Wednesday 3rd December 2025 – Ha Long Vietnam
Three months with a car and travelling through America, Canada and Mexica seemed to have flown by far too fast. We did see an incredible array of sites and all three countries are so incredibly beautiful.
Our favourite adventures over the last month or so have been exploring the National Parks that were so unique in their own way.
The Grand Canyon lived up to its name and was so enormous and vast. We walked down the windy trails for about an hour and were amazed at the park.
Then it was onto Yosemite which was the total opposite. The GC was a huge hole and Yosemite were huge mountains. The most beautiful thing was probably the trail that followed the river just to get into the park. The mountains were breathtaking when we saw them though.
Zion National Park was unworldly. The landscape was carved out of volcanic rock and again took our breath away. Finally we travelled to Bryce Canyon, which had the reputation of being even better than the Grand Canyon but here we discovered snow and our first snowstorm. It was heartbreakingly beautiful, like it was fresh out of a Christmas tale.
San Francisco also did not disappoint and we were amazed at our first encounters with self driving cars and the Golden Gate Bridge partially hidden in the bay fog. Alcatraz as it turned into night was eerie and spectacular.
We then spent a few days travelling down the coast to Los Angeles and exploring there. Once again we used the self driving cars to explore the city instead of battling the traffic and parking. We spend five days there and felt we saw a huge amount in a short time. Video will follow shortly I hope.
Then it was further south through San Diego where we saw the incredible zoo there and finally down to Tijuana in Mexico 🇲🇽. We loved the simplicity of Mexico where we the prices were as advertised, the people were straight forward and warm and we no longer needed to tip 😁.
Then we drove to Vegas baby! Where we spent a few days which were mostly wet. But we can’t complain as the weather has been on our side for most of the last 10 months.
We did another 26 hour drive across the south of America and to New Orleans. Again it was so interesting and we loved the vibrant city. Especially walking down Burbourn Street at night.
After another 10 hour drive back to Florida we finally said goodbye to “Cassie the car” who has been amazing and so reliable as we traversed about 12,000 miles all around the States.
Then after 90 wonderful days we headed off to Vietnam where we find ourselves now, via Tokyo, Japan.
So much done in the last couple of months and so many great adventures. Fortunately I am keeping a pretty comprehensive diary of our travels as it’s easy to forget how much we really have done. Starting to get a pretty good library of videos of our adventures too and at last count I am only about 135 videos behind, but they too will come.
So till next we speak. Be inspired and inspire others.
Don’t forget to see the mountain you are already standing on when you look out and see the higher mountains in the distance.
Sunday 19th October 2025 – Duncan Oklahoma
After 8 months of being wherever we want and doing whatever we want, it is very different staying in one place for three weeks and living under someone else’s roof.
We are with Terisita’s sister and her family in a small town called Duncan, south of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. They have been treating us so well but after Halloween we will have to leave and continue on with our adventures.
A lot of the behind the scenes stuff that you guys don’t get to see is the planning that is involved in putting together travel for this length of time in over 32 – 35 countries.
We actually began planning this trip 5 years ago and that is two years before Daphne was born. She was part of the plan, right down to the age that we wanted her to be when we travelled and when we got back. We thought that a two to three year old would be able to handle everything that we would be throwing at her for this year and so far she has been up to the challenge. Both of our kids really like travel and planes, cars and busses don’t seem to phase them at all.
We have changed our plans a lot as we have moved from place to place. We didn’t go to the Maldives or Nepal as the logistics and the price we would pay for short stays were not reasonable. We also didn’t get to Portugal as taking a train from Spain was going to get 24 hours and a plane was going to be over $2000 due to it being summer school holidays when we were in Europe.
The biggest change though was that we were going to spend three months in South America and then spend our final 3 months in North America but due to Terisita’s family going to the Philippines for Christmas we moved our plans up and flew to the U.S.A. after only one month, to see them before they left. Fortunately being flexible is a key criteria to our travels and the weather is far better moving this segment forward two months. It would have been horrible trying to move around the north of America in December and January. Most of that part of the country would have been under snow then.
So then we were faced with a choice. Go back to South America for the final two months and see the west coast or do something entirely different.
Being the flexible people that we are we have chosen the latter and now are going to go to Vietnam after the US and then discover Cambodia, Laos and then fly out of Thailand in February.
This means we will probably spend Christmas in Southern Vietnam or one of the three previously mentioned countries. I’m not sure how they celebrate Christmas but I am sure we will find out. As long as Santa can find the kids on Christmas Day. 🎅
P.S. The photo above is from an abandoned amusement part in Old Orchard Beach, Maine at Sunset.
Speak soon.
Wednesday 17th October 2025 – Duncan Oklahoma
We are now in the small town of Duncan Oklahoma, right in the middle of America.
We are staying with Terisita’s sister and her family, whom I had never met and Teri had not seen in almost 13 years. They have a daughter who is slightly younger than Sofia and the girls are getting on so well. Like sisters.
It is nice to slow down a bit and have a permanent base for a while. Our plan is to stay here until Halloween 🎃 and then head back up to Canada 🇨🇦 but on the Western side.
Slowing down means we get to spend some time with family. Do some exercise, Get a service for the car, which has done very well for us so far, and do some more in-depth school work with Sofia.
Yesterday we went to her cousins school and asked if she can spend the day in school with her, which is possible and should happen next week. I just hope that they will be able to control themselves in class as it’s been 8 months since Sofia has sat still in a class room. I am sure that they will have a million questions for her about Australian and her travels. All the people I have spoken to in town so far have all thought that Australia is very exotic and that our trip sounds amazing.
I also brought and electric guitar and a small amp yesterday so that I can do a few more songs for our channel. I feel a little limited as guitar is my main instrument and I have had to write everything on keyboard so far this trip.
I have just released Sofia and Steve 7, which is our recap of Spain through to New York City. It is really nice for both of us to go over our adventures and I am continually surprised by how much we have seen and done. I really hope that Sofia remembers everything as she gets older. I am sure that the videos and photos will help to prompt the memories.
I am also putting myself to there a bit more on Facebook with a post each day on what we have seen and a thought or two that has been rattling around in my head for the day. I hope that it resonates with people. However even if it doesn’t its nice to be able to clarify and get my thoughts down, out of my head and into a written form. Writing is the one thing that I have not done on this trip with the exception of these blogs.
