Hanoi, Vietnam

Bonjour 5C,

Nous sommes arrivés à Hanoi le 8 janvier. C'était froid, à peu près 12 degrés. Nous avons pris un taxi. La circulation était terrible car il y a des autos et motos dans toutes les directions.

Traverser la rue à Hanoi est très difficile. Vous devez marcher lentement en traversant la rue pour que les automobilistes puissent vous éviter. Nous avons passé 2 jours sur la baie Ha Long. C'est un site 'World Heritage'. La baie Ha Long est faite de 3000 iles dont 3 sont habitées. C'était très relaxant considérant que nous arrivions d'Hanoi. Sur la baie, il y a des vendeurs de n'importe quoi en bateaux.

A notre retour a Hanoi une journé ou l'on marchait au bord du lac, on nota qu'il y avait un rassemblement de gens à un endroit spécifique. Nous croyions que quelqu'un s'était noyé mais il en résulta que quelqu'un avait vu une tortue et les gens se rassemblaient pour la voir. Au Vietnam c'est un signe de bonne chance si quelqu'un voit une tortue.

Nous sommes présentement à Phuket (Thailande) pour se reposer. Il fait chaud mais il y a toujours une belle brise. Nous allons à la plage à tous les jours. Nous quittons la Thailande pour le Canada jeudi prochain. Ceci est le dernier blog. Je vais essayer de trouver un autre Internet Café afin de pouvoir y ajouter des photos à ce blog ci.

Hier soir, nous sommes allés voir un spectacle. A un moment donné, il y avait 16 éléphants sur le stade. Spectacle très haut en couleurs.

Je vous revois le 26 janvier.

Mr R

Hi Gr. 3S.

We arrived in Hanoi on January 8th.  It was cold, I had just given a sweater to  our tuk tuk driver in Cambodia and wished I hadn't.  It was about 12 degrees, we had shorts on.  We took a taxi into the city, the driver was very young.   The traffic was crazy in town, cars and motor bikes going on all sides of us in all directions .  They drive on the right hand side of the road or are supposed to.

Crossing the streeth in Hano was a real challenge.  You have to just walk slowly across the street and hope the driver won't hit you.  We took a 2 day boat tour to Ha Long Bay which is east of Hanoi.   It is a World Heritage Site.  It is made up of over 3000 little islands, so we toured in and around some.  It was spactacular.  When on the boat there were many vendors selling things from little boats to the tourists.  They used a fishing net to pass things to the people and collect the money, I guess they had to hope each other was honest.  Everyone seemed very honest, I never felt they weren't.  The trip was very relaxing compared to all the traffic and constant honking of horns in Hanoi.

The next day after arriving back in Hanoi we walked around the city which was difficult as one is taking their life in their hands crossing the streets and they use the sidewalks to park on so we had to walk lots of times on the streets. We were walking by a lake and in the middle of the city and people were running. I thought that someone had fallen in the lake as it turns out someone saw a turtle in the water and everyone was running to see it.  In Vietnam it is considered very good luck to see a turtle.

We are now in Phuket, Thailand for some rest and relaxation, it is very warm low 30's with a nice breeze.  We go to the beach everyday and will be here until Wednesday when we fly to Bangkok and return to Canada on Thursday so this will be my last blog. I am going to try to find another computer and add some pictures.

Last night we went to a Fanta Sea Show and it was awesome, at one time there were 16 elephants on the stage.   See you on the 26th. 

 Cheers Mr. R

Phnom Penh Siem Reap, Cambodia

Bonjour 3S,

Nous sommes arrivés à Phnom Penh au Cambodge le 2 janvier. Ce pays est beaucoup plus pauvre que la Thailande. La population est très jeune. Environ 45% de la population est agée de 25 ans ou moins. Seulement les rues principales sont pavées. Nous étions culturellement sous le choc en arrivant à Phnom Penh.

Ils y a beaucoup d'enfants et des femmes avec des bébés qui mendient. Ils sont souvent à l'entrée des restaurants et ils mendient meme pour les restants de nos repas.

Nous avons visité un 'killing field'. C'etait un des endroits ou les Khmer Rouges, sous le règne de Pol Pot,  tuaient les gens avec de l'éducation ou de l'argent.

Les Cambodgiens sont très gentils. Le salaire moyen est de $600 par année.

De Phnom Penh nous sommes allés a Siem Reap ou est situé le fameux Angkor Wat (temple reconnu comme un World Heritage).  Les gens vivent dans des maisons très pauvres, le plus souvent situées au bord de l'eau. Nous avons également visité un village flottant ou les gens vivent dans des maisons sur plateformes sur un lac. Dans ce village il y a des églises, des écoles etc. Les gens vivent complètement sur l'eau et se déplacent de maison en maison par petit bateau. Les écoliers paient pour chaque jour ou ils vont a l'école. S'ils n'ont pas d'argent une journée, ils ne peuvent pas aller a l'ecole. A Siem Reap, nous nous sommes deplacés par tuk-tuk. La temperature est très chaude.

