Sum up of our gap year!

That is it. It is the last blog for our gap year. It was the best year of my life for sure!!! I could travel forever. I love discovering new places, new art, new people, new food, new architecture… and more.
I loved spending time with my lot. I am grateful for Kev, Andrew and Emma. It was a real pleasure to spend our time together. We had had very few arguments and enjoyed each other’s company. I loved watching the kids discovering the world. I hope they will remember the experiences and the time together. I wish we could have more time together and I am dreading a bit going back home to the running around and always rushing and not enjoying as much time together. We will have to remember to make time for each other.
One of the questions, we get a lot is “which one was your favourite country?” It is very hard to choose one! I loved every country we visited, as they all have something interesting and fascinating.
Southeast Asia was a great place to start. There are so much to see, and it is well organised for travellers and still relatively cheap.
India was an eye opener and a very special experience. I loved it. I would love to go back to see more of it.
Africa (well the part we did) was amazing for the nature and the animal we saw. I will always remember giraffes walking next to elephants. Lions resting next to each other in the tall grass or walking majestically toward the water. So many pictures that I hope to keep in my head for ever.
I love Europe and it was great to visit it in summer, but it was very touristic and expansive! However, the art and history are amazing. Scotland was a highlight for me. The landscapes, culture, and the whole time there was amazing.
Ecuador was a great surprise. I didn’t know what to expect and was very nicely surprised by this country. Peru was amazing with so much culture and history and things to visit. We often think of the Inca when we mentioned Peru, but there is so much more than that!!!
Canada was amazing and cold! We loved it. I could see myself living there!
Some of the things we did that popped in my head are: getting wet in Victoria falls, the Taj Mahal and how it sounds inside it, amazing paintings and sculptures (especially the Statue of David) in Italy, being there for the first woman heavyweight world competition in Scotland, waiting for a massive family of elephant to go pass in Zambia, walking in the snow in Quebec, contemplating Macchu Pichu from above, doing my first zipline (of the this trip) with Andrew above a fort in India, watching Emma getting more and more confident doing zipline and loving it, floating on a gondola in Venezia, cooking classes in different countries, admiring massive statues of buddha in Southeast Asia, hearing ‘tuktuk?’ a thousand times, the taste of chai in India, catching up with friends and family in France, UK and Canada, baboons stealing our food (scary at the time, but fun to tell now!), watching 2 lions matting, walking in so many small streets in so many old town, the heat of northern India and the cold which surprised us in Namibia, trying food from all over the world, the colours everywhere in India, the smells (good and bad) in India as well, the poverty that we saw all over the world….
This trip was also a way of remembering how lucky we are to live in Australia: we have food on the table every day. We have electricity all the time. We have running hot and cold and drinkable water coming out of the tap. We have a solid roof over our head. We have easy transportation (car or public transportation). We have different good options for education. We have freedom of speech and access to information. We have parental leaves, paid holidays and pensions. And I am sure I forgot things. Yes no country is perfect, but we have to remember how hard it is in other countries and how lucky we are to live here.
We did see poverty everywhere we went (in rich and poor countries). There are still a lot to be done in the world. And as much as, yes, if the billionaires of this world were to donate a small part of their fortune, they could do a lot: I don’t thing they will do anything about it though. It is down to us, regular people, to give money to charity, give time to help somewhere, raise awareness to something that goes wrong somewhere and how we can help. If everybody does a little bit, the world would be better.
I would also like to talk about tourism. It is a great source of incomes for a lot of people and countries. But it is also a source of problems: environmental, economic as it push locals away from areas where they used to live, cultural as instead of doing jobs, people switch to tourist job related and knowledge are lost… and other issues that I am probably not aware of.
I am obviously not saying to not travel, but maybe to travel better. For example, in the Galapagos, we learnt that cruises don’t bring any money to the island: they bring everything with them and very little is coming back to locals. They are also usually not friendly to the planet.
Trying not to use big platforms like uber, as the price the drivers are paid is insanely small compared to normal fees. We did use Uber at the beginning of the trip, but they we avoid when possible.
The same is true for platforms like tripadvisor and such. To list your experience or your tours, they ask for insane prices which make it very hard for small local companies. You can look for ideas on it, but book in person when you are there.
As for accommodation, I am conflicted as we used booking.com a lot. I know this is a massive company and when we book apartments, it takes it away from local people. But I am not quite sure how to not do that. As a family, booking a hotel room is so much more expensive in most case. When we can cook in an apartment, it means we don’t have to eat out every meal and we save some money doing that, so we can travel longer. If someone as a solution, I would love to hear it!
I know I will do more research, for our next trip, to make sure we travel as smart as we can for us, but also for the country and people we will be visiting.
If I were to give one advice to someone who want to travel: DO IT!!!!! It doesn’t have to be a year but go! Don’t wait, we never know when we can’t travel anymore, so go now!!!!
To do a gap year, is a lot of work: a lot of planning, booking, researching. If you do it with kids, you had to take in account their education and how you want to do that, so yes, it is some work, but it is so rewarding!
I know we will travel again, Not another gap year, as it will be difficult to get enough money again and enough leaves from Kev’s work; but we will travel again. If I could, I would travel forever for sure. This is my thing, but there are 4 of us in the family, so we have to take everyone’s preference and find a middle in it. We will probably travel for 5 to 6 weeks every couple of years. It will have to do!
Well, that is it for me. I hope you enjoyed reading us. I loved writing about our adventures. I know I will love reading our blogs in several years from now. I hope it gave you some inspiration to do your travels or simply that you travelled with us in thoughts during this year.
Thank you for following us and see you around!!!
Mel

