Fall Break Part 2 - Chiang Mai, Thailand

After a fabulous five days in the Philippines, our family was ready to trek out to part 2 of our adventure...Chiang Mai.  Wednesday started off with packing up, saying goodbye to our friends, and preparing ourselves for a long day of travel.  We left in plenty of time, got to the tiny Dumaguete airport, and left without delay.  We arrived in Manila, with the most difficult and tiresome part was moving from the domestic terminal to the international terminal.  Once we figured all that out, found our gate, Andy bought us a nutritious lunch of french fries and hot dogs (the only thing we could find). Sarah pretty much fell asleep on my back and stayed that way our entire time in Manila.  We finally took off for our three hour plane ride to Bangkok...moved from the international terminal to the domestic terminal...got a bite to eat, and finally got on the plane to Chiang Mai.  The kids, by then, were tired, so it was a pretty quiet and short flight there.  It was also gorgeous to land with such a beautiful moon allowing us to see the city below.

We were able to get all our luggage pretty quickly, and our friend, Ryan, was there to pick us up and take us to the hotel where we were all staying.  Ryan, and his wife Melanie, are friends from our church family in PA.  They are missionaries and drove for two days to see us in Chiang Mai, a place they are very familiar with since they lived there for the first three years.  We were able to say hello to Melanie (who stayed back with a sleeping 2 year old), take showers, and get to bed.

The next day was so exciting because we really had nothing planned. We got up at a leisurely pace, ate a nice breakfast, and took off for "animal road," a road with many different animal attractions. Our friends had a great car that all of us fit in comfortably...it was a truck with a full-sized covered bed that was air conditioned, included a cushion and was sound proof:) All the older kids piled in the back, Ryan and Andy in the front, and Melanie and I had the two toddlers in the back seat.  We missed our turn for our first animal stop, but found an amazing waterfall that we took a short hike to find.  The weather was fabulous, and the kids loved playing in the water.

Some one's excited:)

Because she got to get wet!

After getting our fill of the water fall, we got back in the car and the boys decided that it would be fun to stop at a snake charmer.  Melanie and I weren't too keen on the idea, so we took their son and Sarah to a tea garden while the rest of them enjoyed a snake show.  After hearing about it and seeing the pictures, it was confirmed that us parting was a great decision.

Not sure who is crazier???

Melanie and I took the toddlers to the Tea Garden instead:)

We got back together, and finally made it to our original destination...Tiger Kingdom.  This place has tigers of all sizes, but we were only interested in playing with the smallest ones.  We left Sarah with Ryan and Melanie, and the rest of us enjoyed about 15-20 minutes playing with 4 month old and 2 month old tiger cubs.  It still made me nervous, and I was glad Sarah wasn't with us, but the kids thoroughly enjoyed it...they were really cute!!

Sweet two month old cubs

After Tiger Kingdom, we went to a great local place for lunch (delicious!!), then back to the hotel for a short rest before we went to our next stop...The Big C!!! (Thailand's version of Walmart...and this one was extra big:) We wanted to get a few more gifts for the next day, and they  had a great food court for dinner...PLUS...Dairy Queen...woohoo!!!  It was a pretty inexpensive night out...but very entertaining!!

Love that their workers wore roller blades...efficient!!!

Sarah and Miles enjoyed their Thai dinner

The next day was a day we had been waiting for since we heard we might be moving to Asia.  We have been sponsoring a boy through Compassion for the last 7 years.  This day we were finally going to meet in person!! God opened many doors for this meeting to take place, and we were all so excited to finally spend the day with Tanawat.  Tanawat was joining us with his father, a Compassion representative, a church worker, and a translator.  They all came to the hotel at 9am.  We had just finished breakfast and were awkwardly waiting for the entourage to come.  And yes, that original encounter was very awkward.  We met the translator, Pay, first, and she was wonderful and made the whole experience as enjoyable and communicative as possible. Then we went out to the taxi where the rest of the group was waiting.  The other gentlemen were very kind.  Tanawat and his father were very quiet, but respectful and answered all the questions my children had for them.

Chiang Mai Zoo

Yes, they are feeding fish with a baby bottle!!

We spent most of the day at the zoo...watching a few shows, feeding animals and having lunch.  All in all it was a great day. When we got back to our hotel, we were so excited to give Tanawat and his father our gifts.  What we didn't expect was that they would have gifts for us.  It was overwhelming.  His mother had prepared a collage of pictures of their family, as well as a picture of our family that we had sent him. She had also hand woven a purse-like gift for each of us.  They were beautiful and the most I had seen Tanawat laugh was when he draped Sarah's over her while she was sleeping.  It was so sweet...it melted my heart.

