Seaworld Abu Dhabi (Natalie)

 Our family had planned to fly to Jordan on the thirteenth of June. However, on the morning of our departure, we heard news that overnight, Israel had bombed Iran. We weren’t comfortable flying into a country geographically located between Iran and Israel, so we cancelled our flight and hotel on short notice and decided to stay in Dubai for the weekend. The next day, Mom booked us tickets to Sea World in Abu Dhabi. Sea World is on Yas Island and is one of the largest aquariums in the world. Yas Island isn’t really an island, it's less like land surrounded by water and more like land surrounded by a few streams.

We started driving at 9:00 because Sea World opens at 10, and it takes half an hour to get there. Our goal was to arrive right when the park opened, so we budgeted another half hour of travel time in case of traffic. We arrived at 9:45, so we decided to drive around and explore Yas Island for a little bit before parking at Sea World. Like most places in the UAE, the roads were a bit confusing and we took a few “detours”. Yas Island has a high concentration of theme parks. Along with Sea World, we passed Ferrari World, Warner Bros. World, and Yas Island Water Park. It has been announced that Disney is building Disney Land, scheduled to open on Yas Island by 2030. It will be Disney’s first park in the Middle East.

After our drive around Yas Island, we returned to Sea World. The park had just opened, so we parked our car in a shady spot and headed in. The entrance was very grand. It had a tall ceiling made up of windows, there was also an artificial waterfall tumbling down some rocks. The check in process was seamless; to register tickets you send in a picture of yourself and everything is done by face recognition. Immediately after the check in gate there are some shallow touch tanks with sting rays and small sharks. Even though our plan was to head straight to the Manta roller coaster before the line got too long, we couldn’t resist stopping briefly at the touch tanks. The rays’ skin felt soft and squishy. The sharks’ skin felt more like fine sandpaper. We also walked past the dugong, a slightly different version of a manatee.

               

                  

When we finally arrived at the Manta coaster, there was no line at all. We knew we wanted to visit the Manta coaster because it was the first thing we saw when we drove by and it looked incredible. Ansel was the most excited since this was his first upside down rollercoaster. The coaster is not very tall, but is quite long and the track zigzags up, down and upside down like waves. Sea World in its entirety is indoors, but the Manta coaster goes through a tunnel and blasts around outside. The ride is so fast that you don’t even feel the oppressive heat. The coaster was so fun that Ansel and I rode it 4 times each. Mom and Dad took turns riding and each went twice. After that, we were, to put it mildly, “a bit woozy”. 

                          

Charlotte was too short to ride the coaster, so she hung out with a parent and visited a couple nearby carnival style games, the gift shop, and a kids indoor playground. After our first run through on the coaster, we were astonished to find that Charlotte had been given a huge pikachu stuffie. It was so big that she couldn’t even wrap her arms completely around it! The man attending the game had been so happy to have her as his first customer, that even though she did not technically win the game, he still gave her the giant stuffie. Needless to say, she was ecstatic! 

The Manta coaster was located in the “Tropical Ocean” section of Sea World. This part of the park also has many tropical fish exhibits, the dolphin show pavilion, flamingos, and another huge tank full of rays. This tank was my favorite because it had a shallow end where the rays could slide up and get pet and fed by yours truly. There was one massive ray that was longer than Charlotte. He loved poking his head out of the water to see if you had treats. During our time at the aquarium, I visited this tank multiple times.

                    

                                

Next, we walk back to a room called “One Ocean.” One Ocean is an enormous room with a giant wrap around screen showing scenes of ocean wildlife. Connected to this hub like spokes are the 8 different “realms” of Sea World: Tropical Ocean, Micro Ocean, Endless Ocean, Polar Ocean (which connects to Arctic and Antarctica), Abu Dhabi Ocean, and Rocky Point. It was Charlotte’s turn to choose where to go. She had heard that Micro Ocean had rides for kids her size, so off we went! 

