Bagan - Temples Everywhere

Bagan - temples everywhere!

On Monday morning (May 20th), we had a very early alarm call due to a flight scheduled from Yangon for a 6:20 departure. Thankfully, we weren't completely adjusted to the 90 minute time zone change so waking at 4.30 wasn't so much of a hardship, despite our neighboring room waking us at midnight when they rolled in. We checked out of the Traders and received 3 'breakfast boxes'. They were full of fruit, pastries, boiled eggs and sandwiches. No one was going hungry! The trip to the airport at 5am was quick and we checked in without any drama and sat down to eat our packed breakfast. No such thing as nothing over 100ml of liquids on this domestic flight - it all seemed very casual. Soon enough our Air Mandalay flight was called. We walked up and headed to a bus to take us to the plane. On the flight, we actually had assigned seats - something we didn't get on our other domestic flights in Myanmar. What we didn't realise was that the flight wasn't direct, so on its first landing, we got up until we were told this wasn't our stop. 20 minutes later we took off again and landed 35 minutes later in Mandalay. Another 20 minute stop - it was a bit like catching a bus or train. A further 25 minute flight and we arrived at Nyaung U which was our stop. Hooray!

We wandered out and got a taxi without an issue and headed on the short journey to our hotel for the next 3 nights - the Hotel at Tharabar Gate. We were very grateful to get straight into our room and rest a little - it was only 9am! Later that morning, we headed out for lunch to the Vegan restaurant "be Kind to Animals". Good food, but a little trickier for the kids - we ordered fried rice, but it was spicy. On the afternoon of our first day in Bagan, we went for a wander and were inundated with offers of horse and cart. One entrepreneur offered us a free ride back on the condition we use his services the next day. After a swim in the afternoon, we headed to dinner to a restaurant next door to the hotel. Then an early night for all! 

On day 2 in Bagan, we decided we would take a horse and cart for the morning. After some negotiation, given how hot it was (we were melting the previous day), we decided we would take 2. We agreed a price of 10000 kyats each (I'm sure overpaying however as I've got older, my willingness to bargain has diminished!) We headed off to a number of temples. They were all pretty impressive. Alex and Tara particularly liked the old palace where they went up some stairs and found a viewing platform. Being low season, we weren't hassled too much by touts, however sand paintings were available everywhere. There were some very young kids selling too. The temples are plentiful (they are everywhere you turn) and also beautiful. It was a great half day. We finished our horse and cart tour at lunch and ate at Star Beam (very impressive bread). That afternoon we headed back to rest and go for a swim before dinner.

Day 3 in Bagan was spent resting in the morning. We ordered a taxi to take us into Nyaung U- the main town. We left around 11am, with the intention of exploring the markets - however, it was really hot already and we were all pretty hot trudging through the markets. We bought a couple of t-shirts for the kids (less than $3 each with no bargaining), and some mangoes for 200 kyat (around 20cents) each. We then decided we should get some lunch and headed to a place called Bagan Beach Bar. It was on the river (which was really low). It was huge inside, but we were the only customers initially (us and many flies). Food was ok, nothing to write home about. We then went in search of a taxi and found an old uncle with a taxi sign on top of his station wagon who would take us. No seat belts and the car had seen better days but we made it back ok - we had to stop for roadside fuel on the way. He was very friendly (as most Burmese are).

Later that afternoon, I went to go to the money changer at the local store that our horse and cart driver had taken us to the previous day. Tara and I were accompanied by a young boy who chatted to us the whole way. He told us he was 9 years old and learnt English at the monastery where I think he went to school. On our return journey he wanted to sell us some postcards. The previous day, kids at the temples were selling 10 for 1000 kyat (just over $1). My young friend mocked shock when I suggested 1000 and said no madam, these are 2000. I think he expected me to bargain, but the grin on his face when I handed over the 2000 kyats was worth it. He was very good company for Tara and I on our short walk and later on when we ventured out or dinner greeted us like old friends.

Bagan was a great place and somewhere I could see us returning to 1 day.

Myanmar Musings - Yangon

After a few emotional farewells, we left Singapore on Saturday May 19th, bound for Yangon - the first stop on our 3 week holiday before our return to Adelaide. We were at Changi with time to spare so grabbed breakfast at the airport (pancakes and milo for the kids, local coffee and kaya toast for Gary and I). Alex was impressed with the speed of getting his pancakes and declared it true fast food. Our flight to Yangon was good and we landed around 10 minutes ahead of schedule. First impressions were of friendly people - everyone was smiling.

We got a 'taxi' to our hotel. It was a sort of van, without working seat belts (a common theme here). The driver tried to sell us some tours for the next few days which we politely declined. As we got closer to Yangon centre, the traffic got much busier so it was a sense of relief to see The Traders hotel.

