I was once told that the island of Bali has more artists per capita than any other place in the world. I have never seen the statistics to back up that statement, but as we explore the island, I believe it must be true.  Quite often, the question asked of one Balinese to another is not “are you an artist?” but rather “what is your art?”

Inspired by the locals,  we have all thrown ourselves into the art scene here, taking various classes such as silversmithing and wood carving in an attempt to learn from the masters of the trade. The classes produce interesting works of art, but more importantly, they serve as an exclamation point highlighting the true talent of the local craftsmen who work their magic in such a detailed and elegant way.

Not only does Bali have oodles of native artists, but the island itself also attracts people from around the globe to come and create! Step into any shop and you will meet other craftspeople who have come from Europe, North America, Africa and remote places in Indonesia to make a living doing art that they love.

I want to come back in a few years and spend some time profiling some of the artists here but until then I hope some of the photos will entice a few of you to jump on a plane and experience this place firsthand

Carved stone at the Campuhan Temple which is currently being renovated so you can watch the artists at work….so cool!

Traditional carved wood in Bali is extremely ornate but this artist has started digging up old stumps with the roots and turning them into modern art pieces!

Street art is so cool and both a reflection of traditional art as well as a spin on western styles.

Daily offerings on every street curb are so beautiful with a combination of flowers, incense and food offered to the gods.

…. and the conversation typically concludes with a comment from our new acquaintance something like “Wow! Your kids are really lucky to have this opportunity!” Or the more humorous “Can you adopt me too?!”

In the beginning  of this trip, I would think to myself “Yep, the kids are really lucky! Not many 12 year-olds get to skip 6th grade and see the world for a year!” But as the trip has unfolded, I realize that while we are all VERY LUCKY in so many ways, the luckiest person on this trip is ME!!

For 9 months now, I have gorged on time with Cliff and the kids! The seven of us have enjoyed over 800 meals together, uninterrupted by phone calls and texts. We have had the chance to read books together, share our thoughts about the world, and engage in conversations about all sorts of topics. We have played games, brainstormed new business ideas, taken over a dozen cooking classes and argued about differences of opinion. But, most importantly, we have gotten to know each other REALLY, REALLY WELL Good and bad, highs and lows, we have experienced it all.

I keep asking the kids to think about how our lives will be different when we get back to Mercer Island. Are we all just going to go back to doing exactly what we were doing before we left? I imagine myself, arriving home, unpacking everything from our worn out suitcases and then hollering down the hall “OK..making a run to Target, does anyone need anything?” It seems surreal, and yet, a likely scenario.

Regardless, I am most grateful that Cliff and I have had the opportunity to essentially kidnap our children from our crazy, action packed lives in Seattle and simply be together.  All too soon, we know that the kids will be off,  into the world, and will start making life plans on their own. This year long trip has been the greatest gift we could have ever given ourselves, and, despite whatever angst it may cause as we try and plug back into jobs and schools again, it was worth it….times a million!

Otto and I at a silversmithing class in Ubud, Bali

Yve and I in Gili Air, Lombok

Wescott and I doing a food safari in Ubud

Cliff and I enjoying sunset in the rice paddies of Bali

This April, 12 years later, we were able to travel back to China and really SOAK IT IN!  We got to hang out and just live life for 2 months in China. It was amazing and we learned things about the culture and people that we had not been able to appreciate the first time.

As we leave China, this is what we take away:

1) FRIENDLY AND NICE!  When acquaintances on this trip learned we were headed to China, they repeatedly told us “be prepared, the Chinese aren’t that friendly…!”  Born and raised in Boston, a city also known for giving people the cold shoulder, Cliff and I were not intimidated  But we found the opposite of the cold shoulder in China…we found warm fuzzies, friendly faces and people willing to help us each and every time. Perhaps those people who think the Chinese are not friendly have only traveled to the big cities in China…and let’s face it, everywhere in the world, big city people are not that friendly…they are in too much of a rush.  But get out of the city, and people want to talk to you, meet you and help you out! I can’t even recall how many times our bikes broke down in Yangshuo and each and every time, a local would stop and help us out…often getting grease all over his or her hands in the process.

These woman really wanted to take a picture with Otto because they thought he was so cute

2) THINK-OUTSIDE-THE-BOX. We are lead to believe that the population of China is full of automatons who rarely have a unique thought or approach. Again, with our time in China, we got to meet enough individuals to realize nothing could be further from the truth. Individualism and creative thinking is everywhere!  You see it in the chefs, street artists, entrepreneurs, etc. We were lucky enough to get to hang out with several Chinese nationals in their mid 20s, who sat down and talked to us about life in China while we described life in the US. We talked for hours about the family unit, going to college, getting jobs, getting married, social media, food, tv, gun control, manners, everything! And we realized that there are way more similarities than there are differences. Two of the people we hung out with started their own online business selling socks (the Chinese buy a ton online) so we even had fun brainstorming about online marketing strategies

