Our round-the-world Journey

 Winding through steep and lush mountainous terrain via bumpy roads damaged by monsoon rains and heavily loaded trucks we left Vietnam for Laos in a bus driven by a man and his cronies who smoked too much and who we are sure were smuggling something, although what one smuggles into Laos we are not quite sure. After sixteen hours of beautiful views when you dared to look and not very much sleep despite having paid extra for a 'sleeper' bus we arrived in the capital of Laos, Vientiane, wondering if it was worth it.  We would do it again, but we are providing photos of our time in Laos so you can be the judge!

Vientiane, the capital of Laos was very chilled out and was enjoyed best on bicycle.

Exploring Vientiane on bicycle

Victory Gate in Vientiane

Xieng Khuan, the aptly named Buddha park is a surreal collection of Buddha statues and Buddha inspired sculptures of all shapes and sizes. Big or tall, short or small, there is a Buddha for everyone!

Buddha park in Vientiane (Xieng Khuan)

Playing in the mouth of an awesome, giant, surreal pumpkin at Xieng Khuan.

Xieng Khuan park...buddhas, buddhas everywhere!

Crocodile snack

The kids took to zip lining like monkeys to trees.

Heading into the jungle on riverboat.

Hiking to the top!

Zip lining in Nam Lik Jungle

The bravest zip liners!

Flying high!

What goes up, must come down!

Monkey behaviour

Vang Vieng was a beautiful stop, nestled within phenomenal limestone karst mountains. We enjoyed exploring the rural parts on bicycle, kayaking, tubing, spelunking and swimming.

Exploring Vang Vieng by bike

Modern buffalo

Caving in Vang Vieng

Manas found danger!

Jumping into the blue lagoon

Blue lagoon

Kayaking in Vang Vieng

Kayaking in Vang Vieng, Solstice was in the lead!

Tubing in Vang Vieng

Manas tubing through a cave

Aleix tubing through a cave

Luang Prabang was our favorite stop in Laos. This Is virtually the only northern Laos city that survived the American bombing campaign in the mid seventies. This picturesque place is filled with ancient temples and modern monks. The French legacy of colonial buildings, good food and even better coffee remains to this day and we sure enjoyed it!

Luang Prabang

Temple repair

Temple junkies

Mekong river, Luang Prabang

Monks receiving Alms in Luang Prabang

Dawn in Luang Prabang

Exploring Luang Prabang by bamboo bridges

Luang Prabang by night

Sleeping beauty

Skycapes in Luang Prabang

Temple bell

Beautiful Buddhas

Meera looking for a bargain

We visited a community organic vegetable and traditional rice farm. We really enjoyed farming for the day and discovered for ourselves how labour intensive rice farming is! We will never waste a grain of rice again!

Aleix harvesting rice

Manas, tilling the land

Aleix,husking the rice

Susan, the friendly water buffalo

Mike separating the rice

Happy Farmers!

Rice farmers!

Sticky rice ready in 15 minutes!

After a two day trip up the Mekong River we arrived back in Thailand!

At peace on the Mekong

Water Buffalo cooling off

Fisherman on the Mekong

Docking on the Mekong

Mike chilling on the Mekong

Panning for gold on the Mekong

Back in Thailand!

Night Market in Chiang Mai

Manas finds waffles at the Night Market in Chiang Mai

Sidewalk art in Chiang Mai

Wat Chedi Luang, Chiang Mai

Wat Chedi Luang, Chiang Mai

Parasols and temple bells

Khao San Road, Bangkok

Guardians of the Emerald Buddha

Guardian of the temple

Solstice and I went for a 30 km guided mountain bike ride a few days back in  the hills surrounding Dalat. The fresh air and scent of pine needles reminded me of the Yukon. On the way back into town I  was really working it on the bike and struggling in the heat of the day when a 3 or 5 ton truck passed me with a bunch of young guys in the back laughing and joking.  If this had occurred in 1971, the year I was born, roles could have been reversed with the young guys in the truck being white soldiers and the old guy on the bike being some local.  How much can a country and its people change in 50 years?

