2008 Family Vacation (2)

December 19

The thing that we worry most about this trip is either Uriah or Thea get sick. Sure enough, Uriah woke up with fever a couple days ago. He is still recovering from it. He was lethargic, clingy and seemed uncomfortable most of the time. He usually would still be an active kid even though he has fever. But this fever seems to be different, so we decided to bring him to the doctor. The doctor spent a minute and looked at his throat, and said “it seems to be virus”. He then gave prescription for antibiotic. I was confused, because as far as I know, we cannot treat virus with antibiotic. Plus, he doesn't even know for sure if it is virus or something else. But, I am no doctor either. We have no choice but to give him the medicine although we are a bit hesitated. If it was not because of how he reacted to the fever, I would not feed him the antibiotic. Not that we are doubting the doctor. But there have been many many cases in Indonesia where doctors gave prescription drugs with no apparent reason, or no strong reason. And doctors here do not educate their patients, either; they get offended if you ask too many questions. *sigh*. Anyway, that's a little note about the medical practice here in Indonesia. :)
As for now, we will continue to give Uriah the medicine, and hope that he won't get sick anymore the rest of the trip. Of course, Thea too.

December 20

Every time we visited Indonesia, we can't help but feel that the day seems very long here. The clocks here somehow tick a little slower. Maybe that is a good thing. :)

Oh! The other day, Basri, Uriah, Thea and I went on a little trip to the supermarket. Because Basri's brother was busy that afternoon, and we needed to get Uriah's diapers in the store, we went by ourselves on a “becak” (tricycle). It must have been a decade since the last time I was on one. We thought it would be fun for Uriah to ride on one, so we decided not to drive.. and instead, ride in “becak”. Boy, becak that we remembered was much larger. It was very tight even for two people. Uriah sat on Basri's lap, while I carried Thea. We couldn't even move and had to hold our breath (sort of :p). Either we have gotten wider over the years or the becaks have gotten smaller. :) Thank goodness the store is very close from the house. Not to mention, it was such a scary ride. In Indonesia, people do not follow traffic law. We can easily see three-way traffic on a two-way road. :) So riding on becak, we see motorcycles, cars coming and going from our right and left. Well, well, welcome to Indonesia. :)

December 23

We are leaving tomorrow to my hometown, Medan. I am very excited. For the first time, we will get to see my sister's chubby 6-month-old, Ayden. :) And it is the first time for most of them to see Thea, too.

p.s. Thea started to sneeze a lot this morning.. hope she is not getting sick.. :(

2008 Family Vacation

Dec 14

Greetings from Indonesia,

We arrived at Jakarta on the 12th in the afternoon after traveling 31 hours (21 hours on the plane + 10 hours transiting) with 2 kids. We even went on a little quest in search of “the Noodle”, or the best Taiwan Noodle soup at TaoYuan airport in Taipei, but we had to give up and settle for a-so-so-noodle-soup. Oh well, after an hour of search, that bowl of noodle was refreshing, too. It would've been better if we found “the Noodle”, but it's ok.
The food on the plane has deteriorated in quantity & quality(due to the present global economy's condition). We usually never go hungry on international flight; this time I was really wishing that I brought snacks for the trip. Never before that we went 10 hours without food on the plane. Uriah & Thea didn't sleep much on the plane.. too much excitement, I guess. Uriah made a lot of friends on the plane, though, from babies-toddlers to their parents, to the stewardess. :)
Although we were dead tired, but we are thankful that we made it home. From Jakarta, we caught another flight to Basri's hometown. This flight is the shortest of all, only lasted 1 hour. Uriah passed out as soon as we got on the plane, and slept through the next morning. Poor thing. We all woke up energized the next day, despite losing so many hours of sleep on the plane. Uriah is excited to see so many of his cousins, aunts & uncles.
Thea is not the youngest of all. Just a few days before we left Seattle, Basri's brother & wife had their baby girl. So we get to see this tiny baby. And all of the sudden, Thea doesn't seem so small anymore. I can't believe she is 2 month-old now in a blink of an eye. No wonder people say that time spent with baby is precious. It is precious indeed!

p.s. People were staring at Uriah along the trip because he was wearing his famous monkey leash hehehe

Dec 16

After a few days of doing nothing except eating and sleeping, I felt that my body needs something else. Exercise! Well, of course I still have to take care of Uriah & Thea, but I don't have to do any of the housework. 感觉有一点不习惯 。I am not used to this idleness, but I also know it won't last. So I might as well let it be & enjoy it now. :) Of course, it is also because of this idleness that I actually have time to write this blog, which I have not been doing for quite a while :)
As of food, so far we have covered nasi uduk (coconut rice), ayam panggang (Indonesian grilled chicken), ayam goreng (Indonesian fried chicken), sate kambing (lamb satay), sate ayam (chicken satay), mpek-mpek (fish cake ala Palembang), gurame goreng saus mangga (fried fish with mango sauce), kelapa kopyor (fresh kopyor coconut juice), martabak manis (sweet pancake with toppongs of choice: sprinkle, peanuts, cheese, condensed milk, etc), rujak buah (Indonesian fruit salad – extra spicy), mie keriting Siantar (Siantar's noodle soup), etc.
Hmmm maybe I should start taking picture of all the food we eat. Good idea! :)

p.s. Basri told me to add a little note on this blog.. "we are fat & happy" :p