August 2006
After our six and a half month journey, we have finally returned home. It was quite an adventure. I have uploaded some photos from our trip at www.flickr.com/photos/ericremyjordan/.
Mitra, myself, Kiran (now 1.5 years), Alizeh (now 4 years) and Darius (now 6 years) and a family friend (Jaimie) left Victoria in late January. We had the opportunity to have many great experiences in South East Asia. Jaimie's boyfriend, Ryan, joined us part way through our trip and was able to travel with us for 3 months. He was great with the kids and a wonderful help to Jaimie and the rest of us.
We started our trip in Singapore. We spent 3 weeks there initially, as we got settled into our new life on the road. We found that in larger centers (like Singapore, Bangkok, Hanoi, etc), we were able to find fully furnished apartments called "service apartments". These worked very well for us as they often had three bedroom apartments that we could rent. This meant that we would have access to hotel like features (such as a restaurant and pool), plus our own kitchen, laundry and living room. It is a good way to travel with such a large group. You get more space for less money than a hotel would typically offer. When we left Victoria, Kiran could only crawl. During our first stay in Singapore, he was able to take a total of 16 steps in a Baskin-Robbins. Within the next month, he was walking and running. Kiran celebrated his first birthday in Singapore by having "Breakfast with Orangutans" at the Singapore Zoo.
From Singapore, we went to Malaysia. We spent the entire time on an island called Langkawi. This is a beautiful island with glorious beaches. We did the "tourist thing" there for 3 weeks. We hung out, enjoying the beach and the pool. We stayed at two different resorts while we were there. The second resort had a pool with a swim up bar. The kids enjoyed getting ice cream while playing in the pool. Mitra enjoyed getting hot tea while swimming. I enjoyed sipping smoothies in the pool.
From Malaysia, we went to Sydney, Australia. Some friends of ours were having their first baby and we wanted to be there for them. They helped us line up a place to stay. We rented a house just outside of the city centre. It was in a very nice neighborhood that reminded us of Kitsilano in Vancouver (with an organic grocery store just up the street and a play ground a few blocks away). We stayed there for 5 weeks. It was a nice change from the hotels and apartments that we had been renting. We had originally planned to see New Zealand, but the baby did not arrive until just before we left. We had begun to wonder if we were even going to get to see the baby. But everything worked out fine in the end with a happy new baby, and happy (and tired) new mom and dad. It was nice to rent a house and live in a place that had more of a "home" feel to it and a small back yard for the kids.
From Australia, we went to Singapore for one more week. In Singapore, we were joined by Ryan (a great addition, as I have mentioned). From Singapore, we all went to Thailand. We spent 1 month in Thailand and traveled to 4 different cities. We started on the island of Samui. This is another nice beach island. After Samui, we went to Bangkok. We had a great service apartment in Bangkok. Alizeh and I made an overnight trip from Bangkok to Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya was the capital of an old Thai kingdom which was overthrown by the Burmese. We had a very good time visiting all of the various old ruins. From Bangkok, we all flew to Sukhothai. Sukhothai was also the capital of an old Thai kingdom. The kingdom of Sukhothai was gradually subsumed into the kingdom of Ayutthaya. Sukhothai is a world heritage site with beautiful ruins. We rented bikes and bicycled all through the ruins (set in a wonderful park). Everyone had a great time. Next we went to Chiang Mai. We enjoyed checking out our last Thai city. Mitra and I went to "monk chat" were monks speak to foreigners. It is a chance for the monks to improve their English and for foreigners to ask questions about Thai culture and religion.
After Thailand, we went to Laos. We had the opportunity to stay in a great guest house in Luang Prabang, Laos. We stayed there for 10 days and loved every day. We would have stayed longer, but we had visas for Vietnam and needed to arrive in Hanoi on the first day of the visa (from our reading, we had come to understand that Vietnam was quite strict about the entry and exit dates/locations). Luang Prabang is a beautiful city which was the capital of an ancient Lao kingdom. It was recently named a world heritage site. In the past few years it has gone from being one of the poorest places in Laos, to a new up and coming location. The locals seemed to us to be walking around with big smiles on their faces because of the prosperity that tourism has brought to this previously impoverished location. We found that in general, people in South East Asia were very warm (especially with the kids). However, the Thais seemed more practiced on dealing with the locals, whereas folks in Laos were still quite new to it all.
