Our tour of Malaysia is over and we’re spending today flying from Kuala Lumpur to Manila, Philippines. Since we have a 6-hour scheduled layover in Manila, we’re going to make the most of the airport amenities, but since we have to exit the secure area and recheck our bags anyway, we might take advantage of a special opportunity that presents.

We're leaving Tokyo on a 2-hour trip to Kyoto, at speeds above 300 kilometers per hour, without leaving the ground. We're doing it by taking the world-famous Shinkansen bullet train between cities. And we booked their first-class "green car" to see if it's worth the extra cost.

After spending the past week in Florence and Milan, we’re leaving Italy and traveling to a killer 2-bedroom suite in the heart of Paris. By train. That takes 7 hours. And gets us into the city late enough that we’ll be cramming into a temporary room for the night and completing our journey about 24 hours from now. Will this trip feel like a scenic and relaxing journey through the French countryside? Or a never-ending trek with eight bags and couple of tired and hungry kids? We’re about to find out.