Super mum

I have always loved playing with my boys.

When they were small most of my day was caught up with duplo, crafts, train tracks and visiting the park.

As they have gotten older and their interests somewhat more adventurous I have found it more and more difficult to be anything other than a cheer learder on the sidelines of their activities.

Yesterday I was watching Luke run and jump onto the trampoline, commenting on how clever he was (of course!). Luke was energetically explaining to me just how easy it was to do this particular jump as long as you had a run up, and invited me to give it a go. I had declined his enthusiastic offer, as I always do, but he was quite sure that it was achievable even for an old lady like mum, if I just followed his instructions.

So, to his surprise, I relented and said I would give it ago. I wasnt really sure I could do it but thought it was probably one of those few things that I could join him in that has a relatively small risk of injury.

So I made my run-up, and as I approached the trampoline I leaped, just as he had instructed, right leg out in front, so my foot (having landed on the mat) would help to pull the rest of me up. Well for a second their I thought I was going to make it. I was just starting to feeling smug in my abilities when my toes hit the edge of the bar. The impetus of my run up threw my body up on to the trampoline despite of my flailing arms and wobbling body. Following on behind came my left leg, slamming into the bar and then scraping along the springs for extra effect.

I grabbed my knee and rolled around on the trampoline - my pride well and truly bruised, almost as much as my knee! Luke ran up saying, "I cant believe you did that. I was sure you would pike out at the last minute!!" "Oh great!" I thought, "all that badgering and he didnt even expect me to do it!!"

I hopped down, regaining my composure and dusted off my battered ego, while Luke ran to get the mini trampoline, so that I could "try again" with a spring board this time.

Well I suppose if I were a 12 year old I would try it again, but I am coming up for fourty in a few years, so i declined his enthusiastic offer.

The next 24 hours were spent with two jubilant teens encouraging me to "give it another shot, mum!". I never imagined the can of worms I was opening when I said yes to this little adventure but obviously they are quite proud of their mum dispite my failed impersonation of superman... So, after much badgering I have conceded to give it another shot once my wounds have healed - this time with the mini-tramp. I'll keep you posted.

A faith based on works

As some of you know I grew up in the Baptist church and served in the ministry for some time, even studying Theology for 3 years.

Since that time my life has moved on and I have come to question a lot of things that I previously believed.

Recently I got in touch with some old church friends and it got me thinking again about my "faith" - what I actually believe and where I now stand.

During the last few days I have been chatting with another "ex-christian" friend of mine about the things we miss about Christian life and our current theological outlooks. It is interesting just how diverse "ex-christians" are. My girlfriend holds onto tennents that dont make any sense to me and in our discussions it was clear that some to the ways I see the world and "the scripture" (in many forms not just the bible), are foreign to her.

It has been a mind blowing time of dialogue. I was chatting to my sister about it (whom works for a Christian mission!), and she was saying that one of the differences that the Christians have to other faiths is that they believe in salvation through faith not works. And this got me thinking; do i really interpret the bible in that way? Is that what I believe about Christianity or other faiths???

Afterall isnt faith without works dead?? And is the spirit of Buddism or Taoism, animism etc really about works. Isnt the path to enlightenment more about Love... and "works" are just an outpouring of that love - as is the case in Christianity.

So I started looking at the web for what others are saying that have travelled a similar journey.

What I am finding is that ultimately it is just a bunch of people with varying opinions. Nobody seems to agree. I can see why it is just easier to accept a laid out faith. Researching the in's and out's has provided quite a headache for me.

One thing that has been highlighted for me however is that Christians dont really understand the true tennents of other faiths. They look at the stucture and make assumptions of what lies beneath. The more I look into Buddism and Tantra the more I realise is that it isnt really about working your way to some paradise in the future. It is more about peacefulness in the now. About fully understanding, appreciating and practicing unconditional love - and that is a long journey, because we have shallow understandings of this concept.

Anyway I found this really interesting little snippet on a blog - about salvation through faith/works. Very thought provoking - I thought I would share it.

Matthew 7:23 is referring to a works based salvation. There is no way around it. With such comments as -> "but he that doeth the will of my Father" and "have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?"

Going "fresh"

Recently I had the misfortune of being very ill for several days, after eating some icecream. I am not very tolerant of sugar, or dairy or wheat - so icecream is not a good choice for me... but when the rest of the family were hoeing into it... and it looked so yummy, it was hard to resist.

Well I ended up in bed for 4 days. I was completely miserable and I promised myself that when I got well, I would be more careful with my health and what I consume.

The crazy thing about my body is that sometimes I can eat contrabaned foods and be fine and then at other times I have an outrageous reaction, like the one mentioned above. Maybe it has to do with the moon, maybe it has to do with too many pollutants in the air on any given day, who knows?!!

What I have committed to however is that from now on I am going to be dairy free and almost sugar and wheat free. I am still allowing myself a plain biscuit in the evenings with a cup of tea - my final vice. Ive started feeling really good.

I have found that just by virtue of how much those products have permiated almost all precessed foods in our society, that my diet has been mostly restricted to fresh produce. So I decided to take the next step in the challenge . I have a couple of friends that have a complete raw diet, but this is far to extreme for me. So while I am still allowed to cook stuff, most of my diet is now fresh products.

It is amazing how easy the diet has been. I thought going sugar free would be difficult, but when most of my food is fresh, I find that I dont crave those other things. In fact I am eating a lot less, just because the variety is much smaller and so when I go to eat something out of habit I tend to look at the food and think "do I really want MORE of that?" I usually only say yes if Im actually hungry

One other thing that has been a surprise is that I am drinking more. Drinking smoothies, soy milk, juices and home made broths. And water, lots of water. When I go to the cupboard and feel like a little something and nothing takes my fancy, I grab a glass of water and that works a treat. Im realising that, in the past, I used to eat when I was actually just thirsty.

