January/February 2014 Malaysia Holiday

Here are some pictures from our holiday in Malaysia.  This is a multi-cultural country:  Malay, Chinese, Indian, Portuguese, Dutch, plus others.  English is widely spoken.  Most signage is in English and the national language  Malay. 

  Guess the title of this pic.  Think Singapore.

The Sister's Great Ontario Road Trip

OK, OK, so its a little late . . . just a couple months - that's about norm for us van Bruggen's.  Here are the pics from Nutty and my Road Trip to visit the Ontario-residing family.

Us at the start of the trip.  We woke up early (think 5:30ish) on Friday May 17th, to get ready to take the 7am bus to Ottawa.  Though running a bit late (naming no names, but it wasn't MY fault), we caught the bus without any problems.  Two and a half hours later we arrived in lovely Ottawa, only to take a quick taxi ride to the airport to pick up the car (a brand new, just driven off the lot Ford Focus), and drive directly out again. First stop - some friends of Nutty's who live in a small suburb just outside Ottawa proper.  We visited for a couple hours before heading back on the road towards our destination for the night.

On the Road

 Considering Lynnette's unique driving style, it was remarkable that we got anywhere . . . just jokes Nutty!  She did an AWESOME job, EVEN having a side-seat driver like me sitting next to her.

 Some of the sights on the way

Stopping for a quick glug of nutritious milk!

We had booked a night at a B&B just West of Algonquin Park, and engineered our route to pass right through the park. Where we ran into (OK, just saw), four moose in the space of 10 minutes (right after commenting on how neither of us had ever seen a moose).

We arrived at the B&B nearing on 8pm.  We were both bushed from all that driving.  So after a quick walk where we trespassed on someone's private property (it was dark, and we didn't see the sign ontil the way out). We went to bed, and what a bed . . . probably the best sleep we both had all week.

 The next morning dawned bright and warm.  This was the view from our window.

And this was our breakfast - one word: AMAZING!!  We had yogurt parfaits, freshly made home-baked banana chocolate chip, craisin, muffins, and cheese-stuffed frenchtoast with homemade maple syrup. DELICIOUS!!

 This was the house - a beautiful stone house.  We slept in the second story and our window was the one on the left.  The window on the right was a bathroom - if we had been there a little longer, I would have taken a long hot soak in their claw-foot bathtub.  The silver car is our rental car, and that figure attempting to hide behind the car, is Lynnette.

 Afterwards we were back on the road meandering our way to lake Huron.

 We arrived in Goderich around 5pm, and went down to the pier with Aunt Joanne and Uncle Clare. To take pics and visit.

It was getting late, but Uncle Clare wanted to show us where he proposed to Aunt Joanne - near the lighthouse on the top of the hill.  Aunt Joanne demonstrated how she reacted when Uncle Clare proposed.

On the Sunday, Lynnette and I drove to Port Elgin to visit Ian and Zee.  We had a lovely day with them walking along the beach and seeing their home.  This is a photo of them in front of their place.

 That night, back at Aunt Joanne's, we were surprised to find cousin Mike there.  We ate supper together before calling it a night.

The next day we drove to Port Colburne where we stayed the night so Lynnette could debrief the following day. While she was debriefing, I wandered around the town and enjoyed the Welland Canal.

Once Lynnette was finished debriefing we headed out.  As we had some time before we needed to be at Aunt Nancy's we decided to drive to Niagara Falls.  Lynnette was just a mite grumpy.

The Falls - in all their splendor! 

We arrived at Aunt Nancy's just before supper (we van Bruggen's have excellent timing).  Unfortunately I was getting sick and tired of being the photo-taker so there are very few photos from here on out however, we did go visit Uncle Ysiko (sorry, I have no idea how to spell his name), and his significant other.

After Aunt Nancy's we drove to Uncle Howard and Aunt Caron's visiting St. Jacob's farmer's market on the way. We stayed the night and then drove to Kingston, our last stop of the trip.  Lynne has a friend going to school at Queens.  We froze that night - we slept in the dorm at Queens, and both of us ended up wearing sweaters over our PJs.

