Typical day in Phuket with Triplets + 1
Last time I was at Le Meridien Beach Resort in Phuket was November 1997. I’d always wanted to return with Tess because it is a good combo of family-friendly and couple-friendly. The resort has huge pools, so it is easy to find quiet areas, which is probably a good thing considering we are the noisiest family at the moment! Saturday morning the kids woke-up at 5:45 AM. We managed to keep them occupied until about 6:30 AM, then down we went to the breakfast buffet for pancakes. They ate more than you could possibly imagine. (Left: Sela looks at the resort from the balcony.)
Next we were off to "explore the resort." We found the best place to sit next to one of the pools, the Penguin Club for kids over three, then had a long walk along the beach. We couldn’t delay the inevitable any longer, though, and by 9 AM had all four kids playing wildly in one of the many kids’ pools. Lunch saw us at the main cafe where the kids enjoyed chicken nuggets that I am sure were loaded with a full FDA warning’s worth of trans fats. Post-lunch the kids played at the Penguin Club (read Kids Club) for a few hours. Finally they were back in the pool for a final 90 minutes of swimming. We decided since the kids were on holiday another round of trans fat would do no harm, so with the promise of mid-life angiograms, we treated them to Pizza On The Beach. (All part of the hotel complex.) (Left: the kids out exploring early in the morning.)
And this is where they hit the wall… except for Sebastian. Having gone full speed for two days straight (the trip here the kids were super excited, then the first day here even more so) it was inevitable the kids would eventually run out of steam. Upon arriving at the beach cafe the pizza was ready, cut-up, sitting on plates and cooling for consumption. (Tess and I always divide by sending one or the other ahead to prepare everything.) Not long after sitting down, Carys and Sela whined of having to do wee wees. Back-up again to the bathroom they went. Along the path we bumped into Mo, where I handed off the girls. Back to the table, where suddenly it was JJ’s turn to do a wee wee. Back-up again he and I went, wee’d and returned. We took the most direct path whereas Sela and Carys took the long route along the beach. JJ promptly dug back into his pizza. Sela and Carys arrived a few minutes later, sat down, bibs back on, Carys started eating but Sela was holding out. (Left: Carys crashed out on Mo’s shoulder after dinner.)
Nothing was right: sand on her feet, she wanted her sandals off, blah, blah, blah – whatever – the little whinger wasn’t happy. Even sitting cuddled on Tess’ lap Sela wouldn’t eat. Warning 1, Warning 2 and finally just before Warning 3, Sela volunteered going straight to bed. Tess took her back to the room. Meanwhile, the sausage on the pizza had a real spicey bite, giving the tired kids additional reason to whine. Being in Asia, one can regularly count on finding spice in food every here and there. We always respond with, "well have a drink (of water or more) to cool your mouth." The kids never really respond to these suggestions so I never really know if they get the message. In this particular case they sipped their water, but I still wonder. In all, the kids wolfed down two medium sized pizzas. With only a few pieces remaining Carys began slipping away. After a while Mo took her up to bed. Then it was just JJ, Seb and me. The boys finished the last of the pizza and headed up to bed. Needless to say, it didn’t take anyone long to fall asleep. (Left: the triplets sound asleep after a long day of play.)
This is what a typical day in Phuket has been like for us. Dinner usually consists of ordering room service but one night we’ll get a babysitter so we can go out for a proper dinner. There have been some curious and hilarious moments that I’ll report on in the next blog so stay tuned! (Left: a typical beach scene at the resort. Unlike most resorts in Phuket, Le Meridien has an exclusive beach that is not shared with any other reorts or hotels.)
Sunday in Phuket…
Well my friends, we are in Phuket… finally after too many attempts to get here during the last six months. By the time we left the flat on Friday the kids were wound up tighter than tops busting to be spun. This is the 3rd "Asian" holiday for Sebastian (coincidentally, the first two ‘Asian’ holidays were both in Phuket) but the first Asian holiday for the triplets. They sensed we were going somewhere special, but the reality of the situation didnt hit home until we actually arrived at the Meridien Beach Resort in Phuket. (At left: the kids play "Sleeping Bunnies" on, of course, a perfectly sterile airport carpet!)
