We arrived in the bus station and squeezed into a jumbo tuk tuk with several others. It is amazing how many youngsters (late teens and early twenties) we meet who are absolutely astounded that we are doing this trip with children - they really seem to think that life stops with children! I guess that in our desperation to discourage teenage pregnancies this is the message we convey. Our fellow passengers were another example of this. The driver dropped us at the edge of the town despite our request to go to the Apsara. When we asked he gestured vaguely up [View Full Entry]

---

---

Arriving our fears were washed away. We were right - especially since there was an off season discount at the hotel! The setting is breathtaking. Jake and Elliot were keen to tube and we figured if we went early the next morning we would miss the worse of the alcohol fuelled backpackers. It is certainly true that the town is hideously developed, and mobbed with backpackers (apparently we are flashpackers!) which leave little for the local culture, and perhaps the errors made here are why Laos is now so careful about developing its tourism. But we have found most people [View Full Entry]

---

---

Our time in Sandukhan (or Sandustink as the boys have named it) was again spent with the boys watching HP, and Rowan Atkinson and us on the internet. We tried, we did go for a walk along the coast - but it was dreadful. It is hard to believe this town exists in a place as beautiful as Sabah, and I am sure most tourists pass by without even stopping other than at the airport. We were relieved to return to KL. Early the next morning I queued for tickets for the sky bridge, and after a 2 hour wait got [View Full Entry]

---

---

Sapi was a wonderful island for our final beach day for a month. It was quiet, still wonderful snorkelling and a decent but not too expensive café. There were also water activities and the boys went for a banana boat ride. Jake loved it, although Elliot was not too sure and we had to call the boat in for him after a bit. He too loved the finale, which was jumping into the sea from the boat while the guy tied the banana boat back on the roof. Speeding back to the island we spied a totally private beach in a [View Full Entry]

---

---

Our next day in KK followed a very similar but more successful pattern. After breakfast, and having collected clothes from a laundry service (the first washing we have not done by hand since we left, what luxury) we purchased another mask and snorkel (4 between us now) and caught the boat to tiny Mamutik. Our initial disappointment at finding more people crammed into the tiny 300m long island than were on its big brother Mamukan yesterday dissolved as soon as we entered the water. We floated about in a sea we decided was the calmest, warmest and clearest we have swum [View Full Entry]

---

---

After another afternoon in KL where we succeeded in acquiring at no charge the missing memory card for our camera, and eating, we flew out to KK (Kota Kinabalu). One of the inevitable attractions of travel is the people you come across. On the coach back from the rainforest it was a very military looking German guy who we were put off because he was smoking and looked like a neo fascist. First impressions are so erroneous. Two hours of the most fascinating conversation ensued, it turned out he was doing a PhD on conflict resolution in the civil war in [View Full Entry]

---

---

We were late to sleep on Tuesday night having been out sampling street food in KL, and when we returned organising and packing for going away while simultaneously trying to set up and use our new camera. Sadly despite having set our phone as an alarm, we failed to set the phone to Malaysia time. This gave us an ideal opportunity to teach the boys what is meant by the phrase a rude awakening. One minute we were all asleep, and then a phone rang to say our minibus was downstairs waiting for us. Within 3 minutes amid cries of “Boys [View Full Entry]

---

---

Officially today marks the transition from our volunteering phase to our travelling phase. It is not as simple as that (are things ever?). We have of course travelled throughout our stay in Sri Lanka, but particularly during the last 2 weeks, which have been like a training course for what lies ahead. We are convinced that the idea to volunteer was a good one. We have integrated into a community in Kurunegala and made friends there with whom we will maintain contact, and who we will miss in a way that is unlikely to happen henceforth. Sri Lanka has left its [View Full Entry]

---

---

We arrived in Galle, and got a tuk tuk round Fort to Khalid’s guest house. We had to direct the driver, and felt on familiar territory especially as the 3 wheeler turned into the fort, and swung right up past the ramparts. The calm solidity of the metres thick wall, with the sea rushing pointlessly against it was both beautiful and instantly reminiscent of happy times. Eventually the sea with its insistent movement will win the battle, but for now that is hard to believe and these walls will endure for centuries yet. Within the walls every building has its merits, [View Full Entry]

---

---

We have been incredibly strict on the boys while being here. On one day we did some numeracy from books brought from England, and made them stick stuff in journals and e-mail home. The next we had real lessons set up. We headed off in beach kit, stopped and hired surf boards, and made our way in blue tuk tuk with boards strapped to roof off road, cross country to the delightful Peanut Farm Bay. An almost deserted beach with a handful of huts on stilts with little caves and pools by rocks, the bay was almost perfect. The sea rolled [View Full Entry]

---

---