Hi, this is Kristen Vansley for Checking the Planet, and today I have the pleasure to speak
with my parents.
Hello, Kristen.
Hello, Kristen.
So, um, let's get right into it.
You traveled to 53 countries on six continents, and on three of the five worlds oceans.
Which place was your favorite?
Well, Kristen, that's like asking which one of our children was the favorite.
We went to 53 countries over 14 months, it's hard to pick out just one.
I'm your favorite child, so.
Well, Lauren's not here to speak.
We love you just the same.
Yeah, okay.
Lauren's not here to speak for herself, so we'll just leave it at that, so.
Okay, what if I asked it a different way?
If you had to go to a country again to get kids excited about geography, which one would
you want to go to?
Oh, that's a good way to ask it.
I think without a doubt, I think, I don't know if you agree with this or not, but I would
pick Kenya.
Kenya.
Yeah, Kenya is just really amazing.
I think we were very surprised by your time there, and what we really enjoyed about it
is they had both cultural and natural aspects.
It's a country kids have heard of, too, they know it's in Africa, they know about the animals,
so it was a pleasure to really go there and talk more about it.
It was there, we took a walking safari with a Maasai warrior, learned a lot more about
their culture, what it's like there, and actually got to visit a school in that area.
And then we capped it all off with going to the Maasai Mara National Reserve, which is
one of Africa's premier parks, and we saw all the big five in one day.
In one day.
It was really amazing.
Yeah, I remember your pictures.
They were great.
What about you, Dad?
Yeah, it was a highlight for me as well.
I really liked our time in the sombrero region, where we did a short documentary for the
sombrero project, talking about how important it is to have clean water in this really hot
and dry part of the world.
The people there we met were really, really amazing.
Yeah, that was one of my favorite documentaries.
Okay, so what if we're talking about a vacation?
Where would you recommend to your friends and family on where to go for a week or two?
Well, we're working on an article now called Our Favorite Destination so far.
Part two.
Yeah, it's part two.
So, you know, a lot more information will be on our website.
No, no.
I want to know where your favorite part was.
My favorite.
Well, I think Puchadella's Day in Uruguay was the best.
It was right on the beach.
There were some great accommodations there.
The food was great, and we just enjoyed ourselves relaxing on the beach for a couple of days.
After, you know, being in the Amazon part of that.
Yeah, yeah.
What about you, Mom?
Well, I think as far as like a weekend getaway a shorter place to go, I think I really like
to read Galatvia.
It was a really interesting place, a lot of things to see, and for Capital City, it really
wasn't that expensive.
No, like $100 a day.
Yeah, less.
I think we got a really nice room, and it's just a short flight from anywhere in Europe.
And in fact, why we picked it is because we were able to fly direct from Tashkent, Uzbekistan,
nonstop there, so it was really nice.
Yeah, Uzbekistan.
Isn't that a little dangerous?
No, not at all.
I mean, I felt completely safe there, did you?
I did, and people would come right up to you on the street, and they didn't speak English,
and they didn't know where we were from either, but you know.
Very kind and friendly.
Like how much it means that you're here, and apologizing for the weather.
Yeah, it really touched our hearts.
It was great.
And we were in summer con at a monument, and we were taking pictures of the monument, and
then Charles was sneaking pictures of the people as well.
And it wasn't until we noticed that they were actually sneaking pictures of us at the same
time.
It was amazing.
Uzbekistan was great, you know, of course we went there to see the architecture there,
but we also got to stay with the family while we were there in the mountains, and then we
went to the far north on the border with Kazakhstan to stay in a yurt.
Yeah, it was very hot there, but yeah, it was really amazing.
And visit a traditional village there.
Yeah, yurt.
I don't think I would have been able to do that.
You guys make it sound so easy.
Was there anything that didn't go quite to plan?
Well we had done a lot of planning ahead of time.
So we spent a full year of planning this, and we had most of our reservations for the
first 10 or 11 months already in place before we left.
So I think also that was not the focus of our trip to talk about the problems we focused
on the geography.
Okay, well, I just want to know what the problems were, was there anything that didn't go right
or wrong?
Well, something that we talked about a little bit but didn't talk about too closely was
the unfortunate plane crash that happened when we were in Nepal.
The plane we were on just two hours earlier crashed literally right before our eyes.
It was the same plane.
Yeah, it was the same plane.
And our cook was actually supposed to be on it, which was really scary, but luckily
he'd gotten on the earlier flight with us.
We saw villagers coming towards us, and we were wondering, why are they all running in
the opposite direction, the place that we had come from?
And they were trying to get the survivors out.
