Monkey troubles

June 24, 2010




Yesterday we flew from Chaing Mai to Phuket, Thailand. When we got to Phuket we went shopping and went to go see a movie. The movie was called Knight and Day. It was in English with Thai subtitles. Knight and Day is a really good movie if you like action. After the movie we went walking around Phuket town and went shopping while we walked back to our hotel.



This morning we took a ferry from Phuket town to Phi Phi island. It is a very nice island. Almost like the Perhentian islands. Once we go here we walked around to find a hotel. We looked at about 5 different hotels and we finally found one. Then dad and Colton went to get our backpacks that we left at a dive shop while we looked. Our hotel is a bunch of buildings that are on stilts. It is right on the beach. One whole wall facing the water is a window and we have a really nice deck. After lunch we came back to our room and there were 9 monkeys on our deck. One had a baby. When Colton went to walk by it. It tried to grab his sprite out of his hand.

We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and playing by the water.



We have 6 days till we leave here to go home. But first we have to stop in Japan for 2 days.

Elephants and tribes

Today we went to a elephant park that had 30 elephants in it. We got to lots of things with the elephants like ride them and watch them do all the cool things they have learned. I got to feed them babanas and sugar cane and leaves. One elephant can paint pictures. It painted a picture of a tree. It sold for $700 Thai Baht.
We also went on a ox cart ride. Then we learned about rice and rice paddies and also about how to make sugar cubes out of sugar cane by boiling it down.  It is very interesting how they make brown sugar out of sugar cane. First they put the sugar cane into an wooden squeezer that squeezes the liquid out of the cane. Then they put it in a pot and boil it for 3 hours and put it into a mold to harden into squares.

Then we went on a bamboo raft down the river for 45 minutes to the truck that would pick us up. But instead of going home we went to 5 tribes. One was the long neck people. The long neck people wear these rings around their necks from when they are 4-5 years old untill they die. They never take them off. Only the women have to wear them. The rings are 3 killos. They are very heavy. I could almost not lift them up. They were making cloth and other crafts to sell to people to make money for their families. It was very interesting to see they difference in the way the 5 tribes dressed and how their houses were built differently.

When we got back we went to the children's home and played with the kids and gave them some gum and toys we bought them yesterday at the market.

Chiang Mai. Thailand

the childrens home needed help with their sand box. We made a cover to keep out the cats.

We also ordered sand to fill it up.

We went to the store to get stuff to make the cover.

then we had to bring the sand from the road to the backyard.

We had to rake it out after ever wheel barrel load

We went to the store to pick up a whole bunch of sand box toys for the kids. It was a big surprise

We had pizza for supper!

The next day I helped a bunch of young YWAM people paint all day.

The fence behind me looks nice and white now

We are in Thailand right now and it is very cool. Yesterday we went to an orphanage and helped them paint and stuff and played with the kids. We helped them do their homework and helped build a sandbox. The kids are 6-8 years old. There are 7 boys and 1 girl. Thay live in a very nice house we ate lunch and supper there. For lunch we ate Thai soup and for supper we made homemade pizza and watched a thai movie. We are staying 1 min. walk for their house.

Halong bay

on our boatjunk boatcavescuddle fish

June 14,2010




Today we are on a really fun tour on a junk boat around Halong Bay in Vietnam. A junk boat is a big wooden boat with funny sails on top. It was 3 stories high. We slept and ate in in for 2 days. We jumped off of it into the water to go swimming. We also went cuddle fish fishing from it but didn’t catch anything but a plastic bag.



Halong bay is very full of small islands that are shaped very uniquely. They are tall and rocky. Some of them have caves in them and we toured a big cave and then went kayaking around the islands. There are almost 2000 islands in Halong bay.



We also went to an island called Monkey island. We went swimming and also got to see one monkey. It is very hot. It is 35 degrees with 100 % humidity so I am sweating all day long unless I am in the A/C.



In a few days we are flying to Thailand. Which is going to be very exciting because it is a very different culture from Vietnam.

Mui Ne, Vietnam

Today we went on a tour to the sand dunes. To get there we had to ride a jeep. The jeep had no windows or doors. our first stop was fairy falls, it was a little river with sand dunes on one side and fields on the other. The sand at fairy falls was white, orange and red. At the end of the river was a water fall. when we got back to the jeep we went to the dunes. The sand in the dunes stuck to me like glue. In the dunes we went sand sledding down a steep sand dune. We didn’t go much faster than a person walking. At the bottom of the sand dune was a lake with two horses in it. On the way back from the white sand dunes we saw some orange ones. When we got back me and my family got massages. The massages were very good. I feel so relaxed!

There were cows in the river too

The sand was very red in some places and white in other places

Here is the waterfall we walked to

This is a rice paddy

whoo hoo....

Sand sledding is fun but you don't go as fast as in snow. I like snow better. The hill has to be very steep for it to work and then you have to climb back up and it is so hot.

family home stay tour

June 7,2010




We went to the Mekong Delta River yesterday. We stayed with a family that lives in a village near the river. It is called a home stay. The family that we stayed at had a little girl that I could play with. It was a cool and weird experience. The bathroom was a shack and I had to go to the washroom on the floor. Beside where I went to the washroom there was a big bucket that had a bowl in it and I had to wash the floor with the water in the bucket. I didn’t like that.

The family had lots of dogs with 6 little puppies that were really small. They had 4 people in the family. A dad, mom, son and daughter. They also had chickens, ducks and pigs too. The chickens lived inside and outside the house.

After the home stay we went to the floating markets. That was the main thing on my list but it was a big letdown because it was not what I was expecting it to be. I expected it to be more than just a few boats selling things. I thought we could buy stuff from them but we couldn’t. It was more for local people.

We got to the tour by buses and motorcycles. It was very fun to ride on the motorcycle and a cool experience.