Yes!!! Very soon we’ll be on the road again. It’s really been wayyyy too long! I’m so excited about our upcoming trip. We have two months and a basic plan but nothing set in stone yet. Which is exactly the way we like it. Our last trip was 6 weeks in Mexico, in 2019. And it’s been 7 years since we went on our 10-month-long adventure in South East Asia. I’d never have predicted it would be that long before we could return. 

Last time we were in South East Asia our little world traveler was still truly little, only a toddler. Now he’s 9 years old, which comes with lots of new challenges. It’s not enough to be with mom and dad all day every day anymore. He has a pretty tight-knit group of friends at home which he’ll sorely miss and we need to be more conscious of his need to connect with other kids. On the other hand, he’s now old enough to actually remember the trip and we’re very much looking forward to making fantastic new family travel memories.

Our route

We have two months to travel and other than the first 1,5 weeks we haven’t planned anything yet. We arrive in Bangkok end of January, spend a week in Siem Reap, Cambodia, fly back to Bangkok and then have about 6,5 weeks to make it to Singapore for our flight back home end of March. Of course, we have a few places and activities on our wish list. We’d love to visit the Wildlife Friends Foundation near Hua Hin, Thailand. We’ve donated a few times in the past years and it would be great to see it with our own eyes. Also, a stay at the water bungalows in Khao Sok National Park in Thailand and a trip to Taman Negara in Malaysia are on our list. And we want to surprise our little Lego fan with a trip to Legoland Malaysia. 

Worldschooling

We’re really looking forward to worldschooling our son and letting him discover more of the world. He’s homeschooled but we always envisioned travel and everything that comes with it being a big part of his education. We always talk about travel but for obvious reasons, we didn’t actually travel much in the past few years. We hope this trip will be the turning point. Because we homeschool, we always spend a lot of time together and it will be good for all three of us to break out of the routine and discover new places together. 

Different age, different needs

Our son loves to play. And since we believe in child-led education, he gets to play as much as he likes. He’s an only child and we’re fortunate that he’s able to entertain himself very well. But interaction with other kids is important to him. Mom and dad simply can’t ‘play’ as well as his friends. He’s basically growing up with a group of other homeschooled kids and they’re a pretty tight-knit bunch. They usually see each other once or twice a week, so being away for two months could be tough. We’ve decided to start a private chat group where they can exchange videos, voice and text messages. Hopefully, that will help. We’re also hoping to meet other traveling families on the road, as well as find places where local kids meet. Getting older does mean that he’s more selective so we’ll have to see how that goes. 

Flying with kids

Obviously flying with a toddler is a lot different than flying with a 9-year-old. When he was younger flying was like riding a bus for our little world traveler. But it’s been a good number of years since we were on a long international flight. We did go to Portugal for a week earlier this month to visit grandma and grandpa, who were escaping the Dutch winter in the Algarve. This 3-hour flight was perfect as a test run. But to go to Bangkok the total travel time is about 16 hours. Two times 6,5 hours, broken up by a short transfer in Doha. Our little world traveler never had any issues with jet lag. We’ll have to see what happens with the long travel time and 6 hour time difference. 

All in all we’re really looking forward to our trip. It was always a fantastic experience to see the world through our son’s eyes. Gave us a whole new perspective. I expect this will be even more the case now that he’s a bit older. As always, travel with kids is a challenge but also very rewarding and we can’t wait to leave. 

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When we were here the last time in March 2015 there were hardly any tourists and people working in the tourism industry were suffering. After the January 25 Revolution in 2011, tourism in Egypt went to record low. Many countries issued travel warnings for Egypt and other countries in Northern Africa. Egypt’s second largest income source is tourism – the Nile Delta, the Red Sea and of course the Pyramids are some of the country’s most visited locations.

Back in Dahab after two and a half years

After what seemed like an eternity we are finally back in Dahab. Because there weren’t any direct flights yet from Amsterdam to Sharm el Sheikh International Airport, we decided to take a night flight with Turkish Airlines via Istanbul to Sharm el Sheikh. Another option would have been to fly to Amsterdam to Cairo and then a domestic flight from Cairo to Sharm el Sheikh. But Turkish Airlines was the more budget-friendly choice. It was a long trip with our little world traveler. We left The Netherlands at 2 PM and arrived in Dahab at 4 AM the next day. Luckily, once again our world traveler did great and the flight went as good as you could expect. After reading the most horrible reviews of Turkish Airline, we were a bit apprehensive. But the service was actually quite good.

Some upgrades in Dahab

After getting some much-needed sleep we woke up around 10AM and could finally see our house. After 2,5 years of very little maintenance, there definitely was some work to be done. In the afternoon we went out to see how Dahab was doing and to find out how much had changed since the last time we were here. We were happy to notice that the main road through Assalah (the local area where we live) had finally gotten some much needed new asphalt and the streetlights got an upgrade as well. The road had become really bad the last couple of years because it’s the main road going from Mashraba (Dahab’s main tourist center) to Dahab’s best-known dive spots like Blue Hole, Bells and The Canyon. We’re happy to see our beloved town is looking better again.

We’re seeing divers, surfers and snorkelers again!

