Travel with Kids in Southeast Asia – Page 9 – Journeys Within Tour Company

The Mother of All Weeks: Vietnam

Posted by Andrea on May 13, 2009 (Updated: 2011-02-10) | Leave a comment

Sorry this is a little late, I got distracted with a fun trip to Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh over the weekend. Here is the last of our Mother of all Weeks series by Loan, featuring Van, our Directors in Vietnam:

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Sorry for the delayed reply because Van is so busy for her Seminar. I can not understand that she never drop off her huge dreams 🙂 that I admire her very much.

Please see the following for the interview with Van:
Van is my class mate at foreign languages University in Hanoi. She is a hard-working and successful woman. And now she is my boss and has encouraged me a lot in my job.

Loan : Ms. Van, I have some interesting questions for you.
Van: Yes, I am willing to response to your questions that does not make troubles for me.

Loan: How many kids did your mom have?
Van: As you may know, my mom has three children.

Loan: How many kids do you have?
Van: Wow, I have only two sons

Loan: How many do you want to have?
Van: Well, interesting question but I was thinking of having two only.

Loan: What is your favorite thing about being a mom?
Van: For me, it is teaching my kids and traveling with them.

Loan: What is the hardest thing about being a mom?
Van: My kids are so nice but sometime I am tired to solve their problems.

Loan: What is the most important advice you will or have given your kids?
Van: Being hard-working and learning so well

Loan: What was the most important advice your mom gave you?
Van: My mom always said me that you should do everything by yourself in the life and taking care of your husband and your kids very well. May be she knows I am so busy that I don’t have a lot of free time for my Family.

Loan: What do you hope for your kids?
Van: I hope that my kids can do everything by themselves in their life and they will help others

Loan: Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.
Van: You are welcome… Read more »

Moms On The Run

Posted by Andrea on May 9, 2009 (Updated: 2011-01-28) | Leave a comment

No, we’re not running away from anyone, in fact we are generally running AFTER someone. Traveling with kids is rarely easy, but often rewarding. As working moms traveling with our families is usually the best chance we have to spend uninterrupted time with them…for better or for worse. As travel experts we plan a lot of holidays for families and we’re lucky enough to be able to take a few ourselves. Here’s what the Journeys Within moms had to say about traveling with kids:

April O’Connell-Cole
Mother of: One boy
Based: Truckee, CA
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When I received Gavin’s passport the first thing I thought of was what great experiences he would have through travel. I envisioned him learning about foreign cultures, gaining tolerance, being an overall better member of the human race (oh, and that’s just the half of it!). What I didn’t realize was how much I would learn through him when we traveled together.

My most precious memory traveling with Gavin was on our last trip to Cambodia. We took him on a village tour in Siem Reap. Gavin walked around the village and wanted to play with the local kids, climb on the ruins and snuggle with his mommy. He saw no difference between this foreign country and his own home back yard. It opened my eyes to the similarities we all share as humans and closed a bit of the gap which I had felt when I first walked around this rural village. I soon realized that in dreaming of all the things that Gavin would learn on his travels, the one thing I missed was all that I would learn by traveling with him.

I look forward to the many things Gavin and I will continue to learn through our travels together.

Linda Chhay
Mother of: One girl and one boy
Based: Siem Reap, Cambodia

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My favorite part of traveling with kids is I get to take care of her and when she happy or sad I will know because I’m there and not at work.
I have enjoyed a vacation with my kid at the sea.
I hope that because she travels she will see everything new that different from the old place that she usually saw, especially when she can travel a lot she will know the culture of different people and she will not be scared of those people.

Thanh Van
Mother of: Two boys
Based: Hanoi, Vietnam

My favorite part of traveling with kids is playing with them and taking care of them. I love to enjoy with my kids in the four or five star resorts with nice swimming pools on the beach. I hope my kids get to know the culture of the local people, to discover places that are relatively un-known and get real experience for doing everything by themselves in their life.

Andrea Ross
Mother of: One girl and one boy
Based: Siem Reap, Cambodia

Discussing Buddha
I love that for kids everything about travel is an adventure: the overnight train ride isn’t an exhausting and smelly 12 hours, but rather an amazing experience where you go to sleep and wake up somewhere completely different! My kids are just as excited whether they’re going to the Pumpkin Patch or Thailand and that enthusiasm is contagious. I was lucky enough to grow up traveling and I know the sense of independence and strength it gave me and I love to see my kids learning the same lessons. Traveling helps them figure out who they are and at the same time traveling makes them who they are.

Philippa Nigg
Mother of: Two girls
Based: Truckee, CA

When our kids were little we didn’t travel a lot, or far, but every vacation was an opportunity to explore new experiences and see new places. Then finally we decided that before they were off on their own we would take them to Africa where both of us had grown up. There were groans and please of “Not Aaafrica, there are bugs, and snakes in Aaafrica…”. We went and they never looked back or stopped traveling since! What a fun experience to share those special moments – when we stepped into a local African market – not a tourist market – and they truly realized what it meant to be a minority – when we all felt the adrenalin surge and then relief as we realized the bull elephant was really only doing a mock charge…the shared laughter, new experiences and the opening of horizons happens at unexpected times – but travel and vacations make those moments more likely.
I wish every child and young person could travel, for with travel comes understanding of others as people, of other nations as nations and concern for the whole world rather than a single, selfish small part.

