18. The trip is over

Is it the last message of the blog? I don't know, but for sure it’s really the end of the trip: after 1 year traveling, we needed a little rest and we ‘ve just spent 10 days in the French Alps to relax… But now we are back to new realities: Nina and the kids are already back in Sofia, with new challenges: find a job for Nina (and not in Kazahkstan, please), and find a school for the kids.

It’s the end of the trip but we are not sad it’s already finished. We’re so happy for all what we have done, seen, all the people we have met during the last year; we’re also happy for our future life in Sofia, a little closer to you (not all of you , it’s true), about our new job, the house we want to build ; It was a long year, not too long but certainly our longuest year; so many things happened. The kids of Manompana, the goats of Laos, the mountain of Yunnan, we’ll always have a little room in our mind and in our heart for all these memories … A new life is now waiting for us but we are already talking about a future world trip…

“What a great chance for the kids to travel around the world”, we heard that a couple of times on our way, when  we met “westerners”. But it was also a great chance for us to see other countries, discover other landscapes, meet different people, being astonished by the generosity of the Chinese people, by the smile of the people of Myanmar, by the kids of Madagascar… It was also a great chance for us to travel with such kids like Sashko and Mira, to be amazed by their physical capabilities in the mountain, in the cold, in the rain, in the heat, without food or so little water, to see the world with their eyes, to approach the local people in an easier and softer way… 

Thanks for all of you, for your message, for your support, for reading us. You are all invited to come and visit us ; please prepare a lot of time because you’ll have to listen to all our stories, to read our 1200 pages of travelbook and to watch our 5000 photos…


a few words from Sashko

I liked very much the whole trip, but there were small things also, that were not nice. In the bike trip the fire cooked dinners were very nice, the biking also. It’s good, because I succeeded to do records of my life: 52 km/hour, 115 km/day for few days in a row!

In Madagascar, Manompana was the best. We played a lot with the kids and the bungalow + the breakfast were one of the best in the trip. In the Elephant Nature Park I learnt a lot of things – how people torture the poor animals, put them on the streets and circuses…The goats in the organic farm were very cute and I saw how mothers gave birth to the baby goats! China was also one of the best part of the trip. Wu Wei Si was great! The food, martial arts, nice room, morning walks, everyday praying. The 9 hours walks learnt me to walk faster so in the Alps (where I saw small, quiet villages) I was always in front! In Nosy Be, I was sad when our luggage was stolen. Also I was sad when I understood how people can behave badly with the elephants.

I changed,because of a lot of things. I am less scared now from the high gorges in China. As you know now I also walk faster and longer. I like not only McDonalds but also pat si you. I’ll not be upset if I don’t use a computer for 3 months, or 6… My future plan is to create an eco club with my friends – 5 people maximum. We will do a lot of eco things like collecting garbage, planting trees. The club will be in our garden, connected with my room in the land that we bought.

from Mira

My best part of the trip was the bike trip. I liked Elephant Nature Park, Wu Wei Si (the temple), organic farm, Manompana, all bike trip and Thai food. I did not like stealing people, not so much Madagascar food, home work and all the rubbish in China. I was sad for the elephants on the streets of Bangkok or all Asia. I was scared of for our luggage and who will win the world cup of football (fyi, European Cup). I like animals. I want to have a new house, a fish and dog. I am very happy we did this trip. I was missing all my family and friends and Bulgaria, European food. Future plan – to make many, many, many trips!!!

and from Nina

Damien stayed at Lyon, I and the kids, we are traveling to Sofia – the world trip is over… Both leaving and coming back make me equally happy. I only feel strange that we four will not be together all day long.

I don’t think I changed a lot after the trip (except for the age but anyway one year more is not so much when you are so young…). Now I just feel impressed how big the world is and this makes me dreaming of crossing other places for which I only heard or read. Also now I don’t care if the kids are dirty or with shabby clothes (eh, for the clothes I didn’t care so much before as well…)! I love and argue with the kids in the same way as before the trip but now I am quite impressed how strong they are and how they managed to learn, at an age of 8 and 10, it is better to have less and to receive something with more difficulties in order to appreciate it more.

