A Fairy Tooth in Bangkok and being Three again!

26th of Feb and early in the morning we flew back from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. Nuy and the dogs waved us GoodBye and Nuy really was very excited about the Flower arrangement she got from Kjell (he saw it at the Night Market where a man was creating all kinds of nice things likeflowers, hats,.. from Palm leaves). We landed as planned half an hour before Jens did and we were both really psyched to see him again! Kjell was holding up a paper that said "Daddy Jens" written in Thai on it and people asked us whether Kjell knew Thai... ;-) Finally the family was reunited again and we drove into Bangkok to check into the Rambuttri Village, from my point of view the worst one so far. Next to Lamphu House but much bigger and the rooms were not as clean as the previous ones. Nevertheless, it had one big plus: a swimming pool on the roof!!! We spend the rest of the day at the pool, swimming while Jens took a nap and got used to the heat shock! 

27th of Feb was a lazy day at the pool and an introduction of Jens to Khao San crazyness as well as TukTuk driving to Hualamphong train station to get our tickets from Surat Thani to Bangkok ( our final trip at the end of our journey). In the afternoon Kjell came up with a huge surprise by loosing - halfway unexpected- his left front tooth.... He was so proud and I suddenly realized that we would never see his lovely tooth gap again. To celebrate this, I went out for a perfect Thai Massage and was supposed to meet up with The guys at the Fish Spa (something that Kjell wanted to show Jens so badly). When we met Kjell had this really strange grin on face and I suddenly knew what was about to come: That actually expected-to-fall-out right front tooth was gone as well!! I could not believe my eyes !!! Now his gap is huge and he started even to lispen. At night we went out for a nice dinner to celebrate this event! Kjell had Icecream and Jens his first Thai food (pheww, which he actually liked!) Guess what... they even have a Tooth  Fairy in Thailand!! :-)))

28th of Feb and we left hot and sticky Bangkok to get down to the South of Thailand! Via Air Asia we flew to Surat Thani and after a one hour delay were picked up by a driver to drive 1,5 hour to Khao Sok National Parc. 

Final days in Chiang Mai ... Jungle trips, mystic temples and baby tigers...

23rd of Feb and after that great Elephant day yesterday, we decided to go out into the Jungle to visit some Waterfalls and temples together with David and the Dogs! We hired a taxi for a couple of hours and it was cool to go with someone who really knows the surroundings pretty well! The Dogs and Kjell went on an adventure trip through the Jungle and from time to time Mutley obviously smelled snakes and other wild animals... unfortunately we did not get to see any. We took a swim under a waterfall and my kid was happy to swim with the Dogs. Afterwards, we went to see some hidden Wat, beautifully arranged in an old Garden along a small river. David took Kjell for a prayer and I loved to watch him enjoying it. When he came out of the temple he just had this peaceful smile again...

24th of Feb was my favorite day so far! As I am neither a bad nor a good cook but just not a cook at all, I decided that in Asia I was going to attend a cooking class! As Kjell wanted to join as well we signed up for a class recommended by Nuy. Picked up in the morning, we directly drove with a small group of people to the Market where we bought fresh ingredients for our dishes. We were welcomed by Nancy, the owner of Siam Rice Cooking School and started straight away.... It was soooo much fun and Kjell and I just had a great time, him cutting everything in small pieces, listening carefully to the instructions and me cooking, boiling and tasting the rest! I could hardly believe that what I was eating and what just tasted delicious was actually made by me! Kjell even ate the Coconut/Chicken Soup as well as the Spring Rolls. And I mean ATE not just tasted! Really that was a true highlight!! After 4 dishes we were stuffed like a Turkey!! ;-) At night we went to see the famous Wat Phra Sing, a very beautiful Temple in Chiang Mai. Not to talk about our almost daily rite of praying...

 

25th of Feb and today I was in a moral conflict... We went to see Tiger Kingdom and if it had not been for Kjell I would not have gone there... It really is a very nice, clean, safe and well organised place where one gets the chance to actually touch and play with tigers in all sizes. Yes, you will probably only do this once in a lifetime and touching baby tigers and playing with them really was fantastic but I still don't feel convinced that this was a good idea. Kjell was completely excited... The question is: What weighs more? Having less tigers running around freely or more tigers according to breeding programs in Zoos, Conservation Farms,... but having the feeling that they are not " real" anymore? I like the idea and support breeding quotes but to what extend and price? I think Tiger Kingdom is a good idea but the concept should be more focussed on the tigers than the tourists and that would probably attract even more tourists... Nevertheless, it was exceptional and Kjell enjoyed it!

