But, I now have "guidebook enteritis". I've read so much about where we are going I no longer want to go there. I feel like I've already been there! Too much information. My husband never reads guidebooks until he has left the place they are covering. He says he can't understand them until he has seen what they are talking about. I'm not quite at the point of throwing away all guidebooks but I am going to take a rest for a while and enjoy living in the present instead of planning for the future. Spring has just arrived in our neck of the woods and it is pretty glorious indeed. I could imagine lots of people wanting to come visit here and take a break just admiring these kinds of spring blossoms.
There comes a time in every trip prep where you are just done with the planning. Especially with a convoluted trip like this with multiple countries over two months. There is, necessarily, at least one intensive stage where you have to lock down the logistics of coming and going (and who is coming and going - still not entirely settled...). By now, I have booked (and paid!) for flights over to Europe and back from Asia and the train segments leading from Estonia to China. But, in order to do that I have spent weeks pouring over guide books to figure out potential routes and exactly how many days to spend in each town and city we were potentially passing through. I do hate that we are booking the train tickets in advance but given it is high season and the must popular route through Russia, we really don't have a choice. And I want to know if I really want to spend 7 days in St. Petersburg and 4 in Moscow or vice versa. It is like a puzzle where we have to fit all the places we want to visit into the time frame we have and not feel squished. I can look on line and I can read blogs but there is nothing like a guidebook with their "top ten highlights" and "4 day Itineraries" and handy maps to really give you the lowdown on what there is to do and see in each city. And since, of course, we can't see everything, it is the quickest way of slicing and dicing our itinerary. Sometimes we make decisions based on those lovely words "most tourists don't stop here". We are taking the southern loop of the Trans Siberian railway instead of the northern one for just that reason. And because it means we can stop at Kazan - the capital of Tatarshan, a sovereign republic in the Russian Federation. Love the idea of visiting a "Stan" while not even leaving Russia.
But, I now have "guidebook enteritis". I've read so much about where we are going I no longer want to go there. I feel like I've already been there! Too much information. My husband never reads guidebooks until he has left the place they are covering. He says he can't understand them until he has seen what they are talking about. I'm not quite at the point of throwing away all guidebooks but I am going to take a rest for a while and enjoy living in the present instead of planning for the future. Spring has just arrived in our neck of the woods and it is pretty glorious indeed. I could imagine lots of people wanting to come visit here and take a break just admiring these kinds of spring blossoms.
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Now that we have plane tickets, the second step is visas. One of the true joys of being an American is that we generally breeze through this process. If we want to visit Paris or London or Dublin we just show up at the airport and they happily wave us through. Other places like Argentina or Cambodia ask us to pay a fee, fill out some forms and then wave us through. But a few, a select few, do make life difficult. Not as difficult as the American government does to other nationals trying to get to Disney Land, mind you. While we have to fill out some forms and glue on an itty bitty, inevitably unflattering photo, people applying for a visa to come here have to provide affidavits from their local police department and medical records as well as proof of employment and bank records. So I am not complaining. I had a friend from Indonesia who tried many times to get a visa. He was at that awkward stage between being a student and owning his own business or having inherited/earned enough money to own land or buildings. Not having a wife or children to leave behind as collateral, the US officials simply assumed he would never return home and denied him a visa. This is more generally the case than not. However, of all the countries in the world besides ours, the two most intimidating are Russia and China. First of all, they keep changing the rules. This is the third time I have applied for a Chinese visa and I still don't have it down yet. Now, apparently, we need a letter of invitation to enter the country. Or is just presenting an actual flight ticket in and out of the country enough? Do we need a complete itinerary or not? I'll get to that later because I can't apply for my Chinese visa until I get my passport back from the Russian consulate who are presently perusing it. I will break the actual steps needed to get a Russian visa down later but for now, let me just say, it is an exercise in cultural communication. Without even stepping one foot into the country I feel I have already