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A Martin's Travels

Day 5 & 6

Sorry for the delay in getting this one posted!

Day Five and Six

Today we got up to breakfast in our hotel. Bet you can't guess what kind of food we ate! Just the same kind of food we've been eating for the last however many meals. Don't get me wrong... I like it (except when it looks scary), but I am so glad to be from a melting pot where there are different kinds all the time. Then we sang and studied as a group.

We then got on a bus that took us to the East. Once we had arrived, because we had all our luggage and we would be staying there for the night, we took our bags to another bus station and paid for them to watch the bags in an unlocked area guarded only by an older lady and her young son. My first thought as we walked away, "We are going to lose all our luggage." Well, we didn't. We went to about a two hour meeting and then back on a bus bound for our upcoming departure. It was an extremely long day! I'm so tired and I'm going to bed.

A Martin's Travels

I received this update this morning when I woke up. Andrew sent me a private message and informed me that yesterday was a rather tough day. I'm not really sure what that means but please keep him in your prayers.

Day Four

This morning was an interesting and different day. I actually slept past my alarm and woke up with only 20 minutes to get ready and to meet in the lobby to then go catch our high-speed train. It went 199 kmph at one point! There really isn't a lot to tell you about the day from there, except about what I ate. We ate at a genuine Korean food place. Lunch was good, I took pictures of the food. We had seafood pizza. It had squid on it but I don't exactly know how to describe it to you. Lets just say that if I was given the chance to have it again, I would most certainly pass.

Then, for dinner we ate Sechwan (spicy Chinese) food. I am a big wimp when it comes to spicy food so that wasn't very good. Our guide offered to take us to a place that would serve dog and lamb but, as you can imagine, we unanimously opted for something different.

With just two more days before our travel home begins, I am glad to be coming home soon but I am excited about going on another trip in the future! It has been a great experience so far!!!

I love you all!

A Martin's Travels

Hello there! I just wanted to let you know that I received a surprise phone call last night! His co-worker has his cell phone and has an international plan. As you can imagine, I was very shocked and very happy! He is having a great time and wanted to make sure that I told everyone hello and thanks for speaking to your father. Please keep talking!

Here is the latest email update that I have received!

Day Three

It was awesome - experienced all three modes of transportation today: taxi, bus, & subway.

We also had a very interesting lunch experience :O) ... spicy beef and rice noodles, an entire fish...minus the intrails...but it most certainly had its head. We didn't eat the head but another man did! We also had the equivalent of peel-and-eat shrimp...only they didn't peel them. We had some sort of stewed mushroom and cabbage (the cabbage was good), some sort of meatball covered in rice which was good but I have no idea what kind of meat it was! I had fried and sticky rice which I consider my solace place. We had a great time but I was not full when we left the table...but as you can imagine, I was okay with that!

We're safe and are having an unbelievable experience. I can't wait to tell you all about it!

Love you all,

A Martin's Travels

Day two and beginning of day three

Ok, I just got another email. By my calculations, Andrew has just gotten up for the day. It is 5:30 on Wednesday evening here therefore it is 6:30 on Thursday morning there. Here is what he has to say...

The hotel we are staying in now is sort of the ultimate mix between new age and retro. The hallway carpet is sort of a brown tiger strip- pretty rad dude! The room is very nice. I am on the 6th floor with a window looking out over a busy intersection. They really don't drive terrible fast here. They drive more with their horns than anything. Like honking gives them the right-of-way. I don't understand it but luckily their horns are not all that loud, so it hasn't been much of a bother. I don't think that it would have mattered if they had been loud though because last night we got in about 9:30 and it was just about all I could do to brush my teeth before I began to fall asleep.

We came yesterday to the West city. It is bustling. Although the train ride went 150 mph, it still took us 45 minutes to get here. It was a nice train though. We each had our own seat and had a great time visiting. We experienced the subway yesterday as well. It is very confusing but I suppose given some time one will be able to figure it out. Overall, most people don't have cars or their own transportation but instead rely on public transportation. It is a good system. There is the subway, taxi service, and more double decker buses than I have ever seen before. Plus the transportation costs are minimal. For instance, we rode the subway going and coming yesterday and it only cost us about $1 US per person.

Jet lag really took over yesterday (Wednesday here) at lunch time. The room where we ate lunch was dark and it made me feel as though it should be bed time. On your time, it was bedtime (11 p.m. Tuesday). However, for me, it was just after lunch. But, I think today (Thursday here) is going to be better. I'll probably get adjusted just about the time that we come home.... oh well!

It has been a great trip so far. Lots of walking is required but we have gotten to see a whole lot since we have been here. I'm excited about a new day and all that will happen!!!

A Martin's Travels

Hello again! I received this email around 2:55 a.m.

Hello home-folks,

Well, we went inland today to the west city. We traveled here by train going about 150 mph! We saw lots of apartment dwellings along the way. We arrived safely and will be staying here a few days. Today for lunch I experienced some real food...frog-with all its little bones in its little body. I saw...but didn't eat...slimy eggplant, spicy green beans, cauliflower, rice, green tea, and pepsi :O). I met some really cool people!

Jet lag has definately caught up to me, so I will type another note to you when I get up in the morning! Have a great Wednesday!

A Martin's Travels-Love you all!

We made it!!!

Ok, this is Kena. I anxiously awaited the arrival of the following email from my beloved and it finally came around 9 a.m. this morning. I apologize that it took me a while to get it posted but here it is!

We are here and we are safe!

Now let me tell you about our trip. The first flight, as you could have assumed was nice and easy, but not a very adequate warm-up flight for the one that came after it. The long flight was just exactly that... LONG! We left at 10 a.m. our local time. The overall flight wasn't too bad though. We took off and we were immediately met with some pretty serious turbulence. My co-worker said, "this feels a little like a tilt-a-whirl"...and i replied that he was right except this one was about 15,000 feet off the ground. Though soon enough we were past the bumps and it was fairly smooth sailing from then on.

