Our last day in Indonesia was Elephant Day. In the morning we went to the Bintan Elephant Park. We watched the elephants perform some impressive tricks (although they weren’t particularly good at soccer or mathematics). While waiting to line up for some elephant rides, I spent some time chatting to one of the handlers (bull men?). He also had a young child about Hayden’s age, who also was not sleeping through the night. I asked him if his son had ridden an elephant yet, but he said that the park was a 35 minute ride on a motorbike from his home, and that was not safe for a baby. I also asked him if he wanted his son to work with elephants when he got older, and the answer I received was an emphatic “no”.

When it was our time to ride the elephants, Hayden had fallen fast asleep. I think he liked the gentle bumping along the jungle paths while snuggled up against Adrian’s chest. I was told that my elephant was extra tall because his mother was Sumatran while his father was from Thailand. The two elephant handlers were really kind to us, taking a lot of extra time to line up the two animals, and then even hopping off to take some great shots. I was really impressed with their consideration and patience.

We also met a yellow python – Hayden’s second snake experience – though we didn’t let it get too close to him, as those strong muscles aren’t just for show. Hayden also slept through this encounter.

In the afternoon, Milly from the elephant park visited the hotel. I watched her give short rides to all the kids, and took photos for many families as they made a short circuit around the grass. Once the queue had vanished, the handler let me meet Milly and feed her tiny Indonesian bananas. She was very patient, stretching out her mottled pink and grey trunk and waiting for me to place the fruit in her finger-like projection. She never grabbed the banana from my hand, though she did snortle and sniff at me thoroughly after each one to see if any more were waiting for her. After stroking her hairy trunk I said good-bye and thanked her for being such a gentle and delightful creature.

Today we spent the whole day at Club Med Bintan Indonesia. We started the day with a nature walk through the thick jungle that surrounds the resort. We spotted a wild silver-leaf monkey, a centipede, and some carnivorous pitcher plants.

At lunch we let Hayden play with a few more foods. He can now pick them up and wave them around, and sometimes he will almost accidentally shove them into his mouth, but he really doesn’t seem that interested in eating and seems quite happy with his liquid diet.

We have been eating so much fresh fruit here – pineapple, watermelon, dragon fruit, snake skin fruit, guava, coconut – for every meal it’s freshly sliced and waiting for us in abundance. Hayden gummed on some coconut but didn’t seem particularly impressed.

It was a little drizzly, which meant that some activities were cancelled, a great excuse to curl up with Hayden and read our books while sipping on some cocktails. Hayden modelled the seahorse t-shirt that I painted for him the day before. Even though I chose an extra-small shirt, it is too big and he looks a little like an American footballer. Poor little bear is even too small for the Petite Club.

In some ways this place is very baby-friendly. They have plenty of high-chairs and changing stations with Johnson & Johnson products, and the buffet has a whole fridge full of pureed baby foods. We have a baby bath, a bottle warmer and steriliser in our room with more complementary baby skin care products on offer. However at 14 years old the resort is showing its age, as there are stairs everywhere and it is impossible to wheel the pram anywhere without assistance. We saw one little girl in a wheelchair, and she must be having a very difficult time getting around.

Overall we have enjoyed our time here. During monsoon season the beach and the weather are not spectacular, but it is warm and relaxing and a great excuse to spend some quality time together. Tomorrow we catch the ferry back to Singapore and the next day we fly back home.

We had a fantastic day at the zoo yesterday. Although we arrived during a huge tropical downpour and walked through buckets of warm rain in the first 15 minutes, it was fine for the rest of the day. We started with a jungle breakfast with macaws, snakes, tamarins, and a beautiful family of urang utans. This place has the world’s largest number of urang utans in any zoo, and there have been thirty six baby urang utans born here. We were able to watch two of these youngsters play with their parents while we ate our breakfast, including a cute little tantrum that resulted in the little one falling off the platform.

I also introduced Hayden to Mira the Mexican milk snake.

Singapore zoo has a very successful breeding program, with around 300 births and hatchings of 44 species in the last year, including Hamadryas Baboons, cotton-top tamarins, pygmy hippopotamus, Douc langurs, proboscis monkeys, meerkats, manatees, komodo dragons, spotted mousedeer, oriental small-clawed otters, Chinese stripe-necked turtles and Linne’s two-toed sloths. There were zoo-borns everywhere, it was so delightful to see so many different species flourishing in lush and spacious enclosures.

