VINCENT 2004/2005
In the Christmas holidays, we did not swim in Dhaka, since my mother thought it was too cold. But she is wearing winter clothes when it is 20 degrees Celsius, so what can I say. After New Year's, we went on a 5 day's holiday to the south of Bangladesh, to Chittagong, Cox's Bazar and St Martin's Island. We visited some Hindu and Buddha monuments but most of the time we were on the beach swimming. The temperature here in the south was a little higher than in Dhaka, and we even caught a sunburn! We also made a walk around the island and visited the sea turtle hatchery. Unfortunately, there was not much more to see than some little dunes of sand.
I
have taken up golf as a hobby and I really like it, even though I am just
beginning so not very good. From time to time I hit a really long ball, but
most of the times they are short or I completely miss them. Let us see what
it will be in another year.
And
I had my first job! I was asked to model for Otto. Not that they took any
pictures of me, but I had to try on the clothes they made here to see if it
would fit. I seem to have ideal sizes, which does not surprise me at all.
That must be why all the girls follow me. But I find girls boring, boring,
boring.
The Otto job was OK, even though the trying on of winter clothes when it is
35 degrees outside is not easy. But my mother let me keep the money they
gave me, so I ran to the Playstation shop and bought a bag full of new
games. Now you think I earned a world-salary as well...but games cost here
$1, they are illegal copies. But don't get excited in the Netherlands,
because you need to add a chip to your machine first before you can use
those games. And...it is illegal!
After
a few months of school, reports, parent teacher meetings, playstationing,
swimming and more of that, we went on holiday again, this time to
Thailand.
We went six days to
Chiang
Mai en four days to
Bangkok. Ha,
you think that was fun?? Well it was, if it were not for the temples.
Already on the first day, we had to visit this horrible, boring Doi Suthep
temple. With inside one of those even more boring Buddha statues. I cannot
believe that people travel all the way to come and see those things. They
are all the same! My mother tried to convince me by telling how much effort
people had to put into it in those days, as everything is handmade, well I
can tell her about lost efforts! Her speech about the temples certainly was
that.Luckily we only had to visit one temple, even though the tourist guide said that there are at least 300 temples in the neighborhood of Chiang Mai; imagine, having to visit all those!
In the Grand Palace in Bangkok (also a temple, notwithstanding its name) we even had to put on
clothes, since we were not properly dressed. My pants almost reached my
ankles, but that was not enough, they should completely reach my ankles. So
I had to put on dirty polyester pants, far too
big, and many others before me had them on. And my mother dared to laugh at
me, ha, the revenge of the Emerald Buddha will catch up
with
her!Luckily we also did some nice things, like a three day trekking tour with elephant riding and wild water rafting. Especially the rafting was good fun, we were standing on a bamboo raft using our bamboo poles to get through the wild places in the river. Unfortunately there were not too many as it was dry season. I was carrying the heaviest backpack all the time, but now my boy scout experience appeared to be of good value, as I reached the top of the mountain easy. Piece of cake! I even was fit enough to carry my sister Anna around after that.
My mother almost drowned during this trip. She stepped off the raft at the wrong moment...too bad, she should have stayed on! But of course we rescued her from the wild waters. Not easy to find such a mother again.
Now I am almost as big as my mother and my shoe size is bigger than hers. She wears my shirts sometimes and on holiday, she wore my pants! Of course the skirts she brought, were not at all suitable for the trekking, nor were the shoes, but since she could not wear mine, she had to buy new ones.
In school everything is going as it should, and at home as well. As long as we don't have fish on the menu.....can be cause of trouble!
