Random August Happenings

Meet our nieces, Sarah and Suzanne. They stayed with us for the month of August, which flew by as we kept them quite busy. Among the sightseeing and getting busted for sneaking gum into the country they also got to experience the joys of UHT boxed milk and living in a condo the size of their kitchen. Seriously, their kitchen is about 200 sq feet smaller than our place. Like I feared, Kitty the fish promptly died the day after they left. The others will probably follow suit. This and the pictures below are at the Bird Park. We'd never visited it before so it was fun to make a trip there.

This was a dark and cold arctic room that provided a nice break from a very hot day.

You can feed some of the birds like you can the animals at the zoo. We were close by Sarah and Suzanne took the photo. Samara and I weren't quite as brave. The little cup was full of live worms and one jumped down my shirt so I screamed and then Samara screamed and then we threw our worms on the ground for the birds to eat.

I think we'll stick to zoo animals like the kangaroo.

The owls are also housed in a dark room and were beautiful.

Suzanne also loves photography so I stole this picture from her because I loved it. There are flamingos at the zoo as well, but they're not as cool as these ones.

Samara and I were sitting on the tram by this lady who picked her right up. Samara normally flips out when people do this (yes, it is a regular occurrence) but it didn't bother her this time so we had to get a photo.

This isn't the most exciting photo but I'd seen these monks at the bird show and noticed their sandals looked a lot like chacos. When we walked past them I asked if Samara could be in a photo with them but then someone else had the same idea so that's why the others are turned around.

Another place we made it too that we hadn't been before was Palau Ubin. It's a little island that's just a 10-minute, $3.50 bumboat ride off the east coast. It seemed similar to where we'd visited in Thailand and sort of felt like going back in time. We rented bikes but they were NOT $2. The $6 ones we rented were worth about that at a garage sale so I guess it's a good thing that they "no, no don't have don't have any bikes for $2". The question was answered in a tone that suggested we were crazy for thinking the bike rental was $2.

Samara quite enjoyed the ride and was the only one not swimming in sweat.

On the boat ride back--so cute!

This is a dirt barge that we saw on the way back. From what we understand, this is dirt they take from digging the underground MRT lines that they then use to build up the island.

Can you guess what the girls' favorite place was that we visited twice....the turtle museum. It took them about two months to make our membership card (Ben's convinced we are the only people ever to get one). We've been elevated to celebrity status though. Both times we went the owner came out to visit with us and let us feed cucumbers to the bigger turtles. We were the envy of all the other visitors. Maybe I should tell them about the membership and see if I can get a cut of it.

A beautiful sunset. We love our view!

A lovely full moon that I was able to get some shots of bright and early. I've woken up at between 5:00 and 5:30 AM regularly since moving here and can rarely fall back asleep. It stinks. I wonder if jet lag is supposed to last 8 months. Now, it's late and Ben finished his book so I best be off to bed. There are a couple more posts to come about Tioman and then I'm all caught up.