We are safe

Thanks for all the calls and emails from friends and family that checked up on due to the recent terrorist activity in Mumbai, we are fine. We are a little less than 2 hrs by flight and about 13 hours by car. Mumbai is about twice the size as Chennai and from what I hear is a more modernized city as it is the financial hub of India. So far we have been very blessed with protection in Chennai. The state of Tamil Nadu seems to be a pretty peaceful state mixed with Christians, Hindus and Muslims...everyone seems to get along. So far. My heart goes out for those affected by these wicked men and I hope that India can keep this from happening again.

A first for everything

Today we are experiencing our first cyclone. It has been raining and raining all day long! We have actually been having rainy weather for about the past week. The bad thing about the rain here is that the streets flood as there really isn't any place for the water to go and due to all the garbage on the streets the water is littered with trash. Not a very pleasant site. Today the Indian Gov't canceled school and I believe many people stayed home as the roads weren't as crowded as usual. Cyclones are a very serious matter for a huge percentage of the population as a thatched hut with a dirt floor doesn't provide protection from strong winds and heavy rainfall. Power has been an issue for all for the past 24 hours and I can't imagine the dangers that are out there when a power line falls. India has enough problems with electricity! Rain causes problems for many people here as they cook over a wood fire. Today I saw people wading through knee deep water, people attempting to cross the street without getting splashing by traffic, people gathering up branches and sticks and motorcycles going through one foot of water. The surf at the beach is incredible, some waves were as large as 13 feet and the roar of the ocean can be heard from our house. The kids are hoping to have the day off tomorrow (instead of hoping for snow days they now hope for cyclone days!). I am hoping so too as it is Thanksgiving and even though it is an American Int'l School the way the calender days worked they have school on a very American holiday!

Okay maybe she is a guard dog

Today was a big day for Millie as she caught a rat or mouse. I didn't see it I just heard it was a big mouse. My maid actually brought our computer mouse to me to tell me that Millie caught one outside (showing the computer mouse to me)! Then tonight was a day Millie has dreamed about for months, she finally caught a chipmunk (or little squirrel). The guards got Millie away from the chipmunk which appeared to be injured and somewhat deformed as it did not have any claws on it's front legs. It must have appeared cruel when we told the guards it was okay for Millie to got ahead and play with this chipmunk because we don't want Millie to lose the instinct to hunt. Somehow during the midst of all this Cleo (a.k.a. the Queen of Gecko hunting) ran outside and got right in the action. I have never witnessed a dog and cat have so much fun (in a cruel way) with a chipmunk. Millie would play with the chipmunk and run around the yard with it and then Cleo would run over and grab the chipmunk and run away with it and then Millie would get it and then Cleo, etc. An amazing site to witness!

Our Fearless Guard dog

Our fearless...I mean fearful guard dog really isn't much of guard dog. She really seems to be afraid of loud noises which is strange because I have a child here that is constantly making loud noises but Millie doesn't mind that noise. Millie has decided she does not like firecrackers. She is scared to death of them. She runs and hides in the quietest spot at that given point in time. That could be anywhere from our closet, bathrooms, pantry or most recently the boy's loft. Now the loft doesn't really have stairs but more of a ladder, but Millie managed to climb of this ladder this past weekend, I guess the adrenaline was pumping and she wasn't thinking about how she would get down. I tried to call her and even put treats on every other step but she just couldn't or wouldn't get beyond that first step. So eventually Ted came to the rescue and yep you guessed it, he carried her down. Let just hope she doesn't climb any trees to try to catch the squirrels or crows that antagonize her.

We had a Ball...

Ted and I attended the Overseas Women's Club Ball this past Saturday and we had a blast! We don't go out much here so that made it all the more fun! It was really a lot of fun getting all dressed up. A lot of people didn't recognize me at first since I was in an evening gown instead of the usual shorts, tank top and flip flops! We went with a great group of friends and much laughter was shared that night.

