My Window to the World

By Alexander Lew

My Window to the World is a compilation of a few of the many travel journals a high school student has written. He has always carried a little notebook while traveling around the world. He talks about his experiences in places like Bali, Machu Picchu, Hiroshima, Sicily, Malta, the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), Phuket, Bangkok, Singapore, Stingray City, and the Dunn's River Falls, to name a few.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alexander Lew
• Release date: Sep 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463172940

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My Window to the World

By Alexander Lew

Copyright 2019 Alexander Lew

Cover Design/Graphic

By Alexander Lew

Photographs

All photographs and illustrations, copyright Alexander Lew

All Rights Reserved

Smashwords Edition License Notes:

This free ebook may be copied, distributed, reposted, reprinted and shared, provided it appears in its entirety without alteration, and the reader is not charged to access it.

Disclaimer: The author wrote this book based on his own personal experience. The publisher and author accept no responsibility for any loss, inconvenience, or injury sustained by anyone as a result of information in this book.

Dedicated to:

My family

For all the places you’ve taken me and all the experiences you have given me so that I may learn.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1: Indonesia (Jakarta, Bali, Lombok, Lembang, Belitung)

Chapter 2: Peru (Lima, Cuzco, Machu Picchu)

Chapter 3: Japan (Tokyo, Hakone, Hokkaido (Hakodate), Shirakawa-go, Kyushu (Hakata, Nagasaki), Osaka, Hiroshima, Miyajima, Nara, Kyoto)

Chapter 4: Mediterranean: Italy (Rome, Vatican, Palermo/Sicily, Genoa), Malta (Valletta), Spain (Barcelona), France (Marseille)

Chapter 5: Korea (Seoul, Mt. Seorak, Nami Island, DMZ), Singapore, Thailand (Phuket, James Bond Island, Bangkok)

Chapter 6: Florida (Orlando), Cayman Islands (Stingray City), Jamaica (Dunn’s River Falls), Haiti (Labadee)

Prologue

My name is Alexander Lew. I am a teenager living in the United States. The first time I travelled overseas was when I was just a couple months old. I had never seen a plane nor knew that a world outside of my neighborhood even existed. But little did I know, that adventure would be the first of many. Each time we embarked on a new journey, I knew a wide variety of exciting experiences would follow, and thus, always brought a notebook. As far back as I can remember (possibly even before learning to write in school), I’ve always recorded my travels, whether it be in the form of pictures or paragraphs. Over time, I began to realize that these trips were not commonplace among my peers. Most of my friends (and even some adults) I learned had never stepped foot in an airplane, let alone venture out of the country. In shocking contrast, however, here I was, attempting to describe the various landmarks of six continents of the world and over thirty states in the U.S. that I’ve been to. I wanted to describe amazing wonders and highlights of other countries. I wanted to explain their drastically different standards and culture. I wanted them to know what it felt like to hold a stingray in the Cayman islands, to climb to the Sun Gate in Machu Picchu, to take a bullet train in Japan. But, I could never find the words. The memories overwhelmed me. So, I began to pour more and more of my experiences, thoughts, feelings into my notebooks. And this, the book in your hands, is one of the results. I’ve come to appreciate the gift of traveling, as it has opened my eyes to the world, but I realize, most are not so fortunate. As such, I have condensed the other-worldly experiences of six of my trips into this book for those who are unable, for those who are unaware, for those who want to, at the very least, catch a glimpse into the more foreign— yet nonetheless fascinating —parts of the world we live in.

Chapter 1

Indonesia (Jakarta, Bali, Lombok, Lembang, Belitung)

Sometimes vacation plans don’t turn out to be what you think they will. Luckily, that doesn’t happen to my family, or at least until this trip. This time, we went to Indonesia, for the third, no, fourth time. It’s an island nation consists of more than 13,000 islands between Singapore and Australia. I initially believed that it was going to go like all the other times I went: according to plan, but this trip turned out to be quite the ride.

Finally, after countless travel plans, we departed from our house to the airport at a reasonable time— 12:00 PM. Usually, we leave at some absurd hour, like at midnight, or 3:00 AM. But this time, things were really looking up. We arrived at the airport via a shuttle, one of the two ways we usually start the trip— driving and parking being the first. I was in a pretty good mood because going to Indonesia, based on past experience, yielded a very relaxing time; also, summer vacation had just begun.

