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4 kids world tour year

August 2022 - July 2023
  • Ezyian
  • Flo M
With mum and dad, we visit 36 countries on a world tour in 365 days. We visit schools, homes, and hospitals to experience the lives of other children Read more
  • Ezyian
  • Flo M
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Around the world, Backpacking, Camping, Culture, Family, Hiking, Nature, Photography, Wilderness, Wildlife
  • 198kkilometers traveled
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  • Flight164kkilometers
  • Train10.1kkilometers
  • 4x43,630kilometers
  • Camper3,547kilometers
  • Bus425kilometers
  • Car153kilometers
  • Tuk Tuk133kilometers
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  • Skiing-kilometers
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  • Barefoot-kilometers
  • 271footprints
  • 361days
  • 2.0kphotos
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  • 4 kids world tour year

    Registan, Samarkand

    September 19, 2022 in Uzbekistan ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    There are many Unesco world heritage sites, but Registan in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, it's really 5 star, 10 out of 10, unbelievable, and it beats all the superlatives you can think of. The only thing remotely compatible is the Taj Mahal in India.

    I had expected to see ruins  but in fact, these mosques and madrisas,  and other buildings here are almost in almost perfect condition. They cover such a vast area and they are so ornately decorated and tastefully decorated it has a something of a surreal atmosphere to it.

    Today we come at night just to see the whole thing as the sunsets and with the lights on it certainly will have a different atmosphere than tomorrow, when we have a guide and have the whole thing explained to us. However, even today there is no shortage of people who are willing to give us a little bit of a guide here and there, and explain the history including a guy who sells cloth but it seems to us he's more interested in explaining the history than selling cloth, and anyway he seemed to know we're not the buyers of that kind of stuff.    Read more

  • 4 kids world tour year

    It had to happen at some point

    September 20, 2022 in Uzbekistan ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    I survived 6 weeks in Africa, without the to be expected problems. Suffice to say this exemplary record is over. Shame it's in Samarkand, but I did see the best bits yesterday, and according to Flo, the tour guide was really useless. Worse, he cheated where he could. ( See Florence's blog when she catches up.

    Sleep and Coca-Cola seem to be doing the trick, if a little slowly.

    The host offered rather scary looking medicine, which I think I will take a pass on. Large yellow things ( drinks?) and black pills. I thought only Africa and South America had witch Drs.

    Pictures of Rigistan courtesy of Florence    Read more

  • 4 kids world tour year

    Bukhara

    September 21, 2022 in Uzbekistan ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C

    We spend a quiet morning in our hotel, whilst the kids do some studies. “When is the train?” “It’s the same time as when you asked yesterday!” We travel again using they excellent high-speed train.
    We arrive in Bukhara around 1pm. We are staying at a nice little hotel on the edge of the old city. It's hot, really hot, so we decide to rest for the afternoon and head out to explore around 5 pm. There are similarities and differences to Samarkand. Undoubtedly, the finest single place is Registan in Samarkand, but the most intact area is the old city of Bukhara. It has multiple madrasas, markets, and mosques all in the single old city from the era 1100 to 1500 when the city was at the peak of its grandeur and power. It also has a walled older city, fortress, right next door that dates from around the year zero. Both are remarkably well preserved / restored.
    I am still a little shaky with stomach troubles, and so I borrow some photos from Flo here to show some of the madrassas and markets.
    We end the day at a nice restaurant with local food. It's very relaxing with the beautiful surroundings of the old city.    Read more

  • 4 kids world tour year

    Bukhara day 2

    September 22, 2022 in Uzbekistan ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C