After our little walk through Assalah, we walked another 10 minutes to the Lighthouse area on the boulevard. We were surprised to see that there were quite lot of people on the boulevard, both tourists and locals. A very welcome sight! Not like 2015 when it was practically deserted. Divers, freedivers, wind and kite surfers, students doing a dive course or freediving course and others just enjoying the sun. People are starting to find their way back to our beautiful Dahab! Finally, the restaurants, shops and dive centers are starting to make decent money again. A lot of our Egyptian friends work in the diving industry, so we’re grateful to see them all working again and having fun with their customers. With the new flights arriving from Europe, we’re starting to see some ‘gold’ (Dahab means gold in Arabic) on the horizon for the city we fell in love with.

The house, a work in progress

As I said before, we need to do some maintenance on the house. In the beginning of 2016 there was an earthquake in Dahab which caused a few small cracks in some of the walls. We are getting those fixed and hope we have enough time to get a painter to paint a part of the outside of our house. The small trees we planted early 2012 are not so small anymore and apart from the mess their leaves cause in the rest of the garden, they’re now also threatening the foundation with their roots. So we had to take them out, which was quite a job.

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Also read:
6 top things to do in Milan Italy with kids
City trip Milan: our journey
5 tips for succesful city breaks with kids

After we came back from our Big Adventure we specifically chose to work less and spend more time with our little world traveler. So it’s taking time to build up our depleted finances again. I feel ‘stuck’ in The Netherlands and would love to leave again, but because of family obligations we can’t travel long term at the moment and short-term travel is just so expensive. So even though I’ve been looking at plane tickets and hotels almost every day for the past year, it has taken us a long time to decide to even take this short trip.

Milan Malpensa Airport

We booked return tickets Amsterdam – Milan Malpensa for about €160 for the three of us. The Malpensa Express takes you into the city in 30 minutes. Tickets cost €13 for a single fare (if you buy online you can get a return ticket for €20, so it pays to be prepared) and kids under 4 travel for free. Linate Airport is much closer to the city, so if the price difference is less than €20 per ticket, you could consider traveling to Linate. From Linate Airport you can take local bus 73 to Piazza San Babila, where you can transfer to the subway. Or you can take the new airbus service to Milan Stazione Centrale for €5 single journey or €9 return.

Airbnb in Milan

We looked at various hotels but decided that with our toddler it would be better to rent an apartment. Airbnb is currently our favorite platform to look for apartments. If you don’t know how it works, check out these Airbnb tips! We stayed in a lot of hotel rooms during our 10 months away and the prospect of whispering for 6 nights so we wouldn’t wake our son wasn’t very appealing. He wasn’t sleeping well at night, unlike when he was younger. Of course, being a major city, apartments in Milan aren’t cheap. But we managed to find a nice place with a separate bedroom for €53 a night. It wasn’t big, but it had a kitchen so we could save on breakfast. I even cooked us dinner a few times, which took a bit of improvising but was pretty good (if I say so myself ;-)). There was a large supermarket around the corner. So overall we were happy.

New to Airbnb? Why not give it a try? If you register using our Airbnb affiliate link we both profit. You’ll earn up to €35 travel credit for your next trip and we’ll earn some travel credit too. Sounds like a good deal? Then use this link to sign up for Airbnb.

Public transport in Milan

Our Airbnb apartment was right next to the Pasteur M1 subway station and tram line 1 is around the corner. There are some restaurants in the area (most either a weird mix of Chinese and Italian or Turkish and Italian) and it’s easy to reach the city center. Overall public transport in Milan is pretty good. You pay €1,50 for a one-way ticket (valid for 90 minutes) or €4,50 for a day pass (which is a great price, compared to the €7,50 you pay for a day pass in Amsterdam). Public transport takes you just about anywhere in the city, there are 4 metro lines and numerous bus and tram lines. It’s fast and easy. Check out the ATM Milano website for more info.

Discovering Milan by bike

Milan has an awesome bike sharing service called BikeMi. You can either get a daily, weekly or annual subscription. Maximum consecutive bicycle use is two hours, but you can always switch bikes (allow for 5 minutes in between) and continue exploring. They even have Junior BikeMi where you can rent children’s bikes (for ages 6-10) at certain points in the city. Find out more details on the BikeMi website.

Booking.com

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On 21 January 2016, we returned to The Netherlands after having traveled for 10 months. We came back early from our year long Big Adventure because of my mother in law’s progressing illness. Parkinson’s Disease saw her moving into a nursing home this past October. I’m sure that those who have been in a similar situation know what I mean when I say this was difficult but at the same time offered some peace of mind.

Dreams on hold

Our big dream still is to slow travel around the world with our son. Mau as a dive instructor and me as digital nomad, following the dive seasons and homeschooling our little one. But because of my mother in law’s poor health we’ve now put our dream on hold so we can be here in Holland. My youngest aunt died unexpectedly this year and we’ve seen a lot of illness, which is making it even more clear to us how important it is to live our life to the fullest en don’t wait until it’s too late. The urge to go but not being able to is causing us sleepless nights. We really need to start looking at what we CAN do.

New Year’s Resolutions

• To see possibilities instead of limitations
• To travel more
• To spend quality time with our son as much as possible
• To increase our online income

Positive things

Even though we had some issues staying positive, of course 2016 wasn’t all about negatives. It’s been good for both sets of grandparents to spend time with their only grandson and our little world traveler really enjoys his time with them too. We can learn a lot from the way he lives in the moment, not thinking much beyond what he wants RIGHT NOW. Even more than before our trip we’re consciously spending as much time with our son as we can. After all, he’s growing up sooo fast. We’ve both decided to work minimal hours so we have more time for him. Of course this is not helping us grow our travel budget. Short term travel usually requires more budget, so we need to find a smarter balance for next year.