All in all, the kids were incredibly well behaved for the entire trip to Phuket. There were few if any incidents on the ride to the airport, or on the plane. (Largely due to Tess who is exemplary at pulling little tricks or antics out of her hat.) When we arrived at the Phuket Airport, Blake and MoZiLLa were waiting for us. We boarded a bus for the hotel and 45 minutes later arrived at the resort. (At left: Tess in the HK airport getting the kids all revved up with the latest fun tune… note Jasper with a ‘monster pose.’)
Our plan was to race down to the pool for a quick dip upon arrival but we were well delayed for a variety of reasons. Therefore, we arrived well after dark and ended up feeding the kids a few snacks and then they were off to bed. In case I forget to mention it again, Sela did two face plants into stairs and corners when she first arrived… she’s sporting some real shiners now! I am writing this on Sunday night and have some classic stories and photos of the last two days that I’ll post within 24 hours… truly hilarious, including a baby elephant "caught on film" going after Tess’ breasts! Classic and stay tuned. (At left: the triplets share a King sized bed. Seb had his own bed.)
Left, after wolfing down more pancakes than I could ever imagine the kids eating, they sit on the beach watching the waves and surf. Stay tuned for more fun pictures from Phuket, Thailand.
From the Vietnam Queen…
From our guest blogger, MoZiLLa in Vietnam…
hello fans of maureen…
yellowknife’s fave gal is having a blast…she is meant to be boarding a plane today with frugal blake to meet up with the four very excited grandchildren and charles and myself in phuket, however after reading these last two epistles i wouldn’t be at all surprised if she missed her plane and was found wandering around the streets eating freshly made vietnamese baguette waiting for her husband, barber-trainee blake to get off work.
here are the latest letters….
*****
Good evening to everyone from Ho Chi Minh City where it is currently 26C (weather network says it feels like 39C) and humidity is 94% and I AM LOVING IT! Tomorrow is supposed to be 32C.
A short note to try to express our delight with Hoi An – what a treasure. A ‘sleepy’ small town where we enjoyed the slower pace and spent hours walking, strolling, perusing, making choices for a riverside restaurant amidst crumbling stones, plastic chairs and rickety tables but wonderful food. We were treated with respect and kindness and it was a pleasure to reciprocate. This morning we enjoyed our complimentary breakfast once again at our rather wonderful hotel – did I mention it is across the street from the bus ‘pits’ where they are serviced? Oh my.
Following our breakfast of the best fresh white bread, fruit, yogourt, jam, cheese and hot Lipton tea we left with a pre-arranged taxi driver and drove to Marble Mountain for a quick stop. The quick stop turned into a happy purchase of two small marble vases which both Blake and I immediately took a shine to. The young lady who made the transaction seemed to take a shine to us as she gave me a gift of a green bracelet and a small Buddha for Blake as she noticed a wee similarity in their tummies! And this is not the first time his tummy has been a point of interest- locals, after chatting with us for a bit, would sometimes pat his tummy and say, "Happy Buddha!"
From Marble Mountain we drove to the famous Furama Resort (Vietnam’s only 5 star luxury hotel of international calibre) in Danang but sadly could not get out and wander through their grounds 🙁 Would love to have seen more. And then off to the famed China Beach of the Vietnam War – we stopped on the highway, walked down onto the beach and sat under a huge thatched umbrella for about 45 minutes while we drank in the sight, thought of the history of this place, read and relaxed. Our faithful driver then took us through Danang – how glad I am we stayed our 3 days in Hoi An – and dropped us at the airport where we caught the flight to HCMC.
Blake is a cute sight right now as he did not cover up well enough yesterday while we were out walking around for hours on end and although the sun did not actually present itself without clouds it was pretty feisty and Blake is proof. He has the reddest solar dome and knees but thankfully is not too uncomfortable. Lesson learned – always put on sunscreen even if the sun is not actually shining.
Tomorrow is an unknown as to what we will be up to but suspect we will explore the city. Did I mention in the previous letter that we had visited the "Hanoi Hilton" where American flyers were imprisoned during the Vietnam War? Pretty chilling.