    I had asked the previous day for a guide so that we could understand more of the history. Strangely, the hotel had offered a guide for $30, but when I said yes, they did not respond, so at breakfast, I asked again via WhatsApp. He calls Flo and says the price is $50, so we say no, but surprisingly, he does not reduce his price. Not to worry , we are pretty sure we will find one ourselves, and we do at the tourist office. Flo uses her poker face to get the price down from $80 to $30. It's funny to watch at in the small cubicle we pay the tourist office lady at the front, and she pays the guide at the back door. How much she took is unclear. For reference, a school teacher earns $1.5 an hour, so a guide for what is $10 per hour is large enough to allow for a “tip” to the tourist office lady.
    At the hotel, we have the usual story that the credit card machine does not work, which for once, and so far only once, seems to be true. However, on top of that, they want to be paid for a cup. Nora accidently broke at breakfast, so I refuse, saying that is not normal. (In fact, this never happened to me before in my many travels) He wants 30,000 Soum, which may be only $3, but for him, that is 3 hours pay. I continue to refuse and ask for a receipt for our room payments. It’s the 3rd time I ask. Nothing forthcoming, so I tell him, OK lets ask the tourist police, who have a little office almost next door, what they say. The policeman comes, and no idea what he said, but all the problems disappear, the receipt is produced, and later as we leave we are driven to the trains station by the owner who apologises profusely and profoundly in person, and insists on carrying our bags all the way to the train door.
    The guide does show us things we would have missed , such as the oldest mosque from the 11th century, and he explains quite well who built the numerous madrassas, mosques, and markets. Later, he also takes us to the 2000 year old fortified city and runs through some highlights of the 3 small museums inside. At 1440, we say we need to leave to the train station. He talks to another tourist as we head off. We fully expect him to catch up, but he never does. Quite why , we do not know.
    We travel back to Tashkent at 4 pm with the normal, not the fast train, because it was sold out long ago. So the journey is 6.5 hours, as opposed to 4 hours, but the train is modern and comfortable, our only problem is we are almost out of local cash and so we share 3 microwaved hamburgers for our evening meal.    Read more

  • 4 kids world tour year

    Almaty Kazachstan

    September 23, 2022 in Kazakhstan ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    After a night in the Ak Saray hotel in Tashkent and an excellent breakfast, we head off to the airport. 1st Stop Almaty Kazakhstan. Had to again explain to the reception that the credit card machine does not work unless you switch it on 😉. Check-in takes a while as we have to fill out Covid declarations for all of us for India. (We fly to India with a 1 night stopover in Almaty Kazakhstan). I make that 60 pages we have filled out to be able to enter India (the online forms do not allow simple copy/paste or copying data from one passenger to another), and I expect some more when we actually arrive. Questions included the occupation of my (dead) father and occupation of my (dead) mother. Notes stated the question had to be answered even if they were dead. I had to choose a religion from a list of six or seven choices. None was not an option, and several religions seemed to be missing, and so on….
    Kazakhstan has for our family only existed as the caricature Borat (Sasha Baron Cohen). That means a picture of a largely underdeveloped agricultural country with male dominated social standards. His films show Kazakhstan as small villages with small basic houses and horse and cart transport. Well, although we love Borat, because his actual purpose is to tease out bias and racism in the US and Europe, I have to say a side effect is a totally unfair characterisation of Kazakhstan and its people. I suppose there is some basis for the caricatures, but what we see in the capital Almaty could hardly be more different. It’s a well-developed city, with broad tree lined streets and a magnificent backdrop of the Himalayas. The city sits at the northern end of a flat plain, making the steep rise of the mountains all the more dramatic. What is striking is just how green the city is. The streets in typical Soviet style are wide (4 lanes or more) and so despite a large number of cars there is little congestion, but unlike Moscow, Tashkent or other cities (nearly) all streets are tree lined, giving the city a pleasant feel.
    We are only in transit for less than a day, so we have the late afternoon in Almaty to explore a little bit and have some food. We take a Taxi the 20 minutes into the city for $4, and we explore the pedestrian area, the green market, some older landmarks and a revolution and war memorial, before we go to eat.
    The pedestrian area is the 1st one we have seen in 7 weeks, (though maybe we missed some in Israel), and it gives the centre a pleasant, unstressed feel, as we don’t have to dodge cars, rickshaws and motor bikes, and of course it reduces noise and pollution. It was all obvious and normal to us Europeans, but somehow striking after we missed it for two months.
    The green market really is a big market, with a huge floor space and two levels. It would be more aptly named green and red market, as the 2nd floor is mainly a meat market. The smell is for our European noses that are used to highly sanitised environments rather unpleasant, but the kids get to see I think for the 1st time all the parts of sheep, cattle and horses on 1000m2 of market floor. Much more pleasant is the 1st floor, which is a fruit and vegetable market. As we leave the Nora asks for strawberries, so I give her 1000 KST ($2), and say she should see how much she gets. Result 1.5 kg 😊. So the kids stuff their faces on fresh, naturally ripened strawberries.
    We stroll through a park with the revolution and war memorial, which is in classic soviet style. It is an almost comical mix of massive cartoons like tough soldiers and a much more tasteful eternal flame, which might be a remembrance of the fallen soldiers.
    Around 7:30pm we go for food, we don’t know what the restaurants offer, nothing in English, as there are so few tourists, but luckily the one we choose has some pictures and Flo gets google translate working on her phone. The result is a delicious meal of dumplings, grilled vegetables, kebab on a plate, and a very special dark toasted garlic bread. All washed down with a rather good local lager. Cost for all 6 of us around $40. The restaurant arranges a taxi back for the unbelievably low price of $2.    Read more

