Kids in Laos and India

We have seen loads of very competent and confident small children in Laos and India. 7 year olds carrying 2 year olds and looking after them with no parents in sight. 5 year olds swimming confidently is a fast flowing river. Many more examples which I will try to note as we continue our journey.

However something happens as kids in these countries grow up.

Many adults live in houses that are in a terrible state of repair. Many repairs cost money, but a lot of maintenance and general tidiness and hygiene is free.

Guest houses have bed bugs, and loose wires hanging out. Shower water stinks of sewage. In the Maldives, we stayed in someone's house where the shower water stank. They said it had been like that for 3 years. It took 2 hours to connect a pipe and fix the problem permanently.

Most people everywhere do about the minimum necessary to get by. Under qualified people in welfare countries take benefits because its enough to get by and easier than working a crappy job.

This could just be my limited experience, but the general condition of the human environment in both countries also supports the following idea.

This is what I have observed in India, Bali, Maldives and India. This is just my observation and could well be due to the selection of people I have met in these countries. Outside Europe, most people I have met are in the hospitality industry. Hotel staff, drivers, restaurant staff. I have also worked with plenty of Indian, Nepalese, Bangladeshi IT workers. I have also worked with IT workers and other freelancers around Europe.

1. Kids have a lot of freedom and are more capable, confident and independent than kids in Europe. They are more self reliant and display more initiative.

2. Adults do the minimum. They do things in inefficient ways. They are inflexible, show little initative and require more direction than adults in Europe.

So my question is, what happens between about 7 years old and adulthood in these countries, and how is that different to what happens in the same age range in Europe.

The state of the countries supports the idea that something negative happens in these years, but it could also be down to governments and general lack of freedom. India has the caste system, Laos is communist and Maldives lacks communications and natural resources. Also all these countries are hot, and it is hard to get stuff done when you have sweat dripping in your eyes.

While thinking about this I found a study comparing IQ by country - full list here http://www.photius.com/rankings/national_iq_scores_country_ranks.html - but the countries relevant to this article are as follows:
UK - 100
Sweden - 99
Maldives - 81

India - 82

Indonesia - 87

Malaysia - 92

Laos - 89

So again, smart kids grow into not so smart adults. But why?

I'm off to Equatorial Guinea to experience Idiocracy first hand.....

Vang Vieng

We paid 380000kip, about £30 for a day tour for the 4 of us. We booked it with our hotel reception. Children were half adult price.

We were collected by a tuktuk. Basically a minivan pickup with bench seats and a roof in the back. They squeezed in about 4 more tourists than was comfortable. The kayaks were on the roof.

We drove about 15km north of Vang Vieng, and parked by the river. We had to change in to our swimwear, so it would have been better to wear it from the start.

The first activity was to kayak accross the river. The guide made us more worried than we needed to be , but we still crashed in to a bush before landing on the other bank.

We walked though a village and some rice fields. It was really muddy everywhere and slow going. Henry slipped and fell into a rice field. After about a 1km walk, we arrived at the cave tubing place.

I sat in an inner tube on the water and Winston  sat on me. Henry sat on Caroline. The kids wore the headlamps. There were loads of groups there, many doing some zip lining between the trees, but it was not possible for Winston and Henry to do that.

Our group of about 12 people pulled thrmselves on a rope in to the cave. The water was high, so we could only just squeeze under a rock and into the cave. We went for about 300m inside the cave against the flow of water. There were other groups in the cave. One group thought it was fun to scream and splash, buy it wasn't fun for Henry to get splashed.  It took a while to get back out of the cave due to the amount of people.

We had lunch. I had a bit of rotten chicken which almost made me puke from the smell. Winston chose vegetarian as is becoming his habit more these days.

We walked back down to the river , stopping briefly at the 'elephant' cave where a stalagmite had formed roughly in to the shape of an elephant.

We followed the guides kayak quite closely on the river. The first rapids were a bit nerve wracking, and one of the other kayaks capsized and someone else crashed in to a tree and capsized. It wasn't that rough. The kids loved it. It's always a balance between making sure they know what to do if we capsize and not making them too worried.

Before the biggest rapids we held 6 kayaks together to make a more stable boat. It worked really well.  The other thing to make it more stable is to hang your legs over the sides. 

We stopped at a pub that was playing things like 'smack you bitch up' and 'gangnam style' very loud.  We had 2 sandwiches a bottle of water and a small beer for 60000kip £5.

There were loads of pubs along the river, many claiming to be the last pub, and many with banging tunes. 

The one we stopped at there was a guy who surfed against the flow of the river and when tubers came past, he would leap off and grab them and swim them to the shore.

We got back on the river. The scenery was stunning. Steep jungle covered mountains shrouded in clouds. The rain gradually got stronger and stronger.

Then we took a tuktuk, again over full, to the blue lagoon .  It wasn't blue and it isn't a lagoon. But it is good if you like rope swings and to jump off a tree in to water. The rain was too much and Henry was asleep, so after a while we just waited in the tuktuk.

£30 was excellent value for this trip.

We stopped at a chemist to get some hair lice treatment, but they didn't sell the comb, just the lotion.

For dinner, Henry wanted to go to the hotel's restaurant, and they only had either fried rice or noodles, so we had that and it was fine.  Dinner cost 90000kip or about £7.

The next morning we hired a private mini van to take us to Luang Prabang. It cost 880,000kip about £70. The aim was so we could stop at any time for toilet or puke. Henry puked, so we stopped and he did most of the puke outside.

The scenery is stunning. It feels very undeveloped and sparsely populated.

When we arrived in Luang Prabang, our driver wanted to drop us at the Vanvisa Guesthouse.  Caroline had arranged the transport to take us all the way to the falls. It was very clear, no room for mistake. She knew of this guesthouse and the possibility for confusion, so she really spelt it out before agreeing the transport.  The driver was a right twat about it, stomping around etc. We refused to leave the van until it was sorted.  Eventually, the commpany sent another van to take us the last 30km. They tried to get an extra 400,000kip (£35) for that, but we were not falling for that.

So for any out of the ordinary transport instructions, I would suggest write it down and get someone at booking place to sign it for proof. 

Laos border to Vientiane and to Vang Vieng

We had a few taxi drivers and tuktuk drivers offering the ride to Vientienne for 200-400baht. We chose a tuktuk for 200baht. Winston and Henry prefer tuktuks. They enjoyed swinging on the bar in the roof and laughing at how the shiny roof reflected their faces. They can also easily see out of the tuktuk which is not the case in a car or taxi.

It took about 20minutes, and the driver dropped us at our hotel. Champa hotel. Check in was unreasonably slow which is always annoying after a long journey. The room was nice and out door was about 3m from the pool. It cost about £31.50 per night.

The bed wasn't quite big enough, so we inflated the lilo and bulked it up with towels and Winston slept fine on it. The lilo could work out quite economical as most hotels charge about £5 per night for extra bed.

We went to the market by the river, had lunch and then went back to the hotel and had fun swimming.