Now LAX has always had beefed up security, but this time, you could barely even check-in with all the extra safety measures in place. We didn’t go to the international terminal, but rather the domestic one because the flight was co-shared with a U.S. carrier. That was nice because the international terminal, although very luxurious, kind of intimidated me at the entrance.

The time that we arrived at the gate was pretty standard too, with the normal two (or more) hours until we were to actually board the plane. In the meantime, we had a few things that we could entertain ourselves with (and by we, I mean myself): 1) we had brought a tablet as a gift for one of my mom’s relatives in Indonesia (that I could, of course, play) 2) there were several book stores where I could stare and read interesting literature and 3) I could chat with my aunt from San Francisco, who joined us in the airport. Obviously, with two hours of spare time, I resorted to doing all three.

When we got our seats on the plane, I have to say, the cabin was VERY impressive— it didn’t have a separate floor for toilets, but it did have nice seats, windows, and (best of all) an up-to-date personal entertainment system. Now, the only thing that I’d like to point out about this plane were the windows. They were really cool, and you could change how bright/dim the view was by pressing a button, instead of putting down a blind. The downside of this, however, was that several times during the flight, the PILOTS could take control of your blind, and you’d be stuck at full brightness while you wanted to sleep.

Let’s just skip the next ten or so hours worth of movies and games to arrive at Tokyo, Japan. We had to transfer within less than an hour to get to our next gate at the airport. A couple of obstacles, though, stood in our way. For one, everyone had to go through security AGAIN, so we had to re-empty our water bottles. Also, because the airports were GIANT, it took a long time to get from one end of the airport to another— even with conveyor belts/moving walkways.

In the end, we got to the tram stop for our gate. As the minutes rolled by, we started freaking out about why the tram didn’t come. When I say freaking out I mean trying to stay awake, and not sleeping. Jet-lag came close to knocking us out cold. After some time, the doors finally opened and we all boarded the tram onto another flight headed for Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia (apparently, the tram stop was the gate). This flight was similar to the first, but only took about six hours. Still, I had to stay somewhat awake during the flight to combat any possible jet-lag.

Again, fast forward a couple of hours, and we were in Jakarta. It was early evening when we exited the terminal to find— nobody! We began to panic because one of my mom’s siblings was supposed to pick us up, but they kept changing: first my aunt, then my uncle, then my other aunt.... Luckily, my dad moved up and down the terminal to find my mom’s brother. He helped load all of our things into the car before we melted— because, you know, being at the equator, Jakarta is very HOT and HUMID.

There are a LOT of differences between the U.S. and Indonesia. For instance, based on what I observed, many of the streets were quite crooked and tiny. So, getting around was very difficult. Another example was that it seemed like half of all the buildings were ‘tin shacks’— quite literally shacks made of tin. But, there were also some truly amazing skyscrapers in certain places that left even I in awe. It just depended on where you looked.

We arrived at the house after an hour of driving, and, walking in the door, I saw my cousin watching TV. We hadn’t met for two years, which isn’t a very long time, but still. I, of course, immediately went to bed. After all, we’d just traveled halfway around the globe.

The next day we went to MONAS (National Monument) which reminded me of the Washington monument—it looked like a giant torch sitting on a base with a golden flame on top. It is the landmark of the capital city, Jakarta.

The entrance to the monument was kind of weird. In order to enter, we (And by ‘we’, I mean myself, mom, dad, my aunt (from San Francisco), my other aunt, and my other cousin) had to go across the street, underground through a tunnel, up into the plaza, and into the gated region of the plaza. We checked downstairs first, and there was the national history of Indonesia. I couldn’t make out much of it because it was in Indonesian, but I could tell that the country had been colonized many times in its history. After making it around the entire underground, we headed up towards the torch, and waited in line to take an elevator to the top. After a long wait, and trembling leg muscles, we got to the front— I was filled with excitement. We rode the elevator towards the top, and got to see all the amazing sights around Jakarta. All around looked metropolitan yet very clean.

After eating lunch, we headed back towards the house to relax and to reapply insect repellent. Did I mention that there were A LOT of hungry bugs and mosquitoes just waiting to get a taste of fresh American blood? So, just to be safe, we didn’t just spray ourselves with the insect repellent, but also brought heavy clothing (very difficult in hot weather) and these insect repellent bands. I’m not quite sure if they worked though, because I still got a couple of bites over the course of the trip.

