All of our gadgets and tech unpacked when we got home!

I know what you’re thinking… didn’t you venture out into the world to get away from it all? Didn’t you successfully cut the electronic cord, shedding all the distractions to engage in daily debates, conversation and non-electrified noble pursuits? The short answer is, no! The behind-the-scenes reality of our journey, and the ability to leave home for a year, given educational priorities, career aspirations, visions of blogging grandeur and an obsession with photography demanded tools of the trade… times seven!

No one has ever accused us of traveling light, and the Trip Around the World kept our reputation intact. There was probably over 300 pounds of equipment that we carried and divided between our seven suitcases – all referred to as Troop Gear. Each time we moved locations, troop gear was assembled and divided up between each of us. This gear represented at least 50% of the weight carried across the world by us, including all of the technology, gadgets and the 35 pounds of text books the three older kids required to stay in educationally good graces. Most of it turned out to be useful; some not as necessary. Did we really need an electronic scale? No, Wescott, we probably did not. Did each member of our team need a personal iPad Mini? A resounding absolutely from all of us. Can you rely just on iPads, and leave your laptop behind? No, not if school work, travel booking, blogging and business planning are part of your agenda. Did everyone need their own camera? Maybe not, but the 80K + images will be with us forever!

For those of you contemplating a similar journey, here are a few tips from us:

Only have one cell phone with a US contract. We figured out half way through the trip that it was a lot more economical to buy a cell phone that you could swap out the SIM card in each country for a local phone number and plan. Skype was going to be our main go-to communication system to talk to people back home. However we realized that in many places, the WIFI just isn’t strong enough to support consistent connections. Lisa and I were fairly regularly on conference calls to places across the globe, and eventually we realized that having people call us on our local cell number was a much more reliable communications technology than relying on the Internet. In those first few months of travel, when we still relied on our AT&T iPhones for reliable connections, we had some horrendous cell bills!

Tech Check is Your Friend. While there were many things we probably didn’t get right on the trip, we did a great job at Tech Check, which we credit to coming home with all of the devices we left with. Almost every day that we would venture out into the village, city or countryside of the resident country, Lisa or I would yell the familiar “Tech Check!” call. That meant all iPads, computers, cameras, lenses, hard drives and phones needed to be collected and deposited into a designated suitcase, which was locked up. After a couple of countries, we realized that since all of our suitcases were cloth, it would be pretty easy to cut into our technology booty. So we ditched one of the bags and bought a hard suit case with built in locks, upgrading our security. Really tech check was more about keeping track of items and not leaving them scattered about for an easy poach than a highly secure vault; and the results kept us theft free for the entire year.

Be wary of Cellular Internet Service. When we arrived in Seville, Spain, we settled into our awesome apartment and reveled in the speed and power of the most awesome Internet service. With 7 iPads humming, YouTube videos, Skype calls and iTunes downloads abounded in the first 24 hours. And then, the pipe ran dry! Like a cripple trying to climb Everest, downloading an email took 10 minutes. The video player and Skype laughed at the mere click of intention. It was like cement was poured into the digital river of ones and zeroes keeping us connected. It tuned out that the house had a cellular modem, which only had 3 GB of data allocated a month. And, there was pretty much no way to get more bandwidth allocated! So much for productivity at the apartment. Wescott needed connectivity for online high school, and I was trying to speak to YouTube Creators around the globe. We spent a lot of time at a cafe in our neighborhood that offered unlimited WIFI. Actually, that turned out to work in our favor, as we met a wonderful friend named Julian, who took us under his wing for the 2 weeks we spent in Seville. We also ended up renting a room at local hostel in order to do Skype calls from midnight to 3 am, since the cafe was closed!

Sleeper Device that was Awesome: LED projector. On a whim, I purchased a tiny LED projector that measured 6″ x 5″ x 2.5″ so we could watch movies as a family. This turned out to be such a fun addition to the trip. We watched Khan Academy videos about art history, movies from iTunes and documentaries about a given location on whatever wall  that worked in our current home. We didn’t use it every week, but it turned out to be a fun event we all enjoyed, and I would definitely take it again.

Bring a Couple of External Hard Drives. We live in a data-intensive world. Our phones shoot HD video. Our cameras create large files for each image. When you’re traveling, pictures and videos eat gigabytes like a legion of ants defoliating a jungle. That GoPro camera you think would be fun to use? It is fun, but just that one device required 300GB of storage per country! Luckily, external hard drives are tiny, light and packed with storage. We used 3 individual terabyte drives to support the 3 computer hard drives on our laptops. Luckily, we had no major crashes; but we needed almost every ounce of storage space.

Online High School is a Really Deceiving Name. The University of Nebraska offered a great solution for Wescott to complete his sophomore year of high school while traveling around the globe through their online course offering. While assignments, projects and tests were submitted online, all of the course materials took the form of workbooks… 35 pounds of workbooks! Given our spotty Internet connections, good old print and paper remained a relevant technology that allowed for theoretically consistent studying… if only there was a solution for procrastination…then we may have been able to shed pounds sooner in the trip as Wescott completed each class!

