Siem Reap

Today was our first day in Cambodia, in the city Siem Reap. We took two planes to get here, and we were given a sandwich we ordered at the Luang Prabang airport. We also got to pick a drink, so I chose a strange Fanta that was apparently banana, pineapple and orange. On the first plane, we were given a sandwich each, which caused a war between the different sides of the aisle. In the end, Flynn attached them with cling wrap, which made them look like a Chinese takeaway box, and gave it to Drew. He asked if we had gotten him some spring rolls so Flynn said yes and ran off the plane.

 We arrived here at about 1 in the afternoon and got on the bus. This bus was a luxury bus, with reclining giant leather chairs and leg rests. We were driven to Angkor Wat, which took about 5 minutes, to get our temple passes.

That night, we went to dinner with Angela & Co. by tuk tuk to a restaraunt called Sugar Palm. Mum and Ginny ordered a Piña Colada, which was apparently a mango colada. We had a few different meats and veggies, and the meal ended up being about $9.80 a head.

Luang Prabang with a Bang

AAAAHHHH!!! IT'S JOSH! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! AAAAHHHH!!!

We started the day with. . .sleeping in. . .I guess. . .with our first activity being a flight at 10am, we had plenty of time to relax, eat breakfast, and pack. Saying goodbye to Hanoi, we hopped onto an hour flight to Laos.

With half the day gone already, we didn't have long to do anything, so went straight to the palace where the King and Queen used to live, right next to a temple with 1000 different Buddhas scattered  across the walls.

After stopping at the hotel and dumping all of our stuff, we had a swim in the pool. Later that night, we used fishing rods made out of water bottles to catch fish in the hotel pond. Both Campbell and Flynn caught multiple, while I struggled to catch anything at all. When we needed to go, I went for one last go, and caught my first fish! One of the smallest of them all!

We went to a second Junior Adventurer's Night,  to leave the adults to themselves for beer tasting. We had dinner, watched Frozen, and did plenty of word games which were hard to understand.

AAAAAAAAA-

Early Morning Karma Call

       

Flynn here! Today we had to wake up at 4:00 to get ready. We got our hats, tags and whisper devices (headphones for our tour guides' microphones) and made our way to the lobby to meet our group. We hopped on the buses and began our drive to some Buddhist temples. When we arrived, we were given pots of rice because, well, we were feeding monks! All monks wake up really early every day to collect their food for the day. They carry a pot each and walk along the streets collecting money, food, anything actually! It was kind of weird at first but after the first crowd passed us I felt good about myself. When we had finished we got back into the buses and made our way to some rice paddies. When we arrived we were given the conical hats and were told to take our shoes off to be playing the role of a farmer better. We were split up into groups and were shown different elements that make up the process of growing rice. Campbell and I enjoyed the element of hitting the rice plants against wood to seperate the actual plant and the rice. There was also a water buffalo with a plough attached to him and we tried to plough the soil. Our supervisor yelled a command to start the buffalo and I had to run to keep up with the buffalo named Suzuki. After making some freshly squeezed sugar cane juice, we got back on the buses and drove to an extremely tall waterfall that some kids were swimming in and had some (bad) sandwiches. A boy was swimming a long way away from us and I didn't want my apple. Tony told me to throw it to the boy and so I did. The throw wasn't very good but he still caught it. We got back in the buses and started another drive to a school for hearing impared children. We were told and shown how the children learn and cope with their lives. We played a game where each family would stand up one at a time and they would tell their teacher some words to describe us. It started to be a funny game when Rose was told she had nice eyebrows and that Josh had a big nose. We then gave them colouring books, sticker books and snacks. This gave us two hits of good karma in less than twenty-four hours. When we went out of the school we were greeted by some tuk tuks (a motorbike with a little carriage attached to the back) and given $5 each. We didn't know what we were doing but we found ourselves at the night markets. We were told by Tony and Drew that we had to bargain as much as we could and spend all of the money we were given. When we had all finished we went back to the hotel on tuk tuks and met by the pool after an hour. We were doing a white elephant game (you put everyone's items in a pile and each person chooses a gift and unwraps it in front of everyone. On your turn you can either steal someone else's present or get a new one from the pile) with everyone! Here is a list of our family's presents.

Mum received: a fold up lantern

Mum bought: the same fold up lantern

Josh received: a weird hat

Josh bought: a weird hat

Campbell bought: scarves

Campbell received: a small blue wooden frog that if you stroked a stick on its back it would make noise

Flynn bought: old money, a U.S.A badge, an elephant pillow pin, a leather band and a pencil case

Flynn received: a fan that can turn into a hat.

Flynn out!

Chi Duo

Today was our last day in Hanoi, and was started off with Tai Chi. After practicing our punching and kicking through the hotel, it was very calm and slow. Most of it was pushing one hand forward and the other back in a slow motion, but at the end the instructor showed us these were fighting moves slowed down, which meant that when mum says no punching each other, we can use Tai Chi.

