Toto Love

I have never traveled to any place in the world where bathrooms are as impeccably spotless, numerous, and high tech as in Tokyo.  

Fitting Metaphor for Tokyo

I like it here!

Amazing Tokyo

Excellent day in Tokyo today. Video games (zombie school girl pop group), ramen, weird shopping, artisanal raw milk ice cream. 

Best thing was this sushi bar where you order on a touch screen and your sushi gets whisked to your seat on one of the three racetracks in front if you. Who came up with this idea?

It's been a long trip...

The 6 ½ hour plane ride from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo for the last leg of our trip – one week in Japan – seems like a good time to reflect a bit on our travels.  We’ve been on the road for eight months, both a long time and not such a long time.  It’s a long time in the sense of a conventional trip abroad, which in these days might be two weeks, if you’re lucky.  It’s a long time for a family to spend every moment of every day together.  It’s not that long in the space of a lifetime…it’s not even one school year.

It has been the trip of a lifetime – I get tired just thinking about everything we’ve seen and done – snow-capped volcanoes, empty prairies, inviting beaches, dense jungles, ancient ruins, blazing deserts, tropical islands, enough wild animals to fill hundreds of zoos, cities ranging from quaint to futuristic to scary.  Places with no people at all, and the most crowded places there are.  Environments ranging from freezing to scorching, parched to sweaty.  Lots of beauty and a fair bit of ugliness.  I may leave this trip with the concern that we won’t be able to remember, let alone process, everything we’ve seen, but I’ll have absolutely no regrets that we didn’t see or do enough.

We’re all tired, looking forward to being home, and I’m pretty sure we are all approaching our week in Japan with mixed feelings – we’re all excited to see a place unlike any we’ve be to, the birthplace of videogames, hello kitty and ramen.  On the other hand, it’s hard not to think of the next week as one last ordeal we have to get through before we finally get back home.  It seems inevitable on a trip of almost any length, that the last portion is spent more focused on the homecoming than the present.

I had three objectives in taking this trip.  The first was that I wanted to expose O&R to what they will not see in Brooklyn, to avoid the particular provincialism that afflicts those who really do live at the center of the world – they need to know that the planet is a big place. 

The second was that I, perhaps a bit selfishly, wanted to a big chunk of concentrated time with my children before they leave childhood behind forever.  I’ve always been suspicious of the notion of “quality time.”  I wanted quantity, and I haven’t always gotten that.

The third objective was more personal – I wanted to put some time and distance between me and my day-to-day life to assess where I was, and reflect on how I want to live going forward.  I never felt like I was using travel to run away from anything, but I did want to do a gut check to make sure I was heading in the right direction.

Missions accomplished, I think.  And I’ve learned more than a few things about myself, and about my family that weren’t on the list. 

We’ve set the stage for O&R to become worldly, in every sense of the word; what they do with it in the future is really going to be up to them.  (That’s one of the lessons I’ve learned.)

Meeting the second objective of more time together was easy – we’ve gotten this far, and even if it hasn’t always been pretty, we’re definitely all closer than we have ever been.  I’m looking forward to seeing how this affects us in the years ahead.

And even though we’ve been consumed by our interactions with all the places we’ve been, I’ve definitely had time to reflect.  And it’s renewed my energy and enthusiasm for work, family and life.  I’m ready for one more big week in Japan, then I’ll want to go home.

Uyuni to Roppongi

Bolivia feels like a world away from the bright lights of Tokyo. So it was nice to see a little piece of the Altiplano has made it here. 

13 Hours in Malaysia and arrival in Tokyo

I thought it was going to be awful, but transiting through Kuala Lumpur from Thailand to Japan was a breeze.

We left Kho Phangan yesterday, then dove into the following: truck taxi to dock, catamaran ferry to Samui, van to Samui airport, 1.5 hour flight to KL, airport shuttle, night in KL, airport shuttle, 6 hour flight to Tokyo, shuttle to Ginzu Station, taxi to apartment in Roppongi.  It was a largely enjoyable journey -- lots of variety over a day and a half -- and best of all, it began with a delicious noodle soup lunch in Thailand, and ended with a commuter soba noodle place in Tokyo tonight.