From Laos, we went to Hanoi in Vietnam. We enjoyed Hanoi a great deal. We stayed in a wonderful service apartment with some of the best kid's facilities that we found. From our apartment we could watch the insane Hanoi traffic. Of all of the cities that we saw, Hanoi had the craziest traffic (the Lonely Planet, Vietnam, has one page on "how to cross the street" -- no kidding!). Hanoi has wonderful ice cream and great food. We found that due to the previous French occupation of Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, all of those countries had great French food, in addition to great local food. Also, we found Vietnam to have the best vegetarian food. It was very interesting getting to visit their markets and their many war museums. For our entire time in Vietnam, I kept being reminded of how my father dodged the US draft (which is why I was born and raised in Canada) and how my uncle had fought as a pilot in the war. In Hanoi, there are the remains of many aircraft that were shot down and I saw many old dog tags in the museums. Just a few hours drive from Hanoi, we spent a night on a boat in Halong Bay. It was a very beautiful setting. I think that the morning swim off the boat in the bay was the most enjoyable part for our team. Just before we left Hanoi, we celebrated Alizeh's fourth birthday. We went to the Water Park in Hanoi, Vietnam. There were about 400 Vietnamese folks and perhaps 10 tourists. Alizeh (with her new and very curly hair, was quite the object of attention).
From Hanoi, we traveled to Hue. Hue is the ancient capital of Vietnam (when Vietnam was still a kingdom). Hue is a wonderful city. It has great architecture and an awesome citadel. It was also the sight of a great deal of fighting during the 1968 Tet Offensive. We spent several enjoyable days riding around on cyclos in Hue. We did a boat trip and I also spent a long day on a tour of the DMZ, seeing old US bases and Vietnamese tunnels. From Hue we went to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). We were only there for a few days and we spent the entire time sick. Everyone got better before we left for Cambodia, but we really didn't get to see much of Ho Chi Minh City.
As per usual, we spent a month in Cambodia (1 week in Phnom Penh, 1 week in Sihanoukville and our last 2 weeks in Siem Reap). Phnom Penh was a very interesting city (Lonely Planet, Cambodia, includes instructions on what to do if you are robbed at gun point). The most riveting sites were the prison (S-21) and killing fields. At S-21 (a former high school), they interrogated about 16,500 people (men, women and children). After the prisoners were interrogated, they were sent to the killing fields where they were killed. All of them. Of the 16,500 people who entered S-21, only 7 lived. It is a very powerful experience to walk through S-21 and then to visit the killing fields. At the killing fields, there are bones and bits of cloth coming up through the dirt everywhere. At the centre is a memorial stupa filled with skulls. By looking at the skulls, you can sometimes get a sense on how the person died. It is a very difficult place to experience. From Phnom Penh, we went south to Sihanoukville. Sihanoukville has some beautiful beaches. We stayed at a very nice resort with a private beach. We all had a great time playing in the waves and on the sand.
Finally, we went to Siem Reap. At first we went to Siem Reap to see the famous temples like Angkor Wat. The temples are amazing and are worthy of all of their praise. However, there were so many kids selling things. We started by just talking to the kids (we didn't need any of the things that they were selling). Mitra and I wanted to do more than just talk to them, so we bought some lollipops to take to the temples with us. So, instead of buying the postcards or just saying "no", we gave some lollipops. This went over quite well with both the kids and us. We gave lollipops to about 150 kids. Then we thought (seeing the kids' teeth) that they might enjoy the treat, but also needed some toothpaste and toothbrushes. So we assembled 150 packages each containing 1 or 2 lollipops, a toothbrush and some toothpaste. We talked to our tuk-tuk driver, Soheng, and he suggested going to one of the local villages instead of giving to the kids by the temples. So, he drove us to a small village. On the first day we gave out 50 packages. On the second day we gave out 100 packages (at a different village). After we gave out the 150 toothbrushes, toothpaste, and lollipop packages, we were inspired to do more.
We went into another store to purchase more things for the kids and by chance asked about school supplies. This store suggested some materials. We added to this package and came up with the following for each child: 1 school notebook, 1 pen, 1 pencil, 1 eraser, 1 ruler, 1 pencil sharpener, 1 toothbrush, 1 toothpaste, 2 lollipops. We gave out 150 of those packages on the first day. Then 230 on the next day (which also happened to be our 9th wedding anniversary -- we couldn't think of a more rewarding way to celebrate our anniversary!). Then 150 packages on the following day (the day before we left Siem Reap). All in all, we gave out 530 "full" packages, 150 of the other package (just the toothbrush, toothpaste and the lollipops) and lollipops to 150 kids. We gave all of this stuff out in 7 days. In total, we touched the lives of over 800 kids in our last week in Cambodia. It was one of the most rewarding experiences that I have ever had. Our whole family was touched by the experience.
