Orris Takeaway's From Travel - PDF Presentation of our key lessons learned

Please click the following link to upload a presentation containing our key lessons learned from our nine months of travel.  We have started making this presentation in the community.  We are happy to share it with groups or individuals and take you through it in person.

OUR KEY TAKEAWAYS

Turkey - Meeting point of East and West

We could not wait to arrive in Turkey for two reasons: first, we had always wanted to experience this country where Europe & Asia intersect; and second, it was our last destination until we headed back home.

Our first stop in Turkey was the touristy Mediterranean beach town of Antalya in the south.  Imagine a beautiful strip of land positioned between the sea and the snow-capped mountains, a calm clean ocean, soft sandy beaches, endless swimming pools, numerous restaurants, and throngs of large German and Russian tourists.  It was a beautiful place, but we felt like we were in Disneyland with all the people, pulsating late night music and an overabundance of “all you can eat” food.  We realized once again that it is hard to “vacation” when we are in traveling mode.  We also confirmed that we are an all-inclusive resort’s dream family – none of us eat our weight in food and being hungover with two kids on the beach isn’t our idea of fun -- so we don’t drink much.  That will change in the next five years when the boys will be able to demolish a buffet in a single sitting!

After some R&R on the beach, we headed north for the real reason we visited Turkey - four days in the history-rich city of Istanbul.  Jay found an apartment in Sultanahmet, the old (really old) town with its narrow winding streets, uncountable restaurants, 1500+ year old sites and numerous tourists.  Swirling crowds were everywhere - it has been a long time since we have been in a place with so many tourists.

Istanbul is surrounded by water – sitting on the Bosphorus Strait that separates Europe from Asia and connects the Black Sea with the Mediterranean via the Marmara Sea.  We spent our days walking to all the “must-see” sights packed into Sultanahmet – the Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace and an ancient underground cistern built by the Byzantines.  We went shopping among the 3,000 shops in the Grand Bazaar, one of the largest and oldest “shopping malls” in the world.  And we jumped on ferries and trams to see the sights across the strait and spend the afternoon in Asia!  The food, the sites and the sounds (the four mosques in our neighborhood all fired up at 5 AM) were everything you would imagine in such a fabulous international city.

Istanbul was the perfect place to ease back into the Western world.  Next stop, a country that seems very foreign to us – the USA!

Palestine and Israel - Friends, religion and history

For the first time in a very long time, we spent five nights in the same place.  And even better it was with friends in their home!  The Maayah family ensured that our time in Palestine and Israel was a highlight of our travels and very informative.  Tareq is a fellow in Christy’s Henry Crown class at the Aspen Institute, and he and his wife, Natalie, and 3 children welcomed us into their home in Ramallah, Palestine.  They not only hosted us in their new guest apartment, they also fed us, entertained us, loaned us their car and ensured that we got the most out of our time there.  

Luke and Ryan were ecstatic to be with kids their own ages again.  Zena, Sammeh and Maajed played video games, watched movies and ran around constantly with our boys.  Since we were there for several school nights, we certainly managed to disrupt the normal flow of life in the Maayah household.

In addition to connecting with our friends, we explored the West Bank cities of Ramallah, Jericho, Bethlehem and Jerusalem. We loved wandering through the old streets of Jerusalem and seeing the historic religious sites – we visited sites that are among the most holy for Islam, Judaism and Christianity, all within an area smaller than one square mile.  We also spent one day in Israel proper exploring Tel Aviv.  Israel’s largest city had beautiful parks and beaches and was a sharp contrast to what we saw in Palestine.  Tel Aviv seemed like a very livable city and had a similar feel to many cities in the US or Europe.

Staying in Palestine was a very different experience than we would have had staying in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.  Despite reading about the Middle East prior to arriving, we found we still had large gaps in our knowledge of history and conflicts in the region.  News and history are often influenced by the source of the information and frequently we hear only one part of the story.  It’s no different in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and the bulk of our news in the US seems to come from an Israeli viewpoint.  What doesn’t make the news is the state of “martial law” that exists in the West Bank, and we saw and experienced first hand the restrictions imposed upon the Palestinians.  Our five days there has left us with a more complete view of what is happening in Israel/Palestine.  Paradoxically, it seems that there is no good resolution to the conflict while at the same time it seems obvious that the current situation is untenable and a two state solution is necessary.

Birthplace of Christ

Our travels over this past month have been a wonderful way for us all to learn and experience different religions, especially in places where religion is more central to public life than in the United States.  We certainly never take anyone to the church, synagogue, temple or mosque when they visit us in Boulder!  We learned about Buddhism in Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.  We experienced the Muslim way of life in Bangladesh, Jordan and Palestine.  Finally, we learned more about Jewish and Christian beliefs and history while touring the historic sites in Jordan, Palestine and Israel.  It is much easier to comprehend the stories in the Bible, Koran and Torah when you have stood in the sites where the stories actually occurred.

Jordan - Lively people, ancient ruins and a Dead Sea!

Jordan surprised us all with its inviting people, vast ruins and stunning natural beauty.  Any concerns we had about how we would be received by the Jordanians were alleviated right away.  Everywhere we went, people would say, “You are welcome here.  Welcome to Jordan!”  Shopkeepers invited us in to have tea and talk about their area’s history and waiters befriended the boys, spoiling them with special drinks and ice cream. 

