Japan with kids

This year for our family holiday we took our girls to Japan.

Euan and I both lived in Japan while teaching English several years ago. Our girls have been studying the Japanese language at school since they were 5 and have both wanted to visit Japan for some time. We thought it would be good to take them there to show them the country and be able to share our knowledge and experiences of the country with them.

The Language and Trains

Since both girls study Japanese language, the holiday provided a great opportunity for them to try out their skills and continue learning.

The first written script learnt in Japanese is Hiragana. This is a phonetic script, so the letters all have a fixed pronunciation. Both girls know this script and had plenty of practice reading it on signs, in particular at the train stations.

Each station has a sign with the station name in Kanji at the top, then Hiragana underneath and finally under that in Romanji - the English script that we can read.  At each station, the girls would practise reading the Hiragana and checking it against the English written version below.

Reading a different alphabet and getting instant confirmation whether you've got it right is like cracking a code - so satisfying! Gradually they both started to recognise some of the more common Kanji too, through repetition of seeing them so often.

The trains were also a great source of Japanese language listening practise.  There are endless announcements on the trains, telling you what to be careful of, where the trains are heading, what the next station is called and which side the doors will open on.

There's a lot of Japanese speaking going on, so it was a challenge for the girls to pick out the station names and 'migi' and 'hidari' (right and left) from what they were hearing so they could tell us which side of the train the doors were opening on.

As well as being a great source of language practice, we found all the trains and subways in Japan to be very easy to navigate, always ran on time and were totally safe. We would have been happy to let our girls travel the trains and subways even in the heart of Tokyo without us and felt sure they would be safe.  There were always Japanese people willing to help us out buying tickets and finding our platforms and trains.

The Food

Food was an adventure in Japan. It is so different to the food we're used to eating here in Australia and our girls were great - happy to try almost everything.  There was plenty to try - and having lived there for a couple of years, we knew several dishes we wanted to share with the girls.

Sukiyaki

Sushi

Shabu Shabu

Ramen

And Okonomiyaki.

Plenty of different tastes and the spectacle of the meals being cooked before you, right at your table at times and sometimes even by yourself was an amazing experience!

Accomodation

We stayed in a variety of accommodation - some hotels, guesthouses, a beautiful youth hostel where we had a small dorm room to ourselves and an indoor and outdoor onsen to enjoy in the evening;

and a traditional Japanese Ryokan where we slept on Futons on a Tatami Mat floor.

Everywhere we stayed, people were friendly, welcoming and so happy when we all tried speaking Japanese, encouraging and helping us in our endeavours!

Sights and Culture

We were travelling in Japan at peak cherry blossom viewing time (end March / beginning April),  so everywhere we went had a tinge of pink!

The Big Buddah in Kamakura

Japanese people meet friends and eat and drink under the cherry blossom trees. It always seemed to be blue coloured tarps that were spread under the trees to sit on!

 Cherry Blossoms and Temples on Miyajima

The famous, and much photographed Miyajima Tori

We saw endless impressive and beautiful temples,

(Golden Temple, Kyoto)

Some in the most surprising of places!

and just had to visit the money washing temple, as it is said money washed in the shrine's water will be lucky money!

 We hiked up lots of stairs,

Saw beautiful views,

and castles.

We saw a Geisha girl in Kyoto,

And the Peace Dome in Hiroshima, where we also visited the Peace Memorial Museum. A sobering experience and a real eye opener for the girls, in particular the personal stories of school kids during time of the Hiroshima bombing.

Going to Japan was an amazing experience for us as a family. For Euan and I to revisit somewhere we used to live and see things that had and hadn't changed, but mostly to see Japan through our girls' eyes.  Their wonder at all things Japanese, the differences between the Japanese and Australian culture but most of all their easy acceptance of everything.

They learned and experienced so much in our two short weeks in Japan. It has given them a greater understanding of a country and culture whose language they will continue to study in the coming years.

Have you ever visited Japan?

Elephant Nature Park - Chiang Mai, Thailand

In January, as part of our trip Backpacking in Asia with our kids, we visited the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand for a day.

On past trips to Thailand we have had elephant rides, but this was totally different and opened our eyes to elephants in Thailand.

Elephant Nature Park is an elephant rescue and rehabilitation centre where you can visit and volunteer to help the plight of the animals - elephants, dogs, cats and even buffaloes and other animals.