I've never been to Malaysia before.  On the plus side, the KL airport has interesting snacks.  

The Toblerone ferris wheel lights up and moves

Oscar, whose job it is to load the luggage carts, was thrilled with the ones at KLIA.  Something about their capacity and ease of handling.

The expert at work

All the people we met, including the taxi touts, were friendly and helpful.  KLIA has not only the fastest airport wifi we've ever experienced, but the fastest wifi we've had during our entire trip.  

What else?  The infamous Concorde Inn KL Airport Hotel, with 81 excellents and 149 terribles on Trip Advisor, was not bad at all.  Neil had booked the place, and then I had gotten myself into a crazy state the night before reading horrible reviews of it online (bed bugs, incessant noise, surly staff, etc.).  After a pleasant night's stay, I realized that it all depends on your perspective. It's certainly not great if you're expecting the Hilton, but it's vastly better than any hotel we stayed at in China and better than most we saw in Ecuador.  I tried to give it a honest review.  

Neil outside our room at the Concorde -- reminiscent of Forbes College, circa 1986

As an aside, I'm starting to get annoyed at the ubiquitous snarky comments on travel websites about mainland Chinese tourists.  Yes, they're loud, they sometimes wear cheap clothes, and they tend to travel in large groups.  They've become today's ugly American.  Everyone just needs to relax about them!

In Malaysia, the mainlanders we encountered were not too troublesome....except the woman who tried to cut me off at the breakfast buffet egg line (not happening!), or the other woman whose plastic wrapped wood pile   (not clear why she was traveling with it) narrowly missed my toe when it fell over on the bus.  She didn't bat an eye, just moved the wood like it was my fault it had fallen over!  

Okay, I obviously need to take my own advice.  Back on topic - it was a bit surreal arriving in Malaysia the day before the end of Ramadan, seeing all the local press about the recent Malaysia Airlines crash.  Lots of sad stories about the pilots, flight attendants, and victims' families at what should be a happy time.  Our flight to Tokyo was probably 40% empty, so we got to spread out and had great service.  I'm not rushing out to fly them again, but I do hope the airline survives.

My initial thoughts on Tokyo?  We are a long way from Bolivia (except for the Doritos).

Touched down in Tokyo

Just landed after a quiet flight.

Honestly a bit relieved to be done with this one.

Taking a Chance: Lembongan

By Guest blogger Melinda Page

When Neil and Yolanda invited me to join them in Indonesia for some beach time, I secretly suspected that it was one of those polite invitations issued casually, but not seriously. Stop by when you’re in the neighborhood. Let’s have lunch sometime. Even if they were serious, I wasn’t sure I wanted to join them because let’s face it—vacationing with anyone’s family is often an invitation to the worst lunch imaginable, one that involves food poisoning and vomit. And for ten whole days? Well that just seemed excessive.

Besides, for the past year I’d spent most of my days sitting in an empty room, staring at a blank wall, talking to myself while trying to write a book. I wasn’t sure if I was capable of having a conversation with another person, much less four other people who were all related to each other. 

But surfing was involved, and to me, catching a wave feels like an out-of-body experience combined with the best roller-coaster ride and a first date with a really cute boy named Nisid. In short, and even though I’m terrible at it, I find surfing pretty irresistible.

So despite being nervous with two capital Ns, I said I would meet Neil and Yo on Lembongan, a fairly obscure island off the south coast of Bali that I unearthed on some even more obscure web chat about surfing for beginners in Indonesia. Given that it was the height of the surfing season and Indonesia is notorious for generating big swells and waves fit for the pros, I was a little worried. Was it actually good for beginners? I had no idea.

