Posts in “Asia” Category

Hello everybody. For now we start off in Amman, the capital in the country of Jordan, where we visited after Cairo. We found out that Jordan is MUCH less crowded than Egypt and it was sort of a pleasant surprise because you don't have so many vendors or as much traffic, so it really felt different.
 
The first thing we did in Jordan was go to ancient ruins in a city called Gerasa from the times when the Greeks rules this part of the world. The funny part about going there is that we ran into part of the National Geographic group that we were with in Egypt (and we ended up seeing them again in Petra). We toured with them around the Greek ruins.
 
After visiting the Greek ruins, we started on our way south to Petra. We stopped off at the Dead Sea, whish is the lowest place on the planet as well as the saltiest. The Dead Sea is so salty that you can float on top of the water and read a book. It's also so salty that fish can't live in the water there, so that's why it's called the Dead Sea.
 
By the time we got to Petra we were already asleep so we wouldn't see it until the next day. In the morning we started on our way to Petra, but before you get to the city, you have to go through a gorge in the rocks called "the Siq." We were on our way there and saw a bunch of caves carved into the mountain and later found out they were ancient homes.
 
The passage through the Siq is really almost a mile long and once we were in it we saw that on both sides are channels that water used to flow through to provide water to the city. After walking for about 20 minutes we saw the treasury building, which is the one you see in the Indiana Jones movie. But unlike in the movie, there is no city inside, just a big room with a few smaller rooms.
 
After the treasury, we went to a big open area where me, Stefan, my Dad and our friend Rob climbed up to a place where you could see all of the ruins. We did a lot of climbing while we were in Petra so we could explore all of the old buildings. We went on a hike up to a place called the monastery, where there was a large treasury-like structure carved into mountain that sloped down and you could see the whole valley from there. The way things were carved right into the rocks was really cool.
 
That's all for now!

Hi. I'm in the country of Jordan. In Jordan there is a place called Petra. Petra is a city that was built right in the rocks of a big valley. The buildings in Petra are made out of sandstone carved into the mountainside. The city was used for trading. People would go there and trade what they had.  
 
But before I get into the details, Jordan is also the place where Jesus was baptized and we went to the edge of the Jordan River and said a little prayer. It was really cool because water from the Jordan River was the water that the priest used to baptize Ty and me when we were babies.  
 

People have been living in Jordan for thousands of years. Petra is really, really old.  People started living there more than 2000 years ago. When you first walk to the city through a long pathway between the rocks called 'The Siq," the first thing you see is the treasury building. This is the only man-made carving in the world that was built from the top down to the bottom. It was done this way because they were afraid that if they did it from bottom to top, the rocks would fall and break the sculpture below. It's really not a treasury building because there was never any treasure in there, but when people rediscovered the city, that's what they thought. It was actually a tomb for a famous ruler.

Another cool thing about Petra is that the people carved caves in the rock and that's where they lived. We went in some of the caves and we felt like we were back in the Flintstone's age ... yaba-daba-do!

Hello everybody. We saw elephants five out of 16 days while we were in Thailand. The theme of Thailand was elephants ... elephants, elephants, elephants!  

1. We saw elephants for the first time at FantaSea, which is a theme park about Thailand. We took a ride on a big elephant. Then, we saw a spectacular show with lots of elephants in it. The elephants were my favorite part of the show.

2. The second time was at a nice hotel called Marina Phuket. A small, three-year-old elephant came in during the mornings. He was so cute! Tyler and I got to feed him little bananas. We also took rides on him. The trainer made the elephant bend his leg so I could hop on and sit on his neck. The elephant's name was Nimone and he was our favorite.

3. The next time we saw elephants was on Halloween, when we got soaked. I told you about that in my last blog.

4. My family and I went to the Thailand Elephant Conservation Center, where they train elephants and teach people about elephants. We saw a show about how they used elephants for pulling logs in the forest. That is also where we got a picture of an elephant mommy and baby. The really cool thing about the picture is that it was painted by an elephant and we watched her do it! The artist was a really cute four-year-old elephant. We thought she was the cutest elephant there.

Hello, everybody! I'm going to tell you about the Thailand you haven't heard about yet. Here are the five highlights of our Thailand trip, starting with the best.

Coming in first place, is the bat cave we visited before Halloween. The bats flew around and squeaked. The cave also had cool rock formations and stalagmites, the big pointy rocks on the ceiling of the cave. We were guided through this cave by gas torch and floated down the rivers on bamboo rafts.

Coming in second, is our boat trip in the canals outside of Bangkok. We went around in a boat. It was a strange trip because merchants grab boats with their canes to display their stock.

