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I am home again…

What words can explain the experience of a lifetime? What explains the things that I’ve seen and experienced? There are none. There are no such words in the English language or any other no doubt.

One of the things that I realized on this trip was how much that we take for granted. There are some people that don’t even have enough food to take them and their families through the day and yet we are tossing food away by the truck load. The place that seemed most devastated was Nepal. Of course there is great beauty there but there is also extreme poverty. Some people don’t have houses and even if you are lucky enough to get one there is no electricity. As well as electric problems there is trash everywhere and no traffic system. But while I was there I tried not to dwell on the problems so much as I wanted to enjoy it. I had to do the same in Egypt. For me it wasn’t seeing the last still standing original world wonder, (the Cheops Pyramid of Giza), but the greatest part was the awesome feeling that seemed to just be reverberating around them. They seemed to have this aura that was just tempting you with its elaborate history. I found there was the same aura when I visited Anne Frank’s house in The Netherlands. When you entered her room and saw her posters that are still on the walls you almost wish you could have seen how it was all those years ago. (I say almost because of the terrible things that happened to her.)

My Favorites? Many people have asked me what my favorite country was and for me it’s the hardest question to answer because I had never been to any of the countries we visited before, so it was an amazing experience in each country. But if I had to choose I would pick Greece. I love Greek food and I thought that Athens was very beautiful (although next time I go it would be to visit the islands). And I am a FANATIC about Greek mythology. My favorite animal I saw on the trip were the elephants by far. They are SO stinking CUTE–even the old stinky, smelly ones! I would definitely have taken one home except I didn’t think it would have gotten along well with my dog Brownie. I also wanted to take home a block from the great pyramid but my dad gave me a look that I just knew meant NO! (Unfortunately.)

I know that no words can sum up this trip, but I have tried to the best of my abilities and I hope you enjoyed it. If you ever get three weeks off (or not) this is how you would spend it, on the trip of a life time The Global Scavenger Hunt.

Thank you for reading. Petra

When you look out your bedroom window what do you see? Another house? Trees or maybe a garden? Well, compared to some vegetable patch my view was great, because I was overlooking the Acropolis (the capital of ancient Athens). From my room’s balcony it looks large enough, sitting up on the hill, but when you are standing so close to it that you can count the slices on the pillars it looks a bit bigger. (Just a bit!)

How they put those enormous pillars together I can only imagine considering they didn’t have helicopters or cranes like we have now. Obviously they figured something out. It is just this immense marble gentle giant that has been eaten away at and crumbled by time. Nonetheless it was and is an amazing site to see.

On our second day we went to the famous Greek Archaeological Museum and what amazed me was that from a hair style on a statue they could tell the exact year that it was made and occasionally who it was.

(Goddess/god/king/etc.) One of my favorite things at the museum were the little stamps carved onto nice pieces of quartz or colored stone. They were so small, some were about the size of a cap on a bottle of water. But what amazed me was how extremely detailed they were. On some there was a whole scene and on another a pair of blood red birds on a black stone. What was impossible for me to do was to pick a favorite.

Next stop is?

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a die hard Lakers fan… been that way all my life. It started with Wilt and West when I was a lad. Then I personally lived through championship after championship during the Magic-Kareem-Worthy era of Showtime. And then of course I attended just about as many games as possible during the more recent Shaq-Kobe 3-peat era. And now, with Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom, Kobe is ready to do it again…

And I just finished watching via computer the final game of the Lakers-Nuggets series in round one… a sweep!

In the old days of traveling, I struggled to obtain info about my team (I always seem to travel in the late spring with the NBA playoffs are in full swing!?). First sending Andy on day old IHT runs–International Herald Tribune–long before CNN and Sports Center was available around the world. In the early days of The Global Scavenger Hunt, bonus points were given to the first team that slipped scores under my hotel room…

Now, I can watch it play-by-play either live or with as Chick Hearns would say, “with a words eye view of the game!”

So now… who’s next on the march to the 2008 NBA Championship? Utah I bet. Bring ‘em on…

When boys think of Egypt they think mummies and girls think of the exquisite golden jewelry, but I thought of the PYRAMIDS! (and sand). When you imagine the pyramids you of course think them to be rather large (well yeah) but seeing them totally diminishes every imaginary picture of them that you might possibly have in your mind. Every single one. When you are right next to them, up front and personal, you realize what they truly are; which is gigantically, colossally, extremely huge. One of the blocks alone must have been six feet tall and weighed a ton, or two. How they pulled those blocks all the way to the top I have no idea whatsoever. The thing that disappointed me though was that there was trash everywhere. We went on a camel ride around the pyramids (which was really cool) and around all the ruins of other ancient what not there was trash everywhere. You would think they would be smart enough to clean up their trash so more people would come, but no, they just leave it laying around. But despite the trash the pyramids truly are an amazing thing to see and something you must see before you die. (So wait until you’re really old to do that!)

