We just returned from our Australia-New Zealand trip and I opened the blogger to jot down our experiences (which I religiously do after every big trip). But this time I decided to address one of the most common questions I get asked "How do you manage to travel so much, that too with two small kids". I usually laugh the comment off but now wanted to write down how important is traveling for us and what we get out of it.
For those who don't know, we got married a decade ago but started active traveling only 5 years back after the arrival of my son. My son and I both visited 30 countries to date while wifey visited a couple more. Baby girl has a daunting task to catch up with us. Parents joined us in 13 of those and I'm hoping for many more to come.
When I was a primary school student (around 7 or 8 y.o), my mom gifted me an yearly handbook called "Competition Success Review Year book" and I got so hooked up with countries, capitals, currencies, flags, councils of ministers, heads of states etc (and pushed academics to backseat). Since then, it had been a tradition for my parents to buy me such handbooks and encyclopedias every year and I remember that as my most favorite pieces of literature; my parents believed that broadened my horizons and I can't thank them enough for that.
After my son's birth we deliberately decided to spend most of our resources, time and energy in providing our children experiences that could broaden their horizons and educate them through experiences rather than inundate them with material possessions or comforts. We consciously wanted their education to be not limited to the walls of their respective classrooms.
The idea was to inculcate and ingrain into their small minds that traveling, knowing, appreciating and adapting ourselves to different places, lifestyles, cuisines, culture is part of life. Both my kids started their first international travel when they were few months old and now they turned to be pros.
Families which travel together stay together:
As cliched might it sound, it's true. We realized it first hand that traveling brought members of the family closer and enabled us to discover one another because during any trip - situations, environments, people around change constantly with family being the only constant unit intact. Right from planning, jotting down the list of places to visit, booking, packing and the journey, it's a complete team work. While my little girl is too young (but she understands that vacation is all about new people, hotel rooms and taxis), my boy is seasoned enough to join us in finalizing the tourist attractions to add to our itinerary. Vacations are usually the only period where we all get to be uninterruptedly together for an extended period of time away from daily routines of the world.
Not that every travel diary has been a smooth dreamy ride. We had our own share of tough situations. Our rental cars broke down, flights got cancelled, road trips had to be suspended due to bad weather, kids got sick, hotels denied our reservations for no reason, unavailability of vegetarian food options, dealing with passive and overt racism, overcharging, changing transportation options at the last moment, carrying kids and climbing mountains and walking for kilometers in forests, facing language and communication problems (23 / 30 countries visited are non-English speaking) etc.
But today if I have a choice, I would still opt to face those situations again because those challenges had put us on spot which we had to encounter, deal with which helped us learn about those places and cultures much better and etched laughable memories now. More importantly we were thrown out of our comfort zone in an alien land by people talking another language which brought us family together even stronger. We just knew that everything will settle down and all we needed to do was to keep our cool. That built our character. Another major takeaway: our kids saw how we maintained our composure to deal with those challenges and that would have a telling impact on their psyche because children grasp very fast when something is taught through model and inspiration. I can't get them learn these concepts in any school. These are the experiences we bought them through traveling.
Creating shared memories:
When I was a child and a teenager, my parents took me and my sister to various places in India and looking back, those are the best of fond memories we have about our childhood, those awkward poses for pictures, silly discussions, those simple meals, shabby motels and restaurants - all are engraved as powerful shared memories. Thanks to those memories, I have many moments of smile.
My boy is almost 6 now but once in a while, he recollects his travel memories of 2-3 years back and laughs incessantly. I can pay anything for such moments in my child's life. Apart from all the monuments, beaches and exotic locations, what we remember the most are the silliest of antics we have done at those respective places. For example: due to unavailability of proper washrooms we had to change diapers or wet clothes of our kids at the park at the foot of Eiffel tower, ruins of Colosseum, scenic train route in Switzerland, on a helicopter ride to Mt.Everest, desert around Egyptian pyramids, steps ascending Machu Picchu, lake side in New Zealand etc. As silly and crude as it might sound, we are bound to remember and laugh off for the rest of our lives. And we laughed our asses off from unpredictable situations which I can't share here.
Children grow up pretty fast and before they leave us for their own good, we wanted to gather up as many memories as possible. That's the very reason we make movies out of our travel escapades and upload at Myriad Tales - Youtube Channel . I hope, after we pass away, kids will still hold us in such beautiful memories and smile at us.
World is a teacher:
Children are generally more inquisitive and tend to ask more honest questions about each place. At least my son does. I make it a point to refresh my knowledge about each monument or tourist attraction we visit so that I'm prepared to answer his questions. Sometimes he surprises me with some profound questions which flabbergast me. Today I take pride in his cognizance of the world and geographic knowledge. He remembers all (almost) flags, capital cities and a special delicacy of each place he visited. His reactions to places and picturesque scenes make us appreciate those places further.
