The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 6,100 times in 2014. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people.
We spent our last week in America mostly in and around the water, as it was getting unbearably hot! Luckily Grandma and Grandpa’s house is right by a lovely creek and the perfect spot to cool down. 
One day we spent down by the Applegate River with some friends of Don’s. The only way to access their own private beach (set up with BBQ, kayaks, tubes etc), is to zip line across the river! I got quite a surprise when we got there and the other kids were already zipping from one high platform to the next – well, how was I supposed to stop Finley from hopping on himself… All I could do was to tell him to hold tight and to not let go no matter what happened!
Our last Saturday we enjoyed a fun day rafting down the Rogue River with Tom and Lindsay. 
And before we knew it, it was time to pack up our bags one last time… It was quite the emotional experience going through ten months of memories from so many, very different places… Also our luggage had grown considerably since we first left for Asia and we had to buy another bag or two to fit all our new belongings in!
Our “last night in America” (yes, I did “compose” a song with these words ten years ago), we were spoiled by staying at Jan and Phil’s and enjoyed a last visit with our dear friend John. 
And suddenly it was time to say our good-byes to Grandma and Grandpa at the airport and we were on our way… Thank you so much for all the special memories and times!
The flight(s) back to Austria are almost a blur to me already… Mixed emotions filled with anticipation, anxiety, happiness, fulfillment and fear… Feelings going up and down like a roller coaster. It helped and helps a lot that Finley was looking forward to coming home so much and couldn’t wait!
And then… We were home… And it felt… So normal! Almost as if no time had passed and we hadn’t even left! 
After four days at home, we have still not completely adjusted to the time change and haven’t even unpacked everything yet! I look at our photos, souvenirs and journals and some things seem like a dream already… People keep asking what our favorite country or place was, and we can’t really give an answer to that question… Yes, of course we have seen amazing places, temples, beaches and mountains… And I am so thankful we got to see so many beautiful spots in the world… But for us it was never entirely about that… We had both already seen a lot of the world and it wasn’t really about “seeing the sights”… We set off with the longing to have time, time for ourselves, time away from reality and the everyday worries… Time to explore who we really are and what we really need… When I think back of our time, I see the three of us in our own little bubble, our own little world that only belonged to us. I see us sweating on sticky, smelly old buses on bumpy, slow roads. I see us wandering the streets in the middle of the nights with our backpacks on our backs… I think of us not needing anything except the few things we could carry. I remember exotic smells, different tastes, and vivid, bright colors. I see us sleeping in tiny little shacks, learning about the smiling and friendly people of Asia, people who often live in so much more basic conditions without electricity or running water… I see us laughing huddled together in a tuk-tuk or holding onto each other in the cold nights of the Himalayas. I think of meeting and laughing with beautiful people along the way, locals and other travelers who made our experience so much richer… I think about being outside of our comfort zone, feeling adventurous and courageous… I remember not having any schedule or pressures and living from day to day, moment to moment, not knowing what tomorrow would bring or where we would go… All the little things that made up our day to days… Like sitting in little restaurants ordering yet another rice dish, playing a game of cards while we were waiting. Our trip taught us so much about life itself, the world, important values, and us… We never talk about our trip as a vacation or holiday… It was a way of life.
So as we embark on our next adventure here in Austria – finding a new place that we will be happy to call our home, as well as all three of us heading to the same school to teach and/or to learn in September (Chris 5th grade, Finley 1st grade and Sam “Early Learning Center”) – one of my biggest goals is to keep within me the strength and hopes and dreams and love for life that I have lived in the last year… Thanks for being part of our journey, for following us some of you so faithfully! – and wish us luck!
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A few digits have been updated on the original list we created, when we left Asia in April:
Sept. 11, 2013 – July 15, 2014 (308 days)
Count of rooms we slept in (including overnight buses, trains, beds, mattresses, floors, tents etc.): 91 (Asia) + 31 (USA and in between) = 122
Number of countries we visited: 10
Number of US States we visited: 11
Total clicks on our blog: 10,094
Amount of nights we spent apart from Finley: 2
Amount of nights Chris and Sam spent apart: 0
Journals filled: Finley 4, Chris 4
Books Sam read: 35
Time spent on Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo: 0
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Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the things you did. So throw off the bow lines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch a triad wind in your sail. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Mark Twain
Ever wondered what the differences are between “our” world and where we just spent our last few months? In my mind I find myself comparing those worlds quite a bit, and it does make me realize why it’s not easy to adjust back to normal life and getting back to reality can also be a reverse culture shock.
