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Kamaria here. I just wanted to let you know that I have been informed that tomorrow will be Gold Panda Day! That means you can do everything a Gold Panda is able: decorate your tree house, buy and wear cool clothes, drive a car, ride a horse, and learn new things at the underwater school. Just remember, it’s tomorrow and tomorrow only. That means that the things you buy tomorrow, you’ll only be able to use tomorrow unless you become a full-time Gold Panda.
We made it Down Under (a.k.a. we’re in Australia)! I’m not sure how it got that nickname, but maybe because it’s so far south. But then again, Antarctica is even more Down Under. Completely on the underside, to be exact.
Australia seems to be a pretty dangerous land. Most of the animals are poisonous and we’ve been told there is a hole in the ozone layer hovering directly above Australia! I hope more snakes, spiders and other critters don’t fall in!
Yeah, I don’t know what they meant by the hole either. I’ll be sure to watch my step, however.
Let’s stick close together, maybe even hold hands to make sure we don’t fall in anywhere.
But then wouldn’t we both fall in as opposed to just one of us falling in?
I guess you’re right.
Well, for now let’s buy sunscreen lotion. The sun can be pretty dangerous and we have to be careful that we don’t get sunburned!
Burn? On my beautiful fur? Wait…I think I itch already. Let’s go!
Yeah, yeah, we’re going! We’ll write back when we are properly sun-protected!
We’re in the Hong Kong airport at the moment and are waiting on our flight to Australia.
Sydney, to be precise.
Yup. Max seems to be in a bit of a bad mood, by the way.
No I’m not! I would have shown that thief what’s what if you hadn’t been in the way!
Yes, I’m sure you would have. I’ll tell you why he’s acting like this.
So, while we were in the Tibetan cloister, Max kept joining the monks in their meditation rituals. What I didn’t know, was that they weren’t just meditating. One of the monks was all teaching Max the art of Kung Fu. Max didn’t want to tell me, however, because he knows I don’t like violence.
Kung Fu has nothing to do with violence! It has to do with protecting yourself when someone attacks you. I just wanted to be able to protect you if ever someone were to come make trouble, that’s all.
I know, I know, and that’s very sweet of you.
Sweet?! I’m NOT sweet!
Anyway, on the way to the airport, Max had the chance to show off his skills. We were in a hurry and someone suddenly grabbed at my handbag. “Thief! Thief!”, I yelled out, and I held onto the bag the best I could. The thief was stronger, though, and grabbed my bag from the other side. Max immediately came to the rescue. Well, by this I mean he stood directly in front of the thief, balanced himself on one foot, and then started to swing his arms around. You should have seen it! It looked a bit like a flamingo standing on one leg, trying to fly away but not being able to. It was great.
That was Kung Fu, Ella! It looked exactly like the monks did it. In a way.
The thief was totally confused and just stared at Max. I used the moment to stomp on the thief’s foot as hard as I could. He screamed and then ran away. And Max was still standing there on his one leg.
Ella, you don’t understand. That was a scare-tactic. And it worked, didn’t it?
Well, my bag is still here and I’m not missing anything. So yeah, it went well.
These Tibetan monks sure do get up early – even on the weekend! Max and I were deep in sleep when suddenly – DOOOOONNNG – they sounded the gigantic gong. We both got straight up, with wide eyes and ringing ears.
Max went to go be with the monks today. I think they are meditating. Do any of you Pandas meditate or have parents that do?
It’s okay that I didn’t go along so that I can write this story in peace and quiet. My great-great-great-grandfather started the story about finding his real-panda relatives in China yesterday. Here’s the rest:
I had almost given up hope in finding any pandas, when one day, while walking through the forest I heard a strange noise – almost like someone smacking. I could hardly see a thing through the thick bamboo that surrounded me. What could it be? I struck the heavy blades of bamboo as best I could with my arms until I hit something – it was warm and fluffy and soft. I looked towards my hand and saw to big black eyes looking back at me. A real Panda! And a giant one at that! I think he was almost three times the size of me. He was holding a piece of bamboo in his left paw and munching happily on it. He looked at me curiously and then he left. Then he turned around and looked at me as though I should come with him, so I followed him.
“Where are you taking me?”, I thought to myself. I was brought to his home, where a little baby panda was waiting. He thought I was another panda child and wanted to play! So I played, ate a bamboo meal, and then started my journey back home.
Cool story, eh? Meeting a real panda sounds so cool! I think I would have gotten really scared if I had seen such a large animal suddenly looming before me. But pandas are, for the most part, very gentle creatures.
Okay, I’m going to go check on Max now. And tell Penny and Lenny congratulations from us! I wish I could be there!
Be good Pandas,
Ella
By the way, our postman told us he dropped the most recent postcard over the “place of wisdom”. Good luck finding it!
Thanks for all your comments. We had no idea that so many of you could speak Chinese! Awesome!
We’re in Tibet right now and are visiting Ella’s great-great-great-grandfather Pan Lee. He dresses a lot differently than we do. He doesn’t have normal clothes, but rather an orange cloth that is wrapped around him. He is also bald and has a lot of wrinkles.
He’s also very old – over 100 years! And he wears that orange cloth because he’s a Buddhist monk and lives in a Tibetan monastery.
