1
00:00:09,560 --> 00:00:09,720
Speaker 1: Hi.

2
00:00:09,960 --> 00:00:13,840
Speaker 2: I'm Laura Vanderkamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist,

3
00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:14,440
Speaker 2: and speaker.

4
00:00:15,320 --> 00:00:19,120
Speaker 3: And I'm Sarah Hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician, writer,

5
00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:22,280
Speaker 3: and course creator. We are two working parents who love

6
00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:24,000
Speaker 3: our careers and our families.

7
00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:27,360
Speaker 2: Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about

8
00:00:27,360 --> 00:00:30,360
Speaker 2: how real women manage work, family, and time for fun.

9
00:00:30,880 --> 00:00:33,360
Speaker 2: From figuring out childcare to mapping out long.

10
00:00:33,280 --> 00:00:34,200
Speaker 1: Term career goals.

11
00:00:34,440 --> 00:00:39,320
Speaker 2: We want you to get the most out of life.

12
00:00:41,159 --> 00:00:42,640
Speaker 2: Welcome the best of both worlds.

13
00:00:42,800 --> 00:00:43,640
Speaker 4: This is Laura.

14
00:00:43,680 --> 00:00:46,920
Speaker 2: This episode is airing in mid December of twenty twenty four.

15
00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:50,240
Speaker 2: Sarah is going to be interviewing Onika Raymond, who is

16
00:00:50,280 --> 00:00:52,600
Speaker 2: a travel journalist. They're going to be talking about all

17
00:00:52,680 --> 00:00:58,160
Speaker 2: things traveling with children, attempting to enjoy what is sometimes

18
00:00:58,200 --> 00:01:03,959
Speaker 2: a stressful experience, having a different mindset about that. So, Sarah,

19
00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:06,160
Speaker 2: you've traveled with your kids. What are some of your

20
00:01:06,200 --> 00:01:08,320
Speaker 2: favorite trips that you've taken with your kids?

21
00:01:08,760 --> 00:01:08,960
Speaker 1: Yeah.

22
00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:11,600
Speaker 3: I thought it was fun to discuss kind of like

23
00:01:11,720 --> 00:01:14,040
Speaker 3: top trips with Onnika, and then that got me reflecting

24
00:01:14,080 --> 00:01:18,400
Speaker 3: on what have our top trips been? So my kids

25
00:01:18,480 --> 00:01:21,440
Speaker 3: and I would agree with them, say that our Alaska

26
00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:24,560
Speaker 3: and Vancouver trip holds the number one spot. We went

27
00:01:24,920 --> 00:01:28,360
Speaker 3: summer of twenty twenty three and we went with a

28
00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:30,959
Speaker 3: friends fan like the family that we travel with, so

29
00:01:30,959 --> 00:01:32,480
Speaker 3: we were with them for kind of half the trip,

30
00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:34,480
Speaker 3: and there was also a Disney cruise in there, so

31
00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:37,319
Speaker 3: it just it had a lot packed into about a

32
00:01:37,319 --> 00:01:40,000
Speaker 3: twelve day stretch and it was wonderful and Alaska is

33
00:01:40,040 --> 00:01:44,280
Speaker 3: like just another world, So that was number one. Number two,

34
00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:47,080
Speaker 3: I'm gonna cheat a little bit because we've taken this

35
00:01:47,120 --> 00:01:51,680
Speaker 3: trip twice, but skiing in Montana is a family favorite,

36
00:01:51,720 --> 00:01:55,000
Speaker 3: and both times we went, it was honestly surpassed our

37
00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:57,080
Speaker 3: expectations and just so many fond memories.

38
00:01:57,120 --> 00:01:59,960
Speaker 4: So that gets the number two spot. And then no

39
00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:00,680
Speaker 4: number three.

