Les chers amis, dear friends, you were not exaggerating: New Zealand is Nature Paradise!! Wow. Wow. Wow. And I who thought Norway was the most beautiful country in the world.... We bought an old van and a tent and a surf board and are LOVING the camping... Thanks to all who insisted we had to visit this place and lots of love!

Bye Bye Asia (et parce que j’aime bien les chiffres aussi)

Pays visités : 6
Kilomètres parcourus : 26900
Heures passées dans le bus : 70
Nombre de taxis pris : 80
Heures d’avion : 28
Heures de bateau : 16
Marche effectuée en montagne : 130 Km
Point le plus haut : 5005 m.
Jours en chaussettes : 13
Plat le plus mangé : Pad Thaï
Jours de pluie : 4
Jours de neige : 1
nuits blanches : 5
Antibiotiques pris : 4
Pertes de maîtrise du véhicule: 2
Rencontres improbables et non souhaitées : 2 (le Birman poignardé devant la maison et le cobra)
Décollages : 11
Objets perdus : 12
Nombre d’îles : 3
Nombre de 8000 m vus : 5
Chambre la plus chère : 33 CHF (Vietnam)
Chambre la moins chère : 2.50 CHF (Inde)
Prix des visas : 600 CHF
Vol interne le moins cher (4 places) : 30 CHF
Ville la plus dingue : Bangkok
Vaudois avec l’accent vaudois rencontrés : 2
Arnaque subie : 1 (300'000 dongs, soit 15 $)

It's over, Asia.............

So, tomorrow is the big good-bye to Asia... Sad. Half a year just doesn't seem enough, AT ALL.... but then again I guess even a full year wouldn't feel like "enough"). But it's exciting to be discovering other things - we can't wait to arrive in Aukland, New Zealand and get installed in our camper van (or car and tent - we'll see) and live camping style for the 1-2 months. Right now we are in Singapore, staying with AV & co. and having a WONDERFUL time with them. On the couch in their beautiful living room right now, Åke and R talking, they just picked up a new battery for our computer (now we'll have more than 1/2 autonomy... phew!). And so great to see AV again - plus the kids are having a great time together. Lovely.

Sending you all big hugs from our last evening in Asia........

Gotta go, check out time soon - more later and bye for now!

Nono seems to be able to find a fisherman any place we go...........

RaphaelBaba also found Mille et Une Nuits in Saigon- fun for the kids - and for me! :)))

A little flash back to Samui

Amazingly, while we were on Samui so was Alyson!! Former Woolfrey, now Meister - on her honeymoon with Achim! Was so so so nice to see her again!!!

Morning wash

School time......

We found new school books in Saigon - phew!

Loved the little streets, houses, cafés by the Mekong (or should I say Cà Phê? What a language, this vietnamese!!!)

We stayed a night with a Vietnamese family during the boat trip, was an interesting experience to live there, in their house

Houses on the Mekong

Nuddle sheets drying in the sun

...and roll them off to dry

Here's how they steam damp the nuddle "sheets"

We even managed to swallow our "anti-tourist" pride and go to a typical package tour site: a rice noodle factory..... Was interesting, really interesting actually!

Our boat man, great guy!

Nice sitting arrangement this woman has arranged huh?

Pumpkin vendors

Floating markets

The vendors put their produce on sticks to show from far away what they're selling

Lots of people living on boats on the river

Mekong

Before going to Phu Quoc we spent a few days by and on the Mekong. At times quite touristy (we even took a pre-organized boat trip! was unusual for us, but ended up being quite nice - we gotta work on our aversion for tourist-things, it's too much black and white thinking. However, when we see groups of 40+ people walking in line towards a site from their bus it does make us flip a little, imagining how limited their experience of these countries might be - e.g. we met people who do all of Vietnam in 10 days, flying from here to there, never sitting down and sharing with the locals; anyway it's not up to us to judge..... just glad we're not in one of those buses ourselves!)

"Waterfall"..........

Ehm - guess it's more impressive during the rainy season...

Good-bye Vietnam.............

Phu Quoc was very "beach vacation"-ish but the kids had a wonderful time and we all had a chance to say good-bye to Asian nature and relax

Hugs from Saigon

Leaving for Kuala Lumpur this afternoon, two days there then 2 days in Singapore then off to New Zeland! Not exactly a straightforward journey but hey, when you get free tickets online with AirAsia you don't NOT buy them... Vietnam has been wonderful (this photo is from Phu Quoc island), I'm a little bummed to leave already, and pretty sad to be saying good-bye to Asia :( But other adventures waiting, can't wait to camp for weeks in NZ.