I started this little project thinking of different situations putting pictures of the U.S. first and then followed by photos of Asia. (I realize I chose pictures that show a more extreme contrast and that you can’t JUST eat fast food in America either 😉
Enjoy the collection – I had to stop myself as it could go on forever!
FRESH CHICKEN
AT THE BUTCHER
TASTY PORK
BUYING FISH
DINNER CHOICES
FRESH VEGGIES AND FRUIT
FEELING LIKE SOUP?
TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM
PUMPING GAS
BATHROOM TIME
OFF TO THE PLAYGROUND
Sept. 11, 2013 – July 15, 2014
Minnesota..the land of 10,000 lakes and we were lucky enough to get to spend a few relaxing days at Uncle Ron’s cabin on one of them! Reunited with Grandma, Lindsay and Tom who had taken the easy route and hopped on a plane for a few hours to get to Minneapolis instead of being on the road for three weeks or so, we enjoyed our time fishing, kayaking, playing croquet and bocci ball, and having nice campfires at night.
Other activities in the Twin Cities, as Minneapolis and St. Paul are called, were a fun day at The Mall of America (the biggest mall in the U.S.) which hosts the biggest indoor amusement park “Nickelodeon Universe” as well as a mega Lego store… A dream come true for Finley!
Another event that especially the boys had been looking forward to, was the big baseball game between the Twins and the White Sox.
The main reason of course was to meet with the families from both the Lyke and the Hildestad sides and we had a couple of nice reunions and get togethers! We all enjoyed getting to know each other a little better and it was also especially interesting to hear about the Norwegian and German background and history not just of the two families but of many areas in Minnesota.
I am so sorry I didn’t get a picture of the BBQ with Don’s side of the family… you all left too early!!!
Soon it was time for us to say goodbye as we still had quite a few miles ahead of us to get back to the West Coast!
The road soon took us into the next state – South Dakota, where we spent the night at Mt. Rushmore which is a National Monument in the Black Hills with huge carvings of four of the most famous presidents in US history.
But we didn’t spend too much time at Mt. Rushmore, as we were looking forward to spending time with our good friend Zach in Montana! Which meant yet another day on the road!
We had an adventurous outing in the mountains of Montana trying to get to Glacier Lake. First off we were reminded of bumpy roads in Asia, as we were driving towards the trailhead. Then I had forgotten to bring my shoes along, which didn’t stop me from joining the hike though – after all I still had my flip flops! And next the weather was acting as if it was April – we had everything from sunshine, to slightly cloudy, rain and hail, and even a full on snow storm! All that just added to the fun though and made it into a memorable and exciting adventure!
The next day we took it a little easier and hung out in the park…
And so we had to say our goodbyes and continue our journey… As we were driving through Wyoming next, we made a little detour to Yellowstone National Park which is famous for some of the most active geysers and hot springs in the world. Although we hadn’t realized how much further we would have to drive – and by his time we were getting a little tired of sitting in the car every day 😉 – it was well worth the detour and we got to see yet another very impressive part of the States. 
From there it was “just” another 9 hours to our next destination, Boise, Idaho to visit our friends Bryce and Amy with their newborn baby Isla. We had a couple of nice days getting to know little Isla and even spent one day out on the Boise River.
After that we only had one final last stretch before we were back in the State of Oregon! Soon we saw the distinct peaks of the extinct volcanoes like Mt Jefferson, Mt soandso… getting closer and we knew we were almost “home”!
Our final stop was to be Springfield at Chris’ sister Jen’s place, where we had a packed weekend of July 4th celebrations, Jen’s birthday, and Lincoln’s baptism! What a fun way to end our road trip!
Now that we are back in Grants Pass we can hardly believe that we drove over 6,000 miles and passed through 11 states! (Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho). And we saw the license plates from all 50 states! When I think back to our road trip I think about a lot of amazing and sometimes unreal looking scenery like in Utah or Wyoming, I think about our camping adventures, and meeting “new” family, and reconnecting with “old” friends…But inevitably I also think of many, many hours on the road driving through miles and miles of uninhabited “nothingness”, or passing corn and wheat fields for hours… It’s quite unbelievable how big this country is and how much open space there is!!