We then went on a ride around the city on Eco-Friendly buggies. The city was a lot nicer and cleaner than Ho Chi Minh city, and it was filled with buildings of a lot of different styles, from Japanese to French. We were dropped off at Ho Chi Minh's burial site, where the line to get in went around the block. Luckily, we got to skip the line, to everyone's contempt. We were halted on the way in, and soldiers brought out a large wreath and placed it on the steps, continuing a line of about 12 wreaths. We were later told that the wreath they brought out when we were going in was donated by Disney. When we went in the chamber with Ho Chi Minh's body, I immediately guessed it was wax and that the hair was fake. When we were outside, someone asked Tony whether it was fake or real, and he said that it is the real body, but they cover it in a thin layer of wax and fake hair every year.

We then went to the Temple of Literature, which at the time it was a reading festival so it was packed full of people. It was filled with bushes shaped like the Zodiac animals and ancient carvings and statues. We looked around the book stalls for about 10 minutes, and were called under a pagoda by Drew for a challenge. Seeing it was Easter, he had hidden a large plastic egg in one of the bushes and we had to find it. Amanda found it, and inside were Hershey kisses and a plastic dinosaur. She got to keep the dinosaur, but the chocolates were handed out to everyone.

For dinner, we went with Angela & Co. again, but this time to the Opera Cafe, which they and mum had both found on TripAdvisor. The food was good, but each of them came with an animal made from a carrot. Some were rabbits which came with mushrooms made of apples, some were poles of bamboo and one was a highly detailed dragon. We began playing around with them, then Ginny's asked us to take a photo with the dragon as a chest buster from the movie Alien. We performed a heist to bring the dragon back to the hotel, avoiding mum when necessary. We successfully brought it back and took the photo, then we left the dragon in the sink for the cleaners to find the next morning.

Some things we forgot.

Flynn here! This is just for some things we forgot.
1. We have made friends with four adults named Angela, Allen, Rose and Ginny.
2. Our tour guides' names are Tony and Drew.
3. Drew has many jokes, riddles and tricks up his sleeve.
4. The power lines in Ho Chi Minh city are crazy
5. Ice blocks are less than an American dollar in Vietnam
6. There was a bagel tree at the Sheraton

7. The Sheraton doesn't want gluttons at breakfast (picture below explains)

8. We saw Stark Tower and it had very nice fruit.

Le Arrival

Flynn here! This morning we arrived in Ha Noi and had a quick drive to the Ethnic Museum. I found it pretty boring because it was all about what languages different people spoke and where they were. Luckily, Drew saved my day by bringing all of the kids outside of the museum to a long suspended log of bamboo for a challenge. We all tried to walk across but we all failed. There is another kid named Drew and he invented "Kung-Shoe" as we were walking across. He loosened his shoes and kicked thin straight at us through the air. After the adults were done looking at the museum, we headed towards a small hut with paint and paint brushes on tables. We were told to choose a mask from the selection and paint it to scare away spirits. Ginny's and Rose's were quite good but I decided that mine would scare away spirits for a different reason. We then got back on the bus and checked in at the hotel. It was very funny because the staff are supposed to speak French to the guests and they decided to say "Bonjour madam," to Campbell. We then had a bit of downtime in the rooms but quickly came back down into the lobby to meet with our group. We got back on the bus and went to a show of water puppets. We came in to see a giant stage with water replacing the ground. There was a small platform next to it with the instruments and musicians. The show started off with a bang (at least for us) when some dragon puppets came onto the water. They started to spit water and one bit of water splashed onto one of the ladies. She had a grumpy face and stomped off of the stage. There wasn't really anything worth speaking about but it was good to see it once. After the wacky show was finished, we went back to the hotel and packed our suitcases partially. We had booked a dinner with "Angela .co" for a Vietnamese restaurant in the hotel. We sat down and munched on some bread. We tried some frog legs (they were pretty good) covered with batter and tried the homemade ice cream in flavours such as banana and pineapple. I am pretty tired now so I might finish up. Flynn out!

Climb Monkeys, Climb!

Josh. See? I can write my name in Vietnemese!

We started the day with a buffet at the hotel, where the newly created "Coco Cashews" were born. They're exactly as they sound - Coco Pops + Cashews. Then we went off with the group to Marble Mountain, holding multiple temple things and over 300 stairs. Most of us reached the very top, while others (coughmumcough) only made it to about step 200. 

At a rest stop on the way back home, we found moonstones, ninja turtles, and ice cream. Unfortunately,those ninja turtles were expensive, so we stuck to ice cream. Afterwards, the other three went in to town to explore, while I stayed at the hotel and partied. 

Later that afternoon, there was a game of Capture the Flag down at the beach. Not many people joined in, but it was still a good game. I don't think mum agreed, having three more pairs of wet sandy clothes to wash. Oh well.

