Summary

Summary:

• We did two six hour treks up to Sarangkot and back down
• We saw more snow capped mountains
  
• We rode a local bus
• We saw another strike
• We took a 15 hour taxi ride from Nepal to India
• And we saw the four special Buddha sites

It is to hot for me to think of anything else to say (44 degrees) so I am going to my air conditioned room to read and watch TV.

Signing out
Adrian :)

Yikes!!!

We have now left Chitwan and are in the last two weeks of our trip.
A long seven hour bus took us to the mountains of Pokhara where it is a lot less humid.


We all woke up at 7:00am and were on the path by 9:00. We were going to trek to the World Peace Pagoda on Phewal Mountain. We took the ''scenic path'' but you could not see very much. The only difference was that it was 2 hours long when the other path was just 20 minutes.

But half way up the mountain, when we stopped for water, I looked down at my shoe and saw a leech trying to wiggle under the tongue of my shoe! I told my parents what I saw and I quickly threw it away. They told me to take off my shoe to look for more and there were 2 more on my socks and threw them away as well.

We went back to our trekking, and now that I knew they were there, I saw they were everywhere. If you stopped walking they would climb on to you and it was really gross. So I ran the rest of the trail. Lots more got on my shoes, but I flicked them off.

I was happy to heare the path down was short and had no leeches.

Signing out
Adrian :)

Royal Chitwan National Park

After seeing so many animals in Kathmandu, we decided the animals here in Nepal are very interesting and that we wanted to see more so now we are in Sauraha Village just on the edge of Royal Chitwan National Park where there are tonnes of deadly animals like rhinos and tigers! We had to take a long and bumpy bus ride.

Day 1: When we arrived at 2pm, on Tuesday June 2nd we were very hot. We didn't really do very much for the rest of the day. We talked about treking with the other people at our hotel, we walked around the town to see what there was and we watched people bathe with the elephants. But day 2 was when it all began.

Day 2: We were going to go canoeing in the morning but the rain cancelled it so we got to sleep in. Then, beacause it was so hot and because it looked like so much fun, we (me and my mom) decided to bathe with the elephants ourselves. It was so much fun! The elephant would swing you back and forth until you fell into the water and they would spray water in your face. When we dried off, we headed out on a canoe ride. We canoed for 1 hour and then walked back through the jungle. We did not see any animal on the way there but when we were walking, we saw a deer, a crocodile, bear prints and rhino prints but no rhinos.

Day 3: We woke up early at 5:30 to catch our ride. We were going to go on a Safari-like tour through the jungle on the back on an elephant. All three of us had to fit into a small basket-like thing on the back of the elephant. Our guide told us that there was a 99% chance to see rhinos and we did, we saw 4 rinos and 10 deer!!! It was really fun but also squishy. When we got back, we wached the elephants bath and then walked around town.

Tomorow, we are going to take a bus to Pokhara for some trekking.

Signing out
Adrian :)

Monkeys, Monkeys and More Monkeys!

We have been staying in Kathmandu for three days so far and we have done tonnes of different things from riding bike down a busy road in rush hour to waching a strike to shopping for thankas. But nothing compares to what we did at The Monkey Temple.

My mom told me that there where alot of monkeys but I didn't think there were so many!!! And these are not just casual eating and sleeping ones, these were Stocky Ressus Monkeys. They can steal bags from you, bite your fingers, invade your house and if you look at them too long they jump at you. But they are also really cute.

As we entered, we saw about ten monkeys eating the garbage and attaking stray dogs and there were another dozen in the trees above. But The Monkey Temple is not just about the monkeys, you have to walk up 216 steep steps to get to all of the shrines and to the shops. But all I cared about was the monkeys.

As the day went on, we saw more monkeys but now we were getting a little hungry. As we were sitting and eating, we saw a man from the restorant go over to a crowd of monkeys and start feeding them. We decided to follow him and watch. But these monkeys were not the scarry type, these ones were the moms with babies and they were really, really cute! I got alot of good pictures but then it was time to go. I really didn't want to go but after a long day of walking, I needed to sleep. I will never forget their cute little faces!

Signing out

Adrian :)

The Flight From Hell

We left the monestery that we were staying at on Monday at 11am and were going to leave to Kolkata at 1:30 but the plane was delaid because the first plane was broken and they had to find us a new plane. Our new plane left at 4pm. 2 hours into the flight, they told us that Cyclone Aila was hitting Kolkata and we could not land.