It is exciting to be in this place. When I looked at a raw food diet several months ago I thought "I could never do that" ... I didnt realise that I could take up an adapted option that would work so well for me. Yippeee.

But it is early days. So we will just have to see how things go.

Beachy daze

We have been squeezing every last ounce of value out of the summer months, here in Adelaide. Autumn has just arrived but we have had 2 weeks of 35+ degree days. Being beach lovers we have been enjoying the water everyday.

I have come to realise that I'm actually a bit addicted to that floating feeling fo the sea. With the gentle waves of SA coast (the boys calle them mico-waves because they are almost non-existent), it is a pleasure to just lay back and enjoy the rocking motion.

Each day we go for a short swim and then fool around for a while before heading home again. Living so close to the beach, we dont have to stay all day. We just pop down and laze around until it starts getting too cold. Sometimes we go down twice during the day to cool off.

Yesterday a dolphin came right up to the shore and was swimming along about 4 metres out. A heard of children came running down the beach crying out about the dolphin. Luke ran ahead and then swam out into the path of the dolphin. When the creature surfaced again, it was within arms reach of Luke. It was all so exciting. Lukes comment was "I wish I could rewind my memories and play them like a video so i could watch them over and over". He couldnt believe how close it was to him.

Even being on the shore, it was a thrill to see the dolphin, skimming the surface and submerging again.

A few weeks agon we also saw a seal off the edge of the reef at Noarlunga. Jordan swam out to it and stool on the reef watching it catch fish and then stick its head out of the water and clean its wiskers with its front fins. Soon a small crowd had gathered. The seal wasnt the least bit perturbed. There was a small group of snorklers in the water and they hadnt seen the seal, until it swam right up to them. They just about wet their pants. It was hilarious to watch.

The other creature that has been seen quite a bit at our local beach is a sting ray. Im not sure it is the same one each time, but it is very unnerving when you are just floating along and this large figure comes out from the sand and swims off. I wish he would swim somewhere else.

Atleast it isnt a shark! LOL.

I feel to blessed to be surrounded by such beauty and wonder!! I love our new home near the sea and our summer lifestyle. What else could we ask for.

teen boys at home

How does a mother homeschool two teenage BOYS??

Surely this is the domain of men?

This last 6 months I have been reflecting upon just how much my boys have grown and how much their interests have changed. They definately need me a lot less, but that doesnt mean that I feel they need adults any less.

My boys are at an impass. They want to climb and explore and build and invent. They want to learn new things ....Me? I dont want to climb. My exploring skills certainly dont match theirs, so I am quickly out of my comfort zone. Building??

My boys also need more freedom. In bygone eras boys of 14 were out in the community contributing something valuable. My boys arent even old enough to volunteer at the zoo. (Minimum age 18!) So they are stuck at home doing pretend stuff. Natural learning is supposed to be made up of the stuff of real life. There are only so many things that "have to" be done in our house, and it certainly doesnt take all day, nor is it terribly stimulating. So my boys look after the animals and do their chores, but that doesnt fill the day.

Our society no longer allows the type of freedoms that young boys need in order to learn and grow well. In order to have a safe and litigation free environment we have sterilized our society.
Boys are only allowed to explore within the carefully defined guides of structured (and often expensive) activities.

So as a homeschool mother I have a few choices. Move the country and buy a large piece of land in a small town so the freedoms they need can happen on our own land. Ask my hubby to give up work for the next few years in order to take they boys through this next phase of homeschooling (by the way I couldnt earn even half of what my dh does), or accept that i can only do my best in this difficult situation and even though i know my boys are not getting the best life education, continue this suburban life and hope that more options become available as they grow.

At the moment I think the last option is the only sensible one.

Food Sovereignty

Last week I went to a "Food Sovereignty" meeting at our Adelaide Friends of the Earth Association. It was absolutely inspiring and I have come away with much on my mind.

What is Food Sovereignty? I hear you ask. It is just one of THE most important global and local issue in our world at present. Interconnected with Global Warming and the Peak Oil crisis. Just click on the FS Title at the top of this blurb and follow the link - it explain it far better than I can - I have included a little extract below:

What is Food Sovereignty ?
Food Sovereignty is the RIGHT of peoples, communities, and countries to define their own agricultural, labour, fishing, food and land policies which are ecologically, socially, economically and culturally appropriate to their unique circumstances. It includes the true right to food and to produce food, which means that all people have the right to safe, nutritious and culturally appropriate food and to food-producing resources and the ability to sustain themselves and their societies.

Why is food Sovereignty important? This link has a small explanation of why -
http://www.nffc.net/issues/fair/fair_1.html

My friend Joel who attended a FS meeting in Mali, Africa last month has a terrific explanation - I will download it once I can find it online.

For now the question is what will you do locally about food sovereignty. More on that latter.

Love Stephanie

Eight Random Things About Me.

My sister sent me a tag - to encourage/force me to update my blog, and I figured if she could do it with a 22 day old baby then I should be able to find 10 mins to update mine.

Now... 8 random things about me??

1. When I go to sleep I place my hand on my husbands chest - he's alway so warm and soft.

2. Today was winter solstice in Australia and we had a little ceremony and each made a wish - and I wished for worms!! (Well actually I wished that my new worms in my new worm farm would go forth and multiply so I have lots of worm poop for my garden)

3. I am hopeless at math - while I am still counting in my head and carrying the one and so on, my 12 year old already has the answer.

4. I dont understand Aboriginal people, but I would like to.

5. I am part of one of the most amazing groups of women on the face of the earth, (of corse I am completely unbiased) that are doing some ground breaking work in the field of community change and societal peace building - they are my local natural parenting/homeschooling group.

