Japan

We were very excited to go visit Japan. We thought it would be very modern and mostly like a big tourist attraction. We were so surprise to see that it was not that modern and more lived in than we thought! In Tokyo we saw:

• The Emperor’s palace: the only problem was that it was on a Monday so we could not go in but it looked beautiful from the outside.
• Huge crossroads that are apparently the biggest in the world.
• A robot show that was very cool and its amazing how they can make such a big thing in such a small area.
• A few temples that were really nice and very different from the Thai temples.
• Taxis with doors opening automatically and the drivers were wearing white gloves and black hats.
• The food was really nice because of the different mixes that they do with seaweed, salmon, noodles. They mix sweet and salty food and often we didn’t know what we were eating and it often looked very weird!
• We loved the Japanese toilets: they have jets, heat, music. You can even have an application on your phone to make it work.

We took the Shinkansen, one of the fastest trains in the world, to travels to lots of different places. That was pretty amazing! And outside Tokyo, we saw:

• the Black Castle in Matsumoto: a big castle with 7 floors instead of 6 (one is hidden), very interesting but we had to queue and it took for ever.
• We did our first “onsen”: a big Jacuzzi like room with lots of showers and buckets where we had to wash very very well and rinse before going into the very hot pools and we had to be very careful not to wet our towels.
• In Himeji, we visited a Samurai house and a museum. Our parents took us to a place where we dressed up in the traditional kimonos to learn how to use the Japonese sword and fought with a real sword.
• We went to Hiroshima to see the memorial museum. It was very sad, gruesome and moving. Outside the museum, there was a flame that they will turn off once all the nuclear weapons in the world have been destroyed.
• On Max’s birthday we went to Nara ‘s park where there are lots of deer. We got to touch them and feed them with special biscuits that they really like.
• In Osaka, we played the typical Japonese drums, the Kendo drums, with some adults that were playing in a park. That was really fun!
• In Kyoto, we slept in a Ryokan, an old Japanese house, where they serve traditional tea and food on a very low table. We slept on tatami mats on the floor that we were comfy and had kimonos and special sleppers to wear.

But the best thing ever was the toilets!!!

Max and Alex

 

Sydney & the Blue Mountains

When we looked at the world map and decided to do the trip, I asked to go to Australia, I always wanted to go!

In Sydney, we saw the Opera House. It was very big, bigger than I thought and very special for me because I had a friend in nursery that was from Sydney and she kept talking about it. So since then I’ve always wanted to see it. It was absolutely beautiful but the only thing was that they were preparing a wedding and we could not go inside to visit it.

We walked everywhere and the funny thing was that there are lots of places with the same names as in London: Hyde Park, Oxford Street, Uxbridge Street, etc. We went up the Westfield tower, and visited the Sealife Center. It was the best aquarium i have ever been to. There were lots of sharks, sea horses, sting rays etc. The best part was walking through a large tunnel where sharks, stingrays and turtles were swimming around us. That was very special, it felt like I was swimming with them, in their kingdom. At the exit, you can touch real live starfish, sea urchins, sea slugs and anemones. I loved it! We also went to the Wildlife Center which was very nice too because we saw Koalas, Wallabies, kangaroos, snakes that look like branches…We also saw the biggest crocodile in the world that measures 3.5m long and that killed all his girlfriends. Even a massive female croco that had killed all the males she didn’t like! I also really liked the water playground near Darling Harbour !

After 3 days in Sydney, we hired a car and went to visit the Blue Mountains. There we saw massive white parrots called Cockatoos with yellow feathers on their head sticking up like punks. It was raining a lot and we couldn’t see anything but we put our ponchos on and went walking in the forest. We went down 900 very steep steps, and walked 3 hours by ourselves in the forest! That was so cool!

The next morning, we saw that it wasn’t foggy anymore so we quickly went back to the view point and we could see everything: the 3 peaks called the 3 sisters (the story is that 3 sisters were turned to stone by their wizard lovers to protect them during a war but the lovers died and the sisters are still waiting to be delivered from the spell) , the parrots flying in the valley and the waterfalls floating through the forest. It was beautiful!!  We took the steepest train in the world and a cable car across the valley then headed back to Sydney.

I loved Australia and the Blue Mountains!!!