As I am writing this I am also trying to get myself ready for ending our ~ 10 month trip for good… Next week at this time we will just be about landing in Munich and be in the arms of Omi and Opi, my parents!! It seems unreal that our time is really coming to an end now… I know we have been spoiled in so many ways and got a chance to travel the world in a way that not every family does… And I will be forever thankful for that! But it’s still hard to grasp that our life is about to change quite drastically in the next few weeks! I’m not really sure how to prepare myself for the upcoming changes at this point!! I mean this HAS become our life – living from day to day, being together as much as we have been, no responsibilities or pressures… I am trying to promise to myself that I will NOT let myself get sucked up into the Rat Race of everyday life and our society (Hamsterrad) and I tell myself that I will hold onto the important values of life that I have been able to rediscover during the last year… But I know it’s not gonna be easy!!
Saying that we are of course also looking forward to being back with our family and friends in Austria who we haven’t seen for almost a year! I am really curious to see how it will be for Finley to rediscover his home that he seems to still remember very well and talks about a lot! He can’t wait to see his cousins who he still calls his best friends and is counting the days!
(June 16 – July 6)
After celebrating Finley’s 6th birthday from morning to night on the 30th of May, we were ready to set off on our road trip through the USA at about 10 pm!
Don and Chris took turns driving all through the night through the states of Oregon, Nevada and into Utah while Finley and I did lots of napping! We experienced a little excitement in the city of Lakeview where we had planned to fill up on gas for the first time after 3 hours, only to find out that the gas station was already closed and wouldn’t open up again until 6 am the next morning… Well we really didn’t want to hang around there for ~5 hours! So we took our chances, Don saving gas by driving only going 50 mph, and carried on through the night for another 4 hours! We reached the city of Winnemucca at 5 AM which was our first gas stop after 200 miles and all let out a breath of relief!
Our first stop was in Brigham City to visit our friends AJ, Alison, with their four boys Arlo, Cache, Cam, and Boone! Finley of course was in heaven meeting up with his buddies again and happy to play all day long! We had a few great days recovering from our night trip, meeting the in-laws, nice dinners, playing frisbee golf and visiting a water park! And when it was time to say our goodbyes we didn’t even have to be sad as we knew the Andersens were going to join us in Southern Utah at the end of the week!
We spent most of Monday, June 2nd, on the road heading to Zion National Park in Southern Utah. The first night we found a nice little spot just outside the national park to set up our camp! Only when we got out of the car did we realize how hot it was!!
The next few days we explored the trails and beautiful area of Zion.
As we love camping, we all had a great time on the gorgeously situated campsites of the national parks…
One of the highlights for Finley was to take part in the Junior Ranger Program! And after working quite hard on an activity booklet and joining a dinosaur discovery program, he took the oath to become a Junior Ranger of the Zion National Park!
After three nights we headed out of this gorgeous park on the beautiful Zion-Mount Carmel Highway passing many scenic overlooks and not being able to get enough photos of the area!
And before we knew it, we found ourselves in a place unlike any other area we had ever been in: Bryce Canyon!
Weathering and erosion shape the statuesque rock features in this unique park which they call Hoodoos and wandering in between these strange looking rocks made us feel like we were wandering on another planet!
And after the success of the Junior Ranger Program in Zion, we were glad to learn that Bryce Canyon had a similar program and Finley worked hard to earn his badge again!
Soon it was time to move on again… We were meeting up with AJ’s family in the Grand Staircase-Escalante Monument.
Without them we would have never found the greatest slot canyons we’ve ever been in and would have probably just driven through this land of rock, desert, canyons and washes!
On the first day we explored the epic Peek-A-Boo Slot Canyon and the Spooky Slot Canyon! Well, the names say it all already!
After the fun exploring during the day, we had nice meals in the evening and of course lots of space for the kids to play around the campground…
The next day we had a special day at the Calf Creek Falls.
On our last day together we set off for another grand adventure in the desert – the Zebra Slot Canyon!
After three days of fun, we had to leave our friends behind who still had to wait a couple of days to get their car fixed…
The last National Park we visited in Utah was Arches!
And although we didn’t get a spot in the camping ground inside the park, we were really happy with the site we found not far outside of Moab right next to the famous Colorado River.
On June 11th, we knew we had quite a few miles to go… So after stopping at the Dead Horse Point which they call the Grand Canyon of Utah, we were on our way to Colorado!