My favorite retailer in Yangshuo! It is a place that you can go in, write letters or postcards and tell them when you want them to be mailed and they will hold them for you and mail them on your specific date in the future

Tuck and Jones hanging outside Postcards to the Future

3) FASHION! I had heard people in China are fashionable but “WOW” I was blown away! And not just in the big cities, everywhere! People are uber hip and demonstrating their own personal flair with funky outfits and combinations. It was fun to sit in an outside cafe and just watch people walk by and check out the fashion…especially the shoes

Matching mother and daughter tights

Awesome shoes we spotted in Shanghai

4) CLEAN. I don’t know why, but I expected to see a lot of liter in China. So many counties have such a problem with trash everywhere. But China was immaculate. And not just the big cities. Even as we traveled into remote villages on day trips, everything was neat as a pin. I was amazed. Then one day, I asked Emily, a young college student doing an internship at our hotel, what was China’s secret to keeping everything so clean. She said “propaganda” and pointed out how many of the local billboards and roadside signs were dedicated to the environment. We started taking pictures of signs and asking her to translate them when we saw her at night and they were always the same “Keep our country clean!”  “Pick up trash.” I realized that the word “propaganda” has a bad connotation in the US but to the Chinese, it just means marketing. And guess what!?!? The marketing is working

A random alley in a small village we went to….I love all the alleyways!

City block in Guiping, where Yve was born!

Tuck standing in front of a propaganda sign

Our favorite liter campaign with these cartoon diaper babies telling people to clean up

5) DESTINY. Yve already wrote an awesome blog post on Serendipity in Guiping. Our amazing experience in Yve’s birth town just goes to show you that this stuff doesn’t just happen in the movies We went to Guiping with absolutely no specific goal other than to see the town and to leave feeling a little more connected to that region of China.  Meeting Chen Bin Ying and spending the day with her was above and beyond our wildest expectations. What was cool was that Chen Bin Ying KNEW Yve. She remembered her in the orphanage and spoke about the 10 months she was there.  It was like meeting a long lost aunt! And we now have a friend for life so every time we go back to Southern China, we can visit and we can keep in touch via email.

Chen Bin Ying and Yve in the lobby of our hotel in Guiping!

We left China feeling psyched that we spent time really getting to know a few people as well as some beautiful places off the beaten path and away from the big cities. But we realize that we just scratched the surface. China is enormous and there is so much left to see and do. It will most certainly take many more trips to see it all  But we are most proud that we were able to form our own opinion about the country and we leave with a really different perspective on China than when we arrived.  And I am confident that if today’s young generation in China will be running the world’s next superpower, they will do a great job!

We felt like part of the family with Sam (far left) and his Mom and Dad in Yangshuo!

But most importantly, The Box House sits right next to an amazing stretch of the Great Wall!  This afforded us the luxury to hike up for sunsets, sunrises and everything else in between.  We leisurely explored The Great Wall each day, heading in new directions and hoping we would end up in a place that would point us home. The village of Gubeikou was fun to meander around as well.  For anyone contemplating a visit to Beijing and The Great Wall, I would highly recommend a stint in The Box House!

Of course, Jones had to do one of his epic tours…here it is!

Typical dinner at The Box House

Spring blooms all around the village!

Tuck trying out the exercise equipment in town. You can find it in public places everywhere around China for people to use

We have come to realize that China probably does have its share of bad pollution days, but, on the average, it has far more beautiful, sunny days.  Unfortunately, the beautiful sunny days do not make an exciting news story, so we never hear about them in the US and it gives us a warped perception of life in Beijing.

Recently, the kids and I have spent a lot of time talking about the media and how it blows everything out of proportion. How, if you watch too much news, and take what they say as gospel, you will never go anywhere. You will find a reason that each and every place is too dangerous or risky.

The ironic thing is, that outside of the countries with current civil unrest, the USA is probably the place you would be most afraid to travel.  There are mass killings with automatic weapons in schools, bombs exploding in public places and highly televised murder trials.

*****

For those of you who know me well, you know I am a huge Will Farrell fan. Any bad day for me can be instantly realigned by watching the first 15 minutes of “Blades of Glory”  So when I saw Anchorman 2 a month ago,  I realized it is not only another Will Farrell classic, but it is making  fun of a mega-trend that is very real but not so funny….the mega trend of over sensationalizing tiny things to make a story newsworthy. I know it struck me harder because I am on this trip right now, witnessing the overblown, over-sensationalized silliness in real time. I guess that’s what I love about travel, you get to flush away your biases and see what a country is like firsthand.  And I can say with confidence, China is a place to put on your bucket list because it is magnificent, and the only thing that is really polluted beyond rehabilitation is the media industry

A public park in downtown Beijing.

Busy shopping street on a sunny day

Entrance to Lama Temple, famous Tibetan Buddhist Temple in Beijing

Here is the video….again, not pro, but it gives you an idea of what biking in a small Chinese city is like.  I have to admit that, while it scared me to death, I loved every minute of it  Video credits go to Wescott and Jones for this one who tied my iPad with string to their bike basket

Advanced filming technologies were used in the making of this video

Everybody on their bikes ready to head home after a great meal at Mood Food.

