Brunei to Vang Vieng

Where do we start. We spent a few days in brunei visiting the Fuller/Walker
family while we adjusted to the heat and humidity there. One day we took a boat ride to the water village, the whole village is built on stilts. We also saw proboscis monkeys swinging in the trees, they have very long noses. We saw the Sultan's palace. Everyone has flash cars and big houses. Most of the women wear colourful Burkas. We loved walking into buildings with air conditioning. People were wearing jeans and sweatshirts!!!
It was Johanna's Birthday on the Seventh and we had pancakes and birthday cake. That night we flew to Kota Kinabalau, Malaysia. We spent four hours in the airport then flew to Kuala Lumpa, Malaysia - there we slept on the floor. It was hot, we were tired, dehydrated and hungry, We couldn't exchange any money. All the food looked 'interesting', Because our third flight was rescheduled we spent 17 hours in the airport. Dad got a meal on the flight to Vientiene, Laos (which Mum accidently clicked on when she booked the tickets). In Vietiene we stayed in a nice guest house (Air Conditioned). It was late we were still tired and the food still looked 'interesting'. We ended up eating in a sort of Asian Pizza Hut, it was good. We managed to exchange some money. We were all confused with the money, $1US is $10,000Kip. Mum's wallet looks pretty thick!
The next day we took a Minibus to Vang Vieng. We had a little language problem. Mum thought the ride was $80,000Kip for us all ($8US) But it was $80,000Kip each. We knew it was too good to be true. We did a little bartering. Our driver was crazy! People are supposed to drive on the right but we did get here
We are staying at the 'Elephant crossing' in Vang Vieng right on the Nam Xong river, we walked around town and soaked up the atmosphere, us kids just had banana pancakes from a street stall and Mum and Dad are trying some 'interesting' food for tea. We're glad we aren't the Guinea Pigs.
Some of us are missing home but we are just going with the flow.

The 5 Little Nieuwys

High in the sky...

We drove to the Auckland airport and checked in. The airport busy and we got scanned by lots of X-Ray Machines and scanners. Before we left we looked on the Internet if we had little TVs but when we boarded we didn't. I'm sure Anneke and Johanna were going to cry! The plane was blessed We took off and blasted into the sky

The plane was going 910km/h, almost 11km above the sea!!! We flew over Australia and Indonesia. We were well feed. We arrived safely in Brunei to a Lightning Storm. It is very hot and sticky. Luckily our friends-The Fuller/Walker Family, picked us up we are staying with them for the next few days.

By Madeleine and Thomas.

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The Beginning...

Well the last few months has gone very quickly. We spring cleaned the house, fixed up the farm and said our goodbyes. After a night in Hastings with our close friends we took the bus to Auckland. We are staying with Nanny and Pa. We have too many bags so we are re-packing before our flight to Brunei tommorrow (Easter Sunday).





The Nieuwys

House Cow

We have had dogs, lambs, goats and chickens in our house but never a cow! While enjoying our School Holidays in New Zealand our 'House Cow'-L.J. decided to have a nosy around. Thomas managed to get it on camera!