Once again we became witnesses of how special our world can be… It was just crazy to see the change in the scenery around us in such a short time! After only four hours we found ourselves in a place that looked much more than home and didn’t have a lot in common with the desert-like area we had just been in!
Just a two hour drive later we met up with another one of Chris’ dear friends, Jen who lives in a cute house in the middle of the woods with a lot of Norwegian influence…
Unfortunately we couldn’t stay too long as we still had a long way ahead of us! Chris and Finley were signed up for a race in Iowa and we still had many miles to go! Once again the scenery began to change and the world around us got flatter and flatter. Mountains were exchanged for corn fields…. We stopped for a night next to a reservoir in Nebraska and slept in the car (well most of did, Chris opted to sleep out in the wind ;-), before we arrived in Des Moines, Iowa the following day in the late afternoon! Yes, that was a lot of driving we did… And unbelievable to see how huge this country is with so much open space and so many miles and miles of no cities or any population at all! We also realized once again that you really have to plan your stops ahead as there aren’t gas stations and rest areas around every corner like in Europe.
The next few days we spent with Aunt Sandy and Uncle Al in Des Moines.
After another three hour drive yesterday, we reached our next destination Minnesota where we are going to spend the next ~ 12 days walking in the footsteps of Chris’ ancestors, meeting up with relatives and exploring the area…
As I am writing this, we are also realizing it’s exactly one month until we fly home to Austria on July 15th! And it does feel a little like … the final countdown!
May 30 – June 15, 2014
It’s only been just over a month since we left Asia, but there are already so many things that I miss and somehow our trip already feels so far away… I mean it’s hard to grasp the reality of time and place when you suddenly find yourself in such a different world and life! Oh, and have I mentioned that it feels like in one month here in America we’ve spent just about as much money as we did for our entire backpacking trip of over seven months!?!
We have had a whirlwind month of May filled with beautiful, relaxing, quiet times at Murphy Creek, mixed with many small and big reunions with friends and family all over Oregon… We have been up to Portland and back numerous times, fulfilled yet another dream of mine and climbed Mt. Hood for sunrise… We have taken part in many parts of the local life here like school festivals, parades, carnivals, races, and such! Finley loves his American aunts and uncles, cousins and grandparents dearly and has forever engrained their presence in his heart…
Thank you so much for all the time you have taken away from your busy schedules to play baseball with him, have slumber parties, take him on trips, play knights with homemade shields and swords, and making our stay so special… I thought I’d let the pictures speak for themselves…
Time With Family
Sporting Events
Time With Friends
Portland Days
It wouldn’t be a trip to America if I didn’t get to spend a few days in my favorite city Portland, reminiscing about the old days when I lived here for two years more than ten years ago… Which is by the way when Chris and I met! Happy anniversary to us 🙂
And in between all these social gatherings, we climbed Mt. Hood!
Since I’ve known our friend John, we’ve been talking about reaching the summit of Mt. Hood! Finally I made it up there with a group of ten people, six of us summiting for the first time!
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We will be spending the month of June on the road again! Hitting some national parks in Utah and Colorado and making our way up to Minnesota and back via Montana and Idaho. But not before Finley turns six on the 30th of May!! Happy birthday to you, my darling son, who I love more than words could ever say and who makes me smile and laugh every day… I thank my lucky stars every single moment that I have you in my life…
Let me start this post with just this one sentence:
We are feeling so relaxed right now!
I mean seriously Chris and I have been wondering if there will ever be another time in life where we will have so much time for each other, for being lazy, for doing what we love, for chatting… Just the other day the two of us were sitting in the sunshine by the little pond where Finley was fishing with his Grandpa, and we were just simply enjoying each other’s company, with no worry in the world…
We were talking about how special it is, that we had taken this time off for just simply being able to be together, exactly at an age where it seems that most people are constantly stressed out, rushing from one appointment to the next, not having time to even sit down and talk about their day. I mean I know people, where the wife basically asks her husband for an appointment so they can actually talk for more than five minutes without being interrupted!
Returning back to reality and working life is definitely going to be hard and will be a challenge, but I do hope we can hold onto some of the peaceful thoughts and calm feelings inside of us for as long as possible…
Looking at the photos of our almost two weeks here in Oregon, it’s not like we’ve been exactly lazy either… Finley has been especially happy with his beloved Grandma and Grandpa, and he just wishes he could play with his Uncle Tom and Auntie Lindsay every moment of the day! With all the energy that Finley has, it’s been great that he’s been able to do lots and lots of sports. And most importantly he has made some new friends to play with, immersing himself into the American life. He even got to spend a day in a Kindergarten, which he loved and got him even more excited to start school soon!
