When we were booking our trip back from Chiang Mai to Washington DC, we found an itinerary that had a connection in Beijing. Putting on our maximizing hats once again, we realized we could create a 13 hour layover – enough time to go see some of the sights.
China has a 24 hour transit visa that lets you go into the country at certain airports without a pre-approved visa, as long as you can prove that you’re leaving the country within 24 hours. We just went through the normal foreigner immigration line, told the agent what we were doing and breezed through. No fees, no hassle.
Once through immigration, we grabbed breakfast and met up with our guide and driver. No way we were doing this on our own!
Here’s how our itinerary stacked up:
5:40am Land 5:40-8:00am Clear immigration, eat, get cash, meet up with guide
8:00-9:00am Drive to Forbidden City (slow this day due to morning traffic) 9:00-10:30am Explore Forbidden City 10:30am Drive by Tiananmen Gate and Tiananmen Square (We didn’t walk in – just a drive-by) 10:45-1:00pm Drive to Mutianyu section of Great Wall, with stop at McDonald’s for lunch. Yes, it’s shameful to eat McD’s there, but it was quick and time was of the essence, plus we knew the kids would actually eat. 1:00-2:30pm Hike the Great Wall 2:30-3:00pm Souvenir shopping and pit stops 3:00-4:00pm Drive back to Beijing airport 6:30pm Fly from Beijing to Washington Dulles
This itinerary worked very well for us, especially considering the weather had temps in the 40s with a stiff breeze. On a nicer day, we’d have liked to have more time at both locations.
Kir was super excited about seeing the Forbidden City especially since seeing the movie “The Last Emperor”. We entered through the East Gate then walked around the moat to the South Gate. Unfortunately the stiff breeze made it super cold and Beckett didn’t have a hat so he was miserable the entire time. So instead of continuing quickly through the whole city and leaving through the North Gate, we opted to turn around almost halfway in and exit through the East Gate.
Moat and wall protecting the Forbidden CityOutside the South Gate of Forbidden City2 of the Inner Golden Water Bridges
Hall of Supreme HarmonyHall of Supreme Harmony Check out Beckett covering his ears – poor kid was so coldThrone inside the Hall of Supreme HarmonyHall of Central HarmonyThrone in the Hall of Central HarmonyThrone inside the Hall of Preserved HarmonyI love seeing the modern city of Beijing in the distanceGate of Heavenly PurityThese metal pots stored water for firefighting, since the building interiors were mostly wood. They’d light a fire under them in winter to prevent freezing.Inside the Palace of Heavenly PurityCeiling
Next stop, the hat store to get hats for both the kids so they wouldn’t freeze on the Great Wall.
All smiles while warming up after the Forbidden City
We really enjoyed driving around Beijing. Some things reminded us of Thailand but many others were just like you’d expect Beijing to look:
A quick stop at McDonald’s for lunch.
Finally, after about a 90 minute drive, we got to the Great Wall.
Taking the chair lift up to the wallChair lift up, toboggan down and Great Wall in the distanceOutside of the wall
After about 1:15 of hiking, it was time to take the toboggans back to the bottom. Beckett had to share a toboggan with Kirsten but sat in front and got to steer the whole way down. Mara was next followed by Chuck. The kids LOVED this and begged to go up so they could ride down again.
Uh oh! The Mongols are waiting for you at the bottom!
Overall, this really was a perfect day trip. We had some nervousness about a number of aspects but everything worked out fine. The kids were very cold at the Forbidden City, which was our fault for not getting them geared up correctly. Both of them LOVED the Great Wall. Even though our time was limited at each attraction, we were delighted to get a peek into China.
Thailand has a reputation for hair-raising driving conditions, and that reputation is well-earned!
I’ve driven a car for almost the entire six months we’ve been here, and progressed from being “terrified beginner” to “almost native”.
Starting out
To begin with, it was pretty terrifying getting into the rental car at the airport. I had to remember to get in on the right side of the car, and once I was in, it just felt weird. The pedals are the same as our cars in the US, thank goodness, and we had an automatic, so I didn’t have to try and shift with my left hand. (Note – there are many options to rent a manual transmission for cheaper. It’s worth the bit of $ to upgrade in the beginning)
As we left the lot, my main goal was to make it home without killing anyone. With the number of pedestrians and people on scooters, that was no given. The Chiang Mai airport is in the city, which meant lots of traffic, but also plenty of visual cues to go to the right place.
Easing into traffic was ok, but my mirrors were almost useless because I was reflexively looking in the wrong place. (They’re mounted in the same spots as US cars, but since you’re sitting on the other side, you have to look up and left for the center mirror.) Even if I looked in the correct spot for the mirror, I saw a different perspective than I was used to. And while I processed that, someone probably pulled out in front of me. Thankfully, Kirsten navigated and kept an eye out for hazards in front of of us.
Getting in the swing of things
It only took a few days to get reasonably comfortable with left-hand driving – probably about a week to get 80%. I went up the wrong ramp at the mall once, but I caught myself before making any other major mistakes. Over time, the smaller habits were hardest to break, such as walking to the wrong side of the car, and looking over the wrong shoulder when I was backing up.
After about a month, I was pretty comfortable and able to relax. I still wasn’t driving like a Thai, but at least I was getting accustomed to the action going on around me and anticipating challenges better.
Turning Thai
Eventually I started to drive more like the locals, which is actually a lot of fun once you’re used to it. While it looks like chaos, certain aspects make more sense than the strictly regimented driving I was used to back home. Kirsten and I joked about a “Thai driving checklist” where I completed certain maneuvers I’d never do in the US but that the locals do all the time without batting an eye.
Below are some of the different things we see regularly.
Running Red Lights
Red lights are the equivalent of a yellow in the US. It pretty much means “OK, only 2 or 3 more cars. Maybe 4”. If you stop on a yellow, you WILL cause an accident. They time the lights for a 2-3 second gap before the next green, so this is rarely a problem.
Double Right-Turn
Don’t you hate it when traffic backs up in a turn lane and you miss the light? Thais will turn from the adjacent straight lane, so a lot more cars get through the light. Certain intersections would be a complete mess without this. Of course you have to learn to avoid the adjacent lane if you want to go through the intersection because you’ll sit there waiting for the turn light and lose the chance to go straight.
U-Turn Mania
All the major roads have medians, so any time you want to get to the other side you have to U-Turn. They often have little cutouts for U-turns, besides being able to do it at lights. It’s not necessarily different rules than the US, but I’ve done more U-Turns here in 6 months than in my whole life cumulatively. And even if there is a no U-Turn sign, the Thais will use it anyway. Our friend actually got pulled over and ticketed for this – who knew there were actually traffic cops?!?
Personal Safety? Meh! This is a hard one to wrap my head around. Thailand has some of the highest driving death rates in the world, in large part because people disregard safety in many ways. Despite helmet laws, probably only 30% of people wear one. I regularly see an entire family on a scooter with a toddler standing between adults. Scooters will cut right in front of you without looking. They will also drive on the wrong side of the road towards you, at night, without lights on.
Traffic Flows to Least Resistance
This is the most challenging thing to deal with in the beginning because your instincts are WRONG. Vehicles go wherever it makes sense for the driver. And what makes sense is not always the same as “marked lanes.” Think of it like flowing water – it will fill gaps and voids because it’s the natural thing to do.
If there’s enough room on a wide inner shoulder to pass, cars will go there.
Scooters regularly create a lane along the outer shoulder.
When traffic is stopped, scooters will create lanes between cars.
Scooters drive against traffic on the shoulder if it’s quicker.
Cars will park in an outer lane to run into a store and get something.
It’s Not Personal!
This is a natural results of the least resistance rule and one of the things I love most about driving here. Everyone seems to understand that you take what you can get, traffic-wise, and they don’t get offended when you do what you gotta do. In 6 months, I haven’t heard more than a small handful of honks from drivers being pissed at one another. US drivers are so “Me-Centric”. Americans will crowd up and defend “my space”. Even with all the traffic here, I find I can get across lanes more easily than the US because there are almost always little gaps I can fit into. And if you have to do something unusual to get somewhere, no one bats an eye because they do it when they need to, as well.
