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Hank: Thailand

Barf bags and beaches

Thailand was pretty amazing. We stayed on an island called Koh Lanta which is west of Krabi in southwest Thailand. I actually did not pay much attention to much of the stuff there because I was sick but the stuff I did see looked cool. I now have a beach on an island in Thailand to add to my list of prime puking locations. My mom found us a great room that looked off of a mountain to the ocean. The only down side of it was the monkeys that lived outside our room and used our balcony as a play ground. You would think that this would be cute but I have seen lots of monkeys and after awhile they all start to look the same. One also tried to steal my water bottle but I saw the little guy sitting outside my room with it and I got it back. Although, that bottle had been chewed on quite a bit by the thief and his pals. Thailand seemed to be mostly tropical jungles and mountains on the inside with either pristine beaches or tall cliffs making up the coastline.

Beaches are an important part of vacation destinations for most people and not many can compare with the beaches of Koh Lanta. Another big attraction is the elephant rides. You see elephants every where. Walking down the road, eating next to people houses, and lounging in crop fields. The Blue Moon Cafe was one place without elephants although it did have one of the best beaches I have ever been to. Soft sand, big waves, and a drop off that was perfect to push Nadine off of. It was owned by a 50 or 60 year old lady. The food was delicious but, unfortunately I did not have much of an appetite. I would highly recommend Thailand and hopefully I will be coming back.

Nadine: Cambodia

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Cambodia From Fire to Flips

Sea saws, and fire, and summer salts, oh my! When we were in Cambodia we went to the Cambodian circus. There was a big storm during the circus so it was really loud the whole time. My favorite part was when they brought out the giant sea saw and two guys would jump onto one side and one guy would jump of the other and do summer salts in the air. It was awesome! When the guy doing the flips dropped down four guys would hold up a giant pad and drop it when the guy hit. They also chased each other with burning sticks and climbed poles like coconut trees. I loved it.

Nadine: Tree of Life Children’s Village, Zambia

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“Tree of Life”, it does not tell you what it is, though personally I think that it is a fitting name for the orphanage. A place where children brake out of their buds and blossom. The Tree of Life is a large property made up of a valley and a large hill located outside of Lusaka, Zambia. There are 35 houses right now and five more in the making. The unique part about Tree of Life is that the Houses are not separated by age. Each house has an assortment of ages and two women who go by the name of house mom. The different houses act as families while every body acts like friends.

The children at Tree of Life were so caring. Each kid seemed to have an older kid that cared for them and that the younger kid looked up to. Every child seemed to be interested in what we know and where we’re from. Every child was unique. One would be amazing at building sand castles and an other would be able to run extremely fast. Every kid was nice, unique, and interesting.

There were many children, though one girl seemed to always be able to find us. Her name was Faith. We always bumped into her some how. She loved peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. There was just something about her that was comforting and warm. She was fast and graceful in her movements. She was always laughing. It seemed like she did not care where she was as long as there were other people to play with.

Tree of Life was an amazing experience that taught me how lucky I am. Some of the kids there were just sad looking. One girl had burns all over one side of her face where her mom would pour hot water on her. An other had knife scars on the backs of her legs from where her dad’s girlfriend would throw hot knifes at her. All of the kids had sad stories though they all seemed happy to be there and I was too.

Hank: Tree of Life Children’s Village, Zambia

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Tree of Life is a really cool orphanage. It is located just outside of Lusaka, Zambia. It rescues kids from very bad situations in Zambia. The Tree of Life people then school the children and put them in houses with twelve kids and two house moms. The houses are either only boys or only girls but school is coed. The houses have all different ages of children living in them. A house could have a 17 year old and a five year old both living there at the same time.

The boys at Tree of Live mostly play soccer but sometimes play baseball and volleyball. Girls played a lot of “touch” which is their name for tag. They also played some soccer. There was a boy named Mulanga who could build anything. While we were there he built a 2 story mud house that was about 2 feet tall. It had a sky deck and a little Lego door on the bottom. When you opened the door it would be hollow inside. It was really cool.

The family we stayed with in Lusaka was great. They lived about 20 minutes away from Tree of Life. There was a 6 year old, a 7 year old, an 11 year old, and a 12 year old. Their names were Emmi, Elli, Bennett, and Parker. The dad’s name was Clay and he worked for Tree of Life. Their mother’s name was Erin. They had a nice house with a swimming pool and a trampoline. All the kids ride horses and the two older boys play a sport which I did not know existed until I got there called polo cross. It is a mix between lacrosse and polo so it is like lacrosse on horses.

Zambia was my favorite place of the trip by far. Between the safari drives and the Tree of Life it was just amazing. If I got the chance to return anywhere I have ever been I would choose here without a doubt. I am seriously considering living here when I am an adult instead of any of those normal retirement homes like Colorado or France.

Hank: South Luangwa and Lower Zambezi National Parks, Zambia

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I FOUND MY NEW HOME WHEN I AM A MILLIONAIRE. I am going to live in the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia where I will serve as an apprentice to our guide, Manda. I can be the guy who walks around carrying the tea and cookies for the guests when they go on walks and driving safaris. We stayed at Mfwue Lodge, which is located inside the park. You could actually see many different kinds of animals from the cabin.

We had the coolest guides ever! The first guide’s name was Kelvin. But we only had him for the first day. The rest of the time our guide was named Manda. He was great. He knew all of the scientific and normal person names for the animals that we saw. He had been guiding for 16 years. He showed me how to identify many different kinds of tracks and let me shine the spot light around from the land rover at night. I was the spotter and I spotted lots of animals.

Next we went to a lodge called Sausage Tree in Lower Zambezi National Park. We saw a lot of lions there. We also went fishing for tiger fish. The biggest one we caught was 8 pounds but we also caught a 7 pounder and some smaller ones. They fight really hard! It was way harder than any 8 pound fish you could catch in Texas except for maybe a tarpon. Of course I have never caught a tarpon so I don’t really know. If any body reads this who has caught a tarpon and a tiger fish then please comment on this blog and tell me which one fights harder. This is the 8 pounder.

Nadine: Lower Zambezi National Park, Zambia

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Tents, no. Rough, no. Tents and rough is what I thought when my parents said we were going to a bush camp. But when we got there we had giant cabins and two pools. One of the coolest things was fishing for tiger fish. It was so fun and the people were extremely nice. For the first day I was having a great time. Then they introduced me to the scorpions and milipeads. After that I did not like it as much, but I still thought it was amazing. Our guide’s name was Prisly. He took us fishing almost every day. First he would take his to a spot to catch bait fish with little worms he had trapped the day before. Then he would cut the bate into filets and we would move to a spot to catch tiger fish. It was so cool. There were elephants all around us. There was even a hippo that really liked the camp and his name was Dexter. There were more hippos in the water and all around the camp. We also saw an awesome pride of lions. There were a lot of little lions that would play with each other while the mothers would hunt. We had an amazing time looking at all of the animals and talking to the staff. One of the staff members taught me how to set a table with all of the things in the right place. We had a really good time and I can’t wait to go back.