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Published: November 15th 2017
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As some of you already know, we will be heading out on our next family adventure in less than two weeks time. We've been at home in California for just over three months since our year away, just long enough to get our home ready to rent out and find new tenants.
When our old tenants asked us our intentions, we hesitated a little before deciding to come home at the year mark. The kids had been accepted into the preschool we wanted and we just weren't ready to commit to more travel at that point. We told our tenants that we'd be coming back in August so that they could start looking for a new rental.
During our final few months of our trip, while in the Galapagos, we began to get cold feet about going back home to the rat race. As long as we had the funds to keep traveling, why go home? We decided to write an email to our tenants, asking them if they'd like to continue the lease. When we got a reply email from them, we opened it with baited breath... their answer would determine our next move. Unfortunately, they'd just signed a lease. The die was cast: we were going home!
Well, the travel bug isn't easily cured so here we are, three months later, in the final days of getting ready to leave for an eight month trip. It will be much easier this time as we have been living very minimalistic these last few months. The only furniture we have are four fold-up futons on the floor, which can be completely cleared away during the day into a closet Japanese-style, for showing the house. Apart from that, we have cardboard boxes to organize our clothes, some pots and pans from a neighbor that was moving out, and a handful of toys from neighbors. We have good neighbors! Oh, and we did hook up cable TV and wifi! It made it much easier to clean and tidy the place for showing, but luckily we only had to spruce it up once before finding our tenants this time!
Our new tenants are my father-in-law (Tom) and two of his friends! When Tom first brought his friends to see our place as a possible house share, I didn't really expect them to go ahead, but as it turned out they all decided to sign on the dotted line- it was almost too good to be true! We could finally start the job of booking flight tickets, and it was a relief not to have to clean the house to a neat pin every few days to show prospective tenants around. Other bonuses are that we can store my minivan at home, we don't need to redirect our mail again, and of course we know the place will be looked after. Phew!
So what's the plan? On November 28, we fly one-way to Bangkok. We are planning four months in Thailand, a few weeks in Western Australia, and the rest of the time in Malaysia and Indonesia most likely. Yes, it's almost all repeat from the last year, but our goal remains the same: hang out and live the easy life on chilled out beach islands, rather than sightseeing.
So there you have it. This really is our last ditch attempt to live life to the full before Kyla starts kindergarten and we get jobs and re-enter the rat race for a very looooong time! We hope you'll follow our adventure, again!
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MichaelnFaye
Michael & Faye Johnson
Ahhhh. Western Australia..
We spent 3 months in SW Western Australia when the kids were 2 and 3, living out of a 25 year old van we bought for $2000... All four of us slept in a tiny tent we bought at KMart on a mattress we bought at the dump in Perth. One of the highlights of our time away. It was so expensive (compared to Asia), but the isolation, cleanliness and lack of people really cleansed the soul. The stars, oh the stars. After 9 months in SE Asia, I didn’t realise how much I missed the stars, especially when you can lie back and see the entire Milky Way.... If you can make it to Esperance, do it. Cape le Grand National park is breathtaking. We even went back a couple of years ago for our ten year wedding anniversary. We were in Coral Bay for our second anniversary (pre kids), and we wanted to show the kids a reef you can swim to from the shore. Well worth the 2400km round trip drive! :)