We managed to get through most of our plans
Our lovely swimming pool
Complete with dolphin water features
Mocktails!
More mocktails
How am I going to beat Mummy at this?
Fancy drinks
An Italian Buffet at a very posh hotel
Fruit carving at the posh hotel
Reading Harry Potter in the reading room
Chilling out by the pool
And Daddy’s back!
…The Girls Will Play!
Ferg’s off on a ‘live aboard’ 3 day scuba diving adventure to the Similan Islands, to one of the top 10 dive sites in the world.
We are consoling ourselves with a very, very nice resort* complete with swimming pool (with soft, fluffy towels provided), ‘posh’ bungalows (made of real bricks rather than woven bamboo), bungalow fairies (more commonly known as cleaners) and a huge, huge garden (coconut plantation) to play in.
We’re in Khao Lak, more package holiday than backpacker, but great for a few days of being alone in charge of 3 children. There’s loads of facilities here, and lovely places to eat, so I think we will be very happy.
I’m hoping to make it to the beach at some point, I went for a run there before Fergus left, and it’s stunning. But the resort’s so good and so different to what we’re used to, I’ll be lucky to get them past the front gates! Ah well, maybe we should just chill out and make the most of it. Happy days!
Our planned activities in Khao Lak – the stars are the ‘must do’ things
Our ‘forest’ – the view from the bungalow door
Picnic time
Smile!
* We are in Phu Khao Lak Resort. At 600 Bhat a night, it’s a total, total bargain – highly recommended
Happy Days!
Ordering their chosen colour of candy floss
The night market just setting up
Shell & Stone Draughts
Shell collecting
Could we be in England? No, it’s too hot!
Scarlett enjoying the freedom of no cast on her leg!
What we really needed was a nice place where we could rest for a few days, allow Scarlett some time to learn to walk without her cast on, and hopefully not spend too much money.
We couldn’t have done better than roll into this lovely seaside town. We arrived by 3rd class train for the price of 68 bhat for all of us (about £1.20). OK, so the train was 3 hours late, but at that price who can complain?
After a bit of a hunt around, we have a HUGE (seriously, massive) hotel room with a sea view, spotlessly clean & much nicer than we can normally afford, for 1100 bhat/night (about £21)*. They have been so friendly to the children, giving them little cakes and treats, and there’s a lovely outdoor seating area with free tea, coffee and Ovaltine, so we’ve had a great time doing homeschool out there by the sea, making the most of the freebies.
The town is set in a beautiful horse-shoe bay, dotted with little islands, and has the unusual feature of a promenade, reminiscent of Scarborough or the East Coast of England. There’s also a large playground (which the children are totally hooked on, I have spent about 6 hours there in 2 days) and a brilliant night markets, with scores of little stalls selling everything you can imagine. Mostly we call it ‘funny stuff’ as we don’t know what it is, but it’s absolutely delicious and unbelievably cheap!
It’s so lovely to be in a real Thai town rather than a tourist town at last. In fact, we have just extended our hotel booking for a few more days. It’s hard to know how long to stay in each place; we have a 60 day visa and so many islands we want to see, what if we regret staying so long as we have to rush through other beautiful places? Or will we move on and sigh in regret that we didn’t stay there longer?
I say, if it isn’t broken, don’t try and fix it. Enjoy it while it’s good, and be grateful that’s the biggest problem we’re facing right now. Happy days.
* Pratchuap Beach Hotel, about 500m south of the pier, if you are looking for it!
I’ve just been served beer by a toddler who spoke perfect English.
“One more beer Lao? Ten thousand please. Thank you!”
Astonishing.
We’ve been in the sleepy town of Savannakhet for 3 nights now, and I love it here!
To the untrained eye, it may seem as though there’s not much to do here. It’s hard to believe it’s Laos’s second largest city; it’s quieter than Horsforth, the suburb of Leeds, UK, where we live.
But having come from some of the most hectic parts of Thailand, it’s a tonic.
Reasons to love Savannakhet:-
Happy days.
It’s great to be escaping the crowds on Koh Tao. As lovely as it still is, the island is just too busy right now (at peak season, to be fair) and I was starting to resent the crowds and the lack of any Thai people, culture, or even Thai food. A particular low moment was Fergus proudly ordering our food in Thai, only to be told by the waiter, “Sorry, no speak Thai!” You know you’re in a tourist trap when…
However, before we can hit that traveller vibe again, we are off to two of the most touristy places in the whole of Thailand: a night in Khao San Road followed by 3 nights in Pattaya.
Khao San is the notorious hang out for backpackers that’s developed into a kind of hotbed of youth culture, with cheap clothing, knock-off CD’s and DVD’s (it was tapes last time we were there, I feel old) and huge number of bars, nightclubs and late night eateries.
