Today, with a lot of hard pounding and some creative interpretation, the boys and their friends from Four Over The Edge got to make their own pewter bowls at the Royal Selangor Visitor Center. What an interesting adventure! Royal Selangor…
Penang and The Joy of Homeschooling
I write this from Penang Island, in the northwest part of Malaysia, the 6th country of our trip. We arrived a week ago at our little 3 bedroom / 2 bathroom apartment that we will call home for almost five…
Fourth Month and the Islands of Thailand
It is hard to believe we are already past our four month mark of our journey. As for the past month or so, it has been a very different type of travel than where we started. We started the trip…
The Beautiful Khao Sok National Park and Rain Forest
We just left Khao Sok National Park, said to be earth’s oldest rain forest. More biodiverse than even the Amazon Rainforest, we got to see all sort of amazing plant species and even a few animals that we didn’t expect. …
Learning about the Vietnam – American War
With illnesses in the family this week, we have been laying low in Cat Ba Town not wanting to do too much in terms of activity. But we have still managed to fit in some interesting sites of historical…
Dunes of Vietnam and the Fairy Stream
Today, we did our first sightseeing since we hit Vietnam. After a busy 7 weeks of travel, it has been lovely spending the past few days on the beach, gazing out at the swaying palm trees, the rolling surf,…
The Floating Village of Kompong Phluk
Imagine being all surrounded by water, everywhere you look right outside your front door. To go anywhere, you must take pull the boat around and paddle. Going to school requires a 10 minute paddle. Need veggies for dinner? Better…
One Month of Travel – Update
I realized the other day that we are almost at the one month mark of our travels. In some respects, packing up and leaving Portland feels so distant but at the same time, the trip feels like it is flying…
The Golden Pavilion
We got to go to Kinkakuji today. Also called the Golden Pavilion, Kinkakuji is a Buddhist hall on the north side of Kyoto containing relics of Buddha. Formerly a retirement villa for Shogun Askikaga Yoshimitsu, the top two levels of…
The Hiroshima Bombing
I was and am still amazed at how devastating one explosion could be to one packed city such as busy Hiroshima! I have been there, seen the A-Bomb dome, visited the children peace memorial, and seen the Hiroshima peace…