Nearly Killing Someone
There are 2 forms of this. One is the everyday zipping in and out of traffic with you narrowly avoiding the people around you. These close calls count on everyone paying attention and you can usually expect that all parties are prepared for this. It’s harrowing in the beginning, but you don’t raise an eyebrow after a few months.
Then there’s “HOLY S—, I ALMOST KILLED THAT GUY!” I had one of those on the night of the Yi Peng lantern release at Mae Jo. We were cruising home on the highway around 11 pm and all of the sudden there’s a guy carrying a bicycle standing directly in front of me! It should have been obvious to him that I was coming, but who knows what he was thinking. I had no chance to stop, but luckily there was no traffic and I could swerve around him. If I hadn’t had my full attention up front, he’d just be a spot on the road. That really got the adrenaline pumping!
I’ve been telling Kirsten I’m going to miss driving here. There’s just a certain efficiency and natural flow to things that make it more comfortable and practical at times. I can’t say that it’s better because there are more accidents and deaths, but provided you’re a survivor, it’s pretty cool.
Practical Tips
Get an International Driving Permit before coming. It translates your license into many languages, none of which are Thai, so it hardly makes sense. But I think it’s useful if you get pulled over. At the very least, it’s cheap and can’t hurt. At the moment police are stopping expats in droves, and you get fined 500 Baht if you don’t have a Thai or International Driver’s License. You can get one thru AAA in the States even if you aren’t a AAA member. Click here for the application.
Liability insurance is included with the car, so you don’t need to arrange anything.
If you can spend a couple weeks here before driving, do so. It really helps in learning how traffic moves before you have to do it yourself.
If you get in an accident, let the insurance company handle it. Especially if it’s not your fault. You may get intimidated into paying for something, but we’ve heard through other people’s stories that once the insurance is involved, usually the other party will back off and go about their way. I’ve also heard that the insurance adjuster will come to the scene if you call them, but I don’t swear by this since I have no experience
Get someone to accompany you for your first few days of driving. They can handle directions and be another set of eyes for safety.
Flashing lights or a short horn toot is a warning that someone is coming and you should watch out.
If you do get pulled over, ask if you can pay your fine on the spot. It’s usually only 400B and saves you hassle. Whether it makes it into the city coffers or the officer’s pocket is not your problem.
Scooters are fine for a little bit of in-city driving, but only if you’re used to riding them. This is not really the place you want to learn.
The primary dates of the Loi Krathong and Yee Peng Festival spanned Saturday November the 16th through Monday the 18th this year and each day was very eventful. On Saturday, we went to the Sky Lantern launch near Mae Jo University, and then we went into town on Sunday and Monday nights. This post covers Sunday night, and we have Monday night’s parade in Part 2.
We met up with some friends near Tha Pae gate and walked down to Narawat Bridge, which is the heart of the action. It’s closed off to traffic (mostly) and you’ve got a huge crowd doing all sorts of crazy stuff you shouldn’t do in a crowd.
Along the way, we saw some ladies dressed up for some sort of exhibition, lots of hanging lanterns, and stopped at a wat to launch another lantern.
Traditional Thai clothingMonks lighting and releasing a lanternYou can write wishes on the lanterns so we each wrote a message then launched it into the sky
At the bridge, the first order of business was to buy and launch a krathong in the river. Krathongs are little floating containers, often built of leaves and natural materials, that also have a candle and a few sticks of incense. You light the incense and candles, then cast your krathong off into the river to send away your worries, anger, etc.
As you can see, krathongs come in all shapes and sizes. The ones we looked at ranged in cost from 20 to 150 Baht ($0.65 to $5.00).
These krathongs are little turkeys.
There are a lot of people making krathongs right behind the tables where you buy them. Neat to see them get assembled.
After perusing several tables, we made our selections and were good to go!
From the tables, we headed down to a small dock along the river that was PACKED with people trying to launch their krathongs. As a bonus, there were several idiots shooting off fireworks right near there. One of them shot onto the dock right under someone, but thankfully it didn’t blow up. Once we reached the river, we each lit the candles and incense on our krathong (well, attempted to light, as they kept blowing out), and sent them down the river.
After that, we decided to head onto the bridge, where the biggest crowds were. It was certainly exciting and festive, but dangerous and noisy as well.
There were more people shooting fireworks off the side of the bridge, plus there was a stiff breeze so the sky lanterns were often blowing sideways into the crowd or getting stuck on the telephone wires. Beckett got overwhelmed and really wanted to leave. Unfortunately for him, his pleas were ignored as we took the scene in for a few minutes and grabbed some photos of the sky and river.
Persevering paid off for us, because around 8:45 they shot off big fireworks down the river. Seeing the explosions in air set against a sea of drifting sky lanterns was super-cool. The video below is a pretty good representation of the scene.
After a few snacks on the way back through town, we decided to stop for a late-night foot and leg massage for the whole family. 30 minutes for only 80Baht each (<$3). The Thai ladies really loved Beckett and laughed at everything he said!
In early October, we did our second border run to the Myanmar border at Mae Sai, which is about 4 1/2 hours from Chiang Mai. We drove up to Chiang Rai the first day, then planned to do our crossing on day 2, hit the Monkey & Fish Cave right afterward, then jet back to Chiang Mai.
Well, it didn’t quite shake out like that.
Our border crossing was uneventful, but we spent way more time than we expected with the monkeys, putting us in a bit of a rush. The mountains between Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai have a lot of twists and turns, and people drive CRAZY on them, so we didn’t want to go through them at night.
We’re jamming back towards Chaing Rai and all of the sudden the car loses power in the middle of the highway. Luckily I was able to coast to the side and get out of the traffic lanes. I tried restarting the car a couple times and had no luck.
Then we smelled gas, and bailed everyone out of the car, along with all our important stuff.
After a few minutes of gathering ourselves, I decide to go see if I can put the car into neutral and move it up a little bit to a better spot. When I turned the ignition to free the gear shift, I could hear gas pouring out of the bottom of the car. Again, I got out hastily and saw a wide pool of gas coming from underneath the car.
So there we are, about 30 minutes from the nearest city, and about 3 1/2 hours from home. No phone, don’t speak Thai. No clue what we’ll do about the car or what we’ll do that night. Definitely an “awww, shit!” moment, but both Kirsten and I were fairly calm about it, for no good reason.
There was a building nearby with what looked like a small restaurant and store, and we figured we’d go in and call the company we rented the car from, then figure out housing.
Meanwhile a woman came out from the store and started gesturing at and talking to us. We tried to indicate that we had car problems (though I suppose that was obvious), and wanted to use a phone. She kept talking to us and started gesturing toward the side of the building.
I followed her over and sure enough, around the side of the building was a little shop for a guy who does auto repair!
My new favorite repair shop
I wandered back there on my own and tried to indicate that my car was broken down right outside. He was pretty confused, but followed me partway out to the street. The lady who sent us to him, then poked her head out of a window and told him what was going on.
He came out front, looked under the car, and found some part of the fuel line that had come off. He then stuck it on, and had me drive back to his shop. Seemed weird to start up the car while sitting in a puddle of gas, but hey, I lived to tell about it.
Meanwhile the lady from the shop had a couple friends there who came out and checked out the kids. Many Thais love to touch our kids, especially Beckett with his blond hair. They also brought out water for Kir and the kids so they could stay comfortable while waiting.
Back in the shop, he jacked it up, pulled another part off the car, then got some rusty wire and bound the whole assembly back together. You hear the phrase about things being build with duct tape and baling wire – that was actually the case here. Verrrry confidence-inspiring.
Here’s the part for my car. Just a coil of rusty wire.The final repair job. What could go wrong?!
So after about 30 minutes he puts the car down and indicates he’s done. Someone else at his shop spoke limited English and indicated it was OK to drive to Chiang Mai as the car was, but that we should get it repaired there.
I’m figuring the fix is going to cost me $20-30. Costly for Thailand, but damn reasonable for a man stuck in the middle of nowhere! I gestured about “how much” to him and he shook his head. He wouldn’t even take money for fixing me up. Crazy!
I drove back out to the street, loaded up, and said goodbye to our new friends.
At this point, it was 4 pm and we were never going to make it back to Chiang Mai during daytime, plus now we have this gas leak repair of dubious integrity.
What to do? Well, we decided to use the last of my Starpoints and go spend one more night at the Le Meridien in Chiang Rai, then drive back to Chaing Mai in the morning. Took a little bit of funky logistics, but we got it all worked out.
