Evan's Eight Birthday

We celebrated Evan’s 8th birthday in several ways this year. First he passed out chocolates to all his classmates and teachers at school. It is customary for you to pass out sweets on your birthday here. After school, Evan and his friend, Pulkesh, went to the local mall to play games at the arcade and have some pizza. At home, we invited our neighbors over to sing and have some cake. Evan opened his presents and then spoke to his grandparents on Skype.The next day we took Evan out for the meal of his choice. He chose a ham sandwich. This is not an easy thing to find in Delhi. Evan said that the best place to go for a ham sandwich is the Imperial hotel. He was right -- they do serve ham sandwiches – and the Imperial Hotel is just about the nicest hotel in Delhi. Our friends Jane and Kate joined us there. Jane also was celebrating her birthday, so we had a lively time, gulping down ham sandwiches and real beef burgers! After lunch, we walked to the Jantar Mantar, which has 300 year old astronomical instruments. Evan enjoyed exploring the large scale instruments.

Adventures of Thailand Part 3

We took an eleven hour bus ride from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. It was at night so we got there very early in the morning! Then we took a cab to the airport. We think the cab driver was a little crazy. He sang to us most of the way. We flew in a jet to Krabi. This is a city down south. When we got to Krabi we had to ride in a mini-bus and on two ferries to get to Koh Lanta. That is the island where our hotel was. It was a very long day.

Our hotel was called, Narima. There were a lot of kids staying there. They were from England, Sweden, France and Australia. We watched TV every night with them in the lobby!

There was a beach at our hotel. We went to it every day and played in the water, but it was a bit rocky. One day we went to another beach. The water was very, very clear. The next day we went to another beach too. We like to jump in the waves!

We rented a car one day and Dad drove us around the island. We saw an old town, and walked down a pier. And we went shopping. After we went shopping my Mom got her nails painted. When she was done we picked her up and drove back. The rest of our stay we rested and ate some some good food and played! Thailand was a good trip.

Adventures of Thailand Part 2

By Audrey & Evan Sayer


After Bangkok we went to Sukhathai. (Dad says this is a "World Heritage Site") It is north. We stayed at a place called Ruean. They had rabbits and a pool!
We took a bus to a bike shop called, "K-Shop." We got three bikes and one bike lock (never used the bike lock). I rode with Dad on a back seat. Mom and Audrey each had their own.
The first monument we rode to was three kilometres away. We had to show a guard the tickets so we could go to the monument. A policeman watched our bikes while we walked up to get to the monument.
On the way to the next monument I saw a recycled trash can made out of truck tires. After that Audrey wiped out! But she was fine...
Then we had to catch a bus to Chiang Mai. It was 6 hours long. Once we got to the bus station we got a taxi to our hotel. It did not have a pool because it was a tiny bit cold there.

Every day in Chiang Mai we went shopping. Shopping, shopping, shopping all day long. We got books for me (Audrey) but I read them so quickly we had to get more. I got a fancy umbrella that keeps sun off and I got a fan. My brother got Bionicles. There were different markets like the day market, the night market and Sunday market. I saw this necklace that I wanted but Dad would not let me have it and I regret it till this day...

Part 3 coming soon!

Buddha Temples in Thailand

by Evan Sayer (mostly)

We went to many different Buddha Temples during our trip in Thailand. First we went to the reclining Buddha in Bangkok. It's pretty famous. It's called the "Wat Pho." We also saw a big (fat) Buddha. He is the happy Buddha. I guess food makes him happy.

Up in Sukhothai we saw many, meditating Buddhas. We also went to see the "diamond-eyed" Buddha. I think he had plastic diamonds in his eyes. That was lame. The priest there was nice though. He taught us how to pray the Buddhist way. You bend down five times in front of the Buddha. One for each of the five senses (seeing, smelling, tasting, hearing and feeling.) That was the best part of that Temple. We saw a really old Temple too! This one is even in our Thailand Guidebook. He is a mediating Buddha called, "Wat Si Chum." His is very big and his fingers are very long and thin.
Most of these temples are in Sukothai or Bangkok. It was neat and cool to explore them and the ruins around them!

The Adventures of Thailand: Part 1

by Audrey Sayer

First we had to catch a plane from New Delhi, India to Bangkok, Thailand. It took us three hours to get to Bangkok. When we got to Bangkok it was night. (Bangkok is the capital of Thailand). We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel. Our hotel had a pool on the roof. Cool! We could see the city all around us! There were other fun things at the hotel too. There were fish downstairs in the hotel lobby. I tried to touch them!There were also water taxis because there is a big river that cuts Bangkok in half. The name of it is Chao Phraya.

We walked a lot in Bangkok! We walked to many Buddhist temples. My favorite (and my Dad's) is the Wat Pho (pronounced "po"). It is of the reclining Buddha. The statue of Buddha is SO big its fingernail was as big as my head. The word "Wat" means "temple" in Thai.

Stayed tuned for Part 2... Its about the ancient city of Sukhothai!