Final photos from the cruise

In most countries (other than China, that is) we didn't have to physically clear customs. Instead, the customs officials would come on board while we're taxiing into the harbor, and clear us for entrance into their country. This is the customs boat that from which the officials boarded our ship

And here they are, boarding the ship. Tricky business, I'd say, seeing that our ship kept moving during this process (albeit at a slower speed)

Nha Trang, Vietnam, here I come! This is a great dive spot, but our ship came in too late for me to join some dives. I might have to go back to Vietnam to dive...

The sign says it all

Kiptoo took the shuttle to town to explore. Water? Check. Sunglasses? Check. Camera & money? Check. Sense of adventure? Check!

Nha Trang's bicycle rickshaws. These drivers were relentlessly going after tourists, offering to take you around town for $5/hr. Kiptoo and I decided to explore on foot

The little guard dog at a little convenience store along the road

Despite the busy-ness of the market, it felt like I was walking in a scene from the 70s

I love the colors of the different fruits. Can you identify the different fruits??

Coconut vendor

Yummy mandarin oranges

The chickens were almost as orange as the mandarin oranges...

In Indonesia, as in Vietnam, quail eggs are often sold alongside chicken eggs. In fact, some of my kids sometimes bring boiled quail eggs in their lunch packs

I love walking through the markets and smiling at the vendors and getting permission to take their photos

Mushroom vendor

These Vietnamese clay pots reminded me a lot of some of the pots I had seen in Ethiopia

Amazingly, motorbikes (even with sidecars, such as this one) and rickshaws would squeeze their way through the narrow market alleys

Buddhist ghost money (burned for ancestors to use in heaven). But Vietnamese dong aren't worth much (around 20,000dong to a US$), so they were selling US$100 bills as ghost money so it's easier to burn (or can one say, wire) more money faster...

Though this girl doesn't look friendly, she explained in broken English to me that these banana leaf wrappings contained raw pork to be steamed

Dried seahorses and what, a flying rat or bat? Not sure!

After walking around for long enough, I found a halfway-decent-looking salon where I got a hair wash and blow dry, massage, manicure and pedicure for $4.60. If you're ever in Nha Trang, check these guys out :)

The next morning, we docked in the not-so-nice port of Phu My. Seeing that bad traffic is our nemesis in Jakarta, I chose not to take the day trip to Saigon, despite wanting to see that city. (The return journey would've been up to 6 hours.) So I took the shuttle to the nearest town. These water buffalo were simply out in the fields alongside the highway

Since there was little to see in the town we were dropped off in, I hooked up with some Aussie ladies and we negotiated a deal with a taxi to take us to nearby Vung Tao, where we saw this statue of Jesus. It was a bit surprising seeing this statue in a Communist and Buddhist nation

After seeing the beaches and the statue, the other ladies wanted to go shopping at the central market. One half of the market had clothing, shoes and jewelry, and this half had fresh goods. It's much more fun walking around the wet market and take photos!

I guess sitting on top of the tables makes for good use of space. Chicken, anyone?

Or do you simply prefer some chicken feet? (The toes, I'm told, are handy for cleaning your teeth after dinner)

This vendor gestured that I should take a look at what she had in this bag... Only two furry feet were sticking out. I peered in and lo and behold, there were three slaughtered rabbits, ready to be made into rabbit stew

More quail eggs. Aren't they pretty?

All over town, one would see ladies wearing these funny toed socks with sandals

Back to the ship for the last leg of the trip

It was fascinating watching these fishing boats/house boats, with entire families seemingly living aboard. Behind them are the mangrove forests of the Mekong. I kept wondering what these forests have witnessed over time...

The skies were beautiful that night!

Kiptoo tried some coconut juice

Some of my new friends from the cruise... I met this family when racing around Xiamen, and ended up playing translator for them in Shanghai. Originally from Jo'burg, they all live in Perth now. Getting to know them was one of the nicest surprises of the cruise (and I'm not saying that because they might be reading my blog!)

Same family, but here you see some of the men. This was last night, the final night of the cruise, and the chefs and waiters were bringing in a parade of baked Alaska. People were twirling their napkins and clapping. It was a nice ending to a fun cruise

Mohan, the junior waiter at our table, with the baked Alaska. I didn't care for this dessert at all. It was way too sweet!

Another guest I was blessed to get to know on the cruise, a lady named Anne (pronounced in the German way, not the American way) from Geneva, Switzerland. She, along with a German friend of hers (from Texas) have been on the ship for the past 10 weeks! They started their journey in Rome, all the way to Cape Town, then to Asia. What fun!

