Continue reading »]]> And now for something completely different…..

About two years ago I was on a voluntary simplicity kick.  I read every book in our library about the subject and I incorporated a lot of the things I learned into our daily lives.  One of the the ideas I incorporated was going No-Poo, as in, I stopped using shampoo.  This lasted for about a year until I found a beautiful, natural, shampoo bar that I fell in love with.  I packed a bunch of those shampoo bars for Asia but once we ran out I went back to using shampoo.  Now that we are home I am re-focused on eliminating unnecessary products in our lives and I have kicked shampoo to the curb once again.

It is possible to stop using shampoo completely without replacing the shampoo with anything other than water.  Since your hair is used to being completely stripped of all of its natural oils every time you use shampoo, your hair constantly overproduces oils.  Once you stop stripping your hair, the oil production will level off to a level that won’t make you look like a grease ball.  This can take a month or more so you are going to look greasy in the adjustment phase.

While some people swear by using no products at all on their hair, I found that even after the adjustment phase my hair looked “blah.”  So I now prescribe to my own hair washing routine.

My hair washing routine:

I’ve opted to replace my shampoo with a two part system.

I mix about two tablespoons of baking soda in two cups of water and use this mixture instead of shampoo.  I give the mixture a shake before pouring about 1/4 cup into my hair.  I then scrub my scalp thoroughly and rinse.  The baking soda absorbs the oils and dirt and the water washes it away.

Next I use a spray bottle of apple cider vinegar.  I spray about six sprays around my head being very careful not to get it into my eyes.  If you do get it into your eyes your family will come running to see why you are screaming swear words in the shower!  The apple cider vinegar cleans off any build up in your hair and gives you some shine.  Don’t worry, you won’t smell like a pickle!

Although I shower every day I only do this routine every second day.  On the alternating days I give my hair a scrub using only water.

Short hair vs long hair:

Yes, I do have very short hair which may or may not play a part in how well this works.  When I followed this routine two years ago I had a shoulder length bob and it worked fine then too.  I can’t say how it would work with long hair but hair is hair right?

My lovely head of hair that hasn’t seen shampoo for two months.

Reasons to cut out shampoo:

• There is a whole lot of crap in shampoo.  From endocrine mimickers to carcinogens, shampoo is filled with chemicals.  Even most of the  the “natural” shampoos contain some version of Sodium Lauryl Sulphate.  One of my favourite books on the chemicals we add to our body is “Slow Death By Rubber Duck”.  See if your library has it!
• Everything you wash down the drain eventually makes its way into our ecosystem.  The more we simplify our product intake the better it is for our environment.
• Shampoo is expensive.  Save your money for something else, like a block of really nice cheese!

Have you given up a particular beauty product and were you satisfied with the results?

Continue reading »]]> I was chatting to a friend the other day about our lifestyle.  The usual stuff that I chat on this blog about….homeschooling, traveling, becoming more self-sufficient.   She commented to me about how impressed she was, that I had sacrificed so much for this lifestyle.  I nodded and agreed, not having time to form an opinion on the matter.

I knew what she meant by this well-meaning comment.  I’ve sacrificed a life outside the home.  I’ve sacrificed pursuing my interests.  I’ve sacrificed the feeling of satisfaction one gets from having a career.  I’ve sacrificed the most beautiful feeling of taking time out from being a mother and a house wife and instead having time to be myself without children hanging off of me.  I TOTALLY get it.

But when I started to ask myself the question, “What have I sacrificed for this lifestyle?”  I didn’t have too many answers.

Before I had children I worked in the accounting department of a large company.  I liked my job, I got a good wage and fantastic benefits but I was never passionate about my job.  I didn’t hate going to work but I didn’t love it either.

Once we had children it simply made no sense economically for me to go back to work.  Even with my good wage I would not be earning much above the cost of daycare for two children and the cost of commuting 30 kms to work.  Financially, it made more sense for me to stay at home.  If I had a different career, one that filled me with joy, I may have made a different decision.  But the fact is I have yet to find that one thing I am passionate about that would also earn me a decent living.

