Yes, in love with Solo...well, a few nights at the Novotel helped, after the grime and skank of Pacitan. Joni wasn't well at the end of our time in Pacitan - a bit of a cold and a fever, she had a tough day on the public bus, we were set upon by many pushy becak drivers at Solo bus station, but it seemed that in no time we were swanning about in a beautiful swimming pool, contemplating a buffet breakfast of champions the next morning. But, glorious nest of capitalist enterprise aside, Solo is a great city. We weren't sure [View Full Entry]

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Hi all. We speak! It's so easy to get to the Internet in Yogya, but in other parts of Java, for us, it has been a bit of a challenge. So has eating something other than nasi goreng for breakfast. Anyway, let me fill you in on our life since the last blog. We left Yogya headed, we thought, for the cool, quiet hills of East Java, the least populated area of the most densly-populated place on Earth. And, of course, we should have thought about what that would actually mean. A peaceful cottage in the hills surrounded by rice paddies? [View Full Entry]

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Hi all, today we went to Borobodur, the ancient Buddhist monument just outside Yogya. After a 7am start driving through this town's crazy traffic, we travelled past car yards (Henry was happy) and markets and shops and the basic craziness that is Yogya. It is still holiday time here, extremely busy, and there were already many, many people at Borobodur. It is quite breathtaking, but so was the crowd. The amazing thing about the crowd was, however, that everone was so relaxed. We immediately get uptight in a crowd. The Indonesian folks seem to love it. Everyone was having a great [View Full Entry]

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We have now been in Yogya for four days and what a crazy, busy, full of surprises, kind of place we have found it to be. It is the busiest place I've ever seen. Ramadan has just finished and everyone has come here on holiday. It is heaps of fun though - not oppressive crowds, just happy, party folk, mostly families. And they love us. Or at least, we give 'em a laugh. They love the number of kids, the twin factor, the cuteness of us all (!) but Michael probably cops the heat the most for being so tall. We [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone, we're back from our jungle trip to Muong Ngoi. A fantastic adventure - and no doubt one therapists will earn a living from in ensuing decades. We spent 3.30 hours on a mini bus to Ngon Khiaw, then hopped on a skinny wooden motor boat with too many other tourists for the one-hour trip to Muong Ngoi. Now, in Australia, to run rapids like this would involve lifejackets, helmets and a 30 minute safety talk. Here, they just pick a line around the rocks and gun the engines. Simple. Then we broke down. Nice. Spent about 90 minutes on [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone, as you may have gathered, we're grappling a bit with the technology here - it's not that we've been felled by some nasty illness. On the contrary, I'm relieved to report that we're all in great nick. It is a bit hot, but we've also had beautiful rain, great storms with amazing lightening, mostly at night. So what have we been doing. Well, eating. A lot. The food is wonderful, great for kids. I think you've already seen a picture of pancakes. Sticky rice with mango is also a good start to the day. Lots of street food - [View Full Entry]

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Lao or bust Welcome to our blog. As you would expect we had a few technical hitches getting on to our blog, but all appears fine now. We are in Luang Prabang and settled in very nicely. Our hotel is right across the road from a Buddhist wat, as they call them here, and the monks come past at 6.15am each morning after a wake-up call from a very large drum. During the first week here there was also a night market right outside, so there was plenty of colour and movement for the children. The twins are getting plenty of [View Full Entry]

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