For dinner we had a buffet barbecue, and many deserts. We has bad joke telling continued, which is always a laugh. That's all we did. The end. TY K BYE

Cu Chi Cu Chi Cu

Flynn here! Today started off with an uncomfortable experience. We made our way to the lobby of the hotel and got picked up by our tour guides in a bus. We drove to the War Remnants Museum and we were greeted by a man who had no hands and a leg spasm. my brain was confused as I didn't know what to do or say. He tried to shake my hand with his arm but I stood frozen because I was nervous I guess. We then continued into the museum and made our way up to the top floor. I was quite bored as I had to sit outside of the rooms because there was gruesome and depressing photos and objects in there. Even though I didn't see anything at the museum, I am glad that I stayed away from the disturbing photos that my brothers saw. We were then rounded up in our group and hopped onto the bus again. After an hour of playing a Disney version of Jeapordy, we arrived at the Cu Chi Tunnels. We were each given a sticker to certify that we had payed and through the forest we went. We came to a pile of leaves and we were stopped by our tour guide. He asked if there was anything different there and he came to the leaves. He kicked the pile and revealed a hidden passage. We opened it up and we went inside. It was a short tunnel leading to a further point on the track. We then came to some a line of traps. We were shown how they were used and what they did. We went to a restaurant near the tunnels and had some lunch. We then left on the bus to the airport. We caught an airplane to Hoi An and drove to our hotel. The parents went off to dinner and left the kids in a little cottage with our tour guide. We played some word games and had some pizza. We then went back to our rooms and we are about to go to sleep. Flynn out!

Avengers Assemble!

I am Josh. Day 4 of the adventure, and Adventures By Disney has begun!

We started the day with a long bus trip to the restrooms. They were quite small, but very interesting. Then we got another 10 minute bus trip to the water, where we were given the famous conical hats to keep on our journey.

We boarded a boat and sailed through the floating village - it's exactly as it sounds, a village on the water. We stopped next to another boat and bought some durian. We then had a snack of various strange fruits, such as rose apple, rambutan, and longan. Stopping for lunch, we had a huge meal, including the stinkiest fruit ever, durian (eww). Back to the hotel!

We had some downtime at the hotel, and I suited up for the special dinner ahead in a tuxedo print t-shirt which mum absolutely loves. We were having dinner in Stark Tower! Well, it didn't have the big Stark logo on it or anything, but it sure looked like it! I can only assume that it is what Stark Tower is based on.

Then we caught a bus back to the hotel and Hulk crashed.

Hey Ho

Campbell here.

Two days ago was our first whole day in Ho Chi Minh City. We started off the day by having breakfast in the club. There were classic breakfast items, like bacon, eggs, sausages etc..., then there were things like Pho noodles with prawns, and pandan jelly.

From there, we walked up a few blocks to the markets. On the way, mum realised the traffic and was anxious about crossing the roads. This may have been because there are no stop lights, and the motorbikes won't stop for you, they will just go around you. The markets had a lot of people selling t-shirts, most of them following you around asking you to buy one. One lady kept kissing mum and saying "I like you in the morning." Does that imply that she didn't like her at night?

We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch, which made it as 13th on Flynn's list of Hard Rocks. It was pretty small at first look, but still had some cool stuff in it. After mum told our waitress Flynn's goal was to go to all the Hard Rocks around the world, she brought him upstairs for 10 minutes and showed him some of the other items they had and took photos of him with them. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon just sitting around in the hotel rooms watching TV. It was annoying, as even if the show was in English, the screen would be filled with Vietnamese subtitles.

All up, a pretty decent first day in Ho Chi Minh City.

Flying start

Flynn here!

Just so you know, on this blog we might confuse you with the time period and when it was posted as we are having wifi problems.

We kicked off today with  a buffet breakfast. When we had finished we left our hotel for the Melbourne Airport. We flew to singapore on an amazing plane and rested at the airport for an hour. We saw an unusual squatting toilet (a hole in the floor) at the airport but sadly, no-one had to go. After frantically trying to find our terminal, we left for Ho Chi Minh City. We were amazed at how different the streets of Vietnam are compared to Newcastle. Scooters can be seen in mass quantities on every street. Horns from cars and bikes are frequently heard and the scent of restaurants floods the humid and crowded streets.  We are going to a fancy hotel called Sheraton and I am anxious about what we are doing tomorrow. Flynn out!

Weeee're baaaaaaaack!

Hey there, my loyal followers. What, do you think the other two have loyal followers? Ha! Of course I'm Josh!

The Starrett Boys are back, and more ready to take on the world than ever. Dad has decided to stay out of this one, and will instead stay home and...sleep, I guess. No matter! Even with one member down, we will still do what we do every holiday - try to take over the world!

Saying goodbye at the airport, we flew to our first destination, Melbourne, but not before I was checked to see if I was carrying any explosives. They know about my crime ring already! We quickly put our suitcases away in our room, and headed downstairs. Catching a taxi into Chinatown, we met with one of mum's friends, Chris, for a first class dinner - a Chinese restaurant in an alleyway. Om nom nom.

Back at the hotel, we watched SpongeBob for a while before going to sleep.

Rushing this post so we can head out the door, later my loyal subjects!