When I first became a stay-at-home mom I definitely sacrificed my sense of self and my sense of community.  There were days when Mike would come home from work and I would be so DONE with being a mother I would retreat to the bedroom and cry.  In those early years I had a few good friends that certainly helped to make me more sane but I had yet to find the community that I have now.

Two babies within a year and a half. Busy, busy, busy.

But the kids are older now, its been a long time since they have been attached to my breasts and have needed me every second of the day.  We all have time to do our own thing throughout the day.   Even with our homeschooling I still get time away from them.  I get out to yoga classes a few times a week which really helps to recenter me.  We have family close by (ehem…next door!) and the kids love to go to grandma’s for a day or a weekend, which really helps to recenter Mike and my relationship.  I’ve found the most beautiful community a homeschooling, granola mom could ask for and I feel supported and honoured within it.  No sacrifices there.

Even though I don’t bring in much money into our household I contribute a heck of a lot.  I grow, cook, bake, and preserve much of our own food.  If I can make it from scratch I do and that saves us a huge amount on our grocery bill.  I shop at thrift stores and garage sales for most of our purchases.  Our lifestyle is conducive to saving money so that we can afford to travel.  So even though I don’t have a job, I do.  Even though I don’t get a pay check I still contribute to our income by working hard to make our dollar go further.

Pumpkin from last year’s garden. We still have some in the freezer for baking, pancakes, and soups.

I’m passionate about our lifestyle (can you tell? ) The homeschooling, the travelling, the community bonds, the amazing people we continue to meet, growing our own food, raising our own chickens, renovating our own house, living small so that we can live large.

All of this, everything we do, comes back to our primary passions of travel and letting the world educate our children.  Giving up our dream, that would be the sacrifice.

Exploring in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

What are your thoughts?  Have you felt that you have had to make sacrifices in your own lifestyle design?

Continue reading »]]> My father cannot pass up a good deal.  If he has a need for something, can foresee a need for something in the future, or thinks that maybe one day it might come in handy, he will buy it if the price is right.  That is how our vision of having a dozen hens in our backyard that would supply our two families with a constant supply of fresh eggs turned into our new reality of having NINTY ONE chickens in our backyard and not only supplying our family with fresh eggs but also selling them to our community.  There was a good deal on chickens that my dad just could not pass up!

Yes, we now have 91 chickens free ranging on about an acre in the back half of our property.  We’ve gone from starting a chicken hobby to full on chicken farmers within the space of a few days.  It has been a steep learning curve.  We started with very little knowledge of chickens and now my dad and I have read through numerous books learning the ins and out of raising chickens.  Let me tell you, it is not just a simple matter of waking up to fresh eggs every morning.  Chickens have needs, can develop bad habits, can get infested with pests, and need just the right mixture of food to lay those beautiful eggs.

It was a lot of hard work at first, getting their coop and run set up and learning all the many things we needed to know about chickens. Now, three weeks in, we have a fairly good handle on the situation.  My father and I split up the chores (Mike and my mother just roll their eyes at us because they were never fully on board with the chicken plans).  I fill up the watering pails every morning, collect the eggs a few times a day, wash and store the eggs at the end of the day, and sell the eggs.  My father lets them out of the coop in the morning, fills their feeding pails, cleans their roost, and shuts them back into their coop at night (we have coyotes around!)

So how do I feel about raising all these hens?  I must say, it feels pretty fantastic.  This is the first time I have ever felt a real connection to my food (other than fruits and veggies I have grown).  It FEELS good to go out to grab fresh eggs, it feels good to eat those eggs, and it feels like I am doing a good deed in my community by selling those eggs.  Eggs from happy chickens are the bomb!!!!!

I never want to eat a store bought egg again.  Now that I am learning about what it takes to raise chickens and all of the rules about selling eggs I am beginning to understand that any eggs bought at a super market pale in comparison to farm eggs (literally).  We have figured out that with selling our extra eggs we will just make slightly above what it costs us to raise the chickens.  Basically we are eating free eggs and getting a bit of pocket change.  If someone were to do this as a business you would need thousands of chickens to make it profitable and you would need to cut corners wherever you could.  In my mind I had pictured the chickens laying those “free range” eggs I was paying $5 in the grocery store for as happy chickens frolicking on a farm.  Now I know that “free range” only means they have access to the outdoors.  It does not specify how much outdoors or if they have access to grass.  And if you are raising thousands of chickens to make your business profitable, just how much space could you offer your chickens anyways?

