Turnbull Family Pacific Tour 2015

John started wearing a face mask in Laos when he wasn't feeling well. He said he wanted to "keep the germs away". He has recently focused on the fact the tourists usually pay more for things than locals, and so he wants to get local prices by going undercover. When he explained this to a fellow tourist from Australia I was speaking with, she hinted to John that his hair may still be a giveaway. I see local ladies riding their motorcycles and mopeds completely covered with no skin showing. They'll wear cloth masks, jackets and even coverings for their hands. I'm told lighter skin is a sign of beauty here, and so women are trying to avoid getting a tan. This might explain why I see so few locals on the beach. Maybe they are on to something since too much sun is damaging. I'm always amazed by what I witness everyday on the back of a motorcycle. Everything I could possibly imagine and more is carted around on the back of them. Just yesterday I saw a live pig in a ...

Today was day two of our cruise within Ha Long Bay. I started the day with Tai Chi on the deck. I can't say I did it any justice, but I followed the instructor's moves as best I could. It was good to start the day with a little light exercise. In the morning we took a day boat through the bay past some of the two thousand islands that cover the area. Our destination was Cat Ba Island for some biking and touring. On the island we took a newly built road five kilometres inland to a nearby village - the old lower road was still under water. There was a lot of rain and flooding in the area about two months ago that has yet to subside completely. The last time it happened was about 90 years ago, and it has really hurt the villages on the island, who are only now getting their houses and rice paddies back. We took three bikes out, with Elizabeth on the back of our guide's motorcycle on the way out and John on the way back. Riding on a motorcycle was again a highlight for the kid...

Today we visited Cat Cat village, a small village down a mountain slope, well set up for easy tourist access with good stone steps all the way down the village and along a river. Catheleen and Elizabeth had already been there yesterday but I talked them into joining John and me today. The kids wanted to take a motorcycle taxi ride to the place but I insisted on a car taxi. It was a moot argument as it turned out. After a one kilometre car ride the road was blocked and we needed to switch to motorcycles or walk. I enjoyed the short motorcycle ride with John and I on separate bikes. Once Elizabeth heard a motorcycle ride was back in play, she and Catheleen agreed to join us, and they took a motorcycle ride down to meet us. We later took motorcycles back up to Sa Pa. Zoom zoom. The village was worth the trip for the views of the terraced rice fields alone. I had no knowledge of how rice was grown or harvested before this trip. I had some vague notion that rice grains grew in the root of ...

More on the kids adventure last night. We were at a restaurant about 50 meters from our hotel, and after dinner we let the kids run off to a nearby stand for a banana pancake. They somehow managed to get lost after getting their dessert and wandered a few blocks the wrong way. They eventually stopped in at a resort lobby to ask for directions, but they couldn't remember the name of our hotel. They did remember it had a pool, so after describing the pool the lobby staff identified their hotel and arranged for someone to give them a ride on the back of a motorcycle. This was Eilizabeth and John's first time on a motorcycle, and without helmets too. John said he was on the back holding on and hoping he wouldn't fall off, with Elizabeth in the middle. Not great parenting on our part I suppose, but it all worked out. We'll spend more time at our next stop ensuring the kids are oriented and know the name of our hotel. Vang Vieng is a small and relatively peaceful town, which ...