On the 24th of September we flew into Dubrovnik, Croatia. We were supposed to meet our grandparents, Mimi and Poppy, but their flight got cancelled so we met them two days later in Split. Dubrovnik was really cool but it was super crowded by Americans. When we got to Split our Mimi and Poppy were there waiting for us. It was funny because we were planing to do that to them. After Split we took a ferry to the island of Vis. In Vis we celebrated Decker’s birthday and wow did he get a lot of presents. I made him a card with a picture of Rex, his favorite clone. After Vis we went to Plitvice. We did this cool lake hike that was really pretty. After that we went to Zagreb and went to a cool Nikola Tesla museum. Hanging out with Mimi and Poppy was so much fun. Mimi took me shopping and it was really fun. On the 4th the grandparents left. 😦

 

After that we went to Maribor, Slovenia and saw the Smalls again. We drove to the Mur river and floated it with Balkan River Defence. They are an organization that floats rivers in the Balkans to protest against dams. By the time we finished it was dark. We watched this amazing video they had made and then listened to a live rock band. Me and my dad got some t-shirts. The next day we went to Tara’s 5th birthday party. Tanja made this awesome cake and we hung out for awile.

 

On the 16th of September we took a plane from Ljublianja to Dobra Voda, Montenegro. We stayed at this apartment building right on the water. It had a pool and a cool deck. To get to the ocean we had to walk down this cool rock path. What was also cool was that there was no beach, just rock cliffs to jump off. Every night we watched the beautiful sunset from the deck or the beach. We went to Montenegro because we wanted a  place just to hangout and not have to do anything. Our goal was to not leave the apartment more than once. We met it. We had six days there and it was so much fun.

After six days we went to another town in Montenegro called Budva. We stayed in this apartment in town. We had two days there and also didn’t do much.

We drove to Bovec, which is a really awesome town on the Soca river. The Soca river was a really amazing blue color. It was like glass. The first day my dad went kayaking with a tour company called Sport Mix. While he was kayaking we went to a cool beach and sat by the water and swam. The water was really cold!

The next day my dad and I went canyoning with Sport Mix. Canyoning is where you go into a tight canyon and you go down natural slides that the river makes. We were with 4 other people and they were really nice. Since the water was so cold we had to wear a lot of neoprene. We also had a helmet and a harness. It was so much fun!! We went down a really high waterfall that was 30 feet, did a 25 foot jump, a few big slides and a lot of small slides. On the really high waterfall, the guide lowered us down halfway, made us wait 5 seconds and then dropped us!

After two weeks of camping without a tent, my parents splurged. On the 29th of August we took a bus ride to Ljubljana. We stayed there three days and on the fourth we picked up our RV.

Our first stop was this awesome lake called Lake Bohinj. It was a beautiful lake so we stayed there for 4 nights. Our neighbors were really nice. One couple was from Germany and they had a really cute 1-year-old named Vanessa. The other couple was from the Netherlands. There was a lot of ducks that would come up to you looking for food. One time Vanessa’s dad was feeding the ducks and Vanessa put her finger out and the duck bit her. One day we rented a rowboat and my dad rowed us across the lake. We bought groceries and ice cream and the rowed back. One day we walked to a big grassy field and played with our ball and Decker’s stick. We played baseball for about an hour. Another day we walked up to a waterfall.

 

 

After Bohinj we drove to Bled. We stayed at a campsite right behind the lake. We weren’t camped on it so it was a 3 minute walk to the lake. We went swimming to a dock and the water was really cold. The next day we drove up to this really cool castle on a hill and had a fancy lunch. After that we walked back to the camper and drove to the Vintgar Gorge. It was a really cool gorge that was skinny and scary. Unfortunately it was really rainy and cold and we had to go back before we got to the end. After that we drove to the Slovenian Alpine Museum and met the Smalls and the Grmovseks.

 

My parents know Anda Smalls through Brookie and Danielle. Before we were born, my dad went on a bike ride with Anda in Moab. While they were stopped for lunch, Anda asked if anyone wanted some apple and someone said yes so she just ripped the apple in half with her bare hands! Anda has a 12 year daughter named Zala and a 10 year old son named Luca, which was really confusing because we met a different brother and sister named Zali and Luca in Fiji!

Tanya Grmovsek is Anda’s sister and she has a 4-year old daughter named Tara. Anda and Tanya are from Slovenia but Anda moved to Colorado. Anda and her kids are living in Slovenia for one year. They live in Maribor but they came to Kranska Gora for the museum exhibit. We were at the museum because they were opening an exhibit about women Slovenian climbers and Tanya was in the exhibit. We looked around the museum and then drove to a campsite in Kranska Gora.