The next morning, we went swimming again, and left the hotel around lunch time. We took a tuktuk to the COPE centre for 40000kip to look at an exhibition about all the unexploded ordinance left by the US as part of the Vietnam war. Winston and Henry were very interested in the bombs and afterwards they kept pointing out things on the ground that could be UXO.  We bought a T-shirt and donated a little.

It annoyed me that in the films, even the Americans who did the most to highlight the problem said 'we' as if they were somehow responsible. It was a secret Nixon CIA operation, so even voters were not really responsible. It wouldn't have been possible without fiat currency, so I wrote on the guest book 'Google Bitcoin and war'.

We went to the main temple. OK, but the most interesting thing got me was the communist style parade going on next to it with DPRK style music and MA ching civilians.

Laos, like China has followed DengShaoPings realisation that the free market makes people rich, and so the economy is growing at 7% a year. The government keeps a tight hold on media and speech so they can keep power and enjoy the increasing wealth from that position.

We bought 3 bus tickets to Vang Vieng for 45000kip each. We would be collected from our hotel at 9:30 and arrive after 3.5hours. Out hotel offered the same bus tickets for 55000kip, so for walking 20m and buying them from a hostel instead we saved 45000kip.

The tuktuk came at 9:30, and they squeezed everyone from a few different accommodations on, and took us all to the bus.  The bus was roasting, and it sat still for about 45 minutes before setting off.

We had a lunch stop ( obviously if a lunch stop was planned , then the journey was never going to take 3.5 hours), we had a stick with mashed roasted rice on it. Back on the bus, Caroline started to feel sick. She was getting a bag ready when Henry started to throw up.  We put his clothes in the bin, and Caroline managed to hold on for the rest of the journey.  It was probably mainly due to the bumby ride with not much view or fresh air.

We arived in VangVieng around 3pm, so it was a 5.5 hour journey and we took a minibus, then a tuktuk to our hotel.

The Champao Villa had nice comfy beds and an amazing view . it cost $50 per night, which is pricey for a room without a kettle or a fridge and no shower cubicle, just a wet floor. But the view is worth it.

Winston and Henry liked wearing capes and jumping from one bed to another.

The next morning after breakfast Winston was sick in the toilet. He handles it very well, with the minimum of drama.

Thailand

We spent 3 weeks in Thailand. We few from Johor to KL to Surat Thani. We stayed in a new hotel which charged £10 for the room and £3 for the extra mattress per night. We had dinner in Lucky Restaurant where the staff uniform was a strange school girl type outfit. The food was good and the atmosphere was good. It was busy with locals which is always a good sign.

The next morning we bought bus and ferry tickets to Koh Samui for about £6 per person. We had breakfast in a local cafe while we waited for the bus. They had a strange fish in a fish tank that Winston and Henry liked.

The bus took an hour and a half and then boat took about 2 hours. When we got to Koh Samui, Caroline discovered that she hadn't actually booked the accommodation that she thought she had booked, so we went to a bar to have lunch and book something new.   On a table next to us were 7 20 year old Brits, all on their smart phones, almost no conversation.  Henry and me went to get a simcard. It was quite a long walk.

When we got back, Caroline had found new accommodation and we went to stay at Anna resort in Bang Por . It cost about £110 for a week. It was about 30 minutes and £10 by taxi to get there. The room was quite small, but it was enough. They had a round pool with a shallow level round the edge. More like a big jacuzzi. It was ideal for Winston and Henry.

Breakfast was not included so we bought a kettle and a toaster from Tesco Lotus for a few pounds each. I liked the change of having our own breakfast. Buffets and restaurants get dull after a while and its never as fresh as your own.

We went to a few Café s on the beach. Winston did really like the sand. It was a bit too hot, so we spent more time in our ac room than we would have otherwise.

We hired a car for a day for £20 and drove to see a big Buddha. That was quite boring, but in the Café where we had a snack, she had a pet flying squirrel. It was the first time any of us had seen that.  We drove to another beach which was beautiful and full of tourists. The sea was warm, and there were feet jet flying going on nearby.

We went to a Café on the beach near Anna resort and Winston and Henry played with a fat fizzy drink guzzling local kid. They played on the Tablet together. Winston was patient and good at explaining what to do. Henry liked the idea of a new friend.

For the next week, we moved along the beach a bit and across the road to Bangpo village. It was a 2 bedroom house right on the beach with a nice veranda. It cost about £43 per night... So quite a lot more than our lovely villa in Ubud. Winston still didn't like the sand. Breakfast was included and was nice. The internet was crappy.

Caroline made contact with a Norwegian family due to her blog, and we went to meet them. Hanne and Thor and their 4 kids. Aaron 5, Phillipa 3, Amy 8, and I forgot the 9 year old girls name. Lovely family. We spent the afternoon swimming in the sea with them and eating fruit. Friendly and sociable kids. They sold their house in Germany and are travelling for at least a year. They are living off of Thor's translation work and child benefits and are on quite a tight budget.

Winston and Henry took a while to start playing, and as usual Winston gravitated towards the oldest child.

It was my h better to swim in the sea off Mae Nam beach than Bang Por beach.

We found a great Indian restaurant ran by Nepalese on the way home and also rented scooters from the same restaurant.  The next day we had delivery food from that restaurant. The best Indian food since England... And we spent about a month in India!

We went to Cha Weang on our scooters and to a shopping centre there. We ended up having a family hair cut session. Winston and Caroline had their hair dyed, and Henry and me just had simple cuts. It came to about £70 all together.  In other shops people were having massages and steam treatments.

We asked go stay a couple more days at Bang Po Village , but they were full, so we took the boat back to the mainland. It was easy , just got a taxi to the port and bought tickets their that included the bus part of the journey. So we were glad we didn't get ripped off by asking our hotel go arrange it.

Back in Suratthani we again stayed in Papangkorn House. It really good value. Our stupid berghaus bag had broken wheels and the guy helped me try to attach some wheels I bought from a hardware store.

In Suratthani went to the Central Plaza mall. It was nice and cool, and had a decent playland for kids. There was also a Lego table in the department store that Winston and Henry enjoyed. We had lunch at a hot pot restaurant with a really long conveyor belt we later £7.50 each and the kids were free. We had a bowl of soup on a induction hob each and we could cook as much as we liked. Great fun...I wonder how long until this style of restaurant spreads to Europe. Maybe there are too many rules so it can't.

From Surat Thani we took the overnight train. It should have departed at 9:32, but ended up departing at around 11:30. Sleeping wasn't very comfortable. Next time we should get 3 beds rather than 2.  We arrived in Bangkok the next day at around midday. After checking in to our hotel, we went to MBK centre to get Caroline's phone screen replaced. Winston and Henry were quite grumpy due to the lack of sleep.

We spent the whole of the next day in the hotel. Caroline and Winston went out to 7-11 and street stalls to get food only. Sometimes the kids need a day off to recover, especially after not enough sleep. The hotel and the room were good and they had a pool. We will stay there again when we go back to Bangkok, and we left our biggest luggage there while we travel to Laos

The next day we went to MBK centre again to try to get the camera fixed. We had lunch in a big Thai restaurant with a strange ordering system. We met an Egyptian pilot there and had interesting conversations about planes.

