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