My children have become little chicken farmers.  They race at the chance to take the compost out to feed the chickens, they come with me to collect the eggs, and we have nicknamed Kayden the Chicken Whisperer as he has an amazing ability to get the chickens to stop for him and let him pick them up.  Yes, my youngest son loves to cuddle chickens!  We have hatched our own chicken eggs, had lessons in death (not all of them made it), have watched the baby chicks grow bigger and bigger, learned the skills of a chicken farmer, and have taken a giant step in becoming more self sufficient.

Continue reading »]]> I always get the question, “How do you TEACH your children?”

I never know how to answer.  I stumble and mumble and feel so inarticulate.

I try to explain the philosophy of unschooling but I never do a good job of it.  I don’t think I am convincing anyone.  I try to explain that when my boys are interested in something I help them to pursue the interest.  The Internet is our best tool for learning, as are books, and mentors.

Truth be told, I all too often ask myself if we are doing the right thing.  Not sending our kids to school is such a radical path.  Am I doing them a disservice?  Am I good enough to pull this off?  Am I giving them a well-rounded education or am I just winging it, hoping they turn out all right in the end?

Sometimes I have doubts.  Sometimes I think I need to do more.

But then sometimes my heart and soul burst with pride for my children, for our lifestyle, and for our choices.  Sometimes my children amaze me by their grasp of a concept or their insight into a culture.  Sometimes my self-doubt is slain in a moment where I know that despite any of the parental mistakes we have made we are doing a kick-ass job of raising two amazing human beings.

Today was one of those moments.  Our family sat together at the breakfast table and took turns telling each other about all of the things we have learned in our six months of travel in Asia.  We went round, and round, and round the table, describing our favorite things, our most intense memories, and our most surprising discoveries.

Here is a glimpse into what we have learned about this year:

• We have made friends with some of the most amazing families on the planet.

• We witnessed the majesty of the underwater world.

• We learned about the phases of the moon and the ocean tides.

• We had a first hand encounter with a jellyfish (not a lesson I would wish on anyone!)

• We witnessed bloody self-mutilation at the Vegetarian Festival in Thailand.

• We experienced what it is like to live in a big city.

• We fed hippopotamus at the Chiang Mai Zoo.

• We listened to monks chanting.

• We explored Buddhist temples with respect and curiosity.

• We climbed waterfalls.

• We watched in awe as 10,000 paper lanterns lit the night sky at the Yee Peng Festival.

• We made offerings called Loi Kratrong and sent them floating into the Ping River.

• We visited Lahu and Hmong hill tribe villages and learned about their culture in the home of a shaman.

• We took a boat down the Mekong River into Laos, learning about whirlpools and river life.

• We saw what poverty looks like.

• We watched traditional dancing.

• We played and shopped in the craziness of Bangkok.

• We fed Languor Monkeys.

• We learned about the Japanese invasion of South East Asia during World War II.

• We marveled at the beauty of a simple seashell.

• We explored huge caves, learning about bats, underwater rivers, stalagmites and stalagtites.

• We learned about the layers of the earth, magma, and pressure through seeing a geyser.

• We rode elephants, played with them in the river, and learned about these huge animals.

• We witnessed a thousand cultural differences without prejudice.

• We took part in an Ogoh Ogoh parade on Bali where evil spirits are chased off by monster statues.

• We watched men and women making offerings to spirits every day we were in Bali.

• We ate and enjoyed food that we were unaccustomed to.

• We learned bits and pieces from other languages.

• We rode on buses, planes, trains, songteows, tuk-tuks, bicycles, motorbikes, long-tail boats, subways, skytrains, and taxicabs.

I could go on and on and on, but then this post would get too long!  And for the doubters whom I know are wondering, there was also a whole bunch of reading, writing, and arithmetic mixed in there as well.