In the area of our hotel were lots of bars where 60yr+ white men can meet younger Thai women. Some prostitutes and some Thai wives. It was a bit depressing for some reason.

We flew to Udon Thani for about £12 each, and went to stay at STC Homestay, a little place outside of the town. The Belgian host was very friendly and helpful and they deserve their 9.4 rating on booking.com . Caroline was I'll, so me and Winston and Henry went for a walk. We caught a random tuk tuk and then got him to take us to Tesco Lotus. They had a great play zone and we had a really nice time. We stayed there for 2 nights for £13 per night.

Christine drove us to get the bus to Laos. It was all easy and straight forward to get the bus, cross the border and head for Vientiane. No queues or complications.

The visa cost $35 for UK passports and $31 for Swedish. We had to fill in a form and attach 1 photo of 35x45mm. It was quick and easy.

rough plan

flights are booked from Belgium to Miami On October 13th

Stay in Colombia until hammock business is complete

Bus to Medellin

Bus to Bogota

Fly to Leticia

cross border to Tabatinga in Brazil

Boat down the Amazon to Manaus - 36 hours

Stay in Manaus for a few days

Slowboat on Amazon to Belem

Bus to Fortezala hammock factory

head south to Uruguay for Cowhide factory

More cowhides in Argentina

South to Antartica for January

Head north through chile.. salt deserts

Peru, Ecuador

Galapagos by March

Los Angeles, USA etc..

Head up to Vancouver

Hawaii

Australia-NZ

Bali.. ahhh

Moving house

One of many great things about traveling with our kids is how excited they are for every new room or house we move in to.

Borneo June 2015

We spent 10 days in Borneo.

We flew to Kota Kinabalu. We stayed with an Airbnb for about £20. It was the home of a very little Chinese woman. She was very friendly and helpful. Winston sat in the car next to her and asked me loudly .. Why is she so small... She gave us a lift to the local eating market, and we had some rough noodles , nice dumplings and rough tea, the we went to a cheap clothes shop and bought a bag and a tshirt for Henry and a shirt for Winston.

The next morning we went to the city centre. We only had hand luggage so we took it with us. We looked around some shops and went to the airport to fly to Sandakan.

From Sandakan we took a prepay taxi to Sepilok Nature Resort. The driver took us to Sepilok Jungle Resort. We didn't realise till it was too late, but one of their staff gave us a lift to the right place for 15rm.

The hotel cost about £45 per night. We had a chalet and it was walking distance to the Sepilok Urangutan Sanctuary, the Sun Bear Sanctuary and the Rainforest Discovery Centre.

At the Orangutan centre we paid about £20 for all of us, then after a 5 minute walk on a board walk we came to a viewing area. About 10 minutes later a man appeared from the jungle with a big basket of food and went and sat on a high up platform. About 10 minutes later the Orangutans came swinging out of the jungle. There were also some other monkeys that the Orangutans would batto the side from time to time. Then we went to where the baby Orangutans were looked after. They also have free access to the surrounding jungle. We sat in an air conditioned room and watched about 8 of them play and get fed for about an hour.

We went to the Rainforest Discovery Centre and found out that a species of Borneo Fungi was named after Spongebob Squarepants. We walked on a large metal canopy walk, but only saw trees and a big bees nest. From the Orangutan place it was £3 by taxi, and entrance came to about £15.

We took a taxi to a supermarket because the hotel breakfast was so expensive. The taxi was the expensive, but we had waffles. Henry was getting a bit grumpy because he was hungry. The waffles solved that.

While Caroline worked, I took Winston and Henry to the Sun Bear Sanctuary. We watched half a video about bears, then went to have a look at the ones there. Winston and Henry weren't really interested. They were more interested in slopes and stairs.

The next part of the trip was a prearranged package. It cost £280 for 2 nights and all the meals and tours in Greenview Lodge in Sukau. We met some people there who had arranged it all separately, and I think they saved about 30%. The tours included 3 boat tours, a jingle walk and a bat cave tour. We saw wild hornbills, proboscis monkeys, Orangutans, crocodile, pygmy elephant. It was all very easy and suitable for Winston and Henry. Winston got bored first on the longest boat tour.

The bat cave tour involved a 20 minute drive, then a 20 minute walk on a boardwalk through some jungle.

Dying bat

A dying bat in out lounge.

Winston said.. Maybe his echo broke...

2 months in Bali

We have spent 2 months in Ubud, Bali.

Here are some of the costs and good things that we found.

Villa - we hired 2. First one was 1 bed, with a shared pool and breakfast delivered every day. We paid £25 per day, but if we rented it by the month it would have cost £250 per month. Pretty cheap. We decided we needed an extra room, and we wanted a quieter location. Our next villa was a 2 bedroom place with a decent pool and a lovely view of rice fields. This costs £750 per month.

Food and Drink - there are loads of great cafés in Ubud. You can expect to pay about £2-£4 for a main course. You can get Nasi goreng at a local place for under £1. It's cheap enough that it's not worth cooking. We have 2 baby coconuts delivered every day for £1. At the local supermarket (Bintang) you can get decent cheddar from Australia and decent sausages. The imported foods cost about the same or a little more than in Sweden. So it is quite expensive to buy those. A lot of the cafés focus on health or raw food and the quality is good in most places. We have had pizza delivery amongst others. The other day us 4 shared pizza and salad for dinner and the total bill was £4.10.

Internet and phone - mobile Internet is about 1mb/s so quite good. This costs about 50p per gigabyte. Many cafés have free decent internet. Clear Café is good. Dumara Café has  over 10 mb/s.

Transport - we hired 2 mopeds for £30 per month each. Taxis are  reasonable. To the airport is £10 and a day trip to the beach at Sanur is about £20. Petrol is 40p per litre.

For Kids -

we hired a nanny for £2.50 per hour. Other expats pay less.

The Reuse Centre where kids can make stuff out of rubbish, for £2.50 per kid for a few hours. Our kids loved it, but I saw the owners husband hit his 2 year old and had a right shout at him, before pointing him towards some good information. We'll see if it made any difference next time we go there.

Kidsworld is about 15mins by moped and costs £4.50 per kid. They have a load of bouncy castles, pool, WiFi, cheap lunch and Winston and Henry love it.

The Mansion has a kids club for £2.50 per child per hour. Where they can play supervised by a teacher from Pelangi school at the weekends. You can also pay £1.50 to have access to there nice pool, but the food is overpriced and they started charging for internet.

The art museum has a hornbill in the garden. It costs £4 entry, and you can hold the hornbill.

Sopa garden has a weekly kids club, where they do craft things or treasure hunt. It costs £2.50 per kid.

The local schools offer drop in, or you can pay yearly or monthly. They seem pretty good with a variety of philosophies.

The Paradiso cinema is fantastic. You can have a heathy and delicious meal there and a beer while the kids also watch the move sitting on little chairs at the front. The film costs £2.50 per adult  and £1.25 for kids, and the food is regular prices. We have been to the 5pm showing 4 times so far.

Fake Lego is cheap and good in a shop in Denpasar.

