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.
