Food

All four of us are foodies..  Food, therefore, seeing it grown and caught, trying new, different, and exotic things, eating with friends in new locations, are all integral parts of our trip.

Each of the four of us truly believe "One of the nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever we are doing and devote our attention to eating," Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright, Pavarotti, My Own Story".

Nadia

Fishman on Inle Lake,  Myanmar, proudly showing one of his catch

Harvested chili, drying in the sun in Taunggyi District of Shan State in Myanmar

Dried fish at the market in Kalaw, Myanmar

Tofu, bean paste, and chopped vegetables at the market in Kalaw, Myanmar

Maya, Mira, and Rob, ready to try new food at a street stall in Kalaw, Myanmar

Mira picking blackberries while hiking in Myanmar

Rob watching the cooking in Pattu Pauk Village, Myanmar

Vegetables for sale in Kalaw, Myanmar

Christmas

Christmas isn't about candy canes, fancy lights, or how big the presents are under your tree, it's about the hearts that we touch, and the care that we show.(I do like candy canes though.) Christmas is the spirit of giving without the thought of getting. Christmas is a magic wand over this world and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.

I don't want much for Christmas. I just want the person reading this to be healthy, happy, and loved. The best of all presents around any Christmas tree is the presence of you're family all wrapped up in each other. For Christmas I just want to curl up in front of a fire wrapped up in a blanket with hot coco and marshmallows watching Christmas movies. The fire always burns brighter during Christmas.

P.S. Never worry about the size of the Christmas tree, to a child it's 30 feet tall.

Christmas is like candy, it slowly melts in you're mouth sweetening every taste bud, wishing it could last forever. May all sweet magic of Christmas gladden your hearts, and fill every desire.

May your Christmas and every day ahead sparkle with happiness and new surprise. He who has not Christmas in his heart, will not find it under a tree.

Mira

House

Its so nice to be in a real house, one with a kitchen, with our own food, and a living room with comfy big couches and a tv. I mean we watch tv all the time, and eat food all the time. But now we can cook our own food, and grab a snack whenever we feel like it. We can even watch tv without having to lie in bed. Its only for a couple of days, but still. Now I'm excited for where we will have our own house for two weeks. We'll take trips to the grocery store, and cook our own food, and stay in our pajamas for the entire day, and relax in rooms other than our bedrooms.

Maya

Freezing

As I stepped off of the tiny airplane, my face felt as if it had been tuned to ice. There was a frigid wind blowing through the valley, and I was colder than ever. Bhutan was going to be the coldest place on our trip, we even had winter clothes brought over by my grandparents. Every morning I would wrap up in two pairs of pants, a t-shirt, a long sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt, and often times a beanie and scarf as well. At midday the temperature wasn't too bad, in the colder places it was around 15 degrees Celcius, and in the warmer areas as high as 25. After Bhutan, we were glad to abandon all of our winter gear and change back into shorts and t-shirts. Now I wish we had thought to keep some of our winter clothes. It is close to 12 degrees Celcius, the wind is howling, and it's raining cats and dogs. In fact, it's so cold and stormy that we put off trekking through Myanmar, and decided to stay indoors and bundled up. So I am writing this blog from under a thick fury blanket, right next to a portable heater, and I'm still freezing my butt off. Good luck to all those fighting the cold back home. I sure am glad that it will be summer for the rest of the trip.

Maya

Luck

We constantly hear how important education is, how we take it for granted, how our kids view it as a right not a privilege, and how education, as a kid, is a burden, something to complain about...

It was very clear to me today how "first world" our view is, when I was talking with Phokwa, our guide during a two-day trek from Kalaw to Nyaungshwe, a fishing village of 5000 people on Inle Lake, Myanmar.

Phokwa grew up in a small village in the mountains of this area.  He went to school until he was 10 years old.  His village, like most in the area, had no middle or high school.

When he finished primary school, he was lucky.  His parents greatly valued education and allowed him to go to middle school in a relatively close village.  He walked one hour, each way, to get to middle school, for four years.  That is one hour to get to school, seven hours of school, then one hour walking to get home after school.  And then home chores and homework from school - forget about socialization time!

When Phokwa finished middle school, he could no longer go to school.  There was no high school in his village.  The closest high school was 35 kilometers away.  His family could not afford the fees for boarding at that high school.  And it was far too far to walk each day.

After middle school, at 11 years of age, Phokwa worked as an ox cart driver, providing transportation for farmers and their crops in his village.  It was a decent job, which helped support his family of five (a relatively small family for this area).

Four years later, luckily, his family moved to Kalaw, a Myanamr village of 16,000, where there was a high school.  Phokwa was able to stop work as an oxcart driver, and finish high school.  Afterwards, Phokwa attended a local university, studying mathematics for two years.

Phokwa now works full time as a tourist guide, as his father did, while taking distance learning classes ten months of the year, with intensive university classes the other two months of the year.  He has one year remaining to complete his bachelors degree from this university.