Lots of firsts

2016 was, not surprising with a child, another year with a lot of ‘firsts’. The biggest one was that Jace stopped napping. Those of you who have kids will know what a major difference that makes. That I had no more me-time in the afternoon took some getting used to, but how much fun it is to be able to go out all day! Our little man also started going to kindergarten two afternoons a week. A big lesson in letting go, and at the same time fantastic to see how much he enjoys it. This also enabled me to start working a bit more again.

Highlights of 2016

One of the highlights of 2016 was our 2-week trip to Vienna, Prague and Berlin in May. At this point Jace had already stopped napping, so we could spend all day exploring. It was a big difference compared to our time in Asia. Of course with him getting older, we needed to factor in more playtime and we saw A LOT of playgrounds in all three cities. But we experienced a great amount of freedom even if it was only a short two-week trip.

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We need to come with a plan fairly soon, because simply ‘existing’ without any direction is not good enough anymore. Both of us feel like we’re biding our time and our lack of goals is driving me nuts. It’s really bad for my motivation. Our wanderlust is strong, and even more so after our long trip last year. I want to see more of the world! Just to be realistic, of course traveling with a young child isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. It can be taxing too, but in a different way. Read more about what it’s really like to travel with an infant.

Our original plan won’t work right now

While traveling we came up with a beautiful plan. Mau would do his PADI IDC and become a dive instructor, while I would work as a digital nomad. We would slow travel around the world following the dive seasons, finding communities of like-minded people to stay for a while and homeschool our little one. Even more than our previous year of travel, we both feel very strongly that this is what we want to do. It combines our need to see and discover new places, with our wish to have some permanence so we can develop a routine and Jace will have friends to play with. Of course, now comes the big but…

Why we can’t (or won’t?) leave

The reason we came back early from our year of travel was my mother-in-law’s declining health (Parkinson’s). It has gotten to the point where she will go to a nursing house soon, because 24/7 care at home is not an option anymore. We’re not actively involved in her care, but Mau goes to see his parents at least once a week with Jace. It helps to lighten their mood considerably and gives some distraction from the difficult situation for a few hours. With all this going on, it simply isn’t an option anymore for us to leave long term. The question is though how long we can put our own lives on hold. Of course, the emotional strain on all of us isn’t making it any easier.

As long as our little one is happy…

You often hear parents say ‘as long as our child is happy, we are too’. And this is true to a certain point. But it goes the other way as well, happy parents, happy children. Jace is doing really well. He loves going to daycare two afternoons a week and playing with other kids. And it’s both good and fun for him to connect with his grandparents. He loves going there. My parents live a bit further away, so we go less often, but usually stay for a few days. I think our little boy is entering a new phase. He’s really discovering that he is his own person, which obviously leads to some confrontations with us now and then. Not easy, but very interesting He was happy when we did our trip to Vienna, Prague and Berlin too though, so this would not be a reason for us to stay in Holland. I think it’s more important for him that we manage to find a new balance.

We need a new plan!

So, what to do? If long-term travel isn’t an option anymore, can we still do shorter trips? Our two-week trip to Vienna, Prague and Berlin in May was great but expensive. Too expensive to do it this way more often. So we need to come up with plans that allow a good combination of shorter-term travel, while still keeping a home base in Holland. Having something to look forward to will do wonders for my motivation, I’m sure. I’m dreading spending the winter here, because the winter blues usually hit me pretty hard. Coming back from sunny Asia to winter temperatures last January wasn’t fun, to say the least. I need sunshine! And destinations that include scuba diving would be a major plus.

More about our ideas for affordable ways for travel short term in our next post!

Booking.com

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Being back in Holland means being back to restrictions and obligations, back to living in a tiny apartment with too much ‘stuff’, back to the rain and cold and back to tedious housework, grocery shopping and cooking. But it also means seeing our friends and family again, knowing where to buy things, familiar surroundings and having the freedom to cook my own food. So there’s both good and bad things about being back.

The bad things

Let’s start with the bad, because we all like to complain right? Especially us Dutchies, haha.

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• Even though mother nature has teased us with one or two really nice days, so far it’s been COLD here. I swear I haven’t felt really warm since we returned. Right now it’s about 8 degrees celsius outside. Quite normal for this time of year, but trust me, if you’re used to 30+ it’s really not nice.
• We’ve also had a lot less family time, with work and other obligations taking their toll. We really miss the freedom to go wherever and whenever we want. Things are so much more regulated here, with rules for everything. It’s a bit suffocating. Jace is going to daycare two days a week for a few hours so even he has a busy schedule!
• Obviously we’ve also spend a lot abroad, so we need to evaluate our money situation and figure out how to earn some much needed $$.
• Jace being the little world traveler that he is transitioned back without too many issues, but for me and Mau things have been much harder. I already figured housework, grocery shopping and cooking would take a lot out of me (it did before) and I was right. I can’t believe how much time we ‘waste’ everyday with chores.

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The good things

Now for the good things, because yes, there are good things about being back too.