Finally...the end of our trip

Hopefully everyone isn't too tired about hearing about our recent trip. I figure this has been an excellent way for me to journal our trip! We flew from Melbourne to Singapore on Friday. We flew Singapore Airlines between Chennai and Singapore and Qantas the rest of the trip. I must admit I was a bit nervous (okay very nervous) about flying as I kept thinking about the Qantas plane that ended up landing when a huge whole blew out a section on of the bottom side of the plane. Fortunately no one was hurt. And then our good friend told us about the Qantas flight that dropped thousands of feet suddenly just a week prior to our trip...thanks Bob! I was really pleased with the service we received on Qantas. They really did a great job the whole time! Singapore Airlines is supposed to be one of the carriers but I think that Qanta is just as good.

We arrived in Singapore Friday night and headed to the The York Hotel. The hotel was really lovely and had excellent service. They even stored the ground beef we brought from Australia for us in their freezer! Early Saturday morning we hit the streets looking for the subway to take us to a different part of the city. We walked and we walked! We took a 45 minute river cruise of the city. I had such high expectations of Singapore being ultra sterile but to be quite honest it wasn't. I really had to laugh when Emily stepped in chewing gum which is supposed to be illegal. Not that it wasn't clean, I just had super high expectations. That night we went to the Singapore Night Safari and somehow missed our good friends who were there the same time. The zoo was packed but it was awesome to see the animals and night time. On Sunday we took a taxi to Sentosa Island which was beautiful. We wished we would have brought our swim suits and swam there. We rode the sky lift up a big hill and raced down the hill a luge car, placing was Mason 1st, Logan 2nd (supposedly he took a turn too fast and hit the wall), Ted and Emily 3rd and me last (I was a chicken). Late in the afternoon we ate at the HardRock Cafe and then headed back to the hotel to claim our bags and head to the airport! It was good to be back in Chennai but nice to know that there are parts of the world that have clean streets, bathrooms with toilet paper, warm water at the sinks, soap in the bathrooms, cars that stay in their lane, no livestock on the street, grocery stores with so many products, fresh milk and delicious beef!

The Sites from Melbourne

We flew from Cairns to Melbourne. By this time we all getting a bit tired of being away from home. Melbourne was a nice city but nothing could compare to Sydney. There was lots of shopping available in Melbourne. Probably our two favorite stops were Target and BigW (like our Walmart). It was wonderful just to walk through the stores and see all the products.
Melbourne has a lot of parks, it was so nice to see the clean green grass and the large trees. It was spring in Melbourne so we were able to see some beautiful flowers in bloom. We visited Fitzroy Gardens which has Captain Hook's cottage and the Conservatory. The Conservatory had such beautiful flowers inside and out. That is one thing I miss most about living in the midwest of the US, the flowers. Captain Hook's cottage was not original to the area but was moved in 33, it was sold in a auction in England and each brick was numbered and the cottage was moved brick by brick and rebuilt where it stands today. The Garden was really large and the kids had a blast running in the grass and climbing the trees.
Our favorite thing we did was driving down to Phillip Island to see the fairy penguins come ashore at night. We left Melbourne around 2 pm for the 2 hour journey. The drive was really nice, it reminded me much of the rolling fields in Iowa and Wisconsin. Along the way we stopped at tourist wildlife park. It was expensive but we got to see baby kangaroos hop out of the pouch and back in. I told Ted that alone was worth the cost. We saw some albino kangaroos which evidently are very rare. We saw an older "joey" try to climb back in the pouch but he was a bit too big. We visited Panny's Chocolate Factory and tasted some of the best chocolate ever. Ironically enough the owner Panny is an Indian who moved to Australia 15 years ago. Our driver took us to an amazing look out of the coast. The coastline was so rugged with steep cliffs. There was a big sign telling of the dangers of fishing on the rocks, the water level can increase dramatically in a matter of minutes and a lot of lives have been lost. We then drove to the surfer's beach and watched kids try to ride the waves. The water was freezing! Finally we arrived at around 8 pm to wait for the "Penguin Parade" to begin. By around 8:30pm they started to come out of the water and make there way toward land and find a nest. I think probably 800 or so came ashore that night. We were able to walk on the boardwalk and see them very close up. They are the world's smallest penguin, some only reaching 12 inches tall. Visitors are no longer allowed to photograph the penguins so the photo below is not mine but from journals.worldnomads.com.

