Land of the Rising Sun

Well, we have left the final foreign port on our voyage around the world. We now have 10 days at sea to look forward to as we cross the Pacific to Hawaii. We spent our last five days in Japan, porting first in Yokohama (outside Tokyo) and then in Kobe.  Jay had been looking forward to returning to Japan as it had been 8 years since the last time he was there and 15 years since he had lived in Osaka. Although there is not much use for Japanese in Boulder, the language came back pretty quickly and we were able to make our way around Japan with minimal issues.

We spent the first day going into Tokyo to visit the Meiji Shrine and Harajuku. Harajuku is the “funky fashion center” of Japan, with lots of used clothing and cheap fashion shops. It’s where the young people of Tokyo (and Japan) come to be individuals together and wear Halloween caliber costumes every day of the year. Christy’s first taste of the district occurred in the train station when she saw a Japanese girl wearing an outfit including green hair and red devil horns – on a Friday around noon.

After most of the day in Tokyo we returned to Yokohama for the evening (great sushi!!!!) before heading off to Hiroshima on the bullet train the next day. After some difficulty tracking down the right connections to the correct train station, we hopped on the train for the 4 hour ride to Hiroshima at 200 miles per hour. Upon our arrival we threw ourselves on the whims of chance and tried to locate a hotel for the night – this was the Saturday of the Labor/Thanksgiving holiday in Japan and many hotels were fully booked. Lady Luck smiled on us and we managed to land in a hotel a few hundred yards from the station that included a tatami room so the boys could experience true futon sleeping.

We spent the next day around Hiroshima, primarily at the Hiroshima Peace Park and Atomic Bomb Museum. The museum presents a fascinating view into the events leading up to and beyond the world’s first atomic bombing on Hiroshima back on August 6th, 1945. It is a highly recommended trip if you get the chance. Modern bombs are more than 3,100 more powerful than the one that destroyed Hiroshima and resulted in 200,000 deaths. In light of the damage done to Hiroshima, the destructive capability of a modern weapon is truly inconceivable.

We spent another night in Hiroshima before taking a quick bullet train ride to Himeji to see the finest example of a Japanese castle (and a pretty poor zoo!). The castle was mobbed with people due to the holiday but the boys got to imagine how difficult it would be to lay siege to a castle. After a final day in Kobe, we have again set sail for the ten day trip to Hawaii. Back to the US!

Shanghai, China

In Shanghai, our ship was docked in the heart of the city of 12 million people.  The city has grown at an amazing pace over the past 15 years and is now one of the largest in the world. We were perfectly located to watch the nightly light show displayed on the downtown buildings and famously tall TV tower.  We also enjoyed watching the steady stream of boats that passed off our balcony – most which were laden with building materials. 

Unfortunately, the weather was cold and rainy so we explored the city under our winter coats and umbrellas.  Despite the weather, we ventured out to the TV tower and city museum, stall markets, cheesy underground tunnel, and on a much needed date night.   

Hong Kong

Pulling into Hong Kong harbor, we were astounded by the row upon row of tall apartment and commercial buildings.  For a city of 7 million people, HK is surprisingly livable city with manageable traffic and an abundance of green space.    We understand why Jay’s brother, Loron, has made it his home for the last 15 years.

As our ship docked in the heart of downtown, we were greeted by Loron, Milton, and Ruth Campbell (Milton’s significant other).  Milton was rejoining the trip after a brief detour due to some medical issues.   All is well now!

We packed in a lot during our four short days.  We visited Ocean Amusement Park, Stanley Market, the Cricket Club, the big Buddha, and Victoria Peak.

Jay’s highlight was golfing on the hardest course in Asia.  The Norman Course is 1 of 13 courses at Mission Hills in Shenzhen, China.

Christy learned a lot about doing business in China by visiting a potential partner in Shenzhen.  She also met with a young woman who runs a family toy manufacturer serving Mattel.  Many opportunities exist in China, but so do the challenges. 

Christy’s newly made friends in Shenzhen took her to a traditional Cantonese dinner (with chicken feet and pigeon heads) and to a foot massage that lasted for 2½ glorious hours.

