16 in UK

My sister and her family have been living on a military base near London, England, so several members of my family decided to meet up there. There were 16 of us once we all got together, a nice mixture of adults and kids. We went to Stonehenge to see some old rocks, still standing after all these years, and had a picnic in the grass outside the monument. Everyone fit into 3 cars as we then headed to our hotel in Swindon, England. I drove one of the cars, and became familiar with traffic on the left side of the road. And it was even more strange that the signal was on the right side of the steering wheel, such that up was a left turn and down was a right turn. It was a complicated puzzle to signal the correct direction and to avoid hitting the wipers instead.

I quickly found that getting anywhere with 16 people can be a challenge to decide where to go. Everyone had different ideas, and if we were going to eat together, then it would need to be a place large enough to fit all of us. It was recommended that we eat at an Italian restaurant called Davinci's. The restaurant was packed, and there would have been a long wait for several tables together, so we all walked to a different restaurant. This one was empty, yet they weren't willing to serve us, which may have been why they were empty. We settled on waiting for a few tables at Davinci's. It turned out to be amazing food. I tried some of everything that was ordered at my table, typical Campbell-style eating. The spaghetti Bolognese and pizza were especially tasty.

We visited Bath, which is a gorgeous English town with classic architecture. As we toured the city, we came across an old cathedral near a plaza, where a couple of guys were playing Hang drums (a rare instrument from Switzerland). It makes a strange and beautiful sound by tapping what looks like 2 woks fastened together like a UFO. I could see that they were making good money on donations and CD sales. We found some ice cream, and shared take-away indian food in a nearby courtyard until it started to rain. I found a fascinating modern art exhibit before we left town. My favorite piece was a collection of old keys hanging on strings from the ceiling.

We then saw a cathedral in Glaucester, England, where scenes from Harry Potter were filmed inside. It was an old eerie place with dark, empty hallways around a courtyard. Ornate stained glass colored the rooms before the sun started to set. Not a place that I would want to go to church, but it was ideal for taking pictures.

One car load of people needed to get back to work and school at the military base, but the rest of us spent another night in a hotel. The next day we visited the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world, Windsor castle. It was the size of a village. As we headed back to my sister's house, we arrived at the entry gates of the military base about midnight. At that point the military guards found that the car I was driving had expired tags. It couldn't be driven back onto the base at that time, so we packed my sister's van even more full of stuff and people. A few of us walked behind the van as we entered the base, and eventually, everyone ended up where they wanted to be.

Roadtrip to Scotland

Some of my family took a road trip from England to Scotland for about 4 days. My brother-in-law, Tyler drove an SUV which included his daughter Ivey, my Dad and his wife Rose, and myself. My sister, Cindy, drove a van, carrying the rest of her kids, Mason, Calla, Hunter, and also my brother, Scott. Using mobile phones, GPS and old school maps we managed to caravan most of the time, getting lost only some, seeing most of what we wanted, and returning with all 10 people - which was perhaps the greatest success.

Most of our time was spent driving through the remarkable landscapes of Northern England and Southern Scotland. The rest of the time was spent eating, sleeping, and preparing to eat, sleep, and drive. Getting 10 people into 2 cars at the same time can be a challenging sociodynamic obstacle.

We stayed in Manchester, England our first night. We arrived late, and the kids slept while everyone else ordered food in the lobby and talked about religion and politics. There was a pool at our hotel, which the kids enjoyed in the morning before we started driving again. We stopped for lunch at a random restaurant on the way to Glasgow, Scotland, where we sat for two hours waiting for our food. We had planned to get to Glasgow in good time, so we didn't anticipate such a long stop. It may be a cultural difference for some people to want to spend longer at lunch, but we all felt like getting to Scotland.

We didn't see much of Glasgow. We arrived into town only to find that our hotel hadn't been booked. We used a third party booking company, and there was a miscommunication that resulted in a lost reservation. The hotel was full, and finding a hotel with vacancies took a couple hours, since it was a holiday weekend. We eventually found a place about an hour east of Glasgow, 1/2 way to Edinburgh. Since we planned to see Edinburgh next, it made sense to just continue on.

