Robin & Eli's Winter Wedding Wonderland

Last week, Eric and I made the trip back across the Pacific to the frozen tundra of Canada, for Robin & Eli's wedding celebration.  We flew into Calgary and met (back) up with Emily, who also flew from Penang for the festivities.  The three of us quickly acclimated to the 30 degree C (55F) difference in temperatures and made our way into the Canadian Rockies to meet up with the bride, groom and our friends.

We spent our first two nights in Field, British Columbia.  Field is a very small mountain town located  near great skiing and Lake Louise.  Eric and I are not winter weather creatures and don't like downhill skiing as much as our friends do, but we found lots to keep us busy.  We visited beautiful and historic Lake Louise for the day.  We rented cross country skis and spent the day skiing across the frozen lake, exploring trails and enjoying the cold weather.  This was my first time cross country skiing and I loved it!  Looks like Eric and I finally found a type of skiing that we like!

 Look how deep the snow was!

 In the middle of frozen Lake Louise!  It was awesome!

We also celebrated Emily's birthday and our 10th anniversary (dating) during this trip!  We had lots to be grateful for!  We spent a lot of time hanging out in our cute cottage near the fire drinking beer, wine and eating loads of cheese and bacon.

 After two days in Field, we moved to Emerald Lake Lodge, where we spent the next 3 days partaking in wedding festivities and enjoying the hot tub.  The guys took Eli skiing before the rehearsal dinner where they presented him with his "gift" a yeti suit!  In typical Eli fashion, he gladly put on the full costume and hit the slopes for the entire day!

Eli the Yeti 

The ski crew

Robin and her Yeti

After the "crew" returned from the slopes, we did some pre-dinner partying in our room.  Almost all of the Michigan peeps were in attendance.  As you can see, we did not follow the "no outside food or beverage" policy of the hotel.  

We had a nice time at the rehearsal dinner, giving speeches and telling stories about our relationships' with Robin and Eli.  Of course, we ended the night in the 17 person hot tub under the stars.

Wedding Day

Eric and I woke up to a fresh dusting of snow.  I had forgotten how beautiful and quiet a new layer of snow adds in the Winter.  It was a stunning morning and a perfect start for the wedding day.

The snow covered Emerald Lake

After breakfast, Eric and I split up for wedding duties.  Eric helped Dave, Eli, Chris Amory and Bob build the Hopa out of snow and skis, where the ceremony would take place later that afternoon.  

 The Hopa --a true masterpiece

Emily and I spent the afternoon with Robin doing girly things, like hair, makeup and nails and helping the bride get ready for her big day.  

Jenn doing Robin's nails.  Note the blow dryer and Robin sipping wine.

Getting Ready.

Robin and Eli exchanged vows outdoors overlooking the Lake. It was beautiful, intimate and so special.  I'm not sure there were any dry eyes during the ceremony.  Just spectacular.  After the ceremony, we headed to the lodge and exchanged our boots for our dancing shoes. 

Heading to the Reception

All dressed up

Dinner, drinks, S'mores and dancing followed.  We had so much fun!

kiss, kiss

Love.

After the reception, we moved to our secondary party location...the hot tub.  This is how Eric and I go to the hot tub when temperatures are below zero.

The next morning we caught up with everyone for brunch before we all headed our separate directions, be it Seattle, Turkey, New York, Colorado, Hawaii or Penang.  It was so wonderful to have time with our friends.  It's funny how distance and time separates us but when we are together, even if it's just for a few short days, it's like we've never been apart.  I know we were sad to leave each other but we will be back together in 6 short months for Chris and Sarah's wedding in New York! We are looking forward to seeing everyone again and picking up where we left off! 

Christie and Jay come to Malaysia

In February, we had the pleasure of hosting our second set of guests, Christie and Jay!  We were super excited to have them visit for two weeks, where we showed them around Penang, and took a long weekend trip to lovely Langkawi. 

We spent their first few days hanging around Penang and eating the fantastic food!  Christie loved wantan mee and Jay loved soup dumplings.  While Eric was at work, Jenn played tour guide taking our guests around to Little India, the Blue Mansion, China House, Cafe 55, and our local market.  We happy houred every night on our patio, eating homemade hummus, salsa and drinking margaritas and rum and coke.

Mid way through their visit, we escaped to Langkawi, to show Christie and Jay a little more of our adopted home country, Malaysia.  Unfortunately, Eric had to work and joined us a bit later on our adventure.  Jenn, Christie and Jay visited the cable cars and took in the great views and cool breezes of the island.

