December in Hong Kong

December has been a pretty amazing month for us, well - especially for me I think. First I had two classes that had to put on some kind of Christmas performance. Where to begin? I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't grow up in Sunday school and I hadn't ever participated in a Nativity play but here I was doing it. And the kids - they are 4 and 5 - what are they able to do? I gave it to God - it's His story and wow weren't those kids amazing! I wrote a script for the nativity play and taught the kids their parts. Thankfully they practiced a lot with their parents at home because when the time came they knew their stuff. I taught them three songs - a cute hip version of Joy to the World, Christmas is a Time (for Love) and Wasn't That a Mighty Day? I made up motions and taught them and they loved it. We practiced in small groups, whole groups and finally in the multi-purpose room. Luckily all the classes were sharing the set so I didn't have to worry much about that. And it was so great, those kids really shined and did beyond what I thought we were capable of. Isn't that how God works? And through the whole experience I gained an insight into this beloved Christmas story. It wasn't just a story but a revelation of love. Wow. That same week I had two concerts of my own. I joined the Hong Kong Community Wind Band just a month before and had a lot of catching up to do to be ready for these concerts but somehow it worked out. I am definitely rusty but it all came together and it was fun. I am posting videos but not on here. It take too long to upload and keeps failing. We are a volunteer band of teachers and a few people from the community led by Mike Ross who teaches band here at ICS. He's great. The first concert was here at our school. The second was at the Hong Kong Arts Center. They do outdoor concerts and we were the first to play that night. So cool. Don't mind Ernie's commentary or singing. :) We were in the middle of our cold snap that night and it was a little hard to play but fun nevertheless. We resume in February.

Ernie and I have been taking the opportunity to relax and explore a bit this week we've been off. We have seen so many neat things around our community. We took a looonnng walk the other night and saw a group of people singing karaoke and dancing by the water near this little park. Chinese country - I have no words to explain that. But some of the songs were good and the dancing was neat. Then we found this neat park with a waterfall and bridges and coy and goldfish. It was beautiful. We saw green astro turf shadows in another park - some art project. That was cool. The Christmas lights reflecting off the water was magical and the temperature was wonderful. We've discovered new restaurants and had fun shopping for various things. We went to the racetrack last night which is huge here. It was so fun to watch the beautiful horses run and the Asian people drink 10 cups of tea. LOL! Finding places is never easy here but somehow we always end up where we intended to go and we always get home so we count it all as good! There's always so much going on here. This morning Ernie saw ladies doing their Tai Chi group with fans when he went to the store. And tonight was the most special of all. We went to the Christmas Eve service at our church and it was packed! I made a new friend named Brittney who is from Texas and lives right by where I work! We exchanged numbers. I think she's a kindred spirit. Then we sang carols and partook in the Lord's Supper and then the lights went out and we lit candles and sang Silent Night and Oh Come All Ye Faithful all holding our candles up as lights in a dark world and it was so amazing! After the service we went out for a bite and there were all kinds of groups we saw gathered caroling and sharing on the way home. It was so awesome to see. And I'm not feeling homesick. Don't get me wrong - I miss my family and friends very much during this time when we always spend special time together but I feel peaceful. I've done everything that is important to me and we have two potluck Christmas dinners to go to with friends tomorrow on Christmas and the day after Christmas. We are not alone and we are in Hong Kong so that just makes it cool. The presents are wrapped and under the tree and we are ready. Happy Birthday Jesus and thank you for the most amazing gift of love - the best gift on this Christmas day. We wish everyone the Merriest of Christmases! We love you!

Our trip to Paradise

We left for Koh Samui, Thailand on Tuesday, November 23rd 2010. We walked down to the bus terminal on a sunny Hong Kong afternoon. It was so nice to be on vacation when normally we'd be working. We like our jobs but it's always nice to take a break! We took the Airport Express bus and it was pretty empty at that time so we had space. It was about a 45 minute ride to the airport from where we live. Then we arrived at the airport but our airline wasn't open until 4pm and it was somewhere around 3. So we wandered the airport and had some lunch and hung out until it was time to check in. Checking in was smooth and then we boarded our flight on Bangkok Airways - Asia's "Boutique" airline - whatever that means. I never thought I'd fly on Bangkok Airways - how cool. Security was slightly easier than when we flew last in the U.S. We still had to bag our liquids etc. but we didn't have to take our shoes off. The flight was smooth and they feed you well. It was an almost 3 hour flight to Koh Samui - direct. I read and journaled and just relaxed. When we flew into Koh Samui it was about 7:30 pm or so. They are a hour behind Hong Kong time so however it works out. It was dark so we couldn't see much but the airport was all outdoors in little grass covered hut buildings. I guess it's won awards. It was really neat to see it in the daytime when we left. Immigration was easy and our bag was ready and then our resort picked us up in a nice SUV. That's when the vacation really starts. We were given cold scented towels that smelled like lime sort of. The driver told us that we had about a 30 minute drive to the resort so we just settled in and looked around. My very first thought was I'm on the travel channel. You see, Koh Samui is a beautiful Island but areas are very poor and there was street food and stalls for selling to the tourists. We wound through what seemed like side streets. Not unlike Mexico but still different. A lot of people ride mo-peds there. But then we got on a nice two lane highway that twisted and curved for a bit. Shops and the like were a bit nicer at that point. Then we turned off on a side road and traveled that for a few minutes. Our resort - The Renaisssance Resort and Spa by Marriot - was quite tucked away.

