LISA'S BLOG IS UP AND POSTING

Come on over to www.lisameadowsgarfield.blogspot.com and follow along with me on my new project. See you there!

PREVIEW POST: THE WONDER OF WALKING

I watched the new movie Julia and Julie this weekend and was inspired by Julie Powell's blog project. (Go see the movie: Meryl Streep does an astonishing job as Julia Child.) And then I remembered a Friends episode where Ross makes a New Year's resolution to try one new thing each day. (Remember the leather pants?) So, inspired by Julie and Ross, I have decided to try one new thing every day and blog about it at least five times a week. The new thing can be anything from a new recipe, restaurant, acquaintance, book, idea, observation, activity . . . you get the idea.

So here is my first blog about the new thing I did today. It is my intention to set up a separate blog, connected with my under-construction website, www.lisameadowsgarfield.com, but I wanted to alert all of you, our faithful travel companions, so you can follow along with me as I continue to explore the world.


THE WONDER OF WALKING

My grandson, Nate, just learned to walk. He took his first tentative steps in Mongolia, in the living room of his other grandparents, while we cheered and clapped at each step. Now, a couple of weeks later, he just stands up and heads across the room on two feet before he realizes he's actually walking. Of course, as soon as he realizes he's upright, he gets startled and drops to his knees to continue the journey. But every day he takes a few more steps. He wobbles and falls regularly. What amazes me is his undeterred spirit, his determination to keep trying until he gets it.

Today I took my first Tai Chi class at the gym. I watched the old-timers go through the forms with grace and perfect memory. I tried to copy their movements, but my muscles have no memory of all those waving arms and rocking feet. The teacher had us walk around the room at our normal pace. Happily, I proved quite adept at walking. At least at my normal speed. She then had us slow to half-speed and it suddenly got more difficult to walk. My balance was off. My feet couldn't quite get the exact sequence of movement, heel-toe-heel-toe. I thought of Nate. I felt like Nate. When the teacher had us walk slower still, everything in me stilled as I concentrated on the wonder of walking. Such a complicated movement! It took all my attention to walk with any grace at all.

Attention was precisely the point, of course. When we pay attention to even the simplest, most routine things in our lives, we suddenly realize how marvelous it all is. With beginner's mind, in slow mode, we remember that Nate-like determination to master a new skill, the hope and pure joy of discovery. Try walking very slowly. Pay attention. You'll know what I mean.

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

Most people, when they hear about our round-the-world trip, respond something like this:
"Oh, I would love to do that, but we could never afford it." Here, then, are our figures, so you can see if that's really true. I believe if you really want something, you will find a way to do it.

We had a pretty cushy trip, really. We always slept in comfortable places, we ate well (and saved a bundle by preparing most of our own food) and we splurged on a few activities, such as tickets to Lion King in London and Disneyland in Tokyo. We spent most of our time in Europe, a very expensive part of the world. But we offset that with free lodging through home exchanges, which was our biggest money-saver. There are lots of ways to lower your travel costs. Prices vary dramatically around the world, so either go somewhere cheap or set up home exchanges. We used www.homelink.org, but there are a number of reputable home swapping organizations.

We were lucky in that Stephen could work along the way, so we had some income throughout the trip. Many jobs can accommodate telecommuting. It puts extra stress on the wage earner, and therefore on the family, so weigh the costs of such a plan. The insurance benefits and income were worth it for us, though frankly, it would have been a better trip if none of us had to worry about finding internet access and fitting in work hours each week. It did allow us to return home in pretty good financial shape, though, so I'm grateful.

Another key thing is to lower your costs at home as much as you can. We set our mortgage payment to pay only interest for the interim of the trip. We cancelled all magazines and lessons and services we wouldn't need. We set our Comcast account, utilities, hot water heater, and car insurance on "vacation" mode until our home exchangers arrived. We kept our charitable giving and college savings plans in place, but you might adjust yours. We used automatic payment plans to pay all bills. Online banking makes it easy to take care of financial business from anywhere in the world. If you still have car payments or other credit accounts, pay those off before you embark on a big trip like this. And it's essential to have someone you trust at home to take care of any unexpected bills or problems. (Thanks, Genevieve and Scott!)

Here, then, are our costs for our trip. Remember ,this is for four people, three adults and a child.
(There's another cost-saving tip: take your children before they are twelve and have to pay full price for most things, including airfares.)

