we arrived at the cairo airport in the middle of the night and left in a bus bound for giza – a would-be 20-minute trip that actually takes over an hour due to horrific Egyptian traffic, and serious lack of road rules (there is only one stop light in all of cairo, and seemingly no such thing as law or lane-abiding). the streets were slammed, even at 3am. as our bus crawled down the highway, our anticipation grew -- we would soon be within eyesight of the legendary pyramids of giza!

we embark on our month-long journey to the middle east, where we find ourselves stepping into a new dimension of slow motion. after 2 hours waiting to check in, 3 large bottles of water, 1 mediocre airport sandwich, 2 scooby-doo episodes, a restless 2 hour nap on the airport floor, and a 10-hour flight to istanbul, we arrived in search of the hotel representative who was supposed to be there for our complimentary pickup.

the last two hours of our 13-hour train ride from bangkok to chiang mai felt like a lifetime. maybe it was our sweet-and-sour schmirnoff ice hangover (ugh) combined with the pre-ordered ‘ham’ sandwich, which was accompanied by 13-hour old mcdonald’s french fries that had been re-plated to look like they were provided by the train service (double ugh).

we’ve arrived in the crazy, upside down world of bangkok!
full of excitement and ready for adventure. once again, we sing missy’s praises!! (pat’s sister) for setting us up with a luxury homebase to return to after each day’s dirty, sweaty, exhausting adventures. we stayed at le meridien bangkok, a sophisticated glass hotel overlooking the famous patpong district. we dove right in…

cambodia was the first trip that just the three of us had ever taken together, and was really the beginning of “our mad planet” adventures (and blog). it opened the world up to our family and taught us to become more adaptable, patient and trusting. it encouraged us to embrace the wild adventure of traveling with small children, and showed us that it’s not only possible, but it’s essential to our quality of life. our dream life!

nyepi new year! for weeks and weeks since we’ve been here the balinese people have been ‘preparing’ for nyepi. in honor of this holiday (primarily hindu and based on the lunar new year) they create these gigantic paper mache statues called ‘ogoh-ogoh’s that represent the fight between good and evil.

when pat and i first had maddi, we talked deeply, constantly, about what kind of parents we wanted to be. both of our parents have set the bar incredibly high for us. so we ask ourselves::
how can the journey of parenting help us grow deeper into each other? how can we continue expanding our relationship as lovers, parents, family? what kind of experiences do we want to have together? how do we want our lives to look? to feel?

we arrived in casablanca! immersed in architecture and culture that has a combination of european, middle eastern and african influence. we met our guide, abdul and our driver, hafid and were immediately brought to our hotel. we arrived with a group of 10 of the most amazing travel buddies on the planet; pat and i, my parents, our family friends, herbie and melissa, jV and his girlfriend tanya, my brother jordan and our beloved igor.

it begins, and it’s pure magic. cusco is breathtaking. our hotel is directly off of the main square (Plaza de Armas) down a little cobblestone alley. we were greeted with such kindness and generosity -- and a big pot of coca leaf tea, which truly does help with the altitude sickness). we’re in the mountains! our hotel bedroom wall is made of original exposed stone built by the incas.