Later, we went to dinner at a fancy restaurant, and pretty much all the relatives that I could think of (and more) came. There were my mom’s brothers and sisters, their children, my grandmother’s brothers and sisters, their children and grandchildren, and so on and so forth. In fact, the whole reason we came to Indonesia was to celebrate my grandma’s birthday. When we revealed that the party was for her, she was incredibly surprised, thinking that the party was for someone else. Her face lit up as a birthday cake came and I could tell that she was overjoyed. Then, the various dishes came. However, I wasn’t really accustomed to traditional Indonesian food; the spiciness and heat of it all really threw me off. I later found out that the spicy food actually kept mosquitoes away, which could’ve been really useful during my trip. After eating, we all sang Happy Birthday to my grandmother for turning eighty years old! There was cake, and the whole package with karaoke and pictures. In returning, we watched a movie in the car. I had no idea that my uncle could sing karaoke on his karaoke machine, which really was something.

The next day we all drove to a church located inside of a mall, pretty much like every other decent store we’d seen. The mall was only five stories tall and was at least two times larger than our local mall in the U.S., which by Indonesian standards was small. We headed up to the top floor and got into our seats.

I didn’t understand a word of the preaching. I kept bugging my mom asking what the priest was talking about, but I could tell she was having a hard time juggling the two languages. After the sermon, we met the priest, who apparently had a power to heal the sick. I was told that at one point he was even able to resurrect the dead. There were a lot of people lining up outside his office wanting to meet him. Luckily, after a sizable wait, we got our chance.

It was about noon at this point, and due to jet-lag, I had a pretty big headache. We ate at one of my relative’s restaurants (Literally the entire side of my mom’s family tree showed up there). The restaurant’s specialty was Belitung noodle (Belitung is a tiny island in Indonesia). It was one of the best noodle soups I ever had with tons of real crab meat (not the artificial kind) and big fish cakes. We went back to the house. I was VERY tired and aching by this point; I slept from 3:00 PM to 9:00 PM and all the way to 8:00 AM, almost straight— but that’s just how jet-lag works. After this tiring episode, I had minimal jet-lag for the rest of the trip.

Our next destination was Bali, and the inevitable: waiting. Remember the tablet I brought from the U.S. to entertain myself with? That thing was long gone by this point because we had to give it to my mom’s relative as a gift. But luckily, I could use one of my relative’s gadgets to relieve the pain of waiting. Jakarta’s airport featured a lot of traditional architecture, but by this point, it was kind of run down. However, I heard lately that it has changed for the better.

As usual, I just looked inside bookstore after bookstore to pass the time and maybe obtained a bit of knowledge while I was at it. The only problem I noticed in Indonesia was that every book in the bookstore, and I mean EVERY book, was covered in plastic wrap so that one could only see the cover and back. This was really unfortunate because in the U.S., the local bookstore was basically a library. Now we actually had to pay if we wanted to even peek at those novels or magazines. The good news was that since the dollar bill is significantly stronger than the Indonesian Rupiah, currency-wise, most things appeared to cost 25% less than in the U.S. The rate of dollars to Rupiah was $1 = 13,000 Rupiah.

After everyone (fourteen in total, I think), boarded the plane, we all got ready to depart towards Bali. I could remember that just five or so years ago, a three or more hour waiting time was EXPECTED, but now, the planes actually arrived on time!

After arriving in Bali, the hotel staff, who picked us up, were surprised at how many people we had, but somehow managed to squeeze us all into two vans. In case I haven’t emphasized this enough, I’m going to reiterate on the fact that the combination of lower prices and my uncle’s fanciness led to some pretty crazy accommodations. And by that, I mean they were very good accommodations.

When we pulled up to the villa, I was immediately surprised at how nice it was, just like all the other times I’d traveled with my relatives in Indonesia. But just in case my vague description doesn’t satisfy, here’s what it included: a two-story villa with four bedrooms/bathrooms, one huge living room (with DVDs, cable TV), a kitchen, fish pond, private swimming pool, and a bathtub filled with rose petals! After settling down, we all played in the pool; even though I didn’t think of myself as a very good swimmer, I have to say, in comparison to my relatives, I was pretty good.

