My Experience in Jordan - Zaid

My experience in Jordan was very two-sided. There were beautiful places with a lot of nature, the people were amazing and treated everyone with respect, the food was great and tasty. I have a lot of family there that I visited as well. I was mostly at my cousin's house than my grandpa or grandma but it was great visiting them too. I also went to a couple water parks like al wadi water park. It was so much fun going on the slides with my cousins and friends. The weather was so hot which made it so much better because it made the water feel so nice. There were a lot of scary slides but they were also the funniest. I loved the ones where you get put in a tube and the guy presses a button and you fall straight down into a huge pit and you start doing circles all around.

The places there were very historical and interesting. Like the Petra and Dead Sea; Petra was cool to look at and enjoy my food while walking around, but the Dead Sea was so much fun, since you could swim with no worries of anything being in the water because of the salt levels in the sea, the salt made it uninhabitable for fish to live there so it was great until water goes in your eye - it was pain you could never explain to anyone with words. When I got water in my eye I had to have my right eye closed for hours and it was not very pleasant, but other than that it was great visiting there and experiencing the food, the cool places and the culture in general, it really was a great fun time i would give this trip a solid 9/10 and I would be more than thrilled to go there again.

Kiuga Journey - Wesley

 My trip to Hawaii was experimental. I learnt a lot and enjoyed my time there. We always dreamt of going to Hawaii. The ride there to the airport was long. As soon as we got into the plane we were instructed that this plane will be stopping at two destinations. As we got off the plane we were given necklaces and gratitude. The workers took our luggage so we got to look around. The food there was semi alright given that we always had free breakfast in the morning especially when coming back from a hot day the drinks there were cheap. Everything from clothes to shoes were cheap, especially the food. I also experienced a theatre within a Waterpark. As I put on the 3d glasses, I could see the whole ride as if I were at a Waterpark. Chair shaking, water spraying after the Waterpark we ate dinner in the most common but nice diner then travelling over to pancakes on the rock a most desirable desert to end our trip we went to take photos at the most decent waterfall i've seen so far. it was immaculate given that it had been there since the 1900.

My Visit to Iandra Castle - Virginia

Iandra is privately owned but you can go and visit it. It is located in Weddin Shire. It was purchased in 1878 and Mr Greene built the castle for his home on the property.it opened up in June 2021 it has been closed to the public since 1910. There are two parts of the castle the front is the place where everyone lives act groom, bride, maids, guests, etc. Everyone had their own room and their rooms were massive. There are stables at the back for the horses, cows, sheep, pigs and the carriages there are other two rooms with saddles and a place to rest there were other doors and upstairs but they were locked so no one can go that way. There was a wonderful garden at the back in front of the stables. Next to the house, there is a landing place for helicopters and planes. Mum and I went there from Friday night to Monday afternoon. On Friday we stayed at a motel which was a 2-hour drive from the motel to the castle 3-hours, Saturday night to Sunday we stayed in suites in Goulburn then from Goulburn it was about a  2-hour drive back home.

My Trip to Gold Coast, Queensland - Tahi

 In 2016 I took a holiday trip to the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia for my birthday. We did many different things and had all sorts of entertainment. It was a trip just for a few days but every day was a new adventure for me as it was my first time going to the Gold Coast. As we landed we collected our bags and had a rental car waiting for us and after we got the car we drove to the hotel we were staying at. The hotel room we were in was about 35 stories high, after settling into the hotel we went out to get dinner (we ended up getting hungry jacks).

On the second day we went to Ripleys Believe It Or Not! There were many interesting things there were also lots of interesting world records, some strange and some weird. One of the most outstanding things there was this really trippy bridge that made your brain think you were spinning around. After staying on it for 10 minutes being too scared to move I just dropped to the floor and crawled whilst wanting to throw up. Once we finished up at Ripleys Believe It Or Not! We went back to the hotel and stayed there for a few hours then hit up the arcade for a good time I ended up spending half the time on a basketball mini game then after having an insanely fun time at the arcade we went back to the hotel again and chilled for the rest of the night.  