And the final view from the deck where I had breakfast every day: Sentosa Island, Singapore, with the Hard Rock Hotel in the foreground and Singapore's mascot, the merlion in the back

We had a couple of hours to kill in Changi Airport. Kiptoo and I agree that we love Singapore! And we love exploring. Bottom line, we love life. :)

Nha Trang, Vietnam

Today, I'm adding a new country to the list of places I've visited. It's my first time to Vietnam, and I must say, it's a bit odd being in a country where I cannot speak any of the language! Right now, I don't have the cables with me to upload photos from my walk through the morning market in Nha Trang, but rest assured, they will come.

I had hoped to scuba dive while here, but our ship docked at 9:00 only, too late for the boats to the islands. Just got a message from one dive operation that they would pick me up at the ship at 9 with a private speed boat and I could do two dives, but alas, didn't get the news in time. So I walked around the sprawling markets of Nha Trang... One funny thing about Vietnam is that the ladies here seem to like wearing toed nylons. As in, there's a special spot for your big toe, but the rest are all like regular nylons, making it possible for them to wear nylons with flip flops or similar sandals. Personally, I have no idea why anyone would even consider wearing nylons in subtropical climates. But that's me.

After I had done enough walking, I slipped into a decent-looking salon where I got a manicure, pedicure and a hair wash & blow dry (with a good massage, of course) for a whopping $4.60. That's my splurge for the day. I figured since most of the nail ladies around the world seem to be from Vietnam nowadays, getting a mani/pedi while here would be a good thing. And it was. I'll return to the ship a happy camper.

We're leaving for Phu My sometime in the middle of the afternoon today... Now that we're in warmer waters, I might actually hop into my bathing suit for the first time on the trip! Not sure what I'll be doing in Phu My tomorrow, as the traffic to Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon) is purportedly worse than that in and around Jakarta. No guarantees you'll get back to the ship in time for its return to Singapore... So I'll stay closer to the ship. Maybe.

Speaking of the ship, I'm heading back. It's raining. Glad I brought my rain coat. :)

Till next time,
Adele (and Kiptoo, who is still convinced he's staying vegan after his second morning market visit this week)

2011, so far

These are the people I have dinner with most nights.

In Hong Kong yesterday, I went to Wan Chai to have my iPhone worked on. The computer center was not yet open, so I walked around the area, visiting the local morning market

After seeing these pigs, Kiptoo didn't want to show his face in the market

This was very hard for me to see, a soft-shelled turtle. Though it had been slaughtered, the mouth was still moving, as if it were breathing!

Fish with the egg sacs showing

These guys were slaughtering frogs

Kiptoo announced he's going vegan!

He was happy to come out when I arrived in Sai Kung and sat down at Starbucks, waiting for my friends, the Eitemillers

It was WONDERFUL to see Jessica and her sweet baby Josaiah, Joelle, and to meet Seth, Jessica's husband. Of course it was great to see Sue and Dave, too, but I've seen them more recently than I had seen the girls. :) I always enjoy visiting with them.

At the MTR station

Back on the ship, this morning, we had a cooking demonstration

The cook and the Maitre D', having just made a black forest cake. Wonder why I am craving black forest cake now!

Update from the South China Sea

We’re on our way back to Hong Kong, today. One of the couples at our table have a really nice suite, which comes with free Internet access. They invited my colleague and I over for the morning to come and use the Internet. Nice! Here’s a short update from the trip, and some photos to enjoy. Will connect again in Hong Kong.

Good morning from a nice and c-c-cold Shanghai! In the past week, we’ve cruised from our cozy equatorial weather (high 80s/30C year round) to the crisp weather in Shanghai. The majority of the passengers on board the ship have moved from their daily perches by the pool to my favorite spot on the ship, the library.

I’ve been having a wonderful time so far! I’ve met delightful people from all over the world (including very many South Africans, most of whom live in Australia). I’ve eaten more than usual. I’ve also exercised more than I usually do in Jakarta. And I’ve been reading.

Perhaps one shouldn’t be reading a book on poverty (The Hole in Our Gospel by World Vision president, Richard Stearns) when you’re on a luxury cruise liner. Or perhaps that’s exactly the time to read it! Let me just say that I’m really blessed to have this opportunity to do something this far out of my league, and I’m especially blessed that it cost me one fifth (literally) of what it cost my neighbors! (Got talking to a hilarious old lady at breakfast yesterday, and she bluntly asked the other table guests how much they paid for their packages. I think she would’ve had a stroke on the spot had she heard what a steal we had gotten!)

