11/12/06

The first flight was amazing, but a little bit bumpy. We changed planes in Madrid, and the next flight to Peru took over 11 hours and got a bit boring, even though we slept for a couple of hours.

Quito (in Ecuador) is very busy, and the mountains all around us are very close and as tall as the clouds. Our hostel is nice, even though mum makes us do homework.




















Yesterday we went to the equator, which goes around the middle of the world. We stood on the equator and the water went straight down the plug hole, we stood in the northern hemisphere and is went down one way, we stood in the southern hemisphere and it went the other way. Very weird.

We also saw Spanish dancers, a 30 foot snake, a 130 year old tortoise (now dead), a real shrunken head, and a naked tribesman.














17/12/06

Banos is a great place, especially the hot springs next to some of the volcanos here. Lots of the shops here make their own sweets, they have a hook in the doorway that they pull the huge lump of sweet on and twist it and pull it over and over again. It tastes like soft seaside rock.

Yesterday we went on a horse, they all liked to push each other to be at the front, which meant a lot of bouncing around when they ran. It was realy good fun, and Kyras horse kept blowing off which made us laugh a lot.







Today we went on a multicoloured bus with roof seats to see some waterfalls. Firstly we went on a cable car across a river and we were very very high, and they stopped half way across so we could take pictures – that made it a bit wobbly.

After that we did a bungee jump off a very high bridge over a river:

Kyra – I was so scared I couldn’t even scream, but it was fantastic.
















Rhiannon – I screamed all the way down but it was very fun.

















After that we went on another cable car which was even higher and even longer than the first one, but after a bungee jump it wasn’t scary.


22/12/06

We went on the Devils Nose Train which was a bit chilly, so when the train stopped for a wee stop dad brought us a real Ecuadorian poncho each.

It wasnt as scary as we thought it would be, and sitting on the roof of a train is much better than being inside, especially once dad hired us a pillow each to sit on.


28/12/06

Christmas was quite hot. There was a realy cool Christmas Eve parade in town, some of the floats were covered in food and drink - some of them had cooked guinea pigs with dollar bills in their mouths.


On Christmas day we went fishing for our Christmas Dinner. We caught some trout, which were wiggly and smelly and slimy and disgusting because they kept moving when we touched them and made us scream. We cooked them for dinner but they were yuk.

























Yesterday we went to some Inca ruins called Ingapirca. It was very interesting, and we learnt lots of things about Incas, like the messengers who had to run along the Inca trail with messages and got killed if they got the words mixed up, and they used to use shells as money. We took a picture with our heads resting on the stone where they did sacrifices.


02/01/07

We are now in Vilcabamba. It is very hot, but we have a pool at our hostel which helps. It is a very small town so there is not a lot to do apart from play in the pool.

We went horse riding again, it made our legs ache but not as much as dads. Dad had a very fast horse - he said it was disobedient but we think maybe he just can´t do it properly.

08/01/07

Today we went to the Islas Ballestas, in Pisco. We got there on a speed boat, which was great fun. The islands were very smelly because they are covered in loads of bird poo.

We saw some sea lions, one of them had bushy hair. We also saw lots of birds, including pelicans and seagulls and penguins.


















10/01/07

We have just had lots of fun in Huacachina. While we were there we rode a boat on the oasis in the middle, and sandboarded on the sand around the edges.












One day we got a dune buggy out to the massive sand dunes. We went down on our tummies on the boards, and held on tight to the rope on the boards. It felt like you were about to fall off, but you didn’t.

Mum and dad chickened out and went down the dunes in the buggy because mum said she hurt herself, but we went on all of the really high ones. The last one was the steepest, when we got to the bottom we could hardly even see mum and dad at the top.











12/01/07

Today we flew over the Nasca Lines. Some were a bit harder to see than others, but they were all cool. Kyra – my favourite was the astronaut. Rhiannon – my favourite was the monkey. The Nasca Lines were made years and years ago, but nobody knows why they made them so big that you can only see them from the sky. The plane was very small and very bumpy and Rhiannon was sick.


In the afternoon we went to a cemetery with mummies in it that we could see up close. You could see some of their skin and hair and eyeballs and ears, and there was even a baby one.











17/01/07

We have just spent a few days in Arequipa, and while we were there we went on a 2 day trip to the Colca Canyon to see Condors.

The trip took us to really high altitude so we chewed coca leaves to make us feel better. They taste horrible and make your mouth numb like at the dentist, but they made the headaches go away.

Condors are massive, we saw them up really close and dad took lots of good pictures.

On the way back we stopped at this small town and had our pictures taken with eagles and a llama called Bob Marley.

























23/01/07

We went to Machu Picchu, which is an old Inca town high up in the mountains. It is very beautiful and interesting and we spent ages walking around it. You can walk to Machu Picchu for 5 days on the Inca trail, but we decided to get a train and a bus instead.

Machu Picchu was hidden for hundreds of years, and then discovered again in 1911 by a man called Hiram Bingham.

The Incas did not use cement, they carved each rock to make a perfect fitting brick, so all the walls look like puzzles.











30/01/07

We have just spent 5 days in the Amazon rain forest. We got there by flying and then a boat up the river for an hour and a half, on the boat we had lunch which was rice wrapped up in a leaf which we used as a plate.

Our guide Wilson took us on lots of adventures. We went for a night time walk in the jungle, we went to the clay lick to look at birds very very early in the morning, we went to a farm for a walk, we went searching for Caiman one night in the boat on the river – they are a type of crocodile, we went fishing for piranha - Rhiannon didn’t get one but Kyra got two, we went for a walk in the swamp and Rhiannon fell in when we went over a log bridge, we went tarantula hunting at night, we collected fruit from the forest and ate them, and we went to a local village and helped with picking dried corn off the cob, and we spent .a good bit of time chilling out in the lodge playing with their pet howler monkey called Pepe.






Kyra – my favourite bit was playing with Pepe and letting him sit on my lap for a stroke.















Rhiannon – my favourite bit was tarantula hunting, we got to poke the stick in the hole to make them come out. They are very big and hairy and poisonous.












04/02/07

We went to stay on some islands on Lake Titicaca. On the way we stopped at some floating islands made of reeds, and got a go on one of their reed boats over to another island.

When we got to the island we were staying on, we met our family and went to their house. Our bed was made of hard mud.

The island was having a festival, there was lots of people dressed up in fancy clothes, and lots of music that was really loud. After that we got to dress up in their local clothes.

09/02/07

When we drove to Bolivia we had to get off the bus in Peru, and walk over the border into Bolivia and get our passports stamped again.

We are staying in Copocabana also on Lake Titicaca, and one night there was a thunder storm that was so loud that it made the windows rattle, so we stayed up and watched the lightening over the lake out of our window.

We just went to stay overnight on the Isla Del Sol, which is the Island of the Sun. the legend says that the sun was born on the island, and the first ever Incas appeared there – they were husband and wife but also brother and sister – yuk. Next to the island is the Isla Del Luna which is the Island of the Moon.

We were told that there were 1000 steps up from the boat to the village but Kyra lost count at 310 because the altitudes was just too much, Rhiannon lost count at 122.


11/02/07

La Paz is the capital city of Bolivia and is very busy and big. When you stand at the top of the park in the centre of the city, you can turn around and see the whole lot.

There is a witches market that sells lots of potions and ingredients for spells and things. We brought a lucky charm each that is a bottle filled up with colourful stuff. There are lots of dried up animals and animal parts for sale.

We went to the music museum so we could have a play on lots of different instruments, like a tortoise shell guitar and an armadillo shell guitar, and pan pipes, and metal tubes that make lots of noise when you bash them with a hammer, and a harp, and lots of other things.

14/02/07

We got a bus from Turija to Tupiza that was supposed to last 7 hours but lasted 23 hours because there were lots of landslides of rocks blocking the road.

The first one came down right in front of our bus, and the driver had to stop quickly. Everyone helped move as many rocks as they could until the bus could drive over it, it took hours and hours.

Then there was a part when there was another pile but it was too dark to see, so we slept on the bus until it was light enough to dig.


