Stupas by Wiley

In Myanmar there are thousands of buddhist stupas.  There is one stupa that has a ball at the top that is covered with 40,000 jewels donated by different people.

Most stupas have Budha statues in them.  One has a ginormous reclining Budha!

Here are some pictures of other Budha statues.

There is also a very old stupa where a german guy stole the Budha's head then wrote his name on the wall.

You can climb up some stupas.

Mac's E-bike Adventure

One day in Bagan, Myanmar we decided to rent E-bikes.  E-bikes are like scooters or motorcycles but they are electric.  When we rented them the man showed us how to use them and I got to drive one of my own.

We rode to lunch and after lunch we rode all around the  town and saw some more stupas.  After that it was time to go back.  On the way back my Dad's e-bike started to lose power and he had to pedal.

So Wiley got to go on the back of mine which was very difficult.  The rest of the ride was very hard.  When we got back I fell over in the deep sand and bent the pedal.  My Dad made me pay for it but the good news was that it was only 4 dollars.  So it turned out to be a good day.

Here are some photos:

Levi's Inle Lake Blog

One day in Myanmar we got picked up from the airport to go to our hotel which is on a lake called Inle Lake.

We rode in this boat to our hotel

This is our hotel

While we were there we went to a place were they weave scarves and rugs made of lotus flowers.  First they craved the stem in half and they got the inside out which almost felt like silk.  Then we walked around and looked at them weaving cloth.

Next we went to a blacksmith and we was them make a machete and there we bought our birthday animal which is a guinea pig.  So we got three metal guinea pigs.

Then we got on the boat and went to a little village on the water and every little house is on bamboo logs.  The logs are about 4 to 5 feet long and they are very high because during the rainy season the water gets much higher than it is during the dry season.

The next day we went to a floating temple and then we went to a cave were there are over 8,000 Budha statues.

Entrance to the cave

Inside the cave

Levi's Elephant Adventure

One day in Laos we decided to ride elephants.  So the next day we went to the elephant village.  We saw a bunch of elephants eating sugar cane.  So we had to wait about an hour until we got our elephants.

After the hour passed it was time to get our elephant.  My brothers and my Dad went first then my Mom and I went.  We got the biggest elephant they had.  She was at the elephant village because she stepped on a land mine when she was working in the forest.  All of the elephants are at elephant village because they were rescued from working in the forest for logging companies.

We got on our elephant and they told her to walk.  So she started to walk until she stopped because she saw the banana trees.  Then she started to walk down the hill into the river.  We rode her in a big circle back to the elephant village.

While we were there we took a boat across the river to the other side and there we got to feed a baby elephant named Maxie.  We also got to feed his mom bananas.

Mac's Waterfall blog in Laos

One day in Laos we decided we wanted to go to the waterfalls.  So the next day we woke up and a tuk tuk  was waiting for us.  It was a 45 minute drive to get there.

When we got there we went to see the bears at the bear rescue center first.

Then we went to the water falls.  When we got to the water falls there was a sign that said you could swim.  At the first waterfall we decided not to go but at the next one there was a rope swing hanging from a tree.  So we all had to go swimming!  But I forgot my bathing suit so I just went in my underwear.  After we got our swimming clothes on we went to the rope.  I went first.  I grabbed the rope and swung all the way around the tree.

After we had fun jumping off the rope swing we hiked up to another waterfall and then we were off to another adventure.

Wiley's Rice Blog

In Laos we all decided to work on a rice farm.  First we walked through a whole lot of mud.

 Here are pictures of Levi and my Mom in the muddy rice paddies.  It was like we had mud shoes!

Next we plowed with the water buffalo.

Here I am with the buffalo pulling the plow.  Her name is Suzuki.

Then we planted the rice seeds.

Next we learned how to get the rice out after it grows. We tied rice plants in bunches and whacked the bunches on a big board to get the rice pods off the rice plants.

We also learned how to make rice flour and how to cook rice.

We ate sticky rice and the grown ups drank rice wine.

Working on a rice farm is hard work but fun and muddy.