Thursday, June 19, 2014

Happy Friday!



Happy Friday everyone!

What do you have planned on the weekend? Hopefully something exciting. It has been fun over the past few weeks to follow friends in colder part of the world at the moment and reminisce about evenings with warm cups of tea, woollen blankets and open fires. That seems so far away from our lifestyle at the moment. Despite the rain setting in, it is still hot and humid here and we are finding ourselves with the air con on overnight.

I am pretty excited today because we are off on a week long holiday to Phuket. I've never really had much time for Phuket, but there are some times when you want an easy holiday and this is one of them! We are totally ready for the direct flight, kid friendly resort accommodation and some relaxation with my parents in tow. All of us are super excited to see the ocean again. 4 months without the ocean is a really long time! I will let you know what we thought of this resort type holiday when we get back- it is a first for us!

Thankyou so much for your recent support and comments about the blog. I really enjoy writing it and glad you enjoy reading. Please let me know if there are any particular things you want me to cover. Hopefully after a week of holiday my mind will have the space to dream and i will be back with better blog posts to share!

By the way, anyone have any good holiday reads to recommend? I have been getting back into reading recently and am looking forward to some time by the pool/ beach with my kindle and would love to hear of any good books to add to my list.

Melinda x



Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Foodies Q&A

Since starting the blog I have had quite a few questions about the food.

I have been putting it off up until now, partly because i am trying to collect a few photos, but also because it is a really hard thing to talk about. It is hard to know where to start.

Food in Lao is a spectrum. There is some amazing food, and there is some very average food. There are amazing restaurants, and also local roadside food stalls. It pays to be adventurous (but maybe not really adventurous?!)

Here are the answers to some of the questions that i have had.

1. Where to we food shop?

There is no one place to get everything. We shop at a combination of places. We go to the western supermarket (small) to get cheese, and smoked salmon and meat. We go to the local market to get our fruit, vegetables and fresh fish, and we go to the Asia supermarket for everything in between.

2. Is food expensive?

It varies. Western things are about the same price as at home. The only things i have found that are more expensive are cheese and chocolate (large sigh inserted here). Meat can also be expensive. We haven't been brave enough to buy meat at the local market yet so we buy it from the supermarket, usually frozen, and this is not cheap. For example, we haven't bought any lamb since we got here.

The food at the market is cheap though. And getting cheaper. Interestingly it seems Joff gets charged more than i do at the market which is not a reflection on language skills or anything else. I think it is a gender thing.

3. Do we eat out or cook at home?

Again a combination. Because we have a toddler we eat home more than most of the other expats who live here. A lot of the people without children eat out most nights. In some ways, for an individual it is cheaper than getting all the ingredients to cook at home.

That said, we eat out at least one or two times a week, and there is no shortage of good meals to be found in Vientiane. Almost every cuisine is represented including French, Italian, Thai, Middle eastern, Indian, Japanese, Russian, Korean etc.

We also often head out for breakfast on the weekends. There are a couple of popular choices- Kungs (a cheap and delicious little alleyway restaurant that is a favourite), or a French bakery for croissants and coffee.

4. What do locals eat?

Most people seem to eat noodle soup (pho) for breakfast (and often lunch) and sticky rice with bbq chicken or rice for dinner. We also enjoy all of these things. Most of the other dishes in Lao are made with lots of chilli and lots of fermented fish sauce. I'm thinking papaya salad, fish stew/soup, laab. Don't get me wrong, i like chilli, but sometimes it can be a bit full on.

Street side papaya salad

Lao people are also renowned for eating the whole animal. They think falang are crazy for not eating the fish bones,  cow udder,  chicken legs,  pig intestines and blood tofu. Each to their own i guess.

Oh, and absolutely every meal is washed down with a Beer Lao (with ice cubes).



5. What food do we miss from home?

Melinda: Chocolate
Bea: Fresh blueberries
Joff: Chocolate and meat (steak, lamb chops and roasts)

6. Does Bea eat Lao food?

The short answer is yes (if it isn't too spicy). I dare anyone to find a child who doesn't like sticky rice. Most children, falang and Lao alike, are obsessed with the stuff. She likes BBQ chicken and fish. She has had some laab if it isn't too chill packed, she will eat noodle soup (sometimes). Usually there is enough around to keep her happy and she will pick though the meal for the goodies- the meat and the nuts (her favourite). She also eats all manner of fruit. Some of her favourites are mango and rambutan.

I will note that she still has a lot of western food- porridge for breakfast, often a peanut butter or vegemite sandwich, and her fair share of dairy (which is missing from Lao food).


I hope that answered your questions. What else do you want to know?

Melinda xx


Ancient Fish- Makphet Reastaurant. AMAZING


Breakfast at Kungs- a meatball soup with baked egg and coriander



Fish with lemongrass and ginger and chilli and peanuts



BBQ chicken everywhere you go



Some kind of deep fried curry pork goodness


Out of this world lychees


And mangosteens, so good


Sunday, June 15, 2014

Same but different



I recently read this post on a blog that i follow about raising worldly children.

Essentially they travelled as a family to Haiti on a work trip and were amazed by how well their children coped with the conditions- the heat, the sweat, the dirt, the spicy food and the lack of toys. She was writing the post to talk about how proud she was of them.

One part of the post that really resonated with me though was trying to walk the balance between teaching your children that we are all children of the same world, while also explaining to them that they are a bit of an oddity by the fact that they look different. I have definitely had similar thoughts.

