Paris: The City of Lights

France is a beautiful country, and five days was not enough time to explore even its capital city, Paris. There is so much history to learn and famous places to explore. I did my best to visit as many sites as I could while enjoying listening to French being spoken around me and soaking in the lovely culture. You'll likely recognize many of the pictures below because so many books and movies are set in Paris.

I visited in January, winter, when the weather is not at its best. It's cold (around 4 degrees C) and rainy most days, but I was lucky enough to have some sun the first two days I was there. Paris was easy to travel around on public transportation and I had the opportunity to speak French many times. Here were my favourite places:



Montmarte
This is the neighbourhood where many famous writers and painters, like Picasso, lived. It's a very creative place with artists in squares trying to sell their work. The neighbourhood is set on a hill, and the views of Paris from the top are beautiful. It's also home to Sacre-Coeur, a large, white, domed church. A cute merry-go-round is set at the bottom of the steps that lead up to Sacre-Coeur.

The Eiffel Tower
I'd seen it in so many pictures and movies but never appreciated how beautiful it really is. At night, it lights up with a soft glow, and every hour, on the hour, for five minutes, it sparkles. I loved looking at it from all views: from Sacre-Coeur, from Trocedero Station, and from right underneath it. It was foggy most of the time I was there, so I chose not to climb it, but it will have to be something I do on my next visit!

Venus de Milo

The Mona Lisa, known to follow
you with her eyes wherever
you are in the room!

The Louvre
The Louvre holds some of the world's most famous works of art, like the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. I was also excited to see two original Vermeer paintings after reading Chasing Vermeer two years ago with my Grade Fours. Below is The Astronomer and The Lace Maker. The Louvre itself is a beautiful building with huge archways and grand staircases.

                       

Outside the Louvre:
The Pyramid is where you enter!

The Arc de Triomphe
Napoleon had this huge monument build to honour those who fought for France in the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. Along its walls there are the names of great generals inscribed, and underground is the tomb of the unknown soldier from World War One. The arch stands at the centre of a huge roundabout, but there's a tunnel you can walk through that takes you right up underneath it. You can also climb to the top. If you look at how little the cars look next to it, you'll notice how HUGE it really is!

Notre-Dame
You might know this Catholic cathedral from the story, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, written by the famous French author, Victor Hugo, but it's also well-known for its architecture. Huge, intricately carved gargoyles and statues cover its outside walls, while inside its vaulted ceiling is highlighted by massive stained-glass windows. It's an incredibly beautiful building.

The Seine
Lastly, a visit to Paris would not be complete without a walk along the River Seine. It flows through the city, much like the Bow River in Calgary, and has wide pathways for walking and picnic-ing. Many houseboats and barges can be seen sailing along the river. One of my favourite bridges is the "Love Bridge" where people close locks on the gated side and throw the key into the river to secure their relationships and wishes.

Now, technically, this does not count as another country that I visited on the trip, because you might remember that I travelled through Reunion back in October. La Reunion is one of the islands around the world that France owns and governs. So, at this point, I'll stay at #12. But it is interesting that this is the only country on my trip that I'll be visiting that is in the continent of Europe.

                 

 

If you're interested in learning more about France, I found this fun website for kids:

http://www.kids-world-travel-guide.com/france-facts.html

The Great Pacific Ocean

So, I'll let you in on a secret... my Trip Around the World isn't really around the world. I thought it would be; I knew I'd be going from Malaysia, which to me looked like the far "right" corner of the world map to Argentina, close to the "left" side. What I didn't realize, was how BIG the Pacific Ocean is! If you take a good look, it's really wide! In North America, we really get used to looking at the world this way, but remember, the rest of these maps are all correct, too!

So when I started looking at flights, I realized how expensive it is to fly across the Pacific Ocean. With no land to stop on, you need a really large plane that can carry a lot of fuel. Not as many people want to travel this direction, either, so the cheaper flights are ones that fly through really common destinations. So suddenly, I was looking at some really long, and unusual flights, to get me to Argentina!

I had a few 'layover stops' to choose from: Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Istanbul, Turkey; and Paris, France were the cheapest. But they were all really far north! So I was looking at a really long flight, then stopping over for a few hours, then another really long flight! So, I decided that I would stay for a few days in my layover city to have some rest and not spend over 24 hours straight on a plane. It wasn't hard to choose... a city I'd never been to before, but always wanted to go to won out: Paris!

Stay tuned for my whirlwind tour of Paris in January, five days, four nights, in the City of Lights!

Borneo: Other Cool Animals!

The rest of my time in Borneo was spent in two ways:
1) Enjoying beautiful deserted beaches
2) Hiking through muddy rainforests

For Christmas, Mr Elder's sister came to join us for two weeks, and brought along presents from our friends and family back in Canada. We had stockings to open on Christmas morning, and Christmas lights and decorations that we hung from our balcony's clothesline. We felt spoiled by all our thoughtful gifts!


We chose Pulau Tiga as the spot to spend Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day because of its remote location. It felt really special to be in such a beautiful place! You might be interested to know that it was where they filmed the first 'Survivor' series. So we had fun making up challenges for each other, like who could crab walk the fastest along the beach, and who could stand on one leg the longest in the sand!




