When I Realized

This week, not one day I didn't go swimming. I also got my diving license. I am going to talk about When I Realized.

It was a windy Saturday. The waves were huge and the tides were high. I jumped on a small blue rubber boat, and put on a soggy orange life jacket. We drove for about 2 minutes, and arrived at the scuba boat.  We hopped on and handed our life jackets to the guy on the smaller boat. I turned around and saw dozens of scuba tanks.

That is when I realized that I was about to learn how to breath under water!

I know it sounds silly, but this is the only time I really thought about it.

After that, while diving, it felt different.  It felt much different. It felt like I was flying in a slow motion video, like I was in space with coral, and fish. It felt like I was an alien on my zero gravity planet. It felt, AMAZING!

Mira

Adventure

This week was an adventure. In Laos on Wednesday, we kayaked on the mighty Mekong. We paddled and paddled until our arms were practically noodles.

We pulled to shore and started walking along the beach. I look up from the sand and saw what looked like a moving rock. We got closer and I realized that those moving rocks were elephants! I ran to see if what I saw was true and it was!

After that we got to ride the elephants, on the way we saw some interesting fruits and decided to taste them. There were some good ones and some not so good ones, but in all, it was an unforgettable experience.  Then after we rode the elephants, we bathed them. It was a blast, however it felt like 2 minutes but really was hours! You know what they say, time flies when you're having fun!

Then we went to some water falls and saw butterflies.

The day after that, Friday, we traveled some more. The day after that we went tubing. The day after that, we traveled ALOT, and then we finally arrived here in Pattaya, Thailand! We relaxed by the pool. We went out to dinner, but that night was an eye opener to the whole world - every piece was put in its place, but I am working on forgetting about it.

Mira

Tropical Bugs

In keeping with Mira's last blog, here is a set of photos of some of the more interesting bugs we've seen in northern Thailand and southwestern Laos...

Just for you, Billy, fried bugs:

Nadia

Trekking through the Jungle

There we were, trekking through the jungle with only 5 small backpacks for supplies.  The whole family was there, plus the guide and his friend.

"Girls!" Yells mom from behind "Come look at this!" she cries. Maya and I both race back - what's this?  It's a caterpillar, covered in hair.

"Can you touch it?" I Ask.

"Yah" says the guide. He reaches over and brushes over it with his finger.

We continue walking and we stop at a tree that is twisted, and has a swing. I rapidly go over and check it out. I climbed up little higher, and my sister comes running over and starts climbing too.

She comes when I am standing on it with no hands, and shakes it, I fall! But land on my feet.

The guide laughs, and we are all quite confused. He says something in Thai. Then tries to translate it. "She is a ling." He says still giggling "What is a ling?" Mom asked with a smile on her face. The man acts like a monkey, and me and my sister are both convinced he is crazy.

We start moving again, and we see a bug that curls up into a ball, cool mushrooms that grow out of elephant poop, and a few more things.

Overall that day would be from 1 - 10 a definite 12. The guide knew a lot, and was funny. He was also good at translating considering he knew only limited English.

Mira

The Crazy Bathroom Break

The last few days have been exciting, tiring, and new. We said goodbye to some very close friends, and got on a plane to Abu Dhabi. The boat we stayed on almost sank. We crashed into our neighbouring boat. We took a 6 hour plane to Bangkok, and today we ate the best food I ever remember putting in my mouth.

I know you are probably wondering about our boat almost sinking. Well, my dad woke up to use the bathroom and noticed the boat was tilted, so he got out of bed and woke up the captain. The captain discovered a leak down where the engine is. They rapidly started the engines and BANG, into the dock, then CRASH, into another boat. As soon as that happened everyone woke up. It was crazy, my dad was grumpy, the captain was yelling at everyone, and my sister was chatting on her phone, my mom was on her computer and I was watching all that was going on. Captain drove us to the beach so that we couldn't capsize so soon. Then he called the marine people and they showed up in their fancy shoes and suits and refused to get wet, except one, who was a huge help. After we finally fixed that problem at, maybe 3:30, and every one was happy, until they found another problem. It took a while then to fix that too. However we had to leave at 5:00 to the airport and leave the captain to do all the paper work, and dealing with the owner of the boat, and the owner of the boat we broke. The picture below is of the boat we crashed into.

Tomorrow we head up to northern Thailand to volunteer at an elephant sanctuary! (Remember to subscribe!)

Mira

And They're Off!