Bea may not cause much of a stir in Vientiane but she definitely stands out when we travel out of Vientiane. All of a sudden she is the only fair skinned, blondie in town and she is constantly surrounded, pinched, touched, stroked. How do you explain to a 2 year old that she is different and that makes her exciting to the locals. That she was lucky to be born where she was born in the world, and that she is lucky to have so much when others have so little? I guess you can try. And hope that the experience of living over here will become a part of who she is.

When we were in Champasack we visited a local village that was literally full of children. It was dusty, hot, and there was a bit of a mexican standoff. Bea and her pal were looking at the locals wondering why they were so dust covered and not really wearing clothes. And the locals were wondering who these blonde haired fair skinned children were. And probably why they had shoes on their feet.









Sunday, June 8, 2014

Choosing an overseas preschool

Before we even got to Laos we thought that we would enrol Bea in some kind of school. At 2 years of age she was definitely ready for some experiences out of the home environment.

The main reason we wanted her to attend school was for her social development. Bea can be incredibly friendly around people she knows well, and the complete opposite to those who she does not know. This is her, and we love her for it. But a few encounters away from us, to see how other kids are interacting and playing together was a goal.

Finding a preschool overseas is tricky. Firstly, there is a real lack of information online, or information in general. Most of what we know about the schools here has been from work of mouth. At first glance you would think that only having a handful of schools to choose from would make the choice easier but in fact I beg to differ. Having only a few schools to choose from means that everyone we meet has a child at one of them and consequently has an opinion. Unlike in Auckland where every child was undoubtedly at a different place, this makes for more comparisons.

The other difficulty was that they all had pros and cons. Resources, language, expenses (a lot more than standard kindergartens in Australia/ NZ), quality of teachers, teaching methods etc. In Vientiane there are a handful of international schools, including Vientiane international school (VIS) but Bea is too young for any of their kindergarten classes. So that left us with essentially 3 main choices: 2 Montessori schools and a french school. All three of them had something we liked and something we didn't like. And all of them have issues with training, and certification.

In the end we enrolled Bea in the French preschool for a couple of reasons.

1. It was a pretty nurturing environment
2. Most of the kids were 2 years old (at the Montessori there were 6 year olds and we thought Bea would be a bit intimidated)
3. The main teacher speaks fluent French, English and Lao so although the bulk of group activities are in French there is someone who could explain things to Bea in English if need be.
4. The outdoor area has a lot of shade
5. Bea might just pick up a little bit of french!

Bea has now been at the school for over a month and so far so good. She can now count to ten in 4 languages (English, Spanish, French and Lao FYI) and is constantly singing songs in French (although we have no idea what she is saying so cannot correct her mumbled lyrics!) She is still shy and is often stuck to the teachers hip but she enjoys the time there and is excited when she comes home.

Would you enrol your children in a school that has a language other than your own?




Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Sporadic blogger alert

When I started this blog I thought I would have a 'blog schedule'. That it would be easy to fit in. And that I would post at least a couple of times a week.

What I have learnt in the last few months is that that isn't realistic here. Laos is too unpredictable. In fact, life in general with a family is too unpredictable. And I wouldn't want it any other way. I'm one of those people who doesn't really like routine. One of those people who doesn't like doing the same exercise, or eating the same food for breakfast every morning.

So, to help my guilt on having no consistent blogging agenda, and to help you keep track, let me introduce a little friend to you. It's name is bloglovin. And I am a big fan.

I have been using bloglovin for a while now. Essentially you sign up, search for the blogs you like, add them to your list and then bloglovin will send you an email with a summary of posts and links to them. Simple right?

For example if you type in "travelling with chickens" this blog comes up and you can follow me. It means that if I post something here you will get an email and ultimately not need to keep coming to the site and sighing at the lack of new content.



I am in no way linked to bloglovin but am of the opinion that it is a handy little tool. Check it out here if you want to read more about how it works.




Tuesday, June 3, 2014

How to raise globally aware children

We have always been keen on raising children to have a genuine interest and desire to know more about the world around them. I imagine many families have a similar interest. This started very early on in Bea's life. In the beginning it was reading books about different kinds of places- places with extreme seasons, cold places, deserts etc.

As she got older we progressed to trying to introduce her to language- both through books and music. In Auckland Bea and I went to a weekly Spanish music class which we both loved as an alternative to the usual library run music sessions. We still sing the Spanish songs we learnt there. I would really recommend it.

Now in Laos, we have enrolled Bea into a French speaking preschool (although i may note this has been for more than one reason).

There have been a few key resources that we have used to aid us in our desire to raise a global child. And they are accessible wherever you are living.

Today i wanted to talk about the simple blow up globe



We actually have 2 of these. One has the countries on it, the other is just the geography. At the moment, here in Laos we have the geography one. The possibilities with these things are endless. It is a great travel toy. We use it all the time. Sometimes we use it to burn off some steam and kick or throw it around. Sometimes we roll around on top of it. But other times it is more educational. I was impressed when Bea wanted to show we where the penguins live the other day and could spin the globe around and around until she found the land mass of Antarctica. She can also accurately identify Australia and NZ (Laos is proving to be a little bit more difficult).

At the moment we have been using it a lot as we track our various friends and family members. My parents are somewhere in Russia, Joff's mother and sister in Kenya. The globe has been great for explaining where everyone is.

I can also see it being put to use in the future when we want to show other kids and adults where we come from.

If you don't have a blow up globe i really recommend getting one, they are such a fun, educational toy!

Melinda xx