The point is, we have learned SO much in our six months of travel, much of which is not even quantifiable.  All of our lives have changed because of the rich and amazing experiences.

How do I teach my children?  The world is their teacher.

Continue reading »]]> At the beginning of the trip I was all gung-ho on keeping track of our expenses and sharing a monthly expense report on this blog.  That lasted all of about one month.  I abandoned it for two reasons:

1. It began to be too much of a chore to keep track of and categorize our expenses.
2. I soon found out that our budget was unrealistic for our family and we decided that for this trip we would travel as we felt comfortable and worry about how much it cost us later.

Maybe that was irresponsible but we did have a fabulous time.  Although I don’t regret any of the things we did or the way we traveled I know I will change a few things in our future travels to keep our costs down to what I view as a more sustainable level.

Before we left on our trip we had a budget in our head of $2000 per month.  This budget was not set in stone and we had room to go over it, it was just what we were hoping we could travel for.  We soon learned that this was an unrealistic budget for our family of four.

We thought that we were hardcore budget travellers, but we are not.  We like comfort.  We like to eat what we want, when we want (there is only so much rice and noodles you can eat before you get sick of it!).  We wanted to do what we wanted to do.  Basically we treated our six months as a vacation instead of as a lifestyle.

Even so, we were still pretty shocked when I ran the final numbers.  We spent double our original budget!!!!

The Numbers:

Our pre trip expenses were $4868.

Our flights within Asia were $2434.

And our costs of living were $20 913.

We traveled for 182 days so basically our daily cost was just under $115 per day.  If you include the costs of our pre-trip expenses and our flights this number goes up to $155 a day for a grand total expense of $28 215.  Wowzers!

Accommodation:

The cheapest place we stayed in was $18 per night and the most expensive place was $125.  Usually we stayed in places that were between $30 and $50 per night.  At $30 per night we would get a very nice, clean room sometimes with a pool.  For fifty dollars a night we would definitely get the pool and breakfast would be included.

Food:

When we were in self contained accommodation we would cook our own breakfast 95% of the time and we would cook lunches or dinners about three to five times a week.  The rest of the time we would eat at restaurants.

When we were traveling (which ended up being exactly half of the time) we would eat breakfast in our rooms maybe 30% of the time and all other meals would be eaten in restaurants.

The costs of meals varied greatly.  We would eat street food for $2 a head, local restaurant food for $3 to $6 a head, and western food for $5 to $8 a head.  Just like at home, adding drinks to your meal becomes quite expensive when you are paying for four people but we did drink A LOT of fruit shakes which would add to our bills.  Fruit shakes can be had on the streets for $1 and in a restaurant for $2.

Flights:

We spent a total of $2434 on flights within Asia.  Could we have done without this?   A few of our flights were completely necessary like our Hong Kong to Penang, Kuala Lumpur to Bali, and Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong.  These distances were too great to go overland.  As for the rest of them (a few within Thailand and from Chiang Mai to Kuala Lumpur) we actually did a cost comparison between taking buses or trains and taking Air Asia flights and the flights actually worked out to be either comparable or cheaper than taking an overland route!

Activities:

We did A LOT in six months time.  We went on road trips, snorkel adventures, elephant rides, and waterfall hikes.  We explored museums and art galleries, royal gardens and wats, festivals and dance performances.  Everything costs money, even if it is just the cost of travel to get there.  We did not limit ourselves, we did the things that we thought would be interesting.

Looking Back (What We Would Do Differently):

There is a lot of freedom in not planning too much in advance but this backfired on us a bit.  We did a lot of backtracking which added a lot to our expenses.  When my parents came we wanted to show them the best of Thailand.  We met them in Bangkok, headed to Southern Thailand, and flew up to Northern Thailand.  All of this was backtracking for us.  Of course I don’t regret any of this, we had an awesome time, but we could have planned it a bit better.

We stayed in accommodation rented by the month for two months of our six month trip.  Next time I think we will try to rent monthly for five or even six months.  Not necessarily in the same place for all of that time but we found renting by the month to be easy and extremely cost effective.  Every time we traveled it cost a whole heck of a lot more money than if we had just chosen somewhere to settle or had stayed stationary longer.  Of course when you do it this way you don’t get to see as much but we actually found that going deeper was much more fun than going wider.  We also found that the kids did much better when we were stationary as opposed to moving around all the time.