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• It’s nice for Jace to spend time with his grandparents and both sets of grandparents really enjoy seeing their only grandchild.
• Jace loves going to daycare. It’s really good for his development and he really likes having other kids (and lots of new toys!) around.
• It’s great for me too to go for a coffee or lunch with friends who have kids the same age and see them play together. Although I loved meeting other travelers, sometimes I really missed having real friends around. ‘Talking’ on Whatsapp or Facebook really isn’t the same as meeting face to face.
• I enjoy meeting my friends for dinner and being ‘me’ instead of mother or girlfriend. It doesn’t happen really often because of our money situation, but it’s good to recharge once in a while. Mau also meets up with his friends now and then.
• Having a bit of a routine again and staying in one place means I can also go to the gym again for some much-needed exercise. Although traveling definitely beats indoor cycling by far!
• Petting farms, of which we have many in Holland, are a big hit with our little man, as are children’s playgrounds. Even though it’s cold to our standards, we have been trying to go outside at least once every day.
• Another thing I greatly enjoy is doing crafts, and now I can share it with our little one. I’ve already started collecting loads of art supplies, crayons, colored pencils, colored paper in all sizes, different paints and paintbrushes, glue…. We’ve had some basic stuff when we traveled, but not this quantity. Of course, he’s now getting a bit older, so it’s more fun to do crafts together and it will only get better
• It may sound weird, but I’m glad to be working again. Even if for now it’s not really paid work, it gives me the opportunity to use my brains for something else than taking care of our little one. I still want to pursue my dream to become a digital nomad, so I’m now taking my laptop and going to a café to work two times a week. This also gives me some much-needed me-time and independence. And hopefully some more frequent updates on this blog!

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I know some people who are starting to itch to go back home after only one week of holiday. Obviously that’s not us. For me the answer to the question above is really simple and my feet are already starting to itch to leave again. But however great traveling is, there are definitely a few things that I won’t miss.

Spending hours on the internet trying to find suitable and affordable accommodation

This has been my nr. 1 grievance and stress factor on this trip. On beforehand I never imagined it would take so much time and energy to find nice places to stay. When we traveled with just the two of us it was never really an issue, but traveling with Jace has changed our accommodation requirements. Not only that, but we want to arrange accommodation before we get there, at least for the first few days. So we’re relying on the internet more than ever before. Since we’ve been moving around at a very fast pace, never staying anywhere longer than a week or two and often even shorter, that meant A LOT of online searching. Of course having a crappy internet connection doesn’t really help, so that’s no. 2 on this list.

Crappy internet connections

Of course we knew internet connections could be bad around Asia, but I never really realised how annoying this can be until I tried maintaining a blog and working while traveling. Also, it sooo much time to search for nice places to stay if you’re internet is so incredibly slow. Sri Lanka and Philippines were definitely the worst.

Diaper hunting

In Holland you can find diapers in all shapes and sizes in any supermarket, but abroad it can be little more complicated. In each country and sometimes even each place we visited we needed to go on a ‘hunt’ for diaper pants. Normal diapers are relatively easy to find, but we quickly found out the pants are more practical and comfortable for an active toddler. It does take some time and persistence to figure out where you can buy them though

Having only one (bed)room for the three of us

We’ve stayed in a few Airbnb apartments with one or sometimes even two bedrooms (luxury!), but mostly we’re staying in hotels and we have only one room for the three of us. Privacy isn’t the biggest issue, but when we don’t have a balcony or other outside space we have to sit in the dark and whisper to each other while Jace is sleeping, both during his nap and in the evening. It’s going to be nice to have a ‘normal’ evening again with him sleeping in his own bedroom.

Always eating out

When we were in Egypt I swore that I would be so happy if I never had to cook another meal in my life. It was quite stressful being responsible for getting food on the table every day and so hard to come up with new dishes with the limited ingredients available there. But, even though I love going out for dinner and getting the chance to try new foods, now that we’ve been eating out almost every night, I really enjoyed the few times that we had an apartment with a kitchen so I could cook myself. So I guess in Holland I’ll have to find a new balance where I get to enjoy cooking again instead of stressing over it and combine it with occasionally going out for dinner.

Hardly having any me-time

One more thing I didn’t realise when we were planning this trip is how little me-time I would have. This is partly my, or maybe our, own fault for the way we’ve organised things. Only when we were diving did we take turns babysitting Jace. Other than that we spend almost every minute with the three of us together. Of course it’s amazing that we got to spend so much time together, but it was also starting to get a bit suffocating at times

Relying on others for transport

I’m very spoiled that in Holland I have my own car and I also have a bike. I’m really looking forward to having my own transport again. It will be so nice not to have to rely on someone else to go somewhere. I can’t drive a motorbike (yet), so in the past months walking was my only option. Of course in Asia taking a taxi, tuktuk, bus, tricycle etc. is cheap and easy, but it’s always someone else driving and I can’t wait to drive again myself.

Too many plastic water bottles

Of course there are tons of countries where you can’t drink the tap water, but in Holland you can. It’s so nice and easy to simply open the tap and fill a glass. I’m really getting a bit fed up with having to buy water every day, not to mention the huge amount of plastic bottles we’re accumulating. We try to get the large 19 liter refillable bottles and even bought a simple pump for them, but it’s not an option if you’re only spending a few days in each location. Luckily in a few places we could refill our bottles from the larger tanks, but still in the past months we’ve used way too much plastic.

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We’ve had this amazing time together as a family and we were really lucky we were able to do this. Although, was it really simply luck? I’d like to think a lot of it was our own doing as well, us saving all these years and daring to take the leap a lot of people only dream about. Some may say I sound ungrateful when I say we ‘have’ to go back because Holland isn’t that bad. And it isn’t, only we’d rather be on the road!

