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I went on a boat trip to Halong Bay, then to Bai Tu Long Bay, in the north east of Vietnam, near to China. First we picked up an American girl called Rachel, and we also had a German couple called Christian and Vicky. There were three levels on the boat, the bottom where the cabins were, the middle where we ate and where the kitchen was. The captain sat at the front on this level and steered with his feet! The top level had no roof but deck chairs where we could hang out. After lunch on board we travelled a bit over the water out to the bay, and went kayaking. I went in a kayak with my dad, and had to paddle. He told me what to do, which side to paddle on. We kayaked past a floating village, where people live in houses on water. We even saw a school on water. We saw a cave where a James Bond movie was filmed.

There were a lot of islands and mountains really tall that were full of only trees and bushes with no one living there.
We played a new game called “20 questions” after dinner. It’s a bit like “I-Spy”, trying to figure out what one person is thinking of. You can ask questions that can be answered by a yes or no, like “is it alive?”, or “is it a solid?”, or “do you find it on this boat?”. It was good fun, and I am glad Rachel taught us it.

It was weird sleeping in the boat. The toilet was quite stinky. We could have air conditioning at 8.30pm which was good as it got ate hot in the cabins, even though I was at sea.

We went for a morning kayak, to a cave, which we explored. It wasn’t that big, but we got to see into it. We then kayaked to a beach which just a bit of sand. We went for a swim there. I got 3 cuts on my foot which really hurt.

We went back by boat to Halong City, then took the bus a short distance to another quay, where we caught a smaller junk boat out to an island in Bai Tu Long Bay. Two more German couples and a French couple joined us. It was interesting as the French couple spoke to each other in sign language only. I learned how to say goodnight in sign language. At the boat port when they came I played Kniffel (Yahtzee) and I did my two card tricks on the Germans and on the French. They couldn’t figure out how I did it, but I told Rachel, Christian and Vicky my secret. I really liked playing Kniffel with Vicky and Christian.

After four hours, we arrived on the island. I went on the back of my dad’s bike to get to the home stay. It was a brick house with four floors. The island just got power five months ago. A lot of people have TVs now. There was even wifi. We tried to watch a movie in the Internet but couldn’t. We were shown how to make Vietnamese spring rolls.

A tuk tuk took us to the boat, to get back onto the mainland. We were lucky to get off the island, as there was a storm. We had to get up early to make sure we were ready to go, if the police gave the clearance for the captain to leave the island. Boats have to get permission from the police, to keep the tourists safe. The police told the captain it was ok. It took three hours to get back, then we had a five hour bus trip back to Hanoi.

We took an overnight train to Hué. I had my own bunk bed on the train, and slept on the top bunk. We were on the train for 13 hours.

Chiang Mai is surrounded by hills. From our apartment we can see up to the Wat called Suthep, which is the most important Wat of Chiang Mai. There are loads of temples or wats in Chiang Mai.

One day we took a trip up to Wat Suthep.

We decided to go on an action adventure. I was a bit nervous of the huge walking I had to do.
First we went to a butterfly and flower garden. We only got 20 min. I mainly looked at the butterfly farm. When we had to go, we went to a market and spent another 20 minutes.

In the market I had the most refreshing ice block I have ever had, especially doe to this heat. It is lime flavoured outside and vanilla flavoured in the inside. Mom looked at some clothes and stuff. I was only interested in the ice cream. It was so brilliant that there was a time limit because if there wasn’t, my mom would be there forever.

We drove further in a safari jeep with no seatbelts. We arrived at the place to have lunch, and it turned out it was my favourite – fried rice. Our guide Son Chai also got some fruit, called pomelo, from the tree but I also remember that didn’t like it. My sister got one for me, and I tried to play soccer, but it was so hard it was like a soccer ball for an elephant.

