• Paisleys Abroad
  • Paisleys Abroad

435 World Tour

Exploring Europe and Asia, one family squabble at a time... Leggi altro
  • Friendship Homestay

    18 aprile 2019, Nepal ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    We had a great stay with Nima and Sharada and their 6 month old son Urgain. Also living with us were grandparents, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, the odd trekking guide here and there, and from time to time some other foreign guests as well. We loved having meals with the family, playing cards and board games and exploring the neighbourhood which was well removed from the bustling tourist district.Leggi altro

  • Up Up Up to Chisopani

    19 aprile 2019, Nepal ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    Yesterday, Dad and I hiked from Sunderijal all the way to Chisopani, about a 15k hike. It doesn’t sound like too much, but about 3/4 of the hike was completely uphill, and so steep! We hiked about four hours, starting at 7:30 am, so that means waking up at 6:00 (🤗😖😤)! We stayed at a tea house lodge (sort of like a very small motel?) for the night. The next morning Nima, our guide, woke us up at 5:30am to tell us that the sky was clear and so we could see the Himalayas. There they were, massive and snowy but still quite far away. We left around 8:00 the next morning. The way back was easier, because although we took a different route back, it was mostly flat or downhill.Leggi altro

  • Up (almost) 2 km in 2 days

    23 aprile 2019, Nepal ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    We started our trek in Nayapul at 1000m elevation. After the first 5 hours, we reached Ulleri at 1900m, where we spent the night - as soon as we got into the tea house, sweaty and tired, the skies opened up with rain and hail! The next morning, we started out for Ghorepani, which we reached by lunchtime - at 2800m elevation, and quite cold! It was a good introduction to how tall the Himalayas are, since we were still completely dwarfed by the mountains around us...Leggi altro

  • We missed the sunrise and the crowds...

    24 aprile 2019, Nepal ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

    Early this morning, Lara and I left our cozy teahouse with Madan, our Nepali guide, for a steep uphill jaunt to Poon Hill. It is a daily ritual for some 300 trekking tourists to catch the sunrise on the Himalayas at this 3200m lookout. Unable to endure another 4am reveille, we opted for a 6:30 start. After a somewhat breathless climb, passing 300 tourists on their way down, we were rewarded with even more breathtaking views of the Annapurna valley. And, to our delight we were almost completely alone at the lookout - a feat not easily achieved on this popular trekking route.Leggi altro

  • Ghorepani-Chuile: The Day of Up and Down

    24 aprile 2019, Nepal ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Today is day three of five on our Annapurna Area trek. We hiked from Ghorepani (which means ‘Horsewater’ in Nepalese) to Chuile. This morning, Mom and Dad woke up so early to hike about 45 minutes to Poon Hill (3165m), and then back 🏔 . Then we got up and promptly left the guest house an hour and a half after we planned to 🕤 🏠. Once we were on the trail, we were steamrolling along for almost three hours, until we stopped for lunch. After a lunch of momos 🥟, spaghetti 🍝 , French fries 🍟, chipati🍞, eggs 🍳, and vegetable chowmain 🍝🌶, we were back up and running. The second half of our day was a little slower than the first half, but luckily it was mostly downhill. Now we are here at the ‘Hotel Rainbow Attractive’, 🌈, playing cards ♣️♥️♦️♠️
    For most of the day we had a special dog friend named Jeremy hike along beside us (he needed to stop for so many breaks! 😁🐕)
    -Chloë
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  • Day 1 In Chitwan National Park

