What?!

Every once in a while on our trip, I'll be taken aback and have to do a double take.

There was that time in Myanmar.  We were traveling between Bagan and Kalaw, on a VIP bus.   The seats were quite wide.  There were three seats per row.  There was a stewardess who came by to give us cold wet cloths and a bottle of cool water when we boarded.  On the back of each seat there was a TV screen with three channels, each playing movies.

At one point during the bus ride, I looked out of the window.  We were driving through peaceful rural countryside which was full of farms and the ruins of centuries old Hindu and Buddhist temples.  As we were whizzing past the beautiful ancient temples, I was sitting on a fancy air-conditioned tourist bus watching a comedic science fiction movie starring Bruce Willis - really!  How surreal is that?!

I had another moment like that a couple of weeks ago.  I had been in Finland when Rob, Maya, and Mira left Asia and flew to Australia.  When I rejoined the family, Mira filled me in on the adventures she had had while we were apart.  She told me that she really liked being in Australia.  When I asked her why, she said it was because everyone spoke English and the labels on packaged foods in the grocery store were all in English (so she knew what everything was).  I hadn't even noticed but yes, life is in fact easier when you can read (and understand) labels and warning signs.  And indeed, everyone speaks English here!

I am grateful to be traveling with my daughters.  They keep me paying attention.  They remind me to notice things.  They keep me in the now.

Nadia

Happy place

"Canon ball SPLASH!" I screamed clenching my knees to my chest. I made my way to the bottom of the pool. I sat. It was as if time stood still, no sound, no movement other that my own. I watched the shiny shimmer of the sun's reflection on the bottom of the pool. It was a pattern of squiggly lines that moved in different directions. Water is a time stopper. The only thing that makes a sound, or moves is you. I went up for air and as soon as my ears came up from the water, I was struck with the sound of screaming babies, shooting, wining, and movement. So I went back down. Down, to my happy place, down to be one with nature. 

-Mira 

Global World

We saw fishermen catching fish.  Women were cleaning and drying fish.  The dried fish were packaged in cardboard boxes and shipped around the world.

It sounds really straight forward.  Except that the fishing community was very remote.  We drove seven hours north to Kota Bangun to catch a motorized canoe to go two more hours to get to the guesthouse in Muara Muntai where we spent the night.  In the morning we rode another three hours on the Mahakam River to get to what was left of Jempang Lake in this dry season.  The boxed fish are put on a motorized canoe, shipped down to Balikpapan to be shipped to the Island of Java for local use or further shipping to the world at large (mainly China).

This place is remote and pretty untraveled.  We've only seen four non-Indonesians in three days in this neighborhood (not surprisingly, they were a Spanish couple from near Bilbao and a young Dutch couple).  And a whole fishing community thrives because of this global trade.

Being global is a good thing.  Here in Indonesia, we know the common Moslem greetings and the call-to-prayer is familiar.

My daughters are in their hotel room "chatting" with friends who are maybe in Zimbabwe, maybe in Canada, maybe in Jordan... (but they asked me the other day how to address a postcard!).  While we were in Phuket, Rob and I great time listening to a local band playing Pink Floyd and Bob Marley.

But being global and connected is not always wanted.  Phuket was full of summer holiday-makers.  Pattaya was full of tours.  Vang Vieng was backpacker heaven.  Except for Laos, we've seen McDonald's and Starbucks in all the cities.  Being off the beaten track in remote East Kalimantan is a welcome change.  I finally feel like I'm traveling...

Nadia

Learning

When we first started thinking about taking a year off formal work to travel and homeschool the kids, we spoke with a family about their experiences with a similar trip several years earlier when their two daughters were similar ages to my girls now.  The one thing Rhonda, the mother, said (which really stuck with me) was that it was a great bonding time as a family and that they had really gotten to know their children during their year of travel together.

We have only been traveling for three weeks - shorter than the typical length of our annual home leave and holiday to USA and Mexico.  Despite this, I feel like I've already gotten to know my daughters better than I knew them previously.  I have learned so much about my girls in these three weeks!

