Feature Story Interview Notes

Mom

1. When did you travel? Started traveling May 1992 ended may 1994, came home for a month month and a half in august of 1993 to the middle of sept
2. How long had you been wanting to travel?
 I had been wanting to travel since I was in high school
3. Where, countries wise, did you travel? visited over 30 countries (europe, north and east africa, eygpt, israel india nepal vietnam thailand malaysia singapore indonesia austrailia new zealand fiji)
4. Where would you have liked to travel that you didn't get to? Russia, former USSR china
b. anywhere in SA? "I wouldn't mind seeing the rainforest in southamerica, patagonia." madagascar
5. What was your favorite country? Vietnam
b. it didn't seem like you had to think about that. just hands down? "WEll and new zealnd. but vietnam because i went there right rafter the country opened up for free travel. and new zealand because of just the sheer beauty and the people were amazing, friendly and nice. it really restored my faith in humanity. and the ice cream too."
c. what do you mean by free travel? vietnam was communist, before free travel, you could pick only 10 places to go, and it had to be approved, you had to surrender your passport when you ustayed there. "They didn't stamp my passport, because Vietnam was still under American embargo." "I was free to move about the country without having everywhere I went monitored."
7 What was your most memorable city?,8 What made it like that?,9 Can you tell me more about that?. Ho Chi Minh City (former Saigon) "I smiled so much the first two days I was there I woke up and my face hurt." found myself as an extra in a korean documentary. "everything was woah that so crazy." bicycles everywhere. hotels were cheap and big.
10. Did you get robbed? never, almost
b. Tell me more. "I was in Brindisi, Italy. I was walking with a small backpack on my back, someone   came by on a bicycle. somebody would ride by on a bicycle and pull the zipper or cut your backpack. Then somebody would come behind them and get everything that fell out. Somebody tried to pull the zipper on my backpack, but I had them safety pinned together as an antitheft device."
11. Were you ever almost killed? No.
b. did you ever feel like you were in danger? not really. sometimes in africa. glad she wasn't a women by herself. africa was the most scary "You have to have a lot of patience to travel in third world."
12. What animals did you see in Africa? went on safari in tanzania. saw giraffe zebra water buffalo hippo leopard lion cheetah rhino gazelle antelope baboon one of most memorable experiences was with mountain gorrilas
b. Tell me about the mountain gorillas. in Zaier (democratic republic of the congo) in virunga mtns near boarder with uganda. stayed in a small hut, two guides that took a group of around 12-15 people in to spend an hour with a  group of mountain gorillas. found them easily, didn't have to walk. squatted down and sat on the jungle floor with a group of gorillas. they would walk right by us, the babies wet playing, big daddy silver back, walked through the group, we had to be real still and put our heads down as he walked through the group, then he went and sat down to watch his girls. spending time with them makes it easy to see how we're related
c. what was it that made it so memorable? "we got to get so close to them in the wild. That their a vanishing spices because of all the human impact. We were going to either climb mount kilimanjaro or go see the gorillas and i wanted to go see the gorillas because mt. kilimanjaro is gonna be there for a while."
13. Would you go back? "I would love to travel again. it would be different now. i traveled very cheaply."
14. How did you get around? Every way. walked bikes motorcycles public transport trains planes taxis local transportation (africa~ matatu, "pimped out mini van") (india~ tuk-tuk, little really tiny car with no doors) boats ferries
b. did you ever have to hitchhike? In NZ.
c. would you have hitchhiked anywhere else? no
d. why just NZ? its a lot safer there, and talked to people who had done it. didn't have enough time to bike, so hitchhiked and took buses. very easy and met a lot of nice people.
15. How long did you travel with dad?
 9 months
b. consecutive? more or less
20. Who did you meet on the trip? lots.
b. like who? more memorable ones were annie and johnny (british couple riding bikes to austrailia, met them in israel), richard (met in india, traveled with), blue-eyed-brit-brothers / rob and pad (met in vietnam), michelle (met in vietnam, stayed with her family in austrailia, mad amrgo, the baker (american from seatle, doing the food and art tour of italy, turned me on to some amazing food and art that i would not have seen if i had not met her)
21. Do you still keep in touch with them? Kept in touch with richard for a while, still keep in touch with rob
22. Least favorite country? Spain is nasty, very dirty, didn't sleep much because they stay up all night, and i was sick from morocco.
b. city? barcelona, because i got the least sleep and it was the dirtiest. even though the olympics were there. garbage was everywhere. there was a dead dog tied to stop sign.
c. did you go to the olympics? no, your dad did.

Dad

1. When did you travel? June 92 to December 1994
2. Where did you travel countries wise? America holland germany denmark norway sweeden france spain morocco italy czechloslvakia austria greece israel eygpt kenya uganda zair tanzania india nepal thailand malaysia indonesia australia new zealand fiji
3. Favorite country? nepal
4. why? "I enjoyed trekking in the himalayas. and the buddhist culture is interesting."
b. did you climb everest? no
5. most memorable city? paris
6. why? architecture people "i speak french" historical city
7. Round the world plane ticket, buses trains ferries "i bought a car in australia"
8. were you ever robbed? i don't think i did
9. did you meet anyone else on the trip? "of course.  I met all kinds of people." "There's a whole sub-culture of cheap travelers like me, backpacking, staying in hostiles, stayin cheap."
10. do you still keep in touch with any of them? no not really not at this point
11.(no question) "And one of my favorite things was Ayers rock. Me and a few friends hiked up and ran around on the top of it, then we hiked the whole circumference of it."