The commute to work

Getting to work everyday is the same here as It is at home with just a few differences. Our morning begins with the usual mad rush to get everyone up, breakfast and out the door with all the things that are required for the day; books, laptops, homework, sports uniforms, money; inevitably though something gets left behind - for Josh that was his school shirt, which he realized he didn't have on half way to school, how you leave the house without a shirt on is beyond me, the poor kid wore a sweater all day, but that's a 12 year old boy for you.
640am give or take a minute or two sees us out the door.
We are so lucky to have Khanh our driver. I do feel sorry for him sometimes, it's bad enough that I have to listen to the scrabbling of kids in the car, but he does too.
But khanh is one of the many things i will miss when we leave here. Obviously I don't drive, so I don't ever have to fill a car with fuel, i never have to worry about parking, I can be at work and the kids are still being collected or dropped wherever, and when it's time to go, we go.
So it's off to school. I decided to take a few photos of what we see every morning.........

Summer Holiday in Laos

We have now been back at school for 4 weeks and I still have yet to write about our wonderful holiday in Laos. So this post is going to be all things Laos.

We had scheduled our Laos for the end of the summer break to cater for Zander and work, Mikaela and school work and Matthew and Australian Work. We had timed it so that Matthew arrived back on the Monday and we were to leave the next day. Matthew's flight from Sydney to Saigon is never late so we just assumed all would be good - famous last words we came to realise. His flight was not just late but rather completely cancelled. So the kids and I set off for Laos via Hanoi on our own with poor Matthew frantically trying to get flights rebooked, and eventually completely re-routed.

Anyway our plan was to fly into Luang Prabang for a few days then head off and a few 2 day excursions.

Luang Prabang is a small town in the middle of Laos. Very touristy but that was fine with us. We stayed in a lovely little hotel right next door to a Wat which we were to learn welcomed the beginning of each new day with banging of gongs - unfortunately the day starts at 6. At six each morning the monks of the town - of which there are hundreds walk down the street collecting Alms. It truly is an amazing sight. Rows and rows of orange clad men and boys quietly moving down the street. Apparently many join a
monestry for just a few months hence the sheer numbers of them. It really was an awesome sight. So that's how we spent the first morning in Laos, watching this century old tradition. We all went back to bed but I was too excited, to explore this wonderful town.

When I finally got the children up and moving, for the second time, it was for a quick breakfast and we headed off to the old Palace.

Where we wandered around looking at the opulent lives of the kings of long ago. The it was off to our first Wat. Luang Prabang has more then 30 Monestries. I would have loved to have seen them all - there was even a walking tour of all them but the kids agreed to seeing a few if I didn't do the walking tour. We then thought it would be great to explore a a little further afield - so we hired bikes and off we set. Two hours later, completely lost, and miles from anywhere (seriously who would give me the map) we turn back the way we came, until to get lost again and spot a turn off for the airport (which is at least a half hour from town) eventually we get back to town hot, sunburnt and exhausted and none too happy but a chicken sandwich (which looks amazingly like a chicken bread roll) all was good and we headed back to the airport to wait for Matthew. Reading back over this

I have realised that if a relay everything we did - this blog we turn into a book so I will just give the hightlights. The town of Luang Prabang is lovely it has one main streets and another street by the river both have an enormous amount of restaurants. We tried to eat in as big of variety as we could - we ate in the night market, a lovely fancy restaurants which kept giving us bread - which after living here - we totally loved. Eventually it became a bit of a competition with the kids - they wondered how much bread would be brought to our table, so 7 baskets later the restaurant won we conceeded that they would bring more bread then we could possible eat. We ate in Cafes, we drank in bars and brought fruit juice and crepes from side walk stalls - all in all the food in Laos was great.

After a few days we headed off for the first of our 2 day execursions. In the theme of all things adventure we headed off for a two day kayaking trip down the Nam Ou River. But that will have to wait for the next blog.

Saigon, Saturday, soccer, shoes, study,, Sydney and ......braces

It's Saturday in Saigon, and typical of Saturday's all over the world our morning starts with soccer. Soccer is one of those sports which seems to translate in any country, I am happy that Josh loves playing even in 34 degrees, it gives him the opportunity to play with kids other then his school friends, who are all lovely kids, but this gives him the opportunity to practice his English. I am sure when he returns to school in Australia he Will be an ESL student, it's not that he speaks Vietnamese but he speaks English in such a manner that the Vietnamese kids can understand. so soccer has it's many benefits . Kaela is spending the day studying. Yesterday was Vietnamese national day so there was no school, so Mikaela, Bella and a group of 7 girls all spent the day doing no homework and hanging out watching movies.
So today and tomorrow will be study days for her. Me .... I did what so many people do on a Saturday .....I went shoe shopping. I might be an extra large in clothing in this country but my shoe size is "same same" with the Vietnamese. One of the ladies at school told me about a great shoe shop so I took the opportunity this morning. So many shoes, so many choices and at about 350,000 dong (about 17 aud) really reasonable prices ffor real shoes. Now I am having coffee waiting for Bella who is joining her sister on the braces path. Unfortunately for her she is looking at a much longer time with them but it will be worth it in the end, and it was something she decided so hopefully it won't be too bad. And Matthew is getting himself organized to fly back to Sydney this afternoon equipped with his shopping list of must haves to bring back. So that is our Saturday