Trusting this little update finds each of you well. We continue to be blessed with good health inspite of the lingering cough from the HK plague of a few weeks ago 🙂 I remember saying to Blake this morning, "I hope I never ever take for granted how wonderful it is to feel healthy." Amen.
Our love to you all from the horn-tootingest-country in the world!
M xox
We have just tumbled in from a couple of hours of wandering around in incredible heat – I LOVE it. But hot it is – feels like 115F according to weathernetwork. A little frustrating as ‘doing’ is not evolving quite as easily as it has in the past. Nevertheless, HCMC is all part of the package and am not sorry we are here.
Took laundry in today; Blake got a snazzy pair of Puma lookalike sandals; have been able to watch some good tennis on TV in the evenings and Blake has seen Bart Simpson – what more could we ask for? We both got bitten by insects quite a bit in Hoi An but B’s have flaired more than mine – not a problem except a bit itchy and I have cream for him. Dined last night at Seventeen Saloon…… big name, not much else. Watched the world neck its way by as couples smooched in the park across the road, the usual bevvie of motorbikes roared past, joined an aerobics class in the same park enroute to our hotel. AND we are soooooo good at crossing the frenetic roads – no panic, no last minute writing of the will, no scrunching our eyes shut and praying that we will somehow live…… miraculously, it just happens 🙂
Remind us to tell you how Pepsi Cola saved us from financial embarrassment!
And the fact that there are 14,000 dong to one Canadian dollar has turned Blake into an instant millionaire and he is liking the feeling. Frugal Blake, as Tess loves to call him in her blog, is so happy to negotiate prices when his little tiny dollar equals 14,000! He has even purchased some items without going through angst and pain and hesitation, which is the norm for him – it is such a transformation….. and I am liking the feeling!
Fortunately we are having easy Internet access thus far.
It is 12:33p.m. and I am heading up to our AC room to cool off a little before we venture out again to the Reunification Palace.
Blessings to all,
M xoxo
We are sold on Vietnam!
From our guest blogger, MoZiLLa in Vietnam…
We are currently in Hoi An and not staying where I said we would be! We are at the Phuong Nam Hotel, very happy with it – my mind did a swoop when I walked into our bedroom in this hotel as it so reminded me of The English Patient and other movies of that genre – the dark wood furniture, the cool white walls, the sliding dark wood windows and on. The bathroom is big and more than adequate. Truly adorable staff.
Just back from a loooooonnnnng walk. As we strolled past a teeny tiny shop this afternoon I asked Blake if he was going to be brave and get his hair cut as the hair below his regular hairline at the back of his neck was challenging Tarzan with the need for a ‘tidy-up’. He agreed he needed to keep his eyes open and voila, I turned him around and before you could say much he was in the chair and is now looking most dapper indeed. Very short and sharp. I took a few pics to try to capture the tiny-ness of this shop and chose NOT to think about the cleanliness level of the comb and other utensils used on Blake – I doubt they were ever cleaned but wouldn’t it be wonderful if I was wrong?
While Blake was being relieved of his follicles a young woman showed up with another child – 2 already in the shop watching! – and asked me if I would like a massage. Have you EVER known me to say ‘No’ to a massage? And again, before I could blink I was prone in the only other archaic steel chair. Now this woman had the hands of a fighter! I kept thinking about the Clint Eastwood movie with Hilary Swank. Hilary had nothing on this lady. She beat me up from scalp to shoulders and halfway down my arms, covered my face in Nivea cream I think, shook and pulled my hair, slapped my face and chin, clunked my forehead and scalp with a block of wood it felt like but was probably her hands, slopped a wet towel from a bucket in the corner of the shop onto my face to wash off the cream, poured some delightful liquid into my hair, sat me up and started to comb my hair as it was of course standing straight out….. but I had to draw the line there as I just couldn’t quite have that comb in my hair!! We paid, gave our thanks, grinned and waved and …… felt like a million dollars. Blake was now cuter than ever with his new haircut and all that abuse on me was GREAT! and
my neck and shoulders actually felt a little better 🙂
We had dinner at some marvelous local place where we learned we really like Vietnamese Wonton soup. A nice little dog kept watch just a few feet away, wild motorbike drivers sped by a few feet away from our table, twilight slipped into night. We drank Lager beer and ended the meal with sweet milk/sugar coffee – mmmmm. Wandered ‘home’ hand in hand just loving every ambience-filled moment….. and not just me, Blake is equally as thrilled with it all as I am.
