All posts by Brent Menke

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Flores, Komodo épisode 2

Another full day of travel before arriving in Labuan Bajo, on the opposite side of the island from our first bungalows. I had high hopes for this place. I was excited to get back to a decent tourist town after 5 days of run-down villages. The way I expected it was a miniature version of Sairee beach (Koh Tao Thailand); a long beach lined with cafes and shops. It was no better than Bajawa. Dirt roads, sketchy buildings, not a clothing shop in view except for a single “I love Komodo” underwear vendor.

Toute une journée de voyage en voiture pour arriver à Labuan Bajo, à l’est de l’île de Flores. J’avais espoir d’arriver dans une ville décente car c’est l’endroit le plus touristique de l’île. Dans ma tête je voyais un village comme Sairee sur l’île de Koh Tao, Thailand, la plage avec plein de petits restaurants et de magasins. Eh, bien non! Pareil que le reste ou presque, les rues qui ne ressemblent à rien pas propre, pas de magasins intéressants sauf 1 ou 2 qui vendaient des T shirts I love Komodo. J’étais super déçue.

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The best part of that town was the hotel. The reason we went to Flores in the first place, to see the famous Komodo Dragons. Our wooden mint green and white boat left at 7:30am. The roar from the old motor limited our conversations to “are we there yets” and “are you colds”. Yet in 2 hours (a short time compared to the 35 hours we spent in the car on Flores) we had already set foot on the land before time. Our very first encounter was with a juvenile. It wasn’t keen on us so it waddled away into the dense jungle. Our ranger Putu brought us to the kitchen station was where 12 adult dragons lay basking in the sun. They looked almost silly with all four legs sticking straight out from their plump scaly bodies. A few lifted their heads up lazily as we passed by but otherwise didn’t show much interest in us until the biggest one got up and walked toward the path all the while hissing like a crocodile. The back of its tail was painted red as to make it easier to recognize it as a ferocious man-biter, explained the ranger. That’s the most comforting feeling, knowing that you can be eaten at any moment by a prehistoric lizard with only a ranger with a forked stick to protect you! (Spoiler Alert, I made a tasty snack). Our trek continued through the jungle where we saw a Komodo nest, Guiney hens, monkeys, and some deer. We walked around the island for an hour before returning to the ranger station. We were very lucky that day, seeing 16 Komodo Dragons in one day is rare. The next day we were off yet again to our final destination on Flores; Kanawa Island.

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Par contre les hôtels étaient quand même bien mieux. Nous sommes venus sur Flores pour voir les dragons de Komodos. Nous voilà embarqués sur un petit bateau en bois peint vert menthe, le moteur était tellement bruyant que notre conversation se limitait à “Sommes nous bientôt arrivés?” Il nous a fallu un plus d’1 heure pour arriver sur la fameuse île de Rinca qui avec celle de Komodo sont un parc national où on trouve ces fameux animaux presque préhistoriques. Dès notre arrivée nous avons vu un jeune qui ne s’est pas attardé et s’est caché dans la jungle. Notre ranger Putu nous a amené vers la cuisine du campement des rangers où une douzaine d’adultes se reposaient à cause de la chaleur. Ils avaient une drôle d’allure avec leurs 4 pattes étirées à plat. Notre présence ne les dérangeaient pas vraiment, rarement l’un d’eux lever la tête pour voir ce qui se passait. L’un des gros mâle s’est soudainement levé en faisant un bruit pour se mettre quelques mètres plus loin. Il avait de la peinture rouge sur le dos, notre ranger nous a expliqué qu’il était marqué parce qu’il avait attaqué un humain, donc tout le monde le surveillé de très près. Le ranger avait seulement un baton pour nous sauver s’il venait à nous attaquer, je ne sais pas si c’est très dissuasif face à ses bêtes! Je pense que je suis de bonne taille pour être croquée comme snack. Le ranger nous a baladé dans la jungle et on a vu là où les femelles pondent leurs oeufs, nous avons aussi vu des pintades sauvages, des singes et des cerfs (tout ça fait un bon snack pour les komodos) même s’ils préfèrent les buffles. Nous avons eu de la chance de voir 16 dragons de Komodo en tout dont 5 dans la jungle, apparemment c’est assez rare. Demain nous partons sur l’île de Kanawa autre destination spéciale de Flores.

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The big wooden boat rocked from side to side as it hit the waves. 45 minutes and we were already on the island of Kanawa. The coral reef coming in fanned out far and wide, making us take a large loop to get onto the boardwalk. Looking into the clear turquoise water, I could see dozens of big red and blue starfish. The restaurant was a thatched roof with some chairs and tables beneath it. And the bungalows looked like they were from a horror movie. Their ripped thatch, chipped white paint, and rotten floorboards didn’t make me feel any more welcome. And the shower was a bamboo spout coming out of the cracked cement wall. I kept trying to remind myself that I was just there for the snorkeling. But the trash-laden beach was sad to look at.

Un large bateau en bois nous a transporté sur l’île de Kanawa, il nous a fallu seulement 45 minutes. La mer était calme et ce fût une bonne traversée. Le bateau a fait un détour lors de notre approche de l’île car le corail était presque à la surface de l’eau, je pouvais voir des étoiles de mer bleues et l’eau turquoise comme sur les photos. Le restaurant était assez basique un hangar avec un toit, des tabourets et des tables, la nourriture était par contre très bonne. Par contre les bungalows, on aurait dit qu’un ouragan était passé par là.  Digne d’un film d’horreur. Leur toit de chaume a moitié parti, montant en bois pourri, peinture qui s’écaille, franchement pas le genre d’endroit dont je rêvais. Salle de bain, un gros tube de bambou, ils amènent l’eau depuis Flores nous avons eu la chance de toujours en avoir mais un des soirs après 18h il y en avait plus et les gens n’ont pas pu se laver ou juste se rincer. J’essayai de prendre cette aventure avec philosophie nous étions là pour les fonds marins pas la chambre…Pour arranger le tout, la plage avait beaucoup de détritus surtout du plastic. Véritable problème ici car ils jettent tout à la mer, les employés ramassaient des sacs de détritus échoués sur la plage ou flottant dès 6h00 du mat. 

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Yet the water was warm and the coral was huge. A vast plain of staghorn coral, giant clams, and sea anemones dominated the ocean as far as I could see. And that’s not to mention the fish. Their bright blues, reds, greens, oranges, and yellows made up for their small sizes. Out of all the animals that I saw, the hawk bill sea turtle I spotted was by far my favorite. I tried swimming with it, but I just freaked it out and with its flippers, it could swim faster than I. Nonetheless I got to see a wild sea turtle! Other animals we encountered while snorkeling were some reef sharks (finally), a lion fish, 2 sting rays, a giant puffer fish, 2 moray eels, and many, many clownfish of every color and size. You should know that we didn’t spend all of our time swimming around. Jayden and I played with some Indonesian-French boys Alif and Marc about our age which was very nice. The food at the restaurant had surprisingly good spaghetti Bolognese. That was the only thing I ate besides my eggs and toast for breakfast! Although the coral and the fish were one of the best in Indonesia, I was anticipating our departure. I was exhausted after 2 hot, sleepless nights in that nightmarish bungalow.

L’eau était super bonne et le corail gigantesque! Avec des clams géants, sur des mètres il fallait faire attention car le corail n’était qu’à quelques centimètres de nous, des anémones avec des poissons clowns de toutes sortes. Sans oublier les poissons, noirs, bleus, jaunes, oranges. J’ai nagé avec une tortue que j’avais vu au loin. J’ai tout de suite averti les autres et nous nous sommes dirigés vers elle. Nous avons nagé un peu avec elle puis elle a commencé à accélérer et je n’ai pas pu suivre. Mais j’étais super contente. Nous avons vu enfin je dois dire des requins de récifs, un poisson lion (magnifique mais il faut faire attention car il a du poison), 2 raies, un poisson gonflant gigantesque, 2 murènes, et bien sûr des poissons clown. Jayden et moi n’avons pas passé tout notre temps à faire du snorkeling, nous avions trouvé 2  garçons franco-indonésiens Alif (12ans) et Marc (8ans), nous avons joué au foot, fait des batailles dans l’eau c’était sympa. Au resto, mon plat préféré était les spaghettis bolognese  et les petits déj avec des oeufs au plat. Même si ça valait le coup de venir ici, je me languissais de retourner sur Labuan Bajo et de dormir dans un vrai lit, il faisait vraiment trop chaud ici et je n’ai pas bien dormi. 

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Flores was one of those islands that you only visit once. It is authentic, the people are very nice and pleased to say Hello Mister all the time. It has some beautiful landmarks like the spider web terraces of Cancar, the volcanoes, and the reefs, but I like lively towns and more upscale places to sleep in with better mattresses and hot showers. I have been looking forward to returning to Bali ever since we arrived in Flores, and now I’m almost there!

Pour moi, j’ai visité Flores une fois et je ne pense pas que j’ai besoin d’y revenir. C’est très authentique, les gens portent encore les costumes traditionnels et ils sont très gentils, les écoliers aux bords des routes ou des rues nous disaient Hello, Mister tout le temps. Les rizières de Cancar sont extraordinaires en forme de toiles d’araignée, les volcans sont magnifiques et les îles autour de Labuan Bajo avec un corail spectaculaire. Mais c’est difficile de voyager, les routes sont tortueuses, il pleut beaucoup en altitude, le manque de confort (électricité ou eau chaude). Nous retournons sur Bali, et j’avoue que j’ai hâte d’y être.

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Flores, Indonesia épisode 1

Bali was the first place that I felt a special attachment to out of all of the other countries we’ve been to. Leaving was the last thing I wanted to do, especially after my mom told me that we would be staying in bungalows with neither Wi-Fi, hot water, nor electricity. Well, there was nothing I could do. After the plane landed, we waited 25 minutes in an airport terminal smaller than my house for 1 luggage.

Bali est le premier endroit où je me suis vraiment sentie chez moi depuis notre départ. Je ne voulais vraiment pas partir surtout après que ma mère m’a dit que nous allions  dormir dans des bungalows sans électricité, ni eau chaude. Il n’y avait rien que je puisse faire à ce sujet. Après notre vol de 1h15, nous avons attendu 25 minutes pour seulement 1 sac enregistré, le terminal ressemblait plus à un hangar qu’un bâtiment.

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We found a cab driver to take us to our beach side bungalows. Beach side, check, rustic, check. About the only amenities were a bed, shower head, mosquito net, four walls and a roof. My favorite things about this particular place were all of the shells on the beach and the incredible snorkeling.

Notre taxi nous attendait et nous a amené chez Lena’s House. Plage elle est là, coté rustique là aussi. Plus ou moins un lit avec une moustiquaire et 4 murs en bambous tressé, ah! j’oublai un toit aussi. Par contre une des meilleure plage pour trouver des coquillages! Je commence à avoir une jolie collection.