The next morning the Smalls drove to our campsite and we all got ready to go on a bike ride. We got in their van and drove to their apartment. We then walked to a bike cafe and Decker, my mom and I rented bikes. My dad stayed home that day. We got our bikes and started riding to Italy! We stopped at the famous Planica ski jump. We then rode to some lakes in Italy. Now I have been to more countries on this trip than my dad! Tanya and Tara met us at the lakes and we ate lunch and built a gnome home in the forest.

The next day we drove up to the top of the Vrsic pass and hiked to the top of a peak. We built another gnome home, had lunch and then walked back down.

The next day we drove back to Planica and then walked up to a hut. The huts are almost like a hotel but a lot smaller. They have rooms and a restaurant. One of the coolest things about the huts in Slovenia is that they aren’t allowed to turn anyone away because when people are out in the mountains they have to give them shelter. We played Frisbee 500 for a while and then went to bed.

 

One day we went to the airport and rented a car from Panek, a car company. Then we went to Decathalon and bought a lot of camping gear. We packed all our stuff up in the car and hit the road.

Our first stop was this touristy town called Zakopane. It’s like the Vail of Poland. We stayed in a little town just outside of it. There was a trampoline and the cutest little sheep ever! There was an electric fence for them and Decker kept electrocuting himself.

One day we did this really long hike down a mountain. It was a bit too long.

The next day my mom went on a hike and my dad took Decker and I to this awesome rope course. The course had two zip lines and stuff like walking on logs and tires. After that he got us slushies!

In the next town we did this cool raft trip and camped. My parents went cheap and didn’t get a tent.

I’ll skip the next town because we didn’t do anything worth mentioning. After that we were driving and my dad saw people on horseback galloping and then a sign for a ranch. We turned and came to this cute little ranch. We talked to this guy and he told us we could stay for two nights. The next day we woke up early and got on horses. There were two tiny foals that were really cute. I got to ride a mama horse and the little foal followed me around wherever I went. It was so cute! We rode for and hour and then had breakfast. We stayed there another night and then hit the road again.

Our next stop was Bieszczady National Park. We did this long hike up a big mountain. My dad was really mad because Decker and I were supposed to complain 1/3 of the way up so he could “be a good father” and bring us down. He really didn’t want to hike so he was going to go off of us. But we didn’t complain so he was mad.

After Bieszczady we did a long drive to Budapest, Hungary. It was so cool! We stayed there for 3 nights. One night we got on a little ferry and went down the river. We got to see the castle and the Parliament Building. One day we hiked up to the castle. It was so, so, so hot. We got a view of the whole city and the castle wall. On the way down we passed this cool playground. After Budapest we drove back to Krakow and returned the car.

This is the soundtrack of every single hike.

From Prague we took a train and a bus for 6 hours and arrived in Krakow, Poland! My parents told Decker and I that we could each pick a place in the world and we would go there. I chose Poland.

In Krakow we did this cool, long bike ride. Our final destination was an old monastery. On the way we stopped at this cool white water kayaking course that had a pool. The course wasn’t turned on but it was cool to see it anyways. We were going to go in the pool but you couldn’t wear boy shorts! We kept riding and got to the Tyniecka Abby. It was cool but we were so tired that we ate lunch and started back to our hotel. On our way back we went to the “Magical Turquoise Lake”. It was so pretty! We all swam and my dad and I jumped off a rock. In all the bike ride was 7 hours.

On July 28th we took a plane from Chengdu, China to Prague, Czech Republic. We stayed in a really cute neighborhood in Prague and on the first day there was a great farmer’s market. We stayed in Prague 4 days. My parents had ordered this cool package from a company they found. It came with two books for Decker and I and a book for the parents. It is a company that has three-day tours that you do yourself. In my parents book it had everything like maps and information about where it was taking us. In ours it had questions about the places we went. The books took us to castles and churches. We went to a famous bridge called Charles Bridge. We also went to this wall called Lennon Wall. It is a wall where you can wright anything you want. It was really cool. Decker wrote his name, my dad wrote BoPaT (A fake business my dad and his friends have) and I did a peace sign. There was some really cool stuff there. In the kit we got they provided chalk and I gave some to this little boy. He drew scribbles all over everything else. Most of the stuff on the wall was spray-painted.

The Charles Bridge was really cool. It was so touristy that we could barely see anything. We also one day went go karting. It was so much fun! You got ten minutes on the track and then you switch. It was a giant course. My brother and I went together and we raced. Decker kept going around the turns too fast and he would spin and stop. The people who worked there had go and help him.

We also did this cool boat trip on the river. We rented a small motorboat and cruised up and down the Vltava river that flows through Prague. I got to drive it.

 

In the middle of the night on July 2nd we got to Kunming, China. We were in Kunming for 4 nights and then we took an eight hour bus ride to Lijiang. After that we took a two hour car ride to Tiger Leaping Gorge. The bus ride has hard because it was so so so hot and you can’t watch Netflix in China.

