Erhai Lake, Da Li

My parents in law finished teaching at the bible school yesterday morning. So, in the afternoon, we went to do some sightseeing. Erhai Lake is translated as ear lake because it is shaped like an ear. It is the second largest highland lake in China.

Sophie absolutely loved being able to run in the open, picking up sticks and eating fresh fruit which we bought from a lady in traditional costume. I think she has had enough shopping. You should see her smile when she saw the open space! She looks like Moses trying to part the red sea except she’s pointing in the wrong direction……

See more photos on Facebook.

Yang Ren Jie aka Foreigner Street, Old Town, Da Li

We spent yesterday morning checking out Foreigner Street. It’s a street with restaurants and shops catered for the tourists. We bought a few handicrafts, books and even some 100% pure wool shawls. The design and quality of the goods found on this street are relatively better than those on the other main streets but of course we do pay a little bit more. Still, it’s very affordable, for example, we paid only less than S$50 in total for 2 huge woollen shawls for James and a nice woollen shawl/blanket for myself.

We saw quite a few foreigners around. I was wondering to myself, how do foreigners survive here since almost everything is in Mandarin. There are hardly any signs in English, maybe except for the toilets. Even I am struggling and I understand basic Mandarin. How do they order food and ask for directions? How to bargain? Hmmm…. not easy. I’m so glad that James speaks fluent Mandarin and my in laws are amazing. My father in law calls himself a local (because he is originally from China) when he needs to get a better price.

It’s our third day here and I’m starting to get a feel for the Chinese people. It’s always like that when we travel – first few days go by in a blur and after a while, then we start to observe and understand. I’m really glad we are travelling with my in laws and we eat at all the local restaurants and experiment with all the local dishes. I’d be so lost without them!

This pair of shoes caught my eye when we were shopping. Sophie chose the colour. A girl after my own heart….

Old Town, Da Li, China

James reminded me that one of my life ambitions was to be a travel journalist. So here I am, doing what I love!!!!!!! For free!!!! Hahahaha…. Maybe I should have a donate to poor travelling missionary mummy button on my blog.

We’ve arrived safe and somewhat sound in Dali, Yunnan, China.

We took Thai Airways this time, from Singapore to Kunming, China with a stopover in Bangkok, Thailand. Sophie was not very used to it because we were in the middle row with 4 seats, with a stranger sitting next to us and THERE WASN’T A PERSONAL TV SCREEN! Horror of horrors! The iphones had to make their appearances. Good thing there are two iphones between the 3 of us so we shared our entertainment. She slept thru the second leg of the journey because she was exhausted from waking up too early.

Then, we took a 5 hr bus  (like the big ones that we take to Malaysia) from Kunming to Dali. Halfway through, I hit a real low when Sophie once again threw up on me. I think I’m a little tired of travelling and long bus rides are not my kinda thing. Flying is good but car rides, boat rides and bus rides are really testing for me. Looks like Sophie’s taken after me! But still, she handled it really well. She cried for a bit because of the shock coz she threw up after a nap (same as the last time in Tanna) but once she was changed, she fell back asleep on my mum in law. Once again, I had to change on the bus in the middle of nowhere. After that, I went through a moment – "I never want to go on a bus ride again! Am I crazy to go on missions? Lord, I really cannot do this."

Ok now that I’m here in Dali in a nice comfy hotel with a personal sitting, not squating, toilet, I’m feel ok again and Sophie seems well. James however is still not feeling well. Anyway, this is a holiday for us and we’ll just take it easy. Meanwhile, I’ve uploaded some pictures on my facebook account while Sophie is napping. I can’t seem to access flickr at the moment so no photos on the blog yet!

P/s Seems like China has blocked internet access to sites like Flickr, Hotmail and Blogspot! Goodness! But James figured a way for me to upload our pictures! Hurray!

Left: Kunming by night
Right: Dali Old Town

We’re on the go again. This time we’re going on a 10 days trip to Kunming and Dali in China with my in laws.

My in laws are going to teach at a bible school and we’re just tagging along. It’s really just to spend time with them and also, travelling with them gives James and I the space to hang out on our own because they are great with Sophie!

We’ve been to Dali and Kunming before Sophie was born. Dali is a lovely town, esp the old town part of it. Just beautiful! First thing we’ll do is to give the beancurd seller a visit! Old school!

Kunming is a typical modern chinese city so we’re planning to go shopping, stock up on Chinese books and toys for Sophie, go for massages and eat, eat, eat!

To introduce Sophie to China (She was only 14 mths old when we were last in Shanghai.), I got a book from the library on China and even made a flag! We also made feeble attempts to converse in Mandarin today and she made her first response to me in Mandarin. Guess what she said? "Bu hao" (No good)! I asked her something and said "Hao bu hao?" (Good or no good?) Sigh…… must the first conversational word they learn always be negative?!?! Oh wells, better than nothing….

It’s been so good to catch up with our friends the past week!

Left: This was Sophie and Skyler last July, still stuck in their Sack & Seat (which is a great buy for jetsetting kiddos from 6 mths – 24 mths) in Hong Kong.

Right: That’s Evan and Sophie snuggling last Sept.

Bottom: That’s Evan, Skyler and Sophie eating chicken rice on their own, on their own table and kinda chatting with each other, kinda… and with a lot more hair.

P/s: in case anyone thinks that they are super proficient in their self feeding, let me share that there is a wad of newspapers under the table. It helps. Hee but it’s more for Sophie than Evan coz Evan is super neat. Hee!