And In The End:

In the end I am still pretty shocked about how much this trip actually cost us.  We actually spend slightly less than this per month living at home in Canada even when we had a mortgage!  Next time we plan to travel much slower, concentrating on only one or possibly two countries and treating our six months out as more of a lifestyle and less of a vacation.

If you are planning your own trip and are worried about your budget, check out this break down my friend did on what it cost her family of four to travel for an entire year.

Continue reading »]]> Our first six month Worldschool Adventure has come to a close.  It took us twenty five hours of travel to get back to Canada including airport waiting time.  Again, the kids surprised us with how well they handled the marathon of travel.  Of course we were armed with an iPad and a good selection of movies to keep them occupied.

We have been home for four days now.  Jet lag hit us all pretty hard and for the first few days we were either sleeping, wishing we were sleeping, waking up in the middle of the night, or falling asleep in the middle of the day.  I think we are finally on schedule now. We are all feeling good and are digging in to home life.

We will be living in our motorhome this summer as we renovate the house we bought last year.  Nights are a cool zero degrees Celsius but it actually feels good to be cuddled up under thick blankets after six months of sweating in the tropical heat.

It feels good to be home.

A lot of people talk about reverse culture shock after coming home, so far we have virtually none.  Instead we feel overwhelmingly grateful for everything in our lives.  Things we used to take for granted like having a grocery store full of any food you desire, drinking water out of the taps, comfortable beds, and reliable showers are now things we are taking immense pleasure in.  I’ve done happy dances over dill pickles, weeding the garden, and crisp spring air.  I wonder if our enthusiasm will fade or if six months away every year is just enough time to keep us continuously thankful.

Most of the friends we made in our travels are full-time nomads.  I used to think that was the life I wanted for my family but after our first trial of six months of travel I am confident we have found the lifestyle that is perfect for us.  I love traveling.  I love the adventure, the growth, the learning.  I love how travel changes us, how it broadens our minds, and increases our confidence and sense of self.  I love travel, but I also love having a permanent base.  I love our amazing community.  I love the challenge of living life in a small footprint, growing our own food, and exploring our own backyard.

There is a constant push and pull between the two worlds of nomadic travel and setting down roots and I think we have stumbled upon the perfect balancing act between these two desires.

The next six months will be very busy for us.  We are getting the garden ready for planting, we have decided to get our own chickens (eggs are in the incubator right now!), and we will be renovating our house.  Our hope is to finish renovations before we leave for our next adventure in the fall so that we can rent it out and have some income while we travel.

I’m not sure what form the blog will take for the six months of the year that we are home.  I mean, are people interested in our garden, our chickens, and our renovations? (Please do let me know!)  I do have a few posts lined up in my head about travel…things we would do differently, things that worked for us, the costs of travel etc…

Thank you to everyone who has continued to read our blog, to those who have commented, sent their encouragement, privately emailed, and for those who have followed along silently.  Your interest, encouragement, and friendship have made the time and effort put into this blog worth it ten fold.

If there is something you are aching to know about our travels, let me know in the comments below or shoot me an email by using the contact form.

Continue reading »]]> I do, I do!

When we told our children we might be able to fit Legoland, Malaysia into the tail-end of our trip they were over-the-moon excited.  Now I am not talking, “Yah! That would be cool.” excited. I’m talking jump up and down, hugs all around, tears of joy excited.  Seriously.  Tears of joy!

You see we have two Lego-maniacs on our hands.

Back at home we have A LOT of Lego and our kids play with it pretty much every day for hours at a time.  On this trip the boys have to carry their own toys in their back pack.  Their sacs of Lego are by far the biggest item in their bags and it is what gets played with most.

After their reaction to the news that we might go to Legoland, we knew we had to make it happen.  So we did.

Legoland Malaysia is located outside of Johor Bahru, a big city right on the border to Singapore.  It is actually much easier to get to from Singapore (you could do it in a day trip) but we already had flights booked into and out of Kuala Lumpur.

