My Middle Eastern Adventure!

"Incredible" India: Delhi

2011-07-20T19:19:00.000-07:00

I was excited to see "Incredible India"!

Wow, this post and the ones to follow shortly after have taken me a few months to finish! I apologize for the delay. Finishing up this school year was insanely hectic, as was packing up my life in Kuwait and moving home to Canada with a 26 day stop over in Europe! So without any further delay........here are the rest of my adventures while living in the Middle East!

I'm wondering if you have seen the "Incredible India" commercials on tv? They play them ALL the time in Kuwait and so we fell prey to them and decided to book a trip to the Golden Triangle cities of Delhi, Agra and Jaippur. There are a few specific sights that are worthy of the "incredible" title, but the other sights, sounds and smells really didn't match up with those exotic looking commercials!!!

Our tour began and ended in Delhi, the capital of India. This was where we walked through the streets and literally through human waste as it was dripping out onto the sidewalk. Yup, that's right.....I'm not even exaggerating a little bit!! Then it began to rain and the bottoms of our pants and sandals got wet and dirty. This was our introduction to the sites, sounds and overwhelming smells of India. LOL

The view out our seedy little hotel's window....

We had a walking tour through the streets of Delhi from our hotel to the Jama Masjid - The Great Mosque. It is actually India's largest mosque.

Walking through the gate.....

Once inside, we had to wear these colourful, yet hideous coverings......LOL!

We saw a lot of interesting things as we walked through the streets and rode on the rickshaws! The one thing that struck me wherever we went, was the crazy splashes of bright colour. I'll spare you the commentary and just post a bunch of pics! ;)

Many women sell garlands of marigolds for religious purposes. Many Hindus often hang them above their doorways into their homes for protection and as an act of worship.

Here is another lady selling flowers for religious ceremony purposes.

This guy was selling these cool looking leaf mats/plates for the offering of food to the Hindu gods and godesses.

At one point it started to rain and the streets started getting muddy!

The people here didn't seem to be bothered by the rain at all!

Rickshaw chaos!!!

Some random monkeys running across the wires.....you have to look carefully.

The crowded streets....

Heavy laden carts.....

I think this guy only sold vegetables that were green....LOL!

This nice man let us take his picture. :)

Tumeric!

Some more veges......even though this one didn't turn out very clearly, I love the colour of her sari and the veges! :)

Kim and I in our first rickshaw!

I thought this was a cool view of the back of Jama Masjid. :)

The grounds around Humayun's Tomb - a Mughal emperor. The tomb was actually built in 1560AD.....so it's kind of old!

I may have been a tad excited about sinking my toes into fresh, green grass......what can I say.......living for 2 years in a desert makes you appreciate A LOT of things!

Humayun's Tomb up close!

The view looking off the back of the terrace.

More of the grounds....

India Gate - a national monument to the 90,000 soldiers of the British Indian Army who died fighting.

Looking in the other direction from India Gate you can see the Parliament faintly through the pollution!

Next stop: Agra and the Taj Mahal!

Koh Samui and Anthong National Park, Thailand

2011-04-06T01:52:00.000-07:00

Us after a few days of rest and relaxation! :)

Enjoying chocolate milkshakes on the beach! I know weird, but we were pretty excited to even have that option!

After laying on the beach suntanning and reading books for 4 days straight, we decided to go tour Angthong National Park for the day. We caught a speed boat from the top of Koh Samui Island and then rode about an hour northwest to the national park. Its made up of lots of small islands. Our first stop was to snorkel off one of the protected reefs.

We snorkeled right up to and under the overhang. Lots of bright and pretty fish! Wish my camera was waterproof!

This was the first time I had ever snorkeled so was extremely excited......us looking dorky! :)

From there we went to Mae Kong Island and hiked up to the top where the "Blue Lagoon" was. It looked more like the Green Lagoon, but it was definitely beautiful! :)

Looking down from half-way up the island's small mountain.

Us at the Blue Lagoon!

After that nice little bout of physical activity, we got back on the boat and toured through the islands on the way to our next stop......an option to hang out on a beach for 2 hours or go kayaking to another tiny beach. We definitely opted for kayaking! :) It was hard to take pics and paddle at the same time, so here are a few. LOL

The colour of the water was incredible!

Here's the tiny little beach we kayaked to. The water was so warm it felt like a bathtub! :)

This water was so shallow!

Monkey Island........supposed to look like a monkey face.

A small cave we went into.....

The colour of the water in the cave didn't look real!

So we saw pics of this odd shaped island in our tour book, but didn't realize that it is famous because it apparently looks like Sean Connery's profile if you look at the right side of it. Ridiculous, I know, but I can totally see it! LOL

The only other adventure we attempted during the week on Koh Samui was a trip to the southern tip of the island to see the Butterfly Garden.

How many butterflies can you count?

I love this little guy's face! LOL

This guy crept out onto the path as I was taking a picture of a flower.

And that's our Thailand trip! Next planned adventure? India! :)

The Golden Triangle of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar

2011-04-04T10:16:00.000-07:00

We decided that since we were spending some time in the Northern part of Thailand, we may as well do the "Golden Triangle" tour which takes you right to the borders of Thailand/Laos/Myanmar (Burma). The first stop was near Chiang Rai to see the hotsprings and natural geyser. They have cemented in these little pools around the geyser and sell quail eggs that they then boil in the steaming pools! LOL, we DID NOT try the eggs, but they seemed to be a popular snack to get there.

Natural geyser.....this thing was hot!

The ladies with their baskets of eggs waiting to be cooked in the boiling pools....

From there we drove on for another hour until we arrived just outside the city of Chiang Rai at the more modern Wat Rong Khun or the White Temple. It is very white and bright as many parts are done in mirrored glass mosaics set in white plaster. It was extremely creepy and Kim and I both felt there was a weird/creepy vibe to the whole place.

Not a very welcoming looking fellow....

These would be heads hanging in the trees with plants to look like guts coming out....

These apparently symbolize the hands of Hell reaching out to get you and pull you in should you be a bad person deserving of this.....

Like I said, it was a very odd and bizarre place. After looking around for awhile, we drove further North to the border and hopped on a boat on the Mekong River to do a quick little tour of the Golden Triangle where we got to see Thailand, Laos and Burma all from one spot! They drove us by Opium Island in the middle of the river and we ended up being allowed to dock in Laos and look around the little tourist village of Done Xao.

Looking north down the Mekong River towards Burma near the centre and Laos on the right, while the boat and jut of land with the giant golden Buddha on the left is still Thailand. :)

That green island in the middle of the river is known as Opium Island where they used to make Opium drops and smuggle it over the borders.

Some fishermen out repairing nets....

After our brief 45 minute river tour, we stopped on the Laos side and went into the little village there.

National flag of Laos

So these containers were full of special whiskey.......sick, I know, as there were reptiles in them. Not sure what the appeal is, as there is no way I would even want to try that! :P

From there we took the boat back over to the Thailand side and drove to the Myanmar border. We obviously weren't allowed to cross, but we got a few pictures of the lineup to get across. LOL

The border crossing....

The long line up to cross over......

This lady was selling bags of roasted peanuts!

From the border we drove into the mountains to visit the Karen Long Neck Hilltribe people in one of their villages. The village was pretty basic. It felt very foreign and third world, that's for sure! The girls and the women were all done up in order to show their tradition of wearing rings around their neck. They were very beautiful and quite happy to show us their handicrafts and have us take a picture.

The sketchy bridge that we had to cross to get to the village on the other side!

The village!

Grass drying so they can be used to make brooms......

This girl was so cute! We ended up buying some scarves that she made. :)

After a week of exploring Thailand and going on many adventures in the jungle, on the backs of elephants and crossing borders, we decided to fly down to the laid back island of Koh Samui and spend the rest of our Winter Break laying on the beach soaking up some sunshine. :)

MORE KRAZY Kuwait Weather....

2011-03-27T02:36:00.000-07:00

Northwest of Kuwait City

(Thx to Dana for sending this to me!)

Friday evening around 6pm, Kuwait was suddenly crippled by an intense sandstorm. It was very fast-moving, unpredicted and caused some major damage. The news agencies are reporting that it is one of the strongest sandstorms to ever hit Kuwait and that it has been confirmed to have killed one person and 4 others are still missing from the Gulf. It knocked out some of the phone lines, the power lines and in some areas even the water lines.

Kimberley and I had taken the ferry to Failaka Island for the day and had just docked back at the Marina about 15 minutes before the sandstorm hit. When we disembarked the ferry, we noticed the sky looked kind of funny and people were gazing north towards downtown Kuwait City. It just looked like another regular dust storm floating in like they normally do. There was an odd tinge to the clouds, but it didn't seem out of the ordinary for this time of year. I took a pic and then we walked to the mall and grabbed something before quickly walking out.

