Dubai Trip

Ryan and I were lucky enough to have a little vacation away over the past weekend. We are still getting used to the Chinese holiday calendar and the times that Ryan has off of work. Recently, the Ching Ming Festival was celebrated over April 4th and 5th. From what I have been told, this holiday is for family members to gather together and visit the graves of loved ones during the spring time.

Dubai has been on our travel bucket list for while we are over here so we took our few days of opportunity to travel over there. After sending Ahri off to the kennel for her own vacation, we took off on a 8 hour flight straight to Dubai. We landed late Thursday evening and head out early Friday morning for our day of site seeing.

The thing we realized early on when researching Dubai is that it is the city of seeing the biggest, tallest and most expensive of everything. Our first stop was the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. The Burj Khalifa comes in at 2,722 feet tall. Though we weren't able to go all the way to the top, we did make it up to the 125th floor to see the views of the city. Since Dubai is a relatively new city, the view is a lot of high rise buildings surrounded by a vast desert. Unfortunately the wind had picked up the few days we were there so we were able to experience a sand storm, though it did limit the view.

Couldn't quite fit me and the building in the same shot

View of the Dubai Mall and the Dubai Fountains

The Dubai Mall 

 After our trip up in the clouds, we walked around the connected Dubai Mall. Known as the world's largest mall, based on square footage, it is home to an aquarium, ice rink and hundreds of other attractions. We were a little excited to see many western restaurants that are not available in Hong Kong (I'm talking Red Lobster, Texas Roadhouse, Cheesecake Factory...things you start to miss greatly after being out of the states).

H&M next to the aquarium

We then ventured over to another mall for lunch where we ate with a view of Ski Dubai, a large indoor snow ski resort. It was strange to come in from the desert climate and sit only feet away from people dressed in parkas going down slopes. Needless to say, it made Ryan miss the ski season he skipped when we moved to Hong Kong.

Ski Dubai 

Our next stop was a recommendation from my sister-in-law to see, the Gold Souk. The gold souk is a traditional market in the old section of Dubai that is filled with hundreds of stores selling gold in all forms of jewelry. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that the stores were closed on Friday, which is considered the weekend in Dubai. Luckily a few stores were open and we were able to see some beautiful pieces.

Gold Souk 

Bangles, bangles and more bangles 

 After our site-seeing, we went to check into our new hotel for the rest of our trip, the Atlantis. The Atlantis hotel is set on the outer ring of the Palm Islands on the coast of the Arabian Sea. The Palm Islands are a set of man made islands in the shape of a palm tree that were built off the coast of Dubai. Though not fully completed, many of the islands contain apartment buildings and hotels.

The aquarium in the hotel 

After a drink we headed back to town to see the Dubai Fountains, one of the top things to see in Dubai. Set to music, the fountains come alive every half an hour for all the tourists.

The Burj Khalifa at night 

Dubai Fountains

 For our last day we took advantage of the water park in our hotel for the morning. All of the slides are centered around a pyramid that sits on top of an aquarium filled with sharks and sting rays. For 2 of the rides, you are taken through clear tubes within the aquarium and you are surrounded by all the sea life.

Going through the aquarium 

The Leap of Faith 

Finally, to end our whirlwind trip we celebrated with dinner in the Atlantis's restaurant, Ossiana. This restaurant is set next to the aquarium and has floor to ceiling views of the aquarium. It was a great way to end a wonderful trip. Ryan and I feel very blessed to be able to have these experiences so early in our marriage.

Ossiana 

And Ahri attacking the stuffed camel we bought for her...all good parents bring home a souvenir 

Logos Hope

Ryan and I recently found a church nearby to attend called Watermark Community Church. It is a fairly new church that was planted off a larger church on Hong Kong Island a little over 2 years ago. After attending our first service at Watermark, I was given information about a women's group that meets at the church's community center near our apartment. I began attending the following week and have been so blessed by the women I have met through it. It is so refreshing to be able to meet so many people that were once in your same situation and are open and willing to help you out in any way. Ryan and I both have been able to meet so many people through Watermark and are looking forward to making friendships with many of them. 

Last week our women's group was invited to board the Logos Hope ship, which was docked nearby on the island. The Logos Hope is a mission boat that travels around the world in order to bring knowledge, hope and help to all the countries it visits. It brings knowledge by housing the world's largest floating book fair. The ship carries more than 5,000 books including cook books, children books and Christian help books. They also carry text books that have been donated by manufacturers that were extras, to be able to donate to developing countries. They bring help to countries by having the crew perform service projects for places in need such as eye exams, dental & medical aid or helping neighborhoods with community service. They bring hope to others through their relationships between crew members and visitors in order to help others build their relationship with God.

