End of the Road

That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.”
― Emily Dickinson

It is fun to look back at this adventure as a whole.  We focus so much on the moment each day that it is great to slow down towards the end and take a trip down memory lane.  Our dinner conversation has become about thoughts, favorite memories, and a run down recap of our adventures.  Chad has meticulously logged stats in his phone each day and transferred them to a spreadsheet periodically to give a broad perspective.  And Liam has the memory of an elephant so when in doubt he can usually fill in the blanks. So, this blog is the grand conclusion with some thoughts and favorites.

The kids both say that if they could do it over they would definitely do it again, although Shia says it with more conviction.  Liam really misses all our peeps back home, a lot.  They also both feel that they learned more being hands on in the world than they do in the classroom. “Go my sons, burn your books and buy stout shoes, climb the mountains, search the valleys, the deserts, the sea shores, and the deep recesses of the earth… Observe and experiment without ceasing, for in this way and no other will you arrive at a knowledge of the true nature of things.” -Petrus Severinus, 16th c. Danish Alchemist  Our friend sent this quote to us along the road and it says it all in our opinion.  Ironically, Liam was particularly adamant that we burn his school supplies before we left, and we did.

For us as parents this time together was strikingly close to how we played it out in our minds through the years.  We enjoyed the heck out of our intense time together and we remembered that even without the parenting gig, we really enjoy each other too.  Maybe we’ll have to do another round down the road, just us two again.  Having the opportunity for all of us to know each other on a deeper level was a blessing.  We sold this concept to Shia that we were tired of sharing so much of her time with her teachers, and we appreciate the experience of hoarding the kids for 7 months. We love traveling as a lifestyle; we love the simplicity of living out of a backpack, the relaxing free time, the excitement of deciding what adventure to do next, the joy of life being innately healthy through lifestyle instead of the chore of ‘working out’, and the freedom of not fretting over work. We know some folks do this for years and have figured out how to make money on the road and we know that isn’t what the kids want, and we don’t envision we would dig that either.

Favorite Countries

Its very difficult to compare countries to one another because they all have their pro’s and con’s and are all so vastly different in one aspect or another. From scenery to food to people, wildlife, history, culture, experiences, sights, etc…how do you judge? I don’t know, but we tried. Individually, we all ranked the countries (ones we stayed at least a week in) privately with no influence from others and after averaging the results, here are the top three:

• Namibia – Amazing unique landscapes, African wildlife, rooftop tent camping, self drive safari and an awesome backpacker lodge
• Brazil – Admittedly, we didn’t see much of Brazil, but we had so much dang fun in Rio and at Carnaval in Sao Paulo, it ranked high on all our lists.   Iguazu Falls is a sight to behold as well.
• Indonesia – It had everything we like – western comforts, beaches, great diving & snorkeling, amazing wildlife, and a flair for style.

It is interesting to note that all 3 of these countries allowed us to explore with anonymity.  Nobody was asking to take selfies with us as, staring or calling out to us as we passed by.  I am not sure if that was a subconscious factor, but it can be taxing to be a novelty.

Namibian Sand Dunes

Other Categories

Best Beaches

Brazil – Copacabana

Rio – Combination of soft sand, water temperatures, beautiful setting, fun surf (not too big, but big enough to challenge the kids and get their adrenaline going), and mobile vendors selling everything you need, so you never had to get up. Only downside is it was a bit crowded, but once you settle in its great and the crowds only add to the energy.
Runner Up: Malaysia (Perhentian Islands) – beach front hut, soft sand, amazingly clear water, and snorkeling right off the shore.  With an awesome diving platform we could swim to.

Most Scenic

Argentina – Glaciers, Mountains, Iguazu falls, rainforest – such diversity!
Runner Up: Indonesia – Bali: Beautiful beaches, terraced rice fields, stunning underwater vistas, picturesque volcanoes, & untamed rivers in Borneo
Honorable mentions: Sri Lanka and Tanzania

Most different from home

India – crazy streetscapes with everything from cars, bicycle rickshaws, tuk tuks, huge ornate trucks, cows, horse drawn carts, and more cows.  Fashion and Food.
Egypt – lifestyle, environment – dusty desert, dress of women in full Burkas, donkeys used as beasts of burden, highly visible armed security
Uganda – roads, dirt roads, getting to know the locals, houses were so different – we have 2 or 3 story houses..they have 2 or 3 room houses. Kids living at the boarding school.  No trash collection, so it is visible as litter or burn piles.

