One year off to travel with the boys

We’d been to Auckland ten years previous, so knew the best parts of New Zealand were to be had outside the city, rather than within. Nevertheless we only had three days, so spent time at parks, wharfs and visiting the national museum. Toby and Carmen did go up the sky tower; he didn’t jump off it this time, though there doesn’t seem to be much limit to what he is willing to attempt. On day one, Carmen arranged a flight back to Hong Kong to take care of Toby’s school issue, and on Friday Ethan and I left the hotel early to catch a flight to the Cook Islands, leaving Toby and Carmen to make their own way at a later time.

We landed at 4:30 on a cloudy day in Rarotonga and were surprised to find the clothes we had been wearing for New Zealand perfect for the cool climate. I had been expecting to have to change out of our pants, sweaters and jackets, into shorts and t-shirts. Someone was thoughtfully playing island music on a ukulele above the baggage belt, so as the beagle came around to sniff our bags and Ethan had a couple of meltdowns, we at least had some form of entertainment. My New Zealand apple was confiscated I’m sorry to say, but at least I had declared food on my form and didn’t have to face an on the spot fine (which almost occurred to us in New Zealand).

We were given Lei’s (garlands of flowers) and told to get on a special bus to take us to Rau’s Guesthouse. At $35 per person, and about 20 people on the bus for a one hour journey round the island dropping people off, it seemed odd not to see any Roll’s Royces as we skirted the island road.

Rau’s guesthouse turned out to be more of a homestay as our quarters were inside the house of the family owners. This turned out to be a major plus as they had three great kids (1, 6, and 10 years old. All boys) who were highly interactive and interesting to talk to. The owners themselves were very friendly and since they worked at a bakery, brought home fresh bread every morning. Contrast this with our original intention of renting a cottage where we would have likely met few people except in the shops. Since we were there for eight days, we also met lots of interesting people passing through as well. There was Vani, a British girl working as a teacher in New Zealand, who came with us hiking one afternoon up to the Needle lookout. Mark, a pilot, and Sarah from somewhere north of Nova Scotia on the Canadian side, who we bumped into returning from another trek; they came to the Cooks with the intention of going to see the caves on one of the more obscure islands. Finally, there was the couple from Bend, Oregon who arrived late at night in a downpour and had traveled on much the same itinerary as us, also originating in London.

We've had a good time here in Raro, but it hasn't all been swimming/snorkeling as I originally expected. The weather has made it too cold to swim every day and instead we've made quite a few trips around the island on our rented moped looking at the plantations. We also did a couple of hikes inland to see the thick vegetation and amazing views from the top of some hills.

Tonight we'll be leaving paradise and heading back to California. Tomorrow Ethan and I will be in LA visiting Disneyland for a couple of days! It's a shame Carmen and Toby are not going to be with us.

Posted by chris at 03:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After changing our tickets to stay in Hong Kong an extra week to apply for schools, we almost didn’t make it to Bali. We were dropped off at the airport on a Friday, and told at check-in that Ethan didn’t have the required single blank page required for the visa to enter Bali. The Singapore Airlines staff did an excellent job of changing our tickets to allow us to stop over in Singapore for four nights, while we waited for Monday to arrive and make a trip to the Consulate. During that time, we visited the Singapore Science museum which the boys enjoyed – especially the lightning bolt simulator – Teva (?) coil. We stayed at the YWCA this time, not quite as good as the YMCA, since it doesn’t have a pool, free internet or fitness classes. We arrived at the decision to stay at the YWCA after spending over an hour looking at various hotels around Little India, of which the decent ones were fully booked. Singapore apparently doesn’t lower rates on hotels for walk-ins, so it’s best to book ahead on Expedia or Wotif.

Seems like I’m always talking about accommodation, and the reason it’s such a big issue is that: i) It’s difficult to book ahead because many hotels don’t accommodate families with two children and have a three person limit per room. We have skirted this issue sometimes by booking ahead anyway, listing Toby as the only child, and then hoping the staff will ignore the limitation and/or provide an upgrade, and, ii) Paying for accommodation every night for months on end is very costly, so we try to avoid splashing out on hotels above $100 per night. Even the Y’s in Singapore exceeded this price, whereas the best, most affordable hotels so far are in Bali and Bangkok. I think what we’ve learned from this trip is that sometimes Homestays or Guesthouses are better because you get to socialize with and see how the locals live. Also if the Homestays are run by families, they may have kids for ours to interact with, as well as toys.