Lel Chailert founded the park in 1996 as a sanctuary for rescued elephants. Visitors come to the park to see the elephants in their natural environment rather than in a show or for rides.  You can feed the elephants, 

help bathe them in the river 

and observe and learn about them.

We learned about how elephants are a part of Thailand's culture, economy and history. Elephants were used heavily in the logging industry until 1989 when logging was banned in Thailand. Many families who owned elephants to help with their logging work, suddenly found themselves with a huge burden of an elephant to take care of and feed, but no income to do so with. Many people sold their elephants into tourism as a result or the elephants were neglected and suffered accordingly.

Lek has dedicated her life to helping elephants and this sanctuary is an amazing ongoing achievement and a shining example of what one person can achieve.

During our visit to the park, we also watched a video that showed what elephants in Thailand go through to become trained for rides and tourist shows. We saw a video of "the training crush" where elephants are forced into a cage a tied there so they cannot even sit down. They remain there for days, sometimes being beaten or stabbed to 'break' them and make them more obedient.  It was horrific and heartbreaking to see the way these animals are treated, and made us re-think our views on elephant rides, no matter how well the animals appear to be treated.

We also heard and saw the stories of the elephants at the sanctuary and why they are there. Stories of elephants being forced to work when heavily pregnant and losing their babies as a result, also terrible cases of abuse and beatings.

But being at the sanctuary for the day and seeing the great work that is being done to care for these amazing animals, seeing all the volunteers who are helping to feed and care for them and the tourists who are happy to pay their money just to be close to the elephants, and feed and bathe them; gave us hope for the future of elephant 'tourism' in Thailand.

 Lek is leading the way in a change in elephant tourism in Thailand.  Other elephant parks are beginning to follow suit and change their practices after seeing the success of the Elephant Nature Park as a tourism venture.  

When we went, it was booked out a week in advance and we were just lucky to get in thanks to a last minute cancellation.

Our girls loved being around all the animals - not just the elephants but also the many dogs and cats around the park.

It was a great experience for them to be so close to the animals, but to also learn about the reality of animal tourism.  

We spent the day getting close to the elephants but at the same time learning to respect them and be safe around them. The steel hook that many mahout use to control the elephants when tourists ride them or have photos taken with them are not used at the Elephant Nature Park. Instead the elephants are treated with respect and love and there is no need to stab or prod them into submission.

I would highly recommend a visit to the Elephant Nature Park if you ever head to Chiang Mai in Thailand. A great place for the elephants and such a rich experience for the tourists. There is also an option to go and stay there for a week as a volunteer to help take care of the animals. Our girls have their eye on this possibility when they're older and it is certainly something we could encourage.

Have you ever had any experience of animal tourism? 

We'd love to hear of any similar places in other parts of the world.

Angkor Wat with kids

When I think of the most wonderful man-made places in the world, I certainly do not automatically think the kids would be interested in them.

I think of the Pyramids and Sphinx in Egypt, Easter Island monuments, the Coliseum, Machu Pichu, other South American or Mayan ruins and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Do kids even know about them or even care about them?

Certainly, until they reach a degree of self awareness and study the topic, probably in early teens, kids are not even aware of other cities and certainly not countries or historical buildings.  This is a generalisation, but dinosaurs brought to life in action movies probably trump most kids list of things to see and do.  Do they care about ancient things in general? Probably not.



Anticipation
Before our trip backpacking in Asia with our girls, the things we were looking forward to and those that the girls were looking forward to were certainly different. They were most excited about Universal Studios in Singapore, Legoland in Malasia and seeing Elephants in Thailand. Angkor Wat barely registered as an exciting prospect.

Going to Cambodia, I was so excited about seeing the ancient city of Angkor Wat and its surrounding temples.  I wasn’t so sure that the kids would be enamoured with the idea or reality.  For me, seeing how people used to live, imagining their daily life, the pomp, the circumstance and the grandiosity of the ruling classes is what it is all about.  Imagining the organisation and the vision of getting hundreds or thousands of workers to plan, physically lift and create a vision of a temple, pyramid or even city is a wonder to me.  The time it took, often in years to complete is amazing, the ability to build a lasting monument or creation for eternity was the driving force among many of the great kings and rulers.

