Girls day out

The other day Hana and I took the motorbike downtown, to go check out the Christmas decorations and have afternoon snack at the legendary Metropole. Hana enjoyed strawberry icecream and mum had a nice cup of coffee. Then we went to check out the fountain in the park across the street.

Guess her favourite colour...

Christmas break 2011

After so much travelling all autumn, we just stayed at home, enjoying our fourth Christmas and New Years since we moved to Hanoi, hanging out with friends and just being lazy at home. Lovely lovely.

Traditional, but very likely last, ginger cookie making at Elvin and Emma's place in Ciputra.

And Santa found his way this year, too. Had been all his way to Sweden, Japan and London to pick up parcels from grandparents and cousins. Thank you for all the lovely gifts!

Christmas lunch at the terrace and in the afternoon and evening we had some friends over, but were too busy talking and drinking glögg and champagne, we forgot to take pictures. Jenny and Theo came all the way from East Timor and the rest from around the neighborhood.

Doctor Millie Mai and very sick patient Hana having fun at Kinder Park.

Princesses going wild in the dress up room...

And, we spent a lot of time just haning out at home or playing with friends. Even had a suprise visit all the way from Singapore with Honomi coming for a brief New Years visit. But then we forgot to take pictures again.

Playing Santa

Christmas is approaching again - without me having a clue what happended to the last year. Where did it go? As always, and I guess everywhere, kids are excited. The other day they invented the Santa game: They collect a huge amount of their toys in a bag, while I pretend to be sleeping on the sofa (easily done). Then, Santa leaves the bag next to the sofa and I have to wake up and pretend to be very surprised and happy. Pretty boring. Especially after a couple of rounds. But kids have fun. And I get to rest, while at the same time being an involved-in-children's-play mum. Totally win-win.

With reindeers and all.

December fun

As always, December is full of activities. We've made ginger cookies at Elvin, Ayla and Emma's place, decorated the Christmas tree, been to pre-Christmas parties at friends' houses, checked out the annual Lucia celebrations at the Embassy and loads more. Today was the official start of the three week looooong winterbreak and we had time both to go climb the giant banyan tree down by the "park" and have coffee and juice with Kai's friend at the local cafe. These days weather is perfect for bicycling.

Down by the lotus pond. Season is definitely over.

Climbing the banyan tree.

Hanging out with the boys. No matter how tired.

Five days to go... and ho ho hoooo.

Getting out of there

As I still have Laos in my mind, one last post of my trip to these remote places. Which actually are very remote. To get back to Vientiane (which isn't exactly a global hotspot either...) from the last village I stayed overnight in took two days, starting with a four hour bout trip and an hour car ride on a bumpy dirt track, to get back to the tiny district town of Pha Oudom. From there, I had to travel to the province town of Houeixay, to spend the night. Including considerable time spent on the road side in the complete darkness in the middle of nowhere while the driver tried to stop passing-by motorbikers who could give hime a ride to some village nearby where he could look for a mechanic. Or at least someone who would know stuff about cars. As half way there it got dark and he realized his headlights didnt work. To my surprise someone finally managed to fix the lights. We arrived at midnight, just to be picked up by someone else next morning at 4.30 for a five hours serpentine ride through the amazing - but oh so montaneous - Loung Nam Tha province, to not, not, NOT miss the flight (Chinese propeller plane leavning three times a week, weather permitting) from Oudomxay. In the tuk-tuk drive from the airport in Vientiane, I felt like in a limo in a giant metropoli. On these trips I definitely learn to appreciate little things! And cant wait to go again!

Beautiful, but hilly.

Central Pha Oudom.

Step one. If you stare at the problem area long enough, it might fix itself (it didn't).

Almost there. Just a bumpy flight, and I'd be back in the capital.

