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

Dragon horse

There was another dragon at the temple on the lake. But this one's not just a dragon. It's a horse too. I've never heard of a dragon horse before but here is one just to prove it. If you were here, maybe it could take you for a ride across the lake.

love from your Grandpa John

Dragon in Hanoi

There are dragons here in Hanoi too. This one is guarding a temple built on an island in the middle of a lake. It looks like it has a straw and is drinking the water from the lake. And the fish are trying to not get drunk with the water.

I'll keep looking. I'm sure there are many more dragons here. Wish you were here to help me find them.

love from your Grandpa

No speak English, no speak

Hello, do you know where I am now? No, I'm not in Malaysia anymore. I caught an aeroplane to another country. It is called Vietnam. It is still in South-east Asia but it is a long way from Malaysia. I've never been here before. Izmaillah, do you still have that atlas? You can look up Vietnam in the atlas to see where your Granddad is. Can you find Hanoi? That is where I am.

Most people here don't speak very much English. They speak a language called Vietnamese. When I came here I didn't know any Vietnamese. When I go shopping the Vietnamese people can say 'hello', 'yes', 'no' and things like 'cheap price for you'. So I can buy the things I need.

In one shop I met all the people you see in the picture. I still didn't know any Vietnamese so I tried to talk to them in English. 'Hello' I said.

They didn't answer.

'Hello, my name is John.'

They still didn't answer. They just smiled or kept pulling their funny faces but they didn't say a thing. Perhaps they don't understand English at all. Maybe now I need to learn to speak some Vietnamese.

I have. I've learned to say 'hello' in Vietnamese. It is 'jow'. So now I'm going to go back and say 'hello' to them again but in Vietnamese. I hope they answer me this time.

love from Grandpa