Category: Asia

Last Guest Post by James (for awhile): Sri Lanka

12/11/22-12/17/22

Here’s one more guest post from 8-year-old James’ private blog. I thought he needed one more nice one after the India post. As before, my Instagram posts and country counter are below his work.

To start, everyone LOVED Sri Lanka! After India, we flew to Colombo, Sri Lanka, where we stayed at a not-a-very-nice place but it offered airport transportation in a huge bus. Luckily, breakfast at the hotel was delicious and had really, really good bread and butter. There was some fruit, but the mango and passion fruit looked identical so each bite was a fun surprise, sometimes not a good surprise.

From the hotel, we visited Colombo’s fort area for the afternoon and ate lunch. We immediately took a beautiful train ride to Kandy. When we exited the train station, there were loud bats everywhere! We all really liked it because we like bats. We walked up a huge hill to our hotel, which was really nice (the hotel, not the walk!). They served us ginger tea and biscuits and then we went to bed.

On our first whole day in Kandy, we had a really good breakfast with jackfruit and delicious coconut honey pancakes. (The pancakes were my favorite food in Sri Lanka.) The hotel overlooked Bogambara Lake, which we walked around. On our walk, we saw a GIGANTIC lizard! (It was about as tall as me!)

giant lizard
photogenic duck

We saw tons of birds and ducks, and we ate at a restaurant called the Hideout Lounge. We also visited the Temple of the Tooth, which has the Buddha’s tooth and a very boring museum on world religions.

The best part of Kandy (other than the food), was the Kandian dance, which had nine parts including firewalking. The dancers did tons of backflips and acrobatics and had extreme balancing skills. The firewalking was the best part. People somehow stuck the fire on their tongues and juggled flaming torches.

On our last night in Kandy, we took three-hour long cooking class. We cooked 14 meals, including 10 curries and an excellently spiced chicken. We could only eat a fifth of it. I didn’t really like it because it was too long and too much food and I don’t really like curries. The host family was really nice though.

After Kandy, we took another beautiful train back to Colombo (the train was at 6 am!

field from the train
hill from the train

Because it was dark and my bag was heavy, I fell down and got a massive, bleeding cut on my knee. It bugged me for three months afterwards but I don’t have a scar anymore). We visited a museum and walked around Colombo, in the burning heat. The best part was that we ate lunch at a very fancy restaurant. The chefs are brothers and both used to run Michelin starred restaurants in France. I don’t remember what I ordered, but I did get chocolate mousse for dessert! It was delicious.

We took a train after lunch to Galle, on the southern coast of Sri Lanka. We stayed in a small hotel but there were tons of mosquitos everywhere that only swarmed me. I lost a lot of blood to mosquitos that week! From our hotel deck, we saw monkeys, peacocks, and kingfishers. Every single restaurant in Galle was closed until 10 am! We walked around the old fort and a man offered to jump off a cliff for money, but we said no. My family went swimming in the ocean, but I didn’t because of my knee. I also pet a lot of stray dogs.

After Galle, we got a taxi to Colombo and flew back to Delhi, India for one night. When we arrived in Dehli, we had the worst immigration experience ever! It took over one and half hours, even though we already had our Indian visas! Mom and Dad still get angry whenever they think about it. But then we stayed in a very nice hotel for one night before flying to Nepal. There were cows on the road outside the hotel.

Here are my Instagram posts with the country counter after:

As a bonus, here’s my Instagram post commemorating the first 6 months of the trip, which is a mark we hit right before coming to Sri Lanka:

Country counter after Sri Lanka:

  • 31st country of our trip
  • Me: 69 countries (including 40 eating McDonald’s)
  • Karen: 69 countries
  • Henry: 44 countries
  • Charlie: 40 countries
  • James: 37 countries

Guest post by James: India, Kochi

India: 11/29/22-12/10/22

Lest you start to think that all of James’ posts are long and lovely, I’m including this one that he wrote while angry that we assigned him blogging for English homework. (The topic didn’t help much either.) I’m leaving it unedited as he submitted it to us.

