will's post from kampot

Kampot, Cambodia 24th January 2011

We went swimming in the river . It was really nice and warm ,I can swim without a life jacket and I jumped in off the pier. I spoke to Nana on Skype while I was jumping in. She could see me.

This morning before went swimming we we went to the barbers. Dad got his haircut then I decide to have my haircut too. After the haircut I feeled the back of my hair and its really spiky now.

Right now I can hear two birds talking to each other, it is really loud and squeaky. The bird is white and brown and beige.

We are staying at les Manguiers which means the mango trees in French. We are in a wooden hut, it is far off the ground. The doors are brown wood. It is really relaxing because lots of people swim in the river . We swam off the pier.

We went to a special school what looks after kids and other people and parents so to help them if they are disabled on a part of their body. It is called the Epic Arts Centre, it means every person counts.

 It teaches them how to dance with any part of their body, some parts are hurt badly.

I met someone called Chock he had an infected eye, he has downs syndrome .He is a really good artist and dancer.
Here is a picture of him wemet in the epic arts café.

 I really like Camboida

Luang Prabang, Laos, Tuesday 11th January

Edie:


30 kilometres outside Luang Prabang, we went to Kwang See National Park and first of all the bear sanctuary for Moon bears. They are there because the Chinese capture them
and take their bile which is the stuff that makes your saliva. Apparently, the Chinese drink it!


After that, we ran around the forest and came across this blue lagoon. We ran up, stopped still and our jaws dropped, Wwe’d never seen a beautiful, turquoise blue lagoon like it.  We went swimming  in one and ran on further and kept on seeing more and more blue lagoons with tumbling waterfalls. Eventually we got to the top and saw an absolutely huge waterfall with water spraying everywhere - about 40 metres high.  


On the way to the waterfalls, we stopped at a Hmong village. The Hmong are an ethnic group that doesn’t believe in Communism. Their religion is Animism.  We walked into the village and suddenly felt very depressed because there were people living in tattered, old houses in the middle of the mountains.  They were setting up little stalls for people to buy stuff.  There were loads of children who kept on saying “You can buy 5000”, over and over again which meant you can buy a friendship bracelet for 5000 kip (about 40p). We bought a few bracelets and other things to help the people out.


As soon as we got back in the car our stomachs began to unravel.  We kept on talking about it all the way to Kwang See.  Whenever I think about that I feel a bit depressed and guilty for some reason.  It taught me to feel lucky and to know that I should not expect too much.




12th January Luang Prabang


On our last day in Laos, in the evening, we walked over a rickety bamboo bridge over the Nam Khan river to where it meets the Mekong, a famous South East Asian river.


We walked over to a little sunset bar and ran down to the river bed with its white, dry, sprinkling sand. It is the dry season here so the Mekong is quite low.


For the first 20 minutes, Mum sat down and wrote postcards. For the last 20 minutes we ran around on the sand and took photos, feeling very happy as the sun set behind the mountains. When the sun disappeared it started to get cold.


As we walked back over the old bridge, we passed by a friendly Lao man, smiling and greeting us.  We told him it was our last day in Laos.  “Safe journey”, he said “and please come again.!”  He lives and sleeps in a tiny shack beside the ancient bamboo bridge and collects money from the people who use it.  Dad said he would never forget his smile.

Luang Prabang, Laos, Tuesday 11th January

Ollie:

“Rubbish!”  a 7 year old Lao boy shouts as the shuttlecock hits the floor. We are playing badminton with Don and Ben, my cousin Ivan’s two boys, in the fading light, when the mossies bite, on a court behind their school.

Ivan has lived in Luang Prabang for nearly 10 years and runs two gorgeous hotels here. It’s the place we have stayed in the longest, nearly 9 days so far. It’s mysterious and beautiful and there is so much to discover.

It is the old French colonial capital of Laos. They moved out in the 1950’s and the mixture of Asian and French culture really is quite something. Masses of crumbling old villas, countless glittering wats and a royal palace. A small town built on a peninsula with huge mountains surrounding it and the Mekong river running alongside.

