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!

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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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