For you shoppers out there, here is a list of the technology and devices we took across the globe:

• (7) Apple iPad Minis
• (4) MacBooks – we started with one 11-inch MacAir thinking we could all share, which lasted about a month before we realized that wouldn’t work; then added a 13-inch MacBook Air that Mouni brought to Vietnam for Wescott as he needed a dedicated machine for school; then added a MacBook Pro for Cliff when he traveled back to North America for work; then added our other MacBook from home when we got to Carmel for Otto to code!
• (6) cameras including a Leica film camera, a Cannon 5D SLR, (3) waterproof Lumix point and shoots, and a GoPro Hero 3
• (1) mini tripod (never used it!)
• (5) SLR lenses
• (5) iPods
• (2) iPhones
• (2) Samsung phone with local SIM cards
• (2) wireless keyboards for the iPads
• (1) electronic weigh scale
• (15) Apple charging cords
• (7) Binoculars for safari
• (3) Headphone splitters
• (14) sets of headphones, thinking we’d lose some, which amazingly, we didn’t!
• (1) Jambox speaker for dance parties and movie watching
• (1) Optoma LED mini projector
• (7) headlamps / flashlights
• (1) solar charger (never used it!)
• (3) USB Memory sticks
• (3) 1 Terabyte external hard drives
• (2) sets of International electrical adaptors
• (300) Kodak T-Max 100 B&W film
• (14) Workbooks for University of Nebraska
• (4) Math textbooks
• (1) Literature textbook

Creativity and Entrepreneurship also abound and seem to sit at the center of this energy, often combining themselves in the most interesting ways. Whether it is an artist merchandising his craft along an idealic path meandering through an even more idealic rice paddy; a Balinese woman thoughtfully preparing the morning’s offerings that festoon every threshold, alter and offering ledge; or a restaurant concept that encapsulates an entire way of life with health, nutrition and wellbeing;  ingenuity and artistry are shared by locals and transients alike. Indeed, the Balinese are renowned for their art and craft, drawing people from all over the world to it’s cultural heart. Which is why, I think, that even though there has been so much change, development and growth since our first visit almost 20 years ago, the Island, and specifically Ubud, continues to be such an energetic, magical place that pulls us in every time.

The beauty of offerings are a daily show in Bali

An unlikely establishment made almost entirely of bamboo, called Hubud, is a great example of how this energy comes together to form something new and unique. Hubud is a co-working space; on the face of it, not much more… Surely, you may ask, there must be a cooler place to highlight in this world-renowned jungle town? Which may be the case if it was just a co-working space, but like everything in Bali, it’s so much more.

Yve and I in front of Hubud

After ascending the stairs for the first time, kicking off my flip-flops outside the front door, and walking into the small lobby, I felt immediately like I was at home, with my kind of people. The energy of innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship buzz and hum as you walk around the main floor, set up with shared worktables arranged in clusters. A glassed in conference room beyond the main work area has a group intently looking at a PowerPoint presentation. Laptops and large monitors set up for the day litter the tables as people work individually and in small groups. Past the galley kitchen, offering free coffee and tea, a swinging door leads out to a garden patio that features a large laptop bar overlooking serene rice paddies, a Living Food Labs raw food bar, where eclectics eat lunch and sip healing tonics, and a grassed courtyard replete with huge beanbag lounges for the more casual thinker and collaborator.

The Living Food Lab, where you can grab a raw lunch to keep you creative and productive

We joined immediately! After all, we fit their mission perfectly. Work-life balance is a hallmark of the entrepreneurial lifestyle in Bali, which is one of the core principals of Project Equator, where Lisa and I connect our family with cultures around the world while starting a new digital media venture. Hubud celebrates this value as a means to success, where so many incubator / shared work environments promote  the opposite, where an atmosphere of a more unbalanced, work-til-you-drop mentality persists.

For the past year, Lisa and I have embodied the concept of Digital Nomad, of which there is a whole tribe that makes up the Hubud family. At a welcome lunch where we sat down with the co-founder of Hubud, Steve Munroe, and a band of global, digital nomads from around the world, we were immediately struck with the diversity of talent, yet singularity of attraction, to this magnetic temple of sustainability. We’ve met several entrepreneurs in and around the Bali community, and the sense of connection and collaboration mirrors the karmic roots of the Balinese people.

Zen courtyard to hang out in, drink a healthy juice combo, or grab a beer with friends.

Me hanging out in the skype booth after midnight!

We all frequented Hubud over the course of our 2+month stay in Ubud. Wescott, Yve and Otto joined, using it as their school library and cool hangout often. Our buddy Ben, a 21-year old entrepreneur who is staying with friends Wendy and Walker, could always be found working on one of three businesses he had conceived and launched in a matter of weeks. Lisa and I had a few late night calls in Hubud’s Skype booths, reveling in the 5G Internet connections we craved for so much of the trip. We joined in on a mixer, where nutritious juices were replaced with beer, wine and pizza, offering a chance to meet many creative, entrepreneurs, designers, bloggers and personalities. It all just felt perfect, set in a perfect place.