Arriving in Siem Reap

When we arrived in Siem Reap, the whole experience rather than just the temples was what stood out for all of us.  Finding ‘Radar’ our Tuk Tuk driver was a great help. Him allowing the girls to take photos on the motorbike was a highlight for them as was his happy face as he dropped and picked us up after our adventures. He was very good value!


Sunset

After buying our tickets at the gate (the 3 day pass) we rushed to the elephant station to take a trip up the hill for the sunset over Angkor.  In retrospect this was a mistake.  The sun does not set over Angkor but in another direction entirely and the crowds were truly unbelievable. 

Whilst I would go back to Angkor, I would certainly never do this sunset hill experience again!  


An Elephant Ride
The elephant trip too was probably a bad idea. At the time, it was a reward for the girls for having done so well in the 8 hour bus journey back from seeing the Irrawaddy dolphins inKratie.  The elephants seemed well cared for and were being looked after as working elephants rather than living in town, which is a good thing. 

 Contrasting this with our later trip to Elephant Heaven, or Lek’s Elephant Sanctuary near Chang Mai in Thailand put this experience in perspective.  We enjoyed it at the time but, I don’t think I would take a commercial elephant ride again after knowing what most have gone through in the ‘crusher’.

At the top of the hill, we joined the queue to get to the temple at the top of the hill- a bad idea.  There were hundreds of people and also hundreds of Chinese tourists who were not so keen to stand in a queue and pushed past us, over walls and directly contradicted every rule of politeness that has been written, and not written, in the western world.  Jill politely walked to the front of the ‘queue’ to see what was going on and managed to get a mouthful from a guard who obviously found someone that would actually listen to him for her troubles.  We gave up after watching people push past us for 25 minutes and walked back down the hill and had a lovely sunset at the bottom of the hill with less people and Angkor Wat just next to us.

Sunrise

The next day we were up super early and got to Angkor Wat for sunrise.  

This was definitely worth it. I think we took a thousand photos that day. Although there were still large crowds of people, the sheer scale of Angkor Wat meant there were plenty of quieter places to watch the sunrise from and explore - you just had to leave the reflective lake pictures until the crowds had cleared later!

But it was worth the wait!

 The girls played at being tour guides and we looked at guidebooks, listened in on tours and generally climbed through the under restoration ruins.  

Every different temple had it’s own character.  The bass reliefs were cool, the worn down steps that you could clamber up and down and the endless ‘jigsaw puzzle’ blocks scattered around awaiting a puzzle master to assemble were awesome.  

Each temple was unique, matching the vision of the ruler who was adding his vision towards his perpetuality. A standing vision through the passing of time.

Tomb Raider

We finally reached Ta Promh, the place famous for the setting of Tomb Raider and Angelina Jolie coming out from below the famous tree which is growing out and from the stones is a great spot and as we had managed to be going in the opposite direction to the tour groups, it wasn’t even busy. 

 We had lots of time to take pictures and marvel at the size, age and complexity of the root systems and the enormity of the trees and time that lead to this wonder.  The next step will be for us to get the girls to watch the movie Tomb Raider- a definite gap in their pop culture knowledge!!

Finishing the day with tired legs from all the walking also made us feel we had got our money’s worth.  It was truly a great day and experience, and although the girls perhaps did not appreciate the historical significance, they thoroughly enjoyed the active and physical hands on nature of the site which is both enormous and accessible.  Seeing the monkeys around the site was also a bonus for the girls - especially the cheeky ones who knew where to pinch their breakfast from!

On return to Australia, our eldest daughter also appreciated the experience as she had to make a project, brochure and speech on an ancient civilisation- this trip certainly made the task easier for her!

This was definitely a highlight of our trip and a memory for a lifetime for all of us.

Euan

Backpacking with kids

We've just returned from a one month holiday backpacking in Asia with our two daughters aged 9 and 11.  Although initially apprehensive about the trip, it went so well and smoothly - all my worries disappeared as we travelled. The kids coped so well and thoroughly enjoyed the trip - seeing everything as an adventure and exciting rather than daunting or worrying.

Both Euan and I went backpacking in Asia, Europe, Australasia and the Americas around 20 years ago. We wanted to be able to share the experience of backpacking with our kids, but waited until they were old enough to be able to remember the trip and also to make it physically easier for us with them old enough to carry their own packs, and generally be quite independent rather than dependent travellers.

