Butterfly Kisses

A child is like a cute little caterpillar. They are small, fuzzy, and people love to help them inch along from place to place.  Then sometime when you are not looking they hide away in a cocoon. Before you know it they emerge as this beautiful butterfly, which will soon fly away to experience life on its own, no longer needing help to "inch" them along.

This evening Matt and I were looking through some photos from our first few months in Japan. It is hard to tell how much a person has changed when you see them everyday. But sometime between March, 2009 and now, our cute little caterpillar changed into a beautiful, amazing butterfly.

Hard to believe only 19 months ago this was our little caterpillar, who had just turned 13 years old.

And here is our beautiful butterfly, who will be 15 years old next month.

I have a love/hate relationship with the song Butterfly Kisses by Bob Carslisle. However when I reflect on some of the lyrics, I can't help but think maybe Bob had the same thought as I, late one night when he thought about his own butterfly. 

A Trip to Osaka Castle

Matt and I headed to Osaka this morning in hopes of catching the temple sale. Someone had told us when the temple sale falls on a Sunday (it always is the 21st of the month), the sale will also be on Saturday as well. However when we got there this morning, the temple was completely empty. It was a beautiful day, so we decided to check out the Osaka Castle.

Osaka Castle is one of Japan's most famous castles, and played a major role in the unification of Japan during the sixteenth century of the Azuchi-Momoyama period.  The castle grounds, one kilometer square in size, were beautiful. All around were trees with changing leaves, beautiful flowers and small ponds.

As we got close to the actual castle there were food vendors, artists and men dressed up as samurais.

The original castle burnt down in 1868 during the Meiji Restoration and was rebuilt in 1928. The main tower was damaged in 1945, during WWII and was restored again from 1995 - 1997. The castle today  is a concrete reproduction of the original, however the inside does not resemble a Japanese castle at all.

When we got up to the booth to pay to enter the castle we were greeted with a big surprise.

Inside was more like a museum, with different artifacts from the original castle, and lots of history videos and information. We climbed 8 flights of stairs to check out the view from the top.

Walking up all those stairs must have made Matt tired as he fell fast asleep on the train home.

So all in all a good morning and another checkmark in our "Adventures in Japan" book.

Halong Bay - Vietnam

One of the "must see's" in Vietnam is Halong Bay. This bay consists of over 3,000 limestone islands covered in vegetation. Some of these islands house small fishing villages, while others have caves to explore. and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

You can take a day trip boat through part of the bay or choose to stay overnight on one of the "Junks".  You have the option to stay multiple nights, seeing more of the bay, however we opted to stay one night considering we were short on time and between us and the Klepfer family we had 5 children to entertain.

Unfortunately there was alot of fog coming off the water while we were there, but the views and trip was still breathtaking. I can only imagine what it looks like during a clear time.

It took us 3.5 hours to get to Halong Bay from Hanoi via a shuttle bus. While the drive was long, it was interesting to drive through some of the "countryside" of Vietnam. Part way through we stopped at a rest area to grab snacks, drinks and for a bathroom break.

One we arrived at the port we had to board a hopper boat to our "Junk". The kids were excited to be going on a "cruise" for 2 days.

We arrived at our "Junk" (I have no idea why they call the boats this) and got checked into our cabins. The Junk was awesome and the rooms were quite spacious.

There was a total of 10 cabins on the Junk. The other "Junkmates" consisted of a couple that barely spoke to anyone, an Asian couple, two guys vacationing solo and two couples who were backpacking across Asia. They turned out to be a very fun group of people.

The afternoon was spent eating lunch, exploring the caves, kayaking, and cruising around the bay looking at all the islands and little villages.

The meals served on the Junk were awesome. The kid enjoyed sitting at their own table eating all the decorative food.

After dinner we cruised around the bay some more and then had a fun night of karaoke. Even Matt joined in the fun!

The next day we cruised around the bay taking in all the sites before returning back to the port and heading back to Hanoi.

You can see many more pictures here.  It was an awesome two days and I highly recommend anyone going to Vietnam to make sure they visit Halong Bay. You won't regret it.

Next up?  China Beach!

Langkawi, Malaysia - Christmas 2009

We went to Langkawi, Malaysia for a week over our Christmas break. While it was very weird being away from family, friends and snow for Christmas, it was nice for us to just spend some time together as a family.

Langkawi is an island off the mainland coast of northwestern Malaysia. It is a world UNESCO Geopark, meaning that the island is naturally preserved. It was very quiet and laidback, so a perfect place to go and relax.

We stayed at the Sheraton, which was located in the Pantai Kok beach area. The views from the hotel were breathtaking.
The kids had a blast watching the monkey's run around the resort, swimming and playing on the beach.





On Christmas Day, a local wildlife center brought some birds, rabbits and snakes for the kids to play with. Sami wasn't fond of the snake.

We even tried sailing on a small catamaran.
More pictures from the hotel area can be seen here.

One afternoon we went to Oriental Village to walk around the shops and take a ride up the cable car to the peak of the mountain.
It was a windy day, and we took the cable car 710m STRAIGHT UP. Needless to say I had a bit of a panic attack.
The views from the top were amazing, however I can honestly say never again will I do something like this.


Once at the top, you take another cable car across the top of the peaks and then walk across a suspension bridge. This bridge swayed as you walked across it, while you could see between each slat in the floor. It took some bribing, but I managed to walk across the bridge. I just kept telling myself that the bridge was not being held up a thousand feet in the air with just cable ties.
Many more pictures from Oriental Village and the cable car can be seen here.

After the cable car ride, we went to shop and eat dinner in Pantai Chang. This area is busier than where our hotel was, but still is pretty quiet by beach standards. We ate dinner at a "restaurant" on the beach and had a great grilled dinner.
While it was nothing fancy, the food was delicious and watching the sunset was something I will always remember.
More pictures from Pantai Chang, as well as shopping and the night bazaar in Kuah Town, can be seen here.

The last excursion we took was snorkeling for a day in Pulau. It was an hour boat ride from Kuah Town and we snorkeled off a platform docked in the middle of the water. We then snorkeled all around seeing some awesome fish and corral.
You then could swim all the way to shore to go to a different area to swim with black tip reef sharks. All but Sam and I swam there, as we refused to get in with the sharks.

The rest of our pictures from our snorkeling time in Pulau can be seen here.

Langkawi is a predominantly Muslim country. However you could still see some decorated trees and lights around. Mainly for the tourists I suppose. Our hotel did a great job at decorating and having special activities for Christmas, such as the animal visits, special food stalls, presents and treats in our rooms, a Christmas Eve adult party and of course, a visit from Santa.