Snorkling on the Gili Islands by: Rowan

Today, the family decided to go snorkeling. The plan was to get up a 7:45 and get picked up at 9:30. But of course, things didn't go as planned. For the past day or two, I've been sharing a room with Griffin in a little cottage. This morning I was woken up by a strange noise. Grumbling and mumbling I reached over blindly for my phone and the screen flashed: 6:30. Then I heard Griffin calling, “here kitty kitty, come on kitty how did you get in here?”. Groaning, I got up out of bed and saw that there was a cat in our outdoor shower. So that was my morning, and of course I couldn't fall back asleep, so I just got up. After all of the packing and breakfast and running around was done, we finally made it to the boat. There were probably 25 people on the boat and we quickly motored off to find some good snorkeling spots. All in all, we saw and touched an octopus, saw gorgeous fish, swam down next to quick turtles, and most of all, looked at coral reefs.

The coral reefs in Indonesia are beyond anything I've ever seen, full of fish and occasional splashes of color. But that’s the thing. I don't know what a real and alive coral reef looks like. When I see reefs nowadays, I see only a couple of parts that are alive. The rest is gray and dead, slowly breaking off and dissolving in the water. The sad part is that the dead reef is what I thought an alive reef looked like. But I learned that reefs that are alive are colorful and moving and have a massive amount of sea creatures surrounding them. Because they are part of the ocean cycle, they give food to many sea animals, and now there is a lot less food in the ocean due to the dying reefs.

In 2004 there was a massive tsunami, and most of the Indonesian coral survived, which was very rare. Now, that coral off of the northwestern coasts of Indonesia are dying at an alarming rate. Scientists say that the cause is dramatic increase in water temperature, and they're saying that other reefs across Asia are in just as much danger. Marine biologists from the Wildlife Conservation Society say that in May 2017, they recorded surface temperatures off of the island Sumatra in Indonesia. The water there was 34 degrees Celsius, which is 4 degrees above long term averages.

Another reason why the coral is dying is due to expansive coral bleaching. Coral bleaching is when algae in coral tissues are expelled. The reason it's called coral bleaching is because the color it turns looks like the color of bleach or gray. The reason it turns a different color when it's dead is due to warmer water and way more exposure to sunlight that is unfiltered by clouds or wind. This unfiltered sunlight is due to a warming atmosphere with less protection because of how many greenhouse gasses we are emitting. Studies by Australia’s James Cook University and Indonesia's Syiah Kuala show that 80 percent of the corals that have been experiencing coral bleaching and warmer water temperatures have died in Indonesia's seas.

These beautiful reefs can grow back. The only problem is, they need their normal water temperatures again, and the world’s oceans are only getting hotter. For coral reefs, the future doesn't look good, and most reefs in Indonesia, and in Asia in general, are serious danger of being wiped out completely.

Snorkeling In Lembongan by Griffin

On Wednesday my family took a snorkeling trip to three different bays around Lembongan (an island off the coast of Bali.) We woke up early and rushed to the beach with our cameras and bathing suits. Our boat driver led us to our boat and we hopped in. The next half an hour was spent riding the waves with a lot of salt water in our faces. Our clothes were already drenched before we reached Manta Ray Bay.

My dad jumped in first to be our shark tester, “No sharks” so we all jumped in. Manta ray Bay had dark murky water with no coral just sand. It was ominus and creepy and when our boat driver said “manta ray to your left” I got really freaked out. We swam as fast as we could, hopeful that we would beat the other tourists. And we did,  two big manta rays about 20 feet away glided in the water like birds in the air. They were beautiful and scary all at the same time. But they eventually glided away and we started looking for a new one.  My dad tapped me on the shoulder and I turned around just in time to see a manta ray swim right past us. It had two front bulbs jutting out of its head and its tail you can imagine was long and scary. After a while we got back in our boat and rode to Gamat Bay.

                                         

This bay was known for its fish and this was right. Tons of different fish crowded around in schools as we dove to admire them. They were all different sizes and colors. And I kept on thinking there was a shark waiting to eat all of them. But I got more used to the mysterious water and had a great time looking at the fish. The third bay was called Crystal Bay meaning the coral. This Bay was mind blowing!  I have been to Hawaii many times and there is some coral there but not much due to sea level rise. Crystal Bay however had so much coral there was no sand.  Everywhere you would look different pieces of coral would be swaying or standing stiff in so many colors like blue,  green, pink, purple, red, yellow, brown and so many more. I have never seen this much coral! We never wanted to leave but sadly by three o'clock we had to get back on the boat and go home.

                                               

This was an amazing day with all the things I saw and experienced. From the coral, to the fish, to the manta rays, and even our wobbly boat this was an amazing day and if you ever go to Lembongan make sure to snorkel!

