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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: 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: South Luangwa National Park, Zambia

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Elephants, and crocodiles, and leopards, oh my! That is what I thought while we were in South Luangua. We stayed at a lodge called Mfuwe Lodge. It was extremely cool and our guide was awesome. The guide’s name was Manda. He kind of resembled a nature book; he knew all of the scientific names for the animals that we saw from the baboons to the birds. The food at the lodge was also great. My favorite was the BBQ chicken that we had the first day. Some days we would be driving around and the lodge would set up a giant picnic with tables and fires that they make the food on. Our joke about the food was that we would leave looking like a warthog. The two animals we saw the most of were impala and puku. They were kind of like deer. The impala were white, tan, and black, whereas the puku were tan and white. Manda said there were a lot of crocodiles in the water that would drag other things into the water to eat. We saw 27 elephants next to a salt block once. We also saw a pride of twelve lions. Both things were kind of scary, but really exciting. We went to a bush camp for two nights and it was amazing because we were the only ones there. They had tasty drinks and I emptied the stock of ginger beer single handedly. The safari rides were fun and we saw a lot of baboons. We also saw a leopard with two of its cubs. It was great and I can’t wait to go back.

Nadine: Mallorca, Spain

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Mallorca was a very fun place. There were a lot of beaches and cafés. We stayed in two cities while we were there. The first city we stayed in was called Palma and the second one was called Soller.

Palma was a walled city. It had this giant cathedral in the center of town. The cathedral had a pond in the front that had swans in it. The architecture of the cathedral was absolutely amazing. Palma and New York were both artistic. New York was bigger, but I think Palma had a larger span of personalities, though I do not know which one I liked better. There were a lot of really nice beaches in Palma. There were bike paths that went along the water. You could rent bikes and ride down the whole path, which is fifteen kilometers. My mom met one of her friends from elementary school there. We spent a lot of time with her. Her name was Alice. She was really nice. She was also an amazing artist. We had a little apartment that had no windows and the bedrooms were kind of small, but other than that it was really nice. Mallorca was first settled by prehistoric peoples who built stone structures that included the Great Wall of Palma which other conquerors of Mallorca, such as Romans and Moors, kept in later years.

Soller was a cute beach town. It had an amazing port, and there was a really nice beach there. There were a lot of little cafés along the water. My favorite place was a little ice cream shop with really creamy ice cream. Personally, I think my favorite flavor was strawberry. In Soller proper there were a lot of really cool hikes. The first one was my favorite because it had a canopy of trees that made a tunnel. There was also a train that went from the port to Soller proper. A different train went from the port to Palma, and yet another went from Soller proper to Palma and back. Mallorca was really fun and I can’t wait to go back on another trip.