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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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!

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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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Because we decided to go to Manado last minute there were no direct flights anymore. We ended up flying wit Sriwijaya Air and had to fly via Ternate, Maluku province. Finding the tickets to get here wasn’t as easy as it sounds.

Booking a ticket on Sriwijaya Airlines, not as easy as it seems

If you want to pay with an international credit card, you HAVE to book your flight online or via a travel agent because the airline’s own call centers only accept Indonesian cards. Furthermore if you fly with one of the Indonesian domestic airlines (Sriwijaya, Lion Air) you can only take 20kg of checked luggage (with Wings it’s only 15kg). If you, like us, are traveling with more than 20kg of luggage your only option is to just show up at the airport with your excess luggage and hope they don’t charge too much. There’s no way to buy extra kg’s online.

Excess baggage fees for Sriwijaya Airlines

We spend a few hours looking for excess baggage fees for Sriwijaya but we couldn’t find any info, the same goes for other local airlines (Lion Air, Wings etc). Because the flight wasn’t too expensive we considered booking a ticket for Jace so we would have 20kg of check-in baggage for him and we would know how much it would cost us. This to avoid getting a huge bill in the airport. We read other people had to pay excessive amounts to bring extra kilo’s and we knew we had about 15kg too much. Some other airlines have the option to book a seat for your infant, but not Sriwijaya, kids up to 24 months HAVE to sit in your lap. We ended up just booking the two tickets and had not choice but to wait and see how much the excess baggage fee would be when we got to the airport.

Fingers crossed

The next morning we went to the airport wondering how much this part of our journey would cost us. We went to the check-in counter for Sriwijaya Air, put the bags on the scale and crossed our fingers. The scale said 55kg so we were 15kg overweight, exactly as we thought. When I asked how much this would be the guy told me it would be IDR28.000 (€1,82) for one kilo extra. So 15kg x IDR28.000 was IDR420.000 (€27,30). In the end, it was better we did it this way because an extra ticket for Jace would have been more! We didn’t want to wait a day longer and get a cheaper flight, because it was Jace’s birthday the next day. All in all, it was nice to have one more relatively ‘cheap’ flight (only two tickets instead of three).

Flight delayed

Once we were checked in we went through the security check and had no problems bringing 2,5 liters of water, which surprised us, but obviously, we didn’t complain. We went to our gate and waited for our flight. Because all announcements were made in Bahasa Indonesia we couldn’t understand what was happening with our flight. After asking the ground crew a few times we learned that our flight was delayed and we had to wait some more. When we could finally board the plane we were in for quite a shock. This was a really old and bad maintained airplane. We have flown with a few low budget airlines in Asia but this was definitely the worst plane we have been in. But it was our only option to get to Manado, so we went.

Maintenance issues

We left an hour after our scheduled departure time. After a flight of about one hour and twenty minutes we arrived in Ternate, Maluku province with one of the roughest landings we’ve ever had. But we arrived safely. When we were about to land the crew asked me repeatedly to turn my seat in the upright position, but it turned out it was broken so the back wouldn’t come back up. Lucky for us, because after a check by one of the ground crew after we landed they assigned us other seats and we had a whole row to ourselves. So Jace had his own seat after all! The second part of the flight was only thirty minutes in an half empty plane. We arrived safely in Manado!

Conclusion

We would not recommend Sriwijaya Airlines. We have not yet flown with Lion Air but they have the same routes and we will be looking at them for our flight out of Sulawesi.

——

Update: We have now flown with Lion Air too. Their planes are definitely better maintained and newer. Downside is that with Lion Air you don’t get anything to eat or drink and you can’t buy anything on the plane. Please remember to bring your own, especially when you travel with children! Even on Sriwijaya’s short flights they serve a snack and a drink. On both airlines the seats are very close together and if you’re a bit tall like me, you’ll not be very comfortable. But I guess that goes for all budget airlines. We still wouldn’t recommend Sriwijaya.

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The flight over here was pretty uneventful. We left at 5PM, arriving in KL around 8PM and then had to take a taxi to our rental apartment which took about 45 minutes. So all in all it was a bit too late for Jace. Note to self: try to get an earlier flight in the future…. We were lucky he did manage to sleep a bit in the airport.

It was our first time with Jace in a big city, but he did really well and we enjoyed the change of scenery. The studio apartment we choose was very close to Maluri LRT station, so convenient enough to get to the city center. It was also only a 5-10 minute walk to a mall with a big supermarket, which was great for buying diapers, baby wipes etc. The biggest plus of this apartment was the view though! Unobstructed view of the Petronas Towers, wow, especially in the evening when all the lights are on.

