Temple City

Written by William November 14, 2013

If you guessed Cambodia for where we went on our day trip last week, you were correct!

We found out our resort offers a day trip tour to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and so we decided to take it last minute. First we went on a boat for an hour and a half to the border of Cambodia. It was the first third world country I have seen, and I felt bad for the families that live there because they looked really poor. We went through customs, but there was no security check for our bags. Next we drove to get on a helicopter, which we took for another hour and a half. We saw lakes, rice paddies, a floating village (they move their entire village 6 times a year, so they can keep up with the water levels), and lots of temples.

Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world, and it was built around 900 years ago in the 12^th century. It started as a Hindu temple, and it was converted to a Buddhist temple. We walked through the temples, and our guide told us that each carving in the wall represented a story. They carved into sandstone because it was easy to carve into, but it also has worn down a lot over time. Then we got in the main square where you could see the five towers. I was amazed by how high they were able to bring the blocks of stone, which they brought by hand or by elephants. I thought it was really cool, and I want to go back again one day.

Getting back was an adventure. We had to fly through storms over mountains, and there was lightning every five seconds. It seemed like the lightning was close, and I felt really really scared because I thought the lightning might strike our helicopter. Then we got to go on the exciting boat ride. My dad said it was going to rain on us, so we put towels over our heads…sadly, we did not get rained on. By the time we got back, it was pitch black and there was lightning all around us. That was the coolest field trip ever!

Written by Charles November 14, 2013

Ever been in a rush but everyone around you is slow as a snail?  Well, that's how breakfast was. It opened at 7:30, and we needed to be on the boat at 8:00. So after arriving at the dock 30 minutes late, we set off. We were cruising full speed in a boat to the Thailand/Cambodia border. No, we aren't running away, we were trying to catch our helicopter to Siem Reap. It still may sound like we are trying to ditch the world and move to Cambodia. But I promise you we are not; we are going on a day trip to visit Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat is a Buddhist temple that started out as a Hindu temple that later converted to Buddhism.  It's over 900 years old, and it's the largest religious monument in the world.  Enough with the boring facts and back to the boring one and a half hour boat ride. After that, we parked at a little town on the border. After an hour of waiting for customs, we walked across the border into Cambodia. Then we drove to an airport, wait, I mean an air traffic control tower that you can't get to the top of. Then it's a helicopter pad with no runway. We flew in the helicopter for an hour and a half over half of Cambodia. We flew over the mountains and a massive lake that grows four times the normal size in the rainy season.

We first saw a floating village, and the pilot said that they change locations 5 times a year to keep up with the lake levels. Then we saw them. I mean we saw temples. From the air they looked like little stone spires in the middle of the jungle. We were lucky because our cameras zoomed in pretty well. We circled the temples that we saw a few times.  We even saw a temple that is on top of a hill.

We landed near Angkor Wat, which was pretty obvious because of the massive moat around it and that it had five massive sand stone towers around it. We landed and then we had lunch at a hotel. The lunch was funny because they gave us a "menu," but it was a list of food that they were going to give us. We drove in a van to Angkor Wat, but first we had to buy tickets. After the tickets we drove to the temple. There was a massively long walkway with a sort of gate halfway down. I think you could have landed a 757 on it!  Of course it wasn't wide enough, and there were too many potholes in it.

Of course we had to walk the runway because they wanted us to smell horrible before we even got to the main complex. I think that the humidity was about 4,000 percent. (Ms. Jenn no editor's note please because that is a fact, and you will agree with me.)  So we went in a side entrance at the first gate, and there was a statue of one of the three main Hindu gods.  The guide told us that there are hundreds of different Hindu gods, but there are three main gods. After that, we walked down the second half of the runway/walkway/sauna. We got to the temple, and it looked like there was a carving on every available inch of every wall.

We walked through the hallways taking millions of pictures. (Or at least Ms. Jenn was.)  We finally got to the center of the lower level. The center spire was still ahead of us. (You know the one- with the five towers that you see in all the post cards.)  This middle square had a pretty good amount of tourists in it, but the guide said that the crowds weren't that bad today. He said that there was a stairway up to the top. He also said that if you were under 12, you couldn't go up. So my mom, Ms. Jenn, and I went to the top. The staircase was what you would expect going up Mount Everest. It had a grade of about 60%. Just to add to our drippyness (yes, that's a word in my world) it was that incline for 50-60 feet.

