Vince goes Thailand

Tomorrow we leave for Thailand for the first vacation together with our baby! It will take us 6,5 hours by plane, 2,5 hours by car to Rayong and 20 minutes by speed-boat to Koh Samet island. We have planned to go to Pattaya and Bangkok, maybe Koh Chang, 10 days in total. Our hotel reservation is so far for two days on the island. It's low season in Thai, no need to reserve the hotel for whole period. Hope everything wil go just fine, breastfed babies should be easy to travel with. Vince has got new baby carrier, stroller and sunglasses. Ready for the trip!

Let's go fishing!

Yesterday I did fishing for the first time in my life. We went to Turgen , famous for its waterfalls and a trout farm. The fishing experience was fun but short.The trout farm has several ponds where trout is bred and it's impossible not to catch anything among thousands of fishes. In 20 minutes we got 8 fishes and in another 20 minutes we were already eating them. There are several ladies who cook the fish for your and serve it with salads, bread and drinks. Call it fishing for lazy ones but it was nice time we spent there. Highly recommended!

Baby update

Vince is keep on growing, he weighs 9,2 kg! I wonder how big he can be. On Monday he will be exactly three months and his doctor will probably give me another advice for Vince not to gain to much weight. As soon as he is healthy and happy I don't actually bother. Isn't he sweat? :)

Fit ball training with dad.

I think he looks like a little boxer!

Let's stretch!

Dancing salsa in Almaty

1. Beginning Dancer: knows nothing.
2. Intermediate Dancer: knows everything; too good to dance with beginners.
3. Hotshot Dancer: too good to dance with anyone.
4. Advanced Dancer: dances everything, especially with beginners.”

Obviously salsa has conquered the world and Kazakhstan is not an exception. There are three salsa schools in Almaty and two latino clubs (Cuba and Copacobana). I cannot advice on them since our baby-life does not get along with a club life ))) . Here you can see some shots from an open-air salsa dancing. If you are in Almaty and love latino beat, don't miss the event (Sundays, Kirova-Kunaeva str in front of the fountains). By the way I was surprised they danced bachata as well.

Paradise 70 km away

Last weekend we went to the Kapchagai Lake, located just 70 km to the north from Almaty.

Kapchagai Lake is a man-made reservoir formed in 1969 for the purpose of building the Kapchagai Hydroelectric power station. In the absence of the sea (Kazakhstan is a landlocked country) Kapchagai attracts people from Almaty and vicinities. I was amazed that an artificial lake can be so beautiful:

On the way to Kapchagai, the closest town has the same name. The road to the lake is in a bad condition, which is quite strange, it's a popular place to go, so the government could have used the taxpayers money to renovate the road. They say, Russia has two age-old problems: fools (often referred to governors) and bad roads. It seems, Kazakhstan suffers from the similar problems. Watermelons, melons, apples, honey are sold on the wayFinally at the destination! The entrance fee to the beach was 1500 tenge (10 USD). If you have any food or drink with you you have to pay 4000 tenge (25 USD). Probably the restaurant folk would not have any job if everybody came with own food basket. R looks at the menu, Vince looks at the lake.

Me and Vince, my big boy!

Vince can swim!

When Vince was one month old we took three lessons from a swimming instructor for newborn. First day I was watching how my baby get massage and got into the water in the hands of a experienced instructor. The second day it was my turn to repeat the whole procedure. What should I say, it was not an easy job for anybody, especially when I had my precious little boy in my hands. Since then we repeat the whole procedure with massage, swimming, going under the water for 4 seconds and few seconds under the cold water called acclimation every day.

Vince learns how to handle himself in the water. At first we helped him to hold his head with a pair of ribbons on the bonnet with five foam rubber blocks. The bonnet calls here " mermaid bonnet" ;)

Now he can float with three blocks himself! He moves through the whole jacuzzi ;)

Ohhh, going under the water is a hard job!