Laos and one more New Year

Today is Tet, the Lunar New Year, celebrated by the Chinese and Vietnamese mostly. Here in beautiful Laos, Tet is not really a big deal. Their New Year's - called Pi Mai - occurs in mid-April. But back in Vietnam, where we just came from, they will be doing it up big , adorning their kumquat trees with red and gold decorations.

Luang Prabang, a small city of only 26,000 people here in Laos, has been a breath of fresh air for us these last 5 days. There is no traffic to speak of, no horns honking, no street vendors hassling you to buy something, and best of all, great cups of coffee. The Lao coffee is so potent you can add up to 4 ounces of fresh, cold milk and it won't even change colour. So strong, so good :)

Peaceful street in Luang Prabang:

Luang Prabang was once the capital, home to the royal monarchy before the capital moved to Vientiane. Because of this, there is a stunning palace/museum to visit as well as many well-preserved temples. The town itself is set at the junction of two rivers, the Mekong and the Nam Khan rivers, and mountains circle all around it. There are waterfalls nearby, scenic caves, and plenty of opportunities to go for a trek, elephant ride or boat ride on the Mekong. You can also observe the expert weavers at work with the beautiful Lao silk and cotton fabrics. We've done it all this week. Here are some photos . . .

Tat Kuang Si waterfalls:

Lots of daring young people (including Mitchell but no other Elborns) took a leap into the falls from the rope swing:

Surprisingly - maybe thanks to the Lao coffee - we even managed to get up at 5:30am to witness the procession of Buddhist monks who stroll down the main streets at 6:00am collecting alms. For Lao Buddhists, they believe that performing acts such as feeding their monks and donating money to the temples will earn them merit that will pay off in a future life.

I look like death warmed over as I'm not really a morning person. Good thing I had Darlene's Jacket to keep the early morning chill off me:

We purchased a basket of sticky rice and some bananas to give the monks:

We didn't realize there would be close to 400 monks and ran out of food before they all came by:

On our way to do an elephant trek:

We had a good time but then were saddened to see the elephants are kept in chains after their work with us tourists:

Climbing up the 358 steps of Phu Si hill for a great view of Luang Prabang at sunset:

View including Mekong River:

Diverse night market with great selection of silk scarves, H'mong blankets, silver jewellry, bamboo lamps, and the usual T-shirts:

Guesthouses abound - attractive architecture and vegetation:

Fruit shakes are popular and probably a healthier alternative to the high-octane coffee I've been enjoying:

Colourful tuk-tuks have been our transportation:

Update from DJ and What's Next

Just before we left Ottawa, my friend Darlene gave me her fleece jacket to take on this trip - heretofore known as DJ (Darlene's Jacket). I promised to send updates once in awhile but I've been a bit negligent with that. Truth is, until this past month of October, DJ basically just hung around (on a hook that is) waiting for the weather to chill.

I remember we actually went swimming on Sept. 30th at Narbonne-plage. Unbelievably, my mom reported snow in Saskatoon not long after! In early October, the weather here started to turn and DJ has been at my side (actually on my back) ever since. DJ would like everyone to know how exciting her life has been this part month . . . galavanting all over Carcassonne with Arms Akimbo, checking out the paleolithic cave paintings at Grotte de Niaux, browsing the early-morning market in nearby Revel, or even just strolling around St. Papoul. The mornings here are especially chilly right now and DJ is the first thing I grab to throw on over my PJ's before I stumble downstairs to put some coffee on. One of my favourite activities that I will miss is walking along the Canal du Midi all the way from St. Martin Lalande to Castelnaudary (takes about 60-70 minutes). Right now the fall colours are spectacular. I could not do that these days without DJ!

Who needs a coat like this when I have DJ? Please note, I have had my hair cut since this photo!

But alas, DJ may have to hang around unused again for awhile, now that we are preparing to head to Africa. Here's what is coming next for us:

-depart St. Papoul and drive to Paris this Sunday
-fly to Nairobi, Kenya via Zurich (just one night in Zurich)
-arrive in Nairobi on Tues., Nov. 3rd

One of my dreams is coming true! I will get to participate on a cleft palate mission in Kijabe, Kenya for 3 weeks in November. It's a long story how this came to be. Here's the condensed version. I had credentialled as a volunteer with Operation Smile and applied to several of their missions. However, I never "got the call" (at least not yet anyway - there is still Vietnam and Cambodia ahead). I decided to contact Smile Train, an organization with a similar mission of repairing cleft lip/ palate in developing countries. One key difference with Smile Train is you more or less set up your own mission and they provide support. They give you a stipend for certain expenses and put you in touch with their medical partners around the world.

