The Beginning!
So it began, the big adventure we had been planning for what seemed like most of a year.
This was a truly incredible and fortunate opportunity we had to spend most of 2015 travelling abroad as a family.
There were conflicted feelings of excitement and apprehension.
What would the realities of constant travelling for most of a year really be like with a family of three young boys (Oliver 12, Jarvis 11 and Lachlan 6)?
What did we really want out of this once in a lifetime experience?
The possibilities were enormous, almost overwhelming.
So for flexibility we started on a one-way ticket to London via Bangkok and Dubai.
I had created an itinerary to May, with some gaps. I envisaged working on the rest of it as we travelled and unravelled opportunities.
At the back of my mind I was unsure if the boys would keep up their enthusiasm, would they miss the comforts of home and friends, would correspondence school be successful, would we have good enough internet everywhere we travelled for Chris to work?
With the world on our doorstep we awoke on the 1st February 2015, early from our overnight stay at Ibis Auckland Airport. We excitedly checked out after only a few hours sleep, dropped the car at the car rental and checked onto the first leg of our journey, a Qantas flight departing Auckland at 6:10 am and arriving into Sydney at 7:45 am (Australian time).
This was the start of what we foresaw as an open ended family adventure.
Five of us heading to London, purchasing a car and travelling around Europe, Morocco and more.
Presumably we would return by the end of the year, but for flexibility we had only planned till May.
What amazing possibilities lay ahead of us? It was quite thrilling but we remained surprisingly calm.
We transferred at Sydney airport onto another Qantas plane, arriving into Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport at 3:35pm local time, 21:35 NZ time. The Qantas staff commented on the politeness of the boys, I was proud. Not surprisingly, no-one had sleep during the flight, the boys had been completely happy with their inflight entertainment systems and endless soft drink supply.
I knew when I had booked our Bangkok accommodation that I was setting the boys up for an unrealistic expectation of accommodation standard.
My overall strategy was to stay as accommodation cost-neutral as possible, we were going to be away for a long time.
Our house in Auckland was rented out and this was my ‘rough’ accommodation budget. The unrest in Bangkok just prior to us travelling meant that we could stretch to ‘5 star’ accommodation.
I suspected that we wouldn’t match this standard again, but it made for an impressive start.
We had a fabulous modern two bedroom suite with views overlooking the pool and river. The boys were straight into the pool followed by a slightly blundered attempt to get dinner. In our jet-lagged exhausted states we chickened out on the challenging street crossing to the enticing local food stalls across the road opting instead for a delicious meal at one of the restaurants attached to the hotel.
Jarvis curled up on the bench chair and feel asleep as the rest of us enjoyed our first Thai meal.
This was a truly incredible and fortunate opportunity we had to spend most of 2015 travelling abroad as a family.
There were conflicted feelings of excitement and apprehension.
What would the realities of constant travelling for most of a year really be like with a family of three young boys (Oliver 12, Jarvis 11 and Lachlan 6)?
What did we really want out of this once in a lifetime experience?
The possibilities were enormous, almost overwhelming.
So for flexibility we started on a one-way ticket to London via Bangkok and Dubai.
I had created an itinerary to May, with some gaps. I envisaged working on the rest of it as we travelled and unravelled opportunities.
At the back of my mind I was unsure if the boys would keep up their enthusiasm, would they miss the comforts of home and friends, would correspondence school be successful, would we have good enough internet everywhere we travelled for Chris to work?
With the world on our doorstep we awoke on the 1st February 2015, early from our overnight stay at Ibis Auckland Airport. We excitedly checked out after only a few hours sleep, dropped the car at the car rental and checked onto the first leg of our journey, a Qantas flight departing Auckland at 6:10 am and arriving into Sydney at 7:45 am (Australian time).
This was the start of what we foresaw as an open ended family adventure.
Five of us heading to London, purchasing a car and travelling around Europe, Morocco and more.
Presumably we would return by the end of the year, but for flexibility we had only planned till May.
What amazing possibilities lay ahead of us? It was quite thrilling but we remained surprisingly calm.
 |
| Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport |
We transferred at Sydney airport onto another Qantas plane, arriving into Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport at 3:35pm local time, 21:35 NZ time. The Qantas staff commented on the politeness of the boys, I was proud. Not surprisingly, no-one had sleep during the flight, the boys had been completely happy with their inflight entertainment systems and endless soft drink supply.
I knew when I had booked our Bangkok accommodation that I was setting the boys up for an unrealistic expectation of accommodation standard.
My overall strategy was to stay as accommodation cost-neutral as possible, we were going to be away for a long time.
Our house in Auckland was rented out and this was my ‘rough’ accommodation budget. The unrest in Bangkok just prior to us travelling meant that we could stretch to ‘5 star’ accommodation.
I suspected that we wouldn’t match this standard again, but it made for an impressive start.
We had a fabulous modern two bedroom suite with views overlooking the pool and river. The boys were straight into the pool followed by a slightly blundered attempt to get dinner. In our jet-lagged exhausted states we chickened out on the challenging street crossing to the enticing local food stalls across the road opting instead for a delicious meal at one of the restaurants attached to the hotel.
Jarvis curled up on the bench chair and feel asleep as the rest of us enjoyed our first Thai meal.
 |
| Chatrium Riverside Hotel, Bangkok |
ReplyDeleteWell this looks like an exciting adventure. I love getting the pictures of what is happening. Love to you all... Marie
Incredibly excited for you guys and your exciting adventures that lie ahead. We miss you lot already. The kids loved the story about Jarvis falling asleep in the restaurant. And we'd love to see photographic evidence of any of you sleeping on your trip.
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