Over to Phil…

Chamonix 9th March 2010
Bonjour from Mont Blanc !

Chamonix looks stunning and the skiing is still fabulous, but the thaw has begun on the lower slopes and we are all limbering-up for the Alpine summer season. Thank goodness it is no longer minus 10 every day!

Chamonix-Mont Blanc in the summer

We welcome Jonny Mitchell to our team: he’s a qualified mountain bike guide spending his winters in Andalucía and summers in the Alps and Ardèche. He will be leading our family activity holidays and adult multi-activity holidays such as Mont Blanc Explorer and Mont Blanc Activity Week.

Family cycling in the Alps

Emily Andrew has been on an expedition to Alaska and Cat Freeman spent several weeks guiding in Southern India .  Phil Jarratt has been cutting snowshoe trails throughout the Chamonix valley and Joy O’Flanagan has been perfecting her ice climbing and skiing. All are jostling to lead the best treks!

Family Kayaking in the Ardèche

We are all looking forward to trekking, biking, rafting and climbing in the warm Alpine summer and can’t wait to welcome new visitors this year. In the meantime, there is still some great powder snow away from the main pistes!
Phil Mansbridge

Iconic views of the Matterhorn from the Shadow of the Matterhorn Tour

]]> http://www.exploreblogs.co.uk/2010/03/10/bonjour-from-mont-blanc/feed/ 1 http://www.exploreblogs.co.uk/2010/01/26/gambia-scout-expedition/ http://www.exploreblogs.co.uk/2010/01/26/gambia-scout-expedition/#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:37:59 +0000 admin http://www.exploreblogs.co.uk/?p=668 We’re pleased to be supporting a worthwhile and exciting expedition by 14 year old Explorer Scout Connor Howieson, who  headed off to the Gambia earlier this year to help improve the quality of life and educational opportunities for young people in a tribal village.

His trip is part of a mission organised by Cambridgeshire Scout Expeditions and he travelled with 19 other Scouts from across the country.

This is the blog of Connor’s trip…

“When we arrived the project building was almost a ruin (as you can see by the photo). The first work we had to do on it was removing most of the walls, we left some depending on the condition of them. To remove the walls we just used hammers and chisels to knock the bricks out I enjoyed the destruction . We then made more bricks with cement and started building and rebuilding walls.

Once all the walls were built and plastered we painted the outside and then started the interior painting. The colours we used to [paint the walls were very random because they were just left over colours from the explorer leaders house!! For the roof we built a wooden structure and then put corrugated sheets over it. We also had a interior roof made out of wood. When the building was finally done we had a big handover ceremony and put flags up etc…

The people that we met over in The Gambia were absolutely amazing. They were always so happy and encouraging and their most commonly used phrase I would say was, “can I help you”. Each of the three teams had a Gambian explorer scout as a leader and all the scouts were always so helping and friendly that they made us feel right at home.

The food that we had was erm…different. We basically just had whatever we could get from the market in Soma which was the closest market to camp. We mainly had beef and pasta/rice and a slightly different sauce depending on the vegetables available. The best meals that we had were the ones that the Gambians made us which were always rice (which was flavoured and tasted so good) and roasted chicken or beef.

For three days each group got a chance to do on a walkabout this entailed going wherever you wanted on a budget and in the time limit. Our group elected to go up country and visit Janjangboureh (Georgetown). When we were there we went and visited the slave houses which were pretty sick but we learnt a lot and I would definitely recommend anyone to have a visit. After the slave house we went on a six hour boat trip. On the trip we saw loads of monkeys, crocodiles and we saw a group of 15 hippos out of the water which is the most that the guys that take the boat tours had seen in ten years!!

When we first arrived we were all so taken a back a bit by the country in general, I don’t think any of us realized how poor the people were and how hard life is on them. I definitely think anyone that is considering going to just go because after you have been once you will want to keep going back. However I would recommend if you do go not to stay in the touristy parts because they give you a different view and when you go up country you see what it is really all about.

Thanks again for your sponsorship it helped me have this once in a lifetime experience.

