Back to school blitz! Cole's Question of the day 8,9 and 10!

Mini tourney

Cole's Question of the Day has been brought up a notch to help you kick off the school year with a bang! Get your answers in quickly as we will be checking them every three days! Not only will you be awarded with regular points for answering single questions but you will also have a chance at our hardest question yet. We are picking our 5 best competitors and asking them to try to find out what the story behind the object in our mystery photo is. Stay tuned as the Back to School Blitz is starting soon! - Cole McEwan

Trip to Sapa - Northern Vietnam

Here we are on the night train to Sapa in Northern Vietnam.  This is a 4 person "soft sleeper" - a tourist standard, the locals usually book onto the "hard sleeper" - with six people to a section - which has even less space.  The train left at 8:30 pm and we arrived in Sapa at 4:30 am - we did get a bit of sleep.  It was pouring rain when we left Hanoi and it was still raining when we got to Sapa.  This was the most rain I have ever seen!  It was the tail end of a typhoon which caused a number of landslides in Northern Vietnam where we were and over 30 people were killed.  We were ok but we did see some evidence of landslides on our trek. 

As the rain was so bad we bought some really light ponchos ($1 each) to try to hold back some of the rain.  We felt like locals - everyone wears them here! 






















We spent a day on a guided trek with a lady from the local village.  It was about 5 hours long as we walked through the mountains along the rice fields and the river through 3 local villages.  Sapa has 4 seasons - it can get as cold as 5 degrees in the winter and up to 35 degrees in the summer.  Rice does grow here but only one crop a year due to the weather.  The scenery is fantastic and the air is really clear - a great break from Hanoi.  



















































Colleen (me), Cole, Chuck and Kenna on our trek. 



















The local houses are very basic - wooden walls and roofs.  During winter a wood fire is burnt within the house to keep the family warm(ish).  As it was Saturday we saw lots of children playing with sticks in the mud - and many of the small children were running around without pants (no diapers) and the other children had very old/worn clothes .  The Hill tribe people are very poor as was evident that day on our walk. 















This is our guide - Zee.  She is a mother of 3children.  She is demonstrating the use of the loom that is used to make the fabric for the traditional clothes, bags and pillow cases that can be bought in Sapa.  Zee is wearing the traditional clothes of her village - everyone wears the same pattern on their clothes to distinguish where they are from.   During our tour we learnt a lot from her about family life and school.   In the past the men logged in the mountains for the family's income, but this is no longer allowed by the government so now the women make crafts to sell in Sapa and lead treks while the husbands stay home and take care of the children.  Zee's English is surprisingly good - she has learnt it from speaking with tourists when she sold her crafts.  English is not taught in the schools at all here. There are only elementary schools in the villages so children must commute up to an hour each way to go to highschool.  In the past most girls got married at 15 or 16, the new law stipulates that they must wait until they are 18, after they finish high school, to marry.

We saw many of these contraptions throughout the villages.  The water, which is from the run off of the rice fields, fills the bucket to lift the hammer, and when the bucket overfills and empties the hammer crashes down to grind the rice into flour.  I'm sure these were around 100's of years ago, maybe even longer.  Cole wants to build one in our backyard!

 

While we were on our walk these 3 ladies joined us for several hours before asking us if we wanted to buy anything.  We ended up buying an indigo bag, pillow case, glasses case and some bracelets.  We now need to soak them in salt water to set the dye before they leach over all our other clothes.  The lady standing beside me was very chatty - asking me lots of questions about Canada.  I was teasing her - telling her I felt like a giant beside her. She told me that she was the smallest in her village.  I think she was being polite as all of the Hill Tribe ladies are very small and all the westerns look huge!!











Sapa was truly impressive.  We all really enjoyed our couple of days here and the children loved seeing the countryside of Vietnam and witnessing the living conditions of the Hill Tribe families.  We all felt very fortunate to be living in Canada.

 

Hanoi - Vietnam

We have been busy in Hanoi seeing the sights.  Hanoi has a population of 6.5 million, a very busy city, traffic everywhere.  We are staying in the "Old Quarter" - it is full of shops, restaurants and hotels.  On our first day we did a bit of a walking tour, around the Old Quarter, visiting the temples and walking the streets.   The area retains the old organisation - with each street specialising in a product, we visited a number of different streets: toy street, tin box street, straw mat street (bought a yoga mat), herb street, linen street, Buddhist altar street, sunglasses street, shoe street - the list goes on and on.  While doing our walking tour we ran into a number of soldiers who were also busy being tourists.  Here is a picture of Chuck and Cole with one of the soldiers. 

