By: MJ + PJ
Reaching the six month milestone is a relief. We have looked back and are looking forward to what’s ahead, realizing that we have covered a lot of ground and seen and experienced a huge number of places and things.
But what handy things have we really learned in the process? Here are some tips!
1. Transport and transitions:
- Many of your most memorable travel incidents are going to come from transitions, not from the actual destination itself. Try to keep your destinations incident free!
- You have the time to be on time, so make a habit of that. People appreciate it, and it can reduce your stress. You will find something to do at that exit gate.
- If in doubt, step forward and ask the dumb question. Don’t make assumptions that you are in the right place or on the right service if there is any seed of doubt.
- Make sure your child knows what or where is next… at least what it is known for and what to expect. Them not knowing anything makes it difficult for them to cope with the change.
2. How to make down time meaningful:
- Down time is totally awesome. If you pack too much into a day or series of days, you’ll likely feel drained. It is great to be non-productive and laze about at times. It is also cheap and can help suppress spending… which also feels good.
- Agree on the timing and place of down time if possible, and schedule it in on upcoming days when possible – that way everyone can look forward to some do-their-own-thing time.
- There will always be something important to do (a flight to book, food to shop for, banking to manage, website to manage etc) but completing important tasks doesn’t count as recharge or down time.
3. How to choose your target location/activities:
- Work out how many days you really have to work with, then plan to fill half of that. We have felt rewarded by achieving one to two targeted activities per day. Planning too much can can cause us to get rushed or disappointed, and results in having to reschedule activities. If time becomes available, we squeeze in extras!
- Agree on what are the ‘must sees’ as a family and what individuals really want to see, then balance these must see activities appreciating some give and take.
- Consider the cost load if everything was to be done on the list. What is unique to this area or a bucket list item which has cost lenience (do it, spend!), and what is a duplicate activity or experience that you may have had elsewhere (skip it, save!).
- City tours are a great thing, and it is best to do them early on in a visit. You often get the most up to date and useful advice on tours to refine your plan for the area.
4. How to keep your child entertained with and without toys:
- Talk about things you have seen or done recently, and ask progressively deeper questions. i.e. “Why do they do that? Where else have you seen that? What led them to do that?“
- Verbally explore topics on concepts related to things you have seen. i.e. Lake Titicaca evaporates more than drains… why?
- Connect previous experiences. i.e. The Indiana Sand Dunes and the Perito Moreno Glacier. Get excited about these things so they can see that connecting experiences is a big part of adventure.
- Rotate toys in and out of frequency. Bring out a less used or forgotten toy to phase out a common one. It helps to have a bag that is not regularly emptied to hide stowaway toys.
- Use free programs and their resources in the places you visit, like the Junior Ranger program in the United States. Ask about educational resources and guides at the museums and galleries you visit.
- Use eBooks (less weight and space, but battery reliant) to keep your child engaged in reading. We purchased a few age appropriate books for him to read, and we also purchased a chapter book (Harry Potter) to read aloud to him at night getting ready for bed (and to also get him excited about our upcoming visit the Harry Potter Studio!).
5. Considerations for education parents and children:
- In some locations, you will be highly motivated to be, or accidentally, immersed. Make sure your child knows that and make sure they get included or guided to immersion.
- If the activity is not really your thing, but your partner is really into it, then take your child and give them 100% attention and say yes to as many of their ideas and requests as possible – they will appreciate it, and you will be reminded of how valuable this is.
- After an activity, take at least a few minutes to review and discuss what you experienced. It will help you all remember what the experience was like.
- Expect to climb a steep and rocky road to re-engage your child to “standard” school-like tasks if you have taken more than a few days break doing something else (i.e. a trek or special multi-day tour). Consistency can be difficult to maintain on the road. The persistence and motivation needed to return to a brain-intensive routine is not only difficult for children.
6. Managing daily/monthly/yearly budget:
- Make yourself a spreadsheet and plug in and label your basic numbers and timeframes. Then run a few cost and duration scenarios to see how many days a particular spending rate buys you (keeping in mind currency exchange rates).
- This is the time to learn and understand basic spreadsheet formulas.
- Keep a daily tab on expenses. It’s easier to spend over budget if you are not keeping a fairly accurate tally. We don’t track cents, but our round-up threshold for each transaction is 30 cents.
- There will be days the budget is blown, and by a lot. This is usually when buying a flight or paying for a few days or more of accommodation. Aim to then get a few days that are well below budget to dampen the horror you just caused and felt.
