This morning the girls decided to try their luck at the trapeze that was set up by the pool. Emma was pretty brave and had no problems getting up to the top and then she seemed to enjoy herself while she was flying. Abby, on the other hand, was ok getting up but once they released her to fly on her own she freaked out and started crying hysterically. It was a little sad to see but I was so proud of her for being so brave. Unfortunately the boys missed their age time because we were heading over to another part of the island to ride elephants.
Mike has been looking forward to riding elephants ever since we knew we would be living in Asia. We thought about the possibility of traveling to Cambodia or Thailand sometime while we were in Asia but decided that we could easily do it while we were in Indonesia. In fact, that was one of the big reasons for staying on Bintan Island in Indonesia. As we rode to the other side of the island in a cab we were once again reminded where we truly were....INDONESIA. It was truly an eye opener to see how different it was to be in a country where everything was run down and where things were not clean at all. We stopped at a little town so that Mike could get tickets to ride the elephants and he said it reminded him of one of the poor areas of his mission in Brasil. On the upside, riding the elephants was truly an amazing experience. There were two of us on each elephant. The girls got to ride in front on the elephants head which I am sure was far more comfortable than riding the elephants bare back like the rest of us. We were lucky that the ride was mostly in the jungle so that we didn't have to compete with the hot sun. The elephants were amazing and so incredible to watch. Peter and I rode Fina, Mike and Emma rode Ema, and Abby and Andrew rode Mely. Our little guides rode barefoot with their feet wrapped around the ropes attached to the elephants. They had little rods with a sharp end but they never really used them to get the elephants to do what they wanted. We loved watching the elephants stop to grab large branches to eat. The entire ride was a bit surreal. I wasn't sure how everyone was going to like it but all the kids loved riding the elephants...even Abby. When our ride was over we got to feed our elephants little plantain bananas and pet them. The elephant skin was a lot rougher than I had expected and their little hairs were quite prickly. The girls especially like feeding the elephants. And just when we thought the elephants were quite adventurous we watched Mike walk over to hold the albino python. He was pretty brave and so were Peter and Emma who jumped right in the picture with Mike. Then we all jumped in to get a quick picture. I was not thrilled to be so close to the snake especially when I saw its head look toward me. Abby's expression says it all....what the heck are we doing?
We spent the rest of the day at both the pool and the beach. We loved eating afternoon snacks at the grill by the water and just enjoying each other without any distractions. These times are truly my favorite when we are all together having so much fun and not worrying about anything else and completely unplugged from the world.
June 27, 2012
Well, all good things come to an end. We spent the morning in the pool before heading back to our room to pack up all of our things and head out. We truly had a great time at the Club Med Resort on Bintan Island. Even after feeling super relaxed, I was kind of anxious to get back to civilization. When I stopped to think about har far south we were on the globe it kind of freaked me out. I longed for familiar and home. It's a good thing we were heading home!
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