chillin out in our little paradise...

been having a nice relaxing time here on iboih, aside from the fact that it seems we all got really sick from staying in that moldy room in bandah aceh. we all have really bad coughs and colds. there was a retired child's doctor staying here on vacation, and he did not think zoe would get better without antibiotics, but sure enough, that tough little monster surprised him. she is definately on the mend, though thomas is still having lots of sinus problems, which means not much diving for us. i did finish the dive course with per and karin, it went really well, we even managed to see manta rays on the course. today we found a new place to stay that is a huge house for only $5/night. great to have some space for zoe to run around. she has been great. in k.l. we managed to find a bit of playdoh, travel size, and when we arrived her she got it as a treat for being such a good girl, and not having her binkie for a whole week. (she still has not had one since farmor and farfar left, so i think we are finally completely free of them! yipee!). anyway, she has been loving her play doh.

and here she is pretending to be a ghost, cannot say she was very scary in a tropical sarong though!

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.

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!

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.

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.

happy birthday pappa!

happy birthday thomas! lumbalumba has been great. there has been a lot of pool time, and even emma tried blowing bubbles in the pool, she is a real fish.
i think zoe is really getting the kick of snorkelling!
we even all went for a dive today. though only one, cause thomas wanted a lie-in for his birthday.
they had made us an amazing buffet dinner for thomas' birthday tonight. not too mention he got a huge flower arrangement of orchids and a HUGE cake! happy birthday pappa, you old man!

happy new year!

Happy New Year!

we had a great one, hope you did too! best wishes for 2009!

family reunion time...

so we all met up at lumbalumba resort just outside of manado, yesterday. we were all pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. the website doesn't even come close to the real thing. check it out for yourself...http://www.lumbalumbadiving.com/ . it was great to see everyone again. anita, thomas, and i immediately took advantage of the diving, and went for an evening dive. it was a great dive right off of the jetty, we were supposed to be looking for mandarinfish, but we were a bit early, and then when one of the guides found the rarely spotted, elusive blue-ringed octopus, we forgot all about the mandarinfish, i was able to get a few nice shots, keep in mind this octopus is about the size of a 5 kronor (or an american 25 cent piece), so it is not big.we were all very excited about the dive and came back to an amazingly tasty buffet dinner. a great way to start off the trip. then today we went diving. took the boat over to bunaken and finally got cilla and anders back in the water after a 7 year dry spell!
then when we got back we all enjoyed a bit of splashing about in their amazing pool. looking forward to the new year's eve festivities.

just me and my mom...

thomas left to pick up his family in kuala lumpur so it is just me and zoe in our island paradise. we have a lovely bungalow, full of geckos. zoe has developed an absolute love of geckos, not only does she make gecko noises, but everytime she sees or hears one, everyone in the near vicinty must drop whatever they are doing and appreciate the gecko with her. it is actually quite amusing, though frustrating at times.
she met a new friend here at lorenzo's, his name is c.j. and he is quite the character. it is full board here, and so everyone staying here eats dinner together, family style. anyway, the day they arrived, c.j. and his parents came into dinner and c.j. said in a loud voice while waving his hand at everyone sitting at the table, "hi! my name is c.j., and this is my mom, so and so, and this is my dad, so and so!" and then he beamed proudly, it was adorable. he is an extremely vocal child for three and a half, and zoe has had a great time chasing after him.

she really seems to be enjoying it here, everyone knows her of course. there are also four small puppies, which she absolutely adores. they live in one of the palapas about 150 meters from the restaurant, and this morning she carried them all to breakfast one after another. it was very cute. but since they never really had been away from their palapa before i think i might have been a bit of a shock for them. then all day long she has just moved them from one location to another. apparently she is becoming a professional puppy transporter. tomorrow we leave to meet up with the rest of thorens. should be alot of fun.

all the way to sulawesi...

finally we made it to the beach!  okay, so it is not the white sand beach one pictures in the tropics,  as the island is surrounded by mangroves. but it is a beach all the same.  we flew from k.l. to manado, in northern sulawesi early yesterday morning.  then took a boat over to bunaken, a little island.  before heading off on the boat we stopped from some local cuisine.  thomas and i had gado gado, my all time favorite indonesian dish.  it has sticky rice and veggies and tofu all topped with a peanut sauce.  cannot go wrong with that.  

 zoe had noodles again, oh how she loves her noodles.   she had been such a great kid that when she begged for ice cream after lunch, we treated her.  she then proceeded to delightfully consume and decorate her face with the ice cream on the way to the island.  upon arrival, however there was some confusion.  we had booked at lorenzo's bungalows online nearly a month ago, but when we arrived, apparently the guy we had been emailing had not told the owner, so there was no bungalow.  however there was a room, with a bed in it. the owner apologized profusely, and said we could move into a bungalow after one night.  the room did not even have a fan, but there was a really nice french couple who lent us one, as i do not think zoe would have survived that night without one, it was hot.  then, to top off our bad luck, the bed broke when we were trying to go to sleep.  so end the end it was a mattress on the floor.  zoe woke us up at 0500 vomiting.  and since the room did not have a bathroom that meant running outside.  due to the repeated vomit thomas and zoe took about 4 showers this morning, though you could hardly call them showers, as it is just a bucket and scoop.  thomas was a super daddy.  she seems to be doing better, don't know if she maybe got some sea water in her mouth yesterday or if it is just the heat.  now we have moved into our bungalow, and it is so much nicer, we are all relieved and enjoying our tropical paradise.  we even had some great christmas snorkeling today. merry christmas!