There is a restaurant in Denpasar where you can catch your own fish and they cook it.

The feast at the Sheraton in Kuta is an amazing buffet for about £15 for adults, and the kids get their own mini-buffet with some staff taking care of them and playing with toys. Winston and Henry loved it.

People are friendly and nice to kids. Winston and Henry love it, and want to stay there as long as possible which would be easy to do. Maybe we will travel around a bit more but go back there. It's a decent base to explore Asia and Australasia from.

Film review - Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron

We went to the fantastic cinema in Ubud, Bali and here is Henry (and Winstons) review of the film we saw.

Ubud

We had enough of India, and after a few days of indecisiveness we decided to go to Bali and not Spain. Good decision.

Caroline got taken from the boarding gate to explain to security how the electric toothbrushes were not going to blow up the plain.

The flight was 3 hours to KL. Which is a nice shiny airport...  It was being renovated last time we were there and the results are good. They have golf buggies driving around giving free lifts, so we did that. Plenty of travellators for the kids to have fund on, and the food court is good. They change most currencies, but not roubles...having trouble getting rid of some old roubles.

Arrival in bali was refreshing. Nice clean airport and normal people.... Except the taxi drivers being a bit too pushy. We had a nice meal and got a taxi to Ubud, arriving at Villa Yuliati at about 11.

Villa Yuliati Costa about £25 per night, and we have a nice pool and a outdoor area. It is all clean and everything works. There is a good shop just opposite. The traffic is noisy though, especially due to the shop.

We hired mopeds. £2.50 per day. It was tricky at first, but getting the hang of it now. The kids stand on the step part, or perch on the front of the seat.

We went to visit a couple of swedes that Caroline found via facebook. They had lovely houses, so we decided to move to a nicer villa. We plan to stay here for a couple of months.

We have hired a nanny called Shanti. She works 4-6 hours a day and besides playing with Winston and Henry, she does some cooking and is generally helpful. We pay her about £2.50  per hour.

We went to the monkey forest. The monkeys are not shy, especially if you are carrying a bunch of bananas.

We have spent  of time in the pool. Winston is getting close to being able to swim and Henry is gaining confidence with his armbands.

There are loads of good cheap places to eat, so we barely have to cook. It's quite an easy time really.. Just what we needed.

We move to our new villa tomorrow. In the rice fields, so nice and quiet with a pool, air-conditioning and decent internet.

The weather is perfect. Shorts and T-shirt everyday and warm, but not dripping with sweat and hiding indoors hot.

We have sent our visas off to be extended through an agent, so we can stay until 22nd June, then Darwin.

Lego

Went to a toyshop today in Denpasar. They were selling Lele, a Lego copy. It was very cheap, and the quality is fine. Shame that IP laws in most of the world stop competing Lego products. 

Mysore to Chennai

We went to the UNESCO palace of Mysore. It was built about 100years ago. It costs 200rs for foreigners.. Not sure if its free for Indians, but I can't imagine the  opposite happening in Europe.  The palace is still half owned by the former royal family with the rest being taken over by the state.

We got a golf buggy to take us around the edge first for 100rs.. It would have taken ages otherwise and it was pretty hot.

I managed to lose the tickets, so I had to go and buy some more before going inside. They didn't allow photographs, but we sneaked quite a few anyway. A guard caught us and made Caroline delete all hers.. I was crafty and managed to keep mine.

There were camel rides available for 30rs and elephant rides for 100rs. Caroline and Henry went on the elephant and Me and Winston went on a camel. The driver was helpful with taking photos. Henry's elephant kept getting stopped by people wanting to take pictures of him... So they took a long time to get round the short route.

We only had waiting list tickets for the overnight train to Chennai. At 5pm we found out that we were not going to be on the train... So having got used to a bit of luxury at the Regaalis hotel, we decided to stay at the Radisson. Bargain for £54. Same as a Travelodge in UK... But you get breakfast.

The next morning we spent in the pool, and then went to the train at about 3pm. As there were no spaces available for Chennai, we decided to see Bangalore instead. We were in an AC sleeper compartment with 3 births high. It was empty apart from us and Winston and Henry liked climbing on the top bunk.

There was no one going along the train selling stuff and we had hardly any water. I jumped off the train and quickly bought some water and had to jump back on the moving train.... How fucking heroic.

At Bangalore we hired a porter to carry our bags over the bridge over the tracks for about £2. He huffed and puffed a lot. They are not that heavy and he didn't bother to use the wheels for some reason. Some taxi driver was trying to scam us and a helpful lady pointed us in the direction of an honest firm They took us to our hotel.

We moved rooms because we needed a sofa. Decent hotel for about £30. In the morning Winston puked up at breakfast.. He thought it was going to be a burp. They took about 30 mins to clear it up. Went swimming in the little shady pool and tried to go to a 5 star hotel for a posh Italian lunch, but the restaurant was closed.. So we went to another pasta place which was nice and had super fast service.  We got to the train station with minutes to spare although I had to carry all the bags over the stairs over the tracks. They are not as heavy as they were because we lose stuff here and there.

We had left the kids swimming stuff in the Radisson.

We took the double decker train to Katpadi, and from there a rickshaw to Vellore. We stayed in SMS hotel. Very good value, I would recommend it.

The highlight of Vellore is a golden temple. It is only 7 years old, and the roof has 5 tons of gold leaf.  The story is that some bloke was praying near an anthill and people thought it was cool so they started to hang out there too. Then they started giving each other food, and donations and before you know it he had enough money to build a hospital and a temple. The guy in charge was doing the anthill thing as a teenager and now he's 37. Now the temple acts as a big draw for donations which can be used to run the hospital.  I'm in 2 minds about this. At least people are funding the hospital without threats of violence like in a state funded system, but they are being lied to and manipulated with impossible promises of healing or a better life in order to get them to donate.

We had an argue on the way in about being asked to put our valuables in their storage. We got our entrance money back, but couldn't be the money back for the clothes they had made us buy so we could be decent enough to go in. We persevered and eventually got a private tour for free and we could take our belongings with us.

We took a taxi to Chennai for 3400rs.

Our hammock suppliers had arranged a serviced apartment for us. We had a few moans. The water stank of sewage. There were no laundry facilities, the pool was green and unusable and they wouldn't let us use the kitchen to cook for ourselves.

Bhatt and Vishal came to collect us in the morning and took us to Bhatts hammock factory. We had a good look around. The factory was very busy with people weaving hammocks and piles of stock and supplies everywhere. The unskilled get about $7per day. The stitchers get about $14.

We went to look at their 2 other sites. One was primarily used for making our hammocks and was staffed solely by women. It was similar to the Pashmina factory.  The other was where they make the hammock stands. We were given a full tour. The road had been dug up by locals who were trying some extortion on all  the factory owners who use that road. I'm pretty sure they will end up just driving away the jobs.

We had a great Chinese meal with Vishal at a restaurant called Mainland China in Chennai. Then we changed accommodation for a place called Somerset. 5 star service apartments. It costs £70  per night including tax, but you have a little flat with a bedroom lounge, washing machine, kitchen., and someone comes and tidies and does the washing up for you every day. There is a pool on the roof and buffet breakfast is included.

