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ORANGE SKY

05 Apr

After spending a hot, busy, but thoroughly enjoyable time exploring Bangkok, we hopped on the night bus and headed north to Chiang Mai, where we immediately felt better – the air was cooler, and the pace was slower and everything was within walking distance from our lodgings.  We visited some fantastic temples, enjoyed lots of delicious food, and explored the wonders that the local markets had to offer.  Yak took part in a great two day workshop which tied in with his breathwork training, while the kids and I visited the Royal Winter Palace up in the mountains along with the revered Wat Doi Suthep http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Phrathat_Doi_Suthep, where our visit was rewarded with a holy water blessing from one of the resident monks

Many people that we had met on out travels had recommended the we should visit Laos,so we felt called to keep migrating north toward the Laotian border.  For Valentine’s Day we found ourselves in Chiang Rai, where we had a crazy night taking in what seemed to be the only tourist attraction in town, the interestingly bizarre clock tower “son et lumiere” show, with loud classical music and constantly changing colored lights (go figure?!). The evening promptly improved when we joined the locals for some live valentines music and dancing at the night bazaar, it was here that Yak and the kids sampled a local delicacy of deep fried grasshoppers, spritzed with MSG for added flavor!

The sign says "KFG"...Kentucky Fried Grasshoppers maybe?

Apart from the great night market and the wide selection of “edible” insects on offer we were otherwise suitably unimpressed with Ching Rai as a town. So instead of spending four nights like we had planned ,the next day we continued north to the Mekong River to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary at the Golden Triangle, right on the Mekong river where Thailand, Burma, and Laos meet.

In the past this area was notorious for opium growing and smuggling, so hats off to the late Princess Mother for building the Hall of Opium, a fantastic museum devoted to the history of opium and the devastating effects of its use.  The entrance fee to the museum goes directly into supporting rural development initiatives to offer communities alternatives to poppy growing.

"The Golden Triangle" - Myanmar (on the left), Laos (on the right), Thailand (right under our feet)

Our last night in Thailand was spent at one of the best places we have had the pleasure to stay in. The Rai Saeng Arun Resort http://www.raisaengarun.com/index.php?raifile=introduction.php offered a wonderful bungalow, a great outdoor shower, and some excellent organic food direct from their garden which was served in a beautiful outdoor dining area that overlooked the Mekong river!

It also wins the award for the most steps ever to reach our huts…165 steps with heavy bags to be exact!  However, it was completely worth it – tucked away up on a hillside, our huts provided us with a peaceful retreat from the outside world , sadly one night here was not enough.

Our cozy hut in the woods

It was an early start the next morning to cross the border into Laos, and catch the slow boat to Luang Prabang.  Two days down the Mekong is a most recommended way to travel!  The scenery was truly spectacular, a pristine Mekong with only a few remote villages dotting the riverside.

A misty Mekong morning

A couple of days later we arrived in Luang Prabang at sunset, to find a very pleasant small city perched on the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan Rivers.  It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which helps it retain a certain level of charm and history by mixing ancient culture with beautiful vintage french influenced architecture.  Within Luang Prabang there are 32 temples with a very devoted Buddhist population and because of this,  the city has become particularly famous for its morning alms procession, where the monks silently walk the streets every morning collecting food and offerings from the lay Buddhist townspeople.

Experiencing the daily alms ceremony is meditative and truly moving to witness. But despite a genuine effort within the city to educate tourists on the meaning and sanctity of this ritual and the respectful protocol involved, we sadly witnessed a number of Westerners who were blatantly disrespectful (for example, one women wearing spaghetti straps and skin tight capri’s walking right up to the monks and snapping photographs in their face).

Lela Mae and I were thrilled to find Ock PopTok http://www.ockpoptok.com/ (translation literally means East Meets West), a weaving center that provides work for local artisans by promoting traditional arts from the many of the different ethnic groups populating the area.  The level of craftsmanship here in Laos is the best I have seen so far in SE Asia.  They predominantly use natural dyes and each ethnic group has its own unique style.

Best of all, Ock Pop Tok offers courses!  So, Lela and I delved into a two day weaving course. We harvested and prepared the natural dyes of the area, dyed our silk, and wove ourselves a pair of Laos style scarf on looms overlooking the Mekong River.  Needless to say, we were in heaven, and quite pleased with our efforts at the end!

Lela's scarf. The silk was hand dyed on day one and the scarf was woven on day two

We also spent a most memorable morning at The Living Land http://livinglandlao.com/, which believe it or not is the place to learn about the arduous process of growing and harvesting rice. After eating rice daily for the last few months we realized we knew almost nothing about the actual production process of this staple grain, and this was the place where we could finally get those questions answered.