Connor Howieson.

Ngaire Drew has travelled with Explore on a number of occasions and has established her own friendship group made up entirely of people she met whilst on these trips. Here, she explains how ‘Team Oman’ was established, and why you are likely to find lifelong friends on an Explore trip.

“Whilst they say that travel broadens the mind, one of the other wonderful things that one gains from it is the opportunity to build a great circle of friends. And I’m sure Explore’s clientele must have numerous examples of this. As this short article was being written I was cruising on a Turkish gulet towards the Devil’s Cauldron in Djibouti.

Four of the five original “Team Oman” in Djibouti (Xmas ‘08) with ring-in (John).  Left to right are Malcolm, myself, John, Ruth & Sheila

The scenery’s stark but stunning, the weather great (and it’s a cold December back in the UK!) and the memory of some fabulous snorkelling yesterday is still fresh in my mind. But what makes this trip even more special is that it’s being spent with a number of friends from a previous holiday with Explore. Ruth, Sheila, Malcolm and I first met in December 2005 on the Arabian Sands trip.

Team Oman in Timbuktu (Xmas ‘07) – but missing Janice!!

Together with Janice (who, for family reasons, stayed in the UK this Festive Season) we came to call ourselves ‘Team Oman’. Whilst none of us would have imagined it 3 years ago, 80% of the team have spent each Christmas / New Year together since. 2006 was the “Petra & Pyramids” tour (although I was in Libya), 2007 found us on “Timbuktu & Dogon Trails” and in 2008 “Djibouti Seatrek”. No mean feat when you consider that that with the combination of distance between us (Malcolm lives in Australia and Sheila in Inverness), differing work commitments, and previous travel can narrow the choice of tours that we each want (or are able) to do.

Janice, Sheila & John on their recent trip to Uganda (Gorilla & Chimp Safari)

This year we’ve also been joined by John (from Prague), who is one of the three fellow travellers from the Mali trip that became part of our circle of friends. (Ruth and I regularly meet up in London with the other two for food, drink and laughter.) When any, or all, of us get together it’s great to reminisce about the sights we’ve seen and the experiences we’ve shared.

Xerxes, myself, Angela & Ruth on one of our regular dinner catch-ups in London

Travel is about adventure and learning, appreciation and tolerance, and experiencing sights, sounds, smells and tastes, but it’s also about lifelong friendships. Well done Explore! – keep up the good work.”

If you want to find out more about travelling solo with Explore, check out our solo travellers page for advice and trip recommendations.

Are you a a solo traveller who has met lifelong friends on an Explore trip? Maybe you met your soul mate on an Explore trip and have since moved in together or got married. Let us know about it at beenthere@explore.co.uk.

]]> http://www.exploreblogs.co.uk/2009/08/24/travel-and-friendship/feed/ 2 http://www.exploreblogs.co.uk/2009/07/03/wacky-racers-needed/ http://www.exploreblogs.co.uk/2009/07/03/wacky-racers-needed/#comments Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:23:11 +0000 admin http://www.exploreblogs.co.uk/?p=279

We’re looking for 800 human-gorillas to act strangely for a day.

FACT: There are just 720 mountain gorillas left in the wild…anywhere!

It’s a scary statistic, but thankfully organisations such as The Gorilla Organization are doing something about it, working with local communities, governments and tourist companies to redress the balance a little.

One of the key fundraising events of the year for the Gorilla Organization is their Great Gorilla Run, which takes places in London on 26th September this year.

It entails a slightly surreal, but hellishly funny run over a course around some of London’s most famous sites and sights, by several hundred people dressed, of course, as gorillas. It’s a brilliant way to spend a Saturday, and each year it raises thousands of pounds to help protect and conserve all gorilla populations.

Explore is once again a principal sponsor of this wacky event, and are trying to recruit more runners and as many as possible to run under the Team Explore banner. Anyone who signs up with us will get a limited edition designer t-shirt to wear on their run and as an extra incentive, we’ll pay £15 towards their entry fee – you can’t say fairer than that.

