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4 kids world tour year
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  • Flo M
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  • Flo M

4 kids world tour year

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 もっと詳しく
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  • 4 kids world tour year

    Beer Around the world

    2023年7月6日, 日本 ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    We are on the penultimate stop of the trip in Japan. We have been here already to the cultural central region. By popular demand, we have returned, but this time are travelling from the far north to the far south. Last time, we focused on imperial and religious sites. This time, the focus is more on the modern side of Japan and its wide variety of climates and landscapes.

    We only arrived late last night after two flights, a train, and a taxi. About 15 hours in total from Bangkok. So our first taste of Japanese culture was very brief but enjoyable . You see, we are in Hokkaido, the home of Japanese beer, and in particular, we are in Sapporo .

    Although Flo generally says when I offer her a beer, " Oh I don't think so" or "Probably not", that usually changes after I go shop to either a mild "can I have a taste", or that she simply takes one,... or two ... or even three. So I never just shop for myself.

    On a trip around the world, there are a few places with good wines, but nearly everywhere has its own local beer. Many of which never make it to the specialist beer shops in Europe. The standards like here in Japan are high, even if they can never surpass the best of Germany and the Czech Republic.

    What over half can do is offer really good beer at low or very low prices. Special mentions here for Mongolia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Chile. They also have decent size bottles and cans. Here, the clear winners are Chile (1.5l bottles) and Mongolia (2.5l bottles).

    Sapporo beer is not the cheapest, but boy, did it taste good after that long trip. And Flo? Well, she went from "a taste" to "where has MY beer gone?". I'll give you 3 guesses.    もっと詳しく

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  • 4 kids world tour year

    Crabs on your private parts

    2023年7月7日, 日本 ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    To quote the Cleveland Clinic, "Crabs, are tiny insects that live on your pubic hair, near your genitals. You can get genital crabs through close contact, such as sex. " In Japan, however, it seems crabs near your genitals is something to show off. See photo. If you don't like crabs, you can, of course, have potatoes instead.

    This is just one tiny example of strange, weird, and odd things in Japan.

    We spent the last couple of days exploring Sapporo and the nearby port of Otaru. I didn't take that many photos, but attached are some random ones.

    Some of the odder things you can't see or photograph easily. For example, nobody, but really nobody eats or drinks in the street. If like us you did, then you discover there are no litter bins anywhere. Why? because they are not needed.

    Then Flo suggested just walking along the road and window shopping for a restaurant. It's not the best idea, since over 90% of restaurants are not at street level. Nearly half seem to be underground, and most of the rest are in floors above shops or offices. If you find on Google a restaurant, you have to work out the last bit yourself because it doesn't say if it's underground or on the 8th floor. This can involve trying to match the Japanese characters in Google to the list of businesses in a building. "The first character is a box with a bit sticking out on one side, and three squiggly bits inside." "Is that it?" , "No, the squiggly bits are different!"¹    もっと詳しく

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  • 4 kids world tour year

    Great Train Journeys of the World

    2023年7月9日, 日本 ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Today, we start our train journey of Japan, about 2,500km from North to South.

    We started in Sapporo, and we will stop in Hakodate, Tokyo, Hakone ( Mt. Fuji), Osaka, Kayosan, Fukuoka, and Nagasaki, over the next 2 weeks.

    It's not that straightforward travelling by train, at least at 1st. In China, everything is in Chinese and English. In Japan, more often than not, no English. In China, it is easy to reserve online, with no tickets, just ID. In Japan, the opposite, though to be fair, they do have English speaking reservation desks at larger stations. But don't lose those tickets or you'll have to pay again.

    The next challenges are to find the right platform, the exact spot where your carriage will stop, and, if possible, to get on 1st because space for large bags is very limited.