So about 90 minutes after staring disaster in the face, we were poolside ordering cocktails and food from room service. Can’t believe we were lucky to break down next to an auto shop, on a day he’s open, at a time he’s open, when he could handle us right away, with a car problem he could actually fix. Once we were forced from the car due to gas fumes, we knew we’d have some sort of story, but didn’t see this ending coming!
Here are a few shots of our stay at the Le Meridien Chiang Rai, which was far better than being stuck roadside!
For years, I’ve been intrigued by meditation. I’ve heard about the benefits, including relief from anxiety to better sleep, but never really knew how to start.
Well, where better to try it out in Thailand? There are many different meditation experiences here, but I went with one organized by the local Buddhist university.
Every Tuesday, they hold a 2-day meditation workshop for anyone interested in learning. You arrive at the office at 1 pm and sign in, then a monk gives you some information about how the retreat will work, plus an introduction to meditation and Buddhism. One of the most interesting things for me was learning that Buddhism isn’t really a religion, in the sense of worshipping a God of any sort. The Buddha was a human, who just happened to be the first “enlightened” one and he is honored for being a great teacher, not for any status as a higher being.
Probably the most important philosophy for me was the concept “you” are not the same as “your brain“. My paraphrasing of the logic is that you don’t know what your brain will think in the future and it often thinks thoughts you don’t want or can’t control, so it must be operating at least partially independently from “you”. You have a relationship with your body where it serves you, but also has issues you can’t control, and the same is true of our brains. We need to tend to our brains just as we tend to our body to make it function better.
With that in mind, you can view your mind as a cluttered house (because you haven’t been tending to it) and meditation is just the process of gradually sweeping out rooms and letting some air in. How much better do you feel when your house is clean and decluttered? Exactly!
Around 3 pm, about 20 of us took songtaews about 45 minutes out of the city to their meditation center. It consists of a long dormitory building, a meditation building, and some other service buildings. At the front of the grounds, near the meditation center, lies a courtyard with a big gold Buddha.
From then on, we learned about different types of meditation (sitting, standing, walking, lying) and had a monk lead us through sessions ranging from 30 to 90 minutes.
The retreat is silent, except for discussions with the monk and quiet talk with your roommate (you share a room with 1 other person).
Around 6 pm on day 1, we had a simple dinner of pad thai. Eating in a room of 20 people without hearing talking is really weird, but you kind of get used to it after a while.
We then had an evening session of meditation out in the courtyard by the Buddha statue, which was really neat.
Day 2 begins at 5 am as they ring a gong outside your door until your light goes on. At 5:30, we headed out to the Buddha courtyard for morning meditation and yoga while daylight breaks. While 5 am is obscenely early, this was an amazing way to begin the day.
We then went to the cafeteria and got a bowl of rice to offer to our monks as alms. (Monks everywhere in Thailand go out early in the morning and citizens offer them food. They only eat what is offered and get by on 2 meals a day). We then headed in for a breakfast of vegetable soup and toast.
Offering Alms to the monks
Next was a 90 minute discussion with the monks where they asked us questions about our experience with meditation and we were able to ask them any sort of question. (Most were about being a monk, meditation, Thailand, or Buddhism.) As with Kirsten, I found this fascinating and learned so much about Thai and Buddhist culture. I wish I’d done this our first month here.
The discussion was followed by another meditation session, a lunch of yellow curry with potatoes, then one more meditation session before heading back to town about 3 pm.
I was really glad I went to this! Learning to focus your attention is hard at first, but improvement comes with each session and I definitely found an easing of stress. The first two nights I was back home, I meditated at bedtime and fell asleep fairly quickly, without all the normal thrashing around my mind does while keeping me up at night.
The monks recommend a 15-30 minute session in the morning and before bed, and a couple minutes in the middle of the day if you can swing it, but there’s no requirement. But in general, the more you do it, the more skill you’ll achieve and benefits you’ll receive.
Cost was 500 Baht ($17) for the 2-day retreat plus 300 Baht ($10) I paid to buy a set of white clothes.
Note: They also have a drop-in session for talking with monks on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 5-7. This happens at the university campus and gives them a chance to demystify Buddhism and it gives the students a chance to practice English. I highly recommend it. They monks love to talk about their life and will answer almost anything. The ones who speak pretty good English tend to have a nice sense of humor!
Inside the meditation centerAnother picture of our outdoor meditation
We originally wanted to zipline in Hawaii, but put that off once we knew we were heading to Thailand.
Flight of the Gibbon is about a 45 minute drive up into the mountains East of Chiang Mai. The scenery was great, but the last 15-20 min are twisty-turny and our driver was a bit aggressive. Luckily none of us got sick, but if we’d had another 5 minutes, it could’ve been ugly.
After you’re geared up, they drive you about 5 minutes to the start of the course where you get a safety briefing.
Beckett is all geared up!Kir ready to go!
You start out with a couple of small ziplines then hike about 15 minutes uphill to get to the longest line on the course, over a half mile. From there, you mostly zig zag across a valley, with some shorter lines, bridges, and stairs mixed in.
It’s waaaay up high, but Beckett didn’t mind.
They have a couple tandem zips, which is where these next two pictures were taken.
I love this next picture. Beckett was fearless and had the time of his life, just kicking and making all sorts of joyous noise!
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
I made it!
The rest of us had a really good time too!
Kir is FLYING!!!!!Grandma Jane flies across
There were a few “Indiana Jones” bridges we crossed. They sway and rock quite a bit. We were tethered, but it’s still kinda freaky.
Kirsten going across a bridgeLooking down through one of the “Indiana Jones” bridges we crossed.
At the end, you’re still way up high, so you abseil twice down about 75 feet. In English, that means they just hitch you to a rope and lower you straight down.
Down the hatch!Kirsten abseiling down from the final platform.
And yes, there were Gibbons. They live up by the start of zipline #3, so you get to check them out while resting from the hike up the mountain.
Sadly after 3 hours and 33 different stations with dozens of ziplines, it was over. But what an experience!
Who’s got two thumbs and loves ziplining? THIS GUY!We survived.
I was a little skeptical about doing ziplining, especially given the cost. However, it was quite the thrilling experience. It’s a really neat way to experience the jungle and you get enough adrenaline from the heights and obstacles that it’s not just a lame nature tour.
To do this, just book with Flight of the Gibbon directly and they pick you up in town. There’s very little room for cars up there, so driving yourself is discouraged. Cost was 3,300 Baht (about $11o US) with no discount for Beckett.
For the record, Kir wasn’t scared – she just had to make a freaked out face!
One fun little diversion for us was a visit to the Siam Insect Zoo. It’s about 30 minutes out of town, near Mae Rim, Tiger Kingdom and a bunch of other attractions.
There’s a decent butterfly garden, a section where you see lots of insect specimens pinned, mounted, and labeled, plus the real fun part, a guided tour and interaction with some cool live bugs! The kids were kinda spooked, but warmed up to holding most of the insects.
There were a pretty fair number of live critters, including funky caterpillars, spiders, scorpions, walking sticks, mantises, and beetles. You could hold just about everything although we decided not to hold the live scorpions even though the lady assured us “it only stings a little bit”.
Another neat part was seeing all the different types of caterpillars and seeing their various cocoons. Some cocoons lo0k like real gold and are beautiful!
Quite the fuzzy little caterpillar
Who’s hungry?!The offered to let us hold the scorpions, but we all passed!
It’s a bit overpriced for Chiang Mai, but the kids got a unique experience to hold some exotic bugs. Adults are 200 Baht, kids are 150 Baht, so that was about $23 US for the 4 of us. Expect to spend about 90 minutes there.
We’d seen signs for Chiangmai F.C. (FC = football club / soccer in U.S) around town and figured it would be cool to get out to a sporting event with the kids while we’re here. We enjoyed it so much, we’ve gone back 2 more times!
They play in a stadium about 20 minutes from town and it would probably hold 8,000-10,000 fans if full. We weren’t really sure what to expect, whether the crowd would be rowdy, what the food situation was, etc.
For our first game, we decided to spring for the expensive tickets. And by expensive, I mean 80 baht ($2.60). That gets you a general admission ticket in a good location with a roof overhead. Note: Roof is useful during rainy season!