The Living Land was a project initiated by a group of locals, who work towards educating tourists and Laotians alike about traditional farming methods – hence, Susan, the water buffalo, who kindly allowed us to try our hand at plowing a muddy pit behind her!  I don’t think we will ever be nonchalant about rice again, it just takes too much hard work to get each grain to the table.

Lela Mae and Susan. Girl and water buffalo working together in complete (muddy) harmony

Luang Prabang turned out to be a place where we felt we could refuel our energies, and we loved it so much that we ended up staying two weeks!  I kayaked the Nam Khan River with Jule one day (Lela was ill, and Yak looked after her) and we had good fun navigating the rapids and cooling off in the calm areas where we could hop in for a swim (our guide even taught Jule how to do back flips off the kayak).  We also took a long dusty roadtrip out of Luang Prabang to visit Kouang Si Waterfalls – featuring gorgeous cascading pools of turquoise blue water – swimming here was bliss!

On our last night in town we attended a fashion show at a hip and trendy local venue which showcased traditional clothing from various Laotian tribes, the evening culminated with the models wearing some amazingly beautiful tribal wedding attire.

The beautiful Kouang Si waterfalls

We met some fabulous people during our stay in Luang Prabang, Laotians and fellow travelers alike from various points around the globe.  The Laotians here seemed to really want to interact with foreigners and were always starting up conversations so they could practice their English skills. They were warm and friendly with an ever-ready smile.  They retain a real sense of pride in their culture and heritage, which I pray, gives them strength in the coming years as, no doubt, more tourists arrive.

We had hoped to travel overland down through Laos, but time was not on our side.  We knew we wanted to make the effort to see a little bit of Cambodia in the form of Angkor Wat, so to get all the way down there, we would have to fly.

One day, “Buddha willing”, we will return to Laos.

 
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Posted by on April 5, 2012 in Family travel, Luang Prabang, South East Asia, Thailand, The Living Land, World travel

 

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“A Passage to Bangkok”

13 Feb

Our love affair with Vietnam was so passionate, and generated so many cool experiences and great memories that it is all too emotional to even talk about on this blog, so instead you will just have to clench your teeth and sit through the slideshow when we return home.  During our month’s stay we travelled over 4,600 km by train, plane and boat from the very south to the very north and back again to the very south (and then just a little bit to the very west)!  We left for Thailand with heavy hearts and we promised to return one day.

We arrived in Bangkok after a mercifully short and simple late night flight. Luck was on our side as the Thai immigration officers apparently felt it was far too late in the night for them to care about our nonexistent exit tickets, they thankfully stamped out passports let us through without a hitch.

Lulu gets some directions from one of the locals

Our impression of Bangkok is that it doesn’t have anywhere near the character, charm and magic of Saigon. There now seems to be a 7 Eleven on every corner and the ubiquitous unholy trio of Starbucks/Burger King and McDonalds has raised its ugly head everywhere. Bangkok also has the ability to sap every last ounce of strength from you, leaving you in a dehydrated, ragged and rather useless state after only a few hours exposure to the pollution, heat and humidity.

On the plus side, we loved Bangkok’s entrepreneurial business sense and their super cool eye for design, which was reflected in graphic art and small boutiques everywhere.

Tasty street snacks - grubs anyone?

Also, Bangkok’s transport system is fantastic! Oh New York, if only you would follow suit with a high tech public transport upgrade. For a handful of baht you can catch a public water taxi that will zoom you up the Chao Phraya River cheaply and quickly, or you can choose a clean and efficient metro system which is kept deliciously cold with powerful a/c blasts. But top of the list has to be the Skytrain monorail (imagine a MORE extensive and LESS expensive Las Vegas monorail). Even though the Skytrain can get crowded sometimes, you still get the luxury of escaping the heat while watching the city from above as you fly over the choked up traffic jams below.

A stay over the weekend also meant a visit to Chatuchak Market on Saturday, which has to be noted for its sheer size and diverse collections of merchandise. If the heat doesn’t get to you first, then the number of stalls is guaranteed to bring any seasoned shopper to their knees. I am sure that this is where the saying ‘shop till you drop’ originated.

The 35-acre area of Chatuchak is home to more than 8,000 market stalls. On a typical weekend, more than 200,000 visitors come here to attempt to navigate the alleyways and sift through the goods on offer. If you can dream it up, Chatuchak probably has it.