We ate lunch at noon and we had a choice of beef or chicken. I chose beef. Accompanying the beef (done in a sort of Chinese food-like manner) was green beans and steamed rice. There was a cube of sticky rice topped with a thin slice of raw tuna filet-sushi...It was good! Then there was sushi roll-sticky rice with some kind of vegetable stuffed in the middle all wrapped in seaweed...it was weird but kinda good as well. We also had a dinner roll and crackers with some sort of Michigan gourmet cheese.

I watched a couple of movies while on the LONG flight. The Blind Side (great movie if you haven't seen it) and Planet 51 (a silly, yet clean, animated kids movie. It was funny).

We ate dinner at 6 p.m. (our time). This was an interesting meal. It was good because I was very hungry. It was a not quite thawed but not quite frozen ham and cheese sandwich.

Following dinner, I finally slept for about 3 hours (from 7ish to a little after 10). But then I was awakened for yet another meal. This one was a little more in my ballpark...PIZZA!

Finally, not too long after my fourth meal of the day, our LONG flight finally ended!

At our second stop of the day, we barely had enough time to arrive, go through security, and make it all the way across the airport to our departure gate before we had to get on yet another plane. We didn't have to run or anything crazy like that but as soon as we arrived at our gate, it was time to board.

Our third and final flight of the day was about 5 hours in length. We ate again...this time it was sticky rice and some sort of mystery fish-like meat....I didn't eat the meat - I wasn't all that hungry.

Anyway, We are here! I will send another update soon!

A Martin's Travels

6 Days and counting...

Well it is nearly time to take off for the land across the ocean blue. The itinerary says we will spend just under 20 hours in the air on the way and just under 18 hours in the air on the way back. I have several good books to read but I'm certainly hoping for a few good movies to be showing on our plane, because I can only read so much.

I am real excited about this opportunity - what a trip it will be!!!

I will let you know more information as it gets closer.

If you've read my 'Preparation' post - I'm starting to re-think my approach to packing. I might start tomorrow, maybe... probably not. :)

A Martin's Travels

Just wondering...

Ever wonder? Sure I have, you're saying.

Sometimes I find myself wondering about life and about where it will lead or where I'll end up. Often I feel like such a misfit in my todays; what will come of my tomorrows? Do you wonder about such things?

In my travels, sometimes I can compare my walking to being on a treadmill. A treadmill is good; it is good for your body & your health to walk. You can be hitting it hard: sweat pouring down your face, gasping for your next breath, reaching deep for that next step but eventually you realize that you haven't moved at all. Your walking hasn't transferred you from one place to the next, in fact you are exactly where you started. Of course, as for the treadmill, it's done the job - your calories are burned and it doesn't matter that you've remained stationary in your travels. I think our travels should change us.

Side note: Have you ever seen the Fidelity Investments commercial? The customer representative brings her client to the edge of the store and points down to the ground where you (as the viewer) and her client see this green line. "Just stay on track", she tells her client. He then ventures down the sidewalk. Not too far away he encounters a showroom full of classic cars, stepping off the line you can see in his face that he considering a purchase. At just that same moment, the representative yells from the store, "Stay on the line." And thus the client continues on his travels.


This is not about Fidelity, its about you. Where are you travelling? Where will your travels take you? How will they change you? Along the way, will you tell people about your travels... about how they are affecting you? Then, will they affect anyone else?

A Martin's Travels

Preparation

I don't know about you, but I'm kind of a pack the day I leave kind of guy. I'm just certain that at this exact moment some of you (you OCD aka CDO people) are cringing at my unorganization (my wife is more often than not my organizational catalyst). Granted that my tendicies lean towards waiting till the last minute, I am usually very prepared. In fact, I have to admit that I pack like a girl. No offense ladies, but as I'm sure you can relate - you know when you're going for a 2 day trip and you pack every possible needed outfit. What you have done is pack for a 2-week trip instead of a 2 day... yeah, I do that. Men, you're now wondering: who is this manly man I thought I knew? Its me, don't worry. I'm just weird!

Now, I would like to invite you to take an imagination trip with me... we may very well find different destinations but the idea will be the same. I want you to consider a place or an event that you would very much like to attend right now (instead of sitting on your tail reading my blog, not that its boring of course). This event is important to you in some way. This place has played some significant role in your past and could likely play a like role in your future. Now before you go, consider the things that you'll need in order to get there. Preparation is key to this imagination journey! Ok go!

At this point you may want to make sure you are alone, because if one of your family members happens to walk by and sees you with your eyes closed and you're talking to yourself - they might think you are weird (welcome to my world).

Likely by now some of you are losing interest, but hang with me - I do have a point! Ok, now you've been to this fabulous place or event and now you are back in the real world - what is the first thing that you want to do? Don't you want to tell someone about your trip? Don't you want to logon to facebook and post this huge article like thing on your wall about how much fun you had and all the things you saw or food you ate? It is almost as if you are unable to silence yourself.

This morning in my Book study and I was totally blow away!!! You know Father so desparately wants us make preparation for our days by allowing him to pack our bags. As I consider the eminent travels that we will make in a month or so, I want to us to be prepared!!!! Because I think if we will involve him in our preparation, we will come away unable to silence ourselves!

Hope you have great day!

- A Martin's Travels

Hello

All,

Hope you will be following all of my travels as we go to destinations unknown!!! It will be exciting! Hope you'll join as we go by thinking for us and talking to father often. There is much work to be done and I am excited to see what exciting travels are just beyond the horizon!

I will be blogging as much as possible to keep you up to date on our daily adventures!

A Martin's Travels