We made it back home. Well home for us anyways, which is defined more by the people we love rather than an actual building...we haven’t settled into our RV just yet.
We arrived late Wednesday night after having left Bangkok early in the morning but with the jet lag we had about 24 hours of travelling under our belt by the time we touched ground in Ottawa!
For kids who had never even boarded a plane before we left back at the beginning of January, they now travelled like champions and had been on 8 flights in a little over 6 weeks! We are so proud of them!
It had been a long day of three flights and layovers starting in Taipei, Taiwan then Vancouver to finally arrive in Ottawa. We decided on changing our initial itinerary because of the Coronavirus and opted for a layover in Taiwan rather than in Beijing, China.
I have to take a moment here to thank our travel agent who has been so helpful and accommodating with us! Not only did he find us the places where we stayed, booked most of our flights and made wonderful suggestions of things to see and do but most of all was also such a big help when we were weighing in our options for coming home in the midst of the Coronavirus! If you want to travel but feel(just like we did) that an expert’s advice would help make your trip just that much more enjoyable here is his info: https://voyages-extraordinaires.ca/
Thank you so much Christian!
We had arrived in Bangkok on Monday and were anxiously awaiting our grand departure on Wednesday! In the meantime, we felt like we’d better get ourselves busy or we would drive each other crazy within the walls of our small bed and breakfast bedroom.
We grabbed a taxi and asked to be dropped off at Lumpini Park which was about 30 minutes( and it actually was, we were quite impressed!!!) from our B and B! We had forgotten how hot it was in the city, but had not yet forgotten the noise, smell and density of the traffic! Our taxi driver was quite talkative and managed fairly well in English!
Lumpini Park (or Lumphini Park) is one of the largest green spaces in central Bangkok. Founded in the 1920s, this inner-city park spans over 500,000 sq m and is home to various flora and fauna.(hotels.com)
We spent a good part of our morning just walking the boardwalks of the park. The kids played on the play structure...
We rented paddleboats and bought bags of fish food and then paddled to the middle of the lake and watched as the big mouthed fishes devour our food pellets and slices of bread.
We even found a nice library which had AC and English children books! But by then, the kids were getting tired and loud so the library wasn’t as good an idea as we had wished!
We walked a few blocks outside the park and found a little restaurant where we stopped for lunch. The kids devoured their last pad thai and I, a delicious green curry. Jeremie ordered a drink called Panda juice that tasted like an old carpet if you were to ask him! We each had a sip but couldn’t get ourselves to try it twice!
We then took an overpriced tuk tuk(but justified our spending by reminding ourselves that it was our last tuk tuk ride after all!) and drove back to our B and B hoping we could rest a little... but that never happened.
By the end of the day, we just couldn’t find the strength to head out again with the kiddos who were probably starting to feel the excitement of the trip ahead and had a little too much agitation than we could handle at the moment.
We agreed that Jeremie would go get us some food for diner while they played on their iPhones (the reality of travelling with young kids and being an introverted mom... at some point I just need some peace and quiet so giving into their demands was all I could do to maintain my sanity!)
We had our diner in the kitchen then put on a movie in our room as the kids fell asleep one by one. Everyone slept soundly, unlike the night before and when we woke up at the sound of our alarm the next morning we felt more than ready to tackle the many flights and layovers of the day ahead!
When I think back on our travelling, I can’t help but compare it to giving birth. I remember when my due date was approaching while I was pregnant with Keilan...having delivered two babies already, I had a pretty good idea of what was ahead... I felt so anxious yet wanted it to be done with already! I felt annoyed as everyone around me got more and more excited to meet this little human I was carrying cause that, for me, meant I actually had to deliver that said baby!
I felt the same way during this trip. I felt like the plane rides to get us where we wanted to go were the painful parts, the behind-the-scenes, the labouring part but I knew that once those parts would be out of the way, we would feel great joy looking back on our accomplishments!
And we do! We are so proud of our kiddos who handled 8 flights in 6 weeks but more over that they managed 3 flights in 24 hours without too much complaint!
And I must admit that I am also proud of ourselves as parents, being brave enough to step out of our comfort zone and believing that travelling halfway across the globe with four kiddos was doable and even(dare I say it?) enjoyable! Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t always comfortable but it was sure well worth it!
Thank you so much to all of you who followed along our adventures and travelled with us! We hope we were able to share our love of new places, new experiences and most of all our passion for connection above all else! Until next time!