A sum up of my year.
I had my concerns when we first started. I was not sure I wanted to do a gap year. I had no idea how I would handle being away from what I knew, and not being where I was comfortable. Away from family, friends, the house, the dog, even work. Just a couple weeks in however, most of these concerns had slipped away. I had no idea how I would handle being a traveller. Turns out, I do ok. I had my moments. I can honestly say I muttered a few times “what the hell am I doing here?” After a while we just flowed along. I lost track of which day it was, it didn't matter. We worked with dates as we moved from place to place. I got to see how others in our world live, and feel incredibly fortunate to have grown up with what I now see as privilege. To be able to trust that the water out of the tap won't make you sick, or worse. To even have running water! To not be surrounded by shit and rubbish and consider that normal. Yes, I have seen some truly astonishing sights, grand things that I can hardly believe were made by humans. I have also seen things that made me feel incredibly uncomfortable and deeply sad. Poverty on an extreme level. People working their entire lives with no thought of “retiring”, and forget travel. No Centrelink payment, no pension, just work. While in the same city, opulence and wealth on an incredible level. I have seen the world, and it is beautiful. It also disgusts me.
After having said all that, would I still want to do it and see it all again, or even more? Absolutely! I encourage anyone to travel, even while influencers still exist on this planet, I would do it again in a heart beat! I just can't afford to.
Final paragraph for the blogging, and maybe my last blog ever. I spent a whole year with my family. We had our difficulties, we had our arguments and we had our moments when it was all a bit too much. We also shared so much. We shared moments of joy, laughter and sadness. We shared discovery and wonder. But best of all, we shared our time together, and I would never trade that for anything. I would spend every day for the rest of my life with my family if I could. That's not possible, so this year was extra special because of that. I thank Mel again for pushing me before the trip, and putting up with me the whole trip. Without Mel, it wouldn't have happened, and it has opened my eyes to a lot of things. I am forever grateful. That's it, that's all I have to say. Bye bye.
Kev

