Dear Fellow Travel Enthusiasts,

Welcome to the 11th installment of the Roamers' Report!

General Update:

We have officially hit the HALF YEAR mark of our Worldschooling adventure!  In some ways it feels like we have just started our travels and we can't believe it's already half way over.  But in other ways it seems like we've been on the road for a long time and when we think back to our first stops in Crete and Bosnia it seems sooooo long ago.  Below is some info on budgets, what we have been spending the most money on and which countries are more expensive versus those that have been kinder to our wallets as well as some thoughts on how we feel the trip is going so far.

• The country* that cost us the most per day? Morocco ($283.24)

• The country* that cost us the least per day? Bosnia ($166.10)

• The country we spent the longest in? Thailand (6 weeks)

• The country we spent the least time? Austria (1 day, 1 night)

• The spending category with the most spend? Food

• The spending category with the least spend? Gas

* This includes only countries where we stayed for over 3 weeks.  Daily costs tend to be higher for countries where we only spent a night or two as we are not able to get significant discounts on lodging which is the top spend category (see below).

Note: These are average daily spends.  In most of these countries we were not spending that much each day, but when factoring in the cost of 3-6 weeks of lodging and some other fixed costs - like a rental car - the daily comes out to these higher figures. 

Below is a chart of our % spending by category.  No real suprises here. 

• How many countries have we been to so far?  13 (United States, United Kingdom, Greece, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Romania, Thailand) 

• How many cities have we been to so far? 26

• How many airports have we been to? 17

• How many airplanes have we been on so far? 9

• How many trains have we been on? 9

Overall everyone seems to be very happy with the trip so far.  The kids do miss their friends, but they have done a few video chats and they know they will see them again in 6 short months.  The close proximity is definitely taking a toll with more arguing and fighting amongst the kids, but not to the point where it negates the positives of this adventure.  And we plan to start doing more one on one / two on one "dates" to separate the kids and give them more alone time with us parents. 

As far as accomplishing our goals for this trip, we are definitely making significant progresss on many of our desired outcomes.  First and foremost, the kids are definitely experiencing other cultures and understanding that people all over the world live differently and many do not have the advantages that we have in the US.  It's fun to hear them chat back and forth with each other about various countries, currencies, religions or cultures sprinkled into their daily conversations.  They are definitely becoming citizens of the world.   And they are definitely becoming more proficient in "rolling with it" - developing their abilities to adapt to situations when they do not go according to plan.  

Another thing that we are starting to observe in all three children, to our great pleasure, is them gaining more confidence and independence and coming out of their introverted shells to do more things for themselves. To be sure they are small things - like going to the bathroom in a restaurant in a foreign country without mommy or daddy, or going out of sight to find a garbage can in a mall or airport or venturing out on their own to get a snack which involves interacting with someone (who is not a native English speaker), offering money and counting change, etc.  Again, on paper these all probably sound like easy lay-ups, but for our kids they are things they absolutely wouldn't /couldn't do at the start of the trip. 

We also asked each family member to think back on the last 6 months and come up with their favorite memory of the trip so far.  Here is what we said:

Dan - Being invited by a few locals to an off the beaten path mountain restauarant in Myrtos, Crete (Greece) and listening to live Bouzouki music.

Francesca - $9 /60 min massages in Koh Lanta, Thailand!

Ryan - Eating burek pastries daily in Mostar, Bosnia.

Austen - Playing with the baby sheep on Taha's farm near Rabat, Morocco.

Finley - White Water Rafting in Bovec, Solvenia!

We have been enjoying our extended stay in Koh Lanta in Southern Thailand - aside from a frightening tuk tuk accident (see Truth Serum and Travel Stories).  Some of the highlights include an Animal Welfare Center (which we featured in the previous Roamers Report), snorkeling in the crystal clear waters around Koh Rok and an ethical elephant sanctuary.  We have a few more days here and then we head to Bangkok for a few days before flying to the Philippines to enjoy the holidays with Francesca's relatives.  Here are some photos of our final few weeks here.

Click here to read more about our trip to Koh Rok & Ko Ha.

Click here to read more about our visit to the Following Giants elelphant sanctuary.

Click here to read more about our time in Koh Lanta.

WHEN ADVENTURE BECOMES PERIL: A TRAVELER'S RECKONING

Everyone hopes no major tragedy befalls them while traveling, but even as you hear stories of tourists getting injured or worse, you never think it will happen to you. That illusion shattered when I found myself lying in a ditch beside an overturned tuk-tuk I had been driving moments earlier. Shocked and disoriented, I scrambled to my feet and saw Francesca and our friend Legaya trapped beneath the vehicle. I shouted to them, desperate for a response. At first, there was none......  Click here to read the full story.