In the Micro Ocean there were huge jellyfish hanging from the ceilings and murals of other colossal sea life. Everything was backlit in a way that made it feel as though you were small (like the size of a plankton) and deep under the sea. There weren’t any live animal exhibits in Micro-ocean, it was mostly rides for kids Charlotte’s age. We rode a spinning octopus ride called the Octozoom, it was almost like a swinging boat ride at a theme park, but this ride was unique in that it could both spin and swing at the same time. After that, we rode the Eel Racer mini coaster, followed by the Jelly Plunge, a parachute style drop ride. At this point, the boys complained about being hungry so they peeled off with Mom to get food and I rode the Turtle Twist (a flying swing) with Charlotte.

                                                                                                                                     

                        

The dolphin show started at 11:30 so we hustled back to the Tropical Ocean. The dolphin show was performed around a large, stage like island decorated with a tent and surrounded by smaller islands with tree houses and drums to set the theme of a place called Dolphin Island. The show started with a procession of drummers marching into the audience and leading the crowd in chanting and other interactive drumming activities. The show was kinda cheesy but had cool dolphin tricks. The dolphins spun, flipped, and performed some really high jumps. If you sit in one of the first few rows, you are in the splash zone. You don’t really get wet during the show, but at the very end, the trainers send the dolphins to beat their fins and splash against the wall of the tank. Some people got so drenched they had to go to the gift shop and buy a whole new outfit!

                                   

Next we headed to the Polar Ocean in search of another ride we had heard about called Hypersphere 360. We observed sea otters, walruses, penguins, puffins, and arctic foxes. When we got to the hypersphere, to our dismay, Charlotte was too short, so Ansel and Mom went first while Dad, Charlotte and I watched the walruses get fed. It was amazing how huge they were. The staff went right up to them and fed them out of their hands. While Dad and I had a turn in the hypersphere simulator, Mom, Ansel, and Charlotte picked out a lunch spot in the Abu Dhabi Ocean area. Dad and I met up with them and shared lunch, which was a couple of sandwiches. We all agreed that the simulator was very well done. It featured whales, along with other sea life.

                                                     

After lunch, we hustled to make the sea lion show at the rocky point section of the aquarium. I found it more entertaining than the dolphin show. After the sea lion show, we all felt a little “aquariumed out”. Ansel wanted to make one last stop at the Endless Ocean. 

                                 

                                   

The Endless Ocean did indeed feel endless. It was a huge tank. It was filled with hammerhead sharks, ragged tooth sharks, ginormous manta rays, and a gazillion other types of fish and smaller rays. We stopped to watch a staff performance on drums and marimbas disguised as pieces of submarine equipment. Then we enjoyed an escalator ride which brought us down to a huge lower tank, surrounded by glass. After that we all felt tired and ready to go home. We headed back to the car and rested all the way home.

   

Joy Island, The Maldives (Natalie)

                                                                      Joy Island

Last week, we travelled all around Sri Lanka and ended our stay in the Maldives.

At the Maldives airport, we were greeted by two staff members from Joy Island Resort. The Maldives airport is conveniently located on the water, so resorts are able to efficiently meet their customers on a dock outside the arrivals gate and immediately whisk them away to private resort islands. There are 1,192 islands in the Maldives and only 200 of them are uninhabited. Joy Island resort is only 2 years old. The island is natural, but the elevated walkway with adjoining "floating" bungalows is man made. The crew picked up 2 other couples (honeymooners, we assumed), and loaded up all of our baggage. Within minutes of exiting the airport, we were on our way! The speedboat ride usually takes 30-45 minutes, but the seas were a bit choppy, so it took us the full 45. Unfortunately, Ansel had come down with a bit of a bug (or possibly motion sickness) that first day and was sick over the side of the boat 30 minutes into the ride. That made things a little more dramatic for everyone…

When we arrived at the island we were greeted by a welcome ceremony on the dock that included chanting, drums and a full escort into reception. There, we were greeted by cool iced drinks. After signing in, a staff member drove us in a golf cart down to our room. Our room was one of the farthest away from the main dining hall, but the closest to the reef. The reason we went to Joy Island at all is because Dad’s Sri Lankan friend is an investor and recommended it to us. He insisted that we go and stay on property for a couple nights. To our surprise, our room reservation was for an above-water beach house with its own pool.

