Madi Sapakov, schoolboy

My favourite place is the beautiful island of Bali. When you approach it by plane you think you might be about to land in the water. There are palm-trees, rice fields and villages everywhere. Up to four people can ride one motor bike at the same time and they don’t always wear helmets. People are very kind here and men wear a flower behind their ear. When we arrived at the hotel we all also got a flower for behind the ear.

I like the zoo. We drove around it in a jeep and watched animals through the window. You can feed some of them. I also like riding elephants. On the way to the park there are Hati-hati signs everywhere. I thought this meant ‘Elephants’, but it turned out to be ‘Beware’.

My favourite Bali dish is called nasi goreng; it is fried rice. There are many temples on Bali and there is a statue of Buddha near each house. Women make boxes of leaves and put pieces of food, fruit, biscuits, rice and flowers inside and then carry these offerings to the statues on top of their heads. They use their heads because they consider this the most sacred place. But most of all I love swimming here! When I am older I will go surfing.