I had a 24 hour stop-over in South Korea on my way to America for my university-visiting holiday, and attempted to cram as many experiences as possible into the short time. On the trip over there on Asiana Airlines, I watched A Millionaire’s First Love, ate bi bim bap, learnt I didn’t like kimchi, read the Lonely Planet and worried how I was going to cope in a non-English-speaking country.

I arrived at Ichean (“the winged city – not just an airport”), and very easily figured out that I needed to catch the 602 bus to Anguk station. However, my bus driver did not speak English, and I was afraid he would forget about me, so every couple of stops I would go up to him and ask “Anguk?”, to which he would shake his head, becoming a little more annoyed each time. Finally we reached Anguk station, and with the help of google maps, an address written in Korean, two helpful restaurant owners, and my telephone-number-matching abilities, I was able to find my hotel.

I stayed in the Insadong district in the evening, a delightful area nearby the Josean dynasty palaces and surrounded by tall granite mountains, and due to its steep streets, full of winding narrow alleyways where two houses are never on the same level. There were traditional tea-houses everywhere, and markets on the main street, so the place was filled with laughing and smiling people, buying paper fans, singing karaoke, and clapping enthusiastically to a group of Western buskers playing “When the saints come marching in”. I wandered up and down the road soaking up the atmosphere, and then ate tasty noodles at Shinpo Woorimandoo, again confirming that I don’t like kimchi.

I woke up at 5:30 the next morning, ready to explore the vibrant and clean city. In my rush not to get run over by the crazy traffic, I accidentally stepped on wet concrete, so my footprint is preserved on Yulgokno Street, opposite the Information Booth. I was off to explore the Jongno-gu district between two palaces – a fascinating mix of shops, traditional tiny homes with tiled rooftops, and huge modern houses. I saw the prime minister’s residence with large white gates, many trees, and lots of guards, the Australian ambassador’s house, and got thouroughly lost in the tiny alleyways that weave there way through the neighbourhood. The view from the top of the hill was amazing – the palace buildings, tiled rooftops, skyscrapers and highways all melding together with trees filling all the empty spaces.

Every building seems to have a small piece of beauty by the front door. For tall buildings, a sculpture is required by law, but even the smallest home had some bright flowers growing at the entrance. At first the residents look surprised to see a young Western girl wandering around their neighbourhood in the early hours of the morning, but they all greeting me with a warm smile and nod. Amusingly, Korean houses are numbered in the order that they are built, so its very easy to know which is the oldest house in the street, but finding a particular house is quite a challenge.

Breakfast was warm and fluffy green tea stewed bread, and then I was off to Gyeongbokgung, the Palace of Shining Happiness. This was the primary palace during the Joseon dynasty, first built in 1395. Then it was burnt down by Japan, rebuilt in 1868 (and being forced to borrow money from Japan to do so), torn down again by Japan in 1910, and it is still being rebuilt today, some structures being only three years old. The most important building, the ceremonial hall, is exquisitely constructed, with red walls to ward off evil spirits, and green shutters to welcome kindness. The edges of the rooftops lift gently up, and are home to the heads of water dragons to protect from fire. A high status building such as this is also protected by rows of other gaurdian creatures, including Tripitaka, Pigsy, Sandy, and Monkey.

The entrance to the ceremonial hall is lined with endearing granite sculptures of animals representing the many virtues of the king. Korean sculpture is quite amazing, able to bring warmth and life to cold stone, and I couldn’t help but smile back at the small creatures sitting atop the steps.

The huge amounts of granite available from the mountain also inspired their heating system of the ondol. The stone floors are heated by charcoal from below, and the smoke is ducted to chimneys that sit as sculptures in the gardens that surround the buildings, decorated with pictures and symbols for luck and longevity.

Behind the palace rises the stunning vista of Mount Bugaksan, a towering granite mountain covered with lush trees, reaching up into the clouds. I contemplated its beauty by the relaxation pavillion, and then it was time for the next palace.

Changdeokgung, the Palace of Illustrious Virtue. The secondary palace of the king, World Heritage listed and first built in 1412, although also rebuilt several times. Similar in layout to Gyeongbokgung, it also features a magnificent secret garden, cool even in the summer heat, and filled with a library and meditation pavilions. One pavilion resembles a lotus flower, and dips two of its feet into the square pond, which in turn surrounds a small tree-filled circular island. This scene is overlooked by the library, and I rested here for a while, enjoying the cool stone against my skin, and watching the birds hunt for insects in the pond.

My contemplation at an end, it was time for me to catch a bus to the airport, and fly to the United States.