Reflections on travelling after one month

One month ago, Feb 7, we left home to begin our journey. We had small (carry-on sized) backpacks on each of our backs, a very vague itinerary - like approximately which country we would be in for each month, passports and bank cards to withdraw currency along the way. 

Now, after one month, we are in Cambodia, have got our travel legs and are feeling a lot more confident. Some of the things we have learned so far:

1.  Clothing:  We brought very little and it seems about right, especially when I see other travellers lugging around large packs.  I will detail what I brought in case someone is planning a trip:

-3 tshirts/blouses

-1 tank top

- 1 pair of shorts

- 1 skirt

- 1 sarong (which can be a short or long skirt, beach towel, or sun cover)

- 3 pants (1 Capri, 1 leggings, 1 light weight full length that rolls up into Capri)

-7 pairs of underwear (women's underwear doesn't take up much space)

-3 socks

-2 long sleeved tops (one for sun cover and one for warmth - which I don't need and might get rid of)

-one highly compressible warm coat (to wear on air conditioned busses and trains)

-2 pair of shoes (Teva sandals and running shoes)

-2 bathing suits

-2 hats (1 baseball and one brimmed)

-1 raincoat (so far unused)

We bought packing bags that compress all the clothes (made by Eagle Creek). They are quite sturdy and hopefully they last the whole trip. 

2. Packing for Zac: Zachary's list of clothes is pretty similar and carries all of his own clothes in his backpack along with his prized size 1 Brazuca soccer ball!  We also have a frisbee, two decks of cards, Yahtzee, and another dice game (Martian Dice). There is an endless number of games that you can play with cards and dice, (all rules on the internet) so that's all we need. 

3. Daily routine:

We've become pretty good at making a new place quickly feel like home. We unpack and "set up" right away, and seem to have developed routines so things like toothbrushes and e-device charges are all set-up in a similar way each time. Danny and Zac check out the wifi situation first thing. And we like to spend the first day exploring our surroundings and getting familiar with our new home before heading out to see the sites. Since we left Canada we have stayed in 6 different locations and they all felt like home within the first day or so. 

We are early risers and so usually wake with the sun around 6:30. This is good because we can get out and do our exploring in the cooler part of the day (if you call 29C cool). We are home early afternoon after lunch and spend the afternoon swimming, reading, blogging, Facebook, napping, and planning the next day.  Zac is usually quite tired early, even falling asleep at the dinner table so we need to get him to bed, limiting our evening excursions. 

4.  Zac's Schooling

"What about school for Zac?"  This is the most common question we are asked. 

In addition to our daily experiences, we require Zac to spend at least 1 hour reading each day. He is on his fourth book - this is way more reading than he would have done at home!  (He is an excellent reader but does not enjoy it). He reads on his tablet and Danny downloaded a large selection of books before we left home. We can access the Toronto Library and can buy additional e books easily.   Zac is also supposed to be writing regular blog entries but we are a bit behind on this. 

Zac learning how to carve sandstone at Angor Wat:

We have been working on multiplication drills (using the great Spirit of Math App) and zac has made huge progress in speed and accuracy and likes seeing how the app maps his progress. This is an area that is not covered sufficiently in the Ontario curriculum with most kids not knowing their times tables quickly. I also find many opportunities during the day to create real world math problems. Zac likes math so he enjoys these - when I get him in the right mood. 

Danny is in charge of keeping zac up to speed with French so has Zac using the app DuoLingo to practice basic French daily, as well as some conversational French wherever we can fit it in. 

Zac definitely has inherited a love of technology from his Dad so the fact that this all revolves around his tablet makes learning fun for zac, plus he can do it independently which reduces (but does not eliminate) parent-child conflict. 

5.  Food

For Danny and I, the food is awesome!  For Zac however and his more limited palate, this is more of a challenge, though our recent insect and spider tasting excursion showed us that he will try new foods. He eats a fair amount of fruit but getting sufficient vegetables in him is a challenge, and he is drinking more pop than he should be. Oh well, breathe deep and keep trying to make each meal as healthy as I can. Fortunately Cambodian food is less spicy than Thai. 

Hope that answers some of the things you may have been wondering about our trip and the everyday stuff that doesn't get posted on Facebook. 

We can't believe that one month has gone by and already feel like there isn't enough time left to do all the things we want to do. Our current dilemma is whether we should go to Laos or Vietnam after Phnom Penh. Vietnam is a more logical route but this will put us in Laos in April when it will be 40C+.   Also, we may go to China earlier than planned to meet up with Danny's cousin Chao from Chicago. These are great problems to have!