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Narita to London

In this picture you can see Max, my Son, on one of the jumpseats of a 747.  A feature of being an airline family is that you never quite know where you are going to sit on an aircraft!  One day you could be sitting in First Class, and the next day abandoned down route, unable to get home.  It's a real mixed bag.  All our discounted travel is SUBLOAD which is airline parlance for, well, subject to load!  That means full fare passengers always take priority over us.  This can be very challenging for family travel, especially when you are a family of six!

On the positive side we get reduced cost travel.  Airline kids can be very worldly-wise.  We have tried to make the most of this perk and give our kids a broader perspective.  

As you can see though, our children need to be flexible!

Tokyo

Days eight to fourteen

25th to 31st July 2010

To Narita

The last section of our trip was to be spent in Narita. Narita is the airport town for Tokyo, a satellite town of the metropolis and about 40 miles from the centre of the city.

We stayed at the Mercure, not a glamorous Hotel, but fine, and very convenient for the train station, shops and Mc Donald's, I am sorry to say!

It felt strange and a slight relief to be in the world of Western living again. We had beds with mattresses, comfy chairs and full length baths - luxury.

Narita itself is famous for two things - the airport and also the very large and impressive buddhist temple in the town. As a place it is a perfect microcosm of Japan. A mixture of new and old - an international airport on the doorstep and an ancient and beautiful temple in the centre of the city, complete with beautiful Japanese Gardens.

In to Tokyo

Mount Fuji

Days six to eight

July 23rd to 25th 2010

Seeing Fuji for the first time
Arriving in the Mount Fuji area the first thing that struck us was the drop in temperature. At an Elevation of 3000 feet, Fujiyoshida was a welcome break from the heat that had affected us so much in Kyoto. The town of Fujiyoshida was quaint with a slightly run down feel, and dwarfed by the sight of Mount Fuji. Wherever you look it just seems to be there, just huge, really huge. As it is quite high at 12000 feet, and on a flat plain, you are right next to it, and it's a pretty astonishing effect. Perhaps it was the sheer scale of it, or the altitude but Max and I decided that day that we would climb the great mountain on our day off.

Inn Fujitomita
In the meantime we were taken to our accomodation. We stayed at an inn on the edge of the town called Fujitomita. The inn itself was run by a Japanese family with three children. It was a large home with facilities like an onsen (a hot spring bath), a pool and play area for the children.
The whole family turned out to meet us with the young sons willingly struggling up to our bedroom with our very heavy cases. From the moment we arrived we were made very welcome and nothing was too much trouble. There is, however, quite a bit of formality in this type of setting. All shoes are swapped at the door for slippers, of course. There are separate slippers for the toilet - colour coded pink for girls and blue for boys! Our room was traditional Japanese - Tatami mats on the floor, when you arrive there is no bedding and the room is configured for sleeping when you are at dinner.
Dinner was a full Japanese menu for the adults - high quality and actually food we are used to such as corn soup or rice. The children were treated to western food.
After dinner, according to tradition the entire family stripped off for a family session in the inn's hot spring bath. This resembled a jacuzzi actaully but was fed from geothermal origins deep beneath the hotel. Strangely minerals are artificially added to the water you sit in to enhance the health giving effects. There was quite a performance as everyone got into the bath, with dimmed lights necessary for Morag, who has never been an exhibitionist!

Kyoto

Days three to six

July 20th to the 23rd 2010

Settling In
We settled into our house in Kyoto. We were staying in a traditional Japanese house in the centre of the city. This was our first taste of Japanese living. Like many things in Japan, it seemed very different from what we are used to as Westerners. The house was small with every inch of space well used. In a small-ish country of 130 million people space is short! The floors in the house were covered in tatami mats. There were no sofas, the seating was around a hole in the floor with a table over it for eating, etc. Sleeping arrangements were futon style mattresses directly on the floor. Paper blinds in wooden frames made flexible doors to configure the house as you wish. Japanese people clearly don't like to laze around like westerners. You are either up and about or you are in bed. There is little in between. The design of the house was beautiful and simple though, like so many things in Japan.