Buses from Kuala Lumpur to Johor Bahru are frequent but at the last minute we decided to rent a car and make it a road trip instead.  It took us about five hours of freeway driving including a stop for lunch.  The roads are excellent, and Malaysian drivers seem to follow typical road rules much better than their Asian neighbours!

We left our hotel in Johor Bahru in plenty of time for Legoland’s 10am opening but let’s just say my husband did not marry me for my excellent navigation skills.  We got lost.  Twice.  In my defence the highways twist like spaghetti and once you make a wrong turn it is a long time before you can turn around!

Once we finally got to Legoland we put the stress of getting lost behind us and let the excitement begin!  We spent the next eight hours at this 76 acre theme park.  It definitely lived up to expectations for the kids, they had an absolute blast!

I’ve asked the boys what their favourite parts of Legoland were.

This is what they said:

The Rides

Driving school!  The kids got to drive lego cars on a miniature driving course.  Once they completed the course they got their own Lego driver’s licences!  Kayden asked me once he got his licence, “Does this mean I get to drive a real car now?”

One of the favourite rides was an Indiana Jones type ride called Land of Adventure.  We rode through the twisted tunnels where we shot laser guns at mummies and skeletons!

There were three kid friendly roller coasters in Legoland.  This was the first time our boys have ever been on one.  We started with the least intimidating one and continued on to the biggest.  After being quite nervous at first they started to become little adrenaline junkies!

What little boy or girl wouldn’t love a turn at jousting?  Well, not real jousting but this single track slow ride through medieval times at Lego Kingdoms was a definite hit!

Miniland

Miniland was truly amazing!  Replicas of the worlds most famous buildings and cities all made with Lego! You really have to see it to believe it, I just can’t imagine the time it would take to build these!  Legoland has over 50 million Lego bricks inside the park and over 30 million of them are used in Miniland!

Building Lego

What would Legoland be without the opportunity to play Lego?  There were quite a few places within the park where kids get to try their hands at making their own Lego creations.  These were some of my favourite spots because they were in air-conditioned buildings.  It’s hot here!

Legoland is running a promotion right now where if you buy a kids meal at one of the restaurants you get a coupon for a build your own figurine station!  We got to pick through bins full of Lego parts to build our very own mini-figurines and they were ours to keep.  Another cool aspect of this promotion is that if you see a staff member wearing a mini-figurine that you like (they wear a bunch of them on their vests) then you can trade with them!

Legoland Malaysia is a really fun place to come if you have young kids who like Lego.  What I especially loved about it was that it was geared to younger children.  There was only one ride in the whole park that our children where too short to go on, there was tonnes of interaction type rides (40 in total!), a bunch of different playgrounds, and of course everything was Lego!

After our eight hours of fun we were completely exhausted and ready to head back to our hotel.  Remember how I told you we got lost and a bit frustrated on our way to Legoland?  Well, in our frustration Mike forgot to turn off the headlights to our car.  The battery? Completely dead.  Luckily for us we had another run-in with the kindness of strangers and a family stopped to help our stranded, exhausted selves.  Then, once we finally started to make our way back to our hotel, can you guess what we did?  We got lost again!  Um….twice!  If you are driving to Legoland, bring someone with a good sense of direction or better yet, a GPS!

Thank you to Legoland, Malaysia for generously hosting our family.  We had an amazing time and it was an exiting grand finale to our six months in Asia!  We would also like to thank the Legoland staff in parking lot A2 who went over and above the call of duty in helping us find someone to boost our battery and staying to help us until we were mobile again.

Continue reading »]]> We have had a bit of bad luck in the last week….

First we had a motorbike accident.  We were coming down a one way road when a car that was parked on the left hand side pulled out and didn’t see us.  Mike saw the car coming but didn’t have time to react, I didn’t see it until the front right bumper hit my left knee.

My immediate reaction was to make sure everyone else was OK.  Kayden started screaming and crying.  I kept asking him what was hurting but he couldn’t talk through all the crying.  Here I am sitting on the side of the road with a screaming five year old in my arms. The Balinese people are coming out of their shops in droves to make sure we are OK.  One man ran to get ice for us.