So did we really 'backpack'?  What is backpacking anyway? Well wikipedia defines it as:

" a form of low-cost, independent international travel. It includes the use of a backpack that is easily carried for long distances or long periods of time; the use of public transport; inexpensive lodging such as youth hostels; a longer duration of the trip when compared with conventional vacations; and an interest in meeting the locals as well as seeing the sights. It is typically associated with young adults who generally have fewer obligations and thus more time to travel. "

(source)

We did travel on a budget with backpacks as our luggage, used some public transport, stayed in cheaper guesthouses, backpacker and budget hotels and it was longer than our average one or two week family holiday. We met plenty of locals and tried to speak bits and pieces of the languages of each country. 

So yes, I'd say we were backpacking on this trip, but we also found that backpacking has changed somewhat since we travelled 20 years ago with the internet making things so much more open and able to be organised and booked in advance!

Organising the trip

Backpacking in the past for us was getting a flight to the destination we were starting in, then going from there.  Nothing much was organised in advance at all. However, I wasn't comfortable being this carefree with the kids, especially since we only had 4 weeks and planned to visit 5 countries.

We spent a lot of time researching our trip using the internet, in particular trip advisor for recommendations and advice from other travellers who had been to the places we wanted to visit. 

With a bit of internet research we found that if we booked our internal flights between countries well in advance, it would cost us the same as overnight bus or train journeys and would get us to our destination in just one or two hours instead of several. For comfort with kids, and saving time on a limited backpacking trip, we did this - booking flights with Air Asia, Vietnam Airlines and Silk Air. We booked everything online several months in advance and only had a couple of minor time schedule changes.  We could check our flight details using my smart phone and also check-in that way too. So easy and low cost too, with each flight only costing about $40 each!

Smart Phone Backpackers

Twenty years ago we travelled with no mobile phones, and emails were only just starting to spring up, and even if you had one and swapped addresses with other travellers, you had to find an internet cafe to actually send and receive messages. A travel agent shop was where you went to book flights, buses or other international transport and accommodation. There was no convenient way to check out all the accommodation options before arrival - or how much the airport taxi or tuk tuk should cost. Now, every backpacker seems to have a smart phone or tablet, and uses them to phone or message ahead to book accommodation, flights etc.  

We had most of our accomodation booked before the trip, largely via Booking.com. For those nights we hadn't booked in advance, (for family rooms) we actually still found it cheaper to book via booking.com rather than direct with the hotels! We did ask at the hotels and they matched the booking.com prices, but it showed us again just how backpacking has changed in the last 20 years!

Accommodation

As a family of four we wanted to all be in the same room together. Family rooms are more expensive than simple dorm beds for four people and not so common, but we still found plenty of options.  

(This was our homestay guesthouse in Hoi An, Vietnam)

We stayed in small hotels, guesthouses and also one place where we had a dorm room to ourselves - 3 bunk beds which made the kids happy as they got a top bunk each!  Every new place we stayed was exciting for the kids. Checking out our room each time was fun - seeing what beds we had, what the bathroom was like - in one place we had no hot water, just cold; another the shower was directly over the toilet so everything in the bathroom got soaked! 

and in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand there is a separate bin for your toilet paper as their sewage system can't cope with paper in the water!  

All of these things could have been a problem or discomfort but instead were just different and exciting to the girls. It was more likely us who noticed the lack of the everyday comforts we are used to.

Transport

(tuk tuk in Kratie, Cambodia)

As I mentioned earlier, we had internal flights booked in advance so didn't have much transport to organise when we were actually in Asia other than daily tuk tuk rides or taxis to the airports. 

 We did however have one side trip in Cambodia that we organised when we arrived in the country. We wanted to travel from Siem Reap - the main tourist destination where the famous Angkor Wat temple is to Kratie where we hoped to see the extremely rare and critically endangered Irawaddy dolphins. 

Kratie was an 8 hour bus ride from Kratie. The trip was easy enough to organise - we were advised to take the mini van rather than the bus as it was 5 hours quicker and was 'like a private transfer' as fewer people meant not so many stops. $50 for 4 of us for an 8 hour journey was quite a reasonable price too!

  The reality of the bus ride was, we were crammed into a small minivan which did make lots of stops to collect and drop off various passengers and parcels. There were people crammed in every available space - even on the roof!  It was a cramped, hot and uncomfortable ride - but a true backpacker experience! We were the only locals on the bus - bought deep fried tarantula to taste at one of the stops and saw plenty of the Cambodian countryside, houses and roads.  And yes, it was worth the 8 hour journey there and back again two days later as we saw lots of the dolphins, a small non-touristy out of the way town and experienced a little more of Cambodia than tourists generally do! Again I think the kids coped with the bus ride and whole side trip brilliantly, taking everything in their stride and soaking up all the new experiences.

