Sharon and Scott

Born to travel

Sharon and Scott

Scott and I have always been travellers at heart. We first met on the beach in Spain in 1995 and had what we thought was "just a holiday romance". We met again briefly a year later in Salzburg, Austria and then a few years later in Hawaii. At the time, I was working in Japan, and Scott was back in California after his two years in Barcelona, Spain.

Together, we have left it all behind to backpack around the world, not once, not twice, but three times. Travel really is addictive! Each time, we'd quit our jobs, put our meager belongings into storage or sell what was too big to store, leave our old clapped out cars with relatives, and turn in notice on our apartment. Easy! On the second trip we got married in Bali.

Then we had a baby. Determined not to stop traveling, we went on a three-week adventure to Indonesia when Kyla was just ten months old. I carried a backpack on my back, and my baby on my front. We spent most of our time on dive boats, which worked really well given that she couldn't yet move very fast.

Then came pregnancy number two, and an all-inclusive trip to Mexico. Not really our style but, hey, we were playing it safe because of my little bun (or actually big bun by that time). Since Jakey came along two years ago, we have only managed a long weekend up the coast to Monterey and a weekend in Las Vegas. So, it's time to spread our wings again. We are currently on an open ended trip since August 30, 2016. We plan to spend our time in South Africa and SE Asia mainly. Watch this space to follow our travels...

Dolphin Bay, home of...monkeys!

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand July 31st 2018

Artist’s view of Dolphin Bay Resort

Born to travel

We are now down to the last days of our two-year trip. It’s hard to believe. At first, we didn’t count at all. As time went on, we started to count down in chunks of time according to location. When it came time to leave a particular country, we were excited for the next leg of the trip, but also sad that another chapter had closed. Before we knew it, we were telling people we met that we were, “in the last two months.” All of a sudden we have just one week left. We fly out of Bangkok on August 7th, ready for Kyla to start kindergarten just two weeks later. Part of me is ready to go back home and give the kids a “normal” life, but if the truth be told, were it ... read more

Never did get a photo of the kids in this hammock!

Big Changes in Gili Air

Asia » Indonesia » Lombok » Gili Air June 22nd 2018

This little airplane guy helped to kill a bit of time at the airport!

Born to travel

So many places that we travel to change in a short period of time, but none so dramatically as Gili Air. We were here just a year prior and didn’t expect there to be too many big changes. Nothing could have prepared us for what we found this time around. Just three weeks before our arrival, the military came in with heavy machinery and tore down every structure on the ocean side of the road that runs around the island, in accordance with the new rules. Whole buildings were torn down in a matter of days: dive shops, trinket shops, but mostly restaurants. Where there had once stood fairly fancy restaurants, there was now just sand and rubble with tables placed on it. Whole kitchens had to be relocated to the inland side of the road, ... read more

Horse drawn carriages are one of the main modes of transportation on the Gili Islands, along with bikes.

Putting the construction rubble to good use!

Diving with Friends on Cabilao Island

Asia » Philippines » Cebu May 25th 2018

Diving on the sheer coral encrusted walls around Cabilao Island

Born to travel

Polaris dive resort on Cabilao island in The Philippines was our favorite place to stay on the first half of the trip, and it made a good place to recover from our illnesses. We met up with our friends, Madeleine and Mike from Ko Lanta, on the boat ride over. Their daughters (twins age 7, and a 10 year old) had fun watching dolphins riding the wake at the front of the boat but our kiddos were too exhausted to even look, having got up at 6am after only three hours sleep to get Kyla checked at the hospital (see previous blog). For the first three or four days we spent far too much time in the room in the air-conditioning, but once we were all recovered, we could finally start enjoying ourselves again. The day ... read more

Fever!

Asia » Malaysia » Wilayah Persekutuan » Kuala Lumpur May 23rd 2018

Captain Jake

Born to travel

It’s been eight days since Kyla first got her fever on Kapas Island. Since then, we’ve taken two flights, two boats, eight car rides, stayed in five hotels, seen two doctors and said goodbye to my parents as they head back to England. It’s been a busy week! Kyla had had a persistently high fever for a night and the whole next day before we made a snap decision to leave the Island and head to the mainland to be closer to a hospital. As it was election time, the locals were on holiday for a four day weekend (Malaysians are ALWAYS on holiday!) and we were warned that hotels might be full. Luckily, the first place we checked had a family room and we settled in. It was nice to have a room with hot ... read more