We found out later that the pilot, the co-pilot, and two-thirds of the passengers had died.
And it was really hard for us two weeks later to get on the same kind of plane to fly back
to Pokhara.
It was really, really sad.
Yeah, I remember you telling Lauren and I about it when we met up in Germany.
Do you have anything to add, Dad?
Well, you know, Kenya was a late addition to our itinerary.
We originally planned to go to Mali, Bakuna Faso, and Ghana, but we started hearing about
the unrest that was there, kidnappings, coup, and then full-on civil war.
And this was months before we were actually scheduled to arrive, and we knew we just couldn't
get the chance that we had to start replanning, and so that's how we ended up with Kenya,
which was a blessing in disguise, I think.
Yeah, and we really had told you guys in our family that we weren't going to go anywhere
dangerous, so we really wanted to try to keep to that.
Well, speaking of dangerous, Mom, didn't you get bitten by a bat?
Yes, in January, yeah, in January when we were in the Amazon.
Vampire bat.
Yeah, vampire bat.
In January when we were in the Amazon region, over 200 miles from any large city, I woke
up in the middle of the night one night, and I'd been bitten by a bat.
There's a lot of blood on my foot.
And we were really concerned about the risk of rabies and thought the trick might be over.
If you don't get the injections until you start showing the symptoms, you might be
okay.
Yeah, it's about zero.
It's terrible.
So we were at a real anxious couple of days why we tried to contact our doctor, and luckily
he thought the risk was pretty low.
Be a satellite.
Yeah, so we were able to be clear to continue, which was really fortunate.
Well, at least we got to make some vampire jokes, which was fun.
Yeah.
For me at least.
Let's talk about something maybe a little bit more positive.
Mom, what was the highlight of the whole trip for you?
Well, I think we were really taking this trip to give back.
We saw what a huge impact travel had on you and Lauren when you were growing up, and we
really wanted to bring students around the world with us on a trip like this.
So we spoke to students before we left on the trip, and then on the road we spoke to
16 classrooms in eight countries, over 900 students, and it was just amazing, the interaction.
But I think the most prominent one was the one in Ethiopia and the Simi Mountains at
the end of our trek.
Yeah.
That took you a while to get there, didn't you?
Yeah, it was really one of the most remote schools we visited.
It was located 36 miles from Dabark, so we'd hiked for like five days already.
It was at an altitude, I think, of over 11,000 feet.
It was just amazing.
The students were amazing.
You had to cross streams to get there.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, crossing streams and trekking, I mean, wasn't that what this trip was all
about?
We are trekking the planet.
And we're trekking the planet.
Dad, tell me a little bit about that.
Well, we did 12 treks pretty much all over the world, equally spaced about one per month,
and total was 470 miles.
I think the one that I'd like to highlight is when we went to Jordan, where we saw Petra
and also Wadi Rum.
And so I think I titled that one, Jordan Through the Back Door.
Yes, a documentary that you made.
That was the video.
Yeah.
So, you know, we talked about how we actually arrived after three days to the thing that
people see first, the make-up.
So we saw it last, and we saw the Treasury in...
No crowds.
It was amazing.
It was amazing.
Yeah.
It was a great challenge.
We saw so much.
We saw so much of the countryside and the mountains, and we were on old Bedouin trails.
But our guide, Yaman, was a real pro and really helped us through it.
And I think in the end it was just great.
It was great.
Yeah.
Well, it's been a real honor to talk to you guys, and a pleasure to have you home.
It's been great to see you after all the support and after 14 months.
Yeah.
Thank you, Kristen.
We really appreciate you helping us out.
Thank you, Kristen.
We'll just recap.
Thank you for doing the interview.
Thank you to all of you for all your support during the trip, whether it be by Facebook,
Twitter, comments you've made on our website, emails we've gotten from students and teachers.
It's really meant a lot to Darren and me.
It really kept us going during the trip to really feel all the support from everyone.
So thank you very much.
Well, and though this trip is over, you can stay in touch with us and see what we're doing
in terms of our speaking engagements and maybe some future plans.
Future plans, is there a trekking to Planet 2 on the way?
It's possible.
So you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or you can subscribe on our website.
And we're continuing to do presentations, as Darren said.
We've already got some scheduled in person and I think some webcasts as well.
So for the ones that are outside of California.
So if you're interested in having a presentation done before the end of this school year, please
feel free to contact us.
We have one all ready to go.
It's got lots of video clips, lots of pictures, very visual.
And you can contact us by email at info at trekkingtheplanet.net.
So until next time.
Safe trekking.
Bye.
Bye.
Thanks for watching.