Mira, for example, loves babies.  I knew she liked little kids, but I didn't realize quite how much she loved them - and animal babies too.  Where ever we have been, there have been lots of babies and toddlers.  And plenty of baby animals.  She never fails to stop to say a few words or play with them or pet them - whatever the species of babies!!

Mira loves little babies!

And any kind of animal, but especially little ones!

And Maya loves to eat and try new foods.  I knew both girls were easy eaters, but I didn't know that Maya absolutely loves eating everything - no matter whether it is a new fruit on a tree we are passing, a spicy mystery dish in the back of beyond in Laos, or an insect that is considered a delicacy wherever we happen to be.

Maya eating the delicious and ubiquitous Thai noodle soup

She loves dragon fruit (but not bananas)

And humor.  Boy do they have a sense of humor!!  We spend more time laughing each day than most people do in a week!  We laugh at and with each other, whether it's the mishap of finding ourselves in the red-light district of Pattaya, Thailand, or an unusual tattoo of a European backpacker, or one of us having a major cultural or language misunderstanding along our journey, or one of the girls tagging a total stranger while the family was playing tag while tubing on a Laotian river.

Both girls are incredibly easy-going.  We've been hot and lacked sleep while we lugged backpacks on and off tuktuks, taxis, subways, buses, and trains.  We've used the toilet in roadside bushes, less-than-clean toilets at highway rest-stops in the middle of nowhere, bug-filled latrines 60 meters up in treehouses, and the bushes in snake-infested forests deep in the juggles of southeast Asia.  We've been woken by ants in our hair, had leeches latch onto our feet, and had mysterious bites on our legs in the middle of the night.  We've eaten street food and furry fruit and insects.  And yet, despite all of this, I have not heard a single complaint from the girls.

They are also empathetic and have a strong awareness of how lucky we are.  Maya's recent blog is a good example - without us ever talking about it, she thought (and blogged) about being poor and living in a hut in a rice field.  On our long bus rides and treks through the forests, Mira often raised the topic of "what if we had been born here" instead of in the privileged life that we have.  She recognizes that our good life is a virtue of luck in being born where we were born - and nothing more!  Both girls think and talk about ways in which we can contribute to a more fair and just world (and as our trip progresses, we will be doing service to work on this!).

My girls also have a lot of respect for other people.  They know there are other ways of doing things (and that the "other" is also "right").  In these three weeks, I have seen Maya and Mira instinctively, with no prompting, learn and use the local greetings and expressions of thanks or gratitude.  The girls are now in the habit, whenever we walk up to a person or a stall or into a shop or cafe, of pressing their hands together in front of their hearts, nodding their heads, and saying hello in the appropriate language - just like the local people - regardless of the socio-economic status of the person they are greeting.  Incredible!

I find myself astounded by the girls on a daily basis.  I am thankful to have this year to get to know my lovely monkeys even better.

Nadia

Week of Wonders

This week was an adventures one. We went treking through the jungle, saw a few bugs that are out of this world. We ziplined to tree houses and were visited by some tree rats who very much enjoyed eating my sock. The 12 hour bus ride from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang. By the way, on that bus I and everyone else could hear the 20 people vomiting over and over again. Here are the pics!

~Mira

Not in Kansas Any More!

After an eventful one-day stopover in Abu Dhabi, we find ourselves in a country which is the polar opposite of Jordan - Thailand!

Nadia

The Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho

Receiving blessings for good luck

We've been eating tropical fruit and street food non-stop since we got here, building up our tolerance for spicy food (in anticipation of India).

We took a fantastic eating tour of Bangkok by bicycle!  We rode through the back alleys and took ferries on the river for nearly eight hours, seeing a side of the city which we normally would have never seen.  Well worth the detour!!

After two days in the capital city, we took a 14-hour overnight train to Chiang Mai, where we continue to eat our way through the country!

 Eating again!

Nearly Ready

Cake had, backpack packed, one more day in the house...

Nadia