Temple Run – 2014 – Teenager Edition (The prequel)

Welcome to Temple Run 2014 – Teenager Edition. A three week journey through 4 countries.

So this year we are travelling to a number of locations to visit significant temples. Borobodur a Buddhist temple, Prambanan a Hindu temple, Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom both Hindu Temples. Batu Caves in Malaysia rounds out the journey.

When we were in Vietnam we visited the Po Nagar temple at Nha Trang that are considered related to the towers at LoLei in Cambodia, giving them a connection to Angkor Wat.

Before we start this blog series, for the new readers I wanted to recap the why, what and how of these trips… It was when Joe had turned four that we realised that he hadn’t spent a birthday in the same location. We thought that was cool and thought to continue the practise. Coincidently, Joe’s birthday falls on our wedding anniversary so on the 10^th of December we try to be somewhere interesting together. Time to recap on Joe’s birthday locations…

0 – born in Melbourne – 2001

1 – Darwin – 2002

During this year we moved to West Papua, living on the side of a mountain for two years.

2 – Tembagapura (Indonesia) – 2003

We also visited England, Scotland and France during the year for a great holiday with Dave and Anne

3 – Timika (Indonesia) – 2004

4 – Darwin, Brisbane, Sydney – 2005

We left at midnight of Joe’s birthday and arrived in Sydney after passing through Brisbane for a birthday party at Sean and Coralie’s place

5 – Darwin – 2006

Sometimes a birthday at home with family is as much fun as a travelling adventure

6 – Hong Kong – 2007

We included China and Macau in that trip.

7 – Tasmania (Isle of the Dead) – 2008

We travelled through the South Island of New Zealand during Easter and attended the Omaka airshow

8 – Crabclaw Island – 2009

We flew our ultralight aircraft to Crabclaw for a Paul’s Ice Coffee

In January we travelled with Sean and Coralie’s family to Bali for a Villa getaway adventure

9 – Singapore and Kuala Lumpur – 2010

Joe spent his birthday at Universal Studios and riding on a Segway

10 – Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) – 2011

We visited the Gold Coast for the theme parks with Tina and the girls during Easter of 2012

11 – Lake Ta’al (Philippines) – 2012

We spent 2 months in the middle of the year (2013) travelling through 25 states in the US

12 – Lakes Entrance and Melbourne – 2013

During this year Joe has participated in a school trip to Singapore and a school basketball trip to Kulim Malaysia.

13 – Borobodur (Indonesia) – 2014

This trip will include Indonesia, Malaysia and Cambodia with a follow up 3 weeks in Melbourne.

So we have doubled up on Darwin for Joe’s birthday, but our tradition of spending our wedding anniversary and Joe’s birthday in a new location is one of those traditions we are happy we started. I haven’t included the trips to Melbourne which typically take place in the middle of the year or at the end of our birthday adventures. One little challenge we set ourselves is to ensure that Joe has travelled to and overnighted in more countries than his years on Earth. Although Macau and Hong Kong are now considered part of China and despite recent events in Scotland it is still considered to be part of the United Kingdom, I think these locations deserve to be considered separately.

1. Australia
2. New Zealand
3. Malaysia
4. Singapore
5. Indonesia
6. Brunei
7. China
8. Vietnam
9. Philippines
10. United States
11. England
12. Scotland
13. France
14. Hong Kong
15. Macau
16. Taiwan
17. Cambodia (2014)

When we do our next Europe trip I expect we will tick off another ten or so countries. Got to be better than train spotting.

So having wrapped up this context and history for our annual adventures, now we turn to the adventure at hand…

Temple Run is a game and the name we have adopted for our journey through three countries on our quest to visit some of the most famous temples in the region. In case anyone is wondering, we are not visiting the temples for personal religious purposes although we do as a family believe in more non-confrontational philosophies espoused by Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism.

By having a passion for the passion of the people who created these temples we can wander with awe through the structures without becoming fervent in religious passion (if that makes sense).

For those interested in some background reading on the five temples we are focussing on, here are the links…

Indonesia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borobudur

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prambanan

I had hoped to take Joe and Helen to Besakih where I visited in 1979, but our good friends at Jetstar who at the drop of a hat can turn any flight schedule into an adventure have put paid to that opportunity…

Cambodia

http://www.tourismcambodia.com/attractions/angkor/angkor-wat.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Thom

Malaysia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batu_Caves

http://kekloksitemple.com/

Although the Kek Lo Si temple wasn’t on the trip plan, we visited it as part of our basketball trip to Malaysia and I was heartened to hear Freddy, one of the team captains speak of the journey to the temple being one of the highlights of his trip.

Temples, schools, shopping centres, libraries, transport terminals, markets and community centres are (real not virtual) locations where you will meet a broad range of society and sample their life. We share our trips where we thrust ourselves into these environments without too much planning so readers get our raw take on the place, events and people we meet. It isn’t a tripadvisor report (who tend to annoy the living daylights out of me), asking me to act as a free correspondent (as they do to anyone foolish enough to submit a recommendation).

For those of you not used to my writing style, my thought bubbles of a non-diplomatic, or self-effusing nature are generally bracketed to represent a comment within a statement. As another note, I use the blog as my “anchor” tool, linking out to twitter, Facebook and other micro-blogging tools – embedding our photos and videos into YouTube and Picasa rather than using twitter or Facebook as the anchor. Part of that is because I can withdraw or edit a post under my own terms, not those of one of the twitter and Facebook companies.

Let the Temple Run begin!!