Dubai was a quick but fun stop. 
When we arrived in Dubai, we were exhausted because we had woken up at 4:00am to catch the plane. We took our luggage to the Carlton. When we arrived, my mom seemed so excited about something so we followed her. She pointed across the street to….. Tim Horton’s!! We were all so excited because we hadn’t seen one for eight months. 
So that was were we ate lunch. I ordered a bagel and Timbits. It felt like home. After lunch, we made our way to the hop on hop off station. Dubai is such a nice city with the tallest building in the world and the largest shopping mall in the world. 
We got off at a Spice Souq which is an area with every spice you could imagine. There was: cinnamon, cloves, different salts, cardamin, lots of peppercorn, saje, turmeric and lavender. 
It was so busy but a great experience. After the Spice Souq, we went to the Gold Souq. 
There was a tonne of jewelry and gold statues. 
After the souq, we got back on the bus and we drove around the city. We saw the tallest building in the world called the “Burj Khalifa”. The Burj Khalifa is over 828 meters tall and has 163 stories. 
We also past the Dubai frame which is a huge frame that frames the city and lights up at night. 
As night fell, the bus dropped us off at the largest mall in the world with an indoor aquarium. 
The inside was beautiful there were more than 1200 stores and services. We fell in love with the massive bookstore. After the shops, we went down to the huge food court with every single food you could imagine. We had a delicious Indian dinner with butter chicken and mutter paneer. Then, we went back to our hotel for an early night before waking up at 4:00am again to go to Jordan! Dubai is a big city built in a desert with amazing archatecture.
Foods in Sri Lanka
These are some of the foods that we tried in Sri Lanka
Butter chicken
Papadam
Coconut sambol
Dahll and
Lots of rice!
These are some of the citys that we really liked in Sri Lanka
Colombo
Kandy
Nuwara Elia
Ella
Sigirya
Yala and
Mirissa.
What was really funny ls that our driver taught our parents how to eat with their hands so now sum times they eat with there hands and our driver ate with a fork. One thing that almost everyone does in Sri Lanka is eat with their hands.
I really enjoyed the safaris with the roof off the jeep! WE SAW LOTS OF ELEPHANTS!!!
Wadi Rum-by Amelie
Wadi Rum was in the middle of nowhere in Jordan. It was amazing! We stayed at another Bedouin camp. When we arrived (we had rented a car), we tried to go out in the sand, but of course, we got stuck. These nice Jordanians laughed at us and helped us out and we decided not to give it another shot. We drove in circles around the town, while the manager kept sending us voice messages. The voice messages were things like: “I see your car, come back, come back” or “that’s you, come back, come back” and “come back, come back”. He also said “I am waiting, come back, come back”. We finally found him and we put all our luggage in the back of a Toyota truck. We had a super fun and scenic drive through the dessert with huge boulders everywhere! 
When we got there, we went up to see the sun set on the top of a rock, it was so beautiful! Elise and I had so much fun making Inukshuks out of the rocks at the top of the mountain. That night we went to the tea tent and we hung out before going to dinner. Dinner was delicious, there was hummus, vegetables, pita bread, salads, baba ganoush, Jordanian desserts and chicken that was cooked under the ground. After dinner, we went back to the tea tent and played a card game. 
The next day, we went on a tour around Wadi Rum. First, we went for a hike on the rocks and to the spring, and had a beautiful view of the area. 
Then, we went to the sand dunes and did a redo of a picture in Mui ne in the sand dunes and took some interesting illusion pictures.
Mui ne 
Wadi Rum
After the sand dunes, we went to a nice little place for a picnic lunch. The driver made a fire, cooked delicious chili, baba ganoush, pita bread and cookies. 
After lunch, we went to the small arch (which we did not find scary at the time) an took some pictures. My hat blew of because the wind was so strong. We went to go get my hat and the driver told us a sad story of 25 year old girl who fell of the arch and died. That made us all petrified. We went to the drivers wife’s house and she had two girls there with her. We had tea and played outside a little bit with the kids.
After that, the driver dropped us of in the middle of nowhere and told us to walk through the sand for 20 minutes. We then drove to the big arch. The big arch was around 20-30meters high. Wadi Rum is so windy that we almost said we were not going to go on the arch. When we got to the top it was so high. My mom was the one to take the picture because apparently she wanted my dad to be in a photo for once (we all thought it was because she was too scared though). The next day we had to leave! We took a 3 hour drive to the airport in Ammon, next stop EGYPT!!! The place I never expected to go to…
Mirissa Beach, Sri Lanka- by Anna
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.
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.
Petra ruins-by Amélie
Petra is a city of ancient ruins in Jordan. It was built as early as 2,500yrs ago. First, the Nabataeans lived there. Then, the Romans took over. Later, the Christians came. Petra was damaged by 363 earthquakes.