He has played T-ball (which is like baseball)…
…. joined a soccer team,
… had fun at the YMCA,
… and watched a Blazer game (basketball) up in Portland!
We’ve been helping Grandpa a little working on his property.
And one afternoon Finley amazed us all with his patience when we went fishing!
We’ve had lots of nice dinners surrounded by special people, and I have become an addict at doing puzzles! Chris did his first race again since last year and got second place! 
So although today my stories might not sound as exciting and adventurous as they did just a few weeks ago in South East Asia and it all still feels a little bittersweet that our backpacking trip is over, we are all feeling completely reenergized and love being able to reconnect with family and friends… It’s definitely been a great way to wind down from traveling life and let all the experiences we’ve had settle in our minds, while still being able to take joy in the here and now.
April 24 – May 5, 2014
After our last blog post I felt overwhelmed and touched… I felt fulfilled and got very sentimental at the same time… So many of you wrote us such lovely emails or left messages on our blog or Facebook pages… It made us realize again how many of you have been following our journey and also your words and responses made us recognize and appreciate even more what a special and unique trip we’ve had… We want to thank you for sharing your thoughts with us, some of them making me laugh others even bringing tears to my eyes…
So I left Bangkok with a smiling and a crying face… On the one side we feel so happy and grateful knowing that the time we’ve been able to share was something we’ll always remember as “one of the coolest and best things we’ve done”, but naturally my heart also feels a little heavy and sad knowing that this time is coming to an end…
We chose the long way to get to the U.S. and it was a trip that proved once more how incredible the world is… You get into a plane in one world and get off in a completely different one… And of course there’s all the in between time, where you are in the air not belonging here nor there… Alone with your thoughts of the places you are leaving behind in anticipation of what is waiting for you on the other side… I love being in this in between world and I think I even “need” it… For most people being in a plane for ~10 hours would seem far too long, but I can’t imagine not having this transition phase preparing my mind a little to get ready to let go…
But let’s back up a little first.
We left Bangkok on a night plane and landed in Abu Dhabi in the Emirates about six hours later. Already we had to turn the clocks back a few hours resulting with the first confusing feelings for our bodies and minds that come along with that… But oh what a different world we had landed in! We felt we had left the world of crazy traffic and street food stands behind us and had entered a world with fancy, luxurious and expensive hotels, restaurants and malls! There was no chance of mistaking it with home though, because it was almost unbearably hot! And men wearing white dresses and scarves on their heads and women covered up completely in black sometimes only showing their eyes walking the clean streets lined with modern skyscrapers giving this place an Arabic feeling and creating a very different atmosphere that we had seen over the last few months…
We spent two days in Abu Dhabi, enjoying our nice hotel, discovering the city on a hop-on hop-off bus…
And we even had time to drive into the desert! A memorable and very new experience for all of us!
The next plane only left at 2 am, so we were already tired before setting off! But of course the middle of the night wasn’t really the middle of the night for our bodies anyway, but already some time the next morning… It was all starting to feel very confusing! But the next plane took us to a completely different world… We were heading for Frankfurt, Germany and had another layover there! Crazy to be flying right over our home…
What an unreal feeling, enjoying a Schnitzel in the spring sun just hours after watching the belly dancer in the desert! We got up at 4 am for our next travel day, but by that point the time on the clock didn’t really mean that much anymore 🙂
After a short flight we touched down in Amsterdam and even got a peak of little Dutch houses from our plane windows… And before we knew it we were in our last plane on the way to Portland! Contrary to most people all three of us still get excited about plane food and our own little individual TV sets…
The more than 10 hours flight just “flew” by, getting great views of the North Pole
… and soon we were hugging Grandma and Grandpa, Finley more excited than ever!
A little drive later we were already holding our new little nephew Lincoln in our arms, Finley got to play with his cousin Xavier and they looked for Easter eggs together…
After a lovely dinner together with Auntie Jen and Uncle Mark, we set off for our final leg of our four day trip to drive to Grants Pass! And have done a lot of sleeping since then!!
So here we are… It all stills feel unreal and hasn’t completely hit me yet!