On the second day we took a bus trip to Movie World and had a lot of fun. We went on many rides like the scooby doo haunted tunnel, it was insanely terrifying and freaky. After the Scooby Doo ride we went to the kids rides for my little brother and we rode on a little roller coaster together, we also went on many side shows and won many little prizes.

On the third day we went back on the bus and instead of taking a trip to movie world, we went to Sea World this time! It was amazing the amount of sea creatures there were. We learned about the real size of different species of sharks and whales and many more. We saw a trained seal do tricks with a beach ball. After thinking we explored the entire place we started walking back to the exit but we came across a place where you could go on a little raft boat with a glass floor that just sat over the aquarium with a bunch of sharks and fish in their, honestly I was scared for my life, not about a shark jumping up to eat me but just falling off the boat. After that we went to leave and on the way out I got an air spray tattoo and some sea world cards from an old lady. Then we went to the hotel and that was the end of the day.

On the final day, we had to pack up and get ready to leave for the plane and as we got back to Sydney I had to take time to rest after jet lag and a whole lot of turbulence, especially since I was boarding another plane to New Zealand the next day but that story is for another time. The End.

Bangladesh Rickshaw experience and favourite food - Sabrina

My favourite experience as a tourist was in Bangladesh where I rode on a rickshaw and my grandma made Bori which is one of my favourite foods. In 2013 I went to Bangladesh and went to a village. My Grandma had a friend who drives the Rickshaw. He let me go on the Rickshaw. Since I got car sick, this was a very delightful experience and the cool breeze was blowing into my hair.       

         

Bori is like a lentil dumpling. It's like a paste which is sun dried for 3 to 5 days.  It's usually in the form of a small dumpling shape.You are allowed to make different shapes with the paste but it's rare to do different shapes. Once the bori dries you should be able to peel it off the newspaper or foil. You can put it in any curries you want. Personally, my favourite is when you put it in chicken curry. 

                                                             

 The paste is made using 4 ingredients which are 

2 cups of Masoor Dal 

½ cups tsp salt

½ tsp Kalonji

2 Tbsp of vegetable Oil 

                                                                          

Method: 

1. Soak the masoor dal in water for 6 hours and then separate the dal and the water it was soaking in.

2.  Get the dal and put it in a food processor and make sure its fine 

3. Put the rest of the ingredients in a food processor and let the food processor mix it 

4. Take the paste out of the food processor and make it into a dumping shape 

5. Put it on a newspaper or foil and put it outside in the sun 

6. Keep it in the sun for 3 to 5 days and peel it off the newspaper     

7. Now you can put it in any curries you like

8. You can make the curries normally,  just add to the curry and voila                           

                                                                                              

These are some of my favourite foods that I’ve had when went to Bangladesh 

  

         

 

I hope you guys go to bangladesh and try these foods, ride a rickshaw definitely. I hope you enjoyed this blog.

Aloha, Hawaii! - Rohan

 As soon as you get out of the airport you feel positive and warm air, you also can see the great scenery of the beach. On the first night me and my family went out to a local pacfic cuisine and tried traditional and local food that the restaurant recommended to us, my first impressions of the restaurant was the smell of coconut, the great outside cultural performances and the amazing hospitality. 

After eating the great cultural food, my family and I decided to do late night shopping because most shops were open, but to me it was really weird to shop at night, but I turned out to really become fond of it. The one shop that we went to 90% of the trip for shopping was ROSS and it was like Kmart, but had all the mainstream brands like Nike, Adidas, Polo Ralph, e.t.c. it had it all for very affordable prices so my parents took advantage of this and got so many things there that we still use today. 

Day 2 consisted of us visiting Pearl Harbour and the memorial site of the Pearl Harbour bombing, but the most particular site I saw was the remains of a warship that was blown up in the water. When we went to see the remains of the ship, we went by boat to this uniquely designed building that was on top of the ship's remains and inside there was a list of names of those who died in the war explosion. 