19/02/07

We have been in Tupiza for a few days and have been swimming in the hotel pool every day, it is a quiet town so there is not a lot else to do, but we did go shopping in the markets and we also went horse riding. Dad said he had the most disobedient horse AGAIN, but we think maybe its just him because they can't all be disobedient!

There was a carnival where you were supposed to get everyone in the parade wet, but you could also get anyone else you wanted to as well if you could run away fast enough. We got some cans of foam and sprayed lots of people and they sprayed us back, in the end you couldn't even see our clothes and we looked like snowmen. Kyra joined in the parade and danced past the main stands were there was a camera from Tupiza TV and was on local telly.


23/02/07

We have just been on a 4 day tour on a jeep to get to Uyuni. It was very high altitude, the highest we got to was 5000 meters above sea level. We saw lots of lagoons with flamingos, a ghost town with a legend of a monster that lives there, a smoking volcano where we stopped for lunch and sat on dried lava, a hot springs, and steam holes that stank of eggs and made the mud next to them boil.

The last day we drove across the salt flats and we took some wicked photos with us standing on mums shoulders, and Kyra holding them in her hand. We just stood far behind them and it made us look small.

The last night of our tour we stayed at a salt hotel. Everything was made of salt, and the first thing we did was lick the walls to see if they really were made of salt - they were and they tasted horrid.








26/02/07

We have been down the silver mines in Potosi. We got dressed into bright yellow gear and in we went. We saw lots of miners hard at work, it was very dark but we had lights on our helmets. The tunnels were very small and narrow, and we kept bashing our heads on the ceiling, good job we had hard hats on.

We stayed in a posh hotel that had a bath so we all had our first bubble bath in 3 months. It was great.


02/03/07

We are in Sucre, which calls itself the chocolate capital of Bolivia, so we went into some chocolate shops to try them out.

Yesterday was dads birthday, so he got to choose what we did for the day. In the morning we went to the quarry where we saw dinosaur footprints, and lots of lifesize models that they made from the footprints. The footprints were a bit hard to see because we can’t get close at the moment, but we had a look through the monocular and they are quite cool.

Today we went horse riding, the paths were very steep and our horses did some jumping which was good fun but quite scary. Then we went on a walk to some waterfalls and we took our shoes off and had a good splash. After that we went and had a BBQ.

07/03/07

We are now in Chile. Our hotel is very cool because it has a swimming pool on the roof, and it is 17 stories high. It is very different here to Bolivia, or anywhere else in South America, the roads are very busy (6 lanes wide) and there are tube trains.

We went to a park that has a cable car, it was very high but very good. There was a swimming pool there but it cost £17 for us all to get in, so instead we went back to the hotel and swam in their pool because it was very hot.

12/03/07

We left Chile on 07/03/07 and twelve and a half hours later we arrived in New Zealand on 09/03/07, this was because we crossed the international date line.

We are staying in a spaceship! It is a cross between a camper van and a car, so we can drive to where ever we want and stop at camp sites overnight.

We stopped at a place called Waiwera which had a hot springs. It had lots of different pools, some were too hot to get in, and one of them had a big film screen so you can sit and relax and watch movies. There were lots of water slides, they were very very fast and high and dark inside so you zoomed around and couldn't see where you were going. We went on them for hours, and after lunch we went back and did it some more.

On the way to the Bay of Islands we stopped at Sheep World, where we saw a sheep being sheared, and watched the sheep dogs rounding up sheep, and we got to feed baby lambs milk out of a bottle.

Today we went on a boat trip, the boat was a catamaran called StrayCat. We stopped at an island to go snorkeling which was great fun, now we are going to buy some snorkelling gear to take with us to Fiji. On the way back it got a bit windy and rainy and the waves were 3m high. Rhiannon felt a bit sick but Kyra just felt sleepy and slept the whole way.


15/03/07

We have been to a place called Doubtless Bay and are now in Tauranga which is cool because it has a thermal spa and swimming pool heated by all the steam from underground, we have been practicing with our flippers and snorkels.

We stopped at 90 mile beach, but the sea was soooo rough that we couldn’t get in. The beach is very long and goes on for 90 miles (that’s where its name comes from) but we didn’t see the whole 90 miles.


18/03/07

We went Zorbing, which is where you climb into a giant blow up ball and they chuck some water in as well and then you go down a hill. We both went in together, we tried to stand up but it was impossible.

After that we went on the Swoop, you get into a pouch and a crane takes you up and then you pull a card and you swing down very very fast. We screamed all the way down, but it was good fun.

We have also been to a place called Skyline where we got on a giant skateboard with a steering wheel called a luge and went down a long steep hill. Kyra wasn’t very good and kept falling off so she went on with dad.


21/03/07

Today we jumped out of an aeroplane at 12,000ft. We had to put on special suits so we could be clipped to a man (Kyra went with Reno and Rhiannon went with Steve), then we got into a pink plane which was so small we had to sit on the floor. When we got high enough we had to put our legs out and wait for our man to jump, then we were freefalling for 40 seconds before the parachute opened. Freefalling is amazing and landing looked like it could be scary but actually wasn’t.

We were filmed so we have a DVD of us while we jumped out. We were going down so fast that our cheeks were flapping and we look very funny.


Rhiannon – It was brilliant. At first it was scary and felt like I was flying, but when we pulled the cord and slowed down it was fine.
























Kyra – First I was excited, then nervous, then excited again. When we actually jumped out I felt like Superman. It was the bestest thing I have ever done, when I grow up I want to be a skydiver like Reno.























25/03/07

We have been to the Waitomo caves where we saw glow worms. The glow worms are actually maggots, and it is their poo that glows in the dark to attract food to the webs that hang down from their nests. When we were in the cave we turned our torches off and saw loads of glowing poo. We walked for a bit and then we got to a steam when we got onto our rubber rings and floated along for a bit – sometimes in the dark again to look at the glow worm poo, but we turned our torches on to jump off a waterfall.

01/04/07

Flying into Fiji was exciting because you could see lots of little islands. After 1 night on the mainland we went out to the Yasawa Islands on a big yellow boat. Our first stop was Nabua Lodge on Nacula Island for 2 nights.

We went snorkelling and saw lots of huge shells with beautiful fish swimming among them, it was so good that every time we got out we just wanted to get straight back in again.

One night the local villagers came and did some dancing for us, and we got to join in as well and they gave us a flower chain to wear around our neck.











We spent 1 night at Korovou resort on Naviti Island, and the next day when we arrived at Manta Ray resort on Nanuya Balavu we remembered that we had left our laundry on Naviti and had to radio back and ask them to send it on the boat the next day.

Manta Ray was wicked, as soon as we got there we went snorkelling and there were millions of blue star fish, and lots beautiful coral and fish like on ‘Finding Nemo’, but the Nemo fish tried to bite you so you had to leave them alone. We spent most of the days snorkelling and playing in the water. One day we walked to the other side of the island to Sunset Bay and watched the sunset.

















One night there was a Cava ceremony, Cava is made out of crushed up root mixed with water and drained through material, it tastes worse than mixed up mud and out of date milk and it makes your mouth numb. You can ask for a small bowl which is called low tide or a big bowl called high tide, Kyra quite liked it so had lots of high tide, but Rhiannon only had 3 low tides.

As today was April Fools day, we got mum to sew some cotton onto a $10 note and we buried the cotton and hid behind palm trees to trick dad, but he isn’t easy to trick so we went of and tricked about 10 other guests.


09/04/07

We went on a cruise boat called the Wanna Taki cruise. Kyra – me and dad did some hand line fishing off the back while Rhiannon and mum read their books, dad caught a small one and I caught a huge rock cod. I gave it to the kitchen and they cooked it for my lunch. It was so big it hardly fit on the plate and it tasted fantastic.

















After the boat we went to Bounty Island, as we arrived the staff were singing us a welcome song. The resort had a pool right on the beach, and a turtle pool where we watched them get fed on tins of cat food.

One day we went on a banana boat, which is a giant inflatable attached to the back of a speed boat, we got dragged along very fast but we only fell off once. We also went fishing and caught a reef shark, when it came up it wiggled around on the floor and tried to bite another man who was there fishing.

