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Introduction
Japan
China
Singapore
Malaysia
Indonesia
New Zealand
Australia
Bali
Thailand
India
England
France
Reflections
on 1 year off
After two weeks
After 16 years!
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The world
changed a lot in our year off: the September 11th disaster and resulting war
on terrorism, airline bankruptcies, Pakistan/ India problems, insurgency in
Nepal, and terrorists in the Philippines near Borneo. These all affected
our travel plans, but there were no major difficulties. We managed
to more or less stick with our original itinerary with a substitution of
Malaysian Borneo for Indonesia, and Qantas for the extinct Ansett.
My wife and
I would jump on the next plane and keep going if we had the chance. I'm not
sure if the kids would want to join us. They definitely missed friends and
'routine', and also disliked most cultural activities (temples, museums,
gardens, cathedrals etc). However, we had some
wonderful times together and I look forward to seeing how it affects our
children's lives.
Highlights and low
points
What worked and what
didn't work?
Money matters - cash, ATM,
traveler's cheques
How much did it cost?
What did you do with
everything you bought?
How did the kid's
education work?
What did we pack, and
what was it packed in?
Technical gadgets and
internet
For
David & Sarah
Everything except schooling the kids was a highlight. Working at Deep Griha
was particularly satisfying. We'd do the whole trip all over again.
For the
kids
Temples, museums, and school work were low points (although Heather thought
many of the museums were OK). Rock
climbing in Thailand, snorkeling/ scuba diving in Bali and Cairns, Borneo Rainforest,
and Christmas in New Zealand were
highlights. New Zealand and Australia ranked highest, and India ranked
lowest on the countries they'd like to return to. They found India too
hot and not 'kid friendly' - i.e. there were not a lot of children's
activities.
- I think our major mistake was not appointing someone
to look after investments (RSP's etc) while we
were gone. We had thought we would do it via internet, but the farther
we got from Canada, the more we lost interest. This was a bad year to
not follow your investments.
- The "round the world" airfare on Star
Alliance worked. There were problems because Ansett went bankrupt, but
overall it gave us lots of flexibility to change dates and we felt we
got good value for money. However, we never compared prices for the
'round the world' fare to buying a series of one way tickets.
- not
planning anything far in advance (hotels, trains, planes) worked well
most of the time. One result of Sept 11 was that there were vacancies
everywhere for everything. The few times we did book in advance, we were
disappointed in the rooms or services we got, so we got into the habit
of showing up and doing an inspection of a number of places first.
Vacancies started being a problem again in India, and then it was a big
problem in England and France as we were getting back into prime tourist
season in these countries. I think next time, I'd try and book the first
night or two in a new country and then venture off on our own after
that. When you're traveling for a year, it is hard to plan too much in
advance, but there is certainly an incentive to try and do so: trains
and planes can be quite a bit cheaper if you book in advance.
- staying
away from package tours worked very well. The odd time, we would join a
tour (for a trek or cruise) but we much preferred the independence of
doing our own thing.
- traveling
with 5 is a bit awkward. We did not fit easily into many hotel rooms or
taxis. Many family rates were only for two children. I'm not sure which
family member we'd do without though ;-)
- taking
time off from our trip worked well. We did not try to fill every day
with activities - some days we'd stop and do nothing, letting the kids
determine the agenda. We did not try to
rush the trip - with one year off, we weren't in a hurry to go anywhere
or do anything.
- we
also took larger 'holidays' from the trip. For example, a week in the 5 star resort
in Borneo and the two weeks over Christmas in New Zealand. These periods really were
needed to recharge and regroup.
- getting
involved with Locals was very interesting. The Girl Guides organization
was particularly good for our girls - they went to camp in Australia and
visited some meetings in New Zealand.
- Changing plans to travel with another compatible
family for a few days or more was terrific. It gives the kids (and
parents) time to play with kids their own age who are going through the
same experiences. See Bali and
Yangshuo.
- We used the Lonely Planet series of guide books for
every country. We really enjoyed their Japan and China guidebooks, and
then just kept buying them for the other countries. The India book was a
bit disappointing, but the other countries were great. Don't leave home
without a guide book - they are readily available at most bookstores
while you travel, so don't buy too many in advance.
- public
transportation worked well in 'non-western' countries. China, Malaysia,
Thailand and India all have excellent public transportation. We made
extensive use of buses and trains, with a few plane trips thrown in to
speed things up. Buses were sometimes a little scary, but we had no
major mishaps - only a minor one in China which, while agonizing at the
time, is now just a good story.
- car
rental worked well in Australia and New Zealand. It was expensive but
necessary in rural France and England and it's cheaper if you book in
advance. I really did get better at driving on the left side of the road
even in manual transmission cars... although I find myself moving to the
wrong side of the road now what I'm back at home.
