Bula! Bula!

Aaaaaaahhhhh! Back to our second home in paradise - Fiji! We've never traveled to Fiji to visit Taro's parents at this time of year before, but its absolutely perfect weather! This is our view everyday. Picturesque!

This is Oscar. The newest member of our family :) Only one month old. Sooooo cute! He loves to pat at your feet and chase little bugs! Haha.

We celebrated Maurice's birthday (Taro's other brother) and Fijian Father's Day this weekend together! It was so nice to be together! 

And look what we found just along side of the road...a Mommy horse and her foal happily eating grass. That's how trusting Fiji is. People just bring their animals to eat the grass and move them along in a few hours. Just a rope leash not tied to anything, no fence...just happily roaming :)

Excursion To The Blue Mountains

We decided to sign up for one of those group day trips to Katoomba (about 1/1/2 hrs from downtown Sydney) into the Blue Mountains. They say it's called that because of the oil the eucalyptus leaves release into the air mixes with the dust in the air, creating a blue hue over this fantastic scenery. Our bus driver, Rae, was filled with all sorts of fun facts! She was a hoot, too!

This was the railway we rode to the bottom of the valley floor today and is the worlds steepest at an amazing 52 degrees! Yes, I said 52! We had to lean back so far, we were almost standing us!...this is only the ramp to get on! Reminded me of the Royal Gourge in Colorado, but WAY steeper! In the background, you can see the famous "3 sisters" (3 individual boulders standing tall next to each other).

We then attended an aboriginal show where they did dancing, played the didgeridoo and showed us the tools they use in the outback to survive. Very cool! As you can see, they pulled Taro up for a demonstration of how they fight using their tools! Yikes! Pretty brutal! At least if one is injured, they vow to take care of the other's family for life! They got me up on stage too for a dancing bit!

We then went to a wildlife preserve and got to FEED the kangaroos/wallabies and CUDDLE a koala! Kyla was ecstatic! Who are we kidding?! I was too! This one was just a baby at 11 months old!

This little sweetie was named Austin and is 5 years old. Super duper soft! Couldn't take enough photos! We also saw emus, wombats, tasmanian devils and more! So fun!

Kyla adopted herself into this family from Kuwait. They were so sweet and instant friends! Here they are on Captain Cook Cruise into the harbor at sunset!

Goodnight Sydney! You've been so good to us! Until we meet again! Tomorrow...BULA FIJI!

G'day Sydney!

As much as we love traveling to exotic places, it's so refreshing to hear English as the main language again ;0) Also, to have cooler weather too! We're a little jet-lagged, but so excited to see what new adventures unfold here in Australia! P.S. We've been going and going  the last couple days so sorry I'm behind on my blogging!  This is my cutie pie (earbuds and all) on the upstairs of the double-decker bus tour we took to get our barrings around town!

...and Taro got all "rugged up" (aka. dressed warm)!

This morning we took a tour of the famous Sydney Opera House & learned a lot of interesting facts! It was built in the 1950's and took 16 years to build. Ended up costing 102 million, too! The roof is covered in one million tiles with concrete ribs inside! The largest hall inside houses 2,000 people while the smallest houses only 400. Ok, enough statistics, but cool, eh?! And the acoustics of course is AMAZING! We got to witness a little of the teen symphony in rehearsal. Absolutely beautiful!

Aussie's love their meat pies! I love that this restaurant was called, "Pie Face." Of course we had to have one! Each flavor had a different face molded into it! Very smart marketing! ;0) And oh so tasty, too!

We then hit up Bondi Beach. Sydney's #1. Crystal clear water with white sand that squeaks on your feet as you walk on it! Great sandcastle-making sand too!

We ended the day with a trip to the Wildlife Australian Zoo. Check out Kyla's face when we saw this croc up close! Classic! Haha! He's 45 years old and 5/1/2 meters long! Yikes! Wouldn't wanna get him mad, huh?! Alright, we're wiped out! See you for another great day tomorrow!