Our buddy Ben, getting a cucumber eye treatment with Otto at Tuck and Jones birthday party

Communal atmosphere, open 24 hours per day

Gazing out across the mature rice plants bending gracefully with their almost-ripe grain heads, my laptop keys untouched for the past several minutes, I am struck with a sense of the energy that is, in fact, a collective generation of an unseen vortex, spiritual crystals, positive karma, centuries-cultivated creativity and an undeniable entrepreneurial spirit. It is a collaborative evolution, started and cultivated by the Balinese, and amplified by a fascinating, eclectic, imaginative, grounded, seeking set of visitors. I am powered up, renewed, refreshed and ready to take on the next chapter thanks to a nice pit stop here in Hubud. To all my digitally-nomadically inclined friends out there, here’s a piece of advice: come to Bali, join Hubud and let the creative process begin!

There is an endless supply of inspiration to work by in Ubud… Here’s another nice place to work quietly by serene rice paddies at Pomegranate Cafe…

We go through a 5-gallon container a water almost every day… here’s Jones brining back the empty to Ketut’s house.

After a few weeks in Ubud, we’ve realized a whole new nutrition and taste cornucopia all centered on different water options, and tap water will just never be the same. For instance, did you know that the glass of water that is potentially sitting next to you as you read this post most likely is not balanced, which may wreak havoc with your alkaline levels within your body? You need Kangen water! At Alchemy, the family-favorite raw, vegan breakfast and lunch mecca located a short stroll from our villa, they sell it in beautiful, tall glass bottles. Like an Amex-double-secret-black-diamond-onyx-clear-card, just holding the bottle elicits knowing, accepting nods from the impossibly hip and cool “feathers and leathers” crowd. Indeed, you’re comforted in knowing that all vegetables and fruits are hand-washed in Kangen water before Alchemy will serve it to you on banana-leaf woven plates (also washed by said water). What is it? Well, supposedly it’s alkaline-balanced H₂O, where the positive and negative electrons have been balanced in harmonious rows, thus bringing peace, love and understanding between the various intestinal organs that keep your engine purring.

Kangen Water at Alchemy

Of course, sometimes you need your water to do more for you than just hydrate in an alkaline-balanced way. Enter coconut water, loaded with nutrients and fiber to sustain your next 2-hour yoga session. It is also purported to help cure  hangover, facilitate digestion, boost hydration and reduce blood pressure! Wescott’s prefers his daily drink of choice, served in chilled, raw coconuts, with the top hand-machete’d off. In case a natural coconut vessel proves elusive, however, there are several brands of organic, freshly bottled versions to be found throughout Ubud as well. For the true connoisseur who wants to take things to the next level, try Alchemy’s Cocobiotic Water, which infuses food culturing, or probiotics, into the mix of healthy goodness.

Wescott and his beloved fresh coconut water

At another organic, vegetarian restaurant called Five Elements, we had a couple of aquatic options to choose from. Under an architectural temple of bamboo, the waiter started us off with common pitcher water, but luckily it had been infused with apple, lemon and mint, so we could actually drink it. The menu featured other options such as Sparkling Rose Water and Young Coconut Water. To add to the celebration and art of water, the restrooms featured the coolest faucet, fashioned from a long bamboo pole dangling magically above a natural boulder with a polished sink carved from its top. Holding your hands under the bamboo caused a beam of ethereal light to illuminate your hands as pure water tumbled naturally from the long bamboo pipe, reminding you that you are indeed in Oz.

Cool sink at Five Elements

Like so many aspects of daily life and ritual here on Bali, art is infused in the simplest things, including water. Ancient irrigation channels move water everywhere in our village of Penestanan, the town of Ubud and the surrounding rice terraces, originally built over 1,000 years ago. The state of zen realized by the almost constant vision of bubbling, running water serves as an inspiration for health and sustenance, in which water is at the root for us humans, especially the health-crazed enlightened of Ubud. All of the choices, flavors and forms of what used to be plain old water are certainly fun, but also serve as a reminder for me of just how precious and savored water needs to be as humans not-so-slowly squander this life-giving resource.

At this local hangout, not only is the water filtered and UV rayed, the water is blessed by the staff with a Balinese offering each day!

Man carrying grass bundle was the only traffic on my early morning run

Taking a break from Project Equator has been a whirlwind, leaving me with many great experiences, lots of travel and refreshed perspective on our family gap year. The creative energy of entrepreneurship, the collective experiences of world travel, the nourishment of true and rich time with my family, and the self-awareness of starting “the second half” as the half-century milestone passes for me all combine into a stream of possibility and joy that is represented perfectly here in Ubud, Bali.

Rice paddies next to the Camphuan Ridge Trail

When I arrived at the foot of Penestanan, where over 100 steps looked down on me as I exited Ketut’s car (our host and village Chief), I was beyond excited. Like a flood of brain cells unlocked from 18 years earlier, I had the warm bath of familiarity, returning to the small village within Ubud where Lisa and I honeymooned in 1995. Like one of those dream sequences in a movie, Ketut pointed up the seemingly ancient stone steps and said “head on up and you will find your family.”