You can see it in the distance and we assumed it was just the regular clouds of dust that tend to move in SLOWLY and blanket Kuwait....we had no idea this was a massive sandstorm rolling in.

As we were about to about to leave, we walked across the glassed-in foot passage that runs over Gulf Road and went to the main Marina Crescent entrance doors. At the top of the escalator that runs right down to the main doors, we were stopped by clouds of billowing dust pushing through the doors. People were flying in through the doors, kids were crying and there was a general feeling of panic amongst all those there. All the smoke alarms went off due to the very thick and heavy dust and we were forced to move back inside the main mall. They weren't allowing anyone to leave. The sky quickly turned from dark brown to black as night. We moved into the innermost part of the mall, but it didn't take long before the dust filled it up and people were having to breathe through scarves. We bought scarves at H&M and sat down to wait out part of the dust that was filling the mall.

Us looking stylish in our scarves....attempting to keep the gross dust out of our lungs. You can see it in the background and settling on the floor. The mall was a mess to say the least!

I was sent A LOT of pics from my girls and have pulled some of the best ones to post on here for those of you back home in Canada to see just what this thing looked like. Enjoy all the pics!

Both of these show what a nice day it was before this came in....thx Latifa! :)

It's quickly engulfing the houses!

A lot of my students were stuck in their cars while on their way either to or from the malls. Here's a couple of pics from Noura who was in the car trying to get home when it hit.

Looking out the front.....

And off to the west......kinda scary with the black clouds!

These next pics were shot in Fahaheel by Noor who was outside enjoying the beautiful weather! There was no warning except for the ominous bank of clouds peeking over the top of Al Kout. Thx Noor!

This last pic is not Noor's, but was taken from the same place. Check out how people are just sitting around and still watching it as it comes over the building and blacks out the evening sun!

This looks like it was taken down by where we were at the Marina......I love how there are guys just standing there and watching it instead of running for cover.

Before........

.....5 mins after!

Inside the mall........the security was freaking out because they weren't sure what exactly to do with all the people now stuck inside the mall and all the dust that was filling it up. They said that this has never happened before and they simply were scratching their heads over what course of action to take!

This was from our vantage point in while were sitting in H&M. It's hard to see all the dust.....but there was a lot of it!

This is the glassed-in footbridge across Gulf Road 2 1/2 hours after the sandstorm hit. Still super dusty inside.

Sand on the floor inside the mall....

This is a pic of the inside of another huge mall in Kuwait - The Avenues

After having had to stay inside the dust filled mall for 2 1/2 hours, we decided to chance it and go out to find the car. Of course this was the ONE time I decided to park outside......any other time the car would have been in the underground parking. We left the mall and as soon as we were outside, the exfoliation began! The storm was still raging, though not nearly as bad as it had been a couple hours earlier.

This is what we walked through to get to the car....we were coated in the fine sand but the time we reached it!

My poor little car.......all dirty!

The windshield......looking out.

Driving along Gulf Road.......the gusts of sand reminded me so much of the winter blizzard white-outs back home! LOL

The strong winds bent the metal sign!

The sandstorms are super awesome to watch and experience, at least for this Canadian girl! ;) However, the clean up afterwards is always a gong show as the orange dust gets EVERYWHERE!!!! Fortunately (and I have no idea how this happened as I left my a/c on and my windows don't even close fully, let alone seal..) my apartment was untouched by the orange dust! Gillian's apartment was really bad with everything being coated in a thick layer of dust and Kim's bathroom and kitchen were pretty dusty. Here's the proof!

The floor in Gillian's apartment......

The back courts of our school had their sunscreens all ripped down because of the high winds.

Kim's shower.....

Looking out the windows of our building......thx Claire!

Looking down on our cars and Ala'a having just washed them all off and cleaning off the tiles......so muddy! Thx Claire for this shot too! :)

I put a bunch of clips together from our "Sandstorm Experience" so here it is! LOL, enjoy! :)

Krazy Kuwait Weather!

2011-03-13T01:12:00.000-08:00

Hailstones on the ground after the crazy hailstorm on March 10th!

(Thx Nouf!)

It has been raining for the last week......that's right, I said RAINING! And not like a sprinkle here and there, I mean actual downpours. They are quick and sporadic, but they have been constant for the last 5 days and are still happening. Thunder and lightning has been a constant for the last week too! Because this weird weather system seems to have remained socked in over this tiny country, the clouds have been pretty low and the lightning and thunder has been low as well. With every deep boom, things shake and rattle and the thunder rolls seem to last a long time. It sooooo nice, as it reminds me so much of home! :)

Seeing as I am used to the crazy thunderstorms and thunder cells that spawn all kinds of windstorms and tornados that roll across the flatlands and foothills of Alberta, this is such a welcome sight and sound! :) Man, how I miss the summer storms we used to always get! Ok, maybe not the damaging hail that blew out all the north facing windows, shredded the vinyl siding and damaged the roof of my brother & sister-in-law's house one time, but definitely the light shows that illuminate the expanse of Prairie sky! Many a day have I wished for a good old storm to blow in....

And boy did I get my wish the other night! I was awakened at 3am to bright flashes of lightning, loud crashes of thunder and a very heavy downpour of rain that slammed against my window. I got up to make sure my apartment wasn't flooding (the lame seals on my apartment windows dry out from the intense heat during the rest of the year and then leak if ever there is any build up of water) and was startled as something really hard hit the window. I think I may have jumped back a good foot! It quickly turned into a loud barrage and I realized it had to be hail, although it sounded like large rocks. I was honestly thinking that my windows were going to smash out and was standing there quickly attempting to formulate a plan of action in case they did, as I live 10 floors up. It lasted maybe 5 minutes before the hailstones became much smaller and slackened their barrage on my windows. I looked on the ledge and there were large chunks of the hailstones, but no full ones. I opened the window and looked down at the ground and could CLEARLY see them. They had to be pretty big for me to be able to see them so clearly!!!! One of my kids sent me this picture of the size I'm pretty sure we got in Hawalli for those 5 minutes. Literally the size of Christmas oranges!!! Yeah, imagine those hitting your windows! All these pics are from my girls - thanks for all of them, girls!!! :)

Ridiculous size, yet that's what hailed down.......thx, Raneem! :)

The remnants on the grass....it's winter now, so yes there are patches of grass

that grow because of the nice weather! (Thx Raneem!)

Pic from another part of Kuwait where they were much smaller, but lots!

This is a rare site for this country! :) (Thx Dalal!)

And some more.....(Thx Nouf!)

Today, I went downstairs (I'm usually stuck up on the third floor all day...in the ONLY classroom on this campus that does not have a real window that opens to the outdoors) and had to cross the open courtyard to get to the other building that houses our cafeteria and Middle School classrooms. As it was STILL raining and there are gaps in the sun screens, I got a little wet crossing the courtyard and was surprised by the chilly breeze! I was struck by the smell and the cold chill in the air. For just a few seconds I closed my eyes and felt like I was back home. The Kuwait air for a brief moment smelled and felt like the spring air in Canada! It was surprising to say the least, as it almost always smells like the dust of the desert. (Yes, dust has a smell and it's gross!) All of this "crazy" weather will be over soon, but I hope everyone is enjoying it and "soaking" it all in! LOL Very soon the dusty air will return and the sun will begin heating everything up to extreme temperatures, as all that is green fades away.

Flight of the Gibbon - Chiang Mai, Thailand

2011-02-22T10:08:00.000-08:00

Flight of the Gibbon - an hour's drive north of Chiang Mai

Ok, so on to another blog post from our Thailand adventure........this time we went for the day to do "Flight of the Gibbon" which is a jungle canopy tour where you zip line between platforms for over 5 km. (you wear a harness, clip yourself onto a cable and fly at great speed hundreds of feet above the jungle floor....) This was AMAZING!!!!! :) If you have no fear of heights, then I definitely recommend doing this! I'm still smiling from it! :)

We were all set to go with harnesses, helmets and clips!

Kim carefully was deciding whether or not she was going to make it off the first platform.....

My turn!!! :)

There she goes!

Us after our first couple of zip lines........so fun!!! :)

Here's a good pic to see just how big the leaves of some of these plants are.....I am that little blue speck zipping by in the background......those leaves are bigger than I am!

