3 Months Traveled - 7 To Go.

It all started one lazy day in Talkeetna. We had just finished breakfast and we were putting together a puzzle of licenseplates of all the U.S. states. As we were looking at the half finished map my Mom said, "hey we should road trip the U.S.A. next summer." After a while Ryan said, "hey lets go around the world!" We thought for a while and then decided that it might workout...............................................................

Departure

5 Oct. 1500hrs(3:00)
One year and three months later, we were at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport boarding the Condor Air flight to Frankfurt Germany. From there we missed our first flight to Copenhagen but boarded another flight at 3:00pm to the Copenhagen Lufthasen. So far Denmark has been my favorite place, the feel of Copenhagen, the starry nights in a little southern fishing village, and the fun at Legoland.

Copenhagen

After the fun in Denmark we flew to Beijing and spent a week of getting used to Asian culture. The first three days of 100% pollution and strange food enzymes that made me feel lousy for 72 hours!!

Next on the list was Xi'an which was pretty boring, and when I say it was boring I mean it. Xi'an was always cloudy, the city was really hectic to drive around and it didn't have a good feel. Then we went to Lijiang a "small" town of 300,000 people. You call that small?! Anchorage has 400,000 people and it is the biggest city in Alaska! Even so it was one of my favorite spots in China, and I know exactly why. Han Chinese make up most of the population of China and they are very loud and pushy. In the Yunnan Provence the population is over 50% non-Han people and most of them are Naxi (Na-shi). Naxi people are very nice and polite. Also I saw more Churches in Yunnan than in other parts of China, I thought that was surprising.

Mt. Everest

When we arrived in Tibet we were immediately amazed with the surroundings. There were mountain everywhere kind of like home. Not like home, everywhere you looked there were guards standing with heavy weaponry. We were at the roof of the world and were learning amazing history!! I mean who ever knew that the British invaded Tibet to set up a base to attack China. Or how many 13 year-olds have been at 6000 meters (19300ft) and has seen Mt. Everest all in the same day! Heck 19300 feet is the height of the north peak of Denali!!

South Gobi Mine

When we were done with Tibet we flew to Mongolia. It was awesome. We spent 10 days there. Mongolia is so cool I could live there, especially Ulaanbattar, the Capitol. Seven days after Ulaanbattar my Dad and I flew out to a gold and copper mine in the South Gobi desert. When we arrived I found out that I was the first minor, not miner, to set foot in the mine.(the mine is the fourth largest in the world) I think it is just incredible what we have come on this trip and we are not even halfway through.
As we settled down in Vietnam I realized what we take for granted in Alaska. First, of all we don't have polluted skies like Asia. On this trip we don't have relatives or best friends to see whenever we want. There is no snow or big mountains, excluding Tibet. We have to either steri-pen, boil, or buy bottles of water and can't just drink it whenever we want. We have to be extremely careful of our valuables and loosing family members. A good example of that was one night at our resort in Thailand a drunk guy picked our lock and crawled into our room at 4:30 am. I rolled over in my sleep, cracked my eyes and saw a fully dressed man! I jumped straight up and yelled in a deep voice, "Who are you!!!!?!" He started to back away, scared, but i said, "Stop". He started to mumble and said something about Muai Thai(boxing) and then said sorry and left. It is just that kind of thing that you have to be weary of overseas. We are still surviving and haven't invited disaster yet, so in that perspective we are doing great. I am excited for the next 7 months.

Fishing in Ko Samui

Dreadful Accommodations

A driver was waiting at the pier to shuttle us to our Ko Samui accommodations - Chalee Villas. When we booked our Thailand adventure through a local travel agency the agent asked us if we would like to stay in bungalos at the beach rather than a hotel. Sure, that sounded fun. The next question was "do we want an A/C or fan bungalo"? We chose the fan since we turn off the A/C anyway. Our hotels rooms are way too cold plus the A/C give us stuffy noses and sore throats.

We pictured sleeping in a cute bungalo on the beach with the ocean breeze coming in through screened windows (no bugs this way), falling asleep to the sound of the waves and then waking to birds chirping with the sun streaming into our rooms. Sounds magnificient right?

Our driver pulled up to the Chalee Villas and our maginificent daydream looked more like a bad dream. We saw three delapidated shacks facing a crummy beach. We didn't want to make a false assumption as we did the the Thai train so we walked up to reception to find out what our accommodations were really like.

