rode, and bathed beautiful asian elephants. We went to a Thai cooking school and learned how our favorite Thai dishes are made.

Check out Feb 14 in the gallery: http://www.thaiorchidcooking.com/galley.php

We unexpectedy had an extreme adventure taking the slow boat down the Mekong River...This turned into the second biggest scam on the trip when we found out the river is too low for the slow boat! I learned that I am not very experienced at riding in speed boats and made a mental note to practice this before any more adventures on rivers.

A favorite was Luang Prabang, Laos. This town is relaxed and fun at the same time! And the coffee and cinnamon ginger tea are excellent! Oops, they need to improve their culinary hygenic practices a little...unless it was the bit of Mekong "whiskey" we tried. Hmm. We tried the one with the turtle in it, not the scorpion, worms, or snake.

The Kamu Eco Lodge was fun too - a lodge up the river in a little village of Khmu people - we stayed in safari tent thingy's, visited the village, learned to shoot crossbow, fish Lao style, plant rice, and pan for Mekong gold in a big teak "gold pan."

Planting rice!

Fishing...or just throwing a net. Why is he running away?

Vietnam was my personal favorite overall. See the picture of Halong Bay where we spent two nights on board a junk called The Margerite. The other picture is our kayaking trip through a floating village. Very tranquil. Something really mysterious, serious, and beautiful about Vietnam and her people. Oh yes and Sarah is the first 13 year old I've known to get custom-made and fit SHOES and JEANS! I think we need to go back every year to Hoi An.

So, after a one month Asian Adventure as the Girl Power Three, we hugged Chi-Mene and said goodbye as we went onto Paris, France. That is where we are today. Lazily sitting in our room completely satisfied from the coffee, tea, and pastries from across the street followed by facial mud masks! Ah, life, c'est bon.

From here (post Louvre, Eiffel Tower, etc.) we will find our way to London, then fly to Seattle with a five day stopover in Iceland! Whew. Anyone been to Iceland and have experiences to share? Suggestions?

We look forward to personally sharing our stories and photos with our friends and family with no promise that we won't put you to sleep!

Thank you so much to all the friends and family who have shared back and encouraged us along our journey. We appreciate you very very much!

Life is such an adventure!

Looking forward to SEEING everyone soon. Like Matthew says, "There's no place like home!"

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in a few pictures.

Sharing a few photos from Malaysia....

Fancy Hotel in Kuala Lumpur...we moved up in the world!

Petronas Towers in KL. Impressive!

A poor little donkey waiting for a customer to haul around.

KL Tower.

Visiting temples in KL.

Getting ready for Chinese New Year.

More temples.

The king's palace....couldn't see very much!

Painting traditional Malaysian Batik (cloth used for sarong, wall hanging, table cloth, etc.)




Leather factory. They even use shark and ray!

A huge war memorial.

More temple.

More temple.

They also have those guards that stand still through all the ridiculous tourist photos.

The first hawker center we ever ate at!

Australia in Eight Days

We flew to Sydney on Jan 11, 2010. It was a quick visit to Aussie so we stayed put in Sydney for five days hoping to avoid the feeling of being rushed. Besides, there's lots to do in Sydney!







We stayed at a vintage hotel in the area they call The Rocks. It's a cute area right next to the Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. We did a few city walks and found the place big and loud. After all, it's Australia's largest city with well over 4 million people!


We were a little dissappointed in the lack of cleanliness at our hotel...from the reviews we read it sounded like it's hit and miss whether the place will be clean. On the other hand it was a really interesting heritage type place with a nice TV room where you felt like a ghost might be sitting on the old chair next to you! We only had crawly visitors (cockroaches) on the first night so can't complain too much! We're all getting used to bugs on this trip.




The Harbour Bridge is really big and you can pay to walk over the top and get a great view - and exercise!










The whole district was really alive especially at night along the harbour. There were always sounds of the local aboriginals playing a diggeridoo along with modern boom box music, selling CD's and taking donations.







There was also the odd sidewalk performance going on. We stopped to watch some 'fireman' putting on a pole-climbing, fire-juggling show. It was quite entertaining!



We even did a shopping day together and went to a really nice mall called the Queen Victoria Building. It was full of big clocks. The one in the picture was really interesting with lots of moving parts and included the date. There was a big door and as the hour approached all the people around us were aiming their cameras at it (including me). The clock chimed a few seconds early and we all stood there ready....and then.....and then.....nothing. We all walked away quietly. Wonder what's behind the door...Matthew's laugh for the day!





Rob and Matthew went on a pirate ship lunch cruise in the harbour. They came back stuffed and said it was really good. Especially the food!




Sarah and Diane went.....guess where? To the opera! Why not? It was the Sydney Opera House! We went to the opening night of a french love story called Manon. It was very nice!

Oh yes and we also went to Chinatown to the market and bought Sarah a sundress for $5 and some Croc look-alikes.






