A shop attendant shows
Roxanne how to write
her name in Burmese.Myanmar
Skip Yangon (the only thing we felt was worth visiting was the Schwedagon Pagoda – an oasis of peace in a busy, ex-colonial town) and go directly north to Mandalay. We had a wonderful four days in Mandalay, including trips out of town to a nearby hill resort, and a boat ride up the Irrawaddy river to Mingun Paya with its incredible huge pagoda base and the second largest bell in the world. We visited many different cottage industries and were overawed at what people could produce with the most meagre of tools and materials.
At Bagan we hired a pony trap for the kids, while we bicycled behind them around stupas that are hundreds and hundreds of years old. It was an amazing experience, being able to clamber over these ancient monuments, and we saw some spectacular sunsets.
On the way to Inle Lake (a long bumpy day’s drive) we stopped off at a local market and also at the Pindaya caves and visited some more home handcraft places. Our days on the lake itself were peaceful; popular stops with the kids included hot water springs where you could swim, playing soccer with some local boys (Tim aged 5, cried when it was time for us to go) and the ‘jumping cats’ at a monastery where one of the monks has trained his cats to jump through hoops.
Pokhara gave us some nice day treks, and the kids loved the folk dancing display we watched in a hotel one night and still laugh over the antics of the dancers with their kukhri knives. The mountains were awesome for us all.
Christopher (7) enjoyed the architecture and buildings that we saw in Kathmandu, especially in the Durbar Squares,. Roxanne and I had an ‘Everest flight’ which was expensive but worth it, but the highlight of Nepal was without doubt, the Chitwan Reserve.
A river full of real crocodiles separated us from the park itself and each day we made several trips on elephant back into the park and went looking for rhino. We could get close to them, but the kids enjoyed the elephant rides in themselves. We had a fairly close encounter with a rhino on foot as well, and saw the gharial (long-nosed crocodiles) conservation project up close, and then the gharials themselves in the wild. But it was the ten foot marsh mugger (flesh eating crocodile) that slid off the bank as our dugout approached and disappeared into the water right next to us/under us? that really excited the kids. Michael Jackson, a dancing(!) baby elephant at a breeding centre was a big plus as well.
Bangkok traffic is congested and slow but a trip along the klongs (canals) is much cooler and the temples picturesque. As part of a klong tour we were taken to a ‘zoo’ where the only thing that impressed was the snake show – a cobra being milked of it’s venom, and pit vipers bursting balloons with their teeth, not to mention the huge python with which we could have our photo taken. The Rose Garden had traditional dancing and crafts for display, and the Grand Palace and temples provided all the grandeur you could want.
Further north to Chiang Mai where even the kids enjoyed shopping at the night market with its huge variety of wares. But as a family our lasting memory will be of the three night/four day trek we went on, out of Chiang Mai. Efficiently organised by Eagle House, we slept in local style bamboo huts in villages along the way and carried our own gear for the thirty odd km that we covered overall. Our youngest was four and coped reasonably well with the steep mountain sides, but every now and then would succumb to being carried on someone’s shoulders. Our guides were excellent, the food delicious and the people in the villages we met found our children something of a novelty. They played games with the village children when we stopped in the evenings and won smiles from whoever we met along the track. A couple of hours on elephant back and a morning of bamboo rafting relieved the walking, and there were plenty of breaks thrown in. Back in Chiang Mai we relaxed in hot showers (after cold river baths) and soft beds.
We have only been in the north to Hanoi, but had a great holiday there. It is a fascinating city with pretty lakes to walk around, and the French influence still to be seen in the old men in their berets, colonial buildings and the fresh baguettes available each morning in the street. The children were awed at Mao’s mausoleum, loved the planes at the airforce museum, and sat enthralled through the water puppet performance – uniquely clever. We organised our own tours through a back packers place – which meant we had our own vehicle, driver and guide so was slightly more expensive but much more flexible and convenient for us as a family. We went out of the city into the surrounding countryside to see limestone formations (on a boat trip), silk and ceramics being made, and a whole village devoted to making noodles.