I should mention that the photo at the top of this blog is the sky that we saw when we came out of a restaurant in Kingston, Ontario. ( Where the Mayor of Kingston is shot.)
Speak soon.
Wednesday 1st October 2025 – Quebec Canada
Drove into Canada yesterday after about a month travelling up the East coast of the United States. Most of that was spent in the beautiful weather of Florida as we purchased a car there and then waited a couple of weeks for the actual number plate to arrive.
In that time we had adventures at Universal Movie World, took an Airboat ride to see crocodiles and alligators. We took a day to discover Disney world, which was the first Disney anything that we have been on in this trip. Then we did Kennedy Space Centre. Drove to Miami and all the way down to the end of the Florida Keys. (Key West.)
Having a car has given us a heap of freedom that we haven’t had prior to America. We can drive to out of the way places if we find them interesting and we are not at the bec and call of trains and busses. We have already done over 3000 miles in the four weeks that we have had the car and it’s been pretty reliable so far.
We just spent a few days in Maine after leaving New York and Washington. We stayed on a beautiful hotel on the beach that we spontaneously stayed at after liking the beach so much. Saw the most incredible sunset that I personally have ever seen there.
Then yesterday we travelled up through Maine to Quebec through the most amazing, colourful trees we have ever seen. It was just the right season to see the changes in the foliage and you be assured that we will have a video of that day in particular up on this site and YouTube very soon.
Today we woke in Quebec and walked through the Old town above the port and ferry area. The is a 200 year old castle that has been converted to a hotel there and it is heartbreakingly beautiful. It is also interesting seeing the town in sunlight when so many of the images of Quebec are when it is cloaked in snow.
The only real issue we have been having is trying to fit everything into the time we have. It has almost been eight months of travelling and we have done and seen so much.
I personally have a list of 115 videos to put together. I have three SD cards works of videos of our adventures and something like 12,000 photos over two phones. We need to prioritise Sofia’s studies over the videos so as you may have noticed we haven’t posted much over the last month.
We will be spending three weeks with Terisita’s sister and her family in a couple more weeks so we hope to have a little more down time to work on the channel there.
In the mean time I have posted a new video today.
I have also recorded the latest Sofia and Steve which should be up soon too.
Thanks so much to our 1057 subscribers who have made this all possible.
We have now done 25 countries since leaving Australia in Feb this year.
Speak too you all again soon.
Sunday 17th August Rio De Janeiro
We have finally made it to South America but we may alter our plans as we are deciding if we want to do the three months in North America early and take advantage of the better weather in both continents.
If we do that, we would head to the US, Canada and Mexico for three months in September and then pop back to South America for December and January.
In any case we are now in Rio de Janeiro and although the temperate has dropped since Spain it is still around 20 degrees and so beautiful here.
The first day we arrived we took a long walk down Copacabana beach and did a spot of people of watching while the kids ran up and down in the water. Daphne in particular was soaked and not in bathers, so we had a sandy walk home to our apartment a block away.
Yesterday was an incredible day. We had a full day tour of Rio and started off at 8am when the van picked us up.
From there we went to rail tram that took us up to the top of the mountain to see the Christ the Redeemer statute. There was so many people around up there but it was beautiful. It was so high, we were up above the clouds.
Next we visited the World Cup soccer stadium where Brazil has very proudly won two world cups. Then it was on to a 20,000 person church in the shape of a beehive. It’s the largest church in Rio.
After that we went to the Selaron steps which are made up of colourful tiles from over 2000 different cities across the world. We also stopped for a buffet style buffer lunch with beautiful BBQ meats, prawns and sushi, then it was off to the best part of the days tour.
We went up two massive chairlifts that held about 40 people each to the top of Sugarloaf mountain. It had views that stretched out all over Rio. Covering the bays and beaches as well as all the apartments that scatter the pockets of the city. It is the highest point in Rio and was magnificent.
Much of what we have seen here reminds me of India. There are more homeless people here than we have seen anywhere on our travels but it is fascinating to discover.
From here we will go to São Paulo next week for a few days and then on to Iguazu Falls on the boarder of Brazil and Argentina.
We are looking forward to a fair bit of bus travel over the next week including another sleeper bus late next week.
Speak to you again soon.
Friday 8th August 2025 Madrid – Spain
Quite a few significant landmarks have been crossed since my last post.
We have officially passed the halfway point in our one year travel. We left on the 4th of Feb so we are 4 days into the second half of our worldwide adventure.
We have also just about finished up on our second leg of our journey (Europe). We would be in South America by now except that its the big school holidays in Europe at the moment and ticket prices were just too much to justify travelling when we planned to. We were quoted over $7000 Australian dollars for our family of four to fly from Madrid to Rio but it was almost half the cost if we waited two weeks.
The other disappointment was that we couldn’t get to Portugal for much the same reason. There are no direct busses or trains that take less than 10 hours from Madrid and flying was gong to cost $2000 Australian dollars for the 1.5 hour flight. So we made th decision to stay in Spain and enjoy the beautiful Summer weather here.
We are looking forward to heading to South America next week, even though we don’t really know what to expect. No one in our family has ever set foot on the continent before. We plan to slow our travel down a bit and stay in each location a bit longer. We have raced across Europe and seen and experienced so much in the last three months. At last count we have done 19 countries in 26 weeks. That is with spending 11 weeks in India alone.
It has been incredible to see how well the family had adjusted to travel. The kids love the new experience and Sofia in particular is starting to link up everything in her head. She had a great sense of countries and loves learning and speaking to the locals in the languages that she is learning. The plan is to have her know the basics in 10 languages by the time we return.
For Teri and myself, we got to have a few days together without the kids when my parents came to visit us in Spain and we had a mini trip to the romantic city of Toledo a few hundred kilometers away. We were both recovering from colds but we had a beautiful few days wandering the ancient streets of the city and enjoying everything the city had to offer. We still missed the kid however after being no more than a few metres away from them for every moment over the last 6 months.
It was also great to spend some quality time with my parents in another world heritage city of Cuenca, Spain. They have a few mobility problems so their apartment in the loft ,three stories up was a bit unfortunate but they made the best of it and the kids were delighted to spend time with them.