Seeing Kyoto
As we ventured out he first thing that really struck us was the temperature. Around 35 degrees centrigrade in a city and with humidity. Having been lucky enough to see many extremes of climate we were taken aback by the sheer debilitation of the heat in central Japan in July. We have seen Dubai in July, Phoenix in August, but nothing was like this! About one hour was the most we could stand before having to dive our sweaty bodies into an air conditioned sanctuary. Maybe it was the jet lag, plus eight hours is a big time change, especially in the first few days. Getting up at 0800 means midnight at home!
Kyoto is a laid back city, very relaxed compared to Tokyo or Osaka. Culture was top of the agenda and so we headed off on a temple tour on foot on our first full day. It was very beautiful, very hot and full of atmosphere. We were almost the only western people in the city, a trend that was to continue for the whole holiday.
One evening we toured the Gion district of Kyoto. This is an atmospheric district of alleyways in the old Japanese style. What makes them particularly famous is their reputation for Geisha girl entertainment. For hundreds of years Japanese gentlemen have paid vast sums of money to be entertained by these mysterious ladies for an evening of music, dance and story telling. Like many Japanese traditions it is elaborate and mysterious to western eyes.
The manners of people in this refined city were outstanding. When a taxi driver stops to pick you up, the back door of the taxi automatically swings open and he leaps out, bowing deeply and taking off his hat. Nothing is too much trouble in his immaculate vehicle.

Osaka Aquarium
One of our days out from Kyoto was to Osaka and the stunning aquarium there. The centre piece of this was a central tank containing a mini ocean including two full sized whale sharks. These giants were around ten metres long. As you descended through the levels you viewed the tank from thirteen different levels. Izzy and Imogen were particularly freaked out by the Japanese spider crabs - one meter across and predators of the deep that look like large spiny, pink spiders.

To Mount Fuji
Our next destination was the Mount Fuji area so we caught the Shinkansen bullet train most of the way back to Tokyo. The bullet train is an excellent experience. As it departs to the minute you settle into your airline style seat and the train accelerates, and accelerates all the way up to 200 hundred miles per hour. The ride is mostly smooth, but on some sections of track the train twists and turns and climbs and dives like a ride on the back of an angry serpent.

London to Narita

Days one to two

July 18th to the 19th 2010

This part of the journey began at Heathrow on a fine sunny day. Our departure was a day late because of a flare up of Julian's old back problem. A nasty bout of sciatica related to an old slipped disc injury made flying out on the 17th impossible. As it was we took the plunge on the 18th and a pleasant, if a little uncomfortable flight was spent in club world sleeper seats from London to Narita - a flight time of 11 1/2 hrs ended with a touchdown in a boiling hot Tokyo on a fine day at 9.00 a.m. the next morning as a result of the plus eight hours time change. As we stepped off the plane onto a boiling hot airbridge in strong morning sun it was disorientating to feel as though it was midnight on your body clock. We weren't designed to cross time zones!

Stage three - Tour of Japan

After a gap of one year to allow for the arrival of our newest member of the family - Jack Price - one year old on July 27th 2010 - The Price family resumed our journey around the globe on the surface. This time the plan was for a side trip to Japan. Sadly without Jack, given his very young age. This section of the journey was to exist as a stand-alone trip, not joined up with our last end point Beijing. The idea is to start from Beijing next year and head south in to South East Asia.
In the meantime Japan is such a fascinating country to warrant a separate trip.
As I sit and type this a few days after our return, as the jet lag still has a hold on me, I am left with an impression of a tremendous country.
My lasting impression of Japan is not just bullet trains or temples. It was for our family an impressive society where respect for each other and a feeling of community is the over-riding theme. People show courtesy for each other all the time, maybe not on a crowded Tokyo subway but in shops where the cashier shouts out a welcome to you when you enter, to a restaurant where a tip is flatly refused, to an inn where nothing is too much trouble and you are a revered guest. When the western world is turning inwards and we all think about 'me' constantly, the Japanese spirit of community and respect is very refreshing.