Just in case we missed something at Chatachuck, we also paid a visit to Talad Rot Fai (the “Train Market”) which was tucked away at the far end of nowhere. As the name would suggest this market takes place in an abandoned train yard, and after a bit of searching for the location we spent a few hours hanging out with the Thai hipsters and browsing the ‘stalls’ (tarps spread on the ground) for antiques, collectibles and generally worthless but utterly charming old second-hand retro stuff.

While in Bangkok, we did manage to explore Wat Pho, with its famous reclining Buddha covered in gold leaf.  There was also a visit to Wat Traimit, which houses the world’s largest solid gold statue. It wasn’t until about 1930 that anyone realized that this 3 meter tall, 5.5 ton Buddha statue was actually made of solid gold. It has an amazing story which you can read about in the short “History” section at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Buddha_(statue)  Another memorable visit was to the Jim Thompson house, a beautifully restored traditional Thai home and garden, a refuge found smack dab in the middle of the madness of Bangkok.

The Reclining Buddah at Wat Pho

Come Sunday we were exhausted, but we still had to plot our escape from Bangkok. The islands in the south were too numerous and overwhelming to plan at short notice, so a coin was tossed and we chose to head north to Chang Mai by overnight “VIP” bus instead. Under the guidance of our fearless map reader Lulubelle, we headed through an incredibly hot and busy Chinatown in search of tickets, and following the dining advice of our Nancy Chandler map http://www.nancychandler.net/product.asp?cId=11&case=b we stood out like sore thumbs as the only “farang” diners in the wonderful Jim Jim Chinese restaurant.

One of the locals outside Jim Jims

We caught the bus on time and were shown to our seats by a scowling, uniform wearing middle aged “lady-boy” bus steward/stewardess. At first glance the front row upstairs seats offer the most room and the best view, but it also put us right in the firing line of a monitor that kept us awake with an unintelligible Thai “shoot em up” movie. We quickly took refuge by using our laptops and headphones to watch “Super 8” and a few episodes of “Pushing Daisies” before arriving bright and early but bleary eyed in cooler and cleaner Chaing Mai.

Settling down for a night of "quality" film entertainment

 
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Posted by on February 13, 2012 in Bangkok, Chaing Mai, Chatachuck Market, Family travel, Night bus, Thailand, The Train Market, Travel with kids, World travel

 

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“Yellow Star”

13 Jan

Fifty Reasons to come to Vietnam

We have only been here for eleven days and we already know that we want to return to this wonderful country. Here are (almost) fifty reasons why you should come here too:

  1. Random people saving your life by just grabbing your hand and leading you across busy rush hour Saigon roads
  2. Brutally strong and deliciously sweet 45 cent coffee served with condensed milk that drip brews in front of you
  3.  Big steaming bowls of hot Pho – that says it all…
  4. Tours around the country in old US Army Jeeps
  5. Hundreds of perfect spiral shells littering the beach 
  6.  Deluxe suite hotel rooms for $14
  7.  Smiles everywhere you look 
  8.  Custom fitted and hand made dresses to your wishes for a fraction of the US price  
  9. Delicious food you can eat without contracting some deadly disease
  10. Handmade leather shoes – be the coolest dude in the office with your snake leather brogues (are you listening Phil Sexton?)
  11. Strangers that come up to you in the street, pat your belly and say “Happy Buddha”
  12. Toilets on the boat 
  13. Cows with lumpy backs
  14. Fruit sellers wearing woven pointy hats
  15. Beautiful old houses
  16. Boat rides with Captain Mien
  17. Amazing markets full of just about everything
  18. Fishermen
  19. Foreigners wearing pointy woven hats 
  20. Proper motorbikes for hire everywhere
  21. A human powered Cyclo (psycho?) ride across town 
  22. Street vendors with fake East London and Australian accents ……..“Ello darlin’/It’s a bonza deal mate”
  23. Very questionable public electricity 
  24. Everything you buy on the street is on “Happy Hour buy two get one free” sale
  25. Affordable and efficient overnight train rides all over the country 
  26. Stir fried morning glory greens with garlic
  27. Hand tailored jacket with silk lining made in two days 
  28. Getting your shoes shined on the street corner
  29. Getting an old school haircut, razor shave and beard/eyebrow trim and rather scary ear cleaning for about $5 
  30. Decent roads that don’t shake your body to bits
  31. Millions and millions of motorbikes EVERYWHERE! (none of which “Uncle” Phil or any self respecting motorcyclist would consider powerful enough) 
  32. Trash vans that play a little 8 bit Nintendo style tune to let you know they are coming down the street
  33. Tracking down “Miss Forget-Me-Not” and getting her to make you and your friend a custom hand made silk kimono 
  34. Stunning scenery
  35. Beautiful temples decorated with broken beer bottles and cracked crockery 
  36. Dried sweetened coconut shavings that taste divine
  37. Lanterns in the streets at night 
  38. People that are as cute as “Hello Kitty”
  39. Workers in the rice paddies wearing woven pointy hats 
  40. Fresh and fried spring rolls
  41. Pineapple pancakes and hot banana fritters on the street 
  42. Vietnam propaganda posters for sale
  43. Overloaded motorbikes 
  44. $4 manicure/pedicure
  45. Photo oportunities on every street corner 
 
