In Praise of Crap Towns
Here we are, in Savannakhet, Laos, the third-largest city in the People’s Republic, as all 120,000 inhabitants would, I’m sure, be pleased to tell you,...
Tagged: children
As Conservationists Quietly Weep…
Some way into Laos, fresh out of Lao Bao, Vietnam, and heading for Savannakhet, our bus stops at what I guess is best compared to...
Anyone the Wiser?
I have seen some unusual bathroom set-ups in my time. But this, on the Vietnam-Laos border at Lao Bao, has me completely stumped. The ladies...
Age Appropriate Reading
The creator of the immortal line “The bitches mortared the piss hole and it didn’t blow up!” has, this evening, completed his reading of Chickenhawk,...
Creative Writing
As part of our homeschooling topic on the Vietnam War, Z has been reading Chickenhawk. While not as “adult” as the current meaning of the...
Swans v. Dragons
Travel with children is a wonderful thing. The sheer, unalloyed joy they take in the smallest, and most unexpected things, the chance to watch them...
The Birds and the Bees
In the aftermath of our not wildly successful dragon boat cruise, Z and I are ambling along the south bank of Hue’s Perfume River, trying...
You are Nine, Going on Nineteen
So Z got dumped by his girlfriend. Or did he? It came up the first time in a moment of anxiety atop a sand dune...
Hounds, Bikes and Dunes
Z and I are sitting at a roadside stall in Mui Ne, Vietnam, watching a very cute, extremely solemn and phenomenally determined toddler hounding an...
In Which We Slay the Hydra
We have won the long division war! Once Z started humming the theme tune to 2001 at volume, I knew we were going to be...