Petra was spectacular and so different from all the places we had been so far. Even our accommodation was different. We stayed at a Bedouin camp in little Petra (just outside of Petra). The first night, we stayed in a little igloo-like house. The second night, we stayed in little circus tent with one bed and no bathroom (we had two tents). 
On the first day, we had a day trip to Petra to see the old Monastery, Treasury and a couple other beautiful ruins. People believe that a God has left a treasure in the top of the Treasury. 
On the way to the Monastery, which was a two hour walk, there were so many camels. On our way back, we even got ride one! 
At the Monastery, there was a beautiful view point of all the rock formations. The Monastery was a beautiful tomb built for one of the Nabataean Kings. 
On our way back from the Monastery, we had a lovely walk through all the markets and through the Sik. The Sik is similar to a long hallway that was used as an entrance to Petra. The Treasury is at the end of the Sik. We went back to the the Bedouin camp and had a not-so-good sleep in the circus tent.
The next day we had to leave. We had a half day in Petra and did a side trail up to a view of the Treasury and past all the tombs. It was so beautiful! After that, we had a Shawarma (a chicken rap) and drove up to Wadi Rum, my next post. 
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!
Feeding Dreams Cambodia- By Elise
We woke up at 6:30 in the morning to go to the school called Feeding Dreames Cambodia that we were going to volunteer at. We were all really nervous. By the time we got there almost every one in the school was staring at us. It actually felt like you were a celebrity! It was really annoying when every one starts to touch your hair. Now back to the school. We all went to different classes: Amee went to the kindergarten, Anna went to a older class, my dad went to the class with the most kids and my mom and I went to the class below Anna’s class’s level. When we were all finished getting organized we started to teach the kids and we also played some games like :scatagories, hang man and a word game. It was really sad because we went to the slum which is were all of the people at the school’s families live with almost no water. At the end, the school made me feel like we don’t need as much as we have because we saw what the students had and it wasn’t a lot. It was a very good experience!
“Feeding dreams Cambodia” voulenteer school-by Amelie
On the first day of school, I was very nervous. In the morning, we went to their daily assembly. At the assembly, we introduced ourselves and sang songs with the school. After the assembly, Joe (the volunteer coordinator), gave us a tour of the school. Then, we got separated into different class rooms. I taught kindergarten, while Anna, my mom and my dad, taught older groups. On the first day, Elise watched the teenagers train to be a bartender or a waiter or a chef. For the rest of the week, she and my mom shared a classroom and the students looked like they really enjoyed it. The classes knew more English than you would expect because they get a lot of volunteers. The kids were so friendly but they did not have much. One day we went to see where they lived. They did not have beds, they had mattresses on the floor, and their houses were made out of thin sheets of metal, but they were happy. The school was from 8:00am to 11:00am, and in the afternoon the students would go to government school. In the morning, the teachers would ask us if we had anything planed for that day and we would play games. We would teach them new words, do drawings and do math. In the class rooms there were white boards, sometimes aTV, benches, and tables. There was one playground with only a slide, one very new and good looking soccer field and some room to run and play. There were two groups, one came in the morning while the other went to government school, and they switched in the afternoon. We taught the morning group every day and we only taught the afternoon group three times. On Fridays, the school only went from 8:00am to 9:30am and the they played soccer from 9:30am to 11:00am. The school was amazing for all ages and everyone in our family felt like they fit in!!! I would recommend it!!!
Mui Ne – by Amelie
In Mui Ne, we stayed at our first resort of the trip. We did not realize how much we needed it until we sat down at the beach and read our books and swam in the ocean. When we arrived, we swam in the pool and went to the beach at our resort. 
At the beach there were so many wind surfers, it was fun to watch them catch a wave and go flying! The next day, we took a two hour drive to see my moms old friend named Rita, her boyfriend named Drew and her aunt. We went to a market and to their family farm to get food for lunch. After that, we went to the aunts house and had a delicious lunch with chicken, vegetables and fruit. It was really interesting to meet Rita’s family, and learn about there experience in the Vietnam war. They were boat people and escaped Vietnam and came to Canada. 
The next day we had a very relaxing day we went to the beach for the day, and did nothing but swim and read. For dinner we went to a very fancy hawker stall with Rita and Drew. The day after that, we did not do much but we went to the beach with Rita and Drew. In the afternoon, we went to the sand dunes they reminded me a lot of the ones in Chile, but these ones were white! We had a lot of fun sliding down the steep hills and taking funny pictures. 
The next day we had to leave so we had our last delicious breakfast (a buffet). After that we hoped in a bus with Rita and went on a four hour drive…. next stop Ho Chi Min!
One Family, One World, One Year 