the trip

wow

2009-05-02T08:02:00.000-07:00

Am I really halfway across the world?
In Tanzania for six months ,
Turkey for one ,
And on a 3 month bicycle trip?
I guess I am.
We started off the cycle in turkey and had quite a rough start.
We had our hotel car pick us up from our hotel and bring us to the bus station (otogar in turkish), but the car shows up half an hour late so we miss our bus but take another one at 8:30 which turns up at 9:00.
We finally boarded the bus and got on the road.
We arrive in Hayrabolo‘s otogar and found a nice alley to build our bikes.
We unpacked griffs bike first. His is the best and the lightest and goes together fine.
We moved onto mom and dad’s bike and have the slightest of problems with the front handle bar bag. We finally moved onto the tandem where disaster is sure to strike and it DID. We found out that the chain wheel had been supporting the bike in the box. In the process of the weight on it 5 teeth were bent and the main part was all asqugy(sp). Me and dad got driven around the town looking for solutions. We got driven to a guy with a press that said he would just break the whole thing and when all hope seemed lost a miracle happened!!!!!! The guy suddenly stopped at another place where they had a press and they pressed it and all was good. Well at least till now. Well let’s get on with the cycle…

Our first ride was 53k and let me tell you my but was sore.
I felt like I was going to faint of tiredness but I didn’t!!!
our second day we rode 41k and my but wasn’t too bad but still hurting.
916 right now and hoping to hit 1000 in two or three days!!!
My feeling on this trip is that I would and I wouldn’t want to go.
I would go because I like different countries and to have the privilege to say I rode 3000 km in 3 months!! I wouldn’t want to go because of missing home.

Greece: Greece was a fantastic place. Even though I was only there for 7hr I really enjoyed the places and the fabulous hot chocolates!!!!!! I could also tell a big difference between Greece and Turkey.

Bulgaria: Bulgaria was great and wish I could stay longer, although Bulgaria was pretty poor but was still very cool. I found that all the cities in Bulgaria have a centre square. Some people in Bulgaria look at as like “what the heck are you doing??” and some are actually quite interested in our bikes and us.

Romania: as I write this i'm sitting in Romania and find Romania is more wealthy and more expensive than Bulgaria and Greece. I again wish I had more time here. I found Romanians were more interested in our bikes but in someway it wasn’t my favorite country. But still would go again. One reason it was not my favorite country is because one time we got rocks thrown at us and the other reason is there was not a lot of hotels.

more pixs from istanbul

2009-03-15T08:00:00.001-07:00

Few pixs from istanbul

2009-03-15T07:36:00.000-07:00

2009-02-28T06:07:00.000-08:00

hello every one (well every one thats there)
im in england!!!!!!
isn't it amazing that yesterday i was in africa this week im in eurup and next week i'll be in asi
well we had a 5 hr flight from dar es salaam to dubai and a 8 hr flight from dubai to london.
we flew on emerites (the best plane company out there),and man did they ever have good food!!(i had the kids meal witch had a mars bar in it!!! and for breakfast i got some stuff with a kit kat and m&m's!!!)
well flying to turkey in five days witch is going to be another great exprence!
see ya
sy