Special thanks to Loron for planning the visit and arranging activities and accommodation.  Also to Loron’s friend (and Ruth’s cousin) Loch for sharing his family with us and keeping our kids occupied.  And finally to Loron’s business partner Dave for arranging Jay’s golf at Mission Hills. 

Vietnam

After two weeks of intense traveling in India and Cambodia, we took a needed “vacation” in Vietnam and headed to a fancy resort.  Reverting back to our “traveler” days, we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City with no flights or hotel reservations but some ideas that we wanted to head to a beach resort either in Nha Trang or an island in Southern Vietnam.  Since all the flights to the South for the day had already departed, we decided to go to Nha Trang and hoped that the resort we had heard of called Vinpearl would have some rooms.

After an interesting wait on the stand-by list (for a flight that was only 1/2 full) and an hour taxi ride through the rain in the dark, we arrived at the shuttle boat to VinPearl Island.  Luckily they had room for us and we were able to reserve a room for a couple of nights.

The Vinpearl was a mini-Disney land with an amusement & water park, arcade, kid’s club, beach, and the largest pool in SE Asia.  They had one of the longest cable cars in Asia and you could take that or the shuttle boats to the island.  A typhoon had come through the area 2 days before we arrived, so the weather was not great, but we still had fun and relaxed.   Luke and Ryan terrorized crabs on the beach, splashed in the pool, checked out the rides, arcade and water park, and played games at the kids club. 

Before leaving Vietnam, we spent a day exploring Ho Chi Minh City.  It is a modern city with great bargain shopping.  With such a short time there, we only touched the surface of Vietnam during our short visit.  After being away from the ship for 16 days, we were actually excited to see the ship again.  It was amazing how much we missed our little cabin, friends and shipboard routine!   

Cambodia: Exploring Angkor Wat

From India, we moved on to one of our favorite countries, Cambodia.  We flew to Siem Reap, home to the famous temples of Angkor Wat.  We predicted that exploring these temples would be one of the highlights of our trip for the boys.    When Jay and Christy had visited Siem Reap in 2000, there was only 1 large hotel in town.  Many investors have identified Angkor Wat as the next big destination and have invested in over 50 large hotels.  The Cambodian government is also making large investments in rebuilding and preserving the temples. 

We felt like Indiana Jones as we explored the temples.  Our favorite temples where the ones that the trees had overtaken and that were in ruins.  They boys were little monkeys and climbed the steep stone steps without fear.  They loved using their rock climbing skills and being free to be crazy boys. 

One highlight was riding elephants amongst the ruins.  We learned that horses are much more comfortable to ride.  After our ride, we fed the elephants whole bananas that they grabbed by the end of their trunks and popped in their mouths. 

The Cambodian people are warm and friendly and it was the easiest country to travel in so far this trip.  They use US dollars and lots of people speak English.  Entrepreneurship starts early and we met many young children who were expert sales people.  We stayed in 2 small bungalows at a bed & breakfast only walking distance to town.  It was great to get away from the large hotels.  

India

India was Christy’s most memorable country when she went on Semester at Sea in 1990 and it rates highly on our current voyage.  We experienced India as tourists in Agra/New Delhi, business people in Bangalore, and through the eyes of our expatriate friends in Mumbai.

India is a country of 1.2 Billion people with extremes of poverty and prosperity; pre-industrial and modern at the same time; and facing some of the world’s biggest opportunities and challenges at the same time.

New Delhi/Agra

Our previous travel prepared us well for the vibrant traffic, sights and sounds of India.  After flying from Chennai to New Delhi, we went to take the train to Agra.  After a roundabout path that took us to the train station, a chaotic auto-rickshaw ride and a chance encounter with an Indian travel agent who lives half-time in Vancouver, we found ourselves with a driver and car for the 5 hour car ride to see the Taj Mahal, in Agra.  The car ride was entertaining as we watched all the cows (which are sacred and roam freely), auto rickshaws, pedal and motorbikes, cars, trucks and pedestrians intermingle along the crowded streets.  At home we only use our horn at most once a month.  In India, hardly 10 seconds go by without blowing the car horn.   The distance to Agra was not far, but the traffic was awful coming out of New Delhi and the pollution from the traffic and trash fires gave Christy a hacking cough.