Phokwa wants to be an engineer, but he cannot study engineering.  At the end of high school, Phokwa, like all his peers (and high school students in many, many countries around the world), took a standardized government end-of-high-school-exam which determined his future life.  Phokwa got a decent, but not stellar, score on the exam.

The high school exam score is final.  No matter what he does now, no matter how well he studies, what degrees he earns, or what experience he gains, he is forever in a particular category.  He can never earn an engineering degree.

And Phokwa is fortunate!  He is the exception.  His village had an elementary school.  His parents valued education.  They sacrificed to pay for his schooling.  He is motivated.  Very motivated.  And he is smart - he speaks six or seven languages and is studying math!

But his fate is set.  It is determined by where he lived as a child and how well he did on an exam on one particular day of his life.

Luck is the determining factor.  Where you were born.  That's it.

Yet again, this trip, these travels, while homeschooling my girls, this is a reminder to me, and my girls, of how lucky we are, to have been born to our parents in a particular place, to have the availability of food and clothes and water and electricity, and the freedoms we have and the luxury of choice...

Nadia

Lucky girls doing school work

Pushkar Camel Fair, Rajasthan

Since my last blog post and after time in Goa with friends, we traveled north to attend an annual camel fair which draws hundreds of thousands of people from the rural regions of Rajasthan. People arrive with their camels, horses, cows and sheep and set up a makeshift tented camp/town on the outskirts of Pushkar. It's rumored that 50,000 camels are brought here every year.
Food stalls are set up to feed the masses, rides are erected for the kids, vendors sell their wares, and the fair hosts breeding contests, local sports competitions, concerts at night, and more. We spent three days in Pushkar walking around and experience this unique event. I was specifically taken back by the striking looks of the people. The men wore either white or brightly colored turbans, many had large mustaches, some wore the face paint of holy men, and most wore vests and many had wraps over their shoulders which I'm sure seconded at blankets at night. The women wore colorful saris, and many had large gold nose rings. In the early mornings I would travel to the outskirts of town to the tented camps and take photos of people starting their day. The place and people looked like a National Geographic Photo shoot.

We've now in Burma (now called Myanmar) for two weeks and are looking forward to it. I've always wanted to visit this country, which for the past 30 years has been somewhat closed, under martial law from a military dictatorship, and has 'restricted areas' where foreigners are not allowed to travel. Aside from the difficult political situation however, everyone I know who has visited the country has mentioned the beauty of the country and the people. We should have an interesting and hopefully  rewarding visit.

Cheers, Rob

Holy Men

Have camel, will travel

Three wise men

Street vendor

Shielding the early morning light

Camer herder

Amazing outfits 

Boys dressed up for the fair

Beautiful women who henna'd Maya's hands

Turbans and earrings are the norm for the men

Older woman with nose ring

Funny Stories

We go to so many different places in short periods of time that it gets confusing. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night wanting to go to the bathroom. And sometimes I forget that we aren't in the same place as last night so I accidentally walk outside instead of the bathroom, then I just go to the real bathroom.

One time, at a restaurant in Goa, I ordered spaghetti Bolognese for lunch. When the food arrived, it was toast with sweet mashed avocados on it. I started saying that I didn't order this, but before I could the waiter walked away. It didn't look bad and it took a really long time for the food to come so I just thought I would try it. So I did, and my breakfast decided to pay a second little visit!

Once, at a water park in Myanmar, we were in a pool with floaty things in it. One of them was a fat purple cylinder in the middle and four long thin yellow cylinders on the sides of the purple one. Maya and I were playing a game where she would sit at the top of the purple cylinder and I would try to make her fall off. It was really fun! Then some other people came and started to play. When it was his turn to try and stay on, we tried and he fell, but he fell off on to the yellow things in between his legs and froze, then slipped into the water. At first Maya and I weren't laughing because we thought he was hurt, but his girlfriend was laughing hysterically, so we started to too.

When we were in Bhutan with my grandparents, we drove for 5 hours from somewhere to somewhere else. We stopped for lunch. While we were waiting for our food we were attacked by bees! My grandfather was trying to hit them with his napkin. It was hysterical! One time one bee landed on his beard. He freaked out and started screaming and jumped up and started hitting his face with his napkin! By this time, the bee had flown away. A few minuets later, a bee landed on the bread. My grandpa asked for my napkin to cover it. I asked why he didn't use his. He said because he needed his protection. So I gave it him. He quickly covered the bread. A few minutes later he checked if the bee was still there, but used the side of the bowl of bread so the bee wouldn't get in his face. The bee didn't come out. Then few minutes after that, he tried again but Pullled up the napkin in front of his face. As soon as he picked up the napkin, the bee shot out into his face! He started hitting his face again and screaming. Everyone at the table was laughing hysterically without any sound coming out of their mouths. When everyone finished laughing, I still was and clapping and laughing, just like a retarded seal.  

Mira