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?

Water in the Desert

I've been so busy telling you about my adventures in Tibet and Nepal that I didn't have time to tell you about my trip to Rajastan.  

Rajastan is in the west of India and I went there in September.  It's normally a very dry place - a desert.  I saw lots of camels walking along the road.

There was lots of water in some parts of Rajastan though.  I went to a town called Udaipur, which is next to a beautiful lake, and I took a cable car up to this viewpoint.  (I would have walked, but it's a bit too hot to walk in India when you're a stuffed traveller with fur, like me.)

I also saw a massive waterfall and quite a lot of trees.  I was surprised because you don't normally find big waterfalls in very dry areas.

Adam, Robin and Grace often see waterfalls, like Linton Falls, because the UK is quite a wet country.  It doesn't rain as much in India though.  The only time when it rains a lot is in the summer - mostly in July and August.  I visited Rajastan a few weeks after the wet season so there was still quite a lot of water.  If I had visited later in the year, there might not have been so much left.

There were lots of other interesting things to see in Rajastan but I'll tell you about them in my next blog post.  I hope you're still following my travels?  I'd like to know which bits you enjoyed the most when I get back!

The Other Side Of Everest

I've been looking at some very big mountains again! I told you that I'd seen Mount Everest from Tibet.  Now I've decided it's time to have a look at the world's highest mountain from Nepal (as Everest is in both countries).  First I had to go on a long trek to get there.

I started in the Rolwaling Valley where people were growing lots of millet in the fields.  It was very pretty. 

As I got higher up the valley, the weather got colder.  I camped quite near the beautiful lake in the photo below.  All of the water at the campsite was frozen and I needed something to drink.  I had to cook pans of snow on the camp stove to turn them into water.

It took a long time because even if you cook a big pan of snow, you only get a small amount of water.  This is because most of the snow is actually air and it disappears when you melt it.  Robin, Grace and Adam could try this on the cooker at home (with mum and dad, of course) using ice from the freezer.

After I left the lake, I started climbing onto a glacier.  Glaciers are made of ice all the time.  This is different from patches of snow which melt for part of the year.

It was hard work walking across the glacier because there are lots of big holes in it called crevasses and I didn't want to fall in!  There were also lots of rocks to climb over.

I spent three days on the glacier, camping on the ice every night.  It was very cold and a bit scary!

Eventually I crossed a big mountain pass where I got an awesome view of Mount Everest.  I could see lots of other big mountains as well.

Here's another view of Everest (on the left) and Lhotse (on the right).  Lhotse is the fourth tallest mountain in the world.

On my way back to the village at the end of my trek I met lots of men carrying big pieces of wood on their backs.  They were planning to build a hotel near the Everest viewpoint.  There isn't a road to the viewpoint though so they had to carry all of the building materials on their backs.  It looked like very hard work!

I had a very exciting time looking at Everest from both sides (Tibet and Nepal) but I think it's time to say goodbye to the mountains now.  I've seen a lot of snow in the last few months. Sometimes even stuffed travellers who are wearing fur get cold!

Next time you hear from me, I hope I will be somewhere warmer!

The Top of the World!

I've been to see Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world!  It's 8,848m high, which is over eighty-eight thousand times taller than a stuffed traveller like me!  (I haven't actually measured myself recently but I think I'm about ten centimetres tall.)

I was so excited to see Mount Everest that I thought I'd take a few photos to prove that I've been there.

There were lots of Buddhist prayer flags in front of the mountain, just like in the mountains in Nepal.  Mount Everest is in both Tibet and Nepal - it's on the border.

Did you know that in Tibetan, Mount Everest is called Chomolungma?

I'm not sure my last photo showed how enormous Mount Everest is so here's another one.

In Nepal, you have to walk for days and days to get to Mount Everest but in Tibet there is a road to the viewpoint so I went there in a minibus.  I took my photo when I was 5,200m above sea level, which isn't quite as high as my record (6,000m high in Argentina) but it's still pretty high.  It was quite chilly!

After I left Everest, we drove across the border into Nepal, where I went to see some more Buddhist monuments like this one.

I was excited to be back in Nepal.  It's very interesting to visit new places but it's also nice to go back to places you already know.  I'm starting to feel quite at home in Nepal!

I expect I'll feel even more at home when I go back to Birmingham to see Adam, Robin and Grace in a few months time!