Our Itinerary

Updated July 2011

 

We started this trip in January 2010 with grand plans. Six months in Asia, including most of South East Asia, China and Korea, before heading over to North and South America.

By March 2010 we'd realised that that speed of travel just wasn't ideal for our family. We wanted to be able to spend longer in each place and experience the various cultures. We realised we needed to factor in rest days, for both us and the kids. Sightseeing every day when your travelling long term soon becomes boring. And tiring … especially when your in the tropics and every day is hot!

We wanted to spend enough time in each location to see all the sights and have rest days where we just read books or watched a movie, caught up on schoolwork, swam and played with new friends without feeling like we were eating in to ‘sightseeing' time.

Colin is also working while we travel and we're homeschooling the kids so we also realised occasionally we need to stop somewhere for a few weeks or longer to catch up on these things so when we do have the chance for a week on the beach we can enjoy it!

So we revised out grand plans. We decided to just travel around South East Asia in 2010, including spending 5 months (1 month, then later 4 months) in Penang, Malaysia.

2010

February - 2010

6 nights :: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
1 month :: Bali, Indonesia
March – April 2010

4 nights :: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
7 nights :: Penang, Malaysia
4 nights :: Langkawi, Malaysia
1 month :: Penang, Malaysia

We had debated whether to stop for a month in either KL or Penang. In the end we decided on Penang as it's much more relaxed than KL and Tracy wanted easier access to the Beach. We found a great apartment just near Batu Ferringhi for under AUD$1000/month and it includes a great swimming pool, Squash Tennis and Basketball courts. It is a bit of a hike so we rented a car for the time I was back in Australia and Tracy was looking after the kids by herself in a foreign country.

April (last 2 weeks) :: Travelling through Malaysia

5 days :: Cameroon Highlands
2 days :: KL – just a stop over
4 days :: Melaka

May :: Thailand

We had intended to head to Thailand for all of May, travelling from Krabi to Chiang Mai or renting an apartment on the beach somewhere. Of course that's when the red shirt unrest broke out so we stayed for another week in the Cameron Highlands waiting to see what would happen. Things in Bangkok settled down so we flew up to Krabi, with the intentions of spending a few days around the islands before heading to Bangkok.

2 days :: Krabi (we were intending 5 but it was hot and the place we were staying in had no power during the day or internet! Not ideal for Colin who needed to work).
7 days :: Koh Lanta

Unfortunately that's when things got worse in Bangkok so we flew back to KL for a few days before heading to Laos.

June :: Vietnam

2 days :: Vientiane
5 days :: Vang Vieng
3 days :: Luang Prabang
3 days :: Vientiane

In June Tracy's mother and her partner joined us for two weeks so we travelled through Vietnam with them as part of a tour. Next time we'd do it a lot slower, but here's what happened this time.

4 days :: Ho Chi Minh
3 days :: Hoi An
2 days :: Hue
2 days :: Halong Bay
4 days :: Hanoi
2 days :: Ho Chi Minh

July :: Cambodia

We spent a month travelling around Cambodia with the children's godmother visiting:

5 days :: Siem Reap
4 days :: Battambang
3 days :: Phnom Penh
3 days :: Sianhouville
2 days :: Kampot
2 days :: Kep
3 days :: Kampot
4 days :: Phnom Penh

August – November :: Penang, Malaysia

In August we headed back to Penang to rest for a while. Staying longer this time we were able to negotiate a better rental deal ($700AUD per month) and put the kids in daycare so we could get some work done while the kids made friends. It was a win-win situation all around!

November (late) – December :: Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore

6 days :: Chiang Mai
5 days :: Bangkok
4 days :: Kuala Lumpur
7 days :: Singapore
3 days :: Kuala Lumpur

In mid November, Tracy's cousin joined us and we flew to Bangkok before boarding an overnight train to Chiang Mai on the same day. After almost a week in Chiang Mai we headed back to Bangkok and onto Kuala Lumpur, before catching a bus to Singapore for a week to spend time with friends. Then it was back to Kuala Lumpur for catch a plane home to Australia for Christmas

December 2010 – May 2011 :: Australia

We flew back to Australia for Christmas with the intentions of staying home for just a month. After a month we weren't quite ready to leave, and needed to be back in Australia in April for a wedding anyway, so decided to stay longer.

We filled our car with camping gear and spent two months driving around the east coast of Australia. Along the way we hired a RV through a relocation special and fulfilled one of Colin's ultimate dreams of driving an RV.

Then it was back home for a wedding and Easter, as well as packing up our gear as we'd finally made a decision – we were moving to Penang in Malaysia.

May – July 2011 :: Penang

In May 2011 we arrived in Penang Malaysia and started a new adventure – setting up a house here. House hunting, buying a car, finding daycare, packing, unpacking. Yikes!!!

The plan?

Well it certainly isn't to stop travelling. The cost of rent in Penang is only slightly more than we were paying for storage in Australia. So rather than paying for storage, we've set up a house here to live in while we're in Penang, and to store our gear while we travel. Our aim to spend at least 6 months of each year travelling abroad.

August 2011 – Onwards

OK this is where it gets fuzzy. We're crap at making plans. OK that's a lie. We're great at making plans, we make thousands of plans. What we're terrible at is deciding on a plan and sticking to it!

In August we intend to go to the Perhentian Islands on the east coast of Malaysia, as well as spending a night or two in Thailand.

In September we're spending a week in Bangkok to meet up with the kids grandmother and sightsee.

In October Colin flies back to Australia for a week for a friends wedding.

November sees us embarking on another big adventure. A month in Chiang Mai to see the lantern festival and experience what life in Thailand is like. At the end of November we're flying to Europe for three months. A White Christmas! Plans for 2012

Once we return from Europe our plan is to explore more of Asia. We have a week in Borneo and a month in Sri Lanka booked. We'd also like to make it to India and China.

By the end of 2012 we're aiming to be in America for at least three months. But we like to keep our plans fluid so who knows where we'll be! And that's the way we like it!