We Found Real Bacon!

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Upon our arrival in Sri Lanka, I was in search for two things:

  1. Booze
  2. Pork, more specifically Bacon

We quickly found a bar on the beach, and started enjoying the first of many beers, however they didn’t have bacon.  We stumbled down the beach until we came to another bar/restaurant called Koko’s on the Beach.  It’s a little family run place owned by a super cool British guy, his Sri Lankan wife, and their two daughters.  One of their daughters was about 2 years old, and her job was to bring us our beers. One time her mother brought out a round for us, and the little girl burst into tears because SHE wanted to bring them to us!  It kind of made me excited to have a 2-year old kid one day to run back-and-forth to the fridge for me 😉

I noticed on the menu at Koko’s that they had a bacon cheeseburger. I asked the owner if the bacon was pork, and when she confirmed, I told her that we wanted a plate of JUST bacon!  Her english wasn’t the best, and she kept double checking that she heard me right, “you want 10 pieces of bacon?”  I smiled and said yes, however all I could think of in my head was: Yes lady! I haven’t had a piece of pork in 4 months, goooo!!!!!

Minutes later, her husband brought out a plate full of the best bacon that I have ever had! It was greasy, grizzly, crispy, and fucking delicious! (sorry for the language mom).  I kind of felt like the dog in this video when he was carrying it out to us.

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It was so good, that I had to take a picture of it!

The owner was baffled at my order, and started asking, “why so much bacon?”  After explaining that we lived in a Muslim country and that pork was illegal, he felt so bad for us that he didn’t even want to charge us for it. We slipped him some money, and returned again a few days later for another plate of bacon!

Tree House Tour

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While we were in Sri Lanka I had a major mission, I wanted to see elephants!  After the guilty conscious I experienced with the camel riding in Dubai, I had made a pledge that I was going to be a more responsible traveler and do my homework in advance.  After reading much about the treatment of elephants around the world, I knew I didn’t not want to visit any animals that were in captivity.  Even if the facilities were claiming to be an elephant hospital or orphanage, I just didn’t want to take the chance on it being a cover up for a circus type situation.  I realized I needed to see elephants in the wild.  I wanted to go to a national park, and had my eyes set on Yala National Park.

Yala

When Mitch and I are in the planning stages of a trip, I am almost always the one coming up with ideas and things I want to do. Mitch is the “logistics guy” and enjoys figuring out the transportation, where we will stay, and other types of details.  This trip was no different.  I decided I wanted to see elephants at Yala National Park, and Mitch made it happen!

At first Mitch had his eyes set on “glamping” in the national park in semi-permanent tent structures.  However, the $900 per night price tag was enough to point us in another direction.  The end result: Beddegama Eco Park!  Mitch found this awesome little gem about 10 minutes outside the park for about $90 per night, where we slept in………a tree house!   It was so awesome we decided to make a video tour of it.

Our stay in the tree house was awesome. The location was the perfect jumping off point for our safari in Yala National Park.  We left with many memories that we will be taking with us like: listening to the peacocks scream at us while they sat in the near-by trees, surviving the thunderstorm that shook our entire bungalow the first night, taking an ice cold shower that came out of the side of a tree, and plenty of other little gems that are tucked away for us to take with us.

Moral of the story: let your husband plan all trip accommodations, because it will be awesome!

Mitch’s Monday Happy Hour – January 5

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Greetings everyone, and Happy New Year!  Welcome back to our weekly Happy Hour.  I apologize to everyone for missing last week’s Happy Hour (Sorry Mrs. P!) but as the great Zac Brown Band once said, “I had my toes in the water, ass in the sand, not a worry in the world, and a cold beer in hand!”  (if you don’t know the song, check it out here) But I’m back now!

We made it home to Kuwait on Saturday, so this week’s Happy Hour is taking place in the confines of our living room while sipping on water! (boooo, no more booze!)  I’m still bummed that we can’t have booze in Kuwait, however I can still hear my liver cheering as he slowly recovers from my 17 day bender while on vacation.  Here’s the recap of our lives:

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My first taste of water in 17 days, trying to cleanse my body from all of the beer and rum in my system.

