Travelling with kids

We're back from China! The trip was epic and fun, exhausting and eye-opening, and I'm going to tell you all about it. But first I have some things to share because there are 2 very special people in my life that I am grateful for in a whole new way as I decompress from this trip. But first some back story. Our kids have been dragged all over the US since about the minute they were born. When Teddy was 18 months old I had him on my lap on an airplane and the stewardess asked me "Is this his first trip on an Airplane?"
 And I replied "Nope, it's his 9th." Which means that in his first 18 months of life the kid averaged a round-trip somewhere on an airplane about every 2 months. But then that got boring and we decided to start dragging them around Asia - with mixed results. Because there is nothing like introducing your kid to snorkeling in pristine Pacific waters. And there's also nothing like exploring the wonders of the Philippine hospital system or being in Australia (home of every venomous creature known to man) and having your kid wake up with an insect bite the size of a tea saucer on their bum and spending the next hour waiting to see if they start seizing or losing their airway. So yeah, it's a mixed bag. This trip was just as wonderfully mixed so I wanted to explore the pro's and con's of traveling with kids.
PROS:
1.) Kids make everyday an adventure. When you have to get somewhere by bus/taxi/train adults tend to think of that time as throw-away travel time, but to kids it's a fun "ride". If you tap into that enthusiasm and see the world through their eyes, it makes even the little things more fun.
"Jeep Spotted!"

 Who wants Chicken feet for snack?

Massive turbulence going over the Himalayas? Scary for us, but a fun ride for Ted!

2.) Animals! You can take them really cool places, but chances are, the highlight of their day will be something in the hotel, or something you just encountered while out walking around in a new city. With animals this is especially true. Our first hotel had all kinds of places that were filled with fish:

 This cat had made itself a little den in the bamboo leaves. The kids thought he was awesome!

 We went to a restaurant in Tibet where their cat totally owned the place. We watched him attack some Japanese tourists by leaping at them from a bookshelf and then he came and attacked our day pack! The kids were in heaven!

3.) There are 2 things about Sasha and Ted that make all our travels possible. First, they will eat anything! On this trip we ate Yak meat, drank Yak milk, tried all kinds of new veggies and almost all our meat came cooked in sauces we had never tried before. And it's great that they can just dig in because there were NO children's menus on this trip.

 Second is that they will nap on demand. There were a lot of mornings when the daily briefing would go something like this:
"Ok guys, we have a full morning of touring and then an early dinner with a bit of a drive to the acrobat show. We'll be up late for that so what's going to make the day work is you guys sleeping in the car on the way to the show OK?"
And then when I tell them it's time to sleep they grab fleeces to snuggle and get the job done. They're out in about 5 minutes. And I think the trip would have been exponentially harder if they hadn't been able to get those power naps in....

 4.) Hilarious things are everywhere:

We're on a BOAT!

 5.) D.S. time! The 2 of them almost never use their D.S. game thingys unless we travel. So when they get unlimited access to them it's a big deal. Which means that long van trips, plane rides, and train time is something they actually look forward to!

 And in the mornings it let's us sleep in a bit too!

 6.) They always want to try things themselves where as adults we might just be content to watch. It's great because we always end up trying it too! Writing our names in Chinese:

 7.) I was constantly reminded how lucky I am to have these 2 kids in my life by the Chinese people. Most families in China still have one child so everyone commented to us about our 2 kids. They would hold up 2 fingers and go "WOW! One boy, one girl so lucky....happy family!" This happened all over China. And then they wanted pictures taken with them. Constantly. We started calling the kids "Brad and Angelina" after a few days.....

All our Hotel rooms had a queen and then a single. Because that's how Chinese families are. So the kids had to bundle into a twin bed and share at every single place on our itinerary until we hit Hong Kong. And they were fine with it! They sleep like maniacs anyway.

 8.) They are easy to please. There were so many times that I was reminded about the simple pleasures in life just by watching them get so excited over getting a plastic palm tree in their drink. When you're a kid every day is filled with unexpected bonuses and it makes you appreciate them too!
 Naan bread in a traditional Tibetan tea house.... our favorite!

 Chocolate milk + bendy straws + plastic palm trees?!? Wow!!

 Love this pic of Sasha. There was Hawaiian Pizza on the menu. It looked awful but she was so happy about it!

9.) They have endless energy! They both climbed to 13,000 feet in Tibet. Teddy Asked me: "What is your favorite part of hiking, the going up part or the going down part?" I said I guessed the going up part because you never know what you are going to see. I asked him which part he like best and he said: "The very end of the going up part because there's treats!" Treats indeed - I had busted out Fiber One bars when we reached the top. Score!

 This was their favorite thing in all of Yangshou: A sketchy river crossing on concrete cylinders. They had to do it about 8-9 times each day we were there. Teddy was so excited by it that he was shaking the first time he went across!