We followed directions on the GPS, and it dropped us off in several quaint towns that would have been wonderful places to tour, but it was getting late, and people were tired, so we kept driving in search of our hotel. Tyler and I were convinced that we could find it with road signs, so we led the caravan nearly all the way to the hotel, when all of sudden my dad jumped out of the car as we were stopped at a traffic light. We assumed his jimmy legs got the best of him as he was ran toward a sign for a guesthouse, but all he said before he left the car was "let me out". We couldn't stay in the road when the light turned green, and with nowhere to pull over, we kept driving until we saw a gas station. The van followed us as we drove back to find my dad. Then the van with GPS led us down a windy side road through some fields, and back to the same road just beyond the gas station, and there we found our hotel. After carrying sleepy kids to a room with beds and blankets on the floor, a few of us hung out in one of the rooms. We used an adapter to connect a laptop to the TV screen, so we could watch Arrested Development episodes.

The hotel had a wide selection of hot breakfast options including porridge (oatmeal), fish, potatoes, eggs, and sausage - until the power went out - then it was just sausage, and a buffet of cereal, fruit, and yogurt. The drive to Campbell Castle was beautiful, filled with grazing sheep on grassy hillsides. We stopped at a market for meat, cheese, and bread, to avoid a long wait at a restaurant. The castle looked ancient, and was undergoing some renovations. It's set on a hill, with a vast view overlooking a small town. Our family is as much Scottish as we are a mixture of other European heritage, but some of us felt a unique connection with Campbell Castle.

We made a quick tour of Edinburgh, visited a large museum and ate fish and chips and meat pies in an outdoor plaza. We then drove to a bed and breakfast south of Edinburgh, owned by a local family that gave us a taste of southern Scottish culture. In the morning we were served a large breakfast, and the kids happily fed milk to lambs in a stable nearby.

We headed to Alnwick, England to see a castle where part of Harry Potter was filmed. Our time was short, so we planned to see more the next day. We did some shopping at Morrison's market in Alnwick, and I discovered that they make excellent cookies. We bought a few packages and some milk. We drove to our hotel in New Castle, calling to confirm our reservation. The kids went to sleep, and the rest of us ate dessert in the lobby and played games.

Scott knew a friend that lived in New Castle, so I joined them for chinese food later, and walked around New Castle. Scott and I booked a hostel for us, then met up with the rest of the family in the morning. We got an early start for the Harry Potter castle, and toured the manicured gardens for a few hours. There was a lot to see, including several water fountains, a hedge maze, and poisonous plants collection. A few of the kids participated in broom stick training, which was entertaining for everyone else to watch. We ate a few more servings of fish and chips before we drove back to Tyler and Cindy's house. By that time I could tell that my body had reached it's limit of fried food for the month.

London

I drove from Salt Lake to St. George, Utah to meet up with my dad and his wife, then we all drove to Vegas for our flight to London on Virgin airlines. We left Sunday afternoon, and arrived in London Monday afternoon with a time change. The flight was crowded, and the food was mediocre. I ordered the curry, thinking of the good things I've heard about Indian food in London, but then I remembered I was on a plane somewhere over the Midwest. They gave everyone a sweet toiletry bag with an eye pillow, a toothbrush, and a single-use tube of toothpaste. I love the fact that people have a invented a way to fly over an ocean, but it's strange that planes are designed so poorly for sleeping. If I were in charge of designing the seats for a large aircraft for flights of 6 hours or more, I would set up bunk beds, or at least make it so that people could lean their heads somewhere, even if the seats had to remain nearly upright.

We flew into the Gatwick airport and took trains into London. The last time I navigated in an unfamiliar place without the GPS map on my iphone was when I went to Asia a couple years ago. It's strange how dependent I have become on having constant cell phone service, including access to all the technology that I've become accustomed to. At the same time, it's relieving to not use my phone for a while. No texts or phone calls, unless I want to get on Skype and talk to someone overseas. To navigate, we used a paper map of the city, rode buses, and asked around when we got close to where we wanted to go.

The buildings in London are gorgeous. A lot of them are historic with ornate brick work and classic architecture. Some are curved along an entire street, as they are in Picadilly Circus. Some are modern, with a lot of glass, metal, and large open spaces. I took quite a few pictures since I'm fascinated by creative architecture and modern design.

