Malaysia Trip

Hello Everyone!

It's been awhile since I've posted anything on here. Ryan and I traveled to Penang, Malaysia last week to spend some time over the Labor Day holiday with a few of his friends/co-workers. We were fortunate enough to have local hosts (2 of Ryan's co-workers are from the area) to take us around and show us everything.

When I asked Ryan and other people who had visited the area what there was to do, everyone said, "Eat," and that is exactly what we did. I wish I would have kept a food journal of the names of everything we ate because we tried so many different things. We tried almost everything there was to try in the time we were there! We ate everything from fried noodles at a road side stand to a full seafood dinner on the river.

Indian breakfast

Spread of Thai food for lunch

Hawker zone full of food stands

Seafood dinner

In between all of our meals we checked out some of the tourist spots in the area. Here is a traveler's tip Ryan has taught me: whenever you don't know what to do for a day or afternoon in an area you're visiting, look up the city on tripadvisor.com and go through the top attractions for the area. I realize this isn't ground breaking news, but it has been how we have planned all of our vacations since we have been here and it is a great help. I also check it out before I book any hotels.

Street art..with a local joining in 

Indian temple

Village on the sea

Tropical Spice Garden

Quick stop at a local beach

Ryan holding a group of giant millipedes

Top of Penang Hill

Indian temple at the top of Penang Hill

Kek Lo Si Temple

Statue of Kuan Yin, Goddess of Mercy

Finding anchors at St. Anne's Church 

Angry, wild monkeys

Jungle trekking 

We had a great time experiencing the local life in Penang and are very thankful for our wonderful hosts! While we were away, Ahri had a great time at a new kennel. They sent us daily photos to let us know she was doing fine. Here are some of my favorites:

And on the day we went to pick her up, we discovered Ahri can swim! They have a few swimming pools at the kennel and the second we opened up the gate to the pool Ahri sprinted towards it and dove right in. Here is a video of one of the later swims as she was too fast to capture the first time.

I am off to China now to meet up with Ryan for a weekend retreat with his work team. I will update you all on our adventures!

Beertopia

Question: How do you meet 5-10 people from Wisconsin, in Asia and all within the same location? 

Answer: Go to a craft beer festival! 

A few months back I was reading about upcoming events in a magazine when I came across Beertopia, a craft beer festival held in Hong Kong. I messaged Ryan about it and without hesitation he told me to buy us tickets. We are big fans of Milwaukee's craft beer festival, Brewfest (highly recommended for anybody reading this that likes beer and is within the area) and were sad we probably wouldn't be able to attend this year. While the craft beer trend in Hong Kong is not nearly what it is in Milwaukee, it is growing steadily. 

So last Saturday, along with Ryan's co-worker and good friend Andy, we made our way down to the waterfront to partake in the 2nd annual Beertopia. We weren't sure what to expect but were very happy with the results. With over 200 different beers to choose from around the world, we slowly made our way through each booth, sampling one or two from each brewer that we were interested in. 

Ryan and I sampling some beer

No better view for sampling some beer

Beertopia in full swing

Ryan was smart and wore his Milwaukee Brewing Company shirt (an intoxicated purchase from last year's Brewfest) which quickly grew attention halfway through the event. Within about 30 minutes we had met 5 people that were either from or had lived in Wisconsin. One guy was even wearing a New Glarus t-shirt from a recent trip back home. At one point, we had all the people from Wisconsin gathered in a group and sharing stories from where we lived, grew up or missed about Wisconsin. Some were just visiting the area while others had been living in Hong Kong for years.

Ryan in his Milwaukee shirt, me in a Sam Adams shirt- representing American beer

Ryan's favorite brewery there, my favorite names of beers

 

The event was broken into 2 sessions, one until 5pm and after that until 11pm. We chose the afternoon one because we didn't want to abandon Ahri all night and we were happy we made that choice. After grabbing some brats and other goodies to soak up the beer, we headed back home to our recovering dog. Ahri was spayed and had 2 teeth removed on Wednesday. She is doing well now and just bursting to get back to the dog park and chase all the other dogs around.

Way too much flour on the buns...but so delicious

Princess Ahri recovering at home

 

 

 

 

 We had a great time meeting new people from close to home and enjoying some great beer. Can't wait until next year!

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