I arrived home from Malaysia a week ago today and had an absolutely amazing trip! Such an incredible experience all around. It was absolutely exhausting, but I feel so grateful that I took advantage of this opportunity. I spent 10 days in Kuching on the Borneo part of Malaysia chaperoning 12 high school students from my school on a Habitat For Humanity trip.
We arrived around 4pm on the evening of April 1st after only a couple of mishaps (such as our Indian student getting escorted to a customs interrogation room when we were leaving Dubai and her mother subsequently having to drive to the airport at 3am with her old passport in order for her to get out of the country
and five of our students' luggage not making it to Malaysia, including one who had a high-dose of antibiotic in his checked bag which led to my co-chaperon Sam having to run around Kuching to find a replacement). But I digress..
Once we got those little issues worked out we settled into our lovely lodge and headed out to dinner where we got our first taste of the delicious local cuisine. We were recommended to a hawker cafeteria about a block from our lodge known by the locals as "Green Hill Corner." I tried the regional signature dish called Laksa (which I thought would be like Pad Thai, but turned out to be a super yummy - albeit spicy Asian noodle soup with prawns and a fried egg on top. Mmm and ridiculously cheap. It was only something like $26 USD for the whole group to eat). Exhausted, we spent the rest of the evening relaxing in our lodge's fantastic rooftop bar.
Almost all the kids hanging at the lodge's rooftop bar on the first night.
Our Room at the Singgahsana Lodge. I shared a room with the other chaperon Sam.
We stayed at the Singgahsana Lodge which is an absolutely adorable little hostel right in the middle of downtown Kuching about a block from the Sungai Sarawak River that runs through town. In traditional Bornean style you had to remove your shoes to enter the lodge (literally as soon as you walk in the door, which is I guess customary when entering a Malaysian home). It was a little bizarre to me for the first couple days (possible foot fungus - ick!) but is actually quite charming and made the lodge that much more home-y. The rooms were clean and lovely with brightly painted accent walls and the whole lodge was packed with Bornean tribal artifacts. Undoubtedly the nicest hostel I've ever stayed at, if perhaps a throw-back to college-life with the communal bathrooms and boys running around wearing only towels.
My bed in our little room. I loved the tapestries hanging behind all the beds, which we were told were painted by a local artist.
The Rooftop Bar at the Singgahsana. Decorated to look like a Bornean hunting lodge. We ate our breakfast up here every morning -- White toast with blueberry jam and watermelon. It wasn't much but it was free.. I was slightly disturbed by the amount of white bread I ate though. Probably more than I've had in the last 10 years combined.
Another view. I loved the basket lights.
Yet another view. We
loved the bar, but it really was the perfect evening hangout. With a pool table, darts, hammock (directly behind the view from this picture) and projector screen with English Premier League every night, what could be better? The only downside for us was that we couldn't enjoy any Tiger beer while luxuriating up here (chaperons weren't allowed to drink either)...
On our first full day we started out with a Habitat Orientation before heading to the site to begin work. Our schedule included 5 working 'build' days and 2 R&R days + two days of travel where we had about half a day combined to just explore Kuching. Our first full day was a build day, and then our second full-day we had off for R&R. We had planned our R&R days in advance with our local Habitat Coordinator Angelina, and she did all the leg work of the planning for us, which was great.
On our first build day, April 2nd, we finished work early at 3:15, so then had a few hours to relax and explore Kuching before we all met back up for a group dinner. The location of our lodge was absolutely amazing, right in the middle of downtown, so tons of great things were in easy walking distance.
Harmony Arch at the end of Carpenter Street, the 'China Town' of Kuching. Literally directly behind our lodge. I hung out on Carpenter Street a lot all week.