At night we went to the beautiful Saturday night market and bought some cute souvenirs, drank Sugarcane And Herbal Juices and enjoyed our last night in the North of Thailand! Tomorrow we will get up early and leave for the Airport flying to Bangkok where we will meet up with Jens! I have had a great time with Kjell, even much better and with less annyoing, stressing moments than I thought! Kjell is a perfect travel mate and already suggested we should do this again! But even though we met people during our trip, I am looking forward to my husband very very much! As well as Kjell who spoke about Daddy a lot in the past days!

Chiang Mai, Thilassou, Noi and sore legs from Elephant riding !

20th of Feb and after a quick 3/4 hour flight we are back in Thailand again and ended up in the North in Chiang Mai, Thailand's second biggest city! A driver from Funky Monkey GH picked us up and after a 30 min into the Old Centre of the town we were welcomed at Funky Monkey Guesthouse by Nuy and her British husband David! Kjell felt at home straight away as they have fish as well as two sweet dogs, Mutley and Fat Dog. They all became best friends straight away. David and Nuy are just great hosts. The room is incredibly spacious and hooorray for Kjell: they do have Kid's TV. We just relaxed, discussed a few options on what to do the next days, went out for a nice Dinner at the Tiger Kingdom Restaurant and went to sleep early!

21st of Feb and we just went discovering the Centre of Chiang Mai and went for a swim in one of the Hotels that David recommended to us! After an hour of diving and swimming it came to an aprupt end as Kjell cut his toe really bad. We didn't do much for the rest of the day and just relaxed in the GH, having Dinner there as Nuy is a brilliant cook!

22nd of Feb and this was a very special day... we got up at 6.30, had a big breakfast and were then picked up by a taxi to drive a 45 min trip into the Mountains to the Patara Elephant Farm. I had picked this Elephant experience really cautiously and according to Tripadvisor this was supposed to be really awesome.... It was!! We were introduced to the owner, his philosophy and vision, the staff of several experienced Mahouts and - the Elephants! Patara exists for 10 years now and since then they had no death but 5 births to be announced! The latest elephant girl born was only 2 months old and she was strolling around us all the time and blowing her trunk like an old one when she had lost sight of her mother. So sweet, so funny, so great! I wasn't sure whether Kjell was going to be ready to ride his own Elephant and go along with the Mahout or just share one Elephant with me.... But there wasn't even the question of it! They say at Patara that they try to choose the Elephant according to the person and therefore he got this "small" Girl Elephant Thilassou (meaning Waterfall) and was quickly best friend with her and the Mahout Tip. I only looked after him once or twice and could then completely concentrate on my pregnant Elephant Noi (little) and Mahout Lai. We started by learning the health check of an Elephant including a close examination of the poo...;-) Several times we took Thilassou as example and therefore Kjell was upfront most of the time with the Owner Pat talking to the other guests. He wasn't shy at all and afterall the first to climb on his Elephant! We went to take them for a cleaning bath, scrubbed them and splashed them with water! You could really tell they were enjoying us... The whole time pics and videos were taken of us and we did not have to worry about cameras and good shots. After feeding and getting to know them, health checking and bathing them we went for a ride through the Jungle! I have to admit that at the beginning I really felt incredibly uncomfortable as the Elephant was moving his head pretty often, trying to grab bamboo sticks and leaves... but after a while I got used to it and will never forget this American guy in front of me who really had to struggle hard with his stubborn Elephant and her active baby Elephant! We had excellent food on huge banana leaves and went for bathing together with the Elephants besides the Waterfalls! That was such a fun thing thing as the Elephants kept on splashing us with water.. Kjell was out of his mind for joy! We rode back and could not believe that we had already spent 9 hours at the Farm! We got the chance to say Goodbye to our Elephants and somehow this was a very close and intimate moment! I will never ever forget these sane, clear, interested eyes looking straight into my heart! Kjell told me he had felt the same... On our way back, Kjell fell asleep straight away .... At night he stated that this was the best day in his whole life! Again and again he kept on repeating "Mom, I really rode an Elephant!"...