    We had carriage 4 today, but at any given spot, you see little signs telling you that for the 7 different trains that use the platform, the stopping place for carriage 4 is different. See the photo, where Lola points to the correct sign for us.    もっと詳しく

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  • 4 kids world tour year

    Don’t mix up the flush and emergency

    2023年7月11日, 日本 ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C

    The journey today was 850km by bullet train from Hakomate to Tokyo. Journey time 4 hours and 40 minutes, so not as fast as Chinese trains, but still easily beats anything in Europe.

    Japanese trains are so clean that they are scary, especially if you have 4 children who randomly spread food and bits of paper everywhere. Although the Japanese are invariably polite, I can sense they are not totally at ease with our mess and our inability to be very quiet as they are.

    The highlight for most Europeans has to be the extensive bathrooms and wash areas. The toilets come with all the luxuries you would expect, such as heated seats and bum wash (didn’t try that, but in some countries, Hallo India, that would have been nice).  

    The downside of fancy toilets is that they have so many buttons that its easy to make a mistake, for example, bum wash instead of flush. Japanese railways seem to have experience of this problem, and so whilst you sit, you are educated on how to press the flush and how not to press the emergency stop. After reading this carefully I turned to the right and observed that the blue flush button has been made enormous (about 10cm) and the emergency button is pretty small (about 1cm) and as a result I had no difficulty in choosing the right one.

    The journey felt like it went pretty fast, and we arrived in the worlds busiest train station, still fit and ready to navigate to the local train that takes us to our hotel in the Akihabara part of town. Found it with only one problem (we were on the platform for the other way). In fact, the main problem today  for us travellers was that the heat is back, at about 33C. Though I hear it's way cooler here than at home.    もっと詳しく

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  • 4 kids world tour year

    Burglars in Tokyo must be fat

    2023年7月13日, 日本 ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    A couple of days ago, we arrived in the capital city, and since then, we have been doing a wide variety of things whilst eating sushi, sushi, or sushi.

    We went to Tokyo tower to prove yet again that the kids have no fear of heights and that my fear is down from a 10 to a 6 or a 7. We went to walk in the eastern gardens of the Imperial palace and roasted in the sun, and we visited the best known shrine in Tokyo (Senso-ji), where Flo and the kids were a bit underwhelmed having been before to Kyoto, Nara and Miyashima. Terrible these cultural snobs .  

    We just spent the entire day today in the emerging technologies museum, and after that the kids visited a light show, whilst I took a pass on the latter, and visited the sushi restaurant for a third day in a row. So if you want to hack my email , and you need to answer the favourite food question, then guess what?

    What I am fascinated the most by are the little quirks of the culture here. For example, I got on the packed subway tonight, and inside, I discovered everyone standing neatly in parallel rows. One half looking to the left, the other half looking to the right. It was like atoms lining up in a crystal formation (graphite crystal for chemistry insiders).

    The museum offered up one that ties in neatly with my ongoing fascination with Japanese toilets. An online questionnaire in which visitors can take part, asks if networking toilets would have benefits for individuals and society. Unsurprisingly, 87% thought this was a great idea, and indeed, it's not as stupid as it sounds at 1st. You see, you could weigh the pooper and analyse the poop and the pee, thereby giving the pooper feedback on health issues and society a method to quantify slow-moving stats like obesity or fast-moving epidemics. Sounds mad, but hey, progress through the toilet network might one day be as important as the internet.

    Oh, and you get the impression that everyone is really relaxed about safety and security. No stress to put a laptop on the luggage rack of busy train, and in our hotel, we have a front door with bars but no glass between them. The kids and many Japanese would pass through no problem. (I didn’t try because I was taking photos of the kids), but it got me thinking that any burglars in Tokyo must be failed sumo wrestlers or similar.    もっと詳しく

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  • 4 kids world tour year

    If only...

    2023年7月16日, 日本 ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    ...the weather had been better, then I would not have had to make a fake picture of Flo and the kids in front of Mount Fuji. We were at that location, but so was the mist and/or low cloud.

    It seems that when we visit some big volcanoes as in this case and in New Zealand, they go into hiding, but to be honest we are spoiled as we have seen literally hundreds of volcanoes in Iceland, Chile and Bolivia, and in Kenya we also really saw Kilimanjaro (not faking).