Meals were included in the cost of the trip for the kids, so Sam and I planned a group dinner every night and we would meet up at around 7pm and then all go to a restaurant together. After working hard on the site for our first day of work, we thought it would be nice to treat the kids to dinner at a nicer restaurant (and these Dubai kids accustomed to Hilton's and Michelin starred restaurants were pretty good sports about the hawker stand the first night). We chose a fusion restaurant called "Bla Bla Bla" which was a little upscale and even had a koi pond inside (quite feng shui and relaxing). I had the vegetable tempura and fried rice with chicken and prawns and then mango cake for dessert. I had so much amazingly delicious Asian food all week that I have literally been going through withdrawal since I got back. All I'm craving is fried noodles and rice. Mmm.
Then after dinner, Sam and I decided to explore the neighborhood around the lodge a bit. We could hear ridiculously loud music coming from directly behind the lodge so decided we needed to see what was up. Well, what we discovered was an amateur karaoke competition on stage. Absolutely hilarious, although we couldn't understand a word since they were singing in Malay. I liked their outfits and dance moves though... There was a huge audience watching - It seemed like the place to be.
Another photo of the guys and their 'moves'... The outfits were a little dominatrix however.. hmm.
The next act was a woman dancer who had some interesting moves too. It was fun to watch but we got bored rather quickly since we really had no idea what was going on with everything in Malay. So we decided to check out the Hong San Si Temple across the street instead.
Inside view of the Hong San Si.
View up to the ceiling. Just lovely.
Kong Teck Choon Ong & His Attendants. The temple is known for its really beautiful artistic stone and wood carvings.
Another wood carving. Really fascinating as I'd never been in a Chinese temple before.
Our second full day, April 3rd, was our first R&R day and we had arranged for a city tour of Kuching, which is the capital of Sarawak, one of the two Malaysian states on Borneo. We figured it would be nice to get to see and learn more about the community we were helping. So after our daily toast and watermelon for breakfast at the lodge, our bus and guide picked us up at 8:30am for our City Tour. Our first stop was the Satok Weekend Market, which I was super excited to check out. It is the best and busiest market in Kuching and is basically a combination flea market/farmer's market, where all the villagers bring their produce and livestock to sell and trade.
The Weekend Market!
Along with produce and livestock, tons of fresh (and delicious! and cheap!) prepared foods are also sold at the market. I sampled a few that were all were super yummy (onion bhajis!).
Another view of some of the prepared food stands.
Fruit!
More interesting foods. I got a bit carried away...
Bizarre stand selling insect killer. They don't want you to just take their word for it that it works, they want to demonstrate the effectiveness of their product (see the plastic container in the middle top containing poison and dead ants)... Hmm. This stand was disturbingly close to stands selling food now that I think about it...
Rice served out of palm leaves and bamboo. Also yummy.
After adequately exploring the produce and prepared food area, I headed to the livestock/meat area.
And I only made it as far as this cooked meat stand (of which animal I have no idea) before the smell and copious amount of water/blood on the ground grossed me out and I headed back to the souvenir area. The butcher stands had TONS of fresh meat from various animals, but I was sketched about the fact that it was extremely hot and humid (basically like 85 degrees and 90% humidity the whole time we were there. So, yeah, I basically spent the whole trip sweating) and all this raw meat was hanging around outside. The locals seemed to be enjoying it though..
The Kuching Mosque.
Then after leaving the Weekend Market, our city tour continued with a driving tour through town. The first stop was the beautiful pink and gold Kuching Mosque. Borneo seems to be quite the religious melting pot between the Chinese temples, mosques, and Catholic church we passed everyday on our way back from the work site. It's always nice to see peaceful religious coexistence...
The mosque was lovely and was surrounded by a huge cemetery on 3 sides. I'm not sure if it's weird to take photos of a cemetery, but this was a particularly pretty one..
Another view of the Mosque.
Front view of the Mosque. If my time living in Dubai has taught me anything, it is about the diversity of Islam and the style of mosques (each Muslim country I've been to seems to have its own distinctive style) and way people practice it.
Then the next stop on our tour was the Kuching Spice Market. Not that impressive compared to other spice souqs I've been to, but still pretty cool. And lots of uniquely Asian spices.