 Get on a tandem bike with them and you may just get a free ride!

 Hedge maze!! They could run around in this for just about ever!

They were dragging a bit in Xi'an but Jeff and I wanted to go up in the Wild Goose Pagoda. We told our guide with great drama that we didn't know if the kids would be able to make it up all 7 levels. "Yes we can!!!" They protested, and literally ran to the top of the pagoda!

CONS:
1.) They always want to buy some little weird plastic piece of junk. If you're in a local handicraft market in Tibet and the rule is that everyone gets to pick out a beautiful Tibetan item, they will want some plastic thing that's made in Taiwan and IMPORTED to Tibet for God knows what reason. You'll have to cajole and coax them into buying a beautiful silver bracelet that they will have for a lifetime (unless they lose it. See Con #6) instead.
1.a) Is similar but has to do with Disney pins. They'll get some gorgeous limited edition pin that says "Hong Kong Disneyland" and before you know it they've traded it for some funky little pin that you can find on any cast member in The States. My new policy is to confiscate the "keepers". This also prevents them from randomly losing them because if your age is less than 15, pins seem to unmagically disappear off your lanyard at the rate of about 1 every 4 hours.
The exception to Con #1 is when the little piece of plastic junk a.) does not immediately break within the first 5 minutes (which happens in 99.99% of all cases) OR b.) provides such a long period of entertainment/excercise/enjoyment that it turns out to be the best 75 cents you ever spent. This happened in a park in Beijing where Ted talked us into buying a traditional (plastic) Chinese shuttlecock. It's like hacky-sack but with feathers. It did actually break after 1 minute but we repaired it and it was perfect after that. All of us played with it for the rest of the afternoon and Teddy and our guide had a blast together trying to break their record of un-dropped passes.

2.) When you're not looking they take your camera and snap really random pictures. So you're in some gorgeous setting and go to take a shot and find out that the card's full. "How can the card be full?" you think. Then later in the taxi/bus/airplane you find out that it's full because you have many, many pictures like this one:

3.) At some point on every trip they come up with their "picture face". This is a sibling conspiracy that they plot together to ruin photos. On this trip the picture face came with the added bonus of a weird sound that kind of goes "bleeeehhhmeeehhh!!!"

 4.) Sometimes they just don't get it. You have to take it on faith that they will remember these trips and start to get it when they get a little bit older. Let me give you a few examples...
We encourage them to keep a trip journal when we travel and it's something that they genuinely enjoy doing. They can write anything they want to about each day, and Sasha is really starting to write multi-page entries about each day of her trip. Teddy not so much:

 Now keep in mind that on this day we toured the Forbidden City in old Beijing, flew a kite at the Temple of Heaven, saw a tea ceremony, watched silk being made and wrapped up the day with an incredible acrobatics show. But the highlight of HIS day was Fiber One bars that we brought from home. This was not a fluke by the way:

"After an amazing day on the Great Wall I took an over night sleeper train between Beijing and Xi'an China and I got to see the Chinese country side fly past the window of my compartment WHILE I played Angry Birds on the train" is what I THINK he meant to say. But whatever. We all know I can be a bit long winded....
The "suck it up" factor with kids is also pretty much nil. There was some altitude sickness in Tibet. Adults can take it, know it will soon pass, but that the setting makes it all worthwhile. That is just not going to happen with 6 and 8 year olds. So after all kinds of drama getting to Tibet involving revoked visas for many tourists, a lost visa in our case, a last minute re-issue of the lost visa, a schedule swap and someone flying from Lhasa with our visa in hand to meet us so we could then fly to Tibet we arrived. It was amazing. We found a local restaurant and sat on the 2nd floor. We had this view of the Jokang Temple:

I was in heaven. Then Teddy asked how many nights we were staying and I told him sadly only 3. He goes "3 whole nights?!? I HATE this place!!!" And then he proceeded to vomit all over himself, the chair, and the floor. He gets points for missing the table though.
Great Wall of China. Amazing! Inspiring! Epic! Our kids were over it in about 15 minutes. Jeff and I of course wanted to stay for hours and hike for miles until we were all alone on the wall. Which we pretty much did, but I'm not gonna lie - there were bribes involved including but not limited to sodas, oreo cookies, and the suggestion that there might just be actual Mongolian Hordes sneaking around on the enemy side of the wall just up around the next bend if we hike just a liiiittle bit farther.