6. I do the book keeping in our family

7. I am missing my favourite tv program to write this

8. I wish i had chosen different names for my children

cooking up a storm

My life has been lived in the kitchen these last few weeks.

We have all embarked upon an immune boosting diet to help make us healthier.

It is a love hate deal. I love the inches coming off my waist but so far I dont feel any better and the food preparation involved means that the children are rather neglected.

This morning I cooked up a large vege omelette for breakfast and then made up a salad and some home made mayo with tuna, as we were going out for lunch.

We arrived home at 5 pm and it was straight back into the kitchen for me! Soup for dinner and then a double batch of vege samosas for packed lunches tomorrow... with more salad.

More veges for breakfast tomorrow and then we are treating ourselves to a modified nacho's for dinner, with blue corn chips and refried beans with the usual sour cream, guacamole and salad.

When I am not cooking I seem to be heading out to the shops for that one or two ingredients that I dont have, mustard seeds, ural dhal, pistachios.... things that, when you are a food fanatic like I am and your cooking and culinary privelidges are restricted you just have to have in order to keep the palate happy.

Of course I could just live on Omelettes and tuna salad... but Im already going mad with the repetition... so it is off to the kitchen I go again to find some new way of working with lentils and veges!!

Cheers

Buddha park

First stop on the agenda today was the Australian Embassy Medical clinic to check David's ear. We arranged a tuk tuk yesterday to pick us up nice and early so we would be guaranteed to arrive on time - even if we had trouble locating the place.... Well we didnt take into account an agreeable tuk tuk driver who nodded happily to all of our questions about the embasy and assured us over and over again that he would take us there without any problems.

So bright and early this morning we headed off for the embassy about 5mins drive away - after about 5 mins our driver stopped and said "which consulate"

Ok.... so we were fairly worried by his question. Obviously he didnt understand the word "Australia" no matter which way we tried to pronounced it so he stopped to ask another Tuk Tuk driver who pointed down the road and smiled nicely. After another 5 mins I mentioned to David that i really didnt think this was the right direction, as we had just passed a sign for the border! We then passed the Cambodian Embassy and quickly looked it up on the map to see if it was close to the Aussie embassy - Im sure you can guess by now the outcome.... It was over the opposite side of town.

We now had 5 mins to get to the embassy for our appointment. We signalled to our driver to pull over and David ran to ask some guards near by. He showed them the map and after quite a bit of gesturing and pointing and confused looks it was decided that the consulate was near the monument.

I had had enough of our tuk tuk driver by now. The engine on his tuk tuk was not running well and we were puttering along so slowly (murpheys law or something - slowest tuk tuk when you're in a hurry - LOL) I pulled over another driver and asked him - he had a truck so we were guaranteed a faster ride - and he SAID he new the embassy! Well our driver assured us that he had the low down on the embassy location now and as we had booked him for the day, (for sight seeing), he was not keen to let us go.

We relented and climbed back in our little putter buggy. He did a u turn into a busy road and stalled in the middle - (I know this sounds like a laurel and hardy movie - but its true). Once we were going again our vehicle plodded through a few back streets, being over taken by every car, motorbike and tuk tuk on the road, until we reach a nice big traffic jam.

Well tuk tuks are known for being reckless in order to achieve their destination, and i fully expected ours to zoom down the opposite side of the road, as he had promised to hurry. Not our little friend. We seemed to have the most cautious tuk tuk driver in Lao. We edged our way through the traffic inch by happy inch until we finally came to the road that would take us to the monument.... we zoomed out of the traffic jam, breathing a sigh of relief.

Our driver raced towards the monument....... and then kept on driving - straight past - bye bye monument, bye bye consulate... We all turned our head to watch it go past and blankly looked at each other..... David quickly nipped our next little adventure in the bud, stopping the driver again and asking another local guard for some pointers. Were given some terrific directions that took us straight to the gate.

I rushed over to the locked gate and asked to be let in so we could see the doctor. The guard motioned for us to go around the corner to the other gate.... so we raced around the corner and down the road as far as the embassy wall took us..... you guessed it - no gate.

So we rushed back and in our best "desperate farang" faces pleaded with him to tell us how we can get into the clinic, as there is no gate. He then gestured that the gate was not around the corner but down the road - Oh of course, how could we have missed that????!!! The clinic is not on the embassy grounds!

We raced down the road and were asked at the gate to sign in. After all this rushing we were in no mood for being stalled - shifting down a gear we patiently signed in and raced off the clinic.

We were now 40 mins late - and had been informed the day before that the doctor was busy after 10am. With a long weekend starting the next day, I was worried that we would have completely missed our appointment.

Well the receptionist reassured me that it was fine and the doctor would see us next - 10 mins later we were walking out of the doctors with a script in hand and $120 poorer.

As suspected Davids ear drum has been perforated and there is a small infection so he has started on some antibiotics and needs to followup with a GP in Australia next week when we return. It will take about two weeks for his hearing to return to normal.

After getting that addressed, feeling much calmer and having dismissed our tuk tuk driver with a generous tip (since we werent interested in hiring him for the day anymore), we walked the short distance to Patuxai (Victory Monument).

The Lao's call it the vertical runway because the money for a new military runway was apparently provided by the United States towards then end of the Vitnam war however the lao's decided to build a monument with it celebrating their independence. The monument itself is a replica of the French Arc de Triomphe. David and the boys climbed the steps to the top (6 storeys).

Next stop was to secure another Tuk Tuk to take us to the somewhat quirky Xieng Khaun or Buddha Park.

Buddha Park is a collection of slightly bizare Buddhist and Hindu cement sculptures in a peaceful park near the Mekong River which overlooks Nong Khai in Thailand. Highlights of the park is the enormous reclining Buddha which the Boys climbed onto for Photo's and the truly strange 'Hell Mouth' - a large pumpkin shaped sculpture with a gaping mouth as its entrance, inside which is the creators rather unsettling vision of the underworld. We climbed extremely narrow steps in the dark to get to the top which had great views over the park. Other highlights of Buddha park include monsters with heads in their mouths, humans combined with animals and a tall narrow Pyramid shaped tower (almost South American in its design) which the boys again climbed very narrow steps to get to the top of.

