Mirissa beach was absolutely beautiful. We arrived in Mirissa with no accomadation so we decided to to check a couple of places. When we found an amazing beach house that was actually on the sand, we brought our luggage to our room and decided to go for a quick swim before dinner. The ocean was so warm and such a nice shade of blue. That night, we went for dinner at a tiny Sri Lankan bar with our guide, Chatura. We had a delicious traditional curry with dhal, vegetables, chicken and rice. The next morning, my sisters and I went right to the beach. It was a very chill day of swimming, reading, homework, and surfing. Amelie and Elise tried surfing for the first time and they really enjoyed it! 
The next morning, we woke up early and we went whale watching. We saw so many blue whales, and a tonne of dolphins. 
After whale watching, we went to Galle, a little beach town an hour drive from Mirissa. It was so fun to walk around the old city and the weather was perfect. 
That night we had a nice dinner with more curry and I had a very hairy mango juice. Then, we said goodbye to our awesome tour guide, Chatura. After dinner, we returned home. The next couple days were very relaxing. We spent most of the days swimming and surfing. I spent hours surfing and the waves were huge! Sometimes too big for me and I’d get dumped. 
At the end of each day, I would be covered in sores from my board. It was worth it because there is not much surfing in Canada besides Tofino. My dad lost 90% of his pictures so that was a big problem. A cool fact about Mirissa is that there are a lot of pole fishermen. A pole fisherman is a fisher that sits on a wooden pole to fish. It looked very uncomfortable. 
On the fifth day, we had to leave. It was sad. We thanked our hosts for an incredible stay and we all hopped in the van and we drove to the airport. Mirissa was a highlight of our year. Mirissa was a cute beach town that I would definitely come back to.
This is an epic fail of my dad and I trying to catch the same wave.
Author: annasagem
Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia- by Anna
Ancient and amazing. On Saturday morning, we took a tuk-tuk to Angkor Wat, one of the wonders of the world. When we arrived, the guide explained that Angkor Wat was built over six hundred years ago. Angkor Wat is a complex with thirty eight different temples. Angkor Wat is the one you’d see in most pictures. 
We walked through the Ancient building, learning a lot about the history of Angkor Wat, then we listen to our guide telling us about how he had been a Buddhist monk for 11 years. The picture quality was amazing and Amelie and Elise loved the hide and seek. After Angkor Wat, we headed to Bayon one of the other temples. Bayon was special because it had faces on it and most temples in the Angkor Wat were Hindu and became Buddhist temples but Bayon was always Buddhist. 
The pictures there were so cool, fun to take and we photo bombed each others photos. The next temple was called Ta Phrom. This one was unique because there are trees growing out of it. 
It was also the place were they filmed the movie “Tomb Raider”. We tried to reenact the scene in front of the tree. It kind of worked. Next was Pre Rup. It was one of my favourites because it was huge and the colour of the stone was rather pink. Then we did Banteay Srei. Beautiful as well. We’ve been travelling for seven months and we haven’t hit anywhere nearly as hot and humid as Cambodia. Angkor Wat was truly amazing and packed with history.
Ella, Sri Lanka- by Anna
Ella was a short and memorable trip. The train from Nuwara Eliya was so beautiful! There are the most incredible views on that train. We rode through tea plantations, farms, forests, and villages. 
After the train, we went to our homestay and we had a rest. That night, we went out for dinner at a nice restaurant and we ate a huge chicken curry. After dinner, we had to walk along the railway back to our homestay and it was quite creepy because it was pitch black. The next morning we woke up early by the 6:45 train, and we went to hike Ella’s Rock. It was such a good hike and it felt good too because we were stiff from the train the day before. The views at the top were unbelievable! We had a view of the entire valley. 
It was definitely similar to Cameron Highlands in Malaysia but this one was better by far. On our way down, we stopped at a king coconut stand. A king coconut is a bit different from the normal ones because they are sweeter and they are orange. They taste amazing! I love coconut. 