For even more incentive, as if any were needed, you get to meet Bill Oddie, (yes, the Bill Oddie) who turns up each year to start the run and hand out medals at the end.

And there’s more….yes, it’s unbelievable I know…you get to keep your gorilla suit afterwards.

So by day’s end you will have laughed until your head wobbles, earned a t-shirt almost certain to enter the fashion world’s top ten most sought after items, solved your fancy-dress problems for the next few years and raised enough money to ensure that this iconic, incredible, wonderful animal thrives and survives.

Now that’s what I call a good day’s work.

Check Explore’s gorilla pages for more details, and then don’t think, just act.

Despite the wonderful variety of vegetables in the local markets they are not served in the restaurants! It is considered peasant food. However surprisingly we were offered raw broad beans for breakfast in one of our hotels!

When asked where I live back home many people (my generation & older) know the Isle of Wight as a 60’s Italian band called Dik Dik released a popular song about the Pop Festivals of the late 60’s/1970 & every other word is Hippies!!

Sicily now has a new president, Berlusconie. The last one was a naughty boy & his term finished two years early. Elections were held peacefully on 13th & 14th April.

The sirocco wind has been blowing from the SE (Sahara) which brings with it a fine pink coloured sand which obscures the views but brings the heat. Fortunately it doesn’t often last for long. Then the Mistral blows from the NW bringing clearer but cooler weather.

Since I first arrived I’ve been asked directions in Italiano! Must be that tour leader look on my face! The other day I discovered how to say nudist beach as I was asked where the spiaggia nudista was!!

May is the season of weddings. Couples get married every day of the week except Sundays. Saw several weddings in Syracuse & Taormina with brides wearing beautiful dresses & bridegrooms in flashy Italiano label suits.

On Oritiga Island (the original settlement of Syracuse) we also witnessed an Initiation Ceremony in a church for the Knights of St John.

The durum wheat which is grown everywhere is now being harvested so the lushness of the island is disappearing. The spring flowers are also beginning to fade although the poppies are now at their best, such a vivid red.

Although it’s been a great time of year to visit Sicilia with the flowers, blossom, lushness & reasonably good weather it’s also the time of incredibly noisy school groups!!

The education system in Sicilia is the same as mainland Italia except the schools have a longer summer holiday due to the long hot summers so they break up end of June for 3 months!! This means they have shorter Easter & Christmas holidays & no week off in February for skiing!

Several Greek theatres are used from May. In Syracuse the season of Greek plays began on 8th May until end of June. In Taormina the famous Film Festival is held from June plus many different concerts for all musical tastes. In recent years Elton John & Lisa Minelli have performed here.

Occasionally the audience is treated to an amazing concert in a Greek theatre with Mt Etna erupting in the background!

Went up Etna again Saturday morning. The guide told us how a week ago the volcanoligists thought there may be an eruption due to the build up of pressure but she had calmed down. There was a lot of white steam being emitted but we were told when it’s white it’s OK. You only start panicking when it turns blue!

Later that evening we enjoyed our Last Supper on the seafront of Giardini Naxos. At 21.30 volcanic ash started raining from the sky! Etna was erupting!!!

What a finale!

Want to see Etna and all that Sicily has to offer? Try our ‘Classical Sicily‘ tour for some of the best preserved Graeco-Roman sights in the Mediterranean and some of the Islands other beautiful cultural highlights. Do you want to get even closer to Etna and the other Sicilian volcanoes? Try our ‘Sicilian Volcano Hike‘.

The largest island in the Mediterranean.

Where everything is so green, the blossom is out & the spring flowers sway in the gentle breeze!!

My first impressions of Sicilia are good. Not only does it boost one of the most active volcanoes in the world, Mt Etna last erupted in September 2007 & I’m hoping it will erupt for me whilst I’m here!! There are many quaint medieval towns with Baroque buildings (17th & 18th centuries), cobbled streets & piazzas to enjoy a cafe whilst watching the world go by & some of the most important classical sites: Agrigento, Selinunte, Segesta & the Roman villa at Casale to name a few.