The park was certainly different and for that reason alone it was worth the visit however the road trip there and back with 5 people (including the driver) being transported by a 100cc motor in the Tuk Tuk was another experience.

The roads were quite bad for a capital city and there was quite a lot of road work being done so there was a lot of dust and mud to accompany the huge potholes and the bad Tuk tuk suspension! We survived - Just.

We needed money when we arrived back (we had to pay the Tuk Tuk driver in Lao Kip and Thai Baht combined) however we quickly found out that that was a bigger challenge than we though as this weekend is a festival weekend across Laos and so all the Banks are closed for three days (and we had a total of 4000 Kip - about 55 Australian Cents). We eventually found out that fortunately, Laos has recently introduced it's very first ATM machine with international card access (and there is just one) and it is in Vientiane so we were able to withdraw some money.....Phew - not sure what we would have done to address that problem!!

Anyway, that was our day. Tomorrow is planned to stay around the Central city area and visit some of the local sights.

Hopefully it will be much less eventful!

Keep smiling love stephanie

Vientianne

Well we arrived in Vientianne this afternoon, after a 5 hour, cramped trip on the bus. It was hot and the way the bus drivers, drive over here leaves a lot to be desired in the comfort stakes. Not that they can really be blamed as they are constantly having to dodge pot holes and cows that wont move off the road, and navigating some very windy roads.

Yesterday we went tubing and we all had a great time, (including another stop at the giant rope swing over the river) however David accidently landed side ways in the water on his last turn, and has injured his ear drum/tube. It has been oozing blood stained fluids for the last 30 hours and we have an appointment with the doctor at the Australian Consulate tomorrow. There must be something about travel and the need for David to injure himself... last holidays he ended up in the hospital for 3 days.

Today i am feeling out of sorts - arriving in hot, stinky, noisey and filthy Vientianne, just made things worse for me. We have been to so many beautiful places and I thought Vientianne was going to be this sleepy little place (from what we had read on the net and travel guides), but it is like Bangkok gone wrong. Of course it is a lot smaller than BKK but a lot dirtier and much harder to get around... and there's not a lot of tourist information, so im not sure we are going to get to see some of the things that we would like to - as no one knows where they are (or atleast they dont understand what we are asking)

I mentioned to David that 3 days at the resort is looking really appealing at the moment.

Maybe i can convince him to travel to bangkok a few days early?

Anyway Catch you later - Stephanie

Vang Vieng

We arrived in Vang Vieng after a long and winding 5 hours journey from Luang Prabang. Considering it is only a 230km trip you can imagine how fast we were going! The trip itself was almost totally through mountains so we were either climbing up or going down hills al the time and passed at least 50 traditional Lao villages with houses built to within a few feet of the road.

The road itself, while mostly bitumen was at times hairy and the drivers on it were even worse but most interesting was our driver who could not speak a word of english! We had asked when we booked the special "Minibus" option about breaks and were told there would be stops every 30-40inutes....well 2.5 hours into the trip there had been no breaks and the way this guy drove I think we all needed a break. Anyway, Stephanie needed a toilet break so I relayed the request using the few Lao words we know (fortunately toilet is the same in Lao as it is in Thai). We received an instant response as we flew over the crest of a hill.

Right there and then the driver stopped on the side of the road, next to the 80 degree drop off the mountain and proceeded to go to the toilet himself. Stephanie and another of the travellers weren't too keen on this particular location and tried to speak to the driver but to no avail so Stephanie needed to find a not so private spot next to the road (and as far from the hill edge as she could). She was grateful that she was wearing a skirt and not long pants!

We made it to Vang Vien at about 4pm and went about the almost routine procedure for us now of finding a hostel, food, and any sightseeing options for the next few days.

We didn't originally plan to visit Vang Vieng however as we had a couple of spare days and we heard that there were great caves and river activities we decided to add it in.

Day 1 was a kayaking trip which started about 18km up-stream from the town and weaved its way back over some small rapids and with a few stops on the way. Each of the boys Kayaked with one of the guides while Stephanie and I were teamed together and let's just say that neither of us know that much about Kayaking!! We definately worked the hardest of any of the people in the trip - not because we intended to but simply because our Kayak continually was facing to one bank or another but rarely downstream. Im sure we travelled twice the distanceas everyone else as we weaved our way across the river in our attempt to go straight. Stephanie sampled the cool of the water once when we accidently turned sideways going down some rapids and she fell out.

After about 30 minutes paddling we stopped at a small cave called the Elephant cave. The cave itself was unspectacular but the break from our already sore arms was good. After that we went on for another hour or so before stoppiong for a BBQ lunch overlooking the river. Luke and I (David) crossed a traditional bamboo swinging bridge across the river (about 50 metres) which was an insightful look into Lao life .....only one person was allowed on at a time and even then it was a challenge.

After lunch we paddled on and finally started to cover the same area where many people do 'Tubing' (sitting in a large truck tyre tube and float downstream back to the town). Some entrenpenurial people have set up bars along the way as well as large swings and jumping platforms for people to jump into the river from. After a bit of consideration both boys and myself made our way up the 30 metre ladder to the platform perched in a tree and swung our way (hanging by our arms) back and forth over the river before dropping into it and then swimming back to do it all again. The boys loved it and went again and again and again and were delighted when we told them that Tubing was on our agenda for the next day and that they could do it again.

Back in the Kayaks and one final stop was at the 'Sleeping Cave' where up to 1000 Lao's hid in a throughout the Vietname war as their homeland was being ravaged by US bombs.