- Crunch some numbers using formulas on your spreadsheet to see how you are doing on average at consistent checkpoints. We tend to keep an eye on periods of 30 days, and on durations in a place.
7. Housekeeping – mail, phone, communication, bills:
- WiFi is mostly available. Reliable and fast WiFi is rarely available. If you have to upload or backup photos or other files, set it to be done after midnight when most users in your location are asleep.
- Reduce any persistent mail to the bare minimum, by switching to online statements and unsubscribing to other email.
- There are online postboxes where you pay a monthly fee to have someone manage your physical mail for you by scanning the envelopes and emailing them to you. VirtualPostMail (VPM) is one example of this type of service. You then tell them which mail you would like to open, and the others are shredded. You are then charged per opened envelope page scanned. Although we considered this route, we opted to have a family member open anything that looks pertinent or confidential, and then we decide what is done with it. Mostly, it’s still shredded.
- Voice Over Internet Provider (VOIP) phones are fine for basic conversations, but when you are contacting an office or government department and are on hold or solving a problem, any disruption or drop in WiFi to the call can be frustrating and difficult. We paid a total of $153 for the YEAR (compared to the $140 per MONTH we were spending) to utilize Park My Phone, and cancelled our expensive monthly cellular phone plan. This allowed us to keep one of our local US phone numbers. By keeping a US phone number, we can text and call like normal from our old phone number, however it is all over the internet (back to the WiFi reliability issue!). No need to worry about country codes for the USA, etc.
- In case of emergencies, we chose to purchase an international phone that can be used anywhere in the world (call or text). In this case, you only pay when you use it (which we don’t because it is for emergencies!).
- We tend to use the common video chat options, from time to time, depending on if the WiFi connection is reliable (i.e. WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, FaceTime). We use WhatsApp the most. Many travel businesses are on WhatsApp, making it easy to call or text them, and bypassing the need for a cellular/mobile network connection.
8. Packing light
- We have found that reducing items and deciding what’s not being used is an ongoing process. The items we shed are becoming less frequent, but we still sell, donate or simply throw away items. This is usually an uncomfortable process.
- If you like wearing the same clothes over and over, then traveling long term is great – less wardrobe decisions, less tied to a laundry machine and laundry schedule.
- Quick dry clothing is light to pack. Win win! Layering clothing is also a more flexible approach, but not always as warm, so go with wool or down for thinner but warmer lightweight warmth.
- Dry clothing and equipment, and dried foods are lighter because water weighs a lot. Considering moisture and water content in foods is essential to light packing.
9. Alone time and hobbies
- What is alone time? Parents understand this question. Let’s instead call it ‘space’. It is important to have periods of having ‘space’, where you are physically present but mentally detached. Both parents cannot do this at the same time! Like down time, it is better to schedule it or at least overtly request it.
- If you have several hobbies, then deciding which to continue comes down to three major factors: 1) How much equipment or space does it require?, 2) How much time does it require and is that time available?, 3) Will trying to schedule or perform it detract from the quality of why you have or perform that hobby?
- If you can’t persist with your hobbies, then be at peace with the absence of it. There is probably a way you can stay in touch with it without doing it. You can and probably will return to it once you are done traveling.
10. Food, groceries, and nutrition (see PREPARATION: Nutrition for context)
- Some food items we have carried the whole six months to date. Foods that are either rare or highly nutritional, or are dense and pack well, have lived in our pack. For us these have been: Vegemite, powdered peanut butter, multivitamin packs, potato powder, soup or gravy mix, and bullion cubes.
- Food is weight in a bag, and non-processed food usually cannot pass through immigration points, so it is best to plan your consumption around these factors.
- Consider your food purchases: buying and preparing your own, or eating at street vendors rather than restaurants saves a lot of money over the long term.
- Grocery shopping is a good place to start your culture education in new countries, as you get to compare and contrast food types and availability and see locals doing routine things. It also saves you a lot of money, particularly if you can convert the new currency accurately as you shop.
- Carbohydrate foods are relatively easy to come by.
- Fruit and vegetables are quite abundant and usually cheap (but clean them!).
- Protein options can be more challenging to identify.
- A hungry and growing child is the most challenging food management task. If they are hungry now, they want food …NOW! Having nutritional options on hand that they are confident eating can be very difficult. We have found the best options to be fruit (whole or dried), nuts, dried meats, sandwiches, cut vegetables, and water. An empty stomach is a complaining child, so you can suppress some ‘hangriness’ with hydration, which is also a good thing.
