When we chose to stay a month in China, we thought of the words Dorothy uttered to her dog Toto when they landed in OZ:  “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore!”   There were obvious differences: giant Buddhas don’t stand in the middle of Birmingham streets, and Legion Field doesn’t look much like Beijing’s Birdnest, the stadium designed for the 2008 Olympics.   We could have stayed home and seen China’s history and beauty in glorious 4K resolution, but we would have missed discovering some of the best treasures of China: her people. There are some definite differences, in many cases admirable:

China’s Ideals                                                                 American Ideals

MYOB                                                                          Get involved in everyone’s

*Fit in                                                                    *Non-conformists (tattoos to T’s)

Value honor                                                              Trust your legal team

Quiet and aggressive                                              Outspoken and animated

Thin profit margin                                                   Wide profit margin

Saves humiliations                                                 “Swim with the Sharks”

Economics come first                                             Relationships come first

Humility is a virtue                                              “Humility”- sign of weakness

Respect for age, wisdom, ability                       Respect for success, wealth, youth

You can discover  China in HD on your TV.  But in order to be blessed by the people, you need total immersion with the  Chinese people.  When you break through their shy exterior, you’ll find the pearl – so to speak!

Dawn

As we crossed the Thames River in London, England I had the “London Bridge” ditty stuck in my head.  Agonizing little tune.  One of the guys heard me and asked, “Is this the London Bridge, and why did they always talk about it falling down?”

Original London Bridge London

London Bridge Arizona

We investigated:   600 years ago, the bridge was strong, with 19 arches secured by strong foundations set into the river bed.  That would have probably been good enough to hold the thing up if some enterprising merchants hadn’t decided to make a mall and fast-food court out of it.  By 1358, London Bridge had 138 shops, and a new-fangled multi-seated public overhanging lavatory, handily dumping ‘dumpage’ into the Thames River.  (Yuk)  Nobody thought it would cause any problem until The Great Stink, of 1858, when the heat of summer aged the poop and voila!   The Great Sink! 

Fires and wars and floods came along, and they built it back.  But regardless what they did, nothing seemed to hold.  The old song finishes like this:

“Build it up with wood and clay,                                                                                                    Wood and clay, wood and clay. . . . Wood and clay will wash away,                                          My fair lady.

Build it up with bricks and mortar,                                                                                             Bricks and mortar, bricks and mortar. . . .Bricks and mortar will not stay,                         My fair lady.

Build it up with iron and steel,                                                                                                           Iron and steel, iron and steel . . . .Iron and steel will bend and bow,                                   My fair lady.”

Traveling made history come alive for us as a family.  London has so much to offer in the area of ‘strange but true’.   You think the London Bridge is Falling Down nursery rhyme has strange roots, check out:  “Ring Around the Rosy”. It’ll rot your socks!

Dawn

They didn’t need to say it.  I read it all over their faces.  It was the day we sat down together to polish up the plans for our trip to SE Asia.  “We are going to see Angkor Wat —  a Hindu temple complex surrounded by a moat, built in the 12^th Century by the King of Khmer.   Early explorers had come back with great stories about it, but nobody could get there to verify it, so nobody much believed them.”

“How did it get lost?”somebody asked.  “Swallowed up by the Jungles,” I said in my spooky voice. (I always like to dazzle them with scary historical embellishments.)

“Will we see Siamese cats in Siam?”  they digressed.   (I took a deep breath.)  “Nope – Siam is no longer.  It’s now called Thailand.  But we’re talking about the lost temple complex of Angkor Wat, sometimes known as the Seventh Wonder of the World.”  They weren’t dazzled yet, so I pulled out a few fun facts to try to get them in the mood for some AWE:

In 1860, Henri Mouhot, an explorer, had heard about a great Khmer temple lost in the jungles and was actually looking for beautiful birds when he came upon the temple.   Before cameras, explorers had only three ways to convey their discoveries:

Bring ‘em home, draw them or tell about them.

Even though others had found this complex earlier, there was no way to ‘bring it home’ and if they didn’t have skills to draw the thing or tell about it, well, few would believe the discoverers’ stories about what they saw.

Henri took his time to etch drawings of the temple complex and once the Western world saw his drawings and read his descriptions, Henri was set for a page in Wikipedia as the ‘finder of the lost temple.’    Others had beaten him, but Henri brought skills to the party!”

“What about the Siamese Cats?” (I took another deep breath). “No cats here I don’t think – but lots of strange looking monkeys!”

The lesson here is about using what you’ve got:  Drawings are good, but  if you are trying to lure them to SE Asia, spooky temples and monkeys are a pretty sure bet.

Dawn

For the past three years, I have begged you to take a family trip.  Don’t you hate people that find something wonderful in their life and dog you until you do it?  Unless you are in the ‘planning stages of an adventure,’ I have failed.  So I’m trying a new tactic called “Just a Peak.”

Worse case is that you build your trivia knowledge without the total IQ putdown of Alex Trebek of Jeopardy. But best case is you will be tempted to go see for yourself.

We share so many funky photos with our Facebook friends, this blog will give you a little more background about our adventures which could potentially one day be your own adventures.

What looks like a Cambodian Root Canal is actually the lost temple complex of Angkor Wat. How long was it lost?  Who took it??  How was it found?   Round trip tickets start at $670, but don’t book yet because there is so much more on the way.    But it doesn’t cost a thing to start planning next year’s trip with your family.

Talk Friday!

Dawn