Untitled Document

~ I highly suggest you let this page rest before going through it.
There's a lot of photos. Therefore It'll take a while to load.

My Father is a Professor of Law. He also helped build a free online legal Institute of Information for Australia, AustLII. He has toured around the world because of many universities asking for their own legal institute. One reason why we are going overseas around Asia is to promote the new AsianLII. Another is it is Dad’s sabbatical leave from his university

And we are going everywhere else either for more work... to check old institutes or work on new ones etc. So I'm the lucky daughter that gets to tag a long.

The day we left we stupidly held a party at our house. My Father always chooses the most stupid time to do it.

We had many people there including a Libby Gleeson. If you're not familiar with her, she is a famous book writer. Also the mother of a Jessica Tovey who is on Home and Away as Bella.

I left Sydney at 9:10pm on the 14th of July. I unexpectedly arrived at Brisbane at 10:30pm or so. I walked around rather bored but finally found a newsagent where I bought some credit and called Courtney Cohn as some of you know.

The plane left for Bangkok at midnight. It was a long nine hour flight. By that time I was exhausted so I mainly just slept.

In Bangkok a chauffeur was waiting with our names on a sign to take us to the Shangri-la Hotel which is located on the Chao Phrya River.

When we got to the vehicle they had provided us with we liked and disliked what we saw. They had brought a Mercedes to pick us up... But only a car.

Since we are on a round-the-world ticket we are allowed 2 suitcases each... It took us some time to fit it into the car.

A shock to the system was when I left Australia it was winter... Thailand was humid and way too hot for my liking!

We touched down at six in the morning which was nine in the morning back in Sydney.

As you probably know, the Asia Cup is on at the moment. And luckily enough for me there was a game of it in Thailand between the host, Thailand and Australia’s Socceroos! So on the 16th July, a Monday, we went to go see them play at the Rajamangala Stadium! Recently they had being playing poorly but just cause I was there they played really well and won 4-0. It was amazing being there! Unfortunately the Thai professor who had booked the seats for us had placed us in with the Thai section. Whenever Australia scored I’d cheer them on and I don’t think the people sitting around me were impressed.

Annoyingly I have an universal face meaning everywhere I go in Asia people seem to think I come from there. A woman once told me in Bali I looked Balinese… Shows how much she knew. So when I left the stadium people were cheering the Australians and thought I had gone for Thailand so they thought they’d rub it in my face, until I started talking and they realised I had an Australian accent. So they went and tormented a real Thai person.

Here’s an annoying fact for you. In the background of that picture… you’d think the people in the background were Australian supporters. They’re wearing yellow, aren’t they? The Thai King was born on a Monday and since the Thais are so protective and respectful to their king it is traditional to wear yellow on a Monday. Now of course you don’t have to but many million still do.

The day of that game it was raining and we actually missed the first goal because of all the traffic. In this photo there’s Philip Chung, a work colleague of my Father’s and a very good family friend, who doesn't like the rain. Then there’s my Dad who’s not bothered by much and my Mum who’s a little put off by sitting in the rain for 110 minutes. I personally love any soccer game in the rain whether I’m playing or watching.

In most Asian countries, there are a sort of taxi called Tuk Tuks. I used to love taking them and when we arrived back in Thailand we realised they had started to dress them up a bit.

I remember they used to always try and make them look their best but now they were covering seats differently and so on.

We went to the usual temple or so. But to me they’re nothing to report back home with.

We were staying right next to the Sky Train and Water Boat System.
So when we went to markets, restaurants, temples etc. We normally took the water boat most of the way. The Sky Train, very efficient. We took it to shopping buildings or plazas. Last time we didn’t use it as much considering we were there for the New Year’s Bombings.

Everywhere they have billboards. Even In the Sky Train they have mini ones. I was appalled when I saw this one. Racist much?

We went out one evening with Philip’s friend Sarah. She took us to an Indian Restaurant on almost the top floor of the hotel we had driven to. The wall we were next to was glass so we saw the whole city on that side. It looked like we were looking down on everything.

But if that wasn’t high enough for you, after dinner she took us to The Vertigo Night Club. We took the lift up all the floors and walked an extra couple of staircases. Where she had brought us was a rooftop restaurant and bar. It was amazing. You could see the WHOLE city. They barely had any lights so when they handed you the drink menu they gave you a mini, silver torch to see what you would like.

Dessert at the Indian Restaurant. They had the bowl and wouldn’t let you see what was in it. Next to the table they’d open it slightly, pick up a jug and pour something into it. By the time it reached your table there was steam immerging from the sides and top. They took the lid off and dry ice steam came out straight away! A sight to see!

While Dad was at a meeting we went to the temple of the Reclining Buddha, where, Mum and I went and had a foot massage. When I was eight or younger we had gone there and had the same thing done. I was keen to go back.

Well... I arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia where it was also hot. A big van came to pick all four of us up. I was discussing with Mum because we couldn't remember which airport it was. Shows what traveling does to you.

So a van picked us up.... Then it took us the Hotel Le Royal. When we arrived we soon found out that Cambodia doesn't have check-in counters. They usher you to lounges where they bring the papers to you. Then bring you arrival drinks. They brought me a juice cordial in a grand elephant mug with three elephants’ heads emerging from the sides.

On the first day in Cambodia we went to a restaurant set up by a Swiss chef to train homeless street kids and drug addicts to cook and serve in a restaurant. He has set up two restaurants like this and helps at a specific one called Friends.

As we walked to the entrance where some other tourists were leaving and one woman thought I had worked there and said " Thank you," I was so amazed. I don't look anything Cambodian. While Mum and I were still eating Dad and Philip went to their first meeting. Then Mum and I went to the nearest main street and caught a Tuk Tuk back to the hotel and most likely had a swim or slept knowing us.

Over the next few days I kept waking up late. Well I think in every country I've been doing that. Parents wake up, go have a swim and when they get back I'm still not up. They go for breakfast and I'm still not up. They go down again and get food for me and bring it up and when they get back I'm only just waking up.