    Although missing Fuji was a bit of a disappointment for the kids (Flo and I have seen it before), the rest of the Hakone area was nice to visit, especially the Hakone shrine, where we had the luck to visit it when it was entirely empty. There, the misty background gave the whole place an eery mystical feel. The giant trees are impressive, as is the wonderful setting of the temple. Really special!

    We stayed two nights in the little village of Motohakone on the lake, again in a very small apartment for 6. Because the restaurants all closed early or didn’t stay open for dinner (only for day trippers), we had two treats. 1st night we had, because we had no other choice, pizza, and boy did it taste good. I love Asian food, but from time to time, the tastes from nearer to home are welcome. I actually can't remember the last time I had a pizza. The 2nd night, we stayed in, and Lola showed off her cooking skills by making us all a bowl of sukiaki. Delicious! If you are interested, Lola will cook you this for $50 per person.    もっと詳しく

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  • 4 kids world tour year

    Magical Koyosan

    2023年7月17日, 日本 ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    It's a strange experience when a graveyard with at least 200,000 dead can be uplifting, but that's just how it is in Koyasan.

    It took some effort and planning to get here. It may only be 70km from Osaka, but it took one metro, two trains, one cable car, and then a bus to get here, duration 3 hours. The accommodation is in a monastery, and I had to book this stay way back in April. More on that in my next post.

    It was so hot that we had an ice cream lunch. (Plain ice cream with Japanese pepper). Then we went walking through the graveyard, set on a magnificent hilltop woodland, covered in giant cedars. I think it's the perfect setting, the dappled lighting, and the calmness of the place that makes it strangely uplifting.

    We walked 2km through the graveyard to Okinuion temple and the nearby temple of lanterns. Both are very simple but also very tasteful.

    So if I ever make a list of top 10 graveyards, this one might be number 1.    もっと詳しく

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  • 4 kids world tour year

    1000yen ($7) can make you a billionaire

    2023年7月18日, 日本 ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    and for larger sums, you can be buried for 30,000Y( $210) exorcised for 10,000Y ($70), or you can buy a beer for $800Y ($6). All are available at the monastery sales desk( see their list and translation in the photos). All guaranteed except the billionaire one. That was Oscar's wish for the goma ceremony. That ceremony is the most powerful budhist prayer. Let's see if his wish comes true soon so that I can retire and have someone carry my rucksack.

    All this played out in the monastery Shojo-in, where we stayed in Koyasan. The rooms, classified as "pilgrim's lodging," were basic but comfortable. The toilets were shared but spotless, and the onsen bath was simply wonderful. Onsen is a Japanese hot tub.

    There were some rougher parts of the stay. For food, you have to sit cross-legged or kneeling on the floor. Uncomfortable!, and the day starts at 06:30 with a half hour long prayer ceremony. The goma prayers and wishes are at 1230. The nice staff tell us it will last about 30-40 minutes. She was only 90 minutes wrong, but it wasn't her fault because a group of people bought about 2,000 prayer sticks (2,000,000Y, $15,000), and the chief monk threw them into the fire one by one. See video. The poor monks and pilgrims close to the fire were dripping in sweat long before the ceremony ended.

    Both the morning ceremony and the lunchtime goma were super interesting. The style of the rooms is tasteful, and the monks exude calmness, but the goma with its repetitive chants and drumming reminded me of other situations whose aim is to create a trance or a frenzy.

    My prayer, though I didn’t write it down on a stick, is nowadays always the same, I want to live long enough to see my kids grow up. The last year has put behind me most of my worries about that, but now I have some vague hope that next time we travel, someone else will carry my rucksack.    もっと詳しく

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  • 4 kids world tour year

    Weird

    2023年7月18日, 日本 ⋅ ☁️ 33 °C

    On our way back from Koyasan, Lennox started saying, "Look." So I looked, thinking I should be looking for some strange insect. "I don't see anything."Just look at the picture." Indeed very weird, because it's a picture of our local train in Saanenmoeser! The picture says that it's part of a friendship . So it's not a random photo.もっと詳しく

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  • 4 kids world tour year

    Osaka shopping orgy and nightlife

    2023年7月19日, 日本 ⋅ 🌧 27 °C

    After 350 days, the demand for new clothes and shoes had reached the point at which the bubble had to burst. Clothes were worn out, children had grown, and on top there was a wedding in 10 days' time, and so the mega city of Osaka became the scene of our much needed shop. To be precise, the Dotonbori area.