After the hike, we walked back to our homestay but on our way I saw the biggest snake! I was so terrified. In the evening, we all walked down into Ella and we went to a bar with a lot of atmosphere and we played cards and listened to live music. What a night! The next morning, we went on a hike called mini Adams Peak. 
It was a very fun hike and it didn’t take us long at all. Once again, the views were quite something! 
The next morning we had to leave to go to Yala. On our way we stopped at the most amazing waterfall we’ve ever seen. 
It was so peaceful and isolated. It was one of our highlights of Sri Lanka. Ella was a tiny town built in an incredible valley!
Cat Ba, Vietnam- By Anna
Cat Ba was beautiful! 
On Tuesday, we took a boat to Cat Ba, which is an island right off of Hai Phong. When we arrived, we took our luggage to our hotel. We rented scooters and we drove to the Cat Ba National Park. 
It was beautiful. We stopped at the Hospital Caves, which were caves that the North Vietnamese built so that no one could find their hospital and the Southern Vietnamese couldn’t bomb them. 
It was really different and interesting to visit the rooms like the operating room, the old office and the meeting room. 
We saw couple of pictures of the hospital during the war and saw the actual equipment they used. After the Hospital Caves, we rode up to the beginning of the Cat Ba National Park hike. It was a bit of a confusing hike but well worth it. At the top, the view of Cat Ba was amazing. 
We took a couple pictures, then we began our hike down. The next morning, we had a boat tour of Halong Bay. Halong Bay is one of the most well known places in Vietnam. 
After a little bit of boating, we took double kayaks out onto the water. Amelie and I were together, Elise was with my mom and my dad was with Joe, from Germany. We kayaked through caves (sometimes got stuck). It was blast and Amelie and I killed it! 
After kayaking, we walked around the fish farm and we saw a giant fish that was the length of me but the weight of my dad. Then we all got back on the boat and we went swimming. It was definitely cold but freezing for my mom. It was fun because we could jump off the top of the boat. 
Lunch was amazing, there were spring rolls, red snapper, fish cakes, tofu and a veggie salad.
That night, we went out for a Hot Pot at a restaurant were this young boy around Amelies age served us dinner. 
A Hot Pot is a burner that sits in the middle of the table with boiling broth, which is served with raw meat, seafood, noodles and vegetables for you to cook. 
We went to cannon fort for the last day. 
It was really cool to see the old cannons and the old uniforms they used to wear. It was really rainy ( and yes I did say rain! first rain in two weeks). At the hotel, Amelie and I finished our Buddhism project. That night we presented it in front of our parents and Ellie. Elise was our facilitator. 
For dinner, we went to this really loud bar and we played a big round of our card game called” Five Crowns”. The next morning, we had to go so we took a selfie with the brothers who owned the hotel and then we took the boat back to Hai Phong. The views in Cat Ba were something I’d remember for a long time!
Chiang Mai, Thailand- by Anna
Our family reunion in Chang Mai was so amazing! When we arrived in Chang Mai, we all hopped in a red van ( which is like a taxi in Thailand) and we drove to our guesthouse. After settling in, our parents told us to come to the guesthouse restaurant for a drink but surprisingly, we found our Aunt and her partner, Cody, sitting at a table in the restaurant. It was one of those moments that you would remember forever since we hadn’t seen a family member( not including each other) in six months. We sat down at the table with them and shared stories. 
It turned out that they were travelling around Thailand so we changed our travel itineraries to see them and we were never actually going to go to Thailand. That night, we all went to the hawker stalls for dinner. We tried scorpion on a stick and crocodile I preferred the scorpion because the crocodile was to chewy. 
It was hilarious to watch a boy around my age try scorpion because he had watched us first so he thought he could do it but ended up gaging. For desert we ate rolled ice cream and it was really cool to see how they made it.