Abby with Pay, our sweet translator

Even the elephant like to pose for pics

Sweet:)

It was such an incredible gift to meet the boy, who has grown into a young man, that we have been in touch with for the last seven years.  It nearly broke me, knowing he was going back to a lifestyle that we can hardly comprehend.  The lesson I took away, as I usually do when I meet those "less fortunate" than myself, is that they bless me more than I ever expect.

Our final day in Chiang Mai was another laid back day.  Melanie took us to the market in the morning, than we got back to the hotel in time for Ryan, Andy and Grace to go to the movies.  The rest of us took naps than swam in the pool.  We went out to dinner at a great restaurant on the canal and ended our evening at the Night Bazaar and ice cream at McD's.  It was such a great day and wonderful few days in Chiang Mai.  We love it there and wouldn't mind going back...hmmmm...

Last meal together...and she is still life of the party!!!  Love the Gehrmann Family!!!

 Of course, it wouldn't be a fun ending to our trip if we didn't have a 6am flight, which means we needed to leave the hotel at 4am.  Our taxi didn't show, so we had to wake up Melanie who graciously drove us to the airport.  We finally got on our plane...all the kids slept, and we landed in typhoon-like winds.  We like to keep it interesting:)

Fall Break Part 1 - Dumaguete, Philippines

Because our time is coming to an end on this side of the world, our family decided to become a bit ambitious in how we spent our fall break.  We had two different trips that we had aspirations to do, and it just so happened that they fit together during the time we had off. God clearly opened doors, and with the help of our personal travel agent, Andrew Puffenberger, logistics were figured out, plans made, and our adventure was set.

On paper, the plan looked good...and then you realize that all this travel entails towing five children, 6 check-ins and 11 carry-ons and you begin to question our sanity...at least I did.  But I also knew that only God could open some of the doors that were opened, so with a step of faith, we moved forward in trust and strength. The plan was : 1) Friday September 25th fly to Manila and spend the night. 2) Saturday September 26th fly from Manila to Dumaguete and spend the next five days on a Young Life Expedition, going on a snorkeling adventure and serving in a village with ICM for two of the days. 3)Wednesday September 30th fly from Dumaguete to Manila to Bangkok to Chiang Mai, Thailand.  For four days we would be spending time with our friends, the Gehrmann Family and spend that Friday at the zoo with a child we have been sponsoring through Compassion for the last 7 years. 4.)Leave for HK on a 6am flight.

On Friday, September 25th I picked the girls up early from school (elementary had an early release) and we trekked to the airport.  We made it to the terminal and through the check-in and security in enough time to catch a bite to eat before we got on the plane.  The flight was slightly delayed, but our kids just squatted on the floor and played games...being nice to each other...it was early on in our adventure:)

The flight was smooth.  The kids were treated with business class (because Zuji had messed up our reservation) so they were entertained and fed, again.  When we got to Manila, we were tired, but dealing with familiarity is helpful.  We found all of our luggage and then headed for the shuttles. This was the "fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants" portion of our trip.  We booked a hotel unseen via agoda and didn't call to reserve a shuttle.  When we got to the shuttle pick-up area, we were told that we had just missed the shuttle to our hotel...then, of course, they were quick to arrange a taxi for us.  I forget exactly how much they were going to charge, but we made it clear we were fine to wait the hour they told us it would be back.  Funny thing, our shuttle came about five minutes later:)

We got to our hotel, checked into our two rooms, showered and went to bed.  The next morning we ate a quick breakfast, checked out, and took the 15 minute shuttle ride back to the airport.  All in all, a good stay. We found our way through the domestic airport pretty easily, and were at our gate in plenty of time.  Our flight to Dumaguete was only an hour, and I knew the Dumaguete airport was VERY small, so I half expected a "puddle-jumper"and was pleasantly surprised by a bigger plane. That flight was pretty uneventful as well, and we arrived into Dumaguete with ease. We were met by Gerard, an ICM representative, who showed us where our van was located that was going to take us to our hotel.  We did our normal count...5 kids, 6 check-ins, and 11 carry-ons...and were on our way.

The bustling Dumaguete airport

We arrived at the Santa Monica Resort and were greeted by friends who were already there, some arriving the evening before, some that morning.  Our group was 70+ students, kids and adults, so the entire resort was booked for us...you can do that much easier in the Philippines.