    27 aprile 2019, Nepal ⋅ ⛅ 35 °C

    Hello everyone! Today we arrived in Chitwan National Park at around 12:30 and we were settled into our hotel by 1:00! Just a quick update, Chitwan is a national park which is home to lots of animals and is a very touristy place with lots of hotels! Today at 5:15 we started a walk through the village surrounding our hotel and lots of huge Asian elephants passed us! The guide showed us a cool cotton tree with cotton hanging of its branches! A storm had started and we could hear faint thunder and little drops of rain started to bounce off our heads! After about 25 minutes of walking we came to a large field with a little river flowing gracefully through the middle of the field! My parents apparently saw two alligator eyes poking out of the water but none of the kids saw them☹️! We kept walking and we saw huge clumps of poo which are actually rhino droppings and they supposedly come back to the same spot every time to do their business! After that we went to a fenced area where we saw 4 kinds of wild deer! Unfortunately the kids were too small so they couldn’t see very well☹️! By this time the storm had gotten bigger with lots of thunder and winds were getting stronger and the rain was falling faster and faster by the second! After that another tour guide started shouting at his group “Rhino Rhino Rhino!” We all ran and sure enough in another fenced off field three rhinos were grazing quietly on the tall grass! They had huge plates like armour and long horns and although we had already seen them in the Montpellier Zoo, it was nothing compared to seeing them in the wild! Suddenly their was a huge thunderclap and a zap of lightning from the sky! Rain started pouring in us and huge gusts of wind almost blew us over! We watched as the rhino’s walked back into the dense forest as cotton from the trees started falling of and flying through the air at high speed! Unfortunately we didn’t get a video but it was really cool😎😜!
    We managed to get all the way back to our hotel just as the storm got worse! We were just recovering from our final sprint back to the hotel and my dad went to check outside and he saw a man cleaning the pool with a long metal pole! Talk to you soon! Malcolm😎🤓😜😝😇😃🥳🤩🤯💩👽
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  • Day 2 in Chitwan National Park

    28 aprile 2019, Nepal ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Hello again! We have just finished our second and last day here in Chitwan! Today we started with a drive on the back of a truck and we were all standing which we would never be able to do in Canada! After that we came to the river and did a 1 hour canoe ride where we saw crocodiles and lots of very colourful kingfishers! After the boat ride we went on a nature walk but before, our guide warned us about what to do if a rhino or an elephant or a sloth bear or even a tiger tried to attack us! He told us stuff like you have to climb a tree up to higher than 6 feet up so that the rhino can’t hit you with their horn or that if you see a bear you have to hit him on the nose with a stick! Fortunately we made it through the whole dense forest without getting attacked! In the middle of our hike we saw a lake covered in a type of flower which grows very quickly and takes over lakes so we saw people yanking them out before they grow any bigger! After the lake we saw lots of termite mounds and a strangler vine wrapping between two trees and we got to climb it! We also saw some deer horns and Dale and I tried them on! Near the end I called out “look a bear!” But when it emerged from it’s hiding place it was actually just a wild buffalo! After the walk we went to an elephant breeding centre and we saw lots of baby elephants and one baby snuck out of its pen and started walking around with the tourists! After the elephants we took a bus back to our hotel for lunch. After lunch we took a half an hour car ride to a river which we crossed on a boat like the one at the start of the day. We got into a safari Jeep and started riding up an old dirt path through the jungle. The safari started slow and we didn’t see any animals for the first half hour we saw that a tour group had stopped and were looking in awe at a tree! When we got closer we couldn’t see anything unique on the tree or anywhere around it. Then our guide (who was also fascinated) said “Look! Squirrel! We all laughed when we realized they were staring at a chipmunk! After that we kept going through the jungle swapping with grasslands every 10 minutes or so and we saw stuff like peacocks and more chipmunks and every time we saw one, the car would stop so the guide could say things like “the male peacock is more colourful then the female” then we would have to restart the car and keep going. After about two hours of driving we came to a lake and grazing beside the lake was a rhinoceros and in the lake was the top of a rhino head and the tip of a horn and every few seconds he would let out a breath and bubbles would form around his horn! We continued through the jungle having to cross another Jeep every once in awhile which the driver did with great ease! About an hour later we came to an alligator breeding centre and we saw 1 year old alligators up to 40 year old alligators and they were all either swimming or basking in the sun. We stayed there for about 30 minutes and after that we saw a mommy deer with a baby deer and we saw a daddy deer with huge horns coming out of his head! At the end we saw lots more animals but they were mostly the same as before. We saw more rhinos and more peacocks and some crocodiles which I could swear were actually just rock because it never moved once but the guide sounded sure of himself when he said it was a crocodile! At the end we got out of the Jeep and said goodbye to the driver. We went across the river again and we took the drive back to our apartment. I have to go now so I can go see a cultural dance event but I will be sure to talk to you all again soon! Bye for now! Ciao, Adios, Au Revoir
    Malcolm😎🤓😝😜😛👁👁😀😁💩🥳👽😇🤩🤯🤗👍😻😺😸👅💪🤘
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  • 6 hours at Sharjah "international"

    30 aprile 2019, Emirati Arabi Uniti ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C

    When I planned a longish lay-over in Sharjah, U.A.E, between Kathmandu and Amman, I assumed “international airport” meant decent food options, places to sit, device charging stations, you know... amenities! Instead, we spent 6 hours eating Oreos bought in Nepal, drinking Fanta purchased from duty-free, and watching the Princess Bride with a 5 way earphone splitter on a lonely table beside a plastic children’s play area.... live and learn!Leggi altro

  • We are in Jordan!

