The Market On The River

Where do Adam, Robin and Grace go to buy fruit, I wonder?  They probably go to the supermarket or to a greengrocer's shop.  I'm pretty sure they buy their fruit from inside a building.

But in Thailand and Vietnam, some people go to the river to buy fruit.  Each boat is a shop!  It isn't difficult to guess what this one's selling - it's the banana shop!  I saw it at the floating market in Thailand.

In case you get hungry when you're doing your shopping, this boat is selling noodles and curry.

When I was in Vietnam I went to an even bigger floating market.  It was on a river about five times as wide as the Bristol Road.  There were lots of big boats selling fruit and vegetables.  Each one had a pole sticking out of the top of the boat with a type of fruit hanging from it, to let everyone know what you can buy there.  For example, a banana shop had a bunch of bananas hanging from the pole.

Lots of people rowed around the river in smaller boats and visited the shop boats so they could buy their fruit and vegetables.   Here is someone out shopping ...

I went to the pineapple boat-shop.  The shop owner cut up the pineapple so it was ready to eat.  Yum.

At the floating market in Thailand there was a big snake.  You could pay money to have a go at holding it.  I decided not to!  I don't very much like snakes as they're a lot bigger than stuffed travellers and they can be quite scary!

The Old Capital of Thailand

Hello from the old capital of Thailand, called Ayutthaya.  It was the capital from 1351 to 1767.  And what's the capital today?  I'm sure Adam knows.  I'll give him a second ... and a bit more thinking time ... yes, it's Bangkok!

Nowadays you can visit the ruins of the old city of Ayutthaya.  There were lots and lots of things to see.

The picture above shows part of the old Royal Palace.  The Kings of Ayutthaya were buried in the three big monuments.

(You can't see me very clearly in the picture because I'm a similar colour to the monuments.  Oh dear, I might have to ask Auntie Susan to give me a bath!)

Thailand is a Buddhist country so I saw lots of statues of Buddhas while I was in Ayutthaya, like the ones in the picture above.  Buddhist monks wear yellow-orange robes so the statues are wearing colourful robes too!

When I'd finished exploring Ayutthaya, I went back to Bangkok.  There are lots more impressive Buddhist temples to see there.  Here is one of them.

It has a giant Buddha statue.  Look at it!  Can you make out the head at the left hand side of the picture?  The statue is so enormous that the eyes look a very long way away when you're standing by the feet!  (And I didn't even go all the way to the feet to take this photo!)

One of the temples had quite a tall tower so I climbed to the top and looked at the view of Bangkok.  There is a massive river running through the city and sometimes the best way to travel around is by boat.  It's very pretty, isn't it?

I have some more exciting river photos to show you but I think I might save them for my next blog post.  Bye for now!

A Helicopter Ride!

I've been on a helicopter ride!  Here's a picture of me in the front seat of the helicopter, next to the pilot.

It was quite a small helicopter.  It could only hold eight people plus stuffed travellers.  Here is the helicopter.

We were flying over the east of Nepal.  It's very hilly because it's near the Himalayas (the biggest mountains in the world).

Through the helicopter windows, we could see lots of paddy fields on the hillsides where people were growing rice.  Lots of people in Nepal are farmers.  The view was amazing!

I had to take a helicopter because I was supposed to fly by aeroplane but my flight was cancelled.  I got stuck in a place called Lukla for days and days!  I kept asking at the airport if it was my turn to go on the aeroplane, but it never was.  In the end, I got very tired of waiting for a plane.  I would have missed my flight to Thailand if I had waited any longer - oh dear!

If I had flown by aeroplane instead of helicopter, it might have been quite scary.  Here's a picture of the runway at Lukla airport.  It's very short so they can only fly tiny planes there.  (The runway in Birmingham is MUCH longer!)

I went on my helicopter ride after my trek in Nepal where I saw Everest and lots of other mountains.  I forgot to tell you about it as I was busy travelling to Thailand and Vietnam and other places.  It was very exciting though.  I rather like riding on helicopters but I don't know if I'll ever have another go as they are rather expensive!

Abseiling To The Beach!

Hi.  I've been visiting Thailand.  I stayed in a beautiful place by the sea called Tonsai Bay.  