In Bali, we watched a couple of people jump off the bungee tower nr. Legian Beach, and Toby said he was willing to go. Since he and I were alone, I asked him to wait for his Mum to watch as well, but she was having none of it, saying it was too dangerous. Instead we spent the next day at WaterBom in Kuta, a water park, where Toby had to persuade me to go down a ride called SmashDown, a solo slide with a long steep descent. It wasn’t so bad after all, but I wouldn’t have attempted it if my six year old son hadn’t gone first. We only spent three days in Bali, thanks to extending our stay in Hong Kong an extra week and then having to deal with the passport issue, and spent the time riding around on a rented moped as well as swimming and body-boarding in the excellent waves at Seminyak beach. This part of the trip was definitely too short but at least there are direct flights from Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific. Having said that, the entry visas and airport tax are heavy prices to pay; the total for four of us came to about $250, which for three days is a bit steep.

Posted by chris at 03:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We have officially decided to move to Hong Kong as off three days ago. While we were there, we took the opportunity to interview and after several weeks, and a couple of phone calls, received offer letters from different companies, both located in Central. My recruiter from PinpointAsia who helped me find the position, Vince Natteri, writes an excellent blog about running/hiking in Hong Kong: http://hikeinhongkong.com.

The most pressing issue now is to find a school for Toby. We have applied to several but they, and most others, are over-subscribed. Carmen is sacrificing the rest of the trip to take Toby to Hong Kong immediately and find a school for him to begin in August.

I will continue with Ethan and tie up some necessary loose ends in California, including shipping stuff over, before heading back via London and Dubai. Of course this also means that I have 8 nights in the Cook Islands with him, but this is part of the sacrifices that must be made to ensure all goes according to plan. Besides, the necessary work visa takes 5 weeks to process.

We were also poised for a move to Sydney since we were both interviewing there and demand /interest seemed high. I had already managed to squeak by in a couple of interviews, as well as some verbal, numerical and analytic exams with a local investment bank.

Now we will have to split up our luggage and both sign authorizations indicating that it's okay for each of us to travel with the kids, because of concern about cross-border child abductions.

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The tour operator told us that we would leave Siem Reap around 8 a.m. and be back in Bangkok by 5 p.m. . This turned out to be far from the truth.

Around 8 a.m., we were waiting around for the bus to arrive. Eventually a very tatty minibus appeared and hauled us one block to the coach, where many passengers were already waiting. We got on and waited and waited. Meanwhile the bus driver was chatting amiably to passers by. Finally, he boarded and we took off at a slow speed toward the Thai border.

After an hour we stopped at a refreshment stall where the bathrooms were disgusting and smelled heavily of petrol. We were asked to pay for their use, but I refused. We did buy some more pineapple and mango which was freshly cut and handed to us inside a plastic bag; very skillful.

One more hour and we arrived at the same bus terminal we had seen on the way over to Siem Reap. It was only 11 a.m., but we were hungry and got some steamed chicken and noodles from the stands there. It wasn't clear why we were waiting here, but later it was apparent that we were only there to generate business for the stalls, because we got on and arrived at the border half an hour later. After the usual form checking and joining of four separate queues (two to get out of Cambodia and two to get in to Thailand), we arrived at the other side to find the tour operator waiting for us. He then proceeded to try and up-sell us onto a faster, smaller air-conditioned minibus. We were tempted, especially with the midday heat, but thought that the original bus would be fine and only get us in an hour later.

After trying to upsell the other 40 passengers who also declined, we trekked the few hundred yards outside the border post under the hot sun, to...an awaiting truck. We were herded on like cattle and many had to stand in the aisle with some hanging out the back. Luckily Carmen and the boys got to go up front in the cab. It was a half hour journey and we finally arrived at a tourist office. It was about 1:30 p.m. now and they were kind enough to provide lunch, for a fee of course. The food was quite good, but we all wondered how long we would be there and sat around waiting. About an hour and a half later, our new bus finally arrived and we boarded it to discover it had been sitting in the hot sun and was like an oven inside. Also, the AC didn't work too well; each vent blew a gentle warm breeze. Luckily I had about three liters of water with us, so as we sweated for the next three hours until the sun went down, we were able to stay sufficiently hydrated.

Around 8 p.m. we arrived at Khao San Road and took a taxi to our hotel. Moral of the story: take the train or private minibus to and from the Cambodian border!

Posted by chris at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)