All food and drink is sold outside the stadium at an outdoor market, with a mini outdoor market set up that has all the foods you see at the night markets. (you can just carry it in.) There’s usually some music, promotional events, and merchandise sales near the main gate as well.
Food and drink stands outside Chiangmai F.C. game
The stadium isn’t optimal for viewing, as it’s multipurpose and there’s a track running around the outside of the field, causing a gap between the field and the seats.
The game environment was pretty positive. People cheered the team, but not in a rabid way. I didn’t see any violence, drunk-ass idiots, or anyone yelling inappropriate things. For the most part, it felt like a big party. It probably helps that the team is pretty good this year and they didn’t lose any of the games we’ve attended.
Beckett got a jersey (just $14!) at the first game and he has a good time, though occasionally his attention wanders. Mara seems to like the whole process of attending the game and eating snacks, but doesn’t seem to give a crap about the game.
After two of the games, we’ve been able to go down to the field and get Beckett’s picture with a few players. He was very excited to meet the goalie since he was a goalie in hockey and seems to have a fascination with them.
I’ve loved attending the games. It just feels more laid back than major US sporting events. It almost has the feel of a minor league baseball game. There are lots of advertising signs, but game experience isn’t dominated by them. Basically, it just feels much less structured than a U.S. sporting experience.
Did I say less structured? That leads to the fun part – after the game.
The players walk around and pause at each section of the stadium so the fans can cheer them. Several of the sections have people lighting what look like road flares as the players approach. Can’t fathom seeing this at home, but it is AWESOME.
There are 2 more home games while we’re here and we’re hoping to make it out to them. It’s really a great time!
Mara and Beckett with 2013 regular season championship trophy
Logistics: The official CMFC website is: http://www.chiangmaifc.com/ But seeing as its in Thai, it wasn’t the most helpful site to us. There is an English website built by CMFC fans which is where I got the schedule: http://chiangmaifootballclub.com/ . The CMFC Facebook group is quite active and you can find information out about games so its worth checking them out: https://www.facebook.com/cmfcenglish
When we got to Chiang Mai, we weren’t even quite sure where we wanted to be. The city was appealing, but for the most part, all we could find were small apartments and condo-style accommodations.
After spending a couple days driving around with agents, we ended up somewhat far from town, but in a nice neighborhood that we hoped would have plenty of expats and kids. There were a few expats, but almost no kids near our kids’ ages. Oh well!
The house we did get was pretty modern and at a glance, indistinguishable from houses you’d see in the US.
Around the outside, we had a little table and benches, then just narrow strips of grass surrounding the house.
Gotta love all the security iron on every door.This heavy iron gate was really annoying! Everyone in the neighborhood shuts them, so if yours is open, security comes to check if there’s a problem.In theory, this little patio would have been great for chilling outside. In practice, we had no furniture for it and it was usually hot, humid and mosquito-y enough that we never used it.There’s our outdoor washing machine!
Inside, we had a little family room that also had an area for a dining table
Pretty sweet setup
The kitchen was small and basic, but very large and decked out by Thai standards. And yes, that’s a clothes dryer in the kitchen. It didn’t vent to the outside, so we had to drain the water from a removable plastic box after every load. We shouldn’t complain, though. A dryer in Thailand is kind of like finding a unicorn.
Upstairs we just had the 3 bedrooms with not-so-comfortable beds.
Master BR from one directionMaster BR from the other direction
Well, after 2 fantastic years, we left the Big Island on June 14, 2013. It was a great place to be, but in the end, not a great place for us to earn a living.
But we haven’t given up on travel and fun, so we departed for Chiang Mai, Thailand, where we stayed from June to December. After a 1-month visit back to the States, we came to Malaga, Spain in January 2014, and we’ll be here until about April.
Had an awesome time doing the Ironman 70.3 Hawai’i race a little over a week ago and wanted to share some of the experience with you.
Event: Ironman Hawai’i 70.3 (nicknamed “Honu”) Date: June 1, 2013 Swim Start: Hapuna Beach, Kohala coast of the Big Island
First off, for those who don’t know, this is a “half-Ironman”, or a 70.3 meaning 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.2 mile run. Full IM races are double that distance. We had about 1,700 athletes start the race.
5:00 AM – wake up! We stayed at a hotel at the north end of the swim course so I would have an easy time getting to the race start, and not have to worry about parking or shuttles. Starting to get light already and I can see a couple of the swim buoys out my window.
I start eating Bonk Breakers (overpriced energy bars) and drinking Gatorade to get energy stored up for the long day. A little bit of coffee to go with that as well.
5:20 AM – Double check my equipment bags (one for my swim, the other for my bike to swim transition) and force down more food and drink.
5:45 AM – Get some sunscreen from Kirsten, hugs and kisses from everyone and head over to my bike to prepare it for the day.
6:00 AM – Inflate my tires fully, stick water bottles on the bike, final bike inspection, check that gears are correct for the hill I start on.
6:25 AM – Say hi to the kids and Kir (they came over to the transition area), and hand over a bag of things I don’t need. Eat a final energy gel and drink then head down to the beach.
6:35 AM – Beautiful day at the beach. Calm water – a wonderful day to race! Work on body position and float in the water for a couple minutes, but decided not to do warmup swim.
6:45 AM – Hawaiian state song and national anthem. About 1,500 of us competing all crowded into one little part of the beach. It was really emotional for me, as I pondered the gift of my time on the island and this opportunity to do an IM-series race on Hawaii.
6:50 AM – The pros are off, and all the age-group men file into the water for the start
6:53 AM – The cannon fires and we’re off. I waited about 45 seconds or a minute just to let the faster swimmers clear out. The far right of the course actually goes into pretty shallow water and I see about 50 people actually walking the swim. Cheaters! 🙂 I fill in around the middle and head out on the course, which is roughly an elongated rectangle.
Swim: 15 min: Everything going well – a slight bit of bumping here and there, but I’m relaxed and happy. Then I get a water patrol person hollering at me. Turns out I was headed to the wrong buoy at the far end, so I have to veer right to go around the first buoy before heading to the second. Probably added 4 to 5 min of extra swim
Swim: 20 min – all bunched up around the turn buoys. You essentially have to dog paddle for about 100 feet due to the bunching up. The women started 7 min after the men and many of them are hitting the buoy at the same time as me. Getting back on track
Swim: 30 min – look like I’m a little wide on the backstretch, which is actually kind of nice because there are only a few swimmers around me. Just passed one guy – take that!
Swim: 40 min – wind chop picks up and I occasionally get to suck down a slug of seawater. Nothing to throw me off in a big way, though, but the burn of the water isn’t fun.
Swim: 50 min – Headed into the home stretch. Seems to take quite a while, but there’s some nice coral on the bottom and I know I have plenty of time. (If you don’t finish in 1:15 or less, you get “swept” and don’t get to continue on in the race).
Swim Exit: 1:03 – woohoo, I did it and feel great! Grab a quick shower at the beach and head up the hill to bike transition.
Transition 1 (T1): This worked out to be really slow for me. Took me 14 minutes from exiting the beach to exiting the bike. The pros do it in about 2 min while age groupers like me are typically 6 to 10 minutes. I had practiced sport to sport transitions in training, but never with the full gear and considerations of a race. Double and triple checked against my checklist and finally got out of there. On the plus side, my HR had come down nicely and I didn’t overlook anything.
Bike Course: South about 4 miles to Mauna Lani turnoff, then back north, weaving up to Hawi, before returning to Mauna Lani.
Bike Strategy: Follow my heart rate monitor (HRM) and go right at my aerobic zone max for the whole race, which for me is about 142. Also, eat and drink regularly to make sure my hydration and nutrition are banked for the run. Even the back end of the bike can be rough if you’re depleted, and it’s almost impossible to catch up.
Out on the Queen K highway, I got the Kohala winds that are part of the Ironman legend. Crosswinds of about 20-30 mph regularly and a couple gusts near 40. Early on in the bike I was passing a number of people, then settled into a pack of 8-10 that I would hang with the entire race. You can’t draft in Ironman, so it was really a collection of familiar faces spread out over half a mile or so and we’d take turns passing each other depending on uphills, downhills, aid stations, etc.