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We went on a trip on an old boat. It took us a while to get to the first island but when we did, I didn’t want to leave. The water was of such clearness that I could have easily been in a swimming pool. The coral. It was better than all of Koh Tao combined. The shallow depth made it easier to see. There were all kinds of shapes and sizes. Long and tubular, curly, sponge-like, fan, hard, delicate, purple, pink, yellow, blue, red, green, the list keeps going on and on. There were weren’t many fish larger than my palm, although blue starfish as big as my face I could see everywhere. After that we went to Babi Island. This time with less of the bright kind and more of the delicate blue finger coral. I found a giant spiky starfish considerably larger than all of the other ones. I wanted to take it home, I inferred that since it was stiff, it was already dead. Not the case. When touched, they release a bio toxin, which causes them to harden as a form of protection. We had some Nasi Goreng aboard the boat while our captain drove us to the third and final snorkeling spot. The water was warm compared to the glacial rain pouring down on top of us. From up above, I could visibly see black spots in the water, only when I was under that I saw that those spots were sea urchins. Hundreds of them, and not a single exoskeleton for me to collect. (You can count my sand dollar finding as one of them if you want). The water there was deep, and got only deeper as the ocean floor dropped suddenly into a continental shelf of coral. This would have been ideal for scuba diving, I could hardly see the bottom. Fish seemed to like it there. They especially liked hanging around the bright green afro carpet-like coral. Even with the warm water, we didn’t linger long. Getting back was slow business; the motor had to be periodically cranked so it would work. Fuel was running low and the rain didn’t show any mercy. We left the next day to go on an adventure.

Une des choses à faire ici à Maumere est du snorkeling avec masque et tuba, nous avons pris un bateau (assez rustique lui aussi!!!). Il nous a fallu une bonne heure pour atteindre notre premier stop. Il n’y a pas d’autres mots que spectaculaire! L’eau était tout simplement aussi claire qu’une piscine, depuis le bateau tu voyais les fonds comme avec un masque. C’était bien plus beau que Koh Tao, Thaïlande, le corail et une multitude d’étoiles de mer bleues et autres. Je me suis régalée à nager au milieu de ce monde océanique. Les poissons n’étaient pas très grands et gros mais il y avait quand même de la variété. Notre second arrêt Babi Island, l’île aux cochons,  le corail était moins divers ici, mais on aurait dit des doigts bleus. J’ai oublié de vous dire NOUS N”AVIONS PAS DE PILES dans le Go Pro donc nous n’avons rien pu filmer…J’ai trouvé une drôle d’étoile de mer orange avec des piques, je voulais la garder je me suis dit comme elle était toute raide elle devait être morte. En fait quand elles sont changées de place elles produisent une toxine qui les raidissent comme moyen de défense. Après notre déjeuner composé de riz frit, nous sommes allés vers un autre spot. Il y avait un tapis d’oursin, malheureusement je n’ai pas trouvé de squelette pour ma collection. Ici, nous avons vu des clams géants, le plus intéressant était le mur de corail qui passait de 2m de profondeur aux abysses. Ce doit être super de faire de la plongée sur ce mur. L’eau était chaude pour nager, par contre nous avons eu droit à une pluie torrentielle et froide sur tout le chemin du retour. Le lendemain nous étions en route pour la traversée de l’île.

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Sitting in a car all day with a driver who says yes yes and merci to everything that you say to him is not my idea of fun. Riding through the countryside of Flores was like riding through Laos. Small bamboo houses, old, dingy motor shops where they sell gasoline in vodka bottles, cows grazing beside the road, and suicidal dogs I call them(because the dogs don’t seem to care whether there is a car or not to cross the road). To make things a little more interesting he brought us to a local market. Flores is mainly a Christian island, but I still whore a sarong to cover up my denim shorts. There I saw live animals like baby goats and pigs riding on the back of scooters which was a very strange sight. I saw people selling every type of warm weather vegetable imaginable; yams, corn, tomatoes, potatoes… The smell coming from the dried fish and squid was horrific, pungent, salty, fishy disgustingness. There were many spices like local ginger, cumin, and curry powder. But what intrigued me the most were the people. Flores is an island that just opened up to tourism, so many of these locals had never seen a white person before. They all stared at me, especially the elderly women and some curious children. Some smiled while others cackled and pointed when they saw me arrive. Some people were so mesmerized, they wanted to touch my arm to just be able to say that they actually touched a tourist. I bet that they would brag about that to all their friends because that was a big event for them. All of the ogling made me very uncomfortable and through my eyes, utterly bizarre. That experience I won’t forget for years to come.

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Passer toute la journée dans une voiture n’est pas exactement super excitant. Notre chauffeur Donatus était gentil mais il ne comprenait pas bien l’anglais et il disait tout le temps oui oui mais en fait il répondait à coté. Son anglais était quand même meilleur que notre indonésien. La campagne de Flores me rappelle un peu le Laos, les petits villages avec des huttes en bambous ou bois, les rizières, les vaches ou cochons au bord de la route, les stations services avec le pétrole dans les bouteilles de vodka. .Donatus nous a emmené au marché local de Geliting. L’île de Flores est à majorité chrétienne mais j’ai mis un sarong sur mes shorts en jean.  J’ai vu des cochons ou des chèvres transportaient sur des scooters, c’est une sacrée vision. Il y avait des légumes, des ikats (tissu tribal tissé à la main), la section poisson séché est inoubliable avec les odeurs que vous imaginez, des épices. C’est une île pas encore très touristique, j’avais l’impression que les gens du marché n’avait jamais vu d’étrangers (nous étions les seuls), ils me touchaient surtout les femmes avec Jayden nous étions des bêtes curieuses. Je n’étais pas à l’aise du tout, je ne pense pas oublier cette expérience de sitôt.

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The road seemed never-ending. There are 12 volcanoes on this island. Every turn, every mountain, every rice terrace looked exactly the same. Worst of all, there was major road expenditure on the main route so we had to wait for an hour and a half just to cross a small section of terrain. In addition, the heavy rain in the mountains was causing landslides. I witnessed a minor one just as our car was passing by. It tore down 3 trees. But the much larger ones take down boulders 15ft in diameter. We were in Moni to climb Kelimutu volcano. Even if I wanted to sleep in, my parents wouldn’t wait, neither would the sunrise. We had an early start after a late local dinner of banana blossom, fried chicken, aubergine coconut soup, and citronella rice. The hike to the top was surprisingly easy, only taking a half hour. Being too dark to see, I positioned myself at the base of the steps of a platform to save myself even more suffering from cold. Day break came around an hour or so later, the comforting warmth of the sun with it. Then was the time that I saw the three craters for the first time. They were deep and dark, like a bottomless watery abyss. I couldn’t make out their usual “Blue Lagoon” color, the tops of the craters were shading them from the weak sunlight. You might ask, what am I talking about? Okay, we went to visit 1 volcano with 3 craters, all of them having different colored lakes; 1 turquoise blue, 1 blue, and 1 dark blue. The colors change yearly, due to the amount of oxygen there is in the water. The more there is, the lighter the color gets. Yet since the sun didn’t shine directly on the lakes, we didn’t see much colors except for the very end when the middle lake went from black, to dark green.P1180508

La route ici ne finit jamais, l’île est très montagneuse, elle compte 12 volcans, alors on monte et descend beaucoup. Il y a souvent des éboulis qui bloquent les routes pendant des heures ou bien simplement ils essayent de les réparer. Nous avons vu une petite coulée de boue juste quand on passait en voiture qui a quand même descendu 3 arbres! Les plus grosses ont laissé sur la route des rochers de 3m. Nous passons la nuit à Moni, toute petite ville, électricité pas tout le temps mais eau chaude. Nous sommes ici pour voir le lever du soleil sur le volcan Kelimitu. Après un repas excellent préparé par un chef local (soupe de christophines et d’aubergines, salade de fleur de banane, poulet roti avec des épices locales et riz à la citronnelle) nous nous sommes couchés pour le départ à 4h30 du mat. La montée n’était pas trop dure, nous sommes partis avec des lampes car il faisait noir encore, je n’avais pas très chaud car nous étions en altitude. Puis le soleil s’est lever et ses rayons m’ont tout de suite réchauffé. Ce volcan a 3 cratères avec des lacs de couleurs différentes. Avec le soleil, les 3 lacs se sont révélés. Un de couleur vert d’eau, un vert plus foncé et le dernier était encore avec du brouillard. Les couleurs changent du fait de l’oxygène dans l’air plus il y en a et plus les couleurs sont claires, c’est dû aux minéraux contenus dans les roches. C’était une bonne balade matinale.

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On the road again, seeing places where we’ve never been… That very same day, we drove for 7 hours to this “town” called Bajawa. Like all of the other towns that we’d seen and were yet to see, Bajawa was a dead town with barely anything to do. Our guest house the Happy Happy hotel was nicer than all of the others that we’d stayed in (on Flores) and it had some Wi-Fi.

Sur la route encore, il nous a fallu 7h pour rejoindre la ville de Bajawa. Les villes et villages que nous voyons ne sont pas très vivants et il semble qu’il pleut beaucoup dès que nous sommes en altitude surtout les après midi. Notre guesthouse s’appelle Happy Happy hotel, il était d’un meilleur niveau que tout le reste jusqu’à présent, eau chaude, très propre, électicité et WIFI une première sur Flores.

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The following day we spent visiting some native authentic villages of Bena and Lupa. The house were made out of bamboo, from the woven walls to the shingles and wood with carvings. Exactly like in Laos, the women were selling weavings. Some were of more industrial type while other ones looked as if they had been hand-dyed. Other products that they sold were papayas, avocados, and “macadamia” nuts (note the quotation marks). We bought one of each, since we figured that the money would be of huge benefit to them. We also went to the other main attraction of Bajawa, thermal hot springs from the volcano. I would have thought that it would be touristy, but we were the only tourists there amongst hundreds of locals. There was no doubt about it, I stood out, and like a canary surrounded by a group of watchful cats, I felt trapped. The steaming clear water was of no help to conceal me. I didn’t want to stay. And finally, for once, Mother Nature decided to help me by making it pour. After taking a welcome warm shower, I felt my stomach rumble. Remember those nuts I told you about? Well, I ate those. And got desperately sick. Big surprise, they weren’t actually macadamia nuts but candle nuts which are toxic when eaten raw (which they were). That night I made a few trips to the bathroom, my dad was the most sick and my mom the least, luckily Jayden didn’t eat any.

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Le lendemain, Donatus nous a emené voir des villages de tribus comme Bena et Lupa. Ces villages sont très typiques avec leur propre croyance Mère et Père, ils vivent encore comme autrefois. Les femmes vendaient leur tissage et quelques fruits et légumes. Nous avons acheté quelques avocats, papaye et un petit sac de soit disant noix de Macadamia, c’est bon pour leur économie. Nous sommes allés un peu plus tard dans les sources thermales naturelles du volcan Inerie, comme nous étions dimanche il y avait beaucoup de locaux, de jeunes, en fait les filles nagent toutes habillées, je me suis trempée avec mon T shirt mais j’aurais bien voulu garder mon short. Ma mère n’a pas voulu car elle m’a dit qu’il ne sécherait jamais et sentirait le moisi comme nos serviettes de plages car le temps est trop humide. Heureusement il s’est mis à tomber des cordes et nous sommes rentrés. Vous rappelez vous des noix de Macadamia, nous en avons mangé un peu elles avaient un drôle de goût, mon père a dit qu’elles devaient être moisies. 20 minutes plus tard notre estomac nous faisait mal, mon père, ma mère et moi qui en avions mangé.  On a découvert plus tard que ce sont en fait des noix de bougies, qui sont toxiques quand elles sont mangées crues et elles ont un pouvoir laxatif. Mauvaise combination!!! J’ai vomi plusieurs fois et eu la diarrhée, mon père a été le plus malade. Pour nous soigner les hôtes de l’hotel nous ont donné un remède local, mâcher de l’écorce d’un arbre jusqu’à ce que le jus dans la bouche vous brûle au moins 10 minutes, franchement dégeulasse, par contre je dois dire que c’était très efficace. Jayden lui a eu de la chance de ne pas être malade comme il n’en avait pas mangé.