We found a small, very noisy guest house in the old silversmith area. A warren of tiny, narrow streets that only the tuk tuks and motorbikes can comfortably fit down.

Apart from having a great time with my cousin and his boys, we have been very busy tourists. ….

A couple of days ago we went to the UXO (Unexploded ordinance) visitors centre.
We were all shocked to find that Laos is the most bombed nation on earth. Over 260 million munitions were dropped by the Americans between 1963 and 1973, every 8 minutes. More bombs were dropped here than during the whole of the second world war, so called carpet bombing….the Americans were fighting a secret war against the communists. They failed and when they withdrew in 1973, the communists soon took over.
At UXO, they have only managed to clear a minuscule percentage of the unexploded  bombs and we were told on average, one person still dies every day when they go off…



We also visited the myriad of wats with ornate rooves that seem to sweep low to the ground .They house giant golden Buddhas in the big ones and in the smaller, lotus-shaped ones there are dark, cave-like, candlelit interiors full of Buddha figures in every pose, in every size in bone, glass, bronze, wood …All the kids enjoyed lighting candles and incense and meditating but Will in particular was completely absorbed by it all, sitting unprompted  in the classic lotus position with his fingers joined, meditating for several minutes . He was in his element .Will even asked us for a piece of paper so he could copy the intricate glass mosaic figures that are stuck on the outside walls, of elephants, warriors, bears and holy men.



Ivan took us to the Nam Ou river 30 minutes outside the town where we visited another holy site, the Tam Ting cave. Approximately 2500 Buddha’s are crammed in here.  I have  never understood the significance of the Buddha poses but there I found an explanation of some of the important stages in his life .

 ‘Calling for rain’ is when Buddha stand, arms pointing downwards...

‘Calling the earth to witness’ when he is seated and one hand extended downwards…

‘Stop arguing’ (a pose, I think I’m going to be adopting a lot in the future!) where the figure is standing and his palms are extended outwards.

After the cave, we all went for lunch and a swim in the river.

It is going to be very hard to leave Laos but we are off to Cambodia in two days time.

Luang Prabang, January 10th 2011

Edie


We got up late because we had been out late, having fun with Don and Ben and their puppy, Mufassa who we all call the carpet dog because of his furry back.  


Today, we went to the Palace for the second time. It is now called the national museum since the communist revolution in 1975. We took an audio tour. It told us there is a rumour that the ghost of King Sissavangvong walks around at night and shifts all the furniture, which is why no one ever goes there after dark. That scares me.


We saw their old cars, some had been given by the Americans and we saw in the palace the gifts they’d been given from Denmark and other countries around the world. 


It was very interesting.

Will


We had to take our shoes off in the palace but not in the garage.


 I really liked the cars, my favourite was the middle one. The speedboat was made of wood

Luang Prabang, Laos, Wednesday 6th January

Open , Welcome all travellers! Drink alcohol snake cobra wine, try it at least once.
Wine good for strength, want shot 5000 kip, thanks a lot. The older being younghood.
You cannot come Laos and not try this snake and cobra wine….

Edie:


I woke up this morning and went down to the Mekong River and saw an Italian couple that were drinking Cobra juice from a stall. There were pickled snakes and lizards all crammed into large jars…dead of course!!!

Will:
Every day in Luang Prabang we play Badminton with my second cousins, Ben and Don and yesterday we met their puppy which is Mufassa, “woof, woof”. 


Lots of the trees are hairy here and their money  isn’t pounds, it is KIP. They don’t have any coins only paper.


They are loads of flies here, when I went to the meat market, I said “it must be Christmas for the flies.”


We walked in the hot, sizzling sunshine to Dad’s cousins girlfriend’s hotel. It had five or six pools(actually two) , a Jacuzzi, a sauna and we had lunch in the restaurant. 


I bought a ring in the market and I’ve got it on my finger. It is yellow, brown and white and made from  a shell.