It was kind of hard to take a lot of pics of the scenery as we were flying through the jungle canopy, but we did get a few! Here is one looking back from the platform we were standing on to the platform we just "zipped" from.......most times you could not see the platform you were zip lining to, which made it that more exciting! LOL

Looking back at the platform we just flew from! :)

Looking up at some of the overhead foliage......these leaves were HUGE!

Lots of vines!

Another platform that looks hidden in the tree.....

Overlooking the canopy from a high point!

There were two short sections where we could zip line two at a time, so that was cool! We actually took a quick video clip during one of them. We actually ended up taking out the guy that was on the platform ready to catch us as we flew to the next platform. Poor guy. We laughed about that for the rest of the day.

The tour is called "Flight of the Gibbon" because it goes through a part of the jungle where the gibbons live. We had been warned by friends that most of the time, people never actually see any gibbons, so not to get our hopes up. Luckily, we did get to see one and she had her baby with her, who was super cute!!!! :)

Mom and baby who's clinging tightly as mom moves from branch to branch!

I love this pic because you can see baby's face! Super cute!! :)

Here's a waterfall we hiked to at the end of our "flight"!

Back on the ground......safe and sound! :) What fun!!! :)

Elephant Escapade - Chiang Mai, Thailand

2011-02-16T04:17:00.000-08:00

Our elephant - she had a long name that we could never understand

whenever our guide said it. We call her Nelly! :)

After spending a couple days in Bangkok, we flew north to Chiang Mai. Our hotel, the Chiang Thai House was fantastic! The staff was very friendly, the hotel extremely clean and the room very nice and cockroach free! ;)

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed first thing in the morning, ready for an adventure!

Our first day was spent going to an Elephant Camp to learn how to be a mahout - traditional elephant keeper. Funny side story......we were SUPPOSED to be going to an elephant eco-reserve and had given the pamphlet to the hotel guy who books these things and assumed that it was booked correctly. We paid and the receipt said "elephant camp" so we figured we were good to go. LOL When we got there, we were surprised by how ghetto the camp looked and how not-so-kind some of the mahouts were to the elephants. It didn't seem like a legitimate reserve. After taking a picture of the sign and comparing it with the pamphlet when we returned, we realized the hotel guy had booked the wrong elephant reserve and instead of going to the eco-reserve, we went to some ghetto one! Ahhhhh, gotta love language barriers in foreign countries........LOL. We just laughed! We still had a blast and I fell in love with these beasts! :)

Driving out to the Elephant Camp first thing in the morning....

The camp!

Once we were there, they made us change into these really old, baggy and "crunchy" traditional Thai shirts and short pants. (We discovered later that they just rinse these things out in the dirty river water and hang them to dry after we get them wet and muddy) We laughed at how unattractive they were.....:)

Yup, definitely felt pretty stylish in these.........

The first thing we did was to introduce ourselves to the elephants and then bribe them by feeding them lots of fresh fruit. LOL After that, we learned how to climb up and comfortably sit atop our beast. :) Their hair is REALLY course and bristly. I got a few scratches from it! I had no idea they had hair like that!

Feeding our beast some watermellon.......:) These creatures are surprisingly very gentle. :)

Such a sweetie who even lifted her leg to help me climb up....

Yumm! Bananas!!! :)

So cute! :)

Up close and personal......:)

Off on our trek......

It was rather difficult staying balanced while riding an elephant and taking a picture! Nice job, Kimberley! :)

This pic makes me laugh......we look like dorks.....:)

We rode our elephants to the river and then they laid down in the water so we could scrub and bathe them! We ended up having a water fight and the elephants just looked at us like WE were the animals........

Bath time!

We even scrubbed behind her ears......

All clean! :) Well, maybe the elephant, but not us seeing as the water was muddy and had elephant poop floating in it......

Our elephant guide, grabbed our camera and thought he was taking a picture......we discovered this short video clip that he accidentally recorded before he figured out how to switch it back to the photo setting! :)

After we scrubbed and bathed our elephant, she and the rest of them got to go in the mud pit! We didn't.......we went and got dried off and changed back into our clean clothes.

She had pretty good aim when it came to throwing mud!

After their fun in the mud, we went and hung out with our new friends for a little bit more while we waited for our ride. :)

Awwwww..........new friendships.......LOL!

Hahahahah.........these two thought Kimberley had more food in her pockets......LOL!

Our elephant had WAY too much fun in the mud pit.....

This is a big pile of poop!

Muddy and content with life! :)

More pics from Chiang Mai and our zipline adventure "Flight of the Gibbon" coming soon! :)

Escape to Thailand - Bangkok

2011-02-15T09:56:00.000-08:00

Whoo hoo! We are on our way to the airport with our friend Kirsten.....she was off to meet her best friend in Dubai and we were off to Thailand for 2 weeks! We were pretty tired after a long week of proctoring and marking mid-term exams.......:)

After 5 months of school, the first semester finally ended and Kimberley and I embarked on our big 2 week getaway from Kuwait! We really wanted to do something more tropical and out of the Middle East, so we decided on Thailand. We flew into Bangkok and spent a few days here relaxing and learning to love street food and cheap shopping! :)

Flying into Bangkok as the sun was coming up......lots of water in and around this city!

We booked a hotel on the main pedestrian street, KohSan Road. Our hotel, Rikka Inn, was great, all things considered! Safe and tucked right off the main drag, and CLEAN! Although we did have a cockroach invade our room for a few hours.........we think he may have come from the sink as he suddenly appeared from under my pj's that were sitting on the counter while I was showering. After we screamed and he ran (these things are ridiculously fast!!!) we realized we had to hunt him down so he wouldn't hide in our stuff! He appeared a minute later on the door jam and we shrieked again. We went down to the front desk to have them come get him and they looked at us as though we had lost our minds. One of the staff even asked us "Don't you have these in your country?". I would have assumed they would have already known the answer to that question, as they could hear our screams all the way at the front desk. Apparently not. They went in, told us they got him (which I am highly doubtful of) and set up a roach trap outside our door. He never reappeared, but I'm thinking our shrieks of disgust were more likely the reason he went into more permanent hiding.

Corny the Cockroach

I had always been told how good the street food in Thailand was, but didn't really know just how good it could possibly be until I tried it myself!!! We fell in love with eating Pad Thai from the street vendors who sold it for the equivalent of 64 cents Canadian! We weren't brave enough to try it with the meat, but instead enjoyed the vegetarian version with all the fresh veges. Sooooo good!!!! In fact, we liked it so much that we had it everyday! LOL

We also fell in love with the banana pancake man.....or lady. There were a few of these street carts out with people making them. They cook this pancake like dough on a hot circular griddle, slice up fresh bananas and seal them inside. Then when it's cooked, they put Nutella all over the top. Again, sooooo good!!!! We may have had these everyday as well........LOL.

Fresh Pad Thai!

These little packages of pancake happiness are filled with bananas.....

....and once taken off the grill are topped with Nutella! :) Yummm!!!!

Lots of fresh fruit!

The nightlife on Koh San Road was supposedly ridiculous, but we had been warned of the excessive amounts of drinking/partying and loud music blaring into the wee hours of the night, so it wasn't too much of a shock. We were surprised by how tame it actually was while we were there! Luckily our hotel room faced away from the main street and we could hardly hear anything at night.

The other thing we experienced was the amazing Thai foot massages where they press all you pressure points and literally make you fell asleep. They were the equivalent of $3 Canadian for a half hour, so you guessed it......we got one every night! LOL On our last night in Bangkok, we decided to try out this "fish spa" where you sit with your feet and legs up to your knees in this tank full of hundreds of little sucker fish that eat all the dead skin off your feet and legs. Ya, it was really weird and VERY ticklish, but fun too! LOL My feet did feel a bit softer after the 20 mins in the tank. LOL

Nothing like a nice foot massage after walking all day....:)

Us with our feet in the "fish spa"......it felt REALLY weird.......very uncomfortable for the first bit actually.

Kimberley barely made it through the 20 minute session and had white knuckles the whole time......LOL!

A close up view of the fish "sucking" my feet.......I remember having these same little sucker fish in my fish tank a few years ago.....who knew you could use them for this too!

We went exploring for a day down the Chao Phraya River (the River of Kings) and also went to a few of the famous temples in and around Bangkok.

Our boat......

Some temple with a giant statue of Buddha......could only see his back from the river though.

A grocery boat......

Another random temple along the river.

From the river we went to Wat Arun also known as the Temple of Dawn, which was built in the mid-1700's. It looked impressive from across the river and was very steep once we were close up. We climbed to the top part and the steps were VERY TINY and VERY STEEP! It was more like climbing a ladder than steps!

Wat Arun - The Temple of Dawn

Looking up......