  • Our vacation was absolutely fantastic!  We had a ton of fun exploring around Sri Lanka and enjoying some chill days at the beach too.  It was the longest vacation I had ever been on, yet it was still difficult to come home.  We were having so much fun, that I just didn’t want it to end.  We made it back late Saturday night, and had the day off on Sunday to start the long process of laundry, unpacking, grocery shopping, and all of that other fun stuff!  We have so many awesome pictures and stories to share with everyone, so we are going to try to post some over the next couple of weeks.
  • When I woke up on Sunday morning, I headed straight to the kitchen in search of some food for breakfast. Unfortunately all I could find though was chips & salsa, a box of teddy grahams, and a bag of croutons.  I contemplated throwing together a quick hot dish, when our good friend sent us a text message and invited us over for breakfast!  I was so pumped that I practically sprinted to her house, and was greeted with scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, coffee and juice.  It was so good, however the best part was the company! We were once again reunited with our friends, and couldn’t wait to hear about everyone’s trips.  There were 7 of us total, who had just returned from our vacations to Sri Lanka, Japan, Morocco, Thailand, Maldives, and Minnesota!  It was a blast hearing about everyone’s travel experiences and reconnecting with our “Kuwaiti family!”
  • Upon our return to Kuwait, it was a bit like Christmas morning for Rachel.  One of our buddies who went home for the holidays, brought all kinds of stuff back for her.  She has been cruising Amazon & Target.com the last couple of months, buying a bunch of hair products that she can’t find here.  She had them shipped to his house, and he was so kind to toss them in his luggage and bring them back for her.  You know you’re getting old when you get excited for shampoo, conditioner, and hair spray for Christmas!
  • During breakfast today I was cruising through the news feed on my Facebook page, when I read some awesome news.  One of my former employees, who worked during the summers for me for a few years, posted that he was leaving Minnesota this week and moving to Spain for the next 5 months. I think my face literally lit up, I fist pumped a few times, and felt a small sense of pride.  Last summer when I informed my job that I was leaving and moving overseas, he was super intrigued about the idea and mentioned that he had a desire to maybe try something like that one day. I tried to encourage him as much possible, but lost contact with him until I saw his Facebook post. I know he reads our blog, so when you see this bud, I’m proud of you!  Your upcoming adventure is something you will never regret, and cherish for the rest of your life!

Cheers for now, we’ll catch ya next week!

Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year from the beautiful beaches of the Maldives!

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The last few days here have been fantastic, as we wrap up our amazing 2.5 week Christmas break vacation!  We will be back in Kuwait in a few days, and will share our stories and pictures from the trip.  As we ring in the New Year, here is our view, as we contemplate our resolutions.

IMG_5371This view sure does make it easy to bump “travel more” to the top of the resolution list.

Unawatuna, Sri Lanka

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The first stop on our Christmas Vacation was Unawatuna, Sri Lanka.  Unawatuna, pronounced just as it is written una-wa-tuna, is a small beach town on the southern coast of Sri Lanka.  Nearly all of our teacher friends who recommended Sri Lanka to us, said we had to spend time in Unawatuna! Screen Shot 2014-12-21 at 6.08.39 AMWe heard it was the perfect spot to swim, lay on the beach, drink out of coconuts, and relax. IMG_5011 Unawatuna delivered on all of those promises and a few more that we weren’t expecting, like monkeys coming out from the jungle and checking us out during our breakfast. IMG_5005 We chose to stay at an Airbnb that was located “upstairs” in Unawatuna, a short Tuk Tuk ride up the hill from the beach into the jungle.   Our view was amazing, we were surrounded by jungle with a view of the Indian Ocean off in the distance.  So with a view like that, we spent as much time as possible sitting out on the deck and soaking in all the greenery that we have been desperately missing since we live in the desert.  On our second morning in Unawatuna, a brown adult male monkey decided to come and check out what we were up to while we ate breakfast on the deck. He swung his way from tree to tree and hopped right up onto the deck railing.  Even though the camera was sitting right on the table, Mitch was too excited by our visitor to snap any pictures.  The monkey stared at us for a few seconds before climbing the post on the deck to go to our friend’s Lauren and Adam’s deck to say hello to them as well.  Lauren and Adam were clearly aware that a monkey was nearby, as once the monkey started to make his way up to their deck, I began yelling like a crazy person: “MONKEY, MONKEY, LAUREN, MONKEY, ADAM, ADAM, ADAM, MONKEY.”  The nice part about my crazy yelling is that Adam reciprocated my crazed enthusiasm by answering with “MONKEY, MONKEY, HOLY SHIT, I SEE A MONKEY!” IMG_5004 After Mr. Monkey made his way across Adam and Lauren’s deck, I had composed myself enough to snap a couple of pictures, but none of them would truly do justice for how close this buddy had come to investigate what we were up to. Once he was at a safe distance from us, we heard a bunch of crashing in some nearby trees.  Soon after, Mrs. Monkey and her three babies emerged and followed him from tree-to-tree making their way deeper into the jungle. IMG_4994 The beaches here are great, the views are beautiful, but sometimes it’s an unexpected breakfast guest that makes the trip worth it.