One of the names on the list jumped out at me - Dr. Dan Poenaru in Kijabe. He is from Kingston and he and his family had visited our church back in Ottawa a couple of years ago. Just before we left Ottawa, I had coffee with a wonderful woman named Zeta from my church. She had encouraged me to contact Dr. Dan when we got to Africa and to be sure to visit Kijabe if we could. Dr. Dan has been a pediatric surgeon at the AIC Hospital and the adjoining Bethany Relief and Rehab wing in Kijabe for about 6 or 7 years, I think. And there was his name, at the top of the list given to me by Smile Train. Coincidence?? After contacting him, things just really fell into place. We will be in Kijabe until Nov. 28th. They are hiring a local Kenyan women who has shown some potential to be a "speech assistant". In addition to assisting with a visiting cleft palate team of ENTs and plastic surgeons from Canada and the US for the first two weeks, she will be shadowing me and I will spend the third week intensively training her to carry on basic speech therapy after I leave.

After Kijabe, it will be safari time (Rift Valley Lakes plus Masai Mara) and then off to Tanzania. Our plans for Tanzania are not completely firm yet although we know we will spend 2 weeks in Longido helping Corey Wright from Sauti Moja. The plan is to build and paint bunk-beds for their Child-Mother project. Ted will be our lead man with that project! We hope to visit the famous Ngorongoro Crater and Zanzibar as well.

I've been doing a bit of research on the Swahili language. (Here's an aside - ever wonder what the difference between Kiswahili and Swahili is? Now I know. Kiswahili is the language for most of East Africa while Swahili refers to the culture as a whole including the language. So to say someone speaks Kiswahili or Swahili is really the same thing). Another thing I learned is that Kijabe means "place of the wind" in Kiswahili, not surprising given that it sits along the Rift Valley escarpment at an elevation of over 7000 feet. I mention this because maybe - just maybe - DJ will see some action in Kijabe after all . . .

Gouffre Geant de Cabrespine

Yesterday was scorchingly hot, so we decided it would be the perfect day to take a tour of one of the famous underground caverns in the area. The days have been consistently cloudless and hot. Nothing to complain about, I know, especially since e-mails from friends in Ottawa tell us about the cool, wet summer happening there. Anyway, we made a return trip to the Narbonne-plage and almost died of sunstroke (okay, slight exaggeration). But there is no shade to speak of on this beach and the temperature has been reaching into the 40’s. At one point in the afternoon, we saw two little girls run across the sand, away from their parents, and then start screaming and hopping because the sand was burning their feet. The poor little things didn’t know to run straight into the water, so their father ran out to them, grabbed one girl in each arm and then ran out and plopped them into the sea. It’s that hot! So instead of visiting the beach again, the underground cavern tour gave us some cool relief.

We drove to a natural wonder called the Gouffre Geant de Cabrespine, which in English means “the Giant Hole of Cabrespine”. It’s just north of Carcassone in the Black Mountains (Montagne Noire), near the village of Villeneuve-Minervois. This Minervois region is also known for wine-making. The drive took us through some steep Gorges, which had the guys saying “wow, cool, look how high we are” and me just white-knuckling it in silence.

Cabrespine is apparently the deepest cavern in Europe and one of the deepest in the world. According to one brochure we read about it, the Eiffel Tower could fit into it with only the very top poking out. We took a guided tour (in French of course), but we were able to grasp that we were seeing aragonite crystal formations, stalagmites and stalactites, and limestone “curtains”. One room we were led into was called the “Red Room” because of oxidized iron salts that turn these curtain walls red. There were some beautiful still pools reflecting the amazing formations and on the way out, we were taken to the balcon du Diable (Devil’s Balcony) which gives a great perspective on the depth of the cavern (almost 200 metres). The tour we took was only 45 minutes long but it’s possible to sign up for a five-hour tour that involves wearing a helmet with light attached (like a real speliologist) and descending all the way down using harnesses and a safety line. We watched one group go down until they were like ants down at the bottom. One delightful thing about the cavern, for me, was it was so chilly I had to put Darlene’s jacket on! Walking back out into the sunshine felt like walking into a furnace.