The Sarawak State Assembly Building. Directly across the river from the Spice Market, it looks like a gold-roofed circus tent.
Kuching means 'cat' in Malay, so lots of the sights and souvenirs are geared toward the symbolic mascot of the city. So the next stop on our tour was the Great Cat of Kuching for a compulsory photo-op.
Meow! Me and the Great Cat. I love the wire whiskers.
Group Photo with the Great Cat of Kuching.
Chinatown Gate behind the Great Cat.
After visiting the Great Cat, we headed to the Sarawak Museum which has two museums in one - an ethnography museum and an art museum. The Ethnography Museum was fascinating with exhibits of cultural artifacts that touch on everything from natural history and geology to archeology and anthropology. I learned a ton about the customs of Borneo's tribal people and specifically the history behind traditional Iban tattooing and palangs (google it, totally bizarre/gross/captivating)... The Art Museum has some beautiful artwork (and really sad yet interesting photos of the Australian POW's who were held in Sarawak during WWII), but was a little bit of the letdown after the volume of artifacts in the Ethnography Museum.
Then our last stop on the city tour was the Tua Pek Kong Temple which is actually located directly across the street from our lodge. It's another beautiful Chinese temple, but I still felt like I walked away not really knowing much about it.
Inside roof of the Tua Pek Kong, Earth Deity Temple. It is the the oldest Earth Deity temple in Sarawak with the originally built in 1770.
One of the traditions I guess is to say a prayer and then light incense to get your prayer to spread into the air.
Group Photo in front of the Tua Pek Kong.
Wide-view of the front.
View of the Tua Pek Kong from the rooftop bar at our lodge. It was literally right across the street...
After our tour ended about noon, we took the group out for lunch at a little cafe across the street from the temple right on the river called the James Brook Cafe (named after the "White Raja" of Sarawak). Afterward, we let the kids have the afternoon to explore on their own and took advantage of the opportunity to do our own exploring... Sam and I decided to take a walk on the lovely path along the river and discovered a stand selling bubble tea. It was hot and seemed like a good after-lunch treat, so we indulged and quickly made friends with the woman running the stand. The bubble tea stand became my favorite spot in town and I think I ended up having about 6 bubble teas of various flavors before the week was over. Yum. Who knew tapioca balls could be so appealing?
Then after enjoying our bubble tea, we decided to take one of the water taxis across the river to check out the other side. We walked around and quickly came upon a lovely Botanical Orchid Garden (which was free to enter!), so spent another half hour wandering and admiring all the lovely flowers. I've always found it hard to keep orchids alive, but apparently the Borneans have it down to a science..
Orchids!
View of all the hanging flowers.
Some more exotic looking flowers. It reminded me of Waimea Valley Nature Center in Hawaii where my mom volunteers with all the tropical jungle flowers.
More exotic flowers. Oh how I love botanical gardens! I think living in Dubai has made me embrace and appreciate all things alive and green so much more than when I lived in the US and took grass and flowers for granted.
My artistic shot of the State Assembly Building from the Orchid Garden.
View across the river from the boat back.
After exploring the Orchid Garden for as long as possible, we decided to head back across the river and go cool off for a bit (it was hot!).
On the boat! The water taxi boats were very similar to Dubai abras but were covered (which makes sense given that several months of the year are monsoon season in Malaysia).
So after a day of touring and exploring we took the group for dinner at another restaurant near the lodge called After 2 which was a combination of western and Asian food. Needing a little break from the previous 5 straight Asian meals, I opted for a pepperoni pizza (beef pepperoni, alas, being a Muslim country) and a Sprite float. All of the restaurants we had been going to seemed to all have pretty extensive fancy drink/milkshake menus and all the kids were ordering 2 or 3 of them a piece per meal. Oh Dubai excess...
On Monday, April 4th, it was back to work on the site and time to get serious about the real reason we were in Malaysia.
The Before picture of the house.
