Travelog for: Chamki

Hello to all,

I am Chamki from Chennai, India.

In India I am a very famous television star, because I act on a show called "Galli Galli Sim Sim" ( in other parts of the world also known as "Sesamstreet").

But now I really need your help, I am on a very special mission.

As I met Mona and Uli today, I had a great idea and I want to tell u about it. Mona and Uli are married since January 2007 and actually from Germany, but now live in Chennai, because Uli has to work here for probably 2 more years.

One day, they would love to have children and I, myself, would love to be the best friend of their 1st child!

But I thougt, first I should travel the world and collect some nice fairy tails, meet many different people and visit many different places, so I can always tell their child nice stories from my journy!

And when they get their little one, I will come home very fast to be there for him or her and Mona will create a very own picture book for the child with all my adventures on the trip.

Isn't that a nice idea?

So please help me, sign my notebook and take care, I do not get lost on the way, because I am so much happily looking forward to meet my best friend for life one big day! ...

 

Maybe, I should tell a little bit more about myself.
You must know, I am never shy, always excited to learn new things and I really have a huge sense of humor....

Sometimes I am a little bit like a crow, if I see something glittering, I MUST HAVE "a closer look"! That was how I met Mona..... Her purchase was just breathtaking....

At the moment I am working on my travelplans... Thank u all so much for your support!

Today I told Mona, as I leave on next monday, we should make a walk around the corner.... Because I am little nervous about other tvs coming to india. You must know, it is very different from most countries many people used to know.

So, I want them to give some idea of my home.

First of all, Chennai is very hot and extreme humid, all year long. In wintertime it is around 28 degrees and in summertime even above 48 degree....pfuuueee.....
But lucky me, Mona has good aircons.
I am also happy about having my very own room, which, of corse, can be used by any tvs coming to visit Mona & Uli.

Chennai has got about 7 million inhabitans. It is a really big city, but feels like a huge village. Near by there are very beautiful temples and there is a 32 km long beach just to it's feed.

As you can see on the photos, there is a lot of traffic in chennai, but I looooooooove to drive with the yellow threewheelers!

The indian people are very friendly, and when ever you pack out a camera, they are very proud, if u also take a picture of or with them. So foreign tvs should be not shy or afraid of meeting new people. ;-)

If u want to see more of chennai, just visit

Mona und Ulis Blogg

After a last bath under india's hot sun, Chamki left 10 days before, to start her adventures in Finland....

Her travelplans so far

Finland -    Dalenna
Germany-  fam-united
Germany-  Monas best friend Janja, to show Chamki
                her hometown
Australia-  gingermuggins
Sweden -  koocachoo
Austria -    ChristinaB
France -    Fleurdunord

If someone like to host Chamki and help to fullfill her life missions, please just send Mosuha a PM..... Thank u all so much!

Hello everybody! Here I am! I arrived safely in Finland. My host picked me up from the post office in the evening before her school (I learnt about autism in the class). When we got home where she lives I met Alfie Langer, a tv who had arrived just recently. We talked all night as I was too excited to sleep!

In the morning I met these 3 lovely girls - and started to fill my missions! 

97 kids left to hug! Yay!

When we looked outside we were all suprised - there was snow! Tons and tons of snow! We were all excited to go out and play in it. The host girls tried skiing for the first time this winter (my host said they haven't really had a winter, even the main newspaper said this has been the warmest winter ever). Then we all went to try the sleighs. That is me with Alfie. When the mail came we had yet another tv to join us, Roo! I bet we'll have a lot of fun together!

Today I visited the local "open daycare center"! That's a place where kids (under 7 = not in school, nor in the "real" kindergarden) and their moms/dads/grandparents can come to spend their time. It's open 3 tims a week from 9am to 1pm. Kids play and the adults chat. I got to hug 7 more kids!  Three of them are in that picture together,  their backs against the camera. And one of them is painting in the picture - she was quite artistic don't you think  90 hugs left!

I ate meatpie for lunch and as I ate all of it my host said I could take a cookie. They had all sorts of toys there - also shiny princess thingies! They don't shine as much in the photo though.

I helped them play "Africa's star", that boardgame. I was the banker as you can see. I also played this racing board game with a 2-year-old so we made the rules up as the board wasn't properly put together (she was a 2-year-old who could balme her!).

It was a nice day, all the hugs and games and toys 

Now it's time for a short history lesson! Today we did some sightseeing by the River Porvoo. The river runs thru the city to the Baltic Sea. By the riverside you can see the old red shorehouses which used to be warehouses - and some still are while some are renovated from the inside to be living quarters. The houses were painted red in the early 18th century to look more pretty when King Gustav III was visiting (Finland has been independent since 1917). The red paint also protected the houses from sun and weather. On the other side of the riverbank they've built new houses which remind people of the old houses. The old ones are the most welknown sight in this town.

Porvoo is the second oldest city in Finland and has about 47000 inhabitants. Porvoo is situated quite close to Helsinki, the capitol, it takes only about 1h to drive there (50km).