Traveling opened up his mind and we discovered his newfound interests. My little girl got more interactive, social and never shies away to strike a conversation in Telugu with any stranger across the world. There is a perceivable difference in their confidence levels (but his shyness remains the same back at home though). As children are fast adapters, they got acclimatized to weather, time zones, cuisines much faster than us. I was surprised to discover that my boy also realized how privileged and fortunate he is amidst many 'sad kids' of his age. Hope he retains that quality and grows up to be a compassionate and tolerant man. Touch wood !
Expensive but priceless:
One of the biggest hurdles to travel is the budget part. But it's not as overwhelming as many make out of it. Some proper planning, timing, research (read: TripAdvisor) could result in lot of cost cutting. Singles and young couples can save lot of bucks by backpacking, staying in hostels and apartments, hiring through airbnb, collecting reward points etc. Those who are on Instagram would know how a certain follower count would make one an instaceleb and corporates rush to sponsor trips for their benefit if one is creative and articulate enough. If you wanna go, you would go. As simple as it is.
Having said that, traveling is expensive but the output you get out of those experiences is matchless, priceless and magical.
Recent trip:
We wanted 2017 to be special for variety of reasons and hence visited all 7 continents and had a 12 hour incredible aerial trip to Antarctica where we could see glaciers, active volcanoes, mountain ranges, research stations and bright sunlight all through night in the ice desert from a metaphorical stone's throw away distance. While I always wanted to set my foot in the continent, I understood it would be too harsh on the kids (btw only kids over 10 are allowed to land so we were ruled out) also I would never have witnessed the landscape from one location which I could view from the up close and personal aerial tour. I felt truly privileged. I don't think I would ever be able to visit a more magical place (coming from me, living in Canada currently in -30's:- that should really mean something ;))
I was cautious about Australia because of the projected prejudice against brown skin but was pleasantly surprised. Everyone I met there including hotel staff, taxi drivers or random strangers we stroke a conversation with were extremely sweet and well mannered. Infact I experienced more racist pricks in USA which by far has the most 'asshole per capita' index in the world.
While Australia is pretty much like Canada except the right hand driving, New Zealand was a revelation. Queenstown especially was breathtaking with picturesque sceneries which no camera in the world can do justice to. The only places which could match up would be the scenic route between Interlaken & Lucerne in Switzerland and possibly Banff-Lake Louise-Athabasca Glacier corridor in Canada.
Future bucket list:
While we want to lay low in 2018, here's the bucket list for the future
For those who don't know, we got married a decade ago but started active traveling only 5 years back after the arrival of my son. My son and I both visited 30 countries to date while wifey visited a couple more. Baby girl has a daunting task to catch up with us. Parents joined us in 13 of those and I'm hoping for many more to come.
When I was a primary school student (around 7 or 8 y.o), my mom gifted me an yearly handbook called "Competition Success Review Year book" and I got so hooked up with countries, capitals, currencies, flags, councils of ministers, heads of states etc (and pushed academics to backseat). Since then, it had been a tradition for my parents to buy me such handbooks and encyclopedias every year and I remember that as my most favorite pieces of literature; my parents believed that broadened my horizons and I can't thank them enough for that.
After my son's birth we deliberately decided to spend most of our resources, time and energy in providing our children experiences that could broaden their horizons and educate them through experiences rather than inundate them with material possessions or comforts. We consciously wanted their education to be not limited to the walls of their respective classrooms.
The idea was to inculcate and ingrain into their small minds that traveling, knowing, appreciating and adapting ourselves to different places, lifestyles, cuisines, culture is part of life. Both my kids started their first international travel when they were few months old and now they turned to be pros.
Families which travel together stay together:
As cliched might it sound, it's true. We realized it first hand that traveling brought members of the family closer and enabled us to discover one another because during any trip - situations, environments, people around change constantly with family being the only constant unit intact. Right from planning, jotting down the list of places to visit, booking, packing and the journey, it's a complete team work. While my little girl is too young (but she understands that vacation is all about new people, hotel rooms and taxis), my boy is seasoned enough to join us in finalizing the tourist attractions to add to our itinerary. Vacations are usually the only period where we all get to be uninterruptedly together for an extended period of time away from daily routines of the world.
Not that every travel diary has been a smooth dreamy ride. We had our own share of tough situations. Our rental cars broke down, flights got cancelled, road trips had to be suspended due to bad weather, kids got sick, hotels denied our reservations for no reason, unavailability of vegetarian food options, dealing with passive and overt racism, overcharging, changing transportation options at the last moment, carrying kids and climbing mountains and walking for kilometers in forests, facing language and communication problems (23 / 30 countries visited are non-English speaking) etc.
But today if I have a choice, I would still opt to face those situations again because those challenges had put us on spot which we had to encounter, deal with which helped us learn about those places and cultures much better and etched laughable memories now. More importantly we were thrown out of our comfort zone in an alien land by people talking another language which brought us family together even stronger. We just knew that everything will settle down and all we needed to do was to keep our cool. That built our character. Another major takeaway: our kids saw how we maintained our composure to deal with those challenges and that would have a telling impact on their psyche because children grasp very fast when something is taught through model and inspiration. I can't get them learn these concepts in any school. These are the experiences we bought them through traveling.
