Shenzhen

We finally get our visa's for China. If you remember, China has some "particulars" when it comes to issuing visa's to American's. The first time you apply for a visa, you apply for a 1 or 2 entry visa, costing $110 USD per person. The next time you apply, you get a 6 month visa, costing $110 per person. Finally, you get a 1 year visa, again, costing $110 per person. Right now, we have the 6 month, so we are trying to use it as much as possible. (So, getting a year visa can cost as much as $330 per person)

Our first trip with this visa, we thought that we would go and see Jake and Tammy. We left on Friday, July 1, took the train to the border then took the metro to the station that was closest to our hotel. I guess it has been a while since our last trip, because I forgot to bring a map of any kind with us. We came out of the station, picked the wrong direction and just started walking. ****4 people that are hungry and a bit lost does NOT make a fun family***** We actually decided to find something to eat, and re-group. This actually helped a lot! We eventually found the JW Marriott and no one got hurt in the process.

We had dinner at the Orion's and then took a walk around their area. It was a great night.

Saturday

Jonathan had gone and worked out, so I opted to go and get the girls some McD's for breakfast. It was just outside the hotel, so it was no big deal. After I got it, I ran in a TON of street vendors. This is one of the things that I really miss. Taiwan had a ton of them, but HK, not so much!

I stood in line at the vendors that had other people waiting in line (because the locals know who's good!). I ended up with some steamed bread, noodles, onion pancakes, and pork buns. It was really awesome and reminded me of my time in Taiwan.

We met up with Tammy and the kids for some time at "Window of the World". It was the Chinese version Epcot!

Gabby decided to see if she still had mad wall climbing skills. She does!

Mexico - check

Archery on near Easter Island - check

Italy - check

Australia

Mt. Rushmore

Tammy and Jake invited us to a party that they were going to for the friend that is below in the Red. (She and her family are moving to Bali -- how awesome is that!) We had a great time!

Jamie's Here

I love it when a plan comes together! Jamie and I had been trying to figure out a way for her come for a visit. Luckily, she works for Intercontinental Hotels and they needed her to do some work in Asia. They, at first, were looking at Singapore or Shanghai. Eventually, they all agreed on Hong Kong!

We got to see Jamie on Tuesday, Friday and then early Saturday morning. We had a great time! I really enjoyed taking her to the Peak and then just some sight seeing around HK. Here are just a few pictures from our time together.

Pixar Exhibit

The Hong Kong Heritage Museum was having a Pixar exhibit. It was pretty interesting seeing all the various stages of development for the movies.

Hannah doing her impression of "Edna" from the Incredibles.

Everyone loves Woody!

"To infinity and beyond"

Hannah, Gabby, Sully and Mike.

Kuala Lumpur

Our trip to Kuala Lumpur was pretty awesome. We only had 2 days there and wanted to make the most of it. I think we did that. Day 1 included the flight, Segway scooter tour, fish spa and a Middle East dinner.

Day 2 started with street closures due to the protests the city was going to have in the afternoon. We had to get the subway to another hotel so that we could meet up with Michael from MM Adventure tours. We began with the Batu caves which were quite amazing. There were about 275 steps to the top. Once you got inside, it was pretty awesome.

After leaving, there Michael took us to a small town for lunch. We had four choices, Chinese, Indian, Middle Eastern and KFC. That's right Kentucky Fried Chicken -- Gross. We were going to have Chinese for dinner, had Middle Eastern the night before, and were not even going down the KFC road! Indian it was! The lunch was still being made when we got there. It was pretty darn good!

After lunch, Michael showed us a rubber tree and also showed us the palm seeds from which they make palm oil. Again, another first for us. We then stopped at a little fruit stand before we turned down the road to the Elephant Sanctuary. Michael talked us into trying durian. We had smelled it, and it really is one of the most awful smelling things we have encountered. If something smelled so bad, we knew it was NOT going to taste like bubble gum. First, it was creamy - almost like whipped mashed potatoes. The taste -- like burned garlic. Gross.

We continued on and we were shown a traditional Malay house. This house was just a large thatch hut. They didn't have running water, electricity or any of the comforts of home. It looked like a really hard way to live. Hopefully seeing this helped the girls see that what they have really isn't that bad.

The Elephants ... We got to feed, ride and play with them. The girls had a fantastic time! Jonathan and I decided that we weren't going to get in the river to play with the baby elephants. We were really happy that we didn't after Jonathan saw the baby elephant poop in the water while everyone was around. The girls got changed and we were off again.

We were on the north side of the city, so now, we had a 2.5 hour drive south to make it to the rest of the tour. We drove to the monkey area and then off to dinner. Dinner was spicy crab, shrimp, sweet and sour fish, and chicken with veggies. It was another fantastic meal.

After the meal, we were off to see the lighting bugs. We were going on a row boat to see the most concentrated area of lighting bugs in the world. When we got out on the boat and started looking at them, it looked fake. It was night and they were only in the trees ... maybe someone just strung some lights in the trees and called it done. The guide rowing the boat brought us over to the tree and actually caught some bugs for us to see. It was interesting to see the difference from the ones we had at home. These ones were about half the size and gave off a white light rather than a yellow.

After this, it is just another 45 minute ride home.

We started the day at 9:15 and didn't end until 10:30. We couldn't have seen all we did with out a guide. It was well worth the money to hire one. I think that on our next trip to Angkor Wat, we will probably be doing that!

Day 2 - Kuala Lumpur

The bottom of Batu Caves (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batu_Caves).

This was where we had lunch.

We decided on Indian. The girls thought that it sounded cool because we were being served on banana leaves instead of plates. Along with these sides, we got lamb, chicken and fish. It was the best Indian food we had ever eaten.

This is a picture of the town.

The Elephants. We got to feed them, ride them and then play with them in the river. They are such amazing animals.

Monkeys. I'm not a huge fan. I really don't like the Wizard of Oz because of them and I'm also not a fan of Planet of the Apes. So, when this was on the list of things, I didn't think that I really wanted to do it. But, it was actually a lot of fun until ...

This one decided to jump on my shoulder. At first, they didn't jump on anyone else, but then sat on Jonathan and Gabby's shoulder too. Hannah was too scared. The monkey jumped on her hip, and she freaked out!

Gabby's new buddy.