Check in was smooth and we were soon up in our room. We had paid for an extra bed - something that hotels here charge a lot for - in this case it was $65 US and when we arrived no bed was there, but it was soon delivered - along with an extra bottle of water and an extra towel!

Our travel agent arrived and I went to meet her and collected flight tickets etc which was all very smooth.

We ventured out for lunch and tried to find a recommendation from the LP - Aroma Cafe but it was closed, so we ended up at the East hotel - which was very pleasant. The rest of the first afternoon was spent at the pool and we went for an early dinner to Pa Pa Pizza, which was excellent.

On Sunday, after a fabulous breakfast at the hotel, we decided to try the LP Yangon walking tour. About 300 metres into it, Tara declared we were walking "so far"! Ah, the delights of travelling with kids. We stuck to the walk for a bit and then decided to take a look at the ferry. We were sent to a window / room for foreigners. The fare for foreigners was $2 US each way but they did a 'discount for the babies'. This meant the kids were free. One thing in Myanmar is they often refer to the kids as 'babies'. The ferry was very local but some fabulous photo opportunities. There were all sorts of vendors on there and some young boys tried to sell us all sorts of things. It was very interesting. Over the other side of the river, we got off and decided to go for a drink and a sit down to watch the world go by. Gary commented that it felt like a mixture of India and Thailand. I have to agree it did feel like that!

On Sunday afternoon, after a swim at the hotel, we headed by taxi to the Shwedagon Pagoda. It was very golden and very  impressive. Tara and Alex were tolerant about their photos being taken numerous times. Tara especially is also getting a lot of people touching her face or arms, but she is very good with it.

On Sunday evening in Yangon, we decided to try a local restaurant recommended on Trip Advisor which was just across the road from the hotel. This was Takifuji - with some Western choices for the kids, and local food and beer for the adults, everyone was happy! We had a very early start the next day so headed to bed pretty early in anticipation of our 4.30am wake up call!

3 weeks to go till we leave Singapore

Around about August or September last year we found out that Gary's department at work were being relocated and after some discussion, we realised that this would be the logical time for us to move on from Singapore. It has been an incredible place for us and I'm so glad we decided on a whim that an Asian adventure would be good for us. It has been, but it is time to move on. In mid November we received the letter verifying dates. By February I had given in my notice. It has been a long time coming and in some ways I mentally checked out of Singapore a while back. I feel like I'm serving the world's longest notice period (12 weeks). And yet, today, I was at the library choosing books and I realised that the books would need to be returned before their due date because we are leaving in 3 weeks. All of a sudden it is racing towards me and mild panic starts to set in. Will I get everything done in time? Of course I will! It's an exciting and daunting time, but I am looking forward to our next chapter.

Merry Christmas - 2012 in review from Singapore...

Christmas Eve 2012 - Singapore.

To our friends and family,

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year or for those of you who don’t celebrate – Happy Festive Season.

2012 has been a good year for us, with a few challenges thrown in along the way to keep us on our toes (or on our crutches).

Highlights of our year – holidays! (as always). Alex and Tara are turning into great little travellers. To prove this to us, on our trip to China in September, we hired a driver to take us to the Great Wall. It was a 2 hour car journey there and 2 hours back – due to the heavy traffic in Beijing. With just 2 transformers to amuse them, we managed the 4 hour journey time without any whining. They are both troopers!

This time last year saw us celebrating Christmas in Siem Reap Cambodia. Alex, Tara and I flew up before Gary as somehow he had forgotten to book a leave day – so came up the following day. We all had a brilliant time, and our tuk tuk driver was very pleased when my husband turned up, waving and greeting him like a long lost friend. Kids are adored in this part of the world, and the temples proved to be a tourist attraction for both the kids and adults.

In January, Alex, Tara and I headed back to Adelaide for a get together with the Leydon side of the family for a significant birthday for my brother. It was a lovely time to spend with all of the family and for the kids to reacquaint themselves with their cousins. Unfortunately Gary had to work over Chinese New Year so couldn’t join us but we all had a fabulous time catching up with friends and family.

In March, we went on a 3 week trip to England and France. After landing at Heathrow, we got the hire car – Gary did a fantastic job of navigating us onto the M1 and driving to Nottingham to pick up Ann who joined us for a few nights in a cottage near Chesterfield. What a gorgeous part of England to visit – we had a great time. We then dropped Ann back to Nottingham and headed to Glastonbury where we managed to catch up with Sarah, David and Megan (Gary’s cousin Sarah) and Holly (Gary’s sister). A lovely few days there before we headed to Gatwick for an overnight hotel stay before our early flight to France.

