Never Again?

Two days ago, while at staying at a gorgeous youth hostel in Raglan, New Zealand, I met an American (USA) family.  They have two girls (8 and 10 years old) with whom they are traveling for six months.  They are also homeschooling their kids.  They were only three weeks into their trip, which is heading west (compared to our easterly travel direction).  Next week, they will be heading to Asia, where we spent seven months.

We only spoke together for a few minutes, but the mother asked me for advice for their upcoming time in Asia.  She said "There are plenty of good places but is there any place we should avoid?"

It was a good preface to her question.  There ARE lots of good places.  There are tons of great places.  We have seen and done so many wonderful things so far, but quickly, three "must-do's" come to mind - places I would recommend in a second (interestingly, they are all very remote or natural places)!

Staying in treehouses and flying along 15 kilometers of zip-lines through the forest in the Laotian Nam Kan National Park.

Spending four incredible days snorkeling and hiking while camping and kayaking on the beautiful islands in Palau.

Exploring the remote backwater villages through the jungles of Borneo for five days in a motorized dugout canoe.

Surfing the long left-handed breaks on a near-empty beach when staying in a teepee at a serene and healthy hostel in Raglan, New Zealand.

But is there any place I would recommend travelers or families avoid, from amongst the many places we have been so far?  Places I would never ever go to again?

No.  There is no place (to which we have been on this trip), that I would never go to again or would tell people to avoid.

That might seem unlikely - but remember - attitude is everything!

Nadia

Peace on Earth

Global World

We saw fishermen catching fish.  Women were cleaning and drying fish.  The dried fish were packaged in cardboard boxes and shipped around the world.

It sounds really straight forward.  Except that the fishing community was very remote.  We drove seven hours north to Kota Bangun to catch a motorized canoe to go two more hours to get to the guesthouse in Muara Muntai where we spent the night.  In the morning we rode another three hours on the Mahakam River to get to what was left of Jempang Lake in this dry season.  The boxed fish are put on a motorized canoe, shipped down to Balikpapan to be shipped to the Island of Java for local use or further shipping to the world at large (mainly China).

This place is remote and pretty untraveled.  We've only seen four non-Indonesians in three days in this neighborhood (not surprisingly, they were a Spanish couple from near Bilbao and a young Dutch couple).  And a whole fishing community thrives because of this global trade.

Being global is a good thing.  Here in Indonesia, we know the common Moslem greetings and the call-to-prayer is familiar.

My daughters are in their hotel room "chatting" with friends who are maybe in Zimbabwe, maybe in Canada, maybe in Jordan... (but they asked me the other day how to address a postcard!).  While we were in Phuket, Rob and I great time listening to a local band playing Pink Floyd and Bob Marley.

But being global and connected is not always wanted.  Phuket was full of summer holiday-makers.  Pattaya was full of tours.  Vang Vieng was backpacker heaven.  Except for Laos, we've seen McDonald's and Starbucks in all the cities.  Being off the beaten track in remote East Kalimantan is a welcome change.  I finally feel like I'm traveling...

Nadia