Roamers Report #10 november 30, 2024

Dear Fellow Travel Enthusiasts,

Welcome to the 10th installment of the Roamers' Report!

General Update:

Since our last posting we have concluded our stay in northern Thailand with fun and educational visits to Pai and Chiang Mai and have made our way down to the islands of southern Thailand where we have been staying in Koh Lanta in the province of Krabi on the Adaman Sea.  See photos of our adventures in Thailand below and visit our blogs on Pai and Chiang Mai for more stories.

Thailand is the first country where we have hooked up with "Worldschooling Hubs" which are groups of like-minded families choosing a non-traditional way of living and schooling (or "unschooling") their children.  For us, the BLISS Worldschooling Hub has been a very welcome change in our travel life to date.  Up until now we've been a close-knit travel unit of 5, but with the Worldschool Hubs in Pai and Koh Lanta, we now have a communitiy to plug into and the kids have an opportunity to make friends!  And while they are typically not local people we are connecting with, they are people from all over the world which is educational and culturally rewarding for the kids. 

Where We've Been & Where We Are:

(An overview of the countries and cities we've been since the last newsletter and an update on where we are currently)

Since last we met, we have been in Pai and Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand and are finishing up our three week stay on the beaches of Koh Lanta.  Here are some highlight photos from each of those places, but if you want to see more stories and photos on our experiences there please visit our Pai and Chiang Mai blog posts including one of the major highlights of our trip so far, the Yipeng "Sky Lantern" Festival!

Worldschooling Hubs:

As mentioned above, Worldschool Hubs are these oases of fun, community and education sprinkled all over the world, bringing like-minded families together to share different perspectives on education to their children.

We've come to discover that Worldschoolers come in all shapes and sizes with some, like us, just taking a year off from a traditional public or private school program, while others have sold their homes in their home countries and have settled in for months or years in a foreign country before moving on to another one when the mood (or visa requirements) suits them.  Some enroll their kids in local or international school programs when they travel while others choose to completely "unschool" their children, letting their child's curiosity guide what and when they learn. 

We spent a short time with the BLISS Worldschoolers in Pai where we participated in several activities including a weekend street food festival, a games meet-up, a futbol (aka soccer) training session and a science class taught by a local science teacher. 

We then moved down to the island of Koh Lanta (well, technically Koh means island in Thai so it's really the island of Lanta) where we spent three weeks with the BLISS Worldschoolers hub there.  As I write this we still have two more weeks here so our adventure is not complete, but so far we've been welcomed into this community with open arms and I, for one, have been thoroughly enjoying it - more on how the kids have responded to it in the Truth Serum section below.  

This community is even more active than the one in Pai with multiple activities every day. The way it works is that anyone with a particular interest or skill can just create and organize an event - either a one-off (like the Kids TalentShow I am organizing) or recurring (like the weekly beach frisbee meet ups) and send it out on the BLISS Koh Lanta Whatsapp Group thread to advertize it.  

So far we have participated in sports activities like soccer and ultimate frisbee on the beach, game nights, some educational lectures like a fascinating one on sharks by one of he worldschool hub dad's who runs an educational organization called Shark Guardian to help spread awareness of the beauty and essential nature of sharks while trying to change the undeserved reputation that sharks are menacing creatures to be feared.  Most of these activities are free of charge and are hub participant led.

Travel Stories:

(Hopefully humorous stories about real events that happened to us on our trip)

FINDING SHANGRI-LA

What would you do if, after an exhausting three-hour drive on windy, barf-inducing mountain roads, you arrived at your hotel only to discover they had no record of your reservation? Not only that, but there wasn’t a single room left in the entire city—hotels, Airbnbs, treehouses, you name it—because of a famous festival that just so happened to be the reason you were in town in the first place.

Would you spend two hours on the phone with a travel agent? Drive an hour or two out of town to find a bed? Extend your rental car and just sleep in it (if it were even available, which, of course, it isn’t)? Now throw in three tired, hungry kids, and you’ve got one of those “character-testing” travel moments that make you question every life choice leading up to that point.

It would be a time that tried our collective patience and leave us potentially shattered to the core, but ultimately would provide a welcome boost of spirit to our travel weary team.  Click here to read the full travel story "Finding Shangri-La". 