Best Food

roadside Rolex grill

Rolex  (Uganda) – Street food with onions, peppers and egg rolled in a chapati (flat bread). Very tasty!
Green Curry (India & Thailand)
Mie Goreng and Beef Rendang (Indonesia)
Thali (India) – Sampler platter of Indian goodness
Ice Cream (Argentina) – We tried ice cream in every country that met our criteria (at least one night and a passport stamp) and Argentina had the best ice cream.
Acai Smoothie (Brazil) – This frozen nutrient packed bowl of heaven was such a heavy favorite with the locals we tried it among some hearty competition of glorious fruits and were so glad we did.  We ate heaps of it!

Scariest roads

Uganda – although we rarely went fast enough to do serious damage
Runner up: Sri Lanka – fast enough to do serious damage.

Friendliest people

Uganda

Runner up: Sri Lanka

Best Diving/Snorkeling:

Malaysia – Palau Perhentian  We also would love to exploring more of this area when the kids can dive full depth.
Best (most fun) single dive – Sea Wolves in Argentina

Best Transport: 

Sri Lankan train between Ella and Kandy – such amazing views of the countryside in a wood paneled train car with picture windows and vintage class.  Also, the tracks double as a pedestrian thoroughfare so we could watch the village life pass by as well.

Stats:

• 205 days
• 18 countries (based on the criteria that we stayed at least one night and got passport stamp, i.e. went through immigration).
  • We can add Nepal (stayed a couple nights on our trek ), Kenya (stayed the night in Nairobi airport), but did not get passport stamp in either of those, and South Africa where we took a day trip during a long layover and got passport stamp, but didn’t stay the night.
  • If we further loosen the criteria we can also add in Panama and Ethiopia where we had layovers but didn’t stay a night or get passport stamps. If you add in all those we have 23 that we at least stepped foot in.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Our preferred methods of transportation were much different this time than in 2002. We took way fewer public buses than in 2002. This is due mostly to the fact that with a family of four its much more convenient and not much more expensive than a taxi or private car hire. Plus we’ve grown a bit soft and cars are much more comfortable and quicker than public buses. We also flew a lot more this time around. Flights are cheaper than you’d think (many cases not much more than an overnight bus ride), faster, and most of the airports and airlines are really nice. In fact, all of the airlines we flew were better than any airline back home, except for Egypt Air.

Here are some interesting travel stats:

• 39 flights involving 50 airports, and 23 different airlines
• 30 public buses, 44 boats, 7 trains, 141 taxis/tuk tuk rides (and countless private cars), 26 days of having a rental car (in Argentina, Namibia, and Australia – each of which drives on the wrong (left) side of the road)
• 15 overnights in transit – 6 plane/airport, 3 bus, 3 train,  and 3 boat

Best airlines

1. Emirates
2. Ethiopian Air
3. Copa

Accommodation

We used TripAdvisor and Booking.com to find and book most of our lodging. We also used AirBnB quite a bit to stay in private houses and condo’s. Looking back we were pretty evenly split between hotels, private house/condo, guesthouse and hostels (including backpacker lodges):

Kanishka Villas – Bali

Language

English language speakers are definitely more prolific now than in 2002. In most countries English was spoken and understood, especially in the tourist industry. This, however, made us lazy and we didn’t put much effort into learning the local language when English was so prevalent. It was actually South America where we found it to be least English speaking friendly. But Spanish is also our strongest 2nd language, so it wasn’t a big deal. It was also fun seeing the kids learn and use Spanish effectively. We were very proud of that and how brave and confident they became speaking to locals in their language. Although the responses they received in return from the locals was rarely understood.

Medical

Liam with over 50 mosquito bites on his face alone from sleeping on a Nile felucca. The 5 on each ear looked especially irritating.

Food – It is a common concern to worry about food illnesses in 3rd world countries, but our experience feels that we’re getting made sick by the food at home. We have felt healthier when traveling in these countries where we eat with the seasons, food is not stuffed with chemicals, but rather comes straight from the field to the kitchen.  Just a week into Australia where we reunited with huge portions, processed food, and western cuisine we felt the ill effects.