So, what does a person do on a cruise? There are lots to do. There’s a guy on board who’s teaching advanced bridge classes and a lady teaching tai-chi and dancing. There’s a kids program for the 60 kids on board. There are games like putt-putt, shuffle board and ping-pong. There’s the pool and Jacuzzis. There’s an outdoor walking/running track, and quite a big gym. And there’s my favorite spot on the ship, the library.

Kiptoo and I have been enjoying our time in the library

We've also been enjoying playing Scrabble

Driving around Manila, Philippines. It's always fun to explore different cities, especially when you have friends to show you around

My classmate Cesar and his family showed me around Manila, and took us to Intramuros, which contains a memorial to Rizal, their national hero

These are the footsteps of Rizal as he was taken to be executed

Waiting to depart from Manila

The seas between Manila and Xiamen were really rough. I was glad not to get sick, but many people (including crew) were really seasick

Watching the sunrise as we headed into Xiamen port

We were met by a colleague in Xiamen who showed us around. This statue faces Taiwan, and is part of the unification ideal...

The goddess Matsu, facing Taiwan-owned Matsu island

At a market in Xiamen, a picture of Jesus next to one of Mao and one of a dragon... Interesting...

Having lunch in Xiamen. Shaun insisted we have to eat!

A roadside doctor's office next to our restaurant, where the "doctor" was cleaning a guy's ear!

This vendor was selling cigarettes. His not-yet-1-year-old kid was "playing" with a cigarette

Down an alley in Xiamen

Vegetable vendor in Xiamen

Next stop: Shanghai. Here you could buy bok choi on the side of the road

Kiptoo and I hung out with a South African family who live in Australia. I as the translator for the day. Kiptoo made some new friends in the art district

My friends and I at the "M on Bund." It was freezing!

A view of the deck while in Shanghai

The Shanghai skyline

Shanghai's a beautiful city, and we had a WONDERFUL day

 OK, signing off for now and seeing what the day holds.

Kiptoo's going on a cruise

I've never had a burning desire to go on a cruise. Not sure why. I've lived at/very close to the coast for most of my life, and I love the ocean. Yet, I've never yearned to go on a cruise. But when one plan after another fell through for this Christmas holidays and a colleague asked if I'd consider going along on a cruise through Asia, it sounded like a fun thing to do.

So, tomorrow morning early, I'm off to Singapore. From there, we'll board the Ocean Princess, setting sail for Manila, Philippines, where we'll arrive on December 26.

12/26: In Manila, I'll spend the morning exploring with Cesar (a classmate from BGU) and his family. Then it's back on the boat and head to China.

12/28: Arrive in Xiamen, where a colleague from school will show us around his city. I've never been to Xiamen, so this'll be a fun chance to see the city through a local's eyes. Then it's back on the ship and head further north, to an even colder city, Shanghai.

12/30: Though I have several friends in Shanghai, all of them are traveling for the holidays, so I'll likely go to a museum or simply walk around the Bund. Then, head south to warmer waters. We'll bring in the New Year somewhere between Shanghai and Hong Kong.

1/2: Looking forward to seeing the Eitemiller family in Hong Kong. Jessica was in my youth group in Taiwan, and by now, she's married and has a baby! I'll also get to see her sister Joelle (who's also in college by now) and hang out with their wonderful family at their home for the day. Then set sail further south, back toward the equator.

1/4: This'll be my first time to visit Vietnam, so I'm looking forward to seeing Nha Trang. If the temples that this area's most famous for is too far, I'll see if I can get a dive in!

1/5: Next stop: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I bet there'll be plenty to see in this city before we set sail to return to Singapore.

1/7: Back in Singapore, and hop on a plane back to Jakarta.

Kiptoo's going along, and I think he's excited. He's not been doing much exploring lately, so he made sure he's got everything ready to have some fun. He and I will post updates as/when we are able.

Yet to do, at 42

The last two years, I had a poem of sorts on my blog on the day of my birth, on things I've done in the past. As my birthday approached this year, it struck me that I sadly have very few really fun or profound items to add this year. And so I've decided to make a different list this time. (It's not my birthday yet. That's only on Friday.)