The entrance gate to Rumah Cinta

After weeks of separation, I couldn’t believe I was coming home… and what a magical, mystical purely awesome home it is! At the top of the steps, guarded by stone gods at each terrace, Ketut’s wife Made pointed me down a narrow stone path bordered by an ancient irrigation channel gurgling water to now extinct rice paddies. A series of wooden signs and pinned posters hinted at a myriad of yoga studios, organic restaurants, raw cooking schools, progressive art studios and ads for various assortments of accommodations. With the directions “follow the path and take a left at Intuitive Flow, you’ll be home,” I continued on.

Made, part of the family that is taking care of us, loaded with the morning’s offerings on the path outside our villa.

Upon taking the left, a narrow path adorned with a Hindu alter, fresh offerings and a bright yellow ceremonial umbrella led to a wonderfully elaborate stone and carved wooden gate, with the doors open to embrace me as I entered the compound. A seemingly unreal and exotic tropical garden greeted me, with rich, rubbery greenery, brightly colored flowers, serene statues, a quintessential negative edged pool and a stone villa all hit my senses as I dreamily floated in. That evening, we enjoyed a magical reunion and 50th birthday festivities, serving as my first of many scrumptious organic meals from our neighboring Yellow Flower Cafe delivered to our outdoor teak dining table by the restaurant staff. Like we’d been calling this oasis home for years, I finally reconnected with my family and was swiftly absorbed back into our familiar bubble developed over the months of International travel.

I am dripping with sweat in the swiftly rising temperature, harkened by the rising sun streaming over the surrounding hilltops, as I run past Balinese women cutting rice stalks in the fields on either side of me. The quiet of dawn is slowly transitioning to another peaceful day in the hills above the bustling town of Ubud. I know I should turn around, not wanting to over-work my slowly recovering body from a previous year of stress and work, but I can’t seem to get off the carousel of quixotic, pastoral scenery sliding by. But inevitably, my knees remind me that it is time, just as I come up on a small path that leads to a small temple and offering alter, fresh with the herbal scent of still-burning incense. As I take a breadth and prepare for the reverse run back, I couldn’t feel more at home anywhere else in the world.

Tuck and Jones hiking the Ridge Trail

It’s a surreal experience re-entering America after nearly 7 months. I stepped on American territory first in Toronto, entering through a gate at the airport terminal declaring my official entry into the country, opposite the gleaming green and white mermaid sign pointing towards home.  In a wash of patriotism, my first reentry point was Washington DC, kicking off my first of many meetings to get our new venture, Teneology, off of the ground.

After visiting so many amazing, chaotic, bustling international cities, Washington’s luxuriously spacious neighborhoods, broad avenues and organized traffic felt decadent. Just a couple of days ago, I was peddling my 2-seater bicycle, Otto in tow, through the continuous pulse of motorbikes, electric trucks, noisy cars and every manner of pedaled vehicles surrounded by a cacophony of neon Chinese characters, propaganda billboards and vendors squatting on all available sidewalks hawking their wares. Now, as I jogged up the National Mall, the pristine organization and sheer massiveness of the multitude of marble facades seemed completely unreal. The sidewalks and convenient walking paths lined with every conceivable shop, restaurant and convenience, all neatly tucked behind clean sheets of glass and well-kept facades made me feel slightly disoriented as I ran past.

Pausing my run for a breadth (OK, a lot of breadths) in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, I gazed at Michelle Obama’s celebrated kitchen garden and was struck by the contrast to the markets with piles of fresh produce, meat and fish carted into the city by donkeys and motorbikes each morning, laid out on muddy cobblestones through the twisted, smoky alleys of Marrakech and felt a sense of disconnection. It left me longing for a fried worm cake and a glass of Hanoi street beer as hordes of baby joggers, Lulu Lemon spandex and machine-cut army joggers breezed past me.

Now, as I sit at our kitchen table, with our three dogs lounging at my feet, the disorientation has begun to fade. Between stops in Austin, Denver, Vancouver and now Seattle, my familiar life has fallen into place almost too quickly. It’s as if in a blink of an eye, 7 months of travelling across the globe has evaporated with a pop, Besides a new bulk food center at the South End QFC and the loss of one of our ornamental trees in the garden, it appears as if little has changed in our old bubble. Except, as I look out over the rich green trees and the snow capped Olympics beyond the lake, everything feels enhanced, kind of like seeing a high definition television screen for the first time.

It’s a cliché, but the reality is that we have it pretty good. It is a wonderful bubble we operate in, and the excitement of building a new company again washes over me like a welcome soak in the hot tub after a long day. Seeing friends and family after so many months, meeting creative entrepreneurs building exciting ventures and piecing together a new future with Lisa for life when we inevitably all pierce the travel bubble is its own adventure. But I am realizing that our nomadic family unit living in the ever-present bubble of wanderlust, exploration and connection has shifted my perspective, knocking out a complacency I had been previously unaware of.