Beijing

Days eighteen to twenty-one

April 24th - 27th

Total distance 8500 miles

Trip distance 6000 miles

This last section of the trip was spent doing several things on our Beijing to do list.

We found a super hotel, the Lu Song Yuan. It was highly recommended in the Lonely Planet guide, and rightly so. We had an excellent location on the edge of the old Hutongs area of Beijing. This was about 3 miles from the Forbidden city and Tiananmen square.

Our suite was pretty tiny though. A lot of clever stowage was required to get 12 pieces of luggage and five people stowed away. However it was a beautiful traditional chinese property complete with ornate decoration and multiple courtyards.

On the first full day we went to the Great Wall. We wanted to see why Richard Nixon said "It sure is a great wall" It was impressive, but it is not a well managed attraction with confusing signs and uncontrolled commercial development. Having said that when you are walking along those historic cobbles, climbing steeply, you are acutely aware of being in somewhere of enormous importance in the world. When you look North and imagine the Mongol Hordes bearing down on Beijing, you swear you can almost see them down there in the bushes and rocks, sneaking up, an advance party checking you out and reporting back.

Another day was spent at Tiananmen square and the Forbidden City. The main impression we all came away with was the huge size of these places. They are literally kilometers in length. The square is heavily policed, with some sinister looking characters lurking around. The authorities do not want another protest of the kind that alerted the world to China's lack of democracy and free speech. They are taking no chances. We had hoped to see Mao in his crystal coffin but he has a nap in the afternoons so it was not permitted.

The Forbidden city really is a full day. It is so vast, with interconnecting courtyards covering acres. On our visit we saw almost the only rain of the whole trip, so this curtailed our visit.

We found all three main tourist attractions to be impressive but not atall engaging. Perhaps we are spoiled with Western tourist attractions that are of very high quality.

One attraction we really enjoyed was a place called Prince Gong's garden. This is a beautiful house and classic oriental garden, complete with ponds, pagodas and plantings. Many thousand s of people were there and most of them wanted to take Imogen's picture - as usual she enjoyed the VIP treatment.. This has its advantages though. We were allowed into a private room where a Chinese tea ceremony was explained to us in detail.

Other days were spent shopping. Morag and the girls found an indoor market where there were hundreds of stalls selling all manner of things that they liked from Hello Kitty purses to a large gold piggy bank. Unfortunately this got smashed at Heathrow when Max's rucksack fell on the floor.

Some relaxing was done in the internet cafes and restaurants around the Hutongs. The area felt very safe, the children wandered up and down the streets, getting lots of friendly attention.

On the last full day we took a taxi up to see the Olympic site. The main stadium is nearly ready. It is an riot of steel girders that looks like a birds nest, albeit a beautiful one. The swimming centre is next door. This building looks like the surface of a bath covered in bubbles. It is all a bit out there.

Our final day was an early start for our flight to London. The end of this leg.

It was a really mixed day. We left two coats on the minibus that took us to the airport. We learnt something about the Chinese attitude that day. The woman who had organised the bus would not do anything atall to help. She said if we wanted our coats back we would have to pay a lot of money to the the driver to return. We had a heated exchange, and I wished her great luck with a business approach that consists of taking the cash and running - with no consideration for the customer or any future relationship! Subsequently I have found out that a significant part of Chinese culture is to take care of yourself first and foremost - a marked contrast to the warmth of Mongolians and the serious but kind Russians.

A good thing that happened was meeting some police at the airport who were having a graduation ceremony for their cadets. They asked us if we would mind presenting some awards to the cadets. So, bizzarely we ended up standing in a line and pinning a rosette to a grinning police cadet. We then had our photo taken with the Chief of Beijing Police. He was very nice indeed - with superb eyebrows and such a friendly manner that you would not mind being arrested by him.