I also went to the Egyptian Museum and a couple bazaars but I figured the pyramids would be a bit more interesting then talking about my shopping experience.

This is just a small snapshot of what I saw in Kathmandu because if I wrote it all it would be extremely long. I saw poverty, history, religion and color. Here are a few personal favs from Nepal.

How many of you like to eat steak or burgers? Well, in Nepal eating beef is one of the worst possible actions doable. Why? Because in Nepal, cows are holy! They are like the mortal gods and are worshiped. When a person walks by them sometimes they bow and say some sort of blessing and when they are on the road people swerve around them and almost hit other cars in the process. Apparently cow lives are more valuable than human lives. That’s religion for you, go figure.

One of my favorite things was how colorful women’s clothing was. Most wore saris, the traditional outfit which is like wearing a mini tank top and six yards of fabric wrapped around you. People were wearing every color ever invented and more. Name a color and I’ll bet I saw several women wearing it. The strange thing is if these beautiful outfits are their every day clothes then I bet that their dress up outfits would be AMAZING! But since most of these people are extremely (times 100) poor then I personally would accept their normal clothes any day.

Where to next? Hmmmm?

We were in Singapore for just 24 hours so I wasn’t able to see much. Really the most I saw was on the way to the hotel which was very nice. Like Malaysia, Singapore had a lot of green areas which was cool but there wasn’t so much development going on. Our hotel room view was of a construction site for a giant casino by the ocean. They had filled in part of the water with dirt with rock so they would have more waterfront property, but I think it ruins the rest of the water front. The last thing you want is a big noisy casino on the beach while you’re trying to relax. I wish I could have seen more but I guess that by seeing so little it means I’ll have to come back. Now that’s something to look forward to.

Stepping outside the airport the first thing you notice are the endless trees. Their vast numbers were a refreshing breeze after the city heat of Beijing. They seemed to go on for eternity. Another difference was that I only saw three or four cranes (unlike Beijing where there was a great many more) and they were for fixing and renovating instead of developing.

Our main excursion was going to Kuala Gandah. It’s an elephant preserve about an hour and a half away from our hotel and it was AMAZING! It was hot outside and there were a few bugs (yeah sure just a few) but we forgot all that when we saw a baby elephant ten feet away. We cautiously approached it and found out that it was friendly. Lucca was jittery with excitement when he touched it and so was I. It was my complete awe factor for the entire week. He reached his trunk out smelled my face. Although he was a bit bristly it was funny and it tickled. Thirty minutes later we watched six other elephants take a bath in the river and roll around. Next we got to feed them melons and other such tropical fruits. You would hold out the fruit and the elephant would curl its trunk and very gently take the fruit from you. Lucca did it and thought it was hilarious. Last we got to do a quick ride on them and its not as easy as it looks. Their skin is all loose and slippery so you nearly slip off. Then there are the little bristles all over their huge bodies that dig in to your legs every time you move or they take a step, but still it was exciting.

On our last night I saw something funny. We were walking through the Night Market and it was really crowded. I was looking at t-shirts when I saw it. Straight ahead between the watches and the purses was one solitary wedding dress. The base was grimy from being in the middle of the market and it seemed like a total fish out of water. If I was getting married (which I won’t be doing for a really long time until after college and my career begins says my dad!) the Night Market in Kuala Lumpur would be the first place I would look for my dream dress –NOT!

Beijing, China, always building, selling and expanding. It is home to the 2008 Summer Olympics and these are a few personal thoughts, opinions and whatnot from my experience there.

The Great Wall of China is one of the most amazing things I’ve seen in my entire life. It’s not your typical garden wall, no it’s massive and huge and enormous, and much more. It goes up over mountains and curves around towns. I’d like to see some Mongol (Hun) try to climb over it. People say that from above it looks like a gigantic dragon slinking over the mountains of China. It’s definitely something to see before you die.

My favorite non-historical place was a tie, the Silk Market which is a shoppers wildest dream (not to name any names:) and really has everything, such as: iPods, jewelry, purses, clothing, etc. Many stalls have the same things but there is such a wide variety that you don’t eve notice. My other favorite place was the night food market. They had everything from strawberry with kiwi on a stick to scorpion, centipede and frog porridge (yum yum). But besides the food there were masses of people everywhere, just walking and talking, having a good time and sampling the local food. The atmosphere was great although some of the food wasn’t.

My largest observation was the city itself. It always seemed to be expanding. There were construction sites every way you looked and cranes at every building. I understand that they are hosting the Olympics but when that’s over who says they will stop. I wonder what will stop them. Lack of space or lack of things to put in the buildings. You decide.

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