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

Finding Shangri-La (Chiang Mai, Thailand) November 2024 

The Bad Shepherds! (Sidi Allal el Bahaouri) October 2024

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

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

Birthday Bust in Slovenia! (Kanal, Slovenia) 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

Not much to report here. We did make an adjustment to our process.  To keep Austen and Finley focused and not up in each other's business we have started to have one parent (usuallly Francesca) take one of the girls to an outside location to study.  So far it seems to be working.  The kid who gets to go outside feels it's some very special Mommy - Daughter time - even though they are learning. And the other one appears to be content with Daddy teaching since he's the only adult left. 

We have also shifted back to a bit more of a study routine.  We had intentionally gotten a bit loose with when and how long we had the kids study - with the intent to embrace the travel over the strict study schedule, but we found the kids were less productive and we ended up having them spend more time studying that we had originally intended. So while we still prioritize the out of classroom experience, we are trying to put a bit more structure to their study time. 

One Day in Bangkok

Muay Thai Boxing for Dummies!

Mu Ko Lanta National Park

Snorkeling in Koh Rok & Koh Ha

Following Giants: A Day in an Ethical Elephant Sanctuary

Koh Lanta: Worldschool Hub

There are two major topics for this session's Truth Serum.  The first is the emotional effects of living in a Worldschooling Hub. As mentioned in the last Roamer's Report we have been participating members of the BLISS Worldschool Hub in Koh Lanta for the past 3 weeks.  And while I initially wrote about how great it was for our kids to finally have contact with kids their own ages, the truth is that it has been even more emotionally supportive for me (the extrovert) - and to a lesser extent Francesca (content as an introvert). 

I /we have found it a really nice change of pace to have a community of like minded travel families and as is typically the case, we have made some particularly good connections with a few families including the Budia-Pinera's from Spain, with mom Ainhoa, dad Nandy, daughter Naiara (15) and son Aiden (10) and the Arcy's from America with Patriarch Matt, mom Ligaya (who is also of Filipino descent) and 13 year old twins Piper and Quinn.  We've enjoyed family gatherings and adults only date nights with these and other couples/families.  There are also regularly scheduled Dad's Nights Out (in which I have participated on a couple of occasions) and Mom's Nights Out (in which Francesca has not - mostly because they are always dancing nights which is not her jam). 

Next month we will be spending all of our time in the Philippines with Francesca's relatives on both her father and mother's sides followed by a month in Hoi An Vietnam at another Worldschool hub where we'll no doubt meet new families and make new friends, but we'll also see a few of the families from Koh Lanta including the Budia-Pinero's from Spain who will overlap with us for a few weeks. 

The next topic is about the unfortunate things that can and will happen when traveling for any significant length of time. When you take a vacation for a week or two you obviously hope no one gets sick or hurt or have anything happen to "ruin" the trip.  But when you are traveling for a year, you have to expect that some bad things will happen along the way.  Think back to any 12 month period in your life and there are bound to be extended illnesses, maybe some broken bones, maybe something more serious.  So it was with that reality in mind that we responsibly purchased Emergency Travel Insurance through a company called Safety Wing, hoping, of course, to never have to use it.

Unfortunately something close to our worst nightmare happened to us in Thailand.  It wasn't our worst nightmare because the kids were not involved, thank God, but Francesca and I were involved in a very serious tuk tuk accident along with our friends Matt and Ligaya with Francesca ending up with a broken wrist and Ligaya with torn skin and cartelege in her ear and a facial fracture. Both Francesca and Ligaya were taken to a local medical clinic by ambulance with Ligaya being transfered to a hospital on another island later that night for surgery. 

While Matt and I were unharmed beyond a few cuts and bruises, the trauma has been more mental for us. For Matt, because his wife had been in a horrific accident where she couldn't even remember that she was in Thailand for a few hours.  The not knowing if she would be okay was agonizing and terrifying.  For me, it was because I was responsible for the accident.  I won't go into detail here - you can read about it in my latest Travel Story: "When Adventure Becomes Peril: A Travelers Reckoning" - but I have been wracked with guilt since the accident with feelings of guilt, shame, fear and a whole host of other feelings.  I wasn't speeding or driving wrecklessly, nor was alcohol involved, which would have, of course, been worse, but I was still in control of the vehicle, or rather not in control of the vehicle as the case was and it was my inexperience in handling these very unstable vehicles that caused the crash and subsequent injuries.  

As I write this we still don't know if Francesca will need surgery on her wrist nor if Matt and Ligaya will have to cut their year long Worldschooling trip short and head home. It is not my intention to present myself as a victim here, but since this is the Truth Serum I felt I should share some of what I have been feeling about a situation that everyone fears and hopes never happens to them. 

A quick update since writing this newsletter.  Fortunately Francesca did not end up needing surgery and they didn't even put in a plaster cast - just a splint - so she can remove it to wash, etc.  Ligaya, also had good news, in that she will not require surgery on her face. She still will need to be on a liquid only diet for 6 weeks which sucks when you are on a trip around the world and want to sample the various cuisines, but surgery would have meant a much longer recovery. 

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