Spain is hot with temperatures reaching 38 or 39 most days. It’s also interesting adjusting to the sun going down after 9.30 at night. The kids are getting some late bed times and at least we are getting to sleep in late with many mornings starting with, “Did you know that its 10 o’clock already?”
Well we will talk more from South America.
I hope that you are enjoying all of the videos that we are putting up. They are only a fraction of the photos and footage that we have collected in the last 26 weeks. It should keep me occupied for a long time when we finally retire.
Speak to you all soon.
Saturday 5th July 2025 Berlin – Germany
Today we woke up in Berlin, after another two weeks of full on travelling across Europe.
We had a bit of a rest in Calais, France for four days to recharge our batteries. We really needed a mini holiday within our holiday as we had done so much the last couple of months.
The plan was always to move fast and see heaps in Sri Lanka. Then slow the pace down as we spent two months travelling across India at our own speed. However now that we are in Europe we have picked up the pace again and have discovered so much in such a short space of time.
So we spent a week in England, mostly in London, which is not really enough time. If we stay longer however it means we have to sacrifice time somewhere else. I know that sounds a bit indulgent since we have three months in Europe, but adhering to our motto of “just a taste”, we are trying to find as many places as we can, that we want to come back to on our next visit. The list is getting pretty big already. We didn’t get to Scotland or Ireland but that will be on the list.
London itself was great. We had wonderful weather and a great apartment in Brixton that was close to the underground and therefore close to everything in London. We got there via a ferry and train which was a lot of fun. We all preferred the ferry as it was so smooth and had a playground on board for the kids.
We saw all the usual sites and then after four days we hired a car and discovered life just outside London. As it happened when I went to pickup the car they gave me a brand new BYD which was beautiful; ( but scary) to drive. It only had 800 miles on it.
We drove out to Watford where we had secretly got tickets to the Harry Potter studio tour. Sofia went crazy when she realised as she is a massive fan. She is currently reading the third book in the series as part of her schooling and loves the books so much. She is allowed to watch the movies after she completes each book so she was so excited to see everything at the studio tour. Daphne loved it too and both kids had huge smiles on their faces all day. I think it has inspired Sofia to read even more.
The next day we were scheduled to drive to Stonehenge but on the way we saw a random sign for Legoland U.K.
So we took a small detour and ended up spending most of the day looking around the park. It was amazing to see the detail in each and every model. Again the kids were delighted. We spent about four hours in the park and barely scratched the surface. I looked at the map later and we had only been to about half of the park, but we had to move on because we still had to see Stonehenge later that day.
After returning to London we boarded a train and travelled to Brussels and then on to Amsterdam. This was one of the places that was central to our European trip. I couldn’t wait to introduce this vibrant city to our family and we were not disappointed. A really nice energy throughout the city the entire time that we were there. I loved the architecture and the canals.
We on a Pizza cruise which was actually really good value. We cruised the canals for about 75 minutes with comentary. We each got a pizza, unlimited drinks and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream at the end.
After a few days in Amsterdam it was back onto the trains again as we made our way up to Denmark and the original Legoland. It was a big day with six seperate trains and most were delayed or late. We ended up catching a taxi for the last part instead of waiting for another hour as we missed our last trip as the second last one was delayed 20 minutes and arrived after our last train had already left.
We stayed in probably our favourite place for the next two nights. It was a farm with playgrounds, flying foxes, trampolines, horses, lamas, pigs, dogs, Ostriches and even two Emus that were as far from home as we were.
It was a long way out of the way but so worth it. Again Legoland did not disappoint and we spend seven hours in the park and got to see everything this time. We even went on lots of the rides which was a first for the kids and Terisita as well.
From Denmark it was back to Hamburg in Germany for a couple of days and now we are here in Berlin. The Pulman Hotel, where we are staying is in the centre of the city and lovely. They even have a pool and a gym, both of which we utilised yesterday. We are here for four days before heading to Prague. We have about a month left in Europe and are now going to slowly head towards Spain where we will meet up with my parents for about ten days.
We will speak soon.
Monday 16th June 2025 Calais – France
I have been posting far too infrequently, but boy what a month it has been.
Moving a family around can be quite an operation and doing it at speed, even more so.
In the last month we have;
- Flown from Istanbul to Athens in Greece.
- Explored the Acropolis and the ancient wonders of Athens
- Gone by ferry to 6 of the Greek islands, walked up active volcanoes, swum to hot springs off the back of a boat and walked up 150 steps to have lunch over the Aegean Sea.
- Flown to Rome where we explored the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain and the Vatican in Vatican City. (Not sure if the new Pope was home or not.)
- Did a tour down to the Amalfi coast where we visited Sorrento and Positano.
- Visited Pompeii and discovered a city frozen in time.
- Train to Florence and then onto Pisa where we saw the leaning tower
- Train to Venice for a romantic 3 day getaway including a beautiful boat trip up the canals.
- Train to Milan to discover one of the fashion capitals of the world.
- A trip to the beautiful Lake Como to take in the incredible scenery.
- Train to Interlarkin in Switzerland, which was heartbreakingly beautiful.
- A train to an unexpected detour in Strasbourg, France where we finally got to eat some Sushi again after 6 months.
- Finally on to Paris for three days of exploring the Seine, the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. As well as seeing our first movie at the cinema since starting to travel (Life of Chuck).
- Then a train to Calais where we find urself now.
This is why were are feeling tired. It has been amazing to cram everything above into a few short weeks, but we are starting to feel the burnout now. So we have decided to stop and have a mini holiday within our holiday.
Sri Lanka was non stop for two weeks, then we slowed it down in India, working across the country at our own pace. However since we left Mumbai we have been back to non stop again. Egypt, Turkey and then the last month. You may think that travel is relaxing, but when you try to cram in as much as we have been seeing you reach a point where you need to rest and catch your breath.
This is why we have rented an apartment in Calais, France for four days with no real plans to do or see anything and get some proper sleep and catch up on some down time. A few days of rest is what we need before heading to the United Kingdom for the next week.
We have had a nice time walking along the windswept beach, playing with the kids in the playground and discovering the Calais Dragon. (Watch for the video in the coming days.)
Having a health dose of “understanding that we can’t do everything,” keeps us sane and lets us really enjoy the things that we do do. I for one, truely appreciate how many incredible things we have done and seen in just a few short months. It’s easy to forget that the things that we have done are high on so many peoples dream adventures. So we have so much gratitude for the opportunities that we have had.
