Chance meeting
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- Category: Blog Friday - Steve
We were just sipping our fair-trade organic coffee and munching our cinnamon rolls (Luang Prabang coffee shops can be a bit like that), when a Canadian in running gear appears at our table.
Rather breathlessly she says “oh my gosh I read your blog!”
She says this to Victoria not me I must add. We strike up a conversation and agree to meet for lunch.
It is the first time we have actually met another family who is doing the same as us. Victoria has swapped a few emails with families planning or actually travelling, but we have never met up. This couple, with their 10 and 7 year old daughters have headed off for a whole year around the world. We swap stories and compare notes. We discuss home sickness and the joys (!) of home schooling. Quickly an afternoon passes.
Over the next week, we have an excellent time together. The children have new friends and they enjoy the extra space this provides and the new games that evolve. For Victoria especially, it has been a much needed opportunity to simply have some intelligent female company – having only had me for far too long.
Oddly enough, in Luang Prabang we also bump into a Dutch family (travelling for four months – wimps!) and the three families end up having lunch. Luckily we have found a place that can handle eight children, aged 10 and under, with an out-door deck and indestructible furniture. Even more oddly, in Vientiane, Laos’ famously sleepy capital city, we have dinner with some lovely Americans and their two boys, who are teaching at the international school.
Who would have thought Laos would be quite such a social place. It just made it even harder to say goodbye to.
