What are the main themes to share, after traveling for a year around the world and visiting 32 countries? The most obvious point is that travel is one of life’s most important and pleasurable activities. This year we experienced and shared amazing sights, delicious tastes, new stories, the growth and broadening of our perspectives in […]
Great choice! You are in for the adventure of a lifetime. Let us share some lessons to make it easier: Planning 365 Days, What You Really, Really Need in Your Suitcase, Packing for Men, Health on the Road, Packing – the Technology. You can also look back HERE to see a detailed retrospective of the […]
After finishing up the African mainland, the 365 trip around the world was nearly complete. It was a bit tedious to get out of Nairobi because the airport staff were on a “slowdown” strike and the lines stretched for hours. Happily we left plenty of time and the flight over is a quick one. We had reserved […]
Safari is the most special form of travel we encountered. It brings you to the edge: remote location, special field equipment, expert guidance, real personal risk, high daily cost. In return you are guaranteed a once-in-a-lifetime experience. You escape from civilization and travel back to see nature the way it was centuries ago, before mankind […]
One of the coolest parts of safari is learning how to track animals. Our first few safaris we just sat back and watched the guide search, sometimes for hours. After a while though, we realized we were missing a lot of action and we started asking tons of questions. For those who like puzzles, tracking […]
From the Okavanga Delta we flew to a city on the edge of Botswana and made the border crossing into Zimbabwe by car. The contrast was immediate. Botswana is one of the best and most efficient African countries, with an average income of $14K. Zimbabwe has been torn apart by war and has an […]
An iron door sealed us in. We were locked into a large empty cement room. A thin, spectacled black man stepped forward. “You are here for a short visit, but I was locked in this prison for nine years. I was sent here by the white South African government because I had joined the military […]
While in Argentina, we contacted Alberto Grimoldi, a friend and classmate from HBS. Alberto is a consummate gentlemen and the nicest guy you could hope to meet. Although he had just returned home from international travel, he immediately invited us for dinner and insisted on collecting us at our hotel. We were excited to see […]
Road School was one of the most challenging and enjoyable parts of our year-long adventure, but alas, the last day arrived today. I could see the children putting on brave faces to mask their sorrow. All they can look forward to now is a bit of summer reading. It was a bittersweet milestone. If the […]
The most pleasurable way to enjoy Buenos Aires is to spend time in the quiet neighborhoods, soaking up the café culture and European-style architecture. There is nevertheless some touring to be done! Starting in the city center, we joined a free walking tour (a tip is expected) that had been highly rated by TripAdvisor. Piggy […]
Santiago as a touring destination? The city tour takes you to the presidential palace and other major government buildings, a public square, the fish market, a cathedral, a pre-1500s history museum – all within close walking distance. The 1700s architecture is pleasant enough but not as large or dramatic as you might expect for a city […]
Last month in China we had an important decision to make. The latest update of the trip itinerary had a three week gap between the end of Latin America and the beginning of Africa. How would we spend early May? At that time we wanted a change of pace and did not know what to […]
The water was warm but a shiver chilled my shoulders. We had jumped off the Zodiac into deep water and there was nothing to see below, except blue light fading to black. Our guide swam toward the distant sea cliff. “Come on! Let’s look for sharks!” A dozen people swam eagerly after him, including my son. I […]
Our week in the Galapagos was spent on the Evolution, a comfortable boat with 18 crew, 31 passengers, 2 highly qualified guides – Jorge and Wilson, 2 Zodiac inflatable motor boats (the “Pangas”), and enough snorkeling equipment for all. The days fell into a steady and active rhythm – up at 6:45am, hit the beaches for […]
We made it to Quito, Ecaudor last night and will be taking a flight to the Galapagos Islands this morning. We are hoping to find turtles, sea lions and dancing birds. Peru has been one of our favorite countries, and we are working on pictures and blogs to share the story. You will not see them […]
The tour of the Peruvian Andes started with a flight into Cusco, the ancient capital of the Incan Empire. Today it is still a significant mountain town of 400,000 people. Cusco is 3400 meters above sea level and that is quite enough to induce sickness, which we felt. Sam’s plan anticipated this and she sent […]
On April 20 we sadly bid farewell to the Asia/Australia time zones – our home for the past three months – and entered a new chapter: South America! We were all excited to see a new continent, but first we had to get there. The itinerary called for a journey on April 20 from […]
Are we entering the Chinese century? During the eighteen days in China, we tried to decide. Today’s China is a winner because it joins two things that should not go together: a government of absolute power and a fast-paced market economy. China’s march to economic success started with a commitment to low-cost manufacturing. China imported […]
There is so much history in China… let’s take up the challenge to cover it briefly and discover how modern China got to where it is today. There is evidence of prehistoric man in China going back well past 50,000 years. Pottery, stonework and other signs of village life start roughly 8,000 years ago. Some […]
Our last stop in China was Shanghai. We had just two days of touring here, leaving several much-needed free days available to catch our breath. Aside from cooking classes and fan/sword-dancing, we watched an acrobat show, visited an old garden, strolled the riverside Bund and toured the well-stocked Shanghai Museum. (Luckily we had added three […]
