Five Reasons Everyone Should Go Travelling with Their Family

Posted on August 8, 2014 by Fergus

Evie about to try snake on a stick in Cambodia

By Evie Hadley (aged 8)

Delicious Food

One reason everyone should go travelling with their family is because it means you can try a lot of different foods like fried insects, snakes, amazing Thai fried rice and Vietnamese phô.

Strange Asian Languages

You can learn a lot of different languages such as Thai, Bahasa Malay/Indonesia, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Nepali and many more besides. Now I can say “three twins” (meaning triplets) in five different languages: fet sam (Thai), tumba tika (Bahasa Malaya/Indonesia), gom blua bai (Cambodian) and sinba (Vietnamese).

Happy Family

Another thing I really enjoyed was spending a lot of time with my family because I don’t get to see Mummy and Daddy as much at home. I miss my friends quite a lot though. I also miss NanaRara*. My Mummy and Daddy are our teachers whilst travelling which I really love.

Trekking

I absolutely love trekking because there was an amazing view of white-peaked Mount Everest through a curtain of trees. There were many more mountains such as Gokyo Ri (which we climbed in the snow).

Elephant Land

You should come to Nepal and see Elephant-roamed Chitwan where you might make a large friend!

* Nanarara is the phrase Evie and her sisters use for Janet’s parents. They got Nana and rara (they couldn’t say granddad) conflated when very little and it’s stuck.

Mount Everest

Posted on September 28, 2013 by Janet

Today we saw Mount Everest for the first time in all of our lives. It was a really amazing feeling as it’s basically the only thing I had on any kind of ‘tick list’ for the trip. We were really lucky with the weather, we got up early and walked to the viewpoint and there it was! Sadly, I cannot post all the pictures we took of it right now (you know, me and Mt Everest, the kids and Mt Everest, Ferg and Mt Everest…all very predictable) as the camera ran out of battery – luckily just after we’d taken the pictures…that could have been very upsetting.

The kids loved it…for about 2 mins then lost interest and wondered off into a military zone to the alarm of our porter-guide, and had to be fetched back and reprimanded. Ah well, I hope one day they’ll realise they were luck to be there.

It made me happy anyway.

Top of the World

Posted on September 28, 2013 by Fergus

Just a quick entry today as we’re paying by the minute in a cybercafe but this morning we saw Mount Everest!

We arrived in Namche Bazaar yesterday afternoon after a scary twin-prop flight into Lukla and four days of walking only to meet some young brits who had done the same journey in one day. Still, they hadn’t had to shepherd three children who were passing a tummy bug between them. And taking it slowly has been fun. We’ve stopped in some quieter villages and had the afternoon to explore most days.

And our guide taking us to his home was fascinating. The girls could hardly believe that their whole family live in one room but I think it brought it home to them how different life here is. That and the constant diet of dahl baat.

And even taken slowly, the trek was great. At first it was just like a rather exaggerated Lake District (rain included) but by yesterday I felt like I was walking in some kind magical mountain kingdom from Monkey. The path hugs the valley all the way here, gradually climbing higher and higher as the peaks grow around you until there’s an enormous drop below and the peaks above strain your neck to look at. And then you get to the suspension bridges. Suffice it to say that Scarlett had a fear of bridges when she arrived here. She doesn’t any more.

And then today… Everest! Sure it was only in the distance but it was still a powerful experience. And definitely worth the trekking, diarrhea and deadly flights to see.