Sicilia has more UNESCO World Heritage sites than any where else in the world so there has been a lot of restoration & excavation work in recent years.

Thanks to Euro money there are some amazing roads with some of the highest bridges in Europe spanning across vast valleys & long tunnels through the mountains.

Sicily was one of the breadbaskets for the Roman Empire & still today the island is famous for its citrus fruits, almonds, pistachios, wines & olives.

90% of all Italy’s pistachios are grown on the northern & western slopes of Mt Etna.

The best almonds are grown around Agrigento & when the trees are in blossom in February an annual Almond Festival is held.

Ever tried the sweet Marsala wine? Discovered by an English man, John Woodhouse in the late 18th century. Made in a similar way to sherry in Jerez, Spain. Salute!!

Sicilian cuisine is renowned for being amongst the best in Italia.

Plenty of pasta, pizza, tasty meat, fish & seafood including sea urchins. The swordfish is particularly good at this time of year. Oranges & lemons have three crops a year so they are always in season.

Ice cream may have been invented in Sicily as snow was brought down from Etna to which honey & orange & lemon juice were added to create a wonderful dish.

Another local delicacy is brioche con gelato, basically an ice-cream butty which business men & children alike love to have for breakfast &/or lunch!!

Everything stops for the afternoon siesta then everybody comes out for the ‘passeggiata’. Men are seen sitting/standing around watching the world go by!

Plus for the time of year 20 degrees & sunny is very pleasant & it’s only going to get warmer!!

If you feel inspired to get to know the charming Sicily a bit more, then try our ‘Classical Sicily‘ tour.

Some people that impressed me (because I can’t stand heights) however, were my colleagues who jumped out of an aeroplane to raise money for the Mufinidi Orphange in Tanzania.

Debbie and Michelle

Our Commerical Assistant in Marketing, Michelle takes up the story:

I have done a lot of crazy things for charity; eaten 23 bowls of jelly with chopsticks, tried (unsuccessfully) to remain silent for 24 hours and stupidly starved myself for 2 days. This one beats the lot; jumping out of a plane at 12’200ft strapped to a man with a parachute that is supposed to open after freefalling for 47 seconds.

When my colleague James suggested that we should do a ‘Explore’ jump for charity I felt a little apprehensive, it probably wasn’t the best idea for someone who hated flying and was scared of heights. However, James, Debbie and myself signed up and blocked it from our minds until the day of the jump: Sunday 15th April.

The charity we chose to support was the Mufindi Orphanage in Tanzania, an organisation that we all work with and is close to our hearts; we wanted to raise as much money as possible. So as well as the jump we had a couple of greedy cake sales, which unleashed Debbie’s very scrumptious mountain of chocolate, meaning we were all rather worried about the weight limit and the speed at which we may fall!

By the time the weekend arrived we had an additional 5 jumper’s: Fiona, Martin, Kat, Peter and Mirjan! They had all decided to jump for fun and were colleagues from Explore, except Martin who is Fiona’s husband.

The Skydiving Team

In traditional Explore fashion we headed to Norfolk the night before and set up camp on the airfield. After a smoky BBQ of sausages and burgers it started to get very cold and cover was taken in one of the two pubs they had in Old Buckenham; The Game Keeper. At this point Debbie and myself felt rather jubilant that we had taken the decision to book ourselves into a warm and cosy B&B! In fact, we were probably annoyingly smug about it! Even more so when the campers had to walk 2 miles ‘home’ in the cold with their fading gas lamp.

We woke up on Sunday 15th April feeling a little pensive. The cooked breakfast of bacon and eggs eased the butterflies in our stomachs slightly, but they soon returned as we drove up the very long, thin road to the airfield. We met the rest of the Explore clan and signed a number of forms, all of which informed us that we were about to partake in a high-risk activity, which could be dangerous and sometimes fatal. And then we sat, and waited excitedly… Debbie still smiling.