Meanwhile the driver of the car is telling Mike that we were speeding (we weren’t) and saying, “You broke my car!”

My knee had, in fact, collided with his bumper at just the right angle to pop off the clips that attach the bumper to the fender.

Mike was losing his cool by this time and retorts, “You broke my family!”

The driver then got into his car and took off!  We learned later that if the police had shown up they almost always side with the tourists so that they don’t have to deal with foreign consulates.

I finally got Kayden to calm down…He was fine.  His foot hurt a bit  but most of the screaming was because the accident was scary!  After I knew Kayden was OK I started to realize I was in pain.  I mean, my knee took off a car bumper!  I then also noticed that my toenail was bloody, my big toe nail had been pulled back a bit.  Then my left hip began to hurt from having my leg pushed so hard.  The adrenaline and my mommy instincts had kept the pain at bay until I knew everyone else was uninjured!

Luckily I was only in pain for that one day.  I spent the rest of our day laying down and having Mike fetch things for me.  By the next day I was doing fine.  We were really lucky that no one suffered any major injuries.

We have been reflecting a lot on how easy accidents can happen and how fragile life is.   In a blink of an eye everything can change.

Our next bit of bad luck happened when we decided to visit Monkey Forest here in Ubud, Bali.  We had avoided going to Monkey Forest because of an incident I had with a grandpa monkey nine years ago where he jumped up on me to steal a bag of chips.  But against our better judgement, we decided to go to Monkey Forest to see the temples. We did not bring any food and we warned the boys about the monkeys and held their hands the whole time.

We had been there about ten minutes, walking through the Indiana Jones like setting, carefully avoiding the monkeys and shaking our heads at the tourists who were feeding the monkeys bananas.  We came around a corner and there was this cute little baby monkey.  Mike got closer to take a picture.  The baby monkey cried out and jumped up a tree and then mama monkey jumped out of the tree to teach Mike a lesson for scaring her baby.  She bit him on his arm, drawing blood.

We left Monkey Forest immediately after that, and Mike made his way to a clinic to get the first of three rabies shots.  Number two he will get in Malaysia, and the last he will get back in Canada.

If you are going to go to Monkey Forest in Ubud, I suggest you..um…don’t!

Hopefully our bad luck has run its course and we will have only fond memories for our last two weeks of travel.  We only have a few more weeks until we fly home to Canada!

Continue reading »]]> Truth be told, Bali was not even on our radar when we started our six month jaunt in South East Asia.

When we were researching where we would like to spend our last month of travels before we head home for the summer, our goal was to find somewhere where we could relax, slow down, and recharge.  I realize how strange that might seem…needing to recharge after five months of travel…but it is true.  As amazing as our travels have been there has also been a lot of work and stress in touring Asia with little kids.

We thought about heading to Malaysia and we considered extending our visas to stay another month in Thailand but neither of those options screamed yes to our souls.  For some reason Bali kept whispering to my heart but every time I checked out what the airfare would be, Bali became an impossibility.  As time ticked on I began to get more and more stressed out over our inability to make a decision and the fact that nothing was calling to us.

With so many airlines in this part of the world flights are readily available to different destinations.  Although I had previously checked flights to Bali numerous times before, I decided to check out the prices of flights using different departure cities. I tried every major city within South East Asia and finally, with only two weeks left to make our decision, I  found cheap flights to Bali from Kuala Lumpur.

As soon as the tickets were bought I felt an immediate sense of relief.  Bali for a month?  The perfect ending to our six months away.

Bali has not disappointed us, although I have to admit we have hardly explored any of it.  We have stationed ourselves in Ubud and pretty much have not left.  There is something about the energy here that is restorative.  It feels good to be here.

More shades of green than you ever knew was possible!

There are statues everywhere!

The food culture is absolutely amazing.  Most of the things we have missed from home like good cheese and whole grain bread are readily available.  There are so many restaurants catering to the health conscious traveler including raw food and vegan restaurants.  My husband, who does not eat dairy, has been mowing down on the most amazing vegan deserts and ice cream.  They serve real salads here, not just some chopped cabbage and grated carrot with mayonnaise on top like we got in Thailand!