And Hanoi – this gets repetitious but that too was such a good time. We walked for hours and hours, ‘did’ the markets, nearly expired from lack of liquid in the middle of the market and I figured Blake would end up a pneumonia victim as he had 100% drenched his shirt and I had visions of him somehow catching a chill….. now think Maureen, how is that possible?….. the heat and the humidity were so high! but nevertheless I was watching out for my boy…… walked around the big lake in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, ate dinner at …. Bobby Chin’s…. correct name?…. a ‘must do’ of Sandi’s – excellent food and service. The following day was THE Halong Bay trip – Pammie, I so wanted it to be the way you described it! But alas, it was a day for pouring rain. Nevertheless, off we went, met some super people, braved getting soaked, chose our poor luncheon victims at the fish farm and had a truly delectable meal on board the cruise boat and didn’t die on the highways of Hanoi to Halong Bay where painted lines and driving-on-the-correct-side-of-the-highway is laughable. All in all an experience and fun. As we were being driven to the airport this morning Blake exclaimed, "Isn’t the architecture exquisite"? And it is as the French influence is prevalent – a yellow mustard colour is a favourite for the buildings, black grills, handsome doorways and frequently the structure is only one room wide and rises for 3 or 4 floors – it takes getting used to as it looks odd to see these buildings often standing on its own.
Blake here – have I told you how many times Mo has told me how much she likes the humid weather?! I am greasing her fingers as we speak so she can type at super speeds. Aside from that, this weather is so wonderful for my skin!!!! My hair is spurting through it to the point that three barbers had to work shifts just to trim the hair on my ears alone 🙂 Mo is threatening to buy more clothes, the lessons and Beatitudes from the Retreat are wearing thin at this point and rather than clothe the poor Mo has decided charity begins at home. Please start the Prayer Chain tomorrow!!!!
…… NO COMMENT FROM MO AT THIS POINT AS I AM THE ONE TYPING AS HE DICTATES!!! Blake again: sorry about that little diatribe! Tomorrow I start my job at the Pizza parlour in town so that I can finance Mo’s upcoming shopping expedition. Must run now – it’s my turn to drive taxi and I have to learn how to operate the horn, the lights and the accelerator simultaneously. It would really confuse things if any of the vehicles had brakes!
Regards to all, Blake…. HE IS SOOOO CHEEKY. Never believe anything he says 🙂
Much love to all, M xox
Farewell my friends…
Okay, so before the handful of you who read my blog think I am about to stop blogging, I am not saying farewell to you, I am saying farewell to my work colleagues at Juniper Networks. May4th was my last day of work. I am on leave until May 31st and then start at another technology company as head of APAC HR on June 1. Still based in Hong Kong. I worked at Juniper for four+ years and it really is quite a special company… but it was also time to leave. (To regular viewers, this was the cryptic blog I posted about six weeks ago!) In the last few weeks I gathered up some of the pictures of my time at Juniper to put together the accompanying farewell message for my colleagues. Hopefully they will visit to watch it with fond memories of working together. Despite opportunity and inspiring challenges ahead, it is still hard to leave.
WOW for WTE!
From our guest blogger, MoZiLLa…
Obviously, Tess and I have returned from our WTE with Tess functioning in the capacity as Table Leader/facilitator and me as a Pilgrim. And now comes the dilemma….. I want to share absolutely everything about the Walk to Emmaus but I won’t because the impact of the Walk is so excellent and so profound that it is best experienced with no foreknowledge of what is to come. That was how I did it, as did pretty well everyone, and I believe it to be the way to go. What I will share is that this was a Christian spiritual experience, the like of which was utterly unique, from which I emerged truly blessed by God. So!! suffice to say that in addition to seeing The Painted Veil I recommend even more passionately that the WTE is a must-do Retreat. (Left: Blake taking the kids to SWCK school on one of his first mornings in Hong Kong.)
