Indonesia

After our Thailand Conference, we had about a week before the start of the semester in Qufu (and there was no good reason to go home early since the heat was still off in our apartment building), so we decided to take a trip with some fellow English teachers to warm Indonesia (Bali, Lombok, and the Gili Islands).
Unfortunately for Chip, he was outnumbered by women 7:1.

Bali

Monkeys on the side of the road--watch out, they scratch!

Waterfalls

Rice Paddies and other lush landscapes

Rafting in the rain forest

Coffee growing in the rain forest. It didn't taste like coffee in that form. Believe me. I tried it.

Drinking Balinese coffee later

Surfing--While Chip and I didn't personally surf, we feel inspired to try it someday! Some of the girls in our group did surf school and absolutely loved it. We enjoyed watching crowds of surfers on Kuta Beach.

Lombok

We took a ferry to Lombok. It is much less developed than Bali making it more majestically beautiful. There were mountains and beaches and waterfalls and not too many tourists.

Trekking through creeks to bigger waterfalls with our teammate, Alison.

(Click on the images to view them larger.)

Beautiful Indonesian children crowded around us on the black sand beaches of Senggigi

The Gili Islands
(off the coast of Lombok)

Thailand: See What We Saw

Most of our time in Thailand was spent at our organization's conference (which was great. . .more details coming in your March newsletter!), but we did do a little sightseeing around Chiang Mai. Check out our random assortment of photos below:

Great tropical foods!

Interesting signs we saw:

Baan Grood, Thailand

We were blessed to spend a few days at the beach with our friends, the Felts, who also teach English in China. Ruthie has been a dear friend of mine since we lived across the hall on Second Glide when we were freshmen in college.
She had a baby this fall who is a little delight!

It was so good to process this past semester with Ruthie, a friend who really understands my life in China. She has lived in China since we graduated in 2005.
Check out some of our beach photos below:

Magnificent breakfasts!

Kevin, Ruthie, Juliana, Mallary, Chip

Garlic banana chips=awesome!

Kunming

We visited Kunming, a city in the south of China, Yunnan province, known as the city of eternal spring. And it was! The sky was blue, there were beautiful flowers and trees, and the sun felt so good.

We stayed with The Shorey Family. Kevin Shorey was my high school youth pastor and the whole family is friends with my family. He teaches at an international school and his wife, Emma from England, does homeschool training and advising for families in China. We enjoyed sharing meals, playing games, and having genuinely good conversation with them and their boys, Timothy and Wesley.

Xi Shan (West Mountain) gave us a great view of the pop. 5mil city

We also visited the Minority Village that highlights the culture of some of China's minorities. Check out a few photos below (mostly Tibetan, Jinou, and Bai):