Happy Mother’s Day and Happy Travels!!… Read more »

Elephant Options

Posted by Andrea on April 27, 2009 (Updated: 2016-07-05) | Leave a comment

One of the must-do’s for Northern Thailand is a little quality time with the pacaderms. While Chiang Mai is a great place to make this happen, there are a few options in terms of how you experience these amazing beasts of burden. I have broken it down into options and explained the pros and cons of each:

Option 1: Mahout for a day

This is a more intimate experience that gets you up close and personal with the elephants while also having a strong theme of conservation and respect. Places like the Elephant Conservation Center in Lampang and the Patara Elephant Farm in Chiang Mai are some of the best in this category. The idea is that you learn about, care for and interact with “your” elephant for a day. In the morning you are given a briefing on the history and life of the Asian elephant before being introduced to your elephant and its mahout. Throughout the day you feed them, bathe them, ride them like a mahout does, no fancy chairs, just booty to big ol’ head. Lunch in included and then some more riding or bathing as well as practicing getting on and off (insider tip: watch out for those tusks, ouch!) You learn how to make an elephant stop and go and turn, or at least in theory you learn, I didn’t have a huge amount of success and I was glad the mahout stuck close by. At the end of the day you do feel connected to the animals and it is a magical experience.

Pros:

Usually the group size for these experiences are under 12 and you definitely feel as though you are having a unique experience
It’s an adventure of (pun intended) highest proportions.
It’s fun to just be in the elephants world for a while and there is free will for all (for the most part)

Cons:

Because of it’s uniqueness this is a more expensive option, but a lot of the money does go towards conservation
You are going to feel it the next day. Riding through the jungle on an elephants head is an amazing workout.
This is not for the faint-of-heart, you are face to face with these animals and you have to put a lot of faith in their good nature

Catching a ride on BoonPak and the Patara Elephant Farm

Option 2: Elephant Nature Park

The Elephant Nature Park is a conservation-based experience that invites guests to care for and help with elephant care without any riding or other human-interest angles. In the morning you go to the market and help buy the food for the elephants and once at the camp you get down to basics: mucking out the elephants area, feeding them breakfast, bathing them in the river, taking them for a walk to their eating area in the jungle. The day includes many lectures on the history of the elephants in Thailand, as well as the challenges facing them today.

Pros:

A truly conscientious elephant-based approach.
As a not-for-profit you know the money you spend on the day goes directly to caring for the elephants
A very intimate, feel-good way to spend a day with elephants.

Cons:

You don’t get to ride them. While this may be better for the elephants, many people don’t feel the experience is complete without being up-top.
It is a hot, dirty and grubby day.
Sometimes the lectures about elephant abuse and elephant treatment can get a bit too much and you just want to go out and enjoy the elephants.

We book both of these options for our guests, depending on their interest, timeframe and physical fitness and we have gotten fantastic reviews about all of them. The trick is to pick the experience that works for you and your family and then relax and enjoy it. … Read more »

My Mini Mahout

Posted by Andrea on April 23, 2009 (Updated: 2011-02-10) | 3 Comments

Today Callie and I participated in the Patara Elephant Farm Elephant Owner For A Day. Now I have to admit I had my reservations about taking a three-year-old to go and learn how to bathe, ride and care for an elephant, they have big feet. It turns out she may be small is size, but not in attitude and she made me so proud with how brave, careful and interested she was. Here are some photos of the day. I will be writing more soon about elephants in Northern Thailand and Patara Elephant Farm, but for now, here are some photos of my little girl doing her thing:

The lessons from elephants as told by Khun Pat:

1. Walk like an elephant: be careful where you place your feet. Elephants are in no rush and they look where their feet are going so they can walk up and down very steep hills without misstep.

2. Eat like an elephant: elephants don’t die from heart disease or cancer, they die when their teeth wear out. Eat fruits and vegetables and take care of your body.

4. Live like an elephant: the strong family bonds of elephants run deep and they all care for each other as a family group.

introductions

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brushing-her-elephant

bath-time

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my-mini-mahout

on-her-way … Read more »

Umbrella Art

Posted by Andrea on April 22, 2009 (Updated: 2011-02-10) | 1 Comment

**A quick note: I wrote a post two days ago saying that if it was me I wouldn’t cancel Thailand travel. Well it must have inspired me because Callie and I got on a plane and we are now in Chiang Mai, Thailand for a few days with plans to take the train to Bangkok this weekend. Not only is it a fun adventure, but I am hearing and seeing the state of Thailand for myself so I can report back. So far, so good:)**

The umbrella factories of Chiang Mai are one of my favorite places to visit in Southeast Asia and now we have kids I am once again reminded how magic they are!

The umbrella factories started as a village industry to equip monks with summer umbrellas. As my guide explained, the monks would spend months inside so when they came out it was important they weren’t getting too many rays on their rather tender skin. As locals saw the beautiful umbrellas shading the monks bald heads they sought out the umbrella villages and slowly the umbrellas became decoration in restaurants, homes and hotels.

Today the umbrella villages are a tourist attraction and while there are definitely the required tourists shops that I know most people strive to avoid on vacation, the artists that work here are well worth a visit. For about 100 baht they will draw a myriad of small paintings on shirts, pants, luggage, camera cases? I have had small elephants drawn on many a bag and this visit Callie and I bought some shirts and she chose the artwork for Gavin, Couper, Srey Nut and herself.

When we got back from the umbrella factory Callie couldn’t wait to get her crayons and start coloring, she explained that she was drawing an elephant like on the umbrellas. She also can’t wait to give her presents to her friends. We visit museums and temples a lot in our travel, but I love to see when art truly comes to life for my kids.

Here are some photos from our visit to the umbrella factory: