Siem reap

To start my trip to Siem reap, Cambodia I took a 4 hour plane ride to the Siem reap international airport. This was the smallest airport I've ever seen! there was only 1 luggage conveyor-belt and the security was the same size as my dining room. The tiny airport still got me to Cambodia and I continued my journey in a small white 7 seater van going to our hotel. Before I arrived at the hotel I was looking out the window and noticed a lot of families on motorcycles. Most of the time it would be the husband/father (with a helmet) driving, the wife/mother holding 2 kids that are standing up on the motorcycle without helmets. But it wasn’t only motorcycles on the road, I saw a couple of Tuctucs. They're motorcycles with a cart on wheels attached to the back. I also saw a lot of homeless naked children, they did not seem to mind that they were nude or without a house. After we dropped off all of the luggage at the room we asked our personal tuctuc driver to bring us out to town. There, we got a bite to eat at a local KFC (because that was the only thing that we were familiar with), then while we were looking around outside a little girl who looked more or less homeless with a baby asked begged us to buy milk for the baby. We couldn’t get the milk for the baby because we had heard that they are there on the street to scam tourist for money and if you give them money then it encourages them to keep on begging on the street instead of going to school.

Ready set go !!!

First before I get into details, I'm a long distance runner but I run really slow (it's practically jogging) and I suck at running fast! But I put myself to the test at a walk-a-thon at Mahaut's school, the Lycée Français Singapore. Kira, Mahaut and I all sat in the back of the taxi talking about how much fun this would be and who of Mahaut's friends are going to be there. The ride didn't take too long but once we got there I saw that Mahaut's school was huge! The Lycée Français Singapore has over 2000 students ranging from Preschool to 12th grade. Mahaut's school also has a pool!

Once we found the ticket stand we got our tickets and T-shirts then we were ready to start! The track to run was 400 m long and each time you run around the track you get a rubber band to show how many times you ran/walked around the track. This walk-a-thon is a fund-raiser. Mahaut had told me and Kira that you could also go around the track in heels to raise more money! I was ready to run but I wasn't thinking about the hot weather or how hard this might be. 

The first couple times around was easy but once we hit the 17th lap I got really tired! The heat had really got to me and I was soaked with sweat! But I don't think that all of the sweat was mine because when I was getting the rubber bands I was surrounded by a bunch of other sweaty people that were leaning on me and sticking their arms out to get a rubber band. It felt like I was surrounded by a bunch of huge smelly sweat sponges that were slowly closing in around me. 

After the run, Mahaut, Kira and I went for a swim back at the apartment building. We all had a lot of fun together!

I'll post soon so bye for now ! :)

~ A Really Cool Canadian :D

Simaya vs Wild

Hello!!! Today on Simaya vs Wild I went on a
wild adventure through the wild! (The Sandiaoling hiking trail just outside of Taipei city).

First thing in the morning after having the hotel breakfast,  my family and I hopped onto the train that would take us to the starting point of the hiking trail. On this very long train ride of 1 hour I learned from my dad about relativity and the speed of light! It's really cool but I don't remember it all.

Once we arrived at our destination we went looking for the hiking trail. We read that the trail begins at an elementary school.  We thought that the path would be past the school but we were wrong. At first it seemed that we were going in the right direction because of the flags that lead the way. I walked up a lot of stairs and travelled  through some, not very travelled paths.  We realized we took a wrong turn from the beginning!

While following the trail that I thought was the right one, I found a couple of large jars. At first I had no idea what it was but I soon figured out that the jars may have contained cremated people as this was a grave yard! Beside many of these jars were tomb stones! Where there are tomb stones, there are dead bodies! That means that I could have accidentally stepped on someone!




After venturing off into the wild and back we found the real hiking trail and so we followed that trail. The right trail was behind the school not past it and it took me and my family around an hour to get back on track! On the path, my siblings and I met an older lady that had been hiking for 2 hours.  She told us that it's an hour hike to the first waterfall and 30mins to the next water fall, then a very tall ladder is right after the second waterfall, and the last waterfall is not too far after that. As she was talking to me and my siblings she noticed that my dad's knee was causing him a bit of pain.  She told us that she thinks that he wouldn't make the whole hike so she went over to my dad and started to rub his knee while saying something in Mandarin.  There's always a first for everything!

Simaya vs Wild:  The First Adventure (Ep 1) - This is the first of many Simaya vs Wild episodes. Today on Simaya vs Wild, I'm going in to the real wild somewhere in the wild South-East Asia (A hiking trail just outside of Taipei city)! Click the link below to se me venture off into the wild, get completely lost, find my way back and see Simaya vs Wild special : Dangerous Dangers!

Simaya vs Wild: The First Adventure (Ep 1)




Later near the end of the hike we got lost again!  The trail lead to a small quiet village like I've never seen before.  I asked some locals which way is to the Shifen train station.  He told me to follow a road and that would lead me to the train and the train would take me to Pingxi (Pingxi is a very small area in which at night you can light sky lanterns and watch it fly). I walked for about 10 mins and then I saw a little shuttle bus go in the opposite direction. At first I didn't think that the bus was going to turn around so I was going to keep walking. Luckily this older man came out of his house and told us to wait at the bus-stop. Then I ran back as fast as I could and then the bus stopped at an abandoned looking bus-stop to pick us up. The bus driver told us that this was a free shuttle to wherever we want to go.  He took us all the way to Pingxi, our final destination.

After exploring this very small area, we got to the sky lanterns! We chose the sky lantern colour and then we painted our wishes on it.  I also painted the Canadian flag because I'm proud to be Canadian!

Click the link below to watch a video of when I launched my sky lantern.

Our Sky Lanterns at Pingxi 

I'll post soon so bye for now! :)

~ A Really Cool Canadian :D

Taipei

Once I left the airline I found the bus that would take us to our hotel.  The bus was like a coach bus with curtains and suspended TVs.  The 45 minute bus ride to the Cosmos Hotel didn't seem that long because of the cool local shows that were on TV.

After I settled in, my family and I went out to explore the area.  I found this night market called Ximending. I really liked Ximending. It's known to be a very popular night market for teens.  Ximending was my favourite place to go after a full day of exploration because there is always something to do.  There are a lot of shops that look interesting, like a little DIY cake decorating shop or a clothes store with a different style from one in North America! You would also see little restaurants serving local food.

When I ate at one of the authentic restaurants the menu was completely in Manderin.  There were no pictures on the menu and of course I don't speak or read Mandarin.  Since we needed help to order,  I asked two people that were sitting at the table next to us to help me order. These two guys are originally from Malaysia and they had come to Taipei to study computer science for one of their university courses.





The next night at the Ximending night market I met a girl who worked at a clothing store called Fifty Percent.  Though she didn't speak English and I don't speak Mandarin, she still tried to help me. I didn't catch her name but we did take a picture together.  We both liked each other's style in clothing.  Her style is very anime-like and my style is more North American. It was very different for both of us.






One day when I was going to the National Palace Museum my family and I met 3 medical students. They are from Denmark and are in Taipei to study in the hospitaland to travel. They told us that this was their first time traveling together and they have studied in many places like Canada, USA, Denmark (of course) and Taipei!

The last of all the people we met were high school students from the Ruifang train station going back to the Taipei after our long hike in Sandiaoling. 

While my family and I waited for the train to arrive, a group of teenagers (mostly girls) were looking at me and my siblings and then giggled. Apparently,  they thought Ethan was cute and they wanted a picture with Ethan, me and Kira! After taking lots of pictures, we got to know one another a bit more.  They are all in their last year of high school and they were just going home now from school. I was shocked because it was almost 8:30PM and they were just getting back from school.  One of the girls, Angel told me that school starts at 6:00 am and ends at 7pm and they get home at around 9:30! Once we got to our stop we had to say goodbye and then we left with yet another interesting experience!

One of the best things to do in Taipei is shopping because the style is so different from Canada.  Taipei has a lot of Japanese influence and that's why the style is so different!

I'll post soon so bye for now!

~ A really cool Canadian :D

International best friends

Once I got off that Singapore-air flight I knew this was not going to be a 2 month long vacation.  I suddenly realized that Singapore is going to be my home for a while.

So many thoughts rushed though my head as I waited in the car going to the NUS (The National University of Singapore). The drive was not very long since Singapore is only about 48 Km long. The first thought that popped into my head was that I would be on the other side of the world with my family but not my friends.  I assumed that there would be nobody here my age and the next 6 months would be like living in a ghost town, quiet and alone. I was wrong!

After the first 2 weeks of going to the gym with nobody to meet, I met a girl named Alice. Alice is 10 years old. She does competitive swimming and short distance running. We decided to meet at breakfast so we could hangout more.  She told me that I have a really cool North American accent. I think that she has an amazing Australian accent!

We became best friends and I introduced Alice to my family and she introduced me to hers.



