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Asia » China » Liaoning » Dalian » Jinshitan
February 22nd 2012

Published: February 26th 2012

Hi all – The last few months here have been very busy; seems like a long time since I have written to anyone, so hope this will catch us up. This is a real marathon blog with so many pictures! Rick is enjoying his role as vice principal and surprisingly has really enjoyed being on the boys campus. It was a real concern for him about how he would leave the girls that he enjoyed so much. But asid... Read Full Entry

Photos are below

Photos: 34, Displayed: 21

Canopy walk

Although the hot springs were disapointing, the jungle area that they are set in was beautiful. The canopy walk was several hundred meters across a series of many 'bridges' which made me kind of nauseous to look down from. Not many people when we were there so almost had the place to ourselves. Fun.

Orang Utan rehab park

From Kota Kinabalu we flew to sandakan on the east side of the island. The orang utan rehabilitation park is there, so we took the bus one morning. We had been warned that we may not see a lot, but were still a bit disappointed to only see one mom and baby at the feeding station. People before and after us had seen up to 10 of them! Add to that the video was done, so we couldnt see information about the work that they do at the park, so we had a very quick trip there and back. Still interesting though.

Kinabatangan river

On the first day of our river trip, we had a two a=hour late afternoon boat ride; the guide was taking us to a place were pygmy elephants had been reported. None around but saw a large crocodile! There are signs along the river saying not to swim- we saw severl in our 3 days.

NIght walk

On the night of our first day, we spotted this beaurtiful oriental dwarf kingfisher

Tarsier

This tiny monkey has eyes that are bigger than its brain! When it is not 'frozen' by the lights it is incredibly fast moving through the jungle.

Morning boat trip

Each morning at 6 am we were in the boat again for an hour before breakfast - it was incredibly peaceful; the animals were just starting to move around.

Gibbons

We saw Gibbons, Orang Utans, proboscis monkeys, and lots of long tailed macaques! Amazing to see these in their natural habitats eating, sleeping and playing. Our guides were amazing at spotting these in the trees.

Ox Bow Lake

We did a three hour hike to Oxbow Lake - the lodge gave you rubber boots because half of the trail is mud - often up to the top of the boots. I was proud not too have fallen because you have hidden tree roots, rocks, old logs - it was great though.

Manana - 32 years

You can tell that we were well into relaxing for our anniversary!Six cabins on a small beach - not much to do besides lay in the hammocks and read, but boy did we get lazy and love it!

View from our hammocks

Manana sunset

We have never seen such spectacular sunsets as on this trip. We have pictures of sunsets on every beach, but this one is from our ourdoor covered eating loft at Manana's.

Local kids

We woke up one morning to the sound of kids, unusual because there were only 3 cabins used and no kids - these local boys had paddled their homemade outrigger canoes over from the village to play.

Tip of Borneo

We finally made it! A bit rainy and cloudy but a great view, another beautiful beach and sunset. We were finally rested, relaxed nd ready (sort of) to head back to China and (well sort of! ) work.

26th February 2012

Lynn
non-member comment

WOW, great to hear from you!
Hi Gail and Rick, I love reading about your adventures and looking at all the pictures you post. Things are pretty much the same at GSS. Stephanie Dunlop is expecting this summer. Maureen is taking Amy's mat leave. A number of us are heading to LA for the Religious Education Congress in March. I'm looking forward to Victoria at Easter and heading back to NS for the summer. I hope our paths will cross sometime and you continue to keep us posted of what is happening in your part of the world. Take care.

26th February 2012

Carrie & Jim
non-member comment

Glad to see the pics!
Hello to you both. I am glad that things are going well for you. The photos are beautiful. Thanks for posting them. Great news about Geoff. Are you back for the summer? Stopping by Abby? We would love to see you again. Blessings, Carrie & Jim

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