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| Celebrating 150 days on the road at a sidewalk food stall in Rangoon, Burma (aka Yangon, Myanmar). |
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.
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
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| The five little angels in white sprint back to their mosque after helping us clean up a beach on the tip of Borneo. |
- 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:
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| Kip makes a new friend in the Philippines. |
