Monico Family Travels

Author Archives: Bella

• Fathers Day

  Posted at 11:28 pm by Bella, on June 16, 2019

  We started the day off by cooking Daddy a meal in bed.  We made pancakes with Nutella on the side.

  

  

  We collected up some frangipani flowers and put our cards, some coffee and the food on a tray with the flowers to make it pretty.

  

  Emily and I carried up the tray and surprised Daddy with it!

  

  We served it up and then jumped into bed with him to have a breakfast feast and lots of cuddles.

  

  

  

  Then we drove to Kuta, a busy city to go go-karting.

  

  We were a bit worried when we tripped over this chap in the car park!

  We had the karting track to ourselves so we had a nice empty run, and no thugs!

  

  It was so fun to ride the karts but they were really hard to turn because they were heavy and the steering wheels were really stiff.  The track was really twisty and swervy, and Daddy raced through it really fast.  We all got out of his way so that he could get the fastest score of the day.

  

  

  

  

  

  After karting we went to a lovely beach club for lunch.

  

  When we set off for MonicoFamilyTravels (right at the beginning of our trip), Dinne (our grandmother) gave us a big bag full of little treats and games.  We got to do a lucky dip and get a new one out to play with at special moments.  Here is an example of one that was really handy and fun to take to restaurants with us.

  

  I really enjoyed my apple mojito mocktail.  Emily and I both had one.  We had chicken noodle soup for lunch and it was nice to know that we hadn’t forgotten how to use our chop sticks!

  

  

  During the afternoon we got a giant lounger bed with enough room for 4, and relaxed enjoying the sunshine.

  

  

  

  After we went in the sea and then rinsed off, Emily and I did our puzzle book while we dried.

  

  

  At the end we got to watch a beautiful sunset although lots of Instagram posers went in front of us and blocked our view!

  

  Then we walked across a beautiful bridge (that smelt like poop) to a fancy Italian restaurant for dinner.

  

  I was forced to wear a dress for dinner, but Daddy liked that and today was all about him (although we all had lot of fun too!).

  

  Posted in Countries, Indonesia | 5 Comments

• Wonderful white water

  Posted at 12:34 am by Bella, on May 13, 2019

  Our first day back on mainland Sumatra we went white water rafting.  To begin the day we drove to the starting point but what was really cool was that we got to ride on the top of the car!  It was super fun because it felt like a rollercoaster with all the bumps on the road and we could see all the palm oil plantations we passed through, and tonnes of cows that looked too skinny.  It was windy and in the end we got too cold so we went inside.

  

  

  There was so much palm oil where there used to be forrest, and here are the skinny cows too:

  

  

  

  

  

  On the way we stopped off at a town to pick up our lunch, and daddy bought some fire crackers. This is what the town looked like.  They can balance a lot on the motorbikes here!

  

  

  

  

  

  It was a bit scary and dirty where they bought the fruit, but we survived!

  

  Here we are choosing fire crackers and fireworks

  When we arrived, the guides pumped up the boat and carried it down to the water.  

  

  The reason its called white water rafting is because where the water is deep you get lots of rapids and the top of the waves are frothy white.  When we went through the rapids we had to paddle forwards to stop the boat capsizing and us flying out.

  We stopped off at a stinky hot spring and swam in the boiling water.  It smelled of sulphur because the water came from inside the earth as there are lots of volcanoes in Bali.

  For lunch we stopped on a tiny cove at the side of the river with a little waterfall.  We ate off banana leaves and used our hands to eat.

  Here is our lovely lunch spot:

  

  

  We had yellow water melon for lunch which mummy got excited about because she had never seen yellow water melon before!

  

  At one point we had to get out because we were coming up a dam where they were building a hydroelectric power station.  Hydro power is good because its clean energy, but it can be bad because it often results in flooding of areas where people are living.

  We set off again through more rapids until eventually it was calm and they said we could go swimming.  There was still a current so we drifted like pencils through the water vertical all the way!

  It was a really fun experience, and it was nice to warm up in a hot shower when we got back!

  

  Here are Emily and me sleeping at the guest house where we were staying

  Posted in Countries, Indonesia | 6 Comments

• Hakone

  Posted at 7:54 am by Bella, on March 10, 2019

   

  

  Oh no!  We just missed our third train in a row, and its FREEZING!

  We spent the weekend in Hakone, and our hotel provided dinner.  Dinner turned out to be loads of weird Japanese fish and scary things we couldn’t identify.  The fried chicken was good though!

  The next day we took a gondola called The Ropeway over lots of mountains with the hope of seeing Mount Fuji.