Auntie Susan and Guy went rock climbing most days.  I didn't fancy climbing as I'm quite small but I climbed up some ladders into these caves.  They were quite dark inside and I had to use a headtorch to see my way up the ladder.  

There was a brilliant view of the sea.  Can you spot the islands out in the bay?

Here's another view of the beach from the caves.  There are lots of boats.  You can't get to Tonsai Bay by car as there aren't any roads so you have to go by boat.  

You see all the cliffs behind the beach?  Well, that's where Auntie Susan and Uncle Guy went climbing.  They also took kayaks on the sea one day.

The caves were quite high in the cliff, a long way above the beach.  To get down, we had to abseil.  I'm too small to have my own climbing harness so I abseiled in Auntie Susan's pocket.  I enjoyed the view but I was quite happy to get my feet on the ground again.

I'm enjoying being by the sea in Thailand where it's nice and warm.  I reckon it's quite cold in Birmingham right now but this is the sunniest time of year in Thailand.  Lucky me!

Making Rice Noodles

Hi.  I've been cooking!  People eat different types of food in different countries.  It's fun to have a go at cooking local food when you're travelling.

First, I visited the place where they make peanut sweets.  Here's a big bowl of ground-up peanuts being mixed into a tasty paste.

Then you have to roll out the peanut paste on a big board.

And then you squash it flat with a giant rolling pin.  It's a mechanical rolling pin so you just turn on the switch; you don't have to do the rolling yourself like when you're making pastry at home.

Once it's been squashed flat you can cut it up into small squares and make peanut sweets.  Auntie Susan and Uncle Guy ate some and they were rather tasty.

Next it was time to start making rice paper and rice noodles.

Here's me with lots of big circles of rice paper.  Rice paper is very important in Vietnam because you wrap it round vegetables to make spring rolls.  Spring rolls are very popular here - Uncle Guy and Auntie Susan ate them almost every day.

To make rice noodles you make rice paste and then put it on the hot plate.  It's a bit like making peanut cookies at the start - you have to roll it flat with a big rolling pin.

Then you take it off the hot plate with the rolling pin and lay it flat so it looks like one of the white circles in the picture (I mean the picture with me in it).  Uncle Guy had a go.  The challenge is to make sure you lay the rice paper flat without any crinkles.  I reckon Uncle Guy did a pretty good job.

Some of the circles can be used as rice paper.  But we also wanted to turn some of them into rice noodles so we put them through this machine.  It cut them into long spaghetti-shaped pieces.

And in the end we had a big bundle of rice noodles.

People eat rice noodles for breakfast in Vietnam so it's important to make lots of them.

I wonder if Adam, Robin and Grace have ever eaten rice noodles.  You can probably buy them in the supermarket in Birmingham but people don't normally eat them for breakfast there!

That was the end of my cooking session.  It was lots of fun.  Now I'm going to Thailand!

Handicrafts and Rice Fields

I've been on a trip to a place called Sapa in Northern Vietnam.  I had to take an overnight train to get there.  Luckily there was a bed for me on the train so it was quite comfy.

There are lots of different groups of people near Sapa.  Each group speaks a different language and wears different costumes.  They learn to speak Vietnamese as well, otherwise it would be hard for them to talk to each other.    

I went for a walk through the hills and villages near Sapa with some of the local people.  Here are their costumes.

The north of Vietnam is very hilly and people grow rice in the fields.  Rice fields are called paddy fields and they generally need a lot of water.

As well as growing rice, the local people make lots of souvenirs like bags and purses and hats to sell to tourists.  Uncle Guy decided he'd like a local hat!

I didn't manage to find a stuffed traveller-sized hat but I had a nice time anyway.  I spent two days around Sapa and I learned lots of things.  For example, did you know that most people in Vietnam eat noodle soup for breakfast?  It's very tasty!

Islands on a Bank Note!

I've been to Halong Bay, in the north of Vietnam.  Halong Bay has hundreds and hundreds of tiny islands made of limestone (the same type of rock that you find outside Granny Kath's house).  

It's so impressive that it's called a 'World Heritage Sight', which means it needs to be protected so people can enjoy visiting it in the future.  There are some World Heritage Sights in the UK too - I wonder if Adam, Robin and Grace can name any?