Sentosa Island & Gardens By The Bay

Here's my two favorite people in the cable car ride on the way to Sentosa Island! They have great beaches,  Universal Studios Singapore, the world's biggest aquarium (in terms of gallons of water), and more!

This massive tube was full of tropical fish and live coral. Beautiful. It was 2 floors tall, too!

We finally got to have Laksa - another famous Singapore dish. It's a hot and sweet soup. An acquired taste, but by the end, I really liked it. Ooo...and my drink was chrysanthemum tea! Very flowery and refreshing!

The ocean water was a little slimey so Daddy and Kyla made sandcastles instead and played in the sand table. Nice sunset pic, eh?!

This morning we went to Gardens By The Bay. A HUGE indoor and outdoor garden, but we opted for the domes since they were air conditioned inside! Yay! They had every kind of flower you could imagine! It was all categorized by continents. 

Here's MY little flower! What a ham! ;0) Runs in the family, eh?!

The second dome was called the cloud forest meaning you could walk among the clouds...7 stories tall...above the waterfall! Absolutely beautiful!

This was a cool shot looking down from the cloud walk. How do you suppose people maintain this?! Repel from the ceiling?! I don't know! Haha! Thanks Singapore...off to Sydney!

Hello Singapore!

Everyone speaks English here, but the locals speak a combo of English, Mandarin, Malay & Tamil, but you can figure it out ;0) Singapore is a beautifully green, tropical place yet it's a shopper's paradise with big malls, hip technology and yummy food. Here, you can get fined for many things. One of them, using someone else's wifi without permission so I apologize for not blogging the last couple days. We've only had internet inside our hotel. This picture is NOT our hotel, but it's pretty spectacular engineering, right?! Looks like a spaceship landed on top of four skyscrapers! Haha! It's the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. There is a pool and sky bar on top, plus a tennis court there that Serena Williams played on top of. It's in the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest tennis match ever played!

We met up with our friend Mr. Park who lives in Singapore now. He took us where the locals go to eat, drink & just hang out - Newton's Food Centre. Here's some of the goodies we ate...

Yes, those are seashells. We ate the yummy animals that we're inside. They tasted just like clams. You use the skewer to take them out and dip it in the chili paste. Kyla loved them! She even kept a couple empty shells to add to her collection as a souvenir! Haha!

This is called "Carrot Cake," but there's nothing carrot about it! Funny, huh?! It's actually an egg and potato dish with green onions and garlic. Tasty!

We went to the Singapore Zoo today. Kyla was enchanted with the polar bear, elephants and flamingos. As were we! It's really a fantastically designed, landscaped and manicured zoo. The animals aren't really in cages; more a recreation of their natural habitat. And so green because we're so close to the equator...Singapore is the only one who could do this! The late & great Steve Irwin had a big hand in this zoo as well as his own. Can you believe Inuka the polar bear was BORN weighing 400 kg! 

Yes, we're eating AGAIN! Actually I'm blogging for 2 days in 1, but everything here is really tasty. Tonight we went out with Mr. Park again to the "House Of Seafood" for Singapore's famous Chili Crab and Black Pepper Crab! Yum!

And look at my happy girl drinking her freshly juiced Apple! It was so delicious I stole a few sips when she wasn't looking! Hah! 

P.S. She's eating in a high chair because the table and the chairs were so different in height ;0)

The Souk Madinat Jumeirah & The Burj Al Arab

This is the Souk Madinat - a newer area of shops with indoor and outdoor areas that is made to look like Old Dubai...AND it has air conditioning!!! Hallelujah! These wooden pipes coming out of the sandstone buildings were made as a natural air conditioning before Dubai struck its oil. Basically, air came in one side and out the other. Smart! They're plugged up now, of course, because they have the real deal ;0) Kyla is posing here with her new favorite animal - Pinky the Camel! Haha!

Here's the inside of the Souk - absolutely beautiful woodwork!

A must-do family portrait! The water here is crystal clear in Dubai! White sand with a man-made reef with exotic fish and everything! That's what you do when you have billions and billions of dollars! Absolutely beautiful!