Actually writing this blog post is proving to be quite therapeutical, as it’s helping me come up with ideas of how I want to change things when we get back. So, besides freedom, what else will I miss about being on the road?

On top of my list is definitely SUNSHINE. It’s one thing to feel free and happy when the weather is nice and it stays warm and light until late in the evening, it’s quite another when you return to short, cold, rainy days and long dark nights. The winter season really effects me, unfortunately not in a good way. Even though we’ve visited some places where we needed a sweatshirt or even a jacket, we always knew that the warm weather was only a short ride or flight away. Being outside with our little one all day every day, swimming and having fun in the sun, is definitely something that I’ll miss. I’m not sure what to do about this, but I’m planning for lots of time outside even if it’s cold and wet. And hopefully the occasional short trip to some sunshine if our budget allows.

With unpredictability also comes FLEXIBILITY. You have to be flexible to adapt to new situations that you might find yourself in. Even though we have to be a bit more mature about decisions now that we travel with a toddler, still all three of us have become so much more flexible since we left Holland. Jace is a master at adaptation by now, he’ll sleep everywhere, in a car, on a bus, train or airplane, it doesn’t matter to him anymore. I’m sure I could be lots more flexible, but that’s just not who I am, so I’m happy with what I’ve gained so far and I will do my very best to keep it up.

BEING INDEPENDENT is also a big one. Back home there are so many people making demands on our time and so much outside interference. Lots of people have an opinion of how you should live your life. On the road you can just do your own thing, without anyone telling you what to do, when to do it or where to go. It’s been very liberating being able to live like this for a while. It really made us aware of how much influence (we let) other people have in our lives.

As a control freak having LIMITED CHOICES was also really good for me. You can only bring so much while you’re traveling and even though we still have way too much luggage, there is no room for materialism. If you only have two shorts and three shirts to choose from each morning, life suddenly becomes a lot less complicated. We did buy a few things for Jace, some small toy cars, some clothes, but not much. And for ourselves we have the rule that if we buy new clothing something old has to go. It’s working pretty good so far. It will be a bit overwhelming to have so much random ‘stuff’ again when we get back home and I’m definitely planning to get rid of a lot of it. It not only literally clutters our space, but also our heads.

I will also miss EATING OUT and STAYING IN HOTELS. There are lots of downsides to it (lack of home cooked meals, lack of privacy), but what I like about it is that you don’t have to go grocery shopping, you don’t have to do the dishes and you don’t have to clean your house. I simply don’t enjoy housework. Of course, prices are so much higher in Holland, so financially we could never manage to eat out so often and Maurice generally doesn’t like it because ‘it always takes them so long to serve the food’, but I’m planning on eating out at least once a month. Even if it’s only to keep Jace used to eating in restaurants (good excuse right? ;-)).

Other random things that I’ll miss:
– Cheap fruits and fruit shakes
– Eating freshly cooked food without any preservatives or artificial flavouring
– Riding a motorbike with the three of us
– Stunning nature and amazing animal life
– Scuba diving in amazing tropical places

So, there’s my list. It’s become a bit personal, but I hope you don’t mind. Even though it’s depressing to think about all the amazing things that I’ll miss when this trip is over, it was also a great exercise for me. Instead of getting stuck in depressing thoughts, I’m now focussing on all the positive changes I want to make in my and our lives when we get back to Holland!

The post 12 things I’ll miss when this Big Adventure is over appeared first on FlipFlopGlobetrotters.com.

For parents with young kids, the big question for New Year’s Eve is always ‘Do we let the little ones sleep, or do we wake them?’ For a second we considered letting our little world traveler sleep, but we decided to be a little bit selfish this year and wake him up so the three of us could find out what New Year’s Eve in Bangkok was like. Our little world traveler’s first New Year we spend with friends in Holland, his second New Year we were with friends in Egypt and this year it was just the three of us in Bangkok.

Would you rather celebrate New Year’s Eve in Thailand on one of the beaches in the south or surrounded by the amazing green hills in the north? Check out this family-friendly beach in Phuket and this post about spending three days in Pai. Or, if you’ve already experienced New Year’s Eve in Thailand, why not try any of these other amazing places to celebrate New Year’s Eve?

Why did we choose Bangkok?

Well, that’s an easy question. We love Thailand and Bangkok is a fantastic city! We love traveling in Thailand and Bangkok always feels a bit like coming home. Busy as it is, family-friendly may not be the first word that comes to mind when thinking about Thailand’s capital. But you’d be surprised about the sheer amount of things to do with kids in Bangkok. There’s also a number of great day trips you can do from Bangkok with kids.

Where to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Bangkok?

It’s easy to find info about celebrating New Year’s Eve in Bangkok. Lots of information online about all kinds of parties in the coolest rooftop bars and big clubs. But absolutely nothing about where to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Thailand’s capital with a child. Not too much info about fireworks either. Then we discovered that there was supposed to be a fireworks show over Wat Arun. So we decided to go to the riverfront near Wat Pho with our fingers crossed that we’d be able to see it.

Like any other day

The last day of the year we really didn’t do anything special. There are a lot of fun things to do in Bangkok, but we decided to take it slow this day. We knew we’d be waking him to go outside later in the evening. Therefore our priority was to make sure our little world traveler did an early nap and we had an early dinner so he could get some sleep before we woke him.

