Category — Thoughts

My biggest dilemma, when I was packing my backpack almost 10 months ago, was “Should I take my joggers?”

Amanda had visions of me out running at night in Asia somewhere, getting lost or something terrible happening, so sanity or fear prevailed and they were left in a packing box at home.

Well for the first seven months I would see people out running and quietly I would wish that was me.  (If you think that sounds weird, dont worry, you’re probably in the majority!).

By the time we got to Munich, Germany (after 7 months), I couldn’t wait any longer.  60 Euros later and I was now the proud owner of a brand new pair of Asics!

I think those Asics came just at the right time for me.  By month seven when we hit Italy, we were starting to lose our way a bit.

It was ironic, but as “independent travellers” travelling through S.E. Asia, China, India and the Middle East, we actually found it easier than in the “Civilized West” of Europe.

I think from being so long on the road in developing countries, we had become very accustomed to things that way, so arriving in civilized Europe was actually quite tough for us, from the perspective of higher prices, lack of available internet!, people (generally) appearing less friendly (or more busy!) and I suppose from a travel perspective, Europe was quite like being at home.

This all had alot to do with our decision to add Morocco to our itinery. I felt to get back on track, we needed a clear path and a bit of “spicing” it up.

Instantly when we got to Morocco, we felt alive again – the people appeared friendlier, the pace was slower, things were cheaper and perhaps our senses were again being challenged.

After Morocco, we moved easily through Spain (we had our mojo back!), had an absolutely amazing 2 weeks in Montaigu de Quercy (S.W. France) and kept powering on to Paris, then England.

…..So back to those joggers!!!   I have had the pleasure of running in Strasbourg, Lyon, Marseille, Seville, Madrid, Barcelona, Littlehampton (England) and finally my favourite run to date, a great run in London last week.   Through Hyde Park, passed Buckingham Palace up to Westminster and Big Ben, across the Thames to the London Eye, back across the bridge, up Whitehall past Downing Street to Trafalgar Square, then up the Mall and finally back through Hyde Park!

…….Roll on next week, it’s New York and Central Park!

I remember when we started telling people that we were going to take a year out and go travelling, how most people say things like “Wow!  You’re so lucky!” or “I wish I could do that” and we would smile and agree.

Human nature being what it is, once we get into the swing of things and we get into a bit of a routine, things start losing their gloss.  Like the shiny new car  – after a month of admiring it, it becomes a means of transportation.  The beautiful home you designed, decorated and slaved to afford becomes the place where you watch tv, put your feet up and have a roof over your head.

All nice things; all worthwhile and enjoyable but after a while not as exciting.  Travel is no different.  Unfortunately, one of the downsides of long term travel is that it becomes your everyday.  Yes, we’re travelling to exotic locations and seeing amazing things but we’re also schooling four children, shopping, doing laundry and finding a place to sleep – it’s everyday life for us now.  The gloss of those amazing sights wears off.  Yes, I know!  It’s a travesty!  Believe it or not, some days we’ve had to force ourselves to leave our room and go out and look around a new city.  It’s like anything, you have to remind yourself how blessed you are to have such amazing opportunities and make the most of everyday.

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Here are some stats for the first six months:-

• Visited 13 countries;
• Stayed in 58 hotels, 11 Youth Hostels, eaten at 147 restaurants/cafes,
  (cooked one meal!!) & had one McDonalds Hotel delivery.
• Visas required – 8;
•  Border crossings – 7;
• Travelled on 10 planes, 21 trains (incl 5 sleeper trains), 25 coaches (incl 2 sleepers), 27 local buses & 33 mini buses;
•  13 ferries,7 water taxis, 6 long tail boats, 2 junk boats, 1 cruise ship, 1 falucca, 1 surfcat & 1 canoe;
• Rode on 20 motor bikes, 4 cyclos, 1 horse & buggy, 2 bamboo rafts & back of a ute 3 times;
• 7 cable cars, 4 skytrains, 3 trams, 1 camel ride and one horse ride;
• Caught about 180 taxi/tuk tuks and rode the metro/tube about 50 times;
• Big sights seen – 3  -   Great Wall, Taj Mahal & the Pyramids;
• Castles, palaces, temples, churches, museums…..Countless!

- Time spent together – 24/7 for 26 weeks!
- Memories – priceless.

It’s 90 days since we took our first flight and left Australia for Singapore.  In about an hour, we will take our second flight from Guilin in the South East of China to Chengdu in Sichuan province in the South West.

While waiting for the plane we’ve had some fun thinking and talking about our 90 days of travel.  It’s amazing that we can all recollect every day together so far.  This was definately a dream of mine before we left – I had visions when we were planning this trip that we would be able to reminesce about our great adventure together.

We have had quite a few  comments on our blog asking questions like – “Are you all enjoying it?”,  “Do you get enough downtime?” and “Don’t you get sick of living out of a suitcase?” etc.

The answer to most of those questions is based on the fact that this is not a vacation.  We still do homework, laundry and get up and organise breakfast every morning.  Obviously we do activities and some sightseeing that is specific to the area we’re in, but we still have a routine.  The lack of routine is, what I think, causes a holiday to be so exhausting.

We are also very mindful of not overdoing it with the kids, so we generally do an activity one day and try to follow up with a recovery/easy day the next, where we also try to fit in some schoolwork.

In the early weeks, we all went through our own forms of adjustment to travelling, both with being together all the time and with the foreign cultures.  The kids found it quite hard earlier on, with a couple of nights of one crying and then like dominoes, the whole crew would be crying.  I personally found this quite hard as I would then question my own motives for the trip – why was I putting the kids through this if we weren’t enjoying it?  By the end of the second week, they had got into the swing of things and got a bit more used to Asia and we were starting to get into the travel groove.

Also, Amanda and I found ourselves in a new position of having to work out our roles.  After a few “discussions”, we have continued to try to work to our strengths and make it all come together.  We try to plan in advance and I have the role of going out to book tickets etc, while Amanda stays with the kids.

To answer the question specifically of “Are we enjoying it?”  we can definately say “Yes!” especially as this now feels like normal life and has been for a while – and hey who would miss shopping, cleaning, gardening, cooking and going to work!!!

The other question – “Are we sick of living out of a suitcase?”  Easy answer is No!  Anyone who knows Amanda and I well knows that we are planners and we planned well in advance our travel wardrobe and how we were going to pack it.  We all have a very small number of clothes packed in labelled packing cubes -sounds anal I know, but it has paid off being so organised when we have stayed in 31 different locations in 90 days and we always know where everything is!!  (So far we have lost 1 item of clothing…)