Eric, our construction supervisor told us that our group would be the group finishing up the house, as 2-3 other school groups had already come for previous weeks and done the basic framing, brick-laying, and roof. Our job was to cement the inside walls, floors, and then do the painting. It was a lot of work to complete in 5 days, but we were motivated!
Another before of the house with all the tools we'd be using in the front.
Our first task, which became a continuous job all week was to mix cement by hand with shovels. 5 Wheel Barrows of Sand + 2 bags of Cement + 12 buckets of water = endless shoveling and hoeing and crazy sore arms and backs...
The kids digging into the cement mixing, some more than others..
Then after the cement was mixed we were to cover the bricks walls with cement, ie, cement the walls (think basement walls in houses back home). We erected scaffolding and Eric demonstrated and then walked around doing quality control. And that pretty much sums up how we spent the first three building days...
Victor and Alexandra, the pro wall finishers (who also became our group couple through all of their cement bonding time)...
Brittany H. and Ryan working away.
Eric, our amazing construction supervisor with Hilal.
Me again working on another room. The house was a 3 bedroom with a living room, small kitchen, and bathroom. We got to meet the family the house was for - Margaret and Juar Anak and their 4 sons. So it is a 3 bedroom house for 6 people, which still sounds a little cramped, but the family has been living with Margaret's mother and two of her siblings and their children (11 people in a 4 bedroom house with 1 bathroom!) for the past 20 years. So for them, even having their own house will be a huge improvement. It was really rewarding to get to know the people we were helping. Margaret made us lunch everyday and brought it to the site (different traditional Malaysian dishes everyday -- lots of vegetable curries with white rice, steamed vegetables, and then some chicken and fries to go with it usually). Then Margaret would stay on site and help us work all afternoon and Juar would come toward the end of the day to check on the progress and help too. They are a really lovely family.
Working hard.
Group Photo with our Habitat T-shirts.
Yet more cement mixing, but by our 4th day of work on Wednesday, April 6th, we had finished cementing the walls and had moved onto cementing the floors. Even harder work, in my opinion.
Shireen and Ryan working on the floors with Joblee, the construction assistant who works for Habitat now, after being the recipient of a Habitat Home in the past.
Alex and Britt working away on the floors.
Britt. W. and Alexandra finishing up Margaret and Juar's bedroom.
Ryan and Eric in the Kitchen.
The finished product! All the walls cemented and the floors done and ready to paint on the morning of our last work day, Thursday, April 7th.
View from Juar and Margaret's bedroom into the kitchen.
Then we spent our last day painting the house, undoubtedly the kids favorite job all week. The living space (kitchen and living room) were painted mint green. The three bedrooms were all painted purple, and the outside of the house was painted pink. Very bright and cheerful colors for Margaret and Juar's hopeful future.
The green living room.
One of the son's bedrooms.
Margaret and Juar's bedroom.
View from Kitchen into Margaret and Juar's room and the living room on the right.
And as the day wound down, the kids decided that a photo shoot was in order... I'm pretty sure Paul was the photographer and he was encouraging Sarah to "Be a tiger!"
Paint-covered kids enjoying our afternoon 'tea' snack. On all the work days we took two fifteen minute breaks during the day, one in the morning around 10:30am and one in the afternoon around 3:00pm before we finished work at 4:30pm everyday (we had so many breaks that I kept asking if it was a union job, but sadly no one got my joke... Ah, where was Jared when I needed him?).
Eric, our ever wonderful construction supervisor bought all the food that we had on site all week (and gave the lunch food to Margaret to prepare). Throughout the week, he treated us to various different, yet all delicious, Malaysian pastries for our breaks. My favorites included yummy fried Malay pancakes and donuts, a weird doughy pastry that was filled with peanuts, and some green crepes with coconut in the middle. Mmm.
Group Photo on Eric's truck.
Kids photo shoot in the house. Official photographer Paul was really getting into the whole tiger theme he had going..
Paul the photographer.