  

  

  On the journey we crossed a valley of some sulphur which stank like rotten eggs.  We were up high, but if you you were to walk across the valley down below, the acid from the sulphur could damage your lungs  and even kill you.

  

  We were really lucky it was a clear day so we could see Mount Fuji without any clouds blocking it.

  

  We took a windy stroll at the bottom of the Ropeway and saw a pirate ship.   We thought it must be a fake pirate ship because it had an engine at the back.

  

  In the afternoon (after a scrummy sushi lunch), we went to an Open Air Art and Sculpture Museum and there was a really cool interactive climbing exhibit.  You had to go through lots of different holes and clamber through nets to get to the top on the inside which was a more open net you could run around on.  It was really cool and fun to play in.

  

  This one wasn’t as fun because it hurt your knees but the design of it was really interesting.

  

  

  

  There were lots of Picassos, but this one was the most huge and colourful:

  

  Here are some of the other sculptures. I really liked the hanging ball that we saw our reflection in.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Although mine and Emily’s favourite was these fried eggs!

  

  

  When we got back Emily and I were super tired and couldn’t even open the door to our hotel room!

  While we were waiting for dinner that night we made our first ever successful Houses of Cards!

  

  

  On Sunday while we were waiting for our glass-blowing workshop we walked around a pretty garden.  Around the fountain we were surprised to see lots of flower cabbages.

  

  

  

  

  At first at the glassblowing I was a little bit scared because the molten glass was so hot, but the teacher was very nice and helped us.  First you would roll the molten glass in the coloured beads of your choice, then you would blow it to start to create the shape  you wanted.  After you had shaped it slightly you would put it back in the furnace to make it softer again so you could shape it some more.  It felt like blowing a balloon but harder.

  Daddy made a beer mug:

  

  

  I took these photos of Mummy when she was puffing hard!

  

  

  

  

  

  Here is me and I made a small vase.  The glass nearly fell off when we put it back in the furnace because I couldn’t spin if fast enough as I was wearing slippery gloves.

  

  

  

  

  Milly made a vase as well and she put spots on hers, while I had swirls.

  

  

  

  

  We had a great weekend at Hakone, and our glass works were shipped to Mutton Hall.  I can’t wait to see the finished product when we get home!

  Posted in Countries, Japan | 4 Comments

• Happy Birthday Daddy

  Posted at 11:14 pm by Bella, on February 23, 2019

  

  

  

  Every year on someones birthday we have a family tradition of decorating the room for a special breakfast.  So we made a happy birthday banner out of magazine pages, and some snow flakes for the window.

  On the actual day, we made Daddy his special coffee to drink in bed while we put the decorations up and made his breakfast.

  

  Mummy got Daddy some fancy champagne for his birthday breakfast.  It was Mummy’s first time drinking alcohol for a month so she enjoyed it too.  Emily and I had special drinks as well.  We made up a mocktail of ginger beer, grapefruit juice and apple juice – you should try it!

  

  

  As part of our tradition everyone gets to choose a breakfast that they love, and the rest of the family makes it for them.  Daddy asked for full English….which is a bit of a problem when you are in a ski resort in Japan because there tends to be very few pigs around!  Luckily we found some REAL bacon in a freezer in a deli we popped into, so we could deliver Daddy’s wish.  Yummy!

  

  

  

  

  We all made cards for Daddy.  My one was the picture with the rocket labelled Daddy taking off into space.  Emily’s card is the one next to mine which has a heart on it.  Mummy’s card has a picture of the volcano outside our window on it, and it is called Mount Yotei.  Rob put a funny joke on his card which involved an avocado!

  

  

  

  

  

  

  After our big breakfast we all went skiing.  We found a natural half pipe which took us all the way down the mountain and it was really fun to ski in because it had loads of trees and bumps in the way.  It was amazing because it was the first time any of us has skied on our birthday.

  

  We skied to a restaurant at the bottom of the slopes which served all you can eat sushi.  The sushi was really good but they made you finish everything on the plate (including the rice) before they would make you more fresh sushi.

  

  

  For the final part of Daddy’s birthday we took him to a snowmobiling track.  Because Emily and I were under 12 we weren’t allowed to drive our own so we went on the back of Mummy’s and Daddy’s.  But we can both drive Grandpa Gosling’s quad bike so we could easily have driven these which didn’t even go as fast as the quad bike.  The landscape was beautiful but we had to huddle up because it was really cold.

  

  Afterwards the place had a banana boat, but on snow.  It was so exciting because whenever the man driving stopped we would swing round in front of him, and he took us super fast round all the corners.

