Just one of those days

Hello guys, John here bringing you a blog that talks about those days when there is just to much moving around all over the place, or one of those days where you just think things are all over the place/a mess, and you just give up and loose track as it leads to you just following everyone else and not knowing what's happening. Yup this blog brings you on that epic journey of 'Those days'. 

We start by going back on the wonderfull fancy pants (Fanxipan) over night train ride back to Hanoi, obviously I really liked this fancy pants train thing because for some reason I just enjoy it every time and I think that's the same case for everyone else (Well except for Grumpa over here a.k.a my father Mr. Funny Bones!).  The only thing I hate about the fancy pants was the over excessive use of the air-conditioning.  Vietnam is warm but not that warm, I FELT LIKE I WAS BACK IN CANADA... NOOOOOOOOO D:! So anyways, we get off the train and we arrive in Hanoi, I ask what are we doing here and mom explains to me that we are only going to be staying here for 4 hours at the same hotel we were at last time at 5 a-clock in the morning... My response 'Ok!'. That's exactly what we do and they give us breakfast and let us you'se the their lobby shower bathroom to get cleaned up. Now you're probably wondering why we are staying here for this specifique time, well then I'll go ask mom. She says that we are going to be spending to days on a small cruise, pretty awesome right! So I return to my little table to go kill time by playing my Pokemon video game on my 3ds (Super fun if you were wondering, even ask Sarah!). 4 hours have passed and a bus is waiting in front of our 4 hour hotel, we hop on this bus and of we go to a tropical cruise paradise... Or is it? The bus was even longer than I though with 3 hours and 30 minutes to kill, so I did with my trusty Pokemon game. As you have probably guessed, our entire family is pooped out due to the lack of sleep :(, but the bus brings us to this fancy cruise harbour as we get to drink some tea and kill 30 minutes... HAVEN'T I KILLED ENOUGH TIME, IT'S ILLEGAL IN CANADA ANYWAYS WITH THE WHOLE ANIMAL ABUSE THING. Anyways so we eventually hop on this sorta rather big dingy along with 20 other people and we drive on to our boat called 'Grey Line'. We arrive, and we get a nice long safety speech and a small tour of the boat, we receive our room key and I had to say I was pooped hard!!!!! The next words I heard was 'The tour will be starting shortly, please find yourself on the top deck', the day is not over :'(. Until next time when I finish the day of the cruise, this has been John and is officially signing out. Have you ever had one of those days, let me know in the comments below :D!

A short Sapa

Hello guys, John here bringing a new blog which is in Sapa, now I may not spend a whole lot of time writing blogs for Sapa because it really wasn't for me... More of a Dad kind of thing with the whole "I love nature" stuff.   I did have some fun with a lot of unique experiences that may or may not have to do with the crazy motorcycles that are found only in Vietnam. 

We took the overnight train from Hanoi to Sapa.  It was like the one we took in Thailand from Bangkok to Koh Samui. Crazy fun, I liked this one a lot better than the previous one for some random reason, the company's name of the cabin we were staying in was pretty funky... Fancy pants (Fanxipan).  Fanxipan is also the name of the highest mountain in Vietnam and is located in Sapa.  The only problem I found with the fancy pants overnight train was the lack of warmth on the top bunk, and the overly heated bottom bunk (I stayed in the top bunk by the way) and I was not enjoying it as I froze my butt off.  The next morning I asked mom and dad and they said they were too warm, I found this really funny. 

Next highlight of Sapa is when we decided to spend the day in Cat Cat village. Elizabeth and mom had already gone there and already knew about the fact that the only way to get there was on a motorcycle.  The next day, Dad and I decide to go, but considering the whole Elmer the safety elephant thing that Dad has going on,  we decided to take a car.  The cab driver dropped us off what looked like in my mind Cat Cat village, but instead he actually brought us to motorcycle drivers and told us to hop on. Dad starts his giggles that soundrf more or less like an evil laugh and finally after a long waiting time of him regaining consciousness, we hop on the back of two motorbikes. It was way more stable than I though and really a fun experience.  I could tell dad was loosing his ways as Elmer the safety ellephant so I suggested we stay at a cafe and call mom and Elizabeth and strongly suggest that they join us for moral support.  They arrived in no time on motorbike and then we enjoyed the Cat Cat village together with seasoned veterans. 

The village was a jammed packed fun place with cats, kittens, pigs, chickens, ducks, dogs and puppies,waterfalls that looked majestic and vendors left and right, a fun hiking trail with a beautiful scenic view of nature and finally last but not least motorcycle drivers waiting for us at the top :). Well I'm guessing you can picture what happens after that but I'd say that you have gotten a great amount of sapa so that I can move onto the next place in Vietnam and get back onto schedule. But as always until next time, this has been John and is officially signing out.

Funny Story and Update

Hello guys, John here bringing you a blog still on Vietnam, so hard to get through all my stories and write them down in blog form :(. I am very late as I have missed so many days of blogging and I apologize for that. I hope I can get back into the habit of doing my blogs regularly but I'm not sure.