Us at the bottom......we thought the clouds were pretty cool that day!

Us at the top!

From there we went across the river to Way Pho - The Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This gold plated statue was huge - over 46 meters long! The bottoms of the feet were kind of cool all inlaid with mother-of-pearl.

The Reclining Buddha

The tips of his toes.....LOL

The soles of his feet with all the pictures made of inlaid mother-of-pearl!

Next on our list was Wat Saket - The Temple of the Golden Mount......

Our final stop was to Wat Phra Kaew - the Temple of the Emerald Buddha which was attached to the Grand Palace grounds. We weren't allowed to take any pics of the Emerald Buddha statue, but it was kinda of funny to find out that he has different outfits he wears according to the season. They keep his different outfits locked up in the Palace Museum when he's not wearing them.

And finally, the Grand Palace! :)

Such pretty grounds!

I love this tree! Super cool!!! :)

One of the Palace guards.....

From Bangkok we flew north up to Chiang Mai.......pics of all the adventures we had while up there riding elephants and flying through the jungle are coming soon! :)

Home, Sweet Home!

2011-01-26T00:22:00.000-08:00

Daybreak from my apartment window......the rare occasion when we had real clouds!

Ahhhhh.......it's that time of the year again where international schools are handing out renewal contracts for everyone to sign........and here I sit here with mine in front of me. My heart may be filled with mixed emotions, but it is settled and my mind at peace over my tough choice.

After much prayer, thought and consideration, I have made my official decision to return from my crazy adventures in the desert sands of Kuwait and make the permanent move back home to the Great White North of Canada! :)

I have greatly enjoyed my time in Kuwait and have developed a deep-rooted and life-long love for my girls over here! I tear up even now, thinking about the day I have to say goodbye to these young ladies. They have become like my own family here and have truly kept me going everyday through all the good and the bad, the ups and the downs, the sane and the insane moments. Girls, if you are reading this, you know how much I love you!!!! "heart!"

Me and my "kids"! :) xo

I have had a truly blessed life these past two years and God has provided me with incredible friends, new "family" and once-in-a-lifetime trips to places I had only ever dreamed of visiting! I am thankful for ALL these opportunities to learn about Muslim culture, the Arab way of life and great travels to both new and ancient sites. However, I am a true Canadian girl at heart and I feel my country calling me home. I miss my family and friends and living in my own culture, with my own traditions. I miss the snow, the seasons, clean rain, Tim Hortons, Shreddies cereal, the snow-capped mountains and my puppy!

Bailey with her favorite ball! LOL

So it's with completely mixed feelings that I'm officially letting EVERYONE know that I am coming home to Canada this summer for good. :) Even though I may be leaving Kuwait, a piece of my heart will always remain in this tiny country with some very special people. :)

Lebanon - Jeita Cave and Byblos!

2011-01-02T12:38:00.000-08:00

Christmas Day.....in Lebanon....on my way to see one of the most beautiful caves in the world. Excited? Heck yes I was!!!

We woke up bright and early on Christmas Day to head off to Jeita Cave (Grotto). We drove into the mountainous area north of Beirut to the bottom of the ravine the caves are located in. After buying our tickets, we rode the teleferique (cable car) up to the top cave.

Riding inside the teleferique....Christmas Day! :)

The teleferique....apparently that's what they call cable cars over here!

Sadly they didn't allow photos inside, but we tried to sneak a few anyways. LOL Because the cave is so immense and the lighting so specific, they didn't really turn out. I tried to find some from off their website so you can get an idea of what we saw. It truly felt like I was in the Jules Verne's book "Journey to the Centre of the Earth"! It was beautiful and so crazy! The stalactities and stalagmites were so unique and at times looked like magical creatures. The air was damp and warm and the cave almost felt alive as it was still dripping. The did a fantastic job with lighting it and making sure it still looked untouched. If ever you are in Lebanon, you HAVE to go to the Jeita Grotto!!!

If you look towards the top right, you can see the walkway attached to the side of the cave wall....this cavern is huge!!

Once we had walked as far as we were able to in this upper cave, we walked down to the lower cave entrance and were excited to find that it was still open for the boat ride into the inner cavern on the subterranean lake. We had been told it was probably closed due to the higher water levels in the winter months, but this year the water level was still low enough for us to go! :) Again, BEAUTIFUL and surreal. It felt like we were in another world!

If you click on the link below, it takes you to a Facebook page with great pics of both the upper and lower caves. :)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=43009&id=21462737525

From here we drove another hour to Byblos....

Byblos, also known as Jbeil.....another very ancient site in Lebanon. There have been artifacts and hut foundations found here that date back over 6,000 years. It's an interesting archaeological site to explore as it is full of VERY old stones and foundations mixed in with more modern ones from the times of the Crusaders 1104AD. All of these ancient sites in this part of the world seem to be built over year after year so you end up getting to see structures from all time periods!

The Crusader Castle....

Old Roman outdoor theater...

I love how the city has been built right up to the edge of the ruins.

Kim standing on an old oil/wine press!

The ruins of ancient Byblos overlook the beautiful Mediterranean Sea!

Ahhhh........the water looked so inviting! :)

Modern day Byblos has a pretty sweet stretch of beach!

From Byblos, we went to Harissa.......the Lady of Lebanon, some famous statue way up on the mountain where people go to pray. The view from up there was awesome! :) We had to ride another teleferique to get up there, but that was cool too as we passed by apartment buildings and could see into them where families were sitting down to eat their big Christmas dinners!

Slight moment of homesickness, but as the cable car climbed it passed quickly! LOL ;)

The teleferique up to Harissa! It passes ridiculously close to the apartment buildings....

This would be Harissa.......a famous bronze statue of Mary that's been there for over 100 years. We climbed all the way up to the base of it even though that meant we had to squeeze past people because the tiny path was maybe 12 inches wide at parts!

The view from Harissa......looking down on the town of Jounieh.

The sun started setting quickly as we were up there.

Yup, we love these dorky "self portrait" pics.....:)

The sun dipping down into the Mediterranean.....

Riding back down.....

Dusk on Christmas Day

After getting back down, we drove straight to the airport and flew home to Kuwait, concluding our whirlwind Christmas weekend trip to Lebanon! A beautiful country with so much more to explore.....if ever you have the chance to visit, make sure you do!!! :)

Lebanon - Baalbeck & Beirut

2010-12-30T09:44:00.000-08:00

The Temple of Baal/Jupiter - Baalbek, Lebanon

We were only in Lebanon for 2 days - Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so we decided to hire a driver for the day and drove 2 hours north to Baalbak. It was a long drive up narrow, windy roads, through lots of small villages and military checkpoints. There is a definite military presence in Lebanon. I never felt unsafe, but was surprised at all the checkpoints we had to pass through just to get into the mountains and up to Baalbak. There were 5 on the way there and of course we had to pass back through all 5 to get home. However, it was so awesome driving through the villages as they were all decorated for Christmas! :)

Random Christmas tree in one of the villages we drove through!

One of the many military checkpoints we passed through.

I HAD to take a pic of this as we were driving by.......it was so nice to see a cross!!! :)

Loved the colour of the soil here!

Baalbek.....this place was incredible! It sits in a valley between two mountain ridges which had snow on them. It was sooooo awesome to see snow again! :) Anyways, Baalbek is a very ancient site. They have found ruins beneath the now standing ruins that date back over 5,000 years. It was originally the place where the Assyrian god, Baal, was first worshipped. Then along came the Romans in 15BC to construct the enormous Temple of Baal/Jupiter and rename the place as Heliopolis - "City of the Sun" because they worshipped the sun god there. The Crusaders came later and then the Muslims. So over the years, MANY different people and religions have claimed this site, yet many of the original structures still stand, seemingly untouched today. :) Baalbek has the most fantastic ruins I have seen and ones that you could still climb on and explore. Because it was a chilly and clear day, the pics turned out really nice too! :)

Looking East...

These 6 gigantic rose granite columns are the only ones out of the original 128 still standing today.

Baalbek with the columns of the Great Court in the background.

The enormous Temple of Baal/Jupiter

Proof we were here......

Check out how big these columns are.....I'm standing in between them....

Looking up between those columns!

I LOVED how you could see the snow from here! :) A perfect setting for Christmas Eve! :)

Old barbed wire left over from who knows what.....this country was at war only 2 years ago.

Looking up at the Great Court...

The Temple of Bacchus

Inside the Temple of Bacchus

Peeking at more ruins through more barbed wire....

The exit out!

Here are just some more random pics from driving all the way back to Beirut.