Next we went to Treasure Island, it was great there and we met some new friends called Monique and Madison. There was a kids club and we did cool things like an Easter Egg hunt, beach Olympics, a picnic on a little island of sand not far from Treasure Island, and a contest to make things out of cocoanuts and cocoanut leaves.

13/04/07

We are staying with a family we met in Fiji called Viv, Andy, Monique (12) and Maddy (5). They are very nice and we are having a great time with them, and Monique has showed us around her local shopping mall.







At the moment we are in the Blue Mountains. The mountains are not actually blue, they are called the Blue Mountains because of all the stuff coming off the gum trees goes into the air and makes the air blue which makes the mountains look blue.

This is a picture of the three sisters rocks, we took a cable car with a glass bottom across a deep canyon to get a better look, but dad didn’t come with us because it was too high. Later on we took our sketch books with us and drew them.





16/04/07

On Saturday we went out on Andys boat, it was really fast and we took turns being dragged along on the boogie board. It was great fun but it made your arms ache.

Yesterday we went to the beach near their house and we learnt how to boogie board on real waves. The waves were huge and Andy took us deep so we could get the wave before it crashed and went foamy, which is when it is most fast. We had a race but it was a tie.

Today we went into the city on a ferry so we could see the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, the Sky Tower and some other stuff. We stood outside the Opera House and sung some Opera as loud as we could, until mum said we had to stop or her ears would burst.

Sydney has been good fun, and it is lovely and warm here.

13/05/07

We are staying with a lady called Christine, and her boys Tyler and Dylan who are the same ages as us. Their house is like a mansion, it has got a swimming pool and downstairs is a huge playroom with a pool table, a ping pong table, a cinema room and a gym, we spent lots of time down there or in the pool with the boys.



On Rhiannons birthday, after we had dropped our stuff at Christines, we went to a huge mall called Suntec City so we could see Spiderman 3, but as we had to wait a while we went on a duck tour while we were waiting. A duck is a special vehicle that drove us round the streets then sailed us around the harbour and we saw the Merlion. After that we went and saw Spiderman 3 then went and had something to eat.


One day we went to a water park called Wild Wild Wet, we have never been to anything like it before and it was excellent. There were lots of different slides, some normal ones, one that you rode in a huge family size boat, and one that was really high and steep and scary.




We went to a night safari with Christine, Tyler and Dylan. It is like a night time zoo, and there was a fire breathing show and an animal show and Kyra volunteered to go on stage for an animal experiment, where this sugar glider had to guess what hand Kyra was hiding a grape in by smelling both closed hands. Grapes don’t smell much but it got it right both times it tried.

Then we went on a train and drive round and saw loads of animals like lions, zebras, elephants, tigers, hyenas and they were up really close. Then we had a walk around and walked through a bat enclosure and they were huge.

Yesterday we went to Clarke Quay, we played in a water fountain and got really wet. The adults had a lot of beer and then dropped us home with SP, and we played pool.


16/05/07

We went to an island called Sentosa Island. It is really big and we spent all day there, we went inside a fake Merlion statue that is actually bigger than the real one in the harbour, and we went to a 4D cinema. In the 4D cinema we had to wear glasses so the film was 3D and it jumped out at us, the film was about a pirate and when he was chased by crabs sticks poked our legs out the bottom of our chair, and when he was chased by bees, strings whipped us out of our chairs by or shoulders and made us jump, and when he got splashed water squirted out of the chair in front of us. It was brilliant. We also got to feed sting rays by hand in the aquarium, and saw sharks and swordfish in a big tunnel.

At night time there was a show where lots of water got squirted up and there were lasers on the water with pictures, and huge squirts of water in different colours, and songs. It was the best.

21/05/07

We got a sleeper train from Singapore to Kuala Lumpar in Malaysia and it took 9 hours. We had 2 rooms with bunk beds and a bathroom, and the movement made us sleep well.

We went to a huge shopping mall, there were loads in Kuala Lumpar, and this one had a theme park with some massive rides in it. There was a loop the loop roller coaster, and another couple that went upside down, and bumper cars, and loads of others. It was brilliant, and they also had a 10 storey high cinema screen there that we saw a 3D movie on. We wore special glasses and everything jumped out at us.


We went to a water park that wasn’t as good as the one in Singapore, and we saw the Petronas Towers, and we went up the KL Tower. At the top we got a giant MP3 player and it told us all about what we were looking at as we moved around. One day we walked up 272 stairs to see the Batu Caves, right at the top there was lot of Hindu statues and they were painted different crazy colours.
















27/05/07

We are now on Pangkor Island, we are staying right on a lovely beach that has clear warm water and nice trees to sit under when it gets too hot and there aren’t many other people around so we can make as much noise as we like.

It was Kyras birthday 2 days ago and she chose to do fishing (which Rhiannon thought was boring) and didn’t catch anything (that’s why Rhiannon thinks its boring). In the evening we went out for tea and the owner walked out with a cake to surprise Kyra.



Kyra – I was so surprised I very nearly cried and it was the best birthday ever, I will never forget it.


31/05/07

We are now on an island called , but we aren’t on the beach this time. It is a huge island and it only took 15 minutes to get the ferry here. We sometimes get a trishaw taxi around town if we aren’t going too far, and when it is really hot it is nice to have the wind blowing in your face, although mum and dad prefer to get a taxi with air con.


One day we went to a temple called Kek Lok Si, and there were loads of different temples and statues and pagodas there. Then we went to a place called Penang Hill and got 2 trams up the hill, they took 15 minutes each and at the top it was a lot cooler than at the bottom. While we were at the top we got our hands painted with henna which tickled quite a bit. When it was dry we picked it off and the lady said it might last 2 weeks, so we wanted to make sure we didn’t wash our hands too much but mum said we had to keep clean. When it all came of it looked lovely and we kept showing it off quite a lot, especially Kyra who always walked in the front of us putting her hand in front of her and moving her head.

One day we went to a snake temple where there were loads of snakes just hanging around furniture and stuff. We could have got a picture with them around our necks but we didn't want to. After that we went to the war museum. It was huge and interesting but very hot. We had to keep an eye out for dangerous animals because there were signs telling us that there were things like scorpions, spiders, wild cats and other dangerous things around, and there were also some booby traps that we had to stay away from that were put there during the war. Kyra made sure everyone else went into buildings before she did, just in case. There were some pictures about what happened in the war, and some torture things, and some of the rooms had bullet holes in the walls where people got shot.

06/06/07

We have arrived in Thailand early so we can spend some time on beaches and islands before Nan, Kim and Pacey come to Bangkok in a couple of weeks. We went to Krabi on a mini-bus that took ages, one of the other passengers annoyed dad so he put his MP3 player in his ears and pretended he couldn’t hear us and let us make as much noise as we liked, which was quite a bit because we got bored and argued with each other quite a lot.

We stayed in Krabi for 1 night then went to a place called Ao Nang, we like it here because our hotel has got a swimming pool, there is a place next door that does massages and pedicures and other things like that, and there are lots of trips to go on around here.

One day we went on a long tail boat to go snorkelling for the day to 5 different islands, it was brilliant. We stopped at a place called Hong Island where there was the whitest sand we have ever seen, it was just like powder. There were loads of fish there and they weren’t scared of us so when we sat in the water they would just come up to you and swim around you. The stripy ones nipped a bit. At one stop we didn’t get off at the island because it was a giant rock but there was very good snorkelling there, but the best was the last one because the lady gave us some left over rice from lunch and we fed the fish. Once a couple of then had eaten, suddenly there were thousands of fish that came over to us to eat as well, so many that you couldn’t even see our hands, but we didn’t need to see to know it was the stripy ones biting us again!

Another day we went on a safari trip, and first thing we got to do was ride on an elephant. We sat on a seat on their back and we went for a slow walk up a shallow river and back again. It was great fun. Afterwards we got to see a baby elephant doing some tricks, and Kyra volunteered to get trodden on. After that we went on a ox cart ride that was a bit pants, it was a really short ride but that was a good thing because it was so bumpy. After that we went on some ATVs (which are quad bikes) and we even got to ride our own ones around a big muddy track instead of having to share with the parents, and we all got covered in mud.