I write a diary every night on the days adventures and what I have learned. I think I should post more on Facebook on some of these observations as it is a unique opportunity to be travelling the world for a whole year.
The world is such a vast pace and we are all such a small part of it.
Stay true to your dreams and be flexible enough to seize opportunities when they arise.
We are trying to teach our kids not to be scared of the world but to embrace all that it has to offer even if it looks like a negative at the time. Your life turns out to be the sum total of all the risks you are willing to take. Some adults could probably benefit from knowing this too.
Until next we speak.
Tuesday 13th May 2025 Istanbul – Turkey
Although I am posting from the same city that I last did, we have certainly not stayed in one place.
As per usual we have been off having adventures. We did stay in Istanbul long enough to spend some time in this beautiful city.
I was here last 24 years ago and although it has changed a lot in that time, it has retained its magical feel. I recall last time that it strangely felt like home even though it is half a world away. This time both myself and Terisita felt it. The call out of the muslim prays as the sound floats over the city is incredible and the city itself is both vibrant, modern and at times ancient with its mosques and spectacular buildings.
After about 5 days in Istanbul we jumped on yet another plan, (Daphne is getting very experienced at flying now) and we headed to Antalya at the very bottom of Turkey. Last time I was here it felt more like an ancient fishing village. Not so anymore. It is a vibrant city that is clustered around its beautiful Roman port and fortified walls. We sent a few days wandering the cobblestone streets, taking in the amazing views and eating at the gorgeous restaurants. We saw so many cats here that it made the girls squeal in delight.
After that we got a personal driver to take us to Pamukkale where we experienced the incredible roman ruins that were over 3000 years old and then we got to walk barefooted across the white limestone cliffs that the Romans used as their medicinal baths so many centuries ago.
We then went to Ephesus with a guide and explored those ancient ruins. We actually got some rain on us for the first time since we have commenced travelling. Three months without rain has been a remarkable record.
We then spent time working up the western coast of Turkey stopping at Bergama and the acropolis of Pergamon. This site was the first one that actually felt similar to when I had seen it last time. Perhaps it was because we got there early and there were not many people around for a change. Either way it was spectacular and a real highlight for some of the incredible, historic architecture that we have seen over the last month or so.
From there we had a very different historic experience when we spent a few days in Canakkale and explored Gallipoli and the intense story of the ANZACS and Turks during their battle of WW1.
Our guide was this amazingly knowledgeable guy called Emre who was an archaeologist, tour guide and an award winning published author. We spend nearly the whole day with him as Anzac cove was closed for most of the day for a cycling competition. He stuck with us and entertained us all day until we could sneak into Lone Pine and Anzac cove.
It turned out to be quite an emotional day with both Terisita and Sofia really learning the true meaning behind the ANZAC legends. We even both shed tears over Kamel Ataturk’s comments about the fallen soldiers on both sides. Very moving for all of us.
From there we took a couple of local busses to get back to Istanbul where e we are now.
The plan is to get a ticket to Athens, Greece over the next couple of days and hopefully be there by the weekend.
We will speak soon when I update you on our adventures.
Sunday 27th April 2025 Istanbul – Turkey
Wow, two weeks have flown by so quickly. Barely had enough time to fit in our adventures, let alone do videos and write my blog.
So to recap, last time we were finishing up in India. It was a wonderful two months with a lot of discoveries and difficulties that we just had to work through.
Here are the rules that we discovered about India.
- Everywhere you drive you have to do at least 2 U Turns. Doesn’t matter if you are in a car, taxi or bus, we always did at least two U turns to get to any destination.
- Everything is always difficult. Just buying a razor in an electronics shop took over 30 minutes as we needed to go through five different people and there would have been 40 people working in this shop with maybe 4 customers.
- Driving is crazy, with driving on the right side of the road being optional and if you didn’t have a loud horn on your car you just couldn’t drive anywhere. You needed to press the horn at least once per minute.
- No hotels had elevators so if we were on the fifth floor you got a great leg work out.
- Every type of food had to have spices. Even if we asked for no spices on plain rice they still seemed to sneak at least some spice in.
Having said that India was magical and much better than we anticipated. For the most part people went out of their way to help us out and seemed genuinely interested in where we had been and where we were going.
So after over two month we said goodbye to India and jumped on a plane to Egypt.
I was a bit worried that with no tour booked when we arrived we would have issues over the Easter break. We found a great travel agent, that organised a fantastic, personalised tour that did everything we wanted to do. They pretty much held our hand at every step and we had some amazing experiences. A plane ride down to Aswan, then a felucca (boat) for two days and one night down the nile. I couldn’t recommend this experience enough, so peaceful and far better than the huge river cruises that most tourists experience with hundreds of others crammed on a huge boat.
We saw all the famous sites and each with guides who made each experience really fantastic. The team at “Djed Egypt Travel” deserved to have their 5 star rating. They were excellent.
We had a few days either side of the tour in Cairo and we used it to check out the two main museums and the Pyramids and Sphinx two times.
Two weeks seem to fly by but we did so much and Egypt was a beautiful, friendly and safe country. You can understand why it’s on so many peoples bucket list.
Finally we moved on to Turkey and again it is such a different country. Far more modern that any country we have visited before. You can see in their architecture that they are very modern. In may ways the buildings were far more impressive that what we have in Australia. I was here 20 years ago and it has moved forward at such a fast rate since my last visit. We also missed a 6.2 earthquake by one day. Once again luck has been on our side.
The weather here has been far colder that we anticipated so we had to go jacket shopping as the temperature got down to 4 degrees here last night.
We are staying in a very cute apartment not too far away from Ayesofia mosque. The sounds of prayers waft across the city numerous times per day and Teri and I are both loving the city.
We have tried to get a couple of organised tours but they have not been what we wanted so we are going to do our own thing, starting off by flying to Antalya on Tuesday and working backwards along the west coast where most of the cultural sites are.
I have so many incredible photos and amazing footage. I just have to find the time to slow down and edit everything together and put it up on the webpage. I will get there but I feel like I’m about 30 videos behind after almost 3 months.
The kids are both really enjoying the countries we have seen and even the travel. Hopefully we will inspire others with families to do the same.
We will speak again soon.
Sunday 13th April 2025 Mumbai – India
Oh My Goodness.