40
00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:04,440
Speaker 3: I debated on this and I was like, oh, something beachy,

41
00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:07,600
Speaker 3: But then ultimately we had a really memorable trip to

42
00:02:07,680 --> 00:02:11,359
Speaker 3: Whistler in Seattle and Portland in twenty eighteen. That was

43
00:02:11,400 --> 00:02:14,200
Speaker 3: a trip where Genevieve I had in a baby carrier

44
00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:16,520
Speaker 3: the whole time, and it was like, right as she

45
00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:18,800
Speaker 3: was starting to crawl, I remember being like, please don't crawl,

46
00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:21,000
Speaker 3: Please don't crawl. And then of course like right as

47
00:02:21,040 --> 00:02:24,519
Speaker 3: the trip was starting, she figured out how to scoot

48
00:02:24,520 --> 00:02:27,480
Speaker 3: all over the place, but nonetheless it was really really fun.

49
00:02:27,960 --> 00:02:30,480
Speaker 3: Once again, the theme was meeting up with friends, because

50
00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:33,760
Speaker 3: we visited Josh's really close friend who lives in Seattle,

51
00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:36,240
Speaker 3: and I also saw friends in Portland as well, So.

52
00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:39,200
Speaker 4: Definitely some common ingredients there. We like mountains, we like

53
00:02:39,280 --> 00:02:41,079
Speaker 4: to be cool, and we like to see friends.

54
00:02:41,240 --> 00:02:41,440
Speaker 1: Yeah.

55
00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:44,360
Speaker 2: I was going to say the cool mountainous region seems

56
00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:48,040
Speaker 2: to be a theme with your favorite travel I mean,

57
00:02:48,080 --> 00:02:50,239
Speaker 2: I've taken a lot of good shops. I didn't necessarily

58
00:02:50,360 --> 00:02:53,000
Speaker 2: rank these top three, but some of the most memorable

59
00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:55,600
Speaker 2: are some recent ones. I really enjoyed going to Spain

60
00:02:55,680 --> 00:03:00,359
Speaker 2: with my boys this past year. Taking Ruth to Paris

61
00:03:00,440 --> 00:03:03,839
Speaker 2: to see Taylor Swift also a really cool one. And

62
00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:07,120
Speaker 2: then last summer and summer twenty twenty three, we went

63
00:03:07,240 --> 00:03:10,800
Speaker 2: to Norway with the Big four kids, and that was

64
00:03:10,919 --> 00:03:14,200
Speaker 2: also a really memorable trip, traveling all around the country

65
00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:18,840
Speaker 2: seeing some amazing, cool mountainous scenery. It is different from

66
00:03:18,880 --> 00:03:20,799
Speaker 2: what both of us are experienced in our daily life,

67
00:03:20,800 --> 00:03:23,600
Speaker 2: so I think that's a lot of fun. Have you

68
00:03:23,639 --> 00:03:25,200
Speaker 2: ever considered living abroad?

69
00:03:25,919 --> 00:03:28,520
Speaker 3: We once went through a little New Zealand phase, even

70
00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:31,240
Speaker 3: to the point of like figuring out what we had

71
00:03:31,280 --> 00:03:34,720
Speaker 3: to fill out and learning about their elaborate points system

72
00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:38,080
Speaker 3: for moving there, Like you have to kind of prove

73
00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:39,840
Speaker 3: your worth and prove that you have years left to

74
00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:42,800
Speaker 3: have earning power and contributing to their society. You can't

75
00:03:42,840 --> 00:03:44,720
Speaker 3: just like plunk down in New Zealand whenever.

76
00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:45,040
Speaker 4: You feel like it.

77
00:03:45,080 --> 00:03:47,440
Speaker 3: But we we were like, Okay, I think as two doctors,

78
00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:49,760
Speaker 3: we have like a decent enough chance our points value

79
00:03:49,800 --> 00:03:52,120
Speaker 3: was going to be high enough, and we were like

80
00:03:52,160 --> 00:03:53,640
Speaker 3: doing this, and then I was like, eh, I kind

81
00:03:53,640 --> 00:03:55,760
Speaker 3: of want another baby, and I really don't think I

82
00:03:55,800 --> 00:03:58,320
Speaker 3: feel like doing that while we're also moving to another country,

83
00:03:58,400 --> 00:04:01,520
Speaker 3: So that plan was scrapped. Genevieve is here and we're

84
00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:04,600
Speaker 3: probably staying in the United States for the foreseeable future.