When we got to the top, I realized just how high we were. It was something like 50 feet above the tree level. These hallways were still plastered with the high detail carvings. (All the carvings were about the Hindu religion, not Buddhism.)  I saw four more courtyards, but I didn't go into any of them. We walked down the hallways and saw the view in all directions. Then we had to walk down the stairs, which was a complete horror show. It was scary.

We left through the back entrance AKA the old king's elephant ramp. It was only a ramp to the entrance, not the main tower though. We drove away and went to the airport/helicopter. It was the scariest helicopter ride in the world. There were massive thunder cells on either side of us and in front of us. All the thunder cells were spitting lighting. The helicopter landed safely without us being fried.

Next we walked back across the border, but we only spent 5 minutes at customs. We took the boat back and chowed down at dinner. I thought that Angkor Wat was awesome, and I want to go back.

 

Pop Quiz

Can you guess where we went the other day for a day trip from Thailand? (Try not to use Google- no cheating!) Find your clues in the pictures below:

Singapore in 24 Hours

Written by William November 9, 2013

Today we are in Singapore for less than 24 hours (awake time). We are staying at the Raffles Hotel because it was on my mom and dad’s bucket list. I think its pretty cool and fancy. Its really humid here; after 5 seconds of being outside, I was dripping in sweat, as if I was a big ball of sweat. We walked around the largest mall I have ever seen in my life, and surprisingly my mom didn’t break the bank there. We went to the top of Sand’s Hotel, which is made of 3 buildings and 2,061 rooms, which amazed me. They had a viewing deck up top, where you could see the entire country (which is an island smaller than Puerto Rico). We saw Malaysia off in the horizon; the sky was really hazy from pollution. We could also see the Singapore Flywheel, which looks like a big ferris wheel on steroids.

Then we went to the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel, where you could throw peanut shells on the floor and then step on them and make a big mess! I thought it was really fun crunching on the peanut shell pile my dad made. Everybody had Singapore Slings, but Charles and I had strawberry daiquiris made with real strawberries, not the Island Oasis pre-mix, and so I did not like them.

Tonight we went to the world’s first Night Safari, which had a fire dancer show. I imagine it was scary close up, but it was really cool from far away. My favorite part was when they spit the alcohol in the air and made what looked like a mushroom cloud of fire. Then we waited in line for 20-30 minutes to get on the tram, but it felt like 5 hours. We saw some deer, hyenas, elephants, tigers, lions, giraffes, zebras, water buffalos, hippos, and more deer. I thought it was pretty cool because it looked like the animals were in the wild (there were no cages), but there were electric fences keeping them from killing us. I thought Singapore was pretty cool, and I would recommend it. I have to go bed now because we have to wake up at 4am tomorrow.

Written by Charles November 10, 2013

Singapore=whirlwind.  I think twenty-four hours is the perfect amount of time to see a giant city.  What?  I don’t like crowds.  Even though the humidity practically made everyone shut himself or herself inside with the AC.  We were staying in the Raffles hotel, which I think is just a name.   It looked like it came out of the 18^th century; I thought that it needed a major remodel. The electricity barely worked to plug in the computer. 

We first walked to the mall; well, we more like swam there.  We were dripping in sweat while just walking down the sidewalk.  We wanted to go to the Sands Hotel to see the observation deck, but we ended up in the mall instead.  We bought nothing, which I thought was a miracle because the mall was football fields long.  We found a way to get to the Sands Hotel through the network of tunnels under Singapore.  We got up to the observation deck and saw the whole skyline of Singapore.  There were lots of funny shaped buildings that I think the architects were trying to make famous.  The coolest thing we saw was Malaysia!  Yes, Malaysia!  Although we could only see buildings, I thought that it was cool that we could see across a country.