Food and drinks

(Bun Cha in Hanoi, Vietnam)

Our girls are generally very good with food. They will try new things and both eat well. This trip was no exception. 

(Fish wrapped in banana leave, Hoi An, Vietnam)

They loved eating in the small local noodle houses and cafes, tasting local foods and unusual delicacies like snake and of course as I mentioned earlier tarantula!

(Tarantulas, bugs and quails? - tasty snacks for our bus journey to Kratie, Cambodia)

 Our youngest took a liking to Vietnamese coffee and we even bought special mini coffee percolators from the market there which she's now using at home.

We were all very careful with the water on our travels. We only drank bottled water and didn't have ice in our drinks.  Over one month of travel only our eldest daughter was sick - just once, then the next morning was absolutely fine. Euan was also sick but only for one day.  Not bad for a month of travel, 5 different countries and every day new foods and drinks!

Medical issues

Before we travelled with did get some recommended vaccinations and stocked up a small medical kit to take with us. We didn't end up needing it really at all!  My biggest worry was malaria. We were going to be in 'risk' areas but chose not to take anti-malaria tablets due to the side effects most people seem to experience when taking them.

 Nowhere we were visiting was a high risk area or anywhere where there had been any recent outbreaks. We used plenty of insect repellent, wore long sleeves and trousers a lot of the time, but actually saw very few mozzies and never got bitten.  Travelling with our kids made me more concerned about things like this than I would otherwise have been travelling independently. However, I'm happy with the precautions we took and our girls were aware of the risks and were really good about remembering to mozzie spray before we went out, cleaning their teeth with bottled water and refusing ice in their drinks.  They just accepted the 'rules' of wherever we were.

Perhaps living in Cairns, Australia, where there are often Dengue outbreaks (another serious mosquito borne disease), has accustomed us to dealing with this risk every day and we understand that the risk, as with many travel illnesses and sicknesses, is very low and highly preventable.

Age

We waited until our kids were this age (9 and 11) to take on a backpacking trip - wanting them to remember it, but also for it to be physically easier for us. With two girls, I remember holidays when they were younger in Thailand and Bali where I had to accompany them everywhere including of course several times a day to the toilet. I know this is par for the course with young kids, but it seemed all the more tiring on holiday!

 I realised how far we've come when on our first night in Thailand we were at a small local restaurant and our youngest daughter needed the toilet, so off she went to find it herself. Later when I went, I found the toilet was out the back of the restaurant, down an alleyway and past a few more buildings on the right! Our daughter hadn't mentioned this - just accepted it as the way it was!

Seeing how much our girls have grown up and become more independent on this trip has also made me happier about letting them out and about with friends back home. They are more capable than I had realised or accepted.

Kids make the best backpackers

Overall I don't know why I was at all concerned about taking our kids on this trip. Kids love freedom and exploration and are the first to spot something that grabs their attention and ask to see it,  go there or try it out.  Although our transport and accommodation was largely pre-booked, our daily outings and explorations weren't.  We walked endlessly, exploring streets, markets, shops, temples and beaches; we ate in different places for every meal and met the locals as we tried out our newly learned phrases in Vietnamese, Cambodian or Thai.  

Our girls have grown in confidence and maturity over the course of the month long holiday. 

(Kratie, Cambodia)

We have watched them learn about different ways of life, and embrace new cultures. 

(Hoi An, Vietnam)

Our girls are quite shy but after several weeks of international travel and speaking to new people in different languages, coming back to Australia and doing the same in English seems a lot less daunting for them now.

I would highly recommend this kind of trip to families. The internet has changed 'backpacking' hugely over the past 20 years, opening up the experiences to be shared even more than before. We had wifi in every tiny little place we visited and used it lots - not least to be able to share our adventures with friends back home via Facebook and emails. 

If you enjoyed backpacking when you were younger then remember you can still travel and see countries like this with kids. Moving from place to place and experiencing cultures and different ways of life, sights, sounds, tastes and smells. 

Our kids loved every minute of it and we'd do it all again in a heartbeat!