after safari

2009-02-26T00:31:00.000-08:00

Well it was a great Safari! We saw many things such as the elephant, Giraffe, hyena, warthog, mongoose, water buffalo, wildebeest, cheetah, rhino (also rhino beetle) lion (and ant lion), jackal, hippo, crocodile and lots and lots of BIRDS! Well, there is quite a bit I can’t remember or doesn’t come to my mind right now. We went with 2 medical student friends and a friend of theirs. Names: Medical students: Guy, Mark. Friend: Teana (like banana).
A funny part of the safari was when my dad would rage “The Gosh darn birds are hiding from me” or “I can hear them but I just cant seem to see them”. (We call him “a birder” now)
The owner of the lodge we stayed in at the Serengeti was from Barcelona. His name was Pepe.. He was very nice . The name of the lodge was Ikoma Safari lodge or safari camp. Pepe let me shoot his bow and arrow, but of course, he was better than me.
Also in the Serengeti our car broke down (we had to wait 2 hours, not even an animal or a bird to see).
We ended the safari driving back from the Serengeti down into the Ngorogoro Crater and saw more animals there. We came out of the crater and slept at a hostel (the mosquito nets were too small). The next day we drove to a T-shirt shop where I bought a shirt that says “endangered feces”. The animal feces that are on the T-shirt are Rhino, leopard and 2 others. We then went to another shop where I bought a rhino statue (my favorite animal) and a bracelet which I had, but ended up on my mom’s wrist. Before lunch we drove to the Lake Manyara Park and saw more animals and birds (we had some troubles getting into the Lake Manyara park because of money problems)
Finally we drove back to Arusha for the night. On the way we stopped at a snake park. We went to pay but it was 10 US dollars each. So we asked if our Residents permit lowered the price and sure enough the price was then 1000 shillings or 1 dollar. Ok, now lets talk about the snakes. Well first off, we saw a HUGE PYTHON !!!Now I’ll give you a story of what a python can do… “One day a Dutch Farmer goes missing in Malaysia. Some people find a sleepy fat python trapped under something. The people kill the snake , cut it open and there was the farmer inside “ (This is a real story !!). We also saw a Red spitting cobra, black momba (most venomous), green momba, puff adder, night adder, black forest cobra, and some crocodiles which were huge. Then we saw owls, and tortoises and other animals.
We took the bus to Moshi the next day and took a bus from Moshi to Muheza the day after that.
It was a fantastic safari and I wish you could see it.

sorry

2009-02-19T06:30:00.000-08:00

sorry i havn't bloged lately
2 will be coming sone
sysysysysysysysysysuysysysysuysysysysysysysysysysy
find the mistake
syusy

sy

food

2009-01-01T04:41:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, today I will be talking about the food in Muheza/Tanzania

Liquid
Products of Coca-Cola

1. We have Fanta Pineapple, Passion, Orange, and Black Current
2. Spar-letta Citrus, Ginger Beer, Pine Nut.
3. Krest Tonic water, Soda Water, Club Soda, Bitter Lemon
4. Coca-Cola
5. Sprite

Pepsi Products

1. Pepsi
2. We also have Marinda Orange, Lemon-Lime, and Fruity.
3. 7 Up

Anjari Products

1. Anjari Pineapple, Ice Cream, Orange.
2. Health-co purple.

Beer

1. (Kenyan) Tusker
2. Kilimanjaro
3. Safari
4. Serengeti
5. (S.African) Castle

Ceres

My favorite Ceres in Pear Apple but there is a lot of other types.
1. Pomegranate lime
2. Mixed berry
3. Sunshine mix
(more to come next week)

Alcohol (Scotch,
Gin)
A couple weeks ago Sally and my dad shared a scotch but I cant remember where it was from and what it was called.
Also when S and R were here the either bought a Bottle of Gin or it was already here ,but they would have Gin and Tonics after Work. On new years eve Alex and Emily
Had us over for dinner and they had Tanzanian Organic Brandy.

Breakfast

For a week when my mom and dad weren’t here in the mornings griff and me usually had a couple of Mandazee (like a donut but less sweat) for breakfast.
But now griff is making me either oatmeal or some sort of thing with eggs.
Occasional on weekends or on Holidays my mom will make French toast,or pancakes with baken and eggs (Rose’s recipe)(yum).

Lunch

For lunch on a usual day when are house keeper is here we have soup witch she makes. (Her name is Juliette). Each time it is the same soup but it tastes a little bit different.
But on weekend, holiday, or days we tell her not to make soup we have eggs, sandwiches, or leftovers. One time when 10 guests were here we homemade humus, bred, swished eggs, and some stuff I can’t remember.

Dinner

There is now main dinner because it varies every night. Some nights it wraps, or some night it Leah’s famous Tanzania pizza. We also have had fish from the market and people always make spaghetti on Wednesday. We have also had lezonya and a bunch of other stuff I cant remember. But out of all the good and bad dinners my favorite would have to be leah famous home made Organic Tanzania PIZZA.