85
00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:06,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.

86
00:04:06,600 --> 00:04:09,280
Speaker 2: I think the idea of like doing a summer abroad

87
00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:12,200
Speaker 2: or something. I don't think I'd want to move anywhere,

88
00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:16,480
Speaker 2: but like two to three months might be a fun experience.

89
00:04:17,320 --> 00:04:18,520
Speaker 4: That's certainly a topic.

90
00:04:18,920 --> 00:04:21,440
Speaker 2: We're going to cover at one point on the show.

91
00:04:21,480 --> 00:04:25,240
Speaker 2: And then it didn't work out for various reasons. But yeah, no,

92
00:04:25,320 --> 00:04:27,479
Speaker 2: I think it would be fun to live abroad for

93
00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:30,800
Speaker 2: a couple months and with kids. Most likely that would

94
00:04:30,839 --> 00:04:32,720
Speaker 2: just be in the summer, but don't have any current

95
00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:33,480
Speaker 2: plans for it.

96
00:04:33,680 --> 00:04:34,920
Speaker 4: Just doing well travel.

97
00:04:35,480 --> 00:04:37,719
Speaker 3: Our guest has done lots of that and she shares

98
00:04:37,760 --> 00:04:40,000
Speaker 3: how that can work with certain flexible careers.

99
00:04:40,040 --> 00:04:42,080
Speaker 4: So I think you'll be excited to hear it.

100
00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:46,200
Speaker 2: Yeah sounds good. All right, Well, let's hear from Onnka Raymond.

101
00:04:46,880 --> 00:04:50,440
Speaker 3: So, I am so excited to welcome Onnika, a travel

102
00:04:50,480 --> 00:04:54,320
Speaker 3: journalist with many years of travel experience and so much

103
00:04:54,400 --> 00:04:57,120
Speaker 3: amazing adventures and knowledge to share with us today.

104
00:04:57,680 --> 00:04:59,440
Speaker 4: Thank you for coming on the show Onnka.

105
00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:02,080
Speaker 3: Tell our life listeners a little bit about yourself and

106
00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:04,160
Speaker 3: where you are recording from right now.

107
00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:06,960
Speaker 5: Sure, thank you so much for having me on the show.

108
00:05:07,040 --> 00:05:09,320
Speaker 5: Really excited to be a part of this.

109
00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:12,159
Speaker 1: And what can I say? So, my name is Onka.

110
00:05:12,279 --> 00:05:15,560
Speaker 5: I am a travel journalist, I'm an on camera host,

111
00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:20,359
Speaker 5: and more than anything else, I'm just a storyteller and

112
00:05:20,360 --> 00:05:23,599
Speaker 5: an explorer. And I'm currently on a round the world

113
00:05:23,600 --> 00:05:26,960
Speaker 5: trip with my family and so I am talking to

114
00:05:26,960 --> 00:05:33,360
Speaker 5: you from Namibia. So yeah, I've been gosh, I've been

115
00:05:33,640 --> 00:05:37,599
Speaker 5: on the road. For almost seven weeks. It's been about

116
00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:40,800
Speaker 5: five weeks that I've been in Africa, traveling to a

117
00:05:40,800 --> 00:05:43,480
Speaker 5: bunch of different countries on the continent, which has been

118
00:05:43,880 --> 00:05:49,080
Speaker 5: amazing and fulfilling. Currently, I am in Namibia, which is

119
00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:52,359
Speaker 5: such an incredible, incredible place. It's my first time here.

120
00:05:53,520 --> 00:05:55,479
Speaker 5: Oh good, I can't wait to share more about it.

121
00:05:55,480 --> 00:05:57,000
Speaker 5: It's just an incredible trip so far.

