That Fishy Mosquito Swirl

So today was the day of travel. We got up at around 6-ish, me running a little late, but I had a quick breakfast before the van and two cars came to pick us up and headed to the airport. The flight was short, almost like flying from Tulsa to Dallas, maybe a little longer, but shorter than flying from Tulsa to Chicago. We landed and wander/waited for a good solid hour getting food and just waiting for the men who were driving us to get the vans and pick us up.

From there we road and stopped with a total travel time of six and a half hours. Stopping five times along the way, twice for food and bathroom, once to a pharmacy, once to refile, and once for bathroom that turned into getting food for a few, including me. I read, slept, and listened to music before we all kind of got ready for the ferry ride as we speed our way around cars, sometimes on non-passing areas on a two lane street, yikes!

The ferry ride was actually kind of cool even though it scared me to death. I think I have decided I can probably only do a cruise cause they are major on safety. And the few boats I have been on have either had really tangled, no way to get them untangled life jackets, or really old jackets you don't understand how they would work in the first place. Though the ferry on the other hand (on the top deck where we hung out) didn't have any at all! Yay!

We arrived not that long after where we drove off the boat and took a windy road to the hotel. It is probably the best hotel yet. It is gorgeous and the staff here is great! Sadly, though, we learned that we will be the last guest ever to stay at this hotel due to some issues. There are two cats here, but the best part is that it is run by two French men, Oliver (Olivi-eh) and Jean-Luke. Oliver actually says his name is All-i-ver, instead of the French probably due to the fact that we are American, or that his actual name and we didn't know that. The staff that works for these two men are fantastic and we learned that when they opened this morning they were very emotional due to the fact that the time has come where the last guests have arrived. It was very touching.

We had about an hour to relax before dinner and while everyone was raving about the fact that the food was wonderful, I couldn't do it. Too spicy, really weird tastes, or foods that I just don't like in general like squid and clams. Though it freaked me out a little that it was the full clam, the tongue and everything besides the shell. ~shutters~ Desert came and I got the pumpkin ice cream with ginger on top and still didn't like it...so I kind of let it melt into liquid form as I sat listening to Oliver speak. I feel kind of bad about that, but I do hope that breakfast will be better (which it should be, but I'm still going to avoid the banana bread) and lunch is on us to get.

Tomorrow is kind of exciting cause it will be our first day with the kids. Though they're more like teens. I think Oliver said they were 13-15. We're going more to help them with their English than anything else, but what we need to wear and say must be kept in mind. I'm not sure exactly what we'll be talking about but whatever the topic, I'm kind of excited to meet these kids.

(My phone doesn't want to connect to Google drive so it looks like it'll be another week without images. It took me a good hour to just get this gif downloaded and the loaded onto here).

I don't remember what our afternoon thing is, I think it's the jungle walk and the waterfall but I'm tired and my brain is shutting down.

-Claire

P.S. We're staying in a fishing village and they have those cool mosquito swirls that keep the mosquitos away.