But eventually Mum and I would shop while Dad was out working. We'd find silver shops and silk shops and the occasional laundry. (We had a long dramatic problem on finding laundries. It really sucked.) The most well known shopping areas in Phnom Penh are The Russian Market and The Central Markets. I found Courtney a
present in The Russian Market.

We... Well I went reluctantly to the temples but my parents went happily. We went to the Emerald Buddha... WooHoo. *Cough Cough*

On the last night of Philip's stay we went out for a special Khmer (Cambodian) dinner. Hmmm here, I ate my first bit of Frog's Legs.

Yeah well you can imagine... I didn't like it. When I'm at friend's their parents always ask me, " Is there anything you don't eat?" and I always shake my head and reply with, " Nope." Well... I can tell you right now I'd reply with Frog's legs. I'm normally really good with food; I eat Kangaroo jerky, Ostrich, Crocodile, Octopus, Eel, Quail Eggs, Pigeons and Durian but Frog's Legs are horrible!

When I became a little sick the few things that encouraged me to get better were these:

Fruit and a little guide book to read. I would sit in bed complaining and eating fruit. Annoyingly fruit is good and bad for me. When I was about 11 I had a really bad case of abdominal pains. We later found out that my eating 10 pieces of fruit a day wasn't helping. The pediatric gastroenterologist instructed me to cut down to 2 a day.

Well anyway my eating 6 pieces of exotic fruit a day wasn't helping my stomach. Another thing that was not comforting in Cambodia was the article Mum gave me about Dengue Fever.

To make matters worse when we came back from Siem Reap (Below) we went to The Tuol Sleng museum. If you have seen the movie The Killing Fields you'd understand. Mum made me watch that to understand the history of Cambodia. It was horrible. So this museum used to be a school until the Khmer Rouge took over. They tortured people in every possible way.They started off with 22,000 prisoners and only 7 survived.
In the way of torture they would use the electric shock system, starvation, make sure that had no sleep, literally beat and scare them to death and hold them in painful positions for a long period of time. Something that sticks in my head clearly was that a local artist who became a prisoner there was ordered to photograph some portraits of every prisoner there before and after their torture. They would also take him to see executions. He was one of the seven prisoners who survived. After he was released he painted scenes he saw or imagined whilst staying in the school prison.
Another torture that stuck in my mind was there were two posts and a metal rod between them. Many people use them today to do chin-ups etc. But to them it was turned around with some imagination into a torture weapon. They would hang a prisoner upside down with the rapid blood flow to their heads until they were unconscious. When they finally knocked out they would dunk them under water to wake them up and start another torture process.

When my Mother and I finally seen enough we demanded to leave. When we were leaving we saw beggars. Now here in Cambodia with the Khmer Rouge we learned that they had left many land mines. When they were in power, to stop people from leaving across the border to Thailand, they planted many land mines. To this day they have not all been found and people get injured and killed all the time. One man in particular would make you roll your nose up with disgust. His face and arms were completely burnt. His eye lids were even just smooth, wet-looking pieces of flesh. I really dislike the word 'flesh' it sounds gross. But anyways there were people through-out the city with missing legs, arms, eyes and so on.

I think to sum up why the Khmer Rouge did all this was because they were psychotic. See to me the people whoever commit crimes do it for the possible reasons of revenge, to make a point or for simple reputation. Now these guys were even worse. They mainly went for the people who were educated i.e. The Cambodian/Khmer people who spoke French or English etc. To me these guys were just plain evil and I glare at the men who are still alive today. And to this day not a single one of them have been tried for their cruelness. Some have even recently been in government. But there are meant to be five men tried by an international tribunal this year.

We took a small plane to Siem Reap. Siem Reap is where the famous Angkor Wat is located. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site. When we got off the airport was small and it had no air conditioning which was dreadful. We waited a while before our bags arrived and then we continued on. A small lady, who couldn't have even been 30, was waiting outside with a sign. We all walked up to her and she showed us to our air conditioned van.
When we arrived they again showed us a seating area and brought us a drink sort of like an ice tea, with straws may I add. I like straws...

So Siem Reap, where the famous Angkor Wat was located. The same day we arrived we hired the same van for half a day and the driver showed us around some pretty impressive places. The truth is there isn't a category to the places we went to. Perhaps you could call most of them tourist sites but that isn't exactly what they were originally is it? Some were temples, some were originally cities and some were just monuments.

We did a lot in about 5 hours. Our first one (to be honest I don't remember the name; we went to too many) , was quite big. It had a huge gate as shown. The driver dropped us at the East entrance and drove to the West exit to pick us up. So we just walked straight through.

A pretty impressive thing which I'm planning to use for geography is the way that nature can definitely take over man. It shows what happens when men try to rule, well rule probably isn't the best way to put it but control nature. Hold it back enough so that they can live.

Okay so on the same day we reached the tougher ones. There was this
thing in ancient times in Angkor: each new king had to build his own temple and city. So there are hundreds of them being slowly eaten up by the jungle

They sure stuck to tradition in the way of... the stairs. By the end of the trip I never wanted to see another staircase in my life! Thankfully our stair cases would never be as bad as the ones here. My gosh, were they dreadful or what!? For one thing... They were steep as hell. Ever seen Lord of The Rings? Your Kids perhaps? There's a scene in the second movie, in the Mines of Moria. They are going up stairs so steep that one of them slips? That they have to crawl up them using their hands... Even in the third movie, climbing the steps to Shelob's cave? Where Frodo slips.

Well.... These were worse. Sometimes they were so small you had to turn your feet side ways to stay on them. You'd look down and understand the fear of people who are afraid of heights and know exactly how they normally feel. But you're not fearing the height; you're fearing the fall.