Local boats on arrival

Good for novices or not, there I suddenly was—well not exactly suddenly because there was that plane trip followed by a ferry boat and two rides on the backs of two different motorbikes—but anyway, there I was at the 10-room Suka Nusa, standing in front of our lumbung-style thatch-roofed cottages (editor’s note: a lumbung is a traditional rice-storage barn on stilts with a steeply pitched roof), saying hello to Yolanda and Ruby in a totally natural way, as if I’d just popped over for lunch. We had sunset cocktails on the beach followed by a great dinner at our hotel that night—nasi campur, gado gado, tuna—and later, after Oscar and Ruby went to bed, we sat on the porch beneath one of our lumbungs with shots of Scotch (thank you for stopping at Duty Free, Neil!) and I talked my face off and thought okay, so this isn’t so bad.

First sunset on Lembongan

The next day I woke up early, determined to work, which I did for a few hours before we all convened at Suka Nusa’s breezy open-air restaurant for what would become the morning ritual for the next nine days: Bali coffee for the adults (which, as Neil explained, is boiled on the stovetop, resulting in a nice layer of sludge in the bottom of the cup), watermelon juice for the kids, and banana pancakes for everyone.

Coconuts, freshly hacked from Suka Nusa's trees

After breakfast, I watched in awe as Neil coached Ruby through some math problems and Yolanda convinced Oscar to study for his final 8th-grade Spanish and math exams. All of this happened without any drama or even any real complaining from anyone. Me? I went surfing. I met Wayan, who owns NewBro Surfing, which is down an alley on the way to the beach and attached to his family home. He did all the introductory dry-land training in his family’s courtyard, which doubled as their temple. I stretched and put on my rash guard while surrounded by brightly painted offering bowls, ceremonial sashes, and a few of his aunts who smiled at me while shelling beans into cooking pots. His wife’s sewing machine was set up in a corner, a few feet away from the surf board racks. Lest you think all of this entirely too quaint, Wayan surfed while wearing a black trucker hat and electric blue faux Raybans, and had a sidekick named Robot. (P.S. trucker hats float. Who knew?)

Temple offering bowls like these surrounded us at Wayan's shop as we got ready to surf

The surfing was great, but definitely challenging. It was the first time I’d ever surfed a reef break from a boat, far from shore, and it involved what felt like an endless amount of paddling. A pretty serious workout, even for me (a sometimes-serious swimmer), but I loved the long powerful waves and the close-up views of the surfers who actually knew what they were doing. It was, I concluded, not for the novice swimmer. Or really anyone who thought they might like to “try” surfing. I had no clue what kind of swimmers Oscar + Ruby were, but it seemed conceivable that they would go out on the boat once and then declare they were done, making the whole surfing trip a flop. I crossed my fingers and hoped they’d be able to make it.

This is what's at the end of the road in Lembongan

That night, I fully intended to go back to work, but Oscar + Ruby had spotted the Lembongan Theater—a great big open-air space with cooling ceiling fans. The cute family who owned the place served us dinner while we sprawled on modernist beanbags that were hipper and more comfortable than I thought possible and watched Little Miss Sunshine on the big screen. I’d seen the movie before and I knew it was great, but hearing Yolanda laugh on one side of me and Ruby on the other made it seem even better than I remembered. On the very dark walk back to the Suka Nusa, listening to Oscar + Ruby dissect what they liked about the movie, I thought to myself, these kids are smart. And funny. And nice. I kinda like hanging out with them. But tomorrow, I resolved, I was going back to work. No more movies.

Not everyone on Lembongan feeds the tourists.  Lots of people harvest seaweed, which is used in the cosmetics industry

The next day, Neil + Oscar + Ruby all signed up for surfing along with me while Yolanda headed for yoga. After explaining that Neil wasn’t my husband and these weren’t my children, we were in the water and everyone was paddling toward their first ride. I lost sight of O + R + N many times in the waves, but I saw Oscar stand up twice, Ruby dancing and then falling, and Neil doing lots and lots of paddling.