When it wound down Sunday at 5 PM who appeared at Mary Knoll (Catholic Monastery) but my darling Blake, Charles and the four children. What a precious sight that was. We wee-wee/d the triplets while Charles did the impossible of effectively packing up the 7 seater van with luggage, 2 pillows, 1 mattress, swimming supplies (used by C, B, and the children at the Club that Sunday afternoon) – and then the 8 of us slid in and drove home. (Left: Blake & Charles on Friday morning at a Christian breakfast atop the HSBC headquarters while Tess & MoZiLLa were at Mary Knoll.)
A bath never felt so good; Tess, I think, had a bath and was out cold before you even knew she was missing; the children crashed quickly as they too had had a busy busy day; Blake was exhausted from his weekend duties as grandfather (and busy they were – Charles and Blake took the children, along with Lita and De for crowd control!, to Kowloon and it was apparently the worst Charles ever experienced with LITERALLY EVERYBODY in their faces) so Blake too was in bed and gone after continuing his culinary skills for his dinner and preparing Kraft Dinner 🙂 This left Charles and me. And we talked long into the night about his WTE and mine. Rich indeed.
Today is a holiday, although Tuesday. Charles has to go to work unfortunately as he is finishing up at Juniper and last day will be Friday. He is then taking a month OFF! yipppeeeee! and June 1st begins a new job with Citrix – as HR Director for Asia Pacific. They are blessed to have him. He and Blake are meeting up this afternoon and bravely heading back to Kowloon for some fittings for shirts and suits, etc. And Tess and I are packing up the children and taking them back to the beach with 200 steps AND WILL NOT BE GROCERY SHOPPING AFTER!! The unbelievably wonderful Lita and De have the day off and in typical fashion asked if that would be alright for them to have the day off or ‘were they needed to work?’ – they are treasures.
Tomorrow is the BIG DAY! Blake and I will be up early and out the door, catch a taxi to the intown Airporter Train Check-in, and a short 1/2 hour ride to the airport. We leave for Hanoi (I just checked weather and it is supposed to be showers and thunderstorms the 3 days we are there!). We plan on a great deal of walking through the French quarter, seeing the many famous sites as well as a day trip to Halong Bay which is world renowned for its beauty – 3,000 islands dotting an emerald bay… might be interesting in a thunderstorm! We depart for Hoi An (just south of Danang) on Saturday the 5th for another 3 days. There are many old temples and beautiful beaches along with the historic "China Beach" near Danang for our viewing and exploring pleasure. On the 8th we embark on the final Vietnam stage of the journey to Ho Chi Minh city where once again we will walk and drink in this different world. My priority while there is a boat trip along parts of the Mekong Delta – again, a part of history not to be missed.
May 11 we depart from Ho Chi Minh and instead of returning to HK as originally planned a new surprising ‘gift’ has evolved. We are flying to Phuket via Bangkok and will meet up with the 6 Caldwells for 6 nights at a resort. This is the triplets first Asian holiday and should be a not-to-be-missed experience. This resort has a Kid’s Club and if the triplets are considered too young for the Club there are babysitters so Tess and Charles should actually be able to relax and recharge their own batteries a little. We all return to HK on the 17th – Blake and I are on a different flight and will not arrive back in the flat until around midnight); next day is the final day to run last minute errands (ie: Blake to Kowloon to pick up his shirts) while that evening Blake has a most important function to attend – it is "Father’s Night" at Small World – the four children’s school – he, Charles and two adopted fathers for the evening are attending the soiree so that each child has a ‘father’ at their side who will "ooooh and ahhhhh" at their wonderful works of art, etc. Blake’s eyes will be brimming as you can imagine. Amazingly that is it! and the following day we climb on the plane for our flight back to Canada.
So my dear family and friends, until we are next in contact – may God continue to bless each of you.
Love from
Maureen and Blake