Another thing was that you'd get up eventually by not looking down or up just concentrating on the steps and then you'd reach the level and think to yourself triumphantly, "Thank god!" but when you finally have the courage to look around you notice you have about 3 more staircases to go even worse than the first one. They just have levels. 'Tis horrible. Especially when you've looked at the great view and sigh to yourself and think, "I'm ready to see the next site."

But when you get back the steps you notice one thing you didn't consider going up... What goes up must come down. Haha I can definitely tell you what you think then, "$#!@."

Then we went to what we call it, Big Brother. I'll explain in a moment. But it was a temple actually called Bayon. Why we called it Big Brother is because.. Okay you know the TV show or the 1984 book by George Orwell? Where Big Brother is ALWAYS watching you? Well this was exactly it. No matter where you were. You look around and you see at least ten faces staring at you with meaningless smirks. Bloody statues.

So moving along. On the second day of driving around we had the whole day to do it... Yay! -.-"

So first one up was the most famous one, Angkor Wat. Whoa, it was definitely impressive and I could see why it was one of the most known. Basically why it was so famous was because it was recently refound by the Europeans in the 19th Century. Also most recently built considering no city like Angkor Wat was ever constructed after it. It is regarded as a one of the greatest works of architecture in the Indian influenced style.

As much as it was 'New' and everything it's still a wonder of the world
because of its age.It was built around 1400 AD whereas some of the other temples are at least 700 years older. It is drooled over I guess you could say because it's building up dust.

That day was the day Lily got her first heat stroke sort of thing. It was so hot and I had a hat and all. You know Slip-Slop-Slap? Well I did all of that but it's was so bright and ugh sometimes I get sick of the tropics.

So that Afternoon the oldies went to another place while I was at the hotel... Sleeping. Then when I woke up and went down to the Business center and communicated with civilisation which was very far from where I was.

Next morning we woke up at 5am which I was not happy about. We were about to take a boat for 6 hour ride back to Phnom Penh. It took us a little while to get out there.

Background: Here's a little history for you. In the 1400s when Queen Elizabeth the first was on the English throne and Geoffrey Chaucer was inventing the English language, Indonesia was being influenced majorly by the Indians but it had originally started approximately 600 years before. If you look at a map and go straight down pretty much from Cambodia you find Indonesia sitting there. It is also easily accessible by water from Cambodia. Buddhism and Indian culture came to Cambodia via Indonesia and for a while the Khmer Kingdom was one of the most powerful in all of Asia.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Laos

We left Cambodia and flew to Thailand and waited 7 hours in the lounge area for our flight to Laos. When we arrived in Vientiane our spacious London cab awaited. It took us to the Settha Palace Hotel. We got there approximately 10pm, 1am in Sydney.

The next day Dad went to his first meeting at the Ministry of Justice. Now our first morning didn't go as well as we'd have liked.

We got the hotel desk to speak to our Tuk Tuk driver and tell him:
1) Take us somewhere to eat.
2) Wait for us to eat.
Then 3) Take us to the Ministry of Justice.

Okay all good. 1st task was easy! 2nd task - No problem! Then 3rd task... Yeah well moving along... We were in the Tuk Tuk going out further and further into the country side when we went past the street it was meant to be on.
He kept going and going until I turned to my Dad and said, " Are we sure he knows where to go?"
So we yelled up to the front, " Are you sure we're going to the Ministry of Justice!?"
"Yes yes, Supreme Court."
"No, no!"
He turned to look at us while still driving. Giving us the kinda of look as 0.o... And he said, " Supreme Court?"
"No, Ministry of Justice."
"Oh Ministry of Justice, no problem."
So he continues on as if nothing had gone wrong.

About 15 minutes later and about 10 minutes to when Dad has to be at an important conference we get to a building with the sign, you guessed it, "Supreme Court."

Now the Supreme Court is on the other side of the city to the Ministry of Justice. Okay I'm exaggerating. But still, it's about a 20 minutes ride.

So everyone's yelling and yelling saying " No we said Ministry of Justice."
And he is completely dumb struck occasionally saying, " This Ministry of Justice."
We are almost about to get my Grandfather's rifle and shoot him. But Dad calmly, well as calm as you could be when you're about to have your first important meeting in Laos with a new partnership dude kinda guy.... Well anyways, so he pulls out his map where the pregnant desk lady had marked the Ministry of Justice and he showed the driver the place.
The Driver is shocked and says, " Oh Ministry of Justice! Okay okay!"
We're all thinking, " Well duh!"... " That's what we've been saying for the last, what? Half a fr***** hour!"

So we get there and by that time Dad has drenched his suit with sweat... Eww but Mum told me to write it in. So Dad gets out while Mum and I are about to go on back to the Hotel. Dad goes and talks to the gate man and so on when the Driver says we're meant to pay him more.
Mum and I sort of look at each other and think, " Uhh, NO!"
So we coolly say, " You made the mistake, not us."
We originally agreed to pay him 60,000 Kip. Which is in Australia about $6.
But this guy demands what $10? For him making a mistake and driving around the city looking for the wrong building.

So it came to him bugging us to pay him more for taking us to the hotel so we jump out and say, "$4 or nothing." Mainly 'cause we were going to catch a different Tuk Tuk back to the hotel.
He chases after us, " No no!"
"Well right then only $6."
But he still tries to get us to pay more.
Dad even came back and said, " Look you've made me 15 minutes late for my conference. You drive us around the city and to the wrong place. $6"
And so the driver agrees and Dad goes to his conference.

But on the way back the Driver is yelling at Mum and I in the small amount of English he knows and man was he rude. He demanded to know what country we were from so I politely replied with, " Australia."
He frowned and said, " Australia - No good!"
Only thing I was thinking at that point was, "yeah whatever mate."

Anyway we get there give him the money.
He continues to be a jerk by asking, " How much you pay?"
Mum said, "$6 like we said."
So he continues saying," No good!"
So we complain to the desk, " Never use that Tuk Tuk driver again," sorta thing.