    It's a fun place to shop and eat. The shops and restaurant lights are a Japanese Picadilly circus mixed with traditional white lanterns, giant food sculptures, and more .

    After the shops, we dined at the kids' favourite, Kappa Sushi, where I experienced a world 1st, namely draught beer delivered on a conveyor belt ( see video).    もっと詳しく

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  • 4 kids world tour year

    End of the line

    2023年7月21日, 日本 ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    Today, we took our last ride on the wonderful Shinkansen trains in Japan. Shinkansen simply means new main line, and fittingly our last stretch from Take-Onsen to Nagasaki is the newest of the new, having opened in 2022.

    Overall, they may need a new name since the main parts of the network were already running in the early 90s when I first visited. What doesn't need to change is the exceptional speed, reliability, and comfort of the services. I have no idea why anyone bothers with Green (=1st) class, as the standard class is all anyone could need.

    For visiting kids and I suspect adults, the train engine designs are innovative and exciting and seem to take their design cues from Marvel comics and science fiction. That is for all train types, not just the Shinkansen.    もっと詳しく

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  • 4 kids world tour year

    Iojima not Iwojima

    2023年7月21日, 日本 ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    It's impossible to visit Nagasaki and not think about what happened here on August 9th, 1945 . Today, like that day, there is a light cloud cover. The weather meant that the bomb missed its target by 3 kilometres, but it still killed 80,000. Looking up at the sky, it's simply not possible to visualise that terrible event.

    Modern Nagasaki is now a thriving port, with shipbuilding, naval docks, and big cruise ships.

    Off the coast are many islands, and so we decided to go to the one that was reasonably accessible and had a good beach Iojima.

    I had naively thought that was the island that was the scene of the bloodiest battle between the US and Japan, but although the islands names sound identical, they are spelt differently. Iojima, where we went, as opposed to Iwojima, WWII battle.

    The kids loved the beach despite the overcast skies, as did Flo and myself, and we enjoyed people watching the Japanese at the beach. Notable the complete body suits, hats, and gloves to avoid any risk of a sun tan, and the obsession with safety such as floation aid jackets and swimming rings even in shallow pools. Apparently the Japanese don't like swimming in the sea, and they are definitely afraid of UV light, so despite this being school summer holidays, the beach is quiet, and by 3pm its more or less empty.    もっと詳しく

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  • 4 kids world tour year

    Karaoke, food and underground bra shops

    2023年7月22日, 日本 ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    We couldn't really leave Japan without a karaoke night, so that's exactly what we did. After a few minutes of working out how the machine worked and scraping together a playlist, which was an eclectic mix of ABBA, Edith Piaf, The Doors, Marley, and so on, we got fully into the spirit if this Japanese night out that has captured the world.

    The kids put a lot into their singing without any need for alcohol. Flo and I did, however, make use of the all you can drink for $14 offer. Can't imagine such an offer in Europe not leading to chaos.

    We had intended before that to eat street food, but that was frustrated by the fact that you can't eat street food whilst standing or walking! You must sit on one of the 6-8 seats each stall has. Queues are long, and so the chance of getting 6 free seats was zero. Oh well, the frites at the karaoke went down well.

