Bali Discovered

We have spent most of our time in Bali sitting on the beach or being in the epicenter of the tourist trade. Yes we had hired a driver and had glimpses of Bali life from the car and in the temples of Bali, but we still were looking for more. We saw more while river rafting, deep canyon scenery and hanging villages on the river bank, but still had not seen the essence of Bali we had read about and seen portrayed on the screen. At this point we had only seen the glitz of the tourist trade and had glimpses, from a distance into Bali life. Until ..........

We had a tiff with the "Bali Mafia," went to a cooking school and spent a day cycling through the country villages and hearing about Bali life from an exceptionally enthusiastic tour guide.

Negotiation is a way of life in Bali - at all the street stores and markets. In the department stores and upscale stores, restaurants etc, prices are fixed. In the world of tours the street guys ask high prices and then bargain down. To avoid that street negotiation we were purchasing tour tickets from the desk at the hotel, under the expectation that all hotel desks are equal. Not true, and leave it to Keenan and Loreen to sleuth out that we had been taken by the hotel or the desk clerk and/or the tour company and paid double for a tour that other folks paid. So after threats to go to the tourist police, (we had heard someplace that this threat might work!) and to talk to the manager of the hotel, and then canceling all the other tours and transportation booked at the hotel desk the difference in money magically appeared in an envelope in crisp new bills. Then we find out from some other hotel employees that they were really wanting us to talk to the manager about the one desk clerk, as he was part of the "Ubud Mafia", it may be because they had their own little price games going but things did get a lot cheaper for us afterwards.

Balinese food is great, and although you can get most every type of cuisine from around the world, we prefer eating the local food or international food with a local flavor. Bali food is mostly Indonesian with some Dutch, Chinese, and Indian influence. The foods are very flavorful and tantalizing to the taste buds. We started the day by going to the local market and getting an education in Indonesian spice and vegetables.

It is a very crowded market that sells everything including frogs, eels and snails that are pit lamped in the rice paddies at night. Then off to the cooking class where we stuck to fish, chicken and veggie dishes.

First up we made a basic spice paste, which combines just a whole bunch of things, shallots, garlic, 4 kinds of ginger root, chilli peppers, nuts, oil and on and on. It is spicy and you can govern the amount of spicy heat in your dishes by the amount of this you use. Rule of thumb is 25% of the size of the main ingredient for medium hot. Then we made Sayur Urab, a veggie/grated coconut dish, Tuna Sambal Matah, tuna with hot sauce - can be made with any fish, Tempe Manis, deep fried fermented soy bean, mostly tasteless and not my favorite, Opar Ayam, Indonesian Chicken Curry, this was similar to an Indian Curry and very good and then Bali Sate Lilit or Bali kebobs, made from seasoned ground pork and then twirled onto a stalk of lemon grass and barbequed. Loreen wouldn't do this one, would get your hands dirty don't you know, so the Chef and I had to make hers. Spoil sport! We finished off the day with a black rice pudding and a sweet Bali rice wine in gingerale, tasted kind of like cream soda.  It was a good way to spend the day and we all went home stuffed with Bali delights.

We took a 25 K bicycle tour down in the vicinity of Mount Batur, which is an old volcanic mountain. I think it last erupted in 2005. The area is quite different agriculturally than the rest of the villages we had been through. Growing lots of market garden type crops, such as corn, cabbage, citrus and there were numerous produce stands that reminded us of the Okanagan in the summer time. We also saw some huge vegetable and fruit markets where they sell wholesale to the suppliers in the city and to other islands in Indonesia. After breakfast in a restaurant overlooking a lake and the volcano, we set off on our bike adventure.

Bali is a very religious culture and the people spend a great deal of the time engrossed in religious ceremony, and this is reflected in every village and family compound. We went through 17 villages on the tour and each village has a temple when entering and leaving the village, plus the main temple in the center. We went past a lot of temples.

