150 DAYS: A LOOK AT THE NUMBERS

Celebrating 150 days on the road at a sidewalk food stall in Rangoon, Burma (aka Yangon, Myanmar).

After eight countries and around 20,000 miles, we hit the 150-day mark of the trip this week in Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma.

While there have been plenty of teachable moments and surprises, the most shocking part so far is that Liz hasn't left Kip stranded in a rice paddy with a water buffalo (see photo 5), or that Kip hasn't killed us both in motorcycle wrecks (2) or cliff jumps/falls (many). Seriously. 

In celebration of reaching such an auspicious milestone safely (as if we need a reason to celebrate), we pulled up two plastic chairs at a sidewalk food stall in Yangon and ordered a tall, cold Myanmar beer, toasting to the simple pleasures of the traveling life while hoping we wouldn't get food poisoning.

Yes, we were sweating, the mosquitoes were feeding, a smelly stray dog sat under Liz's chair (which she loved), and the beer was actually a bit warm, but no matter. This was living! 

Inspired, we did a bit of calculating and came up with a few of the more interesting numbers from the journey thus far. It's been a long, strange trip indeed. 

• Countries visited: 8  (South Korea, Philippines, Palau, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, Thailand, Burma)
• Miles traveled: 20,000-ish (rough estimate...hard to calculate from here)
• Favorite place: Catanduanes, Philippines
• Cheapest hotel: $4 (Muang Ngoi Neua, Laos)
• Most expensive hotel: $74 (Demai Beach Resort, Malaysian Borneo)
• Favorite volunteer opp: Beach cleaning in Borneo 
• Places volunteered: 38
• Favorite 1 of 7 photo: See below
• Photos taken: 8,245

The five little angels in white sprint back to their mosque after helping us clean up a beach on the tip of Borneo. 

A few more:

• Books read: 28 each (long bus/boat/train rides; beach time)
• Weight lost: 10 lbs. each (third-world travel is guaranteed weight loss, whether you want it or not)
• Overnight buses: 10+ (saves a night in a hotel, plus you wake up in a new place; of course, you're exhausted, cranky, and confused upon arrival, but, hey, that's like every morning before work back home, right?)
• Times mobile phone rang: 0 (not that we have working phones, but still...)
• Times shaved/worn a suit/tied a tie: 0 (this one's for Kip)
• Times worn close-toed shoes: Twice (to hike a mountain and to prevent leeches)
• Missed flights: three (all Kip's fault)
• Pairs of flip flops worn out: 5

Second favorite 1 of 7 photo:

Kip makes a new friend in the Philippines.