Pupoli

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Meet Pupoli.

IMG_5076Pupoli walks up and down the beach in Unawatuna, Sri Lanka selling fruit to the tourists on a daily basis. He sold us a mango and then later in the day, another. After the second piece of fruit he asked if we minded that he sat with us and took a little break. Pupoli began telling us about his country and his village. He told us about his wife and his two children. He asked us about our life and wanted to know why we had chosen to come to Sri Lanka on vacation. Before long our conversation turned 10 years back to December 26, 2004. The day Pupoli’s life came unraveled.

On December 26, 2004 a Tsunami spread across the Indian ocean killing 230,000 people, 30,000 Sri Lankans, and Pupoli’s mother, wife, and 3 year old daughter. In 2004 Pupoli owned a restaurant on the beach in Unawatuna. He was working that morning when he noticed something was wrong with the ocean, the water had disappeared. It had receded much further than the range of normal. Pupoli didn’t know what was happening but he knew something was wrong and he knew he needed to get away from the water and get to high ground. So he ran. He was running up the hill when the wave hit. He watched his people and his town get swept away below him. His restaurant was demolished, and when he made it to his home, he realized that his family was gone. Despite his efforts to find them, they had been swept out to sea, never to be located.

Pupoli tried, along with many other Sri Lankans, to rebuild his business. However, since the deed to the land had been swept away with the rest of his life, he had no way to claim the property as his own. Thus, the government sold the land to someone else.

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Pupoli has since remarried and has a 6 year old and a 1.5 year old. He sells fruit to the tourists on the beach to try and support his family.

Mitch’s Monday Happy Hour – December 22

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At Happy Hour this week, we are meeting on the beach of Unawatuna on the southern coast of Sri Lanka.  As I type this, my toes are buried in the sand of one of the coolest beaches i’ve ever been too.  The best part though . . . .I’m actually drinking a beer!

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Yummmmm! Ice . . . . cold . . . . beer!

For the first time since we’ve started meeting for our weekly Happy Hours, I’m sipping on a frosty mug of Lion Lager.  It’s Sri Lanka’s #1 beer and brewed locally here on the island.  A bottle costs about 200 Sri Lankan Rupees (equivalent to $1.50 in the US).  It’s a great beer, and so awesome to be able to walk into a bar and have a few drinks.

The last week has been busy for us, as we wrapped up things at school before our 2 1/2 week Christmas break, and traveling to Sri Lanka for the first leg of our holiday.  Here’s a few things from the past week:

  • School this week has been a ton of fun!  At our school, we openly celebrate Christmas and everything associated with it.    We were excited that our school celebrates it, because they truly made it feel like the holidays around here.  They had a huge Christmas tree in the school office, we sang Christmas songs in class, made crafts of Santa Claus and lots of other things to remind us that it was Christmas time.  The best part was at a school assembly on the last day of school before the break.  The entire elementary school (about 1,000 kids and faculty) all sang “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” to start the day.  It gave me goosebumps and was so festive!
  • Christmas is a season full of miracles, and one of them happened while I was packing my back for our vacation.  As much as it upsets Rachel (now) and my family (when I was a kid), I have always been known to start packing my bag the day we leave for our trip.  Sometimes it can be a bit stressful, but I always seem to complete the task and haven’t missed a flight yet because of it.  Well this week, much to the surprise of my wife, I started packing my bag the day BEFORE our trip!  When she saw me stuffing t-shirts and board shorts into my bag 32 hours before our flight, she nearly fell to the floor.  I didn’t complete the job until the next day, about an hour before we left for the airport, but I thought it was a pretty big deal that I started packing so early.
  • We arrived in Sri Lanka on Friday morning, and have are having an awesome time!  We are currently in the town of Unawatuna, which is a super chill beach town.  The beaches are incredible, the beer is cold, and the atmosphere is just what we needed to start the first leg of our Christmas break vacation.  We’ve already had so many cool experiences in just the first few days here, and we can’t wait to share them with everyone.  Stay tuned over the next few days/weeks as we share our stories with you.