When we first arrived they gave us another room, but when we complained that it didn’t look anything at all like the pictures on the booking website (and the tiny little fridge didn’t work), we could transfer to a bigger room. A much better room with a much much better view

We haven’t really done a lot to be honest. This detailed guide for Kuala Lumpur with kids tells you a lot more about what KL has to offer. We wandered around Bukit Bintang and China Town, went to KLCC and the Petronas Towers, went to Rainbow Runners dive shop (quite a tour to get there, first LRT almost to the end of the red line and then a taxi) to buy a new BCD for Mau, took Jace to the park next to our apartment to play in the playground, wandered around the neighbourhood and generally saw A LOT of shopping malls. Enough to last us a few months at least.

Jace loves being on the train, metro and monorail, actually he loves all means of transport so far. His hair color attracts a lot more attention than in Bali. We’ve even had a few people that wanted to take a picture with him. Oh well… He smiles a lot, waves at everybody and is his own curious self, so all is good. Although his main diet is still white rice and chicken, he’s trying out some new foods, so we’re happy about that.

It was nice to be in a big city again and I’m sure I’ll miss the easy access to all the stuff we can buy here, but I’ll also be glad when we leave. I miss the sunshine and the beach. We’re inside way too much! The apartment is on the 20th floor and has no balcony to sit outside, so when Jace sleeps we’re inside too. We usually go out for lunch and dinner and end up being ‘home’ late which messes with Jace’s schedule. He’s skipped his naps a few times or only did a 30-minute power nap in the stroller and goes to bed much later than normal. But he’s handling it pretty well and it does allow us to go out a bit more. Hopefully it will get back to normal when we reach our new destination. I’m not ready to give up those few hours of rest in the afternoon and the evenings when he goes to bed at 8!

Again we had A LOT of trouble deciding where to go to next. I really hope this is something that will get easier in time because it takes too much energy. At the moment there weather all over South-East Asia isn’t very good, so all the places we normally could have chosen now have rain and thunderstorms at least once a day. And since Jace already has a heat rash from the humidity here in KL we really wanted to go somewhere that’s a bit more dry. Sooo… after days and days of searching, comparing and spending HOURS on the internet we’ve finally decided to go to Sulawesi. North Sulawesi (Manado, Bunaken) seems to be a bit too expensive, but AirAsia has flights to Makassar in South Sulawesi for a decent price. So that’s where we’re going tomorrow. Back to Indonesia again. I knew we weren’t done there yet

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Having traveled a fair bit as a couple and before that solo or with friends, we both have our fair share of travel experience. Based on that, we thought travel with kids simply meant taking things more slowly and staying in one place longer than we normally would. In practice, it’s a little more complicated… Check out these 7 steps to adapt to family travel and this advice on how to get the best vacation experience with kids. There’s definitely a bit more to international travel with kids than we initially thought.

Of course, since we’ve taken a year off to travel, we have the luxury of letting our son set the pace and take our time. It’s a bit different if you’re on a family holiday and want to make the most of your three or four weeks abroad. We’re very lucky that our little world traveler likes to see and do new things, loves to go exploring with us and generally is a very good natured and happy child.

If you’re interested in traveling with kids, also check out:

• 10 tried and tested tips for flying with infants & toddlers
• 5 tips for a succesful city trip with kids
• Best strollers for traveling
• Best toddler travel beds buying guide

Travel with kids, a new dimension

We’re now in the fourth month of our journey and are still adjusting to our new way of travel. Some people think their traveling days are over when they have kids, but we’re discovering quite the opposite. We’re saying goodbye to a lot of things we liked about being on the road, but we’re also welcoming lots of new experiences. It’s truly amazing to travel with our little one, to see how happy he is, to see him grow and develop and discover all these new places, new people, new foods, new animals… We’re so happy we’ve made the decision to go travel with our son! If you’re considering long-term travel with kids, here’s what you need to know.

What we found out about travel with kids

1. More planning & more luggage

There’s a lot more planning involved when you travel with kids. What to bring, where to go… We’ve never been so stressed and overpacked as when we started this trip (tip: check out this list of things to leave at home!) and take a good travel toiletry bag and packing cubes to keep things organized. We prefer that have at least one big backpack, but you need to figure out what luggage configuration for your family. Check out this post which compares different types of backpacks. But, while trying to be more organized than we ever were when traveling as a couple, we try not to have a set itinerary and keep the freedom to decide fairly last minute where to go next. Make sure to update your phone with these must-have travel apps. Mobile internet often works better than the hotel wifi.