Something that we have learnt since being here is that over a 12 year period that the US airforce carried out sustained bombing missions on Laos not because they were at war with Laos (in fact that had a large Airbase right here in Vang Vieng) but because they wanted to stop the North Vietnamese from using it as a passage in the way. The outcome though is that Laos has the sad recored of being the most bombed country in History and even to this day farmers and children especially are still being maimed and killed but Unexploded ordinance (UXO) which based on current programs in place (of which I notice that the US are not involved in) is expectedto take 100 years to remove all the unexploded bombs!!!

After the sleeping cave it was back into the Kyaks for the last leg back to town.

The day was rewarding all round and the boys (courtesy of 'The Swing') have declared it the best day of our holidays so far.

Day two had a few things on the agenda.....first up was to buy our ticket to Vietianne and this time it is the VIP bus (one step down from the Minivan but hopefully more stops). From there we headed off to tubing with a stop on the way to an organic Mulberry farm.

By Hook or by Crook - or by Bicycle!!

Sunday was our last day in Luang Prabang and we decided to visit some of the town by bicycle.

It took some convincing for Luke to feel comfortable that he could negotiate the diverse road manners of the Laos like riding on the right side of the road and bargaining, negotiating and working your way through Tuk Tuks, Trucks, Cars and motor Bike (often all at once) but considering the alternative was for him to be doubled behind me (and look into my day pack) he soon decided to ride himself.

We road about 5 or 6 ilometres out of town stopping for lunch at the Phousi market which is the locals market where everything is on sales from clothing, garden and household goods to vegies and cut meet (carefully guarded over by women with plastic bags who shoo away any flies). Let's just say that it definately was not the market where most tourists go (I'm sure a number of tourists wouldn't eat meet or fish in Laos again if they did) but it was great fun.

For lunch we had the option of noodle soup, noodle soup or noodle soup and we had Noodle soup - No western cutlery available (only chop sticks), not a word of English able to be spoken by anyone (nor an effective word of Lao from us either) and no drinks...I think we became the tourist attraction for the locals though and I'm sure they made a healthy profit from us as well as the 40,000 kip we paid (4 US dollars) for all of our meals was guaranteed to be much more than any Lao would have paid...oh well.

We were intending to ride a little longer around the Luang Prabang Peninsular in the afternoon but for a family who don't ride bikes very often our back-sides were telling us that enough was enough so we called it a day when we got back to town.

As we walked back to our guesthouse we passed a motor bike with a lead attached to a tiny Monkey...he was adorable and eager to show affection so we sat and played with him and he climbed all over us (Jordan excluded himself as he felt our antics were just a bit too much). We have the photo's and video evidence of this charming experience to show when we get back to Oz. That's all. David

Mekong Tourer

The last day of September and our second day in Luang Prabang led us to the Mekong again and to hire a slow boat for a trip up the river. Wer started on the boat at about 10am and first stop was a village where they hand make paper and weave with silk and cotton.

We all got to see the paper making process from pounding the reeds to pulp and then socaking in water before soaking and setting on mesh to dry. Jordon is the proud owner of a new handmade light shade while Luke has a new journal to record his travel adventures in once his current one (which aunty Liz bought him) is full.

We also watched a number of women weaving with silk and saw the silk rolled arond traditional bamboo holders as well as the dislays in the makers house - we didnt buy any weaving at the village

The second stop was at a village conveniently known as the Whiskey village as they produce a quite strong (55% alcohol) rice whiskey (I think they used to call it moonshine!!) and after we all tried it (yes, we all.....Luke and Jordan might never get that chance again) we bought a small bottle which we hope to sdhare with the family after Christmas lunch - only a small amount each but that will be enough I'm sure.

Final stop for the day and in fact the major reason for our trip was to visit Pak Ou caves (or the Buddha caves) which is inside the sheer wall of a large sandstone cliff. The caves weren't as good as we expected although we did expect the large array (over 300) Buddha statues inside - I guess you can rarely see it just like the postcards in real life.

Nonetheless we went through the small lower

Our trip back in the boat was fun as we were going downstream so moved fairly fast....the boys got to sit on the roof of the boat for our photo shoot.

All in all a great day. David

Waterfalls and wild animals

Today was probably the best day of our trip, so far.

We decided to go out to visit one of the waterfalls in the area, that we were told was worth seeing. We hired a truck - Chaing Mai style - and headed out along the bumpy roads. It was so great driving through the local villages, seeing the various peculiarities of the culture, and the awesome view.

There were buffalo in the rice paddies and children riding bicycles carrying umbrellas to keep the sun off. We stopped in a small village and all the women and children put out their wares for us to see. I just couldnt buy from one of them so i just bought something small from each - much to their delight. The children repeated everything i said - I'm sure they had no idea what they were saying. One lady I paid, had two children and when i gave her a 10000 kip note her son began to cry. She gave it back to me and motioned for me to give her 2, 5000 kip notes - which i did - and both boys happily compared notes. (The children we have seen all throughout Lao are so involved in their parents lives. Tonight at the market I saw a girl of 10, cooking up a storm in her mothers road side stall). So after we had a good laugh at each other we said good bye to this happy bunch and headed straight for the falls.

When we arrived there was a sign for a wildlife sanctuary near the falls. We decided to head on over for a look. There were quite a few Moon (Asiatic Black) bears and also one Asian Tiger named Phet, all of whom had been rescued from Poachers. They were caged behind cyclone fencing (not quite Adelaide Zoo quality fencing). The bears happily played behind the fence about 4 metres from us however Phet the Tiger came a bit closer (about 3o centimetres from us through the fence) - certainly the closest we have ever been to a healthy looking tiger! While on one hand they were cages, the alternate option of these beautiful and endangered animals being hunted by pachers is certasinly the worse option. Luke bought a shirt to help support the running of the 'Protect the bears' fund.

