3/26/98: Still rainy and cold, power out in Athens for several hours, but we manage a stroll through Plaka and Monastraki neighborhoods. Gerry (Ruth’s cousin from Maui) and George Valiakas invited us over for dinner. They also invited us to stay at their place rather than staying in the pensione. We felt it was too much to impose on them, so we declined. But we’ll be seeing more of them before we leave Athens.
3/26/23: Our trip took us to 11 different countries, 12 if you count our stop in Hawaii to visit Ruth’s parents, and the road trip from Los Angeles back to Chicago.
Ruth and I wanted as broad an experience as possible, not winding up with the typical pre-packaged tourist experience. Rather, we wanted to get as close to a real taste of a place, of a country, of peoples, languages and foods, as possible. Volunteering to work with various organizations in each location, made it more possible to get that flavor, because we were on-site with people who were either indigenous to the location, or living there in a permanent way. Other than the various pensiones on the occasional through-trip or side-trip, we lived as guests at people’s homes, or in guest houses set up by the organizations we for whom we volunteered.
The first part of our trip was primarily a tour of some sites in Biblical history. These including Athens, Thessalonika, Istanbul (aka Constantinople, aka Byzantium), Cappadocia, Hieropolis, Ephesus, Smyrna and Crete, locations described in the Bible as part of the earlies missionary journeys of Paul. Then we were on to Egypt, seeing Cairo, the Red Sea and Mount Sinai, as well.
When it came to our volunteer work projects for present day missionaries, we looked to where need might be greatest so that we could have the most impact. Therefore, we chose to work with organizations and projects in developing countries, or developing cities/towns within the developed world.
As for timing, the “when,” we travelled eastward in our circumnavigation of the globe because it would mean each part of our journey would avoid the worst of potential inclement weather. This turned out to have the unexpected benefit of intersecting with some very interesting events. We encountered religious festivals in Turkey, Greece, India, Thailand and China, and we were invited to a wedding in Indonesia. We bumped into world history as well. It turns out we were in the American Embassy building in Nairobi, Kenya, just a couple of weeks before a terrorist bombing occurred there, resulting in a retaliatory missile strike by the US on terrorist training camps in Sudan. Similarly, we wound up rerouted from a planned arrival in Jakarta, Indonesia many months later because of riots there, related to government turmoil in that country.
Here is a list of the stops on the trip (with pins on the map image above):
- Greece: Athens, Thessalonika, Samos, Naxos, Santorini, Crete
- Turkey: Istanbul, Pamukkale, Heiropolis, Cappadokia, Seljuk (Ephesus)
- Egypt: Cairo, Mount Sinai, Sharm El Sheik
- Zimbabwe: Harare, Mt. Darwin, Hwange, Livingstone, Bulawayo
- Kenya: Nairobi, Kijabe
- India: Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Raxaul, Delhi, Agra
- Nepal: Kathmandu, Pokhara, Dhampus
- China: Hong Kong, Beijing, Lanzhuo, Chengdu, Xi’an, Guilin/Yangshuo
- Thailand: Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Koh Lanta
- Indonesia: Denpasar, Malang, Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Ubud
- Japan: Tokyo
- USA: Pukalani, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Grand Canyon, Santa Fe, St. Louis, Champaign, Chicago
Tomorrow, I’ll post some details about how we planned, prepared and executed the trip.