About 8 miles in, I noticed that my speed was a little off from what I expected. Wasn’t sure if that was due simply to the swim preceding it, the winds, or a mechanical issue. I’d had a new derailleur put on that week and it was a little noisy on my big cog. Don’t think that was the issue, but who knows.
After another 20 minutes, I hit the turn at Kawaihae and headed up to Hawi. This is probably my favorite stretch of the ride because you’re not going fast while starting the ascent and can admire the ocean a bit.
Again, I had to ride lower gears than expected, but otherwise felt good out there. At the 20 mile aid station I added a bit of air to my tires, which seemed to perk up my bike a bit, but I’m starting to realize that it’s just me that’s slow.
Mile 23-30: 7 mile climb of about 800 feet to Hawi. Frankly, the hill isn’t that bad, but what was hard was the stiff headwind the last 3 to 4 miles. Instead of a normal 17-18 mph, I’m down to about 8. So is everyone else, though. In theory, the tailwind benefits you coming back, but because it’s downhill, your gears max out and can only move you so fast.
At the Hawi turnaround, I restocked my food, took a little potty break and got excited to fly back down the mountain. Even with the breaks from the aid station and the descent, I could tell my legs were a little short of their normal energy.
Fairly uneventful descent until I got to within about 10 min of Kawaihae and my feet started to get really sore. That’s pretty typical for me – about every 45 min to an hour my feet swell up and it helps to get off the bike for a minute. This time they just get getting sore. By the time I was 30 min out from transition, I was already at the time I’d expected for the full race, my feet hurt, and my hamstrings were both starting to bark pretty good.
Going up the 2 mile hill from Kawaihae to Queen K I saw about 5 people walking their bikes. I was getting tired and sore, but it’s always nice to see that going on and think “well, at least I’m not doing that bad!”
Once on Queen K’s rolling hills, I backed off to about 135 bpm mostly because it was painful to push full bore, not because of energy levels. Felt good otherwise, just sore. I rarely look forward to ending a session, but I was REALLY looking forward to T2.
T2: 4 hours later, here I am! Again, I’m one of the last so it was easy to spot Kirsten and the kids. Kir was worried about me since I’d been so slow and there’s a long stretch in the middle of the race where you don’t get splits on the racers. I was a little concerned about my feet and hamstrings affecting the run, but both were ok once I got out of my bike shoes. Again, my transition was kind of leisurely, but I knew I had about 3 hrs to complete the run, which was plenty if I ran my race, but not if I messed something up.
Run Course: It’s half on roads, half going through a golf course near the resort, mixed back and forth between them throughout. Miles 10-13 go out on this service road that is supposed to be quite hot. At mid-day, the sun can be brutal no matter where you are.
Run Strategy: First off, pray for clouds (no luck there!). Again, my plan was to run to my HR (150 for the run), avoid any spikes/overheating, and stay hydrated and fed. There are aid stations every mile and I was to drink Gatorade and water at each, eat at every other station, and add ice to my hat at every station. Eating at this point pretty much means the gels. Solid food wouldn’t be fun. I planned to run the entire time, except for the aid stations and any of the hills on the golf course that could spike my HR
Right out of T2, I felt great and saw that 90% of people were walking. I passed several people the first mile and that never stopped throughout. Clocked my first mile around 11:00 and that turned out to be my same pace throughout. Aid stations usually added about 1 minute per mile.
The further I got into the race, the more people I saw as I caught up to the rest of the field. About 3 miles in, I was feeling pretty good and was curious about whether I could hold it for the whole race or if something would eventually give. On parts of the golf course, I could see the ocean and really got emotional both about what a gift it is to do this race, but also about saying farewell to my beloved island. Then I got a big smile on my face and trucked on.
Around mile 5, people were looking pretty rough. On the golf course sections, the long line of haggard people stretched out into the distance looked like refugees fleeing oppression. Still feeling strong and passing something like 10 people per mile is really motivating for continuing.
At mile 7 it was nice to be over halfway. This is were some temptation also hit. Had a moment of fatigue, but realized that if I walked, I’d probably never run again. Also, they hadn’t announced that Coke would be on the course. It really looked tempting, but I was doing well and hadn’t trained with it, so I laid off. Did take a bite of a peanut butter sandwich at an aid station – it was really nice to get a tiny bit of substance. Ooh, I’m such a glutton!
At mile 9, I reached my longest run I’d trained, so beyond this was uncharted territory. Still, feeling good and staying to the plan. Drinking the sport drink has gotten REALLY old, but I’m sticking to what’s working. Also, my shoes were super-soggy due to meltwater, plus at one aid station, I held my hat over my foot and when the ice got dumped in, the water went thru the cap and deluged my shoe. Still, no significant pain or blisters – just had to hope that would continue.
People were really beaten on the service road. It’s long, hot, and is extends out of sight in one stretch, so you feel like you could be walking forever. I knew it couldn’t be too far, but it did seem kind of eternal at one point. Once you hit the turnaround out there, it’s slightly uphill coming back and you’re just looking forward to hitting the golf course for the last mile in.
Once I hit mile 12, a few of the zombies reanimated and started to run again. I hadn’t been passed since mile 3, but all of the sudden got passed 2 or 3 times in the final mile.
As you get close to the finish you can hear the race announcer calling the finisher names and it gets very exciting. Still, I was really conservative in keeping my pace and even getting ice at the last aid station, only 1/4 mile from the finish. People can collapse just short and I was taking no chances.
Finally came down the finish chute and saw Kirsten and the kids. Success!! Felt great crossing the finish and went to the side to give some love to the fam. They were all so excited for me and gave me hugs, even though I was quite disgusting.
After the race, I mostly hung out in the shade and took in water, and just enjoyed the energy of the experience. There were food and shade tents over the lawn and finishers were still coming in. Finally went to get my finisher t-shirt and also found I got a medal. Not just a medal, but the coolest medal I’ve ever seen, apart from the Olympics. Gorgeous Honu design and really heavy. Hey, maybe it was worth doing this after all!
Finally, it was time to go and it was pretty sad. Been looking forward to this race for months and now it was over and that meant it was time to face leaving Hawaii as well. Still, I can’t imagine a better way to cap off my 2 years here. The chance to do an Ironman branded race in Hawaii was just incredible and it was really fantastic doing in partnership with Kirsten. She accommodated all my training, gave me massages when needed along the way, and was the catalyst for signing up in the first place.
Recovery went pretty well. Took about a day and a half to feel like my hydration and electrolytes were back to normal and I had sore, tight quads that made stairs tough for a few days. Other than that, I felt great and as I write this one week later, I feel normal. I’m so grateful for all that’s gone right.
Had a lot of questions about doing it again or doing a full Ironman. Short answer is that I’d love to, but the training is an awfully big commitment. With the move to Thailand upcoming, I’ll probably have to take a break for a while. Still, I’m already rehashing the race and thinking about how to do better the next time around. I’ve got the bug and just need to find the right circumstances to go at it again.
Thanks to everyone who made it possible.
Kirsten and the kids for dealing with my training schedule and preoccupied brain
Family and friends for all their cheering and support
The community of athletes here who shared their experience
Coach Bruno, who gave valuable tips and assured me I would be prepared
The thousands of race volunteers who created an incredible experience
Hawaii Island, whose beauty and challenges touched my soul
Mara’s Medal for me. Hard to read on the scan, but it says “You Are an Irondad 2013”
Top Row: Farewell to our house, Kirsten at 4 am
Second Row: Off the plane in Kona, celebratory mai tais
A mere 366 days ago, we said goodbye to our house and headed off on our Hawaii adventure. It’s time to reflect a bit on how we feel, what’s gone well, and what hasn’t.
Overall Impressions
On the whole, I think the move has been in line with our high level expectations, although we didn’t have a vision for all the details (which is one of the reasons we love travel – the fun of experiences that weren’t anticipated)
Both Kirsten and I are extremely glad that we made the change and did the move. It took several months to get any sort of consistency, but I’d say that things feel 90% routine/normal at this point. That’s not a bad ratio – it was about 2% new in Virginia and that’s one of the things that bored us.
What’s gone great
The weather/outdoor living is as advertised. We haven’t used A/C or heat since moving here and our windows are constantly open. That provides a wonderful connection to fresh air and overall outdoorsiness. All the sports and entertainment options tend to be outdoors as well.