We had a nice drive home, stopping at a winery for a tasting and brought a couple of bottles back with us from the Minervois region. The boys don’t like it too much when we stop in at wineries ("don't run around, don't touch anything"), even when there might be something they can try like a local cheese. Jackson will say, “I don’t want to try that. Look, it even says it’s disgusting!”, referring to the signs that invite passers-by for a complimentary “degustation” (tasting).

Our Week in Paris

You may have noticed we changed the masthead on this blog - just a joke really. We're not fluently bilingual yet (except for Ted of course).

We haven't posted for a few days so there is lots to say and lots of photos to help say it. We have been to so many Jardins, museums, cafes, and monuments that we could not possibly post all of the pictures we've been taking. This is truly a gorgeous city! Instead of uploading a boatload (bateau-load?) of photos, I put together a slideshow using PhotoStory (free download from Windows and extremely easy to use). Be warned - it's over 6 minutes long . . . so some night when you have insomnia, click below . . .

Ted suggested I should just list all the places we've visited, so here it is:

• Jardin du Luxembourg (near our apt./ place for children to sail real wooden boats)


• Jardin des Plantes


• Jardin des Tuileries (huge ferris wheel and beautiful gardens)


• Jardin d'Acclimatation (kids' park with carnival and water park)


• Musee de Louvre


• Musee d'Orsay (impressionist masterpieces)


• Musee Rodin (we thought of Kelly and Patrick - they need to see this!)


• Centre Pompidou (modern art)


• Le Conciegerie (prison where Marie Antoinette was held before her execution)


• Notre-Dame Cathedral


• Eiffel Tower (Flat Stanley climbed it too!)


• Arc de Triomphe


• Champs Elysees


• Latin Quarter (5th district - the haunt of academics and literary types supposedly)


• St. Germain de Pres (6th district - where we stayed)


• Montmartre (18th district - bohemian artist hang-out - Darlene's Jacket was here!)
  
• Sacre-Couer (famous basilica)

We feel like we've seen so much yet, unbelievably, we're not completely exhausted. To keep the kids happy, we balanced museum visits with visits to all the beautiful Jardins the city has to offer. We also did fairly cursory sweeps of these museums (using our Paris Museum Pass, which is a good deal), honing on those few special things we really wanted to see.

Mitchell asked me which park did I like better - Central Park in NY or Jardin du Luxembourg (the one we visited most often as it's so close by). I like them both - hard to compare becuase they're so different. Central Park is surrounded by skyscrapers and has winding paths, lakes, wooden benches, buskers, and inventive play structures for kids. The parks here in Paris are more formal and structured, with stone or pea gravel paths, perfectly-round cement ponds, usually a merry-go-round, keep off the grass signs, and green metal chairs to sit on. Different, but both types are such an oasis in the heart of a large metropolis.

It's been great to live the life of a Parisien but I can see how, on subsequent visits, this would be even more so. You would not go to so many museums, for example, and you would spend less time standing on street corners trying to decipher which line on the Metro you need and how to transfer on to it. You would also not burn through the Euros as rapidly as it feels like we have! You would spend more time sitting in cafes, shopping for your cheese, wine and baguettes. And eating them in your appartartement or at les Jardins or along the banks of the Seine. You would take your children to the Jardins (but you would not allow them to wear Speedos like actual Parisien males).

We leave this morning for the house we have rented in southern France. Not completely sure yet how we'll get hooked up to the Internet so next post may take a little while . . . we plan to settle in, start some schooling, and stick to a more modest weekly budget after the bright lights and big prices of Manhattan and Paris . . . a bientot!

PS (Can someone please let us know if this video worked or did you have to have Windows Media Player? It was taking too long to process on YouTube but might try again later).

Jackson: Newest Yankees Fan!

A whole pile of photos from New York City - many taken by our resident photographer, Mitchell:

Outside the Yankees new stadium with Flat Stanley . . .


Great game . . . they won!

Cool window at the Guggenheim Museum - Ted especially enjoyed the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit . . .

Outside the American Museum of Natural History - amazing exhibit of African mammals . . .

Mitch loved shopping at Nintendo World near Rockefeller Plaza . . .

View of the Manhattan skyline from the Staten Island Ferry . . .