The island was home to some interesting animals: monitor lizards that swim in the ocean, and like to hang out in the swampy areas on the island, macaque monkeys who were always trying to get into the trash bins, and elegant hornbills who were constantly squawking.

While in Kinabatangan, I saw orangutans (see my previous post), and a bunch of monkeys, including another endemic species (only found in Borneo), this crazy guy:

The Proboscis Monkey is the one with a long nose like Gonzo!
They looked a lot like humans the way they sit upright and use their
long arms to pull food towards them.

Here are a few more monkey species I saw:

The Long-Tailed Macaque

Ignore the orangutan and notice the
Pig-Tailed Macaque above.

The Silver Langur

The Maroon Langur

                         
  












Along with the mammals, there were lots of reptiles, like lizards, geckos, and even some snakes! You can bet I was careful when hiking through this muddy river!

 

We also saw so many beautiful and unusual bird species on our river rides. I had a great time in Borneo!

                        

Borneo: Man of the Forest

I spent four weeks over Christmas on the island of Borneo. Like Madagascar, it is an island famous for its unusual and endemic wildlife (meaning plants and animals only found in Borneo).

 


Borneo is the fourth largest island in the world, and it's shared by three countries: Malaysia and Indonesia, which each have other land areas that make up their countries, and the small country called Brunei. I spent my time in the Malaysian section of Borneo.

The most famous animal, and the one I'm the most excited about seeing, is the orangutan. They are found only in Borneo, and Sumatra, which is just beside Borneo. Orangutans are our fourth closest relative in the animal kingdom, after chimps, bonobos, and gorillas. They, like us, are apes, a subset of primates, which are a subset of mammals. I've been fortunate enough to see three other ape species on my journey so far: Gorillas in Uganda, Chimpanzees in Rwanda, and of course, humans!

The Animal Kingdom

Apes

(Notice that monkeys are not on here because they're not Apes...remember, apes don't have tails!)


The orangutan is the only ape species (other than humans) found in Asia. Its name means "man of the forest" in the language Bahasa ('orang' means 'person' and 'hutan' means 'forest'). Sadly, the habitat of the orangutan is disappearing at an alarming speed. Ten years ago, there were 60 000 orangutans in Borneo, but now there are only
40 000. In place of the natural rainforest that used to be here, there are now endless palm oil plantations.




Orangutans are a slow species to recover from loss because a female orangutan can only get pregnant a few times in her life, with usually eight years in between her pregnancies to care for her young. I will now be sure to do my part by avoiding foods with palm oil in them, and supporting charities that help indigenous groups (people native to Borneo) protect their land and the orangutan habitat.

Notice the baby hanging from its mother's legs!

I was excited to see orangutans in two different places in Borneo. The first place was Sepilok, where there is a rehabilitation centre for babies that are found orphaned from their mothers, or taken illegally from the forest as pets. The centre teaches the baby orangutans how to swing on vines, provides food for them, and cares for them with lots of cuddles. Once they've started to learn the skills they'll need to survive on their own, they're paired up and shown more of the forest. They're encouraged to start to find their own food. When they're ready, they're released into the forest surrounding the centre with their partner.

As a way of supporting them, in case they can't find enough food on their own, the rehabilitation centre puts out a small amount of food on a platform twice a day. The orangutans know they can come and get food there if they can't find enough in the forest. The centre makes sure the food is kind of boring, so they are encouraged to still hunt for food themselves.

The public are allowed to go into the forest for those two feeding times so that they can see the orangutans up close. They are very gentle and shy animals, so it's hard to see them in the wild. You never know how many orangutans will show up each day, because it's their choice if they come get food or not. I was lucky enough to see six different orangutans including a little baby! The mother who came with a baby used to be an orphan herself.

The second place I went looking for orangutans was in the wild. They like to hunt for food high up in trees along rivers, so I visited the Kinabatangan River, close to Sepilok. I was fortunate enough to see one big male up in a tree, but it was fairly far away.

I saw many other interesting animals in Borneo; check my next post to see more!

Singapore

  

I had a sixteen hour layover in Singapore so I was able to leave the airport and get a quick look at the country.

Singapore is a country made up of one small main island, plus smaller offshore islands. The entire country is almost one large city! It was another country that was ruled by England, and it gained its independence in 1963. For a short time after, (less than two years), it joined Malaysia, then became its own independent nation. It has a very high standard of living/good quality of life.

I arrived in the late afternoon so I didn't have a lot of daylight hours. So the first place I ran off to was the botanical gardens, which I'd heard were amazing. Inside is a special orchid garden, which are delicate flowers that like a lot of humidity. That's why they grow so well in Singapore, a very tropical climate.

The orchids were absolutely stunning, and I loved seeing the hybrids that they had created by breeding different kinds of orchids together.


After dinner, I walked down Orchard Road, which is a street with lots of expensive shops and hotels, and I looked at all of their Christmas displays. After five months away from Canada, it felt weird to see familiar stores and restaurants. It was the first Starbucks I'd seen on the trip!

Unfortunately, that was all the time I had in this small country. I would love to go back again to see the harborfront, zoo, and other attractions. The people were exceedingly friendly and the country values being considerate (they don't allow you to drink water or eat on the subway because you might make a mess for the next person, or spill which could cause someone to slip!)

By the next morning, I was back at the airport and on my way to Malaysia!