How To See The World (A Budget Friendly Guide For Families)

1

Bioluminescence

Lovely days don’t come to you, you should walk to them.

– Rumi

Thailand: Day 38 of 372

Bang Boet, Thailand.

We stumbled upon Bang Boet because it was time to stop for the day. No one had pointed us there. We didn’t find it online—the village found us.

A tiny row of bungalows looked out on a stunning bay, sprinkled with idle fishermen. A rainbow hung over us all afternoon as we swam in the tropical water and played volleyball with the local kids. Later, the entire tiny community invited us to sit down at the village’s only eatery. Deliciousness and fun.

Just before bed I thought a night swim would cap off another great day on the road. The water was perfectly still. Stars shone brightly overhead as I waded into the bay. Sparkles of light tickling my lower legs drew my attention. I started running, the splashes illuminated like fireworks. Bioluminescence! The best I’d ever seen.

I rushed back to Nic and the kids.

"You have to come swimming!"

I didn’t hang around to listen to their protests and ran back to the ocean. Splashing around in absolute wonder with my family, mesmerized by nature, giggles of delight ringing around the bay—we created another forever memory. This was my affirmation. This is why we wanted to do this.

2

Our Story

I regret spending money on that epic life changing trip.

– No One Ever

Cape Reinga, New Zealand.

Our traveling family of four originally started out as most families do—two young people found each other, fell in love, and then ran away together. This happened to Nicola and I in New Zealand in 1997. Nicola, while on a nursing work exchange from Canada, and I, a local kiwi, met as young medical practitioners at Auckland’s Starship Children’s Hospital.

We left New Zealand shortly after and spent the next five years traveling and working all over the world. Our medical backgrounds (nurse and dietitian) opened a doorway into humanitarian aid work that took us to unstable hotspots of the Balkans, East Africa, and Central Asia. The work was stressful, so whenever possible we’d travel to neighboring countries, exploring all corners. Together, we have hitchhiked long distances, ridden bicycles across continents, met the best and the worst humans, experienced the hideousness of malaria, had our insides turned inside out and grown whole new species in our intestinal tracts, settled down, had children, and still wanted more. Travel, not children.

We eventually settled in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where our kids were born and raised. Coeur d’Alene is an incredibly scenic, four season, outdoor accessible town in the Pacific Northwest where neither of us had history. The beauty, the friendships, and the environment for raising kids sucked us in. We never planned to stay long, but North Idaho was the right place at the right time. We even became United States citizens.

When our kids were very young, our desire to travel had not abated, and we began to dream of taking a significant global tour. Some short study of kids and our current experience with two toddlers led us to believe that young children were a handful, and teenagers might not want to be seen in public with us. Tweens would be just the right age. They could tie their own shoes, feed themselves, and wipe their own bums. Perfect.

Bamboo Bridge, Northwest Thailand

Way back when the kids were tiny we chose 2016 as the year to go. Becca and Jamey would be 9 and 11. The trip horizon always seemed close enough to keep the dream alive, and distant enough to save and plan unrushed. About three years from departure we sat down for a long conversation and asked ourselves if this was really what we wanted. It was. We started doing deeper research, set a saving goal, and began working seriously on our finances. We also began tentatively telling family and a few close friends—then nervously wondered if we could really actually do it.

Three years flew by. Before we knew it, we were counting down the months and making big decisions about flights, our home, cars, school, work and, biggest of all, our dog Barney. Bless that guy.

Circus Troupe. Siem Reap, Cambodia.

We flew out of Spokane, Washington on 16 August, 2016 for a short week in Hong Kong. Starting out from small town North Idaho to an Asian megacity literally blew our traveling socks off, and our minds as well. The surrealness continued in Thailand for a month, then Cambodia and Vietnam, and back to Thailand over the course of another two months. We made all our mistakes, overcame adversity, and celebrated some of our sweetest moments here. South East Asia has it all. A perfect blend of humanity, natural beauty, and cheap yummy fruit smoothies.

We flew to New Zealand in late November for a five-month southern hemisphere summer. Our extended stay in the natively named Aotearoa (Land of the Long White Cloud) was one continued wow. It is as beautiful and wondrous as everybody says it is. We were very nearly buried in the stunning country by a driver who fell asleep at his wheel. Instead, after getting over the shock, our very much alive selves were joyous. The gratitude for being alive in this time and place was celebrated at length. The trip, this amazing family time, took on even deeper significance.

Hong Kong

We flew to Turkey in April 2017 and spent two weeks living in the heart of Istanbul. Home to 15 million people, this ancient and colorful city, where