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Posted by on January 13, 2012 in Family travel, Hoi An, Pho, Saigon, South East Asia, Travel with kids, Vietnam, World travel

 

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“I don’t like spiders and snakes”

31 Dec

After the luxury of the house on the lake, the next act was always going to be hard to follow, but we managed to find “Samakanda”, an old tea plantation that had been converted to a permaculture garden .

Our lodgings were in a traditional and simple  planters bungalow which now offers shelter to foreign visitors, huge spiders and menacing scorpions which lurk in the shower drains. Once again we lucked out by finding accommodation that came complete with a cook who churned out excellent curries three times a day. The food was delicious (with the exception of one low point -  breakfast that consisted of plain rice, salty fish curry served with salty fish sambal).

Planters Hut - a magical place full of surprises!

Early mornings would be spent hanging out in our leaf roofed pavilion accompanied by “Scrat”, our noisy local chipmunk/squirrel, sipping hot coffee and watching the unbelievably beautiful birdlife in the valley below. This included scores of iridescent turquoise kingfishers, dark purple sun birds, bright yellow orioles and multitudes of noisy lime green parakeets.

The morning view from the "pavilion of delight"

With a few cautious treks into the lush jungle and the surrounding paddy fields we soon learnt how to efficiently remove leeches before they could properly latch on to our ankles. Interesting fact of the day: leeches are “motion activated”, so the first person to walk the path avoids attack but everyone that follows the leader is fair game.

Lulubelle - Intrepid jungle leader and leech remover

The jungles of Samakanda and the beaches of Galle are separated by a rather harrowing, rough and dusty forty minute drive, so as long we got up early enough we found that we could slowly crawl to the coast in a rickety van and squeeze in a few hours of swimming before the early afternoon rains hit.  Once the effectiveness of the sunscreen had started to wear off we would retire to the local bar for cold mojitos and a plate of penne carbonara (to break the endless variations on the Sri Lankan curry theme).

The beach near Galle....I think the photo says it all!

As our stay at Samakanda came to a close, we noticed more and more European faces arriving in town everyday. This signaled the start of the Christmas season, so we found ourselves a driver and headed inland to the cool mountains of Kandy, the old capitol of Sri Lanka.

The ancient city of Kandy is busy, vibrant and incredibly polluted, so we thanked our lucky stars to be staying in a home with a panoramic view, that was perched high above the valley where the air was cooler and cleaner but no less noisy.

One afternoon we paid a visit to the exquisite botanical gardens where we explored the grounds with their breathtaking trees and flowers and delighted in watching Sri Lankan families taking their Sunday afternoon picnics. Lela was asked by one local family to pose with them to have her photo taken, then a few minutes later a Buddhist monk dressed in saffron robes snapped a picture of her as she was walking by (shouldn’t it be the other way around?).

Our other tourist activities included an evening of traditional Kandyan dancing followed by a fire walk (they did they fire walk, not us). We also made a nighttime pilgrimage to “The Temple of Tooth”, a very sacred Buddhist temple which houses the relic of one of the Buddha’s teeth. Other than that our only reason to venture into Kandy was to post some parcels, pick up some essentials and visit The Bake House for pots of tea, tea buns, plum buns or “super” plum buns (basically the same bread product containing greater or lesser amounts of sultanas).

Tea anyone?

One of the highlights of our stay in Kandy was being invited to a traditional rural village a few miles out of Kandy to visit the parents of our friend Nimal. We were warmly welcomed into their home and after some refreshment of tea and freshly grated coconut meat served with kethul tree honey (imagine Sri Lankan maple syrup!), we took a hike up to a serene and magical village temple, with its exquisite decorations.

