the other end of indonesia...

so we are back in indonesia, but this time on the other end. pulau weh, the most north-western tip of the indonesian islands. our trip here was uneventful really, we took a taxi from the hotel in k.l. to the airport. we had a hard time at the boarding gate getting on the flight as the people were already lined up for the next flight and would not let those of us flying to bandeh aceh through. really odd mentality. anyway, then when we finally got on the right plane, we had a nice flight, thomas and zoe stretched out in one row and me in another. we had a bit of a wait to get through immigration, but finally it was our turn. we had somehow ended up last in the queue. they were really friendly and even told our taxi driver for us that we needed to stop at an atm as we had no rupiah. so we hopped in a taxi and headed to the town. it was a surprisingly long ride, we drove through some gorgeous countryside for about 45 minutes in a very fancy suv for only $7. arrived at a hotel, dropped the bags and headed out for a walk about. ate some gado gado, and asked about a million different people when the ferry went the next morning. funny enough, not a single person answered the same time. went back to the room where we realized there was a horrible mold smell that thomas was already having an allergy to. we asked to change rooms, but they were all the same. so we were stuck there, luckily it was only for one night. the next day we took a taxi to the ferry, which we guess went at 1100, as the website and the travel agent had said, but no, it was not until 1400, so we had a bit of a wait. apparently we were not the only ones who had been misinformed. two swedes ended up waiting almost as long. after talking to them a bit, it turned out they were heading to pulau weh to do their dive course, and as it turns out, they would prefer to do it in swedish. so when we turned up, we asked the diveschool here, and they said no problem. great! zoe entertaining us all with papa's sunglasses while waiting for the ferry.

stopping on the road to iboih to feed the monkeys.

lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

today it was the national zoo on the agenda. after seeing all the birds yesterday, zoe still managed to have the energy to get excited about all the animals. here she is with the giraffes. there were all kinds of animals. even bengali tigers! zoe and pappa decided to crawl into a banyan tree. thought this was a really cute pic of them.
so i am sure you have noticed that my posts are often posted long after the actually entry. that is due the lack of internet while traveling. and now finally i am all caught up again. only, we are about to leave for the airport and fly to northern sumatra where internet might be hit or miss again. so much for finally catching up, only to fall behind again. but i do try and be faithful and write the entries on the computer to be uploaded when the internet decides to pop up. so this could be it for awhile again. hope you are all well and we will be in touch.

a day with the birds

today we went to the k.l. bird park. it was a really fun day. not only zoe, but mamma and pappa also had a great time checking out all the different birds. there were tons and tons and tons. all different kinds, many of which we had not seen before. so the hostel where we are staying said it was a short walk there. he neglated to say you had to walk all the way around the bird park to get to the entrance so in 35C heat, we walked and we walked and we walked. but we finally made it, and promised ourselves the luxury of a taxi back to chinatown. the walk was so hot and zoe had been so good that she got her own ice cream. she has become a huge ice cream fan lately. but that might be because mamma and pappa bribe her with it a lot now that she has no more binkies. the receptionist at the hotel ate one and farfar took the other one back to sweden (wink, wink), so she has been without for 3 days now. last night was the first decent sleep for all of us. there is a light at the end of the tunnel. so back to the bird park, there were a lot of birds just wandering around the park, zoe found the peacocks fascinating, though they did not really appreciate her chasing them!
there was also a silly bird show where the birds rode bicycles and did simple math, and other things, it was rather amusing, but i personally prefer to watch them in more natural behavior. there was also a foto booth so we had to get a family pic with all the birds.

it was a really fun day, and we kept thinking how much farmor and farfar would have enjoyed seeing all the birds.