While on one hand piercing the bubble and stepping into the control room for a few weeks is kind of a bummer, I think it will help focus and crystalize the last 4 months of the trip for all of us. When you’re in the moment, experiencing everything the world has to offer, time can stand still. Stepping out for a brief interlude shows me just how fast our world adventure is speeding by, and offers a glimpse at how the completion of this journey will alter all our bubbles to come in a very cool way. I am counting the days until I fly back home, on the other side of the world, safely back in the bubble of Project Equator where I can continue to connect, explore and learn!

The scale of this show matches the scale of the country itself, employing over 600 local villagers as actors to perform in a 70 minute show played out on the river and in front of an island where the theater seating has been constructed. The storyline is in Chinese, and while I am sure it was moving, we didn’t understand a thing that was going on. It didn’t matter, however, as the pageantry of actors using boats, floats and moving docks synchronized to music and dramatic lighting more than kept us entertained.

Art takes on many forms, whether it is human expression exposed on a stage or canvas, or Mother Nature etching impossibly beautiful rock formations or landscapes. Yanghuo brings both forms together, offering one of the most beautiful natural amphitheaters of limestone peaks with a peaceful river for a stage floor, combined with the large-scale imagination and might of an army of Chinese artists to create a very memorable experience.

It was fun to just climb to the top of temples and look out over the horizon!

Clearly there is an aura or primordial power that draws people and their spirituality here, as the entire landscape is almost exclusively dedicated to the pursuit of Buddhism and enlightenment. When I say there are over two thousand temples, stupas and pagodas, it seems to understate just how immense the horizon line is littered with seemingly nothing BUT these ancient structures that might as well have been constructed by an alien race for an unknown purpose. Luckily, however, the recorded history for this  part of the world goes back 1,000 years, so we actually know exactly why Bagan became the most dense collection of Buddhist temples in the world.

A paintings behind this buddha were over 1,000 years-old!

A long time ago, in a place far far away, there was a wealthy kingdom with a king who was a particularly fervent Buddhist. Spurred on by a rivalry and a passion for the new, the entire kingdom embraced this form of worship, which called for both large public and smaller private places to meditate, make offerings and follow well-worn paths of tradition. Like sunbirds spurring a track home housing boom in sunny Florida, Bagan’s citizens fueled a building frenzy over a 250 year period. Over 10,000 religious structures were built during this period, and Bagan was one of the world’s foremost religious, academic, art and literature centers. By the late 1200’s, the Mongols repeated attempts to conquer the Pagan Empire won out, and Bagan faded into oblivion, with only about 2,200 structures remaining today.

Temples got very large and elaborate. The temple in the background is the largest in Bagan. Built in 3 years, the work had to be perfect – a worker who left more than a pin-sized hole between his bricks his arm was severed.

Classic style “personal temple”

Amazingly, so many of the wonderful temples and buildings we wandered to had no one else in them. With such a multitude of temples, it was relatively easy to avoid any tour groups and experience the architecture, religious art and quiet spirituality in solitude. Well, maybe solitude is the wrong word given our 5 children, but you get the idea! This is a place where you can feel like an explorer and not get bored for a long time, with so many great sights and lots of wonderful people who make you feel very welcome.

Kids praying to Buddha, which was added after the earthquake in 1975.

Between a hellish set of decades of war, and a devastating earthquake in the 1970s, Bagan’s temples have endured the test of time in recent history. With peace giving way to an increasingly large floodgate of tourism, Bagan will have to work harder than ever to protect the legacy of the kingdom that created such a special place. While the unfettered access to these ancient treasures makes the travel to Bagan surreal, we know the window needs to close relatively fast to protect the wonders while retaining access for future generations. Our advice? Go NOW! Because while it feels like Myanmar is 50 years behind places like Thailand, it may only take 10 years to catch up to the developing world’s race to grow and modernize.

Balloon hovering over the dawn-lit landscape.

Sunsets here are some of the best in the world!

In Hoi An, Vietnam, Bagan, Myanmar and Chiang Mai, Thailand, we found three awesome photographers and genuinely nice people to spend the day with. Each encounter shared the attribute of the unexpected, with the day unfolding organically, leading us to amazing sites, meeting with interesting people and connecting to local culture in a myriad of ways.

Étienne: Prince of Hoi An

Etienne Bossot, a French photographer living and shooting in Vietnam for over 5 years

Luckily, this young, bright guy is a good marketer, snagging us into this new activity with a well placed and designed sign out in front of his gallery down the lane from our hotel. Advertising a photo tour package to a local fishing village from dawn through lunch, we met Etienne and made plans to be picked up the next morning. His demeanor and graciousness as host to the 10 of us who accompanied him was evident from the moment he came to get us at our hotel gate. With a range of skill sets and cameras, he balanced his time perfectly with each of us, offering advice on equipment, lessons on some of the basics of manual photography, and personal guidance on getting “the shot.”