After lunch I had to do a five hour trek in the hot and humid temperatures! We got some walking sticks made out of bamboo. I also had to carry a bag, which later on made my back really sweaty and it felt like I was carrying an elephant soccer ball or a bag 10 times the weight of me. In reality I was carrying a bag full of clothes, and a pomelo for a while.
The first 10 min we walked, my mom and dad were saying “let go of the fruit, you will not be able to carry it”. I eventually let go of it by chucking it onto a bank beside my dad and that gave him a massive fright! But he didn’t want to admit it.
They also have there own strawberry which has hair on the outside, which I didn’t like but I didn’t spit it out. We also got some potato before we went into the bats cave and there was heaps of them but we had to be quiet. I didn’t know what the bats are called but it was so exciting going I to a completely dark cave with only a little torch, and sometimes we had to duuuuuuuuuuck. The noise from the flapping of the wings was loud.



We also saw this, at the mouth of the bat cave:

We left and headed for a big walk down a hill. When we got to the bottom, the tour guide showed us an elephant beatle. I didn’t touch it, and we carried on.

After about two hours of walking we had some guava. Son Chai climbed up the tree really fast and shook the branches until it was raining guava and I was doddddging (dodging!) them. I got a few unripe ones but I did get a few ripe ones. Son Chai opened it for me, and it was sour, good to be used in the “sour challenge”.

We had to walk up to a village, where the houses were very different, made of bamboo and up on stilts so that snakes don’t get them. We were on a road/track (the only one on our trek) and a few motorbikes passed us by. We had a nice break in the village. Then we walked about two hours through farmland and up a big hill, which was really hard because we were tired.

Son Chai is great at finding food in the jungle, and he found a cucumber growing, and cut it up with his machete. We then went downhill through more forest, but my ankle was hurting then.

I was so relieved when we arrived into the village. We unpacked our bags and I did some reading.

Our hut that we stayed in was made out of bamboo, and there were gaps in the floor, which you could see out of. You had to be careful where you stepped because I got my foot stuck once and it hurt. There were three steep steps up to the hut, which was on stilts so the snakes couldn’t get us. You could also see out the walls.

There was no electricity in the village, where three families lived. There were three kids living in the village, and we played with them even though we were not able to talk to them in their Thai language.
We played cool sporty games with a rope made from elastic bands. Two people held the elastic first round their knees, and the others would jump over it. Then the people holding the elastic would raise it higher, even up to their chest and we had to jump! I jumped over a 1 metre height. Using elastic bands is good, as it doesn’t hurt you or trip you up if you miss – it just stretches.

We had to use a torch that night, especially to go to the toilet which was a hole in the ground in a shed. It was a traditional Thai toilet.

In the morning after breakfast we started off the day by walking half an hour in the jungle to the car which picked us up. We saw rubber trees, the tip of a bat wing which is as strong as a toenail but shimmery green and the dog from the village walked with us. That was a good job because suddenly the dog barked and ran into the bush and barked madly to warn us while dancing around something. Son Chai ran into the bush also, and he saw that there was a cobra snake there! I didn’t see the snake.

We drove to an elephant park and this was the beginning of our reward day, for all the trekking we did!
First we went on an elephant ride, and it was freaky! We were so high on a seat on top of the elephant. We had a driver/handler though (called a mahout).

I fed the elephant banana. We went into a river while still on the elephant, but we didn’t get wet, as we were up so high.



After the elephant ride, we did a zip line across the river. I thought “no way am I doing this” and afterward it wasn’t that scary, and it only lasted 30 seconds or so.

Then we went to the baby elephant and we saw an elephant that was born the day before. It was a bit cheeky as it gave mom a slap on the arm with its trunk. He baby elephant kept pushing me out with its trunk.

We went to a place and got on an elephant bareback, without a seat. I had to hold onto a little rope. The elephant handler made the elephant go up on its back legs and put it’s from legs on a fence, and I was holding on for dear life. Next this tricky elephant lifted me up from the ground with its trunk and put me sitting on its head!

Then there was an elephant show, and the elephants raised the thai flag on a flagpole, played soccer, kicking a ball, rode a bike, played golf, bowling, painted a picture of trees, gave an elephant massage (with their feet) to a man from the audience lying on the ground, kissed another audience volunteer with it’s trunk, but the guy didn’t like it at all and wanted to walk away.

We then went on a bamboo raft down the river. Two men used a stick to push along the bottom of the river to move us along.

