Coral Bay

Sarah and Heather enjoying the Blue Lagoon.
The water is about 30 feet deep but very clear.

We've just returned from a 10 day break at Coral Bay, a small seaside village north of Paphos in Western Cyprus.  The bay itself is beautiful, with clear sandy water and limestone cliffs at each end of a long sweeping beach. Our days generally consisted of a morning on the beach until it got too hot, a vague attempt at a siesta and then out in the afternoon for some sort of activity with the kids.  Plenty of options in this regard, and the holiday included visits to the zoo, mountain waterfalls, minigolf, a water park and hiring a boat for half a day to look at some of the remote coastline along the Akamas Peninsula.  

The holiday has been a good circuit breaker for the kids after 2.5 months(!) of summer holiday, and a welcome change for mum and dad also.  It was interesting to see 'tourist Cyprus' in full swing.  Despite some setbacks with power rationing across the island, Cyprus is actually having a good tourist season.  The political unrest across many parts of the Middle East has resulted in more tourists coming to Cyprus instead of other nearby destinations such as Greece, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan.  We were also surprised at the number of Russian visitors.  On a few of the beaches we visited Russian was very much the main language spoken, with many signs only in Cyrillic.  

In terms of tourist developments, Cyprus has a full continuum of quality.  There are some fine examples of tasteful development (although sometimes you need to look hard to find them), but also plenty of examples of development gone bad.  'Themed' restaurants appear to be very popular with the British tourists in particular.  I was tempted to go and dine with the 'Knights of the Round Table' at a medieval restaurant but alas could not convince Sarah and the kids to join.  Plenty of bad Robbie Williams and Oasis impersonators working the bars and cafes also.  Coral Bay probably sits somewhere in the middle of the quality curve, but we did discover some beautiful and remote Cypriot villages in the North-West during our travels.  

It was lovely to welcome Heather Robinson, a good friend from Sydney who joined us for part of the holiday.  Heather is staying with us for the next few weeks, and is currently off exploring some other parts of the island.  

Only one more week until school goes back (hooray), and Sam has an extra bonus in starting earlier this week, which he's not so sure about but mum and dad are quietly relieved.....  The weather has finally started to cool a little also, and the light seems just a hint softer. Roll on autumn.

Angus working on his Bear Grylls alter ego

Monica and Anna

Jessie gets her ears pierced (finally!); her 9th birthday

Heather and Sam take a dip

Islamabad

Last week I travelled to Pakistan, where World Vision has one of its larger offices in the region with 700+ staff working across a range of relief and development programs.  Pakistan has suffered from successive natural disasters over the past 10 years, including massive flooding last year which affected an area the size of Great Britain and displaced up to 30 million people.  It's hard to get your head around the scale of impact in some of these disasters. Large areas of land are still flooded more than a year later, and the monsoon rains have started falling again.  All this in a country where approx 45% of the population live on less than $2 per day, and where militant extremism is rife.  Adds up to a potentially toxic mix of unrest and economic disparity.   It was interesting last week though, to watch the London riots unfold and hear the comments of Pakistani staff about how thin the 'veneer' of civility actually is for any society, and that it does not take much to upset the balance.

Downtown Islamabad

The main destination for my meetings last week was Islamabad.  This is city that is definitely NOT like the rest of the country. To picture Islamabad, think of a cross section between Canberra and Darwin and you would be getting close.  The city was a planned capital, and as such has broad streets, manicured gardens and orderly traffic.  People are generally friendly, although the city does have extreme security throughout, especially given some significant and high profile attacks on western targets in the city (including the Marriot Hotel in 2008, where enough explosive was used to level a high rise building).   

Iftar - the meal to break the daily fast in Ramadan

My visit to Islamabad co-incided with the middle of Ramadan, and it was interesting to see how the dynamics of the daily fasting and the 'Iftar' meal each evening play out.  Restaurants are completely overfull each evening, and there is a sense of contemplation, community and celebration around the various Ramadan activities.