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Vang Vieng, Laos

Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang are like total opposites. Luang Prabang is a pretty laid back town with beautiful architecture, Vang Vieng is more like and ugly tourist town. There was a river near our guest house and I hummed the Indiana Jones theme song as I walked across this rickety bamboo. Across from the bridge there was another one that led to a small island where a woman was fishing with a square net. She screamed every time she caught a fish in her net and her children were jumping around and also screaming when the bigger fish would squirm around. Us four went along and visited more of the town which was nothing special, giant hotels in mid-construction, hair dressers everywhere, Luang Prabang was much better. That night I almost froze to death. I was so cold I used my towel as a blanket for I had none.

Les villes de Vang Vieng et Luang Prabang sont complètement opposées! Luang Prabang est sereine, majestueuse de par son architecture, et Vang Vieng est bruyante, active et ces rues sont défoncées, ses bâtiments ont aucune harmonie. Une rivière traverse la ville, en traversant le ponton en bois je pensais aux films d’Indiana Jones, car ça tenait un peu à l’aventure de le traverser. Sur une toute petite île au milieu de la rivière il y avait une femme qui pêcher avec un filet carré, et chaque fois qu’elle prenait un poisson elle criait d’excitation et les enfants autour d’elle aussi, à un moment donné elle en a attrapé un gros c’était l’émerveillement, j’étais contente pour eux.

Nous nous sommes balladés dans la ville, mais elle n’était vraiment pas jolie, rues défoncées et ses hôtels de partout. Le notre était charmant, des petits bungalows mignonnets. J’ai failli mourir de froid pendant la nuit car j’avais seulement une couverture et ça ne suffisait pas, mes parents et mon frère  avaient une couette. Je me suis relevée et j’ai mis ma polaire et ma serviette de bain, cela ne m’a pas empêché de me geler.  

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After a morning of algebra, to make the day even harder, my mom wanted us to go on a hike. It was a 15 minute walk to the base of the hill and it didn’t seem that tall until I started to ascend. Wooden ladders led me up over the side but stopped about 1/3 of the way up. The rest was all “trail”, or, more like steep incline with sharp jagged rocks moving beneath my feet. I had to grab everything I could, from roots, to small tree trunks, to vines. It was that difficult, especially near the pinnacle where only rocks remained. But once I was on top I quickly forgot everything that I had just endured. The view was like the photographs of places that you wished you could go to but never will, it was that amazing. The mountains were majestic, thick with jungle and clouds rolling over the top of them. I could spot rice patties with oxen grazing and people the size of ants carrying giant hay stacks. I saw the town of Vang Vieng, like ivy, poisoning this landscape with its modernity. But there came the time where I wanted to go down. Since there was no set trail and I was walking first, I got lost a few times and had to back track. I got back down with a little difficulty but I earned something. That this is not the United States, that in Laos climbing mountains is different, that they like to keep them as untouched as they can, and that the photographs of places you see, are more real than you could image.

Après avoir fait des maths, ma mère décida de nous faire faire une ballade dans la campagne avoisinante et de monter en haut de ces pains de sucre pour avoir une belle vue. Le gars des tickets nous a dit que ça prendrait 10 minutes, pas grand chose jusqu’à ce que je commence à monter. En fait c’était très raide, et par moment il fallait monter sur des échelles faites maison avec quelques bouts de bois qui devaient trainer par là. Et quand tu arrives tout en haut, il y a un drapeau rouge auquel il faut se tenir pour ne pas tomber. Mais que la vue était belle! Ca valait vraiment le coup de faire ces efforts. es montagnes de calcaire étaient simplement majestueuses, elles étaient recouvertes par endroits d’une jungle très très dense. Puis la campagne agricole avec ses rizières, il est dommage que tout soit récolté j’imagine quand les champs sont très verts. Mais du fait de la récolte les troupeaux de vaches avaient le droit de paitre dedans. Il fût temps de redescendre, j’étais l’éclaireuse, je me suis un peu perdue car il n’y a pas de chemin officiel. J’ai pris mon temps et nous sommes arrivés en bas. J’ai appris qu’ici les règles de sécurité ne sont pas pareilles qu’aux US, ici ils laissent les choses le plus naturel possible, de ce fait quand vous voyez des photos c’est exactement comme ça dans la réalité.

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Have you ever wanted to go zip lining for only 5 U.S. dollars a person? Go to Laos! Sure these were smaller than the ones we went to on a separate trip to Costa Rica, but they were decent sized for the money. The unfortunate part was that we were in a group of around 18 people so we ended up having to wait for all of the others the finish before going onto the next line. My favorite part was when they repelled me down from the last platform. After we finished with the zip lines, we went on kayaking. The first minute Jayden and I were very enthusiastic, then five minutes later we were both already tired. My arms were on fire and my back hurt. I was relieved that we had finally arrived at the cave we were going to explore. I had to wear a head lamp as we entered the cave via inner tube. Some spots were all sparkly with limestone and the ceiling was very tall in some places. To get out of it we had to crawl through a small hole which my dad temporarily got stuck in?. We then continued on kayaking to the tuk-tuks. All in all, we kayaked for about 7km so that was a good workout.

Nous avons fait une journée aventure, au programme: tyrolienne, kayak, tubing (grosse bouée) dans une grotte, encore kayak puis visite d’un endroit qu’ils appellent le Lagon Bleu. J’ai bien aimé la tyrolienne même si les lignes n’étaient pas aussi longues que celles du Costa Rica. Nous étions  dans la jungle avec une belle vue sur l’ensemble de la campagne. J’ai adoré lors de ma dernière cordée quand ils m’ont fait descendre en rappel. Nous étions 18 donc cela a pris un peu trop long à mon goût. Ensuite nous avons fait le kayak, je dois dire qu’avec mon frère nous étions vraiment excités, en fait cela a duré 5 minutes chacun, ça me faisait trop mal aux bras au bout d’un moment. On se relayait entre tous les deux heureusement. Nous sommes arrivés à la grotte souterraine, on nous a donné une lampe frontale et une grosse chambre à air et nous sommes rentrés dans un tout petit trou, il fallait se tenir à une corde jusqu’à ce qu’on arrive à des marches en bois. Nous avons découvert une très belle grotte, avec des parois faites de quartz qui brillaient comme des diamants. A un moment il a fallu passé à travers une petite ouverture, mon père a eu un peu de mal à s’en sortir. Il a fallu repartir en kayak, en tout nous avons fait 7km en kayak pas si facile que ça, mes bras étaient en feu. Puis nous avons chargé les kayaks sur les tuk tuks et nous en avons pris un autre qui nous a amené au lagon bleu.

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The tuk-tuks took us The Blue Lagoon. I was hoping that it would be like the one in Iceland which was a natural hot spring inside a volcanic area. It wasn’t like that, the water was still blue, but there were so many people it was like a zoo. And I was cold and wet from the tubing and kayaking so I didn’t feel like swimming in cold water. There were rope swings and people jumping off of tree branches above the water. It was funny to watch some jump off. One girl did an accidental belly-flop from the highest branch and another it took 4 minutes to finally jump. My mom and I walked up to a cave there and it was even more impressive than the first. It was like a giant room, the ceiling was 70 feet tall with a temple in the middle. We didn’t venture far because we didn’t have head lamps. Our day was over at 5:30 and all four of us slept soundly that night.

J’espérais que ce serait comme le Lagon Bleu d’Islande, de l’eau chaude volcanique mais non, la couleur était bleue mais l’eau n’était pas chaude et nous avions tous froid après le kayak. Alors nous avons juste regardé, il y avait pas mal de gens qui sautaient depuis les branches d’un arbre, il y avait aussi des cordes pour se balancer. C’était assez marrant de voir les gens sautaient, certains y arrivaient bien d’autres ce n’était pas ça. Une fille  s’est ramassé un plat, je pense qu’elle a dû avoir mal. Avec ma mère nous sommes montées à une grotte dans la falaise, à l’intérieur il y avait un petit buddha couchait. Nous sommes rentrés vers 17h30 complètement vannés. Mais c’était une super journée.

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Another long bus ride awaits us.

Il faut faire les valises pour notre prochain départ en bus.

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Laos begins in Luang Prabang

We left Thailand by minibus. It took us to Laos’s customs where we had to get a visa to be able to stay in Laos. That visa was quite expensive for the four of us, 140 U.S. dollars for only three weeks. That was the first sign that Laos was a much poorer country and that the main source of capital was tourism. It took us a good 4 hours to pass the stupid customs gate!

Nous avons quitter la Thaïlande en minibus. Il nous a fallu beaucoup de temps pour passer la frontière avec le Laos, le visa était de 140 dollars pour nous 4. C’est un signe que le Laos est bien plus pauvre que sa voisine car ils ont besoin de ce revenu des touristes. Après 4 h d’attente de guichets en guichets puis de tuk tuk en bus pour passer un pont nous voilà au Laos.

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But once on the other side my family and I then had to take a bus to the boat which would take us up the river Mekhong. This boat was not what I would have called luxurious. It was but a longboat with seats from a minivan set up in rows of 2. And worst of all, I was going to be on that thing for 2 days. Luckily I had coconut chips to help me eat time by. The first hour was pure boredom, the second hour was laziness/trying to find a comfortable position, but the third hour I decided to be more productive so I played Minion Rush on my iPod. My old iPod ran out of battery by the forth hour so I just looked out over the side of the boat and contemplated my surroundings. It was truly beautiful. The rain forest was on both sides and I could see oxen lazing around in the water. We finally arrived at our stop for the night. We found a guesthouse, slept, woke up, had breakfast, and that is that, no more to be said. The second day was like the first except that we were low on coconut chips. NO!!!! But I got over it eventually and the rest of the trip was fine. The boat arrived in Luang Prabang at about 5:30. We got in an expensive tuk-tuk which drove us to our hotel. It was a miracle that we hadn’t died of carbon dioxide poisoning, the exhaust coming from the back was atrocious. But the hotel was correct and the night market 2 blocks down was also nice.