glimpsed how my three weeks there will go. One the one hand, they are the most nitpicky, persnickety officials I have ever had to deal with. On the other hand, there is no official obstacle that cannot be cleverly circumnavigated . The first thing that flummoxes most travelers to Russia is the need for an official "Letter of Invitation", hereafter known as an LOI. If you aren't presently being invited to Russia by either a person or a business, never fear. There are hundreds of organizations in Russia that are more than willing to invite you. Twenty dollars and twenty minutes will get you a legitimate "Visa Support document". If you've booked a hotel they can send you one, if you've booked a tour or ticket in Russia, that agency can invite you. Or you can just go to one of the many, many websites specifically set up to help you like Real Russia or GotoRussia. Once you have your LOI, you are set to apply. The first thing you need to know is the Russian consulate no longer actually handles the application. Yes, that's right, they have farmed it out to a visa application business who will take your form, check it over and when everything is in order, send it to the consulate to be stamped. For this service they of course need to be paid, so you will have to add on, at minimum, an extra $30 to the standard $140 (for Americans) visa fee. If you want to do it by mail or faster than the standard 10 business days then, of course, the fee will be much, possibly much, much higher. Now mark my words, no matter how precisely you fill out the application, they will find something wrong with it; a spelling error, wrong punctuation, something. Mine was rejected because I had not realized my LOI had written (in cyrillic) the names of the hotels I was supposedly staying at during my three weeks in Russia. I had, myself, picked various hotels randomly out of a guidebook and put them down (in english) on my application. Now the agent looking over my papers was not at all bothered that the facts were blatantly false (as in I clearly was not going to be staying at hotels I didn't know about). All she cared was that the forms did not match. But, for $25, she could retype my entire application replacing my hotels with the cyrillic ones mentioned on the LOI. Note, this was $25 per visa per family member since they ALL had to match, not a one time thing. I still don't know the names of the hotels we and the kids are supposedly staying at. So, nitpicking, yet surprisingly flexible. As in, everybody knows this is a complete scam but if you do not dot the i's and cross the t's we are going to pretend this is a very big deal. Until it's not, because with a little extra money, it can all go away. Or as the website for the agency that now handles all things Russian visa says - "it has become a very comfortable and pleasant procedure." Trust the system, you will get a visa. Eventually. We have tickets, we are going! Three huge countries - Russia, Mongolia and China. If only. Naturally, it has gotten a tad more complicated (spiraled out of control). First, we have a friend from Estonia, a good friend, She happens to be going back to her home country to show off her new baby. Her home town, Tallinn, is only four hours by train from St. Petersburg. It's right next door! So, why not? How could we pass up this opportunity to be shown around Estonia by a proud native? Just as I was about to click on the buy button for tickets, my hubby casually mentions, oh by the way, the Dixon family reunion is happening in Ireland just after we arrive back in the states. Ah, ok, let's think about this. Back to Kayak.com and rework the multicity tickets. It is absolutely ridiculous to fly back from Asia to USA and then turn around and leave for Europe so....we are now going straight from Beijing to London. There we will spend some time with my family before jetting off to Ireland to meet up with the giant Dixon clan. So, in a nutshell, here is the plan - Estonia, Russia (including Siberia), Mongolia, China, England and Ireland in just over two months. How did this happen? Emmm, what happened to one month, one country? It's just that that they are each right next to each other, how can we not keep going in a single straight line from Eastern Europe to Asia? Yes, I realize the England/Ireland bit is at the end instead of in the beginning, but doesn't it make a beautiful (almost) straight line? Completely logical, no? Ah, it will not be so bad, since we will basically be following the tried and true Trans Mongolian route, jumping on and off the train as we see fit. The train routes are so extensive and omnipresent that even though it will be high season I don't think we will have any trouble getting tickets. All the Moscow-Beijing tickets will be sold out but the little hops in between on the less fancy trains will still be available.
And that, my friends, might fall under the heading of "wishful thinking". We will find out! You know when I found out that I was going to have twins, instead of being overwhelmed, I just thought "well, I've had a girl and I've had a boy. What else is there to do but have twins." I never like to do the same thing twice. If I know how to do something then I have to up the ante.