What I liked most in the world trip was the bike trip – living all day under the sky, sleeping in a tent and cooking outside, the swimming and playing in the hot mineral waters of Hungary, the people in the small villages where we were passing, looking at us with eyes and smile widely open.

From Madagascar I will never forget the kids of Manompana, the swimming in the green water together with colourful fishes, the rainy green mountains, the morning walks, the daily portions of rice and fish, the lively, poor and rich, dirty and colourful Antananarivo.

Thinking of Asia I will always first remember the snowy, so astonishingly high mountains of China, our daily 9 hours walks on steep paths up and down, the old men and women in the villages, dragging us in their small homes for never ending cups of tea and bowls with rice, our passionate kung-fu lessons, the surprise in front of the many different green coloures of the rice fields and the feeling of freedom and such immense happiness walking through them. I will remember the muddy kiss of an elephant. I will often dream of the street Thai food – a single worthwhile purpose of a trip to Thailand. I will be forever enchanted by my first Asian temples – Angkor. I liked a lot the schools in Myanmar consisting of open space for windows and doors and many noisy kids in green-white uniforms, the spacious and empty teak wood monasteries with their huge golden Buddha statues and curious monks, the water buffalos and the peanut curry with chapatti.

I didn’t like Nosy Be in Madagascar but I forgot about it. I didn’t like the piles of rubbish in Sihanoukville, Cambodia but after tasting a little from the beach, the water, the biking around the quiet bays and the fresh fish, I stopped to notice it. I didn’t like the shouting of the Chinese, the beep-beeping of the drivers, the spitting on the street but only a week time was needed to accept that as part of a different culture similar to the kissing in France for example.

I was quite afraid we will all die in a road accident when we have started the bike trip, I was a little afraid every time when entering new, unknown country, was very afraid when Mira broke her front teeth falling from the bike of Damien, was scared in the evening after our luggage was stolen at Nosy Be when Damien was still not back home and it was a dark, dark evening, and was very afraid in the small boat, swinging us in the big waves of the Indian ocean, I was crying at the narrow rocky path, hanging in the sky 300m above a big river in China. I was missing so much chocolate in Madagascar and so little in Asia…

I was missing fresh lemon juice while climbing hill after hill in Myanmar with two empty bottles in the back pack. I was missing my family and friends every time I was remembering about them (it was good I was not remembering them so often..). I was missing the kids of Manompana, especially 2 of them.

I was dreaming about our future house with garden and about our daily life in Bulgaria after the trip. Also about our next trip around the world because the kids started to plan it already.

I was so happy to go back to Europe, to spend 10 days with the big family of Damien in the Alps – climbing, walking, trying to talk in French and eating cheese with red wine. Now I feel so happy, sitting at the Rome airport, waiting for the plain to Sofia – it’s coming only in 20 min! 

I can’t stop thinking I am lucky to meet someone who can organize and make such roundtheworld trip and I am lucky to have kids who can be so pleasant.

Comments

[Iryna K]

Nina, kindest greetings & best regards from Kiev! Please take my most sincere admiration of you & your lovely family!I could not stop reading your 1 year life story - so fascinating & brave! I hope you will feel comfortable when safely back home with the most precious gift of this trip - an unforgetable experience for kids & new perseption of how big the world is & how different & common we are. Please stay in touch! Hugs & kisses. Iryna K

[Brian & Joanne]

Hi, we are so pleased that the rest of your trip after Elephant Camp went well and that you are safely home in Europe. We enjoyed Angkor Wat - the temples were fascinating. Our daughter in Singapore was at home for six weeks; we just put her on the plane back to Singapore today as her teaching year begins next week. Now we are at our cottage for six months and enjoying friends and family.
Please let us know how your life in Sofia goes. A hug for Mira & Saschko. Cheers, Brian & Joanne.