swimming pools and chinese acrobats

it is very amusing that zoe is a bit of tourist attraction here in k.l., as she was in indonesia. i do not know how many people are going home with pics of her on there cellphones and cameras. i have even seen a lot of people taking "sneak" fotos of her with their cellphones. this group of girls was a bit more forthcoming, and asked to take a group pic with her.so it was a hot day and we found ourselves all alone without the rest of the thorens, so we thought we would head out to a mall and look for a bcd for thomas, but zoe started quite early with "me badda i poole" (translated from zoe language, this means i want to go swimming in the pool). so we decided to skip the mall and head to the free kiddie pools down by the petronas tours. it was nice and cooling, though there were two guards on duty that whistled constantly at people. if you did not have kids you could not be there, no shoes, no standing over there, no swimming without a shirt (thomas got the whistle on that one), no laying down on the benches (thomas got that one too). but all in all zoe got her swimming in, and we got to cool down.
so, after the swim, we changed our minds and went to the mid valley mall anyway. which ended up being a good choice even though there were no good bcds for thomas, as there was lots of free entertainment. there was a group of acrobats from china that put on a really cool show in the middle of the mall in celebration of the chinese new year. it was pretty crazy seeing these two fly around in a mall from some hanging fabric...
then there was hopping and jumping and pyramid building...
it was lots of fun to watch and zoe was laughing and clapping along with everyone else. it was very cute. after the show, zoe decided to get up on stage and do her own little show. that is until the guard made her give up the act!

last day with farmor and farfar...

so we decided to treat ourselves to the k.l. aquarium today, they had so many fish! i got in trouble a few times, cause i kept stopping to take pictures and the rest of the family started getting a little tired of waiting for me.but then we came to the tunnel. i could have stayed in there all day, it was so amazing. we had huge sharks and rays and napolean wrasses and well you name it, swimming around us. of course on the one good family shot i got in the tunnel (the lighting was very challenging) there were no big fish swimming by at the moment. but trust me, there were lots.
still cannot believe all the things we saw, it was about what i could see if i went diving 1000+ times and was really lucky! then there were the seahorses! okay, so i felt sorry for them as there were quite a few living in such small tanks, but at the same time, it must have been nice for them to not have any predators. so i have to put up a picture of one of the little guys.
we had lunch at the central market and then treated ourselves to a foot massage while zoe took a little nap. then it was back to the hotel for final packing and then sadly it was time to give a warm send off to farmor and farfar. safe travels!

checking out the big city

so now we are in the big city doing big city things. of course high on the priority list was shopping, so anita could get some last minute presents, and there just happened to be a big pool of doctor fish. lars and thomas were brave enough to actually try it. thomas could not stop laughing for the first couple of minutes, apparently it really tickled.then we headed over to the petronas twin towers, the tallest twin buildings in the world. after listening to basically a big comercial about petronas, they let us ride up on the elevator and spend 10 minutes checking out the views from the bridge the connects the two towers. it was a
pretty cool view.


we ended the day with a tasty dinner in a steak house (no, i did not eat steak). tomorrow is farmor and farfar's last day. we are going to miss them.

good bye bunaken, it was a blast...

today we left bunaken village. it was not an easy thing to do, we had had such a great time there, though we are looking forward to being able to properly dry all our possessions out again here in kuala lumpur. our last few days there seemed so quite without acem, they are really missed. but we did manage to get lars to go on 5 more dives, here is thomas and him checking out one of the reefs at bunaken.
then our last night the "house band" came out and played again. they had put on a great session for emma's birthday earlier in our stay. we sang and had a great time till we could not hold our eyes open anymore.
zoe said her goodbyes to the staff, but i know that she is really going to miss her ica. ica is the one holding zoe in the pic. she usually watched zoe while we were out diving, and i am sure zoe did not like her just for the chocolate she got from ica while momma and pappa were away, but i am sure it helped.
the boat ride was a bit bumpy but not too bad for those of us who got to sit inside. poor angelina got soaking wet standing on the bow while navigating the way to manado. hope she doesn't get sick again!

so now it is just the five of us hanging out in k.l., trying to stay out of trouble. going to be really quiet when farmor and farfar leave in just a couple of days.

grandma hits 100!

congratulations on your 100th dive farmor!
way to go! you're a diving queen!

our last hurrah with acem

today was acem's last day with us, so since they are flying tomorrow, there was no diving today, instead we all headed into manado for a little adventure, angelina, the female half of the owners of bunaken village, where we are staying came with as a bit of tour guide. blond heads and blue eyes are still a bit of a rarity around here, so i think that moa and zoe recieved way more attention then they would have preferred, but they were good sports about it. we rode in horse taxis, check out the shopping areas, bought a few souvenirs, and did our best not to overheat.after a few hours we all crowded into a small mini-van called a bimo, and headed back to the boat.
zoe decided to do a little bit of posing on the boat before we reach the island.
after the hot day in manado it was great to get back and cool down in the pool. and finally on acem's last day here, zoe started swimming around the pool with only her puffers. no more squeezing my thumbs until the fall off! way to go zoe! we are proud of you.
then of course it was time for the final group shot. bye bye acem, we are going to miss you! it has been a ton of fun!