So, having spent a little over a year traveling around Asia and South America, what to do, where to go next? Of course! The one country that still legally requires an invitation to enter, is millions of miles wide and we can't even read the signs. I am speaking of course, of Russia. But if we are going to Russia, why not do the whole Transiberian thing and train down through Mongolia to China? I mean, it's right there! And its not like any more people speak english in those countries! So it is set. We are going to spend mid June to mid August meandering from Russia to Mongolia to China. I am not completely phased by the complete inability to communicate, let alone but, ok, yes, it is a little daunting not to be able to translate a menus or a street sign. So when I saw our local mainline school night was offering a beginning Russian class I signed up hoping I could teach myself to decipher the cyrillic code. This should help not only in Russia but also in Mongolia which uses the same alphabet. Mandarin? Forget about it. I'm just assuming that since we will be mostly in or near Beijing, we will find enough english speakers to give us a break. So now to the planning stages. I've bought the guidebooks and have roughed out the direction we want to go - from west to east. We want to end up in China because then, maybe, my son will deign to join us after he has had his mandatory, not to be tampered with stint in his beloved summer camp. This means I will be traveling through Russia and Mongolia with just the girls. Possibly just the youngest since my oldest daughter may be holding down a summer job. My only chance of convincing the dear boy to travel with us is to tempt him with Chinese food which he loves. Russian borscht would definitely not do the trick. Anyway it will be nice to end with a bang on the Great Wall. OK, baby steps, have to start researching plane tickets, visa requirements for Russia and China and maybe, try to find someone out there who has had a good experience buying train tickets on the ground as they went around instead of in advance. All aboard! While preparing the last post I found myself making lists as I remembered things. So just for fun - here they are. Our Travel modes Plane (from jumbo jets to 6 passenger props) Train (the regular type as well as the bamboo norrie) Bus (but no overnight sleepers) Automobile (including but not confined to trucks, jeeps, taxis, tuk tuks & songthaews) Boat (speed boat, ferry, house boat, longtail, canoe, row boat and rafts) Cable Cars (the Chinese love these) Motorcycles Ox Cart Rickshaw (the bike kind) Bicycles Medical mishaps Ainlay - Broken wrist (Thailand) and bleeding blisters on three day hike in Myanmar which actually hurt way worse. Leontine - Fainting spell (India) David Evan - Altitude sickness on Tiger Leaping Gorge (China), bitten by orangutang (just bruised) Miriam - Pitched off a bike into a gorse brush (Myanmar) Vincent & Ming - nothing, nada, niente. Other Mishaps Ming - lost passport (twice) Vincent - lost (very expensive) camera, Iphone (mine) & various other odds and ends, including the bottom half of his zip off pants. Ainlay - Camera on the fritz throughout Bolivia. Animal Actitivies Ride - horses, donkeys, elephants, camels and yaks Swim with - sea turtles, sea lions and penquins Feed baby elephants Snorkel with sharks Hold a stingless jellyfish Release baby turtles into the sea Study the same finches that inspired Darwin Hold a female orangutang’s hand and run from a charging male one Cuddle baby tigers, pet fully grown ones Scoop panda poop and feed them panda cakes Pose inside a giant turtle shell Race dolphins on a speed boat Be bitten by a dung beetle Favorite memories Floating down the river in Borneo surrounded by thousands of fireflies Finding a mashed potato soft serve dispenser in a 7/11 convenience store in Singapore. Sleeping on soft bedding on a sand dune under millions of stars in the Thar desert, India. All those delicious noodle dishes that cost about $1 a bowl throughout Asia. Meeting the newlywed King and Queen of Bhutan and discussing Glee. Stepping back into the 14th century at Tibetan monasteries Racing with penguins or swimming with naughty sea lions in the Galapagos Eating fresh cocao beans, rambutans and mangosteens Spotting a wild tiger in India (after three days of tracking) Eating seafood literally moments after it is caught in Borneo, India and Myanmar. All 5 of us huddling together under 8 blankets in the early Myanmar dawn Pushing back a greedy elephant while preparing her food Making crazy perspective photos on the Salt Flats of Bolivia There are more, so many more, but that’s enough for now.