    At the start of the evening, we had walked into town, and we stumbled across yet another underground city. This one had two streets each 1.2km long, filled with all sorts of shops. This place was brand new and very tastefully decorated. It was also very quiet compared to Osaka or Sapporo. What better place than to shop for a much needed new bra? So we did look for the needle in a haystack of a C/D cup in Japan. In 3 shops. One, yes one, was found and promptly purchased.    もっと詳しく

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  • 4 kids world tour year

    Goodbye Japan さようなら日本 sayonara nihon

    2023年7月24日, 日本 ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    You can fly to Europe from Japan non stop, though not from the South Island where we are, but if your cash is running low, then maybe $2,000-3,000 per person is too high a price, especially when you can fly via other East Asian countries for $500. So that's why we are travelling to London via Hanoi, Vietnam. The journey is split over two days, so that we fly during the daytime, and the children sleep in a proper bed.

    We go to London to see Max-Alex andAlex-Max, friends and Nora's godmother Beyrouthahuit ( aka Nini).

    The 2nd visit to Japan that ends today has deepened and broadened our knowledge and experience of the country. Flo has grasped that you can't find a restaurant easily just walking and window shopping, because a huge percentage is below ground in the underground cities, or above on the 4th floor or above. Lola has learned how to make kaisaki and search for good, affordable restaurants. Lennox and Oscar have deepened their obsession with pokemon, and Nora has fearlessly engaged with the locals, asking them many, many questions. I have slept for the 1st time in a monastery and got up at the ungodly our of 06:30 for prayers.

    We all loved the food, at least most of us, most of the time, and we liked the ease of travelling on the bullet trains.

    We saw more of the unique Japanese culture, but I am not sure we understood it that much more. Why have street food you can't eat in the streets? Why are 99.9% neat and tidily dressed? All the time, why do workers only wear white shirts? Why don't they like swimming in the sea? Why are there no litter bins? Why are there very few trees in cities? Why for such disciplined people is the city planning, a totally unplanned mess? Why are there 50,000 7/11 convenience stores, but very few supermarkets? How can small shops afford to have so many staff? etc. etc.

    We don’t know, we don’t understand, but it's really good that the culture has been resistant to being overrun by Western culture. It's those cultural differences that make Japan so interesting.

    Goodbye, Japan, or more exactly a bientot.    もっと詳しく

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  • 4 kids world tour year

    Happy to he headed back but anxious

    2023年7月25日, イングランド ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Anyone who is a parent, or anyone who hasn't seen close friends since before Covid, will know the excitement of seeing those important people in their lives after such a long break. So I am really looking forward to our 3 days in London. But I am starting to get anxious, although maybe I shouldn't be, about going home after London and a couple of days at a wedding.

    Am I homesick? Well certainly a bit, because despite getting used to not showering for a week (Amazon) or two ( Mongolia), I really do prefer being clean, and the relaxation that comes with a good shower. But of course there are plenty of places where you can get a good shower. I could write the same about beds ( in Asia too hard) , in Mongolia ( too short). The same goes for wearing clothes for several days. I do miss my comfort foods like pasta and chilli con carne, I do enjoy good wines. All of that is available in many places. But strangely I do miss my home, maybe because with Flo I transformed it into a modern living space, but actually I think I miss it because its a comfort zone for the kids, and maybe us adults too, and I have no doubt that the kids need to go home and re-engage with their friends and benefit from the social aspects of school.  So I think strange as it may sound I am homesick on their behalf.

    The anxiety I think we all have to some extent is will we fit in again? Will we be happy being in one place? Will we want to escape the restrictions of a regular lifestyle? As Donald Rumsford famously said. "These are the known unknowns, but there are unknown unknowns." 

    I certainly know that what we did in the last year, we could do it again, but we can't do it forever. It wouldn't be fair to the kids, and at some point, we could easily break under the strain of being 24×7×365 together without any break, without any private space, without other anchors for the kids.