2. Predictable is better

Whereas the most unpredictable situations were always the ones we enjoyed most when we were traveling with just the two of us, now predictable is definitely preferable. Somehow getting stuck behind a religious procession after going out for dinner just isn’t the same when you’re trying to get home quickly so your very tired 2-year old can go to bed.

3. Your accommodation requirements change

Finding suitable accommodation is much much harder. Before, we just booked a plane, bus or boat ticket somewhere and always managed to find a place to stay when we got to our destination. Any room that was moderately clean would do. With a child a two bedroom accommodation is so much easier. Sneaking around in the dark so you don’t wake up the little one when you go to bed really gets old after a while. But even if we do share a room with the tree of us, our demands have changed. It needs to be clean, have a hot shower and either have a child’s cot or be big enough that we can use our own travel bed without tripping over it constantly.

We’ve definitely become fans of Airbnb. If you’re new to Airbnb, why not use this link and receive a €30 discount on your first AirBnb booking.

4. Researching new destinations takes more time

Deciding where to go next can be stressful. Even though we travel with a toddler, we still don’t like to set our itinerary in stone. For us travel is about flexibility (as much as possible with a little one of course). But deciding where to go next is more difficult then it used to be, especially because of accommodation (see point above). We spend much more time then expected researching destinations and accommodations. Obviously certain locations are off-limits until he’s a bit bigger, no tree huts, rainforest shacks or floating bamboo bungalows for a while.

5. More contact with locals

When you travel with kids contact with the locals is even easier than before. A child doesn’t know language barriers. And in all the places we’ve been so far they really appreciate and welcome kids, much more so than back home. Everybody wants to know his name and age and they love it when he waves to them. The waiters in restaurants spontaneously pick him up and take him to see the kitchen. He loves the attention

6. Traveling with kids is intense

You’re much more active and yet do a lot less exploring. Since we follow our son’s pace and try to be home when he needs to sleep, we can really only do stuff in the mornings. He’s really active and inquisitive, so the hours he’s awake are very intense, with us constantly watching him. Fortunately, he naps 2-3 hours after lunch, which gives us some time to relax. But nap time also it means at least one of us needs to stay ‘home’ with him.

7. No nights out together

We’re always home around 8PM. Not that we were such party people when we traveled together, but there was always time for a few drinks after dinner. Now we need to be back home around 8 so that the little guy can go to bed. And of course one of us needs to stay at home with him in the evenings. Out of solidarity the other one usually stays home too. We’re not comfortable leaving our little one with a babysitter.

8. Dinners are more ‘interesting’ than before.

While family dinners can be a bit of a ‘thing’ with little children, now that we’re traveling we’re eating out a lot more than we normally do at home. We’re lucky Our little world traveler is fairly easy, but still, dinners can be a bit frustrating. He gets distracted and our little one who used to eat anything and everything now has the pickiness of an almost two year old. At the moment he’s on a diet consisting mostly of white rice and chicken. A quiet dinner is definitely out of the question.

9. You meet less other travelers

In large, this has to do with us not going out at night, but also with the accommodations we stay in. We immediately notice that it gets easier to meet people when we stay in a bungalow type place. We do talk to people at dinner. Usually they comment on the Totseat travel chair our little one sits in But they’re not the RTW traveller or backpacker type people that we’re used to. It almost seems like travellers who don’t have children are afraid to talk to you when you travel with kids. A shame because we really get a lot of energy out of meeting new people and sharing stories with others.

10. You phone home a lot more

A short txt when you’re moving to say where you’re going next and that everything is ok isn’t enough anymore. Jace’s two sets of grandparents want to see him and talk to him at least every few days, which makes us spend a lot more time on FaceTime and Skype.

If you’re considering travel with kids or are already on the road, the Facebook group Families who love travel is a great resource. Families on the move is also a great group, but it’s a closed group that you can only join if you’re planning to travel for more than 6 months.

The post Travel with kids: 10 major differences appeared first on FlipFlopGlobetrotters.com.

We weren’t even sure if we were going to bring it, since we had too much luggage and weight already. But on a whim we decided to take it anyway. Our first two months in Egypt we didn’t use it at all as we could borrow a pram with air tires, which was a lot more practical and less warm for all of us. But since being in Indonesia we’ve used the Manduca almost every day.