Mashed potatoes with coconut crusted tofu.

Raw Pizza.

The boys have been taking ceramic classes, Mike is taking a course on raw chocolate, we attended a tea ceremony where we learned about the “chi” of tea, and the opportunity for learning goes on and on with yoga, kung fu, Qi Gong, cooking classes, raw food classes, meditation and breathing classes, art classes…

A tea ceremony.

Ceramics class.

Art is literally everywhere we look.  Statues and shrines, art galleries, offerings, temples, we see beauty everywhere.  The Balinese people are some of the most genuinely friendly and happy people we have ever met.  The terraced rice fields are simply stunning.  The Hindu culture on Bali is full of ceremony, offerings, and celebration.  It is an amazing place to be.

Offerings left daily in and around our house.

I took this picture of our host’s sister-in-law while I was sitting in our outdoor living room

For the first time in our trip we find ourselves thinking, “We could live here.”

Continue reading »]]> There will be no planes flying into Bali today.  There are no stores open, no restaurants, no gas stations.  There are no people walking in the streets, no motorbikes, no cars.

Today is Nyepi, the Balinese New Year, a day of silence.  All of Bali stops for this day of meditation and introspection.  The most devout Balinese Hindus will not speak, eat, or use electricity today.  If anyone ventures out into the streets, volunteer security guards will send them home.

I’m sitting in our outdoor living room while I write this.  The sound of human life is absent except for my children playing in the bedroom.  The wind rustles the trees, the roosters crow, the dogs bark, the cicadas chirp.

The relative silence of today sits in stark contrast to the drumming, beating, clapping, gonging, whooping, frenzy we witnessed last night……

On the night we arrived on Bali we started to notice large statues being constructed in the village temples.  We soon learned that these statues, called Ogoh Ogoh, were being constructed for Nyepi.  On the eve of the Balinese New Year holy men imbue the statues with evil spirits.  When night falls the statues are carried through the streets, they are shaken up and down, turned round and round, and side to side.  All the while an army of men bang on drums, gongs, and cymbals in an effort to scare the evil spirits.  At the end of the night, what is left of the statues (they are made of styrofoam and fall apart in the jostling) is cremated and it is believed that the evil spirits are then released and have been so scared they will leave the island of Bali.  Just in case that didn’t work and the evil spirits decide to hang around, the next day is The Day of Silence where the Balinese stay home and make no noise.  It is believed that the evil spirits will think Bali has been abandoned and will be so bored they will leave the island.

Yesterday we drove around to the different villages to see all of the different Ogoh Ogoh.  We were amazed at what artists could create out of styrofoam!

We were faced with the choice of heading into Ubud where the celebration would be much bigger but we would be with many other tourists or to stay for the local celebration in the village in which we are staying.  After much back and forth we opted for the village celebration.

Just before sundown our host family began walking around their house compound beating the ground with sticks.  We were then told it was time to go to the temple.  The “parade” of Ogoh Ogoh soon was underway, the statues were carried by young men and boys through the streets while families followed to watch.  We joined in the procession and our family, along with our Australian friends who live down the road, were the only foreigners in attendance.

As the parade went on the frenzy intensified, sometimes we had to jump out of the way to avoid getting hit by the bamboo platforms as the sway and turns of the statues became more and more out of control.  Young men put alcohol in their mouths and blew fire towards the statues and the music became louder and louder as the evening wore on.

The statues began to fall apart from the violent shaking, a hand here, a head there, and every time something fell the crowd would erupt in cheers!

We were told by our hosts that there are usually firecrackers and homemade bamboo rockets that add to the noise but there have been too many injuries so this year they have been banned.  Thank goodness!

We continued on with the crowd for the whole precession which lasted about an hour and a half.  Once we returned back to the temple the crowd began to disperse and we took our cue to go home.  By then the children were exhausted from the excitement of the evening.

It was one of the most amazing, interesting, and culturally broadening experiences we have had on our trip.  Now “Ogoh Ogoh” will be a household name in our family!