Pattaya is the jewel in the crown of Thailand’s seedier beach resorts, with a propensity to attract middle-aged, overweight Western men. The beach is supposed to be fairly ropey, but the local tourist office has been trying to redevelop the town to attract older couples and families, so it will be interesting to see it.
Our motivation for making this 2 day journey? We are going to meet an old friend of Ferg’s who’s just got married here and is having a honeymoon in Pattaya. I can’t wait to meet him having heard so many stories from childhood, mostly about catching frogs under the school they went to in Malaysia. Khao San is a natural break in the journey; our bus drops us there at 9pm tonight, so we might as well stay there.
It’s not what we’d have planned to do, but it’s been a fun journey so far and I’m sure the kids will enjoy the experience, plus there’s a pool at our hotel in Pattaya, which guarantees good times for us.
Let the holiday continue!
As babies, we enrolled our children in the Waterbabies swimming lessons. The course culminates in you plunging your offspring into the water for a Nirvana Nevermind style underwater photo. I didn’t realise then that it may have been the start of a long line of underwater experiences.
Coupled with being strong swimmers and a burning desire to “see tropical fish” – plus of course wanting to be like Daddy who’s doing his PADI certification, the girls were desperate for us to enroll them on the ‘Bubblemakers’ kids scuba diving course that you can do here in Koh Tao.
So today, after much excited anticipation, they finally got to don wetsuits, flippers (well, Scarlett only got one flipper – she still has a plaster cast on her broken leg) and a full-on scuba diving vest with attached tank of air, regulator and weight belt, and had their first underwater adventure.
I came along and snorkeled in the water behind, helping Scarlett with some of the bits that are a bit tricky with a broken leg (like climbing up step-ladders onto boats…hmmmm). It was terrifying to attach heavy weights to your children and watch them jump in the sea. Very counter intuitive. But they got the hang of it straight away, breathing through the regulators face down and doing the ‘OK’ hand signal to the instructor. They looked like miniature cool scuba diving surf babes. Perhaps a glimpse of things to come.
I loved seeing the girls’ excitement at seeing the deep, deep water and the schools of fish. We had one little bit of a problem when Scarlett felt a bit panicky about how far we’d swum, and how far we had to go back, and somehow convinced herself that we were going the wrong way. But a cuddle from mummy soon sorted that out. It’s nice to know that they are still my little babies, even though they look like mini cool scuba diving surf babes.
The verdict when asked about it later was very positive from Jemima and Evie, who want to use some of their Christmas money to do another dive, but Scarlett thinks once is enough, bless her.
It’s our last night on Koh Tao, where we’ve been for a week over New Year. We visited 13 years ago in our ‘youth’; the island’s much busier and built up now, it’s gone from ‘backpacker’ to ‘flashpacker’ with budget accommodation very hard to come by. Yet the natural beauty is largely intact, the waters are still crystal clear and turquoise, and we’ve had a great time. It feels a bit like we’ve had a package holiday away from our backpacking lifestyle!
For the most part, this visit has been a very different experience to last time around. Up early, out on the beach trying to catch children and apply sun cream before they get in the sea, blowing up lilos, fetching various goggles, snorkels and other swimming paraphernalia to and from our beach bungalow, sweeping endless sand out of said beach bungalow (I don’t remember that every being a problem pre-children) and playing hours and hours of swimming games and card games to keep everyone happy.
It’s a stark contrast to the lie-ins, the afternoon sleeps on the sand, and the bar-hopping and late night drinking of last time around. Actually, now I come to think about it, I’m not sure what we did all day without children. But that applies to life both at home, too.
We had a nice opportunity to reminisce last night after Fergus finished his PADI diving course. It’s been 3 full days of him off diving and me entertaining the troops, so to celebrate his new status as a qualified scuba diver we stayed up late, sitting on our verandah, and drank a Thai classic cocktail from back in the day – Sang Som rum, M150 and Coke. It felt good to have come full circle.
Today’s our last day in Nepal. So for home school, we set the children a series of questions about Nepal to find out what they really think of it, what they’ve learned and what they’ll remember. Here’s what they had to say, in their own words, with spelling and grammar mistakes uncorrected:-
1. Describe a journey in Nepal including 5 things that are different to England.
Evie: If you want to make a bus journey in Nepal you have to be prepared for a wild, bumpy journey during which you will probabley feel sick. Flashing by you catch glimses of mangy old dogs which doesn’t help your already horrible sick-feeling. Next to all the dogs you find yourself rattling along a cliff ledge with a terrifying drop below you and a towering cliff above you. When you finally reach your destination you find chat-pot stalls flashing by instead of the terrifying scenes that have already been described to you.
