February school holidays in Laos.

It was a little strange going on holidays without Craig, but with Nanny & Ampar in tow (my parents), the four of us set off to explore Laos. We really had no idea what to expect and so we prepared for it - we'd had our shots, we had our anti-malaria medication, had the mosquito repellent with DEET, packed long shirts to protect us from the mosquitos at night, and I even bought a 'travellers emergency medication kit'. I was ready for everything from a bout of conjunctivitis to rabies!

I had arranged a private trip - with the itinerary pre-organised and local guides and air-conditioned cars to ferry us around. It worked SO well! We were picked up at the airport in Vientiane (the capital), checked into our hotel and were off visiting temples in no time. Our guide was great - a local Laotian who was quite a character! Zoe drove him crazy asking SO many questions - she would raise her arm like in school. By that evening, she could say hello, hello how are you, and thank you in Lao, and knew the meaning of most of the buddah's hand positions.

The next day, we flew Lao airlines (yep - I was a little worried too) from Vientiane, to Luang Prabang in the north. It's a World Heritage listed town and it lives up to it's reputation. We had 6 days in Luang Prabang and loved it.

We learned alot about the history and culture from our guide. Did you know, in Lao, it's compulsory to study as a monk for a minimum of 3 months.... Amazing huh - in some countries it's compulsary to do military service to learn how to defend your country, and in Lao it's compulsory to learn how to uphold Buddah's values - a bit like our 10 commandments (but don't quote me on that!). Our guide in LP had been a monk for 14 years - leaving the monastary when he was 28 - every Lao mother's dream catch for her daughters! A virgin, learned, gentle man who knew how to look after himself.

In LP, we saw many, many more temples, took a day trip up the meekong by boat to the Pak Ou caves, visited many hilltribes who still specialise in local silk weaving, rice wine and crafts, visited the beautiful Kouang Si waterfalls and walked and walked......

The highlight of the trip was Zoe's birthday. She was a pig in poo when she discovered she'd got a Nintendo DS for her birthday -finally! After breakfast, we set off to the Elephant camp where they rescue injured and tortured elephants from the logging industry. Zoe got to not only ride the elephant on a trek, but to sit just behind it's head as the mahout. A mahout is an elephant's master - but it goes much further than that - they are best friends for life, living, working and sleeping side by side. The elephant responds to the mahout's touch and voice. It's amazing to see the bond between them. It was a brilliant day, and one that I don't think she'll ever forget.

It was also pretty unforgettable watching Nanny and Ampar hanging on for dear life - they had an elephant that had a mind of it's own:)

Mum and I also manged some serious silk weaving shopping - it has to be said. The silks were just amazingly beautiful and intricate.

Dad and I experienced the famous morning ritual of the monks walking through the town taking their food from the locals at sunrise. It was pretty amazing. They eat only twice a day and must finish eating by lunchtime. They rely heavily on the sticky rice and other food given to them by the locals.

The country was beautiful and I would definately love to go back again and explore more of it. It was clean and safe. The threat of mosquitos or other diseases and illnesses were non-events. It is an amazingly beautiful country with very gentle people - influenced by french, chinese, japanese and american cultures that have impacted or invaded them. We all felt very safe even at night. The older generations could all speak french, but the younger people couldn't. They are being taught english or russian in school now.

My most memorable experience was just watching the Meekong - from the sunrises (only managed one of those), to sunset, watched the fisherman, saw locals commute across the river for work, heard the kids playing in the water - everything happened on the river.

Tree-tops walk

By 9am on sunday morning, we'd started out on the jungle walk to the tree-tops walk in the Macritchie reservoir area. Normally we're just getting out of bed by this time on a sunday!

The first 3kms got us to the start of the tree-tops walk, and already we'd spied a monkey and some fish in a small stream. It was a good start. It was so humid in the jungle, even though there was a cool'ish breeze blowing.

The tree-tops walk was a 4km one way walk starting out 25m above the ground at the tree top canopy - the view was spectacular. Before long we spied more monkeys eating the blossoms and berries, then a sea-eagle, more monkeys and a squirrel. It was fantastic. I think it was our lucky day - a lady beside us exclaimed she'd done this walk before and hadn't seen monkeys.

The walk continued through the jungle until we reached the fork in the path, where we headed back to the car - all in all about 9kms. Have to say we were pretty proud of Zoe - who didn't complain at all. I think having an ipod stuck in her ears on the route home helped :) Think I lost about a kilo in sweat.

We stopped on the way home for some lunch at a local hawker centre - and filled up on BBQ pork and noodles for $3 a piece. It was SO good. We were the only caucasian's in the place.

With our belly's full and thirst quenched, we visited a local wet market to pick up some green mango's for tonight's dinner. We just LOVE green mango salad. It's so fresh and yummy.

We were home and in the pool by 2.3opm.

As I write this, it seems so bizzare to think of how we would be spending this day in France.... and indeed the way most of our friends will be today. While we're trekking through a jungle, they are skiing in snow-capped mountains... Can it be any different?

Green Mango Salad

Ingredients:- 3 unripe green mango's, 1-2 chilies deseeded and finely sliced, 1 carrot grated, 1 tbsp coriander finely chopped, 1 tbsp mint finely chopped, 1 tbsp lime juice, 1 tbsp brown sugar, 1.5 tsp fish sauce, 4-6 small dried shrimp, ground to a powder.

Method:- Combine all ingredients and mix well. Refrigerate the salad in covered container until ready to use.

PS - if you cannot find green mangoes, buy the least ripe mangoes that you can find and double the amount of lime juice.