122
00:05:57,640 --> 00:06:00,280
Speaker 3: Oh, I can't wait to hear about it. Give us

123
00:06:00,279 --> 00:06:03,080
Speaker 3: a little bit of background. Were you always a traveler?

124
00:06:03,320 --> 00:06:07,040
Speaker 3: How did you get interested in traveling so frequently and

125
00:06:07,080 --> 00:06:10,040
Speaker 3: sharing your stories about it and becoming a travel journalist

126
00:06:10,080 --> 00:06:12,440
Speaker 3: so taking it to the professional level, Like how did

127
00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:13,120
Speaker 3: this come about?

128
00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:14,159
Speaker 1: Yes?

129
00:06:14,440 --> 00:06:17,280
Speaker 5: So, you know, I always say that travel was kind

130
00:06:17,279 --> 00:06:20,159
Speaker 5: of in my blood or it was kind of I

131
00:06:20,160 --> 00:06:22,719
Speaker 5: guess within me to begin with, it's in my DNA.

132
00:06:23,240 --> 00:06:26,560
Speaker 5: I grew up in Toronto, Canada, which is a very

133
00:06:26,680 --> 00:06:29,400
Speaker 5: multicultural city. If you've ever been, it's one of the

134
00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:33,719
Speaker 5: most think multicultural or it's one of the most culturally

135
00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:37,720
Speaker 5: diverse cities in the entire world. And my family actually

136
00:06:37,720 --> 00:06:41,400
Speaker 5: hails from Jamaica. So from the very start, from before

137
00:06:41,440 --> 00:06:44,240
Speaker 5: I even turned a year old, I had a passport.

138
00:06:44,560 --> 00:06:47,320
Speaker 5: I made my first trip abroad to Jamaica when I

139
00:06:47,360 --> 00:06:50,680
Speaker 5: was I believe eleven months old, and so we just

140
00:06:50,839 --> 00:06:54,839
Speaker 5: always traveled when I was younger because it was just

141
00:06:54,839 --> 00:06:58,279
Speaker 5: something that we did. But it was funny because I

142
00:06:58,360 --> 00:07:01,800
Speaker 5: tell people that people like me, or people who come

143
00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:04,400
Speaker 5: from where I come from, we traveled more so for

144
00:07:04,600 --> 00:07:09,880
Speaker 5: immigration and asylum. We didn't travel for leisure or entertainment

145
00:07:10,280 --> 00:07:14,000
Speaker 5: or for transformation. Travel for US was very much a necessity.

146
00:07:14,520 --> 00:07:18,160
Speaker 5: And so even though I traveled extensively when I was younger,

147
00:07:18,200 --> 00:07:23,120
Speaker 5: it was mostly to visit family and more family in

148
00:07:23,200 --> 00:07:24,480
Speaker 5: the Caribbean.

149
00:07:25,560 --> 00:07:26,560
Speaker 1: In the US.

150
00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:30,520
Speaker 5: And it wasn't until I went to university that I

151
00:07:30,560 --> 00:07:32,200
Speaker 5: had the chance to do a study abroad.

152
00:07:32,720 --> 00:07:34,200
Speaker 1: And I did a study abroad. I lived for a

153
00:07:34,280 --> 00:07:35,000
Speaker 1: year in France.

154
00:07:35,200 --> 00:07:37,640
Speaker 5: And I always repeat this story to people where I

155
00:07:37,680 --> 00:07:40,600
Speaker 5: say that in the first week living in the residence hall,

156
00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:43,800
Speaker 5: so living in the dorms, I met people from countries

157
00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:46,920
Speaker 5: that I had never even heard of before. I met

158
00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:50,280
Speaker 5: people from the Comoros Islands, I met people from Madagascar,

159
00:07:50,560 --> 00:07:54,280
Speaker 5: I met people from a lot of different French colonies,

160
00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:57,960
Speaker 5: departments and territories, and that just opened up my eyes.

161
00:07:58,000 --> 00:07:59,960
Speaker 5: And then of course living in Europe for a year.