  

  For dinner we went to a burger restaurant underground in a bunker called BigFoot.  There were loads of other people who were drunk and everybody was chatting really loudly.   The food was in a basket and mummy put her mayonnaise and ketchup on the side of her fries but unfortunately it ended up dripping through the basket and onto her jeans and boots without her realising so she ended up in a mayonnaisey mess!

  

  

  

  This is the quickest cake I have ever made in my life.  Basically all you have to do is mix milk, and egg and oil with some powder, and put it in the microwave for 5 minutes and finally put the pre-made icing on!  We decorated it with extra chocolate and some candles.

  

  Mummy gave Daddy a fancy bottle of sake (a japanese wine) that looked like Mount Yotei.  Also we found some really funny Samurai pants for a gift which he liked a lot.  I gave him some dark chocolate which is his favourite and Emily gave him some orange marmalade which is his favourite on toast.

  HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!

  Posted in Countries, Japan | 4 Comments

• Chilly Chile

  Posted at 4:51 pm by Bella, on December 21, 2018

  We went to Patagonia with Dinnie and Grandpa.

  

  Here is the view from our cabin

  

  This is the view facing the other direction

  This was our first boat tour going to see the Serrano glacier.

  

  

  

  We made some stops along the way to see some sea lions squidged on a small rock trying to share heat, and some chilly looking penguins clinging to a rock.

  

  

  I was surprised by how blue the glacier was when we finally saw it.

  

  

  

  

  

  We stopped to have a traditional Chilean meal, but Emily and I were a lot more interested in the cute puppy and the slightly grumpy horse we found in a corral out the back.

  

  

  

  On our second day we walked to a hotel for lunch which which was a converted meat packing and refrigeration factory.  It had an art gallery at the top in a huge open loft, with some scary floorboard that you could see through, and bounced when you walked on them.

  

  

  

  Downstairs there was lots of old machinery that made Grandpa Gosling get quite excited.

  

  

  

  

  

  That evening Mummy and Daddy forced us to go to a gin making distillery in the local town.  Mummy ran there and the rest of us took a taxi.

  

  

  

  We had a tour and the guy made us put our heads in the making-pot which smelt REALLY bad.

  

  

  Here is the whole family when we went to see the Grey Glacier.

  

  We had to cross a bridge which wobbled crazily as we walked.  The worrying thing was that if it broke or we fell in, the water was below freezing temperature so we could die.  When we were approaching the glacier the wind became very strong and you had to hold onto your hat unless you wanted to lose it in the lake.

  

  

  

  The glacier was huge and very craggy.  We managed to get close to it in the boat, even though there were lots of icebergs floating in the water.

  

  

  Afterwards we had a drink that was cooled by glacier ice!

  

  On the long boat journey we did our puzzle books with Grandpa.

  

  We went on a 4*4 car tour to the Torres del Paine national park and we stopped at some beautiful places.  The first one was what they called the ‘Two Horns’.  After that we went to see a waterfall that was amazingly powerful.  We stopped to see some really really cute guanacos (fluffier llamas) which were very friendly so we took a selfie.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  On the last day before we got on the airplane we decided to go horseriding so as not to waste the day waiting inside.  We got GRANDPA ON A HORSE!!!!!  He looked really good.

  

  

  

  

  

  I rode a horse which was the biggest and the most grumpy so he didn’t want to go near any of the other horses.

  

  On the way to the airport we saw a beautiful rainbow coming over the mountains so we stopped to take a picture!

  

  It was sad to leave Patagonia but at the same time we were excited because it was Christmas next, and Dinnie and Grandpa would be with us to celebrate.

  Posted in Chile, Countries | 5 Comments

• A day on the river

  Posted at 3:27 pm by Bella, on November 17, 2018

   

  

  

  

  A very nice family invited us to have boat ride and try out water skiing on the Panal River.  The river was calm but sometimes in the middle it was wavy.  It was very wide and sometimes you get massive cargo ships passing by (its the third biggest river in South America).  Before lunch, Emily and I had a go at water skiing but first Ernesto taught us how to do it by practicing standing up on his lap.

  

  

  

  

  

  When we had got the skiis on in the water we got hold of the rope and let it slide through our hands until we could grab hold of the handle.  Then we had to position skiis parallel facing the boat with our legs as bent as possible.  It was sometimes hard when the current picked up to swing your legs around to face the boat.

  

  

  

  

  On my second try I managed to stand up on the skiis.  You had to keep your skiis in the exact same place otherwise you would have a wipe out (I had quite a few!).

  

  Got it!!!

  Nobody ever told me that once you got up you could stand up fully so I got loads of water in my face, but it was so exciting to fly across the water.