    I know kids will benefit hugely from this past year .  Seeing nature is better than any David Attenborough film, and experiencing other cultures 1st hand will ensure a positive attitude to those who are "different." I am hopeful that they are more sturdy and robust, for example the first experiences of markets in Africa, they found scary, but now looking back they tell us that was really nothing.and when a heavily armed Brazilian anti-drug squad unexpectedly boarded our Amazon ferry, they were not at all phased by the experience. I see that they are more flexible. For example, they are prepared to try all sorts of food, and they take for granted thar travelling often involves tiring journeys or petty annoyances. But they know its all worth it, and they know they can make friends on a hilltop in Rwanda or the seaside in Colombia. They have grown accustomed to change, and so it doesn't throw them off track. They have significantly  reduced the shyness everyone has and can now start a conversation with adults and children alike, even if they don't understand a word of the other person's language. They respect differences rather than being disrespectful, inflexible, or snobbish. In total, they have built a platform for a more enlightened and engaging future.

    So we have done it. We made it back in one piece. Two worrying hospitalisations in India for the boys. I was sometimes worried to be out of reach of sophisticated heathcare, but other than cuts bruises and insect bites, nothing major to report. We lost some things like 2 budget mobile phones, but we were never robbed or threatened with violence. Even in Peru, where we had to change our route because of political violence, we were not unsettled since we calmly changed plans.

    If we managed the past crazy year, it's curious to be nervous about normality, but maybe Flo has the right idea. Let's create a new normal.  For example, if we lived with a tiny number of clothes/gadgets/utensils for a year, why go fully back to the old ways? We didn't watch TV all year, so I have cancelled our TV subscription, and our house is likely to change and add some of the aesthetic styles we have encountered. Etc, Etc (Insider joke, thanks to Yul Brynner).  So maybe that's the landing zone, the new normal 😀.     もっと詳しく

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  • 4 kids world tour year

    The Romanians keep it going

    2023年7月29日, イングランド ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    By sheer coincidence, we end our world tour with a family reunion, aka wedding. To be precise, the wedding of the children's cousin Bryan and his girlfriend Anna.

    The nice ceremony in St Peters Church in Bishops Waltham was followed by an equally enjoyable drinks reception and dinner on Hayling Island. For the kids, it was a dream to meet everyone in a wedding setting, especially since the girls were flower girls, Oscar was a page boy, and Lennox read one of the lessons. For Flo, I am sure that it was special to see her dad again, not discounting anyone else.

    It's strange to be in England after visiting so many developing countries. The country makes a sad impression of a place in decline. Poor infrastructure, rickety housing, and hotels. Simple things like a shuttle to a car hire are dysfunctional. The "express" train travels at 30km/h, or simply doesn't move for several minutes. The little Englanders need a hard dose of reality if the decline is to be slowed or halted. They could start by visiting Asia, where many countries have a clear vision and are actually implementing a strategy effectively.

    The wedding reception ended a little earlier than planned, so we tried our luck with Uber, even though we were outside their area. One of two came, but the Romanian driver who did showed exceptional understanding and took all six of us, even though for him, he was taking risks with his licence. "I'm not going to leave you there at this time of night," he said. The next day, I went back to the same spot, and I asked the driver where he came from. He answered "Romania*". Strange that the little Englanders/Brexiteers don't like foriegners, since without them, nothing at all would work.

    * Please note that it's Romania 🇷🇴, not Rumania. They changed the English spelling to stop people thinking it had anything to do with Russia.    もっと詳しく

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  • 4 kids world tour year

    Home Sweet Home

    2023年7月31日, スイス ⋅ 🌙 16 °C

    After 365 days on the road, 165,000km travelled on/in...

    ... planes, boats, ferries, camels, trains, metros, trams, motorbikes, scooters, touk touks, taxis and buses, and a camper van, an open terrain 4x4, and hire cars...

    ...and sleeping in apartments, hotels, gers, camps, hostels, bedless ferries, as well as planes and long distance buses...

    ...with only 9kg each of clothes, gadgets, medicines, souvenirs and towels.

    We are HOME, as of July 31st 2023, after having left home on the same day a year ago. ( We decamped to France for a few days before setting off on August 5th, 2022).

    Let's see if we can cope with sitting on our bottoms for a while.    もっと詳しく

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    旅行の終了
    2023年7月31日
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