We love the ocean as much as we thought we would. That wasn’t exactly news, since we were certified divers before coming here, but there’s a feeling of both being alive yet relaxed that still comes whenever we get in the water. Some of the tropical fish watching has gotten a little less interesting, but that’s ok.
We’ve immersed ourselves in local activities. “When in Rome. . .” is a phrase we like to live by and we’ve done that so far. Learn to sail – why not?! Bike the same course as Ironman – sure! (well, part of the course). Go to Japanese festivals – Hai! There always seems to be something new to try.
It is indeed casual / laid back here. Not everything runs on island time, but dining and timing for social things tend to be leisurely. The bigger difference is that almost everyone goes with the flow when things don’t happen as planned. Everyone dresses casually as well – I wore an aloha shirt, shorts, and sandals to Ruth’s Chris steakhouse and was overdressed if anything.
I love not having to maintain a house. We haven’t had to think about what color to paint things, what furniture to buy, or how to fix anything. I don’t have to plan on when I’m going to mow the grass. While there’s a lot of great stuff about owning a house, it’s great not to have to take care of it.
Local, fresh produce. Many fruits and veggies still have seasons, but there’s always something growing here.
Working remotely and from home has gone well. I’d never done either before the move. While it took a period of adjustment, I’ve come to appreciate the efficiencies of working from home. With my job, I try to communicate frequently, and I also returned to the office for a week in January. For consulting, I focus on work I excel at. My clients can count on me to know my stuff and get what they need with a minimum of time spent going back and forth, which can be more difficult with the time difference.
It’s awesome to know we did what we set out to do. I’ve been more of a drifter in life, in that I just tend to go from one interesting opportunity to another. It’s unusual to set out a large specific goal and go get it. Feels great!
Where we’ve struggled
Finding a permanent way to support ourselves. Not a lot of great jobs for Kirsten here, and even fewer that interest her. In the same vein, I’ve been able to get consulting clients, but they’ve all been off-island so far.
Isolation. We’ve had 4 sets of visitors in the last year, but the rest of the time has been spent on our own, away from longtime friends and family. We’re starting to build new friendships here, but they’re not those longtime bonds that are so valuable.
Vog. The emissions from Kilauea wrap around the bottom of the island and up to Kona, resulting in a gray haze many days, which can trump the blue of the sky and ocean. The long term effects of these emissions are also unknown. Folks who already have asthma can have a hard time with the air. After a few of these gray days in a row, I get Maui envy. It’s only about 50 miles away, but the skies are much more clear and spectacular there.
Feeling unsettled. Now that the 1 year we set out to do is up, we’re starting to ponder our long term future further and aren’t exactly sure where we want to be in a couple years.
No neighborhood feeling. We had such a great house, yard, and neighbors in Virginia and have struggled to replicate that here. The kids don’t have as much room to run and play, and we haven’t had kids in the adjacent houses here. Our neighbors were our friends and our kids had so much freedom and fun.
Looking forward, we aren’t certain if we want to be here permanently, but we’re 100% sure that we’re not ready to go yet! We’ll spend the next 6 months to a year getting a better feel around whether we want to buy a house and if we’re able to work out a situation that supports us economically.
We’re so glad we’ve done this and are grateful that our adventures will continue. What’s next? Who knows!
Plenty of readers email us with their stories and questions and it’s great to hear what people are thinking. We get plenty of practical questions, such as what it costs to ship cars and what we think of the schools.
One of the top questions works out to be some form of “How are the locals?
We’d heard anecdotes about harassment of haoles (In loose terms, it’s Hawaiian for “whitey”) and weren’t 100% sure what we’d find after we moved.
Well, it’s nearly a year in and we’ve had countless positive experiences with residents and not a single negative comment or feeling of being made unwelcome.
I can think of 3 reasons for that:
The “Spirit of Aloha” is true. People are simply nicer here, especially if you bring an attitude of patience, kindness, and being open yourself. We’ve had great experiences with many longtime residents simply because we were friendly.
Hawaiians aren’t even a majority. The largest single racial group is. . .Caucasians! In 2008, the island was 32% white, 27% Asian, 11% Pacific Islander, and 28% were a mix of 2 or more races. (Wikipedia details) A recent news story said the Big Island has about 30-35% of residents with Hawaiian heritage, which was highest of all the islands. It’s really one big melting pot.
Hawaii has been a state for 53 years. It’s not like someone just discovered Hawaii. People have come and gone from the island for generations now. Most residents were born as Americans and there’s nothing to “accept.”
Even with Hawaiians being a racial minority, the Hawaiian culture and language touches everything. Almost everyone who relocates here does so by choice. New residents want to participate in the culture and that interest and respect produces an amazing experience.
Our kids’ school has a Hawaiian studies teacher who does a session with each class weekly, and the kids usually do songs in Hawaiian for the Christmas and Spring performances. Beckett’s class donned traditional outfits and ti-leaf leis while doing their song, while Mara’s class did a hula that tells the story of trains being introduced to one part of the island.
Those things don’t make us capital-H Hawaiians, and that’s ok. We’re here to contribute our own aloha, slow down from mainland speed, and enjoy the ride.
Kirsten and I had a sailing lesson today and expected to just go through our normal practice for tacking, jibing, man-overboard and other basics.
On the way out to sea, the 3 of us on the boat were discussing that it had been a slow year for whales (they’re generally around Dec-Mar), and that we’d hoped to see some eventually while out on the boat.
About 30 minutes into our trip, Kirsten saw one breach and dive about 100 yards away. He came up a second time, which is when she snapped the picture you see here
We didn’t see him for a while, but then we had something really cool happen.
It was a calm day and the boat was slow and quiet, and it turned out we could hear the whale songs even while sitting on the boat. Our instructor has sailed for years and said she’d never heard them while out of the water. A couple different times, we could hear him “singing”, each time for about 15 seconds.
Finally, we started to head back to the harbor, and heard the whale surface behind us and blow, saying “farewell” and letting us get one final look at him.
As icing on the cake, we were walking to our car back at the harbor and saw this 100-lb. shark caught by a fishing boat.
Shark – it’s what’s for dinner
No deep thoughts with this, but it’s amazing how different life is now. Even after 8 months here, I still get blown away by stuff like this a few times a week.
Bonus: A few other sailing pictures below
The “Mahina Pua” – 20-ft sailboat we useI’m on a boat!
Our first 6 months here were great in almost every way.
I certainly had fun. We went to the beach regularly. Snorkeling, swimming, festivals, and exploring all parts of the island.
But something was missing.
Between settling into the house, getting cars, exploring our newfound world, finding another house, and moving again, we accumulated a deficiency in a key area.
People
Friends
Community
Before moving here, we’d knew we’d need to meet people and make friends, but once we got here it seemed like we were always busy settling in or getting used to our new life.
There were only a couple of kids in our neighborhood, and we didn’t get involved in any activities where we’d get to know other people.
We had become long-term tourists, not residents.
Mara really missed our neighborhood and friends in Virginia and her attitude went south over time. Kirsten and I started to feel isolated and increasingly restless. And because working from home was new for me as well, it was kind of a double-whammy.
In mid-December, Kirsten and I had a long discussion and concluded that if we were going to stick around here permanently, we’d have to do a better job of involving ourselves socially. We decided to commit ourselves to more activities and becoming part of the community.
It seems like when we set our minds to something lately, it happens in a big way.
Fast-forward two months and I think we might have become too busy with new activities:
Beckett is playing T-ball and doing roller hockey (we have a nice outdoor rink down by the beach)
Mara joined Girl Scouts and is also playing T-ball
Kirsten just joined an outrigger canoe paddling group, plus the 2 of us are doing sailing lessons together
I’ve started to play adult pick-up games of roller hockey and will be riding with a cycling group soon
By switching from family outings to group sports and activities, everyone is feeling better. The kids have met new kids, including some just a couple blocks away, plus made stronger friendships with the classmates who are also on their team.
Kirsten and I have met people through our activities, plus gotten closer to parents of the other kids for T-ball, hockey, and Girl Scouts. Everyone has been really nice and it’s good to feel like a true part of the community.
It’s feeling more and more like home and less and less like we’d choose to live elsewhere. And that’s a great feeling!
We’d just bought a Honda Pilot so we could haul things, and were looking for a kayak.
Kirsten found one at a yard sale a couple weeks ago and $160 later, we were the proud owners of a sea kayak.
