Dear Family & Friends,
The end of
September marked our second year completed in Hong Kong. Our time over here thus far has been so
incredibly fast. Evan is the same age as
Patrick was when we started our Asian adventure. Patrick turned 4 at the beginning of
October. And we’ve been living in Asia
for a bit over 2 YEARS!!! Yep, that
means Patrick has spent more time in Asia than in America in his lifetime. Crazy.
We have less than a year to go (sad face, happy face – mixed emotions). Here is an update from the past few months:
Indonesia Holiday:
The end of
September we went on a quick holiday with Valerie to Indonesia with a night in
Singapore. We traveled to the south of
Indonesia – Yogyakarta. One day we did a
temple day and saw two big temples – Prambanan and Borobudur. We had an Indonesian buffet feast and then
attended the Ramayana Ballet at the Prambanan temple in the evening. On another day we did a useless tour to
another city – kind of a day trip. I won’t even go into detail because it was a
waste of time (Valerie, if your reading – I know your blood is boiling thinking
about the long, useless car ride).
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| Prambanan Temple |
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| Tom and Kathleen exploring |
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| The Ramayana Ballet with temple in the background |
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| Borobudur Temple |
Another day we did
a hike on the active volcano (Mt. Merapi).
It is the most active volcano in Indonesia and has erupted regularly
since 1548 (didn’t know that prior the hike).
Smoke can be seen coming from the top – and we saw it up close and
personal. It has erupted in recent years
– in 1994 it erupted and killed villagers and most recently in 2010 and 2013
(learned this during the hike). Upon
returning to the hotel after our hike, we read about the active volcano in
Japan that erupted during the day (the same day we were hiking this one). The volcano in Japan had erupted and killed
hikers that were hiking – we had some second thoughts about how we had just
spent our day and thanked God for our safety and said some prayers for those in
the Japan tragedy. I don’t think we
will hike an active volcano ever again (or we will at least think about it a
lot more). But the hike itself was awesome. We thought this was a leisure hike – zigzagging
up the mountain… but it wasn’t. The
volcanic ash made it quite slippery – mix between quick sand and regular
sand. Felt like we were walking on the
moon. Other times it was just rocks that weren’t really
grounded in the ground so it was easy to lose footing. So our ‘gym wear’ and ‘sneakers’ didn’t quite
fit in with what other hikers had on (hiking boots, pants, layers, etc). We also brought 3 bottles of water between
the three of us (what were we thinking)… the guide had to share his with
us. We had a good time, laughed at
ourselves, fell over a lot, had a once in a lifetime experience viewing
beautiful Indonesia below us, felt a sense of accomplishment getting to the top
faster than the average time, and got some great pics from our adventurous
hike.
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| Mt. Merapi Volcano - this was our job for the day! |
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| trekking |
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| This is us reaching the end of the tree line.... rock ahead |
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| Keeping steady |
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| Looking forward to the rocky / loose climb ahead |
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| End of the tree line - we had to go up a bit.... then down... then back up steep |
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| Look how high we are... the ground looks so small! |
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| Comparing our 'gym' gear to proper hiking gear. It was cold at the top and I got sunburnt. |
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| We made it!!! |
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| This was taken before we reached top - our volcano is the left one. |
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| Tom peeking in the volcano - careful! |
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| Val enjoying the 'moon-like' walk down |
Tom left Indonesia
after the volcano day and Val and I stayed one more day to hang out by the
pool, visited a graveyard, and had a spa treatment. We got some great R&R :) We also learned how to make photo collages!
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| Mt. Merapi |
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| Indonesia |
October:
Patrick turned 4 in
early October. When did birthday
celebrations turn into week long celebrations?
Family celebration, birthday party with friends, snack and story at
school, phone calls with family members from home singing lots of ‘happy
birthday’ via Skype/Facetime….He loved every minute of it. Evan also loved
every minute of it because he plays with all the same toys now!
Tom took Patrick
camping one night to the beach. They had
a great time by the campfire. Hopefully
more camping trips to come!