Creating shared memories:
When I was a child and a teenager, my parents took me and my sister to various places in India and looking back, those are the best of fond memories we have about our childhood, those awkward poses for pictures, silly discussions, those simple meals, shabby motels and restaurants - all are engraved as powerful shared memories. Thanks to those memories, I have many moments of smile.
My boy is almost 6 now but once in a while, he recollects his travel memories of 2-3 years back and laughs incessantly. I can pay anything for such moments in my child's life. Apart from all the monuments, beaches and exotic locations, what we remember the most are the silliest of antics we have done at those respective places. For example: due to unavailability of proper washrooms we had to change diapers or wet clothes of our kids at the park at the foot of Eiffel tower, ruins of Colosseum, scenic train route in Switzerland, on a helicopter ride to Mt.Everest, desert around Egyptian pyramids, steps ascending Machu Picchu, lake side in New Zealand etc. As silly and crude as it might sound, we are bound to remember and laugh off for the rest of our lives. And we laughed our asses off from unpredictable situations which I can't share here.
Children grow up pretty fast and before they leave us for their own good, we wanted to gather up as many memories as possible. That's the very reason we make movies out of our travel escapades and upload at Myriad Tales - Youtube Channel . I hope, after we pass away, kids will still hold us in such beautiful memories and smile at us.
World is a teacher:
Children are generally more inquisitive and tend to ask more honest questions about each place. At least my son does. I make it a point to refresh my knowledge about each monument or tourist attraction we visit so that I'm prepared to answer his questions. Sometimes he surprises me with some profound questions which flabbergast me. Today I take pride in his cognizance of the world and geographic knowledge. He remembers all (almost) flags, capital cities and a special delicacy of each place he visited. His reactions to places and picturesque scenes make us appreciate those places further.
Traveling opened up his mind and we discovered his newfound interests. My little girl got more interactive, social and never shies away to strike a conversation in Telugu with any stranger across the world. There is a perceivable difference in their confidence levels (but his shyness remains the same back at home though). As children are fast adapters, they got acclimatized to weather, time zones, cuisines much faster than us. I was surprised to discover that my boy also realized how privileged and fortunate he is amidst many 'sad kids' of his age. Hope he retains that quality and grows up to be a compassionate and tolerant man. Touch wood !
Expensive but priceless:
One of the biggest hurdles to travel is the budget part. But it's not as overwhelming as many make out of it. Some proper planning, timing, research (read: TripAdvisor) could result in lot of cost cutting. Singles and young couples can save lot of bucks by backpacking, staying in hostels and apartments, hiring through airbnb, collecting reward points etc. Those who are on Instagram would know how a certain follower count would make one an instaceleb and corporates rush to sponsor trips for their benefit if one is creative and articulate enough. If you wanna go, you would go. As simple as it is.
Having said that, traveling is expensive but the output you get out of those experiences is matchless, priceless and magical.
Recent trip:
We wanted 2017 to be special for variety of reasons and hence visited all 7 continents and had a 12 hour incredible aerial trip to Antarctica where we could see glaciers, active volcanoes, mountain ranges, research stations and bright sunlight all through night in the ice desert from a metaphorical stone's throw away distance. While I always wanted to set my foot in the continent, I understood it would be too harsh on the kids (btw only kids over 10 are allowed to land so we were ruled out) also I would never have witnessed the landscape from one location which I could view from the up close and personal aerial tour. I felt truly privileged. I don't think I would ever be able to visit a more magical place (coming from me, living in Canada currently in -30's:- that should really mean something ;))
I was cautious about Australia because of the projected prejudice against brown skin but was pleasantly surprised. Everyone I met there including hotel staff, taxi drivers or random strangers we stroke a conversation with were extremely sweet and well mannered. Infact I experienced more racist pricks in USA which by far has the most 'asshole per capita' index in the world.
While Australia is pretty much like Canada except the right hand driving, New Zealand was a revelation. Queenstown especially was breathtaking with picturesque sceneries which no camera in the world can do justice to. The only places which could match up would be the scenic route between Interlaken & Lucerne in Switzerland and possibly Banff-Lake Louise-Athabasca Glacier corridor in Canada.
Future bucket list:
While we want to lay low in 2018, here's the bucket list for the future
- Icebreaker cruise to North Pole, Arctic Ocean - That will complete our trip around 5 oceans
- Cruising through drake passage to South Pole - That will complete our visit to 2 poles
- Visiting Petra (Jordan) and Great Wall of China - That will complete our visit to 7 world wonders
- Jerusalem - The place where Jesus Christ, Prophet Mohammed, David and Abraham once walked.
- Trek to KalaPattar to view Mt.Everest - The highest peak in the world which evaded us in 2017
- Base jump from 'Angel Falls', Venezuela - The highest waterfalls in the world
- Camping in glass igloos and watching northern lights - in one of the Scandinavian countries
- Solo skydiving and flying a glider plane - Right here in Toronto, Canada
Wish me good luck !
2 comments:
Good Luck Sharath!!! May all your wishes come true.
So well written. Agree with all your points. You are something, have not known a better blogger than you in person.
Number 7, count me in.
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