Ugh he was a jerk. So Mum and I did what we knew best to calm us down.
Mum went for a swim and I called Courtney on Skype. It's cool 'cause we can do Web cam and talk for free! It's fun; you can add as many people as you like into a conference (Who have Skype that is) and you can talk and talk for free! So I got to show her all her presents I had bought her not that you guys are interested.

Dinner.
Some really good friends of ours live in Laos, a little way out from Vientiane, a half hour drive from our hotel. Jim used to be a teacher in my Dad’s hometown, Dubbo. His life started going horribly wrong and he divorced and so on. He was a mess and then he met Kong, a 30-year-old Laotian girl who knocked him into shape. They got married sometime last year and are very happy together.

So anyway, when they arrived we were in the pool so we showered and changed and then Kong and I went on her Motorbike to take our clothes to the laundry.
When we came back to the hotel we all walked to the place we had lunch. Yum... 'Sip' That was one Lao word Kong taught me.

Well anyway the next day bright and early we pack up... again. But this time Jim and Kong had organised for us all to go and stay at an Organic Farm in Vang Vieng. Now they were meant to come at around 8:30am to pick us up. We get a call at 7:30, when the driver was meant to be picking them up, from Kong saying that the vehicle had run over a thin or unstable piece of paving and the back left wheel had fallen into a ditch.

Luckily for us, construction was happening up the road from them so they got some machine to heave it out. Luckily there was not much damage, just a few scratches here and there. Poor guy, he had bought it four months beforehand.

Four hours later we arrive at the Organic Farm, with a little difficulty I might add. It turned out to be a Mulberry farm so during the stay we tried Mulberry tea, Mulberry wine, Mulberry Smoothies and Mulberry leaves.

At the farm they had geese, kittens/cats, puppies/dogs, kids/goats, piglets/pigs and snakes. All the pets and workers there all ate Mulberry leaves. Oh! They also raised Silk Worms which also ate the Mulberry leaves.

The Geese were something; you'd wake up and hear this loud squawking which sounded like rusty swings. And if you've seen animated geese like in The Aristocats you would understand how they waddle. It's so funny.

The second night was the night I saw the kitten. He was so cute but you could tell he wasn't fed much. He was tiny; he was a newborn I think. He was only about 25cm long or something, not including his tail.

The puppies were adorable and so tiny! Okay I know you teachers don't really care about me seeing Kittens and Puppies but hmmpf, this is MY trip diary! I know Ms Morrison wouldn't mind. She's obsessed with Puppies... Don't tell her I said that! So back to the puppies, they were quite small too and twins I think. Their tails were cut short like most dogs in Asia but they were so soft! And followed each other everywhere.

See how it is elevated above the ground by about 5 feet or so? The building itself had a floor made out of Bamboo slats. It had a concrete slope underneath it so when the goats did their business it would fall on this concrete slope and fall down into the gutter. It had a straw thatch roof and the sides were also Bamboo creating a breeze for the goats. Now the Kids were out on the veranda of the building. They weren't in the pen with the others incase they got trampled so they were free to run around whenever they wanted. Mainly because they still needed to be close to their Mums. So an occasional bleat from the Mum would keep them in their spot. Just incase I'm not explaining it well enough - It was safe to leave them out of the pen because of their need of their mothers.

One morning bright and early Mum (my Mum) was walking past the entrance leading to the area where all the animals were and suddenly the two Kids come racing up thinking she's their Mum. Considering both their Mums were sleeping and couldn't do their usual bleat they thought their mothers must have gone away. They nibbled her toes which I guess would mean they were handled well by the farm people considering they weren't afraid.

Now the pigs were cool! They were put into two separate areas. But in one the pen was cut into three parts. One had the youngest pigs, one had the middle pigs and the last had the old ones.

I can't remember what I named them. I'm sure there's a specific word for between being a piglet and a pig. I think I named them Piggles or something. But anyways, the other pen was cut into two. One for this black coloured pig that was all by herself and the other one was this HUGE mother pig with her tiny little piglets. They were so cute!

Haha the snake story was funny; on our last night there we were out in a special eating pavilion away from the main restaurant and a waitress was coming to bring us food when she screamed. There was all this yelling and finally she came running to where we were eating and sat with us for a little while until the snake had gone.

We went for a walk on the second evening. Our driver drove us to a spot where we could walk around and walk back. We walked on these wooden floor boards which I was terrified would collapse.

We went down towards the river and there were bars along the water edge where you could lie in your own pavilion in a hammock. We saw all these people when we were at the farm coming to the river and having rubber tractor inner tubes called donuts and floating down the river with them. From where we were standing we saw the people floating down from the direction of our accommodation. Mum and I planned to do that but we didn't have time.

When we left we were going on a four hour drive back with twisting and turning roads. See I finally figured out a massive difference with our roads and the roads we were on. They had no gutters. Well in the country I guess you wouldn't expect there to be but there was no proper edging. So we kept bumping into the rough edge at a fast speed. Going around 20,000 turns a second. It was horrible. Again I don't get car sick but we had to stop for me to get into the front. My stomach had turned inside out.

But anyways we had a stop half way and had food and that made me feel better; getting out of the car with fresh air and so on. When we got back to Vientiane we went to a pretty big silver market. See Courtney has always wanted this type of bracelet and I had looked in Thailand, Cambodia and we went through literally 22 shops in Laos and then we finally found the one I knew she'd like and bought it... Okay once again - You don't care.. {Yes Courtney - We know you care!}

Next day Kong took Mum and I out to see how these silk carpets were made. It was so cool! One worker there told us it would take them 3 months to finish one of the them. And that's with 4 people working on it! We went to get our nails done... xD We did some more shopping, went to silk shops etc.

But it was fun going back to Laos because we stayed with Jim & Kong when I was about 10. Everyone would ask when Kong and I went out on the motorbike, "Why doesn't your sister speak Lao?" It was funny.