Nature walks

In the heart of the island is a large nature reserve with three reservoirs. Yesterday, with french mum Sylvie and her 10 month old, we set out to explore the Macritchie reservoir - it's about 100ha of pristine rainforest. It's an area very popular with joggers and walkers.

It was beautiful - an enormous 'lake' with a 4km raised boardwalk on the edge of the reservoir and walks through the jungle. It's an 11km walk to circumnavigate the reservoir. At one end of the reservoir is a 'tree-top walk' where you walk on a suspended boardwalk 4 kms long, and 25 metres above the ground. This Zoe, Craig and I are going to tackle on sunday.

It was a beautiful walk - we managed about 5kms (there and back) with Eloue in the stroller. It was so peaceful and calm. We came across a group of monkey's who had stolen a pack of chips from a silly girl who didn't read the signs and brought food into the park. There would have been about 15 monkeys (I've since found out they were long tailed macaques). We got SO close to them about 3 feet away - it was great. They were so human like in the way they ate, and they sat in a row, one in front of the other and groomed each other. It was a unique experience.

Fogging

Take a look at this....

This is called 'fogging'. People 'fog' as often as weekly, but our condo fogs every 2 months. The 'fog' is insecticide to kill mosquito lavae. Singapore is one of the few countries in Asia not to have Malaria or other mosquito-borne killer diseases - although Dengue fever is around.

I can't believe that the men that do this, have no protective clothing or masks! It can't be good for you. There are no 'laws' governing how frequently you fog, however the Environmental agency does regular spot checks and it's a $200 fine if they find a mosquito larvae on your property. (We have an inspection of our apartment due this week).

Heaven on Earth

I've always thought of Stradbroke Island as 'Heaven on Earth'. It's an island off the coast of Brisbane, in Moreton Bay. It's only accessible by water taxi for people, and a barge for your car. It's a large island (about 80kms long) but has only 3 small settlements. As a family, we have been visiting Stradbroke Island since I was about 12 yrs old. Everytime I come back I am flooded with memories.

This trip to Australia, we got to visit Straddie for 3 days. Our last visit was about 4 years ago, when Zoe was 3 yrs old. Everytime I come here, I re-live my childhood. It was great to show Zoe some of my favourite places on the island - the walk around the headland and look for marine life, to sit and listen to the blow-hole and watch for turtles and walk from Frenchman's beach to home along the beach and rocky headlands. The Island didn't disappoint - we watched some large rays off the headland, and saw some turtles around the blow-hole. It was low tide when we walked along the beach, and Zoe and her cousin Tess collected shells and discovered small fish and crabs in the rock pools. Zoe got to swim in the Ocean for the first time in her life! Waves!!! She was very funny to watch - trying to hold her footing against the breaking waves and squealing the whole time with a grin on her face. With her cousins, and a loan of a surf-mat, she surfed the waves like a real Aussie.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year to everyone!! I hope you all had a great Christmas and had fun welcoming in the new year.
We had a nice Xmas in Aus. Everyone grouped in Brisbane, with Craig's sister and her two teenage boys and Craig's parents driving up from NSW. 4 families living under one roof for 5 days was 'interesting'.... no really, it was ok. There were 10 of us - luckily mum and dad's house is big!
Christmas day was fun with the entire two familys for lunch - 16 in all.
It was an early start, with Zoe discovering Santa had left something at the end of her bed - at 5.30am! A record awakening time. So, we all sat in our bed discovering what Santa had left in Zoe's Santa sack. It was lovely. So, by 6am - the whole house was awake, with Zoe visiting each bedroom, waking the occupants to look what Santa had brought her.

Craig cooked Christmas lunch - with a hot meal. He cooked Martha Stewart recipe of honey glazed ham with pears and cranberries, a large potato gratin, and steamed veges. It was delicious.
After lunch we gathered around the tree and gave each other our Christmas presents, which was followed by all the kids swimming in the pool.
It was a relaxed and fun day.

New Year's Eve was a very low key event.... after dinner Zoe lit some sparklers to celebrate the coming of the new year but was in bed by around 10pm. Dad also didn't make it past 10pm. Mum, Craig and I saw the New Year in, quite by accident. We were watching Lord of the rings - the return of the kings which finished aroun 1am!!

Christmas carols?

Just before the end of school, the parents were invited to a musical concert to see the children sing and partake in some munchies afterwards. It's a little strange to say this was only my 2nd formal visit to the school so I had to study the school plan on the website to figure out where the auditorium was!
Any preconceived ideas I had about a cute group of children singing quaint christmas carols was completely blown away when the 7 classes of CE1 filed into the auditorium with large drums, decorated plastic milk containers and objects resembling pogo sticks with tennis balls on the end. Conducting the children were two men - both in their mid 50's, one with a bongo drum between his legs.
And so the concert began with the children thumping, banging and singing to the beat of the drums. They sang 4 or 5 songs, each one with more gusto and tempo than the previous - the kids were moving to the beat, and the teachers, one without the bongo drum had a whistle firmly planted in his mouth driving the kids on. The bongo drum beat out a rythym and the children would echo the beat. The parents were brought into the fray echoing the drum beat by clapping their hands. For a moment I thought I was in Brazil! It was certainly entertaining. They were very hip music teachers.

Afterwards in the class I got talking with some of the mums and Zoe's teacher. It was nice. The children's work was scattered around the walls, and I easily found the letter Zoe had written to Santa. It was hilarous. She told Pere Noel that she had been very, very good this year. She wanted a Barbie and a DS Lite and she thought she deserved them because she had been helping mum around the house, and because she said hello to her papa when he came home from work. I had a good laugh.