Buddha Caves and Waterfalls ..... how to make my kid happy

...17th of Feb and we finished the day by going to a place I had already planned to go to while being in Germany. We went to visit Big Brother Mouse, an institution that takes care of publishing books in English and Lao language to get the Lao people to learn and to read their language. You can volunteer every day and give English lessons, organize a book party and lots of other interesting stuff to support the Lao people. We actually bought two English/Lao books for ourselves and left three further books with the staff to be distributed in the villages. Kjell couldn't hardly believe that there were kids that won't start going to School at the age of 6 and he was curious to find out more about it and felt proud to have supported this organization.

18th of Feb, and we got up at 5 am to drive uptown with Philipp, the Swiss owner, his son, his wife and some further guests to the so-called Monk's ceremony. This were the most reverent moments of my life and I am very happy that they shared this special moments with tourists like us. Every morning the Monks and Novices from the surrounding neighbourhood Wats line up in groups and rows to ask the people for any kinds of donations, running from sticky rice to sweets and money... we drove to their favorite spot in front of a Wat, went inside for a prayer, then rolled out our blankets, filled the sweets and cookies in bowls and waited for the Monks to arrive. They always walk by in smaller or larger groups with the "Chef" Monk (usually the Oldest one) leading them.We learnt that the "Student" Monks only had one shoulder covered with the robe and that around the age of 18 they would decide whether they'd leave the Wat and go back into a normal life or choose the Monk's life... we learnt so much that I could write a few more pages.... what an impressive way to start a day. Kjell as well was very moved and touched, so many of them smiled at him when receiving the treats.



We stayed uptown and had some French breakfast. At 8.30 we were taken down to the Mekong's pier to catch one of the 6p-speedboats and went off for 1,5 hours trip upstream the Mekong. What a nice trip on the water. We saw Elephants bathing with their Mahouts, we actually saw Monks "tubing" and went for a short stop at some Hmong Village to get some souvenirs and to try the Lao Rice Whiskey. I actually did not get the chance to try any as Kjell fell of the small wooden pier directly into a 20cm deep mud pile. I spent the time cleaning up my kid and laughing at him.. ;-). Next stop was the infamous Pak Ou Cave that is recommended in every guide book and for the first time -probably spoiled after the adventurous caving in VangVieng - we were really disappointed. A small cave filled with hundreds of dirty Buddahs in every size, packed with tourists... Kjell brought his torchlight for nothing. No climbing allowed at all. After 35 minutes we went back... conclusion: For Buddhists this sure is a Must see as their is a holy reason for the Buddahs being placed by hundreds in the cave but for Westener tourists only the Mekong trip itself is a great experience. The cave can be left out.... Kjell fell asleep on my lap on our way back.. ;-)



At night we went out to the famous and beautiful nighmarket to get some small souvenirs from the traditional local vendors and had some awesome Pad Thai (noodles) and Crepes.

19th of Feb and again we woke up early by the Monk's enchanting singing... I wouldn't survive this uninflected singsong in Germany but here it somehow fits so well in daily life and speed. While having breakfast on the porch and looking over the River I asked Kjell whether he senses that I am different or have changed: "You are much more relaxed and calm", he said straight away. LuangPrabang really slows down my heartbeat and breath... I love this place!!
We packed up our bathing stuff and went out with other guests to the KuangSi Waterfalls outside LP. I am so glad we showed up at 9 am already. Therefore we were almost the first ones to arrive and had the place with its several hidden Waterfalls and swimming spots just for ourselves. Wow, I felt like Brooke Shields in the 'Blue Lagoon' except that my Christopher Atkins was 5years old and -well- behaving like a kid. ;-)

We climbed up some crazy natural stairway to the top of the source of the Waterfall, hiked throught the Jungle and all in all had a wonderful last day in Laos! At night we went again uptown, crossed the night market and went out for a fancy byebye dinner!

20th of Feb and Philipp, the owner was so kind to take me with his Jeep to a little shop selling Lao flags for our Hasitanic ship back home! Some hours later we finally left for the Airport. Incredibly enough, the whole family went with us to say Good Bye. We got hugs and kisses and Lai, his wife even tied small bracelets around our wrists to bring us luck. How sweet they were... Chiang Mai will really need to catch up with this beautiful place!!!...

