Summer Vacation 2019 | Pughville in Dubrovnik

We had an amazing time in Croatia!! We caught a ferry from Bari, Italy over to Dubrovnik. We decided to book chairs instead of a cabin which was a mistake since we didn’t really get much sleep so we were exhausted on our first day in Dubrovnik. We did stay at the most amazing Airbnb place. A clean, basic apartment with the best hosts we have ever had. They took the time to provide us with a schedule of how we should attack Dubrovnik based on the cruise ship schedule—which was awesome as we truly beat the crowds that way. This is really a magical city with lots to do and see. One of our favourite foreign cities ever. I was sure to try Anthony Bourdain’s favourite black risotto while I was there. It was really good and the squid ink didn’t stain my mouth for too long ;)

Here is the link to our Airbnb which we can’t recommend enough:

https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/26218586?source_impression_id=p3_1625332057_FlnD6ETa7FQQJMzK&guests=1&adults=1

The beaches in Croatia are rocky—just so you know. Good water shoes help with that. It was so hot when we were there that the rocks definitely weren’t enough to keep us away from the water—ha.

Summer Vacation 2019 | Pughville in Rome

Rome

I am not one of those photographers who has done a good job at keeping up with the editing of my personal work. I wish I had more desire to sit at the computer and edit, but…I just don’t. So, I have many, many unedited images of my family waiting for me to finish them. During the pandemic slow down, I actually took the opportunity to make my way through some of them. I even got a Blurb book made from our 2019 trip to Europe…it is 370 pages(omg…insanity I know). So, I thought I would share some of my favourite here for all of you. We split Rome into two—as we started and ended our trip there. We saved the Vatican for the final part of the trip.

I know that I usually share links to where we stayed, but—honestly, as cute as it was, it was not very clean so I wouldn’t want to recommend it to anyone. I will say this to anyone who is looking to visit Rome—the public transit is excellent(even if it is insanely HOT in all of their buses in the summer). We did rent a car in Rome, but avoided driving there as much as possible. Which is something I highly recommend—ha. We used SIXT and were completely impressed with the vehicle and the service. The truth is—we had a car accident in Croatia(we were hit by a drunk driver—omg) and I can’t get over how not a big deal it was. They were super helpful and awesome through it all…so, if you are looking to rent a car in Europe…we can’t recommend them enough!!

On with the photographs…

Chiangmai Elephant Jungle Sanctuary

After my last post, the most common question I was asked was ‘how do I care for my gear in these situations?’ and so posting these images is a bit like ‘if you thought that was bad…just take a look at all the risks I took here!!’ hahahahahahaha…but, no, really. The tour guides were extremely concerned about my camera—me, not so much. I take precautions when I need to—like I don’t get as close to the action as I would like BUT…I still had two weeks of travel left after this day so I wasn’t fond of the idea of losing my gear at this point. I also wrap the strap around my wrist so that if I lose my balance or get knocked over, my camera is less likely to go flying and take a big impact.

A day at the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary in Chiangmai was a bucket list day for sure. Georgia was particularly excited as you can tell from the photos. We did the full day tour which allowed for so much time with the elephants—we fed them, we had a class learning all about them which included making them a snack(which they said was like medicine, but I’m guessing it was like a digestive medicine of some sorts), played in the mud with them, then went for a bath with them, then did a little work around the camp before we were sent on our way. I say all this because, when the elephants came out for the first time, it was quite the rush…and, I felt like maybe this would be the short bit of time we got to spend with them(because you never REALLY know), but trust me—you get lots of time with them. So, just breathe and enjoy!

So, I knew that we had a mud bath with them and, in theory, this sounded like so much fun. In action, as we stood there listening to the instructions from our guides…well, the elephants(who were already standing in the mud) took multiple giant poops. And, their poops were literally the size of a basketball(or bigger)…and our Thai guides kept picking them up(or catching them) and then tossing them over their shoulders I suppose to ‘remove’ them from the mud pile. As a mama, this had me somewhat concerned so I literally yelled at my kids as they ran into the mudbath ‘DO NOT TOUCH YOUR HANDS TO YOUR FACE OR YOUR EYES!!! KEEP YOUR MOUTH CLOSED!!’ Honestly, it doesn’t take long to just get over the poop/mud and enjoy yourself—even for me. That night we did have long, HOT showers as a precaution(I should mention that no one did get sick).

There was a baby elephant in the group who took a liking to Georgia and literally followed her around like a puppy. By the end, that elephant was getting a little aggressive(really just playful but when the elephant outweighs your child by over 500 pounds, you start to get concerned)…so we decided to avoid it at all costs. Not before getting some of my favourite photos of the trip though with Georgia and her baby elephant friend.

Enjoy!

Georgia isn’t excited about feeding the elephants at all.

A pregnant mama elephant…it was super cool to watch her baby move around in her belly.

cause even though it looks like mud…we know the real truth…

Sometimes you just have to stop and take a nap.

Khao Sok Lake Adventures -- Part Two

After I posted part one, the most commonly asked question that I got was about how I travel with my gear when we take adventurous trips. Honestly, I have insurance and I’m not emotionally attached to my gear the way that some people are…in fact, I am pretty abusive to it at times(hahahahaha—we are in an abusive relationship). It is a tool to me and if something happens to it, I just replace it. I am pretty careful—I travel with a chainmail bag that I can put my gear bag in and I lock it to the toilet in some places. It’s not going to get stolen on my watch ;) I also travel with two bodies on a big trip like this—one that I use primarily for underwater and a backup. The other that is my primary, day to day camera. I try to minimize my lenses by making choices ahead of time based on the type of travel that we are going to do. But, I also bring lots of memory cards, portable harddrives and my laptop(which is old and totally abused as well). This trip we tried to pack as minimally as possible, so my gear went in a regular backpack that we could carry on a plane. In fact, we might have split it up into two backpacks at times. And then, each person had their own backpack for their belongings. We don’t travel with suitcases typically. And, we really plan our wardrobe so that we are bringing as little as possible. Especially to a hot location like this one. In Thailand, we hired laundry services so we didn’t have to spend anytime doing our own laundry. They were a few dollars every time. I’d argue that they were a little rough on our clothing, but we don’t travel with anything too fancy, so no big deal.

I am actually a little disappointed with my work from this trip…I mean, it’s fine, but when you see it as a whole, I feel like stuff is missing and that bums me out. I think I was needing a break and got lazy at times…which is perfectly fine, but two years later, it makes me sad for the things that I didn’t capture. All of that said, the reality of a big trip like this is, I typically take thousands of photographs over the 3 week time frame. And, in the end, when the book is complete, there might be 200 that get put in the book. I have already framed a number of the images and put them up around my house, so the quantity doesn’t really matter as much as getting those shots that sum it up for you—and, that was accomplished. You know?

So, here are the rest of the photographs from Khao Sok…Enjoy!

What should I post next? The elephant adventure? hmmmmm….