When we arrived we were escorted in to the front desk and our bag was brought in (we brought just one of our really large luggage duffels). The lobby was just soooo beautiful I was in awe. We were given more towels, mini flower lei things and lemon tea on a tray with flowers. We checked in and were upgraded from our garden view deluxe room to an ocean view and given the "honeymoon" treatment. We were taken to our room and the nice lady showed us around. When we opened the door we were greeted by two swan towel animals that made a heart with scattered rose petals on them. It was beautiful. Our room had a very large beyond king size bed, and the a beautiful balcony and an outdoor jacuzzi tub and separate shower and bathroom stalls. There was scented oil burning throughout the resort and in our room. It was so beautiful and romantic and pampering. I cannot even begin to express how well we were treated from the moment we arrived. We were treated like royalty. And we did our best to show our appreciation. The lady that checked us in and who we saw throughout the week told Ernie as we checked out that we should come teach there because we were so nice. :)

We decided to explore a little after we got settled and so we walked down to the beach but it was so dark we couldn't see anything. Still it was exciting. All the paths seemed to have lots of plants and it seemed so confusing. We stopped at the bar and Ernie had a coke and I had a Perrier and we called it a night. We fell asleep to the sounds of the frogs in the little pond.


The next morning we woke up to the amazing view outside our sliding glass doors. We had two chairs and a little table/footrest on our balcony on the fourth floor and palm trees and flowering tropical vegetation and beyond that the ocean. It was so amazing to wake up every morning and see that. When I stepped outside it smelled like flowers. We threw on some clothes and went to check out the complimentary breakfast which was unbelievable! We had an ocean view table for two and they pull the chair out for you and put the napkin in your lap and then they took our orders for coffee and then we went inside and partook of the amazing buffet of food. Also there are two cooks who will make you fancy pancakes or eggs or whatever. It was so good! Fresh fruit juices like watermelon, pineapple etc. And the coffee was really, really good. We ate and played with our new camera. Then we headed back to the room where we waited out a quick rain shower. Everywhere we went people did the little head bow, hands like they are praying. It was so neat. Then it was sunny for a while so we hung out at the pool. The pool and beach are right there together so it's so amazing to just be. I had another cup of coffee and then put my swimsuit on. The air is such a perfect temperature that I was never cold at all and in fact it was quite hot in the direct sun. When the spa opened at 10 I made an appointment for a 90 minute massage at noon. :) They had a deal where if you bought $10,000 Thai Bahts in credit at the resort you actually got $15,000 to spend so that ended up being the best thing we could've done (keep in mind it's $28 Thai Bahts for every U.S. dollar approx). The only catch to that was if you didn't spend it all you didn't get it back but it worked perfectly for us. Some things we paid in cash but we could just sign room 409 and they deducted it from the credit and we could get a daily balance. It was so handy. We of course spent more then that on our vacation but it was mostly for the spa.

I am not going to go day by day but I will share the highlights. Every night we had a romantic candelight dinner. The first night we ate at the Banana Leaf restaurant at our resort that had all you can eat Thai food. It was so good. We had appetizers and Ernie got a rice dish served in a pineapple and my rice came wrapped in a banana leaf. So cool! I had some froofy cocktails which I'm convinced didn't have any alcohol in them anyway but were so good. Ernie tried a local beer called Singha. Or something like that. The second night we had dinner with a Greek couple from Athens that we met on our elephant trek (I'll get to that) and we went to the TawaNN restaurant at our resort. They had Angus beef night and I had a tenderloin cooked to perfection with bernaise sauce. Ernie had ribeye. It was soooooo good. They served free flowing wine from Africa. It was yummy with dinner and the company was great!!! Friday night we had Thai curry back at the Banana Leaf and I had a whole fried sea bass with red curry paste and because I didn't know which of the five rices to try they brought me a plate with a little of each. They were so nice!!! The final night :( we had dinner back at TawaNN for Phuket Lobster night. I had a lobster stir fry and Ernie had steak again. Every dinner was amazing and to sit outside near the ocean with candlelight and great service - sigh. Now I know how the other half lives.