We then headed off on the path that lead to the falls. Arriving at the bottom falls, we decided to take the extra hike to the top falls. Nice idea, but it was a strenuous scramble up a very steep hill. Some of the path had steps - at one point they were actually on the wall of the water fall, so we had water streaming over our feet as we climbed, which was quite a thrill as there was no hand rail. The rest of the path was a serious goat track.... and really showed up how unfit i am...... Mmmmm have to work on that!

When we got the top there was a bamboo railing along the very ridge of the falls, looking over the drop. We decided this was not an opportunity that we didn't want to miss, and braved our way across the slightly slippery rocks, as the water gushed past our legs. A few kodak moments later and we were scrambling back down the other side, thankful that we had not come up this way, as it was just one big mud slide. We offered our moral support to those we passed, as they headed up, and suggested they cross over and try the other track on the way down.

When we got to the bottom we wandered down through a series of smaller falls until we found a swimming hole with out any tourists - just a few locals (they were probably looking for the same and we probably spoilt their swim - LOL).

We decide this was the spot for us and tentatively stepped into the cold but aqua/white water. While swimming in this area there was one tourist who decided he was going to jump off the 10 foot (small) waterfall into the frothing water below. We thought this looked a bit periolous and that he was a bit cray but it caught on and before long a number of people were doing it and Luke decided he had to do it also and (after some convincing his parents!!!) he headed onto the falls and off he went (but we missed it with the camera!!); Up he went again (and we missed it again); up he went again and we caught the action on a small movie file but by now it was the norm and he went up again and again.

Jordan was initially hesitant but after a while and a couple of progressive (smaller) jumps he too did it and now they were both into it..... After about 90 minutes in the water we packed up and headed back to the Tuk Tuk. One other experience on this same day was that near the waterfall

Our final trip home in the Tuk Tuk was a good as the way up.....dodging the horses eating freely beside the road, swerving around potholes and children all over the place (school was out) and weaving our way back through the different villages located so close to town and yet so very different to what we would ever see, anywhere in Australia.

It was a great day. David & Stephanie

Luang Prabang

We arrived in Luang Prabang this evening, after two days on a long boat. We boarded the boat yesterday at 9:30am. There were a few Loas on board and the rest of the boat was full of tourists. We walked across a plank of wood onto the boat with our back packs on so we wouldnt be lopsided and topple over, but when we stepped inside the boat we couldnt stand up fully because the roof was so low. I took my pack off, but David who had his hands full kept his on. The front was full so we walked towards the back. the further we walked up the boat the lower the roof got. By the end David was so hunched over he was almost kneeling. We stored our bags under the floor boards and then they replaced the floor and pulled up these ricketty pews for us to sit on. They were made out of a couple of planks of wood on legs. One plank of wood was for the back rest and one to sit on. The wood was 15cm wide and only 90cm long- which made it quite a sqeeze for two bottoms. The leg room was even worse. I couldnt put my legs straight in front of me and David had no hope. We sat Lao style with our legs folded to the side. We sat there waiting for about one hour, watching more and more tourists board our already crowded boat.We were surrounded by a bunch of well humoured foreigners - making jokes about the journey ahead. Another hour rolled on and we were beginning to wonder what the hold up was, as the boat was packed to the rafters - when another 15 tourists turned up. We thought that maybe they were going to put them on the roof, as we had even run out of room for the luggage in the main hold and the narrow walk way was now littered with back packs. There was plenty of speculation about a possible second boat (as usually only one boat leaves for Pak Beng per day) or this group of travellers needing to wait until tomorrow to travel down stream, when a very fancy boat pulled up next to us to usher the stranded tourists on board. Up to this point we had been feeling sorry for this group, and now we were all viing for membership to their priviledged club. Well we got our wish. I called out to the owner of the boat to ask if we could join them, as our boat probably had 80 people on board and theirs (of the same size) only had 15. He called me over. I send the boys scrambling over the side of the boat and then it was on for young and old. This second boat had reclining seats with plenty of leg room, polished floor boards and an area at the back to stand up in!! The nice thing was that with the mass exodus from the "third world boat" there was a lot more room for everyone left on board to stretch out and relax. I heard later that they had enjoyed their trip as the stoic underpriviledged! We arrived refreshed and happy at Pak Beng about 7 hours later. I trekked up the hill when we arrived, in order to look for a guest house to stay in, as we had heard some horror stories about accomodation in Pak Beng, and I wanted to be ahead of the crowd. David stayed behind and waited for our luggage off the other boat. Well the town must have caught wind of its bad reputation and decided to up grade its facilities, because we were really happy with the guest houses on offer. We ended up in a couple of twin rooms with ensuit (Lao style ensuit) - the beds were lumpy but there werent the plagues of rats we had heard of and the rooms has fly screens, so we were happy. We even had buffalo curry for dinner! Next morning we all piled on to one boat. A larger one that had plastic chairs. It was a good medium between the two boats on offer yesterday, although i still ended up with a head ache after 7 hours of sitting in a plastic chair!! That said, I really enjoyed myself. The scenery is breath taking all the way down stream. We saw water buffalo, fishermen throwing their hand made nets, tiny bamboo huts dotted throughout the jungle and lots of water side villages with children playing in the water, women carrying huge bundles on their shoulders and goods being traded between animated parties discussing the price. We even had several baskets of ducks join us for part of the journey, and one woman carried a plastic bag full of small birds??!!! It has been a great experience for the boys and we have met some fascinating people. Stephanie