For me, the most fascinating part of the day revolved around how to take pictures of people, one of Etienne’s specialties. It never dawned on me how important the ability to make personal connection and exude an outgoing demeanor is to great photographers. In observing and listening to Etienne, I have a whole new respect for the broad range of interpersonal and technical skills that go into a memorable image.  Effortlessly navigating the docks and streets of this sleepy, tiny fishing village, his boy next door / comfortable-in-his-own-skin attitude won smiles, hugs and conversation with many of the locals. As we learned about the daily ritual of the fisherman coming home from the evening’s catch, navigated the impromptu market that sprung up around the docks, breathed in the pungent smells of a fish sauce producer, meandered through the back pathways between local houses, and rode bikes along the river back to Hoi An, we snapped to our hearts content and enjoyed the company of an interesting band of travelers.

Maung Maung: King of Bagan

Maung Maung is a local photographer who has achieved International acclaim

Credit for this whirl-wind day goes almost entirely to Etienne, having insisted that ProjectEquator would be incomplete without traveling to Myanmar. We had recently given up on obtaining visas, and had almost finalized new plane tickets to cut Myanmar from the itinerary; but after Etienne’s passionate plea, we realized our error and made a major overhaul to our plans to get us to Bagan via Bangkok and Mandalay.  After some research, we were connected with Maung Maung, a Myanmar citizen who has made an international name for himself for his outstanding images. It could not have been a more dissimilar experience and adventure than our day with Etienne, teaching Lisa and I about a completely different method of “getting the shot.”

Maung Maung is a master of light. He knows exactly where he needs to be at precisely the right time of day to create a moody, evocative image. Shooting in and around Bagan’s thousands of temples for decades, he has a network of friends and access to unreachable places that made us feel like we had a golden ticket for the day. Unlike almost any other photographer we’ve met, Maung Maung offers to recreate and teach you how to get some of the award winning images he’s taken over the years. In contrast to the documentary-style of Etienne’s photo essays of people, Maung Maung creates extremely deliberate shots that have been scouted, planned and rehearsed.

When in Bagan, surrounded by thousands of thousand year old temples, monks offer a wonderful subject to photograph. We had the opportunity to meet several as Maung Maung zoomed in and out of a few monasteries to pick up our own personal monk to accompany us to various locations. As bizarre as it sounds, these boys served as authentic models in elaborate, stunning locations. Maung Maung, like many people in Bagan, spent months in the monastery we kept returning to, so he knew everyone very well. Each monk barely spoke, and rarely smiled as Maung Maung would direct the scene for our awaiting lens. We zoomed precariously from place to place in his small car, tracking monks and nuns collecting daily offering of food from the locals, visiting a monastery at mealtime and entering many locked pagodas cracked open for our king, making the entire day action-packed and slightly overwhelming. He offers a private 15-day tour of Myanmar, and you can bet that Lisa and I are already scheming on when we return!

Ryan: Documentarian and Environmental Crusader of Chiang Mai

Ryan Libre lives in Chiang Mai and spends lots of time nurturing young documentary film makers and photographers

Joined by our very own Ryan Jones from Mercer Island, we decided the kids should jump in on the fun as we connected with another Ryan (Libre) who owns and curates the Documentary Arts Asia in Chiang Mai. When he is not documenting life in Kachin State in northern Burma, or on some assignment elsewhere in the world, Ryan teaches photography at Chiang Mai University and takes people like us around the countryside to practice photography. Like the other expeditions, we had no idea what to expect, except of course, the unexpected!

The morning started on an organic farm about an hour or so north of Chiang Mai. Amidst idyllic rice paddies and rolling mountains, this permaculture / sustainable living commune is owned and run by Thai folks, and offers wonderful views and whimsical adobe architecture. Ryan owns land between this farm and the next organic farm called The Panya Project, which is a school that teaches people from all over the world the arts of adobe construction, permaculture, organic farming and community development. We hiked both farms and got a taste for how flexible, sustainable and malleable adobe architecture can be.

While chatting with some folks at Panya, we learned that all of the students were in the village building a 2-story adobe house for a local resident who needed a house. Off we went into a traditional, rural Thai village, where Wescott, Ryan and Yve were invited to join the work crew and get covered in mud. They laid a row of adobe bricks for one of the walls and learned the basic principles of how easy, fun and environmental this construction can be.

For lunch, we dropped in on the village chief who owns a sprawling homestay that would give any Marin County artsy / organic / zen compound a run for its money. Tasty vegetarian fare in a spectacular setting gave us renewed energy for our afternoon, which included a visit to an enormous, almost never-visited temple complex. It was a great location to contrast Thailand’s elaborate, palatial Buddhist Wats to the more primitive, ancient style of Bagan’s pagodas.

The last part of the day took an even more unexpected turn, as Ryan was invited to interview a famous Swiss photographer named Rene Burri at one of Chiang Mai’s most exclusive resorts, Dhara Dhevi. Sending the kids home, Lisa and I accompanied the press corp, consisting of an entourage of several photographers and handlers. The whole thing was a bit surreal as we were ushered into a magnificent suite, greeting Rene who sat on an expansive veranda with his son and wife. For the next two and a half hours, we sat riveted like disciples as Rene waxed on about his experiences being invited to shoot the Cuban revolutionary Ernesto “Che’ Guevara, his friendship with Pablo Picasso, his thoughts on photography and many pearls of wisdom about an 80 year (and counting) life that has taken him to over 200 countries and in the middle of countless world events.  For photography collectors and enthusiasts like us, it was a very special surprise and a wonderful end to an unexpected day.