The foothills of Lebanon reminded me of home! :)

The flag of Lebanon painted on a random old wall.

A shot up military post...

Once we got back to Beirut, the sun was already starting to set, so we made a quick stop to Pidgeon Rock to take a nice sunset photo! :) Sooooo pretty! :)

We were excited that the timing of arriving at Pidgen Rock was just as the sun was setting! We didn't even plan it that way! LOL :)

And that sums up Christmas Eve in Lebanon.....the other Christmasy pics I included in my blog entry on "Christmas in Beirut". I'll post the rest of my Lebanon pics tomorrow! :)

Weekend Getaway to Dubai!

2010-12-29T21:46:00.000-08:00

I laughed that the clock showing Dubai's local time in our hotel was a Rolex.....that pretty much sums up Dubai! It is a very wealthy little Emirate, even after having to be bailed out by a neighbouring Emirate!

This school year has been pretty intense and there have been MANY days where all I could think about was flying out of here to some other place! When word of Dubai's new visa requirement for Canadian citizens was made public, Kimberley and I decided we needed to go to Dubai ASAP before this ridiculously expensive requirement ($250 CD) came into effect on January 2, 2011. So we found cheap flights, a great deal on a nice hotel and off we flew to Dubai!

Flying to Dubai! The flight was only an hour. :)

Because we were only in Dubai for 2 days, we didn't get a chance to explore much, but decided to relax by going shopping and just enjoy the freedom of being out of Kuwait! However, the one thing we did go see was the Burj Khalifa - the world's tallest tower! It truly was HUGE!!! You have to order and book tickets beforehand, which we did and then got to go up to the Observation Deck on floor 124.

The Burj Khalifa

Here is a scale model of the Burj Khalifa.....this thing is ENORMOUS!

We had to take this long escalator just to the platform where the elevators were to take us up to the observation deck....

The air was a little dusty this day, but if you look into the distance, you can see the world famous, man-made Palm Island Jumeirah!

Looking down on Dubai....

This is looking down on Fountain Dubai which apparently is this massive fountain that does a water show to music......sadly it wasn't working the day we were there. :(

Us at the top of the Observation Deck.....124 floors up! Our ears popped 3 times going up in the elevator!!

Closer view of Fountain Dubai that happened to not be working the one day we were there.....LOL.....my girls were SO disappointed I didn't get to see this "ajeeb" (super cool) fountain!

In the famous Dubai Mall there is an enormous aquarium in one end. Apparently, inside there are penguins and all sorts of other sea life! We didn't have time to go see, but took a few pics of the aquarium walls you can see from the inside of the actual mall. :) I hope to go back one day and actually go into the aquarium and see the rest. :)

That big fish was actually bigger than I was! It's hard to see just how big this aquarium is.....gotta love the reflection of the store signs on the glass!

We also got to see what Ski Dubai looks like.....SOOOOO wish we had time to go skiing/snowboarding there! We seriously want to come back and experience Ski Dubai! Here are some pics from the viewing windows in the mall. It looks so puny compared to the ski hills and mountains of Canada, but for over here this is indeed impressive! When you rent the equipment, you also get the snowsuit, toque, and mittens! LOL

It actually "snows" in here....we watched it fall shortly after I took this pic!

This looked like so much fun! I soooo want to go back and actually go in and snowboard!

Kim in front of yet another cool site inside the mall....this wall was all water and had life-sized statues of divers all the way down the three-story water wall!

All in all, my impression of Dubai was.....amazing! I would love to be able to go back and explore more of the Corniche and the big souqs along Dubai Creek. I would also love to go to Ski Dubai and the cool waterpark Atlantis! So many things to still do and see in this little Emirate! :) Inshallah, Dubai will drop the ridiculously high visa fee for Canadians and I can go back before June! If you ever get the chance to go, GO!!! :)

We were soooo sad we had to go back home to Kuwait.......please Dubai, please be nice to all Canadians and drop the new $250 visa fee!

Merry Christmas from Beirut! :)

2010-12-24T10:22:00.000-08:00

An outdoor Christmas tree on Hamra St, Beirut!

"For unto you is born this day in the City of David, a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you, you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!" Luke 2:11-14

Well, it's hard to believe it's Christmas Eve once again.....another year of teaching in Kuwait is almost halfway done and I am sitting here right now in Beirut, Lebanon thinking of friends and family back home in Canada. :)

It was so nice to be able to fly here for today and tomorrow and be in a country that openly celebrates Christmas for Christmas Eve and Day! :) Our hotel lobby is all decorated and they even sent us up a special Christmas treat - a Yule Log!! :)

Our Yule Log! It was really good! :)

We walked down Hamra Street tonight and saw Christmas lights, decorations and trees! :) We could even hear church bells and Christmas carols!!!

Christmas tree outside of the Crowne Plaza Hotel

The kicker however, and perhaps the best Christmas present ever was.......REAL pork bacon! :) We ordered a special side of bacon (we explained to the rather confused waiter that we worked in Kuwait and hadn't eaten pork bacon in 4 months) to eat with our Christmas Eve dinner of hamburgers at the Roadside Diner in Beirut!

Clearly this was an exciting moment....LOL! Not quite turkey, but it was still great!

Well, it's getting late this Christmas Eve.........it's time to carry on the Lively kid tradition for one more year and watch the old 1966 cartoon "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" before going to sleep!

I wish everyone a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! May you enjoy tonight and tomorrow spending time with friends and family! I am eagerly anticipating next Christmas back home in the Great White North! :) Love and miss you all! xo

Deck the Halls....:)

2010-12-19T04:54:00.000-08:00

Tried to make my apartment look as warm and cozy as I could...

Well, I have tried once again to make my apartment look Christmasy for the season! To add to my collection of Christmas decorations from last year, I picked up a cool olive wood nativity in Jerusalem this past April. Makes it feel a little more like Christmas, seeing as Christ's birth is the REAL meaning and seems to get forgotten this time of the year, especially here where Christmas is not exactly celebrated.

My nativity from Jerusalem! :)

My family is awesome and even though they shouldn't have because of the ridiculous cost, they still sent over a little Christmas parcel so I would have something to unwrap on Christmas morning. :) xoxoxo The Christmas card from my brother and sister-in-law was awesome! :) Totally looks like my dog, Bailey, back home!!! :)

Funniest card ever, and so perfect! Thanks Colin & Aubrey! xo

And my Christmas tree of course! It's a little lopsided and took some adjusting to get it to stand as straight as it could......yup, Tariq my Christmas camel is back again for this year's tree topper! :) LOL

My tree with presents all the way from Canada underneath! :)

My stocking is hung by the lamp with care......LOL

Yes, that is my fireplace DVD.....I happen to like pretending that my tv is a fireplace. I just crank the air conditioning and it feels just like back home! ;)

We don't get any time or even an extra day off for Christmas here, so luckily Christmas falls on our weekend. Kimberley and I are flying to Beirut, Lebanon to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Even though Lebanon is half Muslim, the other half is Christian and so they do celebrate Christmas there. We are hoping to soak in some Christmasy cheer before heading back to Kuwait late Christmas Day night. I'm looking forward to Christmas in Beirut and will be sure to post a Christmas greeting from there! I'm hoping everyone is enjoying the snow and Christmas festivities back home....I'm thinking about you all as I "freeze" in the 20 degree heat over here! ;)

Jordan: Part 3 - Mt. Nebo and Jerash

2010-12-17T02:18:00.000-08:00

View looking North from Mt. Nebo

First stop of the day........Mount Nebo! This is where God first showed Moses the Promised Land that He was giving to His people. (Deuteronomy 34:1-4)

This is the view that Moses would have seen looking west......yup, that's the Holy Land! :)

Some really old mosaics from the remains of a Byzantine church that was once on this mount.....

From Mt. Nebo we drove and got lost for a bit among the messed up city streets of Amman and then finally found a road going North to Jerash! Jerash is a pretty cool and fairly well intact ancient Roman city. We didn't get a tour of the place, but wandered around ourselves for awhile.

The Arch of Hadrian gate...

The steps leading up to the Temple of Artemis

The Roman Oval Forum

Me trying to cool off in the shade of the side of the Arch of Hadrian!

The Tetrapylon

The old road

Another view of the Roman Oval Forum

Columns in the Temple of Artemis

One of the city's smaller theaters.....

And that sums up the first foreign adventure of this school year! I highly recommend a trip to Egypt and Jordan to anyone! :) Stay tuned for some more adventures coming soon! :)

Jordan: Part 2 - Wadi Rum & the Dead Sea

2010-12-15T19:52:00.000-08:00

A village we passed while on our way to Wadi Rum.