Bali life revolves around the family, the village and the temple ceremonies. They have a ceremony for the new moon and the full moon every month, a ceremony for the motorbike, one for the automobiles and on and on. When asked, the guide could not put a number on the amount per year. Businesses have extra staff as they know that on most days some staff will miss work because they're at a religious ceremony. The culture is so deep that most Balinese would not move from their village let alone travel outside of Bali. 

We were able to go through a couple of different family compounds and much like old European farms the animals are kept at the back of the buildings, pigs, chickens and ducks. Well the chickens and ducks pretty much roam at will. As the sons marry there are new kitchens built as it seems you can not have more than one woman in the kitchen, too much strife. Each family has their own trade, some work bamboo, make roof tiles, do wood carving etc. It seems all the families have a little warung or store, not sure who they sell to if each family has a store, but!

Everything here is done by hand and would drive a compensation board inspector into having nightmares. They load the trucks by shovel, dig ditches with pick and shovel, compact with their feet and a big square stone. Now get this - when they go into the ditch to dig or spread rock they take off their flip flops and go bare foot. I guess their feet are tougher than the flip flops. Yesterday I watched four women packing dirt to a construction site, they load up a metal basin, at least 20 inches in diameter and 8 inches deep, with dirt, balance it on their head and walk about 300 feet to the construction site. Dump and then repeat. I figure they could do a lease in about four years, but could only work summers as the flip flops might not be so good at minus 30. Black flies would not bother them too much and at an average wage of $100/month plus rice it might be a reasonable cost.

Christmas

Not our usual type of Christmas, although we did manage to get in a bit of turkey.

Christmas Eve, while Keenan was out on a bicycle tour, we wrapped up a few little gifts, which at home would be the stocking stuffers, and set them out under a potted plant.

We picked up some Bali liqueurs, coconut, coffee and banana and some milk and went to the room to have a couple of drinks and snacks before supper, along the way we picked up four Muslim girls from the USA and a footloose friend of Keenan's, Forbes, who has been living here for the past couple of years. A friend of Keenan's that may be even more off the wall than she is:o)

So I am sure it was a bit eye opening for the Muslim girls, but every thing went well. We had our drinks and the girls asked lots of questions about Canada, not so many about Christmas. Then we all went out to the Bebek Bengil, or Dirty Duck Restaurant for crispy duck. The place is surrounded by rice paddies and when it was being built a flock of ducks ran in to get out of a storm and left dirty webbed foot prints on the floor, hence the name Dirty Duck. So a bit different celebrating Christmas Eve in a Hindu country with our new Muslim friends.

Christmas Day dawned hot and humid, and we were up at the crack of dawn to open our treasures, well as the sun comes up here about 4:30AM it might have been a bit past dawn. We spent the day mostly at the pool, and a tough day it was, reading our new books and being extremely lazy.

Then back to the Bebek Bengil for a buffet of duck, turkey, beef, pork, four kinds of fish and seafood, roast sweet potatoes, veggies and pumpkin pie and Christmas Cake.

So, for all you folks that were feeling a bit sorry for us not having a proper Christmas, thanks for worrying, but we did pretty good!!!

Merry Christmas to all!

Culture Shock

Well hello there, time for a reality check. We moved up to Ubud today and checked into a traditional Balinese hotel. This one is pushing Loreen beyond her comfort zone for sure. Not sure what she is thinking yet, she hasn't said much - she is just standing in the middle of the room with the most bewildered expression on her face. Like, what the hell have we got ourselves into? She has managed to choke down a warm beer of her own and most of mine, so we know she is not in total shock, she still knows how to self medicate!

I actually think it is pretty neat, an old two story building, it has it's own moat and lily pond, complete with at least one snake. The outside bathroom leads out to the garden and the adjoining rice field, where the ducks are waiting by the flag to be led home. A four poster bed with mosquito netting and a stairwell to the upstairs with naked women carved on it. It has a really nice balcony on two sides with marble floors adjacent to the lily pond.

Well it is 24 hours later, we have walked all of the main streets in Ubud and are back at the hotel pool where Loreen is self medicating again. Actually the hotel is not bad, good pool area, and has a pastoral feeling about it. Peaceful. We do have to use ear plugs at night as the noise from the cicadas and frogs is mind boggling.