Next we went to the Long Bar at Raffles.  It looked like a house from a sugar plantation (on the inside).  My favorite part was the fact we could eat peanuts and throw the shells on the floor.  I liked to crunch on the shells with my feet.  After that we went on the Singapore Flyer.  It was basically a giant Ferris wheel.  The guide said that it was taller than the London Eye.  It went as high as the tower, and we saw the same things.  I liked it because we rotated in our little pod/capsule. After that, we went to the world's first night safari.  First we saw a fire dancing show, where two guys spit fire at each other, trying to burn themselves to a crisp pile of ash.  Next we waited in line for 45 minutes for a tram that would show us lots of animals.  Halfway through the tour I realized that we were going to see most of the animals on the safaris in Africa.  The animal that I thought was funny to see in a zoo was the oh so rare North American Deer.  Overall I think that it was somewhat a waste of time, but I still thought it was cool.  P.S. FTG’s are really called Feather Tailed Gliders.

Sydney Opera House from Our Hotel Room- the View of a Lifetime!

Written by Charles November 6, 2013

In Sydney we didn’t do much, so I’ll tell you about the exciting things.  We went to the zoo the first day.  We went on a backstage tour of all the Australian animals.  First we saw a platypus and a Tasmanian devil.  Those were not backstage but still pretty cool.  The Tasmanian devil was like a little dog/cat with razor sharp teeth.  It walked around the habitat and even gave us a snarl.  The platypus swam in circles in its tank, making us all laugh.   Then we saw the koalas, which were like the ones on Kangaroo Island- tired.  We actually got to go inside the enclosure and look at them really close!  There were two in their enclosure; one was sitting on the tall tree (10 feet high), and one was at my eye level.  I got really close to them, and I wanted to touch it, but the guide said I could not.  (That was the one at eye level.)  The one high in the tree was sleeping, so there was no action there.  The koala in front of me was cool because it moved its head a lot.

After the koalas, we went into the nocturnal house.  We went into the back tunnels of the nocturnal house and got to hold some animals.  We first held a glider which was softer than a chinchilla.  It had a long tail that liked to tickle me in the face, although I did not hold it.  It really liked people, and when the guide tried to put it back, it crawled all over his back!  It took him ten minutes just to put it back into the cage.  Next it was off track a bit and the rare North American Possum.  I got to hold it, and it crawled onto my shoulder.  Then the guide gave me a bowl of food that it started to eat from.  The possum’s fur felt funny, and I did not know what to think of it.  After the possum, we held FTG’s- try to guess what that stands for. (Post a comment as your answer)  No using Google or Yahoo or any other search tool.  I’ll give you a hint; G stands for glider, while T stands for tail.  I got to hold these mystery creatures, and it crawled all over my hand while in its vain attempt of an escape.  It was tiny, the size of about a mouse.  It also had gigantic eyes that took up half its head.  Also their heartbeat was so fast the whole animal vibrated with it. After the FTG’s we fed wallabies.  Yes, wallabies!  It was sort of like feeding a horse.  It licked the peanuts out of your hand.  The wallabies were about as tall a William, but they had way longer legs.  Overall at the zoo, I liked the koalas because they were the best looking ones.  

Also from our hotel room we can see, you guessed it, the Sydney Opera House!  It is literally two football fields from our hotel, right across the little harbor.  The harbor is actually the cruise ship terminal.  Right behind our hotel is the Sydney Harbor Bridge.  The hotel rooms look out over the water onto the Opera House.  The funniest thing about the hotel room was there were heated toilet seats!  I thought that was hilarious.

The next day we went to the Aquarium.  It wasn’t the best one because 70% of it was little fish tanks lining the walls with small fish in it.  The other 30% was tunnels with the top half of them were glass and looked into the fish tanks.  The tanks were not fish tanks, but they were the size of a football field!  In there were manta rays, manatees, fish, turtles, and even sharks!  I thought that it wasn’t the best aquarium ever though. 

We also went to the top of one of the giant concrete posts on the Harbor Bridge.  I saw the skyline of Sydney.  I saw the world’s ugliest space needle.  It looked like a pencil with a little kid’s block stuck at the top.  (It was rounded at the edges.)  We also saw the Opera House and the zoo.  I thought that the skyline was like any other city's, except for the Opera House.  I still thought that it was really cool though.  Later we tried to go into the Opera House, but some genius had the idea of making people go on the tour to see the inside.   So, we walked on the outside instead.  The Opera House is actually two opera houses.  There are two halls but it’s called the Opera House, not Opera Houses.  I thought that was confusing.  I liked the Opera House because the roof is made up of bathroom floor tiles.  My favorite part of Sydney was seeing the Opera House.