Après un trajet en camion assez court, nous avons pris le bateau, bon ce n’était pas une croisière grand luxe, un match ou quelque chose comme ça! C’était un long fin bateau avec des sièges de minivan pour s’asseoir (apparement avant c’était des bancs en bois! Un peu dur pour les fesses après 2 jours de croisière je pense aha!) la croisière pouvait commencer, nous avions quelques provisions comme des gateaux secs et des chips de noix de coco séchées. La première heure n’est pas passée très vite, pendant la deuxième j’essayais de trouver une position confortable car ils nous entassent comme des sardines. J’ai essayé d’être plus productive pendant la troisième heure en décidant de jouer à mon jeu de Minion sur mon ipod, ça n’a pas duré trop  longtemps car la batterie s’est vidée! il ne me restait pas grand chose à faire d’autre que de regarder le paysage. En fait je ne regardais pas mais j’admirais c’était beau et reposant la forêt était d’une densité incroyable et d’un vert magnifique. Les buffles qui paraissaient sur les rives après une journée de labeur dans les champs, les villages que nous passions avec les enfants qui jouaient ou se baignaient.  Puis nous sommes arrivés à Pakbeng pour notre escale, nous avons trouver une petite guesthouse, dinner et déjeuner pour commencer la deuxième journée de croisière. Grosse catastrophe notre provision de chips de coconut était presque fini, comment j’allais survivre! Finalement pas de drame à l’horizon et nous sommes arrivés au quai de Luang Prabang. En fait ils nous déposent à 10km du centre et tu es obligé de prendre leur tuktuk au prix fixe. C’est un vrai miracle que nous sommes arrivés à destination le pot d’échappement du tuktuk nous revenait dessus. Notre petit hotel au bord de la rivière était charmant, le personnel super sympa, le View Khem Kong.

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But it was the next day that I really got a feel of Luang Prabang. I had first imagined it as a miniature version of Bangkok, but it wasn’t. It was smaller without any high rises and modern buildings. Instead the houses and shops were smaller and more traditional which I loved for a change. And since Laos was one of the countries which had once been occupied by France, it had some French influences like restaurants with French cuisine with bread and pastries. I hadn’t realized how much I missed croissants. Also there was really fine, expensive shopping around too. On our first full day only my family and I visited waterfalls. Since we had already seen many waterfalls before, I was a little skeptical. (I know, that sounds really bratty of me but it does get a little annoying sometimes if you know what I mean, which you probably don’t). I was proven wrong when I saw them though. Like the waterfalls in Kanchanaburi, you could swim in them, but they reminded me of Pamuckkale as well with the travertine pools and the turquoise water. They were beautiful and I took many pictures, but the most stunning one of all was the final waterfall, I called it… THE FINALE. It was 50 feet of gushing water. It was covered in small travertine caverns and wet moss. That was the most incredible thing I have seen on this trip. The only thing I could say was WOW. I wanted to climb to the top but the path was blocked by a steady stream of knee-deep water. We then came back down and swam in the pools down below. That was a really fun day.

Je pensais que cette ville serait comme un mini Bangkok pas du tout, bien plus petit à taille humaine  sans immeuble. L’architecture est de type coloniale avec des maison en bois  et leurs balcons, le Laos faisait parti des pays d’Indochine de la France jusque dans les années 50 et on retrouve l’influence de la cuisine françaises avec des baguettes et des pâtisseries.  Dans la ville il y a plein de jolis magasins mais un peu cher. Nous nous sommes rendus à la grande cascade de Kuang Si, je n’étais pas emballée encore une cascade! (Je sais que ce n’est pas bien de se plaindre quand j’ai la chance de faire le tour du monde, mais parfois…) Je dois dire que j’avais tort de me plaindre car elles étaient très spectaculaires et magnifiques. C’était un mélange de Kanchanaburi en Thaïlande et de Pamukkale en Turquie, ça faisait des paliers puis tu arrive à la dernière et la c’est le Finale très haute et grandiose. Je ne pouvais que faire WOW, malheureusement nous n’avons pas pu aller tout en haut car la route était bloquée par un torrent. Sur le chemin du retour nous avons nagé dedans, super journée.

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The days after that were spent getting a better feel for the town by trying different foods and doing interesting new things like teaching Laotian kids how to better speak English. There is this one organization called Big Brother Mouse. It was started by an American who went to Laos and saw that none of the kids knew how to read. Over the years he and a few other employees published easy reader books and went to schools all over Laos to get kids enthusiastic about books. Many of the children had never had their own book before and this meant a lot to them and the American. So we went to their shop and sat down with a few older boys in their late teens and started talking to them. Some spoke really good English while the others struggled a little. With mine I learned many things about Laos, like the fact that people weren’t allowed to get married under the age of 18, and many native Laotians go to Luang Prabang to study. About him I learned that his name was Bu Lan, that he was 21 and wished to visit other countries in Asia and go study in a foreign country that spoke English. He wanted to go to America, England, or Australia, but I told him that the accents would be different in each of those countries but I don’t think he understood exactly what I meant. He wanted to know what it was like in Europe, and I told him that it was very different than Laos, that there were not Buddhist temples or monks everywhere and that we didn’t eat the same food. His reaction was shock, he didn’t seem to know much about the outside world and what it was like. I also taught him how to say bracelet and coat. He had much trouble trying to pronounce the t’s and the r’s which I thought was funny. Of course I kept that to myself so not to embarrass or make fun of him. After a few more minutes of conversation, we all had to leave. But I felt very content with myself for having done what I did. How often do you get the chance to teach English to Laotian kids?

Ma mère nous organize souvent les journées, elle a trouvé cette organisation Big Brother Mouse qui aide les jeunes laotiens défavorisés à lire et à apprendre des langues.Elle a été fondé par un Americain venu en voyage au Laos et qui a découvert que les enfants ne savaient pas lire car ils n’avaient pas de livres. Avec un Laotien ils sont arrivés à créer des livres et à les éditer puis les faire parvenir aux villages pour éduquer les futures générations. A la fondation, nous nous sommes présentés et ils nous ont dit de nous asseoir avec les jeunes (que des garçons de 15 à25 ans) et nous avons discuté. J’ai appris beaucoup de la vie des Laotiens de cette façon tu ne peux pas te marier avant 18 ans mais dans les villages ce n’est pas respecté, et que beaucoup de garçons viennent à Luang Prabang pour étudier gratuitement chez les moines. Mon étudiant s’appelait Bu Lan, il avait 21 ans il veut visiter les autres pays d’Asie autour du Laos et aussi des pays parlant l’anglais comme l’Australie ou les Etats Unis. Je lui ai expliqué que ce ne serait pas le même accent dans ces pays je ne suis pas sure s’il a compris. Il voulait que je lui explique comment c’est en Europe, je lui ai parlé de la nourriture et le lui ai dit qu’il n’y a pas de moines en robe dans les rues, il était super choqué. Il m’a demandé comment dire bracelet et manteau,il a eu du  mal à prononcer le R et le T, ça m’a fait sourire mais pas méchamment. La classe dure 2h, il était temps de partir, il était content et moi aussi car je pense l’avoir aidé.

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We visited the weaving facility of a shop we found pretty called Ock Pop Tock that day. We liked it so much that we went back the following day and took a dying class. On arrival, we were sat down and were given tea at the Ock Pop Tock café. There was this cat, and he sat on my lap and purred and pawed and nudged me when I pet him. He was so good, I wished my grandparent’s cat was more lovable like that one was. We drank the tea and visited a hut explaining how silk was made and the various plants used to obtain different colors. Next to that was all of the women weaving silk threads on giant looms. The designs were so intricate, the women must have been experts to have been able to weave like that. And after that short tour, my mother, Jayden and I (because my dad didn’t come) went to the dying area. We had already picket out our colors for our threads and scarves. It was all really interesting learning about this ancient art.

Nous avons visité le centre de tissage Ock Pop Tock, nous l’avons tellement aimé que nous nous sommes inscrits pour la classe de teinture de la soie le lendemain. Il tombait des cordes alors cette classe tombait bien, au centre il y avait un chat qui s’est assis sur mes genoux pendant que je prenais un thé avant le début, il voulait juste être caressé et il ronronnait, il aurait voulu ça pour le reste de la journée. D’abord on nous a expliqué le processus depuis le début avec les vers, les cocons, le filage puis le tissage. Mii était notre instructive pour la classe, nous avons choisi nos couleurs avant le début, ils font ça ici depuis des générations.

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First we had to cut wood to boil in a pot to get the color gold. Then we pounded tiny red seeds to make a red powder to also but in a boiling pot to make red. Our guide/translator took us three to the garden and showed me the plant to make indigo and Jayden turmeric to make bright yellow. We both had to mash them in separate bowls, Jayden having the tougher of the two. I pounded them and pounded them until the leaves became kind of mushed together, the master dyer added a lot of water to them and then strained the leaved out so that only the green water remained. Then I placed my silk threads in and continuously squeezed them so that the color would better saturate into them. Once they were colorful, I was sent to the sink to rinse them out. Remember how they were green before? Now they were turning blue before my eyes! I couldn’t figure out how these people figured out that this plant could make blue. That moment reminded me of a book I read in 6th grade called Gathering Blue by Louis Lowry. Kira is trying to find out how to make blue from pants but cannot find out how. She must have liked to live in Laos! Anyway, I made my own dye from scratch!

Nous avons dû couper des morceaux de bois en plus petits pour les faire bouillir dans une marmite pendant des heures, c’était pour obtenir la couleur Or. Puis nous avons écrasé de petites graines pour obtenir la couleur rouge, que l’on a aussi fait bouillir. Notre traducteur m’a emmené  dehors ou j’ai cueilli les feuilles de la plante Indigo et Jayden a lui arraché les racines du Curcuma pour obtenir le jaune. Il a fallu que l’on écrase notre ressorte pendant longtemps. Dans mon bol j’avais obtenu une eau verte car notre instructrice a rajouté de l’eau. Elle m’a dit de tremper mes fils de soie dedans après l’avoir passé dans une passoire pour obtenir que le liquide. J’avais de grands gants noirs il fallait que je les presse constamment pendant 5 bonnes minutes. Mii m’a dit d’aller les rincer, ils étaient plus vert que bleu! Et là sous l’eau les fils de soie devenaient bleu.  Comment ont ils découvert ce phénomène ? Cette question me fascine.

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Next I put my second thread in a pot of pre-prepared purple, from which plant it came from, I had forgotten. While that and the rest of the threads were soaking, my mom, brother and I tied up our scarves for tie-dying. We began by twisting up one of the corners then doing the same for the one across. I tied about 7 bands around each so the diamond-like pattern looks pretty symmetrical now. We each dyed our scarves different colors, mine being ash pink, my mom’s being indigo, and my brother’s being dark red. Maybe I left mine in with the teak leaves too long because it came out looking more red than pink. Its final color turned out to be a light shade of purple, which I don’t mind (that much). But that’s the problem with dyes, you never know what you’re going to get. It was raining cats and dogs that day (well, no, not literally, it was just raining water, just an expression). As I was saying, it was raining, a lot, so as soon as that wonderful class was over, we went to the tuk-tuk so it could bring us back to our guesthouse. But. He. Wasn’t. There. So we basically got drenched for nothing and ended up standing awkwardly on a person’s porch waiting for the tuk-tuk to arrive. Worst of all, the person came and was waiting for us to leave so she could mop her porch. The tuk-tuk came and we were saved from even more minutes of mortification. We went back, had lunch, met up with my dad, walked around, had dinner, and then left the following morning.