That tall building that looks like a sailboat behind the Souk is the Burj Al Arab - a self proclaimed 7 star hotel. Yes, I said 7 stars! I didn't even know that ranking existed! The only way to go in is to stay at that hotel which is some 3k a night OR have reservations at one of the restaurants inside. We did the latter, of course :0) We went through two security gates and escorted into the elevator to go to the right floor (excellent service), but I think it's so you don't wander around the hotel and disturb people's privacy. Each floor has a personal check-in desk. The whole building is just amazing.

Here's the inside of the Al Arab. Everything is covered in gold leaf or 24 karat itself! 

They have beautiful aquariums on either side with a huge dancing fountain in the middle as you go up the escalator!

Quite a nice view from our restaurant, Junsui. It was an Asian buffet that had everything you could think of...Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Indian and more! Very accommodating for Kyla, too! They even brought her a personal chocolate fondue with fruit skewers for dessert! Definitely worth the splurge! These boats you see are people's personal yachts - just a CRAZY amount of money here in Dubai!

Trabish of Arabia!

Do you know this man?! Hahah! It's Taro! Today at the Gold Souk, we bought Taro traditional men's wear called a kandora. He blends right in, eh?!

The Gold Souk was amazing, but made me feel a little weary with all of the tiny alleyways and such, so we stuck near the rest of the tourists and we were fine :0)

We took the Desert Safari tonight which I HIGHLY recommend to anyone visiting Dubai! These drivers out in the middle of the desert with no GPS, caravanning with about 15 other SUVs, rolling up, down and sometimes sideways down a sand dune were super skilled! You actually need a special license to drive these cars. Well here's a picturesque shot of my little angel playing in the sand with absolutely nothing behind her for miles - except the SUV, of course!

Kyla and I climbed the hill and took pictures with our scarves in the wind!

Taro got to sand-board down the dunes and we got to ride camels too! They are so funny sitting down and standing up! You'd better hold on! 

The evening ended in a wonderful meal of Arabic BBQ (yum), some traditional dancing...

...and Kyla and I got matching henna tattoos!

Marhaba (Hello) Dubai!

This is the view from our hotel, the Royal Blu Radisson. I'm all ready to go out! I look like one of the locals, eh? It's customary for local women to be covered in head to toe in black robes with only a slit for their eyes. Really fun to see how each woman accessorize with a Louis  Vuitton bag or crazy expensive shoes because that's all you see of them! For women tourists, it's just polite to cover your shoulders and knees. The men wear white robes. Some have different colored head pieces, I haven't figured that out yet. But the robes are like your typical upper-class man business suit. Tourist men can wear pretty much anything they want.

This is inside the Dubai Mall - the largest mall in the world! They have EVERYTHING! Problem is, you can get lost even WITH a map! Not a bad place to get lost though! Haha! This picture does not do the aquarium justice. It puts Monterey to shame (and I love Monterey)! It's so massive that I couldn't get the whole side panel in the picture! Just absolutely beautiful! Including the biggest manta ray I've ever seen! Probably 5 feet long not including it's tail! Everything here in Dubai is on a grandiose scale!

For all of those you know me well, you know I LOVE chocolate! Kyla and I found this in one of the biggest candy stores I've ever seen! Haha! So true too!

We went to the top of the Burj Khalifa today - again, the tallest building in the world! 828 meters tall from ground to tip! Arabic writing is so beautiful I think.

This is the outside of it, couldn't even fit the whole thing in the picture screen! Crazy tall next to all of these other buildings - makes them look like little Lego toys next to the Khalifa! Ha!

And this is us at the 124th floor which is the viewing deck even though it's not at the tip top. Pretty amazing!

Had to finish off the day with some Hello Kitty Gelato via Kyla's request, of course! It was really tasty! Honestly, the heat here isn't much different than Folsom. It was 106 today but not as humid as Japan and Korea. Plus, they crank the air conditioning here in Dubai to 22 Celsius so it's do-able! :0)