The best bit of the day was when we went white water rafting. We had some lunch first then went for a swim in a waterfall before we got our life vests and helmets on and got in our boat. Ours went first so that if we fell out the safety boat in front could see us and rescue us quickly. No one fell out but mum did fall off the side into the boat a couple of times. It was really fast and bumpy and there were loads of huge waves and rocks and when we were done we wanted to go back to the start and do it again, but we couldn’t because they had to wait for the dam at the start to fill up again to make it more fast.


12/06/07

We are on an island called Phuket, and we have just been on an island called Ko Phi Phi. Phi Phi was really great, where we are staying there is a swimming pool that goes right up to the beach, and on the beach the sand is lovely and soft and the sea is actually warm. The streets around here are small and twisty and there are no cars only bikes, and if they don’t have bells on the people who are riding it just say ‘beep’ when they want to drive past.

One day we watched a film called ‘The Beach’ with Kyras favourite actor in, Leonardo Di Caprio, and the next day we went to the place where they filmed it. It is all about the perfect beach and when they wanted to film the perfect beach they found it at Phi Phi Ley. We went on a whole day trip and on the way stopped off to do a bit of snorkelling out deep, and saw some birds nests that always get built in this same cave that people boil up to make birds nest soup. When we got to Phi Phi Ley we got into a smaller boat to take us to the beach and is was fantastic, the water was clear and the beach was beautiful. When we went back to the big boat we had something to eat and sailed home slowly so we could watch the sunset.

We didn’t do much else apart from going fishing one afternoon and dad caught a puffer fish but mum said we couldn’t keep it because it is poison, but even thought we didn’t do much we did like it at Phi Phi, and we might come back next week with Nan, Kim and Pacey.


19/06/07

We have been in Bangkok for a couple of days and have been to see a huge Buddha lying on its side, and a couple of temples that kind of all look the same after a while. Bangkok is a really busy city and we have been on a sky train, a river taxi, lots of taxis and a tuk tuk. The tuk tuk was good but it got a bit hot and when we were stuck in traffic it stunk of cars a bit.

When we went to the airport to see Nanny London, Auntie Kim and our cousin Pacey it made us cry when they came out through the doors because we haven’t seen them for so long, but when we cried it made them cry as well.

We spent a couple of days in Bangkok with them but it rained a bit, so we went to a great theme park and water park in one. We played in the water for a while then went on the rides. There were some great upside down ones and there was a ghost ride that was very scary, you had to walk through it and there were things that made you jump, then a monster (mum says it was a man dressed up) came walking towards us, Kyra screamed and cried and ran out of the entrance.


25/06/07

We have been back to Ko Phi Phi with everyone, and they liked it there as much as we did. We spent lots time on the beach and in the pool, and we went back to Phi Phi Ley to see The Beach but we couldn’t because of the tides so we just did snorkelling instead.

One night when we got back to our room there was a snake on the banister of our porch. Dad wanted to knock it off and scare it away but mum made him go and get someone who worked there to do it, good job she did because they said it was deadly poisonous and they bashed it with a stick and said not to worry, they haven’t seen a poison one for a couple of years so there won’t be any more they hope.

Dad had another bamboo tattoo, which made Kim cross. They both went to get one together but because Kim was taking ages to decide which one to have dad went first, his took ages and they ran out of time to do Kims one. She will try to get one done in Chiang Mai instead.


30/06/07

On Monday we got a ferry from Phi Phi to Phuket, then a taxi from the ferry to the airport, flew to Bangkok, then got a minibus to Kanchanaburi. Phew, it was a long day. We are staying in a hotel right on a river called the River Kwai, which is famous for the bridge here. We went to a museum and learnt all about the railway that was built during the war from Burma to Thailand passing through here, it was built by prisoners and most of them died. We went to see the railway, and the bridge, and went to one of the many cemeteries where prisoners have been reburied. It was very sad.

In the afternoon we went to a place where we could ride elephants, but nan didn’t come because she is not too keen on animals. We went for a ride through some jungle, then took the elephants to the river (it was the Kwai still) and we got changed while they took their seats off. Then we got to go on their backs and sat just behind their ears and went into the water so we could give them a shampoo and scrub. Kyra dropped her brush, but the water was so dirty we couldn’t see it, there were quite a few elephant poos floating past.

The next day we went to the Tiger Temple where they monks look after abandoned tigers. Nan came with us, although she didn’t want to stroke the tigers. One at a time the guides took your hand and quietly led you to the tigers, where another guide took the picture for you. They are so gorgeous, but one of them kept standing up and eyeing up Pacey when he made a noise and Kim had to move him out of the way in case the tiger wanted to go and play with him. There were lots of other animals there, and we also got to hand feed horses, cows and ox with root vegetables. On the way back to the minibus three wild boar surrounded us and blocked our way out of the woods, so dad came along and shoo’d them off for us.

After Kanchanaburi we went to Ayuthaya where there are lots of temples and things. Mum and dad and nan went out one day to look at them but we went to the water park with Kim which was more interesting. It wasn’t as big as the one in Bangkok but it was still OK. One night we went to the night market for tea, there wasn’t much shopping there but lots of food stalls so we chose what we wanted and went to sit on the wall but the river to eat it, nan wasn’t too keen on eating rice with her fingers though.

Today nan went back to England and we flew to Chiang Mai. We all cried at the airport again, and it was very sad to say goodbye but dad says she will come and see us again, maybe in China.


06/07/07

We have spent a few days in Chiang Mai, we got a hotel with a pool because dad says Chiang Mai is the cheapest place yet in Thailand, our room here cost £8. We have been to the night market for shopping, and one day Kyra went out to the hairdressers with Kim and got her hair cut short.

One day we went to an elephant trekking place and did a really long ride on an elephant through some jungle. After that we went on a bamboo raft which was small and rocking and good fun, then we got to ride in a cart dragged by an ox. They are very boney looking but very strong, Kim says that why there is a saying ‘as strong as an ox’.

Dads legs hurt the next day so he had a massage and a rest by the pool while the rest of us went out to a monkey school and a snake farm, and next door there was a bungee jump so we went for a look. It was 50m high and it was actually more scary up there than when we went skydiving because the ground is so much closer, and you have to jump yourself not just wait for the instructor to do it like skydiving. Anyway, Kyra jumped but Rhiannon wasn’t brave enough and had to come back down again.

Another day we went on a very long day out and we went to see some hill tribes. The tribe called the Akha chew leaves and things to make their teeth black because they think it makes them look beautiful. The other tribe we saw are the long neck Karen tribe, they wear metal around their necks to make their neck and shoulders stretched, they have to start wearing it when they are 5 years old and they never take it off.

We also went to a place called the Golden Triangle where the borders of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet, and we stopped at a hot spring where we boiled some quails eggs in the hot water.

Tonight Kim and Pacey left, dad is going to Bangkok with them to make sure they get their flight OK then he will come back in the morning. We all cried lots at the airport saying goodbye again.


17/07/07

We are in Ko Samet now until we go to Vietnam next week. We are staying at the busiest bay here, but it really is not that busy so we are happy just chilling out on the beach everyday. The waves here are massive because it is a bit windy, although it is a hot wind not a cold one, so we are having great fun on the rubber rings dad brought us.

One day we went on a jet ski and it was good fun, another day we hired ATVs and went around Ko Samet a bit. The roads were quite bumpy and rocky and mum didn’t enjoy it as much as dad. We stopped at a couple of different smaller bays for a swim, and had a race around the reservoir. A couple of times mum didn’t want to drive up nasty looking hills so dad had to drive them both up, then back down again when the roads got very bad and we decided to turn around and come back.

Next door to where we are staying is a bar that has live music and fire shows every night. One night Kyra managed to get herself on stage to help with the shakey maracas and ended up doing a solo of the Titanic song. Since then she has been back and done My Love by Westlife, and London Bridge by The Black Eyed Peas. Not to be outdone Rhiannon went on stage and sang the Lady lumps song by the Black Eyed Peas. It is not a karaoke bar but so far we have got away with it because the lead singer likes us, tonight we will sing some more if we can.