We had a wonderful week skiing in Tignes – it was the first time Alex and Tara had seen snow. They both did ski school and really enjoyed it! On our last day skiing, I managed to fall over (spectacularly) and tear 2 ligaments in my left knee – my ACL was completely torn. Not the end to the holiday we had envisaged – me on crutches and in a brace. We managed to make it on to our flight back to London the following morning (a few tense moments when we thought they weren’t going to let me on the plane due to needing to keep my leg straight), and then to a lovely hotel in Surrey for a few nights where we caught up with Mark and Liz and their girls Rachel and Gemma. Gary did a fabulous job of managing me on crutches or in a wheelchair and 2 kids who got tired of carrying their bags on the way home.

In July, Gary went to Sydney for a course and I had a couple of days in Adelaide and then we all had a lovely few days in Bintan – the easy getaway from Singapore – being just 45 minutes on a ferry.

In September, we had a great week in China / Hong Kong, including some drama before we got Chinese visas as Alex’s Australian passport had less than 6 months and the Chinese embassy refused to put his visa in his British passport so off to the Aussie embassy to get an emergency passport we went. Beijing was great and actually really easy to travel around, despite language barriers. Hong Kong was a lot of fun, especially visiting Disneyland and Ocean Park.

In November, we had a long weekend in Bangkok where we caught up with Gary’s family – Uncle Neville, Ann and Simon. A great time was had by all.

Other highlights of our year – Alex started at ‘big school’ this year – he began at Avondale Grammar School – which is a small International school based on the Australian curriculum here in Singapore. He loves school and took the change in his stride. We bought a car after 3 years of living here – it has been brilliant to have freedom to come and go as we please without relying on taxis. Yes, they are stupidly expensive but ho hum, it’s been great!

Tara has really changed from a toddler to a child this year; she looks so different and is such lovely company (except when she is fierce Tara). Alex and Tara seem closer now than ever before and are good friends who generally like playing together. Alex is devoted to Lego, Star Wars and Ninjago this year while Tara is starting to make real friendships and is becoming the resident TV addict (taking on that role from Alex this year). She also loves Lego as well as dolls and strollers.

Lowlights have been surgery. I had my ACL repaired at the beginning of June and had to wear my brace again / use crutches again for a time. Gary had to have surgery on his shoulder in October to repair a tendon that he tore in a freak fall on a wet path. Ouch! We are both recovering well – Gary is now able to drive again and is slowly getting back into exercise. We have been keeping the orthopedic surgeons / physio in business.

We had Ann come to stay in August and my nephew Daniel came to stay a couple of weeks ago on his way to Vietnam. As always, it’s great to have visitors.

I have had to do a little (Gary says seemed like more than a little to me!) travel for work this year, which has been quite fun really. I got to go to London in February for a conference as the project I’m working on is global with key stakeholders in Europe and North America. It was fun to be back in London for a few days including drinks on Valentine’s Day with Molloy! I have been to Shanghai 3 times, Bangkok once and then Sydney last week (great for a spot of last minute Christmas shopping!) Probably no more travel for me now, which is also good.

2013 is shaping up to be another big year. I am already into planning our holidays - we have Bintan, Adelaide and Vietnam in the frame and hopefully some further afield later in the year.

Anyway, enough words, time for the photos! We wish you health and happiness in the year ahead and hope that our paths will cross again in 2013.

Christmas Lunch 2011 - Siem Reap - Cambodia

Hong Kong Disneyland - September 2012

Alphabet Playhouse End of Year Concert - November 2012

Loving siblings.

All the grandkids - Leydon side - January 2012 Adelaide

With our cousins

With Auntie Holly - Glastonbury - March 2012

Skiing - Tignes - France - March 2012

First day of school - April 2012

Universal Studios Singapore - July 2012

Tiananmen Square - Beijing - September 2012

Great Wall of China - September 2012

Excursion to the Botanic Gardens

Alex has been going to 'big school' for a term now. He will turn 5 at the end of July so we made the decision to send him this year - we would have sent him in term 1 except that we had a 3 week trip away in the middle of the term, so we elected for term 2. He has been going to Avondale Grammar, a small international school here in Singapore. It's Australian based, but has a mixture of nationalities attending. He has really loved it and I think we made the right decision to send him now.

On Tuesday it was his first class excursion. They were heading to the Botanic Gardens - specifically Jacob Ballas - the Children's garden. I volunteered to be a 'parent helper'. Although I work full time, I do get pretty generous leave allowances here. We get 25 days annual leave as well as 6 'childcare' days, which is awesome - you can take them for pretty much anything. Technically, because I'm not Singaporean or PR, I'm not eligible for 6, but as my company doesn't discriminate, we get 6. This is for anyone who has kids under 7. So, I booked my day off work with my childcare leave allowance and headed to school to accompany the class.