- in
many countries, we would establish a 'base' where we could leave excess
luggage. For example, in Thailand, we left a few bags in our hotel in
Bangkok while we traveled around the rest of the country. We'd return to
that hotel for a night to retrieve our bags just before leaving the country.
This worked well in Bali, New Zealand, India and England. It certainly
made traveling on public transportation easier.
- take as little as possible (see the 'what we packed'
section below)
ATM's ( i.e. bank or money machines) are very widespread, and we
would get cash from machines when we needed it. China and India were the two
countries where we had to plan ahead a bit as ATM's were difficult to find.
In other countries, ATM's were always close at hand.
Our
traveler's cheques became solely a backup if we
could not find an ATM. As a Canadian, I should have just got cheques in ¤Cdn - ¤Cdn were accepted everywhere. (It used to be wise
to get them in ¤US - but this does not seem the case now). I think we
cashed less than ¤1000US in travelers cheques.
There is
probably no limit to what you can spend on a trip. There is certainly a
'bottom line' that you cannot go under - airfares, meals and hotels all have
a minimum cost.
At 13, our
older son was also just at the borderline for fares - sometimes he would be
charged as an adult, and sometimes as a child.
Our
expectation for hotels changed over the year. By the end of our trip, we were
comfortable in rooms that might have made us move on if we had seen them
earlier in the trip. As long as they were they were clean and quiet and big
enough, we were happy. I think our cheapest room was in Delhi (¤14/night for
the five of us for a room that was the same size but slightly more run down
than the ¤330/night Tokyo room), but we had many others in the ¤30 to ¤50
range.
I've given
up working on the details. We spent about ¤110k Cdn
for the whole trip (all inclusive - airfares & other travel, insurance,
accommodation, food, local purchases etc. )
We would
save up our purchases until all we had taken up all the room in our bags.
Then we would mail a package home. In total, we mailed 9 packages.
Unfortunately, one statue mailed from New Zealand arrived as a pile of
rubble. Everything else arrived with no problems. We used the slowest regular
mail service in each country.
This was
the most difficult part of the trip. We are not teachers and the kids saw
themselves as being on holiday. Our major concern was for Mark, who at age 13
could not afford to miss math and science. His school provided us with a full
curriculum, but he still has exams and projects to do this summer in order to
return to school with his old classmates in September. He did do a lot of
work on our travels, but it did involve a lot of nagging on our part - which
was not pleasant for any of us.
The girls
(8 &11) did less work - a tiny bit of math. They read constantly, and
seemed to soak in a lot of what we were seeing
so I know they learned a lot of 'non-school' knowledge. They are both very
good students, and I assume they will catch up on anything they missed in the
first few months back at school. Time will tell. One thing they lost was
their ability to speak French. They had been at French school but their
French seemed to disappear by the time we reached France. It did come
partially back after a while, so I don't think they'll be starting from
basics again.
I don't
think I can write more about this section without the benefit of time - i.e.
how will the kids do in school in the future.
Suffice to
say that getting your kids to do schoolwork on a year off is difficult for
both parents and kids alike. I have no suggestions on how to make this
easy.
How many
times have you heard someone say to bring as little as possible? We thought
we packed very frugally, yet we sent about 20 kg of stuff home in a box from
our first stop in Japan. Bring as little as possible! Really! If you do
not bring enough, it is easy to buy what you need. If you bring too much, you
either carry it around for your entire trip, throw it out,
give it away, or mail it home.
This is
what we came home with, so it is representative of what was useful. Some
of the things we bought en route, but most made the
full circumnavigation.
- 1 pair running shoes or walking shoes, and 1 pair
sandals each. No hiking boots or formal shoes.
- Clothes for a week or two. The kids definitely seemed
to change clothes more than the adults (or maybe it was the girls
changed more often than the boys). We were traveling in a warm climate,
so we brought only t-shirts and golf shirts as well as the usual socks
and underwear. Long pants that zipped off into shorts were particularly
useful - we had two pairs each as the only pants we brought. We did
not bring formal clothes - people we met understood we were traveling
and did not expect us to show up in a jacket and tie.
- one
warm shirt (fleece) and one lightweight rain jacket each. On really cold
days, we would wear everything we owned: t-shirts, fleeces and rain
jackets.
- a
few sarongs for the 5 of us (useful as sheet or towel, and as a wrap for
temples in some countries).
- toiletries.
You can find vaguely familiar brands of most things in any
country.
- a
standard first aid kit to which we added bandaids,
Bactroban, disinfectant, headache pills (for
both kids and adults), Kaopectate tablets and
pills for food poisoning (ask your doctor). Note: Many things that are
prescribed in North America are available over the counter in Asia and
are cheap.
