The Bailey Expedition - Griffin beyond New Zealand

Griffin's Reflections on Australia, Bali, and Vietnam

Australia. Australia was very fun because I got to feed a kangaroo, pet a koala, see a 7 foot crocodile, and eat scones with cream and jam. Yum. We also went hiking on the Blue Mountains where we hiked a long long way. I also got to meet this guy called Jeremy (left). He is a really really fascinating Didgeradoo player and I got his CD with his autograph. I also went to this place where I helped this guy out by playing these slap sticks and keeping the rhythm and I got a small goana boomarang that was signed by the artist. When we were in the museum I watched this woman do an aboriginal dance and everybody who watched came over and did a little dance with her.

In Bali I went to a monkey forest and fed cappucin monkeys. Now I got to see some monkey fights and Quinn would wiggle the toes of his sandles and this made the monkeys think it was food and they would touch his toes and it tickled so much that he jerked his foot back and they all jumped. So Quinn jumped and they jumped up again to show that they could jump as well. My favorite hotel we stayed at was Dhyana Pura (Jee-ana poora). It was our favorite hotel in Bali because it had a swimming pool, it had the beach, it had a very nice restaurant. We also made friends with some people there and we also met a driver called Tut or Ketut and he was a very nice driver and he bacame our Bali teacher. He showed us all this stuff, he said "oh yeah you can do this" and "no you can't do that" some times, so we think that he is a very nice person, the nicest one we met so far in Bali..

One night we went to this dance that was in Bali, it was a very beautiful and inspiring show. It was as smooth as silk and as hard as nails, in other words, good as gold. The dancers did a warrior dance, bumble bee dance, a welcome dance and they moved gracefully like ballerinas. It was held in a Ubud Palace. The palace was very old of course, and very inspiring of what it could have been when it was new. Next we went to see the mother temple. The mother temple was very very high, when you looked down you felt like you were on the eiffel tower. In other words it was very invigorating. Being in this temple was like being a prince/princess/king/queen in a castle because you were very high up and you were surrounded by stone. Now if you ever go to Bali, do not choose any driver except Ketut.

Hanoi was a very fascinating place at second. At First we got tricked by these people, and they said Lorelle went back to Hue and they tricked us into staying there. Later we found out that it was the wrong place and Lorelle came and took us to the real hotel, the Prince Hotel 2. There it was even more beautiful, and guess what, cheaper. Hanoi was inspriing but there were so many motorbikes, and so many different smells which smelled bad, and oh so many people asking "hey do you want a taxi" and a number of people asking us for money. It is sort of sad, and I wish we could give enough money to them so that could live a long, healthy, happy life but not so much that they would be us and we would be them.

The food at Little Hanoi, a restaurant that was recommended was the best that you can get in Vietnam. In other words good as gold, mate. After 3 days in Hanoi we went to Hue. We met Lorelle our friend there and she let us stay at her house, that is where I am writing this from. In Hue I am feeling the positives and negatives of the world. Some of the positives are that we are almost home to our cats and friends, the negatives are that its going to be a long time till we get there. Another negative is the war in Iraq, I am against it. Drop Bush not bombs.

A Poem by Griffin Bailey

Vietnam
Feels like Bali
Tastes like dirt
Sounds like traffic
Smells horrable
Looks beautful
It is intriguing to see people walking down the streets.

Today is our last day in Hue for two days and then we will come back to Lorelle's. If you are wondering who the heck Lorelle is, she is my dad's friend. They know each other because my dad is her colleague (someone who works with him at the university). Today we went to the citadel (the old palace) which all these Korean tourists came up and nearly just dragged me out of my mom and dad's sight because they thought I was like...royal! Now here is one thing, I am not royal, but it may have been they thought I was special because of my blond hair (its not that blond). So they posed with me and got their picture taken with me and they all said "thank you". So to all of my friends at school in America and to all of my friends in New Zealand, I love this trip!

Next we went to the town market. I hope I don't go there again because there are nice and terrifically horrible smells. The market has meat, vegetables, fruits, pinapples, almost really any thing you want that is not electrical (except cheese nachos, yum). It was approximately 1 Kilometer long, about half a kilometer sideways. There were approximately hundreds of people there who were buying stuff and selling stuff. I saw very nice and very gross things in the market. There were people saying hey you like this shirt, you want to get it, buy this. There were naked cut open chickens, pig intestines, flies on pinapples, and other gross stuff you don't want to hear. While I was walking down the market, people kept touching me and out of my whole time in Vietnam, 74 people have touched me. And that just bugs me. I am very very tired and I want to sleep, so I won't stay up all night and weep. Good bye for now.

Today I went to My Son (mee - sawn). This is a very intriguing place to see. The road is as rock as a cliff yet the sites are like gold. My Son is an historical site, there are some building s that you can go inside and I went inside quite a few. The buildings are thousand year old temples that are made of brick and red stone. The temples look like little homes that people used to live in, and some are watch holes. This picture (on the right) is a picture of a statue with its head blown off, but as you see, my head replaced it. These ruins were ancient temple, and some were even coated in solid gold, and if you go to My Son taday, you can still see the carvings on the temples.

Later today I went and got a silk shirt that was 1 piece of silk yet purple on the inside and red on the outside. It was the opposite of my dad. Also I have been counting how many people I don't know in Vietnam who have been touching me. It is at 90 people. I am beginning to get annoyed, but I keep track because I think it is going to be funny at the end.