Nimal’s father is an astrologer by profession, so following a delicious Sri Lankan lunch, the kids had their fortune told. Maybe we got the birth times wrong as Jule is apparently going to be a journalist (we struggle on a daily basis to get him to write a fifteen minute book report), where as Lela is going to be a successful and popular lawyer……!!

The reclining Buddah - A serene and beautiful experience

Christmas in Kandy felt like it was a million miles away from England or America. Every now and then we would be reminded of the holiday season by seeing some scraggly fir tree branches or tinsel for sale in the markets or by passing a plastic animatronic Father Christmas singing unrecognizable Christmas carols in a low demonic voice.

We spent much of the time talking about all the wonderful things we miss about Christmas back home, especially our beloved family and friends…and when we really started feeling a bit sorry for ourselves, we just had to look outside at the beauty that surrounded us and count our many blessings!

Pezzies from Santa - complete with Sri Lankan newspaper wrapping

On Christmas Eve and it has become a Jacobs family tradition to read the famous poem :

“Twas the night before Christmas and wherever you’d go, 

You’d hear sounds of dogs barking in the valley below”, (accompanied by the occasional nerve jangling volley of firework explosions). 

Not wanting to be left out of the local gunpowder revelries we asked our tuk uk driver to stop at Nihals supermarket so we could stock up on bargain priced firecrackers and rockets. The firecrackers were loud, dangerous and AWESOME! Lela captured and edited the highlights on video below

Happy New Year everyone!

 
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Posted by on December 31, 2011 in Buns, Family travel, Fireworks, Spiders, Sri Lanka, Tea, Tuk Tuk

 

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“(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay”

28 Dec

Yes, it was a long trip from Brighton to Sri Lanka, but we made it one piece. Yes, it is hot and dusty here (when it’s not, it’s hot and rainy).  Yes, there are cows in the street.  Yes, there is the constant free jazz cacophony of traffic horns but this all adds up to the experience that is Sri Lanka and we are very happy to be here.

Minutes after leaving Colombo airport we were inundated with our first experience of the suicidal interplay between mopeds  (often holding three adults plus a baby….no helmets), cars, tuk tuks (pimped up two stroke three wheeler taxis), and dangerously overcrowded and garishly painted Leyland public buses. Throw into this mix a multitude of mangy stray dogs staring at you indifferently, before they lazily wander out of harms way and you have what would look like a recipe for disaster. Despite the sickening combination of excitement and fear as loaded busses overtake you on blind corners, the drivers/cows/dogs seem to know what they are doing and appear to follow some unspoken law of the road!

Our first stop in Sri Lanka was “South Point Villa”, a beautiful house located on the southwest coast right on the edge of Kogalla Lake.    On arrival we found out that it came complete with a full-time staff, including a cook and “house boy”, which was equally uncomfortable (hints of the Raj) and delightful (tea and cake without fail at three on the dot).

The house on the lake had a beautiful long dock where most of our evenings were spent fishing with bamboo poles and prawns for bait. As the light faded, flocks of pure white egrets flew gracefully by, soon to be followed by clouds of giant bats, silhouetted against the sunset, flying from their roosts to spend the night feeding.

Fifteen minutes away, through the village and past the local Buddhist temple, was the beach where we could see the local stilt fisherman in action.  This is the only place in the world where this type of fishing still takes place and these prime fishing locations are jealously guarded inheritances which are handed down from generation to generation.

With absolutely no effort at all we managed to quickly attract the attention of the local fisherman who offered us “gifts” of coconut drinks, fresh pink coral plucked from the sea (eeks!), and dodgy gemstones. Before long, two of these new self appointed Sri Lankan additions to our family had taken it upon themselves to become our best friends and tour guides, buying us bananas, and meticulously planning our itinerary with various excursions around their beautiful island via tuk tuk!!   We were reminded of the advice that every parent gives to their child at some point, “Never get into a tuk tuk with a stranger”, and although they were persistent we uncomfortably but politely managed to prize ourselves free from them.

Highlights of the trip so far:

  • Quality time “acclimatizing” in the pool,
  • Jule’s 13th birthday complete with beautiful handmade breakfast table decorations made by Dayapala.
  • A visit to the elephant orphanage to see the little ones at feeding time
  • Being witness to a thirty-nine meter tall Buddha on a full moon Poya (holiday) day.
  • A brilliant safari at Uduwalawe National Park, incredible bird life, LOADS of elephants,  and even a cobra;

One experience that merits a special mention was our chance to have the privilege of releasing three baby sea turtles into the sea.  Sri Lanka is home to five out of the seven different types of sea turtles in the world and volunteers in Galle buy the turtle eggs from the fishermen (turtle eggs are considered a delicacy here), then bring them back to the hatchery for safe hatching.  About three weeks after they hatch, these tiny creatures are released into the big wide ocean.  It was an unforgettable experience placing these small beings on the sand to watch them instinctively head for the waves.