5 star in India Vs Renting in Cambridge

We stayed in the Radisson in Mysore a few days ago.

It was lovely. Excellent service, Incredible breakfast, great swimming pool, free internet.

I saw on my card statement that it came to £54.44 per night.

For a 30 day month, this would be £1633.20

This includes break fast and wifi and room cleaning, and toiletries.

Now compare this to renting a flat in Cambridge.

You have to pay council tax which is £2611 a year - £217 a month

You have to pay breakfast (for four people) which is about £100 a month

You have to pay electricity and water at about £100 a month

You have to pay internet at about £30 a month

TOtal expenses come to about £450 per month

So living at the Radisson Mysore is the same as renting a flat in Cambridge for about £1185 per month like these on rightmove  goo.gl/RXNFVb

If in Mysore on business, you save 20% corporation tax at least.

Pay your money, take your choice...

Ooty to Mysore

We went to the botanical gardens. Caroline needed the toilet, but we could see a succession of women coming out of the ladies toilets and throwing up...so decided it was a bit too disgusting.  Load a of people wanted to have their photo taken with Henry or touch his cheeks.

We went to dominos pizza for dinner. Not the best value, but nice enough.

The next day, we went pedal boating on Ooty Lake. It was very busy with Indian tourists. It cost £2 for 45  minutes...with a £2 deposit if you get back more than 5 minutes late.

We had these giant life jackets on the boat which were totally unsuitable for small kids, so we decided we were better off without them. An employee in a motorboat disagreed and was following us around shouting at us and blocking our path with his boat. At one point he was waving a claw hammer at us, but he gave up when I decided to start filming him. I must remember to film problem people sooner, it really makes problems go away.
Winston put his life jacket on anyway after that. I always like it when he makes his independent decisions.

Winston and Henry went on an old kids Ferris wheel.. For ages... Other kids got on and off...but it seemed you could go as long as you liked and you had to tell the operator when to let you out, so they got off when they had had enough. It cost 30p.

We want in a Hindu temple and someone put some paint on our heads. Its quite funny to explain to Winston what people are doing in the temple.. When explaining in simple language it really highlights how mental it all is.

We came across an Easter Hindu procession . There were loads of firecrackers. It was all a bit loud for Winston

The next morning, we couldn't get the train to Mettupalayam because it was fully booked. I was told to queue up at 11:30, so me and Henry went and queud up for more than an hour... First in the wrong queue (for Conoor), then in the right queue... But not even the person at the front of the queue got a ticket... They could have put a sign up to say no tickets available... What a waste of all these people's time. Henry bought some bananas and a few women tried to poke his cheeks.

Also had some frustrating times with simcards, which used up lots of time.

We checked out of the hotel..had an argument about some washable pen on a filthy old bed sheet and drove around in a rickshaw looking for a taxi to Mysore. We eventually found one for £40.

About 15mins into the journey, the driver invited UA to his house for a cup of tea. 4 families live in the house..15 people. Very friendly. We had tea and biscuits and curry and rice and Winston and Henry played with an aeroplane and a toy car.

We went down a 36 hairpin road with loads of advertisements for hospitals and ambulances.

We went through a nature reserve and saw wild elephants, wild boar, deer..some amazing sites...even better because we didn't expect to see anything on the journey.

We arrived at our nice hotel in Mysore at about 9pm.

Next morningme and Henry sent for an early swim. We had breakfast a dn then all went swimming. There was some kids lessons going on, so we watched and waited for a bit and then asked if it was ok  to get in the pool and we swam around in the middle of the lessons.

At 3pm we took a rickshaw to a mall and then to an Ashram where they had the most amazing collection of parrots probably in the world. There was even a talking one. It was free to visit.

We

from Ukhulas to Ooty

The boat from Ukhulas to Make was $50 per person.  We booked it the day before with the school headmaster who runs the service. When we got on the boat they had sold our seats to someone else..but they took our bags and said we could go on a smaller boat in about an hour... But when it came time for that boat to leave, they said it couldn't go the whole way, but could drop us at another island from where we could get a boat to Malé for $75 per person..  So our bags were heading for Male and we were facing a $50 price rise. All quite annoying, and we agreed with Saeed that we would get the headmaster to pay the difference...which he agreed to after we had arrived in Malé.

The small boat was really bumpy.. The bigger boat for the second part was smoother.. The boat stopped so Henry could do a wee off the back...then later Winston had to do a wee in an empty bottle.

We went in MarryBrowm in Male. The food was rubbish, but it had AC and there was a nice little play area that Winston and Henry enjoyed.

We went to the hotel in Hhuhlumale, and found the room was too small to fit an extra mattress on, and they wanted an extra $25 per night making the total $80.. So we told them where to go , and I went to 6 hotels in town on the back of Nasheeds motorbike, and eventually found Wonder Retreat for $65 per night. It was fine except the toilet didn't flush properly and the room smelt a bit of eggs once we removed the automatic air freshener.

I sold 5 hammocks to a resort.

We got the bus to the airport but managed to leave a bag at the bus stop. Lucky I realised after a few hundred metres and we got the bus to stop and ordered a taxi.

The airport was quite empty. The plain was a propellor plane and that was half empty too.

We had arranged with the same rickshaw driver Shahir to meet UA at the airport in Cochin. It was easy and he dropped us at the Abad Plaza hotel in Kochi. It took about 100minutes because the traffic was bad, so we didn't get time to swim. The check in person was a bit of a dick, but the room and the hotel was pretty good, almost up to 5 star without the expense.. It was 3000rs per night. About £32. The breakfast was excellent also, especially the Indian fiod., they even had a decent egg chef.

Mr and Henry got up at 6:30am and went for a swim on the rooftop pool. It has 2 pools.. One which is about 50cm deep, so perfect for a 3 year old. The main pool was good too.

We got a rickshaw to Coimbatore train station for 50rs, and paid someone 150rs to carry our bags to the right platform and put them in our train carriage. I had booked the AC carriage as 34c is a bit hot. The train cost about 800rs £8. It took 3.5houra to Coimbatore. Me and Henry walked the length of the train and stopped here and there to look out the windows. The kitchen carriage must have been 50c. We had a chicken fried rice on the train which was pretty good for £1 And pretty spicy.. Winston and Henry ate well despite the spiciness.
We accidentally got off a stop too early because another passenger told us it was the right stop... He got off too, but managed to jump back on before the train left. We could not be so nimble with all the bags and all of us... I phoned the taxi driver I had arranged to meet a Coimbatore, but just as I was trying to tell him to meet us, my phone ran out of credit...  So we took a rickshaw to the main station for 150rs, and Boer end the drivers phone to call our taxi driver, so it work end out fine.

The taxi to Ooty took about 3 hours and cost 2000rs £20. There were loads of monkeys on the roadside and some amazing purple flower trees. Henry puked up from travel sickness due to the twisty turny bumpy roads.. We arrived at our hotel in Ooty around 5pm.. The British Cliff Club.  I had prebooked that on Stayzilla.com for about 5300rs for 3 nights. We had to pay an extra 500rs a night for a heater, but it is quite a decent place. I think we are the only guests. The owner/manager is a bit mental...everything he says at high volume and he never quite looks at you when talking...