  • 4 kids world tour year

    Dehli: Arrival and Hotel Scams

    September 24, 2022 in India ⋅ 🌧 28 °C

    Up bright and early at 5:30 am for our flight to Delhi. Our bags are already checked through, and we have our boarding cards, so this should be simple, right? Well, not really. Kazakhstan’s border officials are really old style thorough. You must step up, one by one, no two adults together, photo taken. Passport inspected thoroughly in normal and UV light, passport corners inspected for damage or manipulation, etc. So passport control is sloooow, but thankfully, the ques are not too long. Bags are scanned twice, and boarding passes are checked multiple times. Finally, at 0645, we board Air Astana, and the flight is a pleasant 3 hours with great service.
    I forgot to mention that whilst boarding the aeroplane, we are again treated with a great view of the Himalayas, and we see them too as we later fly over Eastern Pakistan.
    Side Note: This is our 10th flight in Africa & Asia, and the experiences are all exceptional compared to Europe. Not a single cancellation or delay. Boarding on time, no bags lost. Good food and well train flight staff. All that from airlines most will never have heard of, such as Rwandair, Airlink, Air Astana, Uzbek Airways, and the maybe better known Air Egypt and Ethiopian Airways Nowadays, all fly the latest versions of Boeing or Airbus jet aircraft, gone are the days of old Soviet planes and ex-Soviet Airforce pilots. As far as I could tell, most pilots were local, and quite a number were women, so more small improvements for local people.

    Drum roll…..and now for….India!

    We have warned the children that India will be different. The ex-Soviet countries we have just visited are calm and spacious, and there are few hassles or risks. Let’s see how this goes…

    Arrival at the airport, slow and bureaucratic as we expected, with a new loop to jump through at passport control, boarding passes, please. Flo has 5, and I don't have mine. There is no point in asking why, but we get through by handing him the same boarding pass twice. Getting cash, not a big problem, but the max amount is very low, getting a SIM card, easy, but it will be activated at 8pm (this turns out to be a big problem).

    We find the pre-booked driver and head off, no apparent problems. 45 min drive, we "arrive," but the hotel name is wrong. "Ah sir, we are part of the same group, and the other hotel is full, and we have a better room for you here." Sounds, of course, suspicious, so we say we want to be taken to the Hotel Aira that we booked. So, after a bit of toing and froing we go to the Aira. That also looks a bit questionable and not like the photos on booking.com. Similar yes, but there are windows in a place where on Bookings there are none. It's all so dubious that we decide to cancel and look for another place. We find for the same price, the Ritz (Delhi). Of course, it's not the Ritz [Carlton Chain], but it turns out to be quite decent, and we get 2 of the 3 executive rooms. Before we congratulate ourselves too much, let's wait till tomorrow to see what surprises this hotel might bring.    Read more