 
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Posted by on December 28, 2011 in Cows, Dogs, Family travel, Fishing, Sri Lanka, Travel with kids, Tuk Tuk, Turtles, World travel

 

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“Brighton Rock”

12 Dec

Our last stint in mainland Europe was topped off with a visit to see the Pace-Derome family, old friends of ours who now live just outside of Paris. Although we were only a matter of minutes away from the center of Paris, a couple of half-hearted visits to the capitol failed to take in the Louvre, but succeeded in visiting the Eiffel Tower, the Arc De Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral and the gardens of the Versailles Palace.

One of the highlights of our visit was that Lela got to spend a day in the city with Olenka, a friend from school in New York, who just happened to be on student exchange in Paris at the same time as we were visiting. While Lela and Olenka got lost in the city, the rest of the family got a unusual guided tour by Axel Pace. Just like his dad Niels, Axel has a soft spot for high end sports cars and so we were taken on a detailed exploration of some of his favorite car parks in Paris, on the search for Porsches, Lambos and Fezzas

Fun in Paris with Lela and Olenka, Jule and Axel

After spending a suitably forgettable last night in a rather dull, grey and basic hotel in Calais it was blissful to be back in Claygate even though it was only for a week. It gave us a chance to post Christmas prezzies, repack, regroup, and renew the kids British passports. Most importantly, Ollie got a thorough wash, passed her MOT and was sold for cash to a charming Somerset retiree. We wish him the best of luck on his travels…..and that’s all we are going to say about that.

Kids trying to look sad as we loose Ollie

Asia beckoned but we had a few days left before leaving so as we were “vehicle free” we hopped on the train to Brighton to spend time with the Katsourides family. As always a brilliant time was had by all. We squeezed in a football game with Jasper in midfield; Nik, Jan and myself went on a “boys night out” to see the brilliant Dweezil Zappa, and the kids got creative with a skateboarding video – a huge improvement on the one that my friends and I made as kids using my Dad’s Super 8.

December 5th, the day finally came to fly to Sri Lanka! We left Brighton with a mixture of sadness (leaving our friends once again to step out into the unknown) and happiness (leaving 3°C for 30°C), though all of us feel a bit anxious about what is before us….here we go…wish us luck!

 
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Posted by on December 12, 2011 in Brighton, Campervan, Family travel, France, paris, Skateboard Video, Travel with kids, World travel

 

“Chocolate and Cheese”

26 Nov

Feeling stretched with our budget we decided to stay for just two nights in Venice, so we had to make the most of our one full day in the “City of Water” We found a great little apartment in the old Jewish Quarter which was centrally located, quiet and very atmospheric.

On the way from the flat to our local coffee shop

Blessed with low-season tourist levels and gorgeous weather, we spent the day walking the city and getting slightly lost as usual. We managed to hit some of the big tourist spots like the Rialto Bridge and the Piazza San Marco (decidedly low on the pigeon front) but the lack of tourists meant that we were able to walk right into St. Mark’s. We marveled at the millions of Byzantine mosaics that adorned the Basilica as well as the horde of oriental objects that were bought to Venice after the conquest of Constantinople.

A Venitian gondola - look closely and you'll see that we are not on it

Our budget limited us to avoiding certain indulgences, so instead of a traditional gondola ride we opted for a vaporetto trip down the Grand Canal at sunset. Although the vaporetto was crowded, it was as beautiful and romantic (well, almost) as any gondola!

Sunset over Venice with hints of Istanbul thrown in for effect

November is the beginning of Venice’s “high water” time, and on the morning that we left town, the water was splashing over the sides of the canal onto the sidewalks. Everywhere we walked we saw the raised walkways ready to be called into action at the first sniff of a flood. We loved our brief moment in Venice and would definitely return one day – the architecture, the water, the decay – stunning in all its faded glory.

As we were on our way back to England there was really no way to avoid mountains, unless we followed the coast back through the South of France again. We figured that if we were going to risk life and limb by driving the camper over the Alps we might as well stay for a while!

So it was up and over the Grand St. Bernard Pass to spent five glorious days in Leysin, Switzerland. Leysin is a small village situated at 1,200 meters with fields and misty mountain views in all directions; we visited in the low season but in the winter the village comes alive with skiers.

