Mekong Delta

This huge river flowing on more thean 4000 km. coming from China via Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia ends up in a gigantic delta in south vietnam. This river with its many arms developed its own life. People trade but also pive on there boats, very often the whol family.

Manon the brave, the first, out of a group of 12 adults to take the Python...

A nice buffalo bath

Water slums and tall buildings all at once in Ho Chi Minh city. A huge town : 8 millon people live here

scenes from Vietnam

Growing pineaples in your garden

... cooking rice noodles, tophu ( soya paste), springs rolls with soya sauce for your guests..

Wearing hard straw pointy hat to protect the skin from the sun ( the fairer, the better !)

Having a take away lunch anywhere in the street with your helmet on...

These are the things you do in Vietnam

Mai Handicraft

This community has started weving for export with fair trade markets in 1996. They now have 140 people working for them. Women come to get the raw materials, weave at home and deliver the finshed baskets back here. More and more recycle materials are used, like here, where unused cuts of plastic bags ( a band of plastic at the tip of a plastic bag) are used. A 700 basket order is being made for Traidcraft, UK, here.

Lan, an amazing entrepreneur ( left) wo leads the weaving group is discussing a new product project with Ly, who created Mai Handicraft 20 years ago, that is including 16 different groups of handicraft today ( sewing, lackers, paper collages objects, crochet objects...). She has one idea a minute for new designs and, despite a busy schedule, took the time to take us around.)

Manon trying weaving... not easy !

The dying of natural fibers is made here. This tellas you a bit about the immense variety of product you can make weaving.

Ho Chi Minh City - Motorbike town !

This town is a strange mix of a town developing fast and getting richer with very traditional images.like this one. The waffers this lady makes are crispy and delicous. They are cooked on charcoal on one of the baskets. We bought 4 packets and had them all for a nice Sunday lunch pudding.

The sort hankerchief this lady is wearing to hold her traditional hat is also used to protect her from the sun. The Vietnamese women are very elegant and clean. Also, they prefer fair skin and protect from the sun by wearing a cloth before their face ( we see them a lot on the motorbikes) and.... gloves, some alos have socks ! Just to say, the temperature in Ho Chi Minh city, the business center of Vietnam is only 35degrees !


This is a street with almost no traffic in Ho Chi Minh. Every hour of the day is "high tide " for the motobikes, millions of them, with of course 2 to 4 people on. Fortunately, the people here ar naturally clever with their hands, and don't speed toot much. So far, we haven't seen anything bad.
We wonder what will happen when Vietnam gets more prosperous and all these people get a car....nightmare!

This is a nice choice of helmets.....

Now, beeing permanently on the road does not mean forgetting about elegance for the Tremelot girls, by any mean! To prove it, we've had our nails done by a real artist at our hotel. Fingers AND toes.

Since we left New Zealand we have a very different rythm. There is no home anymore and sometimes, going from one hotel to the other is sometimes diffcult for the children who were a bit lost in this new atmosphere. Fortunately, a friend of Steph let us stay at his flat while away; a homy feeling for a few days. As for Caroline, she just loves it : no shopping, no cooking or washing, more time with the children to read stories ( or being read stories as Romane does ) and play games.

Also Thailand and Vietman ( an maybe all of Asia) has this frenetic vibe ( this is a cool word for young people like us!) in the city that is quite exciting. How we can both love fresh and calm New Zealand and mad hot hectic Asia is a mystery!

Asia, another world !

The immense 45 metre Buddha in Bangkok, covered in golden leaves......
Quite breathtaking and not only for tourists. It's a spiritual place too, although maybe more casual than the ones we know.



Bonzai for sell.... that one is for Laure !

Toads for sale...not very tempting hu !

New diet : strange colourful fruits ( a must : tangerine juice, wow !) and lots of fried stuff : here potatoe fried balls, one unidentified roll and banana beignet

You should never be higher than a monk. They are very respected and on the boats that play the role of buses here in Bankok, they have reserved place.

Manon is 10 !!!

Life is beautiful... 10 years later !


These 2 images above are what I love about New Zealand : water everywhere : in streams, lakes, waterfalls, glaciers, everywhere ! Here, especially in the south west, you feel so refreshed by it ! Nature is lush and generous, and the ferns, the NZ emblem, are flamboyant and superb.


Bushes and bushes of rasberries... and redberries. If even Thomas likes them, you can go for it witout thinking twice ! 28/01 Near Mount Cook, the hightes Mountain in NZ, 3700m

Lake Tekapo, a long walk near one of these giant NZ lakes. Come on Romane ! 26/01


A rewarding swing at the end of the day, and when it's Dad swinging you, it can go very far, 'cause you Dad is the strongest of course ! Lake Brunner 20/01

Wellington and Coromandel

This is Wellington ( in the little red cable train that rallies the top of the town's hills) on Waitangui day, a bank holiday reminding us about the peace treaty between Maoris ( the polynesian tribes who were here when Capitain Cook arrived...amd who still make a good part of the population) and the British. That was 170 years ago, a 6th of February. But today, it's an amazing fiesta in town because it's also the 'Sevens " a rugby tournament played in small teams (hence the name) in very short games ( 15mn) all in just 2 days . People dress up in the huge stadium for a two days party,. The atmosphere is joyful and a bit mad : you come across two authentically blue smurfs or pink male twins.... . Every single person in the stadium is dressed up in the most fancy way. 35 000 people !

A nice suburb of Wellington : in NZ, you're never far from a forest ! Just below this was a beautiful playground and the children had the time of their life. We spent 2 days in Wellington to have our visas for Vietnam done...
.....important note for the Londoners : we REALLY missed you while drinking our first bear in a proper pub since we left London!!! a very nostalgic day !!! (Thursday, the 5th of February, at the time you were getting up).


That was a must for the children as the first scenes of Narnia 2 were filmed here: Cathedral Cove. We did it in the most heavy rain; we understood well why ferns love NZ so much. They get a lot of water !

Opitiki's amazing beach. We made the most of the waves that evening.


One of the little reminders that New Zealand has a colonial history, even if it's quite short.