From heaven to paradise.... Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang

14th of Feb, in the afternoon we went out to the Organic Mulberry Farm to take a swim in the Nam Song. Kjell had a blast and just imagine his screams when he stepped out of the Water with a huge crab-bug-type of animal clinging to his swim pants.... I was trying to knock it of but just couldn't in the first try as it was really hanging on to him. Funny thing... Not so funny was the bathroom wooden-mirrorframe decor we had at night: Who would believe me that if I say the spider was big, it WAS BIG! I honestly couldn't believe my eyes, brown, if it had stretched its legs we would have ended up at 14cm.... Uuuah! Thanks to our Dutch neighbors, the girl was not afraid at all, came over and would have actually just taken it with a small piece of toilet paper.... I was about to faint, really. Unfortunately, it was gone..... and guess where I found it the next morning? In my big bathing towel...gladly, I was prepared and checked beforehand. I suppose, it was as scared as I was but we would not be friends for sure....

15th of Feb, TUBING day... this is actually what unfortunately most travelers come to VV for. You hire a tube for 55.000 kip, are driven up 4 km to the river and this is actually where the party starts and most kids start and end the day. It is almost impossible to describe the scenery... along the river lots of bars are established, all of them playing more or less the latest party hits, challenging each other on who is the noisiest one.... around noon the partying starts, everbody gets insanely drunk, taking a swim or tubing to the bars, collecting bracelets and picking up a girl/ a boy for the night... around 6pm you need to return the tubes uptown... I wonder how most of them manage to do so and suppose that there must be organised pickups to bring them back home save. Every now and then kids just die while being drunk, floating on the river, either they simply drown or they die of a heatstroke... nevertheless, everybody advised me that tubing itself would not be dangerous for Kjell  (due to possible rapids or else) but more due to drunken kids pushing him out of tube... when you sign up for tubing, they write your "starting number" on your arm and we were going to be the two #4s.   ;-) the drunken kids still sound asleep, we went up to the Organic Mulberry Farm, tied the tubes together and off we went, floating along the Nam Song. Kjell had a blast. The water was brilliant, some smaller rapids made him scream for joy and the funniest thing for him was when the water was that shallow that rocks bumped my butt. (honestly, a pain sometime). We skipped the bars as most of them they had not opened anyway and  just floated down the river at some point it became really boaring. Talking  of fear of rapids, it became a problem that we hardly got to move at all. I had to paddle with my feet as it became clear that this trip would still gon on for a while and the sun was burning our skin - even though soaked with sun lotion....
the result of it was a major sunburn (Kjell only turned dark brown) and controverse feeling about tubing in VangVieng!
As a result one can say, that If I were 20 years younger, I would probably enjoy this place differently then I did now with my kid. VangVieng's stunning landscape is definitely worth the trip and there is lots of other stuff to do except getting drunk tubing.
We finished our stay in VV with a PinaColada Cocktail and a cool Sprite and left the next morning for our last stop in Laos - LuangPrabang!

16th of Feb, travel day.... we left at 11.30 am with a VIP Bus as it was highly recommended to take a slower bus than a faster MiniVan. Kjell slept or iPad-ed most of the time and the 8 hours drive went by really quick. We got in a SongThaew and 5 min later entered Paradise! The Thongbay Resort is hard to desbribe with words. If I were to rebook my honeymoon with Jens, I would definitely end up here.... while Maylyn's Garden was arranged in a more djungle-like wild way, this Garden is worth a prize for arrangement. Light chains everywhere, a pond in the middle, wooden houses arranged around it. Due to the quite "expensive" price of 40 Euro per night, I had only booked a Garden view bungalow but we ended up with a River View bungalow with a beautiful porch and relaxing chairs on it. The room itself is breathtaking with nice little decors and a wonderful smell of insence sticks, ... the  pics speak for themselves. It was at this point that I decided that we definitely will come back to Laos and show this beautiful country to Jens!!
The Resort owner presented himself to us, a Swiss man living here with his Lao wife, and perfect for us: they have a little boy Pascal who has exactly the same age and character as Kjell. Thongbay seems more a High Class Resort with lots of stylish dressed Swiss couple. I don't think any of them travel with a backpack.. ;-)
Therefore, I suppose Kjell and Pascal are happy to have met!