Il était temps de passer à ma prochaine couleur le violet, il s’agit de la racine d’un arbre qu’ils appellent Beetroot. Pendant que toutes les teintes bouillaient, nous avons préparé nos écharpes en soie en les attachant à certains endroits pour faire un dessin. Celle de ma mère était bleue, mon frère la voulait rouge et moi rose pale. Mon écharpe n’est pas ressortie vraiment rose pale mais plutôt violette!!! En séchant la couleur est devenue moins prononcée. Je l’ai laissée surement un peu trop longtemps, comme c’est fait à la main il n’y en aura pas 2 les même.   Apres la classe, nous avons attendu le tuktuk pour nous ramener en ville, il pleuvait très fort et nous étions un peu trempés. De retour nous avons retrouvé mon père et passé le reste de l’après midi à faire nos valises car nous partions le lendemain.

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I personally loved Luang Prabang, the French Colonial architecture, the delicious French food, the great antique shops, the waterfalls, that class, and talking with those Laotian kids really made Luang Prabang a special place.

J’ai adoré Luang Prabang, avec son architecture coloniale, sa cuisine d’influence française, les magasins avec des antiquités, les cascades, la matinée passée à aider les jeunes Laotiens à améliorer leur anglais et la classe que j’ai prise sur la teinture de la soie avec des produits naturels.

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My experience in Vang Vieng

Our bumpy ride in a minivan was finally over. I was excited to see the town. We asked for the direction of our hotel the Phoom Chai guest house. They were small bungalows that were quite noisy. I wanted just to lay down on my bed and do nothing but my mom forced me to walk into town with my dad and sister. Vang Vieng didn’t have the same feel of peacefulness of Luang Prabang, but it was still very nice. There were just so many tuk tuk drivers in your face telling you tuk tuk blue lagoon, it was really annoying. We had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the river. After eating we settled down in our bungalows for the rest of the day. The next day my mom woke my sister and I early to do homework. We did homework until we got hungry so we went out for lunch. The restaurant was called the Green House,I had a bacon cheese burger that was really good, super juicy which made it messy but it was really good. We headed back and I carried on with my studies. I wasn’t hungry for dinner so I only got a lemon mint smoothie, I wanted something refreshing and smooth so I figured that I should get that.

Le trajet en minibus n’a pas été de tout repos, les routes sont particulièrement mauvaises, j’étais bien content d’être arriver à notre destination. Notre guesthouse Poomchai était presque juste à côté de la gare de minibus. Nous avions de petits bungalows de bambou, les murs n’étaient pas très épais donc tu entendais très bien ton voisin. Après le voyage je n’avais qu’une envie rester allongé sur mon lit pour me reposer, mais ma mère a insisté pour que nous fassions un tour en ville. Vang Vieng n’a rien à voir avec Luang Prabang, elle est bruyante et sale sans aucun ordre, mais j’ai bien aimé aussi . Il y avait pas mal de tuk tuk qui te demandait tout le temps si tu voulais aller au Lagon Bleu, c’était un peu ennuyant. Nous avons mangé le lunch dans un petit resto local, c’était correct, puis nous somme rentrés pour nous reposer et faire un peu de devoirs. Le lendemain matin j’ai été réveillé par ma mère pour faire des devoirs, au programme math et grammaire. Pour le lunch, nous avons mangé au resto La Maison Verte, leur spécialité était le curry massaman, moi j’ai pris un hamburger, il était excellent, la viande était très juteuse. De retour aux bungalows, j’ai continué avec mes devoirs. Comme nous avions mangé tard, je n’avais pas faim pour le diner et j’ai juste pris une boisson au citron et menthe, ça m’a suffit.  

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The following day was the same routine up early for homework. That day went to an Australian restaurant. Their menu was burgers. So I got a bacon cheese burger, my mom got the same but it had an egg in it. My dad decided to get a big one and he got a double bacon burger, it had 2 patties, lots of bacon, and cheese. We reserved a spot in a tour for kayaking, tubing in a cave, and the blue lagoon for 5 dollars plus  a person you could add zip lining.

Le jour suivant, nous avons fait un  peu la même chose avec pas mal de devoirs dans la matinée puis nous avons mangé dans un resto Australien. Au menu hamburgers, ils étaient très bon, ça change un peu de la cuisine Laotienne. J’ai pris un bacon cheese burger, ma mère avait le même mais avec un oeuf en plus. Mon père avait un double de tout. Puis mes parents ont acheté une journée aventure pour le lendemain avec tyrolienne, kayak, tubing dans une grotte et le Lagon Bleu. Nous pouvions faire la même journée sans la tyrolienne ou avec pour seulement 5$ de plus.

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When the exciting day finally came I was very anxious. We got picked up by our van got drove to the zip line park. We got geared up with the zip line harnesses. We weren’t alone on our tour, the others were all Koreans. We hiked up with the heavy gear which was very tiring it made me use muscles I generally didn’t use. When we got to the top. Our guides asked for 8 people to come I wanted to go first with my parents but they stuck around sitting so others went. I waited impatiently for our turn, when it came I was the first on to go. The zip lines were a good length but not as high and big as the ones I did in Costa Rica. After finishing one of the lines a person from the last group said that there was a person that was crying when it was her turn she got stuck in the middle so we waited for what seem like hours waiting for her to get back on the platform. It really made me mad because if you’re scared of zip lines don’t do them. Then she was sitting on the platform crying and we had to wait for her. As we got to the bottom of the mountain the lines got longer and faster which was really fun. When the last zip line was crossed they put me onto a rope and I was droped down the mountain side it really shocked me when they did, but it was so fun. I really think that for $5 a person this was worth it.

 

The kayaking was very tiring. I was teamed up with my sister, which I wasn’t very happy about. We took turns paddling. When we reached the cave I was relieved. We put lights on our head because the cave was dark. When we jumped on our tubes I missed mine and got soaked. The cave was amazing, there were rocks the sparkled, stalactites, you had to use a rope to guide yourself to the right place. We got off tubes and walked the rest of the way. In a place you had to get through a small crevice I did it no problem but my dad on the other hand got kind of stuck and I didn’t think he could make it through.

Faire du kayak est bien plus dur que cela ne semble. Je faisais équipe avec ma soeur, on se partageait la rame. Nous sommes arrivés à la grotte et j’étais content car j’en avais marre. Nous avons mis des lampes frontales car il faisait complètement noir dedans, nous avons dû flotter sur une bouée pendant quelques mètres puis nous avons continué à pied. Il y avait des roches qui brillaient, des stalactites, il y avait quelques cordes pour nous aider à grimper. Je me suis un peu raté pour sortir de ma bouée et je me suis retrouvé dans l’eau. A un moment il a fallu par un passage super étroit je n’ai pas eu de problème pas la même chose pour mon père. En sortant  nous étions dans la jungle, nous sommes redescendus pour finir notre trajet en kayak.

After we did some more kayaking to get to town. I never thought that kayaking was so tiring I had done it at my friend Forest’s lake house but it wasn’t that tiring. What was left of our group hopped on a van and went to the blue lagoon. I really thought that it wasn’t worth it to go, it was just a zoo. People everywhere most of them weren’t even doing anything I wanted to jump off a really high branch but the air was cold same with the water, and I didn’t feel like getting wet.

Nous sommes repartis en kayak pour rejoindre la ville. Je n’aurais jamais pensé que c’était si fatiguant de faire du kayak. J’en avais fait avec mon ami Forest mais pas sur une longue distance alors ce n’était pas trop fatiguant. Direction le Lagon Bleu, je ne sais pas si ça valait la peine, il y avait beaucoup de personnes. Je pensais sauter de la plus haute branche d’un arbre mais j’avais froid du kayak alors je ne l’ai pas fait.

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Our day was amazing but all things come to an end. The day after that my mom woke us up early to do homework I was happier this time because I was studying about the human bone structure. I found some very helpful videos. Then my mom drew a human skeleton model and I had to label the bones. I noted the special bones and facts about the bone structure. After my mom quizzed me on different ones I remembered all the names but I forgot the scapula (shoulder blade) and patella (the knee joint).

La journée précédente était super, aujourd’hui retour à la réalité, travail scolaire. Mais j’ai bien aimé la leçon apprendre les différents os du corps humain. J’ai regardé des vidéos qui m’ont appris comment les os se formaient. Il a fallu que j’écrive les points importants car je vais avoir une interro plus tard. ma mère m’a un peu questionné je ne me suis pas rappelé de la rotule et de l’omoplate. 

The rest of the day my sister and I spent doing homework, we ate at the same green house restaurant, and I had a falafel (fried chickpea patty with mint and parsley) wrap. When I finished studying about the bones I worked on my blog. When I was working a hot air balloon was right over my bungalow it was pretty.

J’ai continué à faire mes devoirs, j’étudie le squelette humain, il faut que j’apprenne tous les os. J’ai aussi travaillé sur mon blog, à un moment une montgolfière était juste au dessus de nos bungalows, c’était une bonne distraction. 

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Melia’s book report: The Girl from Ithaca by Sherry Gregory

I chose this book because I am going to Greece, and this book was about a girl who lived in ancient Greece. The Girl from Ithaca is a historical fiction story about the sister of Odysseus and the war against Troy to get Helen, considered to be the most beautiful woman in the world back then. The war took place approximately between the twelfth to the eleventh century B.C.