Before I start I will say that I have stoped doing blog posts in order now so I will only do the big hits. We flew to India at 2am and went to bed then, 38 hours after we landed I threw up 3 times. 20 mins later, I threw up 3 times again and it happed every 20 mins for 2 hours and 40 mins. Then, the next day was a school day and and so was the next for a week total.

ps. mom and dad open up the door in the hostal and look down [This was a picture he drew for us, not a bag of poop, when we were in our hostal in Hiroshima.]

As you can see from the above, James (a) didn’t spend more than 5 minutes on this post and (b) did not really enjoy his time in India much. He and everyone else in my family got sick there multiple times, so I suppose he has his reasons. We had a tour guide in Nepal who said that NEPAL stands for “Never Ending Peace and Love” and INDIA stands for “I’ll Never Do It Again.” I’m sorry to say, that’s probably how the rest of my family feels about it. (Karen adds that our cooking instructor in Sri Lanka remarked when we said we were in India, “oh, but India is so dirty!” As you’ll see in the next post, we loved Sri Lanka, which had much of the charm of India, while being a little tidier around the edges.)

In fact, we were originally planning to spend another week in India, but the recurring illnesses led us to move onwards to Nepal (and then Thailand) earlier than originally planned.

Although this post is very negative, I still really like India, but sadly doubt I’ll be returning there with my family anytime soon, if at all. (Note, however, that I didn’t get sick there during this trip, which wasn’t my experience in previous trips!)

All that said, here are my Instagram posts from India, with country counter at the end:

Country counter after India:

  • 30th country of our trip
  • Me: 68 countries (including 40 eating McDonald’s)
  • Karen: 68 countries
  • Henry: 43 countries
  • Charlie: 39 countries
  • James: 36 countries

Guest Post by James: Jordan

11/20/22-11/28/22

Here’s another post, shared with permission, from 8-year-old James’ private blog. My Instagram posts appear below James’ writing. (Besides the Instagram posts, picture credits are all to James as well.)

Jordan was another big hit in our family, and we enjoyed it very much. Dad liked the inexpensive cost of travel, Mom liked the cardamon coffee, Charlie and I loved Wadi Rum (more on that later), and Henry liked looking at his phone all day.

First, we walked over the border of Israel to Jordan with our heavy backpacks like true travelers. After a short taxi, we stayed in Aqaba, a city on the Red Sea, for a few days. We stayed in a small hotel and watched “The Mummy” one night. We ate at a restaurant that only served chicken and rice, which I thought was strange and confusing. We swam in the Red Sea for a few hours, and we tried to find colorful fish with our new goggles.

After Aqaba, we rented a car and drove to Wadi Rum for a desert experience and camel rides. Wadi Rum, also known as “The Valley of the Moon,” is the largest valley in Jordan and is near Saudi Arabia. It is also a desert with tons of mountains and canyons, and we spent at least seven hours exploring them. Our open-air jeep made six stops in Wadi Rum. The first one was to climb up a steep, rocky mountain to see a really good view of the valley (I didn’t climb up). We also climbed up a lot of super awesome sand dunes; one of them had a big rocky hill on top.

one of the hills
we climbed up this!

We also walked one kilometer through a sandy canyon and went sandsurfing at the massive sandhill at the top!

full screen view

The most important stop was lunch! Our jeep drivers cooked an incredible chili-tomato-feta dish that was delicious. (It was like shakshuka but with feta cheese instead of eggs.) The next stop was a natural rock arch, which we could climb up. To end the day, we drank tea on top of a hill and watched the sun set. We spent the night in a beautiful Bedouin tent, but it was freezing outside.

After a buffet breakfast the next morning, we took a two hour camel ride through Wadi Rum back to the village where we started.

that’s a camel

Mom and I had to share a camel and I was super crushed. About one kilometer from the village, I got off the camel and my legs felt wobbly and weird! It was really hard to walk at first, but I perservered! Because the Bedouin breakfast was sad, we ate a second breakfast in the village. The second breakfast was also sad, but two sad breakfasts equals one decent breakfast. It’s just math, people!