a day with the girls

did some diving this morning, but decided to stay up with the girls and cilla in the afternoon. we were going to go for a walk down the beach, but then of course, it being rainy season and all, it decided to start raining, heavily. so it was back to the resort, but i did manage to get a couple cute shots of moa and zoe on our very short walk.
while waiting for the rain to stop, the little ones thought it was great fun to empty our foot rinse bucket with their shoes. buse flickor!
even emma decided to get in on the fun.
then i had to put this shot up, not only for the reflection of the girls in the pool, but zoe's attire. there are ladies that come along the beach selling bracelets and sarongs, etc. and one day we were down checking out there wares when i look up and there is zoe with a hot pink sarong around her neck, smiling sweetly saying,"me här den sarong mamma". what could i do. so we bought it for her, and ever since she has been walking around like a princess in it. also note the socks. we finally found a use for zoe's socks in the tropics. they have that grip stuff on the bottom and around the pool was super slippery tiling, so after a few head meeting tile accidents, cilla came up with the great idea of socks!
i guess it was a lot of work today playing hard, the girls passed out early, and we all thought it was so cute that zoe had her arm on moa.

happy birthday emma! (and bryan too)

happy birthday emma!

you too bryan, hope you had a good one, though i am quite sure you will never read this!

some water fun

living it up in my dive dreamland. everybody seems to be getting the dive fever, even moa and zoe, those crazy girls.took emma for another bubblemaker session yesterday, went really well, she even managed some really nice summersaults.
then, in the evening, anders, cilla, anita, and i went on a mandarinfish dive, since we never really saw them at lumbalumba. We certainly did here! i even got a couple of shots of them mating. fishporn, you gotta love it!
then today we finally got zoe to swim in the pool without holding on to somebody, she was not happy and it was less than a meter, but it was a milestone! tomorrow we head over to bunaken for our last days of luxury and family.

grattis farmor!

happy birthday farmor! the big 60! grattis!

saying good bye to lumbalumba and a family portrait soaking wet

we left lumbalumba today to head to the other side, lembeh strait. since it was our last day we took advantage as much as we could. there was diving and a crazy fun time in the pool, where we had quite the time trying to get a family shot, but i think we finally nailed it.

then ended the day with a bit of a party saying good bye to the dive staff,which involved sampling many the crazy local moonshine varieties, can't say we will do that again! now we are staying at a super fancy hotel, kungkungen, in one of my dream dive destinations. yipee!

north sulawesi tour day

yesterday we all went on a tour around the northernmost area of northern sulawesi. how is that for north? we went to a market, but we were a little late, so most of the stuff what closing down. then we drove around the countryside a bit, until we arrived close to the top of a volcano. we had to climb the rest of the way up a muddy path, but we all made it. it was really foggy while we were there, but just as we were about to head back down, it suddenly cleared up and was beautiful, you could see clearly all the way down into the crater.
after climbing back down we headed off to find some gado gado (a delicious local dish made with vegies, tofu, and peanut sauce), but we never found any, but luckily we did find some food, then we drove through more amazing countryside, and around a big lake with fish farms.
i have a million and one pictures, but i will control myself and only torture you all with a few. we were so many people, the big thoren family and guides and family members of guides, that we had two cars. thought this was a sweet moment of zoe waving at the car behind us that had emma and moa in it.

we even went to a pottery village, where anita got to check out all the local techniques. we arrived back at the hotel around 1930, hungry and tired, but happy. of course lumbalumba provided another delicious meal. then today we went diving, and i finally got to see pygmy seahorses again. when they say pygmy they mean pygmy, tiny, miniscual, maybe the size of zoe's little fingernail, and then they are hiding out on a coral that looks exactly like them. you take your eyes off the seafan, it can be quite difficult to see them again. i will close with a shot of one of the little guys.