I'm an activator, after all, and lists invigorate me! This isn't a "bucket list," necessarily. I'm sure I'll think of many, many more things along the way that I'd like to do someday. Many of the items that are on the list are most definitely not things I decided I'd want to do before my name is listed in the obituaries. They're simply things I've done, and things I still would love to do. Some of the things crossed off are things I'd've never put on a list of "Things I hope I get to do someday." But planned or unplanned, these things have have become a part of me. They appear in no specific order. Some aren't things I just seek to do once off. (Been there. Done that. Check!) But some are things I'd never want to experience again. Ever. You'll figure out which are which.*

Fly an airplane. (I have an appointment for a lesson in June.)
Keep a journal. (I do, but not religiously. The only thing I do religiously might be to brush my teeth!)
Walk on a glacier in Alaska.
Pray and see a virtually-dead person come back to life.
Wake up to the sound of lions roaring nearby.
Build and decorate a small home in the boonies.
Spend time diving off a liveaboard in Micronesia.
Have solo exhibits and sell my photos.
Fall asleep to the sound of crickets.
Have tea with the President at his home.
Buy a home.
Swim in the wild with dolphins.
Find a new home for lost chickens.
Get stuck (and unstuck) in the mud.
Be present during the birth of a baby.
Walk on the Great Wall, and visit the Forbidden City.
Be a passenger in a taxi that kills a pedestrian.
Sit in awe as an amazingly-gifted friend worships God through her gift of music.
Play in the snow with my nieces.
Listen to a complete stranger's life story.
Sing in a philharmonic choir.
Take a class from a descendant of Ethiopia's last emperor. And visit with the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
Participate in an Olympic event.
Deliver a dead body to its family.
Watch the sky catch on fire.
Survive an epic flood.
Wait.
Befriend a Rendille.
Feel at home in a rainforest.
Work as an itinerant professor.
Get stranded, at night, in a broken car, in a wildlife park in Kenya.
Fight off a gun-wielding soldier.
Have an office that overlooks a river.
Take college students to someplace deep in the heart of Mozambique.
Get a fish pedicure.
Witness lives being transformed.
Be protected by a bow-and-arrow-wielding warrior.
Build a greenhouse and grow great vegetables in it.
Be patient.
Watch the sunrise and sunset in the Namib desert.
Know the birds around me so well that I can identify them without having to refer to any book.
Learn a new language.
Appreciate the little things in life.
Cry at the genocide memorial in Kigali, Rwanda.
Write a book. (Start in Bali.)
Keep a chameleon as a pet and resident fly-catcher.
Ride on the back of an ostrich.
Sign my name as Dr. Booysen.
Teach a graduate-level class in Ethiopia.
Survive a plane crash. (This was far less eerie than getting off the plane in the US on Oct. 31, 2000, and learning that the flight I was originally scheduled to be on, but had changed my ticket days before, had crashed!)
Visit more countries than my current age.
Master the art of taking the perfect bucket shower.
Live a simple life.
Witness the zebras and wildebeest crossing the Mara River from the Serengeti.
Visit Machu Pichu.
Have a mailing address in five countries . . . and a driver's license in most of those.
Move orphans into a new, loving home.
Walk the streets of Kathmandu.
Be chased by a rhino. (A short albeit frightening chase in Nakuru National Park.)
Try to love relentlessly.
Walk through the dark valley of situational depression.
Spend time in a Sudanese cattle camp, watching the cows come home.
Witness a hunt.
Perform with Yo-Yo Ma. (This was going to happen, but then the concert was canceled due to Typhoon Morakot hitting Taiwan weeks before the event. Bummer!)
Listen to friends' stories.
Make creme brulee from scratch.
Make mistakes. Seek forgiveness. Move on. (Ongoing process, this one, isn't it?)
Fly in a hot air balloon over the Rift Valley.
Cross the continental divide.
Live a life surrendered to God.
Survive a massive earthquake. (Taiwan, 921)
Take photos of beautiful children.
Ask more questions.
Be part of a brand new, international magazine launch as managing editor.
Learn to live with gratitude from a friend who did so with excellence.
Win the war against jiggers!
Think before I speak.
Kiss a giraffe.
Eat termites.
Learn as much as I can from every season through which I pass.
Visit Lalibella, Ethiopia.
Figure out all the functions on my camera.
Survive an attack by a crazy mob.
Slaughter a chicken.
Get stranded in a yacht and rescued by the Coast Guard.
Dive with a whale shark.
Stand up for what I know is right, regardless of the cost...
Spend some time with the Pokot.
Live at an orphanage.
Get a job where I can thrive once again.
Teach preschoolers.
Get to know the roads, the animals and the people of the Maasai Mara.
Watch a green turtle lay eggs on a remote island.
Dive the Great Barrier Reef.
Learn to make the perfect cup of coffee.
Live a life delighting in God, and in a way knowing that God delights in me.


I've enjoyed the journey this far. I look forward to at least 42 more.



* Facebook friends, I doubt the HTML code transfers to Facebook notes, so to see which items have yet to be done, visit my Web site, www.AdeleBooysen.com.

So, I've joined a club.

After six years of blogging, I've joined an after-school club for teachers who want to to learn how to blog. Lest you think I have too much time on my hands (ha!), or I've lost it (well, maybe I have), the reason I've joined the blogging club is to learn how to best use a blog professionally. Until now, my blogs have been personal ones, including the ones I maintained for the children's homes.