17th of Feb, and we had a great sleep under nice, clean sheets on perfect beds! I woke up briefly around 4 am when the Monks beat the Morning drums. What a calming, relaxing sound.... Kjell went out to play with Pascal and the planes we brought from Germany and I even had to reschedule the costfree ride to the Center of the town as Kjell and Pascal were not able to seperate while fishing in the pond. I am really glad he has found a friend. ;-)
LP is just great and I surely found the place where I can completely retire from the stressfull life back home! The pace here is so incredibly slow, the people so relaxed... it is hard to let go when you are a Westener living under pressure and speed most of the times. I get to think a lot about my working life back home. Even Kjell seems to slow down. If it was about making trouble and letting go of his energy at the past places, the tangerine-robed monks that you see everywhere here seem to calm him down. Somehow they are attracted to him... maybe there really is more Asian to him than I thought there would be. People look at him, at me and you can tell, they wonder... this is new to me and I am not sure whether he senses this as well. I tell him that they are just curious and love kids no matter where they are from. Families traveling with kids are rather scarce to find here.
Kjell decided, he wanted to go up and see the Wat on Phu Si (yes, it is actually pronounced "Pussy") . At the entrance we paid 20.000 kip and started climbing up the stairs. Kjell wanted to buy these small birds kept in small cages, as letting them free brings luck to the person. I strongly believe that these birds are trained to fly back to the cages but just letting them fly around freely for a few minutes gave me a better feeling about the whole thing. 20.000 for two birds was a lot of money but Kjell believing so strongly at his theory of saving these little birds made my day. So he climbed up with two cages in each of his hands and at the top of the mountain with a spectacular view on Mekong and side river we let them free. Gladly they flew of into a completely different direction which supported his theory. ;-)

We then again had a very special moment when three monks entered the Wat while we sat there watching the people pray in silence. They all smiled at him, sat down to pray and while leaving again took a while in looking at him, catching his eye, smiling. I don't know how to describe it but these people REALLY make you feel humbled. After this moment Kjell decided that he wanted the enlighten an insence stick himself and say a prayer. So we did....

"Mom, I am going to be a cave guide!"

12th of Feb and we have left the Sala Inpeng in Vientiane for Maylyn's Guesthouse in VangVieng. The bus left with an hour delay at 11 am and took exactly 4 hours for 60.000 kip. We had a short break in the middle and went for Icecream. The trip was just great. We passed small villages settled in an incredible landscapes. It got more and more hilly with the famous limestones. People directly living on and at the streets, sleeping outside on beds on sticks, kids waving at us... the bus station is a km outside of VV and we got a free ride as well as a rip off to the bridge that we had to cross for 4.000 kip each in order to get to Maylyn Guesthouse.
Maylyn Guesthouse, what an amazing place in a stunning landscape. Joe, the owner from Ireland, saved me a brilliant wooden bungalow in the corner of an incredibly beautiful arranged Garden. Nicely decorated, with all kinds of animals making strange and funny noises. Nature at its best. Standing on the porch of our simple bungalow with a huge king size bed, interesting construction of Mosquito net and no space to store our luggage, there was a hammock and a breathtaking view on huge limestones of VangVieng.
We went out for a 10 minute walk uptown along the River Nam Song  and I still haven't figured out what to think about this town. Tons of kids, most of them drunken like hell, one Restaurant after the other with all kinds of horrible Western food as well as tasteless Thai Food.. free Wifi access everywhere (which is unfortunately not available on our side of the river). A completely strange atmosphere and if it weren't for the amazing landscape, I not recommend to there with a kid.... But Kjell didn't really notice the people around him. All he was interested in was making me promise that we would definitely go for a swim in the river the day.... So, I picked up my LP and started making plans for the next day...