It wasn’t until Fiona and Martin were in their jump suits and heading towards the propeller plane that the concept of what we were doing became very real. It became even more real when the plane had taken off and after 15 minutes had become a very tiny dot in the sky! And then next to the tiny dot appeared a few even tinier ones…. they had jumped!! We laid on the grass counting the seconds and watching the dots get bigger and bigger…. then the parachutes opened and we all felt a little more assured that we were going to live through the experience.

Next, Kat and James headed off in the plane…. James looked exhilarated when he landed; his eyes were wider than I have ever seen them!

The moment had arrived for Debbie and myself to get briefed and suited up. We were still smiling but it may have been a little forced….everything had suddenly become quite serious.

The suits were boiling and very unflattering!! But a necessity apparently! So I reluctantly squeezed into mine and got tugged around as they fitted my harness and cut off the circulation to my legs, much to everyone else’s amusement. We signed another form and were carted into the plane.

The plane was not good for someone with Aviophobia! However, I was so nervous and excited about the jump that I had no room to think about it! Debbie was sat at the other end of the plane, still smiling! My instructor was sat behind me, asking questions about my job, my house, my life etc etc…. all of which had become very irrelevant!

Then came the 2-minute call. Everything suddenly happened very quickly; hats fastened, gloves on, harness attached by a mere 4 cord, and then everyone stood up. Jason, my instructor, must have been a strong guy because I was literally hanging off him. It was also at this point that I first got to look out of the window and appreciate how high we were, and when I turned back around I found the door was open and people were jumping out of the plane! It was very surreal. So surreal that my anxiety disappeared and I was totally lost in the moment, hanging out of the plane waiting to jump! Then off we went!

Debbie skydiving

The first 3 seconds were a blur as we nose-dived into the sky… then we levelled out and fell at 120mph! It was exhilarating! We dropped 7,200ft in 47 seconds. The parachute opened at 5,000ft and we drifted down to ground at a much slower pace. Unfortunately my landing wasn’t as graceful!

We all lived to tell the tale, and celebrated with a bottle of bubbly! But most importantly we hope to have raised £1000 for the Mufindi Orphanage in Tanzania, which will help a tremendous amount and make at least one person’s life a little bit better.

Not bad for a day’s work.

One of the wonderful people I have met on Explore trips is Anne Fairlie. She works for our Canadian agents, Trek escapes and regularly goes on an Explore trip (at least once a year). She recently went to Laos, on our Spirit of Laos tour, and has written up an account of the trip. This happens to be my favourite bit as its show what a difference a ‘responsible’ tour leader can make, on a very micro level:

Our Explore tour leader had been working in Lao for about 5 months. She would take pictures of the people she met in the villages, get them printed on her days’ off in Bangkok, and then hand out the pictures the next time she passed through. What a treat this was for the villagers as in one of two instances, someone had died, and she was able to provide a picture of the person for their loved one to treasure.

Anne also took some pictures at one of the SOS orphanages in Laos, where Explore tours generally visit.

I’ve replicated Anne’s report below in full.

We couldn’t find Laos! All this way from Canada and the van drivers could not find the Thai – Lao border! After a few u-turns, a bit of paperwork, a 5 minute boat ride, we were in Lao.

Lao is about people, truly delightful people who let us see into their homes and their lives. It’s about villagers learning the lost arts of weaving and animal farming. It’s about the mysterious Plain of Jars – what are those things anyway? It’s about MAG and their tireless work ensuring kids are wary of bombies that fit into the palm of your hand but are meant maim and kill. It’s about 4000 islands in the south and chasing elusive dolphins into Cambodia. It’s about the daily dawn ritual of monks walking through their communities.

A highlight of Northern Laos on this Explore tour for me was a walk on day 3. It was described as a 3.5 hour walk but what they did not say was that we would leave at 9 and get back at 6 because we stopped a lot! They have set up a small area here as an ecotourism project: they are taking people into some small villages in this biodiverse area. In the meantime they are teaching villagers how to weave so they have a product to sell the tourists being brought in and also how to farm with animals rather than the traditional slash and burn.

I shot about 4 rolls of film in one day so that tells you how much I enjoyed the day. We were all sun burnt and hot so stopped at the internet caf̩ for chocolate cake on the way back to the hotel! Always a good idea to eat dessert first Рlife can be uncertain!