Kira, Ethan and I hung out with Alice and her older brother Albert. He is 14 years old.  Alice and Albert were here in Singapore for a month. We all went to the basketball court together, then the pool, and to finish the day we'd all go to the gym. We even spent New Years together down at Marina Bay!

The gang and I accumulated more and more friends!  Jakob and Sara joined the group. Jakob is my age and Sara is 9 years old. They were in Singapore for only 7 days. We all hung out at the pool playing Marco Polo.  Playing Marco Polo was our thing to do every day! All together we were such an international mix; my siblings and I are Canadian, Alice and Albert

 are Australian, and Jakob and Sara are Danish.

We all had so much fun together! As a group it was so easy to gather up more friends. In the pool, Alice and I met this girl named Mahaut.  She is from Paris and she will be here till June. Mahaut loves to read and her favourite pool game is Marco Polo! Mahaut and I played squash once! I've never played squash before but she taught me how to play.

A month later I met 4 other kids.  Veronica, Jessica, Claire and Robert are from Switzerland.  They speak German and will be moving to Singapore in July.  They were checking out schools during their visit.  We played Marco Polo and soccer while they were here.  We didn't get play with them as much because I left for a trip to Taipei and they went back to Switzerland before we returned.  They had left a little goodbye note under our door to say farewell and hope we meet again!

You'd be surprised at how fast time goes by when you have nice people to spend it with. We are all international best friends and hope to meet again soon!

I'll post soon so bye for now! :)

~ A Really Cool Canadian :D

Singapore, My New Home

Singapore is in the South-East Asia around 200 km north of the equator.  Singapore's population is  around 5.4 million people, but not all of them are born in Singapore.  Much of the population is Chinese, Malaysian, Indian or Eurasian.  Eurasian is a new mixed nationality of European and Asian.  This really small multicultural country neighbours Malaysia which gives Singapore one of its 4 languages!

Singapore is known to be a quadra-lingual country, with its other languages being English, Tamil and standard Mandarin.  Since I'm going to be here in Singapore for 5 more months I hope to pick up some words from a couple of these languages!  All of these languages also bring a culture to Singapore, as shown in the food eaten at the Hawker stalls.

     



Hawker stalls are public outdoor food courts that sell a variety of foods and drinks! Hawker food is very popular here in Singapore.
The food here is very cheap in price and it's definitely a plateful!  The average price of a rice and chicken dish would be $8.00 in Canada and it's only $2 here.

Eating at the stalls means you have to use a reusable plate.  But where do you get the plates from?  The plates are owned by the Hawker stalls and are reused once washed.  The dishes are washed in a bucket with water and  soap.

I found this very different and unike compared to food courts in Canada where food courts at home is served with disposable plates and cutlery.

    

I'm really excited for the next 4 and a half months! I'll post soon so bye for now!

~ A really cool Canadian :D

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Take-off !!!

My journey starts in Hong Kong. A long and exciting day was about to begin at the takeoff of my air Canada flight. I was on a fourteen and a half hour flight. There was not much to do during the flight, luckily, there were some movies I wanted to see. I watched Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters twice because it was really cool. I also watched the Adams family and Jaws. 

I flew over the North pole!

Three meals, two naps and a billion snacks later the flight had finally ended and the real adventure was about to start! My hotel in Hong Kong was on Nathan St, in the heart of Kowloon. While exploring the city I noticed people lined up outside this little restaurant called Australian Dairy. I decided to go in and try the food there. The eggs were really yummy and the milk was very creamy. This milk was one of the city's special unique things. 


Every day was different, going to the market, taking the subway to the pier or visiting the art museum. Hong Kong was really unique. There are lights all around the city and large crowds of people. Besides shopping, taking the subway was one of my favorite things to do in Hong Kong! I liked the subway because you could go anywhere from where ever you are! 

Whenever I travel I like to find the normal things that are different in other countries. If you have ever been to Mc Donalds in North America you'd know that they don't sell Teriyaki chicken on rice, well in Hong Kong they do! 711, has Mochi ice cream, hot water dispensers especially for instant noodles, and a mash potato dispenser! If you didn't know, Mochi ice cream is a small ball of ice cream covered with a sweet layer of sticky gum paste thing called Mochi.

Since Hong Kong is very polluted, germs are a big concern there. To prevent the spread of germs a lot of locals wear doctor masks!

Ocean park is one of the big attractions there, it's like Canada's Wonderland but half aquarium. 

I'll post soon so bye for now! :)

~ A Really Cool Canadian :D