What a great day we had. Alex caught the school bus in and I left home 10 minutes after him just beating him to school. I met him at the front of the school and he very excitedly grabbed my hand and took me to his classroom.

We had a really fun morning. We got onto the bus at school. I had been assigned to look after Alex and Ollie. Ollie is this gorgeous little boy who was so sweet and affectionate, holding my hand as we went around the gardens and slowly warming up and chatting more and more. After touring around Jacob Ballas, we went to the nearby lake to a gazebo to sit down and have morning snacks. Then we sat down and listened to a story told by one of the teachers and then the children were able to do rubbings and colouring in. We headed back to school around midday and I dropped Alex and Ollie back to the classroom then headed off to do a spot of shopping (shoes at Takashimaya!) before going home to Tara to spend the rest of my 'childcare' day with her. Alex got off the school bus at 3:20 and we all had a lovely afternoon playing together.

Working full time can be difficult with young kids, but I'm very grateful that my work is quite flexible allowing me to work from home a bit and also to have days off such as these. I do really enjoy working and I think that I am probably a better Mum because it helps me to value those special moments that I have with the kids. I think they appreciate me more when I'm around too. I know that everyone is different and what works for some people won't work for others, but I like the balance of our lives. Our next holiday is in Bintan in 4 weeks time - I can't wait!!

Post ACL surgery - 8 days on.

So last Monday June 4th, I had my ACL surgery. I was really nervous about it before hand. I didn't sleep well on the Sunday night. Early on Monday morning, I grabbed a taxi to the hospital and checked in. The ward staff thought I was scheduled for 9am surgery but when they realized it was 8am, there was a mad rush. I sadly had to remove my nail polish that was only a day and a half old! Then I was wheeled down to theatre. It reminded me of when Alex broke his arm as it was the same hospital and theatre area. I spoke with the anaethetist and signed my life away and then I was under (after the doc drawing with magic marker on my knee), I was relieved as I wouldn't want them to get the wrong one! I woke up in recovery around 11 and was desperately thirsty. I have a recollection of them giving me a syringe of water! I was wheeled back to my room - private room and loads nicer than Mount E where I had day surgery in Feb! I was so tired, I kept thinking I should call Gary but the urge to sleep was overwhelming. I eventually woke up at 1pm. No pain! Excellent! I had a sandwich and a cup of Milo and then a bit later the surgeon came in. He said the op had gone well and I would be free to go after the physio came. The physio arrived a bit later. She was this tiny young girl. She went over a few exercises, put my brace on and it was time to try out the crutches. I didn't realize my leg was still very numb, I stood up and went sideways nearly bowling the poor physio over! Whoa, that wasn't supposed to happen. Take 2 was a lot better. I got home around 4pm and spent a very comfortable night in my own bed. Yay for day surgery. On Tuesday, I was hobbling around with my crutches. On Wednesday, I went to get the bandage off and they redressed all of the wounds. I was slowly getting feeling back but I think the anaethetist was a bit heavy handed! On Thursday I went to see my physio. He had me off my crutches that morning. On Friday, I was walking a lot more and reasonably well. Today (day 8), I got a bit of pain and stiffness in my knee. I think this is normal, also my hamstring is a bit sore. But it's not at all bad. I was so worried about how I would cope post surgery, but it has been way better than I expected. I am so glad! So now it's the long rehab. Exercises every day and no biking for 6 weeks, no running for 5 months, no skiing for 8 months. Hmmmm, I wonder if trapeze would be allowed when we go to Bintan in 5 weeks?

Surgery

Tomorrow (Monday June 4th), I am scheduled to have surgery to reconstruct my ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) in my left knee. It's now 10 weeks since my skiing accident and my leg is in a pretty good condition. The worst thing is that for the past 10 days or so, I have been suffering from lower back pain (I'm guessing caused by walking strangely due to wearing a brace for 8 weeks). This has impacted on my exercises that I have been doing to strengthen my knee. Hopefully the surgery will be successful and then I will be on the road to a full recovery. I have a great physio who specialises in knees and ankles. I am feeling pretty nervous about the surgery but am also very keen to get it behind me so that I can start the proper rehabilitation. I am hoping that there's not too much damage to my miniscus as this will mean my rehab is much quicker. My surgery is scheduled for 8am tomorrow. I need to be at the hospital at 6am (groan). I am not looking forward to going back to being on crutches and wearing the brace. However, hopefully it will be short lived. I am also not at all good at being housebound. I go a bit stir crazy. Hopefully I will only be on crutches for a few days and then getting back to normal. I am working from home for the rest of the week and will get out on Thursday to see the physio. Yay - an outing!!