In Ooty we went to a doctors about Henry's verruca, he prescribed some ointment. His office was behind a pharmacy in a very modest room. He didn't charge...makes me wonder how his income compares to a Swedish doctor who work in not so modest surroundings. He was amazed that Henry had never had antibiotics at 3 years old...but I'm not surprised how.many Indian kids get infections with all the filth around.

We went to the dinosaur theme park which was a bit kitcsh and good fun. It cost 570rs (£6) for all of us. 

Just had lunch sitting on charpouys in a restaurant near Ooty lake while Winston and Henry play with a toy tank and rickshaw.

Maldives - continued

Saeed and his family have been extremely helpful with our aims whilst in Maldives.

We have received our shipment of hammocks for photography. Saeed went to Male and got them. He had another reason for going too, but it was still incredibly helpful for him to do that.

The hammocks came from Male to Ukhulas on a fishing boat called a Dhoni. They charged about $10 for the 2 boxes weighing 35kg each. Saja and her friends helped unload the boat and deliver to our house.

We took some hammocks to the Gundaru Inn. They were letting us use their internet for free. They bought all 6 traveller hammocks at the trade price, and an Iguana.

We went on a day trip with Saeed , Saja, Sajia, Sadjias, Jakob, and their 2 kids Yanarl and Yara.  We used Jakobsen dads boat, and only had to pay for the petrol which cane to about $50.

First we went to a resort island which was closed to tourists because the management hadn't paid the staff.. It was a perfect paradise island, and you can see why people are prepared to pay $300 per night for places like this.  We set up some hammocks in a covered bit of jeti and took some pictures. Winston. Went straight in to the sea to play. After about 30 mins all the staff turned up trying to look macho, but it just looked like a bad Hindi movie.. They had a moan, but they didn't kick us off the island.  We went to the other side of the island and took some more pictures on a perfect beach. Yanarl who is 5 got stung by a bee.  There were large parrot fish just by the shore so the kids could easily see them.

Sadjia had been in the photos and later Saeed asked me to edit any pictures of her because she wasn't wearing a headscarf.

After that island we went to another smaller island that just had one shack on it belonging to a shrimp fisherman
The island was about  200m x 400m. in the middle in the shadiest part there was a kitchen and barbecue area. They cooked chicken over a coconut shell fire and a huge pot of rice.  We drank fanta and coke. I think it was the kids first time to have fanta. The giant ants over an the picnic, so we mainly ate standing up and we set up a hammocks which the kids sat in.

After that we went to a sandbank in the middle of the sea. This was 2 tiny island a about 20m x 5m surrounded by in damaged coral reef.  There were tons of fish. Winston and Henry player with Saja jumping in the water and had a great time. Then Jakob caught an octopus and the kids loved that too. When it tried to escape it squirted a load of ink in the shallow water around Winston's feet. Then Jakob killed the octopus. Winston didn't like that idea..and was asking why we had to kill it. He was then more interested in looking for fish under the water through the snorkel mask.  Once the octopus was dead and skinned, Henry got to hold it and posed for a picture.

We had some struggles getting internet connection and it was too annoying, also we were spending a bit too much time on our windowless room because it was too hot, so we decided to leave the island a day earlier.

Some other Ransome memories of our time in Ukhulas...

The burka clad women in our pink house were about as friendly as hermit crabs.. There was always really loud Allah worship TV on even when no one was around. The 9 year old boy started off friendly, but I got the impression he was not supposed to talk with us.

Henry particularly loved coconuts. He always wanted to take one with him everywhere. I learnt how to open one with a knife by hitting it around the middle then prising it open.  Caroline used the coconut grinding machine to get the meat out of it. 

The Maldivian food of mainly fish, coconuts, curry leaves and chilli was fantastic.. Someone should open a Maldivian restaurant... Bug like most places it was such better at someone's house than in the restaurants.

It seems like the mother in laws have some power and can be mean or nice. The house we lived in had a mum with her 3 sons and her daughter, and the son's 3 wives.. The burka clad ones. I was told that women can choose wether to wear burkha or headscarf or not... But husband's and mother in laws can override them.

Saja had been married, but got divorced after 4 months because the mother in law was over demanding.

Saeed was about 20 when he married his wife who was 12... They had there first child when she was 15.

To get divorced, the husband just has to say 'I divorce you' twice in front of some witnesses. Women can't get divorced unless the man agrees.

Question

Winston:  Why are monster trucks smaller than trucks ?

This morning

We were just discussing homeschooling... And what sort of structure to have.

This morning was unstructured, but quite educational anyway, without leaving the new accommodation.

I looked up Wikipedia about geckos, and found out that they can't blink, so they lick their eyes. I got Henry to blink and to try to lick his eyes.

Henry collected some coconuts in the garden, and Winston was shown the parrots in cages by the little girl.

Winston watched a lady scraping out the inside of a coconut with a specialised tool/seat, and we discussed why people in Maldives eat so many coconuts.

Then we drew treasure maps og out new accommodation. Then we played a game where you add lines to dots and write your initial in the box when you complete a square.

Then we did an alphabet sticker book.

Quite productive in hindsight, although it didn't feel so at the time.

Maldives 10th-14th March

We took the speed boat to Ukhulas. It is about 100minutes and stops at Rasdhoo where there is 4g internet on the way. It cost 1500mvr for us. The children are free and the adults are $50 each. Maldivians pay about half that.

Winston and Henry loved the boat ride.. They both had huge smiles for about the first 20 minutes. For the last 15 minutes of the journey Saeed who was arranging out accommodation took us yo the front of the boat. That was even better. They hand out water, juice and a cake on the boat, so we needn't have bought anything beforehand.

On arrival in Ukhulas, we found out that the accommodation we had arranged was no longer available. Saieed took us to another guest house, but it was a tiny room with no window and there were no cooking facilities. We had agreed to stay somewhere with AC, internet, a double bed and a spare mattress on the floor, and cooking facilities.  They tried to offer us a bigger room but for more money.

We then went to a place that was a half finished building, it had a staircase that was more like a ladder and it had a balcony with no sides... I.e. a deathtrap for the kids.... Then we went to his daughters house Sajda. A very nice place with a good garden and terrace for the kids. No air conditioning and someone had lost the key to the kitchen. Sajda packed up her things and moved to her sisters house, and we moved in. The water smelt like poo, and had done for about 3 years. But they had a clean water tap, so the next day bought some pipes and connected that up instead. I thought it was weird to live with that for a few years when it was just a small job to change it over.

We met Saeeds daughters Sadjia and Sadja, and Sadjia has a daughter aged 3 called  Yara and  a son aged 5 called Yanarl.

The 3g internet with Dhiragu turned out not to work, but the Island has a WiFi network called coaxnet. The admin of that is also the school head teacher, and he was also the guy I paid for the speed boat.. On an island of 1000 people i guess people have to multitask.

Everyone seems to know everyone one here.