Ubud is not quite what we expected. We, for some reason, thought it would be relaxed small village atmosphere. But it is every bit as busy as the party towns of Kuta and Legian, lots of tourists and busy with locals. However if you get off the main drag some of the side streets are pretty peaceful.

We took a stroll through the monkey park and had a lot of fun. These creatures have become habituated to human presence, are quite bold and will pull on your pant leg or dress for food, if you have it, and totally ignore you if you don't have any thing. If you hold a banana up at arms length above your head they will crawl up your side and perch on your shoulder while they eat it. I had one up there by choice and another up on my head because she was a greedy little thing and took all my bananas away - and we spent $5.00 buying bananas for them - mostly for our entertainment!

There are big signs in front of the entrance telling you not to bring any thing that might look like food in with you. We watched a Chinese gentleman lose his snacks out of his shirt pocket and another fellow have one jump on his shoulder, take his closed juice bottle out of his hand, chew a hole in it and drink it.

We went out to eat at a place that sells Babi Guling, or roast suckling pig. They roast a full size oinker every day and that is what we feasted on, skin, sausage and all. One of the reasons Loreen wanted to come to Ubud was to eat Babi Guling.

Today, Boxing Day, we went river rafting on a small river in the mountains. In comparison to Canadian classifications, probably a class 2, no big water, but lots of small rapids and lots of rocks. We got hung up on more rocks than we should have, mostly due to one person, first initial L, who kept pretending she didn't understand the term "paddle forward, or paddle backwards"!!! Who'd a thought.

In one area the guide runs you into the rock wall underneath a 200 foot cold waterfall, well not really cold but cool, it was invigorating and at the very end we went over a four meter vertical slide down the front of a dam. It was a bit of a rush. The Climb out was up 365 steps carved into the side of the canyon wall. No I did not count, but asked one of the guides when we got to the top. All in all a really good day.

Lembongan

Saturday was the last day of a ten day holy period called Galungan, which is a festival to celebrate the triumph of good over evil and to implement positive change. Every family and village celebrates by decorating and giving special offerings to the spirits. The last day is called Kuningan and we saw several processions in the villages including groups costumed as a mythical dog/lion creature parade from temple to temple. These perform in a similar way to the Chinese dragon dances.

It is a bad day for pigs as each family kills a pig and then cooks up special meals for the celebration. Our driver for the day was describing one of the specialties and when Keenan asked if we could get it in a restaurant, he said no, he would bring us some for breakfast. Sure enough the next morning he showed up at 6:30AM with a meal of BBQ pork, a small sack of cooked rice and the specialty, lawar, which is used for all ceremonies here. Although there are different types of meat used, this one consisted of chopped pigskin mixed with chopped jackfruit and spices. It tasted fine, but was a little chewy, especially the larger pieces of pig skin, with the hair not quite all removed. Yummy, Yummy!

Yesterday we took a boat tour to Lembongan Island, for a day of water sports, snorkeling, etc. The island is about an hour offshore and has a local population of about 7,000. It is small and laid back, with the main income from seaweed harvest.

We spent the morning snorkeling, kayaking and water sliding. Each day cruise boat has its own little wharf and you have to snorkel within a designated area, mostly for safety I think - there was a group of mainland Chinese with us and I don't think any of them could swim, so the crew had to watch them pretty closely. Saw lots of tropical fish, but not much for colour in the coral, mostly stag coral.

I went kayaking for the first time, did rather well, and down a water slide, also for the first time. It was about a 10 foot drop from the end of the slide into the water, I didn't do this real well. First trip I came to a complete stop half way down the tube and had to push to get going, the second time down, I was smarter and gave a big push right at the top of the slide and came to a dead stop right at the end of the slide, so then I just kind of tipped off and did a not so graceful belly flop into the ocean, much to the humor of everyone. I guess they were not running enough water in the slide for us bigger guys as there was a Russian fellow about my size that did the same thing. I don't think his flop was quite as entertaining as mine though!