                                           

Authenticity, by Colleen

I was lucky enough to travel around Greece, Turkey, Israel, and Egypt for several months post-college.  One of my travel buddies was of Greek heritage, and as a result, we got to stay on a tiny Greek island sleeping on his great aunt’s roof, after she met us at the ferry in her babushka outfit crying and babbling in Greek at meeting my friend for the first time.  Truly we were the only Americans on this tiny island, and basically had Greeks, donkeys, and the Mediterranean Sea for company.  One of our other traveling companions had emigrated to the US and come to our high school from Beirut so spoke Arabic. Traveling with him around Egypt, Turkey and Israel was fantastic because he could really gain us entry to non-tourist experiences simply by being able to speak the language.  We felt like “insiders” and scoffed at “tourists” with their huge cameras and knee socks and tour busses.  We were having Authentic Travel Experiences.

I loved the middle east - the people in Turkey and Egypt were among the most hospitable, open, friendly people I have ever encountered.  I loved the call to prayer at 5am, I loved having apple tea in carpet shops while chatting with young Arab men (admittedly, not too many women were seen anywhere but the marketplaces or doing laundry), I loved the art and architecture.  I loved being invited by the guide who helped us climb to the top of the Great Pyramid at Cheops (no, not legal), into his home to meet his wife and children.  I told myself that no matter what, I would return there some day.

But that was 1992, almost a full decade before 9/11.  And when we were planning this trip, I so badly wanted to include Turkey and Egypt on our itinerary, but I’ll be honest when I say I was just too afraid.  Too many bombings, too crazy president, too much unrest.  And I felt sad to not show the kids another side to Islamic culture, a counter to the media representations of terrorists and our president’s shameful comments and ridiculous travel bans.  So when Greg said we could fly through Dubai, I thought WOW!  At least we will be able to have a brief introduction to this amazing culture, I can show the kids a glimmer of what I had seen decades earlier.

But planning a 24 hour layover, how can you have a really “authentic” experience? And what does that even mean anymore?  Pre-internet, it used to be that you’d roll into a town armed with your Lonely Planet guidebook and figure it out as you went.  You had to talk to locals, maybe get a referral to someone’s cousin brother’s hostel or to his aunt’s restaurant. Now we've got Trip Advisor, travel blogs, and Air B&B and everything seems pre-packaged and, well, almost predetermined.  Nevertheless, I will admit I jumped into Trip Advisor with glee to sort out some fun, if not necessary authentic, experiences for our quick stop. 

Dubai is a city in a desert, quite literally built on oil.  Oil was discovered in 1966, and a mere 5 years later, the UAE was born.  Its population is only 20% citizens, the rest are immigrants and expats.  Commerce is king; it boasts the largest mall in the world, as well as the tallest skyscraper.  Environmentally, it is incredibly forward thinking, pledging to generate 75% of its energy from renewable resources by 2050 (and we pulled out of the Paris Accords and have an EPA chief who denies global warming?  Hmmmmm) It is seriously over the top so of course, we chose to go to Aquaventure Water Park, an enormous water park in the midst of the Arabian Desert.  And even 12 year old Griffin wondered “how do they get this much water in a desert?”   

But what an amazing place!  Yes, it’s much cooler than Wild Waves.  But water rides and lazy rivers aside, I had never seen such a diverse group of people in one place. Women in full on burka-style bathing suits floating next to tan blond Aussie girls in string bikinis.  Throngs of Indian families in colorful old timey bathing suits on lounge chairs next to huge groups of African women with their hair tied up in kente cloth.  Plump and sunburned Germans chatting with young international hipsters of unknown origin.  It was incredible!  So maybe I wasn’t hanging out with Bedouins (the government had provided them all with free homes, education, and health care so they no longer lived a nomadic lifestyle), but wasn’t this authentic?  Wasn’t this a microcosm of modernity, at least in a middle eastern city dedicated to commerce and built on oil revenues?

Determined to make the most of our 24 hours, we went from water park to desert safari!  We were picked up at the water park by our driver Saeed, driven out to the desert where we went 4 wheeling in jeeps all over the dunes.  The kids LOVED it, and I have to say it was exhilarating to be cruising over dunes in the middle of nowhere fearing that you may roll at any moment!  This was followed by a falcon show, as apparently the royal family are fans of hunting with falcons, and the bedouins used to hunt with falcons before they were granted the aforementioned free homes. This was followed by more 4-wheeling, and then over to the Bedouin “camp” for sand boarding, camel riding, hookah-smoking (no, the kids were not allowed), a lamb BBQ, and a belly dance show.  I think the idea was to educate tourists regarding Arab ways of life long passed.  I was torn, as here I was engaging in the type of cheesy pre-packaged experience that I once mocked.  But the kids loved it, and I once again struggled with what I was exposing them to, what they were really learning from all of this, and what type of experiences are “worthy” to have on this year long journey. 

As we watched the sunset over the dunes in the Arabian desert with about 100 other tourists chatting away (fantastic fodder for my “Selfies Around the World” project), I told the kids about the time I rode a camel out into the desert from Cairo to Saqqara and slept in the Bedouin camp under stars so bright the sky almost looked like day.  And I hope they get to have Authentic Travel Experiences like that one day.  Fingers crossed for them.