Images of Mutianyu: Great Wall of China

While I recover from wrist surgery which makes typing difficult... here is a short slide show of Mutianyu. Next time, pictures of the home I stayed in, which would be a lovely home for a family visit to the Great Wall (and it is available for overnight stays and is perfect for large groups.) More soon!

Mom Travels: Beijing and the Great Wall

Today I am getting set for another trip to the Great Wall of China, this time near Mutianyu and a stay with my co-workers at my boss's converted Chinese farm house. We will be working for a few days and then climbing the wall. I think this will be my 9th or 10th visit to the wall. Each time I visit I realize how small and insignificant one person can be in the greater web of life (thinking of the legions that died building the wall) and yet how very great mankind can be to build such amazing structures...I know, don't even get me started on the reasons it was built, it is and should be admired for its beauty now....

One of my deepest held beliefs is that to stand on the Great Wall should be the goal of every traveler, large or small. The kids have yet been to the Great Wall, in fact they have not traveled much in Northern China. But one of the plans is to try to get to as many of the UNESCO sites in Asia as we can, the Great Wall is one of the biggies... and Beijing has multiple other sites as well~

For my Monday Dreaming post it is time to change that, time to set a schedule and plan the trip. While we love our South East Asia travels and the kids love our trips Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia it is time to get back to Northern Asia. We plan on Japan this summer, now maybe Beijing next Christmas, 2011? Shoot for a white Christmas? Sounds like my dream is coming into shape!

Check out more Mondays are for Dreaming posts over here on Mother Of All Trips.

Traveling to UNESCO sites with Kids

Did you know there are currently over 900 UNESCO World Heritage Sites around the world? I also found out that there are over 200 in Asia Pacific. So, wouldn't it be cool to set a goal to see all of them? At least those in your area?

I am always pleased to see when a World Heritage site gets recognized for UNESCO heritage status. It doesn't mean all of the destruction will stop or that the site will be preserved in perpetuity. What it does mean though is that people at least are thinking about preserving the sites that have significant heritage connections to that area. I pulled a list off of the UNESCO site and updated here on the blog in order to keep track of those sites that the kids have visited. While we are not always on the road, one the key reasons we take the kids traveling is that we want them to learn about the World. The UNESCO sites are a great way introduce history in a real life setting for them. Next stop will be the temples and city of Angkor in Cambodia this holiday season.



Vagabond Dad and "Grandpa" Wayne visit the Angkor site in 2007

So, as I continue to update the list and add sites we have seen, here are some of the sites we have seen. Where do you want to go?

Before the Vagabond Kids: Vagabond Kristy

The border between Kehl, Germany and Strasbourg France 1985



Somewhere near Berchtesgaden Germany 1985

Long before there were two amazing Vagabondkids, before there was a husband who would become the Vagabonddad even there was a girl who dreamed of traveling the world. I first went off to Germany and Austria the summer of 1985 for my first real international trip. My next major adventure was 7 years later with a trip through Asia and across Russia ending in Berlin before a flight back to Oregon.




The Kremlin, Moscow Russia, 1992


I spent the weekend going through old negatives and uploading a few to Flickr. There are about 150 rolls of film , in varied degrees of decay, that need to be scanned. Negatives that should be cleaned before they are scanned as you can see from these scans there are pock marks scrapes and scratches.



Berlin Victory Monument 1992


Then there was the trip with my new husband to a beach in Mexico on the first of what would become a life together of trips. His willingness to let me jump off for a solo trip to Japan, and later a trip to Beijing and 6 months of language study before coming home. The final trip, ultimatly ending in our move overseas.



Kyoto Japan, 1996



As you may know, I am a scrapbooker too and looking through these old images reminds me why I want to share these pictures and stories with the Vagabondkids. I hope they are inspired to travel around the world and see the wonderful things life has to offer, home and abroad. Anyway enjoy the shots, because I am and there are more on my flickr account if you are interested. So, what are you waiting for? Dig out those old pictures and let me see them!