Pakistan is a country of massive economic potential, but this is constrained by political nepotism, corruption and extremism in parts of the country.  Reading the local media gives some perspective on the level of hysteria and misinformation in public debate (maybe this is not so dissimilar from our own press??).  For example, reports came through early last week about the downing of a US Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan, killing all the soldiers on board.  Front page reports in Pakistan claimed that one of the soldiers on board had been the man who had shot Osama Bin Laden.  Great story, and ripe fodder for the masses but I'm not so convinced about its accuracy.  

As a final point, it was interesting to meet with the Anglican Bishop of Islamabad, who showed me through the main cathedral and explained the security measures they have had to employ in recent years following attacks in various churches across the country.  Not an easy place for minority faith groups, but interestingly the church is flourishing.   

Pakistan truck art

Faisal Mosque, Islamabad

Aahh...Troodos

Just when we thought there was no escaping this hot dusty town of Nicosia....we found Troodos; Cyprus' summer playground for non-beach goers.  It's not that we'd never been to the Troodos Mountains before; it's just that we'd never STAYED there overnight. And thus hadn't really appreciated all that it has to offer....

Only an hour from our door, the drive takes us through many beautiful villages as we climb the northern side of the mountain. One day we will stop and have lunch at one of the Trout farm restaurants that dot the river or take a picnic and spend the day enjoying shady pine forests and running streams. As we ascend higher, the tiny towns lure the tourist with their roasted nuts, embroidered linen and colourful trinkets. Hiking signs and mountain bike trails abound (which sadly we dismiss as almost impossible with a 2yr old). The pine trees get higher and the temperature lowers. We could be in heaven.

Thanks to a tip from a friend, we found a very PLUSH camping site; complete with canvas tents, beds off the floor, hot showers, fully equipped outdoor kitchen AND an old ping-pong table.  Nobody else there, just a friendly couple who were caretakers of the site that week.  What bliss for our family.  Almost a 'Nook-esque' summer mountains holiday.  We had planned to stay just overnight but ended up taking 2 nights...why not?  The weather was perfect in every sense, the views from the ridge spectacular, and just to top it off, there wasn't a mozzy in sight.  We took a short walk and found some hikes to come back to, the kids played by the stream, we lived totally outdoors, played games, took a drive and even splurged on a horse ride.  Can't wait to return.

As much as I love the beach and all...the mountains in summer, away from the heat and the crowds, is pure magic.  Here are a few snaps in case you need convincing.

Sam Bieber arrives in Cyprus

After many weeks of high 30's or 40+ degrees, strange things are starting to happen to the kids as the long summer holiday rolls on.   Sam has taken a somewhat disturbing liking to Justin Bieber,  Jessie goes on day after day about getting her ears pierced (a birthday promise), Angus continues with his fascination of all things sporting (including regular games of basketball or soccer inside the house!), and Anna has become a seasoned sibling pincher and able to give as good as she gets.  Actually the kids are doing well through the summer, and seem to be settling in to a decent groove to get through the long hot days.  Swims are frequent, and the occasional daytime siesta & kid flick also helps.  As for mum (and dad), the heat has slowed us down such that we actually feel more relaxed than we have in a long time.  No gardens to tend and a lighter activity schedule all round has been quite a liberating experience.  We're looking forward to a beach holiday near Paphos in the second half of August.  


It's amazing how this place empties out in August.  Virtually everything stops for the month - sporting clubs, church, many shops and cultural events are all put on hold as the bulk of the population take their summer break and escape the heat to the coast.  The rolling power cuts at the moment are an added incentive for things to slow down.

Charlotte and the kids in the old town

We've really enjoyed having a few visitors recently, including Charlotte who was our old babysitter from Sydney, and also some good friends from Belgium, Gene and Boris and kids.  We're continuing to explore different parts of the island, and it's been good to do a few trips up to the mountains recently.  This weekend we're going to camp in the mountains, which will be a nice change from the heat of Nicosia.  


Hope all is well for you in your respective parts of the world.  If it's cold where you are, we'll try to send some Mediterranean heat your way!  Both of us are headed downstairs for an evening dip in the pool.  30 degrees and high humidity at 10pm makes for an uncomfortable night.  Adio.

Piper kids + Pierre from Belgium

The Abby at Bellapais

Sam struts his stuff