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(Alex) The 14th of February 1997, 1:20 PM. I was born. “Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Dear Alex, Happy Birthday to you!” is what I hear to wake me up. I jump out of bed excited for the day ahead of me. Today, we are learning how to be Vietnamese […]

Andrew steps up in a little restaurant on an island off the coast of Da Nang, Viet Nam:

(Reis) Today we went to a village called Xuan La. In Xuan La there is a couple who specialize in making Tohe, a toy puppet-like sculpture made out of colored rice powder dough. On the way to this couple’s house, we walked through the village market. It was filled with fruits like dragon fruit, mango […]

(Alex) Cambodia was one of our favorite countries so far. There are many different reasons why we think so, one of them is because of a 14 year old boy named Sory. We met Sory in Siem Reap, an ancient city about 200 kilometers north of Phnom Penh, where we were meeting with the founder […]

(Andrew) After exploring the breathtaking temples of Angkor Wat, we spent the last week of our Cambodian experience with an inspiring organization called Cambodian Living Arts (CLA). From 1975 to 1979, Cambodia was ruled by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. The impact on Cambodia was huge: 25% of the Cambodian population died during those […]

(Emma) Our guide/friend, Seyha has a motor bike. There is a thing called a tuk tuk. It is a motor bike with a cart on the back. It holds up to 5 people. So 1 of us had to go on the back of the motor bike. Now it was my turn. I got on […]

(Andrew) In Cambodia, we had two different experiences, Cambodian Living Arts and the temples of Angkor Wat. We visited 4 temples in the Angkor complex: Angkor Wat, Bayon, Ta Prohm and Banteay Srei. All of them were stunning and had their own special feature. For Angkor Wat it was its massiveness, for Bayon there were […]

(Dana) The Holocaust. Apartheid in South Africa. The annihilation of 25% of Cambodians by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.  Three almost unfathomable human tragedies perpetrated by human beings against other human beings. Three atrocities for which I had limited historical context before this trip.  Three incredible history lessons for the 6Explorers through visits to […]

(Dana)  As advertised, the Balinese are lovely, smiling people who welcomed us warmly to their island.  Some thoughts from our 12 days: * Rice fields still dominate the landscape and still represent a major part of the economy and food.  Growing rice remains a very labor-intensive process as terraced rice paddies do not easily support […]

Bali is only a few miles away from its much larger neighbor to the West, Java, separated by the easily traversed 2.3km Bali Strait. Bali is a really nice place and the Javanese discovered this early. No surprise, then, that the vast majority of today’s Balinese are actually transplanted people from Java whose forebearers crossed […]