On our last morning in Siem Reap, we hosted a breakfast at our hotel where we were joined by our driver (and now friend), Soheng, and another friend we had met along the way named Nary. Also we were joined by a Vicheat. Vicheat is a former university student (studying in Bangkok), who had been a Buddhist monk for 4 years, who then came to Siem Reap to drive a tuk-tuk, but stopped driving a tuk-tuk in order to teach English in the country side to very poor kids. Mitra and I meet him (and saw his school) on our wedding anniversary. Vicheat brought along some of his students who could not join us on the day that we visited his school. These were all very poor children (some orphans and some not). And we treated them all to breakfast at a 5 star hotel in Siem Reap. It was quite an experience for them. Luckily, the Cambodian staff helped the kids, explaining what to do at a breakfast buffet. It was a new experience for them, but with the help of the staff, they had a good time. When breakfast was over everyone wanted joined us on the trip to the airport. Nary rode in the tuk-tuk with us. Soheng drove us as our luggage went in the van that we had arranged to originally take us. Vicheat and his students rode behind us on 3 separate motorcycles. It was quite the send off.
After Cambodia we spent a final 10 days in Singapore. This was pretty uneventful given the amount of time we had spent there. We re-visited our favorite spots and got ready for the trip home. We arrived home on Aug 7 at 27 hours on the go. It was nice to be home, it has taken us some time to settle in again.
It was a very interesting experience traveling with the kids. Like many things, there was some good and some bad in the experience. At points, we thought to ourselves, "What were we thinking doing this with the kids! This is insane!" But we also found that local people really changed their behavior with us as a result of traveling with the kids. When Mitra and I were out without the children, we were just another tourist. But when the kids came with us, we were transformed to a family. I think that people found this easier to relate too. After all, South East Asia is very family-centric and their families are a source of great joy. Unlike being a tourist, which is something that most of them have never experienced, all of them have experienced being part of a family. We found that it really opened a lot of doors for us. In the end, I am very glad that we took the kids. Not only did it open doors for Mitra and myself, but it has been a great learning experience for all of them.
After our six and a half month journey, we have finally returned home. It was quite an adventure. I have uploaded some photos from our trip at www.flickr.com/photos/ericremyjordan/.
Mitra, myself, Kiran (now 1.5 years), Alizeh (now 4 years) and Darius (now 6 years) and a family friend (Jaimie) left Victoria in late January. We had the opportunity to have many great experiences in South East Asia. Jaimie's boyfriend, Ryan, joined us part way through our trip and was able to travel with us for 3 months. He was great with the kids and a wonderful help to Jaimie and the rest of us.
We started our trip in Singapore. We spent 3 weeks there initially, as we got settled into our new life on the road. We found that in larger centers (like Singapore, Bangkok, Hanoi, etc), we were able to find fully furnished apartments called "service apartments". These worked very well for us as they often had three bedroom apartments that we could rent. This meant that we would have access to hotel like features (such as a restaurant and pool), plus our own kitchen, laundry and living room. It is a good way to travel with such a large group. You get more space for less money than a hotel would typically offer. When we left Victoria, Kiran could only crawl. During our first stay in Singapore, he was able to take a total of 16 steps in a Baskin-Robbins. Within the next month, he was walking and running. Kiran celebrated his first birthday in Singapore by having "Breakfast with Orangutans" at the Singapore Zoo.
From Singapore, we went to Malaysia. We spent the entire time on an island called Langkawi. This is a beautiful island with glorious beaches. We did the "tourist thing" there for 3 weeks. We hung out, enjoying the beach and the pool. We stayed at two different resorts while we were there. The second resort had a pool with a swim up bar. The kids enjoyed getting ice cream while playing in the pool. Mitra enjoyed getting hot tea while swimming. I enjoyed sipping smoothies in the pool.
From Malaysia, we went to Sydney, Australia. Some friends of ours were having their first baby and we wanted to be there for them. They helped us line up a place to stay. We rented a house just outside of the city centre. It was in a very nice neighborhood that reminded us of Kitsilano in Vancouver (with an organic grocery store just up the street and a play ground a few blocks away). We stayed there for 5 weeks. It was a nice change from the hotels and apartments that we had been renting. We had originally planned to see New Zealand, but the baby did not arrive until just before we left. We had begun to wonder if we were even going to get to see the baby. But everything worked out fine in the end with a happy new baby, and happy (and tired) new mom and dad. It was nice to rent a house and live in a place that had more of a "home" feel to it and a small back yard for the kids.