Leysin - It's prettier than Hackensack. Some seriously beautiful sights served up on a daily basis.

The views from our chalet alone were just incredible, and it was so quiet that the only noise the locals complain about is the sound of the cow bells! The snows had not yet arrived so one day we hiked down a very steep and treacherous valley path to the medieval town of Aigle, stopping for a delicious picnic lunch in one of the pastures on the way. Our knees thanked us when we took the cog railway all the way back up to Leysin and thanks to Swiss efficiency the train arrived and departed bang on time.

The cog railway back home - thank you Switzerland for not making us walk back up the valley

The next day we decided to get a pre-season feel for winter sports by taking a family curling lesson at the local ice rink. At the start of the lesson we were warned in French that “Curling may not look like a dangerous sport but it is….you can easily slip on the ice and hurt yourselves really badly”. We only had one fall and a few minor bruises here and there but it was so much fun, and much harder than it looks (just staying upright on the ice was a major challenge in itself – click below to see how it should be done).

To celebrate our new found sporting talent, the curling lesson was followed by another local tradition…..our first delicious fondue at La Fromagerie.

This is Leysins’ local cheese making restaurant and as we didn’t really know how much to order and how the whole fondue thing worked it was a bit nerve racking to start with. However, once we were full of bread and melted cheese we all decided afterwards that it was just another reason to totally fall in love with Switzerland

Fondue at La Fromagerie - whoever drops the bread in the cheese pays the bill

 
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Posted by on November 26, 2011 in Campervan, Camping, Curling, Family travel, Fondue, Italy, La Fromagerie, Leysin, Switzerland, Travel with kids, Venice, World travel

 

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“Carry On Wayward Son”

17 Nov

We set the sextant, aligned the charts and set off on a north westerly bearing for the long drive home across Europe to England, with the plan to sell Ollie Bernard Vladimir McTavish Ludwig Camper Van Bake Oven on arrival.

Before we left the area we stopped in to visit Kate Cartwight, an old friend from Claygate and Esher College days, who now lives in the town of Meldola with her two boys Luis and Thom. We stayed close by in the beautiful town of Bertinoro at a warm and cozy agrotourismo owned by Kate’s friend Betta. http://www.lacanadolce.com/chisiamo.htm

Bettas farm - a lovely place to stay unless you have a campervan

Although Betta was away in Peru we were treated like family by her lovely parents, and we got some quality animal time with Mingo the dog and Pilou & Deena the cats. Betta’s mum Lorena offered us a crate of fresh persimmons from her orchard in exchange for adopting Jule….(it was tempting but after careful negotiation in broken Italian we were able to leave with a camper full of fruit AND both children)

Mingo - destroyer of footballs

We had a great time with Kate and the boys, proper cups of tea, giggles and chats were thoroughly enjoyed. We got to meet and dine with her British friends Thad and Chris (hope the tooth replacement went smoothly Thad), and we went to the cinema to see Tintin in Italian complete with a whispered running synopsis of the story by Kate.

Kate, Thad and Chris (top) Luis and Thom (bottom)

It has been a while since we reported on the thrilling misadventures of our camper van. He has been behaving well mechanically (touch wood) but the road to Betta’s farm was long and steep, and proved to be too much for an underpowered, overweight, rear wheel driven van . To cut a long story short we managed to get down the hill with no problem but we couldn’t get back up the hill without smoke and spinning tires, so the next day Bettas’ dad kindly called his neighbor with a tractor to help get us out.

Once the tow out started it was a slow but otherwise effortless extraction and we were amazed at how incredibly powerful a tractor can be. The best thing about it was that the tractor was made by Lamborgini AND driven by a bloke who looked like he should have been one of the Rolling Stones.

Towed out by Charle Watts in his Lamborghini

 
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Posted by on November 17, 2011 in Agritourismo, Bertinoro, Campervan, Camping, Family travel, Fiat, Italy, Travel with kids, World travel

 

“Move Any Mountain”

12 Nov

Our next stop was to spend a few days in Sulmona, a small town in the Abruzzi region just a couple hours east of Rome. This was a place that my dad and I visited about ten years ago and one that has special significance to our family, as it is the home of Campo 78 Prigioneri di Guerra.

Sulmona - the steps and the aquaduct that ran through our appartment

After he was captured by the Italians in 1941 near Benghazi, my dad was held in Campo 78 for twenty-seven months as a prisoner of war. On Sept 8th,1943, three thousand P.O.W’s escaped from the unguarded camp when news spread that the Germans and Allies were advancing into Italy.  Many of the escapees were eventually recaptured by the Germans, but my dad was able to hide for eight months in the Apennine mountains before he was rescued and returned home to England.