That night we flew back to Thailand - AGAIN. But thankfully our transfer flight was basically straight away.

We arrived at Narita airport on a Tuesday at 9am, 10am in Sydney. We then caught a bus from the airport to the Tokyo Bus Terminal which took about an hour. We then had a horrible first meal there. I won't even go into it.

Then we caught a cab to the Hill Top Hotel and settled in. Then after that we went to the Imperial Palace.. The Emperor still lives there but we only went to the public part. One thing that I mainly liked was the stone walls. They were something; they were elegant but looked firm. P2C2E... Process To Complicated To Explain.
Wall

Some cool things about where we were was that the main street about 50m from our hotel had probably near to 20 guitar shops. Drool... They were really quite something. But anyway, we were about a couple hundred meters from the nearest subway. Which I got really quite good at considering you have to use this machine which is all in Japanese. Haha and also... check out the train system.

We went to a fish market which was disgusting and I stopped eating raw fish for a little while after that. It took us a while to find the actual market because not much English is spoken in Tokyo, but when we did it was huge. We walked through aisles of fish etc. There were boxes of octopus and some even skinned octopus.

Mum got splattered in Whale blood. We saw a man ordering some eels. When I was talking to Shannon and Courtney on Skype I scared them by saying " I watched them slit their throats and break their necks," now I was exaggerating on slightly. I did see them getting their throats slashed but that was it.

I never realised they were so big! A Tuna fish is literally the length of a science desk back at Rivo. It's scary.

Oh and the machine we have in Wood work? To cut through the wood. Well they used that but for the frozen meat.
Also you'd walk past and see these massive knifes, longer than your arms for cutting into Tuna. It was pretty scary. But I think once you've been there. One time is enough; you've had the experience, you don't need to see it again.

Oh I found out two new things I also now do not eat. Turtle and Whale... Yes they're the newest on my list. I didn't even try them. Okay normally my philosophy is, don't say you don't like something without trying it. Well this is an exception. I'm not saying it doesn't taste good even though it probably doesn't. I'm just saying I'm not eating it because.... GEEEZZZ IT'S WHALE!!!! WHALE!!! And I have Turtles back in Oz so I couldn't eat that.

We went to the Akibahara Electronic Town I think it was called. Had anything and everything you wanted. It was pretty cool. The scenes you see in movies of lights lights lights! Well this was it!

We had dinner at a Sushi train bar! Woop woop! It was pretty cool. Eat and eat and eat only what you like... *Sighs* I love Sushi Bars.

Well you can imagine with all the luggage we had misplaced a lot of things. I'd look in one suitcase and the thing I'd be looking for wouldn't be there. I'd look in another - Not there and then finally third suitcase lucky it'd be there.

Second night we went shopping around the city. I bought a new bag... Finally.

The day after was the launch of AsianLII in Meiji University. Pretty boring hearing Dad say everything I've already heard him say before. Everything he said was translated into Japanese by an interpreter. When I got bored I started to translate what Dad was saying into German.

From left: Makoto, Deputy Ambassador, Professor Shinoda, Dad.

After the launch was over we were taken to have an Italian meal, which was odd, where everyone got drunk. Basically when you go out to have a meal in Japan... You're most likely gonna leave drunk.

Towards the end I met a nice professor who was Japanese but spoke German, English and French as well as Japanese. He kindly gave me one of his translators. Which is really cool it's described as an "Electric Book" but anyway it's awesome. And I bought the third of the Harry Potter books in German so I can try and read it using the translator.

Kyoto {Top}

So, how did we get to Kyoto again? Gosh it was only last week but it seems so long ago. Trains! That's it we took many trains.

When we got to Kyoto station we first had to get a refund for some tickets that we didn't use. Dad dealt with that while Mum tried to find an ATM and I sat and watched the bags and drooled over the cakes.

We took a couple of cabs to our hotel which to our distaste was some little back packers hotel. But that's the wonders of traveling right? So, we arrived late and slept and so on. For the next few days we visited garden after garden after garden. If you know my Mum you'd understand.

One place we took a train to, which we later figured out was only about a 10 minute walk from our hotel, was pretty cool. There was one I liked most but unfortunately it had... More stairs.

But the view was pretty strange. You got up there and went on one particular side and you'd think you're on set of a movie. Well not even that, as if you were watching a movie with weird special effects. It looked so much like a background - Not a true image. It was really quite weird and put you into a really strange mood.

One night we actually had a really good meal; Makoto organised it for us. We were sitting at a bench and we could see this man making all the food. He was really nice and showed us what he was doing every time we stared over the bench. At one point he blow torched a special fish. It was awesome! Since we are keen tourists we were asking about the food etc. and these other customers in the restaurant came up to us and started talking about eggplants... 0.o They were vegetable specialists.. And they gave us a special eggplant as a present?

The one on the left they gave us which is a traditional eggplant and the one on the right is a new type which has just been developed.

Woo I got to try Sake! Hot Sake is best... By the time this photo was taken I think the small amount of it was really getting to me.

Hmmm to summarise the little things in Kyoto - You couldn't find many decent things to eat. There's too many Gardens... It's way too hot, It's hard to get around, No ones speaks English and what else? The air-con wouldn't work!

Oh! I had to come back and write this... Something actually exciting! We went to Nara for a day... With me coughing my lungs out.. Oh Mum had some asthma thing so she was doing the same. Nara was the capital of Japan before Kyoto was. And that was before Tokyo was. So everything in Nara is really old, about 1300 years old. Nara is another UNESCO World Heritage site. It had this BIG Buddha was the biggest brass Buddha in the world? And the building he was in was the biggest wooden structure in the world I think. Now there were these huge statue guys standing on each side of the entrance and they had been fixed up etc. made of wood.