13th of Feb, yiieeha, Kjell is eating well again. For breakfast we had Muesli with Yoghurt and a huge fresh fruit plate... he ate all of it! ;-) Mom's happy!
We had nice chats with Joe and some other guests from France and got a perfect recommendation for visiting a cave nearby. As I did not feel like picking up for a 6km walk we rented a bike as everybody does it around here (almost no cars except SongThaews the road anyway). This  trip turned out to be the most fun for Kjell sitting in "the backseat" of my bikes (honestly, the bike had a comfortable, fluffy seat and thingys to put his feet on. This is how Lao kids move forward with their parents... and we are not talking about one kid but up to three on a normal bicycle... ;-)
So, off we went to go and see the Tham Phu Kham cave and the Blue Lagoon that is mentioned in my LP and on Tripadvisor. The trip was pure horror for me. It was so boiling hot, the road was nothing but dusty and so bumpy  and stony. We took the first wrong sign saying Blue Lagoon for a word and ended up in a waterhole at a small river... but we weren't the only ones that were ripped off and so we all continued our trip and after further 2km (felt like I was taking part in the desert trip of 'the good, the bad and the ugly') we finally arrived at this beautiful spot! How nicely arranged with a small restau, little wooden roofed places  on sticks to lay down, tubes to rent and the best of it: a wonderful clear-blue watered Lagoon with swings, ropes and trees to jump off. The people here came from all countries and the atmosphere was extremely relaxed. Kjell got into the water, made some friends with guys from Israel and was really a perfect swimmer.



After a while we went for a ridiculously dangerous climb up the mountain to enter the cave. But the climb was worth the fear. We had our torchlights and entered a huge dark cave ... and if I say huge, I mean huge. Nothing compared to any Tropfsteinhöhle I have ever visited in the past. The cave did not have any walkways but you just had to climb on your own on slippery stones and rocks in sometimes really dangerously heights. Nevertheless it was breathtaking and somehow scary when the daylight faded and you were suddenly completely depending on your flashlights... to assure Daddy: there were lots of other people and everybody was taking care of each other... it was a mixture of all different languages in the dark! And Kjell was the Master! It felt as if he was born and raised in a cave and knew nothing else!! He climbed, decided on the route, found workarounds, assured other people, gave advise, informed,.... and was the most ambitious and happy person ever! I know that kids have a different feeling about danger but he at the same time was still cautious in any ways, taking care of his old Mom! ;-) What a great adventure...



Dinner at Maylyn's was really enjoyable as I start trying meals only by picking by name! We sat together with a nice bunch of people from France, Germany and met a family from Belgium that have been traveling SEA since June already. Cool people and Kjell played with Neela (6y) all night long. Even though he is more the shy type of guy, he slowly starts picking up some words in Lao and English. Joe, the owner thought Kjell would be quite snobby as he never answered to his questions until I told him we were German and Kjell's English knowledge rather limited... Ha, he actually thought I was Australian! ;-)
At night, in our daily procedure of telling each other what was cool and what not so cool,  Kjell stated that this was the best day ever.... so far so good!!

14th of Feb and for the whole morning we stayed in our hammock, watching the scenery and enjoying life...  the kittens came onto our porch to play with Kjell and what would I do without animal life? ;-)

This afternoon we plan on taking a ride (Joe still has a kids bike) to the Organic Mulberry Farm to have a cool shake, watch the crazy kids tubing (this is where the 3km tubing down the river starts) and probably go for another smaller cave and swimming. ...

How to become a millionaire after leaving BKK...

8th of Feb. Ok, we really have trouble in finding the right rhythm.... Kjell again woke up around Midnight. Playing Games and enjoying really good discussions. It really amazes me how much good stuff seems to be in his mind. I probably would never allow a talk about rescue dogs at 2 am in the morning back home in Germany. I got back to sleep around 4 am and awoke around 9am which looks like I am slowly getting adjusted. We were eaten alive by mosquitos... breakfast and heading off - by TukTuk - to Dusit Zoo. First I was not really sure but it really is such a lovely place to visit especially with kids. Lots of great stuff to do, exotic animals that you don"t really get to see in Tierpark Essehof. We saw our first lizards....


Dinner on Khao San but what a rip off with terrible food. Honestly, during day time it actually can be fun with kids but during the afternoon they just turn up Techno sounds that you can barely hear your own words... Mallorca atmosphere with slobby "World travellers". Not my piece of bread anymore.... I don"t think I would even enjoy it with people my age.
I am glad we are at Lamphu House and luckily enough we can stay in the same room until tomorrow as well.

9th of Feb and yeah, we slept non-stop and got up pretty early. I decided to leave my Eastpack daypack at the storage of Lamphu (10 baht per day) until we got back to BKK and left Kjell's sneakers as well as our long sweat pants and some other unuseful stuff. Again, I have to admitt: we took way too much clothes with us...