The receptionist showed us our two bungalos. They were even worse! A wave of old piss smell greeted us when she opened the door, the floorboards flexed and creaked with each step and the bathroom was infested with a million mosquitos looking to drain the life out of the next guest. The boys bungalo wasn't any better. It smelled like a gigantic mold factory with about half as many mosquitos.

Robert and the boys were ready to move to another location. Wait! At least we could ask to see another bungalo, surly they aren't all this horrible. I didn't want to be seen as a wimp, sissy or a prissy girly girl that couldn't handle rough accomodations for five days. I'm from Alaska and have roughed it with the best of them for longer than 5 days damit!!

When I asked Robert to entertain the idea of seeing another bungalo he obliged knowing full well the attitude I was in and that he needed to let me work this out on my own. The receptionist said she would have to make the beds but would show me the other bungalo first. It smelled too, more mold! Plus, seeing the beds without sheets was actually good because there were yellow and black stains all over the mattresses. Disgusting!

It was time for a family pow-wow. We conviened down at the beach.

The beach was as bad as the bungalos. The sand was covered with washed up seaweed, dead fish and tons of trash; broken beer bottles, empty chip bags and old cigarett butts. That did it! I was now on board with the plan to move locations.

First step, tell the recepionist we would not be staying there. Next, call our travel agent in Chiang Mai to complain. Finally, find a new place to stay on entirely different beach.

The receptionist called the manager over when I explained to her that the accommodations were not at all satisfactory. I explained again to the manager. He prodeeded to tell me there were no mosquitos in our room and wanted me to show him. He walked in the bathroom and told me the bugs I saw were not mosquitos. Seriously!Yes, they were freaking mosquitos! "I have mosquitos in my home so I know mosquitos when I see them and these are mosquitos! Mosquitos like me and eat me! I cannot and will not stay here!" I think he got the picture.

Back at reception I pulled out my handy dandy Lonely Planet guide and began looking for new accommodations. Chawang Beach sounded nice and the Tango Beach Resort had everything we desire for our home away from home.

I made the call and fortunately the had room for us. We hired a taxi to drive us twenty minutes to the Tango Resort hoping it was better than we we just left. It had to be since I don't know what would have made Chalee Villas any worse.

We arrived to perfection. Nice mid-sized resort, great rooms, clean pool, beautiful beach, lovely grounds, everything we wanted for a Thailand tropical beach holiday.

We learned, after talking to our travel agent, that a non-a/c room is code for dumpy. To get nice rooms you have to request a/c. So we learned something new and will ask for a/c and just choose to turn it off. I still argue that it's not that difficult to make a "no a/c, fan only room" clean, comfy and cute.

Fresh grilled corn from a local beach vedor

Ahhhhh, lovely beach

Cameron and Taylor (off in the distace) You could just walk out for 100 yards. It was so cool.

Bangkok to Beaches

Train. Bus. Boat. A transportation trifecta is how we arrived to Ko Samui. After a quick dinner at the train station we walked to the platform to board our train.

At the station

We walked passed the end of the train making our way to the front since from past experience that is where the sleeper cars are positioned. Robert asked an attendant which car was our, he pointed to the back of the train. What? The back of the train is where the cheap upright, seats are, not the private berths with beds. We told the tour agent we needed beds, what went wrong? Did we get scammed?

We boarded anyway because there was not much else we could do, our train left in 15 minutes. The whole car had single seats that faced each other. Great, we really were going to have to sleep sitting up! At least they were twice as wide as an airplane seat but that didn't squelch minor complaints from the boys.

First impressions

Funny how we are so quick to be disappointed and pass judgement before we really know what's going on. You see, an hour into our journey the steward came along to convert our seats to beds! He worked his magic, pulling, flipping, dropping and locking the beds into place, one on top and one on bottom. Next, he made the beds with fresh linens. Finally, he hung a pretty blue curtain so each passenger could have their privacy! And, Cameron no longer had to worry about how to get into his PJ's without anyone seeing him. It was a good ride.

The next morning we were shuttled from the train to a bus that would take us to the pier to catch our ferry to Ko Samui. I was glad the bus ride was only an hour. The thing looked like it had been in a few demolition derbies. The inside wasn't much better. Our seats were wet from condensation dripping off the ceiling thanks to the A/C and finding a seat that wasn't torn was challenging but we prevailed.