A la prochaine

Mr R

Hi Everyone

We arrived in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia Friday Jan 2nd. This Country is not as upmarket as Thailand.  First thing I noticed was that the people were all very young.  About 1/2 the population of 14 million are under 25.   It is an underprivilaged country.  Only the main roads are paved and very dirty and dusty. There are garbage everywhere.   We took a taxi to the center of the city and we were very culturally shocked at the environment. Actually our first reaction was to leave, but we overcame those feelings and spent a week in the country. The taxi took us to a hotel as we had nothing booked.  The hotel was fine and there was a buffet breakfast included with the room. The first AM we went to restaurant and there was a bird sitting in one of the buffet dishes having their breakfast so needless to say we just ordered eggs cooked to order foods and bananas.

There were many children begging for money and I found that difficult to get use to. When we went to a restaurant they would stand at the entrance waiting for you to come out to beg for money. There was a lot of women with babies in their arms begging. They would also beg for food off your plate.

We went to the killing fields where 30 years ago the government tortured and killed many of their people, anyone with an education or money.  

After adjusting to the country we found the people friendly and kind even if they were poor.  The average person working in Cambodia earns about $600 per year.

We travelled around most of the time by tuk tuk, which is a motor bike hooked to a cart.

In the city of Phnom Penh one morning at the restaurant we heard a young woman yelling ' Elephant' and every one ran to look and there was an elephant walking down the road being followed by a man steering him by the tail. We also saw many monkies in a wooded area in the center of the city.

From Phnom Penh we took a bus 250 km to Siem Reap, it took 6 hours.  This city of 70 000 people has  a lot of Temples and one of the oldest in the world and very amazing. Angkor Wat is 15 km out of the city and is a world heritage site.  When we arrived at the bus station this tuk tuk driver took us to a hotel and basically became our transportation for the duration of our stay. His name was Bunheng and he was very nice. He took us to a floating village where people live in boats on the water. There was a school and pig pens and they were doing everything on the water. The homes along the way were very minimal, they would do most of their living outside.   They used the water for everything, washing clothes and dishes, fishing and also the toilet needless to say we did not eat the fish.

Children here pay each day to go to school, if they don't have the money they don't go to school.

People here use motor bikes as we use pickup trucks lugging everything on them. 

After the initial shock of Phnom Penh, we enjoyed Cambodia.

I am not going to add any pictures here as I think I may have deleted my pictures up to the last blog I did and I do not wish to take the chance of deleting the rest of them.  

Cheers Mr. R

Beijing, China

Bonjour classe 5C

Nous sommes presentement en Thailande. La temperature est chaude et humide (environ 30C).

Bangkok a un nouvel aeroport tres moderne et tres achalande. Plus de 13 millions de personnes vivent a Bangkok et la population de Thailande est d'environ 70 millions. Nous sommes arrives a Babgkok sans reservation d'hotel puisque nous sommes arrives une journee plus tot. L'hotel nous a trouve une chambre dans une petite maison. Nous nous y sommes rendus par motocyclette avec une wagonnette a 2 places sur le cote.

Un soir lorsque nous nous rentons a l'hotel, nous avons rencontre dans la rue un homme se promenant a dos d'elephant en plein centreville. L'elephant avait un clignotant rouge attache a la queue.

Nous sommes presentement au bord du Golfe de Thailande. Nous allons a la plage a tous les jours. Hier nous avons fait une excursion a dos d'elephant a une ferme d'elevage d'elephants.

Dans la rue, il y a des marchands de toute sorte, surtout de nourriture. Il ont leur cuisine sur des chariots et ils cuisent la nourriture pour vendre sur ces chariots. Une dame vendait des scorpions, larves, sauterelles comme nourriture. Nous n'en n'avons pas achete mais cela semblait bon.

Les taxis ici consistent de camion 1/4 de tonne ou l'on empile plus de 12 personnes a l'arriere. A Bangkok, ce sont plutot des tuk-tuk qui sont des motocyclette pouvant embarquer 2 personnes a l'arriere.

Demain nous quittons la Thailande pour le Cambodge.

Bonne Annee

Mr. R

Good Morning Grade 3S and Mrs. Greagans' Class.

We are now in Thailand. It is hot and sunny, temperature in low 30's.  This is the second time I am doing this as I lost the first entry.

