After travelling through two very small airports in Laos that would make Bus Eireann stations seem luxurious we arrived in Cambodia tired and hungry. Airports in Laos don’t sell food, not even sweets or crisps. We went through all the paperwork and eventually made it to the man with the sign with our name on it. He had jasmine garlands for us and an air conditioned van to drive to our hotel.

I love being met at a hotel with cold towels and cold welcome drinks. We went to dinner in the hotel and watched their Cambodian dance show and had an early night to get ready for our 4.30 am wake up the next morning.

 

After seeing the monks on Tuesday morning we were due to visit a rural school with a local charity. Katie wasn’t feeling great and as she suffers from travel sickness she decided to skip the 90 minute drive on the local roads and stay at the hotel with Nigel.

 

Until recently there were very few books published in the Lao language and none for children. A not for profit started publishing children’s books with children. It also started distributing them to schools and directly to school children. People can donate and sponsor new books or a book party that sets up libraries in classrooms and provides each child in the school with a book. We wanted to contribute something so before we left Ireland we had sponsored a book party. Our “party” took place a few weeks before we went to Laos but the charity “Big Brother Mouse” invited us to attend one that was happening when we were there.

 

i went with Laura and Emma deep into the countryside to s small rural school with no electricity or running water. Laura and Emma were put into the equivalent of 4th class at home. The charity brought workbooks for the children to do first but Laura and Emma were given the junior class version as the 4 th class one had Laos words and the junior one was all pictures and numbers. The posters on the walls showed they were some things similar to the girls school like learning how to calculate area. 

 

I don’t know who was more fascinated the local kids or the girls. We were told most of them had never seen a fired haired child before. The girls handed out the drinks and books and the kids sang songs and played games.

 

 

We got up before dawn to watch the monks collect alms. Nigel was suffering from a very upset stomach so was not able for the 4.45am alarm call so we left him in bed minding a sleeping John.

The girls and I chose to watch rather than participate in the tradition as we didn’t want to intrude on a religious service.

On St Patricks Day we relaxed with a cruise on the Mekong River. A 2 hour trip through beautiful scenery to the Pak Ou caves filled with thousands of statues of Buddha. Then lunch on the boat on the way back.

The girls caught up on their travel journals for school and John got some Angry Birds in!

Today we had an elephant adventure.

We took a 30 minute drive from the town to one of the many elephant camps in the area. This one was in a beautiful setting in the forest on the banks of the Nam Khan river. The  3 girls got on to one elephant and Nigel, John and I got on another. The elephants went down a hill and waded in to the river. It probably would have felt strange to be perched on a bench on the back of an elephant if I hadn’t be distracted by the amazing views. I think it equals some parts of the Dingle peninsula for the most beautiful place I have ever seen.

When we were in the river the mahouts jumped off so the children could take it in turns “driving” the elephants. The boys version of driving had him sitting on the elephants head in front of the mahout.

Afterwards we fed the elephants.

Then took a long tail boat up the river to a waterfall and to see a baby elephant. On the way up the river we say man fishing by throwing nets and other swimming about harpooning fish under the water. Women were doing laundry. A very different way of life.

We have taken 5 flights in the last 10 days and even if had only had today it would have been worth it.

This is a place from a different era.

We had breakfast in the quiet courtyard of the hotel. We were running a bit late and the breakfast came slowly. The tour guide arrived and said to relax we were on holiday. It seems to be the way here, relaxed.

The guide was to bring us to some temples, to lunch and then to a waterfall. I don’t know what I expected but reality was better.

We only managed to visit two temples because they didn’t really interest the 3 year old but the two we did visit were stunning.

But when the boy was done he was quite clear there would be no more temples!

We climbed the 320 steps from the banks of the Mekong to the top of a hill passing Buddha’s footprint and some monks on the way. From the top we could see the whole town and the two rivers. Refreshments were needed at the top but the view was worth it.

After we descended we had lunch on the riverbank and my children had their first experience of a squat toilet.

The Clerkin princesses were not impressed!

Then it was an hours drive out of town to the waterfall. It was 30km away but took an hour to drive at the slower Lao pace.

There is a bear sanctuary on the walk to the waterfall where bears that are rescued from illegal traders in the north of the country are kept. John spotted Daddy Bear, Mammy Bear and Baby Bear but no Goldilocks.

Though quite a few tourists thought they had found goldilocks as John and the twins were in great demand all day to pose for photos with random people. Apparently blonde children are fascinating.

You can swim in the pools at the waterfall but Katie had read about the parasites that live in the river water so we decided just to watch and then head back to the hotel pool for a swim.

