Welcome to the "Harraka squared Robert & Bobby Father-Son 18 day Journey through SouthEast Asia" Travel Blog -- sure, I could have come up with a shorter title, but what fun would that be ? Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all. Bobby and I are excited, as we leave early Thursday morning December 26th on our big trip -- one that has been in the works for over a year. It will be my 2nd visit to SE Asia, and Bobby's first time out of North America.


I have an ambitious boy here, who is ready and anxious to travel to places around the world. This will be his first test -- hopefully he does well, and I believe he will. 18 days away from home (and Mom) is a bit for a 12 year old, but hey, he'll grow stronger and the things we'll see surely will be eye opening. Our itinerary is an aggressive one, with little time for rest. In total we have 11 flights through 5 countries (Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar/Burma), so wish us luck !


Total flying time: 44 hours
Total flight distance: 19,534 miles


With lots of help from TripAdvisor and researching other sites, we built this itinerary on our own -- no groups or packages, and Bobby helped pick out many of the activities along the way. Doing it this way allows for the utmost customization, and truly has us getting all we can out of the experience. The number of hours planning this has been tremendous, and I think the time anticipating and planning for months is as much fun as the actual trip. And I'm not sure which part of the journey I'm most excited about -- that keeps changing. We'll hit the ground running each destination, and based on my experience last year with Kevin on our 19 day trip through 4 countries, I know it can be done. Minimal sleep, and taking naps whenever & wherever you can squeeze them in.

In addition to developing the itinerary and constantly learning more about each destination, there were a few items of preparation involved. Fortunately, I learned that 2 of the countries require VISAs in advance, and do not offer simple VISA on arrival. Vietnam's process was quite simple, with an online application, then they hold the paperwork at the airport for our arrival. However, even there, we need to have extra passport photos along with our entry to Cambodia. Myanmar required us to complete the application and attach passport photos, but also to overnight our passports to the Myanmar Embassy in Washington DC. All worked out well, and necessary VISAs are all in hand now -- but it's good to learn about these sort of things in advance.

I had all of my necessary vaccinations completed last year, so I'm still protected. Bobby had the Hep A & B vaccinations already, but required the Typhoid Fever shot -- that's done and we're safe from that now. The main one we'll be cautious of is Malaria, and I've loaded up with lots of DEET & Permethrin -- so we'll surely be radiating with chemicals while on land over there. Mosquitos won't dare to land on us !




In Myanmar, we're renting a Honda XR125 dirt bike from Mandalay Motor Bikes (big thanks to Zach, a fellow American, over there who's been a big help to me, answering my constant questions). I completed a full day dirt bike riding course here in Irvine, and that was a great experience. Yes, I have no problems riding a bicycle, and I've rode scooters before, but not a dirt bike. And operating the clutch & shifting on a dirt bike off road in a foreign country for 2 days with a 115 lb. boy & gear strapped on the back had me slightly concerned, so I took the class. It was fun, and by the end of the day I was extremely comfortable and zipping around the dirt course, upshifting & downshifting. I know, I'll probably get some ridicule here, but oh, well -- it had to be done, and now I'm ready.




Some of our planned highlights include: floating markets & canal tour in Bangkok, Thai boxing, crawling through the Cu Chi Tunnels of the Viet Cong, river cruise up the Mekong Delta and crossing to Cambodia, Choeung Ek Killing Fields of Cambodia & Tuol Sleng genocide museum, 4 night live-aboard scuba diving trip to the Similan Islands of Thailand, delivering educational materials to the MBOA Boy's Orphanage in Myanmar, and visit Buddhist temples, a Monastery & a Nunnery. Bobby did a great job collecting resources & requesting donations as a Boy Scout service project for the MBOA Orphanage. He received donations from Triumph Learning, Professional Tutors, and JUSA Soccer. He also gave a presentation to about 20 ladies of the Emblem Club of the Fullerton Elks Lodge (who expressed to me how amazing they found his presentation skills to be for his age !). In turn, they provided a generous donation to his project, enabling him to purchase several educational software products for the orphanage.




It certainly has the potential for some great experiences, and with this amount of travel & border crossings, possibly some challenges. Either way, I venture that both of us will learn a great deal and meet many great people along the way. And for Bobby, who is taking World History & Religion classes at his school, St. Catherine's Academy, the culture & traditions that he'll experience at each country will be invaluable.




I'm fortunate to be able to take a trip like this one, and to spend this amount of time together with my youngest child. I look back at the times spent with my other 2 children, Chris & Haley, and there too were a lot of great times spent together as a family. We didn't go as far as this trip, but we definitely did many many great things together, and there are countless memories on which to reminisce. And with Bobby, I've especially been seeing him mature a great deal in the past several months, and starting to make the transition from little boy to teenager. We all understand & appreciate this, and are pleased to see them grow up and become independent and successful. But, we also miss them being our little boy or girl. So, I look forward to this time with my youngest son, to take him to the other side of the world -- to see things we've never seen -- to push our limits of adventure -- and to share the time together as Father & Son.



So, this begins our travel blog site for this journey. Rather than coming back from an 18 day trip with countless memories, pictures & stories to tell, and try to share them all with family & friends all at once, that it is more fun to share them along the journey. The intent is to have daily postings, along with pictures/video for you to follow us as you wish. Wi-fi permitting of course, I'll do my best to stay in touch via the blog site.



Click on this Video to the right, to see our Preview Trailer video clip. If you hold your mouse over the timeline at the top of the site, the map will change to a more detailed map for that specific location. The other fun feature is the ability for guests to make comments, similar to a Facebook wall. As you write your responses or comments (which I always look forward to seeing !), please remember that there will be children visiting the site too, so keep it all appropriate :-). And lastly, the bottom of each blog entry will have additional photos/video, as well as a slideshow feature -- just click on any picture and you can scroll through the album.


So, Bobby & I hope you enjoy the blog site, and we'll see you back here on January 12th. Our next posting will be either from Hong Kong or Bangkok.