Hana is on the bus

Starting our trip old style - riding the 'dog to Chicago. Lots of rain, hopefully not delays - small margin for error on this leg

the good news...our visas are in..! We are ready, more or less, to go. I mean we still have to pack but we're on our way soon enough!

Planning?

So, we leave in one week. We are excited.. Not packed at all and no visa yet!

Asia 2012

Playing around with new tech that we will use to document this trip. iPad and a new and improved Blogger. So much technology and tools to capture the spirit, but does it really enhance the experience? I'm a skeptic, but we shall see as we explore China once again and venture into new territory, the exotic islands of Indonesia. Should be amazing.


Sent from my iPad

China 4th

Tomorrow is our 4th trip to Asia,and a long plane ride ahead.I'm so excited for the food,(of course)the new places,and then all the new people that we'll meet. We are going to go to Shanghai for two days then we'll go to Chengdu for about 3 days,after that we will hopefully be able to go to Tibet for a week to 10 days.My cousin Katie is coming with us and traveling the whole way!And I'm just thinking about the planes to China, because if I do I get too hipper! I AM SOOOO EXCITED!!!!
Written by Julia McMahon-Cole

Before we leave

I have to say...I never made much time for our blog in our previous trips. The girls usually are the ones to blog but since it was hard for me to sleep (shouldn't I be packed by now, did I buy the right medicine, is it crazy to take coffee with me), I thought I would restart our family blog. I look at some of our old entries. I loved reading what the girls were thinking and experiencing in our previous trips. I miss Chinese food, the energy of the country, the optimism. Most of all, I miss and look forward to concentrated family time, being with Jeff and the kids 24-7. I am also excited that Katie will be with us. She will make an excellent travel partner and we are all so excited that she will be with us.

She arrives in Lincoln tomorrow and we are all thinking about what we will do the one day we are together in the US.

We are traveling in two groups. Jeff and Hana leave early Monday morning and then Katie, Julia and I by 10:30 am. In short, it was the best way for us all to arrive on the same day without paying a fortune.

Look out China, here we come!

Getting to Siem Reap

What Jeff failed to mention was our trip here..and how incredibly interesting it was...I will let the girls tell the story but in short, we landed at the border w/out a real appreciation of what the bordertown was like. After being ripped off by border police for our visas, we encountered the ugly world of taxi drivers. Almost 3 hours and many stories from our taxi driver, we did arrive at our cozy and truly delightful hotel. They greeted us with fruit drinks and smiles and frankly, I was happy the Cambodian taxi mafia didn't get us. I must admit that as we travelled thru the largely dark and very poor villages of Cambodia I wondered if again we had decided to do something totally, totally nuts. Fortunately, my in-laws were pretty calm and I told that driver I was about to vomit...which in a way I could have if the situation demanded. We'll upload some pictures soon. The city is truly wonderful and the people delightful...we are thinking that despite the gangs of taxi drivers and the truly scary begininng, we are not ready to end this adventure.