In case you missed the previous Travel Stories, here they are.....

The Bad Shepherds November 2024

Hamam-a-jama! (Fez, Morocco) October 2024 

Trapped: Parking Garage Escape Room! (Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain) September 2024 

To the Bat Cave Ryan (Vyrises, Greece) August 2024

Gentlemen Start Your Bouzoukis (Anatoli, Greece) August 2024

Between Some Rocks and a Hot Place (Myrtos, Greece) July 2024

The Myth of Traveling Kindness (Crete, Greece) July 2024

The Sugar Spoon Caper (Chania, Greece) June 2024

Homeschool Update:

(Many of you may not care about the home schooling portion of this, but since it's ostensibly the reason we are doing this, I will provide a brief update during these Newsletters.)

Homeschooling continues to go smoothly for Ryan and be a struggle for Austen and Finley for different reasons. Finley just can't seem to stay focused and Austen is struggling with some math concepts. Francesca and I try our best with both of these challenges with limited success.  Ultimately though, we are confident that they will learn enough Math and English Language Arts (ELA) to be sufficiently prepared for their next grades once we return to The States.  Here's hoping!

As mentioned above, we now have the added element of the BLISS Worldschool Hubs that offer educational opportunities for the kids which we have been taking advantage of. 

Here is a short video presentation that Ryan put together based on the Shark Guardian lecture (2 mins).

Sometimes though we have our own educational projects, like this impromptu self-taught lesson in how to make Thai bowls out of banana leaves.

Blog Posts:

(Blog Posts Published since the last newsletter - in case you missed them on social media)

Buddhism and Its Many Mudra

Chiang Mai:  Sky on Fire!
The Life of Pai

For more blog posts click here!

Truth Serum:

(A dose of truth about some of the things that did not go according to plan or worries that we've had about the trip)

I have mentioned in previous posts that I have discovered on this trip how introverted all 3 of our kids are.  It wasn't really apparent at home since they all have a lot of friends and are fairly social and active.  But when we travel and they are out of their comfort zones, it is clear how much they dislike not only meeting new people, but even interacting with people - like in a store for example. 

We were thinking that after five months of just the five of us traveling together they would be jonesing for some playmates their own ages, but that has not proven to be the case.  And while I am trying to be empathetic and understand that meeting new kids is super uncomfortable for them, it is tough sometimes as a hardcore extrovert, like me, to do that. And it fills me with anxiety - and embarrassment if I am being completely honest since this is the truth serum - when another child approaches one of our kids in a friendly manner to chat or to invite them to play something and they just grunt and decline the offer.  😮‍💨🫣

Now, perhaps the adage "all's well that end's well" is true here.  I have also found that sometimes on the 2nd or 3rd time meeting another kid, or, more often, if it is a small group setting - like just our family and another family - as opposed to a large group meet-up event - the relationships start to happen and they end up becoming friends.  And of course, when that happens my heart soars! 🥰

Indeed, all the kids have made a friend or two on Koh Lanta which I think has been a really nice emotional lift for them since they all do miss their friends from home very much.  We are planning to join another BLISS Worldschool Hub in Hoi An, Vietnam in February and maybe another hub in Latin America in the spring. 

Trip Stats:

(I'm a little reluctant about this section because this trip is supposed to be more about quality and experience than sheer quantity, but I find stats like this interesting nonetheless) 

I am getting a bit more comfortable with keeping the trip stats.  As time goes by and the stats grow, it is getting fun to track the various cities we've been to and the modes of transport we've taken, etc. 

Here is a quick list of countries we've been to so far on this trip. They are places we have stayed overnight for at least one night. The bold ones are places we've lived in for an extended period of time (over 3 weeks). 

• United States

• United Kingdom

• Greece

• Croatia

• Bosnia and Hercegovina

• Slovenia

• Austria

• Italy

• Spain

• Portugal

• Morocco

• Romania

• Thailand

Here is the link to the full trip stats page.

Thanks for joining us on our journey. I have tried to keep to my self imposed routine of sending a Roamers' Report every 2 weeks, but it hasn't always worked out that way. But I do post more regularly on social media (mostly FB, but some Instagram too) so if you want more real time updates please follow our Five Tickets to Roam FB page .

Regards,

The Roamers - Dan, Francesca, Ryan, Austen & Finley