The land of a million elephants

After our visit to Mai Sai and our foray into Myanmar for a day we decided that Chiang Rai didn't have that much more that we wated to see so we decided to head north to Chiang Khong and across the border to Huay Xai in Laos. The bus ride took three hurs to cover just over 100km's and was definately the 'local Bus' variety with seats definately not built for people who are 196cm and roads not built for "express" bus services!! We were squeezed in on funny angles and were the only farangs (foreigners) on the bus however the difficulties in travelling were more than made up for by the outstanding countryside that we travelled through. We travelled into a number of mountainous areas where bananna trees, maize and sugar Caner as well as the occasional workers hut seemed to cling to the hill sides. When the ground was flat then rice crops dominated and I was truly taken by the beauty of the land we were travelling through. After three hours we arrived in Chiang Khong and decided to head straight to immigration and the border and after paying our Tuk tuk drivers (whose engines seemed to find the 2km trip to the border with two of us and our bags extremely difficult) we then had our passports stamped and headed down the hill to the river 'taxi' which was just a long boat with an outbourd which we needed to walk through the water to get to. We crossed the border and organised our visa's and extry to Laos without a problem and with one big bonus....we became instant millionaires!! After getting our visa's we exchanged 4000 Thai Baht (about $143 Australian) into Lao Kip and in exchanges received 1,072,000 kip....Millionaires. The exchange rate is $1 Aust = 28 Baht = 7500 Kip! I quickly realised that it may have been a mistake as I had a wad of money three quarters of an inch thick which certainly wasn't going to fit in my wallet and which makes paying for things quite scary (like one minute on the internet right now costs 100 kip which sounds lik a lot but is just 80 cents/hour). Anyway we were there and we headed to a guesthouse for the night and purchased tickets for the slow boat journey the next morning. After we settled in we decided to walk back into the town and climbed the steps leading to the towns only Wat (temple) just as the monks started their evening chants. It was quite enchanting to listen to and the boys and I (women were not allowed) climbed a pagoda to look at an ancient drum and bell used by the monks and to view the mighty Mekong river from the highest point in Huay Xai. After dinner we were briefly rained on before scrambling back to the hostel for the night in our Bamboo rooms.....quite apt for our first night in the Land of a million Elephants! David

Journey to another world

One of the day trips we planned to take was to Mai Sai on the Mayanmar (formerly Burma) border and if the opportunity arose to cross the border as well even if just for the day. On arrival into Chiang Rai we enquired about getting to Mai Sai by local bus and planned our trip for the next day.....the Myanmar border had been closed for a number of days following the polictical coup in Thailand however we also heard on our arrival in Chiang Rai that the border had been re-opened so we decided to make the trip there as well and head across from Mai Sai to the Myanmar town of Tachilek. We did consider staying for a few days and travelling as far as you can (only about 100km's to Kengtung) inland but decided against it due to the current lack of certainty that the border will actually stay open. After having our passports stamped to exit Thailand and where right hand drive cars drive on the left hand side of the road we cross the river on foot over no mans land into the Union of Myanmar where the cars are also right hand drive but also drive on the right hand side of the road. Apparently this unfortunate combination was dictated by the literal minded General Ne Win (who took over the Burmese govent by force in 1962 and moved the country to socialism), who moved traffic from the customary left side of the road to the right when advised by an astrologer to 'move the country to the right' - sure makes for excitment at every turn!! Once we passed through the Myanmar immigration and received our visitors permits (they kept our passports and only returned them when we left the country later that day) we walked into Myanmar which was an experience in itself - like stepping back in time when you see the dreariness and obvious poverty of the people even in the border town. There have also been some heavy rains here and as a result the entire border section flooded with all houses and shops drenched in mud which they were still cleaning out today. The entry permit cost had doubled so maybe they were trying to regain some lost revenue from when the border was closed however we made it and were then confronted with the reality of an opporessed people. From the moment we entered Myanmar we were approached by people of all sorts - selling cigarettes, playing Cards and even Viagra (targetted at me - David....as if I look like I need it!!) as well as a constant stream of very sad looking beggars. Even the buildings looked drab and coulourless. It was not only that the people approached us, they followed us as we made our way through the market and the streets. We had lunch at a local hawker stall and after realising that they were Christian (Baptist Convention of Mayanmar) Stephanie felt compelled to give a small amount of money to them after we had finished our lunch (which we also paid for). After walking through the streets and markets a bit more we left Myanmar, glad for the experience but also glad to be returning to the relative happiness and pleasantness of Thailand. The sign at the roundabout just inside the Myanmar border says 'The city of the Golden Triangle' and while geographically it is true that we were close the the golden triangle where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet, there was very little that shone in this part of Myanmar. It did give us some questions about what is really happening in Myanmar that makes a town and people like this though and I am looking forward to reading and understanding more of this after our time away. All for now. David

Chaing Mai trek - Day two - the journey continues

We headed off on day two minus 4 of our original group as one was sick and returned by car with her partner while the other two were taking a three day trek so headed a different way.

While the first part of the walking was easier on day two, we soon found out what a few hours of rain does in the mountains and I'm sure that most of the people slipped over at some stage....most us atleast once on the almost vertical walk down a very steep hill right next to a waterfall where we swam and played after about two hours of walking.

Luke was still the master of the walk and had organised new sticks for some but as there were less people now the group moved much faster.

We made our way across rice paddies and through open plains and thick jungle areas and occasionally passed by a small hut or farm or even village but generally just kept going on.

Being refreshed after our swim we walked another hour or two and eventually came to a point where we were met by a truck and were taken to lunch. After lunch it was on to an area where were were to go bamboo rafting and as if the river water was not enough to get us wet it began to pour and pour rain.

We did evntually make it onto the rafts and with two people sitting and one standing on each raft we made our way about 40 minutes down stream.

Jordan and I (David) sat the entire way on ur raft (Jordan did stand but literally only for the final 30 seconds) while Luke who was with Stephanie stood for the second half of the ride. Luke and Stephanie's raft driver had the motto of "no wet, no fun" so you can imagine what they ended up like....not that Jordan and I were much better.

