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Dear fellow traveling families,
Thanks for reading our newsletter!
This is a very exciting time for Quivertree! Having just introduced those two South American wonders, Peru and Ecuador as new destinations, we are now turning our attention to Europe. We will soon be offering Italy and France but with a difference. Instead of focusing on the regular tourist trails, we will concentrate on the hidden sides of these great countries. We'll get off the beaten track and visit small towns and villages, meet local people, do a lot of walking/hiking and biking, sail, do cooking courses, and lots more. It promises to be fun, interesting and very different! And with the US$ recently gaining over 5% against the Euro, this is a great time to visit Europe. (Incidentally, the US$ has gained over 10% in value against the South African rand in just the last two months making South Africa an even more attractive destination than usual!)
 | | Gorgeous Monopoli in Puglia, Italy |
As a reader, you will get the chance to preview upcoming specials before they are posted to our website. If there is anything that interests you, please let us know. In addition, we update our Facebook page daily, so check it out to keep current with all news Quivertree and Family Travel related, see our latest photos, and join us in our online surveys.
This month we have some terrific reading for you! We have a trip report from Vietnam and Gideon's reflections of his family's trip to Myanmar (Burma).
 | | Walking amongst the temples in Myanmar |
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Gideon's family travels to Myanmar. Here's his report:
I spent nearly four weeks with my family in Myanmar over summer. This was perhaps the best trip we have ever had. It is the last "unknown" country in South East Asia due mainly to a self imposed isolation for much of the last 60 years. As a result, it offers, in my opinion, the most authentic cultural experience of any Asian destination. It is as if you have gone back in time 50 years, and is completely unspoilt. The people still wear traditional dress, and are the friendliest we have ever met on all our travels. The sights are incredible - climbing some of the 2000 ancient temples at Bagan was fantastic, zooming around Lake Inle on a wooden teak longboat visiting villages on stilts was amazing and wandering barefoot around the Shwedagon Pagoda precinct in Yangon (it's covered in 60 tons of gold!) was awesome.
 | | Can he ring that? |
The country is very safe - the crime rate is about zero and our kids loved everything - they met local kids daily, and everyone was always thrilled to meet a Western family. Accommodation was very good and the food was very tasty.
Myanmar/Burma is opening up quickly to tourists and like everywhere else where mass tourism exists, the unspoilt character may change. I hope it doesn't, but I would urge anyone who wants to see the old way of life in Asia still intact, to go now. We have our local partners in place and I'll be building the most incredible family trips.
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Making friends - our new friend, Zozo |
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Vietnam and Cambodia trip report by brothers Wyatt (12), Graham (11) and Owen (8), who traveled with their parents Don and Danielle and Aunt Kala in July
My brothers and I went to Vietnam and Cambodia this summer. One of our favorite things that we did in Vietnam was the tram ride in the old part of Hanoi, which took us through the narrow streets with merchandise everywhere for sale. We visited Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum which we all thought was pretty creepy. We all loved the cruise in Halong Bay. We got to jump off the top of our boat into the water and we went kayaking, swimming, and visiting caves. We ate some crazy food, like squid and water buffalo. Our dad wanted to eat snake, but did not get a chance to.
 | | Captaining the boat on Halong Bay |
We took two overnight train rides and we have mixed opinions. Owen felt like it rocked him to sleep, but Wyatt got too hot and was bounced around a lot. We went hiking in the Sa Pa region and spent the night with an ethnic family in their home. It was a cool experience and the lady of the house and our guide drank a lot of house wine. We love hiking with walking sticks in the rain with the Black Muong people following us.
 | | Hiking in the rain in Sapa |
After Vietnam, we went to Cambodia where we stayed at our coolest hotel ever, Raffles Grand Hotel. The waiter at the restaurant replaced our napkins every time we got up and the food here was the most like ours at home. We enjoyed seeing all the faces on Angkor Thom and watching the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Our most favorite activity was our ATV tour into the Cambodian villages. We visited an orphanage there that made us sad.
 | | Angkor Wat |
Our most memorable phrase from the trip is "Now we will enjoy the breakfast (lunch, dinner)" which our guide always repeated. Our guide in Vietnam, Dang, was the best. He was funny and easy to talk too. We have really great memories from Vietnam and Cambodia and we would encourage other families to visit.
 | | What's for lunch, dad? |
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Notes, tips and observations
Family travel and food don't always go so well together. Except for dessert! Read this to whet your appetite.
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/turkey/istanbul/travel-tips-and-articles/76799
As mentioned above, the US$ recently gained about 5% against the Euro, and even more against the South African Rand (at the time of publication more than 10%!), so now's a good time to start some serious trip planning!
And here at Quivertree, we recently posted our favorite family travel tips. Here's the link
http://quivertreeworld.com/pdf/Quivertree-Top10-TravelTips.pdf
And finally a few photos that represent the surprises of traveling. First one from Israel. What were they thinking? And then a couple from China, still the world's best signmakers...
 | | At least the Hebrew gives it away... |
 | | Huh? |
 | | We guess the Chinese makes it clear what deformations qualify for toilet use... |
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Feel free to contact us with any questions at (1800) 235-9941 or (778) 986-6727.
We're here to help you!
Sincerely,
Quivertree Family Expeditions,Inc.
http://quivertreeworld.com 6257 Dunbar St. Vancouver, BC V6N1X3 Canada |
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