  • 4 kids world tour year

    Touk Touk Delhi

    September 25, 2022 in India ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    The Ritz hotel turns out to be quite nice, feels safe, and the food is very good, so cancelling the other one and moving here for the same price was a good move. Later we realise its walking distance to the main station from the Ritz, so even better.
    It's Sunday, and it seems that in central Delhi, most shops are closed, and it turns out that so is the clothes market we planned to visit to fill some gaps in the kids' sets of clothes. Indians are however ever helpful with shopping suggestions, (often because they get a kickback), but in this case it seems mostly to be genuine friendly help, and so we find a clothes shop that is open. It sells itself as a market, but in fact it’s a shop with multiple rooms. Lennox manages to buy a nice long blue patterned shirt, Nora gets a classic orange top, and Oscar gets his trousers repaired, but Lola goes empty-handed at this point.
    We then take a touk touk for a quick tour of New Delhi: India Gate, Presidents House, Parliament, and then an old Mogul well, which dates from the 14th century. I think the main highlight was actually the drive of all 6 of us in the touk touk.
    In the evening we ate at the hotel, as we did every night in Delhi. A mix of curries, breads, and rice dishes.    Read more

  • 4 kids world tour year

    Noida Educational Academy

    September 26, 2022 in India ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Monday morning, it’s time for school. But for a change it’s Indian school! With the help of Bernard and his contacts at Initiative for Change, we all have the opportunity to visit an Indian school. (Probably later in Nagaland we will visit more). We head off to the school, which is a suburb called Noida. 10 years ago it was a village, soon it will have a population of 250,000. They have built 25 high rises with apartments, and more are sprouting up. There are large commercial centres. The school was started 20 years ago, Noida Educational Academy, or NEA for short. This is an English school. It’s in the old village, and so it's surrounded by chaos. Loud streets with a huge amount of activity. In Europe, we have loud streets, but we don’t have the Indian smells and hazards. I step in a cow-shit and spend the next few minutes trying to scrape it off before we get to the school. (Seems to be successful, as there is no trace on the school doormat).

    The welcome at the school is simply off the scale of anything I have experienced before. I have had the CEO’s driver pick me up in Milan, a flag put up in my honour, invites to the private dining room of the company President, etc, but all of that is courtesy, not a genuine warm welcome. The school leader (not sure of his title) is Guruprem. He is an incredible character. He lives his philosophy of seeing and bringing out the best in people. He has developed a school culture that takes the best practices abroad, e.g., Finland, and adapts them to Indian culture. Back to the welcome, we start in the Chairman’s office with tea, water, coconuts, and cakes. The chairman, a supreme court judge, pops in to say hello. Then we move to the school hall , where we are all given a bindi (red mark on the forehead) and flower garlands. The hall is full with 2? 4? Classes of 5 and 6 year olds. We are invited to sit down on a couch, and we listen to a story told by the teachers with the aid of puppets. They tell the story 1st in Hindi, and the in English. This in itself is amazing, but it's followed by lots of dancing, where we and the children are invited to join in. The teachers show the children how to do the quirky Indian moves.
    Next, we visit a maths class, where they are learning how to use an abacus. I'm not sure about the age, but they are able to add and subtract up to 5 figures. They talk about concepts, so I guess they are possibly aged 9 or 10. 2nd lesson from a different teacher is an introduction to fractions. The two teachers really are exemplary in bringing maths to life and engaging the students.
    Finally at the school we have a show from the 15 and 16 year olds telling the story of the god Rama. It’s a strange mix of verbal storytelling, miming to playback music, acting, and dancing. It's certainly local culture and not pseudo American or English. I am most impressed by a young girl/woman dancer who really dances well and makes anyone see just how much skill is involved in certain dances.
    We take photos as do the school kids, and they are all shared on WhatsApp. Florence has posted lots of these on her blog.
    The hospitality is not finished. The children are given books and other things as gifts, and Florence and I receive a book and two mandalas. All very nice. All not needed, so to speak, what did we do to deserve this? But still it fits with the wonderful atmosphere and it's very nice.
    It's still not finished, next up, lunch, and what a lunch. A large mix of Indian starters, mostly cooked on an in-table grill, and then a buffet of main courses and a buffet of desserts. Delicious.
    No words can really describe the experience of this visit.
    Florence had managed to smile throughout and be engaging, whilst hiding the fact that she was not feeling that good. Amazing job! So when we get back to the hotel, she and Nora take a long nap, and as has been the case on previous days we eat at the hotel, though Flo, thinks better than eat the Raita she ordered, after she sees it and thinks, hmm that yogurt could be dodgy.
    All to bed early, even me at 2200 for an early start. We have the train to Amritsar at 07:20.    Read more