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The people here know they kicked American ass in, as they call it, "the American War" so people here carry themselves with a strong sense of pride.  Yet although Vietnam's government is still communist, this place is capitalist with a big "C".  "Tip money" is an oft-heard phrase and everything is for sale, from BBQ'd chicken feet to crocheted hats. The boys and I went on a tour of the Co Chi tunnels used by the Viet Cong 70 km north if Saigon and we all took turns shooting an AK-47 at $1.00 a round.  

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We enjoyed a great day on the Mekong river.

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Dalat was a favourite place for all of us, the air was fresh and the scenery reminded us of home. The kids especially enjoyed the roller coaster to the waterfall(thanks for the hot travel trip mac & Meg!) and the swan paddle boats!

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And wait until you see the ladies' new silk dresses... Ooh la la!  Even the boys and I had some new clothes tailored in Hoi An.  The historic old town is filled not only with tailors but perhaps the best restaurants of our entire journey to date. Plus Hoi An has beautiful beaches and a  pedestrian-only historic  quarter with fully restored Chinese and Japanese buildings and more recent French colonial buildings.  We were lucky enough to be in Hoi An for full moon when the town dims the electric lights and the streets are lit with colorful lanterns and townsfolk burning fake money for good luck.

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Our final days in Vietnam were spent in the historic city of Hue.  The misty rain seemed to enhance our scenic walks along the broad  Perfume river and visits to the imperial city and to Thien Mu Pagoda, a seven-storey Buddhist monument  known for political protests.

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The street life of Vietnam is as vibrant as any we've seen and that's one thing we have all enjoyed without having to pay a penny!

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Peace

Cambodia is a jewel of a country, framed by its glorious  past of the Angkor kingdom and the recent horrific and tragic rule of the Khmer Rouge.  Every Cambodian we met greeted us with a smile and we were very quickly mesmerized by this wonderful Buddhist country.

Siem Reap with the expansive, magnificent temples of the ancient Angkor dynasty was our first stop.  We spent many days wandering the 50 km2 ancient holy site. The largest city, Ta Prom was very impressive.  Within this ancient city is a Buddhist temple, the "Bayon"', with massive and numerous pillars, each containing 4 carved Buddha faces.  We had lots of fun finding the Buddha with the biggest smile.  I can't help but think that it is all of the smiling buddhas in this land that sustained the Cambodians during the sad times.  Restoration efforts are in full swing everywhere but some of our favourite temples were ones where nature once again rules.  Gnarly trees grow around stone door frames and one can explore while climbing over a heap of stones and through crumbling tunnels.

The crown jewel of Angkor, Angkor Wat was spectacularly enjoyed by all of us at sunrise.  This is the largest religious monument in the world and is modeled after the Hindu concept of the universe: ocean, continents and mountains of the gods.  The temple is dedicated to Lord Vishnu.  The gallery walls (continents) surrounding the temple are richly carved with myth and legend.  We were all entranced by the story, The Churning Of The Ocean Of Milk.  We will recount the story for you over a cup of tea sometime...

Perhaps our most memorable day was a jungle hike up to a mountain stream.  An ancient king had 1000  lingas and numerous gods  carved into the river stones, believing that as the river water flowed over them it would be more fertile for the rice crops and people.  After this very peaceful hike we were awe-struck by yet another temple complex, Banteay Srei.  This sublime, pink sand stone temple literally blew me away with its intricately carved walls, tympanums, columns and statues.  It is widely believed that this particular temple contains some of the finest intricate stone reliefs in the world.  

Other highlights for our family in Cambodia include: a powerful visit to a land mine museum, a visit to a silk farm, lunches at the Blue Pumpkin, visiting the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, a heavyhearted visit to the Killing Fields, our kind and lovely tuk tuk driver at the Angkor site, the pure enjoyment of soaking in the Cambodian countryside, and interacting with the lovely people of Cambodia. (Mike says the silk worms tastes better than the crickets).

Time and time again on this trip Mike and I are reminded how fantastic our kids are.  They have been extremely adaptable, tried many unfamiliar foods, endured long bus trips, remained open minded, made many friends and spread many smiles.  As I write this blog they are dancing, laughing and grooving around the hotel room to good tunes.  They are so much fun to travel with!  Solstice keeps us fit, Manas keeps us organized and Aleix solves our problems.  Miss you all, the flying five, flying high!