The Logos Hope ship

Women of Watermark before boarding the ship

The Logos Hope houses more than 400 unpaid volunteers from over 45 countries. The volunteers can work from any amount of time, depending on the job they volunteer from. Some of the women we met had signed up for 2 years, while others were there for 3 months. The boat normally docks in a harbor for 3-4 weeks before departing to the next destination. In Hong Kong, the ship will be dry-docked for over a month following its time in the harbor for maintenance. During that time, the volunteers can either go home, travel or stay in apartments provided in Hong Kong.

Having fellowship with the Logos Hope women's group

Enjoying time on the ship

Many of the volunteers have families on the ship as well. We were able to look into a couple of the cabins which house a family of 5. The rooms were not as small as I assumed but really made me appreciate our apartment and realize it could be a lot smaller. On board the children go to school under the British School System and are taken off the boat as much as possible for exercise since running is prohibited on the boat for safety reasons.

Read more information about the Logos Hope and other OM International Ships here: 
http://www.omships.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=61&Itemid=278
 

Natalie and I on the ship

It was such a great morning to meet women from around the world who are doing amazing work on the ship to help others. If you ever get an opportunity to board the ship, take it! We hope the women from the Logos Ship enjoyed their time with us as much as we did and hope to see them soon while they are staying in Hong Kong. 

And my weekly photo of Ahri, with her new friend

Ahri update

So I've gotten a lot of questions from friends and family on how our puppy, Ahri, is doing. Currently she is around 5 months old and is growing at a rapid rate! When we got her she was .15 kg and at her last appointment she weighed in at 2.21 kg (almost 5 lbs). She was away during the time we were in Thailand and we she returned I almost didn't recognize her from how much she grew. She is also in the stage of teething so we are dealing with biting, chewing and destruction of our apartment at times.

Her newest milestones is that she can jump up on the couch on her own (had to teach her how to jump down) and is able to sleep in her crate in the living room with the crate open.


She loves to nap in the sun and sit on the window ledge and watch the city life. She recently received all of her vaccinations so we are working on getting her used to going outside and being on a leash. Hopefully she will have her first visit to a dog park soon!

Here are some photos and videos of Ahri enjoying life!

*Adobe Flash Player needed to play videos - sorry Mac users

Little girl sitting pretty 

Ahri trying on her winter coat...and not knowing how to use her legs anymore

Hanging out with her lizard

Ahri's morning and nightly ritual: run as fast as possible until somebody pays attention to her

On her first walk outside...eating leaves and cigarette butts

Tried giving her ice to help with teething but she only knows how to lick it

Ahri trying mint for the first time

Making out with her monkey

Our pretty girl

I promise the next post will be more about our life in Hong Kong but so many people have asked how Ahri was doing...plus, she is more fun to look at than Ryan and I! 

Thailand Vacation- Patong Beach

Hello everyone!

Onto the second part of our vacation! We continued further south where we flew to Patong, a beach town west of the well known Phuket. We stayed here for the remainder of our trip and took in as much as we could. We did everything from lounge on the beach to snorkeling, scuba diving, boat trips to isolated beaches and day trips to nearby islands. It was a great week and was exactly what we needed. Here are just a few pictures of our time in and around Patong Beach. 

Day trip to Phi Phi Islands for snorkeling and lunch

Port at Phi Phi Islands

Snorkeling site near Phi Phi Islands

Our boat and everyone snorkeling around it near Phi Phi Islands

More snorkeling

Getting tired

At Phi Phi Islands after lunch

Boat ride out to Freedom Beach 

Freedom Beach - an isolated beach only reachable by boat

Feeding fish bread

There were so many fish swarming us for food! 

Feeding frenzy

Eating right out of Ryan's hand! 

Ryan at Freedom Beach 

Scuba diving site

Unfortunately I couldn't scuba dive-
 I was unable to get my ears to pop underwater beyond 1 meter so this was my view for the day. Luckily it was a great boat to hang out on! 

Ryan had a great time scuba diving all day! 

VW bus bar

Our view of Bangla Road, the main nightlife area of Patong (and yes Mom, those are buckets of drinks)

Thai Boxing Stadium
 They drove us nuts with their truck driving past the beach announcing the fights every 10 minutes

Karon Beach, a family friendly beach south of Patong

Sunset at Karon Beach 

Patong Beach packed on our last day

Fish spa- it tickled a lot and there was one big fish in there that hurt a bit

Releasing a lantern on our last night