Animal mothers and a 1 hour old giraffe
This Mother’s Day I’m honouring animal mothers and their babies. This series of animals were photographed in 2014, 2015 and 2016 in Kruger National Park and the greater Kruger area in South Africa.
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California in 9 squares
This week I’m starting a new series on the wanderingiPhone blog ‘in 9 squares’ with a focus on a destination I have travelled to and my favourite 9 Instagrams.
The weekend of April 22, 2016 I went to California with my father to meet relatives I had never met and up until about a 2 years ago didn’t know existed. After some research and DNA Ancestry, we connected. I’ll save that story for a later post.
Between family dinners, lunches and discovering Burmese restaurants in Palo Alto and Berkeley, we saw a bit of San Francisco and Palo Alto and drove the infamous Pacific Coast Highway from San Luis Obispo to Monterrey, California after driving down to Santa Barbara to meet more relatives. Here are my favourite 9 Instagram photos from that trip. Click on the 9 squares below to see a larger version.
To see the photos on Instagram along with their detailed captions, visit wanderingiphone on Instagram.
If you’re looking for a Burmese restaurant in the San Francisco area, check out Burma Ruby. It’s been my mission to find Htamin Lethoke (rice salad) like the way my grandma, grandaunt and I make it. I have to say Burma Ruby is the closest I’ve come to that taste. So good.
Incase you’re wondering, my father, grandmother, some great and great great grandparents come from Burma or what is known as Myanmar and I still have over 100 relatives there. Read about my travels to Myanmar in The long road to Mandalay and my Myanmar travel tips in 6 things to know about travelling to Myanmar in 2016. I’m a first generation Canadian and have a very ethnically diverse family who moved around a lot. I swear I come by a ‘travel gene’ honestly 😀
The gateway to the Mergui Archipelago in South Myanmar
Sunset in Kawthaung, the gateway to the Mergui Archipelago is in the Andaman Sea in south Myanmar and is about 30 minutes by long tail boat from Ranong, Thailand. In November 2015, I spent 3 nights & 4 days exploring this region of over 800 mostly uninhabited islands.
I travelled by liveaboard boat, snorkelled the clear blue waters, found Nemo, walked on powdery-soft sandy white beaches and hung out in places with no one else in sight.
Only 2612 tourists explored these islands in 2015, I am grateful to be one of them.
Road trip from Bagan to Inle Lake, Myanmar
Somewhere in the lush rolling hills of Shan state in Myanmar between Bagan and Inle Lake. We travelled by private vehicle for about 12 hours past colourful fields and remote hill villages where Shan people still dress in traditional clothing.
It was one of the most scenic drives I’ve embarked on but it’s not for the faint of heart. The roads are very windy with narrow 2-lane roads and tight turns.
In Myanmar, they drive on the right side of the road like in the North America but most of the vehicles are from Japan and the driver is also seated on the right. Not a good position to be in when trying to overtake a large truck or bus on a curve in the road. Somehow they manage, unfazed. Many of the truck and bus drivers give the “okay to pass” sign by flashing their left-hand turn signal. Fascinating. I handled it well, the rest of my family not so much. There were a few nail-biting moments but I tried to live in a state of bliss and not pay attention to the road and the driving.
Celebrating Cherry Blossoms in Vancouver, British Columbia and a Festival
Cherry blossoms are in full bloom in Vancouver and area. We found these ones in South Surrey in March 2016 while we were on a family trip during March Break. As a resident of Toronto, have to say I was a little jealous of their cherry blossom trees. Not only do they bloom earlier than us, they have many more trees than we do in Toronto, at least, it seemed that way. We saw trees everywhere we looked from Vancouver to Abbotsford.
Vancouver celebrates the Sakura trees and even has a Cherry Blossom Festival. In 2016, it runs from March 24 to April 17th.
For more information about the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival including a map of cherry tree locations, visit here. The map helped us find the trees pictured above.
Muizenberg Beach at Dusk in Cape Town, South Africa
Muizenberg Beach Victorian bathing huts at dusk. Muizenberg beach is a popular surfing and family beach. There are several restaurants and surfboard lesson and rental shops.