 This is actually why it's great to book a Disney day at the end of any cultural trip. Our standard rant goes something like this:
"I'm tired - can we go now?"
"Um sweetie you know how at the end of the trip we're going to Hong Kong Disney?"
"Yes"
"And you know how much you're looking forward to that right?"
"right"
"Well this is Mommy and Daddy's Hong Kong Disney so pipe down, keep hiking and don't ruin it."
Actually that's pretty much a lie because we all know that I love Disney Park days as much as they do. So it's all win- win when you're me. Unfortunately they're pretty much on to this. It has occurred to me to act more haggard, exasperated and long-suffering when we're at Disney but I just can't seem to pull it off. The highlight of the Great Wall for them was this:

One of the vendors on the Wall shlepped all his waters, sodas, oreos, and postcards up the mountain on his donkey. They kids were STOKED. Best part of the day. These are the moments when they're approaching an animal of dubious domestication in a foreign country where it could all go terribly wrong, but it usually doesn't so I just let them go for it but I did give them the sage advice not to get anywhere near the rear of the thing. Those suckers can kick!
Next example. Potala Palace - Lhasa Tibet. Wow! Right?

Or not. But at the park at it's base was an old-school playground with all the really cool things that we had when we were kids but that are now banned. Like this see-saw. It was bona-fide too, with tires under the ends and everything. We showed them how you can make the other person go flying over the handlebars and knock their teeth out. Again... best part of the day if you're 6 and 8.

5.) Dinner time conversation/manners/behaviors. Those of you with kids know exactly what I'm talking about. It's not a romantic table for 2, that's all I'm sayin'.

6.) They lose EVERYTHING. If you're not OCD you will be after traveling with kids. Hats and sunglasses, sweaters, you name it. At every potty break/transition point/restaurant/shop you'll be "Hats and sunglasses, everybody have 'em?" And they always will. Except for the one time you forget to ask them. Coming from the older, draconian school of parenting, I like to take the stance of "you lose it, you go without" but you can't let them go without a hat or sunglasses because they'll get skin cancer and burn out their retinas and THEN what kind of parent will you be?!? So you have to keep buying the darn things until you hit a hat and sunglasses saturation point. It's a catch-22 I tell ya. But I have the solution. Lose 'em and you have to use your B-day money to replace them. Bwahahah - take that! The only thing they will not EVER lose by the way, is whatever funky plastic or otherwise bizarre souvenir they have talked you into. Only the useful stuff gets lost.

7.)Random questions all the time that have NOTHING to do with what you're doing. So the parents and the tour guide may have their heads together trying to make a critical decision and one of them will start tugging a sleeve:
"Mom! Mom!"
"Just a second.." (they give me 10)
"Mom!"
"What?!?" I say thinking at this point that either a tourist is on fire or we're having some kind of bathroom emergency.
"Are aliens real?"
Are you kidding me? And it never ends. There are so many variations to the questions too.
"Did you know that Doofensmertz was raised by cats?"
"What does self-destruct mean?"
???
"You know, like on a space ship when it has a self-destruct?"
Oh. Exactly what I wanted to ponder as I bike serenely through idyllic countryside.
8.) There were only 2 big rules on this trip. Don't touch your shoes and don't put your fingers in your mouth. But kids are dirty. They don't really get the concept of germs and filth making you deathly ill. And they definitely don't understand the idea of "packing light by re-wearing clothes so let's stay as clean as we can OK?" Losing. Battle. Again if you're not OCD by nature you will be. Because they will walk into the nastiest toilet in Asia where it's just a hole in the ground that you squat over and the smell makes your eyes water and leaves you gasping for breath. You'll get them through the experience somehow without falling into the actual hole or touching the filth-laden floor with their hands. You get them out, sanitize everything, and breathe a sigh of relief. Then 15 minutes later when you're having a snack they will suddenly, with lightening speed and before you can shout a warning squirm into a position where their feet come up, rub the palms of their hands all up and down across the bottom of their shoes (the shoes that were just on THAT floor) and then before you can do anything grab snack with THOSE SAME HANDS AND THEN PUT IT IN THEIR MOUTHS!!!! If anytime in the last 2 weeks you heard a primordial scream echoing through the atmosphere it was Jeff and I over in China screaming in frustration because we were just. not. fast. enough. to stop it. Maybe the joke's on us through because the 2 of them are perfectly healthy and by my calculation Teddy should be on his death-bed from cholera, typhus, the black death, any number of parasites and God knows what else. We're breeding a new kind of immune system ladies and gentlemen, bold pioneers that we are. As for clothes, by the end of it they both looked like they were wearing things that had been rolling around on a highway median for a few months. In Winter. After they had salted and sanded the roads. They'll put their sleeves over their hands and then run their hands across every public surface in Asia. I tried to take a picture of it but it's just so much worse in real-life. Teddy's sweater was the real piece of evidence but he left it on a bench at the baggage claim in the Guilin airport.

 So like I said at the beginning of this missive, there are 2 people in my life that surely don't get enough credit and recognition from me. Because I love my 2 chaucy little heathens, but today as I sit here, writing my blog after my morning run and sipping hot tea in a calm, quiet apartment I am extremely, profoundly grateful for their teachers.