We visited the Taj Mahal in both the evening and at sunrise.  Its magnificence and grandeur are all the more impressive knowing it was built in 1653 by the Emperor Shah Jahn for his wife who died giving birth to their 14^th child.  20,000 people worked on the Taj for over 22 years.  Their creation was a beautiful sight to see and admire.   

Bangalore

Bangalore, the garden city of India, is the country’s Silicon Valley.  Most internationally known technology companies like Google and Dell are there.   We went to Bangalore to visit a Young President’s Organization contact of Christy’s.  Dinesh Puri, his wife Geeta, and his kids Uday and Ankita helped us with hotel arrangements, took us around town and hosted us for 3 amazing days.   Christy visited their medical company that makes pacemakers, the first implantable device being made in India.  She also visited GE Healthcare and another Indian device maker.  The Puri’s even threw a large party at their home so we could meet some of their YPO friends and other leaders in the community.  A highlight was playing golf at the Karnataka Golf Association Club where Thomas Friedman got his inspiration for his book title, “The World is Flat.”  

Mumbai

In Mumbai, we stayed with Brooks and Laura Entwistle and their 3 lovely daughters who are around Luke and Ryan’s ages.  Christy and Brooks, who runs Goldman Sachs India, are in the same class of Henry Crown Fellows from the Aspen Institute.    We saw a unique perspective of Mumbai though the Entwistle’s eyes. 

A highlight for the boys was visiting the expat school.  Luke got to join Kayla in 1^st grade for the day.  It was the day they celebrated Halloween, so Luke got to make Halloween crafts and be in a holiday parade.  That was followed by a Halloween party at the Entwistle’s house and then we went trick-or-treating at the teacher’s apartments. 

Mumbai is the financial hub of India.  It is the most densely populated city in the world with half the population living in slums that are interspersed around the city.  We toured the Dhavari Slum, the one featured in Slumdog Millionaire.  We expected to see a very sad situation.  Instead, our experience was quite the opposite.  The slum is a bustling community of entrepreneurs and families.  They are the recycling center for Mumbai and sort, clean, and melt down the materials.  They build their own chipping machines that cut up plastics.  Then they wash, dry, melt and extrude the plastics into new plastic pellets that they sell to manufacturers.  The same is true for metals, including an aluminum recycling operation! 

In other sections of the slum, we found potters, cookie makers, seamstresses, and ladies making papadams.  They even let the boys try rolling a papadam - the boys should keep their day jobs!  Although the homes were small and simple, most were made out of cement and were clean.  Narrow alleys with open sewers connected the homes and it was an adventure walking through the community. 

In contrast to the slum, we had lunch at the iconic Taj Hotel that was the site of the Mumbai terrorist attacks last year.  While he food was great, it was hard to imagine how 4 terrorists were able to kill so many people in the hotel.  It is mostly rebuilt and fully back in business. 

Overall our India visit was special because of the friends we visited and the new friends we made.  The Entwistle and Puri families made us very welcome in India.  It is a country with warm, friendly people who are striving for a better life.  They have made amazing advances but now they must tackle their remaining challenges of sustainability (water, energy, pollution), building an infrastructure that can keep up with the exploding population, and living peacefully next to Pakistan.    

Mauritius - an island paradise!

Mauritius was a short stop for us, just two nights in this island paradise. We arrived at the port in the early morning and were greeted with spectacular view of this mountainous island.

Mauritius, Africa’s wealthiest country on a per capita income basis, is a honeymooner’s paradise, primarily for Europeans and South Africans. The population is half Hindu (from India) with a mix of other groups (Chinese, French, etc) making up the balance. As a result there is a mix of food, language and culture that is unique to the island. Along with the growing tourist trade, the Mauritians main industries are sugar cane harvesting and palm oil.