23/07/07

Hanoi is very busy, probably the most busy hectic place we have visited yet. The roads are very hard to cross, but even more scary and quite fun actually is getting on a cyclo there. Mostly we get taxis because it is cheaper and has air con but once we wanted to try out a cyclo, so we got one and it was mad. All of the motorbikes went faster than what we did so they kept swerving around us, and when we had to turn a corner we just cut across 6 lanes of motorbike traffic and made them all swerve out of the way and beep their horns.

One night we went to a water puppet show, which was brilliant. The stage was actually a big pool of water, and from behind a curtain the people make the puppets come out of the water and move around, and there were men playing musical instruments and women singing.

There isn’t much else to do around Hanoi, so we spent a it of time at the lake and went to a couple of museums and temples.


27/07/07

We have just got back from a trip to Halong Bay, which means ‘where the dragon descends into the sea’. Legends say that that the islands of Halong Bay (there are 3000) were created by a dragon that lived in the mountains, when it ran towards the sea its tail dug out valleys and as it jumped into the sea the areas dug up by its tail filled up with water, leaving only little bits of high land showing.

We stayed on a boat called a junk boat, it was very pretty and made of wood. We sailed around for the day and saw a floating village that spends all its time catching fish, and there was even a floating school that 30 children go to. When we parked up for the night and were waiting for dinner to be cooked we went swimming off the boat, and got to jump of the roof into the sea a few times which was good fun.

The next day we went to a big island called Cat Ba island where we made friends with a Vietnamese family on holiday here from Hanoi. We went out around the town with the girl called Lin, and in the afternoon we all went out together with our families to the beach and we got to ride on a motorbike taxi to get there, which was great.


31/07/07

We have been at a place called Hue, and we got here on a sleeper train from Hanoi that took 15 hours. The compartment had 4 bunk beds in it, which were quite hard although the cabin was called a soft sleeper. It was rocky and bumpy and noisy and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

One day in Hue we went to the hot springs called Thanh Tan. It was very hot and it had slides and a wave pool. As we had special bracelets, when we went to the wave pool and showed them to the man he turned the waves on for us, and there was a special pool with slides that no one else was using that we were allowed to go on with our bracelets, so we never had to queue.

When we went for a city tour to see some Royal tombs and some pagodas, at one place called Tu Doc tomb we got to dress up as princes and princesses. As Kyra has had her hair cut short everyone thinks she is a boy and so she was given a prince costume to wear. When she is wearing a skirt sometimes people ask her if she is a boy wearing a skirt, when she says no that she is a girl they think it is more shocking to see a girl with short hair than a boy in a pink skirt.


08/08/07

We have been in a place called Hoi An for a while now, we were only going to stay for a few days but ended up staying for 10! It is hot and very nice, there is a nice Old Town to look around and everyone is very friendly.

One day we went to some Cham ruins called My Son, which means beautiful mountain, and is certainly was beautiful. We got to wander around the ruins while our guide told us all about it, and we found a Buddha statue with no head so we took it in turns to stand behind it for a photo with our head on top instead.


















We have also gone to a cookery school for a lesson in how to cook Vietnamese food. We walked around the market first then got a boat to the school and then we watched the chef do some recipes and in between them we went to our own areas and got to cook them. Rhiannon burnt her finger and Kyra didn’t like some of the food that we cooked and got to eat afterwards because there were too many vegetables, but apart from that it was a really good day.

Close to our hotel was a restaurant that had the cutest puppy ever. It was only 10 days old and had to be bottle fed so when we were waiting for our dinner the lady brought it over to us and let us hug it and feed it the bottle of milk. We liked it so much there (not just the puppy, the people were nice too) that we got mum and dad to go back there a few times.

There is lots of shopping in Hoi An, and mum and dad went a bit crazy and had to get a crate to send home full of everything, and we also sent a surprise home to their friend Ruth but we aren’t allowed to say what it is in case she reads this before she gets it. They got themselves some clothes and shoes which we thought was a bit unfair, but in the end they got us some skirts to wear for now and a special Vietnamese outfit and matching high heels all made to measure to keep for now, because we will probably grow out of anything else we post home before we actually get home.











21/08/07

We have been at a place called Nha Trang for a while now, and it is right on the beach. One day we went on a thing called the Flying Fish, which is a giant inflatable that is dragged by a speed boat, when you go really fast it lifts up in the air and it really does feel like you are flying.



There were lots of things like that to do at the beach and one day even dad decided he would have a go at parasailing, and he even loved it.

Twice we went to a place that has hot mud baths in it. There are lots of little pools that get filled up with warm mud for you to soak in, it felt weird to sit in warm mud. Once we were dome soaking in the mud we washed it off in a special shower and then sat in little pools of hot water, but it was too hot and unbearable and hard to even sit down in. There were also some warm waterfalls and 2 hot mineral water pools to swim in and when we left our skin felt lovely and soft. We had a massage while we were there, Vietnamese style, and it was a bit bone breaking.

One day we went on a trip to some islands close to Nha Trang and we got to ride ostriches, it was a lot different to riding horses because their feathers are quite itchy on your legs and they don’t go as fast. We both agree that we prefer riding horses to ostriches.




26/08/07

Dalat was very peaceful and much cooler than the beach. We went to a couple of waterfalls and at one we climbed down to the bottom and stood behind where it landed, it was very very loud and we got soaked by all the water that was in the air. We also went to a factory where they make silk out of the hard pupae that silk worms turn themselves into, they put them into hot water to loosen up the soft outside fluff then hook it up to a machine that pulls the silk onto a reel, then after it is washed again another machine weaves it into silk cloth.

After Dalat we went to Ho Chi Minh City, although people in the south still call it Saigon. While we were there we went to the War Remnants Museum, which had lots of pictures that weren’t too nice from the Vietnam war, although here they call it the American war. There were also some weird looking babies in jars that had grown wrong because of the chemicals the Americans used, but the pictures of dead people were worse.

The next day we went to a place called Cu Chi to see the tunnels that got dug during the war to hide in. The tunnels were very small and hot and didn’t smell too nice, it is hard to imagine having to live in them. We also saw some booby traps that catch soldiers and dig spikes into them if they fall in a booby trap hole or something, and sometimes they put poison on the spikes to make them worse. When we came out of the tunnels it rained the hardest that we have seen yet and we got soaked, and when we were walking through the jungle we saw a scorpion on the path, it can’t have been nice for the American soldiers either.


02/09/07

We are now back in HCMC, we have been to an island called Phu Quoc which is a Vietnamese island off the coast of Cambodia in the Gulf of Thailand. Our bungalow was right by the beach, and the beach was very long and hardly anyone was on it so it was very peaceful. The resort next door had a swimming pool so some days when we had enough of the sea as it can get very rough there, we went and used their pool instead.

One day we went on a snorkelling trip and at the bottom of the sea among the coral you could see lots of these really spiky black creatures, and on the way back to the resort we stopped at another beach that was on the other side of the island to us and they had a whole load of these creatures and they cut the spikes off and barbequed them, then cut the tops off like a lid and you could eat the gloop inside with a spoon. So Kyra did. It was a bit slimy but tasted a bit like sausages, the only trouble was the cook put a good splash of chilli sauce in it so it was too spicy to eat it all.

Tomorrow we are leaving on a 3 day trip up the Mekong Delta, a bus will take us to the boat and we will stop and see lots of things but will be sleeping at a hotel at nights not the boat, then we will get dropped off on Cambodia.

05/09/07

We spent 3 days travelling from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to Phnom Penh in Cambodia up the Mekong Delta. We did lots of really cool stuff like seeing a crocodile farm, going to floating markets, watching coconut sweets being made, and we saw a place where they make rice paper. One night Kyra tried frog for tea. On the last day we got a boat to the border and had to get signed out of Vietnam before going to Cambodia and getting a visa, it all took about an hour.


08/09/07

Phnom Penh is very hot. One day we went to Wat Phnom, this is where a lady called Penh was out for a walk in 1373 and at the top of a hill called Phnom, which at 26m is the highest in the city, and she found 4 Buddha statues that had got washed up there is a flood. So they built a Pagoda in her honour and called the city Phnom Penh.