We finally found some worthy shopping spots in Auckland. This time round we managed to check out Ponsenby and Parnell. A little similar to Brunswick in Melbourne. Quaint lifestyle shops in Victorian restored buildings, cool local design and some inde art galleries. Here’s Sophie checking out some font art…… right.

The weather is turning cold but still there is lots of sunshine. We spent Sunday afternoon at a nearby lake (about 20 mins from our base) on a boat! It was lovely! We got to fish and our friend got to water ski.

Sophie and Micha were a little scared when the boat went really fast but they really enjoyed it when we slowed down and went into a little inlet. The inlet was beautiful, almost magical. James even caught a trout when we stopped for a little while in the inlet but it got away. So sad……

There are more photos of our weekend on flickr. Check it out!

New Zealand is A LOT like Australia……….. (but the kiwis will hate us saying this. Prob the aussies too. oops!)

But the time difference is 5hrs. That’s a LOT. Last night we went to bed at 3am and got up at 12pm. We are still trying to adjust.

It’s summer. The weather is GREAT! Bit hotter than we expected. But it got nice and cool towards the evening. But the best part? The sun only sets at 9pm! So even though we started the day at 12pm, we managed to do quite a bit before the day "ended".

We went to the Sky Tower to see the city from way up there. It’s even taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris! We spent some time there to have lunch. After that we walked to Victoria Park Market but it was almost closed at 5. So we walked across the street to the park and spent a nice time at the playground and watched people play soccer and exercise. On the way back to the hotel, we made a detour and went to the harbour. We had dinner there and it was still bright and sunny when we left at 8! The taxi refused to take us back to the hotel coz it was just a few streets away SOOOO we walked back! We walked everywhere today. Thank God Sophie was happy sitting in her pram! I think she’s quite happy here. She was a bit whiny today prob because she’s trying to adjust BUT generally she’s been great! She REALLY enjoyed the playground. We took lotsa pictures but will post them up later coz our internet time is up. Stay tuned!!!

This will be the final post for the trip!!!! We stayed for another week after Janice was born. Most days we met up with friends and visited my bro and the family and of course, last min shopping! Ooo we also did one last trip to Harbourtown, Gold Coast the day before we left.

We spent Saturday at West End Market and Valley Markets. I loved West End – super fun! There was a lot to eat and see. The buskers were REALLY good.  My parents got this little walking butterfly at the markets for Sophie. How easy it is to satisfy a little one – a walking toy and a balloon, with lotsa space to venture… Other picture: My amazing daddy busying himself while we went shopping at the Valley Markets. Doesn’t he look stylo milo here with his new retro sunglasses I chose for him at the markets? Ray Ban k!

Sophie pretending to be Janice and cry.

On Monday, we met up with D & J. We’ve heard so much about little Issac who can drum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He’s not even 2. We watched him in action – it’s amazing coz his dad is a musician but he doesn’t play the drums. Issac learnt from watching the Hillsongs drum clinic CDs. WAH! D got him a baby drum set – real one! Don’t play play! Er…. most guy musicians are hard to hold on to…The last photo was taken when Soph was 7 mths with Issac. Hee Soph was so botak and she was trying to steal Issac’s hair! As usual poor girl trying to talk to the boy but he’s just ignoring her. Blah!

The last few days were spent shopping! James and I left Soph with my parents and went shopping in the city. Serious shopping. The kind that you walk until you can’t walk and your fingers wanna drop. YEP. It’s just that when things are on sale, it’s so much cheaper to get nice fashionable clothes here than back home. That’s James trying to catch me on a mission to complete Queen St.

The next day we went to Harbourtown in Gold Coast where the outlets were. Ok that’s a little (/big) story here where we got stopped by the traffic police for sitting more than 6 and not having a car seat for Sophie. We ended up having to borrow Issac’s car seat for the day trip to Gold Coast. It was a bummer but then, we were really thankful that our friends were all around to support. Thanks Mel, thanks D.

Yey! Pat on my back! I actually managed to blog a whole mth’s worth of holidaying! It was a great time. We all enjoyed ourselves very much

Mt Coot-tha is round the corner from Too Wong where we were lived. It’s got the best view of Brisbane city. We had lunch at the restaurant there. The food looked good but unfortunately tasted ok, was too little and too expensive.

After lunch, we dropped Rach off (poor girl was studying for her exams and trying to finish off her assignments) and headed off to the hospital to wait for the arrival of Janice!!!! (Btw, her middle name is not Missy, just that she took so long to come out so I called her little Missy! )

She finally arrived that afternoon after almost 24 hrs of labor for her Mummy. We were all so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She’s so sweet…….. love her full head of hair!!!!!! We were all glad to see that Sophie took so well to her and didn’t seem like she was aware that the attention has been shifted! Cool beans!

The next few days we went on and off to visit at the hospital so you’ll see less and less pictures of the trip. I’ll do one final post for the rest of the trip!

Ignore the buildings you see by the side and what you get is a real pretty view of the Roma St Parkland, a city garden.

There’s a lot to walk thru over here – lotsa green, lotsa flowers, and in my opinion one of the better playgrounds we’ve been to!

Sophie took off her shoes like the other aussie kids and played and played!

P/s you’ll notice that my entries about the trip are getting shorter and shorter. Two reasons, one, my memory is fast failing me and two, I’m almost done blogging abt the trip! I’ve finally uploaded the pictures on my flickr site.