It allows us to take our little one on the motorbike. A very practical means of transportation when you’re traveling around Asia. I’m not sure if this is what they had in mind when they designed the carrier, but we love it The locals think it’s very funny and keep waving and taking pictures of us when we’re driving around. Still it seems a lot more safe than the way they transport their kids, the little ones standing between their legs or sitting in front of the parents on the seat holding themselves steady with their feet on the dashboard. Now that’s a sight!

Anyway, back to the Manduca. I didn’t use it a lot when Jace was younger because I wanted to carry him on my front and my shoulders were too narrow to use the Manduca. It kept sliding off. Now that he’s older and heavier and I’m comfortable carrying him on my back I don’t have that problem anymore. He sits very comfortably and sometimes even falls asleep while in the carrier. We mainly use it on the motorbike, but also while hiking.

Our little one weighs over 12 kilo’s now, but with the Manduca I can easily carry him on my back. It’s made of very sturdy, but breathing, material, with clips that secure very well. I would actually prefer to have metal clips instead of plastic, to make them even more strong, but I guess that would bring both weight and price up. The €89.90 that we spend on it seemed a lot of money at the time, but considering that our son is now almost two years old, it’s actually pretty good value for money. And I’m sure we can sell it again when we’re done with it, it’s great quality.

For more info, check out Manduca’s official website

The post Review: Manduca babycarrier appeared first on FlipFlopGlobetrotters.com.

I was a bit worried about the 8,5 hour flight on day 2, but he was very relaxed and flirting with all the flight attendants. When we arrived at the apartment in Bali however he collapsed, too tired to sleep and over-stimulated. We spend our first night in Bali trying to help him get some sleep.

Our travel schedule:

Day 1:
– Got up at 05:00
– Dahab to Sharm el Sheikh by car
– Sharm el Sheikh to Cairo by plane
– Sharm el Sheikh to Dubai by plane
– Arrived at Dubai airport at 17:30 then spend over an hour trying to locate our stroller and find the shuttle to the hotel
– Arrived at the hotel in Dubai at 19:30, had dinner and went to bed too late

Day 2:
– Got up at 05:30
– Dubai to Bali by plane
– Arrived in Bali at 21:40 local time and were at our apartment by 22:30

Even though we had a rough first night, this morning we were sooo happy to be back in Asia! The apartment we rented through Airbnb is comfy and clean and it’ll be great fun to go exploring our new environment. We’ve never been to Bali before, so it’s a new experience for all of us.

The post From Dahab via Dubai to Bali appeared first on FlipFlopGlobetrotters.com.

Obviously it’s not as easy as it sounds… or maybe it is. Once we found someone to housesit our apartment the decision was actually really simple. The only difficult part was leaving our friends and family behind… and cleaning our apartment. It’s amazing how much you collect over the course of a decade, even in such a tiny apartment.

Our reasoning?

Our son is now 17 months old and if we want to go on a longer trip, we need to do it before he has to go to school. We’ve both been dreaming about a long trip or even living abroad for a while since before we met each other. Somehow the timing never seemed right. But since I’m between jobs and my partner is a self-employed carpenter, now is actually the best timing ever!

Digital nomad and dive instructor

I’ve decided that I want try to become a ‘digital nomad’ to add some $$ to our travel budget. Never before did I have the courage to work for myself instead of for a boss, but this is the perfect opportunity. We’re both scuba divers and my partner is a PADI Divemaster who has wanted to become an instructor almost as long as he’s diving. Since becoming an instructor is mostly a question of money and a few weeks of training, we now just have to find a good place for him to do his IDC (instructor development course). Dive instructor is also a great job to do while abroad! Of course, like any job hunt it’s not going to be easy to find a job as a rookie, but hopefully our combined skills will be interesting to a potential employer.

Our plan

The past three months have gone really fast, but at the same time really slow. Our first stop will be Dahab, Egypt where we own our own holiday house. We’ll stay there for about two months or until we can’t take the heat of the Sinai summer anymore. Since we have our own house there it will be fairly cheap and an easy transition. After Egypt we plan to fly to South-East Asia and travel around there for the rest of the year. Surprisingly, with all the dreaming of the past 12 years, our bucket list is completely empty. But we’re sure we’ll be inspired again once we’re on the road!

Sooo… the moment to leave has finally come… We’re off!

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