We also took part in the Island Hopping Tour, where we rode a small boat to three of Langkawi's 99 islands.

Pregnant Maiden Island

Eric joined us on Friday night and we spent the rest of the weekend enjoying the beach, drinking duty free beer, reading books and relaxing.

We returned late Sunday evening and had one more week to check out the rest of Penang's offerings! Here are a few more pictures of our adventures!

Budding Fruit at the Tropical Fruit Farm

Lanterns at Kek Lok Si Temple

Praying Monk at Kek Lok Si Temple

The Butterfly Farm is Awesome!!

We are so glad that Christie and Jay came and experienced our island home!  We had a great and full two weeks!  Visitors are always welcome at the Hartner's! 

Travel Hangover

You know when you drink too much you get a hangover...well it's the same with traveling too much.  We have a travel hangover.  Eric and I are sitting in the Hong Kong airport on our 8 our layover between Vancouver and Penang and the thought of doing anymore travel makes us both feel nauseous, exhausted and a bit dizzy. 

By the way, does anyone know what day it is or what timezone we are in??  We do not.

Don't get me wrong, we feel extremely lucky to have had so many awesome adventures already this year (5 countries and 18 flights) but we are ready to be home, in Penang.  We don't want to book another flight, hotel or pack another suitcase for a few (or more) weeks. I'm looking forward to our "stay-cation" this weekend which will include sleeping in our own bed, cooking breakfast, playing with Coco and updating our blog with all of our travels, visitors and fun! 

Why I Coach

Last week was my last week coaching swimming until next September.  It has been a great couple of months and I have enjoyed watching and teaching the 40 swimmers on my team grow and get a lot better!  We wrapped up the season at the MSSPP, Penang's State School Swim Meet, a 3 day meet where many of our swimmers did very well.  We walked away with 20 medals and many of the kids improved on their personal best times. 

I spent all 3 days at the meet coaching, encouraging and sweating!  It was a lot of fun and I think I earned some "street cred" with some of the local coaches.  I am one of two women coaches on the island (the other woman is from China) and our team did really well.  Two of the state's top swimmers go to Dalat and even if I don't coach them, they still go to the school where I'm the coach! 

 We wrapped up our season with a pool party (of course), awards and lots of delicious food!  The kids had their first ever proper polo game and I set up a cannonball competition.  It was a ton of fun. 

After I got home that night, I received an email from two of my swimmers thanking me for being their coach:

Dear Coach Jenn,

 

Thank you so much for coaching us over this season. Whenever we finish a race, you will always encourage us and say "great job!" Just saying those few encouraging words builds up our courage and determination. We feel more and more confident everytime you encourage us. We thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts. Because of your great love towards us, we achieved a great result and overcome our best times! I always remember the smile on your face and when I think of it, I never got nervous. Not only did you train us, you also encouraged us and leads us to success. My parents said you are an angel sent down from Heaven! And we all agree!

 

From your students

And that is why I Coach

Hanoi & Halong Bay Vietnam

Eric and I met up with Dave and Em in Vietnam a little more than a week after we parted ways in Bali.  We traded in our everyday tropical wear of shorts, t-shirts and sandals for jeans, fleece, and shoes for our 6 day visit to Vietnam.

We arrived in Hanoi on Thursday to SE Asia winter, think Michigan in the late fall -- cool and wet.  After a long immigration process, Eric and I discovered that our suitcase with half of our winter clothes did not make it from KL.  After all of our traveling the last 10 years, this was bound to happen, but it was our first experience losing a suitcase.  I panicked, just a bit, and the composed myself enough to fill out the lost luggage form with the very patient Vietnamese man.  He assured me this happens all of the time and it will probably appear later.  My fingers were crossed, but I wasn't too hopeful that my stuff would reappear. 

We arrived at our hotel in Hanoi later than expected and the staff were so concerned about us and welcoming that Eric asked me if we were being scammed.  I told him no, that I had heard that the Vietnamese are some of the nicest and most welcoming people in the world.  It is true.  We paid $30/night for our mid-range hotel and we received 1st class service.  They carried Eric's backpack to our room and upgraded us "to their nicest room" because of our troubles so far in Vietnam.  They were quick to recommend good places to eat and offered us suggestions on where I could by cheap tennis shoes and where Eric could buy some jeans (in the instance that our suitcase did not arrive).  By far, this was the best service we have received in SE Asia!