They were a lot more interested in getting their picture taken with Kenna - 5 of them lined up for a photo shoot with her!






















In Hanoi motorbikes are used to transport people and goods through the narrow and crowded streets.  We have seen a number of bikes carrying 4 people!  There are also products piled high on the back of bikes - I really like this one - so colourful.




































There are a number of temples in the "Old Quarter" - this one is decorated for a special event.























We spent a day on a tour with two University Students - Yen and Ha - who volunteer through the "Hanoikids" Tourist Group.  This is an opportunity for them to practise their English and share information about Vietnam and learn more about different cultures.  They were excellent tour guides.  We spent the day visiting Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, the Presidential Palace, HCM's home, and the Temple of Literature - the first University in Vietnam, opened over a 1000 years ago. 


All official buildings in Vietnam are painted this colour to clearly show they are official government buildings.  This is the Presidential Palace - HCM never lived in this building, so it was only used for official meetings/business. It is still in use today.  HCM lived in a much more simple 2 room house on the same grounds. 

There are many guards around the HCM complex.

























This is "Uncle Ho's" home.












Yen, Cole, Ha, Kenna and Myself (Colleen) at the HCM complex.
















Kenna and Cole at the Temple of Literature - the tablet behind them is dedicated to a top student from the original class.  The tablet is standing on a turtle to represent longevity.























The gate at the Temple of Literature.




































Confucius and his best students are immortalised in the shrine at the Temple of Literature.  Schooling in Vietnam continues to be based on memorising facts.  Exams are all related to being able to remember the learnings from teachers/masters.  Kenna shared the education philosophy of Canada with our guides - they were very interested in the different style of education that we have at home.








Cole is rubbing the head of a turtle for luck.                                                                   
















St. Joseph's Cathedral - built in 1885.  Evening mass is occurring right now - we were at a restaurant beside the church and were able to hear the singing and bell ringing during the service. 





























Hanoi's growth has been incredible over the past 10 years - infrastructure is struggling to keep up.  This is a typical sight throughout the town.  The speakers are used in the morning to announce the news of the day to the citizens of the city.

In Hanoi there is a vibrant street life. During the day there are a variety of temporary shops set up on the sidewalks - you can get your shoes shined, keys cut, motorcycle tire fixed, a pedicure, a haircut and buy snacks, drinks and meals all on the sidewalk.  In the evening the stores close and the little chairs and tables come out - the sidewalks becomes restaurants and places to gather.  Our guide Yen told us the most profitable job in Hanoi right now (without a University Degree) is to run an ice tea shop on the sidewalk as the costs are so low and the young people in Hanoi love to hang out on the street and watch the action.  Here is a photo of a temporary restaurant just by our hotel.




 

Cole's question of the day #7

This is an object from the Temple of Literature in Hanoi, Vietnam. What is it and what is it used for?(7pts 1st 5pts 2nd 3 pts 3rd and 2 for the late ones)


The correct answer is a bronze brazier used to burn incense

 

The best of Australia

Here's a summary of the best things about our trip down under.

Cole's top 5: Ekka (An Australian Amusement Park and exhibition), Thunderegg fossiking, Rainbow Beach, Byron Bay, Sydney Walking Tour.  Favorite food: MEAT PIES (goal was to eat 10 - accomplished no problem!!!!).  Favorite Australian Slang: Pull your head in, we're not explaning that one.

Kenna's top 5: Holding a Koala @ Lone Pine Sanctuary, hanging with Uncle Peter and Auntie Gayle, exploring Rainbow beach, Ekka and the Sydney Opera House. Favorite food: Bugs* Favorite Ausralian slang: give you a knock down ... = Introduce you to someone

Colleen's top 5: Rainbow Beach, Sydney Opera House, Australia Zoo, Tambourine Mtn. shops and driving through the country side. Favorite food: Espresso Coffee. Favorite Australian slang: We are not here for the shade = we're here to drink.

Chuck's top 5: Maritime Museum in Sydney, Rainbow Beach, Fossiking, Aussie Rules Football, Byron Bay. Favorite food:  Kangaroo pizza.  Favorite Australian Slang: how you goin'? = how are you?