We ended up staying at a beautiful resort, where the boys could play unsupervised in the calm surf of the pristine beach. The ocean was so calm here that it took us a couple of days to realize that there was no sound you typically associate with a beach resort – no surf sound. We built sand castles, strolled the beach, chased crabs, swam and kayaked. Christy even got to take a few turns on skis – water skis of course!

The highlight of our visit was the afternoon with Greg and Veronique, close friends of Christy’s friend from YPO. We had a wonderful Indian lunch at their home on the beach and enjoyed letting the boys run around while we had great conversation about life in Mauritius. We finished the day at Greg and Veronique’s bar, Banana Beach Club, where a jazz band was playing. This club is the party place of Mauritius and as the night went on, we found ourselves hanging out with more and more students from the ship. Although many offered to buy us a beer (as a “reward” for actually making it out to party!), we managed to head home by 1 am, about 3 hours before the students shut the place down!

A second highlight was our mini-submarine trip. We managed to end up in our own submarine for five and took it down to about 110 feet. We saw lots of fish, some less than spectacular coral and a really cool octopus. We also did some snorkeling so the next step with be to take the boys scuba diving!

We enjoyed our time in Mauritius – a nice beach holiday between Africa and India.

South Africa -- Our favorite port so far!

South Africa, with its friendly people, spectacular scenery, and comforts of home, was our favorite port so far.  Luke has declared that he will live there someday and that it is better the US.  Time will tell, although we would certainly be happy to visit if he decides to spend some time there.  We are not sure what prompted such a definite statement, but we guess it was because he got to go on safari, hang out with cheetahs, climb Table Mountain, visit the aquarium with grandpa and meet many kids in the townships.

The port in Cape Town could not have been a nicer location.  We harbored at the main waterfront with 5-star hotels, restaurants, shops and entertainment right at the end of the pier.  It was very convenient to sleep on the ship and be at a coffee shop within minutes in the morning. 

We spent six days in South Africa and did our best to see the different sides of the country and learn as much as we could.   It is a country of extreme economic disparity and it is confronting an almost overwhelming range of challenges.   One of our friends described it best when he said, “South Africa is like a microcosm of the whole world.  If we can change things here, it will pave the way for the world to change.”

From the photos you can see that part of Cape Town is as advanced and wealthy as any city you’ll find in the world.  The Townships, which were created during the Apartheid-years as places for “blacks” and “colored people”, are a sharp contrast to the wealth of the formerly white areas.  The homes are made of every imaginable material, ranging from sheet metal and wood structures to more permanent concrete dwellings.  The government does a lot to subsidize the poor and has a massive home building program.  Most homes in the Townships have electricity, running water and trash removal.  The Township we visited was the largest in Cape Town and had more than 2 million people living in it.  Despite the size of the Townships, unofficial shantytowns are forming around the edges and in other places as people migrate to the cities from the countryside and other African countries.  Our pictures cannot convey the vastness of these poor settlements.

Through connections that Christy has with the Aspen Institute Global Leadership Network, we arranged a lunch with Karl Flowers and Ralph Freese.  They shared their views of what was happening in South Africa and talked about the NGOs they founded or are part of that are making positive change in the country.  They were so inspiring we wanted to move to South Africa and help them with the many changes they are trying to implement.

In addition to learning about the country, we also had lots of fun on safari at the Inverdoorn Game Preserve and saw lions, giraffes, rhinos and lots of antelopes.  The highlight of the safari was interacting with cheetahs that had been raised by the hotel owner.  They licked and drank from our hands and when we scratched their necks, ears and heads they purred like Harleys.  They are beautiful and awesome creatures.  The drive to and from the Reserve took us through some truly spectacular country, even by the standards of Coloradans!

Towering above Cape Town is Table Mountain.  Everyone we spoke to said Luke and Ryan were too young to climb up to the top and that we should take the cable car instead.  When we got there, the cable car line was very long so we decided to try the hike.  2 hours and 45 minutes later, the whole family arrived on top hungry and happy.  We were so proud of the boys.

We left Cape Town wishing we had more time to take in the natural beauty of the area and continue to learn about the past and bright future of this wonderful country.  We know we will return sometime!