A day or so later, we took a boat from Nong Khiaw on a trip down the Nam Ou river which joins the Mekong just above Luang Prabang. The 5 – 6 passenger boats are long narrow skiffs with the motor at the back but the driver at the front.

The river is quite narrow so it was very easy to see what the people were doing along the way. You could smile and laugh with them and of course wave! Some people were even panning for gold if you can believe it! Others were washing all manner of things aside from themselves. We saw really little boys – age 4 even – paddling around in canoes all alone, parents nowhere to be seen. We saw some very primitive small “hydro” stations where the river ran a bit faster over the rocks. Just enough speed to generate a bit of power for their homes. Quite incredible. We saw people coming to the sandy outcrops mid-river to fill sacks full of sand to use for construction in their home area.

It must be a very steep uphill battle for the government and NGO’s in the area to teach people to look long term when there is such an immediate need for water closer to home than the nearest well and a little electricity.

Luang Prabang is the nicest little town. At one of the main temples they have made many mosaics of local life on the sides of two of the stupas. The mosaics are made from glass and of course shine in the sun. The scenes that are created on these walls are just amazing and so colourful. Life in Lao – people falling into a well, others praying, kids feeding a dog, fields of corn, monks strolling, elephants herds walking.

I have never seen anything like it before and it was great. It is a very lazy town and very hot here (even the main shopping is done at the night market). At dusk most of the group climbed to the top of the hill in the centre of town for a 360 degree vista of the area including the Mekong.

At about 5:30 the next morning we went back to that same temple to see the people offer monks their food for the day. In Buddhism, people gain merit by giving to the monks. Many tourists now go out to see the procession and as the Explore leader explained, it is almost more for the tourists now than for Buddha. Interestingly some street kids had set up a spot for themselves with plastic bags and bamboo bowls laid out so the monks would then scoop some food out of their bowl and put it into the kids’ bowls. Circle of life. It was quite a long procession – about 120 monks altogether and as the tourists scrambled about trying to get photos of all this giving of food, we must have looked quite the sight.

The basis of the ceremony is very human and I like that part of it. I had seen a similar ceremony earlier in the trip and I could not help but compare. As we waited outside our family-run guest house, 3 monks came along the road. The lady next door was waiting for them: she was sitting on a mat. They circled around her, she bowed her head, they said a few words – prayers perhaps, she passed them the rice, she bowed her head again, and the monks continued on by.

So which is Laos? Both most certainly. The enchantment of the place is that it still retains the one-on-one element: you can feel the people here and feel their humanity. But if you think about life from their perspective, they are keen to have farangi come, stay in their guest houses, buy their wares, see their sights, use their internet cafes. Laotians are ready for all these things. But given the historical events of the last 50 years, the one true thing they have is their religion. So it becomes a struggle to satisfy all sides of life.

I asked what the monks do all day. They chant / pray just twice a day and the boy monks go to school. They are taught in a school just for monks but in small village areas, they are in village school with all the kids. No one is allowed to touch them or play with them though. I thought this sounded quite lonely. You may know that everyone is supposed to become a monk for awhile in their life. Tough decision. As a parent, if you give your child to the monk-hood, the child will be schooled and fed for free and the family gains merit for the next life. Sounds pretty good – but as you grow older, there is no one to look after you so a bit of a downside as well.

During the Vietnam war, there were some air bases in Thailand. If the weather was bad and “theyâ€? could not drop their bombs on the Vietnamese target, “theyâ€? dropped them off in Laos on the way back to the airfield. “Theyâ€? were too worried to land with bombs on board so “theyâ€? dropped them off indiscriminately in Laos. The estimate is 90 millions special cluster bombs. A cluster bomb is a shell casing with about 670 mini bombies inside. Each mini bombie fits in the palm of your hand. Inside the mini bombie, there are about 300 ball bearings. On impact, the ball bearings scatter to a range of about 30 metres. The bombs are armed somehow by the number of rotations they do in the air before impact. Some bombies did not explode when they landed because they had not rotated enough. And that is the situation Lao deals with today. Estimates here are that there are up to 30 million bombs still active. They landed anywhere and everywhere – in trees, on houses, in crowded people places – and so now they are trying to find these and set them off safely.