After Beijing, we entered a hectic stretch that covered three cities in six days. The first stop Xi’an was the original capital of China and is the home of the Terracotta Warriors, a variety of tasty local restaurants and a superb calligraphy school, all described elsewhere. Here we visited the Xi’an Museum to see excellent […]
During our travels we’ve shopped many a tourist stand and we hereby award a prize to the merchants of Yongshuo in the Guilin region. They are the most rapacious we have met so far! Another prize goes to the curio dealers of Xi’an. As our guide Gerard explained, they have a wide range of yesterday’s […]
“Hold your arms out in a big ball. Feel that you are holding the heavens and the universe. Now, breath in as you raise your arms and the universe expands. “ We listened carefully to the Tai Chi master. The family was secluded deep within the gardens of the Emperor’s Heavenly Palace, standing in a […]
We started China in the capital city of Beijing, and started Beijing in its iconic heart – Tiananmen Square. This is famous in the West as the place where Chinses students protested for democracy in 1989, and we have read in the Western press that there are some still seeking change in China inspired by the […]
From Sydney we headed down to Melbourne – Australia’s “other” big city located at the very southern tip of the landmass. It sits at the same latitude as Capetown or Buenos Aires and looks south toward the Tasmanian island and Antarctica. Sydney has a population of 4.5 million and Melbourne is just behind at […]
Sydney was all about catching our breath after the craziness in Japan. We checked into the Shangri-La hotel, where we had the good fortune to be greeted by customer manager extraordinaire Sabina. She heard the story and promptly upgraded us into their Governor’s Suite. This is the size of our Paris apartment, raised to the 34th floor […]
The line at Haneda Airport at 5:15am. Safety first. Although we were having a great time in Japan and managed to get through the earthquake without any injuries, we decided to move the family out of Tokyo today. We just arrived in Seoul where we plan to catch our breath and get some sleep. More […]
By 6am on Saturday, there was limited train service restored and we could come back to Tokyo city via a series of zigzag rides with six different legs (shuttle, 4 trains, taxi). Somehow we made it back to Akasaka without getting lost. We finally reached our rooms at the Intercontinental around 9am, where we discovered it […]
What do you think about in middle of an earthquake? Put yourself in our shoes at Disney, walking under a ten-story tall volcano, when the ground starts to sway. What you would see is Carter and me grinning like idiots – Disney has the most realistic special effects! Then the staff all run to their […]
On Friday March 11, our family went to Disney Sea Tokyo. A detailed design for the park was developed by Disney so the company could extend its existing properties with an ocean-themed attraction, but it proved too costly to actually build in Orlando. A group of Japanese businessmen realized it could still succeed if they […]
Our wonderful Japan guide Mimi came over on Wednesday morning and we stepped out into the streets of Tokyo. Brrr. First stop, Ginza for jackets. Then we saw the Imperial Palace and Asukasa with its many tourist stands and great Buddhist temple and Shinto shrine. We were so impressed with Mimi. She was impeccably dressed, […]
From Halong Bay we hopped a short flight south to the middle of Vietnam. Here the village of Hoi An has been preserved and restored using old-style Vietnamese architecture. We stayed nearby at the exquisite Nam Hai resort that is one of the jewel properties for the year. A “villa” at the Nam Hai includes […]
Why do so many Hanoi tourists suffer a jarring three hour drive through Vietnam’s endless rice paddies, just to spend an evening on the waters of Halong Bay? We boarded an (extremely well-appointed) old-style wooden junk to find out. The boat set sail at lunch and a few hours later we were gliding past startling rock formations jutting […]
Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam, a government center that is home to the country’s largest concentration of intellectuals and artists. Dusty construction confronts us in every direction. The city population just passed the 9 million mark and the streets are buzzing. This is the perfect place for cultural adventures. So much is foreign here […]
Could one tourist site account for nearly 10% of a nation’s economy? If the nation is Cambodia and the site is the extraordinary Angkor Wat, then by our admittedly rough calculations the answer is yes. Cambodia only has a national GDP of $11 billion, ranking 124th in the world. Some 2.5 million people per year […]
What’s there to do in Thailand outside of Bangkok? Plenty! Our favorite part of the trip was in North Thailand, a hilly area that was once the ancient Kingdom of Lanna, and is now a collection of nations and tribes split across the legal borders of Thailand, Laos and Burma. This region is geographically midway […]
As part of Road School, the kids are reading a textbook comparing eight major world religions. In the Hinduism unit we read about an ancient Sanskrit epic, the Ramayana which means Rama’s Journey. We had never heard about this story, but it is just as important in the East as the Odyssey or Gilgamesh. When […]
Where can you find Hindu Indians, Buddhist Chinese, and Muslim and Christian Malays living side by side in an island leased from a Sultan and developed by the British? The answer is George Town, a UNESCO World Heritage site and the capital city of Penang, one of the states of Malaysia. On its first morning out of Singapore, […]
Our friend Gordon told us that while we were in New Zealand, we better take a moment to enjoy the stars. Not only does New Zealand have clear air and low light pollution, but it is so far south that you get a fabulous view of the southern celestial sky. Our eyes were drawn […]
This is the true story of an Englishman who made a New Zealander dig forty-one holes in a hill, sixty years in the future. The Englishman J.R.R. Tolkien was born in Africa and came back to live in England at the age of three. His father and later his mother died of illnesses and he […]
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