100 days of travel, 50 things we’ve learnt

Well here we are on the 25th of April and it’s been 100 days since we left home. In some ways it feels like we have been doing this forever, but then in other ways we can’t believe it’s nearly May. Time is racing by.

We’re in Bali now where we based until we leave for Europe in mid-May. It feels really good to have a ‘home’ and to be staying put somewhere for a few weeks instead of a week max. For the first time we’ve actually unpacked all our bags and hung up our clothes. The kids have got all their toys out and we’ve spent the last week just doing not very much and having some downtime, catching up on admin and schoolwork. 

Our lovely pool in Bali

With every passing day, we are more and more grateful and appreciative that we’ve had this opportunity and that we took the huge step to walk away from all the security and familiarity of our every day lives to embark on this amazing journey.

Even though they drive us crazy sometimes, spending this much time with our kids has been so wonderful. Seeing how other people live and experiencing some of the best this world has to offer with them is something we will never forget.

Driving us crazy by constantly taking ridiculous selfies on the phone.

It has also been really thought provoking for us about how we live in the ‘west’ – about all the stuff we have and strive to have that supposedly makes you happy.  Yet we see people every day with so much less than what we have and work so much harder than we do, who are infinitely happy, content and grateful for what they have. The saying ‘first world problems’ has taken on a whole new context for us.

This gorgeous family in Sri Lanka live a very humble and simple life, but they were so happy, kind and generous 🙂

Another thing we have all really enjoyed is learning about other cultures and religions. As parents it has been great to teach our children about different people in the world away from ‘Western’ stereotypes.

Our kids are learning about Christian, Islam, Hindu and Buddhist religions – Sophie has decided that she is a Christian because she loves Jesus and Mary but she also wants to wear a headscarf to show how much she loves God, and is currently searching for a Buddha statue for her bedroom with her pocket money!

Visiting the oldest mosque in Kuala Lumpur where we received an incredibly warm welcome.

Yep, maybe we are slowly turning into hippies ha ha!

Anyway I thought to celebrate 100 days I’d put together a few little nerdy stats about our trip so far.

• Days on the road: 100
• Countries visited: 8
• Number of flights taken: 13
• Number of different beds slept in: 30 including one night on a train and one on a plane
• Loads of laundry done: 12 (we don’t smell that bad honestly!)
• Weight of our check in luggage when we left home: 39kg
• Weight of our check in luggage now: 44kg
• Most expensive meal: $50NZD / $34USD for a Japanese meal in Kuala Lumpur
• Cheapest meal: $2NZD / $1.37USD nasi goreng dinner from a Bali warung.
• Most expensive place we’ve stayed: 1 night in a tent on our camping safari
• Cheapest place we’ve stayed: The wonderful Samiru guest house in Ella, Sri Lanka for $31NZD / $21USD a night
• Games of UNO played: 64
• Number of New Years experienced so far in 2016: 4 (Gregorian calendar New Year, Chinese New Year in Malaysia and Cambodia, Sri Lankan New Year, Thai New Year)
• Hottest temperature: 39 degrees, Bangkok. Most days in coastal Sri Lanka were getting up towards this also
• Coolest temperature: 3 degrees, early morning Hanoi

This was flight number 3 to Cambodia

50 things we’ve learnt

And here’s 50 random things we’ve learnt on our travels so far (might come in handy if you’re putting together a pub quiz anytime soon….!)

1. Sydney harbour bridge was opened in 1932
   
2. Snakes are deaf but all other reptiles can hear
   
3. A bongo is a drum as well as a type of antelope
4. South East Asia is home to 593 million people
5. The Petronas towers in Kuala Lumpur were the world’s tallest building from 1998 – 2004
6. Tower one of the Petronas Towers is slightly on a tilt by 25mm
7. Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world
8. Ta Phrom temple in Cambodia was the setting for the Lara Croft Tomb Raider film
9. From the humble coconut palm tree you can make all these different things: coconut milk, cream, water, shredded coconut, thatched roofs, palm sugar lollies, alcohol, jaggery honey
10. Tarantulas, ants and crickets are actually edible
11. Red peppercorns are the most expensive form of Kampot pepper because only 2 or 3 grow on each pepper plant
12. A Cambodian tuktuk is called a remork
13. The gold buddha in the Silver Pagoda in Phnom Penh’s royal palace weighs 90kg
14. The Mekong River is the world’s 12th longest river and flows from Tibet to Vietnam
15. One quarter of Cambodia’s population was killed during Khmer Rouge rule in the 1970’s
16. My Son in Vietnam is the oldest inhabited site in IndoChina
17. Coffee with egg is a common beverage in Hanoi, Vietnam
18. Snake wine can be kept for up to 3 years before it goes off
19. Over 5 million bombs were dropped on Vietnam during the Vietnam/American war
20. There are 1,600 islands in Halong Bay in Vietnam
21. Natural pearls are oval shaped, cultivated pearls are round, that’s how you tell the difference
22. Only 30% of cultivated oysters will produce a pearl
23. A Vietnamese rowing boat is called a sampan
24. Squid are bottom feeders, you can’t catch them in deep water
25. There are 5 different styles of Tai Chi
26. Stalactites hang from the ceiling of a cave, stalagmites rise from the bottom
27. There are over 7,000 islands in the Philippines
28. If you get stung by a sea urchin you should pee on the affected area to stop the sting
29. The chocolate hills on the island of Bohol are actually made of limestone
30. Tarsiers are a type of nocturnal primate
31. A prayer is always said before ferry rides in the Philippines
32. Roast pork in the Philippines is known as lechon
33. Ube is a type of purple yam that can also be turned into ice-cream
34. A bangka is a type of motorised boat in the Philippines
35. There are 272 steps up to the Batu Caves in Malaysia
36. You can buy a washing machine and dryer in the duty free section at Sri Lanka airport
37. Negombo, Sri Lanka is also known as Little Rome as there are nearly 50 churches and shrines in this small town
38. Elephants eat 25kg of food a day
39. 4% of Sri Lanka’s land mass is covered in tea plantations
40. 6.5 million kilos of tea are sold at the weekly Colombo tea auctions
41. A tea picker in Sri Lanka earns an average of $2USD per day
42. There are around 6,000 Buddhist monasteries in Sri Lanka and it is the predominant religion there
43. There are 215 species of birds in Yala National Park in Sri Lanka
44. The national animal of Sri Lanka is the jungle fowl
45. Only 9% of Asian male elephants have tusks
46. 7.5 million people live in Kuala Lumpur
47. 8.5 million people live in Bangkok
48. You must stand and pay respects to the King before the film starts at the cinema in Thailand
49. Bahasa Indonesia is the official language on Bali, but Balinese is the more commonly spoken
50. Mangosteen is a fruit that looks like a garlic when peeled but is full of sweet deliciousness inside.

Us at the Batu Caves Hindu Temple in Malaysia, about to climb 272 steps to the top.

What’s next?

After 4 months in Asia, we leave Bali in mid-May and are flying to Paris to start the European leg of our travels. We’re spending 2 nights there, then we pick up our lease car and head over to London and then to the Netherlands to catch up with some friends.

We then drive down to the Dordogne region in South West France to our home for nearly 3 months. We are renting a restored pigeon loft ‘Le Pigeonnier’ in a small village near Bergerac. We’re super excited about getting to France and spending  a big chunk of the northern hemisphere summer there 🙂

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