They flew us to Chennai were we landed at 7pm. they madew us wait not in the airport but in the airplane. All we had for dinner was bad tasting peanuts, snack crakers and bottled water. After4 and a half hours, the pilot said that we were going to try to fly but we mighte not land!!!

FINALLY, we arrived in Kolkata at 1:30 am were we wandered the dark and windy sreets for an hour until we found or hotel but it was full beacause we were to late so we had to go back to the airport and sleep.

later that morning we had to wake up and fly to Kathmandu.

Signing out
Adrian :)

A Burmese Trafic Jam

What we did in Burma/Myammar

After we left Darmsala, we took a flight to Burma/Myammar into a small village around lake Inle. It was really nice and really quiet because there was only about 5 cars in the whole village, everyone else walked or biked. while we were there, we:

• took a boat tour arond the whole lake
• ate at every restaurant at least once
• visited alot of stupas
• took a two day trek up and down a mountain
• stayed over night in a villigers house
• i learnt how to eat hot chili's
• went into a big deep meditatin cave
• took a motorcycle ride around town for half a day
• and went horse back riding up and down a small mountain

It all was really fun!!!

Signing out

Adrian:)

My Excuse

I spent the last to weeks in Burma/Myammar.
I was shoked to find out that the Burmesse goverment blocks many contiaversal websites like Facebook, Youtube and blogs. I was not just being lazy.
When ever you would try to log on a sceen would pop up that said that the site was resriqueded and it would not let you on.

Trekking to Triund

Even if it was a couple of days ago, I still remember how much fun we had. We did our first real trek up a mountain. You wouldn't believe what the road looked like that our taxi had to drive on. It was sooooo bumpy. We banged our arms and elbows in the car, and I kept laughing like crazy. Finally we made it to the starting place where there was a little village and a tea shop. Then we started hiking up.

We followed a little, winding path along the side of the mountain. The view was incredible! We could see for miles and miles and miles... Sometimes we walked too close to the mountain, we would bump our legs on some sort of super scratchy and spiky plant. We also passed by a lot of shepherds who were walking their goats, donkeys, and sheep. Hundreds of them. I petted some of the animals and they were very soft to pet and friendly. We got a lot of nice photos. We stopped for chai tea and Fanta at the top and rested only a little.

On the way down, after hiking for about 4 hours already, I took a tumble and landed in one of those spiky plants. I hurt my elbow and knee, but managed not to fall off the edge of the cliff. When we got to the little village again, I talked my parents into hiring a tuk tuk to take us home. A tuk tuk is a small black car with only 3 wheels, and curtains instead of doors. They're noisy and even bumpier than the taxi, but more fun.

I'm still a little scratched up from my fall, but I still had fun. I'm looking forward to my next trek.

Signing out
Adrian :)

Our ride up the mountain

It was supposed to be an overnight trip from 6pm to 6am on an air conditioned bus, but...

... as we sat on the bus, waiting to leave, we heard alot of yelling coming from outside and we did not know what it was . After a while we noticed that there were two police officers talking with our bus driver. An hour later we started to move only to stop at the local police station. We still did not know what the problem was. (later we heard that the bus din't have the right registration papers) . So we sat there for another hour until finally another bus arrived. They told us to board this bus and we discoverd that it had beds. It was really comfortable but I didn't sleep because of all of the commotion. It also did not help that the road was super bumpy and loud. After 3 hours, I was just getting to sleep when suddenly, the bus driver turned on the lights, opened the curtain and started to yell "Changing buses!Changing buses!Changing buses!!!" By then I was so tired and cold. This bus unfortunatly had no bed. Gggrrrrrrrrrrr! Then we road this bus for another 10 hours up the steep, bumpy roads.

But now we made it.

Signing out

Adrian :)

First Impressions of Dehli

Just as all my family was getting used to the French keyboard and enjoying speaking French, we took another flight and we are now in Delhi, India.


The flight was just as good, but we did not have a good view of India beacause it was night when we landed. When we landed in Dehli, there was a young man standing holding a sign with our name on it. We had a crazy drive to our hotel because people drive like there are no rules when you are driving. Everyone would drive in the middle of the two lanes, they would also weave in and out, cut each other off and would honk at each other. I was suprised that there were no crashes.
My parents said alot that they were glad that they were not driving.


And then there were the animals. Me and my parents saw six elephants carrying people around and one cow walking in the middle of the road.

The weather in Paris was the same as Toronto, but now it is an amazing 37 degrees! I feel like I am going to melt and it is also suposed to go to 41 degrees. But finally I am lucky beacause we are going to take an overnight bus to Dharamasala which is up north in the mountains and it should be cooler.