From the bus we boarded the ferry. It was a speed catamaran style with inside and outside seating. The inside had real seats and the outside seating, which was fully occupied, was sitting on the narrow side passage while hanging our feet over board. As much as I wanted to be outside there was no room so for the hour and a half boat ride to Ko Samui I sat inside.

Wanted to sit here

Sat here instead

A passing traveler gave me some advice he inherited, "flying from Bangkok to Ko Samui is the best $200 ever spent." To that I say, "No way, $200 is not worth missing the adventure!"

Crazy Cabbies and Strange Skippers

As usual ,in Asia, when we got off the plane in Bangkok a driver greeted us with a sign that says Robert Sheldon. The cab driver looked at us in disbelief and said "five people, really?" My Dad showed him our confirmation slip with reservation for five people. We found out why he was a bit freaked when we got to his car. The car was a small compact that would only seat four people without bags. The cabby says " they don't tell me, they don't tell me." In response, we said that is okay and crammed in. Me, Ryan and Mom in the back seat and Cameron on Dad's lap in the front seat.
As we were driving the man apologized and was kept saying "O my Buddha, O my Buddha, they didnt tell me!" This made Ryan and I laugh hysteraiclly under our breaths."O my Buddha." After a while our cabby asked "Where do you go in Bangkok'? We told him that we would go to the Royal Palace and the night flower market and take a dragon boat cruise. The cabby says, "You go to M-B-K, got that MBK, cheep and good shopping". He also talked about Thai music and asked if we liked it. We said that we have not heard it before. He then started to beat "boom boom chu chu b-boom chu" and he was car dancing too!
An other strange time in was when we were on a boat tour of the canals in Bangkok. Right as we were leaving the dock we turned around and headed back to the dock. We were really confused why the driver turned the boat around. He pulled up to the dock, the captain picked up a smoothie and said "forgot." A few minutes later down river we pulled up to the side of an other boat and our captian hands the smoothie to the driver of the other boat! I thought that was funny. Well I guess that is what you get in Thailand!

My and my brothers on our boat

Bangkok Skyline

Great photo by Cameron on our boat tour

Silver Shopping in Bangkok

Today our family went to a silver shop called Bakhtar Co, Ltd. My brother Taylor, Dad and I are very fond of silver. The day before my Dad and I went to see if there were any silver shops by our hotel. The first one we found was the Bakhtar Co, Ltd. and it looked cool so we decided to walk in.

We asked the lady who worked there"do you have any silver coins?" The she responded "yes" and pulled out three bowls of Persian coins! My Dad and I were shocked at all the coins in front of us. We started to look through them slowly because there were cool markings and dates on the coins. Then the owner's son came over to assist the worker. After looking for 30 minutes my Dad said we would come back tomorrow with Taylor.

Our bag of loot.

The next day we returned with the whole family. Instead of the owner's son it was the owner who helped us. We asked for coins again and this time he brought out the Persian coins plus ancient coins from Jerusalem and Alexandria!

My brother Taylor was in shock because he loves silver, coins, and old history. My Dad, Taylor, and I were asking questions left and right about the history of all the coins. Thankfully the owner studies the languages on the coins and his family has been selling historic artifacts for over seventy years. Finally, we made a deal. My Dad bought two Alexandria coins, three Tibetan coins, six square silver trading beads from Tibet, five Persian coins and two Jewish coins.

We were so excited.

Shopping is fun but it can also be a dangerous game in a foreign country. Sometimes you don't know if you are buying something that is real or fake because they may say something that's not true. But in this case we knew that the silver was real because it was tarnished from old age.

7-11 in Thailand

How my liking for 7-11 all started was, when I was in Hong Kong and my Mom and Taylor were out shopping at local markets and my Dad, Ryan and I were looking for a place to eat. We found 7-11 and I got a hot dog.

In Vietnam and Cambodia I didn't like that there weren't any 7-11s. When we got to Thailand there were tons of them.There are about 4000 7-11 in Thailand. When we are driving down the street we see up to 10 7-11's. I look for the red and green sign and when I see one I get excited. Then I beg to go to 7-11. My Mom and Dad usually say no.

Hey, here's another one.