One day we went to Tuol Sleng Prison Museum, it used to be a school then this man called Pol Pot who took charge of Cambodia and turned it into S21 interrogation prison, there were lots of these interrogation prisons set up around the country.. While he was in charge over 3,000,000 got killed - 2,000,000 got killed in places like S21 and 1,000,000 got starved to death because he would only let people eat 2 small meals of rice porridge a day and they had to work hard all day in the rice fields.

Only 7 people survived from S21, the rest all got tortured and killed. We saw lots of pictures of people from when they got brought into the prison, and some pictures of people after they had been tortured to death that they took to show the leaders what they had done. It wasn’t just adults that got killed, but children and babies as well, and lots of the people that did the torturing were only children themselves and were only 14 or 15 years old. We saw some of the things that they used to torture people.

After that we went to Choeung Ek Killing Fields, this is where the people from S21 were taken to be killed. There is a memorial that is huge and has got more than 8,000 skulls of some of the bodies that have been dug up. You couldn’t believe how many that looks like, and there are more people that they are going to leave buried. When we walked around you could see bits of clothes, bones and teeth sticking out of the floor. It wasn’t very nice, and made us feel disgusted and very sad.


16/09/07

We have spent a week in Siem Reap looking at the temples around Angkor. The first one we visited was Angkor Wat, which is the one that everyone has heard of. It was very nig and very beautiful, and very busy.







After that we visited Angkor Thom, which has lots of temples in it. The gate that we went in is where they filmed some of the film Tomb Raider, the bit where they pull down a temple to get it – well they actually filled up this gate with polystyrene blocks and filmed them pulling those down. Inside Angkor Thom, the best temple was the Bayon which has lots of towers with faces carved on looking in all directions. It was cool because where ever you stand in the temple you can see a face looking at you.













The next day we visited too many temples, and it was very very hot. Some temples were more interesting than others, and some were just crumbly wrecks. Some you could climb around and some you couldn’t, but the most interesting were the ones with trees growing out of them. You could see the roots growing into all the bricks, and we took lots of pictures.

The next day we went to far away temples, so we only had to go to three places. The first was where they filmed The Two Brothers, and it was a complete wreck, but not a crumbly wreck, more like huge blocks that you had to climb over. Some were huge and slippery but it was great fun climbing all around and over them, we felt like proper explorers.

















After that we went to this river that had some carvings in it, but it was a very long walk to it, thankfully there was a waterfall where we stopped to soak our feet in the cold water. As well as carved pictures there were 1000 carved linghas in the river bed, they are supposed to be like boys bits and if the water goes over them it makes the water fertile which is good for when the water gets to the crops because it helps them grow well.

After that we had a rest day in the pool at the hotel, but the day after that we got picked up at 5am while it was still dark so we could go and see the sunrise at Angkor Wat. It was really busy but it was worth getting up for. The best bit of that day was going up in the hot air balloon afterwards, it goes up 200 meters and is tied to the ground so we couldn’t float off, we could see for miles and miles and could see Angkor Wat as well. We saw a few more temples that day, and also went back to see Angkor Thom again (the one with the face towers), and in the evening we went to another temple to see the sunset. It was really busy again, and you couldn’t see much unless you went to the top of the temple, but it was really hard to climb and would have been even harder to get back down in the dark, so we sent dad up to take the photos.

The next day we had another rest and pool day, but the day after we had another long temple day. Siem Reap has been a good trip, but it was very hot and we saw too many temples to remember!

27/09/07

As we couldn't go to the places in Cambodia that we wanted to because it is the rainy season, we have come back to Malaysia for a couple of weeks to kill some time before our grandad meets us in KL on 6th October.

We have been to the Perhentian Islands, we had to get a plane and a speed boat to get there. We stayed in a bungalow on the beach, right by the sea on the smaller island. It was really beautiful, and we loved the snorkeling. One day we went on a snorkeling trip and saw gigantic turtles, they were about as long as Kyra. We also saw some sharks, but luckily they weren't so big, and we also saw an octopus and a blue spotted sting ray.

Me (Rhiannon) and dad went on a diving trip, first was learning stuff for safety, then more practice stuff like hand signals and emergency things, then we went for a proper dive in a nearby lagoon. We went down to 8m and it was amazing, much better than snorkeling. In fact, sea diving is more fun than sky diving, and now we have a certificate me and dad are going to do it again when we get to Indonesia.

The weather in the day times was gorgeous, but as it is getting close to monsoon season sometimes at night it thundered, and one night it was so loud it actually made the bungalow shake and knocked the power out. We have never heard thunder so loud before.

01/10/07

We didn't want to spend the whole time at the beach, so we have been to Borneo for 5 days, to the part called Sarawak. We have been quite busy, one morning we visited an orangutan rehabilitation center, and we went at feeding time so a couple of them came down from the trees to eat the fruit left out for them so we got to see them up close.

Another day we went to see more animals but as we had missed the feeding time we decided to go for a walk to a nearby waterfall instead, and our driver walked with us to show us the way. It took 1 hour each way so we were glad we didn't go to the far away one. When we got there it was so hot that mum said we can't be shy when it is that hot so we all stripped down to our underwear and went under the waterfall. On the way there we got sucked by leeches, they suck your blood and you have to burn them off, it wasn't very nice.

Another day we went to see some caves called Fairy Cave and Wind Cave. We couldn't get into Wind Cave because the river next to it was too high, but in Fairy cave we saw lots of bats, there were loads and the floor was thick with bat poo, which made Rhiannon cross because she was wearing new shoes.

08/10/07

We have spent 3 days in a place close to Kuala Lumpur called Genting highlands. It was really cool. To get there we had to get a bus to the cable car station, then a cable car to the top of the highlands. It got really cloudy and you couldn’t see anything but the cable in front of you, it was great.

Up there there was 2 theme parks, 1 indoors and 1 outdoors. In the outdoors one there was a ride called the flying coaster, and you got into a cage that you had to stand in with cushions on your front, then when it got going it tilted forward so you were laying down. Then you went around the loops like you were flying just like superman.

One night we went to see a show called Fly that was good, there was a magician and loads of dancers who did dancing and roller skating and acrobatics up in the ceiling. We had seats in the front row so had a really good view.

After that we went back to KL to get our visas for Indonesia and to wait for granddad and Pat to arrive the next day. That night I (Kyra) went to the hairdressers and got my hair done with bright pink highlights.







It was great to see grandad and Pat again after nearly 10 months. We all went to the Times Square theme park and got them to go on the loop the loop roller coaster, and we went bowling. One morning we went to the Petronas Towers and went up to the walkway on the 42nd floor.

We are leaving for Bali in the morning and they are coming the next day.

24/10/07

Well we have just spent 12 days on an island off the coast of Lombok called Gili Air. It was great, the sand was lovely but a bit corally and the sea was very clear, the hotel was good because we had a pool and there was an outdoor gym where everything was made out of bamboo.



To get there was a bit of a pain. We decided to get a boat straight to Gili Air instead of flying to Lombok and then getting a bus and a small boat, but when the taxi dropped us at the port there were no direct boats that day so we got a normal ferry that took 5 hours and had no seats. Then we had a ticket to get us to the Gili port and a boat there, but the minibus left late and took ages so we missed the boat and had to argue with the guide to get him to pay for another private boat. The whole trip took nearly 12 hours instead of 5. Luckily it was really nice so no one minded too much.

We all spent most of the time at Gili Air chilling out by the pool, but one day we went on a snorkelling trip to the other Gili Islands, and we saw lots of fish and another turtle, but not as big as the one we saw in Malaysia. When we had to say goodbye to them us girls cried a bit, but it won’t be long until we see them again.

29/10/07

We are staying in a place called Bogor instead of in the capital city of Java called Jakarta. Apparently Jakarta is very big and very busy and Bogor is much nicer but still close enough to visit Jakarta.

One day when we visited Jakarta city we went to the top of the National Monument, but we couldn’t see too much of the city because of the bad smog. When we were up there the local people all wanted their pictures taken with us kids. This happens a lot because we are usually taller than them adults and they think its funny, but that day was more than normal, so we asked everyone to get together so we could take a picture of us with them as well. After that we went to the theme park and on the way back to the train we have never been in such a bad traffic jam, next time we will just walk because it will be quicker.