The last event was the flight back to Heathrow. This was not a great experience because the spoilt Price family who normally always travel in First Class and Club were plonked in Economy for eleven hours. This would not have been so bad if we had not been sitting behind some rough diamonds who drank a great deal of booze and spent some of the flight swearing and trying to pick fights with certain people. A French man who, perhaps typically, took care of himself by reclining his chair straight away and refused to budge, got a great deal of abuse from them. This was sad because he had children with him. In the end the First Officer came and gave them a warning, as they had upset people on a previous flight too.

Having said that, none of this detracted from an epic experience that broadened our horizons, opened up our minds and made us feel in awe of the variety and beauty of our world.

As I write this blog, only now, as I remember all the things we did, does the scale of it come home to me;

Our driveway to Beijing,

Overland

Three children 10, 8 and 5 years old.

8500 miles.

Fifteen countries.

Major world ideologies.

Huge variations in climate.

Diverse people.

All types of terrain.

The mind blowing experience of the first 1/3rd of our trip around the planet is still hitting me - in quiet moments a person or a place comes back to me.

We all want to carry on now. So much more to see. A classroom without walls and a world just out there.

No limits other than those we set on ourselves....

Ulan Bator to Beijing

Days sixteen and seventeen

April 22nd - 23rd

Total Miles 8500

Trip miles 6000

This was the last leg of our train journey.  We were sad to leave Ulan Bator, boarding our train in the ever present bright sunshine, dazzling our eyes, even at eight in the morning.

This train was a pleasant surprise.  Unlike the previous ones it was a chinese train.  This train was modern and quite clean.  There were many plenty of staff on board - most of them had a cheery disposition too.  The restaurant car was an riot of bamboo panelling.  It actually had quite a few of the items on the menu.  The day was spent maintaining the train routine - relax, school work, then a DVD.

That day was spent passing through the Gobi desert - wow.  More back of beyond travel.  It became quite hot and very sandy.  The carriages of the train were caked in sand, the windows taking on a yellow tinge.  It became fairly hot, but not excessively. There was not a soul to be seen.  The only stops were at small desert towns called Choir and Sainshand.  These were dusty, dry and uninspiring.  Their only link to the outside world being the Trans Siberian.

That night contained the now familiar ritual of knocks on our doors, showing passports and filling out forms.  There was one big difference however.  The width of the train track in Mongolia and Russia is different from that in China.  As a result on passing the border, our bogies had to be changed.  Our train entered a huge building, with bright lights and immaculate cleanliness.  Very  quickly workers started tapping and banging away at the wheels beneath our feet.  To our amazement we noticed that the other carriages of our train were now opposite us on adjacent tracks.  Not only that, but slowly and carefully our entire carriage with passengers and all was being lifted up!  We got to about two metres off the ground.  Swiftly new wheels were placed in position and we were lowered to the ground.  Some complicated shunting and we were joined up again and on a way.  To change the wheels on hundreds of tons of train took just a couple of hours.  

After a reasonable night's sleep we awoke to the sight of the mountains to the north of Beijing.  We spent an excellent morning on arguably the most scenic part of the trip threading our way through this beautiful region.  Many tunnels, rivers and glimpses of the Great Wall formed oriental vistas before our eyes - a fitting showdown to an epic journey.

Just after lunch our train pulled into Beijing station.  The children could barely contain their excitement.  In fact they were probably going a little train crazy.

We stepped out onto the chaotic platform in Beijing, amazed at the fact that we had actually travelled overland from our driveway to Beijing, in two stages, every mile on the surface.  Beijing was a shock after sleepy Ulan Bator.  It was clean, modern and very highly populated.

We took a minibus to our hotel.  We were staying at the Lu Song Yuan. This was a very ornate hotel built in in the old quarter of Beijing - the fascinating back streets called the Hutongs.  The area is being modernised but retains the old feel with few cars and lots of street life.  Chinese laundries and grocery shops are being replaced by internet cafes and cool bars.

That evening we wandered around, loving the plentiful supplies of food, entertainment and KFC!  We rounded off a rich day with a boat ride around the lake at Quinhai Park.  This is a large lake lined with trendy bars and restaurants.  At night the place is lit up like a christmas tree.  Each bar istrying to outdo its neighbours with more comfortable sofas, louder music or bigger plasma televisions.  The Children were blown away by it all. 