Our Pet Snake

Asia » Malaysia » Terengganu » Pulau Kapas May 11th 2018

Stone walkways connect all of the beaches

Born to travel

We’ve had our fair share of “pets” in our rooms over our years of travel - big hairy spiders, flying cockroaches, rats, and even a scorpion - but we’d never before had a snake, until Kapas. But I’ll come to that later. For now, I’ll start at the beginning. The island of Palau Kapas is a little Island just a 15 minute boat ride from the mainland, but a world away. It’s somewhere Scott and I have both visited in the past, but in our BK (before kids) days, when travel was a lot simpler. It consists of a string of white sand beaches backed by swaying palms and dense jungle, interconnected by a series of concrete walkways, each beach a little quieter than the one before. The ocean is clear and many of the beaches ... read more

A Rough Journey to Kapas

Asia » Malaysia » Terengganu » Kapas Island May 11th 2018

waiting to board the boat

Born to travel

It took two days of travel to get from Ko Lanta to KL. The first day of travel went remarkably smoothly. Our flight from Krabi left ahead of schedule and we made it to our hotel in Kuala Lumpur just an hour and ten minutes after landing. Compare this to the last time we flew to KL, when it took two hours just for our bags to show up! The second day of travel wasn’t so smooth. It all began before we even made it to the airport in KL. Our airport shuttle bus was decidedly dodgy and Scott and I even commented to each other that it was a rust bucket with no suspension to speak of. As it pulled into the airport the engine died right in the middle lane of drop off, holding ... read more

The End of Thailand

Asia » Thailand » South-West Thailand » Ko Lanta April 28th 2018

Happy Songkran!

Born to travel

We arrived back in Thailand just in time for the songkran festival, a water festival to welcome the start of the rainy season. We walked up to the main road expecting mayhem, but nothing! Armed with our water guns and buckets, and ready for action, we jumped into a truck-tuk and headed towards the town of saladan, on the lookout for a good spot to jump out and join in. It wasn't long before we got our first drenching through the open sided truck as we cruised past a water station. Pretty soon, we found a good spot. On both sides of the road there were numerous water stations set up - basically big blue plastic buckets containing water, and locals and tourists alike throwing it onto traffic passing by. Many were wearing Hawaiian-style floral shirts, ... read more

The Long Road Home

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia » Perth April 13th 2018

Not easy to see!

Born to travel

There are postcards that say, “Monkey Mia, it’s a bloody long way” and it’s true. It really is remote. After our lucky wild kangaroo encounter in the early hours of the morning, we set off for “home”, whether that be Perth or Ko Lanta. Once again, we spent two long days of driving red dusty roads to make it back to our friends’ house in Perth. Once there, we enjoyed two nights of home comforts and had fun catching up with our friends and watching all the kids play together. We even got to see Lexi in her classroom play, and felt like a proper local versus just a tourist! At 2:50am on our second morning in Perth, our alarm went off, signaling that it was time to get ready to go to the airport. Despite ... read more

Finally got everyone together for a photo!

Monkey Mia: Home to Friendly Dolphins and the Elusive Kangaroo!

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia » Monkey Mia April 11th 2018

Curious dolphins

Born to travel

Monkey Mia has held a special place in our hearts ever since we first traveled the west coast of Australia back in 2006. Therefore, when we found out that Air Asia had cheap flights from Kuala Lumpur into Perth, we couldn't resist the chance to show Australia to Kyla and Jake (their last continent, other than Antarctica), and specifically the magic of Monkey Mia. We had ten days in total. This seemed quite short to Scott and I given our recent slow pace of travel, but was in fact a lifetime compared to the average visitor, who tends to stay only a night or two. Monkey Mia is famous for its friendly dolphins. It's the only place in the world that I know of where dolphins that are completely wild and in their natural habitat interact ... read more

They really like to come and check you out!

Yet more dolphins. These passed right under the kayak!

Road Trippin’ in Western Oz

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia » Perth April 8th 2018

Australia!

Born to travel

Boarding a plane at midnight for only a five hour flight is never a good idea. The kids got literally only 3-4 hours of sleep for the night. Anyone who's ever hung out with a severely sleep-deprived preschooler will know that it can only end in tears and tantrums! Luckily for us, the kids were great on our flight from Kuala Lumpur to Perth, both falling asleep before the plane even left the runway and sleeping right through a toddler that was screaming himself hoarse for most of the flight. I felt so bad for the frazzled parents as we'd been there just a year ago with Jake, and it's no fun! Once arriving at Perth airport, we got our passport stamped by the most cheerful immigration official to date, collected our bags, and then went ... read more

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