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| One of Patrick's play date birthday parties |
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| Our 4 year old surfer! |
Evan has become a
sensation on the podium with Patrick’s scooter.
He scoots just as fast as some of the older kids. He is going to be 2 in just a few weeks, but
when you ask his age he confidently says he is 2 already. According to him he’s been 2 for quite a while.
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| Evan!! |
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| Evan at soccer practice |
After Patrick’s
birthday on October 2 – Halloween kicked in.
The kids went to like 3 Halloween parties before Halloween week even
approached. I’m still throwing away
candy when they are napping or sleeping (or it has been mysteriously
disappearing). Last week I had to tell
Norlie to remove it from the house (so I apologize to all the moms the kids
have playdates with…. I know that candy has ended up at playdates and has been
consumed happily)
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| Boo! |
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| Carving pumpkins with daddy! |
November:
Beginning of
November was pretty uneventful. I was
sick for a good week and the boys have been off/on sick. Patrick had his first field trip at
school. I took Evan to Disney one day
and we had a ball! Now that the weather
has cooled down a bit – it’s officially park weather. We’ll be using our Ocean Park and Disney passes! We’ve been pretty consistent this autumn with
our Sunday fundays. They have become
quite epic in the Bamboo Grove complex…. Anyone is welcome…. It’s just bringing
your own food and cocktails down to the podium (elevated area where the kids
play) for the afternoon and evening.
Most helpers have off on Sunday so it is usually family day all around –
the kids all play together and the adults BBQ and share stories over
cocktails. Love my little Bamboo Grove
family – it changes constantly with people coming and going, but it is
constantly there. I guess it’s one thing
you find as an expat, easy to make friends and playdates fast. Was so hard at first, but after you realize
it isn’t weird to ask another mom for a friend date – it’s so easy! We also spent some of early November at the protest sites - it was Tom's favorite place to take Patrick to ride his scooter.
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| Not Halloween anymore.... just dressing up like mom |
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| Chinese lunch with tea (or water, pretending it's tea) |
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| Scooting and protesting |
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Protesting
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| Sunday Fun-Day |
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| Shopping in HK |
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| shopping in HK |
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Teaching our friends around the world about smores
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Hanoi, Vietnam:
Mid-November Tom
and I went to Hanoi, Vietnam for a weekend.
We stayed at the Metropole Hotel – which was built in 1903 and is
beautiful and is a vacation itself. In
Hanoi, we went and saw the prison (Hoa Lo Prison) that Senator John McCain was
in during 1967-1973 as a prisoner of war.
We took a day-trip to Halong Bay which was stunning. We toured the city and ate Vietnamese dishes:
Pho, Bun Cha, Banh mi, and spring rolls.
Yummy. All those went great with
Bia Hanoi beer or 333 Beer. Absolutely love
the culture and the people in Vietnam.
Need to come here more often… it’s such a short flight and such a great
experience.
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| The prison where American fighter pilots were prisoner of war during the Vietnam War |
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| Senator John McCain a POW - being treated for his wounds |
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| Vietnam |
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| Food |
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| Halung Bay |
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| One of the seven 'natural wonders' of the world |
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| Taking a little boat ride through the different coves |
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| Tom with his life jacket :) | | |
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| Chinese tour group - not protesting with umbrellas - using them for shade |
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| Hanoi - fresh fish |
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| Hanoi |
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| flowers on motorbike |
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| market on street |
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| my reflective pose by the lake in Hanoi |
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| The Metropole in Hanoi |
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| enjoying cocktails in the evening |
Present time: Last week of November:
My parents are here!! We will have Thanksgiving with them and Evan’s
2nd Birthday. We are also
planning a mini-trip to Singapore with them.
Looking forward to their visit. That’s all for now – will probably update
again after the holidays. Would love to
hear from you all – if you are sending out Christmas/New Years or just cards to
say Hi – please include us:
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas
Alessi & Family
Walmart Store, Inc.
– Hong Kong
P.O. Box 1707
Bentonville,
Arkansas 72712
Have a safe, healthy, and fantastic holiday season everyone! We miss you - The Alessi Family
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