What I learned

• get to the airport three hours early (so you have time to check in)
• it’s fun to splurge on business class at the end of a long trip (it’s fun!)
• Kindles are better than physical books (they take up less space)

New skills

• weaving palm fronds
• scuba diving
• horse riding
• blogging
• navigating subways (better)
• silversmithing
• e-biking

Money

• Hong Kong yuan
• Thai baht
• Burmese kyat
• Bhutanese ngultrum
• Malaysian ringgit
• Brunei dollar
• Indonesian rupiah
• Sri Lankan rupee
• UAE (Dubai) dirham
• Kyrgyz som
• Mongolian tögrög
• Beijing yuan
• South Korean won

Stats

• miles:29,086
• days:80
• countries:16

In Kyrgyzstan the nomad tent is called a yurt, and in Mongolia the nomad tent is called a ger. Try to find the differences. First column is ger, second column is yurt.

Hover over pictures for answer. Keep reading for explanation. Continue reading →

I’ve mostly been doing posts about what I’ve done, but this time, I’m going to try something new.

????The good things about traveling are:

• if you are cold at home, there’s a pretty good chance that it will be warmer where you go
• there are interesting animals
• usually a pool
• eat out a lot

????The less good things about traveling are:

• you miss home
• you get bored
• repacking to move from place to place

????But there are solutions to some of the problems:

• FaceTime with who you miss
• have repeatable things (this means you can do them several times, like drawing, or playing with putty)
• have a good packing system

I’m in Sri Lanka now. It’s quite cold, and we went to a tea plantation today.

For 3 days we were in Gili Air, which is in Indonesia. The best thing I did was taking scuba diving lessons. I had to train in the pool first, so I could learn emergency techniques, like clearing my mask, what to if someone runs out of air, and what to do if you lose your regulator. But the best part was after lunch, when we went on a dive to Hans Reef. We saw four turtles, and other cool marine life.

The lady with the orange stripes is our instructor, Liz.

Here are our diving videos: video 1, video 2.

NOTE FROM KATE:  If you’re following along in our online photo album, please note that we started a new one when we got to Indonesia because the page was getting too long. There’s a link to the new album in the blog sidebar, or you can click this link to go right there.

For 3 days we were in Mulu (which is in Borneo), and we were exploring almost the whole time! We went to 4 caves over the course of 2 days. These caves were: Wind cave, Clearwater cave, Deer cave, and Lang cave. In deer cave we saw BATS! They were flying around the cave, and in big groups on the ceiling. In Clearwater cave we saw two tiny bats curled up in a hole in the ceiling. On the way to our canopy walk we saw a bat sleeping in a curled up leaf. When it saw us it woke up and rotated a little. The bats were so cute and I loved them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

We also stayed at a fancy hotel. We did a canopy walk and saw monkeys, a lizard, and a hornbill. It was fun walking up in the air.

For five nights we were in the Perhentian Islands. They are probably the best place in the world. We had LOTS of fun, playing on the beach, swimming, reading. It is a paradise, with turquoise water, tiny sharks, turtles, and other amazing things. we saw 2 adult turtles, and there was a turtle hatching, so I saw baby turtles. We went on a snorkeling trip, and saw a tiny shark. We also saw 2 (also tiny) reef sharks at the beach. I especially loved swimming out to a platform they had. In the middle of the day it was necessary to take a break from swimming, and stay in the room because it was too sunny to stay outside. One night there was a GIANT thunderstorm, and it was POURING. Even walking from the cabin to reception got me soaked. We also saw MONKEYS!!

this was taken during a lightning flash at night.

Last Friday we went to our friend Jill’s house. She has two daughters, Kaya, who is ten, and Kasey, who is six. Me and Kaya built a Faerie pool, and water slide. Jill is American, and used to live in Seattle, so that’s how we know her. Kaya and Kasey are half American, half Bhutanese because their dad is Bhutanese. We had lots of fun, and I ended up having a sleepover at Kaya and Kasey’s house, and in the morning we had banana pancakes!

This is Kaya

I also did a painting class that day. The teacher drew an outline and I colored it with paint. After I left, he touched it up. I did the four harmonious friends. The shop was small, and there was also someone else painting there.

Mingalaba!

That’s “hello!” in Burmese. I’m in Bagan, Myanmar, and that’s what the language is. This is us sightseeing today! We went to some temples, and guess how we got there? By e-bike! It’s basically a motorcycle, but slower, and electric. The Buddhas inside were gold-plated, and at one you could add gold plate to one for luck. All the temples basically looked the same as the one in the picture. I also put in some Buddha pictures too.

Hot and sweaty,
Ruby

Myanmar is amazing. Yesterday we went on a cooking class. It was really fun. We made too much lunch to eat. We made rice balls in palm sugar syrup, tea leaf salad, chicken curry, vegetable curry, string bean salad, and tempura. I barely even made a dent in it! Last night as we were getting driven home from the cooking class, we drove next to the water show at the palace. It was pretty cool. We’re probably going to go back tonight and watch it and actually visit the palace. 

This is what we made for lunch (not the rice though)

These are the rice balls in palm sugar syrup!

Yesterday we went sailing, and there were little jumping fishes! They were too fast to take pictures of, but I have one of Grant sailing. They were jumping pretty far, so me and Mama were wondering if there was a predator chasing them, and what it was.

It was really fun! (There was a possibility of us scaring them up though!)

Today I also got some pet eggs, also called Gudetama. (We don’t know how to pronounce it.) They are SUPER cute! One has a mustache and the other has a blanket made of bacon! The one with a mustache is my favorite.