In Mongolia

Days twelve to fifteen

April 18th - 21st

Total Miles 7000

Trip Miles 4500

This phase of the trip included a day of rest.  The Family enjoyed a day wandering around Ulan Bator, the compact capital of Mongolia.  The city is about the size of Portsmouth and is the capital of a country the size of Western Europe.  The rest of the country consists of every type of terrain possible, except jungle.  There are almost no roads in Mongolia.  The artery of the country is the Trans-Siberian train line.  The largest town we saw was about the size of Haslemere.  What all of this adds up to is the world lowest population density.  Outside the city you see very few people atall.

Wandering around Ulan Bator we enjoyed the warm sunshine, dry air and cheap shops! Russian faces had been replaced by a more Asian looking people - some were even smiling.  We very much enjoyed the plentiful cafes and reasonable shopping.  After Russia Mongolia felt free and easy.  Plenty of capitalism was present!  We had a humbling visit to the Gandan Monastery to see the power of Buddhist faith in action.  It is a beautiful and peaceful place. Particularly memorable was the sight of a 100 feet tall golden Buddha inside a temple.  The Family were awe-inspired by the sight of it.  We were very privileged to be allowed to see the Monks making a picture from multi-coloured sands.  It was about two metres across and an intricate pattern.  To watch the love and care with which they worked was to witness a level of commitment rarely seen in any aspect of life.  We wandered through a classroom where there was only one pupil - a boy of five or six who was repeating Buddhist chants lead by a monk.  He looked so serene and wise.  After a while he got bored and started laughing and giggling at us - proving he was a real boy after all.  Gandan is an enigmatic place that stirs your soul and makes you wonder if there might be something in it all.  A mass in latin at the Duomo in Milan was the last time I was so moved and full of wonder.

A local tour company called Nomad travel arranged for us to be taken on a three day trip into the countryside.  We were met by our driver, Bald and our guide, TJ.  TJ spoke excellent English.  We spent an excellent day with her in the museums in Ulan Bator. She explained all the exhibits and really bought the country alive for the children. 

Just as a dust storm hit the city we headed off in the bus to the Khustai national park.  Khustai was 100Km west of Ulan Bator.  as we left the city, the road became a dirt track and very rough going.  We had about 1 1/2 hours of holding onto the seat in front as Bald skillfully navigated across the semi desert following  power lines to navigate.  The scenery was by now classic Steppe, rolling hills, no trees, a semi desert environment.  Finally, we got to our camp, feeling pretty well vibrated.

The camp was in a slap bang in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by rolling steppe.  Horses and cattle wandered at will through the compound.  Just as we arrived a group of horses came galloping in from the steppe for their supper, a stirring sight that reminded me of countless cowboy movies.  A ranger amused us by asking how many of us were riding tomorrow so they knew how many horses to catch!

The accommodation was in the form of gers - portable round houses that nomads still live in to this day. Our ger was very comfortable with four beds around the edge and a central table and wood burning stove.  At 6.00 a.m. someone would come and light our stove.  Quickly the ger became very hot indeed, two hours later it was cool again.  The middle day at the camp was spent on a drive where we spotted the Prewalski horse - a wild horse that was re-introduced into the park recently and is thriving now.  

We also drove out into the middle of a salt pan and looked at some Turkic graves. It was pretty hot out there and flat for many miles - I felt strangely alone, wandering what would happen if we broke down.  In the evening we rode horses over the hills - a beautiful hour that left us all wanting more.

On the third day we headed back to Ulan Bator. Stopping off to see some Nomads in their gers. We were privileged to meet these people, living as their ancestors have for thousands of years.  They were very hospitable, offering us tea and cakes.  TJ interpreted as we learnt about their lives and tried on their ceremonial clothes.  We met their twin boys, a couple of shy five-year olds called Universe and Saturn. These were wonderful names for boys that are bought up under ten thousand acres of sky.

The following day we reluctantly left that fascinating country behind...