Author: Mike P

Vientiane to Thailand – Days 252-256

Mike P1 Comment
Family peace sign on second class train

Should we have skipped Vientiane?  Probably.  Maybe I feel that way because we were sad to be leaving Laos and excited to return to Thailand.  Our time in the Laos capital was so unremarkable we’ll focus on our epic journey from Vientiane down to Khao Lak in Thailand.  I imagine there were things to do in Vientiane, but we just phoned it in.  We barely left the hotel, didn’t care about eating local and spent too much time playing Pokemon.  Looking back, we just weren’t in the right head space from the get-go as our train from Luang Prabang wasn’t enjoyable, and it set the tone.

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Mekong River – Thailand to Laos by Boat – Days 242 – 244

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Girls boarding boat on mekong river

Up next was our scheme to take the slow boat from Northern Thailand to Luang Prabang. Floating down the Mekong on a boat turned out to be a blast. The children entertained the like-minded travellers, while it was a chance for the parents to be social with other adults again. Upon reflection, we spent two awesome days recapturing some of our old backpacking glory.

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Chiang Rai – Temples & Caves – Days 237-241

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Smiling children in front of white temple

Having finalized our decision to take a “slow boat” to Laos, we made our way closer to the border in Northern Thailand. Chiang Rai would be our home for the next four days, and we kept things simple. Our only agenda item was to visit some famous temples. We stayed at a decent hotel with breakfast, a pool and a large lobby that we made our own. We passed the time playing board games, reading and catching up on school. Isabella was not pleased with the amount of schoolwork she had to get through! Julie was not impressed with the number of postcards we ended up writing!

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Langkawi – Ringing in the New Year a second time – Days 207-211

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Secluded beachfront with loungers

Five nights at a resort in Langkawi, an island off the Malaysian mainland, was a new level of “slowing things down”. Most days involved 4 hours at the pool, 4 hours of television, 3 hours of eating and then an hour at the bar. In between, we would sprinkle in some homeschooling. It rained every day but fortunately, it was limited to 15-minute downpours in the late afternoon. By the end of our 5 days, the family was fit, tanned and in excellent spirits. Our mini-break exceeded all expectations.

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Georgetown – Just keep eating – Days 200-206

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Family with children standing in front of historic hotel in Georgetown

Another week, another new place. This time it would be Penang for the 7 days preceding Chinese New Year. Paigey knocked it out of the park by finding a restored hotel smack dab in the historic centre. The kids enjoyed the full week in the comfortable surroundings, and the weather continued to be in our favour, with temperatures above 30 degrees and no rain. Laundry, school, history and food were all on the docket.

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Kuala Lumpur – Towers, Doctors and Badminton – Days 191-196

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Family of three on skywalk Petronas Towers

I grew up believing the CN Tower was the be-all and end-all in Toronto. We had an entire unit dedicated to the tower in primary school, culminating in a field trip. We learned it was the tallest building, with a radio antenna and restaurant at the top. In my 20s, I was humbled when it took me 40+ minutes to climb the 1,776 steps during a charity event. After visiting Kuala Lumpur, I’m not sure my children will grow up with the same reverence for our Toronto-based tower. KL has towers aplenty, and they actually seem to do something (like function as malls or offices). Wherever we went, there would always be some tower lurking in the background, reminding us we were in KL and a long way from home.

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Johor – We really mean Legoland – Days 189-190

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Each of us picked a destination that the family could not object to.  Isabella’s pick was Legoland.  When we looked at the map, we noticed there was one across the border from Singapore in Johor, Malaysia.  There was a hotel, theme park and water park all under the Lego brand.  What better way to start the New Year than two days hunkered down with all things Lego.  We also realized that going to Denmark (to the original Legoland) would blow our budget in a couple of days. So off to Johor we went!

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Singapore – Bring on the Food – Days 183-188

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With the exception of Melbourne, we’ve been on a good streak of cities we LOVED.  Fortunately, Singapore kept that trend alive.  We were booked into a nice hotel for six days and would welcome the New Year in style. We would use our time here to get acclimated to travelling in Asia. And finally, Paige and I were going to undo all the health gains from the previous weeks by eating non-stop for six days. As Nan and Cathy (a family friend) were joining us, this would also be our last stretch with family.  After Singapore, we are on our own until the end of March.

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Bali – The first two weeks – Days 154 – 168

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Two girls looking at rice field

Finally, the weather we had been chasing! It was allegedly the rainy season but we saw little rain and were blessed with hot, sunny days for our first two weeks in Bali. We based ourselves in the south of Ubud at an accommodation called Villa Ole. We planned to spend two weeks there and then relocate to the north of the city. Paige’s family was expected to arrive for Christmas and we would need a larger place. We relished our time in Ubud and got off on the right foot. The children got beautiful tans, we explored the surrounding areas and, most importantly, we slowed things down.

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