 Saturday May 25th, Lynnette took me out to breakfast in Kingston and then we drove to Ottawa where  we parted ways.  The end of a good trip.

Bali Trip

In the Jakarta airport waiting for our flight to Bali.

Our first meal in Bali.  There are lots of flowering trees & plants.  Really beautiful.  Good food.

Old architecture - love the chimneys with the hats.

 Beautiful doors - interesting that every Asian country has similar style of tile roofs however the color of the tiles are different.  Bali has blue tiles.  Korea has green tiles.

 Lots of Banana trees - there are 4 different kids of Banana trees - these ones are yellowish in color.

 This was the place where we stayed the first 2 nights - in the city of Kuta.  Its a very touristy place - lots of people from Australia and the Netherlands.

 On the 3rd day, we hired a driver to take us north.  It is has lots of rice fields, banana groves and mountains.

 Little villages nestled on the sides of the mountains, beside the rice fields.

 Amazing flower plants.  Beautiful.

 More flowering plants.

 many waterfalls.

 The ferns are amazing - huge leaves.

 In the North of Bali - in the city of Lovina, we stayed in this incredible place.  There was a swimming pool just outside our door.  It had walls of windows on two sides with curtains that pulled shut.

 Hinduism is very prominent.  Lots of shrines and temples.

 Interesting boats that they use for fishing..  They fish at night.

 More amazing flowers.

 I'm not sure what these things are but there were lots of them in one of the cities that we spent an afternoon in.

 We are standing in front of two lakes.  Volcanic lakes.  One lake was at a high elevation that the other.  You would think that the higher lake would empty.

 Your dad trying his hand at making music using a traditional instrument.

 We hired a driver to take us to the furthest eastern point of the Island to the city of Pemutera.  It is really dry here - the hills are barren - the beach is volcanic rock.

 Kids swimming naked in the ocean.

 This is the place we stayed in Pemutera.  We had a small cottage - just a bedroom and bathroom.

 This is some kind of fruit - don't know for sure what it is.

 More fishing boats.   - looks like a spider.

 The shore has lots of volcanic rock - the sand is black - your feet got black.

 Your parents on the beach.

 Active volcano - the last time it erupted was in the 60's.  There was a definite line for where the lava stopped.

 Coffee beans - we visited coffee plantations.  At this place they had the Cat-like animals that eat the berries and poop out the beans which is made into a very expensive coffee.

 Dad and I sampling coffee.

 Terraced hillsides.

 The last place we stayed at.  It was very beautiful.  Our room was on the second floor of the big house.

 The rice fields in front of the place where we were staying.  These idols could found everywhere.

 Bali kids.  They were always calling us - asking us to take their picture.

 There are a number of monkey forests.  These particular monkeys are well fed so they don't really bother the tourists but some are very agressive and will steal your camera, watches, etc until you give them food.  We stayed away from those ones.

 The tree roots in this place were amazing - hanging down the side of the cliff.

 The Balinese people are very artistic.  They have lots of wooden and stone carvings everywhere.

 The carvings are so detailed.

 Even Cromagna Man

 On our 2nd last day we found this organic restaurant that was situated in the middle of a rice field.  It was a 30 minute walk out to the place.  Well worth it.

We had a great trip.  Bali is very beautiful but very crowded with tourists.  After we got home and looked at our pictures, we noticed something.  From our pictures you would think that we were the only people on the island since we have very few pictures with people in them.  Yet in fact the roads are crowded with scooters, motorcycles, bicycles and cars and trucks - not to mention the people on foot, the dogs and the roosters.  There are so many dogs - it reminded us of Thailand in that way.  If we were to go again, I think I would like to see the other islands which don't get so many tourists.  Indonesia is great for snorkeling and scuba diving, there are many coral reefs surrounding the Islands.