Now that we’re back in Canada and not distracted by constantly changing plans or trying to figure out how to get home, I have a bit of time to go back and fill in many of the blanks on this trip – things I wanted to write about but didn’t get to. I figure a lot of people have time for reading these days so hopefully I can entertain with something other than exponential growth charts.
At the beginning of our trip, I wrote about our packing list. Today I had a look back at that post to figure out how much of the original stuff made it home, here’s what I came up with:
Water Bottles
Unfortunately we did not return home with a single water bottle that started this trip. In fact when we landed in Toronto, we were only carrying one bottle so the final leg of our trip was no better than any other. Lauren wins the prize for keeping her bottle the longest, her bottle made it to the second last flight (from Auckland to Vancouver). Unfortunately in our sleep deprived state we forgot it when deplaning in Vancouver. This wasn’t Lauren’s fault since she had properly handed over accountability of said bottle at the start of that day, it goes down to a mom & dad error. Other bottles were lost along the way and replaced. One note about water bottles, avoid the kind that have a straw inside them, they have two issues. First, keeping a straw clean is a pain. Second, when the air pressure in the plane decreases, these bottles either leak slowly or become a water gun ready to soak whoever opens it. Lauren’s bottle had a straw, it once shot water so far I think the person behind her got wet. Eventually we learned to disconnect the straw at the start of the flight. Lauren loved that straw bottle… I hated it.
Ginger the Christmas Elf
This was a devastating blow. Ginger the Christmas Elf has visited our family at Christmas for several years now. On December 1st, she magically showed up in our dorm room in India (We were away for the weekend so it was very magical that she was in our room when we returned). She left instructions for how we could bring her along for the remainder of our trip: she would climb into my water bottle and we could carry the bottle without touching her (as doing so can cause her Christmas magic to disappear). Ginger successfully travelled around India and parts of Malaysia until our bus ride from Kuala Lumpur to Penang when the water bottle rolled under a seat and was forgotten. We realized our mistake at the end of the day and despite several failed attempts to contact the “Nice” bus company, we never saw her again. Hopefully Ginger will find a new family with whom she can share her magic.
5 Brand new pairs of underwear
Our kids grow – a lot. We regularly bought new clothes to replace the old ones. At one point, we lost a whole package of unworn brand new underwear. Darla wrote about this in an instagram post. We’re still not sure why the package was tucked under a pillow and slept on, but it remained under that pillow when we left the next day (a spot check we almost always did but forgot that day). One of our kids had to sleep in a bathing suit for a few days until we could find more underwear – parenting win!
Headlamp
We started with two, came home with one. We lost it on our overnight cruise in Vietnam. We were using the headlamps while kayaking through caves. The boat company had some for us to use but the kids preferred their own as they were lighter and fit their heads better. After kayaking, someone took off their headlamp and set it down in the wrong spot, it never made it back into our bag. Hopefully the boat captain or cook found it and they can enjoy it.
Stuff we threw away
Shoes: several pairs of flip flops, sandals, and runners. Kids’ feet grow and some shoes just get worn out. Nothing unexpected here.
Owen’s socks: We threw away several pairs of socks that wouldn’t come clean in the wash, they smelled really bad – especially after walking around Angkor Wat all day. We bought him new ones, sometimes that’s the best you can do.
Mike’s first bathing suit: On our penultimate day in Bali, I suffered a weird injury. We went to Waterbom Bali – a fantastic water park (Christmas present from Meme and Papa – thanks again, it was awesome). At some point in the day I must have sat on a droplet of highly concentrated pool chemicals which burned a whole through my bathing suit and made an itchy spot on my bum. The next morning the hole in the bathing suit was even larger as the chemical continued eating the fabric all night. I had a chemical burn on my bum for about a week. I threw away this bathing suit since it was now useless.
Several kids’ bathing suits: They simply wore out from too much chlorine and sunshine. Each kid went through about 5 bathing suits on this trip.
Everything else made the trip, for the most part we had everything we needed and needed everything we had. We were all very happy to carry around a medical kit full of supplies that saw almost no use. We’re equally happy to have a few more pieces of clothing in our wardrobes now that we’re back in Canada. You can survive with very little, but it’s nice to have a few extra options once in a while.
Next I’m going to have a look back through our trips for places that have good stories to share. Hope to get those posted soon.