Beijing Alley 1997

Travel Plans: Upcoming Asia Trips with the Kids

The Vagabondmom, and my co-workers, determining our next stop at Expo in Shanghai, 2010















This week I am in Singapore. In fact, I am in Singapore for 10 days, one of the longest stretches at home in about 3 months and the month of October looks like it is going to be a bear and a half for work related travel. This week however, is one for catch up, a bit of home maintenance, some doctors visits and time to dig out the map and start planning our family trips for the next few months.






October offers us a short break for the kids, this 5 day weekend, we plan to leverage on some work I need to do in Penang, so my trip will be planned around the kids holiday. Being on the road without the family stinks, when they can come along it is so much better. While there in Penang we hope to schedule a meet up with @ccburns and his wife Tracy and their super cute kids.







November offers a short weekend, the Deepavali Festival and the kids get one day off from School. I need to be in Kuala Lumpur for a scrapbooking weekend, where I will teach a class for a bunch of super cool scrappers in the Bangsar area, I figure I will bring Hubby and Kids along for the weekend as well!





December is our big trip to Siem Reap. We will be going with friends from our condo here in Singapore and we plan on taking in the Angkor ruins, doing some volunteer work and spending some time hanging out with a great family. Our trip falls over the New Years holiday, so I am sure some party will be attended as well.

I can't wait to get some more posts up here this week, making up for lost time, but I plan on loading some pictures of China, Japan and Malaysia as well as a post on Kuching Malaysia this week!

Photo of the Day:Zhujaijiao China

Pulling out an old photo for you all. This was Vagabondboy's first trip to China at the age of 11 months. We traveled to Shanghai and the town of Zhujiajiao (known mostly now for the filming of the Mission Impossible Movie with Tom Cruise) but this was quite a few years before that.
Photo taken July 2002.

Photo of the Day-The Egg in Beijing

Shot in January at the new performing arts center in Beijing off of Chang'An

Travel Lessons-Art Deco in Shanghai

I hope this blog will become is a resource for ways to enhance the travel that you do with kids. I am a life long believer in education, from traditional and unconventional sources. For me, part of the joy of taking my kids with me when I travel is to teach them about the places we visit.

Malacca was really the first time we were able to tell the kids the stories of the place, teach them a bit about the History of the area and show them, by way of stories and museum exhibits how Malacca was such an important hub historically in the region.

When ever we travel I try to give the kids a bit of history of the place first and try to through in some information to make the place more real. I figure, I may as well share what I learn with you!


First, a disclaimer, I LOVE Art Deco. Deco and craftsman style architecture are hands down in a dead heat for my love. And, since I have the opportunity to see Deco when I travel around the region and not much Craftsman, Deco has sort of taken the lead in my infatuation.



When ever I start research I usually end up with Wiki. There are often mistakes in Wiki, but they are good starting points for more information. The Art Deco Wiki.

Art Deco was a design style that was primarily done between the late 1920's through the end of the 30's. Some of my favorite Deco buildings are in Shanghai, while Singapore does have a few great pockets, Shanghai, for me, is the Asian version of Miami Beach, without all of the color of course. The Art Deco style can be found in multiple buidings, up and down the Bund, the French concession and Nanjing Road.

I can almost imagine, Shanghai in the roaring twenties and thirties as the quintessential time for the city. The city alive with excitement, buildings going up. The concessions filled with French, British, American and other expats trying to take advantage of the great dream of China. (As a side, not much has changed when I think of Shanghai in 2010). I haven't been back in a while, but one of my goals is to find as many of the Art Deco buildings that survive in China (frankly around the region) and try to get my copy of the image. Others have done so and one of my favories is the following blog and flickr page.

So, what can you teach your kids about Art Deco in Shanghai? Well, there is the Design elements, there is the history of Shanghai in the 20s as a world wide trade center, the history of the early Republic of China (and of course the founding of the PRC) and the price of progress when it comes to historical preservation.

Would you teach your kids about Art Deco in China? Would you focus on the design or use it as a jumping off point for other History?