Another group shot with Eric sandwiched in the middle.
Our final "After" picture group photo. Joblee is in the middle in yellow. All the kids absolutely adored him.
Margaret and Juar with their son Edwin in front of their new house.
We didn't end up getting to completely finish the house because we didn't have time to finish the bathroom or paint the trim so that Eric could put in the windows and kitchen and bathroom fixtures. Eric said there was only about a day and a half of work left to finish it, so we were a little disappointed but still pretty proud of the work we accomplished. Especially considering none of these uppity Dubai kids had ever had to work this hard before in their lives (some of the boys on the first day were even overheard saying things such as, "I need a manicure after this!" and "I totally deserve a massage after today!"... Since when sixteen year old boys started getting manicures and massages I do not know. Oh to grow up in Dubai with absolutely no concept for the real world... but enough of that tangent...).
Eric and Arya with the absolutely adorable little boy from the house next door who high-fived us everyday before and after work.
We finished on the earlier side on the last day too so that we'd have some time to relax before our farewell dinner with the family and Habitat crew. So Sam and I decided to take advantage and do some more exploring around Kuching.
Cute little Kuching side-street near our lodge.
One of the dragon statues under the Harmony Arch guarding the entrance to Chinatown.
We decided to spend some more time exploring Chinatown. We had read about a really good coffee shop that sold local free trade coffee called the Black Bean Coffee shop and also thought there might be good shopping since I was on a hunt for the perfect souvenir. The coffee was a success and we both bought some to bring home. The souvenir shopping not so much of a success, but we came upon another beautiful temple to explore, which was definitely a success!
Inside Siang Ti Mao Temple. This was probably the flashiest of the temples I visited. It was also spotlessly clean.
Beautiful 3-dimensional dragon mural on one wall.
The Temple Diety.
My attempt at an artistic shot from inside the temple out onto Carpenter Street. I don't think the lighting really cooperated though.
Front of the Siang Ti Mao Temple.
This was out in the front courtyard of the temple. Hopefully it's just a very large incense burner and not something more macabre.
A Chinese "Medical Hall" aka apothecary/pharmacy. It sold lots of interesting 'remedies' -- such as dried sea horses...
Inside the medical hall.
View of a Chinatown street.
Another Chinatown street view. I just thought it was a super cute area.
A Chinese shophouse.
And after a couple hours of exploring, it was time for our Habitat farewell dinner, which Angelina had organized at a nice restaurant called "Millions." We had a buffet dinner and it was a nice opportunity to spend some time with Eric and Joblee who we had all come to love throughout the week, and to meet Eric's family and also say our farewell's to Margaret and Juar. As a thank you, Angelina presented us all with certificates, medals, and little Sarawak vases as a souvenir. Quite a lovely way to end the week.
And the restaurant had a fish spa (where the 'treatment' is to have fish nibble at the dry skin on your feet. I had never heard of it until recently, but they're huge in Dubai right now). So we all (and especially the boys on our trip, because we know how they need their spa treatments) indulged in the foot spa after dinner... It felt weird but was strangely fun.
Eric and his baby Jeremiah. Don't know who thought it would be fun to put the baby in a box, but it was pretty darn cute.
So then brings us to our very last day in Malaysia (tear.), Friday, April 8th, and our last R&R day. When we were planning the trip, the kids expressed that they would like to do something outdoorsy and also something to do with nature, so we planned a day-long kayaking adventure with stops at an Orang Utan Wildlife Preserve and also a traditional Bornean tribal longhouse. So bright and early on the 8th we were picked up by our tour company and headed first to see the Orang Utans.
So we went to the Semonggoh Wildlife Centre at feeding time to visit and see if we could get a glimpse of some orang utans in their natural habitat (in one of the only places in the world where they are indigenous). And get a glimpse we did... I might have gotten a little carried away with the orang utan photos...
Mother and baby swinging.
Another swinging shot.
Absolutely adorable mother and baby sitting.
The mom eating.