From Australia, we went to Singapore for one more week. In Singapore, we were joined by Ryan (a great addition, as I have mentioned). From Singapore, we all went to Thailand. We spent 1 month in Thailand and traveled to 4 different cities. We started on the island of Samui. This is another nice beach island. After Samui, we went to Bangkok. We had a great service apartment in Bangkok. Alizeh and I made an overnight trip from Bangkok to Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya was the capital of an old Thai kingdom which was overthrown by the Burmese. We had a very good time visiting all of the various old ruins. From Bangkok, we all flew to Sukhothai. Sukhothai was also the capital of an old Thai kingdom. The kingdom of Sukhothai was gradually subsumed into the kingdom of Ayutthaya. Sukhothai is a world heritage site with beautiful ruins. We rented bikes and bicycled all through the ruins (set in a wonderful park). Everyone had a great time. Next we went to Chiang Mai. We enjoyed checking out our last Thai city. Mitra and I went to "monk chat" were monks speak to foreigners. It is a chance for the monks to improve their English and for foreigners to ask questions about Thai culture and religion.
After Thailand, we went to Laos. We had the opportunity to stay in a great guest house in Luang Prabang, Laos. We stayed there for 10 days and loved every day. We would have stayed longer, but we had visas for Vietnam and needed to arrive in Hanoi on the first day of the visa (from our reading, we had come to understand that Vietnam was quite strict about the entry and exit dates/locations). Luang Prabang is a beautiful city which was the capital of an ancient Lao kingdom. It was recently named a world heritage site. In the past few years it has gone from being one of the poorest places in Laos, to a new up and coming location. The locals seemed to us to be walking around with big smiles on their faces because of the prosperity that tourism has brought to this previously impoverished location. We found that in general, people in South East Asia were very warm (especially with the kids). However, the Thais seemed more practiced on dealing with the locals, whereas folks in Laos were still quite new to it all.
From Laos, we went to Hanoi in Vietnam. We enjoyed Hanoi a great deal. We stayed in a wonderful service apartment with some of the best kid's facilities that we found. From our apartment we could watch the insane Hanoi traffic. Of all of the cities that we saw, Hanoi had the craziest traffic (the Lonely Planet, Vietnam, has one page on "how to cross the street" -- no kidding!). Hanoi has wonderful ice cream and great food. We found that due to the previous French occupation of Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, all of those countries had great French food, in addition to great local food. Also, we found Vietnam to have the best vegetarian food. It was very interesting getting to visit their markets and their many war museums. For our entire time in Vietnam, I kept being reminded of how my father dodged the US draft (which is why I was born and raised in Canada) and how my uncle had fought as a pilot in the war. In Hanoi, there are the remains of many aircraft that were shot down and I saw many old dog tags in the museums. Just a few hours drive from Hanoi, we spent a night on a boat in Halong Bay. It was a very beautiful setting. I think that the morning swim off the boat in the bay was the most enjoyable part for our team. Just before we left Hanoi, we celebrated Alizeh's fourth birthday. We went to the Water Park in Hanoi, Vietnam. There were about 400 Vietnamese folks and perhaps 10 tourists. Alizeh (with her new and very curly hair, was quite the object of attention).
From Hanoi, we traveled to Hue. Hue is the ancient capital of Vietnam (when Vietnam was still a kingdom). Hue is a wonderful city. It has great architecture and an awesome citadel. It was also the sight of a great deal of fighting during the 1968 Tet Offensive. We spent several enjoyable days riding around on cyclos in Hue. We did a boat trip and I also spent a long day on a tour of the DMZ, seeing old US bases and Vietnamese tunnels. From Hue we went to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). We were only there for a few days and we spent the entire time sick. Everyone got better before we left for Cambodia, but we really didn't get to see much of Ho Chi Minh City.
