On the way back home we all had a layover in Doha, so we all spent the evening enjoying the city night market. We were able to join a walking tour where we saw the bird market, the kings racing camels, prized horses, and the falcon hospital. We all played Dama which is like a Qatar version of checkers, and finished with a dinner of camel meat.
The second part of the trip was visiting Georgia. We got a new bus, a new guide, and a look at a completely different county. Even though Georgia is neighbors with Azerbaijan the differences in people, culture, and architecture were outstanding. Our first night was in Sighnaghi, a small walled town in the hills where we learned about the local wine farmers, did some zip lining, and drove an ATV all around the town. The next day we visited David Gareja caves, a rock-hewn monastery carved into a desert mountain. After that we headed off to the capital of Tbilisi. This had to have been my favorite city on the trip. It was a nice city with a river running through it with beautiful churches, old architecture, modern buildings, interesting street art, and friendly people. We visited the major sites and also checked out the botanical gardens, went into and bathed in the old sulfur baths, and wandered through a closed amusement park at night to see the views.
This years summer vacation was with my group of high school friends again. We spent 10 days visiting Azerbaijan and Georgia, with a short layover in Doha Qatar.
The trip was with a tour company so there were a bunch of other travelers we got to make friends with. We started in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and saw all great views and sights the city had to offer. We visited the walled old city of Baku and took some side trips to the mud volcano, fire mountain, and various museums. One of the best things about this trip was we went out of our way to find some of the best foods in the city.
We took a bus to Lahij to visit part of the Caucasus mountain range. We stayed in an old quint mountain town and I spent the next morning taking a hike up into the mountains.
The last city in Azerbaijan we visited was Sheki where we saw the old kings summer palace, as well as visited some local fruit stands, local markets, and a silk factory. We also ate some of the local specialties which included the famous Sheki Balaclava, and Sheki Plav which is a meat-fruit-rice dish baked in a crispy shell.
So this year’s annual family trip was to Malaysia. We explored Kuala Lampur and also made it up to Penang Island. Everyone had a great time, and we had a lot of new experiences.
The full photo gallery is here: Malaysia Pictures
Some of the highlights of the trip were:
Going to the top of the Twin Towers.
Going to the KL Bird Park which is largest free-flight walk-in aviary in the world.
Getting to paint our own Batik art.
We took the bus up to Penang Island and explored Penang National Park.
Had some fun at the upside down museum.
We played with and fed the monkeys.
Hiked up to Batu Caves where Melina had her ice cream stolen by a monkey.
It had been a while since Suzuna last participated in a market selling her homemade goods, so this years Vege and Fork market was a great opportunity. Everyone had fun, especially Melina and myself as we walked around and ate lots of good food, played in the hammock, and Melina made some friends and starting climbing the trees.
We had a guy from France in our building for a while and he had mentioned that he really likes fishing. So before he left I organized a fishing trip. It was great fun and we came home with a large cooler full of fish.
Melina has had a Praying Mantis egg sack in her bog box for a few months now, and finally today in the morning they all hatched and started crawling all over the bug box. So we took them outside and set them all free in the garden.
