On June 19th, my son and I boarded a plane in Lexington, KY with no idea of what kind of adventure was in front of us. The longest flight either of us had been on was when we flew to Seattle about four years ago. This time we knew there was a 12.5 hour flight from Dallas to Tokyo waiting. Then another 4 hour flight to Hong Kong that night before we could even think of getting into our hotel room.
We walked onto that plane excited about our adventure and settled in for the first flight to Dallas. This one was a simple 2 hour hop and was very easy for both of us. Now we are sitting in Dallas with a 3 hour layover so we go get breakfast. It was then that the nerves hit me. I was thinking to myself, what did I get us into? Oh my goodness, am I really ready for something like this? My brain started to run into the whole “What if….” game and I was getting really anxious. Daniel is sitting across from me with this smile saying how excited he was to go with me. It was at that point I started telling myself, it’s all good. It is all good.
I ran down to hall to grab a drink and some gum for the flight and when I get back, boarding had already started! Ooppsss! We walk up and were able to skip most of the line and get to our seats with no problem. I couldn’t find any overhead bin spots over our seats so we just shoved our bags in front of us. One of the stewardesses for our section walked by noticing our bags and pointed out we could use the bins in the business section right in front of us. I grab our bags, toss up there and mention to her this was our first flight like this and thanked her for the help.
For the rest of the flight, she kept stopping by regularly to check on us and make sure we were ok. She was awesome! The 12.5 hours wasn’t too bad. We ate, napped, watched movies, listened to music, walked and talked. All I know is I was happy I paid for the Premium Economy seats. It was worth every penny.
We end up getting into the Hong Kong Airport around 11:00pm and to our hotel room by around midnight. Of course, this is after I have to go back down to the check in desk because I had no idea you had to put your room card in a slot on the wall to turn the lights on. Dan and I crashed that night with no alarm for the morning. That was perfect.
Sleep wasn’t the easiest that night. Breakfast was interesting for us. Baked beans, ham, rice, noodles and so many other options. It was truly an international breakfast for us. That day we visited the Man Mo Temple where we got some of the history of it, rode the tram up to Victoria’s Peak and have lunch there. We stopped in one of the restaurants and had two different sushi rolls with watermelon juice to drink for Daniel (it was like drinking a watermelon). That afternoon we went on a harbor tour and off to grab some dinner from a little burger joint on the waterfront. The next day we decided to take a bus tour around the city where we visited the Golden Bahini Square and rode the Hong Kong Ferris Wheel. It was a lot but it was so much fun. That night Dan suggested we try this little hole in the wall spot next to the hotel for dinner where I had some sort of noodle soup and he had some good noodle dish as well. All I know is it was good!
On the third day there, we took it easy in the morning and headed to the airport. We were beginning our journey to Kuching, Malaysia. Our first flight was a 4 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur (interesting airport) and then a short 1.5 hour flight into Kuching. Air Asia is really a no frills airline but I have no complaints!
Now that we ended up in Kuching, work started. This was the whole point for the trip for me. I was asked to lead the initial IMKC (International Marine Kids Congress) for the IMCC (International Marine Conservation Congress). I had a plan like any good person in charge would right? I was ready to go with this plan and all would be great. My job was to work with roughly 11 kids from delegates ranging in age from 9-14 and about 11 kids that were from Kuching and the surrounding area. I ended up with about 14 total kids ranging from 6-14 with the majority being 9 and younger. After the first day, I looked at my plan and thought, this isn’t going to work. Like any good teacher, I sat down and started trying to figure it out on the fly, in a foreign country, with only hours to figure it out.
Thanks to the help from the awesome people in charge of IMCC, I was able to make changes and keep things moving along. They helped me fill gaps, organize new speakers, fix technical issues and do whatever I asked for the IMKC. They were fantastic. I also was able to make some new friends in Aazani and Eddie. Aazani was a local coordinator for IMCC and Eddie was a dad of two of the local children who decided to stay and hang out with us. Those two were invaluable to helping me make IMKC a success.
The students were able to listen to Melissa Marquez talk about sharks, Project Seagrass come in and talk about the importance of seagrass in an ecosystem (they also helped the kids make a seagrass mural), Angelo Villagomez talk about the Marianas Trench, Emily Cunningham talk about whale identification and Phil Karp talk about invasive species. We were also able to make a foldscope (a really cool microscope) with the help from Kim of the Big Blue Network. The group went on field trips to the Semnegohh Wildlife Reserve to see orangutans, a city tour of Kuching where we got to stop in the Cat Museum (that is a whole different story), a river dolphin tour and walked through the local textile museum. The last day, Edd Hind-Ozan along with Matt Tietbohl came in and ran a game called the Tragedy of the Commons. All throughout, we also got to play games together, watch some Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II, work on some SciArt project and just have fun. It was an honor to have been a part of this and I sure hope I can get back to do it again. I have a bunch of ideas to make it better!
The food in Kuching. Where to start? The breakfasts were amazing. So much fruit! Daniel and I at the opening party asked for an apple juice. Most of us would expect a simple apple juice, maybe something like a Minute Maid Apple Juice right? Not at all what we got. They evidently took Granny Smith apples and pulverized them through a juicer. Two glasses of green juice were set in front of us. I remember looking at Dan thinking what the heck. We tried it and oh boy was it sour. So we tried it again and kept on drinking. Probably the best apple juice I have had. Later that we week went and tried the dish that famous to Kuching, Laksa and it did not disappoint. Whew it was good. Spicy but not so spicy it hurt. The flavor profile was interesting and I am not sure I can adequately describe it so this is what I will tell you…..I wish I could have a second bowl. It was that good.
We finally flew out of Kuching six days after arriving and headed to Singapore. I knew I wanted to go visit the Garden By The Bay and it was spectacular. The dome where they had the flowers was beautiful. So much color everywhere. It was hands down, the best one I have ever seen. Next door was the dome that had the tallest indoor waterfall in the forest dome. We walked through an indoor forest! It was just as fantastic. That afternoon we went on a Duck Tour of Singapore and visited the night safari. The Night Safari is a must if you go there. It was, well, awesome. Seeing the animals like that, in that setting was really, really cool.
The next day we took it easy. We were tired and my knee hurt from where I fell on it the last day in Kuching. We hung around the hotel, walked around nearby and ended up having dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant (orded Pho). On the way back to the hotel, there was a chocolate shop called Awfully Chocolate and it was so good! We grabbed some and it made it all the way home. I have to admit, I was worried Customs would take it.
We flew back to Hong Kong for a less than 24 hour stay. The plan was to take a cable car up the mountain to see the massive Golden Buddha but between the wind and lightning, we decided to skip it. Our last day was simple and easy, a good way to get ready to come home.
Our journey home started July 3rd at 9:15am from Hong Kong International Airport. Boarding the plane and realizing we had a 16 hour flight ahead of us was not exciting. The pilots came on and told us we were going to go directly over the North Pole and that would shorted our flight to about 14.5 hours. I was pumped about both parts because we had a camera on the bottom of the plane! North Pole time. I check the camera, excitedly ready to take a couple pics of the ice and what do I see? Clouds. Clouds. Clouds. Clouds. A full, thick covering of clouds. No freaking ice!
The next two flights went off without any major hiccups and we got into the house July 3rd about 11pm. Our adventure is over but the memories will last a long time. I felt lucky being able to take Daniel with me. To share this experience with him was phenomenal. I know he will be to share stories for a long time. He was a great travel buddy and I couldn’t be more proud of how he acted through the entire trip.
That is all for now. I may come back and add more but I think that kind of wraps up our little adventure.
patrickgoff1 