Our adventures in Cairns

We left Sydney and flew to Cairns, even after being there I still don't know how to pronounce this city! Some pronounce the "r" and others leave it silent. Cairns is a lovely tropical city in Australia. It was a welcome relief as the temperature was really cold in Sydney the day we left, the high was about 17C (62F). This was really cold to us! I am not sure what we will do in the US in December, I guess freeze. It was a short flight, only about 3 hours up to Cairns. It is funny that I consider 3 hours to be a short flight. We stayed a the Lakes Resort of Cairns. It was a lovely resort with some great swimming pools. We didn't spend a lot of time there as we kept very busy. Ted was just telling someone last night that it wasn't a relaxing vacation as we were on the go a lot. But I think it kept the kids occupied and some what out of trouble.



We spent one day heading to the Kuranda Rainforest in which we took the train to Kuranda and rode the Sky Cable car back. While in Kuranda we hiked through some forests and took in some beautiful sites. The train ride up was spectacular with deep gorges and waterfalls. I kept thinking about all the snake and spider bites the men that built the railroad must have gotten.





The second day in Cairns was spent going to Green Island to see the Great Barrier Reef. I must admit it was a terrible trip. The reef was almost non existent, too many people are taken out there and the coral reefs have been killed due to people standing or touching reef. I went away that day thinking that the Great Barrier Reef was not so great. We decided that we really wanted to try again in a different spot. So we chose a boat that went out to the "outer" reef. I can know say the Great Barrier Reef is great! What a totally different experience we had. Ted did an introductory scuba dive and was able to scuba dive for about 25 minutes.




Everyone really enjoyed snorkeling until the last reef when it seemed to be plagued with jellyfish. That really unnerved us and we decided to head for the boat. Fortunately we all had on wetsuits to that may have offered us some protection.

On another day we rented a car and Ted drove us up to Port Douglas and Mossman. Ted did great driving on the left side of the road, just in case though we took out the insurance! The drive was just beautiful, a curvy road following the rugged Queensland coastline. I offered to drive so he could enjoy the view but I think he valued our safety! Port Douglas was a nice little town with some lovely views! We then headed to Mossman where we visited the Mossman Gorge. The kids really wanted to swim in the water but the current can be quite swift and the water was freezing so they just waded.

The Blue Mountains

We visited the incredibly beautiful Blue Mountains while in Sydney. If there was one place I wish we had more time it would have been there. It was about a 1 1/2 hr drive but it was such a scenic drive! We were able to hike through the mountains and witness the beautiful views. We hiked down a very very long steep steps so that we could stand out on the Three Sisters Rocks. We then rode the Scenic Railway down the mountain at a 52 degree incline...yikes it was steep but fortunately it crept slowly down the mountain in and out of tunnels (my photos didn't turn out due to the fact my eyes were closed half the time!). When we reached the bottom we witnessed waterfalls, huge turpentine trees, abandoned mine shafts and old equipment while we walked through the rain forest. We then rode up the mountain in a cable car we gave us a bird's eye view.

On the way back we stopped in a few really quaint villages and strolled around. The kids had a ball going through a store that was stocked floor to ceiling with candy! And I browsed a lovely quilt shop. The weather was so refreshing as it felt like spring...the spring flowers were blooming and the trees had new leaves. I do miss the change of seasons living in India, although the weather this week has been great, warm but not hot!

More of Sydney

We are home at last! We arrived last night at around 10pm. What an adventure our family had! I will be posting this week about various things we did.
I really liked Sydney, Australia, in fact I think it was my favorite city out of all the places we visited. A few of the highlights were our trips to Featherdale Wildlife Park and the Blue Mountains. Featherdale Wildlife Park contained all sorts of animals from Australia..the biggest hit were the Kangaroos. I wore a hooded sweatshirt with a pocket but managed to walk away empty. The full size kangaroos look to be quite strong and very big so perhaps I will stick with the smaller ones. As soon as we pulled in the park there was a man with a "joey" and we got to hold him. He was so cute! We were able to see all sorts of animals: koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, all sorts of birds, snakes, emu, etc. Enjoy the photos from Featherdale Wildlife Park, next will be the Blue Mountain photos.