I spent my last night in London riding buses around the city. After midnight, buses run less often, but the people become more interesting, so it's worth the trade-off.

lost camera

i rummaged through my backpack to find some toothpaste. i thought about my flight back to the states in a couple days. i had stayed in japan much longer than i had planned, as if i ever really stuck to a plan. but i enjoyed meeting up with my brother in the philippines, and staying with my sister's family at a military base outside tokyo - helping them get ready to move to england, and visiting taiwan. it had been an awesome couple months. it was while i was thinking of all the great photos i had taken that i realized the top pouch of my backpack was empty. that's where i usually keep my camera. then i thought to myself, "where is my camera?"

immediately i pictured in my mind where i had last seen it. i distinctly remember hiding it in the van, passenger side, near the front door. i walked out to the van and checked the spot. it was gone.

my first thought was that someone had stolen the camera, since the door had been unlocked. then again, a military base is pretty safe, and i can't imagine anyone would just take it. aside from a heavy disappointment, i started to retrace my steps - the events of the evening were clear in my mind, including the times. i last saw the camera at 5 pm, as i stashed it in the van out of sight before heading into a banquet dinner at the military base. the kids and i stayed there for a couple hours, and cindy left early to do some shopping. once we had finished eating, the kids and i walked over to the library to read books and to wait for cindy to meet us. she showed up in the van at 7:30. i had completely forgotten about the camera, got into the van, and we all headed home. i worked on some projects at the house while cindy and ivey drove to the gas station around 8 pm to pick up a few things. They returned later, and we helped the kids get ready for bed. at 11:30 pm, i felt tired and sifted through my backpack to find a toothbrush, which made me aware that it was missing.

cindy and i left immediately to search for it. we left mason, my oldest nephew, in charge of the house while we were gone. we drove to the three places that the camera may have been: the enlisted club where we had eaten dinner, the library, and the gas station. i thought it may have fallen out of the van, since i had been precariously placed it by the door. i felt desperate as we arrived at the club, searching the parking lot, sidewalk, and inside a newspaper stand - just in case. i noticed a security guard, but he said that no one had turned in a camera tonight. we found nothing at the library and gas station, which made me start to lose hope. we noticed a police car on our way home, so we stopped to ask some questions. the cops said that we should check at the main gate, so we drove there. the lost and found office at the gate hadn't seen it, but we gave them our number and urged them to call if they found anything. we returned to cindy's house empty handed.

i realized that there was no identification on the camera. no name engraved on the side, no phone number taped to the back, no email address on a piece of paper in the camera bag. it was just a black camera in a case, with a ton of photos on the memory card. here it was, one hour later, and i had checked every possible place, and found nothing. i felt like from then on i would reference time from the day the camera was lost.

it may not have been so bad if it had been an old camera that needed to be replaced anyway. or if i had not just finished visiting three countries in asia for two months - but then again, it would have been worse if i had just started my trip. i had been saving photos and videos to my laptop as i traveled, so the data wasn't entirely lost. but it made me wish that someone had ripped it out of my hands and jumped a passing train to escape. and then i could have jumped the train and chased after them, leaping over passengers and dodging the people that check for tickets. if someone had stolen it from me, i'd at least have a story about a train chase, or a fist fight in an alley, or scaling the wall of a building. then i could be angry at someone other than myself. but i had simply left it in the van by the door, and forgot about it. it's like the scar that people ask about, and you wish you could say that it was a shark bite, or a motorcycle accident, or a bullet wound from a war; but it was from slipping on a wet kitchen floor as you hit the counter.

two hours after the camera was lost we placed an ad on a local online classifieds page, describing the camera and hoping someone would respond. i was depressed, and i slept in late the next morning. in fact, the whole day i was down, but i tried to forget about it. no one called back or responded to the ad. cindy had checked all three spots in the morning and found nothing. i was leaving for the states the next day, cindy was moving to england in a week or two, and i had been careless. but i was determined to learn something from it, to make the experience somewhat worthwhile.

the night after the camera was lost, i felt like i should check the classified ads, just in case. and to my surprise, there was a post from someone that found a camera! it was almost 10 pm, but we called immediately. as we described the camera over the phone i was ecstatic. it was the one. we drove over to the house right away and knocked on the door, apologizing for coming over so late. a lady handed me my camera, and it was in perfect shape. i was so relieved, as i thanked her profusely for being so helpful. they had found it on the ground at the gas station the night before. luckily they found it before anyone else.