We are almost finished with India. It has blown by so quickly but then again we have done so much, had so many experiences and seen so much of the country.
Everywhere we go seems to be so different to everywhere else we go. Sure it is all India, but each place has its own flavour and culture.
In the last couple of days we have gone from Jaisalmer in the North West of India, right up next to the Pakistani boarder. Here it is desert, with all of the buildings carved from stone blocks and the men and women here are very traditional. The women in particular are in long flowing, colourful dresss that cover ever part of the body. They never look directly at other men and always have a headpiece covering their face. There are wild camels in the desert and long gone are the monkeys that we saw so commonly in other parts of India. It’s too hot for them here. Most days the temperature has been floating around the mid 40 degree mark.
Then we did a five hour drive back to Jodhpur where we boarded an overnight train for almost 17 hours to Mumbai.
Here it is the most modern city that we have been in. Western style clothes shops are everywhere and the cafes sell much more western food. Even the Indians were dress in western style. The women here wear shorts and singlets with bare mid rifts as well. It is incredibly different from the traditional and conservative styles we have been used to over the last two months.
We are in the market section of Mumbai with colourful garment shops flowing out into the street. It makes me happy that we are still travelling for another 10 months because there are so many things here that I would like to buy, but space limits what we can practically buy. I got my first Indian T-shirt here and it says “Stephen Style” on the front. So that will remind me of India long after I have left.
Jaisalmer was such a highlight for me. It was one of the three main things I wanted to do in India.
- Houseboats in Kerala. (Check)
- Discover the Taj Mahal on a crisp blue day (Check)
- Ride camels under the hot Indian sun, in the desert (Check)
The camel ride was the most amazing day. After driving to our desert safari camp and seeing wild camels and 350 year old abandon cities we jumped on the back of our jeep and sped across the sand dunes at tremendous speeds bouncing up and down in our seat and we tried not to bounce out. No seatbelts here.
Then it was a 30 minute dune bike ride with one kid each. Up and down the sand dunes. Over cliffs and wheel spins around the bottom of dunes. They even gave us a chance to ride the 4 wheel bikes by ourselves. A little scary but so much fun.
Then it was finally time to ride the camels again with one kid each. Myself and Sofia are old hands at this by now but Teri was a bit nervous to get up on the camel. It’s a long way up, but Daphne squealed in delight the whole way. She loves this sort of adventure.
Then we got to watch the crimson sun go down over the desert dunes and finally it was time to clamber back into our jeep as we sped back to our resort. The music was pumping, the night sky falling and we all had tremendous smiles in our faces.
Upon reflecting, travel can be sometimes hard, and not every moment is a Facebook cultivated image but this day was just perfect. I wouldn’t change a thing. It was in essence, exactly whey we are travelling as a family.
India has left an indelible mark on all of us for different reasons. It has been more difficult to travel here than I expected but much more rewarding too. We have loved it and take with us fond memories.
Two more days time and we will be in Egypt.
Stay tuned for the next leg of our adventures and thank you all for your continuing support. We love that you are watching our videos and enjoying them.
Hopefully we are also inspiring you to travel, especially with kids. It is so rewarding and far easier than you probably think.
Till next time.
Friday 2nd April Jodhpur – India
We are now deep into Rajasthan, India and specifically we are on Jodhpur. We have been here a couple of days but still haven’t had a good look around yet.
We are trying to get organised for the next leg of our journey. In less than two weeks we say goodbye to India and head off to Egypt. Then we are only there for 7 to 10 days before going to on to Turkey and then the rest of Europe.
So we have been organising visas, which has been difficult even in 2025 as all payments still keep trying to send us OTP (One Time Passwords) even though we have let our banks know we are overseas. Rant over now.
We have been somewhat successful; for the most part and plan to see Jodhur tomorrow. Our hotel has been amazing and have helped us book transport to Jaisalmer in a couple of days. When I say helpful. They have paid for it with their own money and we will pay them back in Indian Rupee tomorrow.
Since leaving New Deli, everyone has been so nice and go out of there way to help us. Sure there is still a bit of the hustle culture that we see in India. However it is far more laid back here and the people seem a lot more interested in us rather than making a quick buck.
Some quick highlights have been the incredible sights here. The forts are massive and even though they are 400 or 200 years old they are still in remarkable shape. Most of the forts are still occupied by the Indian army to the day and only let visitors see a fraction of the ancient sights.
The weather is slightly cooler. Although you wouldn’t know it to walk outside in the sun. However the last couple of hotels with pools have been almost too cold to swim in, even at the end of the day. Today’s hotel was the coldest and even Daphne and Terisita wouldn’t get in.
In Udaipur, we went on a chairlift to the top of the mountain and saw the whole city laid out before us around a magnificent lake. We then went on a beautiful boat ride around the lake and the water palaces. Finally we finished up with myself and the two girls taking a camel ride around the lake. They loved it soooo much. Terisita is waiting until we get to the desert before she climbs up on one of these creatures.
I finally finished my “best bits of Sri Lanka” video and it left me kind of nostalgic watching how much we did there in only two weeks. (you can see the video under the Family Adventure Channel Travel Show link.)
We have also had so many adventures here in India even though travel here is significantly more difficult. I have done a few videos but the backlog is starting to mount up so I will have to spend a bit of time putting all of our footage together to share.
Did a work out in the hotel gym today and the backdrop was this magnificent ancient rock fort perched high up on the mountain above us. Puts our little lives into perspective. We will go and see it close up tomorrow.
That’s about all for now.
Stay inspired and we will speak soon.
Thursday 27th March 2025 Agra – India
Wow, we have been so busy that we have scarcely had time to write our blogs.
Since last I wrote, we have spent time at the gorgeous beaches of Goa. It was as beautiful as everyone says, even coming from a country renowned for its beaches. It was interesting to note that all the prices were much higher here and upon doing a bit of research it appears that the places that we were staying were strongly influenced by what I could only describe as the Russian Mob. Even all of the signage was in Russian as well.
Whereas all the other places we have been in India the prices of Tuk Tusk to go 500 metres went up to about 100 Rupees. In Goa the price jumped to 1500 which was not what we were ever going to be paying. Despite this we had a great time and the kids spent time in two pools and Sofia finally got over her fear of the beach which was a great milestone. Both kids loved playing in the waves then going back to our hotel to play in the pool.