Shangri-La is this small town with an “Old Town” and “New Town”. Old town was burned down in 2013 and they rebuilt it. My parents came through China in 2005 when they were traveling. They met this guy named Eric in Lijiang and he told them that he was going to this town called Zhongdian and that they should come with him. Zhongdian was the original name of Shangri-La but the Chinease government changed it to increase tourism. When they were in Shangri-La they met Jason (the guy from Bali) in the bar he owned called The Raven. Then Jason invited them to go on a road trip to the nomad country.

Eric happened to be in China while we’re here. He now has a wife named Dasa and a kid named Soren who is now one of Decker’s new best “dudes”. He loves Star Wars, Legos, Star Wars Legos, and Nerf. All of Decker’s favorites. Every morning Decker says, “When is Soren coming, when is Soren coming, when is Soren coming?!” After the fire they rebuilt The Raven in new town. We’ve been going a lot.

On Saturday we went to The Raven and met with this guy named Tsebho. He is really good friends with Eric and Jason. He has a really cute kid named Alladin (All-A-deen) and a wife named Tutu. He is one of the four people that own The Raven including Jason and one of the three people that owns Hai Wei Trails including Jason. Hai Wei Trails is a guiding company. My parents talked about what trip we should do while Decker and Soren played foosball. In the end my parents chose to do this road trip in Northwest Yunnan. The good thing was that it was never to far away from Shangri-La.

Our first stop was the top of our first peak. To get to each place we had to go over a lot of mountains. The highest we got was 14,500 feet. On our first peak we had lunch and hung a some prayer flags. It great.

Our second stop was this amazing gorge outside this town named Mulu. It was the most amazing gorge ever. We walked along this trail that was carved into the cliff for five hours. In some parts there was a rockslide on the trail and it was super sketchy. It’s name is Sharagak gorge.

After awhile we decided to turn back because it was raining so hard and we were tired. Tsebho had gone ahead of us and so we turned back and then we stayed under a bridge and skipped rocks while we waited for him.

We had arrived at our campsite the day before and had started the hike when we woke up. We camped right next to the river on the end of the dirt road. We would have camped on one of the islands in the river but we were worried that it would rain too hard and that all of our stuff would get washed away and then we would drown if the water came up. So we slept on the end of the road. It was really fun but it was raining all night and it was hard setting everything up in the rain.

After the hike we drove to this tiny town called Nagara. We stayed in a home stay with some villagers. They were really nice. The village of Nagara is tiny. We walked around it in five minutes. The people cooked us dinner and breakfast and tea. Our bathroom was their vegetable garden and chicken coop. We paid them with money and fruit. In the morning we packed up and hopped in the truck. We made it about five feet when my mom said,“Do you hear that?”. Turned out we had a flat tire. So we lost about 30 or so minutes.

After that we drove to this really sweet different gorge. Eric calls it “Cat Leaping Gorge”. After that we drove to Tsebho’s wife’s sister’s husband’s family’s house in Dong Wang. It is literally a Tibetan mansion on a hill. It probably had 6 bedrooms. It was so big that nobody ever used it and they were always in their little annex with a kitchen.

The next day we drove to this other town called Benzilan. We could have stayed in a guesthouse but we wanted to camp. We drove 45 minutes out of town and stayed at a campsite next to a stream. Across the road Decker and I had an awesome base. Multiple times cows would come and Decker had to chase them away. It was awesome.

The next day we packed up and drove back to Shangri-La.

I know my blog is obviously better, but my dad has some new posts! Be warned that they are PG13.

Another cool part about Lanka Lodge was that it was stationed right next to tiny “roads” in which the Sri Lankan villagers lived. One day we were walking along the big road back to Lanka Lodge when this little old lady was like,” Come, come… come”. So we followed her down the little road and we passed kids running and these little 4 year olds carrying big wood logs back to their homes. Then we passed this little house and this girl who seemed to be about 11 or 12 kept telling us to go in. So we did. In her house was this big open space with some plastic chairs. In the room was a cute little baby and the girl’s sister that looked about 15. Once we stepped in two little 5-year-old boys ran in. We asked the girl how old she was and she said that she was 14! And than we asked what her brother’s name was and she said that it was actually her sister’s baby! Then the dad walked in and the parents engaged in conversation. Then they asked us to have dinner with them! “Fish curry”. The dad told us his phone number and we asked what his name was. He told us, “Fisherman Man”. We had our Polaroid cameras with us and we all got together and I took a photo. When it came out we showed it to them and then one of the little boys grabbed the picture and ran around the village showing everyone. After that we walked back to Lanka Lodge and all had a great big laugh.

 

P.S. Check out my “Route” page in the toolbar!