Pretty rugged terrain...

We spent half a day in Wadi Rum and apparently when we arrived in the afternoon, we discovered we were last tourists into the village for the day! It literally felt deserted! LOL We were determined to take a camel trek to the famous Lawrence's Spring, so in broken Arabic managed to convince a camel herder guy who spoke NO English to take us there. Ahhhhh, the adventure begins!

This is my camel for our camel trek to Lawrence's Spring! :) She was so cute! :)

Heading out of the village...

Kimberley's camel was a very cantankerous beast! As soon as she got on, it started howling and it's ears went flat against it's head. This thing was mad!!! We had to stop a few times because it was starting to freak out and then settled down a bit as we began heading out of the village. There were a couple times when I thought it was going to throw Kimberley off. The herder tied it to my camel's saddle and then this beast decided it HAD to walk with it's head and face pressed up against my leg the ENTIRE 45 minute ride to the spring! I though for sure it was going to bite me because it kept howling off and on the whole way and didn't move it's head from my leg until we stopped when it totally nipped my arm with it's lips. No teeth, thank goodness!

This was Kim's crazy camel! Take note of it's ears which are NOT supposed to be flat against it's head if it's ok..........ya, imagine this thing pressed up against your leg all the way.

Kim on her cranky camel! She may look happy in this pic but was actually terrified as this was one of the times we stopped to let the camel calm down before heading on....

This is Kim's camel getting all snuggly with me during a freak-out session....ya, my facial expression explains exactly how I felt at that time!

Some of the scenery as we were trekking through the valley......once the sun hit the rock it was beautiful as it literally looked like the rock was glowing!

This picture really does not do this justice.....it was BEAUTIFUL!

A jeep passed out going out to a Bedouin camp...

A random Bedouin camp....

So after a 45 minute trek with a incensed camel pressing it's face and breathing nasty breath on my leg, we finally arrived at our destination - Lawrence's Spring! We asked our guide by using hand gestures......where is the spring? To which he looked at us funny and pointed to the following stone troughs.......are you kidding me? THIS is what I potentially risked my right leg for? We burst out laughing and took some pics before mounting the beasts again and heading back. Here is the disappointing "Lawrence's Spring". LOL

Ummm.......ya........this is what we came to see.....LOL!

We didn't really know what to say........"cool?"

We figured if we trekked all the way out here, we may as well take a pic to prove it! LOL

Our camel herder hanging out with his camels as we took pics of the spring....

The sun went down quickly on our way back!

The Dead Sea pics are next! We spent 3 whole days relaxing at the Movenpick Dead Sea Resort and Spa. It was super great! We had another Ahmed totally make it special for us! He upgraded our rooms for free and gave us access to a private jacuzzi! It was pretty neat!

Our private jacuzzi...

Yay! The Dead Sea!

Yup, that's us after we got all muddy and washed it off......

Lounging around the pool after we spoiled ourselves getting salt scrubs and mud wraps with actual Dead Sea salt and mud! This infinity pool looks cool because the pool looks like it runs right into the Sea! :)

Sunset on the Dead Sea! :)

Alright, one more post coming with pics of Mt. Nebo and Jerash!

Jordan: Part 1 - Petra

2010-12-14T23:56:00.000-08:00

Once we flew into the Queen Alia Airport in Amman, Jordan, we picked up our rental car and drove the 2 1/2 hours down to our hotel in Wadi Musa. From there we did an all day trek to Petra, one of the new seven wonders of the world!

"Petra" meaning "stone" is know as the "Forgotten City" or the "Rose Red City" because of it's secrecy hidden in the red sandstone hills of Jordan. It is thousands of years old, but was only rediscovered in 1812! Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade made it's "Treasury" very famous and well-know as it was filmed there! I had no idea that this civilization had existed and growing up, had never heard of this place! I assumed the shots in Indiana Jones were all just elaborate sets.

The scenery was simply breathtaking and our pictures truly do not do it justice. It's very expensive to get into (50 Jordanian Dinars, which is around $72 Canadian), but honestly WELL worth the money as the sites are fantastic! :) The colours of the rock were such beautiful shades and it was hard to believe that they hadn't been painted!

Some of the colorful rock...

Walking through the entrance and down into the Siq...

You had to walk in about a kilometer before you reached the Siq (a narrow winding gorge) which is the next 1km trek through this cleft between giant slabs of rock. It felt very cool walking through this small space with vertical rock cliffs on either side! The colours of the rock were beautiful and the patterns from the layers in the rock were really unique.

Kim at the entrance to the Siq...

Walking through.....I loved how the rocks were striped with the different colours of minerals!

It is really cool as you are walking though this kilometer long corridor of tall rock, because as you come around one particular corner, this is the view you get.....a sneak peek at what lies just beyond the bend! :)

The Treasury!!

From the Treasury we walked a bit further and discovered the hidden city......I had NO idea Petra was so large! Here are some pics of the buildings and structures that had been carved out of the sandstone.

The old ampitheater

From here we wanted to go all the way up to the old Monastery, and this little boy offered to take us up on his donkeys so we though, "Why not!?" Our little guide's name was Mahmoud. He was 11 years old and his whole family worked out at Petra doing/selling different things. :)

This was one strong, sure-footed little beast! LOL

Us at the top of the trail!

The view looking back from where we climbed from....

This is what we went all the way up to see.....the Monastery!

This gives you an idea of just how big this hand carved structure is.....that's me standing in the bottom right of the door!

Here are just a bunch of random pics from walking around and exploring Petra...

The wind has eroded A LOT of the carved structures...

It was a busy day and we were tired by the end! From Petra we drove another 3 hours through winding, hairpin turn roads to our resort on the Northern tip of the Dead Sea. Next post coming soon! ;)

Mabrook Kuwait on Your Gulf Cup Win! :)

2010-12-06T22:33:00.000-08:00

Kuwaitis LOVE their soccer! I saw this yet again first hand last night as the country literally shut down to watch the final match between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for the Gulf Cup. It has been 12 years since this tiny country has won the cup and so there was a lot of pride weighing on this match. It was a tense game with no one scoring for over and hour and a half, but finally Kuwait did just past the 94 minute mark. They won the match 1-0 against the Saudis. :)

*Thanks to kuvvaity1 for this Youtube clip!* :)

Here's a little snippet of the traffic chaos that happened as they scored their winning goal........literally people's four-ways went on, cars stopped to listen to the report and the ridiculous honking began. LOL

*Thanks to chillnite for this Youtube video* :)

There was a sweet rumor going around that if Kuwait won the match, the next day would be declared a holiday. Alas, the claims were false, but my girls came all decked out in blue face paint to show their excitement and pride for their team! Yes, oddly enough BLUE is Kuwait's national team's colour....anyways, they looked so cute so here's a few pics of them! :)

Ah Kuwait, it's so nice to see you excited about your sports team! :) Mabrook (congratulations in Arabic) Kuwait and enjoy your win!

Egypt: Part 3 - Cairo and Giza

2010-11-29T01:23:00.000-08:00

Upon first seeing the pyramids, I took a minute to just absorb and consider where in the world I was presently sitting and what I was actually looking at......an incredible moment as I was blessed to have traveled to yet another place I had only dreamed of visiting.

We arrived early into Cairo at 5am after a night spent on the sleeper train and waited at the gate to the Pyramids until they opened. Wael, our guide for the day, made sure to get us there very early to beat the buses and be able to get tickets to climb up the inside of the Great Pyramid! :) It was a LONG and very small enclosed shaft we clambered up and when we got to the top all there was, was a room with a large stone box in it! No pics, no paintings, no hieroglyphics, nothing! LOL We pushed our way back down the cramped path and when we finally emerged from the pyramid, our clothes were literally soaked with sweat! It was soooo humid and stuffy inside the pyramid, and even though we didn't really see anything, it was totally worth it! :)

This was the entrance to the Great Pyramid....we were fortunate to get tickets to go inside and climb up it as they only release 150 tickets in the morning and 150 tickets in the afternoon and there are thousands of visitors to this site each day.

Here we are at the entrance......you can start to get a better perspective on just how big this pyramid actually is!

Love this shot Kim took...

Yup! We were here! LOL

Wael took us to the back side of the pyramids so we could do a camel trek around them! :)

Love this shot as you can't see anything modern in it!

This is the medium-sized pyramid

Me and my camel! :)

Us being dorky tourists...

I loved riding my camel!! :)

I noticed that the sun cast a pretty clear shadow while we were trekking around, so clicked a quick pic and I liked how it turned out! :)

The Great Sphinx is literally just down the road from the Pyramids!