* commonly known as lobster

Animals, Beaches and Fossiking - Australia

We spent about 4 weeks in Australia.  A few days in Sydney and then a few weeks based out of Brisbane, staying at Chuck's brother Peter and his sister-in-law Gayle's place in Redlands Bay.  They were great hosts - showing us the sites, suggesting places to go, feeding us (kangaroo roast) and even letting us borrow their car.  Staying with them really made the trip wonderful. We all enjoyed learning the Aussie slang from Gayle.  Chuck and my favourite saying is...'we are not here for the shade' - we learnt this one when drinking one evening with our hosts and their neighbours!  Kenna and Cole liked "crook".  We now have a richer vocabulary than before.


We spent a lot of time meeting the local animals, checking out the beaches and fossiking.  Here are a few pictures about our adventures.


Kenna with some lorikeets - feeding time!


We all got to meet the friendly camel - this was taken right after it gave me a very big sniff!

















We all liked the echidna...
















Chuck with a baby python

















Feeding the kangaroos - here is Chuck
















Family photo - Chuck, Cole, Tinkerbell, Kenna and Colleen
















Officially the cutest animal (according to our family) -  red panda















A wombat (do you know what shape their poop is?)
















We saw some great beaches.  Even though it was winter it was 24 - 28 degrees.  Warm enough to walk the beaches and play in the waves.  We even did a kayak trip looking for dolphins - but no luck.  We may just have to come back to try again.

Stradbroke Island - a large sand island not far from Redland Bay.   Peter spent the day showing us around.





Playing frisbee on the beach at Byron Bay. 
















We found a great apartment to stay right near the beach at Rainbow Beach - a wonderful place to hang out and have a glass of wine.










Kenna and Cole really hanging out at Rainbow Beach.






At Rainbow Beach there were some huge sand dunes - fun to climb up and race down. The kids spent a whole afternoon exploring the dunes.
























Rainbow Beach - many colors of sand and large dunes.

Fossiking - Chuck getting the sand and gravel ready to sift - hoping to find a gem.  He is wearing a toque as it was minus 9 degrees in Glen Innis where we were fossiking.  What a shock to the system!






















Cole fossiking at the edge of the river - hoping to find an amethyst, emerald or sapphire.

Kenna's 13th Birthday

For Kenna's Birthday she asked to hold a Koala...here she is...what a lucky girl.  Happy Birthday Kenna!

 

Cole's Question of the Day - #6

Today's question is...

What the Heck is this?

(5 for 1st, 3 for 2nd and 2 for 3rd)
The correct answer is a sea sponge.

Sydney

We spent 4 days in Sydney, the weather was cool, (16 degrees) cloudy, and rainy - it is winter.  The locals are wearing big winter coats and boots, we look a little out of place in our light raincoats, but there is no way we could fit anything bigger in our bags.  Luckily our hotel has heating!  We did a 3 hour walking tour of Sydney,  learning all about the early days. We all enjoyed the stories about how the hospital was built on the sale of rum (it only took one year to raise the $),  the Japenese mini-subs in the harbor during WW2, the construction of the Sydeny Harbor Bridge and the building of the Opera House. 

Here is Sydney Bridge - affectionately called the 'coat hanger bridge'.  It was built in the 1930's - 6 lanes for cars and 2 lanes for trains...they were building for future way back then as no one really even lived on the other side of the harbor yet. 
 

Cole on the bridge - he is straddling the center point.  It only took about 1 hour to walk across the bridge and back.

The Opera House - it is really stunning in person.  The architect of the Opera House was fired before it was completed due to being over time (several years) and over budget (700% over budget).  When the design was chosen for the Opera House the architect, a young man from Holland, had no plans yet on how to make the sails.  It took 16 designs before they figured it out - they are made of concrete 'ribs' that were poured on site.  The tiles are self-cleaning, alternate between glossy and rough in texture to prevent too much glare.  Gutters are located in the floor surrounding the building, not on the roof, to maintain the wonderful lines.  The inside of the building is lovely as well, many large windows bringing the harbor view into the building.  The stages are extremely small. The wings are so small (< 1 meter) that during the ballet season the walls are lined with mattresses so when the dancer leap off the stage they don't hurt themselves when they crash into the walls!  In the past they hired men to catch the dancers as they leaped off stage - crazy!