162
00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:02,440
Speaker 5: I had the chance to travel all around France. I

163
00:08:02,480 --> 00:08:06,040
Speaker 5: did a little bit of European travel, traveling to Italy

164
00:08:06,280 --> 00:08:08,840
Speaker 5: and to England and to Spain and Portugal, and I

165
00:08:08,840 --> 00:08:12,440
Speaker 5: even had the opportunity to touch down on the African continent.

166
00:08:12,680 --> 00:08:15,280
Speaker 5: I had the chance to visit Morocco. And so after

167
00:08:15,360 --> 00:08:19,720
Speaker 5: having that experience for a year, it totally expanded my worldview.

168
00:08:20,040 --> 00:08:20,640
Speaker 1: And so by the.

169
00:08:20,600 --> 00:08:23,520
Speaker 5: Time I got back to Canada, I got back to Toronto,

170
00:08:24,400 --> 00:08:27,880
Speaker 5: my travel bug, the travel bug bit me, and so

171
00:08:28,240 --> 00:08:31,800
Speaker 5: I wanted to find a way, anyway really to get

172
00:08:31,840 --> 00:08:34,440
Speaker 5: back abroad again. And you have to understand that this

173
00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:38,079
Speaker 5: was before social media, This was before Instagram, this was

174
00:08:38,120 --> 00:08:41,880
Speaker 5: before the internet was what it is today, and so

175
00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:44,079
Speaker 5: there was no such thing as being a digital nomad.

176
00:08:44,559 --> 00:08:47,720
Speaker 5: And the only things you could do to keep on

177
00:08:47,800 --> 00:08:50,240
Speaker 5: traveling and to make a living at it was either

178
00:08:50,360 --> 00:08:54,040
Speaker 5: to go overseas as part of the military, or go

179
00:08:54,120 --> 00:08:58,640
Speaker 5: in some sort of diplomatic function as a foreign service officer.

180
00:08:58,679 --> 00:08:59,640
Speaker 1: Or to teach.

181
00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:03,600
Speaker 5: And so I got into education that allowed me to

182
00:09:03,679 --> 00:09:06,200
Speaker 5: teach overseas. So I taught overseas in France. I taught

183
00:09:06,200 --> 00:09:09,560
Speaker 5: English in France and then afterward I went back to

184
00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:12,960
Speaker 5: Canada the US to get a master's in education to

185
00:09:12,960 --> 00:09:14,960
Speaker 5: get a teaching certification.

186
00:09:15,400 --> 00:09:18,120
Speaker 1: And then I went back abroad.

187
00:09:18,240 --> 00:09:21,680
Speaker 5: I ended up teaching in what are known as international schools.

188
00:09:21,960 --> 00:09:27,120
Speaker 5: So I was teaching I guess, well off, affluent expat

189
00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:31,320
Speaker 5: families who were posted overseas, and so that kind of

190
00:09:31,320 --> 00:09:34,319
Speaker 5: started a career in education that was ten years long.

191
00:09:34,679 --> 00:09:37,640
Speaker 5: And had the opportunity to teach in Hong Kong and

192
00:09:37,800 --> 00:09:42,400
Speaker 5: in Mexico and in England before I moved to the

193
00:09:42,480 --> 00:09:46,400
Speaker 5: US in twenty sixteen and decided that I did not

194
00:09:46,600 --> 00:09:49,800
Speaker 5: want to teach in New York City. And by that time,

195
00:09:50,040 --> 00:09:53,480
Speaker 5: Instagram was kind of a thing and social media kind

196
00:09:53,480 --> 00:09:55,800
Speaker 5: of was a thing, and where I was just kind

197
00:09:55,800 --> 00:09:58,400
Speaker 5: of writing for different publications.

198
00:09:58,440 --> 00:09:59,400
Speaker 1: I was writing articles.

