Sudeste Asiático
First in an ongoing series of Kid-Friendly destinations…..
I try to take at least one trip per year with my young friend Brett. At 6 months she accompanied me to Barcelona, Catalan, and the Costa Brava, at one year to Puerto Rico, at 18 months to Mexico City, at two years to Amsterdam, Hamburg, Rostock, Lubeck, and Berlin, at three to Athens, the islands, both sides of divided Cyprus, and Istanbul, at 3 & 1/2 to Marrakech, Fez, Casablanca, Tangiers, Cordoba, Seville, Granada, Malaga, Ronda, Caceres, Trujillo, Toledo and Madrid, and at age 4 to Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand.
Let’s look at that last trip, and why Southeast Asia is such a splendid holiday for young children (and their parents or weird journalist friends, who may be looking for an alternative to Disneyland or camping).
Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos have two things kids like a lot: climbing and exotic animals.
Take your eye off a kid for ten seconds, and they’ll have already monkeyed up some incredibly steep temple wall
The author suffers from vertigo, and must climb back down baby-style, much to Brett and her mommy’s amusement.
And let’s not forget exploring in general, a favorite pastime among children. If it says “No Entry -- Danger”, all the better.
Sometimes a little girl needs to make merit in a jungle clearing with Buddhist nuns.
Or to tell her journalist friend, this place is a DUMP!
Take her on a shopping spree, however, and she’ll be happy, in her new Hmong tribeswoman get-up. And you’ll be out of pocket a weighty three dollars or so.
So when it’s time to cool off, try a local beer:
We saw almost nobody buying spiders, nor could anyone tell us if they were solid, when cooked, like chicken, or whether there’d be a liquid sploosh when you bit in. Lacking that knowledge, we decided to forgo the delicacy.
We tried the grasshoppers and scorpions. Salty and crispy, like a potato chip, but a touch of rancid at the finish.
Opinions on beetles differed, between the author and an expat Thai friend.