The following morning, we had our breakfast served to us, cooked and all, in our own hotel room! I had eggs and sausage, a breakfast that would be considered normal in the U.S. I found that all my Indonesian relatives seemed to have a craving for other types of food (something to do with spicy chicken and rice). After eating a good breakfast, we went to the luscious Botanical Gardens. I could imagine the towering trees and bright green grass lining the entire park. I assumed those were some of benefits of a humid environment.

Shortly after arriving in the park, we spotted a very interesting amusement park with zip lines. Those hanging wires and ladders turned out to be a nice climbing exhibit that we could play and hang on.

Although it cost a bit, I was actually really excited to get into the treetops.

We first had to go through a tutorial course explaining safety and the hinges on our belt. It wasn’t too difficult, except for the times when I had to try and pull my hook out of my belt, which wasn’t too fun because it was REALLY large and heavy.

Soon after finishing the tutorial, my two cousins and I went to the easiest course first. It was, as expected, a cakewalk.

Because I was in the middle, I had to wait for my relatives to get across first, and they took their sweet time. By the time it was my turn, it felt like an hour. It was one obstacle after another with lots of ropes, bridges, and everything that I loved to do in the trees.

After a few more courses of having to slow down my pace with my cousins, I decided to go first. I didn’t think that I would be much faster than the people behind me, but man, they were really left behind by the time I reached the fourth obstacle. After about a few more, I lost sight of them. Even after waiting behind a group for about ten minutes, they still didn’t even come close to where I was because I was so far ahead. Nearing the top of the difficulty pyramid, some pretty serious strength and guts were needed. For one, the last course that I did involved a twenty-foot free fall on a vine or rope, to grab the net on the other side. I had to jump with my harness, of course, but I was literally falling for a couple of seconds, until I grabbed the net and came to my senses.

At one point, I even saw my other cousin having to be pulled down from the tree tops because she got stuck in one of the obstacles. I always wondered how they would get someone down because all the trees were ten or more feet in the air, but now I know that they used a sort of pulley to get them down. I finally took a fifty-foot-long zip line down to the end of the second-to-last course. I was pretty tired at that point, so I stopped there and we went to get some lunch at Batur lake.

It was a nice restaurant overlooking a grand lake. Nearing the end of the day, we went to a cliff that my parents said that I went to when I was eighteen months old. The locals call this place Tanah Lot. It’s a cliff with a temple on top and a cave at the bottom with sacred snakes in it. During low tide, people could cross the cliff to reach the temple. Lots of people (including married couples wearing wedding gowns) took spectacular pictures there. We pulled up to the cliff, but my relatives wouldn’t leave until sunset! The sun was very high above the horizon, but I guess in Indonesia sunset meant when the sun disappeared under the clouds, which pretty much raised the horizon by two or so hours.

Unfortunately, after we made our way down to the beach near the cliff’s side, I fell into a pothole, full of water. It was really uncomfortable walking from then on. At one point, we even saw a crab that was running at what appeared to be fifty miles an hour around my cousin’s legs before making its way to the water. It was late, I was cold, and when we finally got back to the van, we had no idea where my grandma went. Of course, that added at least another thirty minutes onto the stop.

Finally, after arriving back at the villa, our villa chef prepared seafood BBQ at the poolside for us. We had crabs, lobsters, clams, fish, and shrimp. It was, as one would suspect, very scrumptious. Then, I went back to the room to take a shower, but there, I encountered the only thing wrong with the villa: there was no water pressure. That meant that all I had was a tiny trickle of water coming down from a calcified spout. That may have been OK, if the AC wasn’t just three feet away, and the bathroom wasn’t so huge. In fact, the bathroom may have been about the size of the bedroom considering how cold it was inside the shower.

The next morning, we were picked up by a minivan to go to Lembongan island. I forgot what the name of the minivan was, but it was really colorful with cute cartoon pictures painted on it, and I could tell that it was going to be a decent experience apart from the usual running around to see the sights that we usually have with my mom and dad. We got onto the small cruise ship and were immediately served coffee and pastries, which was amazing! Unfortunately, about twenty minutes into the cruise, my cousins all got SEASICK! By my cousins, I mean my younger and middle cousin because my uncle and older cousin didn’t come (we would later find out that they were driving motorcycles around the city). Back at the cruise, my cousins were getting pretty nauseous, and had to