Patan CBR

Volunteering at Patan CBR started two weeks ago. Definitely has at time been challenging but the staff are amazing and the children are so fun.

Cam with Anny. One of the little girls that he does Physio with.

Cam does lots of physio with the children. He uses alot of play techniques to get the children to work on strength, flexibility and function.

Helping Anny walk!

Blowing bubbles out of paper cups with Suzmita!

Annika has been teaching the students. She does alot of dancing, singing and playing with the children. She organized a bubble day with the rest of the volunteers that had the students coloring, making bubble makers and then going outside and playing with the bubbles.

One of the students making bubbles!

Cam and Annika have also been able to practice their phys ed teaching skills by playing basketball and soccer with the higher functioning children in the afternoons.No picture of that but here is a really cute one of Serena and Anny.

Serena and Anny playing with the ball!

Namaste! Wahaa Sun chai Cha!

Hi! We are well! (That is what the above says)

And we are going to find a way to keep the blog going. As some of you may know we have gone through two computers on the trip. Both computers had a mal function to the mother board. Mother board sounds serious and it is. Apparently it breaks late in a computer's life or really early. We have experienced both. Our old computers mother board is broken and now our new computer we just bought has a broken mother board. The new computer is under warranty. (thank goodness!). Anyways we are going to try to find a way to keep posting entries and pictures!

Stay tuned....

-Cam and Annika

Namaste

Canyoning.
Wow.... What a fun experience. Annika and Maria used to try to slide down little streams when they went on hiking trips but nothing like canyoning. Imagine jumping off ledges to pools of water, sliding down waterfalls or abseiling down them. Also being in the midst of the beautiful outdoors... That is canyoning. Let the pictures speak for themselves...

Getting our first taste of ice cold Himalayan run-off

Annika's first abseil (rappel)

The jump--we had to clear this ledge that stuck out quite far. The guide assured us it'd be fine...and it was.

Cam's abseil (rappel)

After abseiling down you get to this cliff part, plant your legs, jump backwards and let go of your ropes, it was awesome.

This is called sliding--it's basically treating a waterfall like a natural water slide and is so fun! Here goes Annika.

Here goes Cam!

Our First Place

Life does not have to follow a certain pattern. We have decided to follow our own particular path and it goes something like this....
Date for 5 or 6 years... We never did figure out how long because every few months we would celebrate our anniversary for fun...
Get engaged.... We enjoyed 6 months of wonderful engagement bliss as we both moved into our parents house till the big day.
Get Married... With over 250 of our family and friends we were married!
Live in our parents basement for a couple months... Why not!
Go traveling.. Bali and the beautiful beaches. Don't forget 'massage'
Settle down in an apartment... Our first place... In NEPAL!!!
What is in store next.... Only time will tell.

Cam leaving the spare bedroom

The Front of our house!

Cam in the shower/bathroom

Lounging on our couch!

Would you like some Dal Bhat?

The Master Bedroom!

MOMO night...

The two people closest on the left side of the picture might stay with us

 We went to the volunteer house that Cam stayed at when he went to Nepal 2 years ago. We spent the evening making momo's. They are kind of like perogies but you put veggies or meat in them and then to cook them you steam them.

After making a whole bunch, some with buffalo meat, some veggie an some dessert ones, we got to eat them. It was really fun getting to know the different volunteers. Two of the people had also been volunteers about a year earlier. They are also just visiting and doing the mount Everest Trek. After their trek they might crash in our spare bedroom for a couple of nights before they go to India to travel around.

Dalh Bhat

We made our first Dalh Bhat! The locals told us for basic Dalh Bhat all you have is lentils, turmeric, onions, garlic and water. It was tasty but we definetly are going to spice it up the next time we make it.

Hong Kong Fantasies

The Horrendous Sign as USA Hostel Hong Kong

Well... First impression of Hong Kong was interesting. We arrived late to a sketchy 'hotel'. Cam was asked if he wanted a mistress to which he declined. The hallway in our hotel said to lock your windows and put something big in front of the door.