Flights and long-distance buses and trains: $11,000

Portland-Chicago-Guatemala City-Atlanta-Malaga-Barcelona-Ibiza-Barcelona-Marrakesh-Pisa-(train)-Venice-Paris-Copenhagen-(bus)-Hamburg-(bus)-Antwerp-(train)-London-Dublin-London-Beijing-Ulaan Bataar-Tokyo-Portland

Car rentals, gas, and local transportation: $2,500
Car rentals and gas are expensive in Europe, but often the best way for a group to travel. We rented cars in Malaga, Barcelona (for moving around Spain), Ireland, and we hired a van with driver in Mongolia. In cities, we used local subways and bus systems.

Food: $3,300
Includes groceries, dining out (mostly in cheaper places like Guatemala and China) and gelato every day in Italy.

Lodging: $4,800
Motels are very expensive in Europe, much more reasonable in some other places. We spent $1,300 for an entire month's lodging in Guatemala and $1,050 for just six days in Ireland. In Mongolia, we spent $150 on six days at tourist camps. We used three weeks of timeshare exchanges in Spain, and rented apartments whenever possible, which saved a lot on food costs. And in Chicago, Atlanta, Ulaan Bataar, and Tokyo, we stayed with family, always a welcome option.

Activities: $3,000
Includes Spanish classes, museums, local tours, shows and concerts, amusement parks, etc.

Total: $24, 600 for 5 1/2 months of (cushy) travel for a family of four

TOILET TALES

Taking care of business varies widely around the world. In Guatemala (and a few other places) we used "regular" toilets, but threw the used toilet tissue in the garbage, since the sewage system is in no shape to handle such foreign objects.

In the Mongolian "outback" we used this type of toilet:


In Italy, we encountered our first porcelain hole, which had Grace completely bamboozled. These are also common in China and many other places in the world. Frankly, this is my favorite kind of toilet; squatting is a healthier way to do it. And most of these flush.

We used our first Japanese toilet in our London exchange house (the wife is Japanese) but because it was acting up, we frequently got squirted in the face with the "clean your butt" sprayer. We loved the heated toilet seat but we were scared to actually use the toilet.

In Gordon and Aya's Tokyo apartment, we got another chance to try the fanciest toilets on earth, apparently adored by all Japanese. The lid lifted automatically when we opened the door to the "throne room". There were so many incomprehensible (to us) buttons for cleaning your rear in various ways that it brought on test anxiety every time we went to the bathroom. Water would pour out of a faucet on top of the tank when we flushed, so we could rinse our hands. The contrast to our recent experiences of hole-and-plank toilets was actually a little disconcerting. (The others might report, however, that it was more like sitting on a heavenly throne.)

Next time you use the bathroom, don't take anything for granted!

TOKYO

From the charming rusticity of Mongolia, we came to super-efficient Japan. Our son, Gordon, and his girlfriend, Aya, live in Tokyo. This is the view from their lovely apartment on the 45th floor of Harumi View Towers.

We were happy to be able to attend the Tokyo temple one day.

Tokyo is a modern, busy city, but it does have areas that evoke the feeling of old Japan.
This is in a garden in Akasuka, one such area of Tokyo.

Gordon and Aya pose in front of a Buddhist temple in Akasuka. We had such fun being with them. Aya is a marvelous cook and we enjoyed many a fine meal at their table.

And of course, we went to Tokyo Disneyland.

We didn't have enough time in Japan to do more than visit Gordon and Aya in Tokyo. The Japanese people are gracious and reliable. Since this was our last stop on our amended itinerary, we were glad to be able to spend it with family, as it eased our transition home.

Look for more posts on our favorite places, toilet tales, budgets, and transitioning to home life.

GERS AND GOATS

Big Sky country

Visiting an ancient Mongolian walled city

That's grandson Zach on the left, with some new friends.

Grace and Zach ride a yak.

Gloria in front of our ger at a tourist camp.

Inside a local family ger, having breakfast of sweet rice and milk.

Stephen reads inside our ger.

The source of your cashmere.

We had a great evening playing in the dunes of the Little Gobi desert.

The countryside is very fine.

Our favorite part of our visit to Mongolia was the six-day camping trip that Bayra's father and brother arranged to the countryside west of Ulaan Bataar. As our hired driver was fond of repeating, "The countryside is very fine."

Think Big Sky country. It was lovely landscape, wild and vast, with nary a tree for mile after mile. Scattered sporadically over the grasslands and hills were single gers--or sometimes a small group of gers--belonging to the nomadic families that tend the large herds of goats, sheep, cows, or yaks that rule this part of the world. We never saw a fence. Fashion's demand for cashmere is a boon for these goat herders, and their pots are always full of mutton soup, with buckets of airag always available. Airag is fermented mare's mile, very tart, very popular. Our driver would stop at will at some random ger, walk in the painted door without announcement, and return to the van with gallons of airag.