Nice vibe during the day and early evening

The day went remarkably well. It was nice and busy in the streets when we went outside after his nap. We felt really happy to be in our favorite city and our little world traveler was very happy and cheerful as well. After our early dinner, we walked to Khaosan Road to see what was happening there. It was already really crowded, with a DJ spinning tunes (the Thai way, so quite loud) and a big clock counting down the hours until 2016.

Fairytale lights in the streets of Bangkok

We walked around a little bit before returning to our guesthouse. We specifically chose Erewan House on Soi Rhambuttri because of the location near Khaosan (click here for more ideas of where to stay in Bangkok). The whole area around the democracy monument was lit up with thousands of little lights. It was really pretty. Of course, we had to take some pictures! We went home early and were lucky that our little world traveler decided to cooperate that night and went to sleep without a fight around 20:00. He was a bit grumpy when we woke him up at 22:30 but quickly became his cheerful self again once we were outside.

Large crowd heading to Chao Phraya riverfront

There were a lot of people in the streets and there was a good vibe. As decided before we headed to the riverfront near the King’s Palace and Wat Pho. We took it easy and stopped for a drink along the way. Our little guy loved all the pretty lights. With maneuvering around all the people also going in that direction it took us about an hour to get there. Big banners shouting ‘Countdown 2016’ told us we were in the right place.

Waiting for the fireworks

Again we were lucky with our little world traveler. In order to see the fireworks, we had to get close to the river bank and wait for about 25 minutes in a huge crowd. Fortunately he didn’t mind. He was happily sitting in the carrier on my back, watching people and pointing things out to us. Finally, the clock on the big screens showed it was time to count down the last 10 seconds of 2015! 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… BANG! Lots of really loud and beautiful fireworks, exactly as we had hoped Our little man was a bit scared and first, but once we started pointing out the colors and the amazing lights in the sky he really liked it.

Crowded Khoasan Road

Since there wasn’t too much going on besides the fireworks, we decided to head back. Our little guy was remarkably cheerful for the late hour. We did a quick detour to Khaosan Road and even entered the street a few meters, but then decided not to go further. It was crazy busy and very loud. Would have been fun if it had been just the two of us, but not with our little man. We didn’t mind though, the evening already went so much better than we could have ever hoped for.

Late night pancakes!

So we walked back to Soi Rambuttri and our guesthouse. On the way we stopped to get a banana pancake. Being up so late makes you hungry! Actually, simply walking around in this area makes you hungry, there are food stalls everywhere! Even though it was already past 1am, our little world traveler wasn’t complaining and had some pancake too.

A night to remember…

Again, our little world traveler proved us proud. By 02:00 he was back in his bed. He went to bed without fussing and slept until 09:00! Lucky us! We didn’t get to party like we would have before our son was born, but we still had a really good night and got to experience the crowds and the cheerfulness of a New Year’s Eve in a big city. For us New Years Eve 2016 is definitely one to remember! Would we do it again? In a heartbeat! Traveling with kids is different from traveling as a couple, but this trip has shown us again and again that so much more is possible than we originally thought.

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We’re now in the ninth month of our Big Adventure and so far it’s been great. Of course it wasn’t always easy and there have been challenges, but we’re loving life on the road. If we could find a way to make enough money while traveling I think it would suit all three of us really well to travel indefinitely.

However, due to the declining health of my mother in law, who’s was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease a few years ago, we’ve had to make the difficult decision to cut our trip short. Unfortunately, our health is not something we have control over and we feel it’s more important for Mau to be home, to spend time with his mom and to help his dad and his brother where possible. And for Jace to spend time with his grandmother. So we’re now looking into booking tickets back to Holland at the beginning of February, two months earlier than planned.

From the beginning, we said we wanted to stay away for a full year if our budget would allow it. So far we’ve spent much more than planned, but financially we could have made it until the end of March 2016. That’s what we always had in mind. So going home two months early feels like we’re leaving before the end, like our trip isn’t really finished yet. We still had so many plans and things we wanted to see. Also, neither of us is looking forward to being back in cold and wet Holland again and we were really hoping to skip the winter. Let’s just hope that Jace can adjust to life back in Holland as easily as he’s been soaking up all new experiences these past months. And that we can adjust again too, which might prove even more difficult.

Since we’ve only had so much ‘work’ time while we were traveling, we still have tons of things to write about and millions of photo’s to sort through, so FlipFlopGlobetrotters will continue! Also, hopefully, continuing to write about our experiences will work therapeutically and help us keep the traveling feeling alive even when we’re back in Holland again. Of course, we’ll still continue to travel, even if in the foreseeable future we’ll most likely not go away again for such a long time. So you’ll hear more about traveling to European destinations and things to do in our hometown Haarlem. And about how we’re coping with being back home again after such a long journey. Even a bit closer to home there’s still so much to discover! And traveling with a toddler is never dull

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When we left Sri Lanka we knew we wanted to go to the Philippines next, but because the flight connection wasn’t very good we decided to make a stopover in Bangkok for a couple of days. We checked the flights online and the price difference wasn’t that much so we booked our flight to Bangkok thinking we would book the flight to Cebu when we arrived in Thailand. What we didn’t realise is that the “high season” prices would start on the first of November. So when we finally came around to booking the flight prices were increasing rapidly and we changed our plan. We wouldn’t fly to Cebu but instead we would go to Bohol, an island next to Cebu. We had to fly via Manila because there are no direct flights. Our flight leaving Bangkok was at 15:00pm and we would arrive in Manila at 18:00pm local time. To continue the trip on the same day would mean we had to take the next flight at 1:00am, which we didn’t want to do with Jace after already skipping a night flying from Sri Lanka to Bangkok.