. The one question absolutely guaranteed to be be asked when you say you are traveling around the world with your kids is “what about school?”. You know what I discovered about homeschooling for a year? There is no better way to teach your teenage son to joyfully embrace academics then force him to be be with his parents 24/7. These days, he literally leaps out of bed to catch the school bus carrying him off to his personal sanctuary. I am also personally grateful that we took this trip last year since I am discovering 4th grade math might be above my grade level. I could handle multiplication and division but start to throw in ratios and I lose interest fast. But in all seriousness, homeschooling in the states is a breeze. Many parents do not even have this option. If you live in Germany, Greece or Sweden, it is illegal to take your child out of school for a year. In Bulgaria you can homeschool only if you have a special needs child, in Ireland only if the parent is a certified teacher. So count your blessings. The United States allows homeschooling in whatever state you live in and 2.5 million people do it everyday. Find out what your state requirements are and know that your kid can fulfill them with one hand tied behind his or her back. Of course your child is not going to be doing exactly the same curriculum as their classmates but then why would you be doing this if you didn’t want something different? Now, we were only gone for a year. If you are considering a full time travel lifestyle then obviously you will have to consider other options like “unschooling”, online curriculums or stints in local schools. But for one year? Don’t sweat it. What they were seeing and experiencing each day was worth its weight in theoretical academics. Instead of working on computers we decided to bring along actual grammar and math workbooks. This worked because my oldest daughter went back and forth to the states and so could schlep books as required. It was nice to have something tangible to give the kids wherein they could see their progress but I can imagine an online course working as well - so long as you have access to internet or can download it when you do.
The best thing we did was insist the kids keep a blog. They could write about whatever they wanted to, completely uncensored, but they did have to write. By the end of the year all three had not only become fluent in typing, uploading, photo editing and sharing, they were much better writers and could churn out copy on demand. I highly recommend this. The one thing that surprised me was having to schedule reading. Since my oldest two are voracious readers I had expected this to be a no brainer, loading our kindles with novels relating to the countries we were visiting. But the youngest ones preferred to watch episodes of Glee and Friends on their Itouches, who would have thunk it? Finally I had to tell them their school had told me reading 25 books was a requirement for entering 4th grade. (Ok, not a requirement but a suggestion, never underestimate the value of lying to your children). They got it done. In all honesty, I didn’t get as much fiction reading done as I had expected either, what with the need to be constantly reading guidebooks and planning our next steps via the internet. Whatever approach you take, just make sure it doesn’t interfere with your overall enjoyment of the trip. After all, you didn’t decide to spend your money and interrupt your career to nag junior to write an essay. Later when their 10th grade teacher brings up the Vietnam war they can remember handling unexploded ordinance dug out of farmers’ field in Laos or how it felt to float up through the jungle on the winding Mekong river. The maxim is, keep up with the math and everything else is enrichment. Since we were moving from New York to Pennsylvania we had to follow PA’s homeschooling criteria. It turns out that New York is more stringent than PA, requiring quarterly updates from parents to the school district supervisor so this turned out to be an unexpected perk. PA only required us to draw up and register a study plan at the beginning of the school year and then in June send in a portfolio of work showing that we completed it. For our portfolio we copied some pages from their math, grammar and map reading books, a list of books read, some samples of their writing and it worked out fine. But what did they really do? Road School Curriculum Find a 3 million year old fossil, walk in TRex tracks Taste insects, shoot blowdarts, cut down sugarcane with a machete Forage in the jungle for wild pepper, cardamon and tea Learn to knit and weave cloth on a loom Make silver jewelry, dye batik, carve wooden geckos and make flowers out of watermelon Wash clothes in a river, shower in a waterfall Cook dinner in 10 world cuisines Leap off a cliff on a Tarzan swing Pray in a mosque, wat, temple and church Balance eggs on a nail at the equator Crawl through mine shafts Scramble across church roofs Tube down an ice mountain Zorb in a department store basement Play touch football on sand dunes in the desert Zipline across a rain forest Catch a fish with an empty water bottle and twine Learn to scuba dive Float between clouds of fireflies Sleep in storage sheds, farmhouse barns, boats, trains, and under the desert stars Hold sticks of dynamite, newborn turtles hatching from their eggs and real dinosaur bones Meet a re-incarnated Llama See the sun rise over the Golden Rock See the sun set over Angkor Wat My new year’s resolution was to, finally, post a RTW round up - a summary of the countries we visited from August 2011 to August 2012. So January is behind us but yesterday was the first day of Chinese New Year so GONG HAY FAT CHOY! Happy New Year’s and welcome to the post!