Did you notice the cruch/cathedral? The roof is being renovated as it was burnt by arson in May 2006. As the church itself is made of stone it didn't get damaged that badly - and the fire department came quickly. And the cannon is from the 2nd World War! Naturally it's not functional anymore.

The hill you see in the last picture is the "Castle Hill" where used to be a castle/fortress hundreds of years ago. I was told the view from there is nice, you can see all the 4 bridges crossing the river. My host says it's a great place to play Robin Hood too!

Fairytales! Books! Stories!

It has been a quiet Saturday with the kids spending time with their grandparents so I thought I'd read something. I chose the Finnish books - I mean those written by a Finn. My host recommended these books to me due to my mission (collect famous failytales from every country I visit).

Moomins are very popular here and all over the world. Their creator spent her summers in this part of the Finnish archipelago!

Uppo-Nalle is very good and fun series but I'm not sure if it's trabslated to other languages. It's about a teddybear called Uppo-Nalle and his friend Reeta (a girl) and her dog (called Laulava Lintukoira = "Singing Birddog"). Those three have many many adventures near and far. Everything turns up well in the end (and nothing really bad ever happens).

Then there's Mauri Kunnas and his Doghill series. His books have been translated to other languages. Mauri Kunnas has used real people and places in the series and even the Finnish folk tales. Kids can learn about history in a fun way when reading these books - but they're not just about history but fun characters doing fun stuff! Some of the books have Porvoo in them! See the 2nd last picture and comapre to my last entry... And one book is about JL Runeberg (called Ruuneperi in the book), the national poet who lived in Porvoo too. Doghill characters have their own "museum" in the town of Vammala where Mr Kunnas was born - see here!

I will try hard to remember all these stories for my future best friend! My host said she'll try to find some of the fairytales in English/German to help me remember.

Hello boys and girls! This is the famous Finnish sauna. Finnish people are really into this, have been for centuries! It's a hot room (this one is heated by electricity) where you throw water on the hot stones to get the room even more heated and humid. In the public saunas (like those in the swimming halls) women go to one sauna and men to another but naturally the families go together in their own sauna. My host says that 60-80C is good, less is not hot enough and over is too hot. We took the pics when the sauna wasn't on as the camera would take only foggy pictures in the heat. 

This is not an April's Fool  We walked around the city center (market place/bus station) and took some sunny photos. There's a piece of the Town Park. This town has many different parks but this is the biggest. There's also the main street in the last picture. Not a very busy street as it was barely lunch time. In the second last picture my back is facing the old town side, that's why there are some older buildings (in the left corner behind me you can see a blue'ish sign on the wall, that is a game shop my host dad uses - xbox, ps, pc games...).

Look and see: the Baltic Sea! Hey, it rhymes 
This is next to my host's home and yes, it truly is the Baltic Sea. You don't have an open sea view as there's the archipelago. Did you know that the creator of Moomin spent her summers in this part of the archipelago? No wonder Moominpappa is such a sealover! We saw some birds too, but we weren't sure what they really are. Maybe I should go to the library and lend a birdiebook...

Today we visited my host's parents in a small village on the other side of Porvoo municipality. There's a footballfield, the local school (which had only 20 pupils in grades 1 thru 6 when my host attended it), the houses that used to be a gas station (the red) and a shop (the white'ish in the same pic)... My host says the school (yellow with red roof) is included in her "good old days"  The shop was small but had a good variety, although my host grinned that she "didn't know any better"

Ah, here it is finally, the text for this entry! Now be nice boys and girls, no poking while reading. Everyone will get their turn 

This is the capitol of Finland: Helsinki. It was a rainy day but we didn't let it bother us much. Helsinki has about 500 000 inhabitants and is located only 1h drive from Porvoo.

In the first picture is the Cathedral at the Senate Square. In the second pic is the Government Palace at the same square.

The next photos are taken one block away, at the Market Square. As you can see there are huge cruise liners but also smaller boats and ferries (not all in dock at that moment). The big cruisers go mainly to Tallinn (Estonia) and Stockholm (Sweden) frequently. There's also the Uspensky Orthodox Cathedral (third photo)  and in the 8th pic the building with the flag on top Presidential Palace. The president of Finland is Tarja Halonen, she's the first female president in this country. See, girls can go far too!

The green phonebooth is not the regular Finnish phonebooth. You can hardly find the regular ones as everyone has a cellphone nowadays. My host guessed it's somekind of an attraction itself for the Finns - and not all tourists carry cellphones so... And it suits the small street it stands in! Next to it were that couple and their reindeer wishing people welcome to the souvenir shop.

After that is the Main Railway Station.

And in the second last pic a general view of the main street.

In the last photo there's the Parliament House, the white building is the Museum of Contemporary Art  Kiasma and the statue next to it is the riding Mannerheim (one of our former presidents) - and a corner of the main Post Office on the right.