The islands in this picture are so beautiful that they are even shown on the bank notes in Vietnam!  

The money in Vietnam is called Dong (instead of Pounds) and these islands are on the 200,000 Dong note.  (I'm sure Adam knows how to say the number 200,000 in words.)  This sounds like a lot of money but it's only just over £6.  If you want to get £50 out of the bank, you need over a million Dong!  I wonder how many Dong Adam, Robin and Grace would get for a week's pocket money?!

Unfortunately it was a bit of a gloomy day when I went to Halong Bay so my pictures aren't all that good.  It was very pretty though.  I went on a boat trip around the islands to get a good view.  I even spent a day sea kayaking there!  Then Uncle Guy and Auntie Susan went rock climbing on some of the cliffs but it's hard to go rock climbing if you're a stuffed traveller, as my legs are quite short, so I just watched!  (I think Robin, Grace and Adam would have been good at climbing the cliffs though.)

When I was on the boat trip, we stopped to look at some caves.

There were lots of stalactites and stalagmites in the caves.  I reckon Robin, Adam and Grace probably know the difference between a stalactite and a stalagmite as they're very smart.  (Just in case they've forgotten, here's a clue: if you're a stalactite then you need to hold on tight!)

The caves were enormous.  There was a stone pathway and we walked along it to get from one end of the caves to the other.  Then we climbed down lots of steps to get back to our boat.

There were lots of different coloured lights in the caves to try and make them fun for visitors.  I think it might have been interesting if they had been dark and scary though!

I wonder how many caves Grace, Robin and Adam have been to?  I think they might have been to Stump Cross Caverns in Yorkshire.  I wonder if they've been to any others?

Do You Like My Hat?

Hello.  Guess where I am?  

I'll give you a clue.  The person rowing the boat in my picture is wearing a special kind of hat.  There's one country in the world that's famous for these hats.

Got it yet?  Well, I'll tell you.  I'm in Vietnam.  It's very hot and sunny here in the summer so I guess people need big hats to keep the sun of their heads.  Here's another one ...




I decided that I'd like to wear a Vietnamese hat but it was quite hard to find one in my size.  They don't seem to make many hats in Vietnam for stuffed travellers.  This was the best fit I could find.  It's a little bit big for me but at least I won't get sunburn!

It wasn't always hot when I was in Vietnam though as it's winter here, just like in Britain.

Vietnam is a very long thin country and it takes a long time to travel from end to end.  (Even after I went on an overnight train ride, I was still less than half way down Vietnam!)  This means the weather is quite different in different places.  In the north of the country, it's quite chilly in the winter but in the south it's always warm.  It's a bit like the UK where it's colder in Scotland than in London and Birmingham.

I found my hat in the south of Vietnam where it's nice and warm.  I wonder what type of hats Grace, Adam and Robin are wearing right now.  They're probably wearing thick woolly hats for the Christmas holidays!

I Spy ... a Blue Town!

There are lots of palaces to visit in Rajastan.  I enjoyed looking round this one in a small town called Bundi.  Look at all those turrets!  

I thought the gardens were rather nice too.  If I lived in Bundi palace I think I'd spend quite a lot of time enjoying the sunshine and looking at the plants in the garden!

Before India became one big country, it was divided into smaller areas.  Each area had its own rulers, with their own palace.  That's why there are lots and lots of towns with palaces in Rajastan.

Here's a closer view of the courtyard in one of the palaces.  (It was very sunny when I went there so it's hard to see me properly!)

There are also lots of castles in Rajastan.  Some of them are protected by walls that go on for miles and miles!  This one is called Kumbalgarh.

When India was divided into small areas, the rulers built lots of castles to defend themselves.  They didn't want to be attacked by rulers from other parts of India.

Kumbalgarh was a very successful castle.  It was never once conquered by an enemy!

From the walls of some of the castles I got a very good view of nearby cities.  This is a picture of the town of Jodhpur.  It's very pretty as almost all of the houses are blue.  It looks very different from an English city, doesn't it?

I wonder if there are any towers where Grace, Robin and Adam can get a good view over the city of Birmingham?