Jordan has some incredible history and some of the most spectacluar ruins in the world.  The impressive sites we saw right in the capital city of Amman were dwarfed the next day by Jerash’s vast ancient Roman city that reached its peak in the 3^rd century AD.  We were astounded by the immense temples, columned streets and buildings that we speculate would rival those in Athens and Rome.

With the images of Jerash still in our heads, we headed south to the crown jewel of Jordan’s historical past, Petra.  As advertised, it was even more impressive than Jerash.  Petra is a city that was literally carved out of the red rock by the Nabataeans 2500 years ago in about 400BC.  Petra, with its natural and carved structures, is an explorer’s dream and the kids immediately began scampering up rocks and looking in caves.  The stunning 1.2km narrow rock canyon leading into the village would be well worth a visit on its own, but there is so much more.  Palaces, temples, tombs and homes were intricately carved out of the sandstone walls.  It would take at least 3 days to explore the sprawling city in any depth.  We walked ourselves ragged for a day and a half and were only able to cover a fraction of the excavated ruins.  And they estimate it is only about 20% uncovered!

Another highlight of Jordan was our overnight in a Bedouin Camp at Wadi Rum Reserve, only about 20 km from the border with Saudi Arabia.  Wadi Rum is Moab, Utah on steroids with its sculpted sandstone mountains and vast desert plains.  We stayed in a rustic tented camp run by the local Bedouins.  We sat on the floor in the communal dining tent while we drank tea and listened to our guides sing and play their local music.  We climbed up to rock bridges, ran down sand dunes, visited Lawrence of Arabia’s old home and took an uncomfortable but mercifully short 30-minute camel ride. 

To contrast our experience in the desert, we went to a posh hot springs resort near the Dead Sea to pamper ourselves and get the grit off of our bodies.  It was a beautiful place but also probably the emptiest hotel we have ever been in.  Definitely more staff than guests!

On our return from Israel/Palestine, we spend one night on the shores of the Dead Sea and had a memorable swim/float/mud bath.  Although we had heard that the salinity would provide extra buoyancy, we were shocked to find that it was difficult to even fully submerse yourself.  You couldn’t drown in the sea if you tried!

Sri Lanka - Buddhists, Beauty and Beaches

Sri Lanka was full of surprises for us: it's Buddhist, not Hindu; it is only 18 miles from India and used to be connected by a land bridge; and it has every climate you can imagine from tropical jungle to high mountain plains.  In 2009, the country ended 25 years of civil war with the Tamil Tigers and rejoined the list of viable tourist destinations.  The Sri Lankans are just now reaping the benefits of peace and tourism is picking up.

It is a chaotic place, with vestiges of its British colonial past, the bustle of a rapidly growing economy, the marginal transportation infrastructure of a less developed country and some of the greatest natural diversity on earth.  Not to mention recorded history going back several thousand years, a whole host of important Buddhist locations, eight World Heritage sites, and a mountain considered by some the location of the Garden of Eden.  And it is all packed into a compact 25,000 square miles, about the size of West Virginia.

After recuperating on the beach from a flight that arrived after 1:45 in the morning (really!), we headed inland and spent time in the towns of Kandy and Nuwaru Eliya. The towns are high in the mountains and have beautiful views over the cloud filled valleys below.  We drove through lush terraced tea plantations where women toiled with heavy bags on their backs as they picked the tea, which is still a major export.  We also made the pilgrimage to the Temple of the Tooth, where one of Buddha’s teeth is venerated.

From Nuwaru Eliya we drove to a nature preserve known for its astonishing view down across the entire Eastern half of the island.  After a hike up through the park to the ridge viewpoint, we looked down over the swirling mists that obscured the view and gave us the impression that there was nothing beyond the wall of white in front of us.  It is yet another place known as the “End of the Earth,” making it the third one that we have visited on the trip.

Our drive from the mountains to the beach looked short on the map, but turned into 8 hours of curvy nausea-inducing twists and turns that ensured we had to keep our eyes on the road and a barf bag nearby.  We were grateful that we had a driver who kept us alive and allowed us to keep our eyes on the road and the beautiful landscape around us.   

We spent our final days on the Southwest Coast, followed by a day exploring Colombo on our way out to the airport.  After Bora Bora, we are finding ourselves a little jaded about what a spectacular beach looks like!  To be fair, Sri Lanka’s best beaches are supposed to be further down the coast, but we were disappointed to find that the beach we visited suffered from two curses common to rapidly developing countries – a tendency to use the ocean as a trash disposal and the disturbing habit of local beachgoers to freely litter their beaches.  Equally puzzling was our hotel’s disinterest in cleaning the beachfront right in front of their hotel.

Despite the disappointing beach conditions, frustrating tummy problems, pounding tropical rain, crazy roads, and a bit of homesickness (yes - we had a lot of problems this week), we enjoyed the beauty of Sri Lanka.  If we return, we will explore the World Heritage sites we missed, go blue whale watching (we just missed the season) and enjoy the beaches that are a little more difficult to get to.  On to Jordan!