I spent part of one afternoon body surfing, or as I call it "body beating". Keenan and Loreen cheated and got someone to show them how you are supposed to do it, not me - I sat on the beach, drank beer and watched them. Then I went out and did it on my own, I really had fun, especially when I forgot the second wave, which is always bigger, rode the first in, stood up just in time to get face slammed in to the water by the second one.

 That second one is the body beater!!!!

The people on Lembongan Island make their living by harvesting seaweed. Each family has their plot in the bay, just like farm land. They can harvest about 500kilos per month and sell for $0.70 per kilo, which is $350 per month income for the family. They also do weaving and make sarongs to supplement. It takes one lady two weeks to make a sarong they sell for $5. Not much income when you consider that a cremation here costs upwards of $10,000.

They also have a bit of tourist income as the surf here is pretty good. We did go on a village tour, the main street is about 8 feet wide, no cars or trucks on the island, just motorbikes. I think I could actually be able to get by on a motorbike here, as there was a bike about every five minutes, kind of a laid back geriatric speed I could handle.

We were treated to an impromptu cock fight, it is a very big sport here. We see fighting roosters in baskets all the time. These two older fellows had four roosters sitting there and when Keenan and I went over to look they got two roosters out and turned them loose on each other. It was exciting to watch and no harm to either bird was done. The guide we had did inform us that when they go to the betting ring the roosters have steel spurs put on and it gets quite a bit more serious.

All in all a good day, but even a bad day in Bali is pretty darn good!

Temples

Today we hired a van and driver and went touring in the countryside and mountains.

We drove out of the populated areas into the more rural areas.  Bali has a population of around 4 million people on a land mass of 5,620 square kilometers, so no place is not populated.

We drove through a multitude of villages - up narrow, steep winding roads while visiting with the driver.

Here are some things I learned:
Wayan is the number one name in Bali
Made is number two
Nyoman number three
And for all you " Eat, Pray, Love" fans Ketut is number four.

Balinese are very family orientated and live together in family units. It is a patrilineal society so the sons stay with the parents after marriage and the daughters move to the husband's family. As the older sons get married they develop their own living area within the family compound, the youngest son stays with the parents and looks after them in old age. As families become larger they expand dwellings but remain in the same village. One fellow we visited with has a family of over 100 when they all come home for holiday and festivals.

Seventy five percent of the Balinese are Hindu, fifteen percent Christian, five percent each Muslim and Buddhist. There are temples of various sizes and dedicated to various Gods through out the island.

Every family has its own temple on their property, then the village or district temple and on up to the main temple for all of Bali. Temples are dedicated to the sea, the rice crop, agriculture and many other things that govern life. Some temples are even a joint temple between Hindu and Buddhist.

We visited three temples yesterday, the first Pura Taman Ayun was built in 1634  and has been nominated for UNESCO recognition. The second temple, Pura Ulan Danu is a joint Hindu- Buddhist that is built in a lake on islands and completely surrounded by water. It is dedicated to a water Goddess and pilgrimages are held here to guarantee water for the farmers. Believe me, if yesterday was any indication it seems to work well. While at the Hindu/Buddhist temple the Islamic mosque on the hill just above the temple was calling the faithful to their midday prayers.

At the temple entrance

There are a multitude of tourist shops and vendors at every temple. At the mosque at the lake it just poured yesterday but, being good entrepreneurs, there were several ladies running around in their rubber boots, all the tourists were in sandals, renting umbrellas for the afternoon. 

Temple in the lake

We went to the ancient rice terraces in a place called Jatilwih. This is another area that has been nominated for UNESCO recognition, as these terraced paddies have been here for years. There are mile and miles of terraces that cascade down the mountains. These terraces are probably a maximum 15 feet wide and then step down to the next one by 4 to 5 feet. The fields are all flood irrigated and the individual rice seedlings are all planted by hand. The growing rice is as green as green can be.  