it was a rough 22 hours, but i learned to be a little more wise and patient. once we arrived home, i labeled everything valuable that i owned. i was grateful that there are people in the world that are honest. i'm sure it helped that i prayed for it, and asked a friend to do the same. i feel that as long as i'm doing everything i can, whatever needs to happen, will happen.

taiwan chiropractics

my lower back has been bothering me the past few years. so i try to find useful stretches along with sitting and sleeping positions that will ease it a little. on a train from taipei, i happened to meet a girl who was a yoga instructor, so we talked about stretches that may help. later she referred me to a chiropractor that specialized in pressure point massage and stretching before doing any adjustments. i was excited to finally have another reason for being in taiwan, since the trip wasn't planned.

the chiropractor's office was a very soothing atmosphere, like a spa. i was laying face down on table, and a therapist was pressing down brutally on each nerve in my back, following down my legs, and finishing at my feet. i was trying to relax, so that he could work out all the kinks. as he bumped around the tendons it was the most painful, and it took all of my concentration to not shout.

once i was primed, the doc came in and cracked my back and neck. he was finished in less than a minute. he contorted my body in all sorts of ways. he was confident in the way he worked. once finished, he said some things to his assistant, pointing to my leg and lower back. the doc gave me a thumbs up, and left the room. he didn't speak english. the assistant started putting some cream on my leg and back, and then a bandage over the top. it smelled fresh and herby like eucalyptus. my friend translated for me as the doctor summarized what he did. the bandage was placed over my sore joints to cover the "medicine", whatever it was. the doctor demonstrated sleeping positions and stretches that would also help. i was very aware of how comfortable my back felt, and the herb cream was warm on my skin.

i rode trains clockwise around the whole country, starting at the top in taipei. the most gorgeous stretch of land was the whole east side. the tracks are sandwiched between ocean and tropical mountains, and the view is spectacular everywhere.

some detailed maps in english would have made it easier to navigate the south. everything is really spread out without much public transportation. at one point i rode a bus to a town i had never heard of, to look for a hostel that had closed; and then rode another bus in the dark to what i thought was the next town, only to find myself right back where I had started hours earlier.

i finally met some locals, at which point we were able to find the only atm in town that would accept american cards. nice, because i was out of money. once i had some cash, they introduced me to their favorite food, grilled squid - the whole squid. i bought some from a street corner grill; hot, rubbery, and covered with a sweet, spicy sauce. awesome.

my favorite though, was some watermelon on the beach in kenting. i found some people burying themselves in the sand, and i took some photos for them. they offered me watermelon that they had been tearing with their hands. i ripped off a section and felt the juice run down my fingers. nothing compares to cool, crunchy watermelon, with salty fingertips covered in beach sand.

taipei 101

when you visit taipei, be sure to check out the tapei international financial center 101. it's the tallest skyscraper in the world, for now anyway. but right after that, go to the shihlin night market. there are dozens of food stalls to choose from; find one that looks good, and order some spicy fried chicken - fresh out of the fryer. i know that most people think the best fried chicken is probably in kentucky, but i promise it's at this night market.

there's plenty of shopping there, but nothing that interested me as much as shaved ice/cream for dessert, tsua bing. and as it turns out, the night market also has the best. it's kind of a mix between hawaiian shaved ice, fillipino halo-halo, and american ice cream. it's hard to describe the texture, flavor, and especially the appearance, but it's extremely unique and equally enjoyable.

i luckily found the best spot for tsua bing, but it wasn't easy. to get there, you have to wade through a maze of food stalls in a giant market plaza, and swim through the nose piercing smell of fermented tofu. you'll see some duck heads sharing spaces on grills with parts of animals i don't recognize, and large bowls of brown jell-o. but once you get to the ice cream stand, all the other strange smells drift away, and it's only shaved ice and exotic fruits and colorful toppings. i ordered red beans with sweetened condensed milk, served several inches tall over flakes of icy cream on a gigantic plate. of all the things to travel half-way around the world to eat, i had fried chicken and ice cream, and loved it.