Whizzing by in Yangshuo!

The four of us traveled away from the hustle and bustle of the city, out through the elaborate city gates and into the countryside of Yangshuo. For 40 minutes each day, we were part of the countryside scene, complete with roosters crowing, people putting out their laundry, farmers tending to their crops and commuters sporting their innovative umbrella contraptions atop of their motorbikes. We got to soak it all in…all with the backdrop of the jaw dropping karst peaks dotting the landscapes in every direction.

*****

One of the best things about traveling for a year, is I have been able to read a ton of books…books that I would have never found the time to read at home. I just finished rereading a favorite from my high school days…Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It is still an awesome book for those of you who haven’t read it for 30 years!  On page 4, I was struck by a passage that made me think about our bike riding in Yangshuo…

In a car you’re always in a compartment, and because you’re used to it, you don’t realize that through the car window, everything you see is just more TV. You are a passive observer and everything is just moving by you, boringly, in a frame. On a cycle the frame is gone. You’re completely in contact with it all. You’re in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming.

I realized that THIS is what I loved about biking in Yangshuo…even if it wasn’t on a motorcycle WE got to be part of this scene! This cool, crazy, foreign, sometimes-very-scary, awesome scene!

*****

Below is a video of our bike route. It is shaky, choppy and definitely not pro It was taken with the iPad tied on a string around my neck because we lost the GoPro power cord It is a horrible video but despite the quality, you can still see the awesome beauty of the Yangshuo countryside and you can understand why it is worth trekking half way around the globe to do it yourself…enjoy

Heading back to Sam’s after class through the tai chi school alleyway!

For months prior to arrival, the anticipation of what Fun Sam’s would really be like was a topic of much discussion. It was to be one of the longest stay of our journey and we had very few details other than the reviews on TripAdvisor. Would they have good WiFi for homework? Would it be close to town? How would we get around not knowing any Chinese? Was Sam really that fun? Was his name really Sam?

Well, we lucked out! We could not have picked a better place to stay. Sam and his family made our stay in Yangshuo something we will never forget! Sam put us on the 5th floor where we had 3 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms and a private common room. Tuck pointed out that this was more bathrooms than we have on Mercer Island  We had several electric tea kettles and full access to Sam’s mom’s kitchen if we ever wanted to cook. There was not an elevator so we got some good conditioning for hiking the Great Wall

Sam runs the B&B with his parents and speaks impeccable English (as well as a few other languages!) He helped us book anything and everything, rent bikes and even helped us arrange a trip to Guiping! Sam’s mom is an amazing cook and made breakfast for us every morning and Sam’s dad was always there to make sure we arrived home safely every evening from our death defying bike rides

I could spend more time describing Fun Sam’s but I am sure you would rather see Tuck in another video

By the end of a month, we felt like part of the family!  Our trip to Yangshuo would have not been the same had it not been for Sam and his Family!  Sam taught us many things about China and one thing he taught us was that good friends don’t say thank you as much as we do. “If you know somebody well, you don’t say thank you…it is understood…you only say thank you to those folks you don’t know well.” Therefore, we won’t say thank you to Sam in this post, we will just say “you made our time in Yangshuo unforgettable and we will be back”

P.S.  For the record, Fun Sam’s had the best WiFi in China and Sam’s name is not really Sam

View from our room!

View from the roof deck!

We even convinced Sam to go with us to Mood Food

At dawn, I was the first to wake up and went to boil water in the electric tea kettle and take advantage of the few remaining Starbucks VIA packs we had stowed in our bags…(THANKS MOM AND DAD for bringing us so much great coffee in Tanzania!)  As I zombie walked to the bathroom to fill the pot, I casually glanced out the window to the landscape that was beginning to illuminate with the morning sun.  I stopped dead in my tracks.  Breathtaking!!  I know they call Yangshuo “The Yosemite of China,” but I still wasn’t prepared for the sheer awesomeness of the view.

Later, after two cups of coffee, I Googled Yangshuo to learn that the peaks I could see in every direction were called Karsts.  Then I Googled Karsts so that I could become more knowledgeable and explain to the kids what we were looking at.  This is what I found…. needless to say, I still can’t really explain Karsts at all….I will leave that task to my uncle Dana, who is a PhD and has spent his career teaching graduates and undergrads Geology at The University of Oregon ….but I can say that karsts are stunning and that everyone should visit Yangshuo, because, just like Yosemite, pictures do not do them justice.

Here are some of the best pictures I took in an effort to try and capture some of the beauty…

View from our window!!!

View from the bamboo boat!

The view in any direction downtown has the peaks in the background!

The peaks are lit up at nighttime, creating a magical backdrop as you stroll around the city.

Had to add this pic of Cliff and I from our 19th Wedding Anniversary Day….Yippee!

Similar to Yosemite, this topography attracts a ton of climbers and outdoorsy folks from around the world, but that is another blogpost