 

Peru

We arrived in Peru the 29 of July 2014 at around 10:00 pm, but got to the Raddison Hotel at around mid – night. And going to the hotel in the cab was quite funny ; we kept falling asleep every two seconds although our mum kept awakening us because she did not want us to fall asleep until the bed in the hotel was under us. The history of Lima (after a while) was quite boring ‘cos there were only churches and only churches. So I would not recommend Lima for anything except for McDonald’s ,Starbucks’ s and the big, not so interesting cathedral. After 3 nights and 2 days of just discovery and sight – seeing, we took a plane to ¡!¡Cusco!¡!,
and we met a man and his daughter that were doing the Inka Trail Marathon at the exact same time that we did the Inka Trail (7hs average walking to do 11km) – (but they were doing 40km in 7hs !!!) !!!
As we came into Cusco, we were already had big head aches, because of the altitude. We met a friend in Cusco that helped us a lot for getting around, because she can speak Spanish and we can’t, although my mum can speak it but she has not spoken it for a long time, so she needs to get back into it, and my brother and I are learning Spanish so we are not pro ‘s yet.
At a restaurant, we ate the speciality of Cusco, roasted Guinea Pig. It tasted of soft chicken.
I would just like to share this super funny story : the evening we arrived in Cusco we went to a restaurant where they do really good Pisco – Sours (a speciality from Cusco). But then, my dad did not know that the volume of alcohol was 60%. So he had one and the next morning, he had a really bad head ache. So he was not going to come because he thought it was altitude sickness but we sort of forced him to. So the next morning it was the same and by the 3rd morning, still having a head ache from the 3rd Pisco from the night before, he took a moment to think about why he had the “altitude sickness” but not mum and I (Alex had the real altitude sickness). After 5mins of thinking he finally figures it out : IT WAS A HANGOVER !!!!!!!!!!!
The day after the day of that day we went on a tour to see some forts by a town called Ollyamtambo and from one of the temples we could see a face carved in the mountain and on the 23 September, which is the exact day of my birthday,the sun shines on the exact spot of the face, see, only miracles happen on my birthday! We spent a night of not even 6hrs in Ollyamtambo. We caught the train that went all the way to Maccu-Pichu but we stopped at “km 104”,and only the lazy people take the train the full way.
Whilst we were in the mountains with out very good guide, I looked back and said :
“-Wow! Already half way! What d’ you think guide?”
“-That’s about 200 meters Max, so let’ s go…”
I very much thought that was about……a few kms at least! Or maybe I was just getting my hopes up.
At about 3 and a half hours, we stopped to have lunch in a abandoned restaurant. The meal was very nice.
And you know that man and his daughter that we met on the plane, well guess what, he stopped him self ( because he designated us ) we said hi and started chit – chatting. He was 5th man and his daughter was 1st lady in the whole race !!!
What was also quite funny is that a guy said that his wife was 1st lady but she was 4th lady !!!
We finally hit “the 80 steps”. They are steps that are about 40 cm tall each but they lead to a beautiful view of Maccu – Pichu and the whole valley around, that look out place is called “The Gate Of The Sun” because, every year, the sun shines through that hole and it shines onto Maccu Pichu. By the way, my nick name is Maccu Pichu.
When we saw what we were staring at, mum and I cried because mum has been wanting to come here for 18 years at least and me all my life. That night, we went to Aguas Calientes, a little town at the foot of the mountain.
We stayed there for a very short night. The next morning we woke up an hour before Sun rise. The bus was due to arrive at 5am but it arrived at 6am !!! We spent an hour in the bus going up the mountain. We stayed until 1 o’clock in Maccu Pichu then we went to the train station and took a train back to Cusco. By the way, “Maccu Pichu” means “Old Mountain”.
We spent an other night in Cusco.
The next morning, we took a bus to go to Puno. The trip was 11hours. But because we stopped at a few churches, it felt a bit shorter. Once we arrived in Puno, we straight away started exploring although it was already 7pm. The next morning, we went to the port to see if we could spend a night with a family in Uyuni, a little but very poor island in the the huge 8000km² Lake Titicaca. It is the highest lake in the world (4000 meters high). We found a boat going to Amantani island. On the way, we stopped at a bamboo island where 3 family’s lived there and it was not even 30m² !!! I quite liked it because it was freaky! It took about 3 hours to get to that Amantani island. When we arrived, we got invited by a lady who wad the owner of the house we were about to sleep in. It was quite a long way from the harbour to the house and half way up the hill we were exhausted and she, who was carrying by her little we boy on her back didn’t even have a puff coming out of her mouth. We were very lucky to be visiting that day because there was a big show with lots of people dancing, playing the music and drinking to celebrate the different tribes. The dancing was very nice although lots of people were very drunk. I played football some little boys, with an empty plastic bottle! We ate very little (a soup and a few potatoes) and dad, Alex and I tried to play cards before going to sleep but our hands were so cold that we went to sleep freezing with all our clothes on. I slept like a log but dad and Alex didn’t sleep well at all. The next morning we had an omelette with potatoes again and at 10am we took the boat back to Puno.