Written by William November 5, 2013

Yesterday we arrived in Sydney; we can even see the Sydney Opera House from our room! What makes the Sydney Opera House so special is that it is the only building in the world that is that shape. Today we went to the Taronga Zoo. My favorite animal was the FTG (which Charles mentioned earlier). We went on a tour with a guide, and we got to see the kitchen where they make all the food for the animals. Then we got a backstage tour, where we got to pet some animals and help feed them. We also saw my second favorite animal: the Komodo dragon. We took a gondola down to the bottom of the hill, and on the way down, we saw elephants, crocodiles, and hippos. Then we climbed up the lookout tower of the Sydney Harbor Bridge, where we got to see some of the city from up high. After that, we went to dinner.

Written by William November 6, 2013

Today we went to an aquarium and saw sharks, stingrays, little blue penguins, manatees, sea snakes, and seahorses. We also walked around the botanical gardens and climbed some trees (even though it said no climbing trees). Then we went to dinner, and there was a misunderstanding that led Miss Jenn to the wrong restaurant when she was trying to meet us. The concierge had sent her to the same restaurant but on a different street. We also went and saw the Opera House, but we didn’t have time for the tour, so we could only see the basement. Its really really really big and cool and awesome. 

Kangaroo Island

Written by Charles November 1, 2013

Today, after waking up at O’ God Early (4:30), we arrived at Kangaroo Island 10 hours later.  Something confusing was that when we landed in Kangaroo Island, there was a 30 minute time change.  I was baffled, and everyone else was looking perplexed.  We drove an hour till we arrived at the world’s most awesome hotel. The layout is like a house; there is the central living room, reception, and dining room all in one massive room.  Enough about the hotels, there are basically no activities except tours at the hotel.  Its right near the ocean cliffs, and you can see the ocean from our hotel.

When we got to the hotel, they asked us if we wanted to see kangaroos on an hour-long tour.  We all said yes immediately.  So we hopped in the tour van with the other people and headed out for an hour.  The kangaroos aren’t shy, like on the mainland, and they don’t box.  They have chocolate brown and attract loads of flies.  We got about fifteen feet from them and took pictures.  I thought that their faces kind of look like a camel's face.  There were hundreds of the 4 feet tall creatures in the plains.  It was hilarious because they would look at my mom, then she would grab the camera.  The kangaroos then would turn around and show their butts at my mom’s camera.  My mom would put the camera away, then they would look at my mom again.  I thought that it was pretty cool seeing the kangaroos hopping. 

On the way back in the van we saw an echidna.  It was crossing the road, and we saw it.  It looked like a porcupine that didn’t have razor sharp spikes.  I touched it when it tried to hide behind a tree.  Its spikes were oily and kind of smooth.  The guide told us that the spikes were made of the same stuff that our fingernails are made of.

 Written by William November 3, 2013

Two days ago, we had a full day of traveling. We arrived at Kangaroo Island, which is south of Adelaide, in the late afternoon. We went on a tour to see some kangaroos! They weren’t as big as I thought they would be, but some were still taller than me. They were eating grass, but when we got close to them, they stared at us and started to hop away from us. I thought it was cool to see them hopping. At the same time, I was worried that they would kick me; but the guides said that they wouldn’t. After that, we went and saw an old rickety cabin, which was built by the original owners of the land there. On the way back to the hotel, we saw an echidna, which looks like a porcupine, but it doesn’t shoot its spikes at you. The spikes are not as sharp as a porcupine’s; because of that, I could touch it, and so I did. It also has a long skinny nose for eating ants and termites.

Yesterday we went on a tour of the island, and we even got to see koalas! I spotted one that was really high up in a blue gum tree. I used the binoculars to see it, and it was scratching its butt. We saw some wallabies; they were small and gray and looked like little kangaroos. We saw a natural rock formation called the Remarkables. At a certain angle, all together they looked like a camel laying down. We walked around the rocks and took some pictures.