That was nice but not as exciting as the white water rafting we did later. We had to drive for 25 minutes up the river to get to the white water rafting place. We got into our togs and put on a helmet and life jacket. The boat was an inflated dinghy. We started off and immediately went down a rapid. It was really hard to stay in the boat and we had to hold onto a rope and duck down into the boat. It was fun but scary. When it was calm, I got a turn to paddle. Also when it was calm, my sister and I leaned overboard, and slid into the water for a little swim in the water! We bobbed up on the water with our life jackets. It was so much fun I wanted to do whitewater rafting again.

Our last fun activity for the day was a big slide down a rock in a waterfall! We had to walk through the bush for 10 minutes to get to it. I really enjoyed myself.



So our second day of adventure was all the fun activity stuff, kind of a reward day from all the heart-taking extreme trekking we did the day before! Overall I liked the zip line the best.

Maya is the biggest shopping centre in Chiang Mai, where we stayed for two weeks. Maya doesn’t seem that big to me. We are staying in an apartment very near to Maya.

I call the top floor “Games World” because it has air hockey and arcade. There is a Disney place and nearby the Disney place there is a huge model of Captain America. Next door to that there is Chargers and Avengers things. My Dad wouldn’t let me buy anything.



We went to the cinema to see Everest, a movie about some New Zealanders, some Australians and Americans who climbed Everest. I won’t tell you what happened, but it’s sad and happy.

Downstairs is a food court and grocery shop, where we ate sometimes, but mainly we went to an open air market behind Maya for our dinner.

Ned Kelly was an Aussie lad whose parents were Irish; he had a gun but wasn’t fun but he wasn’t done. He stole some cattle, shot some police, and because of this there was a big battle. Stealing cattle was like stealing cars (those days were horrible). Cattle are cows imagine how much people use horse now compared to cars. About 99.9% people use cars instead of horses today in the olden days about 30% had horses and 70% didn’t even have horses.

So we went to where Ned Kelly got shot and there was a show. It was about how he died in a stand-off in a village called Glenrowan, and the life he had. He had a very terrifying life. The first room was about him holding people hostage until police came so Ned could shoot the police. There was computer animated life size figures, with different lights, noises and smells. It was like theatre but not with live people, but moving figures and prop.
The next room we went into was set out like an Inn, where Ned Kelly kept everyone hostage. It was chaotic, with animals, a band playing music, kids swinging off the ceiling, and mad other effects. It showed us what it was like to be held hostage in an Inn in Australia in 1880.
Then we went outside the house where we witnessed a shoutout. That made me jump, the banging of the gunshots. I learned that you had to be less than 20m beside your target to shoot it with the guns they used in those days. Ned Kelly wore an armour, which made him look like an alien or a demon to the people. The bullets bounced off his armour.
But one bullet went in between his arm plate and front breast plate. He got shot at the top of his arm, then his foot. The armour was heavy and he couldn’t get away. He stumbled and was caught.
They brought him by train to Melbourne, and news of his arrest spread all over the world, really quickly. People had been looking for him. Ned Kelly was hanged.

I got a new friend and his name is Mavrick. He is the same age as me. I love his office it has a playstation three and a Wii he normally is playing his Wii or playstation. I like the game Wii party,Wii sports and also MX VS ATV Untamed. He likes skylanders and Wii party and also MX VS ATV Untamed. He has the nicest breakfast ever invented it is called captain cookie crunch. One the first day we arrived it was late arvo and we played some MX VS ATV Untamed and then had dinner and we went to bed I slept in my sister’s room and she kept me up all night.

We went to the Victoria Market in Melbourne and had warm doughnuts.

Our Geelong friends brought me to the Footie, to see the Geelong Cats playing their final game of the season. Footie is Australian Rules, the game most popular in Victoria. It’s more popular than rugby.

Dad, my friend Fin, Fin’s grandad Darby and I went. I borrowed a Geelong top from Millie, but I have one myself in Auckland. I should have brought it, but didn’t have enough room in my suitcase, and I was so surprised to be actually going to a Footie match.

Geelong won, and I was happy.

We watched the match again the next day on TV. Darby spotted us, so I was on Australian TV……even though I was just a spec in the crowd.