And the coolest bit of it was the Deer. Now Deer in Japan are known as the "Messengers from God" or something like that. When you hear that you'd at least think them elegant. BAH!! Well not likely with these guys. They were doing their business all over the entrance of the walk ways and temples. They'd chew on your shirts trying to find something to eat. And if you bought biscuits to feed them they'd chase you for them. Pretty cool. They were really tame. I stroked them and the Stag's horns which felt like Velvet.

There were some European tourists who weren't used to seeing tame Deer really so I walked up to the closest one and started stroking its head. The tourists were amazed and straight away started to pat it when I left.
On the way out we stopped and got some Shaved Ice.

There's a tradition in Japanese temples where they'll have running water and little spoon/cups where you wash your hands so you are purified when you come into the temple. Now i'm sure it's rude to splash people with it. But no one was around and we were too tired to care.

One night there we were invited to dinner with an old Japanese friend of ours who I forgot to mention in Tokyo. His name is Makoto. When I was little and I first met him, we took him up to the Blue Mountains. We were walking and I asked him what his name was. He replied "Cookie Monster"... So ever since then we've referred to him as Cookie Monster.

We ate dinner with him and his family which was his wife and two sons. We noticed during our meal that Japanese don't really flavour their food intensely. For example wasabi, could you believe it, was hard to actually get like what we get in Oz. Back in Australia it's hotter and much nicer. Their sushi isn't even as good as ours!

After about 10 gardens in Kyoto I went on strike and stayed in bed. I started to get a cold anyway so I didn't really go bouncing out the door fully excited.

On the weekend Makoto took us up to the Mountains for a day. We went up by train and then further up by a mountain tram. Or if you've been to Hong Kong there's the Peak? And the Peak has a Tram that goes up along the side of the slope. Well it's like that. Anyway after that we went up on a cable car and finally got to where we were aiming for. Which was a Garden Museum sort of thing?

It was cool. After seeing Gardens with moss or just rocks and pebbles this was more like home. Bright bright flowers of all different types, roses and everything! They had a replica of Monet's Garden which was odd but meh! If Monet stole the idea of a Japanese garden with his bridge and Willows and Water Lilies... Why not the Japanese steal it back and put it on top of a mountain? Yeah okay anyways...

I'm way behind and would like to get to Canada where I am right now... So..

{I came back to write this} Makoto took us to a couple of other places in the mountains if I remember correctly which I probably don't. The next place or the first place we got to I was "seriously displeased." If any of you have seen the old Pride and Prejudice you'd get it. Anyway! Because there were MORE STAIRS!

But it was all good 'cause I bought these wacky toe socks.

That night we had dinner again at a really nice place... Mmmm meat! See the Japanese aren't very big meat eaters... I mean they eat all kinds of sea food and delicate thin slices of meat... But they don't eat slabs of it like we do.

So we went to thin slices meat place with Makoto and one of his sons, Ike and his wife and ate yummy meat!

So! I stayed at home while Mum and Dad went to more Gardens and I worked on this a little. Next day Makoto came to the hotel and we gave him a small suitcase that we bought at the Akibahara place full of things we wanted taken back to Australia. 'Cause our bags are sooo heavy! So yes.. That was good-bye to Makoto.

Our last dinner was interesting. The place had a huge pool in the middle of the restaurant with a long bench around the perimeter. The pool was normally for fish, ribbon fish, eel etc. But the dish I chose was the best. The other meals weren't so good.

Then we took the bullet train back to Tokyo. Then took a train from Tokyo to Narita airport. Got to the airport.. Lost Mum.. Found Mum.. Checked in. Now this Check in was difficult because on our tickets it wasn't specified if our airport tax was paid or not... { By the way, it was in the end } But it took them so long running from desk to desk and so on. In the end to entertain myself I looked at the departure board and notice out of the 12 places up there I hadn't been to 2 of them. And one of them I was flying to anyway.

So when everything was sorted the lady that was serving us told us that the plane stopped boarding in 10 minutes and she'd help us get through customs because normally it took you 15 minutes to get through. So we went through the Crew area because we're special and ran through the airport and got there, puffed and sweaty, to see a whole line of people... So we needn’t have run in the end.

We got on the plane and Mum and I looked out the window. The announcement in French and English said, " We are loading more baggage onto the air craft and will be leaving shortly," kinda thing. It was funny 'cause when we looked outside it was our bags.

So 9 hour flight from Japan to Vancouver. I wrote a little of my stories... Only Mr Lasaitis, Courtney and Shannon know what I'm on about. And then I watched In The Land Of Women... Yeah It was alright. Bit of an overdone story-line but meh. Went to sleep briefly and then watched Superman. Woo.. Old version. Oh by the way.. I LOVE AIRCANADA! Seriously, they're the only airline that serves proper food. It may not be the best but it's a hell of a lot better than Thai airlines! Hmmm... Moving along.

Japan Facts

Capital: Tokyo

Language: Japanese

Population: Approximately 127,433,494

Currency: Yen/¥

Conversation Rate: AUD1 - 100¥

The Hotel: http://www.yamanoue-hotel.co.jp/eng/index.htm

(Kyoto Hotel- You really don't want to know about it)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Canada

Bonjour from Canada {Top}

So we arrived in Vancouver sometime around noon I recall. We caught a huge cab to our hotel. It was a little, simple place with wireless.. WOO. But we were only staying a night anyway. We all tried to stay awake until local bedtime to beat the jet lag. There was a three hour time change from Japan and you cross the international date line so we actually arrived the day before we left. Also it was so cold compared to Japan! 'Twas mid summer and still chilly. It was the weather I loved - It's cool but not too cold. Best weather.

So we went out and we explore the area. We covered a lot of ground. We walked around the local area took a ferry across the harbour, looked around, bought a shirt for my baby cousin, came back and then bought a present for Courtney's sister's boyfriend... Yeah okay... 0.o

Mum and I sitting at the dock waiting for the ferry to come back and Dad to stop looking around.

Then we decided we'd check out China town. Everyone recommended it. It was supposed to be the oldest Chinatown in North America and quite an experience. I can tell you now it was definitely quite an experience... A scary one infact.