With that in mind, the 3 older kids, Lisa and I got up early one morning in Hanoi to meet Anthony, our animated chef and instructor for the day. Our mission included shopping for ingredients at the street markets, learning about local flavors and traditional bites, and making some amazing regional dishes endemic to Northern Vietnam.

Shopping for ingredients!

Banana blossoms are used in a lot of dishes….wonder if we could cook the ones we grow in Mercer Island?!

Don’t we wish we could buy lemongrass like this at the QFC?

While aimlessly meandering the mazes of food markets in Asia or Africa is a life experience anyone should have, it’s a whole different experience when a local chef accompanies you. As our eyes feasted on exotic fruits, bloodied meat, writhing sea life, fresh vegetables, hopping reptiles and salted insects, Anthony introduced us to many flavors and offered invaluable tips for how a truly great Vietnamese dish is born. Before every meal, Vietnamese shop for their food that will be used in that meal at a local street market. There was much to learn. For example, the chunks of meat set out on baskets with absolutely no refrigeration may seem odd and somewhat reckless, but it was killed around 4am, just 3 hours ago. Anthony can tell because he shows us that it is sticky, a sure sign of freshness. Similarly, the noodles used in our leading candidate for Best Vietnamese Dish called Bun Cha, also must be fresh and made just hours before purchasing.

So hard to decide!

Lots to look at in the markets in Vietnam!

A personal favorite, and a way to counterbalance the potpourri of conflicting smells, is shopping for local herbs. Anthony showed us many new herbs and leafy greens while snapping up fresh basil, coriander, cilantro, lemongrass, banana flower, root vegetables and morning glory vines. We also sampled local street fare, eating a surprisingly delightful fried worm cake and some barbequed, caramelized pork.

We stopped to eat some fried worm cake for breakfast!

So many fresh herbs!

Yve, Wescott and Otto with our spoils from the market

With ingredients purchased, we harkened to the teaching kitchen at Anthony’s restaurant, Orchid, via a colonnade of pedicabs. Upon arrival at a wonderfully roomy kitchen, each of us donned aprons and awaited instruction by our cutting board and cleaver. Our menu included:

Hanoi Spring Rolls – a fried staple of almost every street food vendor and restaurant in the city;

Yummy spring tools hand chopped, rolled and fried by us

Bun Cha – a flavorful dish that combines the yin of caramelized pork and noodles with the yang of hot Thai chili peppers and bright, crisp cilantro;

Anthony putting the finishing touches on our Bun Cha

Lemongrass Chicken – a flash-fried dish with a high note of lemongrass, our favorite flavor from South East Asia;

Yve with my personal favorite, Lemongrass Chicken

Black Rice Pudding – a sweet, sticky confection topped with fresh yogurt

This is what our black rice pudding looked like in the end!

Vietnamese food is all about layering several ingredients of compatible flavors together to form an ambrosial concoction. The way that happens is through an immense amount of chopping! With a quick lesson in how not to lose your fingers to rather sharp and large cleavers, we set to work on mincing, chopping and slicing all of our spoils from the morning market. We then each tried our hand at creating ground pork. No machines here, slabs of fresh pork shoulder are placed on an enormous, thick block of teakwood, and then chopped by hand with two heavy, ancient-looking cleavers. It’s a lot of work to get it into the form of ground meat… we all tired quickly, but Anthony effortlessly pounded out rhythmic beats as he prepared the meat for making pork patties for Bun Cha.

Action shot chopping up pork shoulder for bun cha!

Wescott frying up spring rolls

Otto got quite proficient at using a cleaver! #prepcookathome

We had a blast learning about how our favorite delicacies are made, and with a vibrant Vietnamese community in Seattle, we’re hopeful that we can continue to refine our skills. As with other classes in other countries, the results yielded sapid, scrumptious dishes that rivaled anything we’ve eaten thus far in Vietnam. Unfortunately, the quantities we produced could have fed everyone reading this blog, so we left feeling a bit bloated. Most importantly, we all continue to love learning about food, sharing in the creation a thoughtful meal and playing as a family in the kitchen; all activities we hope will continue long after Project Equator comes to an end.

The graduates with Anthony

Jones Family in Ha Long Bay

For those of you who have hung out with us, you know we leave a wide wake wherever we go… so you can imagine the tsunami of activity that 4 adults and 9 children left! Whether it was adventuring on a boat in Ha Long Bay, navigating street food vendors in Hanoi, riding mopeds in Mui Ne or playing many, many games of RummiKub across the country, our two families meshed shockingly well. Connecting with fellow travelers around the world is a big part of the overall experience; to connect with such an amazing family that will land back in the same hometown is ever so much more special.

