Frank and Doris King tell stories of wild adventures

June 17, 2009

By Christopher Huber

Longtime Sammamish residents Frank and Doris King have a story for everything. You could sit down with them to visit for a while on their cozy back porch in the Timberline neighborhood and find yourself immersed in a journey among desolate hills in Asia, searching for an obscure mountaintop monastery.

Anything you say to them in conversation might remind them of the time they shared a sleeper cabin with an Indian family on the largest railway system in the world, or the time they dined by candlelight, engulfed in the cacophony of chattering animals in the middle of the African forest, or even when they had to push a tour bus out of the mud on the highway between Paraguay and Bolivia.

“When we travel, we travel away from the tourists,” said Doris. “We stay away from them as much as possible.”

The couple has seen it all. From stalking wildlife in Swaziland to sleeping in a friendly stranger’s dirty bedroom in Krakow, Poland when they had no place to go, they’ve experienced the kindness of people and the magnificence of nature the world over.

“When we go … we stay two to three months,” Doris said. “To see India, you have to at least be there a month.”

Their saga began when they met in 1995 on a mountain climb in Italy. They had traveled throughout their lives before that, but not as frequently or as unscripted as they would as a couple.

Frank, 80, and Doris, 81, don’t exactly have a lot of money. But they know how to live simply on the road and embrace living out of their comfort zone.

“My problem is I want to see everything,” says Frank. “I would hate to be on my deathbed and think I didn’t do something when I could’ve.”

That’s why Frank recently published a book about their travels. It’s full of more than a dozen short stories from jaunts through South America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

After finishing a satisfying career as an engineer and building contractor, Frank decided to become a writer at age 68. He built his last house at 70, he said.

“I would never travel like they do, but I think it’s great that they do it,” says Doris’ daughter Sandy Miller, who lives just down the street. They seem to have somebody watching over them.”

Neighbor Daphne Steck, who met the couple at various gatherings, remembers seeing them always encircled with captivated listeners at parties.

“I thought it was really refreshing to hear about somebody that really wanted to find out how people really lived. They want to keep active as long as they’re alive,” says Steck. “How many people do you know, their age, that stay in a hostel? They put adventure above comfort.”

Compiling the book, “Travels With Doris: Without Reservations,” took two years, he said, and was a mixture of already published short stories and some written just for the book.

An avid mountaineer in his younger years — as was Doris — Frank took just one writing class before finding his stride in the craft. He had written two fiction books before “Travels With Doris.”

“The best way to learn how to write is to write,” he says.

In “Travels With Doris,” Frank gives a sense of the pleasures and difficulties that come with traveling with his mate: the freedom of living frugally, with little on your back, but experiencing an exotic place with the person you love; the contrast in how men and women handle various situations; and the genuine care people express when you need help in their native land.

Throughout the book, Frank recalls minute details from conversations and the environment around them. He tries to give the reader a sense of being there as they pantomime with locals to secure housing for the night or ice for their beer in the jungle.

“We try to fit in with the people,” said Frank. “We accept people the way they are, no better-than-thou (attitude).”

The King’s secret is keeping it simple. Although they generally have a plan for their desired destination, they pack light — 25 pounds or lighter — and dress to blend into the environment.

“When people see that, and you smile at them, that’s where it’s at,” said Doris. “It’s really kind of neat. People are willing to help us no matter what.”

They couple offers some practical advice for financing one’s travels: if you ever want to gauge how much a trip to a foreign country is going to cost you, buy a beer.

Frank says one of the cheapest trips they ever took was to Slovakia, where you can buy three bottles of beer for a dollar.

Frank and Doris say people should read “Travels With Doris” because it shows a different way of travel and it might give people the idea to at least try it.

Doris says people of all ages, particularly their age, can travel with a backpack cheaply. “They can travel the way we do and have a hell of a lot of fun,” Frank said to finish her thought. “It’s not the forts and the fortresses … it’s the people.”

“Travels With Doris: Without Reservations” is available in paperback at www.amazon.com and can be special ordered at area bookstores.

“You know, before I met Doris, I did quite a bit of traveling in the world in, foreign places and some really wild and unusual places, and thought it was a lot of fun — I traveled by myself,” Frank said. “But then, when I met Doris and started doing things together, in other wild, neat places, it was more fun. And then when she left to come home before I could get home, I missed her fun, missed the laughter and the hugs, the kisses, and the whole works. So it wasn’t nearly as fun to travel by yourself, as it was more fun together.”

Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com. Comment on this story at www.sammamishreview.com.