We changed hotels as the first was too far away from anything. There were no restaurants around or places that we could buy water. The second place was right in town and only a few hundred metres from the beach.
Then after Goa we got on a plane and left Southern India behind us and flew to Varanasi in Northern India. And boy did we go at the right time.
We came out of the airport, into our taxi and noticed fireworks gong off. Yes, we had arrived at the start of the Holi Festival, also known as the colour festival.
We checked into our hotel and I went out to get some supplies. The locals were well into the spirit of the night and by the time I returned I was covered in colour. So we all went out as a family and although Daphne conked out we all were fully coloured head to toe by the time we returned. We have put up a video on our night and the next day. So much fun.
The next day the festival continued and we again got a full dousing in the coloured powder and had to go back for a third shower and clothes change.
We also did a tour on the Ganges river which was a real highlight. They showed us the different temples and Ghats as well as two places that they were doing burnings.
If you don’t know what that is, it is where families bring their dead relatives from all over India to burn their bodies on the banks of the river. They burn about 120 to 150 bodies there everyday and it was fascinating. Even Sofia was enthralled by what she was seeing, even if she had nightmares that night. We watched the whole process and then saw the sun go down over the town.
We really enjoyed Varanasi and stayed there five days in all as there was so much to do.
From there we went to Lucknow where we stayed at a nice apartment for a few days then onto the magical city of Agra.
Teri and the girls didn’t really know much about the Taj Mahal and they were suitably impressed by the whole experience. We had a great guide and that only increased the experience. It was an amazing place and a lovely day. The following day we went and saw the red fort that is just up the river from the Taj. It was where the king who built the Taj Mahal for his dead wife spent the last 8 years of his life imprisoned after his son took over the kingdom to stop him building another Taj Mahal (this time in black marble) on the other side of the river.
We met a great tuk tuk driver there as well who stayed in contact with us after we had moved on.
Next we went to New Delhi which is the capital of India and homes over 33 million people. You could really feel the immense weight of the people there. The whole city felt bustling and was forever in a thick cloud of smog while we were there.
We saw some of the local sights, The red fort and markets and although these were very impressive we were not fans of the hustle culture there. It felt like everyone was trying to rip us of and there were a ridiculous amount of beggars, especially small kids that looked like they were straight out of “Slumdog Millionaire”. Sofia was surprised when she gave a girl some money and instead of saying thank you she just held out her hands and said, “more?”
We went to a mosque and when we tried to enter we were told we had to pay 300 rupees each. All other Indians got in free. I understand foreigners pay a lot more, although I don’t necessarily agree. However when 1. 3 billion people can enter fee but we have to pay I have to draw the line. So we took some photos from outside and politely declined to enter. We used the money to buy a watch and headscarf instead.
Even the hotels were after an extra buck. They tried charging us a foreigner fee when we first got there and then charged us an extra 10% when we checked out as a service fee. Neither of which we paid. We only stayed two days here as it wasn’t the nicest place that we had seen. Most people just seemed very unhelpful which was the opposite of all of our other experiences in India.
Then it was onto Jaipur with a private driver. We had scarcely entered the city when we noticed a big difference. The city was much cleaner and better laid out. Our hotel was excellent and the people here are so much nicer and helpful.
We will stay here for about four days and then move across Rajasthan.
So many highlights of the last couple of weeks. India has been hard work but we have seen amazing things and met amazing people.
I will spend the morning getting back into my routine of teaching Sofia and putting together all the footage that we have been taking. We are a little behind in both. Partly due to how much we have been doing and travelling and also because both Terisita and myself got sick for about three days each out of Varanasi.
So I will try not to leave my next blog for so long and will speak to you soon.
Sunday 9th March 2025 – Kochi India
We are still in Kochi until we take the train out tonight. This has been the longest that we have stayed in one place since we have started travelling.
Our train tonight leaves at 9.30 for an 11 hour journey north to Goa. I think we will get sleeping beds but we are not really sure. I feel that we have suitably seen everything that Kochi has to offer over the last five and a half days here.
We have seen beautiful sunsets on the beach, a funeral march, plenty of old churches, including the very first European church built in India. We even saw the remains of a human backbone washed up on the beach while looking for a great place to watch the sunset. Only myself and Sofia saw it, and it was only about a foot long but definitely human. We don’t see that everyday on Australian beaches.
Strange things about Kochi is that we haven’t seen a single cow or goat here, but heaps of dogs and stray cats. The girls are in their element as they want to pat every stay that they see here.
It is very hot here. Quite noticeable from the places that we have been down south. I anticipate that it will get cooler as we travel north but who knows what we get. As Sofia would say, “You get what you get and you don’t get upset.” As soon as you leave anyplace and head out onto the streets, the heat smacks you violently across the face.
The highlight of Kochi would have been after we went to bed last night. We were all watching a movie in bed on the iPad and we heard really loud drumming from outside. So after it didn’t disappear for a few minutes we all scrambled to put some clothes on and headed to the roof.
There were saw an incredible sight. About 500 or more locals all dressed in colourful costumes and dancing their way down the street outside our homestay. There was about 50 ladies in traditional dresses in two lines and candles in there hands slowly shuffling down the street behind a large group of shirtless men banging on enormous drums and getting the rest of the procession and crowd pumped up. We later learned that it was a local festival for this area and we felt incredibly privileged to watch it from such a great vantage point. Sometimes is the unexpected and unplanned that turns out to be so wonderful.
I will keep you updated over the next few days.
Bye for now.
Thursday 6th March 2025 – Kochi India
A few weeks into India now and we are heading up the west coast slowly towards Goa.
At the moment we are in a town called Kochi where we are exploring the old sites like Jew Town, (that’s the official name) and the old fort area.
It’s a bit similar in its set up to the fort streets in Galle (Sri Lanka). Lots of little touristy shops on narrow cobblestone streets. It makes me glad that we are travelling for a year because we just can’t buy anything as we will have to carry it for eleven more months. There are so many eye catching trinkets that we would like to take with us. All useless really, but it doesn’t stop us from wanting them. We are constantly saying “No” to Sofia when she stops at each stall or window and points out something she likes. We also have to keep an eye on Daphne as she has a habit of picking things up from the sellers tables and we only notice it in her hand 100 metres down the road, then we have to retrace our steps and find what table she has picked it up from.