Bangkok has a modern new airport and is very busy. Over 13 million people live in Bangkok  and there are 70 million people in the country.  We arrived with no place to stay so went to the hotel where we had reservations for the next night and they were full but had a guest house so we stayed there. They took us down this busy narrow street on a motorbike with a sidecart.

One night we were walking back to the hotel and met a man on an elephant walking down the busy narrow street. The elephant had  a flashing taillight.

We are now on the Gulf of Thailand and going to the beach everyday.  Yesterday am we went elephant trekking at an elephant farm. It was fun and saw lots of Elephants.

There are vendors everywhere, selling everything. They have their little shops on wheels.  They are like little restaurants. One worman was selling scorpions, beetles, maggots and grass hoppers for eating. We did not buy any but it looked good.

The taxis here are little. There are  1/4 ton trucks which pile 12 people or more on the back of it.

In Bangkok there were many tuk tuk's which buzzed around with a couple of people in the back.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Cambodia for another leg of our trip.

Happy New Year.

Mr. R

Beijing, China

Bonjour 5C,

Nous avons reussi a se rendre a Beijing apres un delai d'une journee du a la mauvaise temperature. Ne ne pouvons passer qu'une journee a Beijing puisque nous n'avons pas de Visa pour rester plus d'une journee. Le vol de Toronto-Beijing a dure 13 heures et l'avion est assez grande pour y mettre tous les etudiants de l'Ecole Elementaire de Rexton. Beijing est tres amical, occupe et tres propre. Treize millions de personnes vivent a Beijing. La temperature est moins 4C et nous ne pouvions pas trouver comment mettre la chaleur dans la chambre. Ce n'etait pas tres chaud.

Il y a beaucoup d'autos et de vieilles bicyclettes qui circulent dans les rues. Le Site Olympique est tres impressionnant. Nous n'avons pas pu se rendre a la Grande Muraille de Chine faute de temps. Les chinois sont de petite stature. Ils ne mangent pas beaucoup de viande. Ils ne mettent pas de beurre sur leurs roties. Ils utilisent des batons pour manger, ce qui leur prend plus de temps pour manger et donc ils mangent moins. Nous sommes maintenant a Bangkok, Thailande.

Je m'excuse mais il n'y a pas d'accents sur le clavier donc je ne peux mettre des accents sur lettres.

Joyeux Noel et a la prochaine

Mr R

Hi 3s, Mrs. Gregan's Class

Made it to Beijing after a delay due to wether.  We were rerouted through Toronto.  When we arrived at the gate to board the plane for Beijing, the ticket agent asked for our Visa for China. We said we didn't have one so we were only allowed to stay there for  24 hours.  The plane was big enough to hold every student in Rexton Elementary School.  It took 13 hours on the plane but went quite quickly.  Beijing is friendly, busy and clean.  Thirteen million people live in the city.  It was minus 4C there when we were there and we could not figure out how to turn the heat on in the room until the next day, so it was a bit chilly in the room.  Many people drive around on bicycles but also many have cars.  The Olympic site was impressive.  We could not go to the Great Wall of China because we had to leave the country we don't have Visas.  The people are not very big here.  They don't eat much meat,  put no butter on their toast and eat a lot of boiled eggs.   They also eat with chopsticks so it takes longer to eat.    We are now in Bangkok but that is another story. 

Merry Christmas.  Cheers

Mr. R

Beijing, China

Bonjour 5C,                                                                                                                                                                                             Je vous écris ce message pour vous démontrez comment le Blog fonctionne. Nous partons samedi pour l'Asie de Sud-Est. Nous voyagerons en Chine, Thailand, Cambodge et Vietnam. Je ferai quelques entrées et enverrai quelques photos. Si vous avez des questions vous pouvez me les demander et j'essaierai de trouver les réponses. Votre professeur vous aidera avec ce Blog. Je vous souhaite un Joyeux Noel et une Bonne Année 2009. Deux choses que j'espère faire est de voir des éléphants et de nager dans l'océan. Je vais enlever ces photos lorsque j'en aurai des novelles de mon voyage. J'écris également ceci en anglais pour la classe 3S.  A la prochaine.                                                                                                                                                                                 

Mr. Robertson

Hi 3S,                                                                                                                                                                                                         I am just writing this to show you how the Blog works.  We are leaving an Saturday for South East Asia. We are travelling to China, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.  I will make a few entries and send a few pictures.  If you have any questions you can ask them, not too many, I will try and find the answers.  You teacher will go through this with you.  I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a great 2009.  Two things which I hope to do is see elephants and swim in the ocean.   I will take these pictures off when I get new one when on my trip.  I am also writing this in French for 5c. Cheers

Mr. Robertson