Experience 10: Made in Vietnam (by Rob)
It starts with tiredness and frequent visits to the restrooms. Then certain parts of the body start to grow, although they already have a respectable size. At that point there is only one action to take: do a pregnancy test! And that’s what we did after our Vietnamese motorbike adventure. The result: positive!! One big explosion of happiness occurred of course. Once you travel together with the two of you and then suddenly you created a third one that joins you!
At that moment the planning was to travel through Myanmar together with our American friends Pat and Janey. That would mean that we would go to a malaria area and that is a bad decision for a pregnant woman. That is why we decided to go do nothing on the beautiful island Koh Lipe.
Now and then a walk on the beach, a snorkel adventure in the clear blue water and read all books that can be found about getting a child. Is there a better way to prepare for the delivery of Motor mouse (that’s its nickname after it survived our motorbike adventure in Vietnam)?
From Bangkok we flew into Sydney, where we could stay at the house of our friends Catherine and Duncan. Our die-hard followers will recognise them since we travelled together in Colombia three years ago. The magical track to Ciudad Perdida is one of the things we did together. When we arrived in Sydney, they were having a short holiday, and we could use their house. That was great! Finally we could cook our own dish! That felt like a Walhalla after four months of eating outdoors. However we did enjoy that delicious Asian food. Great cheeses, fresh meat and top wines we did eat and drink in Sydney… that’s what Rob did however. Lous was not in the mood for these delicacies. Nausea is one of the aspects that pops up when a woman is building a child in her belly.
In Sydney we walked around and enjoyed the parks in the city. When Catherine and Duncan came back home, the ladies could talk about all little and big ailments (Catherine expects her second baby within a few weeks) and the men could drink beer and wine and discuss father ship! Live is beautiful!
On the 26th of February we flew to Auckland, where we picked up a camper van we hired to continue our trip at a low pace. We are enjoying the scenery here very much and we are happy to stay here until the 4th of April. At that time we will return to Sydney, where we will meet our big friend and nephew Floris! He will join our trip through Australia for a part. We look forward to meet him.
We bought a camper van from our Dutch friends Ed and Sasja. They emigrated to New Zealand and travelled through Australia before they started their new life in Auckland. New Zealand is astonishing beautiful! It is so picturesque and so hospitable, we do understand Ed and Sasja completely! We will see them once again in Auckland, before we return to Sydney.
When we will return to The Netherlands is the big question. We have plenty of time to think about that, so we are confident that we make the best decision when the time is ripe. In the meantime we keep our eyes and ears open for suggestions according to houses for rent as from the 1st of August in Breda.
In our next story we will tell about New Zealand. Before that, we search for superlatives to be able to write about it!
Lots of greetings,
Marlous en Rob