Here, in the order that we visited, are the countries and our suggestions of what was the best part and worst part of visiting them. 16 countries in 13 months (17 if you separate Tibet from China) meant an average of one month per country with shorter stays in Singapore, Uruguay, Bhutan and Costa Rica. Borneo Best for - Interactive nature! Walking hand in hand with Orangoutangs through Camp Leaky, having baby sea turtles hatch in our hands, pushing through clouds of stingless jellyfish; Indonesian Borneo is a place of wonder. Worst for - Transportation. We got stuck for three days due to an unexplained countrywide airplane “maintenance review.” It took us three days, two planes, a ferry and a speed boat to get from the Malaysian side to the Indonesian. But it was worth it. Singapore Best for - Science museums and zoos. Its not everyday you get the chance to sit in the middle of a tesla coil while electricity shoots around you. Moreover, just outside the museum is an indoor snow park where you can tube down an ice mountain while the weather outside is 90 degrees (maybe sparking a chat about global warming?). Worst for - Cost. First world entertainment takes first world money. China Overall best for - Food. Even when we had no way of communicating whatever was brought to us was delicious. If only we could figure out how to say, “not spicy”. Ah well, it toughened us up for India. Specifically best for Pandas - don’t miss the chance to be a panda keeper while in Chengdu. Worst for - Communication. With so many billions of Chinese speaking tourists you can quite understand why tourist or transportation centers would not feel the need to hire english speakers but still it does make life difficult. Tibet Best for - The people with their deep commitment to Buddhism. The reason we are considering this a separate country from China is because they do. Worst for - Chinese soldiers on every corner. Nepal Best for - White water rafting and general availability of snickers chocolate bars. Worst for - Urban squalor. There does not seem to be any aesthetic appreciation when religious temples are covered in trash and relics from the 9th century are used as dumps. It may be that since there is some thousand year old building on every block it is simply too common to appreciate. Bhutan Best for - Most Romantic Couple (the King and Queen) and happiest subjects. Worst for - Cooked meat. But since the country is 99% vegetarian buddhists it is really not their fault and tourists should just concentrate on the delicious cauliflower and potato dishes. India Best for - Camels. Between the Pushkar Camel Fair and the camel safari we took through the Thar desert we learned to know and love camels. We especially loved the ones that wore Kohl make up for the beauty contest! Worst for - Food. Thal and Dhal got old fast. Much faster than our two month stay. It will be a long while before we can face an Indian restaurant again. Oh, and while the English may have left a superb legal system, they apparently were never able to institute the concept of “queuing”. Thailand Best for - Malls. These are perhaps more impressive to us having come from a non mall culture in general (NYC) and having spent 8 months in Asian street markets, but any building with an Aquarium in the basement, an outdoor film screen and nightly free concerts is worth shopping at. Or just go for the food courts. Just kidding (hmm?), it is best for the elephant camp in Kanchanaburi where we learned one should never, ever ride in a howdah. Worst for - Nothing really. Thailand is one of the easiest countries to get around in the world with great food, smooth transportation, polite people and plenty to see. But it is not really an “adventure.” Cambodia Best for - The Battambang Bamboo Railroad! One of our most fun days. We also loved Cambodian cuisine so much that we took not one one but two classes to learn how to recreate it back home. Would have loved to have had more time there and the first place I would like to return to. Worst for - Over expectations. Everybody goes for Angkor Wat, which is nice but just another big temple framed by a sunset. The smaller temples, markets and Pub street in Siem Reap are plenty reason enough to visit. Myanmar Best for - Least Westernized Country. A true taste of the exotic, makes you appreciate how people lived hundreds of years ago. Worst for - Least Westernized country. Villages have no running water, sanitation or medical facility. Makes you appreciate how difficult it was to live hundreds of years ago. Laos Best for - Scenery. Whether biking through Luang Prabang or gliding through ten thousand lakes Laos is uniformly pretty, serene and calm. Worst for - Vang Vieng, a sad blight of pot smoking drunkenness imposed a beautiful culture. While we were there CNN ran a pretty accurate story asking “Vang Vieng: Backpacker Heaven or Hell?” saying “You are more likely to see topless tourists