After Wadi Rum, we drove to the city of Petra. The actual city of Petra was terrible. It was really hilly and driving was awful. We couldn’t find good food, but I ate decent mac & cheese at a place called Meat on Fire.

While the city of Petra was a bust, the ancient city of Petra was incredible! We woke up before dawn to see the sun rise over the mountains and avoid other tourists. To get to the famous Treasury, we walked one mile through a very narrow canyon (parts were only one meter wide) that was full of water because of the recent rains. At the end of the canyon was the Treasury and it was stunning. We kept walking through the ancient city and saw the old theater.

NOT the old theater

We also saw a few hills and dogs.

I like taking photos of dogs in famous places (p.s sorry about my finger in the photo)

To get to the Monastery, we had to hike over a mountain because it was on top. The mountain was as tall as a sixty story building! While there were steps carved into the sandstone, it was very hard to walk up; Mom even fell hard on her way down! At the Monastery, there was a snack area and we really needed the rest. While the Treasury and Monastery were incredible, the best part of the day was the view from the mountains!

After Petra, we drove the King’s Highway to Madaba and Amman. In Madaba, we stayed at The Black Iris and I wish we stayed there longer. Because it rained all day, I stayed in the hotel with Henry and Charlie while Mom and Dad saw the ancient Roman mosaics and a bunch of churches. We then drove to Amman, where we visited the Jordan Museum. The museum had interactive games in the kids section and a lot of other things about Jordan. We also visited Rainbow Street, drank hot chocolate at a cafe, and bought cookies from a bake sale that was raising money for Syrian refugees.

From Amman, we flew to India and got really sick.

In case you’re wondering, I’ll do at least one more James guest post so you can read about that last part. Here are my Instagram posts with the country counter after:

Country counter after Jordan:

  • 29th country of our trip
  • Me: 68 countries (including 40 eating McDonald’s)
  • Karen: 68 countries
  • Henry: 42 countries
  • Charlie: 38 countries
  • James: 35 countries

Guest Post by James: Israel

11/12/22-11/19/22

Here’s another sample of what 8-year-old James wrote in his private blog. My Instagram posts appear below James’ writing. (Besides the Instagram posts, picture credits are all to James as well.)

After our wonderful time in Egypt, we traveled to Tel Aviv, Israel. It was quite a change after two months of traveling in Africa (Tunisia, Egypt, Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya). We could finally drink the tap water, flush toilet paper down the toilet, and didn’t have to brush our teeth with a cup of bottled water. Also, we could finally eat raw fruits and vegetables.

We flew from Cairo to Tel Aviv, arriving at 11 pm on Shabat. Because of the timing, our taxi cost $70 to get to our Airbnb in Jaffa! When we woke up on Saturday morning, we realized that there was no wifi, so Dad got 100 GB of data for $9 so we ended up with a lot of wifi. We took a super fancy Shabat (free!) bus to Tel Aviv and saw Wakanda Forever. The next day, we planned to see Tel Aviv but the weather was too nice so we walked to the beach. Charlie and I made a sand turtle covered in shells and we named her SHELL-BY. The best part of Tel Aviv was a delicious falafel place with excellent pita; we went three times!

After Tel Aviv, we took a very short train to Jerusalem, which became one of my favorite cities. Not only did I develop my love of pomegranates, I also really liked the Mahane Yehuda Market. On our first full day, we took an excellent walking tour through Jerusalem’s Old Town and Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which was built on the site where Jesus was crucified.

We learned about the various occupations of Jerusalem, Jesus’ crucifixion, and the different quarters of the city. When visiting the church, a lot of people kissed the stone where Jesus was crucified, but we didn’t. The next day, we walked the Via Dolorosa, which is the route Jesus took to his crucifixion. We saw the spots where he dropped the cross, he met his mother, and the other 12 stations (14 in all). We also saw the Dome of the Rock on Temple Mount, but I mostly remember the view of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Finally, we went to the Western Wall and said a prayer. On our way out of the Dome of the Rock, we got freshly squeezed pomegranate juice in the Muslim Market for $1; the vendor gave us a free pomegranate because my mom told him that we don’t have them where we live. We ate it for dinner that night. One of my favorite parts of Jerusalem was dinner every night – Mom, Dad, and Charlie went to the market near our Airbnb and got fresh pita, veggies, and hummus. We ate little picnics in our apartment for dinner, but I mostly loved the pomegranates because the seeds had little bursts of juice when I chewed them.

