Travelling in Laos...

we can travel many ways here...you can move in the latest Toyota Hilux...or you can fit '4' on a bike (can you see the little hand...there's 4 on that bike!)

Or you can jump on the big thumping BMW side car...Cecilia actually contemplated us buying a side car!!! I'm not cool enough for that...and SEth doesn't like to eat dust!

you can also move around in this little French mobile...or in the trustie tuk, tuk..that whiz in and out of lanes, buses and whatever...



but i must say we're getting pretty hooked o the bug...

Hey CARL, you want to apply for SAles manage at Toyota Laos? Good perks mate and you can see us ever day!!!

We're actually thinking of buying a bug. There's a guy you does em up.... If we can buy one for 1k then we can afford to do it up a bit. The parts are cheap too. We're still praying about it...

Chilli from our well watered garden....shiok!

CC DROVE THE BUG ALL ON HER OWN AND LIVED TO TELL IT ALL!!

Yes! I did it! I can proudly say that I can drive in Laos now. It was quite an interesting experience to drive it on my own. The bug is quite a smallish car so getting it into the small lanes & manouvering it in and out of traffic is not too tough. I just have to remind myself to keep to the right side of the road.

Believe me that is not as easy as it seems. And it is no fault of my own either. The Lao motorists (car, tuk tuk, motorbike, bicycles and pedestrians alike) always seem to cut into your lane in the opposite direction. I found myself wondering (half way down the road) if I was the one going the wrong direction.

One thing I did learn real quick, I must say, was the use of my right hand to change gears in the car. It's amazing how quickly you get the hang of it when your left hand keeps winding down the window instead of changing gear in the car. And you only need to turn on the wind screen wiper enough time to know is now on the left hand side of the steering wheel instead of the right. Phew! What better way to learn than to dive right into it all and just trust & do it.

Did I it?? Yes! I felt such a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that this is an other challenge I have been given grace to overcome. What next??? Or should I ask?? It is a very nice feeling to be able to move around a bit more independently other than taking the tuk tuk and not quite being able to communicate the actual location to the driver. Walking has been a great form of exercise for me and I intend to walk to pick up the kids everyday (a good 20 minutes walk) and also to the market to make small food purchases (10 min there & 10 min back). But for bulky & heavy things driving will definitely be the way to go.

So now that I've lived to see another day, I shall now leave you to go for staff devotion.

A bug on a Lao Road

A Bug on a Lao Road…

I can remember the first day Cc and I rode our bikes on a Kunming road. Crossing the Kunming intersection was the third scariest day of my life. The second scariest day was when I helped dig out a 4Wdrive that was stuck in a muddy creek. Half-way through the dig I realised that there were crocodiles on the other side of the bank. I obviously lived to tell the story.

Without a doubt the scariest day of my life was my wedding day. It was much better than digging out the 4Wdrive, but on the whole it was scarier! It didn’t help that Cc was 30 mins late. I later found out that she and the bridal party were stuck behind a 10 foot gate. Anyway, the fourth scariest day of my life was the day I drove on a Lao road in Bug.

First I gotta think ‘right hand’ side of the road. Then I gotta think left hand drive steering wheel; and right hand side gear shift. And all this even before I brave the woes of Lao traffic and pot-holed roads.

ARDA has graciously loaned us the VW Bug to use as transport until we get ourselves settled. She is a1960s edition; carefully and splendidly created about the same time as I was. The bug is yellow and sounds like a small tank. As I was passed the keys, my mind flashed back to the time I was a passenger in Bug many years ago.

I was going to footy (aussie rules) with my mate Nick. He was driving. We were only 17. He drove so fast around the corner that the bug titled over on two wheels and somehow he managed to keep it from tipping over. It must have looked like something out of ‘Herbbie Rides’ again. He was turning into a right corner which meant that I was on the same side as the wheels in the air and looking down at the driver!

I snapped out of it and took the keys. I didn’t drive for two days but my buttocks was regularly in the car practising my right hand gear changes. Then one day I went down the street. The main road was jammed up with cars.You can’t avoid the main road between our place and ARDA.

You need to look out for motor bikes going down the wrong side of the road. They often do this…Then there are the cars. They don’t indicate much and are forever pushing their nose out from side streets. It all seems so confusing at the moment. The idea of ‘everyone’ merging at the same time and in the same direction is something I’ve gotta learn. The rule seems to be is the biggest vehicle wins. I’m a bit of a timid sort of a guy so I’ need to look big on the road, I think.

I’ve been driving for more than a week now and the altogether ‘merge’ thing is still the tough one. I’ve only gone down one ‘one way’ street the wrong way. I take the kids to school on my way to work. Shanae calls the Bug her ‘school bus’. I’m the bus Uncle and dad!! Yeah….I didn’t let Cc drive at first. I wanted to get the hang and then help her along.

A couple of days ago she had her first drive. She’s an amazing gal! She drove quite well. The gears crunched in second a bit, but it is a tough change. I think that’s the nature of Bug driving. My sis had a bug and her gears crunched a bit too! Long live the BUG. Please keep our driving and ‘everybody’ elses driving in prayer!!!

Oh…Cc’s just gone out in the bug for the first time by herself!

How do you tell a ripe Jackfruit?

What’s better guarded than the Queen Mother’s jewels and was a ‘passed over’ question on Singapore’s Brainiest Kids?

‘How do you tell a ripe Jackfruit without opening it?’

It is a secret that’s descended with Jackfruit Growers (JFG) worldwide. If you are a JFG descendent, you would know the secret. Alas, the Dierdens in England and Australia never gazed on a JF before they lived in Singapore, let alone grow one. Seth, however, has become a descendent of a JFG. My elevated status comes with our new home. I’m the proud ‘renter’ of two Jackfruit trees and two mango trees. Even though we rent, that still makes me a grower!

When the JF ripens they smell ‘strong’. They also grow large. Sometimes they grow up to 5-10 kg. But smell and size are not the secret factors to understand when JF ripens.

The telling factor of a ripe Jackfruit is this: it falls from the tree and onto the ground! It must be a God thing. The sound is quite loud when JF falls. It goes something like this, ‘boof’ (perhaps much like a small child falling to the ground).

We have a fence round our house so we don’t have to compete with others to pick up ripe JF. Last week our first JF fell to the ground. I heard the ‘boof’ and I ran to the tree. I yelled to Cc and the kids, ‘Jack has dropped his fruit…I’m going to get the uncle’. I was quite excited.

I went next door and got uncle Lian. We played charades (he speaks no English and I speak no Lao) but couldn’t do the Jackfruit falling out of the tree thing…(not very easy lah). He looked totally confused so I motioned to him to come over to my place!!! He came over and his eyes opened wide when he saw Jack’s fruit on the ground.

I gave him the chopper. He cut through the skin and there they were- big, orange pieces of fruit!! We realised later that your hands get real sticky and gooey when you rip out the fruit. All hail to the fruit sellers and uncles down stairs in the koppi shops who do the cutting for us…JF was sweat and had a steady texture. Like we say in Sing land, ‘shiok’.

So there ya have it…How do you know when Jack’s fruit is ripe? It falls to the ground. The secret is out. Tell the world.