July 16, 2012

 

Dear Tehja and Taylor,

We have some exciting things to tell you about this July’s Sweet Sixteen Day.

 
Grandpa and I went to the Rain Forest in Kuching (which is in Borneo, Malaysia) and went to a World Music Festival. The festival was three days long, and then we spent one day touring the city and its river, and then another day visiting orang-utans.
 
“World music” is pretty cool … not rock, not pop, not rap, but a combination of many instruments and sounds and rhythms that we enjoy very much. We think you two would love it because it makes you want to dance.

People dancing at the Rain Forest World Music Festival.

 Kuching is an interesting Malaysian city with great restaurants from all around the world, amazing buildings that make you go “wow”, a pretty river running right through downtown, colourful shops, and friendly people. We had a lot of fun touring the city and cruising the river on a little boat called a “sampan”.

Grandma's cousin Elaine (visiting from England!) at a shop at the festival.

Grandpa in a Sampan on the river in Kuching.

Some other little boats on the river.

Interesting buildings in Kuching.

Some other people catching a sampan.

The visit to the orang-utans in a small patch of rain forest was very special. We saw about eight of them, with one being a large older male, another being a small youngster, and the rest being somewhere in-between. They were all show-offs and we enjoyed watching them do their acrobatics in the trees. We visited them in a special park because much of the rain forest, where they like to live, has been cut down for other crops.

This little orang-utan looks like he's zip-lining!

A large orang-utan picking up his fruit.

These critters can really "strike the pose".

 
On the evening of the 16^th, we saw some children in the park in Kuching practicing some singing and dancing, getting ready to do a show for an upcoming “Flag Day” (something like our July 1^st). They were very cute and entertaining, and of course that made us think of you two! But we didn't have our camera so we can't show you how cute they were.

But here are some other photos from our amazing trip to Kuching:

Steve, Julie, Grandma and Elaine at the festival.

Julie blowing up a "Sponge Bob" balloon.
We used them as cushions.

We set up a comfy picnic area for the 5-hour outdoor show.

We were entertained by talented musicians from all over the world.

Grandma and Elaine were born 12 days apart.
We live thousands of miles from each other.
We first met forty years ago!
And we love it when we can get together.

The five of us had a GREAT time in Kuching.

We hope you are having a GREAT summer. Bye for now.

All our love,

Grandma and Grandpa Sailor xx
(TIP: If you click on the photos, you can see larger versions.)