Two Months on the Road

Today marks the second month on the road.

So far so good as my fellow Americans like to say. We are healthy and still enjoying ourselves. The journey so far has been great for our family. We have spent every second of the day together and surprisingly we still wake up every morning happy to see each other. At this point we are like one person made up of four individual entities. I am probably the head (making sure we are all travelling in the right direction more or less), Kuba is the heart (sweet and patient) and the kids are the legs and the arms, laughing and goofing around.

I had a lot of misconceptions about long term travel. Here are some of them and my experience so far as to how things actually are in reality.

We will get tired of each other’s company

Wrong. The more time we spend with each the better our relationship is. We have gotten closer as a family. We have developed a whole vocabulary of internal jokes and code words based on our travel experiences so far. Trying to communicate all the time has been important. We do have different passions and needs so we talk a lot about finding a balance and setting up priorities and boundaries. The kids understand very clearly that we have a budget and exhibit keen interest in meeting it every day (the currency calculations are great Math games).

One of the reasons for the trip was my desire for R & B to get closer to each other. I can see a difference already. The forced closeness and the sheer quantity and quality of time they spend together is working its magic. Before B would have shrugged R off in preference to any of his boy buddies. Now he plays with her, tells her jokes and stories and even snuggles with her. This makes me so happy… I also love the time I spend with Kuba. We never have to talk about work, school or everyday problems. It is a treat.

Our tummies will feel really bad from eating restaurant food all the time

I was really worried about this one, but my experiences so far have proven that my fears were wrong. We do eat out 99.9% of the time but the places we eat at are usually very modest establishments with 1-2 cooks max. or a street stall where food is freshly prepared on the spot. The dishes we select are simple and very close to home cooking. The portions are usually modest and dessert offered is usually fruit, grilled banana with coconut or fruit shake. So far our tummies are feeling great. We haven’t touched packaged and processed food, trying to limit snacking in between meals. All of our snacks are fresh fruits and nuts. I hope we are slowly building some resistance to local bacteria.

The excitement of constant movement will wear out and we will be feeling depleted and bored

So far we haven’t felt a moment of boredom. There is always something new to observe. The kids have not whined with the regular: ‘What can I do?’ question. I think that the key to the success so far is the slow pace with which we travel. We never rush to a new destination until we feel compelled to move on. Not only is this a cheaper way to explore but also it leaves ample breathing space for us to just savor the days. As common as it sounds being in the moment has been the key to our happiness on the road. I shudder at the thought that we considered purchasing the air fare for the whole trip ahead of time. Not only we would have felt rushed all the time but also our trip would be more expensive at the end.

Wearing the same clothes will get old

Wearing the same clothes has been fine. It makes for an easy daily routine. Once we hit the warm Southeast Asia we started getting by with t-shirts and light pants that are easy to wash often. As long as we are clean all is well.

Finding a place to sleep will be difficult

Wrong. It is easy. We don’t pre-book accommodations on line ahead of time. This gives us flexibility and freedom and usually saves us money as booking in place is cheaper. We just show up at a place and somehow things magically align. We had arrived very late at night when guest houses were already locked up for the day and still we managed to find a cozy place without too much effort. Trusting the flow has taken time but by now we are experts at doing nothing to align the next step on the journey.

The beds we sleep in will be uncomfortable and we will get bed bugs

(Thank you Benjamin Feinberg for putting this one in my head on departure day. I do check every cover and pillowcase diligently).

So far the beds have been amazingly comfortable, some even better than the ones at home. Cleanliness is one thing about SEA that caught me unprepared. We haven’t had one bad experience so far. The only complaint we have is that very few rooms have reading lights. We solved the problems by buying candles and making our rooms cozy wherever we are.

Long distance transit on land will be pain in the rear and we will hate every minute of being stuck in an overloaded bus or train for hours on end

Somehow it has been fine. I am not sure why or how but has been totally ok. No complains from the children as well. Go figure.

The biggest perks so far besides not having to deal with the daily grind is our morning routine. We start the day by meditating together. At first the time was short and the kids were frustrated. Now we sit in silence for 20 min and the time is slowly getting longer. I could have never made this happen at home with our busy schedule.

Any questions? Ask away, I will answer them all.