Both time and I lie  suspended in a hammock strung on the verandah of our poolside bungalow. We are currently on Koh Phi Phi having just left Koh Lanta, both Thai islands surrounded by the warm waters of the Andaman Sea. 

The water temperature is about 29 degrees centigrade, crystal clear and is inhabited by a huge variety of colourful marine life including the tiny anemone clown fish (of "Finding Nemo" fame)', sea turtles, and different species of sharks. 

So with nothing better to do with our time,Manas, Solstice and I are proud to announce we have completed our SCUBA open water divers course.  The list of fish types Manas has memorized is most impressive, Solstice is a natural, and I just like rolling over on my back from 30 feet beneath the waves and watching my air bubbles trickle to the surface.  

Meera and the kids have completed some Thai cookery courses.  Aleix has perfected his pad Thai and everyone is looking forward to preparing theses flavourful, fresh dishes next year.  A scrumptious Thai noodle salad will taste pretty good at -30.....

We continue to hang out with our friends the Prawdzik's and the whole lot of us do the typical tropical paradise stuff like diving & snorkeling, collecting shells at the beach, chilling by the pool, and drinking shakes that come in flavors like pineapple and cocunut.

But our island life is about to end as in a couple days we are off to Cambodia via Bangkok.  Enjoy the photos of our island life. That's all for now, folks!

It was a long flight from Goa via Mumbai and Bangkok to land in Phuket.  To make the voyage more exciting our flight was extremely late landing in Bangkok, to the point that Meera and I were resigned to having missed our connection to Phuket.  But as we walked off the jet a young women in a Thai airlines outfit was holding a sign with our names.  Twenty minutes later having passed through diplomatic passport control and literally running through the airport at the (high) heels of our Thai Airways angel we were winging our way to Phuket; our luggage arrived one hour later as promised. This was our introduction to the friendly, well-oiled Thai tourism machine.

We were only in Phuket long enough to catch a ferry to Tonsai, Phi Phi Island. Here we immediately loaded into a taxi boat that took us to our resort.  A taxi boat is a thai longtail boat made of wooden planks and propelled by a large air-cooled engine that sits at one end of a twenty foot pipe/linkage at the other end of which sits the propeller. The boat can carry about 15 passengers and all their gear but will carry anything you can imagine as it serves as the vehicle of choice around the car-free island.

Phi Phi island and our resort is the tropical paradise one sees on Lotto 6/49 commercials.  Thatched huts and Pina Coladas appear wedged between a steep, limestone cliff thick with vegetation and a warm, clear sea stocked with fish and coral in a rainbow of colours.  

To make it better my sister Lara and her fiancé Lindsay arrived the next day. Even more Pina Coladas and fresh fruit shakes magically appeared  after we snorkeled in the sea. A highlight of our time together was celebrating Manas' birthday with a snorkeling trip to swim with sharks (gulp!) -
see Manas' "Shark Fast Facts" below). 

All too soon we were saying goodbye to Lara and Lindsay and were back on the ferry for Lanta Island to hook up with Yukon friends Mike, Jane, Mac and Megan Prawdzik.  Megan and Jane met us at the dock and escorted us back to our resort complete with massive swimming pool and excellent air conditioning - two "must- haves" in this hot and sticky weather.

So press rewind with us as this beautiful beach, snorkeling trips and Pina Coladas story starts all over again...

• **Manas' "Shark Fast Facts"

THE BLACK TIPPED REEF SHARK...

...grows up to 1.8 metres.
...is not to be confused with the Blacktip Shark.
...is Near Threatened (in other words it is doing pretty well).
...can be attracted by banging metal tools together underwater.
...eats almost any small creature like mullet, squid, rays and even smaller sharks!
...the way to discourage these sharks is to submerge yourself.
...lives mainly in shallow water.
...is found in the Pacific near the equator including Southeast Asia (and I have the photographs to prove it).

Phi Phi island

Mosquito island, Phi Phi

Looking for the sharks!

We promise....it is a black tipped reef shark

The boys making up infinite hammock games

Frisbee fun on the beach

Solstice and aunty Lara

Cocktails on the beach...

At the top of the mountain....

Long tail boat

A monkey taking a blessing

emerald cave