I was proud of avoiding some further rip off at the Water taxi on ChaoPraya and so I paid 14 baht only for a 15 min trip to Wat Phro instead of 150 baht EACH... the trip was great but too hot. Kjell and I did this lucky charm thing by donating 20 baht, getting a small bowl of coins and lining up to throw a coin in each one of these big massive bowls (around 50). I wasn"t sure whether I was supposed to make a wish at every single bowl... starting with health, love and happiness and ending up with "getting a nice tan at the end of my trip". Who can come up with 50 wishes in 2 minutes anyway??

Kjell was enjoying the trees and buildings to climb onto and best part was when one of the tangerine-robed monks looked at him for a while, walked by, touched his head and murmered something smiling - to be honest: I felt blessed somehow by this short but special moment.
At night we took the TukTuk -by now Kjell"s most favorite vehicle in Asia - to get to Hualamphong - BKKs  main station. I picked up some food, got Kjell some nuts and chips and off we went for nighttraining to Laos!



I downloaded some MuppetMovie for Kjell and so he relaxed while Thailand flew by in the dark of the night. The ticket man came to make our beds which was cool as well. So we both cuddled in our small cabin and fell asleep until next morning....

10th of Feb and getting to Laos ! So, here is the question: How do you become a Millionaire in two seconds? Just drive into Laos, go to an ATM and withdrawl 100 Euro ! You get 1.000.000 kip. This currency is just insane and I am incapable of handling it well.... Arriving at NongKhai and crossing the boarder to Laos was quickly done. SongThaew from the main station to the ThaiBoarder, 30 baht, public bus to the LaosBoarder, 14 baht, filling out the forms quite takes a while when you do it for 2 persons, paying 30 Dollars each (no pics needed), taking a MiniVan to our Hotel, Auberge Sala Inpeng for 150 baht.
Sala Inpeng !! What can I say? What a lovely place for 30 Dollars including breakfast. The hosts Mr. Sayaxit and his wife as well as the staff are incredibly nice and charming and always smiling. They have nine wonderfully arranged wooden bungalows located in a small garden right in the Centre of Vientiane. All is extremely clean and in perfect shape. Kjell was so excited to find a Mosquito net hanging over his bed  ;-) They have a cat and a kitten as well as a small dog and I felt really relieved when Kjell went on to play with them, constantly talking German to the staff.... It was a really hot day and we just decided to stay in our air-con cooled room until the late afternoon. A pretty night market opened on Mekong"s promenade and they had a playground where Kjell could run a few miles... you can tell that he had not really done this in the past days... he was totally out of control and after a while no fun at all. The pressure and excitement seemed to fall off. I suppose we really need to make arrangements on Mom time& kid time and learn from each other.... but so far, being with him for 24 hours a day still is far from being unbearable ;-) I hope Kjell feels the same....?!

11th of Feb and we finally made it into Lao timezone! We got to bed around 10 pm and woke up by 9 am. Breakfast just outside our room on the porch. So nice, so friendly, so good ! Nothing special but with baby bananas, good coffee, fresh juice and related to the French influence that one can sense everywhere in Vientiane - fresh warm Croissants. Kjell was in heaven !



As I already finished my German book I went up to a local book store to get some Laotian Novels. Hardly anything to find and if yes, well written in Laotian. ;-)
Tonight we will be back at the Nighmarket to grab some food and packing our backpacks for tomorrow's departure to VangVieng by public bus (no Minibus for sure( for 60.000 kip leaving around 9.30 am.

Next stop VANG VIENG.... ;-)

BKK and great loos...

7th of Feb. Wow, what a first night... we really fought time difference... went to bed at 6.30 pm and Kjell woke up at Midnight to tell me that his night was over... it was boiling in our room and so we sat there half- naked playing cards, listening to the iPod and finally going back to bed at 4 am... we woke up around Noon, had a great first breakfast in Bangkok with scrambled eggs, fruit pancakes and mixedfruit shakes... Gosh, so happy... ;-) Our hostel is really great. We can stay in our room until checkout and our hostel in Vientiane won't charge me for arriving one day later... great news!
So what to do on  such a hot day? We took a bus for tiny 13baht (I got "ripped off" as they charged Kjell as well) to the newest Shopping Center in town: Terminal 21. That place is really amazing not only because of the perfect climate in there but also for incredible food places

 as well as the high tech Japanese toilets!! Kjell had to go 5 times (without me ever forcing  him) to be able to sit on a heated, butt splashing, blow drying loo.... Hardly ever had that much fun in a public bathroom.... ;-)