"all i want is oatmeal"

i love to try new things in a foreign country, especially food - hoping it's good. the easiest way i've found to make it a good experience is when locals recommend something. so a friend in tokyo took cindy and i to a restaurant that served okonomiyaki - japanese pancakes. nothing like american pancakes, although they're shaped in a similar way: noodles, eggs, meat, and topped with sweet/spicy sauce and fish flakes so thin they wave from the air conditioning. sweet enough for breakfast, salty enough for dinner. if someone hadn't taken me to the restaurant, i never would have known to try it. fantastic.

in comparison, living for a few weeks at yokota feels more american than the states could ever be. you won't find any international markets or restaurants at a US military base, but it's a nice change from some of the unique characteristics of the rest of asia: crazy designs for words, funky street smells, and unknown animal parts in some sort of stew. and living on base makes cindy's life somewhat managable, taking care of 4 kids. and it's only a short drive to the outer gate where you can experience some asian culture.

on mothers day, we were staying at a navy hotel in tokyo. we went to an extravagant brunch buffet with cindy and her kids; everything from eggs benedict to pizza; caviar and smoked salmon, pasta, eggs and sausage, lamb, turkey, soup and salad, sushi...but one of my nieces wasn't pleased, in spite of the enormous selection. surrounded by lavish, international, and fine foods, and all she wanted was oatmeal - which of course, they didn't have. but we were resourceful, and found things she would like and fixed up the things she didn't. a ham sandwich made from various ingredients around the room. crepes from the buffet - scraped off the blue sauce and added strawberries and cream from the fruit bar. a bowl of cereal made from marshmallow breakfast bars from the dessert table; we asked the waiter for a bowl of milk and broke apart the cereal pieces into a bowl. and of course, ice cream. so we successfully fed a child with a selective appetite for about $13. ironically, a bowl of oatmeal costs about a nickel. the desire to try new things may be an acquired taste.

raising gamblers

scott and i flew into japan from the philippines, and this helped us see the chasm of contrast between the two cultures. in the philippines, everyone wanted to look at us and talk to us. people were smiling a lot and very open. the cities were concentrated with exhaust and trash was put into piles when gathered. in japan, everything is very clean and orderly. people are straight-faced and focused; few will make eye contact with us. when we ask anyone for directions, however, they may go so far as taking us in the direction we want to go. it's amazing how countries develop such unique and fascinating differences.

we hopped on a few trains and headed toward yokota airforce base to stay with our sister, cindy and her family. they've been living here for the past four years, and all that time they have never had a cell phone. we don't understand how they can survive. cindy uses skype to talk to her husband, currently stationed in honduras, but it's difficult for us to get in contact with her. the base doesn't accept calls from payphones, so the only way to reach her is from a cell phone. japan has a unique cellular network; so you can't just buy a sim card at 7-11 like the rest of asia, and slip it into your current phone. we have to find someone that seems nice, hope they speak english, and borrow their cell phone to call our sister, and have her meet us at the train station. getting clearance to stay at the base is an entirely different issue.

arcade games are big in japan, competing with karaoke for popularity. some common games for kids here involve putting coins into machines, giving you a chance to win more coins if you do well. if you win a lot, you can keep playing on the same tokens. the machines are also pumping out obnoxious repetitive music, and flashing lights, so the whole experience is one of a kind. my nieces and nephews love the games, so we all went to a nearby mall called diamond city, which is where they usually go. once we got there, we changed out some yen, and were given buckets of tokens. scott was keeping hunter, the 2-year old, under control. cindy was keeping track of the girls. and mason, 12, got me started on a fish catching game that kept me busy for an hour.

there's a food court upstairs at the mall. all the kids like something different for dinner, so it works out well to minimize the fighting. order a pile of food and everybody grabs at what they want. great tempura, udon, and pepper steak served on a hot griddle with bean sprouts. the kids love the bright green melon soda, so everyone gets a swig from the glass. forget the swine flu. then, each kid was given their own filled crepe for dessert, and it was a coveted posession. even hunter had one, his toddler hands squeezing out the cream and squishing the pancake between his fingers. i was impressed by how much he ate, even after a full dinner.