China town was closed at 6:30pm... Wait wait.. BEFORE THAT! We walked to China town... And Vancouver is one of the cities with the biggest population of homeless. Now the homeless I could deal with. But the junkies.. Boy the junkies were bad! They'd come up askin' for change but that wasn't a problem. Just say "Sorry," and keep walking. But they were in packs... Some guys would come across the road and you'd think they were about to kill you... Seriously. We went through that area for about half an hour and boy I wanted to hail a taxi and get the hell outta there. But we kept walking to China Town... BUT IT WAS CLOSED.... I'm trying to think of a place sleazy enough to fit those streets. It's like Kings Cross. Or bits of the city.

China Town!

A shop that was typical to the area.

So we have to walk through more streets like the ones before. Every alley you look down you see groups of them! But then we saw cop cars and were thinking, "Wooo!" and we noticed it was a police station. So we kept walking and finally ended up where we had explored earlier that day where we ate at a nice little place where Mum and Dad {*cough* and I} tried about 4 different types of beer. They were so weird. I didn't like the Red Devil.

Next day we took a bus which was driven onto the boat which was to take us to the Victoria Island. When we arrived in a bay it drove on to the main city on Victoria Island.

Victoria Island

We stayed with a Professor I have not seen since I was about 2. His name was Colin and his wife, Robin. Colin picked us up in his SUV. We arrived, settled and then ate dinner. My gosh the food was way better than Whale. Then we went for a walk around the bay we were near. It was nice.

Next day we went to meet another Professor I haven't met since I was 2, David. Colin drove us around to see a couple of sights before he went to golf then dropped us at David's.

We went out for a long hike along the cliffs with the water alongside of us. It was good. After a couple of hours we sat at Beachy Head and looked out onto the water and ate lunch. We walked back again and ran into a German family. He embarrassed me by putting me on the spot and having a conversation in German with them. It was brief.

He dropped us back at Colin's and we showered etc. We then had dinner at his house and met his partner. His house is pretty cool and he has a Mercedes Convertible. Fell in love with the convertible.

Colin driving David's Convertible to golf. With me Drooling on it!

Next day we went to go see Orca. We went with the company "Prince of Whales" which is funny yeah okay but incorrect according to our guide. We had to wear these huge red/orange suits. Which were flotation and insulation devices so that if you did fall in the water, you wouldn't freeze to death. If you fell into the water without one you would be dead of the cold in less than 3 minutes.

What I learnt about Orca is that their Latin name is Orcinus Orca roughly translated into "Demon of the Underworld". "The Killer Whale" is actually the wrong term to be calling them considering they're dolphins. They're just big big dolphins. There are two types of Orca. Transient which means something like they don't have to travel in a pod and they eat absolutely anything and resident which means they live in a family pod and eat fish, mainly salmon in this part of the world.

We went past a lighthouse with seals and birds etc. on it. I suggest you guys go to this, " http://www.racerocks.com/ " It's extremely cool. They have live footage from webcams placed around the island of seals etc.

The day we saw them was cold, windy but it was the most Special day. Normally there are three separate pods in the area but that day was Superpod. It was the rare case of all three pods coming together. Think of it as a sort of family reunion. It was pretty cool. The guide chucked in a special sound detector into the water. It picked up the Orca's calls. It was amazing; it sounded like clicking and we could even hear a big ship miles away.

The first one got us all excited. Then we started to see more and more fins slicing through the surface of the water. Sometimes that's all we'd see but some came out of the water just for display. One female turned on her back and went under our boat so we could see her white belly. They were quite something.

This isn't a photo we took. They were really too quick to catch on our camera. You see them and get your camera out and when you look up they're going down. But this is the kind of thing we saw. We only saw one breaching. Breaching is where they jump and fall on their back pretty much.
orca

I spotted two baby Orcas before anyone else even the guide. Apparently they have pink where the white normally is, due to blood cells rising or something like that.The boat ride was a lot like Jet boating back in Oz. I went with Courtney in Queensland. But in QLD there was a lot more turns than whale watching. But our guide gave us a couple and we were going so fast, it was fun.

When we got home my mind was converted to one thing, " Whale whales whales! No Dolphins!" It was insane. Then Mum found a soft toy Orca in the bathtub and brought him out and I even slept with him on the bed.

Colin and I having what we called a whale of a time.

We woke up early to my disgust and Colin drove us to the airport. It started to rain and I figured out that in every country we had been to, except Laos, had rained one day while we were there.
When we got to the airport there had been a mix up with our flights but after a little while Dad got it was sorted out. We straight away got onto a plane that took us to Vancouver.
We waited in Vancouver airport for approximately an hour. Considering other waits, it wasn't too bad. I just sat on Dad's laptop and typed.

Then it was a five hour flight to Montreal on the other side of Canada. I sat with Mum asleep on my left and Dad typing away on his computer on my right. I typed on Mum's laptop until it clonked out, which was about 3 hours later. And the rest of the time I watched Spiderman 3 which I had already seen two times.

Montreal {Top}

Montreal is in the Canadian Province of Quebec where the official language is French. We arrived there at around 7pm, Sydney is 15 hours ahead. We got to the hotel we were staying in for a night got changed and my Father called a man that again I have not seen seen since 1996, Daniel. I quickly checked e-mails and told Courtney I would be on later and Daniel was at the hotel ready to take us to his home for dinner.

When we got to his house it was freezing outside. On the way to the front door he asked me, " So do you eat squirrel?" and I thought he was being completely serious.
Silly Lily.I answered with, " Ummm to be honest I haven't really tried it."
All the adults who were smart enough to know he was joking just laughed at me. =( It was because whenever they ask my parents do I not eat anything they reply with, " Frog's legs, Whale and Turtle." But that night I added Rabbit to my list. We weren't having it but it came up in the conversation.