 Rice terraces

We ended the day at a sea temple, Pura Tanah Lot, which is the most visited temple in Bali. It is built on a rock off shore and all supplies have to be taken to the temple through the surf. Bali is surrounded by sea temples like this that were all built within sight of the next one. This one is popular and must have a couple hundred tee-shirt shops and food stalls. 

Temple in the sea

The closest neighbor to the temple is the "water sucking" golf course Le Meridian Nirwana resort. The locals are really upset with both the resort and the golf course. The resort because it is built higher than the temple, which shows a lack of respect, and the golf course because of the amount of water it takes to keep it green, with out producing anything. 

Water sucking golf course

Seminyak

Well we are pretty settled here in Seminyak, Bali. Our hotel is a complex of rooms, suites and villas. The rooms, where we stay, all face onto a nice pool area and are usually full of folks from the land of Oz. They are a Friendly bunch and are all surprised that we came here from Canada. Bali is to Australians what Mexico is to North Americans but seems to be a lot safer than Mexico is now.

We are getting to know our way around pretty good now and I don't feel too bad when I get a bit lost. The locals probably wonder who the heck these white folk are, but they'll nod and grin, as I try out my three words of Indonesian:
Pagi- good morning
Apa kabar- how are you
Bail, Baik- good, good
and Sing Ken Ken- no worries

Bali Cowboy

Temple Princess

We have seen a lot of livestock in our travels, cows (usually tethered), ducks following the farmers around in the rice fields. Some farmers have their ducks trained to follow a flag to the rice paddies, the farmer sticks the flag up and the ducks go about their day. When they want to go home they'll flock around the flag till the farmer come and leads them home.

 New Zealand cows

 Bali cows

Today while walking home from a late lunch we saw a mother hen in front of a Dolce and Gabbana store on a busy, busy street, gathering up her flock of chicks and trucking off down the back alley. Loreen loves the excitement of the back alleys!

Everywhere we go there are offerings to the spirits - morning, noon and night you see people putting out offerings. In temples and trees, on the sidewalks, in front of homes and stores. These are offerings to the good spirits and the demons and for good luck. The ones for the good spirits are up high and the ones to demons on the ground. They are little baskets made of banana leaves and have flowers, rice, crackers and other edibles. The dogs eat a lot of the demons offerings, but the philosophy is the spirits partake spiritually as soon as the offering is set down so the good is gone before before Mr dog gets there. I was quite startled as I watched a lady walk out into the middle of a fairly busy intersection and place three or four baskets on the white line, I thought boy they do bring good luck, as it was the first time I actually saw any vehicles come to a full stop. Some baskets have cigarettes and at the big temple we went quite a few had little bottles of arak, the local brew. Maybe that's why the preist was sleeping?

 Offering to the demons

There are gas stations here, but have not been to one yet. The main mode of selling fuel seems to be from little racks in front of little hole in the wall establishments in Absolute Vodka bottles at 5,000 rupiah per bottle. That's about $0.50Cdn/liter.  Makes one wonder, when we pay a buck a liter. A twenty minute taxi ride costs $20 and here a ride is an average of a couple of bucks. Doesn't quite compute.

 Absolut Petrol

Meals for two average about $20, with appetizer and beer. About the only thing that is as expensive as home is wine. I got my hair cut today - cost me $4.50, I felt so generous I left a fifty cent tip.

Keenan arrived at midnight on the 14th or 15th, whichever, and we spent yesterday wandering around in new parts of the tourist areas in Legian, which is part of the Kuta-Seminyak area tourist/beach scene here. Although this beach is full dress, apparently there were some ladies here yesterday that were topless, at least that is what Loreen and Keenan told me. I didn't notice!

 Loreen, Sucita, Keenan

Keenan had a fish cleaning of her feet and legs where you put your feet in a little tank and100's of little fish nibble the dead skin away. That northern Canadian skin must be good as there was a an Aussie girl using the same tank and the fish just attacked Keenan. This middle ages Indonesian man kept hanging around and he asked Loreen if Keenan was married, she said "yes", and then sidled up to me and said "Poppa, I like your daughter". He didn't offer any cows or chickens, so I was not tempted:o)

We had Indonesian Mexican last night, no different than at home, except for price. $22.60 for two appys, three drinks and three mains.