Here it is in all it's splendor! :)

From all these great sites of Ancient Egypt, we went to a more modern site - The Citadel of Saladin built in 1184 AD. The Mosque of Mohamad Ali was built much later in 1828 AD.

This old mosque was very grand!

You had to remove your shoes before entering this inner courtyard and the marble felt so nice and cool on our feet! :)

Arabic translation: "Mohammed, the messenger of God"

If you look carefully in the background, you can see a long line of boys who were in the middle of their prayers inside the mosque.

The view from the Citadel walls overlooking all of Cairo....no wonder Saladin built it up here on the hill! No one would be able to invade without being seen first!

We took this pic specifically for our girls we teach as this is a very special and significant mosque in their religion! :) We "heart" you, girls!! :)

From Cairo we flew to Amman, Jordan for more adventures in Petra, Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea! More posts coming soon...

Egypt: Part 2- Hot Air Balloon Adventure and Hatshepsut Temple

2010-11-28T03:23:00.000-08:00

Sunrise from a hot air balloon!

We had an incredible opportunity to take a hot air balloon ride to watch the sun rise over the Nile and Luxor Valley. We figured that we may never get a chance to do this again, so why not!? It required us getting up at 3:30am in order to be on the bus by 4am. Yeah, you can only imagine as we are both non-morning people....LOL! Here we are on the sketchy bus......we look more awake than we thought we would at 4 in the morning! ;)

Sleepyheads at 4am....

Once on the bus, we drove around Luxor picking up other people from various hotels. We then drove to the shore of the Nile where we boarded a river ferry to cross over to the east side. We had to wear these life preservers and were served tea/coffee and twinkies. LOL

Starting to wake up...

It was an eery looking landscape when we first arrived because it was still very dark and these large mounds were silouheted against the lightening horizon...

This was our balloon.....it looked so cool and was VERY hot standing even this far away!

Balloons starting to inflate...

Me getting really excited for our balloon ride!! :)

Sun is starting to come up...

Up, up and away! Each time a balloon lit up it looked like a giant lightbulb floating in the sky!

Waiting for the sun as we lift off the ground...

The sun is coming! Yes, that is the Nile!

So enough of the sunrise pics......here is what we could see from being up so high! :)

Fields of sesame......that's what those bundles are!

This is the mountain that holds all of the royal tombs......you can see that right beside the road they are doing new excavations on some tombs they had just discovered in the week before we arrived in Egypt!

The Ramesseum which was the Memorial Temple of Ramses II

It's hard to see but at the front of this mountain is Hatshepsut Temple......the morning light makes it seem to blend right into the mountain. The black strip behind it is the Valley of the Kings.

The Nile Valley with the fields of crops.

There seems to be a distinct line between irrigated and non-irrigated land here!

Over the Valley of the Queens...

A fantastic view of the Valley of the Kings.....especially glad we got this as we found out later in the day went we went to it, that no cameras are allowed and our guide wouldn't even let us take pics of the valley when we were driving in it!!!

This is one of my favorite pics of that morning! :)

As our hot air balloon ride was winding down, we passed over a village on the outside edge of the irrigated valley....

Yumm! There's our supper! LOL

As we were flying over you could hear a little boy yelling out "hello" to us from this house!

Our landing spot.......little bit of a rough landing, but once again we were safe and sound on the actual ground! :)

Some pics of the Nile.........such a nice day! :)

Our water taxi...

We drove to the Colossi of Memnon which were built in the 14th century BC and are statues of Amenhotep III. They were the outer guards of Amenhotep III's funerary temple which no longer stands. Oddly enough, I found out that they call them the Colossi of Memnon after King Memnon, but he really has nothing to do with them at all!

From there we went to tour Hatshepsut Temple and the Valley of the Queens and the Valley of the Kings. Hatshepsut's Temple was HUGE! Apparently it was a funerary temple that was built simply to prepare her body for burial......so for a grand total of only 40 days! Some of the painted hieroglyphics and pictures were still pretty bright and we were able to take pictures of them. :) Here are some pics from this temple. :)

On the top level of Hatshepsut's Temple

Looking back down...

Queen Hatshepsut, the only queen to be buried in the Valley of the Kings! :)

Enjoying the beautifully painted hieroglyphics and pictures...:)

We were GREATLY disappointed that when we went to the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens, that we were not allowed to take any pics whatsoever. Ok, inside the tombs I could totally understand as some of them don't even have a protective shield over the striking and still quite bright paintings, but outside and in the valleys themselves!? We wonder if we had a real stickler for a tour guide and if we really could have.....but being polite and rule-abiding Canadians, we did what we were told and respected what the guide told us. We just were quite sad to have no pics from there. :(

We were taking the sleeper train from Luxor to Cairo.....so hung out at the hotel for a few hours before going to the train station. We watched the sunset and it was spectacular! :)

So beautiful!! :)

The Luxor Train Station!

The train station was very sketchy and being the only 2 white girls in the place, we attracted a lot of unwanted attention, so hid behind our bags off to the side of the tracks.

Here comes our train...:)

So they served us mystery meat on the train.......it looked like beef but had the consistency of chicken! :P I told my kids at school about this mystery meat and they all say it was pigeon and seemed to be surprised I wouldn't know that. Hmmmmm, I don't know if that's what it really was, but it was gross and other than the taste test, we didn't eat it! :P

Here is our tiny little sleeper compartment. The seats fold down into one bed and then the second bunk folds down from the top. :) It was pretty cramped, but worked as a great safe place to crash before heading to the Pyramids! :)

And that pretty much sums up Luxor and everything we saw and did there! :) Next post will be on the adventures had in CAIRO! :)

Egypt: Part 1 - Karnak and Luxor Temples

2010-11-25T01:44:00.000-08:00

Kim and I at the airport getting ridiculously excited about flying to Egypt!

This school year has been insane with a packed schedule at school and tutoring during the evenings! But alas, Eid Break FINALLY came and thus I got to embark on my first traveling adventure of this school year --- Egypt and Jordan!

Kimberley and I left for the airport 3 hours before our flight....we were shocked by the amount of people flying out that same night! We stood in a line that stretched OUTSIDE the airport for 30 mins before even getting in the main doors. We kept our elbows up and our feet firmly planted and managed to push our way inside and through security. It turns out over 64,000 people flew out of the airport that night because of the holiday and Hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca)! Our plane was delayed and we ended up getting into Luxor 3 hours late. Thankfully, our ride from the hotel was still waiting and took us safely there. :)

We stayed at the Nefertiti Hotel in Luxor and it was AMAZING! It cost only $30 Canadian per night for a clean and simple room and provided breakfast on the rooftop terrace in the morning. It is located on the edge of the bazaar and right beside Luxor Temple along the Nile. The view was beautiful and the atmosphere fantastic! Ahmed, the manager who's family has owned the hotel for over 60 years, took excellent care of us making sure we had places to go and good guides to take us. He even organized for his friend to drive down from Alexandria and meet our train when it came into Cairo at 5am! ANYWAYS, an excellent hotel that I recommend to EVERYONE who goes to Luxor.....be sure to ask for Ahmed! Here's the rooftop terrace and the view from up there.

This is where we ate breakfast and supper each day with the view of the Nile and the mountains where all the royal tombs are!

A more close up shot of the Nile......

I have so many cool pics to post, so I am going to try and keep the "chatter" from here on, to a minimum so as not to bore you too much! Our first adventure was to go and see Karnak Temple of Thebes. Here are some shots from that visit!

The very large entrance to the Temple lined with ram-headed sphinx!

Some engravings on the stone walls

This random tourist would not get out of my way for a picture, so I had to snap this with him in it! :P

The columns inside the great Hippostyle Hall were HUGE and I found all the carved pictures, cartouches and hieroglyphics fascinating!

One of the only remaining obelisks from the time of Hatshepsut....

The sacred lake in the Temple complex used for sacrificial cleansing.

The sun sets quickly in Egypt.......an outer court view of the complex.

The sun setting!

As we were leaving, the moon was already out!

From Karnak Temple we went to Luxor Temple and even though it was only 3 km away, it was completely dark by the time we got there! I'm thankful I bought this new camera before the trip as the pictures in the lit up temple turned out great! :)

This is the "Avenue of Sphinxes" that runs the 3 km between Karnak and Luxor Temples.

This is the front of Luxor Temple!

The enormous statues of Ramses II at the entrance into the Temple...

As we were walking through the entrance, looking up from the right.......

And the left....

Inside the outer courtyard

This is inside the Court of Ramses II......the tops of the columns are shaped like the buds of a papyrus blossom.

