THE GENESIS

Remember the old TV series “Kung Fu” with David Carradine as the young grass-hoppah, training and learning the ways of a Shaolin monk from his masters?  Remember how he progressed in his training to the point where the student had become the teacher?

This is that story.  Except I’m the young grass-hoppah and my mom and dad are the Shaolin masters.

I’m going backpacking in Southeast Asia for six weeks…and my mom and dad are coming with me.

I am a traveler.  Have been for as long as I can remember.  I grew up in Germany and Saudi Arabia and worked in Baghdad, Iraq (as the editor on the Saddam Hussein trial).  Since college, I have backpacked through Central America, part of South America, the Middle East as well as Southeast Asia.

My mom and dad are experienced travelers in their own right.  They packed up my sisters and I when I was two-years-old and moved us to Germany despite never having been outside of the central Texas area.  They took us all over Europe and a bit of Africa.   After returning to the states, my dad did multiple trips back overseas working in Sudan, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.  My mom even got a job in Iraq and went with him for his final job in Iraq.  Ironically, they were in Tikrit, Iraq at the same time I was in Baghdad.

Needless to say, I get my traveling spirit honestly.  But, when I travel, I don’t plan.  I don’t research.  I show up.  Ask around.  Get ideas.  And figure it out.

They have never traveled like this.  They plan, they arrange, they prepare, they check, they double check.

Not this time.  This time I am in charge.  This time they have placed their trip in my hands.

This all started last year when my parents finally got back on the travel wagon and took an arranged trip to Israel.  Everything was planned and taken care of for them.  Times, places, everything was preset.  They saw quite a bit, had no free time and spent a lot of money.  I told them if I had been their tour guide and we backpacked, they would have seen just as much, experienced more of the local culture, all at a fraction of the price.  My dad asked my mom where she wanted to go.  She picked Vietnam.  My dad said let’s do it.

On a side note, Mom has always wanted to go to Vietnam.  It has been her dream destination.  I made it to Vietnam in 2002, a little over 8 years before she is getting there.  That still irks her a bit.  And that’s kinda cool.  She has beaten me to so many places.  I’ll always have Vietnam.

So, here we are, father, mother and son backpacking together.  No plan.  No itinerary.  No schedule.  Just a travel book, a direction and an idea.  All that is set is when we depart and when we return.

The adventure begins in late March when we depart Texas for Beijing, China.  From Beijing we catch a train to Hanoi, Vietnam and then backpack through Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia, returning to Texas at the beginning of May.

Already, prior to leaving, dad has done more research on this trip than I have ever done on all of my trips combined.  We’ll see if that persists or if he really gives in to the life of a backpacker.  He swears that as soon as we land in Beijing, I take the reins.  He doesn’t want to make another decision after that.

This is going to get interesting.

Student becoming the teacherly yours,

kevin

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