Scarlett: When making a taxi journey in Nepal you might see a Chat-pot stall which you would not see in England. A chat-pot stall is a tipe of street food. It is a lot of dried noodles mixed with pulses and spices. You also might see a half finished building held up by bamboo poles which stretch between one floor and the roof, criss-crossing. Another thing you would see is mangy old dogs with bold patches all over them and grey skin. They make me feel horrid! You would deffinately see little, golden Buddhas sitting in the frames of a wound up window. When the sun is up they will shine and twinkle in its reddish rays. Finnaly, you might see the same Bamboo swings. These are four bamboo poles stuck in the ground. Two of them are criss-crossing on the right. One bamboo pole with ropes hanging off it is resting on the criss-crossing on the ropes there is a plank of wood.
Jemima:
Trekking in the Nepal Everest Region
Everest looming up and fountain mist. Sherpas carrying things on their heads and things with Everest in their names. Little children saying, “Namaste”. These are some of the things you might see along the way.
2. Finish this sentence: In Nepal, I have learned…
Scarlett: In Nepal I have learned that honking your horn means “I’m coming past you!” I have also learned that in Chitwan it is legal to ride Elephants in the street. The last thing I’ve learned is that there is a lot of guest houses with the word ‘Everest’ in them.
Jemima:
[Mum – perhaps we need to work on spellings next]
Evie:
3. Finish this sentence: In Nepal, I have enjoyed…
Scarlett: In Nepal I have enjoyed having elephants. I have also enjoyed having both Mummy and Daddy with me. Lastly, I have enjoyed playing.
Evie:
Jemima:
4. Finish this sentence: In Nepal, I have endured…
Jemima: In Nepal, I have endured going up Gokyo Ri and getting half an altitude headache; bus journeys and feeling sick on them; trying to manage with only half a suger lump in my tea when I like a full one; living in Kathmandu when there is no where to play.
Evie: In Nepal, I have endured bus journeys because they are bumpy and seem to take forever; climbing to Gokyo in the wind and the snow; watching Tettie break her leg.
Scarlett: In Nepal, I have endured going up Gokyo Ri. It was so hard. And what did I come up for? An altitude headache! I have also endured having a broken leg. But I’m over that now. The last thing I want to talk about that I’ve endured is a terrible taxi journey.
5. Describe a Nepali person you have met. Include what they look like, their personality and your opinion of them.
Evie: This person’s name is Phurba Sherpa. He is a half-famous porter-guide who travelled with us and helped us carry our bags and find our way. He had black hair, brown skin and was very kind. We travelled with another porter called Hari who doesn’t speak English. Phurba kept shouting, “Hari, O Hari!” over and over again. Our whole family liked Phurba and he bought us lots of sweets!
Jemima: Phurba Sherpa!
He is a porter-guide and Daddy is half way through making a website about him. He is small and happy with black hair and brown eyes. If he goes with a porter called Hari he is always shouting, “O Hari, O Hari!” over and over again. He is kind and kept buying us sweets! I like him.
Scarlett: I’m going to describe my friend. I met him in Chitwan National Park. His name was Bharat Kattel. Every elephant bathtime he would play the tiger moving game with me. Like all Nepalese people he had brown skin and a long nose. He was friendly and said I was clever at the tiger moving game. He gave me a 400 discount for a copy of the tiger moving game. He makes a lot of jokes. I love him and miss him when he’s away.
6. Make 3 recommendations for an English person who is planning to visit Nepal.
Jemima:
Scarlett:
Evie:
7. Finish this sentence: The thing I will most remember about Nepal is…
Scarlett: The thing I will remember most about Nepal is the elephants. They were like huge boulders rumbling along the road with the mahoots balancing on top.
Evie: The thing I will remember most about Nepal is the elephants because they had different faces. They towered above people, motorbikes and horse and carts. They are hairy and tickle your legs when you sit on them!
Jemima: The thing I will most remember about Nepal is the elephants because it was the first time I had ever seen them. They are hit a lot by the mahoots which makes me feel sorry for them.
Hooray, he’s back safe and… he has the parcel!
Here’s the welcome party, complete with Harry Potter outfits, a home-made banner and party food. All suggested by the girls, they really did miss their Daddy.
Thank you so much to Avril and Rob, the parcel feels like a real haul of goodies! Acquiring the parcel from customs was rather a saga, but I’ll let Ferg update you on the full story.
The main thing is that Scarlett how has her waterproof cast cover ready for Thailand’s beaches, there’s real English chocolate for Christmas Day, and we can all have a lovely cup of Redbush tea… wonderful.
Travels with Triplets 