Swinging down for some more mango and banana. Clearly she has her hands full, with her mouth full of bananas. It was amazing to watch them eat though. We thought she was going to eat the banana peel, but we realized her technique of peeling them was actually quite efficient using her mouth.
Peeling her food.
And then we moved onto the crocodiles...
Another croc.
Then after we saw about as many orang utans as we could handle, we left and headed to the Annah Rais Long House, a traditional Bidayuh longhouse that the Bornean tribes inhabited (and continue to inhabit as our guide told us several hundred people still live at Annah Rais) as a way of communal living.
On the way though, our driver insisted I take a picture of the scenery...
And once we arrived at the longhouse, we were greeted with a shot of homemade rice wine and then given a tour of the house.
The famous Borneo headhunting is not a myth as we found out by visiting the room of skulls... The Bidayuh is actually a really peaceful tribe, but headhunting was a part of tribal culture up until around WWII. And they keep the skulls even though they are not on display anymore, because getting rid of them would be bad luck (?!), apparently.
A Bidayuh woman.
View of the longhouse. It's kind of an old meets new collision with the stilted house still built largely of bamboo, but they have replaced the thatched roof with metal and installed satellite dishes (because how else would they get their cable tv?).
An artsy longhouse shot.
Random Bike.
I thought this was a pretty view of the longhouse.
The beautiful jungle surrounding the house..
Another view. The longhouse is kind of split level.
The group walking.
Giant vats in the upstairs of one of the private dwellings.
Climbing down the longhouse stairs. Wouldn't want to try stumbling up or down those after a few drinks...
Me in the longhouse.
Group photo in Annah Rais Long House.
Another longhouse view. It was pretty big (over 100 doors I guess), and apparently I was a big fan.
On the way out I noticed that even Bidayuh longhouses have graffiti: "Gun N Roses." At least they have good taste in music, even if they can't get the name correct.
Then after our longhouse tour we headed to the river for lunch before our 11k rainforest kayaking adventure. The company we went through (Borneo Trek & Kayak Adventure) was AMAZING and super professional. They took care of absolutely everything and we all agreed that the lunch they prepared for us was hands down the best meal of the trip -- or at least a tie for the best for me with the amazing hawker meal I had at ZE Kiosk on the Sarawak River: chicken satay with peanut sauce, Chinese vegetable fried rice and a mixed fruit juice. I might have been a little obsessed with the deliciousness and utter cheapness of the local food. Mmm...
Our freshman, Ryan and Britt W. enjoying their lunch in an old boat.
When we arrived at the river the company had set up folding tables in the river and we all sat on logs with our feet in the water to eat. Absolute bliss after walking around the longhouse and orang utan preserve in the heat for 3 hours.
And as I can't stop raving about, the food was delicious! Chinese ramen noodles with beef in a chili sauce and white rice with shrimp in palm leaves, followed by melt in your mouth dragon fruit for dessert. Just heavenly.
Dragon Fruit! Probably the prettiest fruit I've ever seen or enjoyed.
The kids enjoying their lunch in the river.
And when we were finished with lunch we headed off for our 11k kayak jaunt. The scenery the whole way was just breathtaking, and I couldn't really do it justice because my camera was in the dry bag 99% of the time. But have no fear, the amazing company had waterproof cameras and took photos of us the whole way and then delivered a cd to our lodge that night. I just can't say enough about how great they were.
Bridge over our swimming area. So very 'rainforest' with the trees hanging over the river and the nature sounds of birds and insects chirping. A definite treat coming from Dubai where all I hear are the sounds of construction work and car horns.
Me & Sam taking a break.
Hilal and Arya showing off.
The boys playing.
I love love loved all the old boats.
Then toward the end of our trip we stopped to check out a quaint little village called Danu that is the epitome of rural Borneo, only having gotten electricity in the last 6 months.
Stairs leading up to Danu.
Everything about Danu was adorable. From the pastel colored houses to the seeds drying in the street. I got a bit carried away with my camera in Danu too..