Em and Dave joined us later that evening, where we caught up over a few beers, fresh spring rolls and pizza.  We cashed in early, as we were making the journey to Halong Bay in the morning.  When we arrived back to our hotel, the staff presented me with my suitcase.  What a relief!  We went to bed happy, cold and thrilled to be in Vietnam!

Halong Bay
According to our trusted Lonely Planet, Halong Bay is one of the top "musts" in Asia so we decided this was a "must do" for us as well.  Halong Bay is a World Heritage site and one of the most amazing places we have ever visited.  We charted a boat, aka "junk" for a 3 day, 2 night cruise that included sea kayaking. We choose an amazing company that took us off the beaten path and away from the main tourist spots.  This allowed us to feel like we were the only ones in the bay and have a very quiet and pristine experience.  We highly recommend a visit to Halong Bay, it was awesome!  Here are a few pictures from our journey.

Getting ready to leave port.  You can see all of the other junks that were waiting for their guests.

Complete Solitude.  

Thousands of people live in floating villages on the bay, many have never lived on land.  Crazy.

Travel Buddies

Another floating village.  Many families work and sleep from their fishing boats.

Heading out for our day of sea kayaking.  It was just the four of us and our guide! 

Completely awesome.

Ready to explore the bay.

Because we weren't near the main tourist areas, we were able to explore parts of the bay that have remained farily isolated from the tourist boom.  Our guide told us that it is rare for the people living here to see tourists.  We were invited by a family to come to their boat as we kayaked by.  The father of the family was proud to show off his son and the rest of his family and offered us rice wine.  It was another reminder of how fortunate we are and how little you actually need to be happy and to survive.

Dave and Em trying the local brew.

We stopped part way through our morning to explore one of the countless uninhabited beaches.  I wish it would have been warmer so we could have swam and enjoyed our own private beach!

We spent almost 6 hours kayaking and never saw another tourist, kayak or junk.  It was unlike any other day we have ever had traveling and probably one of our favorite days ever.  

Still smiling after our long day!

Our attempt to make the Michigan Alumnus magazine.  Go Blue!

There were only 4 other people on our boat besides us so we made our own party!  Dave and Em showing off their moves.

These boats transport fresh water to the floating villages.  When they are full, the boats take on water and look like they are sinking.  Literally. 

Hanoi
We returned to Hanoi for our last 2 days in Vietnam.  This gave us the opportunity to explore the city, learn about the history, eat the local cuisine, shop, and drink strong Vietnamese coffee.

Hanoi is an assault on all of your senses.  It's unlike any place we have ever experienced. The sites, sounds, smells, textures must be experienced to fully understand why people love and loath Vietnam.  The traffic is unbelievable.  For every car there are 10-15 motorbikes, weaving and cutting all over the road and driving in whatever direction will take them to their location the fastest.  Good luck crossing the street...

The unbelievable traffic.

Look at how small the US and North America is on the globe. 

Compare that to the picture below.

Clearly in Vietnam is the most important part of the world.

On a side note, it was very interesting being in Vietnam as an American.  We were looking forward to visiting some of the war museums and learning about "the war" from the Vietnamese prospective but they were all closed.

Sacred Tortoise Lake in the middle of the Historic District

Now a few random shots:

Someone chained this guy's tire in the middle of a busy intersection.  Either his car was being repossessed or broke down. 

If you  look at this picture long enough you will see some major infrastructure issues. Proving our motto: You shouldn't look where you aren't supposed to.

Vietnam is still communist and these two military officers still sport the 1960s uniform.

We had a wonderful experience in Hanoi and definitely plan on returning to explore more of the country.  For me, this trip was what I hoped Bali would be: cultural, beautiful, peaceful and fun!  Looking forward to getting back soon!

Year of the Dragon

It's the year of the Dragon according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar. The 15 day celebration to ring in the prosperous new year just ended here. It was an incredible couple weeks with fireworks almost nightly, increased traffic and lots of family get-togethers. Although we were in Bali for the first day of the New Year, we were able to attend a few of the festivities.  Here are a few of our pictures from the Heritage Festival that happened in the middle of the New Year Celebration.

The streets of Georgetown lined with Red Lanterns for the New Year

Eric and I at the Khoo Kongsi Clan House

Random Parade

The crew taking a "beer break" from the festival and the heat

Oh the crowds...

We are hoping the Year of the Dragon is prosperous and happy for us and all of you!