How can we have been eating Pad Thai in Bangkok a few days ago? And since then seen the desert and one of the world’s biggest mosques… Been back to Germany, heard even a little Dutch in between, seen the ice of the North Pole from above, and now we are back with our American family! Isn’t life crazy? Isn’t traveling and flying amazing? I am writing this bundled up in a warm sweater after sitting under the cold air conditioning just two days ago, listening to a CD with Buddhist chants that we bought in Nepal…
We haven’t seen a lot of America yet of course, but it all feels so normal again already… Normal bathrooms, drinking tap water, understanding the language, disciplined driving…
And Finley had his first night back in a bed and room by himself!
April 19 – 24, 2014
We are just about to end the Asia part of our trip… So as we sit here in Bangkok packing up our belongings for one last time and getting ready for our long 4-day trip to America, there are a lot of emotions, feelings and thoughts floating around in our minds…
Just the other night we were looking at some of our photos from the beginning of our “discovery trip” and Finley got a little melancholic saying how special it had been in Bali and that he wanted to go back there. When we said that he was also looking forward to going home though, he only had to think about it for one second: “Yeah, we can go to America and then quickly to Austria and then I want to go back to Bali and do the WHOLE trip again!”
I was so happy hearing him say that, as I have also been worrying lately that it has been too long and too much for him… I know that he really misses children and he has been saying that he’s really looking forward to having our own house and he can’t wait to start with school…
But when I saw him looking at those first pictures, how many special memories he has, talking about details that we can’t even remember ourselves, I know that he loved our trip and that it was a wonderful experience for him… I often wondered if we had taken him away from “real” life too long, but I know he’ll have that soon enough and for the rest of his life!
I know we’ll have other vacations and trips together, but I don’t think it’ll ever be quite like this again… An age where he still mostly only needed his parents to be happy, and so many months without real worries, schedules, anywhere we have to be at a certain time… No rushing him to get dressed because we’re in a hurry, or anything like that…
I do hope that he’ll be able to remember a lot of our time together… I think a lot of our experiences will remain inside him as a feeling… if that makes any sense… A feeling for the three us together with our heavy backpacks, sweating but happy under the fan in a tight bed, sitting in cramped, noisy buses… A feeling for this other world we’ve lived in for a little more than seven months, images of loud, busy streets, people pointing at him and wanting to touch him, walking passed old, tiny shacks that people call their home, knowing that so many people have so much less than we do and live such simple and hard lives… Memories of many visits to restaurants, waiting for our meals while playing card games… Sometimes feeling frustrated with having to find another hotel, moving on and packing our bags again and yet another bus ride… But always chatting, chatting, chatting…. Many laughs and oh so much time for cuddles… And most of all a feeling for us just being together exploring the world… …
And of course I am forever thankful for “my partner in crime”… I don’t know many other men who would have sold his house, given up his job, leaving behind all the materialistic necessities of our society (including being without a salary for a year!) and travelled the world with a child in tow… We had no real plan at all when we set off on our adventure, and realized over and over again how beautiful traveling is when you don’t have a set schedule or place you have to be at a certain time, and be able to “just go with the flow”… I’m so grateful to have such a special person by my side who not just shares all these things with me but also “sees” life in the same way as I do.
Of course our discovery trip is not entirely over yet, but the backpacking part of it is coming to an end… So here’s a few things we’ve been thinking about lately…
WHAT WE WILL MISS…
Chris: -so much time devoted to each other without distractions -no schedule, very few worries -Finley as our only alarm clock! -time for reading, reflecting, journal writing -freedom to do and go wherever we want -a simple life with few possessions –seeing and learning about new and exciting places -snorkeling in warm, clear water with colorful fish -all the yummy curries
Sam:
The feeling of absolute freedom, living out of my backpack and not needing anything else, precious and real family time 24/7, cuddles in bed with Finley every morning without having to get up ever if we don’t want to…
I will miss the feeling of not having to do any errands, phone calls or other unwanted business to tend to… I will miss having so much time for thinking, relaxing, being lazy, dreaming, reading or simply talking with my boys… Being able to just live from one day to the next, taking one day at a time…
Finley:
Not being on our discovery trip anymore, no more beaches, not staying in cool bamboo huts anymore, not sleeping under mosquito nets, not seeing cool caves where you can swim and kayak through…
WHAT WE WILL NOT MISS…
Finley:
Holey mosquito nets, eating rice every day! Throwing up in buses! Napkins that just tear apart in a second. The honking on the streets.
Sam:
The bathrooms, bad beds, long bus rides on windy, bumpy roads.