Manila was CRAZY busy. The seven kilometer drive took us more than an hour and the streets were really packed with cars, bicycle taxi’s, jeepney’s and trucks. When we finally made it to the hotel we were happy to see it was good enough or us to stay. The area we stayed in (we later learned) wasn’t the best of Manila but it was for only one night so who cares. We went looking for an atm that would give us some cash. We found one pretty quickly and also managed to find some diapers for Jace. After a quick bite at one of the street bbq stalls we went back to the hotel to get some sleep.

The next morning we had a simple breakfast and got in a taxi early because of the crazy busy roads in Manila. The hotel called a taxi for us and we agreed on a price of 350 pesos (remember the 800 we paid the day before??) to go to the airport. The taxi driver told us there was the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit coming in the next couple of days which would close off some of the main roads of Manila. We hadn’t realised the APEC was so soon. We were happy with our timing and glad to leave this busy city.

At the airport check-in was easy and we passed the security check in a couple of minutes. The plane boarded on time but because of a delayed plane at the airport of Bohol we had to wait for almost an hour on the runway in Manila. Tagbilaran Airport on Bohol has only one small runway so when a plane is delayed all the flights coming after it feel the pain. When we finally left we had a short comfortable flight and Jace slept most of the way. The good side of being delayed was that I got to finish watching my movie which otherwise wouldn’t have happened (if you’re looking for a nice happy movie watch “Chef” :-))

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They were also looking for a way too to get from Ella to the Southern coast and we ended up sharing a meal and then sharing a private car to Unawatuna the next day. Sometimes when you meet someone there’s an instant click. We had this with Basti and Jenny. So we decided to not only share a car, but also share a house with them. We initially booked for only 2 nights, but then extended that with another 4. It was nice having a home base for a few days and having someone around to talk to instead of just the two of us (well.. three, since Jace recently started talking quite a bit). It was both inspiring and frustrating to see how much time they spend on their blog. I really wished I had more time for ours. They did give us a few good tips. Thanks guys!

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We thoroughly enjoyed exploring Sri Lanka’s Cultural Triangle, although with a little one in tow we didn’t manage to see all the sights. The temples in the Sacred City of Anuradhapura and the medieval kingdom of Polonnaruwa were very impressive. What an amazing serene atmosphere! Unfortunately, we had to give Sigiriya’s Lion Rock and Dambulla a miss because we really wanted to travel all the way north to Jaffna. On the morning we left Anuradhapura, Harindra, the incredibly kind owner of Bevary Holiday Home, found us a big three-wheeler (tuk-tuk) to take us and all of our luggage to the train station. Luckily there was one nearby so we had no problem getting to the station.

Waiting for the train

At the station, I was happy we were leaving from the platform closest to the entrance so I didn’t have to carry everything across the train tracks. We showed our tickets to the guy at the gate, went to the platform a took a seat to wait for the train to arrive.

Oh no! Changing platforms

Twenty minutes before our train was supposed to come there was a different train stopping from the other direction. Because there was some sort of problem with this train it didn’t leave on time and we heard an announcement that our train was leaving from platform two. Shit! Now we had to quickly carry everything to platform two via a tunnel in the station. After some heavy lifting and some help from a german guy who was nice enough to help us carry some stuff up the stairs we made it in time to catch the train.

First class trains in Sri Lanka

The fist class train is nothing compared to the third class train we took from Negombo to Puttalam. They have assigned seating and the carriages have air conditioning. The seats are nice like in an airplane but with more legroom. There are a few screens hanging from the ceiling which show a movie but (fortunately) there was no sound.

We didn’t have to buy a ticket for Jace so he was supposed to sit on our lap the whole way (about four hours). Luckily the seats across the aisle were empty so I could have a seat there and Jace had his own seat. After an hour or so he put his head in Lisa’s lap a fell asleep.

Entering a former war zone

The train ride itself was very nice but also confronting. We would almost forget that only six years ago, in 2009, the war between the Sri Lankan army and the Tamil “rebels” ended. Making our way through the beautiful landscape we were getting in the middle of the former fighting zone. Watching the buildings from the window of the train we could see a difference from the rest of Sri Lanka we’ve seen so far. There were many abandoned buildings that were broken down because of the fighting that occurred in the area. We could see houses with bullet impact damage. This was the first time for both of us to be in a former war zone that had so recently seen fighting.

From Bhuddist to Hindu temples

Something else that amazed us was that there are some big flat open spaces in this part of Sri Lanka. There is some food grown here but not a lot. When the train got a bit closer to the sea we could see some lagunas and more sandy places. Apparently, salt winning was done here before the war started. Arriving in the Jaffna area we could see a difference in the buildings and of course in the temples, the main religion here is Hindu so there are a lot of Hindu temples doted around the landscape. Because of the war, many of them are being rebuilt and many new ones erected. We want to rent a motorbike to explore this different part of Sri Lanka but that is for another blog.

Booking.com

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We decided to split the journey into two days to make it a bit easier for Jace and for ourselves. Luckily last time we were in KL we discovered a great hotel called EV World Hotel Enstek, which is pretty close to the airport and in a nice area with lots of places to eat. The perfect place for a layover.