I'm finding out that it is quite common for foreigners to get a different price. In restaurants they have a tourist price which is about double, so you can save quite a lot by getting a local to order for you and to hand over the money.... This is partly for market reasons and partly because there are taxes on all tourist activities.. Eating, travel, accommodation...

Maldives. ... Days 1 2 3 4

At the airport in Kochi they have a shop called Kocaine, and a remote control bomb detecting robot... except the remote control is a wire about 2meters long, so it is not very remote..

We flew on a propeller plane to Maldives. It took about 1hour 45minutes. On landing we saw a harbour full of sea planes. 

The water is amazingly clear and a very bright turquoise colour. The Maldives is a load of sunken volcanoes that have grown a coral reef on top.

We had booked the UI Hotel for the firat 2 nights on Hulumale...the man made island connected to the airport. The hotel cost $55 per night.

In the airport I bought 2 simcards with 2.2gb of data each for $45 each, which are 4g so really fast, but they are only valid for 2 weeks, so I had to buy 2... Quite annoying, but they should work everywhere.

The hotel had arranged a transfer from the airport for us, but they took about 90minutes to show up, and it was too hot...so it wasn't a great start from them
They did give us $5 off the $8 transfer fee though.

Hulumale island is a building site with loads of 3 storey concrete buildings going up. There are lots if Bangladeshi workers.

The beach is 50meters from our room, and it is a bit shaded at around 4pm, so it is cool enough to play on then. The water is warm and full of dead coral. It stays about 1 meter deep and there are big balls of dead coral that Winston can stand on when in the deeper water. The visibility is not great.

We have been trying to find somewhere nicer and cheaper to stay until 30th March, and after joining some groups on Facebook, Caroline found somewhere for $40 per night, and she also found some people who are interested in selling our hammocks on to hotels.

The first lunch we had came to $52 which is a bit over budget, but then we found a local eating place for the construction workers where they have nice sri-lankan food for about $3 per person.

As a Muslim country, it is not permitted for women to wear bikinis on the beach, although we saw someone yesterday... so Caroline has to swim with a dress on.

There are women here so Burkarized that they are head to toe in black and even have black gloves... Must be roasting in there.

We took the local bus for about $2 to GT the boat for about $2 to Malé city. Not much going on there, a few crappy souvenir shops and a load of motorbikes, we had an ice cream, got some drinks and came back.

I spent a morning catching up on work while Caroline went to the beach. The internet is good here, so it was possible to make progress.

Today we went to a cash machine... They charge about $7 for a withdrawal... So I don't be doing that too often. We found a local book shop which had mainly english books from India for small kids. It was a good selection. Winston got a toy plane and a  treehouse book, and Henry got a plastic toolkit and some paper to draw on.

Winston's numeracy is coming on well... Today I asked him... If it takes 4 eggs to make enough cake for 2 people how many eggs do I need to make a cake for 4 people...he answered instantly... Not bad for a 4 year old.

It takes a while to adjust to the idea that we are not on a holiday where you have to see as much as possible in the short time you have, but that we can take our time like we would at home.

Kerala

We got up late and took a rickshaw to find a hotel with a pool we could use. We ended up at hotel Killian where they charge 700rs for all 4 of us to use the pool, and they provide towels . the pool is 1.1m to 1.4m deep with a 50cm wide step that was about 50cm deep so Henry and winston could stand on there.

We has lunch there for about 1500rs. I went and booked the backwaters tour for 2600rs. Then, on the advice of the place I booked the tour , we took a rickshaw for 300rs to see an elephant festival about 20 minutes away.  You could go right up to the elephants if you wanted, but people kept themselves at least a trunk and a half away. There was loads if noise from trumpets and drums, then the elephants walked to the other side if the showgrounds and the crowd all ran to get out of the way... No need for officials and barriers etc.

On the way back we stopped at a cheap dosa restaurant. It was full of locals. The writer chose for us, and it cane to less than £2.50 for a meal for all of us..  And the service was quick and the food was good and fresh.

Then Winston and Henry had an ice cream in the shop opposite. Then we went back to our home stay .. Coconut grove..

We got up and i booked some train tickets, then i went to book the flight tickets and it was now cheaper to fly from Trivandum to the Maldives. So, that meant I has wasted about £10 on the train ticket. It took about 2 hours to book the flights because all my credit cards didn't work as they all thought I was suspicious at the same time.

Eventually booked 4 return tickets to the Maldives for £500 with SpiceJet.

Our rickshaw driver, Shahir, had been waiting the whole time. We moved 200 meters down the road to a new home stay.  1300rs for an air con room. Very nice Christian lady called Charlot who married her house 25 years ago.

Then Shahir took us to the money changers where they wouldn't change rubles kronor or Nepali rupees.

We went to the laundry place where people were hand washing clothes. The white pressed shirts looked perfect. There was a little play park there so Winston and Henry had a go on the roundabout. 

Then we went to see a boring church and went back to our homestay to wait for the taxi for our backwaters trip.

The backwaters was about 1 hour drive away. The boat had a roof, 2 drivers, a guide and some plastic chairs. The drivers powered the boat with long sticks. Not bad value for about £28. We stopped at a local house to see how to make rope from coconut fibres. Winston got his hair caught in the rope as it was being made. We had to cut some hair off with a handy razor blade.

 

Last full day in kerala, Shahir picked us up at 10 and took us to a beach.. There were no tourists and the beach had loads of palm trees and fishing boats. Very picturesque and a good setting for hammock pictures. Winston played in the waves and henry dug in the sand..but it was too hot to stay long. The villagers were all very interested in us. 

Next we went to a fish farm where the fish are caught by channelling the water through gaps in to nets. The boys liked throwing stuff into the water. 

Then we went for lunch at the cheap place again, and then to Shahirs house to meet his family. He lives in a room about 3m x 2m with a kitchen next to it. They have 1 light, and it is made from plywood. His son was playing subway surfers.. One of Winston's favourite games on Shahirs phone.  He was paying 1000rs a month rent to his brother, and 5000rs a month to pay the loan to get his rickshaw... A 5 year loan. We looked at his arranged marriage wedding album. 

 

. We went hotel Killian for some swimming.

Cochin in India

We landed at Cochin airport, changed some money including 200danish kronor that are a bit too old..

We took a prepaid taxi .. Non-ac to our home stay in fort kochi. It took about 90minutes and cost about 1200rupees. The driver was asking for extra tea money when we arrived.

The hosts at Coconut Grove home stay are very nice. it costs about £11 per night which includes breakfast. No air con or hot water, but new, clean, comfortable and friendly. Breakfast is curry and noodles or potato .

We went to the closest small restaurant and it took about 90minutes until the food arrived. There was also a big rat and they seemed generally confused...

In the morning I did about 2 hours work on a terrible internet connection while the others were asleep. Then I walked to the local center to get a sim card. It was 500rs for 1 gb and 100rs of talk time... With a 12hout delay before activation.

After the others got up, we had breakfast and took a rickshaw to a nearby dentist. It looked so dirty that we didn't even go inside.