The next morning was our Thai cooking class. 
Chang Mai is known for cooking classes so we thought we ought to go. We started off going to the food market and picking out all sorts off different spices, ingredients and veggies for our cooking class. 
After that, we picked out what six different dishes we wanted to make in the class. I picked: fried veggie spring rolls, pad Thai, sweet and sour prawn soup,Mussuman curry, prawns baked with vermicelli and sticky rice with mango.Our first course was the spring rolls. 
They were the best ones yet! There was tofu and veggies in it. Then we made the prawns and the pad Thai. It was all so good. After that we made curry, curry paste, the soup and then lastly we made the sticky rice. 
After the course we were so full we had to roll home. It really was the best food I’d ever had! That night we headed to the markets to get a bit of exercise. The next morning we had to say goodbye to our Aunt and Cody. It was tough. Then, we walked around the old city and we visited a Buddhist temple. 
At 7pm it was time for our first massage. It was absolutely amazing. We did a Thai massage, it was a normal massage until she started to stretch me like I was a peace of bubble gum. It was hard not to scream but it was totally worth every single minute by the end. I would totally go back to Thailand!
Singapore- by Anna
We landed in Singapore late Friday night. Our driver was waiting for us, so we all hopped in a van and he drove to our hotel. The next morning, we went to the Botanical Gardens. All the plants were so pretty and the weather was just right.
Next, we went to Marina Bay Sands which is a bay with the Merlion, the Marina Bay Sands hotel and a big shopping center. The hotel was beautiful, there were three buildings in a row and it looked like a huge, huge boat was laying across them. 
First, we went to the big shopping center. It was like the future of all the malls in Vancouver. There were some really expensive stores like Versace and Gucci and a little river that went right through the mall. There were people going down the river on little boats. It was so cool! 
After lunch, we went for a walk around the bay, took nice pictures and ate fried ice cream for the second time on this trip. When night fell, we took a lovely boat ride down the Singapore River to see lights. 
They were beautiful because they lit up the entire city. After the boat ride, we went for one more little walk before returning to our hotel to go see the……….Merlion! It was all lit up and so beautiful. 
We took a couple pictures then we went back to the hotel. The next morning, started off with a lazy morning then we decided to go do the Cloud Forest. The trees were so tall and the view from the skywalk was so nice. 
The weather started to turn against us, so we hurried indoors to a dome with a gorgeous waterfall. 
We also learnt about pollution and global warming. 
After watching some upsetting videos about pollution, global warming, plastic and wasting water we suddenly felt that we should make a difference.
Here are some things that we can do to help the earth:
-cut down on plastic and styrofoam that doesn’t biodegrade
-eat less meat and more veggies
-take shorter showers
-turn off lights when your out
-don’t drive when you could walk or bike
After that, we took a subway to the Singapore Night Safari. It was so fun. We got on train that took us around the Zoo. We saw some amazing animals like the White Asian Lion, Malay Tiger, Sloth Bear, Taipir, Asian Elephant, Spotted Hyena, Hippopotamus, and Rhinoceros’. It was cool to see that the animals had a lot of space to run around and only a little fence to keep them in their habitat. After the train ride, we were gonna see a show but we missed it so we just got back on the train and did the entire thing over again. 
After, the night safari we headed back to the apartment. Singapore made me realize what Vancouver could look like if we tried real hard to cut down on plastic and water. Singapore deserves a 10/10!
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-by Anna
After an amazing 51 days in Australia and New Zealand, it was time to move on to some Asian countries. We landed in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, on the 27th and we took a taxi to our hotel. When we arrived, Jodie and her family were waiting for us in the lobby. My mom and Jodie went to N.Practitioner school together and coincidently both came up with the same idea to travel the world. Jodie and her husband, Scott, and their kids Grace,10, Finn,12, and Jack,14, had been travelling the world but the other way. They started off in Europe and are ending in S. America. That night we went out for dinner and everyone sang happy birthday to me. It was a fun night! 