Looking from the Court of Ramses II into the Court of Amenhotep II

This just looked really cool and beautiful with the moon...I tried, but couldn't quite capture the same feeling in the pic!

The walls were covered with various reliefs, here are just a few.

From here we went back to the hotel and went to bed as we had to get up at 3:30am for our sunrise hot air balloon ride! Stay tuned for the next post with those pics! :)

Greece and Crete

2010-10-26T09:49:00.000-07:00

Alright, well this is the final post from my trip with my dad to the Mediterranean in JUNE. That's right, June. I know it has taken me a ridiculous amount of time to get the pictures sorted and the posts published, but my 7 short weeks home to Canada this summer were intensely busy and school start-up this year, ridiculous! It is the end of October and the craziness of school doesn't seem to be easing up any. LOL I have a few cultural posts started and now that this one is finally complete, I can work on those. :)

Our second last port of call was Piraeus, just 7 miles from the ancient city of Athens. We took a bus tour along the coast down to Cape Sounion where the remains of the Temple of Poseidon stand. The legend states that Aegeus, the king of Athens at the time, was watching from the Cape for his son's return from Crete. His son, Theseus, had travelled by ship to the island of Crete to slay the Minotaur (who was half man/half bull) who roamed the famous labrynth of Minos, the King of Crete. Each year Athens sent 7 boys and 7 girls to basically become sacrifices and dinner for the Minotaur. Theseus was determined to kill the beast once and for all so the city could stop sending sacrificial kids! The deal was that on his way back he would fly the white sail to let his father know from a great distance that he had won the battle and come back victorious. Theseus did indeed slay the beast, but forgot to switch flags before he sailed home. As his father saw the ship sailing home with the black flag hoisted, and assuming that his son had been killed, he lept off the cliff to his death on the craggy rocks below.

That would be the Temple of Poseidon on Cape Sounion!

Dad and I on the way up to the Temple of Poseidon. It was quite windy that day! :)

Up close and personal with the Temple

This fat quail looked so funny just hanging out on the ruins.....

Another shot of it...

This would be the lookout point where the king supposedly watched and spotted his son's ship

Looking in another direction.....it's hard to capture the deep blue of the sea and the

vibrant green of the plants......but it was beautiful! :)

Looking from the land side of the Temple, you can see the remains of another

old Temple of Appolo. Just the foundations remain now.

Random pic of a boat on the shore

Ok, from Cape Sounion, we drove back to the city of Athens and drove around looking at some famous sites! Top of our list was the Acropolis and Mars Hill. I didn't realize until I was there, but "The Acropolis" actually refers to the hill on which the Parthenon stands. "Acro" means "high" and "polis" means "city"! The cool temple at the top is the Parthenon.

The pollution in Athens made the air pretty hazy, but if you peer closely, you can see the Acropolis in the distance. :)

Can't remember what they said this was, but thought it looked cool and managed to snap a clear pic from the bus window...

Cool sign in Greek, again no idea what it says! LOL!

At the bottom of the Acropolis with the Parthenon at the top! :) It was 46 degrees celsius at the bottom and over 50 degrees at the top that day.

The Parthenon! :) So cool to actually be there to see it in person!!!

Dad and I and our classic tourist pic to prove we were there! :)

As you can see, the Parthenon in all its splendor.....marble blocks, enormous ridged columns and rebar? LOL, yeah they were working on restoring it while we were there.

The Erechthion - another structure atop the hill

The caryatids (maidens)

The view from atop the Acropolis, was beautiful as you could get a 360 degree view of the city!

That would be Mount Lycobettos in the distance with the National Gardens below it.

You can see the Temple of Zeus down below......it had finally been completed
in 125AD, 638 years after the first building had begun! These enormous columns are
all that remain of the original 104.

This is the ancient theatre of Herod Atticus. Although it was built in 161AD, it is still used today for theatrical performances and concerts. I would love to see that! :)

Dead centre and below is the Thission......an old temple built in 449BC

Nothing like an ice cold Coke after traipsing around the Acropolis for an hour
in the +50 degree heat!

Looking down in one direction from the Acropolis, you can see Mars Hill below. The Apostle Paul spoke to the people of Athens about the Unknown God (Acts17) from atop this chunk of rock. :) This was a spot Dad especially looked forward to seeing. :)

Mars Hill.....also known as Aereopagus

Climbing the steps up to the top!

Dad standing where Paul would have stood when preaching to the crowds. :)

The view of the Acropolis, looking up from Mars Hill

Final stop - CRETE! We were only in port for a few hours, so it was pretty unexciting. LOL We walked around and saw what we could. Here are a few pictures we managed to snap of the port town of Heraklion.

Some cool looking volcanic island on the way there.....

This would be pulling into the port with all the container loaders.

Looking down the main street, back towards the sea!

A quiet street in the market

I liked how the harbour was right along on of the main streets......you can see the arches of the very old arsenal in the background

A better shot of the old arsenal, moped and all! LOL

The old Venetian Koules Fortress built to protect the harbour.

What's left of the old emblem of Venice on the side of the fortress!

A cute, little old man feeding the birds.....

The Fontana Morosini built by the Venetians in the middle of Lion's Square. Apparently at one time during the 9th/10th centuries, this square was the largest slave market in all of the Eastern Mediterranean!

This is the 16th century Monestary of Vrondissi.

That is it! All posts from all the amazing places we visited during our time in the Mediterranean have been posted! I had the time of my life exploring this part of the world with my dad. :) Love you, Dad!!!! :) xo

I'm off to Egypt and Jordan in 15 days, so hopefully once I buy a new camera to replace my now broken one, I will be able to take and post some pics of my next traveling adventure! :) Stay tuned for some more cultural posts in the next few weeks as well. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!! :)

2010-10-11T04:02:00.000-07:00

Thanksgiving in Kuwait, October 11th, 2010

"In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God"

I Thessalonians 5:18

Today is Canadian Thanksgiving! Although I may be far from home, friends and family have definitely been on my mind today. I am truly thankful for the people God has placed in my life both in Kuwait and back home in Canada. I am thankful for the emails, phone calls and notes of love and encouragement that have been sent my way since coming back over here for another year. I am thankful for the blessings God has given me while I've been living in the Middle East - the new perspective on cultures, the understanding/use of a new language, the love for my "kids", and the surreal traveling experiences! My heart feels full as I reflect on all the things I have to be thankful for. :)

As for some good ol' traditional food this year......I discovered a pumpkin a couple weeks ago in the grocery story and snagged it right away. You may remember my blog post last Thanksgiving when I couldn't find a pumpkin at all (fresh or canned) and ended up being given one in a Prada paper bag after a student hunted one down for me in the southern part of the country. ;) Anyways, I did manage to find one this year, so after successfully scouring the stores here for the ingredients to make pastry, I figured if nothing else, we would add fresh homemade pumpkin pie to our feast of yams this year! LOL

In preparation for as close to a Thanksgiving meal as we can get over here, I made my sister-in-law's special cheesy yams dish (the ONLY way I will actually eat this root vegetable) and my mom's homemade pumpkin pie. Gillian brought a KD chicken (you get them already roasted for only 1 KD and they put them on a plate with fries and a piece of flatbread) and some stovetop stuffing, and we added some Middle Eastern flair with falafal, hummous and flatbread. All together, we made ourselves a Canadian Thanksgiving feast......Kuwait-style! ;) Sure beats the tea and yams we had last year! LOL

Here's all the food we pieced together....falafal, roast chicken, pumpkin pie, stuffing, chessy yams, hummous and flatbread! It was sooooo good, especially after such a crazy day at school! :)

Last Thanksgiving.......Gillian and I with our tea and yams.

This Thanksgiving.....much happier with real pumpkin pie! LOL

Yay for pie and the self-timer on my camera!

I was talking to my students today about our tradition of Thanksgiving and we were discussing things that we were thankful for. They suggested some of the more common things: friends, family, health, parents, education. However, I had to laugh at some of their other ones: Chuck Taylor's (shoes), mobiles, internet, hands and feet, having a brain, Joaquin and River Phoenix , The Avenues (a big mall in Kuwait). They had to trace their hand, write the top 5 things they are thankful for and colour it a "fall" colour. I took them all and taped them up onto the wall to make our "Tree of Thanks". :) It doesn't look like it, but there are over 100 hands up there! It was neat to read all the different things they were truly thankful for. :)

They also decided that they wanted to get my family on Skype, to wish them a Happy Thanksgiving. It was the middle of the night back in Canada, so we recorded it on my computer instead. LOL Here's their message! :)

So from all my "kids" and I, to everyone back home......HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!