Max-upicchu!

 

August 2014 -Rio de Janeiro

In Rio we saw:

• The Christ Redeemer, the very big statue of Christ that weights 215 tonnes, from which we had a very beautiful view. From the top you could see everything! Ever since I was small a lot of people were talking about it but being there is very different. I loved it.
• The “Pao de Azucar” is the famous pointed mountain in Rio that you see everywhere. We went up in the evening so we had a beautiful view of the sunset and we took lots of funky pictures with torches.
• The Selaron Steps, some steps that are made out of tiles from all over the world. I found it quite odd and didn’t really like the look of it.
• Not far from Copacabana beach where we stayed, we walked up Leme Fort, an old army base, and on the way up we saw lots of cute small grey and white little monkeys. I wanted to feed them but mummy was greedy and she had already eaten the banana.
• Copacabana beach, a massive beach with big waves, lots of volleyball nets and super soft sand. The pavement was funny: it was made from black and white pebbles from Portugal that were making beautiful big waves .

I am sure that when I am older I will return to Rio as I really liked it.

Alex

August 2014 –  The Amazon

We arrived in Manaus on Saturday 19th July. We took a bus and then a speedboat to go to the other side of the Amazon and the sea and then caught a Volkswagen combi for 45mn to get to another port and catch another speedboat! When we arrived we had lunch and then we swam in the Amazon until someone told us that the water was 30 meters deep.

Later we took a boat to go and see the pink and grey dolphins swimming in the river. It was the most beautiful day of my life, we don’t see this in London! They are such beautiful animals.

The following day we visited an Indian tribe. I thought they would be Indians with bows and arrows, but they were normal people but they lived in the jungle, with lots of wild animals as pets. They had a snake and it was scary to hold at first ut at the same time it was very pleasant to hold. Then we went to a place where they produce manioc flour. Manioca is like a big sweet potato. That afternoon we went piranha fishing. By the time I had just taken my fishing rod, /out tour guide had already caught one. I felt sad because that day I was unlucky: i was only feeding them/indeed of catching them. That night we ate piranhas. They taste nice but there is hardly anything to eat on them!

The following day, we went trekking in the jungle. That day we didn’t managed to see any animal but we saw exotic plants and poisonous plants and spiders that you don’t get to see in London. We learnt how to make a cup with a palm leaf and to listen out to animals. What I didn’t like was the mosquitoes! Later we went kayaking on the river and in the mangroves. We saw some iguanas seating at 15m up in the trees and jumping into the water when they were scared. We saw some big wasps nests and Max got stung by one. He was lucky because these were not dangerous. We saw some eagles, macaws, parrots. The last day we returned to see the dolphins and followed them for a while, it was really beautiful.

The Amazon was really special and I really want to go back because I would love to do a survival trip in the jungle and learn to live in the forest.

Alex

29 Juin 2014

Cela fait des semaines que nous attendons ce moment. Maman et papa ont passe beaucoup de temps a organiser, stresser et preparer notre depart et tout et tout. Il y a 5 jours a peu pres, les demenageurs sont venus vider la maison, il sont tout pris, absolument tout. Nous avons dormis par terre pendant 2 nuits puis sommes alles dormir chez Dada les 2 nuits avant de partir. Nous sommes prets a partir enfin. Dada et Baba nous ont accompagnes a l’aeroport. Nous avons dit au revoir, c’etait un melange de tristesse et de joie. Nous passions les douanes et papa bip déjà, ca commence bien! Notre premier vol nous emmene a São Paulo et tout de suite après nous allons a Salvador de Bahia. Nous partons a 9h50 du soir et arriverons a 13h a Salvador qui a 4h de moins que Londres. A Salvador les rues sont vides, jusqua ce que nous arrivions dans le centre ou plein de gens, tous en t- shirts jaunes Brazil se dirigent vers la plage. Nous nous rappelons qu’il y a gros match: Bresil / Chili et de grands ecrans sont sur la plage pour suivre les matches. Nous arrivions a notre hotel, qui s’appelle Hit hotel, bizarre, et nous allons vite dans notre chambre pour suivre la fin du match. Le bresil gagne et la ville se reveille avec plein de gens dans la rue qui chantent, rient et font du tambourin. .. Nous finissons la journee avec une baignade dans la mer. C’est l’hiver ici mais il fait tres chaud et l’eau est bonne. De la plage de Porto de Barra, nous avons un magnifique coucher du soleil, une fois finit, tout le monde applaudit, c’est drole! On va bien dormir ce soir! Max –

Max first contribution to our blog: a drawing picturing our adventure. It feels happy, I like it very much!