This book mainly takes place on the beaches of Troy, over four years. The theme was home is where the heat is. I think this because the main character always thought of her home in Ithaca, which was so far away from the battle field in Troy. The story starts when the fourteen year-old protagonist, Neomene, sister of the Great Odysseus spots the ship of the King of Sparta, Menelaus. He has come to recruit Odysseus and the men of Ithaca to fight against Troy to get his wife back. His brother, Agamemnon, king of Mycenae has been waiting for an excuse to start a war against Troy, and the kidnapping of his sister in-law was the perfect excuse. When Menelaus arrives, Neomene quickly warns her brother. He has come up with a brilliant plan to fool Menelaus into thinking that he has gone mad. He dressed himself up like a peasant, and started plowing the sand. Menelaus thought him crazy, but the prince Palamedes, and evil guy that came with Menelaus doesn’t buy into it and to prove his theory, he places Odysseus’ young child Telemachus in front of his plow. Odysseus immediatly stops and picks his son up. He was out witted, and now he has to go to the island of Aulis along with his men and Menelaus and Palamedes. Neomene then receives a message that she is to go to Mycenae to help Agamemnon’s daughter, Iphigenia get married to Achilles. Neomene agrees and sails to Mycenae. She meets Iphigenia, who is two years younger than her. Together with some of Iphigenia’s servants they sail to the island where Odysseus is so that she can get married. But they were tricked by Iphigenia’s cruel father and Palamedes. It wasn’t a marriage, it was a sacrifice. Agamemnon sacrificed his own daughter to Artimas so that they can sail to Troy because the winds were not favorable. The other servants go back to Mycenae to tell the news to Iphigenia’s mother. Agamenmon noticed one of the servants named Io. She and Neomene become great friends. Neomene overheard her brother and Menelaus talking about going to Troy without the knowledge of Agamemnon to rescue Helen. She wants to go with them because she feels like she owes Iphigenia. When they arrive in Troy, they have to convince King Priam, Prince Paris, who is the one who stole Helen, and his two brothers. Odysseus is losing the argument, then Neomene finds Helen and is shocked to hear that she married Paris willingly, and that she did not want to go back to Sparta with Menelaus. The threesome finally lose the argument and leave in defeat. Bringing Helen back was the only way that they could have avoided war, but it was too late now, Agamemnon had arrived in Troy with the Greek army. They build up camp. A season passes and the day of the big battle has arrived. The Greeks win, but there are many dead and wounded. After recovering, the Greeks have a war meeting. Agamemnon is proposing that the impatient Achilles raid Troy’s allies. Their plan is to starve them into submission. From his raids, Achilles brings back gold, food, jewels, and women. On one of his raids, he brought back four women. All but an older one were taken. Neomene did not want her to get killed so she says Odysseus would take her. He is skeptical at first, but when she makes him his first meal, he decides to keep her. Her name was Elissa, she was a cook in one of the city palaces, and she becomes Neomene’s servant and good friend. A year has passed. The cities are continuing to be raided. But Troy has a new hope. The Amazons have arrived. They are fierce women warriors who fight as well as men. There is another battle between The Greeks, the Amazons, and Troy. The Greek army wins again, but the dead are in the thousands. Three years later, Achilles has still not broken into Troy, though he has tried. One day, Odysseus gets severely injured close to death. Neomene has heard of a nymph that lives on a mountain not far away that has healing properties. She asks her to give her the remedy to save her brother and the nymph agrees. Neomene gives Odysseus the medicine and he recovers. Neomene falls in love with a young prince called Antilochus. They love each other very much and Neomene wants to live with him after the war is over. But, sadly, he was killed in a big battle. He saved his aging father’s life by sacrificing his own. The story ends with Neomene grief-stricken and jumping into the ocean.
I liked this story a lot, though some parts were confusing and complicated to me and the different characters with their long names were too. Though I found it neat that Sherry Gregory made all of these myths like Odysseus seem like actual people with different personalities. I would not necessarily recommend this book to all of my friends, some of them don’t read Greek mythology, and it might be a little confusing and to them. But I cannot wait to read the sequel. I want to know what happens to Neomene and the rest of the army. In some parts of the story, I was on the edge of my seat, wondering what was going to happen next. Though I was sad when Neomene finds out that Antilochus was killed. From this book, I learned that women had had little power, and were often slaves. Moreover, all of this made The Girl from Ithaca a great book that I would happily read again in the future.

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Rhodes blog

Rhodes was a very important island in the ancient world. It was strategically located for trade which made it wealthy and brought many crusaders. Huge ramparts were constructed around the city to protect it from invasions from other countries. But that didn’t keep it from being occupied. All throughout the old town there are influences from different cultures.

l’île de Rhodes a tenu un rôle très important depuis dans l’antiquité. Déjà par sa situation géographique, elle était incontournable pour le commerce puis avec l’arrivée des Croisés. D’énormes remparts ont été construits pour la protéger d’invasions d’autres peuplades. A travers la vieille ville, on peut voir les différentes cultures.

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To get from Crete to Rhodes we had to go on a ten-hour ferry boat ride. It was very long and boring, but I made it to see another day. When we got off the boat, the lady from the apartment picked us up and drove us to where we were staying. The apartment felt very clean and new and best of all it was centrally located in the middle of Old Town. Living in an apartment again made it easier to get back on top of our studies. The next morning we ate at a special restaurant that had parrots that you could pet and hold. After that we went for a stroll around town. I knew that it was a medieval city, but on that walk I realized that it was fortified. The architecture was incredible, it made you feel like you were living during those times. And in the middle of all of it was a castle, with towers, cannons, everything. We spent our first two days exploring the maze-like streets and walking around the five layers of ramparts.

Depuis la Crète on a pris un ferry et le voyage a duré 10 heures! C’était très très long et très ennuyeux, mais j’ai survécu. A l’arrivée, notre hôte nous attendait et nous à emmener jusqu’à son appartement. L’endroit était très propre, relativement neuf et super bien centralisé dans la vieille ville. Etre dans un appartement nous a aidé pour notre travail scolaire et tous les jours on faisait des devoirs de math et autres. Le lendemain de notre arrivée, on a déjeuné dans un resto qui avait des oiseaux que tu pouvais caresser et mettre sur ton épaule. Puis on s’est promené en ville, je savais que c’était une ville médiévale mais je n’avais pas réalisé que c’était une ville fortifiée. J’étais fascinée  par l’architecture, j’avais l’impression de vivre à une autre époque. Au milieu de la ville, il y avait un chateau avec de grandes tours, des canons et des remparts. On a passé nos 2 premiers jours à explorer les petites ruelles et les remparts. 

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On our third day we rented a car and drove around the island. Our first stop was Lindos, an ancient fortress built up on summit of a cliff by the ocean. Though it was a tough trip to the top, it was well worth it. The outside was protected by a rampart which looked Medieval, but there where the remains of ancient Greek temples inside which shows you that it was used for different purposes. They had recovered many stones and marble slabs with Greek writing and carvings on them. In Lindos I found something that I hadn’t seen in any of the other countries we went to, and that is that they were restoring the temples to their former state. I found that really nice because it helped me see what these temples used to look like. After Lindos, we made our way down to the town. It didn’t look it at first, but it was truly like a maze. Narrow streets wound in every direction which made it easier to get lost. After eating a quick lunch and smoothie, we went to the beach down below. The water was clear blue which made me want to go snorkeling. Even though it was beautiful, that water was cold! The longer I swam, the colder I got, until I couldn’t take it anymore and decided to skedaddle. But not before collecting a few large sea shells. (Only when I got home did I realize that there were hermit crabs living in them)!

Le troisième jour, on a loué une voiture pour faire un tour dans l’île. On est allé d’abord à Lindos, en haut il y a une forteresse qui surplombe la mer. On est monté à pied, il faisait chaud mais la vue est tellement magnifique qu’on oublie vite la difficile montée. Les remparts sont d’époque médiévale mais au sommet il y a un temple grecque dédié à Athena. Ils ont restauré quelques colonnes et cela donne un bel ensemble. Je fais partie des gens qui préfèrent voir quelque chose restoré même si ce n’est pas entièrement refait que de voir seulement des bouts de pierres qui traînaient ici et là. Ca me permet de mieux visualiser comment c’était à l’origine. Après on est descendu dans le village, très typique petites ruelles toutes pavées de galets et les maisons peintes blanches, et un vrai labyrinthe. On a mangé un gyros et un smoothy assez rapide car on voulait aller à la plage. L’eau était claire et d’une belle couleur alors je suis allée nager avec mon masque et tuba. Mais l’eau était froide, plus je nageais et plus j’avais froid. J’ai résisté jusqu’au bout mais j’avais trop froid alors je suis sortie. Il m’a fallu du temps pour me réchauffer. En nageant j’avais ramassé quelques coquillages, grosse surprise de retour à la maison il y avait des bernard-l’ermites dedans! Oups.

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On our way back from there we visited a monastery which was also on top of a hill. But it turned out to be much higher than I had anticipated. Jayden and I were about to turn back when my parents started bribing us with crepes. Now that we had both lost our reason to turn back, we had no choice but to continue. I was out of breath by the time I had finished climbing up those 300 or so stairs. I wonder how long it must have taken to build it up so high. But the climb was well worth it. The view from up there was stunning, you could see the entire island from up there!
Rhodes overall was an incredible island, rich with history, sites, and beaches. I would love to return there if I ever go back to Greece of course!

Sur le chemin du retour, mes parents voulaient visiter un monastère en haut d’une colline. Il a fallu garer la voiture et monter à pieds, les marches n’en finissaient pas il y en avaient au moins 300. Pour nous faire avancer mes parents nous ont dit qu’ils feraient des crêpes à la maison. Le monastère était tout petit mais la vue était magnifique.

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Rhodes est une île interessante à visiter car elle a une histoire qui s’étend sur des siècles. Il y a aussi de jolies plages. Ca ne me déplairait pas d’y retourner.

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Thoughts about Greece

We did so many things in Greece, we visited quite a few islands to try to give the kids a feel of this country. We did Athens, Hydra, Poros, Aegina, Milos (my favorite), Santorini, Crete and Rhodes. We just didn’t have time to explore the Peloponnese which I bet we will eventually do another time when we go back to France during summer break.

On a beaucoup bougé en Grèce, on voulait que les enfants comprennent que ce pays est très varié. Les îles ne se ressemblent pas toutes mais il y a un fils commun. On a visité Athènes, Hydra, Poros, Aegina, Milos (ma préférée), Santorini, la Crète et Rhodes. On n’a pas eu le temps de visiter la partie du Péloponèse  mais je pense pouvoir retourner en Grèce quand je rentre en France    pendant les vacances d’été.

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One thing that did stand out for me was the hospitality of the people, they are just truly nice and not pushy like some countries can be. Nobody got offended or pushy if you just looked at their menus or just look around their store and didn’t buy anything. It was nice. We always felt safe and it was very easy to start a conversation with people. Also if we got lost in Athens there were always somebody to help you with directions. Or for example our host in Rhodes, Seva took Brent to a supermarket on Sunday with her car because we arrived late the previous night and the supermarkets in town are closed on Sundays. I like Greek food it is very healthy, roasted meats, Greek salads, stuffed tomatoes and peppers, aubergine salads, but I have to say that after nearly 1 month the menus of the restaurants weren’t very varied. So it was nice to have breaks from it with Brent cooking.

Ce que je retiens le plus de ce voyage en Grèce est l’hospitalité des Grecques. Ils sont gentils, accueillants, ne sont pas offensés si tu ne fais que regarder leur menu. Par example à Rhodes, Seva notre hôte est venue nous attendre au port avec sa voiture car il pleuvait, et le lendemain elle est revenue pour mener Brent au supermarché de la banlieue car le dimanche touts les supermarchés sont fermés dans la vieille ville. C’était vraiment très sympa, et on ne s’y attendait pas. On ne peut pas toujours dire la même chose de tous les pays. La crise économique et bien je vais vous apprendre qu’elle n’existe pas en Grèce, ils sont toujours installés en terrasse à boire ou à manger. Ils n’ont pas l’air très concerné s’ils ne payent pas la dette. En fait ils te font payer en liquide presque tout le temps comme ça ils ne payent pas la TVA sur les choses. Le gouvernement n’a pas de rentrée d’argent car ils ne payent pas leurs impôts, ce sont des Grecques qui nous ont expliqué cela. Le gouvernement ne peut pas les forcer, de plus les jeunes reçoivent la retraite de leurs parents surtout les filles et à vie. Donc ils n’ont pas vraiment besoin de travailler. Ceci est général. Je suis sûre que certains payent des impôts, mais les plus riches passent au travers c’est sûr. Après cette petite parenthèse sur la crise économique en Grèce, je reviens au blog.