We are in Indonesia/Bali today and if you don't know, well that's pretty far away in my blogs, I have skipped ahead but still have to fill in more on Vietnam and of course amazing Singapore. So yeah I'm behind a lot, but so is my mom so I don't feel so bad! 

Here is a little update with a really funny story that happened a while back in Vietnam.  Still in in Hanoi) was when we came back from the Vietnamese museum of war. We got ambushed by this lady who had a basket full of what looked like Timbits. She offered one of them to us as a sample, I immediately turn back around to see dad buying some for his own as he liked the taste of them. The lady says a ridiculous price in dong and dad say 'No thank you that's too much money' the lady starts to beg dad offering and saying stuff in Vietnamese and I see dad laughing as he thinks the situation is ridiculous, I go over and try to help him and the next thing I know this tailor takes my shoe and glues the bottom and starts to thread through the sides. He slides a flip flop on my foot and tells me too wait. As my father is arguing with the lady mom and Elizabeth come over and mom slaps her hand on her forehead and backs away. Dad finally gives up because he had realized that I had lost my shoe to this tailor man so he gives the lady 3 American dollars to leave him alone and completely breaks out into laughter and tells the guy to give my shoe back. I receive my shoe back and realize the stiches on the side of my shoe which will stay with me forever. We reunite with mom and Elizabeth which they gave dad a hard time as well as me. Well I guess you know never to let your guard down because someone might take your shoe and also to never stop for food by street vendors if you're a tourist. Later we find out that there have been scams like that all around Hanoi where people take you're shoe and stiche it, then you have to pay a crazy amount of money to get it back and also scams like the one dad got from the lady. 

I think this has been a crazy good blog for you in return of me not being on schedule with these sorts of things. Next blog will be in Sapa where I talk mostly about Cat-Cat village. Well until next time, this has been John and is officially signing out. Pictures included!

I'm back with announcements and some more Hanoi

Hello guys, John here finally bringing you a blog. It's been a while and the reason for that is math homework. My school started a week ago and it's been go go go with the homeschooling ever since.  We have to do math every weekday in order to stay with the curriculum. 

Also I forgot a lot about Hanoi but I am bringing it to you right now! The few things I'd like to talk about is the two tours we did in Hanoi. The first tour we did was a food tour with a really nice guide.  We were able to taste quality Pho, vermicelli noodles and egg coffee NUMMMM!!!!!! The other tour we did was a tour of the old city, it was done by Vietnamese university students who were only in it to practice their English skills, free tours are awesome! We walked around the old city, had egg coffee and learned more things about the legends and history of Hanoi. Those were the two great tours that we did.

Let's now talk about the biggest negative of Hanoi...the traffic. Crazy Hanoi offered many things including their immense amount of traffic with their motorcycles, with no side walks and the insanely fast cars, it's a kill or die moment. It was crazily scary to cross the streets as they never want to stop.  When we took a cab, van or bus to get to the airport or port or even another city the driving was even crazier.  I don't know how our drivers managed to not crash or kill anyone! The drivers that we had were all going way too fast.  I just don't know how we all survived. Many moments I was certain to go off the cliffs or hit people or buildings but we are "still alive!" But barely 😑. 

These terrifying times on the roads are nauseating.  This was one of the main causes of my upset stomach that some of you have heard of.  I was real sick and threw up three times, once on the boat, once on the bus and once at the hotel, no fun fun for me at all and the bus driver would have to clean up my mess before taking another load of passengers to Halong Bay.

 I think that just about covers it up for this blog but make sure to check out the next blog that is coming up that may or may not have to do with my shoe being stolen in Hanoi. Until next time, this has been John and is officially signing out.

Our arrival in Vietnam

Hey guys, John here bringing you this blog starring Hanoi! Now I know I have skipped Vientiane but the reason for this is that I am a bit late on these bad boys and I don't feel like there was enough blog worthy stuff in there, but I can promise you that there is in these Hanoi blogs. Anyways so I really enjoyed Hanoi but there were some funny and unsatisfying flaws which i will get to soon. First off there was our super cool hotel, this time we got to all stay in one huge room which was really nice, it also had a pool, breakfast and a doorman... Yay! We arrived there at dinner time and if you know me at all, then you probably know what I got for dinner or what 'We' got for dinner. We were in Vietnam so you've probably already guessed it, the amazing yet deliciously awesome dish by the name of 'Pho'. Which is basically beef broth filled with noodles and beef, NUM!! At this time while I was feasting upon this beauty I noticed the crazy amounts of rain that was showering right before our eyes, Vietnam is known for a lot of rainy days so I said we better get used to it. While we we're walking back, I also noticed the crazy amount of traffic and motor cycles. It was crazy just walking on the sidewalks which they did not have, we had to walk on the very edge of the street and pray not to get hit by a motor cycle. If you put those two together, it increases the chance of getting hit by a automobile by 30%. Luckily we made it safe and sound with the warm welcome from the hotel doorman. Until next time, this has been John and is officially signing out.