We needed a very large chartered bus to get out to the coast in Vietnam

Gretchen and Jon have a theory that they like to call “Subtraction by Addition.” Basically, the more people you add to an already large family, the easier it is to manage the whole troop. After months of international travel, this theory certainly worked its magic, giving all of us a chance to remix in new combinations of relationships for a little while. David splits the difference between Otto and Wescott’s ages, so the three boys spent lots of time hanging out, playing pool and riding mopeds. Molly and Yve are exactly the same age. With so much in common, the two quickly disappeared and hung out for most of the time we were all together. Maggie at 8, with the sweetest personality of anyone you’d want to meet, easily bounced between the older girls and the younger kids. Vivian, Tuck and Jones are all the same age, and the three had a blast doing crafts, setting up a tattoo parlors and making up all kinds of games.  As for the four of us adults, we had lots of opportunities to be, well, adults!

Tai Chi on the deck of our boat in Ha Long Bay

We started our Vietnam homecoming in the North, where everyone’s favorite honeymooning couple, Mouni and Kim, met both families. Barbequed street food and getting busted up by the police on Beer Street in a semi-legal homebrew establishment were among the highlights. But to really get to know each other, we decided to go on a 3-day, 2-night boat cruise together in Ha Long Bay. Check out Tuck’s excellent blog post to read more.

Vivian, Maggie, Tuck and Jones eating fried rice

After our cruise, we schemed to meet back up in No Chi Minh City, where we would head to the Vietnam Coast for a week at the beach. Our plan to remain in Hanoi for another 10 days got cut a bit short after receiving glowing Instagram feeds from both the Jones Family as well as Mouni and Kim.  Adding Hoi An to our itinerary, we headed to the middle of the country assuming our friends had left for Ho Chi Minh before we would arrive. Completely by surprise, we spotted David’s smiling and somewhat bewildered face as we entered the courtyard of our awesome hotel. As if we hadn’t seen each other in years, the party began immediately. Mouni and Kim were also still in Hoi An so they luckily got more unplanned, quality time with the 9 kids J A perfect night ensued, filled with glowing lanterns, enchanting streets, an amazing street food dinner and of course, fantastic company. Call it a “flow” moment, or just being perfectly happy living inside the moment of now; we all had a standout evening. Far better than I can explain, Gretchen Jones wrote a great blog post about it on their family blog, which you can read here!

Jon getting lettuce wraps handmade and hand fed, while interspersing sips from his mojito!

Total free-for-all food fest at this awesome BBQ street food restaurant

Woman selling floating candles on the shore of the Thu Bồn River

Kids getting their candles to make a wish and float their lantern down the river

In Southern Vietnam, we met back up again in Ho Chi Minh City, where we kicked off our re-re-reunion at Ichiban, a disco-eclectic sushi bar and restaurant run by Vietnamese brothers who spent a lot of time in Southern California! A private room, an endless supply of sushi and many drinks made for the opposite of an intimate dining experience, as the 15 of us celebrated the last night of Mouni and Kim’s 3-week Vietnamese adventure. The evening ended in the bar with a dance party, sake bombs and a raid on an unsuspecting Baskin Robins who had already closed for the night but changed their minds after much coaxing…

Since we were becoming such fast friends, we decided to skip the dating courtship and just move in together. We headed to Mui Ne, with visions of kite boarding in our heads. After some shuffling of houses, we settled into 2 villas on a communist interpretation of the Truman Show’s set. Villa S79 housed the parents and the younger kids. Villa S8 was like a retro-MTV Real World episode, housing all the teens. With a couple of motorbikes to go back and forth, we reveled in the guilty pleasures of an all-inclusive, completely generic, you-could-be-anywhere, resort by the sea. The pool complex was staggering, and at pretty much any time of day, we could find all 9 children sliding on a tiled slide between two of the pools, playing king of the hill around lots of sharp tile edges… clearly lawyers have not taken hold of this country just yet!

Kids hanging on the edge of the slide in the largest pool complex we’ve seen in a long time!

I think all of us were a little hotel-weary, so we cooked most of our meals, including an outstanding fried rice dinner. In fact, I think all of us might have been slightly global-travel weary, and the time we spent in Mui Ne was almost like a vacation from our respective trips. While we did not end up kiting, we did manage to see the town, go on a surreal hike through a shallow, red-clay canyon and throw ourselves off of red sand dunes at sunset with and without plastic sleds. We parted company at the airport, the Roaming Jones off to Singapore, and we off to Thailand after a few more days of fun in Ho Chi Minh City.

Playing RummiKube on the deck of our boat

The Gang!

We’re all on our own again, exploring new destinations and connecting with new people. But like brothers in arms, its comforting to know the Roaming Jones are out there somewhere to our south, right now sailing from Bali to Komodo Island in search of dragons. We look forward to each new Instagram and post from them. We’ve already planned our reunion in Seattle, wearing all of our shoes and clothes we each had made in Hoi An, and inevitably commiserating on the woes of leaving the open, global road and returning home.