Cheers,
-Mitch

Sri Lanka & The Maldives

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As I am writing this post we are leaving in 10 hours with a couple of super awesome friends, and headed to Colombo, Sri Lanka.  After we spend 12 days in Sri Lanka we will hop on another plane and head down to the Maldives. Pinch me, I am pretty sure I am dreaming! When we decided to move to the Middle East I immediately started looking up plane tickets from Kuwait City to anywhere I could think of that would be within an 8 hour plane ride. Before we even left the states I made a list of my dream travel destinations and both Sri Lanka and the Maldives made that list.  Once we arrived in Kuwait and started talking to returning teachers, who have traveled a ton, we kept hearing how awesome Sri Lanka was.  So the deal was sealed and the plane tickets were purchased.  Since we were going to be so close to the Maldives we decided to add that on to our trip as well. Sri Lanka is an island off the southeast corner of India. sri lanka 1 Our plan when we get to Sri Lanka is relax on the beach, check out some temples, and head to a national park where we hope to spot elephants and leopards while out on safari.  If those three goals are achieved I will leave Sri Lanka a very happy lady. After our Sri Lankan adventure we will head 470 miles away to the Maldives which is a conglomeration of 1,190 islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Maldives 1The Maldives basis for tourism is the fact that they are made up of some pretty spectacular islands.  The Maldives is a water destination.  The plans are to swim, snorkel, and maybe head out on a submarine.  So many activities of the Maldives are based around water because so much of the islands are literally a small step away from the water.  The Maldives is the lowest country in the world, with the highest point being below eight feet over sea level.  maldives 2 So there you have it, the plans on our first overseas Christmas.  The only thing that is helping my homesickness over not being with our family for the holidays is knowing we get to go and explore these destinations, that weren’t even in the realm of possibility in our old life style. I am so grateful for a supportive spouse, awesome friends to travel with, a family that understands our love for exploring, and FaceTime!

Dubai Marina

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We have been to the city of Dubai twice now and both times we have stayed in the Dubai Marina area.  We stayed there the first time pretty much by chance, and the second time because I refused to stay anywhere else because I absolutely love it there!  The Marina area is awesome, it is as if we stepped out of the Middle East and stepped into Chicago.  It has the same tall buildings with awesome water access that you get when you are in Chicago.

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Chicago last summer with Sarah, Heidi, Katie and Laura…Miss you Ladies!

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Dubai

The Marina is built on a two mile stretch of man made canals surrounded by tons of high rise apartment building, restaurants, shopping, and best off all: walking paths!

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The Marina is right near the Palm Jumeira, which is a series of man made islands in the shape of a palm tree. At the top of the palm tree is the Atlantis resort where I took my infamous leap of faith 🙂 The UAE is currently in the process of building another series of man made islands but this time they will be in the shape of a map of the world.

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One other selling point on the Marina for me is that awesome little M on the map. The Marina has a metro stop right next to it, making basically everything in Dubai just a short train ride away.

One thing we have been majorly missing in our Kuwaiti life is access to outdoor space.  We do not have sidewalks, parks, or green space near us in Kuwait, so the accessibility of the outdoor space in the Dubai Marina is luxurious to us.  When staying in the Marina area we could roll out of bed in the morning and go for a walk, go out for brunch, run into the mall, or go for a bike ride.  In our short little weekend jaunt to Dubai we did exactly that on both mornings while we were there.  The only time we left the Marina area was when we went to the Rugby 7’s Tournament and when we went to the Irish Village for live music and dancing. (more on the 7’s and the Irish Village later)

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When adulthood and childhood collide….adult size big wheels.

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Niamh and Mitch

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Jooles

I love so many things about this city: the diversity, the amenities, the cleanliness, the metro, the legal alcohol, but more than anything else that I have found in Dubai, I love the Marina!

IMG_4842With a view like this, can you guess where I will be staying the next time we are in Dubai?