- book lights/ small flashlights
- bowls,
spoons, forks for all. In some countries, we would eat our own
breakfasts. In Australia and New Zealand, most motel rooms have
kitchenettes so we could eat lots of meals in.
- potato peeler (for peeling fruit etc),
swiss army knife
- lightweight
sleeping bags for the kids & double sheets for us. This was useful
in cheaper hotels (many do not provide sheets), and also when we visited
friends. We bought these in Australia as we preferred to stay in
Holiday Parks that had cabins and kitchens but no linen.
- beach
towels for all.
- binoculars
(ours are 8*40). A necessity for wildlife and landscape viewing.
- a
few extra passport pictures. These are useful for visas, some travel
cards, rail passes and who knows what.
- wide
brim hats for everyone. Sunglasses for those who wanted them.
- boogie
boards and beach toys. We would buy these when we needed them and then
ditch them/ give them away when we left 'beach countries".
- fishing rods (two of our kids are avid fisherpersons)
& tackle
- soccer
ball, tennis balls, baseball gloves & a miniature air pump to blow
up the ball.
- playing cards & a magnetic chess board
- travel alarm clock
- books.
Our kids are avid readers - we minimized the books we carried through
frequent stops at second hand bookstores. We'd go through entire series
- Dune, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Lord of the Rings, Famous Five,
Nancy Drew & others.
- educational
materials (see the schooling section). We had lots.
- masks (we are all avid swimmers)
- electric
plug converters to go from North American to foreign plugs. It would
have been handy to also have an 'octopus' or small power bar so that I
could plug my camera and computer in at the same time to one foreign
adapter.
- The kids had pocket gameboys
and Mark had a CD player.
- luggage
locks. It would have been handy (particularly in India) to have a
small piece of wire so we could lock the bags together when sleeping on
trains. However, we had no problems with theft.
That is a
lot of stuff. We carried it in two duffel bags, one large backpack, and one
smaller shoulder bag. The kids each had mini backpacks with their own
essentials (beanie babies, game boys). I had a video camera bag and my
computer bag. Sarah had an excellent but small Lowe Pro camera backpack for
the SLR camera, lenses, and binoculars. Mark carried fishing rods in a
plastic plumbing pipe with a handle that we put together in New Zealand.
Everything
either fit on our back or was pulled on wheels. Both duffel bags had wheels
(one was internal and one had an external frame with wheels). We had too
much stuff, but I wouldn't know what to get rid of except clothes and books.
I wish they had school books on CD ROM!.
I'm a technical nut, so we had
lots of gadgets.
- The kids each had disposable cameras. We also bought
a number of underwater disposable cameras (try to get them with flash).
These are all available relatively cheaply while traveling.
- We had a Canon SLR camera with two lenses (28-80 and
80-300mm). The camera had a built in flash, so we left our large flash
at home. This was the right decision. We probably took 800 photos in
total. Film was purchased locally - Fuji and Kodak are available
everywhere.
- we
also had a SONY TRV 30. This is a combination digital still &
digital video camera. We took over 1200 digital pictures (only a few of
which are on this web site) and about 20 hours of video. Typical of
Sony, the camera came requiring extras. We just got the basics in
Canada, and then bought extra memory, tape, and batteries in Hong Kong.
It was cheaper in Hong Kong than Singapore, Tokyo and Kuala
Lumpur. The camera was terrific except for flash problems in
Australia. SONY Australia fixed it, but charged us because we have a
SONY North America warranty which is not valid in Australia. I wish SONY
would get its act together - annoying warranty and poor option selection
get in the way of enjoying an otherwise excellent product.
- we
brought a SONY laptop computer along for two main reasons - internet
connection (e-mail and web site updating); and storing digital
pictures. We used the Roam International version of iPass
Connect as an internet connection, and that worked well. iPass allowed local dialup
access from most places we stopped. However, if we were going to be
surfing on the internet for any amount of time, we would use an internet
cafÂe and leave the computer in the hotel - iPass
is not as cheap as internet cafÂes. I chose the SONY laptop because it
came with a lot of video editing software that was compatible with the
camera, and we could write our own CD-ROM's. As a result, I was
able to regularly back up the photos and send the CD's home. As an added
bonus, we could watch DVD movies on the computer when we needed to see
'Western movies' again. As much as it was an anchor around my neck (both
the weight and the worry of theft when traveling with another expensive
toy), I would certainly do it again - we needed to store digital
pictures and e-mail is much more useable when it is on a local machine.
- We bought a pair of 8*40 binoculars in Singapore.
Make sure you bring binoculars. You'll be surprised how frequently you
use them if you keep them handy.
- We had organized web site hosting in advance. There
are many companies that do this - we used www.usisp.com.
I used Windows Front Page to update the web site. As an internet junkie,
I'm afraid to admit that... but it was very convenient and easy to use
for this simple web site.
Read our reflections after 16 years
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