I like 7-11 because it has yummy snacks. My favorite thing to buy there is hot dogs because they are so awesome. In Bangkok we bought ice cream instead because it was so hot. One night we at a local street food restaurant. Ryan and I didn't want that food so we asked if we could get food from 7-11 since there was one close by. Mom made a deal with me that if there was nothing I liked to eat I could get 7-11 instead. I bought a ham and cheese burrito. That was a weird name to call it because it wasn't really a burrito but it was good.

Really Mom, another 7-11 photo?

When I grow up I want to bring 7-11 to Anchorage and make it as big as Fred Meyer! That would be rad!

YUM!

Ziplining at the Burmese border

In Chiang Mai Thailand we went ziplining. We drove for an hour on really steep and twisty roads. When we arrived we filled out insurance forms and met our guide Mr. Boston. Mr. Boston said he was a "trainee" and today was his second day on the job.Everyone hiked down to the first line, Mr. Boston went over the safety rules and was jokingly looking at the safety book and asking his co-workers "how do you say this?". He also introduced his helpers Dingo and Monkey.

Mr. Boston giving safety instructions

As we swung from tree to tree Dingo would climb on the outside of the tree and do crazy tricks to get around everyone standing on the platform. Then Monkey would yell at the to of his lungs " one, two, bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and would launch customers into the air.

My turn to launch

As we zipped along we figured out that Mr. Boston was not a first day trainee and was not from Massachuettes. We think that the "bos" in Boston ment that he was one of the owners of the company or a long time employee.

Csmeron and I

My favorite line was the 300 meter line that took you 50 meters from the Thai/Burmese border and at one point I went 40mph!

My favorite zipline

Mr. Boston would always go upside down or do somthing crazy when he was flying on the zipline.

Mr. Boston and other guides being crazy.

There were also two "repellavators", as my brothers and I called it, in which you would sit mid air and the guides would drop you down the tree! The very last line was a 40 meter or 138 feet "repellavator" that dropped you at 30mph!! I was the first one to go down. It was awesome!!!!

Hiking to our last drop.

Looking down 40 meters.

My turn.

Ahhhhhh!

An older lady was one of the last ones to go down. When the guides said to unclip the saftey rope she wouldn't unclip it because she was so scared.

Thsi is not the old lady but my Mom coming down. She screamed too.

This adventure was one of my favorite days so far on our trip!





Ziplining

December 29

Yesterday my Mom, Dad, Taylor, Cameron, And I went ziplining. My family and I had a driver pick us up after breakfast. I had pastries, cereal, and eggs for breakfast. The car ride was one hour to the mountains where we went ziplinging. When we got there we put on our helmets and gear.

Once we finnished this task we walked to the first platform. Our guide said that he has been working for two days, but my dad picked up on his name Boston which he thought meant "boss ton". He was hilarious and had us laughing all day long.

This is Boston

My brothers and I had lots of fun for the first ten lines. Then we spoted our next move which was a ten meter (about thirty-three feet) drop to a lower level. Everybody was eager to drop. We all screamed. From there we went on the longest zipline in all of Thailand. It was a blast.

Wheeeeeeeee

Next my brothers and I spoted another thril it was the highest zipline above the ground. I was amazed as to how beautiful the valley was but it only lasted fifteen secconds.

We had eight more lines to go, then the biggest drop of them all. It would drop you forty meters down to the end of the course. Every body screamed including me.

The day was a blast and I loved it.

 

Flying with my bro Taylor





Tiger Kingdom - Chiang Mai

December 26

2,ooo,ooo,ooo years ago just kidding, two days ago we went to a place called Tiger Kingdom.

I was excited to go inside the cages of all sorts of tigers like big tigers, small tigers and white tigers. I was disappointed the moment we arrived because the lady who worked there said you had to be at least fifteen years old to go inside the big tigers cages. So, we went inside the small tiger's cage instead of the big tiger's cage because that was our only choice since me and my brothers aren't older than fifteen years.




I love cats.

   
Inside the small tiger's cages we got to pet all five. There were three baby tigers that were one month old and two bigger ones that were three months old. My Dad took lots of pictures. I thought it was lame because we only got to spend ten minutes with the tigers. After that we did get to see the big tigers but not go in their cages.

I think it would be better if people didn't have to be fifteen or older so the young kids could to the big tigers too. Even though I didn't get to go in the other cages I still liked petting the small tigers.

My Dad took this photo of a bigger tiger.