So we spend one night there and met a cool Czech guy now living in Australia who was traveling alone with his two year old daughter. He was on his way to Nepal to stay in an ashram with his Swedish wife, who was already there. Jace and his daughter Ingrid hit it off strait away and had a great time playing together. We had dinner together and he talked about how he and his wife used to travel the world by sailboat. It’s so cool and inspiring to meet people like him on the way!

Then on October 12th we had our flight with AirAsia to Sri Lanka. Two days of flying in a row are pretty rough. Not so much because of the flights themselves, but the packing, getting to the airport and waiting in the airport are tiring. We’re lucky all the traveling made all three of us a lot more flexible. In the beginning it took Jace about two days to settle, now he doesn’t need any time and just sleeps wherever we put his little Nomad travel tent, or… in the train, on the bus, in the airplane and even in the jeep during a safari

At Colombo airport we met Alena, a German student who was doing her first Asia trip. She had some trouble getting money at the ATM so we offered to share our taxi so she could get to Negombo and try one of the ATM’s there. Turned out she was planning to go to the same hotel we were so it worked out really well. The Marine Tourist Guest House in Negombo was disappointing to say the least (we’ll write some more about that in another post), so when Alena said she would leave Negombo the day after we decided to join her. We discussed locations and since Anuradhapura could be easily reached by train that seemed like a pretty good option.

The next morning we had to rush to get to the train station in time and we had had no time to look for a hotel at our next destination. That was a mistake we’ll try to avoid in the future! The train ride in third class was a lot of fun. The train went really slow and we had plenty of time to take pictures and enjoy the scenery. And everybody on the train was very interested in those weird foreigners with the red haired little boy. We got a lot of attention

The hotel owner in Negombo had suggested we take a train to Puttalam and from there private transport. Great idea, but finding transport turned out a lot more difficult than we thought. Once we got to Puttalam station we got assaulted by tuktuk drivers. Because we had so much luggage we actually had to take two tuktuks with the four of us. They drove us everywhere but where we wanted to go, which was extremely frustrating. We wanted to go to the bus station to find a minibus to take us to Anuradhapura, but they kept giving us ridiculously high prices and kept insisting that it was better to go by tuktuk…. three hours with and already very tired little boy. We didn’t agree. Finally we managed to get the price down to 7000 rupees. Still too much, but all we wanted was to get on the road.

As mentioned we didn’t book an hotel in Anuradhapura upfront. Alena knew the name of a guest house so we asked the minibus driver to drop us off there. Unfortunately it turned out to be a bit too expensive. So while Mau and Jace waited at a hotel terrace with a drink and the iPad, Alena and I went out to scout for a more affordable place to stay. After we’d been to one or two places it started to rain. Luckily we brought our ponchos. After checking out yet another too expensive place it really started to pour and there was thunder and lightning as well. So we waited out the thunderstorm in the lobby of a very fancy hotel where we unsuccessfully used the incredibly slow internet to find a place to stay.

When the rain slowed a bit we decided to continue our search. I was getting a bit desperate. It was getting dark and we had no place to stay. This was exactly why I always want to book ahead! I thought that Mau had probably already decided to take a room at the hotel where he was waiting with Jace, and since it was getting dark we figured we’d try just one more place before heading back. We had to wade through a small river to get there. Later we saw a snake on the road, luckily we didn’t see it before! It didn’t look very promising from the outside and even less from the inside. There was water leaking from the ceiling and Alena and I both had a funny feeling about it. We almost turned around and left, but then one guy that was there finally managed to get his phone working and he called a friend to see if he had any rooms available. Apparently this was a good and affordable place to stay. And… even better, he could take us there in his car! No more walking in the rain, yay! We insisted that we had to get back to the other hotel first to collect Mau and Jace and all our bags (and to see if Mau hadn’t taken a room yet).

In the end we were so lucky we met this guy. His friend’s hotel, Bevary Holiday Home, was really nice and we got a very good deal on the price. Both our good Samaritan and the owner of the hotel restored our faith in the Sri Lankan people!

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So far:
We traveled by plane, train, car, bus, boat, motorcycle, scooter, horse carriage and becak, 
visited 5 countries,
went to 16 destinations,
took 11 flights,
and stayed in 20 hotels, apartments and bungalows and 1 night on a boat.

And some more general things we love about this trip:
being able to spend so much time together as a family
discovering new places together
watching Jace try loads of different types of food and loving most of them
meeting lots of new and inspiring people
being outside so much and seeing Jace run around and play with everything he finds
watching our little boy grow and learn and seeing him so at ease wherever we are

Of course it’s not always easy. Like all young parents we struggle with raising a very active and stubborn toddler, but we’ve added an extra hurdle by doing it while traveling. Also we’re still adjusting to this new way of traveling as a family. If you’ve read our post about traveling with a child, you’ve noticed that there’s quite a few things that change when it’s not just the two of you anymore. That being said, we’ve had so many amazing experiences, met so many fantastic new people and seen so many great places, we wouldn’t have missed that for the world!

Jace is generally a very happy child and it’s a lot of fun to watch him discover all these new places, new people, new tastes, new animals… He smiles a lot and is constantly running around checking out his new environment. He loves to go exploring with us We know he won’t actually remember this trip, but we hope this sense of discovery, the idea that anything is possible, all the impressions he gets and the foods he tastes will stay with him when he grows up.

We’re very much looking forward to our next 6 months on the road!

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