Liam – he didn’t get sick (not even a stomach ache) until a cold was brought from Colorado. He did get mild scrapes from going over the handlebars mountain biking – he got red carpet service for his wound, while Chads scrapes were ignored.  Life isn’t always fair Chad.   Bed bug infestation and more than his fair share of mosquito bites.

Heidi – 2 stitches from Glacier incident, 1 fainting (from getting stitches removed by Chad)

Chad – Injured calf – 5 days hobbling around on a cane. One swollen eye shut as a result from yet another Ugandan insect invading his body (lake fly in the eye this time – mango fly larvae in the leg last time), Shredded hands from the friction of keeping up on the ropes course.

Shia – Cuts, scrapes, and bites that turn to wounds (she’s a picker!), and bed bug infestation.  Along with a knee injury from before the trip.

Technology – friend or foe?

As fast as technology has changed it is no surprise that it would greatly impact our experience.  Here’s some thoughts on how it weighed in, for better or worse.

Chargers!

Foe

• 2 lost phone chargers
• 2 cracked screens
• 1 lost kindle (first week)
• Unexplained Fatality of G and H keys on the laptop keyboard
• Sucky wifi is worse than not having it at all – wifi was great in Asia, not great in Australia or South America, sucked in Africa.
• Aleks.com (from the kids point of view it was a foe.  This has a great online math curriculum to keep them on track. Mom and Dad loved it)
• When the internet was good, the kids never wanted to leave the room, unless it was homework time…
• Getting stuck in research – it could drive us mad sorting the good from the bad reviews, worrying about if we are missing something better, etc. We miss the simplicity of showing up, finding a place you like and done.  Now it is so easy to book in advance, you almost have to do that, and when it is a dud, you are stuck or leave money on the table.
• Facebook and everything else brings you closer to friends far away, but further from those sitting next to you.  It was evident that travelers aren’t bonding as much with technology barriers now.  We saw so many facebooking or video chatting with home instead of swapping stories with the other backpackers in the room.  The best interactions we had was where internet was not an option.

Friend

• Mirrorless Camera was awesome with compact light frame that allowed me to get better shots than ever before with my point and shoots.  We didn’t know if it would still be clunkier than we were willing to carry it, but I carried it everywhere like a purse and never regretted it.  Olympus OM-D EM10 (hauled 3 lenses and would do it the same again)
• Wifi feature on our camera to transfer pics to our phone without a cable or internet (awesome until it stopped working at month 6)
• Waterproof camera – Olympus Stylus Tough TG2 – takes great shots underwater – can handle a shallow dive – nice compact option
• 64 GB SD Cards – one in each camera has been enough to store all of our pics.  Google photos to backup pics
• Unlocked phone to work with a local SIM card – it was nice to have phone and internet on a phone for backup, and the hotspot allowed us to share the joy.
• Uber when we had a local SIM card
• Google Maps – offline Google maps when without Data service or Wifi, and navigation when we had it.
• Booking.com and AirBnB  – booking pissed us off at times with cancellation policies being buried, but all in all it was handy, reviews were helpful, and it keeps our reservations organized and easy to find.

Acknowledgements

Thank you for all the comments and for those who read our meandering thoughts, thanks for coming along for the ride.  We never know if what we write is interesting, but we hope somewhere along the way you had a little virtual vacation with us.

In the interest of full disclosure, the blogs written as Chad and Heidi are typically started by Heidi.  Much like tearing off a band-aid she does a brain dump.  Then Chad goes through it and brings more clarity, organization and adds his perspective on top.  Surely it either reads as Heidi is the author, or it bounces around to confuse you.  We call it Heidi/Chad.  It is definitely teamwork.  Fun Fact: Neither of us were communication or English majors, you probably noticed.

Shia and Liam – We recognize that leaving the familiarity and comfort of home to embark on this crazy journey was nothing less than a massive trust fall for the kids.  We know that we are at a stage of their childhood where we want to hold on and suck every moment together dry, while they want to reach out and have more independence.  We want to thank them for being amazing travel companions.  Maybe the medical section should have been longer for them, we wouldn’t remember because they so rarely complained.  We asked them to focus on the joy in each moment and they did. We took them outside of their comfort zone and act like adults in public and they in turn reminded us to play like children.  This time together was magic for us and thank you… for being you and sharing your time.

Kameron, Kerstin and Bryan – Thank you for taking care of Bullet and our house and duties back home.  The comfort of knowing he was in such good hands was a blessing.

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