Women's burden

In many remote monuntain villages, a great part of the day is spent carrying stuff. Water from the nearest river, fire wood for cooking from the forest and harvested rice from the fields. And, if you're lucky and have some left over, to the market to sell a few kilos. By tradition all this heavy stuff is carried by the women - and girls. No matter if collected from around the corner or five hours away. Men carry the machete.

On their way to the monthly community market down by the river. A six hour walk from their village. Going back will be uphill.

Haafu

In Japan, kids with a parent from another country are called "haafu" - half. Pretty politically incorrect, if you ask me. I would prefere "daberu" (if ther is such a word) - double. Either way, in Hana's class there are three. Japanese-Brittish Lena-chan, Japanese-American Tai-kun and, of course, Japanese-Swedish Hana-chan.

Suspect Lena's mum's got some goodies in her bag.

Bye bye Isha!

Another part of kids' daily life in Hanoi is saying good bye to good old friends, moving on to new destinations and new adventures. Yesterday Kai's class had a good bye party day for Isha who's moving to Australia with her family next week. They visited several friends' houses and came here for story time and cake. Isha has been one of Kai's best friends since the very beginning of our life in Hanoi so it will be empty for sure.

Story time in the living room. Soc, Jordy, Zach, Kai and Moe in the back. Ms. Anette, Julianne, Signe, Hosea, Isha and special guest Emi Rose in the front. And Isha's mum, gym and music teacher Ms. Trudy of course, on the floor.

In the garden with Ms. Nette, waiting for cake.

Emi Rose took care of the flowers (and refused to let go).

Zach: "Look here, Kai's dad's at home!"

International day at Systems Little House

This Saturday Hana and Kai's kindergarden celebrated the yearly "International Day" - an exposition of the many countries, cultures and languages of the school. With lots of yummy food from round the world.

Systems Little House school yard.

Hana and her "Blossoms 2" teacher Ms. Frances.

Ms. Sara, in charge of the Swedish stand. With glögg and pepparkakor and dalahästar and all!

Kai getting messy by the Vietnamese pottery wheel.

According to passports the almost hundred kids in the school represent more than thirty nationalities, like Australia, New Zeeland, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Denmark, Sweden, Britain, Belgium, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Israel, Uzbekistan, Japan, USA, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Uruguay, Italy, Argentina, Holland, Sudan and a bunch more. Sweden is represented by Swedish-Japanese Hana and Kai and little Leo, by Swedish-Vietnamese Rebecka and Swedish-Swedish Signe and Erik. Although for Kai, he still claims he is from Dominica.

Crawling snack

If you can't get Pringles... and I actually tasted them. Several of them. And they taste good. Like crunchy, garlic flavoured, salty pommes stripes. But still. I couldn't stop thinking of what they used to be - a crawling mass of bamboo larves. And happily had more sticky rice in stead.

Freshly delivered to the boat.

A crawling mass of bamboo larves.

Roasted and served for dinner...

... and happily shared with the rest of the team. While I stuck to sticky rice.

Laos - mountains and rivers

For two weeks I criss-crossed parts of northern Laos, spent time in small villages in the mountains of Phongsaly province way up north, and followed the Nam Tha river deep into Bokeo province in the north west. Two completely amazing weeks, bu oh, how great to - eventually (see coming post) - get back to Vientiane (but impossible I belive to not get back slightly different).

Little house on the prarie.

Deep forest as far as you can see. Probably not for very much longer though, as it is quickly being replaced by Chinese rubber plantations.

Upstream beautiful Nam Tha river, still floating slowly. But again, most likely not much longer at all. A hydropower project is about to convert the whole area into a giant dam, of course swallowing every little village along its shores. But the Chinese need the power as well. To make more stuff for us rich consumers around the globe.

Evening gathering and talks around the fire after a long and hard day's work on the rice fields.

A few things to sell - and hopefully to buy - at the monthly river side market.

Preparing the barsi ceremony. For blessings on very special occations like weddings, births or if someone's off on a long journey. Or for special guests from far away.