The spirit of hospitality is strong in this country; winters are harsh and you don't survive without this open spirit of "what's yours is mine, what's mine is yours." When we wanted to ride a yak, we simply stopped at a ger that had a yak, asked for rides, and gave the man some money. Once we stopped so our driver could buy some airag and the woman invited us back for breakfast the next morning. Of course there is the hope of renumeration, especially from obvious tourists, but no expectation. The inside of the gers are clean and comfortable, no small feat when you're surrounded by dirt and animal crap. Every season, four times a year, the families dismantle the gers, pack up all their belongings and move on to new pastures. Because it was time to move for autumn, we saw quite a few blue trucks on the dirt roads, apparently all from some entrepreneurial outfit you can hire to move your stuff. Families would be crammed into the cab, all they owned piled in the back of the blue truck.

The "highway system" consists of one long straight paved road leading west out of the capital, with 50-kilometer stretches of dirt road interspersed between sections of pavement. When the pavement runs out completely, you simply make your own road, or follow the tracks of some pioneering vehicle that has gone before you. The Autobahn it was not.

We loved staying in the gers in the tourist camps. I'm sure Bayra's family would have been happy to roll out blankets on the ground, but we certainly appreciated the bathhouses and beds and the dried dung to burn in our small stove. Garrett taught us all how to play poker, so many a night we gathered in gers to wager our pile of Skittles and M&Ms. Games are a great way to bridge the language barrier. And thank goodness for Bayra, our sole interpreter on the trip.

Travel is challenging and rustic in Mongolia, as in all third world countries, but oh so memorable. We were so grateful to be with our Mongolian family, who eased our way and made it all so enjoyable.

MONGOLIA

Mongolia--what a trip! We were so happy to arrive in Ulaan Bataar and be greeted by son Garrett, his Mongolian wife, Bayra, her lovely family, and our two grandsons Zach and Nate.
We packed a lot of exotic experiences into our couple of weeks there and especially enjoyed getting to know Bayra's wonderful family.

Here is Gloria trying on a Mongolian hat and Zach and Nonnie riding a camel. Then there's the river with the horse-drawn wagon fording it and all the gers (what we improperly call yurts) in the background. Yes, that is a yak in the middle of the road (there were frequently animals in the middle of the road.) We visited an enormous stainless steel statue of the national hero, Chinggis Khan, and actually climbed up through its tail to stand on the top. Here you see lots of family photos near the statue. And finally, there is Grace holding a golden eagle, common to the western part of Mongolia.

BEIJING

We spent a mere four days in Beijing, so only got a taste of the rich land of China.



Yes, here we are at the Great Wall of China.

We always enjoy the places where we can afford to eat out and China stars in this area. Yummy food!

Grace and Gloria learn about the process of making silk. That basket of white cocoons is where all your silk clothing comes from.

Here is the "Bird's Nest", the Olympic Stadium, which you may recognize from watching the 2008 Olympics.

ITINERARY

We have just arrived in Tokyo to spend the last few days of our Big Trip with Gordon and Aya. They have a lovely apartment on the 45th floor, from which we have a commanding view of the city, including the Hartford building nearby, where Gordon works. We have decided to go home from here, rather than continue for the planned nine months. We've had an incredible 5.5 month adventure traveling around the world. It's a rigorous, demanding lifestyle, believe it or not, and the group consensus (really, it was a 3 to 1 vote) is to cut short the trip and get back to a more routine life. Most of us (the 3) are very excited to be coming home soon and the other one of us is both excited and sad. We are on standby for a flight to Seattle on Sunday, 13 September (thanks, Dad!) so if all goes well, we'll be home sooner than we leave Tokyo, since we cross the international date line.

Keep checking back as we catch up with blog posts on China, Mongolia, and Japan and the return to stationary life.

Here then, is a log of the places we've visited on our trip:

Chicago, Illinois
Guatemala (Antigua, Flores, Tikal, Panajachel, Guatemala City)
Atlanta, Georgia
Spain (Malaga, Ibiza, Barcelona, Denia, Tarragona)
Marrakesh, Morocco
Italy (Pisa, Cinque Terra, Florence, Verona, Venice)
Paris, France
Copenhagen, Denmark
Hamburg, Germany
Antwerp, Belgium
London, England
Ireland
Beijing, China
Mongolia (Ulaan Bataar, camping in the countryside)
Tokyo, Japan

INCREDIBLE IRELAND