The way back took more than one hour in the steaming traffic and we sure got intoxicated by rush hour's pollution... back in KhaoSan we ended up at McDs to get some Chicken Nuggets and he had to promise that this was only a horrible exception. While I could stop at every food stall to get these lovely  chicken, whatsoever offers Kjell still keeps on proclaiming that the smell is awfull everywhere. But I don't blame him. I love the smell of spices and incense sticks and he just needs to get used to it.
Fish Spa!! Yes, we did it. Kjell wanted to and was screaming like hell when the first fish actually hit his feet. I was shocked by the way my feet  looked like after a few seconds: as if I was wearing thick fishy moon boots!!! One of the staff said to me :" They just like your sweet skin!" While one of the other tourists  looked at me and stated:"Honestly, I would wonder and ask myself why...." ;-) Well, I prefer to believe in the staff's words, enjoyed the nibbling and tickling and Kjell said that when Daddy will put his feet in there even the other fishes from other pools will jump over to that "party dinner" feet! We will find out in three weeks!! ;-)

A great first day is over and Kjell starts to getting  used to everybody wanting to touch him, "hi baby-ing " him. People just love kids and I can tell how little he is used to that friendliness... but he starts grinning back and that is the best sign. We are feeling great!

Getting there....

....and how can one put up with such a temperature change??

 Wow, we are here and it is somehow as if it had not been 15 years ago that I was here for the last time... on the other hand so much has changed....
But let's start at the beginning.... Jens drove us to the Airport on Sunday morning and I was really fighting the tears... what the hell was I going to do? Taking our little son away from him for three weeks being completely respnsible for my actions.... but no way back! SNISNASNOW !!!

The 4 3/4 hours stay in IST unfortunately took even 6 hours afterall as the plane had a delay but Thank Jobs time went by pretty quick and just imagine Kjell's excitement when he found out about his own Inflight Entertainment in  the backseat. His plan actually was to spend the whole flight playing pinball and watching Charlie Brown movies. After dinner where he actually even loved the Turkish-spiced chicken I forced him to sleep and by doing so killed my chance of taking a quick nap. He was laying all over me and my body got more sore with every minute. I was exhausted...

 Catching up with the security topics....

but the Arrival was overwhelming. Hardly any people queuing at Immigration, the backpacks were unloaded within a few minutes, the taxi line was non-existant and in less than one hour we arrived at our hotel near Khao San, Lamphu House. The staff was extremely friendly and we could even checkIn way before booking time. I just start to realize that travelling with a kid seems to have lots of advantages... :-) 

My main goal was to get the train tickets for NongKhai and after getting lost on the wrong bus, Kjell decided that we were going to take a Tuk-Tuk! He was laughing his butt off during the whole trip and after being back ar Khao San stated that he would never ever do that again..... ;-) Completely  different to our Yeti back home but he better gets used to it! ;-))))

 

Enjoying TukTuk ride...

Bad news at Hualamphong Train Station though. The train for going up North seemed to be completely booked, therefore I had to extend our stay in BKK for one more night (will need to change rooms) and hope that my next stay in Laos/Vientiane won't charge me the first night..... to be continued....
 First fresh coconut....

Off we go... or ... Yi Lu Ping An !!!

Less than half a day and we are finally off ! The packs are filled halfway (incredible, I actually made it to only 10kg for Kjell and I and Kjell's pack weighs 4kg) and leave enough space for new clothes and souvenirs.
NOW, I have a good feeling.
Last calls with Omas&Opas and a last glass of Red with my hubby. I am sure, he will enjoy the 3 weeks without us as much as the three weeks of vacation with us. ;-)

Tomorrow morning 11am, we will head to Hannover Airport, take the plane to Istanbul and -aaargh- have a stop-over in Transit Area for almost 5 hours. That will be a drag and Thank Jobs the iPad will save most of my time... ;-)

I just learnt yesterday that TA has excellent Inflight Entertainment, so I suppose the flight itself will go by pretty quick.
'just wonder how we will manage the temperature boost from Minus 15 to Plus 35 ! That will be challenging.... ;-)

Ok, next post will be arriving from Asia !!!!!

Like my good old friend Becky just chatted: "Yi Lu Ping An" which roughly means "On the road, safety and peace" !