This is the last blog of the year, I’m doing a sum up of the year and mum made a series of questions that I’m going to answer. 1 Q. What did I think about it A. It was really fun, I’ve had plenty of incredible experiences and numerous time where I never want to stop, this year has changed my life in a good way, I want to travel forever. 2 Q. What’s your favourite part A. I don’t know, every where we went had good stuff but one of favourite places was Scotland, the land scape is beautiful and the castles are amazing. I also really liked Canada, the snow was really fun and it made the trees really pretty. 3 Q. Bad things about the gap year A. My least favourite thing on the gap year was taking buses, especially 24-hour ones, some of them were really uncomfortable and hot. 4 Q. What advice would I give to somebody who wants to travel A. Don’t eat at the big touristy places, eat where the locals eat, it’s always cheaper and better. 5 Q. Do I want to travel and if yes, where A. Yes I would travel again and the places I want to go are Japan, China, Antarctica, Egypt and Mexico. 6 Q. Anything else I want to add A. No.
That was the last blog for the gap year and one of my shortest, thank you for reading them and I hope you liked them. I will happily accept all donations to me and will be delighted if everybody please gave at least $50 to a poor little kid like me who only has I don’t know, 800 bucks, please give to me. Anyway, The end, to not be continued.
Andrew (10 years old)

This is me sum up of the year. I thought it was a very awesome year. I can’t believe it has been a year already. My favourite part was sandboarding. The worst thing about the year was how many buses we took. This is a piece of advice if you want to travel. Never take Flix bus. I want to travel again but this time to Japan. That is the end of the last blog. Hope you have enjoyed the adventure. Tips will happily be accepted. Good bye.
Emma (9 years old)

I (Mel) asked a few questions that the four of us had to answer to sum up the gap year. Here there are:
Best country for Food:
Mel: India and France.
Kev: India
Andrew: France and India
Emma: India and Thailand
Best country to see animals (pick 2 max):
Mel: Zambia and Namibia
Kev: Zambia and Namibia
Andrew: Zambia and Namibia
Emma: Namibia
Best country for landscapes (pick max 2)
Mel: Uk (Scotland), Ecuador and Peru
Kev: Peru and Scotand
Andrew: Scotland and Ecuador
Emma: Scotland
Best activity (pick 3):
Mel: Classes (cooking or craft), safari and visiting cities
Kev: Adrenaline, safari, trying food and visiting cities
Andrew: Adrenaline, amusement park and safari
Emma: Adrenaline, classes (cooking or craft), shows and massage
Best locomotion system:
Mel: Tuktuk
Kev: Feet, tuktuk and rental car
Andrew: train and plane (only the one with tv)
Emma: Tuktuk, train, sand buggy.
Which country I would like to come back to (pick 3 max.):
Mel: Laos, Scotland, India and Canada
Kev: India, Scotland and Canada
Andrew: Uk and Canada
Emma: Namibia, Scotland, Canada
The gap year with the 5 senses
Taste
Mel: Chai tea in India
Kev: Whisky sour in Laos, Tandoori chicken in India, Haggis in Scotland
Andrew: Nicholas Flamel main meal in Paris and meat Nshima in Lusaka
Emma: Lasagna in Italy (good), Mango sushi in Colca canyon in Peru (bad)
Sound
Mel: Muslim call to prayer in India, Chai guy in India, Hippopotamus laughing in Zambia
Kev: Elephant trumpeting in Zambia
Andrew: Chai guy in the train in India
Emma: Uggghhh (after learning we are going to visit a museum) and “Why a bus???!!!”
View
Mel: first view of the Taj Mahal and the first view of Machu Pichu
Kev: The Andes mountains in Peru and Ecuador
Andrew: Scotland landscapes
Emma: Seeing a wild rabbit in Scotland, seeing Millie (a horse) in the UK
Touch
Mel: Alpaca wool (so soft!), old stones touched by people for hundreds of years.
Kev: Hot springs in Colca canyon in Peru
Andrew: Touching fresh sushi in Toronto
Emma: Chai cup in clay, marble in the Taj Mahal, sting ray in aquarium in the touch pool
Smell
Mel; Incense in religious site
Kev; Spices in India
Andrew: Smelling the meet cooking in Lusaka
Emma: Soy sauce (good), the rose perfume from a shop in India (good), pee street in Bangkok (bad).Baca lagi