The next day was much different. Awesome Dim Sum at a restaurant overlooking the harbour. Absolutely stunning. We definetly saw the best and the worst!

Cuttlefish: Pastry on outside. Red Bean on inside

Hong Kong Harbour

Eat. Pray, Love

Ubud, Bali.

Rice fields, monkey forests, waterfalls, natural hotsprings, fire dances, roast suckling pig, and temples--Ubud and surrounding areas have got it all.  We kept ourselves quite busy in our time in Ubud, hiring a driver for a daytrip tour of Northwest Bali on our first day. Just driving around the narrow winding roads of rural Bali was cool in itself, not to mention all of the stops we made. Our driver was also happy to explain to us the meaning of the many Hindu ceremonies taking place in the various villages we passed through.

The highlight of the first day was definitely our stop at Angseri Natural Hotsprings, located seemingly in the middle of nowhere! Down a very sketchy dirt road that had about a 75 degree descent at the very end of it. The hotsprings were well worth the grimaces of our driver though.

The monkey forest the next day was another highlight of our time in Ubud. Monkeys everywhere in a beautiful and sacred forest surrounding a famous temple in the middle. Some great pictures came out of our walk through the forest. We ate a traditional meal of Roast Suckling Pig for lunch, where you eat just about every part of the pig imaginable. We ended the night watching a Cultural Kecak Fire Trance Dance reenactment of the Hindu Epic Ramayana. The dance and music were something else!

 

We love Camp

Surf camp that is. We arrived at surf camp, located about 400 metres from some great surf breaks and just a short drive away from many others. Days 1 and 2 were a success, we both stood up! Day 3 proved that day 2 wasn't actually a great success...who knew sunburns could be soo bad. Poor Annika woke up with a very red and swollen face, apparently she had acquired 2nd degree burns from the sun--while wearing 50 SPF sunscreen! A few days off though and we were back at it, skin peeling and still a bit red wasn't going to stop surfer girl Annika. However our surfing now included heavy duty stay on no matter what sunscreen and surfer hats!

                        (Above picture is from our first day at the surf camp.. beach break at Kuta)
By the end of surf camp we were surfing not only beach breaks but reef breaks and attempting green waves (with some success)!

I can see clearly now...

The rain is gone. Well it kind of comes and goes, in BIG downpours for 10 minutes and then sunny skies are quick to follow!  Now for our 3 nights in Sanur, Lembongan Island and Ceningan Island.

3 different islands in 3 nights. From Big, to medium, to small. In Sanur, a city in Bali, we stayed at a really nice villa that was very spacious with a beautiful pool and garden. Just 5 minutes from the beach we found our jetlag disapear as we were in awe of the ocean.

Next was Lembongan Island. Describing it s "medium" sized is a bit of an exaggeration. We were able to ride bicycles around the entire island in just one day. The island is starting to be touched by more tourism, but traditional village life seems to still be very much present. Temples and seaweed farmers everywhere! In our bicycle tour we managed to ... tour in a boat through a Mangrove forest, eat at a beautiful beach hut, swim in crashing waves at the aptly named Dream beach, have some happy hour drinks and ended our day at yet another beach-side restaurant called Linda's.

Ceningan Island... On the same day we also rode our bikes across a tiny bridge that can accommodate only bikes and scooters--no cars on this island. Very beautiful island and even smaller than Lembongan Island. There we frolicked in the ocean! (Right Cam!) Oh and for those of you who think I just wrote the above blog... think again. Cam went through and edited my writing.....

                                                  (Two little girls selling seashells... Adorable)

Cam's on Board....

So it seems we have a travel blog...Now that it's here I guess we better get blogging.

We arrived in Bali in sweatpants ad sweaters and never have those names for clothes been so appropriate. The sweating began as soon as we stepped off the plane and escalated throughout our taxi ride. From -30 to +30 in just over 24 hrs, what a change!