Having to bargain and haggle for the price all the time.
Chris:
-always eating in restaurants
-not having my own “home”, always having to find places to stay
-always sharing a bed with Fin
-constantly being on the move
-stomach issues
-avoiding street dogs
-the sometimes oppressive heat
WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO…
Finley:
Crossing the street at a green light without almost getting run over! Playing with everybody! First Grandma and Grandpa in America and then Yannis and Sam! My birthday and school! And eating cheese for breakfast with Omi and Opi.
Sam: Cooking our own meals and having a fridge! A nice toilet to sit on! Shops with set prices. Starting our new life and feeling peaceful…
Chris: -seeing family and friends -a home cooked meal -adventures in America -a regular exercise routine -staying in one place for a little while -eventually finding a home in Austria!
And here’s a few statistics (some to be taken more seriously than others – numbers accompanied with ” ~ ” are estimates, the others are actual counts). This list will be updated again in July, when we really go home.
Sept. 11, 2013 – April 19, 2014 (220 days)
Exact count of rooms we slept in (including overnight busses, trains, boats, planes, beds, mattresses, floors, etc.): 92
Number of countries we visited: 7
Total visits on our blog: 7,723
Broken cameras: two
Things that got stolen: 0 (excluding various items that never made it back from the laundry)
Amount of days we were happy: 220
Amount of full days we spent apart: 0
Amount of hours/ minutes/ seconds we spent apart from Finley: 0
Amount of nights all three of us slept together in a room: 220
Amount of time that Chris and Sam had for themselves: ~ 3 min. 52 sec. 
Journals filled: Finley 2.5, Chris 3
Books read: Sam: 27, (excluding guide books), Chris: ~ 11, Finley: ~ 20 (reread uncountable times!)
Same good night stories being repeated over and over again: ~10
Time spent on Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo: 0 minutes!
Times we ate rice dishes: ~ 367 times per person
Doctor visits: 5
Different modes of transportation: ~ 21
Number of mosquito coils: ~ 62
Number of sun screen bottles: ~ 11.5 (Factor 50)
Range of temperature from one week to the next: (Himalayas to Perhentian island):
-5 C to +40 C
Number of times we received our meals at the same time in a restaurant: 3 times
Number of restaurants: ~ 587
Used water bottles: ~ 963
Times we played Silly head (game that you might know as Shi.. Head): ~ 1342 (at least)
Toys we bought in Asia that broke after one day: 8 out of 9
New Years Celebrations: 3
Well, people who know me, know that I tend to get a little dramatic when it comes to talking about the end of a phase and I’m definitely not the best at letting go… But hey, the adventure isn’t quite over yet – so here’s to our next three months in the U.S.!
We only needed two nights to recover from our stomach bug from Nepal and then we were ready to head to the island!
As soon as we set foot on the lovely Perhentian Kecil relaxation set in.
We found a little hut in the perfect area – right ON the beach and during our stay there we hardly found any reason to leave our lovely spot! Perfect for Finley to just hang out by the hut, play in the sand, run back and forth to the crystal clear water… We just had to walk a few steps to one of the few restaurants that just put up tables in the sand three times a day 🙂 
Of course we also explored the amazing underwater world and went snorkeling quite a bit again…we even saw quite a few reef sharks and a gigantic turtle.
A big difference to the last few places we had been to was being back in a Muslim country. Even on the beach the women were always covered up and wore their head scarves. It was another reminder for us of how much religion plays such a big role in the lives of so many different types of Asian people.
We were really loving our little Malaysian island and were planning to stay till probably the end of our trip…
But things were about to change…
The whole trip I had been telling Finley not to touch any dogs or cats and he kept a big distance to them the whole time. After a week on the island we were out with a kayak…
We stopped by at a restaurant where they happened to keep a little sea otter as a pet. Everybody was saying, “Ah! How cute!” and before I knew what was happening the owner had told Finley to play with the otter and that it was safe. 
Finley was quite shy with it, as he is always on the safe side with animals, but the otter bit him right on his belly! Luckily it was only a baby, and there wasn’t any blood or anything, but you could see the teeth marks! I freaked out anyway, because you hear all these stories about animal bites and rabies (which Fin had the shots for at home). Chris was sure the bite was only superficial as there wasn’t even a real scratch or anything, so we carried on with our kayaking and had the nicest day out on the beautiful ocean!
