Our “bamboo” raft (the bamboo deck on most has been replaced by plastic tubes over the years) left us in the town of Xinping, where we hopped on a local bus to Yangshuo, about 45 minutes away. Once in Yangshuo, we negotiated a price for transport to our guest house in a small village about four kilometers outside of town, only to find our “taxi” was a tri-wheeled motorcycle with an open bed on the back, just large enough for Colin and me and our bags.
I was about to bail out, when I saw the look of glee on Colin's face, and since “real” cars don't have seat belts in China anyway, figured we weren't any worse off – in fact, the view of the passing countryside was better this way!
About 15 minutes later, we arrived at the collection of farm houses that make up the Outside Inn, were greeted by a young Chinese woman who spoke perfect Australian-accented English, and were led to our room overlooking the mud-brick complex and surrounded by choruses of crowing roosters. Later that afternoon, we met the Swiss/English managers and their children, who became Colin's constant companions and playmates for the next week.
A twenty-minute walk at sunset through the neighboring rice paddies brought me to the edge of a tributary river to the Li, and endless views of karst mountains leading off into the distance. In my dreams, this is what I came to China for. I couldn't stop grinning from ear-to-ear. – Blog post, Dec. 5, 2009
A Trip of a Lifetime
When my son, Colin, entered kindergarten, his dad and I decided that we should take him out of school for a year after fifth grade. An early reader, he'd started school at age 4, so we figured he'd be a bit young to enter middle school with his classmates, when all the hormones start kicking in. So, what to do?
Take a year off! Travel the world!
It became a great excuse to plan the trip of a lifetime. But is it for everyone?
Travel opens the world to your child, and puts learning in context. In Athens, we scrambled up the hill to the Acropolis to tour the Parthenon and assorted temples before wandering down the street to pick up our rental car for the next week. We were headed to Delphi and the Peloponnese Peninsula, to immerse Colin in the places that inspired the tales of Homer's Odyssey, which he had been reading for the past few months. Human evolution came alive while we were visiting Kenya's Rift Valley, home of "Lucy" and other early hominids. While on the road, budgeting for travel expenses provided us with opportunities to apply newly learned math skills.
When we started our trip, Colin was an avid reader, but didn't enjoy writing much. As we made our way around the world, I blogged and often asked him if he wanted to "say" anything. In time, Colin discovered that he enjoyed writing if he was writing poetry. France is known for its thunderstorms, and one of them inspired this one:
Awestruck
Boom! Crash! Bang!
The sky is illuminated by a blanket of light,
the rolling thunder close behind.
A jagged bolt briefly bridges two clouds,
and we stand as it begins to rain, awestruck.
– Colin, age 11
What about My Job?
There's no way around it – most people can't just up and leave for a year and have their job waiting for them when they get back. However, if you go, chances are you will come back a happier, more highly skilled employee. A lot of employers value that, and if not, then the adventurous spirit that launched you on your trip will almost certainly make you a successful entrepreneur (or help you stand out in a pool of applicants for a job). Taking a year off is also a great way to make the career shift you've been too entrenched to act upon.
But what if you love your job and don't want to risk losing it?
In our family's case, we compromised. I stuck to the plan and took a year off from my job directing a local nonprofit, but my husband decided the risk of losing his job was too great. Colin and I did the whole trip, while my husband spent his vacation time and some unpaid leave time doing choice legs of the journey with us. Although we had a couple of long separations, we were each able to do as much as our jobs, and comfort zones, allowed.
Can We Afford It?
When we first decided to take a travel year, we started saving and consulted a financial planner. She advised opening a Roth IRA – the principal we invested could be withdrawn for our trip without penalties. Six years later, we had enough saved up to cover half of our trip. Round-the-world travel really doesn't have to cost as much as you might think!
While we got a great deal to Tokyo using travel search engines like www.kayak.com, working with a consolidator (a discounted airline ticket reseller) kept our overall costs low. International consolidators search worldwide for best fares, including on airlines that don't sell tickets in the U.S. It's worth looking into if you have at least four international destinations – a requirement of most consolidators.
A consolidator allows you to customize your route, skip from one port of arrival to a different point of departure via overland or boat travel, and avoid any time restrictions included in prepackaged tickets. We bought our long-haul tickets between continents through a consolidator, http://AirTreks.com, but booked some short jump flights independently along the way, leaving us plenty of flexibility in how to get from one place to another.
Alternative Transportation
Planes are great for crossing oceans and skipping over destinations too banal or adventurous for your taste. But some of the real fun of travel is in the journey itself –think trains, ferries, buses … even donkeys and camels. Limiting air travel to only what's necessary can add interest to your trip and save you money. It can be challenging to get information on local transportation options, but ask around. We savored our two days on the “slow boat” that took us upriver from Vietnam to Cambodia, and if someone offers to carry you into the Valley of the Kings on a donkey instead of a tour bus, say “Yes!” Your child will thank you. Our burro ride remains one of Colin's favorite memories of Egypt.
Where to Lay Your Head
Hotels will insulate you from the local culture and bust your budget faster than you can call for room service, but may offer your family the occasional road-weary reprieve. For more local color, homestays, hostels, and “couchsurfing” (www.couchsurfing.org) are good options. We tried all three, and never had a bad experience. In Europe, many cities also have campgrounds with amenities ranging from espresso stands and restaurants to pools and kids' camps. We lived nearly exclusively in campgrounds in France, which had the added benefit of having plenty of other children around to provide cross-cultural playmates.
Deciding Where to Go
When it came to planning our route, we had to accept that one year is not nearly enough time to see the world.
We chose our final route based on cost, climate, and our personal "bucket lists." For us, that meant following a path that would keep us in summer weather, and include a visit to Egypt. We traveled through Asia, starting in Japan and making our way through China to Southeast Asia as the temperature cooled. We then jumped to southern India and Africa for the winter months before heading into Europe in the spring, starting in Greece and moving north as the weather warmed.
For a truly successful trip, it's critical to involve your kids in this stage of the planning. Giving them a sense of personal investment and excitement about where you're going and what you'll do there can help them through the (hopefully rare) long slogs and disappointments you'll undoubtedly encounter along the way.
A Word on Visas and Vaccinations
Getting all of the vaccines turned out to be a major scheduling challenge, along with the labyrinth of visa requirements. Build in time for that and pay attention to details: It's less hassle than the alternative (days of delays at a border or a preventable illness). Seattle has some excellent travel clinics, such as the Seattle/King County Public Health Travel Clinic, which can provide all the health information you'll need; visa requirements for all countries can be found at www.travisa.com.
Postscript
Thinking back on all that we saw and did, I wonder what Colin will carry with him. I expect it'll be one of the experiences that inspired him to write. Perhaps the Li River trip in China that inspired this:
"Bamboo rafts on the Li,
We decide to take one, you and me.
The karst mountains crawl on by,
On the raft we seem to fly."
– Colin, age 11
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Source: http://www.seattleschild.com/article/round-the-world-with-your-kids
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