vomiting than you are local culture” and more seriously that “in 2011 up to 22 people were reported to have died on it’s river” http://travel.cnn.com/explorations/life/vang-vieng-backpacker-heaven-or-tourist-hell-994621 Bali Best for - Aesthetics. Pretty much any art class is available - dance, sculpture, music, painting, weaving. The Balinese have beauty woven into the very fiber of their being and everything they do from how they wrap a sarong to how they offer a gift is infused with a delicate grace. Worst for - Kuta beach. The amazing sunsets and awesome surf breaks have been lost to a sad mess of bracelet sellers and braid makers aggressively pestering drunken tourists. Argentina Best for - Tango and streak. Here is where you get your meat fest on. Worst for - Reverse culture shock. If you’ve lived in New York, Paris or Madrid, this is no different. But if you appreciate good restaurants, charming architecture, first class art work, it is not a bad thing. Uruguay Best for - Mate. A country of obsessed mate drinkers. English and Chinese tea drinkers are punters compared to them. Worst for - Vegetables. If it can’t be grilled or put on top of pizza than it apparently doesn’t exist. Ecuador Best for - Swimming with the sea lions. Flora and Fauna in general. There is no comparison to the Galapagos Islands anywhere. We are ruined for zoos forever. Worst for - Sigh, cost. Two weeks in the Galapagos equals two months in South East Asia. The rest of Ecuador, however, is quite reasonable. Bolivia Best for - Getting off the beaten track, walking in the steps of dinosaurs, otherwordly landscapes, $3 hand knit alpaca wool hats. Worst for - Acknowledging Western tourists’ predilection for heat and running water - if it’s cold, just put on another shawl! At some point somebody told them tourists like pizza and to this day, outside of the major cities, it is almost impossible to find any other food source. Costa Rica Best for - A paradise of active travel - zip lining, rafting, horseback riding, volcano trekking, rain forest hiking, there is every possible mode of getting from point A to point B, including driving your own minivan. Worst for - Retired Americans in every nook and cranny. It is like Florida in the rain forest. Give up all hope of learning Spanish here since everyone who interacts with you will speak English. Finally Everyone always asks which was our favorite and the short answer is - they all were. There is not one country we are not glad we visited. But hoping to be helpful, we have broken them down a little bit more. Best for Kids Costa Rica and Bali - This is Disney land with ziplines and arial obstacle courses in lieu of roller coasters. Parents can stagger the adventures with a steady round of field trips to learn how chocolate, tea, coffee, rice and spices are traditionally (organically!) grown and processed. Best for Teenagers Nepal - If you want adventure, this is the place. They are the perfect age to trek up the Himalayas, raft down white water rivers or take to the skies on a paraglide. Moreover, they will find the filth and congestion of Kathmandu well worth the endless supply of mac and cheese or chocolate unknown anywhere else in Asia. Do not bother going down to the malaria riddled south since the Chitwan area has been throughly stripped of wildlife and the exploitation of elephants for tourists is pure and simple animal cruelty. Borneo - Last chance for unfiltered interaction with Orangoutangs before their habitant is destroyed. Not only is it ultimately cool to be able to walk with and observe orangoutangs in the wild, older children will learn how fragile and interconnected all the world is as they see how the demand for teak furniture and cheap palm oil affects these great creatures. Recommended only if you have done your research first Myanmar - 60 years of repression and human rights abuse are not wiped out by one visit from our state department. Laos and Cambodia - be prepared to answer questions about why we (Americans) indiscriminately bombed and killed people we were not at war with and still refuse to sign a ban on land mines which would entail helping to clean up the live explosives still in their fields and school yards. This is not to say don’t visit! Tourism dollars and awareness help with all these issues. Just don’t let the beauty of the countryside and the people blind you to some serious problems. Best all round Ecuador - Like Costa Rica, it has beaches, mountains, rain forests and sophisticated cities in a manageably small country. Unlike Costa Rica, it is not overrun by American expats and retirees quite yet. Although, between its restaurants, knitting stores and ease of transportation, I could quite see the appeal of retiring here myself! Bhutan - A fairytale of a place I can’t quite believe actually exists. I don’t think I ever want to go back just in case it is not as romantic and perfect as I remember. |