This morning, we got a beautiful crystal-clear and breezy day, and decided to take the kayak on its maiden voyage.
About 11, Kirsten and I launched at Keauhou Harbor and headed down the coast a mile or two. Some decent sized ocean swells, but nothing we couldn’t handle.
Houston, we’ve got a problem
By the time we got to where we wanted to jump out and snorkel, I noticed that water was pooling in the seating area. (there’s a hole it should be draining through). This seemed like a problem.
It was then I also figured out that we were sitting low in the water – we were definitely sinking!
Unfortunately, the area we visited was virtually all cliffs with rough rock to deal with, so bringing the kayak into shore wasn’t an option. On a calm day, we might have been able to get out somewhere, but it was too dangerous today.
I tried getting into the water to see if reducing the weight in the kayak would help. Learned a few things once I did that.
With Kirsten as the only remaining weight, the water all ran forward and made it almost nosedive in
I should have put my life vest on before jumping in the water. It was behind me and I thought it would be easier to slip it on once in the water. Wrong.
Even with me out of the boat, the water level inside was still above the top hatch, making it impossible to bail water.
We had each brought our snorkel gear, so our basic idea was for Kir to get the kayak as far back towards the harbor as she could, and then we’d just swim the rest. Hopefully we’d get a passing kayaker to get help.
Rescue Me!
After a couple minutes, Kirsten spotted one of the big Zodiac boats that give coastline and dolphin tours. She was able to flag them down and they came by to see what we needed.
We were grateful when they agreed to help out. They got Kirsten and her stuff out of the kayak, and then I climbed onboard out of the ocean. One of the deckhands cinched our kayak to the side of their boat, and held on for added stability. We then took about 15 minutes to cruise slowly back to the harbor.
Luckily it was the tail-end of the tour and we didn’t ruin the sightseeing for them.
Many mahalos (thanks) to the Captain Zodiac crew, who saved us from a really crappy afternoon!
Reflections
It may sound strange, but Kirsten and I both had a blast with the whole ordeal.
It wasn’t the safest situation, but neither of us perceived any mortal danger, and it ended well, so why not enjoy?
I don’t think about either of us as adrenaline junkies, but we do find a lot of fun in this sort of stuff. And it was cool to finally get onto one of the Zodiac boats. I’m sure the passengers of the boat got plenty of great pictures of 2 morons and a sinking boat. I’m sure they were hoping the rescue would be more like Baywatch, but too bad for them.
And now we’ve got a kayak that seems to leak for reasons yet undiscovered. Not sure if it’s worth paying to fix or if we just need to start over and pony up for a proper, seaworthy kayak.
We’ve been thinking of taking sailing lessons soon. Hopefully our reputation doesn’t precede us!
“I wouldn’t send my kid to public school in Hawaii.”
We definitely heard a lot of negatives about public schools as we considered our move to the Big Island, and it was a big concern for us. Much of our scouting trip in January was focused on learning about the neighborhoods and schools.
In the Kona area, Holualoa Elementary school had the best reputation amongst the folks we’d talked with and we decided to make that area the focus of our housing search. In the end, we had two houses to pick from, and chose the one closer to Holualoa. (And the mac-daddy view didn’t hurt!)
Fast-forward 3 months and we are extremely happy with the school.
On day one, we could tell that the administrators and teachers were really nice folks who care and want to help. But we still were curious to see how the academic side of things would go.
First Grade
We were most concerned about Mara’s experience because she would have been in second grade if she’d been here previously. (The age cutoff is different from Virginia). We didn’t want her to be way ahead of the class and get bored with everything.
Thus far, the teacher is managing the students’ work individually, so Mara gets challenging work consistently. Daily homework consists of a front and back sheet of paper with word, math, and measurement problems, plus one page in a word puzzle book, plus one book to read to us. It usually takes her about 20-30 minutes to do everything.
She enjoys the schoolwork, teacher, and her friends, so it’s a success so far.
Kindergarten
Beckett’s transition was a concern mostly because the kid doesn’t sit still and we thought he’d be young for his class.
In Hawaii, they run a Junior-K program for kids with fall birthdays, so he’s lumped with kids that have birthdays within a few months of his. At the end of the year, kids either go to regular Kindergarten or go to first grade.
We just had his conference and it sounds like he had a few minor behavioral problems in the beginning, but nothing that we were notified of until just now. It more or less sounded like normal transition stuff.
The teacher seems to be great at focusing on just the right ways to help him along, and it’s paid off. His progress has been amazing in 3 months, especially in reading and handwriting.
The routine of school also seems to be helping his behavior at home somewhat. He’s still a 5 year-old who wants to be independent, so it’s no cakewalk, but things are certainly better than in July.
How the School Compares
We moved from one of the top school districts in the country, and so far we’d say that the kids are getting just as good an experience here as they did back in Virginia. It’s a big relief that things are going well so far, and we’re grateful to have found such a nice place for the kids.
Imagine that when you were 18 years old, you were riding in the back of a pickup truck that got hit by an 18-wheeler. The accident led to both your lower legs being amputated, and you went through years of surgeries. Now you struggle with everyday life. What would you do next?
If you were once a model, then found yourself at 295 pounds wondering what the hell happened to you, what would you do?
Tara Costa chose Ironman. (after appearing on The Biggest Loser!)
When you’re 81 years old, and the world expects you to be a in a nursing home, what will you do?
Lew Hollander chose Ironman. Note: he qualified because he won his age division last year! Oh, and he’s competed in Kona 22 times and finished 22 times. Lew is the man!
These stories helped create one of the most amazing and inspiring days of my life this past Saturday.
For those not familiar, Kona hosts the Ironman World Championship each October. 2.4 miles of swimming, then 112 miles on a bike out in the brutal sun. And when you’re done with that, you get to run a marathon!
Kirsten and I had been looking forward to the race since making the decision to move to Kona in January. We figured it would be great to see some of the most fit people in the world tackle an insanely-difficult day of racing.
Off with a Boom
We went down early to see the professionals start at 6:30 am at Kailua pier. Thousands of people down there watching the 100 or so professionals, along with a helicopter overhead filming. There was excitement in the air and a cannon blast signaled the start of a long day.
The pros lined up for their swim start
About 1,700 amateurs, or “age-groupers” as they call them, crowded out into the water for their start at 7 am. Once the cannon sounded, this mass of bodies churning was an incredible sight.
1,700 amateurs in a chaotic start
We watched both groups of swimmers come in and transition to the bikes, which were stored at the pier. At times, they came through in such large numbers that the bikes got backed up while entering the street. It was cool to rattle our cowbells and help launch them out onto that long bike ride.
Coming out of the transition area onto the bike course
Around 9:00 or so we decided to go home and give the kids a break. This worked out great, as we watched streaming online coverage of the leaders.
8 hours? Wow!
At 2:00 we went back down to see the top professionals come in and there was a nice, enthusiastic crowd to support them. It’s really amazing to see someone do all 3 events in just over 8 hours.
The crowd lines Ali’i Drive, waiting for the pros to come in
Once we’d had our fill of the pros, we walked over to watch some of the older folks transition from the bike to the run. They had to start the marathon by 5:30 pm or they’d be swept from the course. Many of them were plugging along slowly and several were walking. It was wonderful to see the determination to start this, even after 10 hours of racing.
Kirsten then hung out until 6:30 while I took the kids home. She caught many of the age-groupers about 1/3 into the marathon and was impressed by their looks of determination.
An Amazing Night
I came back down at 8 and that’s when the magic began.
First off, each finisher gets a special treatment. There’s a long victory lane, flanked by cheering folks. The announcer will call the name of the athlete, often tell a little bit about them, and then proclaim “You are an Ironman!” to much applause.
Over the course of the evening, the crowd swelled in size to several thousand people. Several thousand loud, encouraging people.
The event hosts did a great job keeping everyone fired up and the energy increased throughout the evening. Because the race cutoff is midnight, the later hours bring more physically-challenged people as well as the urgency to beat the clock.
One of the hosts fires up the crowd
By 10 pm it was a frenzy. A pure, wholehearted, encouraging frenzy. I’ve been to big events like the Stanley Cup Finals and those were insane, but it didn’t have the soul that this night did. There’s no opponent to beat down. Every finisher was a big winner. And all the noise that the crowd poured out served to boost the racers and bring them in. I’m sure the noise could be heard by every runner still out on the course, letting them know we were there for them.