On ne sait jamais senti en danger de quoique ce soit, c’est un pays très sûr. On pouvait toujours demander à quelqu’un dans la rue des directions. Par contre on n’a pas pris de photos, je me demande pourquoi maintenant mais tous les bâtiments , je répète tous les bâtiments, étaient tagués, des rues entières. Un peu dommage car le soir quand les magasins sont fermés ça fait un peu glauque.  

J’ai bien aimé la nourriture grecque ou crétoise car elles sont saines, beaucoup de viandes grillées, des salades comme la grecque ou d’aubergines, les tomates ou poivrons farçis, et surtout le yaourt au miel rien à voir avec ceux qu’on trouve aux US même s’il appelle ça yaourt grecque. Mais au bout d’un mois, la salade grecque te sort un peu des yeux et leurs menus n’est pas des plus varié. C’est bien d’avoir un chef à la maison donc on mangeait d’autres choses.

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We met some great people. It started in Athens with Brent getting in touch with his roommate brother from University who is in post at the American Embassy. We spent an evening out with his family. Jeff and Anissa and their 3 kids were fantastic, they treated us to a great real greek meal.  And the next day my kids ended up spending 1 day  at school with Kaitlyn and Reece who happen to be 1 year younger than my kids. Ally their third kids asked me during dinner why didn’t I have a third child her age because it wasn’t fair for her not to have a kid to play with her.

En Grèce, on a rencontré pas mal de gens ça a commencé à Athènes avec Jeff, Anissa et leurs 3 enfants. En fait Jeff est le frère du colocataire de Brent quand il était à l’université. Il est attaché à l’Ambassade des EU en Grèce. Ils nous ont fait découvrir la vraie cuisine grecque mangée par les grecques pas les touristes. On a passé un super moment avec eux, ils nous ont recommandé des endroits à visiter et le plus surprenant Anissa a organisé une journée à l’école de ses enfants pour les miens. Donc Melia et jayden ont eu la chance de passer une journée à l’école à Athènes. Super cool, on est parti le matin en métro, tout cela fera de bons souvenirs aux enfants. Leurs 2 plus grands enfants sont 1 an plus jeunes que les miens, et au cour du repas Ally m’a demandé comment ça se faisait que je n’avais pas un troisième enfant du même âge qu’elle. Trop marrant ce qui ce passe dans leur tête parfois.Elle trouvait que ce n’était pas juste car elle n’avait pas de compagnons de jeu.

In Milos, when we took the sail cruise with Elias and Dimitris, we ended up having a blast, great food, great people around us. It felt like we were friends at the end of it. Not only the sightseeing was phenomenal but the atmosphere was even better. Can’t wish fo too much more.

Sur l’île de Milos, on a fait une journée de croisière sur un voilier avec Elias et Dimitris. Super, super journée, non seulement les endroits où ils nous ont emmené étaient superbes mais en plus l’ambiance avec les autres passagers et la nourriture étaient parfaits: au moment de l’apéritif Dimitris a grillé une pieuvre. J’avoue que j’étais assez rétissante à l’idée de manger de la pieuvre mais j’ai adoré, les enfants aussi. 

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We also had a blast at the Blue Marine resort and spa, and it was nice to see the kids being kids running around with friends. Suddenly, we didn’t exist they would eat with us and be gone for few hours, once in a while you would see them passing by or running or swimming. For Brent and I it was nice to have adults conversations not just between us too, we spent time with Ken and Debbie from England, Scott and Emma from Scotland, Daniel and Kerry from England and South Africa, Les and his family from England etc. (I know I am missing some names).

On a aussi passé une super semaine dans un hôtel en Crète, en pension complète sorte de club. Une fois que les enfants se sont fait des copains, on ne les voyait presque plus. Si pour manger avec nous puis ils disparaissaient. C’était bien de les voir être des enfants, de notre côté, on a fait plein de rencontres. Et c’était agréable de parler avec d’autres adultes que ton époux, on s’est bien entendu avec un couple d’anglais qui a vécu pendant 10 ans en Asie Ken et Debbie. On est allé marcher avec Debbie, mais aussi Emma et Scott d’Ecosse, Les et sa famille d’Angleterre, Daniel et Kerry d’Afrique du Sud, Kris et sa femme d’Allemagne etc. Que du bon temps pour tout le monde. 

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This trip in Greece will stay in my memories because of the people we ended meeting. It made it very different from Italy. I didn’t mentioned all the great places we visited because you all see the pictures of it.

Je dirais que notre mois en Grèce était très différent de celui d’Italie, car on a rencontré des gens très sympathiques. On a beaucoup bougé aussi, je vous laisse admirer les lieux qu’on a visité et  je laisse les enfants faire les commentaires avec leurs blogs. J’ai adoré la Grèce, c’était un pays très facile avec les enfants. Maintenant la Turquie.

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My visit of Rhodes

When we finally arrived in Rhodes from our 10 hour ferry ride, we were driven to the apartment by our host Seva. It was a very old apartment but it had been restored to a very modern one. It was located in the historic part of Rhodes town. You might have heard about the Rhodes Colossus? The giant statue that was guarding then harbor of the town. Unfortunately it fell in the water and its bronze was sold and melted. The next day we spent the day visiting the town, it was really amazing with all the walls surrounding it. Rhodes is a fortified town, designed to be protected. It was home of the Knights during the Crusade period, they restored it and expanded the fortifications, Crusaders would stop their on their way to the Holy land. It was also a very important sea route for commerce between Europe and Asia and Egypt. The town has plenty of shops.

Après 10H de bateau depuis la Crète, nous sommes arrivés à Rhodes. Notre hôte Seva est venue nous chercher à l’arrivée sur le port. Son appartement était dans un vieux bâtiment mais complètement rénové un peu moderne. Il était super bien placé dans la vieille ville. Je pense que vous avez déjà entendu parler du Colosse de Rhodes cette statue géante qui gardait le port? En fait, elle est tombée dans l’eau et son bronze a été fondu et vendu. Le lendemain nous avons visité la vieille ville, c’était assez surprenant de voir une ville fortifiée avec des remparts dans une île. Rhodes a eu un rôle important au temps des croisades, elle a été acheté par les Chevaliers de l’ordre de Jerusalem, ils ont agrandi les remparts  et l’île servait d’escale aux croisés en route pour Jerusalem. Elle était bien située pour le commerce entre l’Europe et l’Asie mais aussi l’Egypte. Maintenant la vieille ville a plein de petits commerces et de restaurants. 

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The architecture was incredible because of all the other conquerors that have been there like the Romans, the Venetians and the Ottoman Turks. We had breakfast in a restaurant because it was Sunday and the supermarkets for food were closed. The owner loved birds and he put one of his parrot put on my shoulder. There was a cockatoo that made a sound so loud that made your ears ring. We ate an English breakfast with sausages fried eggs weird tasting toast, mushrooms and a strange tasting flabby piece of bacon.

La ville a une architecture très particulière car elle a souvent été conquise par le passé, les Romains y sont passés mais aussi les Vénitiens et les Ottomans.Nous avons pris le petit déj dans un restaurant car c’était dimanche et tous les supermarchés étaient fermés. Nous avons eu ce qu’on appelle petit déj anglais avec un oeuf, des saucisses, un drôle de bacon, des champignons, des toasts. Le propriètaire possédait des oiseaux et il a mis un de ses perroquets sur mon épaule. Il avait aussi un cacatoès qui faisait un boucan du diable.

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The next day, we rented a car and visited a temple of Athena in Lindos in the middle of the Island. That was near these cool beaches and we visited both. I was burried from neck to toe by my sister in the sand. On the way home, we  climbed 350 steps to see a monastery but it ended up being just a box on the hill. My parent had to bribe me with crepes to get me to go up that hill.
The next day we spent our morning doing homework. Visiting the town is very fun with all the stores and amazing architecture. We ended up visiting the Grand Master Palace, it is the place where the head of the knights lived. There were lost of armies from different countries that would help them to keep the town safe (Provence, Auvergne, Germany, etc) each had to make sure their area was well defended. It consisted mostly of huge rooms with some dark heavy wood furnitures. Our stay in Rhodes was really cool but we had to leave for a new country Turkey!

Le lendemain, nous avons loué une voiture pour aller jusqu’à Lindos. Là nous avons visité la forteresse qui date des Grecques, il y a un temple dédié à Athena. Après nous sommes allés à la plage, ma soeur m’a enterré dans le sable, j’avais que ma tête qui sortait. Sur le chemin du retour, nous nous sommes arrêtés pour visiter un monastère, il a fallu monter 300 marches, mes parents ont dû me promettre des crêpes pour me motiver à monter (en haut je n’ai pas trouvé ça super, une toute petite pièce!). Puis les autres jours, Mélia et moi avons dû faire beaucoup de devoirs. Le dernier jour, avec ma mère nous avons visité le Palais des Grands Maîtres édifié par Hélion de Villeneuve 26ème grand Maître des Hospitaliers de Saint Jean. On visite la reconstruction faite par les Italiens car l’édifice originel fût détruit en 1856 par l’explosion d’une poudrière. A l’époque des Chevaliers, il y avait plusieurs corps d’armée de pays différents comme la Provence, la Castille, la France, l’Auvergne, l’Allemagne etc. Chacune devant protéger la partie des remparts dont ils étaient en charge. Il y avait surtout de grandes pièces avec quelques meubles sombres et gros et des mosaïques sur le sol.

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Notre séjour en Grèce s’achève et nous partons pour la Turquie! 

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Italy. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Italy. In short, we are loving it to death. Tourist hoards are coming in droves to take in the amazing sites of Italy, its food, its wine, and its culture. We love it. From the immense wealth of the Vatican and priceless artwork, to the canals of Venice, the Leaning tower of Pisa, Cinque Terre, the Amalfi Coast, and the culinary heritage of Naples, we all venture forth to take our pictures, videos, and selfies. We love it so much we are starting to destroy what made it beautiful to begin with.

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21 years ago I set off on a train from Antibes, France following the coast into Italy to the sleepy terraced villages of Cinque Terre. It was the height of summer and as a young man felling restless and wanting to see more of the world, I happened upon these five delightful villages falling into the sea. Each home painted in Pastel color as if an artist rendered them just for the pleasure of the eye. People going about their daily lives like the generations before them, making a life from the sea and the limited land the villages clung to. A simple pasta transformed my idea of how good pasta could be, resembling nothing of the glutinous mass a noodles piled high with red sauce alla American. Garlic slow cooked in olive oil, tomato, basil, spaghetti and parmesan. 5 simple ingredients on a mission transformed a peasant dish into the representation of what Italy meant to me. A country for the senses.

21 years later I find myself bringing my young family to the very places I adventured to in my youth. Much to my surprise, some things don’t change. The Italian trains are still just as run down, graffiti covered, and still not on time. A fire on the tracks caused us a 6 hour delay on our way to Milan en route to Venice reminding me, yes, I am back in Italy. Seeing Venice again was a bit like seeing a long lost friend. Elegant villas overlooking the Canals bustling with gondoliers and Vaporetos, bridges providing the perfect vantage point for the perfect picture, waiters outside selling the menues of the the restaurants they serve, vendors selling endlessly colorful Merano glass, artists painting in the corners, the occasional musician playing his instrument for spare change to be collected in his hat. The camera loves Venice and everyone has a camera these days.