    2 maggio 2019, Giordania ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Hi everyone! We have just finished two flights from Kathmandu, Nepal to Sharjah, U.A.Emirates and then from Sharjah to Amman, Jordan. It has been a long journey and all of the kids IPads died during the flight so we didn’t have anything to entertain us and it was not very pleasant near the end! I can’t believe we are going to be back in Canada in less than 50 days! Talk to you all soon! Malcolm🤩🥳💩👌😋😎😼😛😝🙃😺😆👍😇😍😁😃😱😬💩💩💩💩💩🤡🤡🤡👹👺🤖👽Leggi altro

  • At the cottage...

    2 maggio 2019, Giordania ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    We spent the night in a cozy “Petra Cottage” outside of town. We felt quite alone in the world! Jordan is a beautiful country!

  • Cats in Petra!!!

    3 maggio 2019, Giordania ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    As you know, we have been in Petra for the last two days, but there are some friends we met that we didn’t display yet! In the ancient city of Petra, there are quite a few kitty cats! Some were friendly, some not. Once, we stopped for a chocolate bar and tang break, some kitties ran up to us, to try to get some chocolate. Of course, we didn’t give them any, because cats can’t have chocolate, but we also had some granola bars, that we thought they could eat. We put a few crumbs of granola bar on the ground, the kitties sniffed it, and were like ‘gwoss!’. At one point, there was about six cats crowding around us! Another’s cat we met was an orange tabby cat, that we named ‘Muffin’. He was a people cat for sure! He just walked right up to us and sat down on our laps and snuggled in! The last kitty we saw was only a few days old, and we think Muffin was her daddy! The baby cat was so small, and skinny, that she was shaking!! She had one blind eye, but we thought that was maybe because she was such a fresh, new kitty. 🐈🐱😻😺
    - Chloë
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  • PetrAmazing!

    3 maggio 2019, Giordania ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Today was our first day exploring Petra, an ancient Nabatean city built from first century BC. An 8 am start meant that we practically had the place to ourselves for the first 2 hours. It is an incredible place to behold and explore - especially if you like rocks (which I do!). Even our children found it pretty “cool” (though it did get pretty hot)...Leggi altro

  • Wadi Rum...It's like living on Mars

    6 maggio 2019, Giordania ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Actually “The Martian” and many other Hollywood movies were filmed here. We stayed in a tent in a Bedouin camp underneath the starriest sky I have ever seen. Exploring around the camp had to take place before 10am and after 4pm because the heat was incredible. Each of us had no trouble drinking more than two litres of water every day.Leggi altro

  • Camel riding in Wadi Rum

    7 maggio 2019, Eastern Mediterranean ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Today we went camel riding! I named my camel Cammy, Malcolm’s was Deirdre, Dale’s was Marumba, Mom’s was Nero, and Dad’s was Pete.
    Camel riding really hurts your legs and butt, but it was fun. We didn’t go very far on them, but it felt like a long time since it was so hot 🥵! We stopped at three places along the way. There was the Siq, which was a narrow rock passageway, with supposedly super old drawings and writing on the wall and small pools of water! The next place was a big sand dune, that we walked up (🥵😓🥵) and it had a cool view. The last stop was a little bridge on some high rocks (but the kids were too tired to go). The camels were expensive, but a good experience.
    -Chloë
    🐪
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  • Another 6 hour lay-over, in Romania

    8 maggio 2019, Romania ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    After a delicious lamb dinner at the Canadian Embassy (thanks to Peter, Samuel and Tavi for sharing their home, their supper, and their perspectives on life in Jordan), we headed to the airport for our 3:55 AM flight to Bucharest, followed by a 6 hour lay-over before heading to Rome... whew! Memories of being a student traveller, sleeping on airport floors, and weighing out how much you really need that second uber-expensive cup of coffee... we finally arrived at our extremely dingy, over-priced apartment around 5PM... but the kids are thrilled to be back in the land of food they recognize!Leggi altro