Desert

For desert we’ve had a selection of foods. One time we’ve had banana ice cream with chocolate brownie. Or we’ve had two groups of people make bunofie pie!!!! And Rose of rose and sal made her famous banana bread and also rose thought Julittet how to make it so we’ve had roses and Juliet’s great banana bread.

Snacks

In Muheza there are a selection of snack including tic tac cracker, peanut brittle, crisps, peanuts, cashus, and a lot other stuff.

Treats, Chocolate bars, biscuits, and candy,

Here in Muheza you cant get a lot of treats but in tanga you can get everything that Muheza has plus more! Like the Snickers bar, mars bar, Bounty bar and a lot other bars. Plus Digestives cookies, assorted cookies, a lot of crap cookies, and some good cookies e.g. eat sum or short bread cookies. (Some is spelt sum on the package).

And those are the food and drinks from tanga and mostly MUHEZA.

update

2008-12-25T02:41:00.000-08:00

sorry i havent updated in a while
im in zanzibar the nicest beach ever
(this is my tofino time!!!!)
white sandy beaches!!!
wierd people(i mean really wierd)
missing you all
playing beach soccer
soon to see another video on the blog

sy

A.T. News

2008-12-15T17:06:00.000-08:00

Hello

2008-12-14T23:31:00.001-08:00

Hello
Guess what I saw a punch buggy
And I got a great picture of a guy with his hands up on the top of a truck
I took the picture driving away from the car with my hand stuck out the window (I didn’t even see the screen.
Anyway when to tanga yesterday swam at the youat club 30,000 shillings
Had lunch there.
Still out of school. 30 degrees here
It’s hard to imagine me in a down jacket tobogganing
Has it snowed yet in Victoria (hasn’t here)?
Nothing much else to say

Sy

upate of pics

2008-12-06T02:24:00.002-08:00

2008-12-06T02:24:00.001-08:00

upate of pics

2008-12-06T02:24:00.000-08:00

2008-12-06T02:10:00.000-08:00

hi again again

2008-12-05T04:14:00.000-08:00

I just got back from Dar es Salaam. It was raining there a lot of the time so that was a bummer. But we still got to go to the soccer/football game that Tanzania won 3-1 against Sudan it was a great match all Tanzania’s goals were nice!!!!
And at the last ten minutes of the game Sudan goalie got a red card just outside of the box so Tanzania didn’t have a penalty shoot so they didn’t score,
But the most important thing was the Sudan already did their three subs so they couldn’t but there back up goalie in so they hat to put a player in!!!!!!!!! (I think the player was better than the goalie because the goalie was chubby.
Enough about the game.
We also when to a bookstore where I bought a book called THE LAST LEPARD. And so far it’s been a great book!!!
One night we went to a dinner place called steers and me and griffin shared a hot sub. (While we were waiting there was a bouncy house there so we resled in it)
My dad didn’t get anything because he wanted to eat somewhere else.
So after that we walked to a dinner place that my dad and griffin a chicken and chips too share.
And after that we went too a pool club place and played pool and played fifa 08!!
We did that the rest of the nights!!
And then we came home on a Rahalao bus (CRAZY)
That the end of our Dar es Salaam trip.
Sy

hi again

2008-12-05T04:13:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven’t done a long blog in a while I’ve been pretty busy around here.
With school and friends it’s quite tiering around here.
I just caught a little bug so stayed home from school.
I was quite bummed when I herd I couldn’t go to school because today was P.E.
Tomorrow i'm going to Dar se Salaam!
Till Sunday and this was the last week of school (for this year so now I have 2 months off.
So that’s another reason why I wanted to go to school.
I haven’t been doing much this week it is just the useiwall.
But when i'm in Dar es Salaam im going to watch a Tanzania vs Sudan soccer/football match.
Why haven’t you guys been commenting on my blog????????
Internet was down so that’s why I didn’t email you because I couldn’t get your email or send my emails.
Ill tries to do another post soon.
Sy

comment

2008-12-03T01:48:00.000-08:00

COMMENT
COMMENT
COMMENT
PLEASE
PLEASE
COMMENT

Even More Pics

2008-11-16T03:48:00.000-08:00

Some PIcs

2008-11-16T03:42:00.000-08:00

NAMES!