Signing out

Adrian :)

Me in Paris

Fitting in

I think we're fitting in better. We've been here 3 days now and are starting to understand the language and how things work. Everyone walks fast here and now we can keep up and look like we know what we're doing.

They have lots of pedestrian crosswalks and no one really pays attention to the lights, but now I know when it's safe to cross the street.

My brain clicks back and forth between French and English now, and sometimes I forget which language I'm speaking.

Signing out
Adrian :)

The Coolest Thing Ever

On the way back from a long day of walking around looking at churches and palaces, I got to do the coolest thing.

I got to ride on a Segway. For those of you that don't know, a Segway is a transportation vehicle. It has 2 wheels, a platform that you stand on, and handlebars. It's totally electric, but can go pretty fast. You make it move by leaning forward, and you stop by leaning backwards. To steer, you move the handlebars to the right or the left, depending on where you want to go.

After I got really good, I tried their obstacle course where I had to weave between cones. I was also good enough to ride with no hands.

I totally recommend it if you get the chance. It was so cool!!!

Signing out
Adrian :)

Eiffel Tower

I finally saw it!!! The Eiffel Tower. Unlike the CN Tower, this tower is made of metal and you have a perfect view of all of Paris all the way up to the top.

There's 4 different towers to climb. On 2 of them you only use the elevator up, and on the other 2 you climb to the second level and then take the elevator to the top. On the ones that used an elevator, the lines were super long. We climbed all 665 steps up to the second platform, and then took an escalator to the top. It took us only 10 minutes to climb to the first platform, and another 5 minutes to get to the second platform. There was a champagne bar at the top, but unfortunately I was too young, so I just drank water.

We climbed just before sunset and got to see everything in the light. I saw the Arc de Triumph and the Seine River. I took lots of pictures of the sunset, because it was awesome! After the sunset, the lights came on which, made the whole tower glow orangish yellow. We were having such a relaxing time, and then all of a sudden there were billions and billions of little lights flashing all over the tower in a light show. It only lasted one minute, but came on every 15 minutes. We got back to our hotel around 11:30, but it was worth it, since that's only 6:30 back home.

The one thing that we don't reccomend is coming at night if you want lots of good photos, because they are too dark, but it's still really nice to look at the Eiffel Tower at night.

Signing out
Adrian :)

Toronto vs. Paris

Today lasted 39 hours. I slept a few hours this afternoon. I got to watch 2 TV shows and 3 movies on the plane. We landed in Paris at 6 am, which was really only 1 in the morning. We had to walk around for 6 hours before the hotel would let us check in.

During this time, I made up a plan of the things I liked and disliked in Paris. Things I like: 1. The food is really nice, especially the baguettes. 2. There are a lot things to see while walking, like interesting statues. 3. My hotel is really nice, but the walls are slanted and I hit my head on them a lot. Things I dislike: 1. Everywhere smells really bad, like medicine or garbage. 2. The butcher store has brains and skinned rabbits right beside the baguettes. 3. Everyone speaks French too fast and I can't understand them. 4. Finally, the French keyboard is very different from mine at home, so it takes forever to write this.

Signing out
Adrian :)

Last Days of School

The closer it gets, the more excited I get. All of my friends are really jealous. If I could I would take them all but unfortunatly it is just a family trip. For the last week or so, my whole family has been going to all of the imaginable hiking shops to buy clothes and trying everything on. And even at night they stay up to midnight packing. Luckily I'm a kid so I don't have to stay up that late, instead I get to sleep.

I hope the trip is going to be as exciting as I think it will.

Signing out
Adrian :)

13 days and counting

I'm sorta looking forward to it. It is a 2 month trip to Asia with my parents. We leave April 29 and return June 20. We're also doing a 4 day layover in Paris. We're going to be sightseeing in Paris for 4 days. I can't wait to see the Eiffel Tower. That was my suggestion. I don't really know what to expect, but I hope it's going to be fun. My parents expect me to speak French for them and to translate, since they don't understand French at all, lol. We went to Burma as a family when I was 4 years old, and we plan to go back there again for a few weeks. We also plan to do a lot of hiking in Nepal and Tibet. They call this "treking". Preparing for this trek has taken a lot of time, and I have spent more hours shopping than I like, but now I have lots of good gear.

I'm a little sad about missing my last few months of grade 6 at Howard, but I will be back in time for graduation and for seeing all my friends again. I will try to add updates and photos whenever I get the chance and can find an internet cafe. Please send me comments and questions, if you like.

Signing out,
Adrian :)