And thus, I joined the club.

Maybe it will also provide me with the impetus to write on my personal blog more frequently again. While living in Kenya, I blogged almost daily. In the past year, I wrote a total of 20 posts. There are several reasons for this, and I won't bore you with them. But come to think of the reasons, maybe I won't be writing more over here after all... Especially since I spend my evenings poring over my dissertation.

Maybe I'll continue on this one-entry-a-month streak on this blog, but start building a professional site instead. One where I can post my resume and some of my professional writing, seeing that I am officially doing a job search. Yet again. Officially as of an hour or so ago, when I submitted the message to my school that I will not be continuing on as a preschool teacher next year. I simply cannot do it. I am not a preschool teacher. (I'm checking to see if anyone will notice this not-so-surprising bit of news if I hide it in a really long & boring paragraph.) I want to thrive in my job once again. Ultimately, I want to be teaching at a college level again. And I'm at the complete opposite end of the spectrum, I know. It was OK for a season. I believe I've learned what I had set out to learn. This season will indeed become part of my dissertation. So I want to move on. I'll tell you more in a different post someday. Or read my book someday. End of rambling.

Oh, yes, as I was saying... so I joined the blogger club, to learn from the dad of one of my students, a colleague who knows far more than I do about doing a professional blog. Or a really cool blog, for that matter.

I'll most likely move all the materials on this site someplace else, and keep my URL for the professional side of me. For those of you who have an aversion to change, consider this your warning.

I'm Adele, and I have a lot more to learn.

Today, I had a piranha pedicure

... and I didn't like it. Not a bit. Yet I kept putting my feet back in the water. I wanted to be able to say that I'd done it. Fish therapy, that is. You see fish spas all around Indonesia. Some are fancy and you pay $6 for an hour of therapy. The one where my friends and I went was $2 for 30 minutes. And the ponds were in the hallway of one of the local malls.

I've often walked by these ponds, looked at the locals sitting there totally relaxed, as if there really aren't about a million little fish stuck to their feet and legs. OK. Not a million. But those suckers know how to vie for a piece of property.

Like I said, I just couldn't keep my feet in the water. I tried. I may have kept them in for 15 seconds at the most. But the constant nibbling sensation was just eerie. (It's actually sucking, not nibbling, really. Those suckers don't have teeth.) An hour after the therapy, it still felt like I had fish nibbling/sucking at my skin.

I kid you not.

It was an impromptu decision to do it as a treat for one of my colleagues' birthdays. We've all been curious about it, but no-one wanted to do it alone. Had we planned to go, I would've taken my camera. I'd go back with friends simply to take photos, not to put my feet back in the water.

Granted, they're not piranhas. They're garra rufa, or "red log suckers." Or doctor fish. Call them what you may, having them suck at my skin gave me the heebie-jeebies!

"Really? Avocado on your sandwich?"

Today, when my kids were finally down for their short nap, I was able to head out for a quick bite to eat at one of our school's 6 cafes. They're called cafes, that's right. Not cafeterias. You get served food on nice, colored plates. And some of the cafes have the most beautiful decor. I'll post photos sometime.

But that's not my point.

I decided to head to the Middle School Gaja Madah building. (Our buildings have names, not designations. You'll understand when you see the photos.) This building has traditional Indonesian decor, and the cafe serves Indonesian dishes in addition to the regular pastas, rice/chicken dishes, salad bar etc.

I wanted a grilled chicken panini.

Then I noticed avocado on display. "Ah! Could you add some avocado to that, please?" I politely asked.

"Avocado? You want avocado on your sandwich?"

"Yes, please." (I thought maybe the avocado was just part of a display, judging from the response.)

"The avocado is for juice bar. Not sandwich."

"Yes, but can I please have avocado on my sandwich?" I smiled. And thought how utterly unappealing an avocado drink is to me!

(Lots of talk among the Indonesian serving staff. And some frowns. And some shaking of heads, as in, "You bules* are very strange!")

The lady carefully put a couple of slices on my bread, and minutes later, I had the perfect panini. But as I sat at the Balinese-style table, enjoying my sandwich, I caught all the wait staff staring strangely at me... I smiled again, gave them a thumbs up, and gulped down the last few bites before rushing back to my crazy little kids.

Funny, isn't it, how some customs (or foods) seem oh-so-strange when transferred from one culture to another.

I cannot help but wonder if you've ever encountered something similar. Please share!

* Bule is the Indonesian term for gringo. Or waiguoren. Or crazy white people. :)