We got inside and I met Carl and his partner Cynthia. They were a really nice couple. She was originally from France so spoke little English but she did really well attempting. And had a thick thick French accent. Carl had come to Sydney with Daniel in 2005 but apparently I was out. Most likely with Ruby Giles or someone. Carl and Daniel work on the Canadian Legal institute, CanLII. {Where I am right now typing this} and they also work with a nice guy who I met years ago and who also came to Sydney a little while ago called Pierre Paul.

Daniel's wife, Francine, was a lovely lady who brightened as she began to remember her English or that she realised we weren't so scary in the end.

So they two hosts began to cook and Mum ushered me to go see how French cooking was done. When I got to the kitchen area I found out we were having Italian but no matter! Daniel and his wife had just finished building their new house. I swear when I get my own house, it'll be something alike.

As the night progressed we noticed the women starting to get quieter and quieter. Took us a little while to figure out that in Victoria where we had been previously was three hours behind Montreal. And it was then past midnight local time. We were keeping them up late but our clocks were still saying it was 9pm. We said our good-byes, our thank yous and so on.

Daniel drove us back to the hotel and I jumped on the computer and talked to Courtney while everyone else read. We then went to bed at 2am Montreal time.

Next day we went to Quebec City for 2 days. The old part of this city is one of the oldest European city in the North America. The old city walls and some of the churches are another UNESCO World Heritage site. We went on a 3 hour bus ride. Missed most of the first day but we got a lot done. We went along an old fortification wall which took us to different sites. I loved the wall, everything was green and there were big sculptures and people everywhere! I think the weather really helped. Because in Asia we used to be so reluctant to go some places because of the heat. But Canada is nice and cool and really refreshing.

The wall where we were on.

They had the coolest "Canadian Shops"! With so many funny shirts. Can't wait for next year's 'Loud shirt day'; I bought one. You guys'll see that next year. xD

We arrived at the hotel and had a chance to change and everything while I talked to Courtney. We went down to dinner at a fairly fancy place in the hotel which Daniel had suggested. The service was terrible but it was a good French Bistro style meal with five courses.

Next day we caught a bus into the actual city because our hotel was a little way out. We left our bags and everything in a locker at the bus terminal. Thankfully we could do this because our hotel in Montreal were holding our suitcases.

We walked the opposite direction of the walk we did the day before and ended up at the old port.

It had turned into a veggie and fruit market and they sold a lot of Berries. They had really nice Strawberries!

It had a very very small food court and we hadn't had breakfast as I recall. Weirdly considering they spoke French they were really into German things. They had a German hot dog place. I vowed not to eat a hot dog 'til I got to Germany but we tried them anyway. They were okay. Annoyingly all the signs were in French... I was hoping they'd be in German. Only German word I saw was, "Oktoberfest," which was describing one of the types of sausages. They had strange Sauerkraut but I managed.

That afternoon we took a bus back to Montreal and then took a cab to our new hotel, Le Meriden. We arrived there and it was a nice hotel. Mum and Dad went out while I stayed on the internet most likely, they brought me back mini hamburgers.

Next morning Mum and I went exploring while Dad went to the University. We walked a fair way down the main street called Sherbrooke. We then turned down Saint Laurent and kept walking down to their China Town. The Montreal China Town is meant to be full of Vietnamise and Thai people. Moving along, we walked through the China Town which was thankfully less scary than the one in Vancouver and at least more was open.

We walked through the big buildings and, I have this tradition sort of.... That I look for the number 483 - Long story ask Shannon or Courtney, so anyway Mum and I kept an eye out for that and it got to 481 and then went straight to 600. I hate this, in every country I've looked for it and people must hate the number or something because it's so ridiculous. People are doing this to me on purpose I tell you!

After walking back and forward for the silly number we proceeded on to the Notre-Dame Cathedral. We had to wait about five minutes for it to open but then we went inside and it was really beautiful. A tour guide was trying to describe how important it was and saying, "Have you seen the movie ----?" and everyone would say no. Then she'd continue, "Well that was filmed here." And after all of these famous movies and so on she said, "A famous Canadian singer got married here and after that she came back and christined her child here.... Do you know Celine Dion?" and at that point everyone said yes.

After staying there for quite some time we went for another walk down some old streets and walked past many many shops. I think this was actually where I got my message shirt. We went to go look at this smaller cathedral which was meant to be something good but it was shut. We then walked along the water's edge where there was another port with some sort of market but we decided we'd go home. We took a taxi back to China town and got a bowl of Pho (Vietnamise Noodle Soup), which I've always loved ever since I was a kid. After that we walked back towards our hotel which we didn't think was that far. We stumbled across a IGA which I was very surprised to see but nevertheless we did our shopping and got food and wine.

After shopping we got outside a little unsure of where we were and we were really tired by then because we didn't realise how far the hotel actually was so we had done quite a lot of walking that day. Anyway, we got a taxi and drove back towards the hotel. On the way home we were really glad we had taken a taxi because it was really quite far.

When we got home I talked to Courtney breifly and Mum went to the place I had breakfast at and got some bread and things. When Dad got home we had our first small dinner we had organised ourselves. We sat around our tiny table eating olives, bread, cheese and patte and drinking wine and in my case orange juice.

The next day we all went out with Daniel and Pierre Paul who was on crutches from playing Paint Ball with some friends. We went into a famous place called Schwartz's. http://www.schwartzsdeli.com/ It was sooo good. We had a dill pickle, cherry coke (thing) and a big.... I don't know how to describe it.

After that we dropped Mum off at another market place and we continued on to the office (where I wrote earlier saying I was at). So I was in the office of CanLII, in my own private room and writing more of this and I have to admit was checking my e-mails too. Many people came in asking if I was alright and If I needed anything because they were told they had to be nice to me. It was pretty cool. A couple of hours later no one was there anymore, the laughing had stopped and so had the people walking past. It was 5 and absolutely everyone had left. Dad and I hopped onto a bus and got off outside our hotel.