In the evening we started worrying again, although the bite marks had almost disappeared by then, but we decided to go and see a doctor just to make sure we shouldn’t be doing anything else. When we told Fin that we were going to leave the island the next morning, he started crying and was kind of heartbroken…we were all sad to have to pack up so unexpectedly fast…
The next morning after a three hour trip we were sitting in the same doctor’s waiting room as the week before! When the doctor saw the tiny mark, he wasn’t worried at all and assured us that it couldn’t have gone into his blood stream.
So although we basically left the island for nothing, we felt it was better to be on the safe side! Just so silly and kind of ironic, that the very first time Finley got close to an animal on our trip, it snapped at him!
We kind of just wanted to go back to our little Malaysian paradise, but it was a long trip to make as we would have had to just make the exact same trip back again a few days later, so we decided to head to the next island in Thailand already getting closer to Bangkok and shorten the end trip a little.
Well, that ended up being a crazy trip! We got on the bus for Thailand and at the border some locals told us to get off and get our passport stamps. We were kind of taken by surprise, had just snoozed a little, not knowing exactly how it would work.
We were the only Westerners on the bus and they acted as if we would just hop off the bus, get our exit stamps, and get right on again and the bus driver was telling us to hurry and that we should leave our bags on the bus! We jumped off, and one of the local guys said he would watch our bags – so we thought the bus would just wait for us! But…as soon as we got off, the bus sped off in another direction!!!
Never ever had we left our bags on a bus before…and we wouldn’t have, but it just went so fast! We basically ran across the border hoping the bus would be there! But it wasn’t…
Soon we found the Thai tourist police who told us to go back to the Malaysian side, so we ran back there. After they told us where the bus should have gone, Chris took a motorbike taxi to the bus stop. He found our little bags sitting in the office there – the local guy must have handed them in, but our big backpacks were gone!!! Luckily they were all very nice though and because of our bus ticket that we got directly on the bus, they were able to track down the bus and call the driver – the packs were still on the bus! Chris had to then wait about two hours for the next bus to bring back the bags! All the time Fin and I had to sit in the crazy heat in between borders as we already had our exit and entrance stamps and Chris was technically in Malaysia illegally. We were so impressed how they were actually able to contact the bus and in the end the bags really made it back!!! We were so nervous and couldn’t believe we had done that!
Back on the Thai side, the police were so sweet and they wanted to take lots of photos to show how they help (stupid!) tourists and we even got a ride in the police car to the next bus stop!
Just seemed crazy how so many things happened to us in Malaysia in just over a week after literally no problems during the whole trip at all!
Anyway, the next day we made it to the next island Koh Lipe, where we stayed until the 16th, then back to Bangkok to start our marathon journey to Portland via Abu Dhabi, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.
Koh Lipe is an absolutely beautiful and stunning place! The whitest sand and the most amazing turquoise, crystal clear water ever…
Koh Lipe seems to be a fast changing place and it is already much more developed than we thought, which of course also has nice benefits like more children for Finley to play with, some cool cocktail bars a la Thai style, BBQs on the beach, or massages. The perfect place to spend our last week in Asia, where we did nothing but relax, be lazy, and enjoy the sunshine and soak up our time together…
Another highlight for all of us was that we got to spend our third(!) New Years in the past four months here! The 31st of December was basically ignored in Asia, then we celebrated the Vietnamese New Year at the end of January, and the middle of April the Thai people celebrated the Buddhist New Year for three days!
According to Finley, the last was by far the most fun celebration ever as it ends up being a water festival where the whole country just throws buckets of water over each other’s heads! We had some great laughs and got soaking wet!
During our two weeks on the beach, we also had time reminiscing about our last incredible 7+ months…
Every morning after waking up in our little hut, I made myself realize once more, what a unique time this is… Nowhere that we have to go… Hanging out on our balcony, chatting away with Finley with all the time in the world… No rush or worry whatsoever and just time, time, time and more time to simply BE…
Yes, we are also looking forward to the comforts of home and all that comes along with it, and especially Finley is ready to stay in one place for a while and we also realize it’s time for him to be with children, get back to a life with certain routines and things like that…
But the realization that this time we’ve shared together – just the three of us together – will never come again… So much quality time spent with each other… talking, laughing, playing, thinking, learning about the world… Just simply BEING together…
But stop! It’s still too early for these last words and thoughts! More of that next time!
April 1st – 16th
three lykes on the road again 