Then we took an overnight coastal train ride up to Brisbane. No, that's not it in the picture...it was a bit bigger than that.
We hung out near Gold Coast (south of Brisbane) until we borded our Asia Airline flight to Malaysia. Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise is a really busy beach place but we didn't explore much (just did laundry and ate pizza) so can't comment further!

Those are Australia the hightlights in a nutshell. We didn't go on any animal or bird tours but had fun anyway! We'll rely on others to tell us their Aussie touring stories okay?


Then....off to Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. Population: 3 million.

New Zealand South Island Nov 30 to Jan 11 -Part 3

Friday, December 18, 2009. Time crunch is on to get the the Cadbury Factory in Dunedin in time for the last tour of the week! (They do shortened tours on the weekend but we wanted the whole tour!)
Down the east coast from Christchurch we stopped briefly to admire some more of New Zealand's interesting rock formations. This time spherical boulders on the beach at Moeraki. We had lunch at the cafe in the car park there (that is NZ for parking lot) and don't recommend it to anyone. We've had a lot of great food in NZ but it wasn't there.

We weren't allowed pictures on the tour of the Dunedin Cadbury Factory tour but we did get SAMPLES! Yum. We were pretty interested in the chocolate making process....we've been following (a bit) the guy from the UK who bought a cocao farm in Venezuela and is trying to make the best chocolate in the world. His name is Willy - Willy's Wonky Chocolate Factory?

Cadbury does really well here and have different names for products...like Buttons (like Smarties) and Sarah's favorite bar is the Moro - just like a Mars bar. She now proudly wears her men's XL t-shirt to bed!












Sarah's new favorite hobby. Knitting. She has bought some New Zealand wool for a couple of projects. One is already started!

This is definitely the place to buy wool. I've gotten so used to seeing the sheep out in the rainy, green country-side that I feel like hugging them all!

Dunedin was a nice town to visit. A touristy, university, young people town. Lot's of Scottish heritage visible. The statue is Robbie Burns.

Otago Museum was great (we are now in Otago region which by the way is a big wine region). The museum favorite was Discovery World with lots and lots of butterflies! I missed this due to quick last minute Christmas shopping.....some things don't change!

Then, off to Stewart Island for Christmas. We had a nice time on Stewart Island and relaxed quite a bit since we got tired of hiking in the rain. We opted not to pay someone to take us walking at night to try and see kiwi birds but we know they were out there!

I'm going to apologize for less writing as we go...still catching up and there's so much to say! We will have lots to share when we get home.

This is Matthew half way to Stewart Island on the ferryboat....it was a rough sea day! I've decided to go easy on Rob and not show the picture of him. I thought he looked green but looking back at the picture notice he just has no color!

The kids did lot's of schoolwork since we had a nice table to work on!

And played of course!






And we did some Christmassy type things too!

Matthew's favorite bird to bug...the Oystercatcher.

We had four Kaka birds (parrots that look like the Kea) visit our back door almost everyday for peanuts until we ran out....then they knocked but we stopped answering. Then, they just went after shoes.

Matthew and Rob went fishing! We ate the fish for supper. Yum. Blue cod.

We went on hikes on roads and trails, through forests and beachs. Very remote place full of birds and trees.

After Stewart Island we drove as far southwest on the south island we could. We wish we'd spent more time looking for gemstones on Gemstone Beach where the sea brings in all types of stones.

Then, into Fiordland National Park and to Milford Sound. Beautiful place and big mountains!







Milford Sound.

We drove through Homer Tunnel. This was very cool. Straight through the mountain! Lot's of Kea's (parrots) looking for food but you are not allowed to feed them.

We panned for gold in Arrowtown. We didn't know we'd find some so weren't equipped with a little bottle of water where you are supposed to keep your findings so they reside on the end of my chapstick....hope I don't forget or I'll have glittery lips!

This is Arrow River...exciting place where people drive in the water, mountain bike, or horseback it to another ghost town upstream. Lot's of serious gold panners as well! The gold rush here in 1862 was one of the biggest. Cool place but so touristy everything cost at least twice as the other places we've been!

http://www.arrowtown.org.nz/history/

Matthew was very interested in bungy jumping.

We ended up going back a second time to Kawarau Bridge - the original bungy jumping bridge by the inventors of bungy! Yup, he jumped!

Off to Mount Cooke/Aoraki. We hike to Hooker Glacier and - wow - nice Alpine area. We visited the Sir Edmund Hilary Center and learned about his expedition up Mount Everest. Super cool. He was one of the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. He also travelled to the south pole! Quite an adventurer.

Mount Cooke was stunning!

Here is the glacier we hiked to...a minute later an iceberg floated past the point on the rocks where the two people are standing.

Well...sorry for lack of more stories but we leave New Zealand soon. We feel like we have seen a lot of the country and may even be using a little local lingo. No worries, we'll be even more confused after the next couple of stops!

Next chapter is Sydney and Brisbane, Australia.

Cheers for now!