Happy birthday Isaac

Hello Isaac

Yesterday was your first birthday. I wanted to connect my computer to the internet so that I could wish you a happy birthday. But I couldn't. Today I can.

I hope you had a wonderful day and that all your cousins remembered your birthday. You are my youngest grandchild and now you are one.

love from your Granddad

The dragon mother

Once upon a time, thousands of years ago, in China there lived a girl named Wen Shi. Her family lived near the Xi River in Guangxi Province. She had two sisters. Wen Shi often went to the river to catch fish and wash clothes for her family.

One day on the river bank Wen Shi found a large smooth white stone. The stone was very beautiful so she took it home and kept it. Every day she polished the stone until one day it cracked. Out of the stone came five baby snakes. Wen Shi was not frightened. She found some food and gave it to the snakes.

Wen Shi's family was very poor. They had hardly enough food for themselves but Wen Shi saved the best food and fed it from her hand to the five baby snakes. When the snakes grew Wen Shi took them to the river. They were naturally good swimmers and they helped Wen Shi to catch fish.

After many years the snakes began to change their form and Wen Shi realized that they were not snakes after all but dragons. To Chinese people, dragons are spirits of the water. They have the power to control the weather.





One year there was a terrible drought. Without rain the people could not grow rice and many would starve. Wen Shi asked her dragon children to make it rain. The dragons used their power and the rain started to fall on the farms of the villagers. The people were so grateful. They gave Wen Shi the name 'Mother of the dragons.'

At this time, Qin Shihuang was the emperor. He heard the story of Wen Shi's dragons breaking the drought. He sent gifts of gold and jade to Wen Shi and asked her to bring her dragons to Xianyang which was the capital of China at that time.

Xianyang was a long way from Wen Shi's village and by now she was an old woman. She was not well enough to make such a long journey. Her dragons realized this and did not want her to make the trip. But Wen Shi knew she could not refuse the emperor. She boarded a boat to start the journey.

The boat started off towards the capital but instead of going forwards it began to go backwards. The dragons had hidden under the boat and were pulling it backwards.

When the emperor heard what had happened he relented and allowed Wen Shi to stay in her village.

Wen Shi never left her village again until she died. When she did the dragons were filled with sadness. The took human form and were known as the five scholars. They buried Wen Shi on the northern side of Zhu Mountain.

The End

When I was walking around Wuzhou in Guangxi Province, at the top of a hill I saw a huge statue. I walked to the top of the hill. It was quite a climb for an old grandfather. At the top was a statue of Wen Shi, the Dragon Mother. It is 30 metres tall. There were also many dragons. I took these photos at the top of the hill.

love from your Grandpa

Another toilet

I thought you might like to see what the toilets look like here. With this one you have to put your feet on either side and squat so whatever you do goes into this basin in the floor. When you finish you flush it just like our sitting toilets.

This one was in my hotel room in Nanning. It is in the bathroom and the shower is over it. When you have a shower there are two things you need to be careful about. Don't drop the soap. And don't fall in the toilet.

Izmaillah, if you go to India, you might have to get used to toilets like this, or maybe not even as nice as this.

love from your Granddad

Cool trike

Even adults ride tricycles here. Would you like to have one like this? You could put all your stuff in the back or you could take your friends for a ride. But if you live in the mountains and you have all your friends in the back it might be a bit hard when you come to a hill. Perhaps they could all get out and push you up the hill.

love from Grandpa John

Hello from China

Hello

Did you guess which country I was going to? I am in China. I took a bus from Hanoi in Vietnam to the Chinese border at a town called Lang Son. I had to take all my things out of the bus and walk into a building where Vietnamese people checked my passport to make sure everything was right. Then I had to walk on until I reached China.

In China I went into another building where Chinese people had to check my passport to make sure everything was right. It was, so they let me go through. Outside there was another bus.



This is the first photo I took in China. I got on this bus and it took me to a city called Nanning. So far I haven't seen any dragons.

Come back soon and I will tell you more about China.

love from your Grandpa John

Goodbye Vietnam

Soon I will be leaving Vietnam and going to another country. Do you know where I'm going? It's a country I've never been to before. If you look in your atlas, the country is next to Vietnam. You can find out if you come back and read this blog next week.


Here's a little dragon that was on someone's roof in Hanoi. Goodbye dragon.

I think there will be many dragons in the next country I visit.

love from your Grandpa

What is this?

Here in Hanoi there is an old house that you can go and visit. I found a little room at the back. There are steps in the room that lead up to a platform and this is on the platform. What do you think it is?

Well, you take your pants off and you put your feet on the two blocks and you put your bum over the hole and you use this hole as a toilet. This is a very old Vietnamese toilet.

One night I was walking down a laneway with my friend. There was a little kid sitting in the lane on a pot. Only the pot wasn't a pot, it was a tin can big enough to hold the kid's bum. My friend told me that many of the little houses in the lane don't have toilets. People do it in a tin and then put it in a plastic bag. People put their garbage in plastic bags in the street every evening, including the poo. A street sweeper comes along each evening, sweeps the garbage and puts it in a big cart. They take all the carts to a corner where the garbage truck comes and collects it all.













If you go out walking before the street sweeper has been past you have to be careful of all the little bags of garbage.

love from your Grandpa

Sign of the dragon

Here's a dragon that stays outside a shop in Hanoi to be a sign for the shop. Do you think it might be a pet of the shop owner?

love from your Grandpa John

The turtle and the sword

Once upon a time, early in the 15th century, the Chinese seized control of Vietnam. There was a great Vietnamese hero, named Le Loi, who travelled around the countryside calling the people to stand up against the Chinese.

'But what can we do against the Chinese?' the people asked. 'There are so many of them. They are more powerful than us.'

Le Loi asked Heaven for help and Heaven sent him a magic sword. With the magic sword Le Loi led an army and drove the Chinese out of Vietnam. When the Chinese were gone, the people made Le Loi their emperor. He was known as Emperor Ly Thai To.

One day when the emperor was by the lake he saw a giant golden tortoise swimming on the surface of the lake. The tortoise took the sword from him and dived under the water.

The people of Vietnam believe that the tortoise returned the sword to Heaven. Ever since, the lake has been known as Hoan Kiem Lake which means Lake of the Returned Sword.

The end

This is a traditional story from Vietnam. It is believed there are still tortoises in the lake. People are always looking for them. They say it is good luck to see one. The one in the picture died in 1968. It was 2.1 metres long and weighed 250 kg. It's remains can be seen in Ngoc Son Temple, on an island in the lake, where your Grandpa took this picture.

love from Grandpa John

More dragons

Inside the Ngoc Son Temple I found some more dragons. They were different from any I'd seen anywhere else. They are not very big but I think they still look fierce. What do you think?

Love from your Grandpa John

Devil in the temple

The dragons allowed me to cross the bridge to enter the Ngoc Son Temple and inside I found this little devil. 'Hello, little devil. What do you do in this temple?' I asked.

He didn't answer me either. I really must learn to speak some more Vietnamese. Even the devils here don't wan't to talk to me.

love from your Granddad