As per usual, we spent a month in Cambodia (1 week in Phnom Penh, 1 week in Sihanoukville and our last 2 weeks in Siem Reap). Phnom Penh was a very interesting city (Lonely Planet, Cambodia, includes instructions on what to do if you are robbed at gun point). The most riveting sites were the prison (S-21) and killing fields. At S-21 (a former high school), they interrogated about 16,500 people (men, women and children). After the prisoners were interrogated, they were sent to the killing fields where they were killed. All of them. Of the 16,500 people who entered S-21, only 7 lived. It is a very powerful experience to walk through S-21 and then to visit the killing fields. At the killing fields, there are bones and bits of cloth coming up through the dirt everywhere. At the centre is a memorial stupa filled with skulls. By looking at the skulls, you can sometimes get a sense on how the person died. It is a very difficult place to experience. From Phnom Penh, we went south to Sihanoukville. Sihanoukville has some beautiful beaches. We stayed at a very nice resort with a private beach. We all had a great time playing in the waves and on the sand.
Finally, we went to Siem Reap. At first we went to Siem Reap to see the famous temples like Angkor Wat. The temples are amazing and are worthy of all of their praise. However, there were so many kids selling things. We started by just talking to the kids (we didn't need any of the things that they were selling). Mitra and I wanted to do more than just talk to them, so we bought some lollipops to take to the temples with us. So, instead of buying the postcards or just saying "no", we gave some lollipops. This went over quite well with both the kids and us. We gave lollipops to about 150 kids. Then we thought (seeing the kids' teeth) that they might enjoy the treat, but also needed some toothpaste and toothbrushes. So we assembled 150 packages each containing 1 or 2 lollipops, a toothbrush and some toothpaste. We talked to our tuk-tuk driver, Soheng, and he suggested going to one of the local villages instead of giving to the kids by the temples. So, he drove us to a small village. On the first day we gave out 50 packages. On the second day we gave out 100 packages (at a different village). After we gave out the 150 toothbrushes, toothpaste, and lollipop packages, we were inspired to do more.
We went into another store to purchase more things for the kids and by chance asked about school supplies. This store suggested some materials. We added to this package and came up with the following for each child: 1 school notebook, 1 pen, 1 pencil, 1 eraser, 1 ruler, 1 pencil sharpener, 1 toothbrush, 1 toothpaste, 2 lollipops. We gave out 150 of those packages on the first day. Then 230 on the next day (which also happened to be our 9th wedding anniversary -- we couldn't think of a more rewarding way to celebrate our anniversary!). Then 150 packages on the following day (the day before we left Siem Reap). All in all, we gave out 530 "full" packages, 150 of the other package (just the toothbrush, toothpaste and the lollipops) and lollipops to 150 kids. We gave all of this stuff out in 7 days. In total, we touched the lives of over 800 kids in our last week in Cambodia. It was one of the most rewarding experiences that I have ever had. Our whole family was touched by the experience.
On our last morning in Siem Reap, we hosted a breakfast at our hotel where we were joined by our driver (and now friend), Soheng, and another friend we had met along the way named Nary. Also we were joined by a Vicheat. Vicheat is a former university student (studying in Bangkok), who had been a Buddhist monk for 4 years, who then came to Siem Reap to drive a tuk-tuk, but stopped driving a tuk-tuk in order to teach English in the country side to very poor kids. Mitra and I meet him (and saw his school) on our wedding anniversary. Vicheat brought along some of his students who could not join us on the day that we visited his school. These were all very poor children (some orphans and some not). And we treated them all to breakfast at a 5 star hotel in Siem Reap. It was quite an experience for them. Luckily, the Cambodian staff helped the kids, explaining what to do at a breakfast buffet. It was a new experience for them, but with the help of the staff, they had a good time. When breakfast was over everyone wanted joined us on the trip to the airport. Nary rode in the tuk-tuk with us. Soheng drove us as our luggage went in the van that we had arranged to originally take us. Vicheat and his students rode behind us on 3 separate motorcycles. It was quite the send off.
After Cambodia we spent a final 10 days in Singapore. This was pretty uneventful given the amount of time we had spent there. We re-visited our favorite spots and got ready for the trip home. We arrived home on Aug 7 at 27 hours on the go. It was nice to be home, it has taken us some time to settle in again.
It was a very interesting experience traveling with the kids. Like many things, there was some good and some bad in the experience. At points, we thought to ourselves, "What were we thinking doing this with the kids! This is insane!" But we also found that local people really changed their behavior with us as a result of traveling with the kids. When Mitra and I were out without the children, we were just another tourist. But when the kids came with us, we were transformed to a family. I think that people found this easier to relate too. After all, South East Asia is very family-centric and their families are a source of great joy. Unlike being a tourist, which is something that most of them have never experienced, all of them have experienced being part of a family. We found that it really opened a lot of doors for us. In the end, I am very glad that we took the kids. Not only did it open doors for Mitra and myself, but it has been a great learning experience for all of them.
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