  • Boys day out

    13 maggio 2019, Croazia ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Today the girls, Charlie, and Tony went out to the mall in Split so the boys had the day to themselves 😃. So we climbed the ridge behind our villa and took some good pictures too 📸 ! The climb was long, about 1h and 15 minutes. On the way up we shot sling shots and saw a very old electrical tower🗼. I liked the hike but it was very tiring, I got chocolate 🍫 at the end though so it was worth it.
    - Joshua Auer (Malcolm’s cousin)
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  • Lovely not-so-beachy holiday, Croatia

    18 maggio 2019, Croazia ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Many thanks to Nana and Tony for making our wonderful family holiday in Croatia happen! It was not exactly beach and pool weather, and still we had some beautiful, relaxing days together, exploring little towns like Omis and the river Cetina, as well as sleeping, drinking coffee, Croatian beer, and too-euro-trendy Aperol Spritzes, reading and maybe some binge-watching...Leggi altro

  • Slow-venian storybook country

    19 maggio 2019, Slovenia ⋅ 🌧 15 °C

    We visited rural Slovenia today. Our friend Nevenka introduced us to her cousins, Jože and Tonči, and their daughter Tina. They hosted us in their quiet vineyard in Mali Cirnik, and treated us to delicious traditional Slovenian food and drink - all completely homegrown on their farm and homemade in their kitchen! Nevenka, Nana and Tony slept with the kids in a 300 year old cottage with a straw roof. We walked to the local church, and watched the clouds and rain drift by. Right out of a storybook!Leggi altro

  • TKM, that's alot of rain!

    28 maggio 2019, Slovenia ⋅ 🌧 14 °C

    TKM stands for tristo kosmatih medvedov. Apparently Slovenians do not curse... So to remark on the soggy weather, I am using their expression which literally translates as “three hundred hairy bears”! And I mean every word! Despite the unrelenting rain, the area of the Julian Alps above lake Bled is really beautiful - we are in a small town called Zasip - and when the fog lifts, there is proof that we are indeed in the mountains!Leggi altro

  • Space Sleepers

    31 maggio 2019, Slovenia ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Last night we slept in space capsules with lots of gizmos and buttons and even a mini tv in each capsule! The Central hotel had been renovated and the hotel was left with a huge amount of empty space which they turned into space capsules! We had to open the capsules with a key card and inside their was a mini fire extinguisher, a remote for the tv, a giant mirror, and a tray which collapsed on you if you took it off the wall! Once you were inside the capsule you have a choice of four different lights, two reading lights, one mirror light and even a blue LED light and you could change the brightness of each light with a small pad beside the light. Although it looked really cool there were still some downsides, the air conditioning couldn’t be turned down and some of the vents wouldn’t open so it was extremely hot! The tv didn’t actually work so that didn’t help, finally the light outside the capsules couldn’t be turned off so it was on the whole night and even with the capsule door closed it was still very bright! Outside the capsule room there were two foosball tables and a bar/restaurant which had free juice coffee and tea.
    Talk to everyone soon!
    Malcolm🤪😬😎🥳😺😜🤗🙃😇🤓🤩
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  • Enigmarium Escape Room

    31 maggio 2019, Slovenia ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Today we did an outstanding escape room about a detective agency which we had to re-open in less than an hour and we finished with 10 seconds to spare! It had lots of different types of puzzles, unfortunately we aren’t allowed to share any of the puzzles or answers so the secrets are kept a secret.
    Malcolm😚😋😛😝😜🤪🤨🧐🤓😎🤯
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  • Venice - And We're In Athens!

    2 giugno 2019, Grecia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Venice was a very cool city. One of my favourites I think. It was so peaceful, because there were no cars, so that means no honking, no smoggy air, and no crossing busy streets! We spent a sunny, last weekend with Nana and Tony (Lara’s parents). A little exploring, a little gelato, a little souvenir shopping, and a little pizza. The typical Venice experience. Dad made a scavenger hunt for us to take pictures of around Venice. Some of the things were; a bride in a gondola boat, a lion statue holding a closed book (meaning Venice was at war), a lion statue with an open book (meaning Venice was at peace), a well, a singing gondolier, and a leaning tower. This morning, we said goodbye to Nana and Tony, and then took the water bus to the airport. We made it safely to Athens, and are super excited to see cousin Arlo, Uncle Doug, and Aunt Netami in a few days! Greece is our last stop before we get back to Toronto, and then Ottawa!!! Two weeks to go!!
    🛶 🇬🇷 🇨🇦
    Chloë
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