  • 4 kids world tour year

    Delhi to Amritsar

    September 27, 2022 in India ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Up at 0600 for our train to Amritsar that leaves at 0720. I had checked how long it took to the train station, just 6 minutes by foot, and checked the security, only minor queues. So what could go wrong? Well, it's not wrong, but baffling is the station announcement board. It's an old style large board. It runs slowly in English and Hindi through all the morning trains. Finally we see our train. It says “D01”. Ok, but what does that mean? We ask some people who seem to have no clue, so we pass through the security in a couple of minutes. We are on platform 1. I open the app to see if it tells us more, and some lady tells us to find the train number. But shit the app won’t work. (It worked OK, even with a poor signal in Namibia), but here in the main train station in Delhi, it doesn’t!). So I look up emails and find a train number. A helpful porter takes us to platform 5. Now the app works again. Which carriage? E2. This train does not look right, so I show the porter the train number again. Ah, that is platform 1! (where we started). So we all traipse back to platform one and get on our train, in the right carriage, and in the right seats.
    I knew you could order food on Indian trains, but I did not know you could also have breakfast, lunch, or dinner at your seat. We were in the process of ordering lunch via the app, when a steward asks us if we want breakfast, but that is 175Rupees extra each (€2.20). Hmm, maybe not a bad idea for the kids, so we ordered 4. We will try the app for food later. That has a huge variety on offer. It works, such that provided you order an hour in advance, the food will be brought to you at the next train stop. You can order up to 1000Rupee (€13) and pay cash. In India you get a lot of food for that amount. Roughly enough for 3 or 4 people.

    The train is perfectly OK , even if the description 1st class is a stretch. We arrive 30 mins late, mostly because just before arrival, the train stops and doesn't move for nearly 20 minutes.

    We meet our pre-arranged driver, Manpreep, without a problem despite his description being a bit vague, "red turban under the flag of India." Two problems (1) There are two flags (2) Red turbans are rather common in Punjab. Nevertheless, with Whatsapp, we find Manpreet. Big surprise, he does not have a car, he has a touk touk, but it's adapted with two rows of seats and a roof rack for luggage. With our luggage, we all fit.

    Later, it's clear that a touk touk made sense since cars aren't allowed in the narrow streets of the old city. 25-minute ride cost $4. Not bad.

    Our hotel is called Heaven View, because if we were 15m tall, we would have a good view of heaven ( the golden temple). At least it's correct that we are really close to the temple. Certainly less than 100m.    Read more

  • 4 kids world tour year

    Remebering a shameful colonial massacre

    September 28, 2022 in India ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    The Jallian Wala Barg is one of the most disgraceful massacres of the British Empire. Of course, all massacres are disgraceful, but some have a perverse logic. What general Dyer did in Amritsar in 1919 defies any logic. It was unprovoked mass murder. The park that was used then by thousands to celebrate a religious festival is now a memorial park. There is still the well where 120 bodies were found. There are still walls with many bullet holes in them. It’s a sombre, tasteful place of remembrance. What did Dyer and his troops do? He had issued a blanket ban on protests in the region, in part to prevent Ghandi from coming. In the Jallan Walla Barg, the locals congregated to for a religious festival, but Dyer classified this as protest. He marched his soldiers into the park and ordered them to fire until their ammunition was used up. Panic ensued, and an untold number died. At least a 1000, possibly more. A rare thing in those days, even the British Empire found Dyer had gone too far, but gave him a very light punishment. He was only relieved of his position and banned from further employment in India. However the massacre did have some impact in that, afterwards the use of force was to be a last resort and new approaches to dealing with protests were implemented, but there were situations where the British felt pressured and they went back to shooting without reason.

    In the last two months, we have seen so many terrible examples of colonialism in Africa, and now in India. If I am not mistaken, none of this is taught to children in England. Instead, they "teach" that Britain was the good guy against Napoleon, WWI, and Hitler . On its own ok, but totally lacking balance.    Read more

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