Lunch on Mushroom Bay.  After lunch, we walked around in a circle

Afterwards, we were all beat in the best exhilarated/exhausted kind of way, and Oscar + Ruby announced their intention to celebrate their first successful surfing outing with another dinner and a movie. This time it was Jurassic Park. I said something about maybe skipping the movie, then took a long shower while listening to the geckos chirping and the doves cooing and the occasional rooster crowing. When I got out, I realized the Wu-Platts were gone. Okay, this makes the decision easy, I thought. I’m going to work. But then I remembered the feeling of being surrounded by Neil + Yo + Oscar + Ruby, all of us laughing, and how that compared to all those days spent staring at a white wall working on a book I no longer liked. Besides, my computer was upstairs and I was downstairs, and going up to get it seemed like way too much effort. So I went to the movie. Maybe I was imagining it, but Oscar + Ruby seemed genuinely happy when I showed up for the screening. Like I said, cool kids.

The famous cock breeder of Ceningan Island.  I still have nightmares about those roosters.

The next day, Neil + Yolanda entrusted me with Oscar + Ruby, and sent the three of us off for surfing without any adult supervision. As we walked down Lembongan’s main street, passing black stone temples with their delicate sandcastle-shaped towers and an endless string of guest houses and warungs (simple restaurants serving traditional Indonesian home cooking) and getting passed by the buzzing hoard of motor scooters, they told me about their visit to their family’s village in China. I loved hearing them tell me about an entire village filled with nothing but Wus, a place where no one asked you what your last name was. Instead, they asked you which generation of Wu you were.

One of Lembongan's many temples.

And then we were in the boat and out on the water and as soon as I jumped in I realized there was a huge swell and some seriously intimidating waves. This was a mistake, I thought. A really big, tsunami-sized mistake. Oscar + Ruby will never make it. But make it they did—before I knew it, Oscar was standing up, looking perfectly nonchalant on his board. Making it look easy, in fact. Then Ruby was up, riding a wave in glamorous Princeton-orange skull & crossbone-patterned pants. After that, I knew I didn’t need to worry about them, those kids were tough.

The waves are tough, but Oscar & Ruby are tougher.

Afterwards, tired and thirsty but feeling really stoked (yeah, bro!), we walked back along the beach where little urchin girls tried to sell us bracelets and Ruby made the first of what turned out to be a long series of jokes about crepes. A long series of jokes that went on for days. It took a while, but eventually I came to see the genius in her sense of humor. On Oscar’s part, I quickly realized that he has developed a pitch-perfect sense of sarcasm, which I appreciated immediately. Plus, he’s got some killer business ideas (Oscar, don’t forget: BKTK and the swim-up bar you’re going to build on Lembongan’s floating pontoons).

We surfed those waves way off in the distance.  See that pontoon with the attractive fringe on top?  That's where Oscar's planning to build Lembongan's first swim-up bar.

After that, the days blurred into a calm routine of surfing, homework, laughter, bali coffee, and banana pancakes. When we had just two days left, we realized there were so many things left to do—scuba diving, snorkeling, biking on neighboring islands, visiting all the hard-to-get-to beaches that still remained unseen. We had to split up to conquer it all, and while I loved my solo bike rides during which I could stop whenever I wanted and take as many pictures as I pleased and without anyone telling me I ate really slowly (okay, I admit it, I eat really slowly), I was surprised to find myself missing the company. In the end, it was a great experience that didn’t give me food poisoning, and it definitely didn’t make me want to vomit. Instead, it was that rare kind of trip that I wanted to suspended in time, a moment that I didn’t want to end.

Our last days at Dream Beach, with crashing waves, a sunset and happiness

Luckily I still had nine more days with the Wu-Platts. We continued our adventure in Cambodia and Laos with the addition of Nisid, and.....okay, okay, I know I’m miles past the 140-character limit and I also know everyone just wants to see pictures anyway. So here they are!

Neil paying for the bike he forgot to return just before hopping on the ferry back to Bali.