Then we went to the beach, but when we got there it was so hot and the beach was full of rubbish, so we just went to the nearby bob Marley cafe and had some lunch for about £9. There was a small papaya tree that w and h liked playing with.

Then we walked along the sea front and saw all the old fishing nets. We bought a fresh coconut to drink.. Which was exciting for the kids , but they didn't like the drink..

Then we took a few rickshaws to find a hotel with a pool. We and d up at hotel Killian and paid 700rs ..£8.. To swim in their pool.. Towels included.

We had lunch then went by rickshaw to find a shoe shop for sandals for w and h... And caroline went to another dentist. He checked her for 200rs, and would take the tooth out for about £25. But she wasn't sure.
We got 4 pairs if bats shoes for about£14

On the way back we stopped for dinner and the kids had cornflakes. Dinner cost about £10.

BUrj Khalifa - Dubai Day 2

This morning we went to 124 floor of the burj khalifa in Dubai. It cost about £50 for 2 adults 2 kids were free. We went out on the balcony and looked out of all sides then we queued for quite a while to get the lift back down.

We bought some hair bands in H&M and found the back of the Dubai Mall fish tank where you could stand right next to the glass and we got a much better view of the sharks and some moray eels.

We bought hot food in Waitrose for lunch. It cost about £20. We found a nice table and chairs just outside the suit entrance to Dubai mall where we could sit and eat lunch in the shade in comfort.

We took a taxi to a park to meet someone from Romania who is homeschooling her two children. The taxi driver took us to the wrong park but he did give us a small discount on the fare. Winston and Henry really enjoyed playing with the two girls who were 5 and 7 years old. 

Then after quite a long walk we got the train back to where we were staying and we had to walk a long way on the other side. We had a nice Indian dinner for about £25.

We got back and the airbnb people from night 1 failed to keep to the 7pm meeting so we still have the key and they still have our money.

Winston was using the lobby phone to phone the guy behind the desk at the hotel.

Airbnb have refunded us in full, and they have paid the not very hosty hosts for the night we stayed there. They have also give us a £50 voucher. So that turned out ok.

Week 1 - 3

We left sweden on the boat to Kiel in Germany . in Sweden it is illegal to have summer tyres. Unfortunately our winter tyres were the ones with studs which happen to be illegal in Germany, so as soon as we arrived in Germany we had to buy some summer tyres.

We went to the city centre of Kiel and had some sandwiches and cakes for breakfast, then we bought some new summer shoes with flashing lights on for Winston and Henry. Flashing lights make them easier to find in the dark!

We drove to Hamburg, went swimming in a nice swimming pool with dinosaurs and a volcano.

We  stayed in a cheap hostel in the centre by all the strip clubs and sex shops. It cost 32 euros for a room with 4 bunk beds.

We drove about 3 hours to Hannover, stopping for some rubbish fish and chips for breakfast at motorway services. In Hannover we went to the aquarium, which wasn't as good as Universeum in Göteborg and a bit more expensive. We stayed in the cheapest hotel in town which was very basic and pokey, but ok.. It was 42 euros per night for 2 nights.

The next morning we went to a launderette which was also a cafe and a pub. We had breakfast while the machines washed our clothes. It coat about 7 euros.  

We rode on some trams and went to the city chttp://centre. We walked past a jewellers and Winston wanted to ask how much silver coins cost..we went in and bought 2 for about 17euros each... Real money / treasure.

Next morning we drove to Frankfurt. We stayed in a hotel in bad soden.. Hotel taunus, it cost 60 euros per night including breakfast. Our hotel was 2 minutes walk from the last stop on the local train line which went directly to the Messe.  The trade show was all sorts of shiny crap that people fill their houses with. Winston and Henry like to touch everything, and many of the stand owners were giving them sweets. Henry did a wee on an Amazonas hanging chair. Winston liked the travelators.

We had nice dinner in a pub near the hotel with good food and miserable staff. It was valentines day, so maybe thats why they were so sour.

Next day we drove through Netherlands and met Caroline's friend in Belgium. Lovely family with 2 little girls and a 3rd on the way, the we drove to just outside lille in France. We had to stop at a McDonald's to charge up the phone and download a map on their WiFi so we could find the place. The airbnb we stayed in was a single dad with 2 kids in a house with very steep stairs. It cost about 30euros. We went to a croissanterie for breakfast where the morrocan owner spoke some Swedish. We went to depressing Dunkirk, a horrible down and had a croque Monsieur in a smelly little cafe. The only good thing was that some people were wandering around dressed as clowns.

We took the boat from Dunkirk to Calais. We were last on the boat. As Winston was in the passenger seat, he handed the passports over to the customs people in france. On the boat, henry got the shits.. After the first one we used my jumper as trousers, then he pooed in that,then we used a pashmina as a sarong. We drove to cottenham and got to hannah emily Oscar Rubin's house by 7.

We went to the science museum in London which is free, but as it was half term it was overcrowded, so we went to Hyde park instead, then debenhams, where I sent the kids hunting for different items while Caroline did some shopping.

Henry fell down a few stairs at hannah Emily houses, and he held his breath and his eyes rolled back in his head, so we took him to A&E in Addenbrookes.

The boys really enjoyed playing with Oscar and Rubin for the 5 days we stayed there..every day they say they want to go there.

We flew to Romania about £60 each
..  Would have been a lot less if we had booked earlier..Caroline arranged airbnb right in the centre for 40euros per night. 3 bedroom penthouse. Very nice. Transfer from airport was about £17.

We realised that we are spending too much on eating out.

In Bucharest we met Ada. Caroline had a checkup at the dentist. We saw the peoples palace. We went to Sanaia by train to see a spooky castle. The tours were a bit long for the kids who got restless after about 20mins. Winston said that a carving of a man holding a scroll acting as a pillar looked like it had a jetpack on. We went to a fantastic mall where Winston and henry went on little boats.

We met a lovely homeschooling family in the library ...Florian and Andrea, Octavius and ........ Hopefully we will meet up again. After about an hour Winston and Henry started to interact with their children.

Vlad , our airbnb host installed a washing machine, so we could wash our clothes, and dry them on the huge radiators.

We went for dinner with Ada, and Winston and Henry were chasing each other around the restaurant.

Bucharest airport was easy except the security person wanted to molest Winston. I insisted she at least ask nicely.. Her colleague said she didnt have to ask (because they are the ones with the guns), and then did the most minimal pointless search/molestation on Winston.. And the same on Henry. It was probably  their light shoes that set off the buzzer.

4.5 hour flight to Dubai for about £70.

We will stay in Dubai for 3 days then fly to India for about £70each... So the total cost of flights to India is about £200 each. I think we could have done it for about £160 if we had booked well in advance.

A week in Romania

We have been a week in romania. We are renting a penthouse right in the centre of bucharest. It costs 40 euros per night. Here is the view from our window. It's about a 10 minute walk to the palace of the people.

Romania

We went to a big castle in Romania today.

Winston Henry bath

Happy sounds

Carrots and owls

Me: Maybe rabbits like to eat carrots because they want to see very well.

Winston: Maybe rabbits should eat owls.

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