2008-11-15T04:37:00.000-08:00

the first pic is called blue balls himself
and the rest are called pictures

sy

PICS !!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-11-15T04:24:00.000-08:00

2008-11-15T04:22:00.001-08:00

Hello
Still going great here.
How about where you guys live?
Saw no new things but school exams are coming up and I only have to do English!!!
Which is to easy for me but sister (head of school) just wants us to do it because she wants to compare her students with me and griff.
Well nothing much more to say.

Sy

Photo Post From, Ontario!

2008-11-10T16:14:00.000-08:00

http://ambleahgriffinsy.blogspot.com/2008/11/photo-post-from-ontario.html

Check out our photos!

hello

2008-11-09T07:29:00.000-08:00

Hey people in Canada and places!
Sally and Rose just left to go to Zanzibar! Now the house feels empty. We just went to the fish market and got some skate fish. You get to see hole fish including the eye (gross).
Anyway sounds like sally and rose had a bad night. They said there was too much insects. So they told us to not go there. At the end of November were going to an African Cup qualifier in Dar es Salaam. Tanzania against Sudan!!! There are so many people on bikes here that even I got a bike but myn is A LOAD OF JUNK .We just bought are tickets to Zanzibar during Christmas!!!!! (Jingle bells) but my mom said the presents are going to be small. Hope all of you are doing fine. I sure am except school is the most boring thing ever. Wish me luck.

Sy

update

2008-10-30T08:52:00.000-07:00

Hey guys sorry I haven’t bloged lately I have no spare time.

I went to a fancy hotel and saw lots of wild monkeys.
One chased Griffin and me.
The hotel had a swimming pool griff and me did circus sulay in it.
Any way 1 gone 6 more to come I’m meaning 1 person left witch is Graham my oldest bother 6 to go means 6 more people to come and 2 people are here with us right now.
It was sad seeing Graham go. It felt like I didn’t get to do any thing with him. That’s how fast time goes. It felt like he was here 3 days but actually he was here 12 days.2 months have gone from are trip that means only 4 more months of Africa left.
Have any of you ever played the game settlers of catan? Well iv played it 14 times and only one 6,5 or 7 times (its a stradage game). Were so into it we got the 5 to 6 extension pack so we can play with other people.
“ Here comes blogger Tanzanian whether hottest point today 40 degrees yester day hot last week big rain storms but the Tanzania people say these are the short rains. This broadcast is brought subway sub way eat fresh.”

marbles

2008-10-11T07:40:00.000-07:00

Today I played marble with Griff. We just got the marbles yesterday.
I just found out that rose is going to be teaching computers at my school. But she is going to be teaching the stuff that I already know how to do. )-:. But it is a time waster, less school.(-: In a month and a half I get two months off from school.(-: but I still will have to do homeschool)-:
I had 13 maRBLEs but my brother won 4 away from me. But I will just get new ones. 20 shillings per marble = about 2 cents. When I get back I will put together the best slideshow about our time here.sy

update

2008-10-11T07:39:00.000-07:00

as we packed our bags and loaded up with 8 people in the care we
headed off to peponi ( a resort on the indian ocean). there is 2
people in the front of the land cruiser, 3 in the back seat and 3 in
the back section. we were all crowded in the car.when we passed tanga
( check a map) the road turns gravelly and rutted. we bounce around
for 30 whole kilometers but we do see wild monkeys. weturn into peponi
and everyone cheers. as soon as wegoth there we suit up and going
swimming. the water is like a hot tub. we find sweet shells the next
day when we walk up the beach.after the beach walk we start out to a
sand island that only forms when the tide goes out in a small local
sailing boat called the pepi.but before we leave we get flippers and
snorkels because we are stopping at a reef to go snorkeling. the boat
can hold up to 25 people.as we get close to the reef i get all geared
up. i am the third one in. i start of only seeing a blue and yellow
fish, then i come up because the flipper is jabbing into my foot.
after 5 minutes i go back in and see, blue , yellow , rainbow fish and
even black and white fish .it reminds me of Finding Nemo, by the way i
saw a DORY. this looks like the place where graffiti artists get their
colours.i also saw coral like a brain maze and is called Brain
Coral.one of the coolest things i saw was a fish that lives in
anenomes like nemo there were also sea urchins and alarge sea snake.we
climbed back into the boat and off we went to the sand island. was
also was laso like a hot tub there. the water sky blue. griffin and
i tried to do a lap around the isaland crawling with just our arms
in the water. then we had lunch .i had a BLM.peponi makes the
greatest BLM ( bacon , letuuce , mayonaise) sandwich.
after that we boared the boat and headed off to the camsite.After we
returned we ahd dinner. the next morning i went to the pool, then had
breakfast, monkeys were about to steal our toast . but never did and
that ends the peponi trip