On our day of arrival, we unloaded our bags and immediately jumped off of our house steps and into the water.

After about 1 hour of fun, we headed down to dinner. Dinner was served in a dining hall called The Market. The dinner was a spread of all the food you could imagine, unlike most of the sit down restaurants we have visited in the past. The buffet had multiple elements including a salad bar with delicious prepared salads and also a make-your-own-salad option. There was a barbeque where a staff member grilled a variety of meats. Our first night they had roast chicken, grilled chicken breast and lamb leg, and on our second night they had roast duck, chicken skewers and lamb chops. There was also a bread station with all the types of bread you can imagine, a pasta station, where the chefs boil pasta on the spot and let you pick from one of the 3 sauces of the day. Some sauces I remember included mushroom red sauce, asparagus zucchini sauce, prawn fish red sauce, bolognaise sauce, and pesto. There was also a huge selection of fish, cooked in any way you like. My personal favorite section of the buffet was called the Room of Sin. As you may have guessed, the room holds a huge assortment of desserts. From cakes to cookies to pastries to tarts, they have it all fresh every day. After a delicious meal, we were ready to retire for the day.

We started walking back to our room, but were caught in a violent rainstorm that appeared instantaneously. We sprinted to shelter under the reception counter along with 4 other people who were caught either coming or going from The Market. Most of the golf carts were being used to shuttle people to and from their bungalows. Luckily, before long the reception desk made contact with a golf cart and we caught a ride back to our room. That night, we discovered that our house had a deck light that attracted rays at night.

On our second day, we slept in and I had RSM. After RSM concluded, Dad and I joined Charlotte, Ansel and Mom at the dining hall. As usual, the food was amazing. The pasta station was replaced by a large omelette station. There were fresh juices and sliced fruits, pancakes, waffles and a whole selection of other delectable breakfast foods. Everything was delicious and it was a challenge not eating too much!

After breakfast, we walked to the Water Sports Center to pick up snorkel gear. The gear is included in your stay and you can keep it until the very end of your visit. While at the Center, we also signed up for a turtle reef and shark swimming experience for the following morning. On our walk back to the room, we discovered the resident hermit crabs. There were about 500 of those little buggers all up and down the walkway to our house. They were pretty small and liked to pinch. It didn't hurt too much but if you turned your hand upside down, they would just hang there.

Yes, all of those shells are crabs, and yes, they are all pinching me.

The afternoon was spent snorkeling the property reef and under our beach house. We were thrilled to discover a big coral mound under our house inhabited by approximately 100 different fish, to include a lion fish. Ansel also spotted a dark black eagle ray along the side of our house and jumped in to swim with it (it spooked and jetted away). We had a great dinner (it was sushi night) and slept like the dead.

    During our stay we also learned that, every couple of days, the resort had some kind of party. During our stay, they had karaoke night and a neon party after dinner. These parties usually began at 9:30pm, which was a little late for our bedtimes. We decided to pass since we were all still getting over a little jet lag and also had plans for the morning.

    On the third day of our stay, we woke super excited for our off-island turtle and shark snorkeling experiences. We packed up our snorkel gear, grabbed a quick breakfast and headed out to the speedboat. We drove for about 30 minutes to a neighboring island. We got out and rode in a golf cart to where the sharks were. There are no cages or barriers to prevent the sharks from leaving and swimming away into the open ocean. There are some staff members that feed the sharks bits of chicken and tuna. This feeding is what keeps them in the lagoon. Nurse sharks are also known as sleeping sharks because of their behavior of resting on the ocean floor. They are one of the few species of shark that don’t have to constantly swim to breathe. These sharks don’t have teeth and primarily feed on bottom dwelling animals such as small stingrays, lobsters, crabs, sea urchins, and squid.