We flew from Phuket to Bangkok to Luang Prabang. I cannot imagine a greater contrast to Bangkok Airport than the single low level building that is Luang Prabang Airport.

The hotel is also a contrast to our hotel in Phuket. The Banyon Tree was a large international resort that had to be navigated by golf buggy. This is a small hotel surrounding a central courtyard. You can see the whole hotel from our door.

When we got into the room it was warm even with the air conditioning on and there were a few mosquitos. The children were still a bit dubious about the move from the luxury beach resort to the mosquito infested jungle.

The air con kicked in and cooled down. A first experience in a tuk tuk to town and a pizza changed everyone’s perspective and we felt much more positive about Laos.

This is our last day in Thailand, tomorrow we head for Laos.

When our travel agent originally suggested we start with a week in a luxury hotel in Phuket that was not even on a great beach I was against the idea. I wanted the real Asia. I was obviously suffering from temporary insanity. What is not to love about stepping from your air conditioned villa into your own pool and jacuzzi. Golf buggies to drive you when it is too warm to walk, fabulous food and wonderful friendly staff. If the effort of walking to the restaurant is too much just call and eat by the pool.

Even the air smells wonderful with all the exotic flowers. Fruit I have never seen before. A green mandarin orange.

We do still have a little reality.

Laundry

And homework

Let’s hope we are up to handling real Asia at the weekend!

When we discussed what we wanted to do on our trip Emma said she really wanted to go snorkelling. Over the next few weeks I have lots temple and cultural trips organised but no snorkelling.

I had a look at some of the brochures we got in the airport and decided John would never manage a full day trip or even a half day with a large group. The excursion desk in the hotel were happy to organise a half day trip for just us to Khai island. Unlike the other trips I hadn’t done any research in advance. I went back to the house and read the reviews of trips to Khai Island and they were not good. They almost all mentioned a very small, very over crowded island so surrounded by tour boats there wasn’t room to swim. We decided to go ahead on the basis that if it was terrible we would ask them to take us straight back.

I also had the additional concern that I get very seasick. I did have seasick tablets with me but they do make me drowsy so I decided it would not be safe to take them when minding four snorkelling children.

We had a bad start when John didn’t appreciate being woken earlier than usual. He didn’t want to get sunscreen on, get dressed or leave the house. He got quite upset and then rubbed sunscreen in to his eyes which made things worse. He eventually calmed down on the mini bus that took us to the boat.

The boat was a pleasant surprise, a very clean spacious speed boat. The staff brought out appropriate sized life jackets for all of us and handed out cold drinks.

The journey by speedboat was exhilarating. It was very choppy bumping over waves at high speed but the scenery was gorgeous, beautiful karst formations, blue skies and clear waters. I kept by eyes firmly fixed on the land to they to avoid sea sickness. I had travel sickness wrist bands for the children but none for the adults – a deficiency in my huge first aid kit.

After thirty minutes we arrived at Khai Island. As reported it was a small island covered in deck chairs and surrounded by tour boats. Our guides seemed to know what they were doing. They anchored in a quiet spot off shore and threw a life ring on a rope over board. We were instructed to hold on to the rope or ring at all times to avoid floating away. We were all kitted out and I got in first to help the kids down into the water. It took them a few minutes to get used to it. John got to us one of his favourite phrases from Jake and the Neverland Pirates “Abandon Ship!”

There were fish of every imaginable colour, sea urchins and lots of coral. The girls loved spotting new things and pointing them out to each other. John just loved floating about in the water. He decided to be Daddy’s boy and held on to Nigel until he got tired and I brought him back to the boat. The staff insisted they would look after him and sent me back off to snorkel.

When we were done (well they had to cut it a little short actually because my seasickness was getting worse) they pulled up to the island and we got off for a picnic lunch. As we were eating one of our guides told us to look around. They had timed it perfectly there were only two other boats and we had the island practically to ourselves.

John fed the fish in the shallow water and Nigel and the girls did some more snorkelling from the beach. I relaxed on a deck chair and the seasickness medication I took as soon as we had finished snorkelling kicked in making me feel like I had drunk a few glasses of wine.

On the way back from the marina to our hotel we crossed the island. The guide pointed out rubber plantations and pineapple farms. There were stands at the side of the road like the Wexford strawberry stalls at home selling pineapples. We even saw a school just as the children in uniforms were getting out. It feels very removed from normal life and school runs here.

I think if we had been on one of the big tours that all seem to run on the same schedule, arriving and leaving together We would not have enjoyed the trip nearly so much but as it was we had a wonderful day.

here.