In third place, comes the Bangkok Traditional Puppet Theater, where we saw "The Birth of Ganesha." The show was about how the god, Ganesha, got his elephant head and saved heaven from the demons.  From then on, Ganesha became one of the most famous gods in Thailand -- the God of Wisdom.
 
Coming in fourth place, I chose the temple ruins in Sukothai, where we went to see all of the old city ruins. Sukothai used to be the capital of Bangkok, dating back to the 1200s. Although the city is in ruins, some of the Buddhas and temples remain. Many Buddhas were repaired because they are considered sacred items.
 And last, but not least, in fifth place, comes the reclining Buddha at Wat Poh temple in Bangkok. Laying down, the Buddha was 45 meters long (135 feet ... about half of the size of a football field). The entire Buddha was painted in gold leaf except the bottom, which is black and has 108 scenes carved from mother-of-pearl. It was cool on the way out of the temple because people would put tiny coins into metal pots, so all you hear is the soft clang of the coins landing in the pots.

So, there are my highlights from Thailand (and all the elephants of course).



Now, we're off to New Zealand!

For Halloween this year, we are in Thailand, which is very different than in America. People here don't celebrate Halloween, but there were still lots of tricks and treats for me.

Getting to go on an elephant was the "trick." We rode them to the river. When we got to the water, they made us take everything off except our clothes. We had to give them our shoes, hats, and all of our valuable things, but we didn't know why. When we got in the water, the elephant suddenly sat down, and then the person that was steering, made the elephant lay down on its side. Then, we knew why they made us take off all our valuables -- because we were going to get wet! We were all scared until we found out that they did it on purpose. The elephant sat back up and my Dad and I got back on. Then, it sprayed water on us with his trunk. The elephants kept on doing it until we all yelled for them to stop. It was annoying, but fun. We all had a good time. That was the funniest Halloween trick ever.

Happy Halloween, everybody! I'm in Thailand for Halloween this year and instead of running around in some cool costumes collecting an assortment of wonderful candy of various flavors and colors, we are doing some things of a different nature. The first thing we did was take a wooden boat down a river to an area of small mud houses with leaf-covered roofs. We stopped there to take a look at a tribe where women put coils around their necks. Over time, the coils push their ribs down and make it look like they have really long necks. They also wear ornaments on their head, like long pieces of fabric coming down from another piece of cloth. When we were walking around their village, we were shocked to find that a lot of the smaller girls had the coils too. 

Q:  What is your best memory from Bhutan?
A:  When I got my prayer beads blessed by a lama (click here to watch the video). It was special because we did it as a family. I also really liked the people in our tour group. They were very nice to me. I also really liked our guides, Tshering from Bhutan and Richard from Scotland. Richard is an expert on Bhutan and told us a lot about the culture and Buddhism. I learned a lot.

Q:  What's the biggest difference between Bhutan and the United States?
A:  In Bhutan, we are the foreigners (or Chilips as we were called). They have terraced rice fields almost everywhere you look. You don't see that in America. They don't have any traffic lights in the entire country, so you don't have to wait in traffic. My dad liked that!

Bhutan is full of so much great culture, like their prayer flags. Prayer flags are long pieces of cloth that come in all different colors. They are stamped with prayers. People hang them up in trees near temples and holy sites.

Hello everybody! I'm here in Bhutan, a country located in the Himalayas. In Bhutan, they rate how successful the country is based on "Gross National Happiness," which I think is cool because that means they value happiness more than having money.

In Bhutan, we were with a National Geographic Expedition group. We all first met at the airport in Bangkok, Thailand, where we boarded a plane to Paro, Bhutan. As we landed, we got really close to the mountains and you could see the whole valley. It was awesome.

Kuzuzangpola, everybody! Kuzuzangpola means hello in Dzongkha, the language of Bhutan. That's where I am now. Bhutan is in Asia and it's a really small country in the Himalayas with a lot of snow-capped mountains.  

Most people in Bhutan practice Buddhism and there are lots of temples and monasteries. I really like the colorful prayer wheels in the temples. A prayer wheel is like a big giant top that you spin with your hand. Inside, they have paper with prayers written on them. You have to spin the wheel clockwise and when the wheel goes around once, it rings a bell. One ring equals one prayer. Lots of people spin the prayer wheels with prayer beads in their hands. Prayer beads have 108 beads. You are supposed to go around in a circle, holding each one with your fingers while saying a mantra. A mantra is a phrase you say over and over like praying for good health or good fortune.