Campo PG 78  is now completely locked up and covered in “Military Property- Keep out signs” so although it’s not possible to get inside we were able to walk around outside, take photos and look through gaps in the wall.

The view into Campo 78

We really loved Sulmona, this felt to us like REAL Italy. It is an ancient town, famed as the birthplace of Ovid and also as the production center of Italian Bomboniere (those colorful sugar covered Jordan almonds they have at weddings). Lela was thrilled, as she has a soft spot for shiny silver sugared almonds ever since she went to Nik and Trems wedding in Cyprus.

We found a great place to stay (www.seistelle.com ) and as we were overlooking the main square we could watch the hustle and bustle of town life from our window.  A minutes walk from our apartment took us to a coffee shop (1 euro for a cappuccino) a wine merchants (2.50 euros for a bottle of local red) and a guy roasting fresh chestnuts under our balcony (2 euros for ten) Lela and Jule even had bedrooms with an ancient Roman viaduct running right through the walls!

This wouldn’t be a Jacobs blog posting without the mention of a good meal, and we had one of the best yet at La Cantina Di Biffi,  http://www.cantinadibiffi.it  As our visit hit the “low season” we had the restaurant all to ourselves, and our host bought us never ending samples of the menu highlights, complete with a dazzling array of local aperitifs, wine and Italian Brandy. The whole place was family run and the restaurants “open plan” design meant that as we enjoyed our meal we could watch the owners mum cooking up a storm in the back. All the food was amazing but her wild boar goulash was a hands down favorite.

Such a GREAT meal (Lulu looking a bit "sleepy" after sampling the drinks menu)

Saturday morning and we could not ignore the local market, mainly due to the bangs and crashes of stall holders setting up outside out window around 6 am. We got plenty of goodies but the highlight had to be an amazing 3 euro lemon yellow jacket for Jule

The coolest jacket in Italy (watch the next update for Lelas cool jacket)

 
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Posted by on November 12, 2011 in Campervan, Family travel, Italian Markets, Italy, Prison Camp, Sulmona, Travel with kids, World travel, World War 2

 

“When In Rome”

08 Nov

Rome was one of the places that was on Jules “bucket list”, and as we had made it this far into Italy it felt criminal not to go and experience all the history and magic of this city.

Parking and affordable accommodation inside Rome are an issue, however, so we decided to stay at a wonderful, bed bug free agriturismo farm in Monterotondo, which was about thirty minutes by train outside of Rome http://www.fontedipapa.com/agriturismo-roma-farm-stay.asp?l=eng. It was only a four day stay but due to Ollie’s size (and one small but VERY annoying bridge), it took us about four days to finally figure out the best route from the train station to the farm.  Travelers tip -Italian drivers on their way to work tend to get very upset when you cause a long line of traffic by trying to pull off a four point turn in a camper van on a tiny rural lane.

Tenuta Agricola - Agriturismo Fonte di Papa. Horses and builders (boo!) but no bed bugs (yay!)

Bridge problems aside, we all rather fell in love with Rome. The people were great, the winter chestnuts were roasting, and at night the streets were a buzz with action including little kids all dressed up for Halloween and tourists throwing coins into the Trevi Fountain.

Tourists throwing money into the Trevi Fountain

Due to the size of the city and the amount of places we planned to see, we decided to bite the bullet and arrange three days (yes THREE days) of guided tours. We hit all the major hotspots including Vatican City, the Sistine Chapel, the Pantheon, the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Trevi Fountain, the Four Rivers Fountain, and the Spanish Steps…Lela even got to bless her “Jesus Rock” from Skye in St. Peter’s Basilica. We saw too many wonders to report here in detail so you’ll all just have to come and sit through the slide show when we get back.

The Basilica of St. Peter and the Swiss Guards -don't mess with the Swiss Guards (they have pointy sticks and stripey bloomers)

Had it not been for Inger and Marle our Amazonian tour guides, we would have missed out on many “thrilling” historical dates and “gripping” city stats as well as the hidden parts of Rome which included some superb local family restaurants.  Our only advice is “if you are going to do a seven hour sightseeing stint, wear comfortable shoes, take plenty of candy for moral support and give yourself at least two days to recover”.

 
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Posted by on November 8, 2011 in Agritourismo, Family travel, Rome, Vatican City

 
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