The next morning we went swimming in the most amazing pool I’ve ever seen. It overlooked the city. 
Later in the afternoon, we went out for lunch and tried these Chinese doughy buns. They were surprisingly good, but interesting. 
After lunch, we walked around the city and then we went to a temple and checked out the Twin Towers. 
We also went to a market and bought over ten different flavours of pop corn including an interesting type called salted egg. It tasted strange. 
The next day started off with homemade crepes. Then, we went out for lunch with Leelin, from Malaysia, who we met on the Cocora Valley hike back in Columbia. I ordered a prawn noodle dish. It was so good. 
The next day, we went up the Twin Towers. The Twin Towers are towers that were conjoined by a hallway 170m off the ground. It was so nice and the view was incredible. 
Then, we took the subway home and had a very traditional Malaysian dish called spaghetti. Spaghetti is pasta with tomato sauce. Just joking we just wanted a break from Malaysian food.The next morning, we had to say goodbye to Jodie and her family. 
Then we left for…………… Cameron Highlands, known for their strawberries.
Mt Gambier, Australia- By Anna
When we were in Costa Rica, we met girls from Australia who went to the same Spanish school as us. Their names were Charlie,10, Kadie,9, and Teagan,7. 
When we arrived in Melbourne, our parents surprised us because they told us we were going to go visit them. So on Monday morning, we hopped in the car and drove the seven hours to Mt Gambier. The drive was beautiful. The weather was perfect and the ocean was so clear. Tash our friend’s mom, recommended a couple places that we should stop so that’s what we did. The first stop was at the Umpherston Sinkholes. Sinkholes are caves which the entire ground has fallen down. It was pretty neat because it was transformed into a giant botanical garden. 
We also got to see a possum, which looks a little like a squirrel and a rat mixed together. 
The second stop was to go meet up with them at the Blue Lake. It was so nice to see them again. 
We took a couple pictures then we went to their holiday house. We settled in a bit and then we went out for fish n chips. They were so good because we ate them with extra chicken salt. The next morning, we ate breakfast and I taught Charlie and Kadie how to play a card game called “Exploding kittens”. At ten o’clock, all the girls went down to the park ( my dad was working). We played in the park while our moms drank their coffees then, we went back to their place for lunch. After lunch, we played a tag game called Camouflage. It was really fun and we couldn’t stop laughing. 
We had chicken and sausages for dinner and we played more Camouflage. The next morning, we sadly had to say our goodbyes. 
We packed up our car then we drove away. We are still hoping that they come visit us in Canada.
Merimbula, Australia- by Anna
When we arrived in Merimbula, we were introduced to Nerissa ‘s dad Barney and his partner Tina. It was really late and we were exhausted after a day of driving so, we went to bed. The next morning,Tina made us pancakes then we all got ready for a fun day at Pambula beach. Just as we were about to leave, my dad said that I was going to take surf lessons and I was so happy about that. I had been wanting to go surfing ever since Caloundra. We all piled up in the car and we drove to the beach. My surf lesson was a blast, the coaches were fun, and the waves were huge but great for surfing. 
Meanwhile, Amelie and Elise were on the beach making a huge sandcastle with Brendan, Nerrisa’s brother. 
In the evening, Nerissa came with us to look for kangaroos. We did not have much luck at first but then we came across a golf course packed with them (maybe not packed but you get the picture). There were baby’s and a giant one that we were all scared of. We got some good pictures and we were able to go pretty close to them. 
The next morning, I went for a walk with my mom and Nerissa. It was a really nice boardwalk. We walked all the way down to a little Cafe and I ordered a milkshake. Then we walked back to the house. Later on, my dad and I took a surf lesson. Yesterday, he saw me having so much fun that he wanted to join me. My dad never managed to stand on his board, it was hilarious to see him fall into the water. 