A British group called Mines Advisory Group (MAG) are the people doing this important work and doing a great job. Lao people need to be educated as these bombies can be trod on or picked up by curious kids etc at any time. The bombies may have been under the ground for awhile and then a heavy rain will uncover them. Curious kids might have been playing in that area for months and suddenly a bombie goes off.

It is a tough decision to decide where to do the bomb location work. According to the director, they call a meeting of all the local mayors and have a discussion. We were told that the area most in need of safe agricultural land gets slated for mine clearance first. So far about 90% of the land cleared has been agricultural. As usual not enough people have been trained to do the work and more money / donations to buy newer, faster equipment would help a lot. So far in 10 years, with 12 teams of experts, after 2 months of training each, they have cleared 200,000 bombs with only 2 of their employees getting hurt. Check out this website: http://www.mag.org.uk

We had the opportunity to go to a bomb site. I can tell you we were very careful to walk in someone else’s footsteps and listen to instructions! Then we watched as they detonated 2 bombies in someone’s field. From there, we went to the SOS orphanage in town and sang “Hokey Pokeyâ€? with the kids. And a wonderful Indian curry for dinner!

It was finally time to head to the south of Lao so, for only the third time in the whole tour, we had a 12 hour day on the road. Our tour leader paced the day just right and we got into Pakse about 7 pm, in time for dinner at the hotel’s roof-top restaurant! A delightful way to end the day.

Another boat was our mode of transport stopping off first at Wat Phu. Built in the 5th century – even before Angkor Wat – as a Hindu Temple. It was converted to a Buddhist Temple in the 14th century. I learned that a “makaraâ€? is a cross between an elephant, a fish, and a crocodile. It is always shown in profile and usually on the lintel of a Hindu Temple. The doorway under this “makaraâ€? marks passage from the material world to the spiritual world.

Back in the boats again to meander through the 4000 islands: destination Muong Khong. 2 wonderful nights in one of the best hotels on the tour were spent overlooking the river. It’s a lazy place with the days passing in scorching heat and desultory mosquitoes. A cool drink, a walk to the temple, a cool drink, time at the internet café, a cool drink, a nap, a cool drink, dinner: you get the idea!

Our Explore tour leader had been working in Lao for about 5 months. She would take pictures of the people she met in the villages, get them printed on her days’ off in Bangkok, and then hand out the pictures the next time she passed through. What a treat this was for the villagers as in one of two instances, someone had died, and she was able to provide a picture of the person for their loved one to treasure. In another village, early in the season, she had asked the chief what the village needed, was there something we could buy or bring to them as a way of saying “thanks� for showing us their way of life? Turns out the villagers use slash-and-burn agriculture so they needed some new knives. She told us this story before we arrived as she did with every group. All of us then had the chance to buy a knife which she then presented to the chief. He was great as he had a book with columns etc. and had a check mark for everyone who had received one already and the people who still needed one. So we felt good by helping the village down the road by buying their knives, we gave them to this village as a way of saying thank you, the chief was able to show his people he was looking after them, and the villagers got new knives. Win Win Win Win!

It comes down to sharing. For the Lao, it’s instinctual, never a second thought to share what they have. When the Explore leader asked us to describe Lao in one word, I chose generous. It’s a generosity of spirit I saw in everyone we met that enabled me to share in their lives for just a minute. How fortunate, how privileged, I feel looking back and remembering our laughter.

I’m very pleased to see that one of our sister companies, Keycamp are also getting acknowledged for having ’service with a smile’.

Diane Coleman on the Travel Weekly blog comments:

Like Keycamp for instance… I’m sure they have a smile on their face.

Fantastic! Its always nice to get a pat on the back from another professional in the industry and even better from a customer.

Kate Plummer (left) and Jo Baldwin (right).