Part of the value of travel is to remind oneself of the things we have that we sometimes take for granted. Off and on for the last five months one of the things I have been really appreciative from home is the nice air quality. Granted, there are times during the winter when Boise has […]

March 12 – 25 We ended up leaving India earlier than planned due to the 100 degree weather, the whole family getting sick and the ever present air pollution. Travel in India is truly an adventure for the independent traveler. Each day brings moments of exasperation followed by moments of beauty and kindness. Perhaps the day […]

During the first week or so of our trip, Mom told me that eventually I’d get sick of going to restaurants. I told her I would never feel that way. A few weeks later, I was wishing we could eat in every night. (Mom doesn’t, but that’s because she has to cook.) Now we’ve been to […]

Before we left on our trip there were five buildings or structures that everyone wanted to see: the Coliseum, the Eiffel Tower, the pyramids, the Taj Mahal, and the Great Wall. On the 15th we saw the Taj. For myself, I have previously seen the first four places on this list, and would have ranked the […]

Saturday night, March 12th, we arrived in Delhi, India. In several ways, it was going back in time for us. First off, because we had to set our watches back 1.5 hours. (Why the half hour?). Also, though, because Delhi reminded us all of Cairo; big, crowded, dirty, noisy, and chaotic. While walking the streets yesterday, […]

Southeast Asia has a rich and diverse cuisine. There are many foods that are not on most thai restaurant menus. I didn’t explore the food as much as I could have but here are a few interesting drinks and dishes that we discovered along the way. Ginger Tea This was a favorite of mine on the […]

When we began our trip eight months ago in Nicaragua, we weren’t even out of the parking lot of the airport when two young boys approached our car trying to sell us small straw flowers. The next day beggars approached us as we sat at a restaurant. We started to talk as a family about how […]

We had decided a long time ago that we were gong to ride elephants. So during our stay in South East Asia, we constantly kept an eye out for possible rides. Eventually, in Laos, we decided to go and pay for some rides. In Luang Prabang, the town where we got the elephants, we met a […]

March 10 After Emma posted her blog on the monkeys at Angkor Wat, my mother emailed and said, “I loved Emma’s post but what the heck is a tuk tuk?” We didn’t know what tuk tuks were either when we arrived in Southeast Asia seven weeks ago. There are many things that were different and unusual […]

The act of traveling to a country reminds me of one of the truths of quantum physics; the act of observing will change the thing you are observing. With a lot of tourists in an area, things change. It can improve an area; roads need to be built or improved to move people around, ruins restored […]

In fact, we actually did have Wi-Fi for the past month or so. We’ve just been lazy in posting, so now we are blasting through a flurry of updates to get y’all up to date. Two countries ago we were in Cambodia. On its flag, they have blue and red stripes, and a temple complex on […]

On the first day in Cambodia we went to the ruins. We noticed monkeys on our way up. There were a lot of them in one place. It was like a pack. Mom asked to stop the tuk tuk to take some pictures of them. Once we took the pictures we drove on. On the last […]

Since we left home last July, we have been on the go. Four days here, three days there, with just two stretches of 11 and 12 days. Those longer stretches the kids particularly liked, as they provided an opportunity to relax and get into a routine. We promised the kids that things would slow down a […]

January 19th and 20th We shuffle quickly across a busy road with our bags and packs and pick our way through street stands, parked cars and sidewalk restaurants to the Lomprayah bus/ferry office two blocks down a narrow crowded street. We hope there are still seats left for the 9:30pm bus and ferry ride to Koh […]

I am 55, and prior to arriving in Thailand, had not had a colonoscopy. For five years Margit has been asking me when I was going to get the colonoscopy that is recommended for all when they reach 50. Last summer I announced to Margit that I would get it when we reached Thailand on […]

January 14 – 19 We arrived in Bangkok a bit bleary-eyed. The flight was 9 hours overnight. Emma got the best sleep as she made a little nest on my lap and conked out for 6 hours. Bjorn was so excited by the fact that he had an in-seat movie viewer that he watched three movies […]

After our stay in Turkey we needed to pick up a plane to Thailand, and the only way to do that was to go to Athens and pick up the flight there. On our first visit I argued heavily to make a trip out to Delphi. But, with the strikes and all, and our limited […]

Yes, this is the same Ephesus that Paul preached at, and home to the church to which he wrote the book of Ephesians. It is also reported to be where Mary, the mother of Jesus, lived with the apostle John at the end of her life, and where it is thought they both were buried. Still, […]

On the 3rd of January we took a bus to Bergama. We hadn’t booked a place yet so we decided to check out a place called The Odyssey Guest House. It was on a small narrow street. When we got there we had to take our shoes off before we went inside. There were little shelves […]