A pepper plant. I had no idea peppercorns grew like that and then how they are dried and prepared determines whether it will be black or white pepper. Sarawak is renown for their white pepper, so I of course had to buy some to take home.
Surprisingly, Sam and I were the only ones of the group who wanted to check out the village, and so one of our guides gave us a private tour, including of an herb garden where he showed us each herb and had us smell them all and guess what they were before he told us something about them. Such fun!
So cute!
The lane.
Little pink houses...
... for you and me.
I truly got a bit carried away in Danu. How could I not?
View back down to the river and all our kayaks.
The kids all relaxing and playing after a week of hard work.
Rainforest bridge at the end of our kayak.
View over the river from the bridge.
Another view of the river.
Really our kayaking adventure was an absolutely perfect day, and such a great way to end the trip with the kids. It was a fun way to see more of Sarawak and relax after our week of hard work. I really didn't want the day to end.
Close-up of the bridge.
Me on the bridge.
So after we got all the equipment packed up, our guides drove us back to the lodge and we gave the kids their last night free to have dinner on their own and get their last bit of exploring in.
Sam had made an appointment to get a tattoo from famous tattoo artist Ernesto Umpie whose specialty is Iban bejalai tattoos using the traditional method (pounding a needle with a bamboo stick). I had never been to a tattoo parlor before, let alone watched someone get a tattoo, so I figured it would be a pretty memorable experience (and also nice to be Sam's moral support). So I hit up my favorite bubble tea stand for a little treat and went with Sam to Borneo Headhunters Tattoo & Piercing Studio.
Rowers on the Sarawak River on the last night.
Sam getting her tattoo. It took about an hour and was fairly intense. She got an eggplant flower, which is an Iban symbol for patience and a very traditional bejalai to get and then the words "Climb Higher" in Arabic above and below it, since she's a big rock climber. It was really interesting to get to meet and talk to Ernesto and it seemed like a good way to end the trip.
After Sam got her tattoo, we headed out to a nice restaurant called "The Junk" for our last dinner (garlic bread and Margherita pizza, as I was actually pretty Asian fooded out by that point) before heading back to the lodge to hang out with the kids for awhile for our last night at the rooftop bar.
We didn't need to head to the airport until noon the next day, so took the kids out to a nice breakfast buffet at the Hilton hotel (probably more their speed) so we could have a last meal together and reflect on the trip a bit. It was a great way to end it, before a couple hours of packing and a last minute stop by the river for my favorite bubble tea. I was definitely sad to be leaving, but I was also exhausted and looking forward to not being responsible for 12 kids anymore... What an absolutely incredible, once in a lifetime trip! If nothing else, my time in Dubai has been about taking advantage of any and all opportunities that have presented themself to me, and I am so glad I decided to do this. I just totally love Borneo and am dying to go back (with Jared next time)! Add another place to the list...
Car safety and Dubai in the same sentence is actually kind of an oxymoron. Driving in Dubai is probably one of the most dangerous things I have made the conscious decision to do in my life. People are complete maniacs when driving here and for the first three months of driving in Dubai I literally thought I was going to die daily. And I often thought that there was no way in hell I would ever put my kid in a car here (if I had one) just because it is so damn dangerous. Many Dubai residents seem to have a different perspective however... They don't seem to worry about having their kids on the roads here, hell, they don't even feel the need to restrain them in any sort of safety device or car seat.
No, your eyes are not deceiving you, there is in fact a child (sleeping?) on the ledge in the back window of this car. This car is actually identical to ours, which I consider to be a death trap anyway, but why not spice things up by letting your kid take a nap on the back window ledge?
Has decapitation never crossed these parents' minds? And the funny and/or sad part about it is seeing children sticking their heads out windows and sunroofs while riding in cars here is an almost daily occurrence (read, not remotely surprisingly anymore). You also see a lot of babies riding on laps (including the drivers!) not strapped in or restrained in any way. Just crazy.