About 2 hours after we arrived, the majority of students and leaders arrived...in jeepneys...it was a great sight! We got them settled, ate dinner, and had our first YL club...it was a wonderful night and the kids loved it! Emma stayed for the talk, but Andy took the younger three back with him...it had been a long day.  After club, I dropped Emma off at their room, and went to my room with the four high school girls that I was staying with...we were joined by three other high school girls (including Grace) and Lauren, another leader, who were staying in the adjacent room.  We had our "cabin time" and then bedtime.  It was a long, but good, first full day!

Welcome committee

Students arriving in Jeepneys

The next morning was beautiful...a bit windy, but the rain that we were worried about had not come. After a leader meeting, we ate breakfast and then it was off on our snorkeling adventure.  We had three boats (large, medium and small) to take all of us to Apo Island.  What was supposed to be a 45 minute boat ride turned into a 2 hour boat ride, but it was a great time to get to know students that we didn't know and spend time with the ones we did.  The rest of my family was on another boat, which I felt a little bad about, but they were in good hands and with friends....although it was a smaller boat.
As we were coming  up to Apo Island, the scene was picturesque.  The water reminded us of blue kool aid...it was like a scene from a movie.  After we finally  made it to shore, we found out that because of the tide, we had to dock on the wrong side of the island. But it was only a 20 minute hike to the other side...over the mountain.  We all were catching on to "Filipino timing" but were ready to hike.  And yes, the hike, while most of it was cement stairs, were up and down a mountain...with an occasional goat to hurdle:) We made it to the other side in about an hour. The other side was gorgeous, but we quickly figured out that there would be no snorkeling because the surf was very rough.  Luckily, we were also planning on eating lunch at a secluded restaurant that was delicious. So we ate, enjoyed the scenery, and hiked back to where we docked the boats.  We were bummed because there were supposed to be sea turtles on the "lunch side" but after all was said and done, snorkeling on the side of the island our boats docked was fine.  And Andy even took Abby, Josh and Emma snorkeling...they loved it and saw amazing coral and fish and starfish.

Gorgeous first morning in the Dumaguete

Beautiful Apo Island

Heading back was a little bit more risky...the water was churning and Andy's boat almost had an accident...but all was well and we all arrived back to the resort safe and sound.  We got back in time to have Young Life club with 100 Young Life kids from Dumaguete...it was awesome and such a picture of heaven.  We then ate dinner with them before they left...then we regrouped, our speaker, Mariah, revisited what was talked about before, then we went to our rooms for the night...such a full but wonderful Day 2!

Club

Josh got to be a small part of program on the last day

Day 3 started our service projects.  This trip was co-sponsored by ICM (International Care Ministries) which is the larges GMO in the Philippines and headquartered in Hong Kong. It serves the ultra-poor...those making less than $1 a day.  We were broken up into three groups...our group was all the ICS folks...so I got to serve with the high school girls and my family.  We drove about 30 minutes away and went to a small village kindergarten where there were about 20 children and two teachers.  Our group was then broken up into two groups...those who helped in the kindergarten, and those who did construction projects, which included a worm farm and a tippy tap:)

Meeting the locals

Sarah and Abby and their new friend, Deseme

We were there all day...ate lunch with them, took a little tour of the village including three house tours, before leaving mid-afternoon.  It was a great day to see our team come together and serve this village.  It was also wonderful to see our children befriend these students from the kindergarten...even Sarah was loved on by the teachers there and Abby got right in there and made friends.  Josh helped the boys with construction, Andy made very good use of his engineering skills, and Grace and Emma helped out with the craft. Then it was back to the resort for dinner, club, cabin time....and a great dance party!!!!

Final step of the worm farm

Sarah fits right in

The next day was almost the same, except we were able to come back earlier in order to enjoy the pool and a little down time.  The kids were tired...all of them...but I think they would all say that serving was the best part of the trip. That night we had yet another wonderful dinner, club, cabin time and more time in the pool.  To me, it doesn't get much better than Young Life camp and a service camp combined.  We had an amazing time and were SO grateful to be able to meet so many new friends, as well as serve our friends in Philippines.  It was a time that will not be forgotton...and Lord willing, will be repeated in HK for years to come

The finished product!

Last morning in Dumaguete

Our family left on Wednesday September 30th ahead of the rest of the group...to start part 2 of our adventure...