We are enjoying the slower pace that we are travelling at and the people here are genuinely helpful and nice. I am sure that travelling with kids is making a big difference. Everyone keeps stopping us for photos with the kids or to touch and say hi to them. Sofia doesn’t like her cheeks being pinched and a few people just pick Daphne up without asking but that is the life of a rockstar I guess.
I tried taking Sofia to a local school for the day but they are having exams at the moment so that can’t accomodate her in the class. We shall try other places as we continue to travel.
We continue to find nice places to stay. We are in a two bed room apartment for three days here and we can cook and relax a bit more here. We need to book a few things for the end of our Indian journey so slowing down here will give us the opportunity. I am about 10 videos behind as well so hopefully I can make up some ground here too.
I went to the local gym here this morning. It was for rooms full of reasonably modern and well maintained equipment. I got a a full day pass for 300 rupees which is about $5 AUD. It was nice to get the body moving again in a proper gym. We only have a few elastic straps with us so our “on the road” exercise is a bit limited.
Highlight over the last week was probably the houseboat and the speedboat in Kerala. Both were nice but vastly different experiences. Met some great people on the houseboat, both local and other international travellers.
Speak soon.
Tuesday 25th Feb 2025 – Kannyakumari
We are now in India.
Sri Lanka has been very good to us. The people here are so warm, inviting and helpful and the country itself is so beautiful and full of fascinating places. It felt like two weeks was definitely not enough in this amazing country, but the theme of our travels has always been, “Just a Taste.” So we will be back to spend more time with you and your beautiful people.
So onto India. We spent the first few days in a resort just south of Chennai. our driver spent almost 4 hours driving what should have taken about an hour and a half to get to . There is no internet out in the rural area so he struggled to get out of the city and then struggled again to find our hotel. In the end we got there and it was a a nice place on the beach with a nice clean pool that the girls took full advantage of.
We walked along the beach for a little bit until we came across a giant sea turtle that had died and washed up on the sand. It would have been about a metre long and must have been a fully mature turtle.
It was a bit sad to see such a majestic creature dead but it looked like it lived a very long life.
We moved on to Puducherry, which is a French inspired city on the East coast. We spent a three days here which seems to be our style in India. Far removed from the rush we had in Sri Lanka. We are thinking that we will do four weeks in Southern India and then fly north and do five weeks in Nepal and Northern India. My biggest memory there will be of Sofia eating pancakes multiple times everyday.
We are now in Kannyukumari which is the southern most port of India. It is a real fishing village and I have been pleasantly surprised to find that all of the houses at the beach are owned and lived in by the locals and not big hotels for tourists.
My favourite pastime is just walking around and seeing what we can see. I take Sofia out with me each morning and wander the streets looking for food, drinks and whatever we need for the day. It’s my favourite part of the day. Mini adventures.
We bought an overnight bus ticket on the way down from Puducherry to here. It was a 10 hour bus trip but we had sleeper seats so we got to lie down all the way here on a bed rather than a seat. The kids loved it and slept the whole way. I way a little to long for the cabin but did manage to get a little shut eye.
We have stayed in a nice hotel for the last couple of days and the owner here has been falling over himself to be helpful. it’s also incredibly cheap here. Our room, with fans, hot water and air con is only costing us 1300 Rupees which is about $23.50 AUD per night. Tomorrow we are going to move to a bigger hotel that has 7 floors and we should be able to see the Sunrise from the 360 degree view on the roof.
I feel that we are starting to get into the swing of India now. It was a bit hard until we got SIM cards and access to the Internet. We stopped at the phone shop after visiting multiple other ones. They all told us we could only get a SIM if we had local Id. A passport was not good enough. Eventually we found one provider who would sell us cards but they had none in the shop so they sent someone to our hotel about 5 hours later and we got two. It took about a hour and they had to come back with their boss to get more photos of Terisita ( about 8 in total ). Strange that a country that has so many people and is so poor is so strict about SIM cards but its interesting for all of us to see how different countries are and how they work,
Our next stop as we work up the west cost will be Kerala and a stay on the famous houseboats for a few days.
Saturday 16th Feb 2025 – Trincomalee
After 10 days of go, go, go we have decided to slow down a little and spend a few days at the beach.
We found a really beautiful apartment that overlooks both the beach and an infinity pool. The days are hot but not too hot and we are rotating between sticking our toes in the warm ocean waters and then washing off and sliding into one of the three joined pools that look out over the beach.
As for our apartment it is modern and huge. I think it is about as big as our house back in Australia, with a kitchen, two bedrooms, a massive lounge room, two toilets and four balconies. It is giving us a chance to slow down, do some washing and cook for the first time while we have been away.
I went in search of ingredients yesterday and went to four seperate locations to source everything. We got fresh eggs, straight from the chicken. At the bakery they sliced up freshly made and still warm bread. I tried out my Singala words on the locals only to find that this far north they speak Tamil so Sofia and myself have started learning the basics in that language now too.
Terisita has been very prolific with her Facebook posts but I have been a little lax with my videos so again it is a chance to slow down and share some of the amazing experiences that we have been having over here.
It is hard to believe that we are almost at the end of our Sri Lankan journey. On Tuesday we will be flying out to India for a couple of months. Over there we will not be moving at the same frantic pace as we have done here.
Sri Lanka has been very kind to us and the people here have been incredibly hospitable. It is also such a beautiful country and I would encourage everyone to come and visit if you can. Even with small children it has been easy to visit and get around. The locals here love the kids and so many times they have asked for photos and to just touch them. They feel a bit famous, which Sofia says she likes.
Bye for now, speak soon.
Sunday 9th Feb 2025 – Yala National Park.
Today was a fantastic day as we went on Safari at Yala National Park. It is in the bottom right of Sri Lanka and although I have been to Sri Lanka twice I have never been here before.
We started before sunrise and that meant that we all had to get up in the dark and drive in this big land drover out to the entry of the park. It was the first time since we have been here that we actually felt cold.
We were not really sure what or how many animals that we would see. When I asked Sofia, she thought we would see less than 50 animals.
Well, we would have seen 50 animals within the first 10 minutes. mostly wild deer and water buffalo. Then we saw a procession of birds, including eagles and green ant eaters, snakes, wild pigs, a warthog, crocodiles, monkeys and finally after we left the park without seeing the two most famous animals, we saw three elephants on the road on the way home.
