Indian Princesses: May 2013

Has it really been a month since I blogged?? While that feels like such a long time, the month has flown by. After the wedding I told you about last time, Savannah and I both came down with a very ugly stomach bug with every symptom you can think of. It was no fun and ran strong for 36 hours, lingered pretty heavily for a full week and still seems to bother Savannah every few meals. We were almost completely out of commission for a week, which was pretty bad timing considering all the plans we had for this month.
To start, my baby girl turned 16 on May 4. I am still having a hard time wrapping my brain around this, considering I am 29 and holding. My age when she was born gets less and less believable as she gets older. Sigh. She was really sick Tuesday and Wednesday and I was really sick Thursday and Friday. Her birthday was Saturday and I dragged myself out of bed and put a smile on my face. We went with our friend, Cherie, to the spa nearby and spoiled her with a manicure and facial. We then went downtown to the Hyatt for a birthday dinner with the Tom's, as Cherie's hubby was celebrating his birthday as well. He turned 61 and they joked about the reverse years. Unfortunately, dinner wasn't a hit because Savannah started feeling bad again and barely ate. Quite a bummer. Before she started feeling bad, though, we did get a few good pictures of the day.

After her mani

Bday twins, Tom & Savannah

My beautiful 16 year old

After the birthday celebrations were complete, we anxiously awaited the arrival of our guests. Mom & Dad left the US on Sunday and arrived in Chennai Tuesday morning. Michael left Tuesday evening and arrived Thursday morning. It was a wonderful week with them arriving, even though we really weren't quite feeling 100% yet. Although, I must admit just having them all here made us start feeling better pretty quickly. Amazing how that happens, huh? I completed my work week and Savannah (along with Cherie) hosted them out for lunch and shopping a couple days. We celebrated Savannah's birthday with the family Saturday evening at Mom's favorite restaurant here, Barbeque Nation, and Michael gifted Savannah her first pair of real diamond earrings. Her brother sent her a new-used iPhone (her iPod screen was cracked and only worked intermittently), and she received donations from several friends and family members to help buy a TV and DVD for the Home of Hope, as requested. She was reminded how blessed she is to have such loving and generous friends and family.
That Sunday night we headed on our trip, first stop: Singapore. We had a terrific time. We made arrangements through a friend of a friend. This is the first time I had ever used any type of travel agency and I am so glad we did - it was stress-free, didn't have to worry about car arrangements, hotel bookings, tour planning... In Singapore we stayed at a beautiful Landmark hotel, complete with a coy pond inside and a wonderful view of the city. We enjoyed a city tour that included a stop at the Singapore Flyer (which was awesome!), the Merlion and harbor, the Raffles Hotel, a couple shopping stops and I can't remember what else. We also did a night safari tour, complete with a fire dancer show and some awesome animals. We went to Sentosa Island and visited the largest aquarium in the world, saw a dolphins and sea lion show, watched a penguin feeding, and Savannah & I beat Michael riding the luge. The last stop in Singapore was the Jurong Bird Park.
We headed to the airport and took our hour-long flight over to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Wednesday evening. The airport is set about an hour from the KL city, but we had an even longer drive that evening as we were going directly to the Genting Highlands for a couple nights. It was a drizzly night in KL and was raining even heavier when we got to the mountains. Fortunately our driver said he made this path several times a week and the wet, winding roads didn't phase him. When we finally reached the top of the hill and our hotel, it was time to eat a bite and head to bed. We woke up Thursday and went to the outdoor theme park and rode roller coasters, bumper cars and go-karts. Fun day with the family. It's a pretty small park so it didn't take all day. After the park, Dad was tired so Mom, Savannah, Michael and I went on the cable car ride through the mountains. It was amazingly beautiful as the clouds rolled in and out over the lush green trees and forest. After the cable car ride, we wandered around the inside theme park that included shopping and foods. The four of us took a rest break and had our first experience with fish eating our feet. Well, not our whole feet, but the dead skin (which sounds really gross, huh?) that tickled like crazy. Fun experience but I am not sure I'll be doing that again anytime soon...