Yesterday we went to a place called Taman Mini Indonesia Indah that was a bit like the cultural village we visited in Borneo, but much much bigger, and very boring. We had our pictures taken a few more times, and got to walk around some kinds of houses that you can find all over Indonesia.


01/11/07

On the way to Bandung we hired a car so we could make some stops at a safari park and a tea plantation. You drive through the safari park with the window open and we brought some carrots so we could feed the animals, the first animals we saw were zebras that came up to the car and stuck their heads in the windows. We also saw and fed deer, llama, oxen, and loads of other creatures. We saw elephants, hippos, monkeys, crocs, tigers, white tigers, lions and leopards. At the baby section we got out and got to stroke the orang-utan, lion, leopard, and white tiger babies. The orang-utan baby was very cute and gave good hugs and tried to steal our watches.

At the tea plantation we got a tour of the factory after we put on a jacket and a hat so we looked like the workers there. We saw how they turn it from fresh leaves into tea ready to drink. The tea comes in 8 different grades and the best is the tips, just like PG tips what we drink at home, now we know what it looks like. The ladies that pick the leaves from the bushes pick 60kg of leaves per day.

The next day in Bandung we started at a volcano called Tangkuban Prahu. We saw it from the top, then walked down to see it up close. The rocks around were all yellow and it was sulphur, which is also the reason why it was so smelly there. There was a pool of water there that was very hot, so hot that Kyra cooked an egg in it.

After that we went to some hot springs, the water was 42 degrees, we have been to a few different hot springs but these were the hottest for sure. Then we went to a music workshop where we saw kids dancing and playing an instrument called a gamelan, which is made of bamboo and we brought one to send home.


07/11/07

We spent a couple of days at a place called Pangandaran, but it was a bit boring. There wasn’t much to do, the beach wasn’t very nice, and it rained just about all of the time. One afternoon when it did stop raining for a couple of hours we hired 2 ATVs and dad rode one and we took it in turns to drive the other one. Because there isn’t much traffic and not many traffic laws we were able to drive all around town.

After that we got a train to Yogyakarta, which is much busier. We have visited the Sultans Palace called the Kraton, a batik factory where we learnt how to make it, and we have had a wander around the market. The only trouble with wandering around is that the people are really in your face. Mum and dad said to ignore the people that talk to us, but they do keep on and on and poke us if we ignore them.

Our hotel has a pool, but it rains too much here to use it much. Everyday it thunders and rains most of the day, and as we don’t want to walk around too much because of the rain and the people that hassle us, there isn’t much else to do. Mum has made us catch up on lots of homework. Boring!


12/11/07

We went to a Buddhist temple called Borobudur, it was like a giant pyramid shape. Each level had carvings on about Buddhas life, and the top 3 levels had giant bells with holes in. In one of them was a Buddha statue, if you can reach your arm in far enough to touch it you can make a wish. We just about made it and made a wish.

One night we went to see Ramayana Ballet, it wasn't a ballet but a Javanese dance. There was no talking or anything, just dancing to tell a story. The dancing was good and the costumes were great, but it did go on for a bit.

Guess what? We are leaving Indonesia early! We are all fed up with Java, and were going to go to Sulawesi or Maluku or somewhere else, but we aren't really too keen on Indonesia. So we had a look where else we could go for a couple of weeks that wouldn't cost too much, and now we are going to Australia again to a place called the Gold Coast. Yippee!!!

18/11/07

We are so happy to be in Australia again! We spent the first 3 days at a place called Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, there was loads of really huge waves which is why surfers love it there.

After that we went and brought a tent and pitched up at a site that has got 3 swimming pools, tennis courts, crazy golf, a jumping pillow and lots of other cool stuff to do. We haven't been camping since we were at home, and coming here is like having a holiday from our holiday.




27/11/07

There are loads of theme parks and water parks here at the Gold Coast, but even with the multi-park special offer tickets mum and dad says it is too expensive to go to them all but let us choose one. We chose Wet and Wild and it was absolutely brilliant. There were loads of different kinds of slides and they were all amazing, our favourite slides were the Terror Canyon and the Tornado, there was even a proper theme park ride that went through water and got you wet.

Another day we drove through a place called the Hinterlands and we saw lots of waterfalls and things like that.














Next we went to another beach called the Sunshine Coast, we had made some good friends at the playground in the caravan park in the Gold Coast and Kyra got a bit upset when we left. When we got to the Sunshine Coast she cheered up because we got a boogie board to share and have had a great time learning how to catch waves.


03/12/07

Australia has been really good (again) and we are sorry to leave (again). The Gold Coast was nice because there was lots to do, and the Sunshine Coast was good because we spent lots of time of the beach, but best of all we have not eaten rice for 3 weeks, we have had lots of barbeques instead.

07/12/07

Wow and yippee. It is our 1 year anniversary since we started traveling and it still feels so good.

We wore our special Vietnamese outfits with matching high heels and went to a Korean restaurant, which was really yummy. Kyra tried snails, which brings her weird food count to 7! They tasted horrid, but the rest of the dinner was gorgeous.


14/12/07

We went to a place called Los Banos which was a couple of hours drive away from Manila. It was great, they have 19 pools filled with hot springs water and a few slides, but the huge slide was closed. They are open 24 hours a day, and we also hired a huge private spa for a couple of hours.

After that we went back to Manila for a couple of days then got a plane and a boat to this island called Boracay. It is beautiful, the water is as clear as a bath and warm, and the sand is soft and white. The main road along the beach front is made of sand and when we got a bicycle taxi with a big seat for the adults we got stuck in the sand because there were 4 of us on board and we had to push with our feet because we were sitting at the back.


24/12/07

This sandcastle is amazing, it took a man 14 hours to make it, and you just pay 60p to have your name put on it so you can take a photo with it and pretend that you did it!

We have to leave the beach today because we are flying back to KL on Boxing Day, so we will be back in Manila for Christmas Day. We are not too sure if there will be much happening or much open, so we will just have to check around.


26/12/07

It is really strange to have Christmas day when it is hot! We went to a park called Lunits and it was very busy full of people. We brought some bubble mixture and ran around for a bit after our pic-nic breakfast, then we went and played bowling and pool at the shopping mall. We didn't see anywhere selling a proper Christmas dinner, but we still put on our Ao Dais again and went out for a nice steak instead.

Happy Christmas everyone.

01/01/08

Happy New Year 2008! We have come back to an island called Pangkor Island, we came here last May and were here for Kyra's birthday and it was good so we came back while we are waiting for our Indian visas to be ready.

It is really nice here, it was very busy when we arrived because it was a weekend and it was just before New years Eve, but today lots of people have gone home and the beach is lovely and quiet.

15/01/08

We are now in India, we arrived on the 12th and stayed in Chennai overnight before we got another plane to a place called Trivandrum and then to a place called Varkala. It is a nice beach and there are lots of shops and restaurants all along the clifftop. The beach is good fun here because the waves are really strong and fun to swim in and the sand is good for sandcastles. The only thing is that some of the beach has black sand and it gets too hot to sit on!


24/01/08

We have found a nice hotel that is too expensive to stay in but they have a good pool that you can pay to use so we sometimes go there instead of the beach and there are other English children that we meet and play with.

We have decided to stay in Varkala for a while and we have rented a house for a month. It is good because we have our own room, and there is a flat roof that we can go and play on, and the other English kids live close by so we all go to each others houses to play.

One day we went into Trivandrum city and went to a Palace that had carved wooden ceilings that were really nice. We wanted to go to market there but they weren't too big and mainly food so we didn't get much. There were loads of bananas there and there were yellow ones, green ones and even red ones, and they all come in loads of different sizes.

01/02/08

We took a train to Trivandrum and then an auto rickshaw to a zoo. There was so much space for the animals and we felt really happy for them. We saw lots of birds form around the globe so I guess that was pretty interesting, but there was too many and it got boring but then we saw some elephants and lions and leopards, The elephants cage was so incredibly huge they could probably put 4-5 mansions in there it was that big. I tried to take a photo of a hippo but it wouldn’t stop doing roly-polys so when ever it came up for air I tried but kept missing it so I have loads of pictures of water!.