As we entered the monastery, all we saw were these monks everywhere dressed in orange. But we had no idea which one was Pan Lee! But I had an idea. In the middle of the room there was a giant, bronze gong. I thought I’d give it a bang and yell out Pan Lee’s name.
And that’s exactly what he did. But we never thought that this gong would be so incredibly loud! It was quiet enough to hear a pin drop afterwards. Suddenly, all eyes were on us and Max whispered “Pan Lee?”. Ella’s great-great-great-grandfather responded from the crowd: “Ella, is that you?”. He ran up can gave us both gigantic hugs.
He was so happy that he didn’t even want to let go!
Later that afternoon we were sitting at the monastery garden when Pan Lee told us a compelling story. He must have experienced a lot during his 100 years of living!
He told us the story of why he left Panfu:
Back then I was still young and inexperienced and wanted to see the whole world. I could never stay in one place and journeyed away from Panfu. I wanted to find out about our ancestors. I wanted to see what real pandas looked like – the ones who live in the forest and munch all day on bamboo. So I went to China. I packed my backpack and started my search for real pandas in the forests of China. For days I wandered around, climbing mountains, crossing rivers, and chopping through thick bamboo forests, but I couldn’t find one single panda. I knew that there weren’t many pandas left on this world. Perhaps they were extinct. I had almost lost hope when…
Wait! There’s the gong! Breakfast! We’ll tell you the rest tomorrow!
That’s Chinese for ‘how’s it going?’. But it’s written like this:
I can’t even begin to read that. Can any of you?
We’re in China – the land of the rising sun. They call it that because the country is located so far to the east, which is where the sun rises. When you wake up tomorrow morning, look in the direction of the sun and then you’ll know where we are.
We landed in Peking. Boy, are there a lot of people here! I have never seen so many squeezed all in the same place. And the buildings are huge, too! We had to hold hands the whole time so we didn’t lose each other.
Yeah, even though it looked a bit dumb. I would have been so confused had I been alone. I can’t even begin to read the street signs. The Chinese must be good at solving puzzles because all the street signs seem to me to be encrypted!
Ella, those are just the Chinese figures that they write with. For them it’s easy to read!
But where are the letters?
There are no letters in Chinese like the ones that we’re used to. Their signs are like whole words. For example, here is the sign for horse:
Cool, it looks kinda like it has legs. How do you know all this, Max?
Well, I thought that if we’re in China, I might as well learn some Kung Fu while I’m here. I checked out a few books and read about the symbols.
But we wanted to visit my great-great-great-grandfather and not learn KungFu!
Yeah, yeah. Anyways, we’ll soon be getting in a train to Tibet.
Do you know my great-great-great-grandfather? No? Me neither! He left Panfu before I was even born. He’s a great adventurer. He wanted to see the entire world. I received a few postcards from him and he always said that he would love to get to know his great-great-great-granddaughter. I wonder what he looks like. He must be over 100 years old! I bet he has a lot of stories!
Hmm…I don’t have a great-great-great-grandfather. Do any of you Pandas have family members that are old and like to tell stories?
We’ll let you know when we’re in Tibet!
Be good Pandas,
Max and Ella
P.S. – You can use your mouse to drag around the map to see where we’ve been. Try looking towards Asia.
P.P.S. – Kamaria informed us that Lenny and Penny are getting married this weekend! They’re celebrating this evening in the pirate bar. Go check it out!
So you want to know the rest of the story about what happened that one night in Zimbabwe? That’s what I thought. Well then, we won’t delay it for a second longer!
So where were we? Oh yeah – the giant shadow grew bigger and bigger against our tent and we heard the strangest noises from outside. Ella and I snuck out of the tent very, very quietly. I, of course, went first, being the brave man and all…
Max, you just wanted to get out as quickly as possible! We pulled out our flashlight and caught the troublemaker in his tracks. And guess what it was…
A baby elephant! He stood right before us and made these little whimpering noises. The poor thing. I think he thought I was his mother – he looked at me a bit and then came closer and started rubbing on my paw with his giant head. He was quite a bit bigger than I am even though he’s still a baby. What on earth are we going to do with him? In any case, we couldn’t just leave him all alone.
Find his family in the middle of the Savannah? No way! Ella has some pretty crazy ideas, but this one takes the cake.
Max, how would you have felt if YOUR child went missing? You would be very happy when someone would bring it back!
MY child?? Really, Ella…even you should know that pandas can’t have elephant babies…
You’re impossible, Max. But you did have a point – we couldn’t just wander through the Africa again without a plan. It’d be much too dangerous. We woke up our safari guide and told him the situation. He reported that elephants tend only to sleep four hours and that the herd would be moving on to the next watering hole by now. He loaded us up in the jeep and we went along to the next elephant resting place.
I thought it’d be closer! We drove the rest of the night! After five hours I had almost given up hope. But as the sun was peeking over the horizon we spotted a small oasis surrounded by an elephant herd!
The baby elephant ran to the herd and immediately recognized his mother. It was so cute. Don’t you think so, Max?
I’ll admit it…it was pretty sweet.
That ends our exciting trip through Africa! We’re about to board the plane to travel to the other side of the world: Asia!
