Bangkok, Thailand

march 26-29th: bangkok, thailand

eat, drink, and eat some more... the appropriate title for this trip

thai food is simply amazing! spring rolls, red curry, green curry, pineapple rice, sweet and sour chicken... love. it. all.

so dirk and i did a culinary tour of bangkok as well as took in some of the sights. i will have to say we learned many important life lessons while in the gregarious city of bangkok!

one thing we learned:

corona is the world's most popular beer! it is everywhere!

and yes, we found all the great neighborhood bars and stopped in each one for a beer and thai food

the weekend market was insane... too overwhelming..........................

even for the most experienced third world country shoppers!

we checked out this restaurant that one of my colleagues who lived in bangkok recommended. strange name but it has a theme in order to promote education on AIDS and has its own charity.

cabbages & condoms

people made out of condoms

the food and drinks were awesome!

got condoms? came with your bill

tiger woods?

learned that tiger is famous world wide... i wonder if he was here before or after his expose' debut?

the decor! made out of condoms...

on to the grand palace... but first, river boat ride

this place was ridiculously ornate and detailed in gold and jewels

doing something for luck? i was too hot and ready to go to humor the emerald buddha with luck.

oh and the emerald buddha isn't emerald... he is made out of jade

what you can't see in these pictures... we had to be covered from arms to knees... it was so steaming hot as well...

learned that bangkok has a large population of stray dogs with rabies, people use their children to beg on every street corner (trust me, I-10 beggers have nothing on these peoples techniques, would bring you to tears), we need to get out of singapore more often... bangkok seemed like the biggest city we have been to in over a year.

HA long Bay, Vietnam

we will be on a boat in the midst of this for three days! i am very very excited! will finish/start posting about our australia trip and thailand getaway when we return... in the mean time!

I AM ON A BOAT!!!

D.O.G. verses singapore monkey...

so who do you pick? the dog? or the monkey? hmmmmm.....

we were on our way to the reservoir (totally blanked on the name) for a sunday stroll through the forest with our fine companion, otto. he was very excited to be out of the normal "varsity park condo walk", trying to greet everyone walking by with slobbery kisses and bubbles.... when these monkeys appeared.

now most think, aw neat, a real monkey up close and personal. NO! these monkeys were not friendly and wanted otto nowhere near their pack... is it a pack of monkeys? heard of monkeys? maybe family of monkeys?

the obvious, king monkey, came up to otto snarling and hissing... i bet you were wondering what we did huh? well dirk had otto. he quickly picked him up like a little kid and began to run the other way... this only aggitated the monkey more and it ran after...

mind you tons of singaporeans are walking by, laughing, at this point with the big ang mo man running away from a monkey while holding his (HUGE dog)... they all think otto is the biggest dog they have ever seen, even when their dog is bigger... stupid!

the monkey eventually gave up... dirk was the winner i guess, didn't even give otto a chance to defend his honor. actually the monkey looked pretty fierce and i am not sure what we would have done if it had jumped on otto...

fearless pup!

has huge tongue!

crazy monkey- this was in bali, indonesia at monkey temple

yes... we are crazy tourist, who were very naive to all the disease this monkey could have had or the fact it could have turned on us and given us rabies... awww to be young, and newly expated... neither of us will ever go near another monkey!

Merry Christmas... a little late???

i have been meaning to scan these pictures and post. we took many christmas photos this year. some of you might have received our collage of christmas photos in our christmas card... i did that on hallmark.com and they only post things to the usa so i never got to see the finished product except on a computer screen... i hope you liked it?

here are a couple that we took...

i made it onto the International Medical Clinic christmas card... kind of hidden in the back. The other blonde young nurse in the picture is my friend erin brown... we have lots of fun together at work

the rest of the peeps in the pic are either nurse's in charge or doctors... can you pick out the americans? (2 doctors, 2 nurses, including myself & erin)

erin and i represent the south, kansas and texas. the two doctors are from michigan and wisconsin... it gets interesting during football, basketball, and baseball seasons... may bets have been lost.

the jacbos family christmas card
my brother got a dog for his birthday from his girlfriend, doobie.

the dunlaps

i hope everyone's start to the new year has been a good one. we are really enjoying it over here in singapore. it finally feels like home. we are excited for this years events, the opening of mgm studios and resort world on sentosa, the sands casino, many travels to new places, and dirk's parents visit in july, plus a christmas visit from the jacobs!

happy birthday dirksen....

february 19th 2010- dirk's 29th birthday

yes i am 2 months older than dirk... you know what they say about older women right?

anyhow... i printed this picture of the frio river and framed it for him as a present along with some little creatures pale ale beer... dirk loves this stuff and it is $35 sing for 6 beers (OUCH!).

we love the river, especially during fall! the colors are amazing (i think that is what i love about life... COLOR... if there wasn't color, life would be rather boring- our house is all shades of orange, red, blues, and yellow- we really love color around here)

back to the subject... so this is a picture taken from dirk's parent's river house. dirk's aunt's river house is just next door. dirk has many many fond memories as a child at the river so i wanted to bring a little of home to our new home in singapore... i took the picture to our favorite framer and she did a wonderful job.

we are hoping to have a house at the frio in the very near future... we have looked at some property and hopefully soon we will get our act together...



so dirk's birthday... it also represents one year ago the traumatic discovery of my 2 lb fibroid. i went for my yearly visit and IT IS NOT BACK! YEESSS! so relieved! NO MORE FEBE the fibroid! i told myself i would give my body a year to heal and then we would consider starting a family... we will see. so it is out in the open... i am not one to hold things back... just no questions ok?

i do however like hearing everyones detailed and truthful accounts of motherhood... i don't know if my highschool friend Jodee reads my blog but i read hers and i think she is the strongest person i know... she writes the truth of how hard it is... i like that! actually i think all my friends that are mothers are STRONG! they should know that... i admire all you ladies :)

anyhow..... enough sharing, let THAT sink in for awhile...