    In the lagoon there was a school of about 20 sharks. Some of them were resting or swimming alone, but the majority of the group was swimming in circles in a cone shaped mass of sharks and fish. The staff members laid down the basic rules: no approaching the group, and no touching them. We hopped in with our snorkel supplies. The sharks were all very calm and happy. It was an amazing experience. It felt like we were inside a huge aquarium tank. After 45 minutes of snorkeling we headed back to the boat.

We had decided to either try to find a group of manta rays, or go to a reef to try to find a turtle. The staff told us the chances of seeing a manta ray were 50-50 but we would almost certainly spot a turtle. The last few days, boats from the resort did find mantas to snorkel with. We wanted to try. We rode the boat out to the manta sighting spot and searched around for 30 minutes. To our dismay there were no mantas to be found. We decided to head out to the turtle reef and have a go at the turtles. That reef was truly spectacular. It was situated in the middle of the ocean. We hopped off our boat and hugged the edge of the reef. We saw hundreds of different types of tropical fish of all different colors, shapes, and sizes.  15 minutes in, our guide pointed out a juvenile turtle flying through the reef. After that encounter we hopped onto the boat and sped back to the resort. 

                            

                             

After that adventure we were all starving. Mom had booked a paella lunch for us at a cafe close to our house. The paella (a Spanish seafood and rice dish cooked in a huge pan) was delicious.

After lunch we swam around our house for a couple more hours, and then took showers and got ready for dinner. That night was Maldivian night and we enjoyed a variety of curries, rice, and lots of tuna dishes.

                            

We went to bed early because we had to get up early for our departure to the airport. 

                                  

The following morning, we woke at 5 am, had a super early breakfast and left. The staff escorted us down to the dock with another ceremony, similar to the welcoming one. 

                                

                                  

If you happen to stay in the Maldives, we highly recommend Joy Island. We truly made some amazing memories there!

Great Wall of China 5.9.25 and 5.15.25 (Charlotte and Sam)

We took two trips to the Great Wall of China during our time in Beijing. We visited the Mutianyu section on May 9, 2025 and enjoyed it so much that we decided to explore farther away from the city center to the Simatai section of the wall on May 15, 2025. Both times we visited, we saw some stray cats on the wall. They were very friendly and loved being pet by the kids.

The Great Wall of China has a long and interesting history. It was built by multiple emperors and helped China keep warring invaders out. Guards used a clever system of watch tower lights to communicate between long distances. We loved exploring the towers and looking out of the windows to the surrounding green hills and snaking wall in the distance.

    The day we visited Mutianyu, the wall was very windy and also very rainy. This weather, combined with a temperature of 50 degrees F was very different than what we had most recently experienced in tropical Hong Kong and Taiwan. Luckily we all had jackets and sweatshirts to stay warm, so morale stayed high and we were able to cover a lot of ground on our hike. Due to the rain, we decided to ride the the gondola up to the wall, hike, then ride down. The wind made our gondola ride a little freaky, but we survived.

The day we visited Simatai, the weather was perfect. Since Dad had to work, Mom decided to purchase a ticket on a tour bus that would bring us directly to and from Gubei water town and the adjacent Simatai wall trail. Gubei water town was built in 2022 and is a replica of an ancient water town called Wuzhen. Although not authentic, it fooled us! The detailed wood carvings, stone work and beautiful architectural craftsmanship were very impressive.

After a short stroll through town, we headed up to the wall and walked the length from tip to tip in about 2 hours. The Simatai wall is quite long and nicely restored. It is supposed to connect to an even longer more unrestored section of the wall called Jinshanlin, but unfortunately the connection was closed and under construction. 

 

We hiked down to Gubei just in time to watch a Chinese martial arts demonstration and lion dance. Then we had a nice dinner along the canal and headed back to our bus.  A long but eventful day!