I found my dad was a bit of a distraction because every time I was just about to stand up he would cut me off. Thanks dad! That night, we went out for dinner with a whole bunch of my mom’s old highschool friends. 
The next morning, my dad and I woke up early, and we went for one more surf. The water was quiet but every once in a while there would be a giant one sometimes, too big for me. After surfing, we drove up to Eden to have a picnic and to meet my mom’s host moms from 1994. Eden was also the place that my parents were engaged. 
It was a nice evening, the food was good, and it was nice to finally meet Marg and Jo. The next morning we said our final goodbyes to Nerissa, Barney and Tina. Then we drove off to………….Melbourne.
Queesland- by Anna
When we arrived in Brisbane after 24 hours of unexpected flights, we went to my mom’s friend Shane and her husband Brian and their daughter Ella’s house. We settled in. Half an hour after we arrived, Shane and Ella came home. We had a fun evening celebrating Shane’s birthday, learning a new dance, and swimming in their pool. Ella introduced us to vegimite that I liked but my
sisters thought tasted like salty fish and really disliked it. 
We also had a BBQ and ate birthday cake. 
Wednesday started off with a swim, then we went shopping for our Secret Santa. 
I got my mom. After shopping, we went for another swim then had a lovely dinner. It was a fun night! Thursday morning we watched a Christmas movie. 
In the afternoon, we went to Southbank, which is in the heart of Brisbane. 
We went for lunch at a Mexican restaurant and I ordered chicken fajitas. We went swimming in an ocean pool and the adults went to the restaurant. Friday, we said our goodbyes then we drove to Caloundra, a town an hour north from Brisbane. When we arrived, we met Nerissa, Sue and Ian. Nerissa and my mom were roommates back when my mom lived in Australia. 
We were smoking hot because it was 40 degrees outside and it felt like we were in a sauna the entire day. We went in their pool. Saturday, we went to the beach with Nerissa and my mom’s other friend, Carrie and her family. I learnt how to surf, it was a blast. 
We spent the evening at Sandpoint Christmas carnival with Shane, Ella and Brian. We went on a mini bungee activity, took pictures at the photo booth, had dinner, and watched fire works that lasted thirty seconds because of the wind. 
We all had a big laugh about that. We had to say our final goodbyes which was really hard. Sunday, we went for a swim at the beach with the same gang. The waves were a bit to choppy, so it was too dangerous to surf. Then we came back and made a Gingerbread house with Sue. 
Later on in the evening, Nerissa and my parents went out for dinner and Sue and Ian took us for a drive to see Christmas lights. It was so fun! Monday morning we all got to work with our cooking and baking for Christmas. I made a Mississippi Mud Pie, Elise made Carmel slice and Amee made our traditional meat pie called ” Tortière” with my dad. 
We definitely had some fun volley ball games on Christmas Eve. 
That night, we got cookies and milk for Santa and we could almost not fall asleep bacause we were so excited. The next morning was fun. We started with gifts. 
We got a ticket to the Australia Zoo and we got the best present ever from Santa! We got tickets to go see Ed Sheeran live in Portugal! 
We were so excited that we couldn’t talk about anything but that, in the morning. In the afternoon, Carrie and Dan came over with their kids Mayson, Blayke and Ruby and also my moms friends Max and Michelle. We had an awesome Christmas lunch, a pool party and then after Max and his gang left, we played volleyball with Carrie and her family. It was a fantastic night. On boxing day, we went to the Australian Zoo. We saw tonnes of animals snakes, koalas, kangaroos, crocodiles, Tasmanian devils, beautiful birds, some giant lizards and tigers. 
We even got to watch a crocodile show with birds as well. It was cool to see the Irwins history. We also got to take a picture, holding a koala. After the Zoo, we went to the beach and had fish and chips with Carrie and her gang. Thursday, we packed up and left Caloundra. Goodbyes are always tough.
One Family, One World, One Year 