Other than the topless ladies, that I didn't notice, we had a pretty quiet day. We will go exploring inland tomorrow.

Until later...

Planes

Well here we are in Bali, we had a wonderful flight from Calgary to Denpasar, 24 hours in the air, 24 hours in Auckland, and 7 hours in Sydney airport. I was the lucky selection in departures in Auckland to have the airport search, Loreen got the lucky straw in Sydney, great fun.

As we landed in Auckland in the morning and could not check in until noon we immediately went and found an ancient volcano to hike, Mount Mangere, and climbed to the top. Not a great altitude climb but steep. The locals actually follow a path to the top but we went straight up steepest part, mainly because we did not find the path.

The area has significant cultural history to the Maori people that live there and has had various tribal dwellings in the past. It is fenced off as a bit of a park and cow pasture!

The process at the airport in Bali was painless, pay for your Visa, and then off through immigration.

Once out of the airport my impressions of Bali were Oh My God!, what chaos, the traffic and congestion. We were picked up at the airport by the hotel shuttle and whisked to our hotel through a million motorcycles. It was like being swarmed at times, every side street would have a herd of motorcycles burst out alongside the van. No accidents, and at intersections no stop signs or lights, everyone just honks and kind of filters through.

Our hotel is a lovely little place, down a couple of side streets, more narrow than the back alleys at home. Very quiet and absolutely the friendliest staff, great pool area and an open dining area. It has a Balinese/western style outdoor bath with all the conveniences of home but open roof, we call it the sauna.

We have been out and about exploring and getting our bearings. The main streets are lined with shops of every designer name possible (and they are the real deal - no knock-offs), and the department stores sell everything. We only got lost three times, but always managed to stay on the island. Taksi's are every where so it is always easy to get home. One has to be a bit careful with the Taksi's as some will not turn on the meter and charge a flat rate, usually twice as much as the real cost. Another trick is when they go to give you change they show you their empty wallet, and say "no more change" - a guy got us for 40 cents yesterday. So far the most expensive ride has been $5.00, probably would have cost $30 at home.

We have been to the beach twice now and they are lovely, hard packed sand and miles of it in places.

Loreen and I both burned a bit on our first beach walk so I went and bought a big straw hat and kind of shaped it western style. The first tout we came across shouted at me "Hey cowboy where is your horse" so I went and got a sarong to wear Balinese style, now they shout, "Hey Bali cowboy, where is your water buffalo".

We went for an early morning walk today out of the main tourist areas, through more residential/village type streets. What a contrast in things. We would walk past a $1500 a night villa, then a steel shed where multiple families live, then another resort villa, a bamboo house with woven matting for walls, rice paddies, cow pastures, and then into an area where there is more substantial homes. Most of the investment is foreign and we are not sure which is the most corrupt the developers or the government, probably about equal.

The cattle are quite different looking here, like a cross between a deer, water buffalo and maybe a Brahma. So I did a bit of research and found there are three major genus of cattle in the world, and that these Bali cattle are a genus, completely on their own and are most closely related to an animal called the wild bentang, I thought that was beer, oh right that is bintang.

Loreen and I spend quite a bit of time people watching and trying to guess what they are about. Loreen is really interested in the European fellow that showed up yesterday with a young Indonesian boy toy, so she is researching that whole culture here.

Then there is the older Aussie with the young family, he is kind of strange, exercises diligently every day and moves like a big cat, I told Loreen he is most likely an Aussie Mercenary.

Well enough for now, will go and figure out how to post this. 

Leaving

Well we have left Canada and are moving into retirement. It is still a bit surreal to me even though we have been in the air and in three overseas countries in the past three days.

Loreen thought I was being a little defiant today, I said I was just trying to spread my wings a bit. She mumbled something about getting those clipped!

Loreen has totally bought into the concept of retirement and is so excited about everything. I think it will grow on me more slowly, perhaps when I don't have to catch a flight home in three weeks it will become more real.

