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On this trip, we have three “guardians” as we call them. They will watch over us as we travel through new and exciting places. Here they are:

1. Elvis – Elvis was given to us by my aunt and uncle, Amy, and Cris. They have two daughters, Addy, and Quincy. Auntie Amy found Elvis in a gutter on one of her travels. She’s been taking him with her ever since as kind of her guardian angel. She gave him to us so he can watch over us, and make sure nothing bad happens (I hope).
2. Lucky – The preschool my brother and I went to was called St. Francis. I was one of the very first babies there, so the “principal”, Heidi Bugbee, became friends with my parents. We kept in touch, and that’s where Lucky came from. Heidi had Lucky for so long, and took him on so many trips, so Lucky has probably been around the whole world! I don’t think he’s been to Southeast Asia though, so this will be new and exciting for him too! She made it a tradition to take cool, and creative pictures of Lucky, so there is a section in our blog called Lucky the Leprechaun.
3. Wander – Wander the elephant isn’t really a “guardian”, and he wasn’t given to us. My mom thought up the cool idea to take something from a friend of ours (with the parent’s help of course) and post pictures of it. Well, Wander is Ana and Rudy Zurcher’s elephant. We’ll be taking pictures of him with Elvis and Lucky, and without. I hope you like all of these pictures and are excited about what comes next.

 

picture coming soon………

Our first 24 hours in Bali have been a lesson in opposites.  The first night we arrived ina “big rain” that seems like the sun had already set.  Here is Mia walking down the corridor towards our guesthouse.  

Amy on her way down the steps.

Ida and Komang (married couple) are our kind and funny hosts.  They showed us the rooms; we talked about the weather and kids for a bit. We quickly learned that Ida is Muslim and Komang is Hindu.  The owner of the place lives in Brazil and is Buddhist (sorry no pic yet).

We could barely keep our eyes open, but we dragged ourselves to a beachside dinner of chicken satay and fried rice.  

As we waited for food, everyone fell asleep on lounge couches!  No pic, though it was probably funny looking.  Food arrived and we perked up – delicious!  Back to our room, neither Amy or I slept well through the pounding rain.

The rain lasted all night, and we all crawled out of bed at first light, still tired and cranky.

Then the sun came out, and behold, so did our attitudes!  Our room has a beautiful view looking over the ocean.  

Sun and waves through the day with a predictable ending – our northwest amphibian skin turned to cooked-crab red.  Oops, bad parents.  Are there actually good parents out there for skin management?

The Grays just arrived last night, everyone is happy to be hanging with friends. It may be a few days before our next post, Wi-fi is spotty here.  Cheeseburgers in asia out to go on sunset beach walk!

So, yesterday we had our 15 hour flight to Hong Kong. I won’t go into much detail, because Porter is doing a post on that, but afterwards I was feeling blah. The flight would not have felt as long if I could watch Gilmore Girls, but alas, no. Hong Kong is very warm. In other words, the complete opposite of Bellingham. We had to fill out this paper thing, and mom and dad kept messing up, so we were there for forever. My backpack was really heavy, and I was feeling pretty miserable. As you can see in that picture of Porter and I in front of the Christmas trees in the airport mall that my dad posted. Finally, we left the airport and took a shuttle to our hotel. It was really nice, and the beds were super comfortable.

This morning we got up early (you don’t know how early we had to get up for the long flight) and headed for the airport, but I won’t bore you with details about how we checked in our bags, and went through security. We went to the part of the airport that’s a mall. So there you go Ana, I’ve been to a mall in Hong Kong. That’s what the picture is. To everybody who is really confused right now: going to a mall in Hong Kong is an inside joke between Ana Zurcher and I. I know, seems weird, but that’s why it’s called an inside joke.

Right now, I’m on the flight to Bali. (The one we got up for this morning.) The view out the window is amazing. The clouds are moving over mountains, and it’s one of my favorite parts about the plane rides. I am really excited to get to Bali, because we get to stay in one place for a long time, and won’t have to take a plane for a while. I also get to see Maya!

Getting to Bali is amazing. The airport is really architecturally cool. A nice man named Koman picked us up and drove us to the house. It was so cool! The steering wheel is on the right side here, and there are no lanes on the road. It’s total freestyle. It’s also dangerous. The house is amazing, and really beautiful. Monkeys can come in and steal our stuff, so we have to put everything in cupboards and not leave anything out unless we are using it just then. It’s very hot here, but also really beautiful and amazing. We haven’t seen much animals except for some geckos and lots of bugs.

Shoes start clean, and so do attitudes.  Everyone was excited in Los Angeles:

After our 15-hour plane ride with some intensely awesome screen time, and arrival in Hong Kong at midnight bellingham time (4pm Hong Kong) Mia’s report:

Mia: aaaarrggggghhh and blllleeeah 

Porter:  “whoa this is scary,” and “OMG, we are going on a four month trip to Southeast Asia.  This is crazy, this is scary.”

Mia and Poe next to a display in Hong Kong airport.

Once we settled in, we had the “best Chinese dinner ever.” Which was good since we were in china and it cost about $100 for a shared set of appetizers.  

Next stop, Bali!