sy
ps i got badly sunburned

second update from Muheza

2008-09-27T02:29:00.000-07:00

first day of school was on Tuesday, just after we got new bikes. Freaky, tons of kids following you everywhere. Got a turn signal for my bike which already broke. We have had to take the bikes into get repaired a few times already ! Lots of geckos and big bugs in the house ! The geckos ar fine, but the bugs are nervewracking. one gecko fell off the roof and landed on Griffin's arm and the tail fell off and then ants ate the tail. Lots of ants, bit weird looking bugs and birds.
My mom and dad saw a pied crow and thought it was rare but we saw hundreds after ! My dad wanted to see a certain bird from the bird book but at school I had to do something that involved that bird an it said that a birdwatcher would rarely see it. It is called the "showbill" so we will be lucky if we see it. We are going to a Amani wildlife reserve where we will see lots of birds and camelians. Next weekend we are going to Peponi and when the tide is out, sand islands are created and a boat takes you out to one and you have lunch there and snorkel and then the boat takes you back before the tide comes in!
Thats all I can think of right now. I will try to post more often but it is hard to get internet access. Thanks, Sy

update

2008-09-27T02:28:00.000-07:00

Recently I walked to my school. Not to go to school just to see the school and find the route to the school because we are riding to school and we don’t want to go on the main road. It was such a brutal walk. We finished two water bottles on the way there and we only had three with us. When we got there Griffin was looking at the text message from the person who was going to show us around ( teacher Mary). He saw that the teacher was only available at 130 in the afternoon and it was only 1145. I was so mad. It was because my mom only looked at half of the text (texting newby). During the walk back we saw a mini tornado. When we were about half way back, my heel started hurting and I started getting cramps and a headache for the rest of the walk back. It was torture. The next day I got my zipper fixed on my school uniform ( ugly)A picture will be posted as soon as is possible.
The next day ( Friday,September19)I got a bit sick so instead of going to Tanga (the closest big city with shopping and beaches) I stayed home with my dad and read and relaxed. Even with all the brutal walks I am still having fun.
S

Heathrow

2008-09-11T11:18:00.000-07:00

in heathrow airport
HUGE!!!! BUSY!!!!MASSIVE!!!!!
PEOPLE GOING TO A MILLION DIFFERENT PLACES!!!!!!
got to go
P.S. i'll right some more in tanzania

ssy

2008-09-09T11:33:00.000-07:00

hi riding from england
just finished a four hr drive
in two days im heading off to africa 7 hr to dubi 5 hr flight to tanzinia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
got to go

s

Pictures From Past Few Days

2008-09-08T14:10:00.000-07:00

here are some pitures

leaving wales

2008-09-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

hi just left whales nw back in Engand
i'm in a friends house hos gone to tanzinia be for
had rasberrey pie thing or desert and ham and tartertots fr dinner.
it was a estemet of 1 hr to drive from whales to here but with my dads driving about 2 hr
got to go to bed

s

2008-09-06T10:38:00.000-07:00

England

2008-09-02T12:56:00.000-07:00

I am sitting in Cambridge ,England in a internet cafe typing after having a great dinner of mash potatoes at a pub after a 1 hr flight to calgary 8 flight to London then taking a 1 hr subway to kings cross and another 1 hr train ride to Cambridge. Hope you guys are having as much fun as i am having on your first day of scoohl

thanks sy

2008-08-10T11:36:00.001-07:00

21 days

2008-08-02T15:04:00.000-07:00

hi this is my first post