After the zoo we went to the reptile house and it was filled with beautiful coloured snakes and beautiful looking guinea pigs but we don’t think they were to be looked at, we think they were to be eaten. The man that worked there put a stick in to annoy the snakes so that we could see them jump at us but luckily they couldn’t reach us. Then after that we went to a museum of natural history, there was lots of skeletons and stuffed animals and some in jars. It was amazing the way that the human skeletons are nearly the same as monkeys, it gave us quite a shock. We carried on going around the museum and it went from the very old prehistoric times up to now, we also saw animals that have not been born yet in jars.

One day we went to a town called Kollam to go on a trip on the backwaters in a wooden canoe. It was great, a man stood at the back of the boat and made it move by pushing the boat along with a pole so it was very peaceful. We saw one place where they turn coconuts into rope, they soak them for a while then pull the husks apart that look a bit like hard fluff then twist them on this machine that you turn yourself so it makes the bits stay together and get twisted into rope that is very strong called coir.


12/02/08

A couple of days ago we got an auto rickshaw to a place called Kottayam where they had a festival that had a parade. When we got there it hadn’t started yet and the 50 elephants that were going to be in the parade were standing in the street waiting. They must have been there a while because there was so much poo in the street you wouldn’t believe, 50 elephants sure can make a lot of poo and it sure does smell lots when it is hot. At the start of the parade there were men in masks with body paint on, the fattest guys had lions painted on their tummies that moved when they danced. There was also a band and other stuff then the elephants all dressed up with beautiful golden headdresses.

It has been 1 month today since we have arrived in India and it has gone by really quickly and we have made lots of friends. Today we went to a water park called Happy Land with our friends Flynn, Eva, Amela, Ishta, and their parents. It was a good name because it did make us very happy. There were rides as well as pools, and in the pools there were some slides and a kids area with slides and things for the little ones and also a wave pool. The only thing though was that the big wave pool had a rope up the middle and boys had to go in one side and girls the other side and you weren’t allowed to swim together. When we were there 2 groups of school kids arrived and they all swam in their school uniforms, they didn’t even get changed, and in fact no body wore a swimming costume except us they all just wore their normal clothes or saris into the pool!


20/02/08

We got a train to a place called Fort Kochin which doesn’t have that much to do. The beach is not good for swimming because there are lots of special fishing nets there called Chinese fishing nets. They are huge square nets that get dipped into the water then pulled up again but they don’t get many fish in them for such huge nets.

Instead of swimming in the sea we went to another water park called Veega Land and this one had loads of slides and some good rides that you could just go on wet out of the pool. The wave pool was split again but this time the boys side was much wider than the girls side, and theirs also went out deep and ours didn’t. We don’t think it is very fair on the girls. Everyone went swimming in their clothes again.


27/02/08

We have arrived in Rajasthan in a place called Jodhpur, where horse riding trousers were named after. The train journey lasted 47 hours and we had to spend 2 nights on the train. We were very excited at first, but we soon got bored and the AC made it quite cold at night.

Jodhpur is very hot, probably the hottest place yet. There is a really good fort here, we had an MP3 audio tour that made it very interesting. The first gate had real cannon ball holes, and the gates were really tall so that you can go in if you are riding an elephant, and some gates had spikes on so that the baddies elephants couldn’t ram them and knock them down. By one of the gates there was hand prints of the wives of one of the Maharajas, when he died the wives followed his body out to the funeral pyre (a big fire for cremating him) and made hand prints on the way out of the gate. When they got to the funeral pyre they all jumped on so they could be with their husband forever. All the Maharajas had funerals like that, and they all had lots of wives.

One day we did a tour of local Bishnoi villages. At the first house we stopped at the ladies were making a new floor. They had to mix up mud and cow poo and spread it on the floor, and even the walls were made from mud and cow poo bricks. On the fire they burn dried up cow or buffalo poo. The lady made us chapattis with sugar cane topping and tea, the milk in the tea came out of her buffalo fresh that morning.

We also stopped at a house where the man showed us how they do a special ceremony to take drugs called opium, but it is only for special events or for friendship meetings so they said it is OK to take it then. We also saw a pottery workshop, and a carpet workshop and stopped for lunch where we had more tea made with fresh buffalo milk.

The houses around Jodhpur are mainly all painted blue with indigo. This is because it helps keep the bugs away, but it also makes them all look nice.


01/03/08

Today is dad’s birthday, but we accidentally celebrated yesterday as well. We all forgot it was a leap year so on 28th February we thought the next day was dad’s birthday and got him a birthday cake and was extra nice to him all day. When we realised it was the 29th instead, we celebrated the next day as well, but he didn’t get another cake!

We are in Jaisalmer now, we had to drive 5 hours to get here and it is very hot. There is a giant fort in the middle of Jaisalmer, and from the walls you can see the rest of the town built around it, and then there is just flat desert after that for as far as you can see.





07/03/08

Yesterday we flew to a place called Udaipur, and when we flew out of Jaisalmer we flew out of the military airport and there were lots of soldiers with guns watching us and we saw rocket launchers and proper army planes and tanks and stuff like that.

We had booked up a camel safari in Jaisalmer and we were going to spend 2 whole days on a camel touring the desert and camp out in the sand dunes without a tent just looking at the stars. But then dad got ill and we had to cancel and as we had a flight here already booked we decided to not rebook it and change the flights, but now we have a reason to come back one day.

In Udaipur there is a lake and in the lake is a palace that was used to film a James Bond film called Octopussy, which is shown in most of the places around here, and there are lots of shops and restaurants called Octopussy or 007 or things like that.







16/03/08

One day we went for an art lesson, as there are lots of art galleries and shops in Udaipur. We chose what picture we wanted to do and the artist showed us how to do them. It took three and a half hours because it was such hard work, first we had to draw it in pencil, then go over the lines with a thin line of paint. When it was dry we rubbed out the pencil and filled it in with colours, then added details and shading, and then went around the edges with a thin line of black. Then we painted a frame. Here are out pictures. Mums is top left, Rhiannons is top right, Kyras is bottom right and dads is bottom left. Cool hey?

We ended up staying longer than planned because mum got poorly, but yesterday we got a bus then a train to a place called Bundi. There are lots of blue houses here again and also lots of monkeys hanging around, you are not supposed to smile at them or show your teeth because they think that means you want a fight.


24/03/08

There was a special festival in Jaipur called the Elephant Festival and we arrived the day before so we could go to it. We went to the Polo Ground and as we got there early to get a good seat our guide took us through the crowds and to the back area where all the elephants were getting ready so we could have a good up close look. They were all dressed up and painted for the beautiful elephant contest, and when they were ready they walked around the polo ground and then so did dancers and singers and people dressed up in special traditional costumes, it was loud and colourful and good fun. It was a good job that we got to see the elephants before it started because as soon as it started people crowded up to the barriers and stood in front of the people sitting down so we couldn’t see, but the gaurds were too busy keeping the Indians and foreigners separated to do anything about it. Our guide was told he wasn’t allowed to sit in the good tourist seats and had to leave us and sit at the far end of the stadium on stone benches.

The next day was Holi which is a Hindu festival. We were sitting in the garden of our hotel doing homework when the manager came up to mum and dad and said that his friends children had just arrived and they wanted us to play with them, so we were let off homework and dad went to get us some special colourful powder that you are supposed to put on other people to wish them a happy Holi. We chased each other with the powder and also with water pistols and buckets of water for hours, it was great fun. The green powder stains a bit and we all had green faces for a couple of days, and Kyra’s hair especially seemed to get dyed more than anyone else’s. When we were walking around Jaipur in the days after the festival you could tell who hadn’t been having a shower because they were still colourful from the powder!


30/03/08

We have just spent a few days in Agra, it was not such a nice place, but we weren't there to see the town, we were there to see the Taj Mahal. It is a place that was built for love, it took 20,000 people over 30 years to build. A Maharaja decided to build it when his wife died having one of his babies and he was very upset so wanted to show his love for her.

We had seen pictures of the Taj Mahal in books and on TV but it was much lovelier in real life. We had to queue up before 6am when it opened, and even then it was really busy, probably the busiest tourist place we have visited in India.


26/04/08