There she is!

Jackson and Flat Stanley enjoying the ferry ride . . .
We took the subway everywhere - so convenient!

Check out this character in Central Park - looks just like the actual Statue of Liberty . . .

Running around Central Park - we wish Ottawa had something like this!

The Reservoir in Central Park - lots of people jog around this . . .

The bright lights of Times Square at night . . .

The "Tiles of America" display near Ground Zero - this is the fence where people posted flyers looking for loved ones lost at the WTC during 9/11 . . . now replaced by many handmade tiles . . .

We loved this tile - says it all . . .

Ferrari Spyder as seen at Manhattan MotorCars. I think they guessed we weren't serious shoppers . . .

We've been having a great time in New York City! Here's a summary from Jackson on what we've been up to.

Jackson:

The first thing we did after checking into The Leo House (our hotel) was walk down to Manhattan MotorCars. I saw my favourite car – a Ferrari Spyder. Then we walked over to Madison Square Gardens but there was no game on.

We bought Metro Cards so we can ride the subway whenever we want. We took the subway up to Central Park. We had a fun time climbing the rocks at Central Park. It has cool play structures with underground ladders. Every day we take the subway underground too, to other places.

On Tuesday, we went to the American Museum of Natural History where the movie “Night at the Museum” was filmed. It was very cool! My favourite part was inside a ball and inside was an Imax (he is referring to the Hayden Planetarium). We watched a cool film called “Journey to the Stars.”

On Wednesday, we went on a hop-on, hop-off bus. It was a red double-decker bus and we sat on the top. We drove all over Manhattan and you can see with no roof and no windows all around you. It can get very hot up on the top. We saw Times Square and lots of electric signs with advertisements. It looked cool! We went to the giant Toys ‘R Us and the FAO Schwartz Toy store and the Apple Store.

On Thursday, we took the Staten Island Ferry and saw the Statue of Liberty. Flat Stanley came along but my Mom did not need Darlene's jacket yet!

My best thing so far was going to a Yankees Baseball game at the new Yankee Stadium. I had an awesome time at the game. I got a Yankees baseball cap for $5 from a guy in the subway tunnel. And the Yankees won a 6 to 4 victory against the Baltimore Orioles, which was very exciting and I enjoyed it. I’m having an amazing time in New York City so far. This afternoon we leave for Paris.

We Go Not Alone . . .

You may have thought there were just four of us going on this trip - Ted, Kathi, Mitchell & Jackson - but actually there are now six. We have two guests, Flat Stanley and Darlene's Jacket. Welcome aboard!

First, a word about Flat Stanley. We actually have two Flat Stanleys. One was given to us by Michelle, a wonderful teacher in the Language Class at Divine Infant, whom I have gotten to know over the last few years. I visit her class as SLP. There are 8 primary students who attend in the mornings and another 8 who attend in the afternoons. All wonderful little friends of mine! Anyway, I spoke to them about our trip and they have read many Flat Stanley books so they - at Michelle's prompting - asked me to take along Flat Stanley and report back on his many adventures. They got to meet Jackson as well and my plan is that he will do many of these e-mail reports to the class as part of his home-schooling.

The second Flat Stanley came from Lisa, Jackson's Gr. 2 teacher. She is a big fan of Flat Stanley and the class read many books in the Flat Stanley series in her class this year. She has been doing the Flat Stanley thing for several years with her students. For example, one little boy went to Mexico and took FS. Another went to Italy and along came FS. Last year, the only place Jackson took him was to a hockey tournament in Pakenham, Ontario but next year - look out! Both classes have maps of the world on their walls to track FS's movements. I figure we will probably use the same descriptions for both classes. Kind of like the AP wire for breaking news about Flat Stanley.

And now on to Darlene's Jacket. This just came about today. My friend Darlene was over on Saturday evening. She left her nice fleece jacket here by accident. She and Michael came by today to pick it up and I commented how nice it was and where did she get it? Can you guess what happened? Never compliment a generous person. She insisted I keep it and take it on our trip! After about 10 minutes of "no, I can't, I really can't" and "yes, please take it!", I relented. I really like it, you see. So I told Darlene I will take her jacket and I will wear it proudly, give it many adventures, keep her posted on where her jacket has been and what excitement it has seen, and then return it to her next year (dry-cleaned, of course).