  

  Mummy also got up on her second try, and stayed up for AGES, because she didn’t know how to stop when her arm’s started hurting!

  

  

  Daddy weaved side to side across the wake of the boat.

  

  WIPEOUT!!!

  

  Emily got to drive the boat and took us safely back to the dock.

  Posted in Argentina, Countries | 7 Comments

• La Dolfina vs Ellerstina

  Posted at 3:08 pm by Bella, on October 7, 2018

  We went to a polo match and the teams were called La Dolfina and Ellerstina.  It was the final of the Tortugas Cup. It was a baking hot day and we sat on tiered benches with no cover.  

  

  It was a very close match. The ponies galloped across the pitch trying to hit the ball. We were amazed how fast they went and how tightly they turned.  

  

  Sometimes the horses ‘bump’ each other to get the ball:

  

  There are 4 players in each team.  All the players in team Ellerstina are related, and 3 of them are brothers.  La Dolphina is a mix of players. The 8 players on the field were all 10 goal (that is the highest handicap), and are in the top 10 skilled players in the world.  

  

  It got really close in the end and we were all shouting for the teams we wanted to win.  In the end the scores were 10:8 to Dolfinas. We were cheering for Ellerstina because for the last 6 years they have got in the same match as La Dofina and never won.  They didn’t win again this time but it was excitingly close.

  

  

  After the match we went over to Ellerstina’s base and stroked one of the ponies.  They felt very oily and sweaty! Their tails got plaited and rolled up so that they could go faster without their tails getting in the way.  

  

  It was a really special experience to go and watch the match.  

  Posted in Argentina, Countries | 5 Comments

• Dog’s

  Posted at 6:45 pm by Bella, on September 18, 2018

  In South America I heard about rabies and I didn’t like the idea of getting bitten much, or stroking dogs, but then there was a dog at a bar we went to in Barre Grande and it was SOOOOOOOOOOOO cute.  It rolled over to let you tickle its tummy and Rosalin and Emily and I cuddled it in the sand.

  

  The next cute dog which I have to write about was at a pizza restaurant in Atins.  It was outside and the dog came up to us and looked at us and I knew it wanted to be stroked. So I stroked it while I waited for my pizza.  It was SOOOOOOOO adorable.

  

  At lunch the next day a funny thing happened.  We were sitting at a restaurant waiting for our food.  Mummy got a shock and said there is something warm and soft under her feet.  There had been a dog lying there the whole time and she hadn’t realised it!  Emily and I laughed SOOOOOOOOO much.

  Mummy goes out running every morning and she passed a yoga place and the next morning she went to that yoga place to do some yoga.  When she got back from yoga I was having my breakfast and she said there were some REALLY cute puppies at the yoga place if I wanted to come and stroke them.  They were SOOOOOOOOO soft.  They were all huddled up sleeping in a corner.  Later I played with them again outside.

  

  

  The last of all we went to Hacienda Alegria.  Mummy did a blog post on the Hacienda, and so you’ll know what we did there but there were five dogs that were SOOOOOOOOOO playful.  Their names were Oreo, Snowy, Blackie, Cooee and Sultan.

  Blackie loved for you to throw sticks for him.

  

  Oreo loved to be stroked on the tummy.

  

  Snowy loved to join in with the sticks and to go running with Mummy.

  

  Cooee you could pick up and hug because he wasn’t as big as the others which were Border Collies, and there was no chance of you picking them up.

  

  Sultan wanted to make you hug him not any of the other dogs.

  

  I am hoping to see lots more dogs on our travels, and I can share pictures of the nicest ones with you.

  Posted in Argentina, Countries | 10 Comments

• Happy Horse Riding

  Posted at 11:58 pm by Bella, on August 7, 2018

  We have been horse riding in lots of places in Brazil. It has been so fun and exciting to explore the sand dunes and national park on horseback. When we got to the tops of the dunes you had a beautiful view of the lagoons and wild animals 🐂🐄🐃 down below. We all had so much fun cantering up dunes and across different beaches. 😀😁🙂

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  
  Posted in Brazil, Countries | 4 Comments

• Rosalin’s birthday

  Posted at 1:32 am by Bella, on July 25, 2018

  

  The amazing pancake cake

  

  Lion guards the presents

  

  Time to hit the sand …

  It was one of the best day’s in Brazil it was so fun. The pancake cake was amazing and so yummy. We went on a dune buggy adrenaline tour it was so fast and bumpy. We stopped off at a water park where there was a really exciting zip wire into water and a massive red water slide!!!😅

   

  Posted in Brazil, Countries | 8 Comments

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