Piazza San Marco

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Our next destination was in the hills of Tuscany near the ancient town of Casole d’elsa set against a backdrop of rolling hills covered in the grape vines of Chianti, Montalcino, and Montepulciano. Our medieval villa made for the ideal location to venture off the discover the neighboring towns, including the fabulous city of Florence. A capital of art and culture as well as food and wine, Florence is a fabulous city to discover the best of Italy. The Central Market is bustling with Florentines buying their daily groceries or enjoying a feast from the myriad of vendors just one floor above. A butcher cleaving off a huge T-Bone of aged and marbled beef, grilled rare right in front of me and presented as the famous Bistecca alla Fiorentina. A 1 Kg slab of rich perfectly grilled beefiness to be shared with my family alongside, tripe, roasted potatoes, grilled eggplant, arancini, and a perfect riserva Chianti. My son opted for a hamburger, still craving his American roots. Visits to the Pitti Palace and the Boboli gardens highlights the rich cultural heritage of the city and height of the power of the Medici family.

Green Grocery

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Moving onto Rome was more of a shock. For the those not accustomed to driving like a Roman let me give you a bit of a lesson. Just focus on the what is immediately in front of you and not about what is behind you. Count on the people behind you to do the same, Be bold and don’t hesitate. Driving too slow will cause problems and much consternation from other drivers around you. Scooters will be passing you on all sides so don’t make any sudden moves. Signs will let you down from time to time. One sign will says 24 km to your destination and 4 km later it will say 24 km to your destination. Signs will come up on you very fast and may be placed just before the turn, at the turn, or just on the other side of the turn. Sometimes you destination will not be posted at all so your navigator might have to look behind from time to time to see if you missed your turn. Parking is infuriating and designated parking spots give way to a free for all, find a spot if you can mentality. Don’t imagine your vehicle will escape being bumped, scraped or damaged in the urban jungle of Rome. My wife was trying to use Google maps to navigate, but the maps refused to give an accurate location for ourselves and our destination. Navigation to the center of Rome to our rental apartment left Benedicte a screaming hot mess trying to figure out where we were at. Benedicte cursed at the phone and my driving and began acting particularly French for that moment. Getting lost in Rome allows you to take in all the colorful graffiti lining the buildings, roadways, and trains. Some of it quite extraordinary in scope and others more like a dog pissing on its territory. Trash was another issue. Bottles and other detritus thrown from cars littering the streets and sidewalks juxtaposed against the graffiti and absurd traffic makes Rome feel particularly like it no longer belongs in the first world.
Visiting the cultural sites also has its hazards. Lines to get into the Vatican and St Peters Basilica border on the absurd. Hours spent waiting in the sun with your fellow tourists taking selfies, clicking away at anything that looks interesting trying to capture that shot that makes them look more interesting to those on their social media sites. Unfortunately, I am not immune to this, bringing my family, my cameras and my American good looks to the streets of Rome adds a few more bodies to the tourist hoard that has become Rome. Surly waiters, bad expensive food, and slow service add to the unsavory feeling I was having in the cultural center of Rome. Scaffolding in the middle of the Trevi Fountain or the 50 foot tall advertising dropped behind the Spanish steps reinforce my growing discontent with the tourist center. We escape to the less touristed part of town to live like actual Romans live. Clusters of apartment building stretching for blocks in every direction with cafes, restaurants and stores all at street level for the pedestrians of the city to wander in to have their coffee, nibble on snacks and smoke their cigarettes. The food improves, the prices drop, the faces are not as hostile, the pace begins to slack. We stumble into one of the finest gelato shops I have ever visited to enjoy real artisan Gelato made from all natural local ingredients, Gelateria Bartocci. This might have been my favorite gelato/ice cream ever! It was that good.

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Leaving Rome we made our way to the Amalfi coast to visit Positano, one of my favorite places in the past to visit when I was working on Motor Yachts. With my family we rented a small apartment in Vietri Sul Mare on the edge of Cinqueterre. This village was a delight and reminiscent of the Amalfi Coast of the past with smiling locals, quaint streets, local life not crushed by modern tourism. The town seemingly dedicated to the production of pottery with small shops everywhere selling its wares making for a colorful display of terra-cotta and locally produced products. Shopping from small vendors for our daily needs adds to the charm of Vietri. Local fishermen bringing their catch to market, a butcher chopping away, the green grocer selling seasonal produce, a shop selling olive based products all add to my culinary curiosity

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Suddenly I feel my love for Italy returning until… The bus.
Long my nemesis in many of the countries I visit, the bus is a thing I loath to take. Perhaps I have become too spoiled with luxury motor yachts, private jets, and exotic cars over the years working for those with such means. A billionaire I am not so from time to time one must endure the diesel driven machines of mass transit purgatory, bound to their schedules, destinations, space requirements, availability and cleanliness. Asia is the worst as I barely fit in the space provided, but the Amalfi Coast bus ride pushed my buttons but hard. They are cheap and for a reason. It was late, it was packed, it smelled of body odor, it was harrowing, it was long, and lastly it was numbingly slow. The coast is a winding road of absurdly tight corners not fit for a motor coach and barely wide enough for 2 cars to pass each other with cliff face on one side and and long fall to the sea on the other. I will say I give the bus driver an immense level of respect for his nerves of steel dodging Vespas, cars, tourists, and by a matter of centimeters just missing a scrape across the cliff face. His driving skills were masterful. How this mess of a road operates day in and day out is a mystery to me. An accident feels like it would take a Hercules Helicopter to clear it. Tourists should not be driving on this road by any means, but there they are, clogging up what used to be one of the worlds great driving roads, a vista paradise now looks more like a parking lot at LAX. We finally arrived in Amalfi just 16 km away and 2 hours later to find a town packed with people, stuck in queue trying to walk up the pedestrian street to take in the sites of T shirt vendors and snack shops. Not impressed was got back onto… the bus. #$H&T?!!

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Another 1 and a half and 10 km pass with more of the same as before. Good god I am disappointed by what I am seeing. But the bus finally lets us off and we walk the remaining 100 meters to get the overview of Positano. This is what I remember, this is the view I fell in love with 21 years ago and it has barely changed. The vivid colors of the cliff perched village are perfectly weathered with time. The village cascades from high on the cliff down to the beach lined perfectly with colorful umbrellas and tanned sunbathers swimming in the surf washing up on golden sand. Suddenly, as if the drugs kicked in, I feel better, much better like I was 24 again seeing a former lover just as she was. If anything, Positano has become more refined, more discerning, more tasteful, more expensive. It feels luxurious and this seems to keep the tourist throngs away who look for a cheap thrill and a snapshot rather than an experience. Winding cobbled streets make their way through the town and up the cliff face. Art dealers, jewelers, and sellers of couture line the walking streets. On the sea front we make our way to a restaurant I have waited 12 years return to just to have one of my favorite pastas in the world, the squid ink pasta of Chez Black. Chez Black, a seafront alfresco affair whose walls are lined with the photos of a self aggrandizing owner posing with the many celebrities who have frequented this seafood establishment. More photos have been added over the years since my last visit, but otherwise it was unchanged as was the menu including the squid ink pasta. Exactly as I remembered, spaghetti with bits of sautéed squid in a rich sauce of squid ink was deeply black arrives and it is accompanied by simply grilled vegetables, a chilled seafood plate and a Pinot Grigio. Simple fresh ingredients perfectly prepared. I am happy, maybe even giddy that I can share this experience with my family and all was suddenly right.

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Choosing not to take… the bus, we chose the ferry this time. Arriving right on time allowed us to catch the setting sun from the sea and take in a final glimpse of Positano from a distance. I have missed you, I will miss you again.
Getting off the beaten path and back to the kids education, we decided to make a trip to the little know Greek ruin site of Paestum. If you have never heard of it, look it up. The ruins of this magnificent site makes the Acropolis in Athens look humble. A parthenon of such scale and grander was an astonishing site to see giving we were in the middle of the countryside without a major town anywhere in site and. Only a handful of tourists were visiting this magnificent site and the accompanying museum filled with treasures of the past mostly exhumed from the Tombs of the long deceased elite. Archeological evidence dates the founding of Paestum somewhere around 600 BC with the oldest of the Temples, dedicated to Hera, dates back to 500 BC and still stands intact today.

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Our parting glance was that of Naples, birthplace of the pizza, and a pilgrimage of sorts to find the world best pizza. Pizza is a simple thing. A street food for the masses with international fame concocted in every possible way these days in restaurants everywhere, but it all started in Naples. I have a soft spot for pizza to the point I installed a pizza oven in my restaurant to create an artisan version for my guests. Venturing out into the street by foot in Naples feel a bit dodgy. It is not clean, people drive like mad, graffiti, garbage, and unkind stares make you feel immediately not at home. The best of the pizza restaurants in Naples always have a wait, but I hate feeling as if my very presence to pay for a meal is somehow an inconvenience to them. Surly waiters briskly taking your order, annoyed by our lack of Italian and foreign accents. The chefs can be seen in the back stretching dough and topping each with dizzying speed and accuracy. Wood paddles lightly coated with semolina, gently glide the raw pizza into the wood fired inferno, quarter turned every 40 seconds. Our pizzas arrive quickly as the 700 degree wood burning oven makes quick work of the pies. They smell amazing and the anticipation of eating one of the world great pizzas was now going to be satiated alongside a bottle of Campagna. We dig in and take that first bite. Hmmm. It is good, but not the mind blowing creation one reads about in travel blogs. The puffy outer crust has a nice amount of char, good chew, no crunch, an maybe just a bit bland. Bland? Bitting into the center gets no better. Overtopped and maybe just a bit undercooked, the center is a wet, flabby mess. The mozzarella has the lactic flavor ones comes to expect from good mozzarella created from buffalo milk, the sauce is a simple crushed tomato sauce with little or no seasoning, the basil, oddly, was the star of the Naples famous Margherita Pizza. Chef do have their off days and dough can change in nature from batch to batch, but I think I got what they serve everyday. I just did not feel the love in the food, very much the same way I felt in Rome. And I wanted to love it. I wanted a transcendent experience and a opportunity to bring something back in my culinary bag of tricks and that did not happen. As a matter of fact, most of the pizza we had in Italy was exactly this. A problem where the legend does not live up to real life. The world has started to speed past it in terms of excellence, creativity and affordability. Now am I talking about Pizza or Italy?

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Leaving Italy was bittersweet. Seeing Italy again after so many years brought back so many memories, but it reminds me the world is changing, and sometimes not for the better. Magnificent history and culture now being commoditized and destroyed by those who only seek to profit from its existence. Lack of care and pride in the community manifests itself in the vast amounts of graffiti and garbage present in the streets and sidewalks of the largest cities. Lack of vision and investment is evident in the crumbling structures and endless traffic congestion show a world living in its past and not looking forward. Maybe a lesson for us all.