All the Wu-Platts are sad to leave Lembongan—especially Ruby. I took seven photos but she wasn’t smiling in any of them.

Koh Phangan

Taking the ferry from Koh Samui to Koh Phangan

The hor d'oeuvres were flowing, the French wine importer was pouring, the French artisanal ice cream maker was scooping, what a perfect way to spend our last evening in Thailand on beautiful Koh Phangan.

We thought this was blowing towards Koh Tao, but.....

No matter that a monsoon suddenly struck in the middle of the beach bar opening party at the Blue Ocean Gardens.  We, and every French expat on Koh Phangan and Koh Samui, managed to carry on.

Oblivious to the rain, Oscar held court with a bunch of kids from Portugal and Japan.  

They speak a universal language

It was a perfect ending to our vacation from our sabbatical.   The last two months in Asia really took a lot out of us.   

Me and Neil on our "jet scooter"

In five days on laid back Koh Phangan, we slept in, ate tiramisu and ricotta cheesecake (our hotel is Italian-owned), swam, snorkeled, read, played Munchkin, Scrabble, Cribbage and Hearts, tooled around on a moped, walked on endless sandbars at low tide, practiced yoga and violin, and did a water obstacle course called Wipeout.  

Hmmm, tantra of the heart or tantra of liberation?  

We despise selfies but sometimes are left with no choice.

We leave tomorrow for a quick overnight in Kuala Lumpur, then 8 days in Tokyo and Kyoto!  So excited to eat sushi, visit Studio Ghibli, check out some temples, and sleep in a capsule hotel. Our last stop before LAX!!

Our lovely spot on Chad Prao Yao before the storm

Uncles/Friends

On our last day in Bangkok, our kids got to meet an uncle's friend, and a friend's uncle.

Me with Gordon's college friend Jim Hanson (R) and his partner, Jack 

Us with our friend Suzy's brother (and Ruby's friend Helena's uncle), Jun

Me with Tom Cruise.  Different story.

Back in BKK

I lived in Bangkok right after college, in 1989-90, and I loved it.  Sure, it was polluted, traffic-choked and a bit seedy in parts, but there was a lot to do, it was exotic and cheap, and I was able to get around easily as I spoke pretty good Thai at the time.  The life of a young expat in a developing capital was intoxicating; my memories are of debilitating heat and humidity, incredible food, and awful traffic.

Apart from a visit with Yo on our last around-the-world trip in 1991, I haven’t been back.  That’s 23 years during which basically every single person I know has been to Thailand, but me.  Most people pass through Bangkok only briefly on their way north (to the hills) or south (to the beaches), but I was really looking forward to seeing how the city itself had changed in the two decades since my last visit. 

I was expecting great changes, and a barely recognizable city, but what really surprised me was this:  Things didn’t look that different. 

Night markets still look the same.  Good cheap food, florescent lights, diesel exhaust.

You can still get delicious food in unappetizing places

The biggest change had been the construction of the Skytrain, which provided a fast and comfortable way to skip over some of the city’s most trafficky arteries.  It has had a Blade Runner-like effect on the streetscapes below, by adding a third dimension to the sprawl and activity.  I was surprised to see that the Skytrain passed right by my apartment on the grounds of Bangkok Christian College on Sathorn Rd.  (Well…the building I lived in has since been demolished, but if it hadn’t been, we would have been face-to-face with the train).

4 p.m. near my old place, looking down from Skytrain

Apart from that, the city looked very much like it did in the early 90s.  Office towers and apartment blocks converging on shop houses and food vendors.  Chaos at street level, bad traffic, constant construction.  The city looked and felt more or less the same; but there was just a lot more of it.  And it was even hotter than I remembered.

In the two days we had there, we didn’t cover that much ground – the big tourist sights, the Chao Phrya River, a crazy big mall or two, and my old ‘hood.  But it was enough to get a taste, and it was great to be back, even if just for a short visit.