There is a bit of confusion in my mind about all this, leaving work was not easy. Although I have switched jobs before and left companies to consult twice, this is different. The other times I always knew there was another role in front of me. This time, as of now, my future is a bit of a void.

I always left previous jobs for a reason, either more money, no longer compatible or I did not feel valued by the people I worked for any more. I felt incredibly valued by peers and staff, but not by the leaders and executive.

As I left this position, I left with a feeling of value by peers, supervisors and the company. It meant that leaving was an emotional event and during my retirement party I had to struggle to stay in control at times.

However that day was certainly a happy one also and had it's special moments.

Four months away will give us time to consider what we want to do when we grow up and return to Canada.

So I am looking forward to that time and Loreen's enthusiasm is catching on, every time she shouts "DANNY!", I know we are about to do something exciting, so I jump up extremely fast and say "yes dear?"

Gratitude

Gratitude is often misplaced in our society as we tend to take life as it passes for granted.  As Loreen and I move into the next phase of our life and reflect on our life's journey we have so much to be grateful for.

We are extremely grateful to our parents who had the understanding and patience to allow us, with their guidance to grow into the personalities that we both became.  They were the ones that taught us respect, morals and work ethics.  They provided us with roots and wings: we have stayed mostly rooted through our working careers and now will try out our wings.

We have great gratitude for our siblings as they helped mould us into the resilient people we are today. Siblings torment, love, support, teach and can bring out your worst and your best. They have always been there when we needed them and provided support with love and kindness.

Our parents and siblings taught us tolerance, acceptance, and curiosity to explore the world and the people that inhabit it.  They gave us the foundation to build our lives on and what a rock that foundation has been.

We are extremely thankful for our daughter Keenan.  While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.  Our daughter, in her own way, educated us in tolerance and acceptance of life in an ever changing modern world.  She taught us a love that is strong and binding for life.

We are grateful to the schools and teachers that had the patience and, in my case the perseverance, to provide the education and guidance that helped accomplish our goals and get us to where we are today. 

I have many people to thank for the opportunities provided to me throughout my working career.  People that not only put their trust in me to be able to perform the tasks assigned, but mentored and taught me confidence and ability go outside my comfort zone and continue to learn and grow.  I was fortunate up to my last day of work to work with people that continued to provide me opportunity and learning’s.  I certainly am grateful to the amazing people I have had the opportunity to work with.

Friends play a big role in one’s life and growth.  Through a lifetime one makes and has many friends – some are fleeting, some you lose and never gain back, some you lose and find again, some are for life no matter where life takes them or you.  We have been blessed to find special friends from school, relatives, in-laws, and work.  They have all provided laughter, support and growth.  Thank you all.

This journey of ours to travel the world and experience different cultures started years ago when we were blessed to meet some very special people through a college student exchange program.  Over a period of 11 years we had the good fortune to be host family to exchange students from Japan, Korea, Greece, France, the USA, and the Maritimes. In all, some 20 young people brought their cultures to our home. These were wonderful experiences for us and taught us that people are mostly the same all over the world; they just have different cultures that need to be explored.

So with gratitude, we thank all the people and events that have helped bring us to this place in our lives.

Danny & Loreen

Transition

Well we have started our transition into retirement with the first adventure to Ontario from October 14-23.    What a great feeling - no home, no bills, and no place we had to be for ten days.  We are down to a 10 by 10 storage locker, our car and a 45 day rental (to December 5) on an 800 square foot condo downtown. 

We spent the first two nights with Keenan in Toronto.  We went to a restaurant, owned by Lynn Crawford of Food Network fame, called Ruby Watchco. At one time the building was occupied by the Ruby Watch Company, hence the name Ruby Watchco.  It was a wonderful meal with a set menu, created the previous day dependant on what the chef's find fresh in the market place we had pumpkin soup, pork chops, roasted root vegetables, pumpkin cheese cake and a cheese course. Keenan had a filet of halibut.   