Daphne got so close that she reached out and patted on of them on the trunk which was pretty incredible.
The only animal that we missed was a Cheetah, but that was always going to be a hard animal to spot.
Sofia had a smile on her face the whole day and kept repeating that this was so much better than school. I think even Terisita has started to forget about work too now.
We have made friends with some of the locals and through them we have organised the next leg of our trip, which is up to Badulla and then a scenic railway up to the hill country, specifically Kandy. I have been there twice before and if my memory is accurate it was one of the nicest places that I have visited in my many years of travelling.
We also had our first solid night of studying with Sofia today. She did maths and reading with Teri, then did her diary and wrote her first Sri Lankan blog tonight as well. She has been practicing her Sri Lankan language skills with the locals for the past few days.
All up it was a fantastic day. Safari’s are always a little pricy but we certainly got our moneys worth today. The Jeep ride was so much fun and we got some great footage. The amount of animals that we saw was astounding. It must have been well over a thousand in all, in about 5 hours.
It feels like we are really on a Family Adventure now. I hope we are inspiring both the kids and you to do more travelling as it is so much fun. I know these memories that we are making will stay strong for many years to come.
Speak soon.
8/02/2025
Hello and welcome to my first blog from Sri Lanka.
It’s been pretty full on for the first four days so I haven’t really had much of a chance to sit down and write on our website. Fortunately I haven’t missed an entry in my diary so I don’t have to rely only memory too much.
Looking at the rest of the family and their blogs they are writing where we went and what we did so I think to make thinks a bit more interesting I will mainly write about how I feel about what we see and do.
So the reason that it all feels full on is because we are so out of whack with our usual routine and we are yet to settle into a new routine so everything feels hurried and a bit over whelmed. The rest of the family is handling it well. The kids seem to be off their food and even when we try to give them western food they are not that interested in eating bu. I am sure that this will soon pass. They can only go on for so long not eating much food. At least they will be lighter to carry.
Sofia is finding the country very noisy, this probably didn’t help that we too the local rail system for the first few days. The trains are noisy. Just watch our first video “Day one and two” to see for yourself. But when she see something she like she gives the most incredible giggles.
We are all having an amazing time however. So many unexpected things we are seeing and doing. As an example we were on the beach opposite our hotel as the sun was going down two days ago. We went to dip our toes into the Indian Ocean. Sofia just said in passing as if it was an everyday occurrence, “Look dad, there are peacocks.” I didn’t take much notice as it seemed like kid speak, but when I looked up there was a family of wild peacocks running down the beach in front of us. Very surreal.
We are in a nice safari lodge before our heading out on safari tomorrow. We had a quick walk along the local street and saw two more wild peacocks, a tree full of monkeys and heaps of cows just ambling down the road. Sofia was amazed when I just went over and patted one.
So far Sri Lanka has been amazing. We have had a few dodgy moments but for the most part the people here have been great and the kids are getting a ridiculous amount of attention. When we were at Galle fort yesterday a large group of school kids saw Daphne and all wanted to talk to her and touch her. it makes you realise that we take so much for granted.
Speak to you all soon.
19/01/2025
Counting down the days with even more vigour now. Just over 15 days before we head overseas. We went and had lunch with some friends of ours today and that was a nice break from the organising that we have been doing lately.
The big new since last we spoke is that we have sold the car. Yay! Is is off to a new family and it really hit home when I came back from my daily walk and the car wasn’t where it normal sits. It was a bit sad for both Terisita and Sofia as they loved the car. It was super reliable and we had had it for about seven years. At least we have a bit more money to spend on the trip. We have already converted some of it to US dollars as a couple of countries will definitely use this and we will be finishing up for 90 days in America.
I filmed all of the equipment that we are taking overseas in a few short videos and hope to edit that together into an informative video tomorrow. I also have my “Maps” video to construct which will be showing exactly where we plan to travel to throughout the year and the timeframe/ seasons etc.
I also printed out all of our documents today. Everything from the plane tickets, hotels that we have pre booked, insurance, vaccination certificates and everything else that we may need paper copies for while we travel. Not that glamorous but important if you don’t want to be searching through your phone at airports for email. (That is assuming that you can get a decent signal).
Terisita only has nine days left of work and unbelievably Sofia will be starting the last week of her school holidays tomorrow. Five weeks has blown past so quickly. She will be back at school on Tuesday the 28th for a whole 4 days. I can tell she is missing seeing her friends everyday already.
Speak more soon.
Steve
13/01/2025
Twenty- one days until we go. I am feeling organised but as I cast my eye over the master list that we have up on our wall we still have 37 things left to do before we load up the car and head off to the airport. Overwhelming, no but daunting, a little. A huge amount of these can’t be done until almost the last moment.
Get the carpets steam cleaned, Move there fridge, Move the washing machine and disconnect the electricity and Internet. These are the things that can only be done in the last couple of days.
The big things on my mind are selling Terisita’s car and finding tennents for the house. Both are up and advertised and I guess in my heart of hearts I was secretly hoping that the ads would go up and they would both click with people immediately, Both will happen before we go but with the clock ticking down it adds pressure onto our trip. We have contingency plans for both if we don’t have a result before we go but hoping that we won’t have to use the contingencies.
The kids are getting a little board with no school at the moment. It’s only two more weeks until school starts again although Sofia will only be attending four days of grade two this year. The rest will be done through home schooling on the road. We have tried to keep them both occupied with friend catchups and there are quite a few birthdays in January.
Sofia gets her final Covid vaccination tomorrow after a playdate with one of her closest friends. The play date she is looking forward to, the Covid injection she wishes was in the rearview mirror.
As for myself , I am concentrating on getting through our list and working on the website more. We will be starting to pack our packs this week and I want to do a video on all the things that we are taking as I think it may be of interest to people. I will have to find some time later in the week to start filming that. At least it will be good practice for filming on the fly and editing quickly. Hope you will see the result up here later in the week or maybe next weekend.
I will be setting up a blog for myself, Teri and Sofia later as well. Kind of like a diary to record our thoughts and hopefully entertain as we get them down. I should have this done by the end of the week too.
So until my next blog just remember that adventure is out there. You just need to go out and grab it. Forget the excuses and find the solutions.
Steve
Family Adventure Channel 