Sunset at Mother and Father Rock

Bye for now! Big hugs to all

Thank you all of you for your comments and emails - can't wait to respond to each and every one of you! Hope internet is as fast down south as here.

I wonder if it will take long before we miss the ocean (or whether we'll end up going to the coast or an island here in Vietnam! :)

Uhm, time to defrost, Pinpin?

Manu in hammock, deep reflection...

Sorry for the mess in the chronology... I'm uploading as fast as I can, between sorting and packing... This is from Bangkok, with Noam's friend Matteo

Fred et Sara: vous aviez raison pour Sri Aiyuttaya - on a ADORE cet hotel. Merci pour la recommandation!

It was good to relax in the comfort of Thailand, lucky that we were there when Noam was sick, and useful to be able to sort and wash all our stuff before the next steps of the trip. But I won't miss Samui...

It seems to me like each country (like each person, and each place), has its own vibration or energy. Arriving in Ho Chi Minh, it was almost immediate: I knew I liked this country, its culture, vibe, people. Then each encounter with a Vietnamese or a situation here seemed to confirm it: it's like there's a "fit" between us and the energy of this place. I knew some people feel like this about Thailand - a lot of people - but I don't. Of course there's the tranquil subtle beauty of Asia, but there was something undefinable, slightly uncomfortable in it for me. My mind interprets it to be some kind of "fakeness", something artificial, a lack of authenticity that seemed to be reflected in some of the people. The constant smiles of the Thai were weird to me, I couldn't sense what was behind the smile. (Caveat: of course I'm being very schematic here and we of course met many LOVELY Thai people too). And although both India and Vietnam are on a "shopping-spree" - enjoying the substantial increase in wealth and pursuit of materialistic pleasures, emerging of a strong consumerist attitude, there is still something underneath that feels right, for me. We took Tara to Saigon's water world for her birthday (she loves these places with water slides etc etc). It had the same offering as the one in Bangkok, and there were even more people (which should have made me uncomfortable, given that I'm such an agoraphobic... enormous amounts of screaming kids everywhere, etc). So what was this feeling of relaxation and freedom I had? EVEN if my modd was as bad as it had been at the Bangkok water world (sorry , kids and R for my grumpiness... %-) how was it that I could feel grumpy and wanting to get out of there and STILL feeling AT EASE? (i.e. being well, even if not happy?) The situation was the same as in Bangkok but the base feeling was so different. Walking on the streets here I feel FREE, light and free. I like the Vietnamese directness - same that certain people see as aggressiveness: yes certain travellers said, oh no you won't like the Viets, they are pushy, ill tempered, cheating, unkind. I see it as direct, authentic - very much like the Indians actualy. If they're angry or grumpy, it shows! So you KNOW what's going on. Yeah, they are pushy for selling stuff, like Indians - and you can be totally direct back when you say no thanks. And they're FUNNY! Lots of humor, lots of self irony: love it.

Yes, Mom, you wrote a comment about us meeting lots of Vietnamese when we were kids, when you were their teacher: I do think about that often! Although the contact is the opposite (I'm the foreigner, the one who has something to learn...) - I do recognize things. I laugh when I hear them talking to each other and it totally sounds like they're fighting, screaming at each other. Mru, remember?

Ganesh

I do admit I do miss India... 2 1/2 months there still doesn't seem like enough... But Vietnam is wonderful and it's really awesome to discover a new culture

This gecko had incredible red spots

Pinpin on our veranda

Nono on our veranda

R and Nono fishing

Always always looking for fish........

Pinpin et tartine

The dog is cuter than ever: so tender and affectionate and full of life

HEIN??

Pinpin et Paplette

Part of the snake...

Overlap Stone, where we stayed, was full of snakes... One day we saw a mini cobra, upright staring us in the eyes, just next to our stairways...

"Oui je sais que tu manges mieux avec les baguettes que moi" - Noam handles eating with sticks way better than me...

Mmmmmmm... Chocolate....

Noam not allowed to play with the knife...

No ice!!

We had no problem with the ice in Samui or Bangkok, but here in Vietnam have paid the price: both Noam and I have yucky stomach bug... Hope the bus ride today will go all right!

Yes, Martin, as you saw Noam lost two teeth in two days! And now a third one. He's becoming such a big boy, big developments.

"Je me sens comme un petit prince ici", said Noam. It's true it was 5 star service in this international hospital. The guys (R and Roduit brothers) really enjoyed the nurses' uniforms hahhahhahaahaa ;-D

Master Noam

From hospital: Master Noam!

Part of Tara's xmas deco