After that as a part of our tour we went to a museum full of planes and explored all the planes. The museum smelled like oil or petrol and the services and activities provided were really fun so we never got bored. It had experiences like actually being able to go into certain heritage planes, going through the history of  planes and tour around the museum. From this experience I learned so much about planes and it gave me a new understanding of where planes came from and how they were used.

Day 3 was the best part of the trip because it was our tour to the filming sets of the movies Jurassic park, Lost and 50 First dates. As a part of the tour we went off roading in a Hummer H2 off roading SUV which was really fun, as you got in the muddy parts you could hear mud splashing off the car and you could feel every bump of rocks we went off the rural areas of Hawaii, the experience was amazing and the tour guide was a local to the area, so he took us to extra amazing locations and sites that you wouldn’t normally see on tour.The tour guide was also really patient and kind, so we were able to take our time and explored the areas really well.

Overall I had an amazing experience in Hawaii and I would definitely recommend it for other people to go. It has extreme fun experiences so you will never get bored and this trip opened me up to the Maui culture. Also from this trip it made me more of a creative and adventurous person. I hope it does for you too.

My Trip Back Home To Nepal - Reewaj

We just got off the plane and I felt the cold but a heartwarming wind. I was finally home.

It was dark. I just came from a 15 hour flight and I was exhausted. My uncle picked me up  from Kathmandu Airport. We then went to his house, I met his friends. 

We met up with my family and went to sleep in their house. When I woke up the next day I still felt tired. We went around the city trying out different foods. We tried street foods such as ladoo, barfi and other indian sweets. We then had dinner at night, we went to a nepali restaurant, and I had cheese dosa. Back when i was young i didn't know why there wasn't any beef but being in my home country i learnt about my culture and religion. I learnt that we weren't allowed to eat beef because the cow is a sacred symbol in our religion. 

My family then went to one of the biggest temples in nepal. We went to the Shri Pashupatinath Temple. The Shri Pashupatinath Temple is roughly 5km north of Kathmandu (where we were staying). We walked around the huge temple, and they were doing pujas to the public. The puja is when religious devoted people of the temple say prayers to us, whilst putting a mix of rice and red dye on our forehead called tika. They then throw panchamrit (sweet milk) on us. They also let me taste the milk. It was really sweet and tasty. We then went around the temple and prayed to the gods by getting down and offering a plate of bananas, apples, ladoos, burfi and Sel roti.

The temple was giving free food which was rice, daal, spinach and goat meat. This was the most popular food to have in Nepal, I didn't know why and I still don't. What I did know is that it tasted bad. Goat meat is kind of stringy. When you bite into it, little strands of meat gets

stuck between your teeth, it was very uncomfortable.

We went back to our relatives house where we slept, but this time we woke up early. Our time was up in kathmandu. There were still many more places we needed to visit in nepal. We ended up going to a new city in Nepal called pokrah. We ended up spending 1 week in kathmandu. 

Pokrah was still a pretty big city. We went to meet my grandparents (dad's side). We stayed at their house and (of course) had more rice and goat meat. We didn't stay long though. We then took a taxi to my home town. Wailing is a country-side town and wasn't built up like Pokrah and kathmandu. I went to my grandma's house where I met up with my childhood friends. Later that day we went down to the river next to my house and swan.

At the river my two uncles set up fish traps with pieces of bread. When we came back from swimming I was astonished to see that there were actually fish in the trap. After swimming I hiked the mountain behind all the houses in the picture above. We went to my friend's house which was on top of the mountain. He had a farm up there, with cows and chickens. Other than that we stayed at my grandma's house and met more family and friends for another 2 weeks. Then 2 weeks later I realized that my holiday had come to an end.

We then returned back to Kathmandu where we boarded our flight. Whilst i boarded my flight i felt like i took an experience away from this, but i didn't know what it was, maybe it was the spiritual power from the temple or maybe it was seeing family again, what i do know is that i will never forget this experience.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my experience in my home country nepal!