The final truck trip back into Chiang Mai was fast (you could tell they were trying to get home for dinner!) amd we arrived around 4.40pm after a very rewarding and enjoyable two day adventure.

With one more day left for us in Chiang Mai, which we decided to take as a rest day before heading on to Chiang Rai as Jordan had a fever and we thought we could do with some time out while still staying at Anne and Sean's house.

David

Chaing Mai trek - Day one

This morning we headed off for a two day trek into the hill tribes of Chaing Mai. Were picked up by a ute with a couple of bench seats and a roof over the tray; what they commonly call a truck, in Chaing Mai.

We pilled in the back and set off. An Irish couple were the first ones to join us, followed by two English blokes, an Israeli lady, and a Russian immigrant to America, who is currently living and working in India.

It was quite a group, and were were nicely packed into the back of this truck, when we stopped to pick up another person. I mentioned to the driver that I really didnt think we could fit another body in, and he assured me we could, just as 4 extras victims rounded the corner, intent on joining our cosy group.

We all laughed nervously and consoled each other that it was all part of the experience as we squished a little bit further down the bench seats. Our new comers were quickly introduced and every one was soon swapping travel stories.

Our guide, was also enjoying the ride in the back with us and keeping us all entertained with his quick wit about tourists. He was quite an extraordinary man. He not only spoke English and Thai but also Hebrew - and chatted quite happily with our jewish component (3 of our clan were jewish).

After a 1/2 hour drive we arrived at a elephant camp and squeezed our swetty selves apart from each other and unloaded to wait for our elephants to arrive.

The elephant ride was a hoot. Luke got to ride on the elephants neck like a Mahout (young boy who is given an young elephant to care for and taught how to tame it. He will spend his entire life in this role).

As we rode around there were these raised platforms that the mahout stopped at so we could buy banana's and sugar cane for the elephants. I couldnt resist. Everytime the elephant would hear the plastic bag crinkle he would stick his trunk up for a snack, taking whole hands of banana's at a time with his sticky nose.

Once we had taken our photos and said goodbye to the elephants we headed off to the base of the mountains to start our trek. After a quick lunch our guide lead us off into the jungle. I had to laugh when i saw the track we were to take!!! It was a small muddy path through such dense forest - little more than a goat track. A little way into the trek Luke found himself a large walking stick - It was noted by a few of the other team members as being a "mighty impressive stick", and so Luke took up the challenge of precurring a walking stick for each of the team members.

This became a running theme in conversation throughout our time... and many times there were comments on what a "great kid" Luke was. (Jordan was pretending to be invisible - as he does - and Im not sure anyone even noticed him - just jokes!)

We walked for about half an hour before we came to a stream. There was a log spanning the divide and we were instucted to sling our legs over each side and using our hands, pull ourselves along, in order to cross! It sounded easy enough but i found it close to impossible. Combining the need to hand on as hard as i could with my thighs so i wouldnt go off balance with my pack on, and the need to lift myself off the log with my arms so i could shuffle my bum just a few inches forward each time was quite a strain.... by the end my arms had given up the ghost, and I wasnt sure i was going to make it the last couple of feet.

Well obviously I did make it, and we set off again up the mountain. After 2 hours of some serious climbing, where i was really beginning to wonder what was suppose to be fun about this little adventure, we arrived at the top. We stopped at a small village and the boys practiced sling shot with the others, and we shared around the very culturally oriented pack of potato chips that we had brought along - much to the surprise and delight of the nationals.

Once we were on our way again it was much easier going. There were a few more hills but it was mostly flat walking for another 2 hours before we reached our goal for the night - a Karen village - where we were greated by a few giggling children who ran ahead of us to tell the rest of the tribe of our arrival.

The village was made up of a few raised, bamboo houses, cropping land, small structures that they use for cooking, and some out houses. We quickly met the local dogs, pigs and chickens who all free ranged around the property.

For dinner we had some of the best food we have had so far.... tofu and bean shoots, chicken and potato curry, veges and rice - mmmm. There was lots of banter while we ate. One topic of conversation was the pig that had joined us (under the table) for dinner. Luke decided that we should name the pig and the discussion turned to the choice of name. In the end it was decided that whatever name the pig responded to would be its new name. Lots of suggestions were offered to the pig but in the end the name Simon was the one that elicited a response, and so it was named.

After dinner the children came down to sing for us. It was quite a funny site. It wasnt structured at all. The parents just sort of hung back around the edges the kids gathered in the middle of some seats we were sitting on, and instead of facing us they all just sort of stood there chatting away to each other in Karen. Then someone would start singing and everyone would join in. Some of the older girls faced the front but a lot of them were still singing away to each other. At the end of the song, there wasnt a definitive end... they just sort of trailed away and then stopped, and then resumed chatting or giggling until someone started up another song.

After the show we handed out the pencils that had been donated by the country homeschool group. There were seven packets and we assumed they would be given to the school or just offered to the children to use as a group. Instead the children all formed a line and each child recieved 3 pencils. It was quite a production. Once everyone had recieved their pencils they excitedly huddled together to compare their treasures and trade their favourite colours.

It was getting late and the children were starting to yawn, so they headed off to bed, and we decided that bed sounded like a good next stop, for us also.

We found a spot on the bamboo matting that had been laid out for us on the bamboo floor and snuggled down for the night.

It has been so hard to find time on the internet - our time has been full of so much activity that by the end of the day I am hard pressed to drag myself out to write you all my news.... and then the other night i spent an hour and half typing away madly just to have the computer go down as i tried to save.

So all my stories about our 2 day trek into the hill tribes will have to be told later.

Rest assured that more entries are on their way - I have been typing them and storing them as a draft so i can publish them chronologically.

Will publish them soon. Take care, Stephanie