We visited Masada, a place near the Dead Sea. We rode a huge cable car to the top of the mountain to see the ancient ruins where Jews lived and hid from the Romans. It was really hot and I saw some graffiti, which made me angry. We also visited the Ein Gedi Reserve, but I don’t remember it very well but there was a waterfall.

After Ein Gedi, we went swimming in the Dead Sea, which is like pure salt. The bottom of the Dead Sea was salt instead of sand! I floated and reached a point where I couldn’t even sit down on the bottom of sea! I had a small cut on my thumb and it hurt when I put it in the sea.

We stayed in two other super cool places in Israel! The first was a Bedouin community in the desert. We slept in a huge tent, where we also had communal meals with the Bedouin family and another four Polish visitors. The meal was chicken and rice and it was delicious! Charlie drank 6 glasses of tea, but I didn’t really like it, but I loved the biscuits. The second super cool place we stayed was Kibbutz Lotan. We arrived in time for Shabat dinner, which was an also delicious buffet of chicken, pasta, bread, and juices. We sat with two teenage Kibbutz volunteers, serving for a year. (I would not like to volunteer there because I would have to wake up at 5 am every single morning and that is not very pleasant.) On our first morning, we had a ton of trouble finding the breakfast area, but it was another delicious buffet once we did. We took a tour of the kibbutz and learned about their jobs, kibbutz living and culture, and their commitment to sustainability. They make their own houses out of mud and hay! It was actually a pretty comfortable house! I think that they made their furniture out of wood and grow their own food. There was a tree called the Magic Tree and the leaves were super healthy and tasted like a spiced leaf. (It was disgusting).

After Kibbutz Lotan, we drove to the border of Jordan, returned the car, and walked over the border. I wrote a post of Jordan already.

Here are my Instagram posts from Israel along with a country counter at the end:

Country counter after Israel:

  • 28th country of our trip
  • Me: 67 countries (including 39 eating McDonald’s)
  • Karen: 67 countries
  • Henry: 41 countries
  • Charlie: 37 countries
  • James: 34 countries

We’re Big in Japan

Konnichiwa!

I’ve skipped a lot of countries since my last post about Kenya (posted from Nepal), but I thought it would be nice to make a quick one here from Tokyo since Japan will be our last country in Asia. What follows is mostly logistics, but I still plan to add some more narrative posts (including rollups of my Instagram posts) of the countries we’ve already left.

We arrived here a week ago, and after visiting Sapporo and Tokyo are heading tomorrow to Takayama. From there, we’ll continue onward to Hiroshima and Kyoto before catching a flight to Cairns, Australia in another 8 days or so. Then, we’ll have a week split between there and Melbourne before continuing onwards for two weeks in New Zealand.

Iconic backdrop, but the Sapporo Beer Museum was nothing to write home about. We sped through in order to grab some lunch.

After New Zealand, we fly to Chile, and will travel in South America until we fly back to the US, probably in late May.

That’s looking forward. Here are all of the countries I’ve skipped since that last post about Kenya:

  • Uganda
  • Rwanda
  • Egypt
  • Israel
  • Jordan
  • UAE
    • India
    • Sri Lanka
    • Nepal
    • Thailand
    • Laos
    • Vietnam
    • Cambodia
    • Singapore
    • Malaysia
    • Brunei
    • Philippines
    • Taiwan

With that, our country count is as follows:

  • 43 countries so far, total
  • Me: 73 countries (including 44 eating McDonald’s)
  • Karen: 75 countries
  • Henry: 56 countries
  • Charlie: 52 countries
  • James: 49 countries

P.S. I was thinking of this song when I wrote that title, but maybe you prefer this other one.