Eat.Love.Dive.

SCUBA DIVE that is...

February 11-15th- Cebu, Philippines

so for chinese new year we spent our time celebrating the lunar new year and valentines day in the philippines. we had a fabulous time diving, pretty much all we did. we stayed on mactan island, which is the very touristy part of the island. if we were to do it again we would go to malapusca where the whale sharks and thresher sharks are known to be. we weren't the only ones in cebu, a doctor from work was there with his family and another collegue was there diving with her husband... stole the idea from them.

so our plan was to dive as much as possible, relax as much as dirk could, and just enjoy the holiday. everyday we rented a private outrigger boat to take us to the various small islands around cebu. we rented a boat, with crew, all equipment, and two dives per person for $200 usd... really really cheap for diving.

i never fully understood what they were saying about the places we were going to dive... until it clicked underwater.... we were going to feed the bat fish! this was amazing... they are so graceful as they swim in large schools all around you. i think dirk and i could be underwater all day... he loves the quietness and i haven't quite pinpointed just ONE thing that i love... i love it all!

bat fish school

aneome fish- love the movement in this picture

feeding the bat fish- probably illegal and not a good idea but so COOL!

some sort of clown fish

maybe i love all the colors and movement underwater... i love going up to the aneomes and making them move and sway with the current plus watching all the wonderful colors go by. there was one aneome that looked like it had a million little hands on it that opened and closed with the water.

more bat fish schools

dun nunna nunna BATMAN!

the BIGGEST tuna we have ever seen. about as big as me... there was a whole school! it was kind of scary because i think they were attracted to the bread we were feeding the bat fish!

scorpion fish hiding- dirk almost ran into several of these without seeing them... they are posionous too... maybe we should invest in that scuba insurance

i think these fish are called lapu lapu and you can definetly eat them... they were everywhere and really really BIG too! this ones eye glowed in the picture.

love love love these plants! there was a fire shrimp in this one...

dirk calls these fish "LSU" fish... they have all the colors and reminds him of our friend jared robinson who went there

coral is amazing... looks like little eyes popping out!

blue spotted sting ray

some sort of beaked puffer fish... he was really cool to watch. there was a pair of them we kept running into.

lots and lots of blue spotted string rays

this reef was the most amazing... it went on for ever and ever and you didn't need to dive to see anything... just stick your head underwater and you could see everything. had to be the largest reef we have been too. NEVER ran into another scuba diver... some sort of statue they put underwater.

dirk calls this the pink brain

clown fish up close

beautiful coral

biggest trumpet fish i have seen!

tigger fish... no more attacks on dirk... this guy wasn't that big.

one of the islands

outrigger boat... tie up in lines together on the reefs

angel fish

cute little spotted guy... not sure what

looks like flowers huh?

these guys looked like dominos... not sure what they were but they were neat :)

dirk really liked these little blue fish that hide in the aneome

peek a boo!

not sure... it was really cool to watch it slink along

left side of the picture... tiny glass shrimp... can barely see them.

monkey on my back... or tank

what an ugly fish

eel... dirk almost ran into this too!
can't yell at someone underwater!

very tiny crab... on really cool aneome

not sure what these were either... need to get a fish book!

koi pond at our hotel

happy valentines day!
back to really really blonde hair again

my mistake- we stopped in davao on the way back just long enough to get off the plane then back on... it is the very dangerous part of the philippines.
OOPS!

otto was very happy we were back!

i still need to post about our trip to sydney but it makes me tired just thinking about it... it was such a crammed couple of days... we saw so much! soon very soon!

on a side note... sometimes i get worried about what i write on here, like who is reading this? who will be offended? but i write the facts... so in the philippines...

i didn't expect it to be as poor as it was... the people didn't have much electricity or running water...

the water was their way of life, they fished, they bathed, they played, they lived in boats on the water.... but despite all the poverty they were very very happy people and very friendly people.

they did ask for money, but no meant no... and they did not beg. they were quick to help and ANY tip was appreciated... trust me they remembered no matter how little it was.

it wasn't all about money either... they truly wanted us to like where they lived and who they were... of coarse they starred but it was a friendly stare with a smile rather than a singaporean frown!

AND i have never seen so many white men with one or TWO sometimes THREE filipino women. it is an area where you can buy these types of services... and being valentines day there were plenty at our hotel... no american men though.

it also being chinese new year and korea being fairly close to the philippines... there were tons and tons of koreans... normally i don't think situations like these are funny... but just something about a large group of asian tourist is hysterical... plus add snorkeling in the picture. dirk and i steered clear of them because it was a mess... lots of pictures... i think we counted like $10,000 worth of camera equipment on one small boat... oh dear, just thinking about all them makes me giggle!

ok shared enough!