Those last 2 hours, everybody coming in was a rock star. Besides the AMAZING folks I detailed above, there was one person who’d tried the lottery for 19 years and finally got a spot. One who entered and didn’t finish 16 years ago, but came back this year to do it. For a little icing on the cake, one guy who pulled out a “Will you marry me?” sign to propose to his girlfriend as he entered the finish corridor.
While I’m generally a good soul, this evening still purged so much cynicism and brought in so much love. I cheered with as much passion, volume, and aloha as I possibly could and everyone else there doing the same made it special. Women’s pro winner Chrissy Wellington spent the last 3 hours putting leis on many of the finishers, and many of the earlier finishers joined the crowed to cheer in the final few racers.
When Teri Griege came in, she was sobbing, stopping at one point to hug a few team members, then going through the finish and joining additional family and team.
When Scott Rigsby came by, pride was in his eyes, and he struck a powerful pose at the finish stripe. If you haven’t watched the video embedded at the top, go back up and do it now.
Tara had a look of near disbelief in her eyes – that she was really going to make it. And her mom was there at the finish to greet her.
Lew Hollander had a great smile and attitude. While he’s 81, he’s no stranger to these races and seemed to feed off the crowd and enjoy the moment.
And finally, there are Gayla Chambers and Gary Hermansen, who finished with just over 1 minute left. The crowd coaxed each of them all the way into the finish, and after 16 hours and 59 minutes of racing, they can each call themselves an Ironman.
Gayla ChambersGary Hermansen – Made it with a minute left!
A Change Inside
It’s amazing what both ordinary and uniquely-challenged folks can accomplish.
And what of myself? I still struggle to wrap my head around what I’ve experienced.
After a night of seeing these people do so much, I can never look at my own challenges the same way again.
I’m not a big believer in phrases like “you can do anything”, as it’s not exactly true. But what is certain is that each of us can accomplish FAR MORE than what we perceive as our own boundaries .
I will push my limits. I will dream more. I will do more.
One of the things we looked forward to with the move was the chance to live differently. Besides evolving our home living, we have also been really involved in the culture here.
No, I don’t mean hula, luaus, and playing the ukelele. While those things are all part of Hawaiian culture, it’s more of a special occasion sort of a thing, not daily life.
There are a few themes to daily life in Kona that tie together many of the activities here
Active Outdoor Pursuits. There is no shortage of outdoor activities here and plenty of participants for everything.
Swimming: The Kailua pier is the starting point for many recreational swimmers and dozens of people swim out into the bay every day. There are also swimming groups that meet up for the swim and socialize afterward. Our landlady took us on our first ocean swim last Friday and we had a great time doing it.
Biking: Lots of people bike, and there are serious training groups as well as casual “fun rides” throughout the week.
Canoeing: Many people go out for morning outrigger canoe rides. There are a couple local canoe clubs and people can just show up to go out for a peaceful trip. There are also plenty of serious races and competitions. We just hosted the Queen Lili’uokalani race this past weekend, which covered hundreds of teams.
Races: Besides the Ironman race (coming up in about a month!), there is a race event almost every weekend. Triathlons, biathlons, runs, swims, bike races. There is also a series of races called Peaman events which are mostly for fun, and cover different distances and activities. The whole point of them is to bring the community together and get families active. While there are a few rules to these races, fun is probably rule #1. Our kids took part in the keiki race recently, as part of the Lavaman Triathlon weekend.
Water Sports: Surfing, boogieboarding, stand up paddleboards, kayaks, snorkeling, diving. Most people seem seem to do at least one of these. We’ve been doing a lot of snorkeling and boogie boarding lately. Looking forward to doing the other stuff over time.
2. Asian Influence
Because of our proximity to Asia, we have many residents and visitors from there, especially Japan. Besides having no shortage of Asian cuisine, we’ve found many ceremonies and events that tie into Asian culture
Kona – Hiroshima Peace festival: With Hawaii bearing the brunt of Japanese attacks, and Hiroshima being targeted with our atomic bomb, both areas have seen some of the worst of war and have strong desire to peace. We attended one such festival a few weeks ago dedicated toward understanding each others’ cultures and spreading messages of peace
Lantern lighting ceremony: Last weekend we went up to the Fairmont Orchid for a ceremony hosted by a local hospice care group. They had a lantern lighting ceremony to remember loved ones that had passed. The event started with local music performances, while attendees wrote their messages on a paper wrapper that went around a wooden lantern. Just after dusk, all the lanterns were lit and set out into the harbor
3. Festivals up the Wazoo! You name it, we’ve had a festival for it
Mai Tai Festival – check
Mac Nut Festival – check
Mango Festival – check
Coffee Festival – check
Most of these festivals are on the small side – 100 to 400 people attending at any given time. There are usually a few vendor booths which relate to the particular festival. Then there will be many booths that have nothing at all to do with the festival theme. Usually it’s local folks selling coffee, juices, soaps, all sorts of other crafts. There’s usually some sort of local entertainment going on, as well. Bands, dancers, drummers, that sort of thing.
We’ve had a great time going out and seeing all these different things. The kids have been fairly compliant, even if they do sometimes get a little hot and bored. Most of these festivals have several kid activities, so there’s usually something in it for them.
One thing that’s been neat is hearing the kids recall certain elements or just incorporate parts of these activities into their play. Just the other day, Beckett wanted to play “Dragon and Ninja” based on one of the shows that we saw at the Kona-Hiroshima peace festival a few weeks ago.
There are still plenty of festivals, races, and fun ahead (such as a stand-up paddleboard event on the 24th), and we’re looking forward to doing more great stuff.
4-6 year-old keiki chase “Lavagirl”7-14 year-old race with a swim, then a runOut of the water and off for the runSetting lanterns afloat at the lighting ceremony
It’s great to finally have a “real life” here. In just 7 weeks, we’ve already seen plenty of changes from the lifestyle we knew in Virginia and wanted to make note of them while they’re fresh and I can still remember the “newness” of them.
A spontaneous jump into the fountain
We have nowhere to be
This is especially pronounced because we moved here in the summer. Apart from my work schedule, we have no commitments. The kids weren’t in school or enrolled in any sports, we don’t have any friends to make plans with, and we don’t feel like we have go do something whenever we get a nice day, because the next one will be nice, too.
It feels like it should get boring, but after years of rushing around, it is incredibly nice to “just be”. We’ve even had tentative plans to do stuff and bailed just to sit around outside and be lazy. Yesterday we went into town in the afternoon and found out the surf was up, so went to watch the surfers ride for an hour.
Fruits from a local Farmer’s market
We’re eating differently
Our meal habits have changed a fair amount since moving here. Part of it comes from having several farmers markets around. They have all sorts of fruit I’ve never seen on the mainland, plus fresh produce that looks a lot more tempting than that from a grocery store.
We also grill out a lot more now because of the nice weather and have gotten creative about what we can cook on there. Turns out bread, cherries, bok choy, pineapple, and peaches all grill up great!
Working at home has changed my schedule and habits
Since my company is on the East coast, I wake up at 6:30 am and start work right away so I sync up with their afternoon. That also means I’m usually done for the day about 3 pm. No commute, no lunches out, and less chatting with folks in the office. I do miss the social part of being in the office and feel a little less “in the loop”, but I’m enjoying the change so far.
New relationships now take planning This isn’t Hawaii-specific, but our neighborhood here is much different. In Virginia, virtually every house near us had kids near our kids’ ages, and the parents were generally from a similar walk of life, making it easy to have plenty of friends. Our new neighborhood has a little more space between houses, and is mostly inhabited by retirees. We’re having to plan a lot more out for how to meet people, make friends, and get involved in activities.
Day trip to Kilauea Volcano
Lots more outdoor time
We figured the nice weather would lead to us being outdoors more often, and that’s turned out to be quite true. We eat virtually every meal outside on our lanai and sunset time is now an event instead of simply a time of day.
It’s not the stereotype of spending every day at the beach, though we’ve been there several times. There are also nice parks to play at, walks to take, events to attend – virtually everything is oriented towards being outside.
Finally, after about a 90 minute drive, we got to the Great Wall.