Friday morning we packed up and moved into Kuala Lumpur for the weekend. Our hotel was great, again, and we did a city tour to start our time there. We stopped at the Batu Caves where Michael and I climbed all nearly 300 stairs while Mom, Dad & Savannah shopped in the (again) drizzly rain. We saw a few monkeys on the statue, stairs and gate and were pretty excited. We also made a trek to the National Monument, National Mosque, the KL Tower and the old king's palace. It was very interesting to visit this country which is so heavily influenced by the Islamic religion. The national monument had an inscription that referenced Allah, where the same might reference God in the US. With all the ugly references to Islam made due to the radical terrorists in the western world, it was wonderful to spend a peaceful week in this country that was friendly and warm to us as visitors. I hope this visit shapes Savannah's heart and mind in a positive way, allowing her to be understanding and respectful of other religions while standing firm in her Christian beliefs, always showing love and tolerance.
Friday night we shopped a bit at Bukit Bintang, which is a popular shopping spot with a range of very high end shops to street vendors with knock off watches and electronics. It was lots of fun.
Saturday we didn't do much until it was time to go to our boat ride we had booked. We were going to see a firefly display about an hour out of the city in Kuala Selangor and I was pretty excited since I love boat rides. On the way, we stopped at Silver Leaf and got to visit with and feed some friendly monkeys. Savannah and Michael really enjoyed it and Michael even had one sit on his shoulder while some others tried to steal the bananas from his pockets. After our monkey visit we finished our journey to Selangor and had Chinese dinner (I know many of you are laughing right now, knowing this is NOT something Nikki usually eats... but you'd be surprised at how my palette has expanded in the past year!) over a beautiful sunset on the river. After dinner we hopped on the boat and got to see flashing fireflies on the river banks for almost an hour. It was as if someone had strung some blinking Christmas lights through the thick brush. (I think I might do this and charge a fee in Spring Creek when I get back home - calling it firefly tours LOL) Mom kept saying how cute they were, while Savannah had a mini-meltdown, being reminded my daughter is not a huge fan of after-dark boat rides... We all survived and after the car ride back to the hotel, she was in better spirits.
Sunday we woke up and got ready for our final excursion, which was a trip to an elephant sanctuary a couple hours outside the city. It was awesome! We got to feed the elephants sugar cane and peanuts, watched them do some tricks and then Savannah & Michael got in the river and splashed around and bathed a baby elephant. This was a fitting end to a great week, but even more significant because it was May 19. 4 years ago on May 19, Maura de Souza, the baby sister of one of my dearest friends, passed away after a battle with Sarcoma cancer. Maura was a wonderful young woman, amazingly strong, hilarious, full of life and love, and a blessing to those around her. I am a better person for having known her and thankful for the impact she has made on my life and those around her. Maura loved elephants. I was happy to celebrate her life in Malaysia in a way that would make her smile.
If you want to see pictures (um... yeah, there are a bunch - be warned) feel free to click HERE and scroll through them all. Otherwise, here are a few below of the highlights.
We left KL early Monday morning and relaxed Monday until we were back at Barbeque Nation (at Mom's request) for a nice family dinner. The rest of the week we did some running around in Chennai, taking the family to Spencer's Plaza for some handicraft gifts and souvenirs, meeting up with some friends from church for yummy ice cream, and a nice dinner with Tom and Cherie at a local cafe we enjoy... but we decided the outside venue would have to wait until after the peak of summer (we are reaching 42 Celsius here these days, which is 107+ for my Fahrenheit friends) and even with the sun down and fan blowing, it was just entirely too hot. So that took us to Friday. The day everyone left. Michael's flight was at 4:30 AM so I rode with him to the airport at 1 and cried most of the way there. And then dropped him and cried most of the way back. After a few hours of sleep, I woke up knowing Mom & Dad were leaving next. So after more crying, I pulled myself together and came out of my room to visit and spend the last hours together. I have never been such a big cry baby in my life, but I guess certain life experiences bring it out in us... Being 10,000 miles away from my family, best friends, and the man I love is rough. I am thankful for the strength of prayer, God sending us to Word of Life church and the great friends we have made there, and my friends from work who help relieve the sadness of missing them. I am so blessed and thankful that my parents can (and WILL!) make the long journey to come see us, not to mention Michael, who doesn't like to fly.
So... yeah. There's May for ya. Hoping there aren't any grammar issues here, as this has taken forever to write and I am ready to be off the laptop. Forgive me, if so. And enjoy the pictures in the meantime.
Thanks to all who prayed for Mom, Dad and Michael during travels and for Savannah and me when we were sick. We love you all and hope everyone is doing well!