coral climbing

there's a ton of diving in the philippines, since there's about 7000 islands. choosing where to go is the only hurdle we encountered. we heard that numerous sites were all very good, and the more we asked people what they recommended, the more we had to choose from. after about 3 days in manila we were tired of smelling the exhaust and had finally made up our minds to dive near the island of palawan. we tried to fly last minute only to find that all flights were sold old. so we took a bus south out of town, toward the coast, and a ferry to sabang on mindoro island. as we hopped off the boat, tons of locals surrounded us to offer hotels, bikes, diving, food, jewelry, and hand carved pool sticks. we've grown accustomed to ignoring peolple in such situations just to avoid the distraction. filipinos seem to be a lot more considerate of tourists than hecklers of other countries, so it's a nice change. they know when to say when, which makes it a lot more enjoyable to shop for things and talk to people.

we started diving the next morning with a local dive master. the ocean currents and recent rain made the water a little cloudy, but huge schools of fish and coral made up for it. scott's battle wounds from songkran made it a little painful for wearing fins and a wetsuit, but nothing a little neosporin and a dozen bandages couldn't fix.

later we took a day trip to a steep reef on verde island, an hour by boat from sabang. there we did three dives in the afternoon, and every one of them was amazing. i've never seen so many fish in my life. the current was a lot stronger, and there were parts of the dive where we could see fish swimming in place against the drift, as if they were on an underwater treadmill.

the last dive was called washing machine, and the name didn't register in my head until the last portion of the dive. at first it seemed pretty normal, we just moved toward the bottom of the sea and around the underwater cliffs of the island. at one point i saw scott exploring some nearby reef, but then was suddenly out of sight. so i swam over to see where he went, only to find that he was clinging onto some coral as the surging current picked up - his hair blowing around like it was being fanned. as i started moving toward him i could feel the current pulling at me as well, so i grabbed onto some coral and made slow moves toward him. the dive master showed up from behind me and pulled scott closer to the other side of the cliff where the current was manageable. apparently, scott was just testing out the current, and then had gotten a charlie horse from trying to fight it. by that time the rest of the diving group had wandered our direction and everyone was clambering to find a good hold; underwater cameras in one hand, coral in the other. some of it stained my fingers blue.

the divemaster signaled for all of us to follow him, making slow moves close of the reef, below the strongest part of the drift. scott started yelling something to me through his respirator, which i couldn't understand. later he told me it was like underwater rock climbing, which was exactly what it felt like. some coral is rough, smooth, slippery, spongy, fragile, and everything in between. it seemed a little destructive at times, especially when pieces would snap, but we tried to keep it low impact. if we wanted to move fast, we just let go and drifted, trying not to run into anyone else. the whole experience was wild, and when i surfaced later, i was dizzy and disoriented. the waves were enormous on the surface, and climbing onto the boat became a task. i found only one scar on my hand, a nice souvenir from the coral. scott's fingers took weeks to return to normal.

i was starving when we arrived back at sabang, though it was several hours before we ate. the restaurant we picked (recommended as one of the best on the island) apparently had only one cook, and probably fewer frying pans. we waited almost two hours for our food to arrive, hoping the quality of the meal would make up for it. the frustrating part of filling up on food you don't like is that you're too full to do anything about it afterward. for a couple of kids who enjoy eating as much as we do, it was more than a bit unfortunate. luckily, that was about the only inexcellent food we encountered in the philippines (unless you count our munching on the duck embryos.)

asian hiatus

i flew into the philippines late friday night; from salt lake city, routed through minneapolis and tokyo. even at midnight in the capital city of manila there was crazy traffic and people everywhere; walking, eating, sleeping on the sidewalk. the car exhaust was overwhelming. the scenery from the airport to the hostel was a lively mixture of latin and tropical asian. i slept a few hours before scott flew in from bangkok early the following morning. it had been 6 months since we parted in thailand, on a trip through asia that we started last summer. we rode trains, boats, and planes from st. petersburg, russia to koh tao, thailand. last october i flew back to utah through oman and london, and scott kept exploring the eastern hemisphere: malaysia, singapore, india, nepal and plenty of time in thailand. the philippines is a first for both of us, and we love it; especially the people. everyone is so friendly. smiling. social. curious. polite. that seems to make a significant difference when traveling somewhere. food is also a major factor, and the filipinos do pretty well with that. they use a lot of strong spices in their dishes; seafood and meats in colorful sauces over rice. and they make just about everything: italian, cuban, korean, and it's easy to find a traditional american breakfast.