Meandering down the Mighty Mekong …
The Mekong is the largest river in South-East Asia at over 4000km. It forms the border between Laos and Myanmar and most of the border between Laos and Thailand, beginning in the high plateau of Eastern Tibet and flowing down through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam ending up in the South China Sea. So already on this trip we have come into contact with the Mekong several times and witnessed how it is truly the lifeblood of south-east Asia. The Mekong basin is one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world, with...
read moreAnother border crossing…
After our stay at The Bamboo Nest, we were dropped back into Chiang Rai at midday for one night before continuing our journey northward the next day to the Thai/Laos border. We stayed in a simple guesthouse close to the Clock Tower and walked up toward the market just as the clock struck 7pm and did a little light show! Some things in Asia are so kitch and we often feel we have been transported back to the eighties; the music, the clothes in the market, I even saw a t-shirt with a rubics cube on it! What...
read moreStopping to smell the roses…
Late afternoon visits to the markets were often our only outing for the day. The Sunday walking market was almost identical in wares to the Saturday walking market, held within the old city rather than just outside and they also had some quite upmarket goods for sale dotted amongst some amazing artwork that I would have loved to get. The streets are closed to vehicular traffic for these two markets so it was a real pedestrian area. There is also the night bazaar operating everynight – just stalls along the footpath with the usual...
read more‘Some days you tame the tiger. And some days it has you for lunch’
Phoebe especially loved all the big ‘cats’ at the zoo and the girls noticed The Tiger Kingdom advertisements that adorn nearly every tuk tuk and taxi we got into. It is probably one of the most visited ‘animal attractions’ in Chiang Mai – a testament to their very successful ad campaign. Tiger Kingdom is owned by a Thai MP and the contrast with the zoo is quite stark. The signposting was almost excessive – and predominately in English – although not many Thai’s would be able to afford the exorbitant entrance prices. The...
read moreWhen the student is ready, the master appears. ~Buddhist Proverb
Our second week in Chiang Mai was very relaxed (mostly!) with schoolwork in the mornings and every afternoon in the pool of our apartment block. Phoebe and I put in a couple of full days of schoolwork, however she is proving to be a bit harder to motivate when it comes to schoolwork than Imogen. While Imogen gets stuck in, gets the work done and often asks for more, Phoebe draws it out, is easily distracted and is testing my patience. This homeschooling is hard work! Worldschooling on the other hand is proving delightful. So what is the...
read moreA day at the zoo…and another temple!
A visit to the Chiang Mai Zoo was one thing that the girls had been looking forward to since first arriving in Thailand. This may be in part due to the book series I am currently reading to them called ‘The Secret Zoo’, all about the adventures of four kids into the world of animals and a secret world. Whilst zoos are not among my favourite places, we are not including Africa as part of this trip so this will actually be the first visit to a zoo and one the girls will remember as our last was Sydney’s Taronga Park Zoo when Phoebe...
read moreA sensational day – by Phoebe
I woke up – it was my birthday. Happy birthday to me! I open my presents. I got a card from Mum and Dad and Immi, and one from Grandma and Granddad and Lara and Teddy. I got an Ipod and ‘Stitch’ to hang on it, a necklace, friendship bracelet and some lollies. We then went in a van to the Elephant Park. We fed them, then got on them bare-back and went for a walk in the jungle and then came back and washed them. We went out for dinner and I had tacos! It was the best birthday ever! (extract from Phoebe’s diary) Phoebe’s...
read moreAt home in Chiang Mai …
When looking into accommodation for Chiang Mai we enquired for an apartment as we were having a longer stay here of two weeks or more. We wanted a kitchen to be able to make our own breakfasts and snacks and to make dinner a few nights per week. We hadn’t heard back from our enquiry with a definitive answer so we were hoping that ‘someone’ would by chance be there to meet us. The original guy we enquired with didn’t have anything available and he in turn contacted Derek, an Irishman who also owns apartments here to help...
read morePlanes, trains and … tuk tuks
and buses, taxis and bikes … so far we have tried a few different modes of transport. Our last morning in Sihanoukville had us hiring bikes to ride to Otres beach the next beach further south. After a 30 minute ride (as we had to go inland to go over the headland) we arrived to a beautiful stretch of beach and had a swim, built a sandcastle, had another swim and a drink before riding back to our guesthouse for lunch. We departed an hour later by bus back to Phnom Penh and to overnight one night at the same guesthouse we stayed...
read moreIt takes both rain and sunshine to make a Rainbow …
… rightly says the Ancient proverb… Friday the 24th August was Imogen’s 7th birthday and following an early morning Skype with Granddad we were picked up for our Island Cruise where we were to enjoy a day of swimming, snorkeling and island hopping. A perfect day for Immi as she is such a water baby, or so we thought… You know how sometimes things don’t work out like you planned … and then you find out things are going to get worse before they get better? We were picked up at 8am by a dilapidated mini-bus and when it...
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