 We then ventured into the wild to catch the last day of Oktoberfest in Kitchener, but due to unscheduled stops at the Farmers Market in St Jacobs (first and largest Farmers Market in Canada) and a three hour horse and wagon tour to an Old Order Mennonite farm and maple sugar plantation, by the time we got back to Kitchener the tickets were sold out for the Oktoberfest festivities.  But being resourceful we found a lovely meal of pig’s tail, schnitzel and trout, with sauerkraut and pilsner at the Heidelberg Inn in Heidelberg.  By the way, pig’s tail is delicious!

The next morning we started out in Elmira and drove through the fascinating Mennonite and Amish country side.  From what we had learned from our tour guide the day before, there are three orders of Mennonites and then the Amish. 

Old Order Mennonite will use electricity and motorized equipment to farm, but will only travel by horse and buggy - rubber tired for the farm work but wooden wheels for church and town. The young gentlemen have their courting buggies, open topped and fancy lights on the steps etc.  The guide compared the family buggy as the mini-van and the courting buggy as a Mustang.  Keenan couldn’t imagine what they did in that open topped buggy while out courting! 

Moderate Mennonites will drive a vehicle but it has to be black, so if they buy a red or green auto they take it to the shop and paint it black - even the chrome bumpers are painted.

Progressive Mennonites live like everyone else and worship in the Mennonite church.

Now the Amish thought the Mennonites were getting too modern so they broke away and formed their own church and rules – they live with no electricity, no power equipment - everything still done by horse or by hand. 

Loreen and I then were off to eastern Ontario.  We spent the first day touring Prince Edward county and Belleville and visited Keenan’s friend, Anya. This is where the Colonel did his nasty deeds and the trial was on while we were there.  

We drove the country roads along Lake Ontario rather than the freeway to enjoy the scenery and small towns. Unfortunately, we were a week too late for the fall colors, although from the remnants of leaves on the trees it must be very pretty.

We have a friend Nathanael in Kingston that we visited in the evening and spent the day sightseeing. Kingston is where my great-great grandparents, maternal and paternal, on Dad's side landed as immigrants from Ireland and England during the potato famine of the1850’s. So it was great to wander along the wharves and see the city where they landed. The stone cannon revetments that guarded the St. Lawrence entry into Lake Ontario are still standing. One wonders what the thoughts were when they landed in a new land. I’m glad they came to Canada.

The next day we drove the back roads along the Rideau Canal to Ottawa.  We visited the War Memorial, (an amazing piece of sculpture), walked around the Rideau canal locks, the Supreme Court of Canada building and Parliament Hill. The buildings are constructed of stone and the size and architecture is amazing. It was very nice to see the nation’s capital. I was somewhat surprised by the size of the Ottawa River, that separates Ottawa and Hull, Quebec. It is a lot bigger than I anticipated. I found Ottawa to be very windy, mostly around Parliament Hill, well there are a lot of politicians there, but a local assured me the wind was coming off the river not from the House of Commons, hehe.  An individual has set up an outdoor cat shelter on parliament hill – the stray cats are neutered and then placed in the shelter where they are provided with food and water. This is all done through donations at the site. When we were there a pair of Raccoons had moved in and were the alpha animals at the food dishes that day.

We were then back to Keenan's where we made a post-Thanksgiving dinner for Keenan and friends.  Well I made the roasted red pepper/squash soup. It was a delight, everyone said so!  

At the last moment Keenan decided to come with us to the airport and return our rental car.  That was lucky as the Gardiner Expressway was closed and I would not have known the alternate route she took to get us to the airport on time.  And this is just the beginning of hair-raising trips to airports!  

So that is our transition into our big adventure.  We have both submitted our letters of resignation and will be officially retired the end of November.  We now have just 16 sleeps and we are off to Bali.  :o)

Moderate Mennonite Church

Leaving Church

Kingston - Guarding the St Lawrence

Ottawa War Memorial

Parliament Hill

Parliament Hill Raccoons

Krista, Mat, Keenan, Loreen, Post-Thanksgiving

Keenan, Ruby Watchco



Loreen, Keenan et Moi having fun



Keenan, Loreen at Turkey Point Lake Erie