I also had a spa treatment every day. The first day was the 90 min Aroma Fusion massage. The second day was a 60 min Island Fusion massage, the third day I had an after sun body wrap and a moisture surge facial and the last day I had the most amazing thing - I had an inroom bath. See you can order a bath (I ordered the dream bath) and then two women came to the room and prepared it. It took like 40 min. and I couldn't look. Then when I saw it - well pictures will speak more than my words. There was like this mineral stuff in the water that tingled and it was so relaxing. It was amazing that I could take baths outside and not be cold. Ernie also had a massage and some other treatments. I was a total regular! :) I LOVED it. Before your treatment they'd give you cold lemongrass tea with honey and a scented cold towel. After your treatment you'd get another towel and hot tea with dried mango to eat.




Okay, for wild adventures we had a few! I'll start with the most tame - our resort had kayaks and so we kayaked around our area a couple different times. The ocean was gentle and it was fun! On Thursday we decided to ride an elephant through the jungle. Why not right? It was CRAZY! At 9:00 this safari place picked us and the couple from Greece up and then a few more people and brought us to their "place." We chatted with the couple from Greece and that's how we met. The Safari place was crazy. They have all kinds of shows there - reptile shows and you can feed baby tigers and they have zip lines etc. We chose the elephant thing. You sit in a seat high up on the elephants back and there's a "driver." I have to say that riding an elephant that high up as it makes it's way down a slippery jungle trail by the water is pretty scary! But it was an amazing experience. Our elephant was named something that sounded like Sumchai or Somchoi. Something like that. He was 14 - so young. We bought bananas to feed him and he could smell them so every now and again he'd put his trunk back toward us to give him another. Both Ernie and I got to actually ride him sitting on his neck. We saw other animals along the way and a village too. It was so cool. The other crazy thing we did (okay well it was crazy for me) was rent a mo-ped for the day. It was only $7 U.S. for the whole day! For gas you stop at a stand and buy a glass bottle which is one gallon of gas and they put it in for you. It was crazy. So for about $10-11 for the day we had transportation all over the island. Ernie drove and I rode on back. He's done it before so I just hung on for dear life! There's about a million other people riding mo-peds and cars and trucks and huge potholes. I was pretty terrified at first and then I settled into a calmer acceptance. We found a Starbucks and I just had to laugh. No matter where I go there it is! My stomach was in no position to consume anything though! Then we went to the fishermans wharf and the big buddha. That was crazy. From an artistic standpoint it was amazing. From a spiritual standpoint it was sad for me. All these people spending so much money on "religious supplies" (they had all sorts of stands) and trying to earn their way to heaven by doing all these weird rituals was a bit unnerving and all these weird monk guys too. It reminded me of the golden calf in the bible. Anyway, it was interesting to see I guess. Then we decided to head back. We went to the big Lamai beach and walked around. Different crowd then our resort. I loved our resort. It had everything we needed and every inch of it was a work of art and landscaping. I loved how it smelled, how the people treated us and how amazing everything was. We got back and ordered room service and took a nap!

We did spend our share of time at the beach/pool. We had fantastic weather - clear, sunny and hot. I layed on the cushiony adjustable beach chairs sometimes in the sun and sometimes in the shade and read my books and swam in the ocean or the pool and just relaxed. Ernie and I built a sandcastle and I built a face and then we watched the tide take them. We got pizza served to us right there on the beach and anything we wanted to drink. Mostly we did that for lunch or room service before a nap.

At night we'd get little packets of different kinds of dried fruit with our turndown service as we were enjoying leisurely 2-3 hour candelight dinners. In the daytime we saw turquoise water and green coconut palms and white beaches. Are you jealous yet? Seriously I'm jealous of myself! Usually on a vacation when it's time to go I'm ready. But not this time. I wanted to stay so bad!!!It rained the morning we left a few times and that helped a tiny bit. It was the most relaxing, pampering vacation I've ever had. It really didn't cost very much either - even though it seemed like it should have.
Now I'm back in Hong Kong trying to make the adjustment from a total summer feeling to Christmas. It's weird. I would recommend that resort to anyone in the future and I hope to go back someday. I will post a photo album hopefully in the next few days because we have more even cooler pictures. Thanks for reading!