We have spent the last seven days in Cambodia, which is a remarkable country with an amazing and also horrifying history. In my parents’ lifetime, two million people were exterminated by the Khmer Rouge. Many of the people we met had family members who were killed. The people we met were all kind and generous […]
MOST DISGUSTING BATHROOM ON THE PLANET?
Take a break from election news and consider this: Many men in China have an unfortunate habit of not standing close enough to the urinal. As a result, the government has launched a campaign called “Step Forward For Civilization” and you will find these signs above many urinals. The overall feel you are left with […]
WE ARE THE PANDAS
Welcome to China. In this remarkable, enormous, profoundly complex, indescribably polluted, yet weirdly beautiful country, one of the great claims to fame is the world’s largest population of panda bears. Visitors from all over the globe flock to Beijing and Xi’an just to catch a glimpse of these adorable creatures. When a panda is spotted, […]
ROAD FOOD: PART 1
By popular demand, we offer this brief post about some of the awesome and unusual food we’ve sampled on our journey so far. The most exotic prize goes to GUINEA PIG, a favorite dish in Peru, which Mark felt compelled to order for his main course on his birthday in August. Though we don’t have […]
WHAT WE SEE OUT THERE
Two kids on the street in Kyoto where we live. The office in Kyoto where we write.With all due respect to our charming officemates, our housemates are slightly cuter.
HIROSHIMA: A FAMILY REMEMBRANCE
We had always planned to go to Hiroshima from early on in thinking about our time in Japan, but we had thought it would be a day trip from Kyoto. Yet something led us to wanting more time there. We imagined Hiroshima would be a somber place, but our time there was far more vibrant […]
OUR QUEENSTOWN SCRAPBOOK
Listen, don’t get us wrong. We love getting the opportunity to visit the sites of natural disasters and being inspired by the people who live there, and we love learning about Maori culture first hand. But every now and then, we also just enjoy having a little old-fashioned fun. So in Queenstown, in the space […]
NEW FRIENDS ALL OVER THE WORLD
What continues to astound us is how we make new friends nearly every place we go. Some are through mutual friends, some are through chance encounters, all are enriching our journey incredibly. In the first 60 nights of travel, we have had dinner with other people roughly 48 times. Here is just a small sampling […]
HOMEWORK AT SUNSET OVER ADELAIDE
Due to the way the harbor is situated, Adelaide is one of the few cities in Eastern or Southern Australia that gives you a full-on western sunset. On this particular night, Franny and Finn used the nifty glass-enclosed balcony of our apartment to catch up on schoolwork. Finn is working on his math, while Franny […]
THE PRICE OF GAS IN AUSTRALIA
In our further study of fuel prices around the world, we present exhibit B: The cost to fill a tank in a normal five passenger sedan in Adelaide, Australia.Yes, that’s $97.25 Australian dollars. And keep in mind that currently it costs just over 105 U.S. cents to buy an Australian dollar, so that brings the […]