Written by Charles November 3, 2013

Today we went on a tour.  I thought it was really cool.  I saw the rare man-eating Koala! (They’re not dangerous.)  The killer wallaby (They’re more afraid of us than we are of them.)  And even the deadly New Zealand fur seal (They can be dangerous. Trust me I was attacked by one.)  Lastly, we saw the perilous wazza (AKA road kill.)  We also saw cool rock formations.

First stop was the koalas.  They were 50 feet up in the trees, and they looked like furry little specks.  We nearly broke the camera trying to zoom in.  There was one koala 30 feet up, and when we got close, all we could see was its butt.  It had a white bottom, and it was almost impossible to see.  By the end of the trail, we had seen four or five koalas.  I thought that the koalas were cool looking, even though they have Squidward noses that are stuck to their face.

Next stop was the Remarkable rocks.  They were a clump of five stories tall rocks clustered on a stone hill.  The rocks were reddish brown, and they were all different shapes.  The rocks were next to a cliff that dropped straight onto the ocean, so you got a lot of sea spray up onto the face of the rocks.  There were tons of nooks and crannies to hide in.  William and I darted from nook to nook, seeing which ones we liked best.  Also another cool part was that some of the rocks leaned against each other and made tall pointed tunnels.  I even saw a rock that was touching the ground in only three spots!  That rock looked like it weighed about a gazillion tons. 

Next and final stop was Admirals Arch.  There was a zigzagging boardwalk down to the arch.  We saw New Zealand fur seals fighting on the rocks near the ocean.  It was funny because the waves kept on soaking the seals.  When we got to the bottom of the boardwalk, there was a massive stone arch.  Stalactites were threatening to fall and stab the seals.  The arch was about a hundred feet tall!  There were seal pups that would jump from the rocks into the water in the arch.  It was funny watching them jump.  Other older seals were watching them or taking naps on the rocks.

Written by William November 4, 2013

Hi, today has been the craziest day ever! But if you know us, we are always crazy. Well, what makes today so crazy is that we went 4 wheeling and sand boarding. It was so much fun. I got the smallest A.T.V there was. So when we all got our ATVs, we started moving. First we went through some puddles, over some branches, and over some little bumps. Then, of course, there was a waist deep puddle of mud. Since I had the little ATV, I got stuck, of course. I went full throttle, and I sprayed my brother and me with mud. Sadly the instructor had to rescue me. Then we had to go back, but on the way back, we did a race vroom vroom! If I went full throttle, I would only go 10 mph! If Charles went full throttle, he would go around 15 to 20 mph. If my parents went full throttle, they would go around 30 to 35 mph, which even me (speed demon) thought that was fast.

Then we went sand boarding. Charles was really good, but when he wiped out he did somersaults down the sand dune. I was ok, my dad was better then me, and my mom was excellent- better than anyone.

Written by Charles November 4, 2013

Today was awesome!  We did four wheeling and sand boarding.  Four wheeling was on ATV’s through a farm.  We rode behind the guide through forests, sheep enclosures, plains, and puddles.  My favorite part was when we went through the puddles and the race.  The race was on the sheep pastures; the people that had the biggest engines won the race.  It was Ms. Jenn, Mom, Dad, me, and 1 minute later William.  William also got stuck in the mud.  He decided to go full throttle and spray me in the face with mud. The guide had to free him after the damage was done to my face.  He did more damage to the back of his shirt than my face though.  I thought that the four wheeling was awesome and one of the coolest things we’ve done. 

After that, we went sand boarding.  It was snow boarding, only on the largest sand dune ever (at least it seemed that way to me).  I mean that it was giant, the size of a mountain! (I've been known to exaggerate a bit). It was like a hundred feet tall.  It was steep, but on top of that, the sand moved downhill under your feet, so you moved downhill with it.  I got pretty good by the end of the day.  I also got pretty sandy.  The last ten feet of the dune were at a 75% grade, and the sand slid down hill, making you go with it.  Overall, I thought it was an awesome last day on Kangaroo Island.  Tomorrow we are going to Sydney, and I want to see the Opera House.