199
00:10:00,040 --> 00:10:04,439
Speaker 5: Realized that I could actually use social media as a

200
00:10:04,520 --> 00:10:08,400
Speaker 5: vehicle to continue traveling and continue working in this field,

201
00:10:08,440 --> 00:10:10,439
Speaker 5: and so it was all really organic, to be quite

202
00:10:10,480 --> 00:10:12,480
Speaker 5: honest with you. You know, when I was teaching and

203
00:10:12,559 --> 00:10:16,080
Speaker 5: before social media was reliefing, I had a blog. From

204
00:10:16,120 --> 00:10:19,440
Speaker 5: that blog, I started getting noticed by different publications like

205
00:10:19,480 --> 00:10:24,520
Speaker 5: Conde Nest Traveler, and so I started getting commissions to

206
00:10:24,800 --> 00:10:28,160
Speaker 5: write articles for various travel publications, and then when I

207
00:10:28,200 --> 00:10:31,680
Speaker 5: moved to the US, I really went in and started

208
00:10:31,720 --> 00:10:36,520
Speaker 5: doing like YouTube and all these other you know, kind

209
00:10:36,559 --> 00:10:39,640
Speaker 5: of working these social media platforms. And from that, my

210
00:10:39,720 --> 00:10:45,920
Speaker 5: presence online really grew. I was able to attract different

211
00:10:46,440 --> 00:10:49,880
Speaker 5: contracts and sponsors and all of these different things. And

212
00:10:50,240 --> 00:10:53,000
Speaker 5: here I am, almost ten years later working in the field,

213
00:10:53,040 --> 00:10:53,920
Speaker 5: which has been so cool.

214
00:10:54,040 --> 00:10:56,959
Speaker 4: Your journey to becoming a travel professional. I love it.

215
00:10:57,440 --> 00:11:00,120
Speaker 3: So when did kids come into this story? Because I

216
00:11:00,200 --> 00:11:01,960
Speaker 3: know you're a mom now, I don't know how old

217
00:11:01,960 --> 00:11:05,320
Speaker 3: your kids are, so share kind of when that came about.

218
00:11:05,400 --> 00:11:09,080
Speaker 3: And I'm curious, like, did motherhood change your feelings about

219
00:11:09,120 --> 00:11:11,319
Speaker 3: travel or were you worried it would change things at all?

220
00:11:12,160 --> 00:11:16,640
Speaker 5: So yeah, transparently, I was just traveling and having a

221
00:11:16,679 --> 00:11:19,600
Speaker 5: good old time. I didn't know if I was interested

222
00:11:19,679 --> 00:11:23,480
Speaker 5: in having kids. I was footloose and fancy free. My

223
00:11:23,559 --> 00:11:29,000
Speaker 5: husband and I were deeks, so double income kids living overseas.

224
00:11:29,040 --> 00:11:31,360
Speaker 5: I actually met my husband overseas in Hong Kong, and

225
00:11:31,440 --> 00:11:34,959
Speaker 5: he's a German national like he's European, like properly European.

226
00:11:36,320 --> 00:11:41,400
Speaker 5: We were just traveling the world together. We lived in

227
00:11:41,559 --> 00:11:46,240
Speaker 5: Hong Kong, together. We lived in London, England together, and

228
00:11:46,280 --> 00:11:48,240
Speaker 5: then we moved to the US together and we were

229
00:11:48,240 --> 00:11:51,559
Speaker 5: just having a great old time traveling and when made

230
00:11:51,600 --> 00:11:54,240
Speaker 5: the decision to have kids, it was kind of one

231
00:11:54,280 --> 00:11:56,720
Speaker 5: of these things where it was like, Okay, we waited

232
00:11:56,800 --> 00:12:00,640
Speaker 5: until the last second, you know, it was kind of like, Okay,

233
00:12:00,679 --> 00:12:02,679
Speaker 5: let's make sure that we get all these travels out

234
00:12:02,679 --> 00:12:05,720
Speaker 5: of our system, because inevitably, we're going to have this child,

235
00:12:05,800 --> 00:12:08,680
Speaker 5: and everybody is telling us that, you know, we're not

236
00:12:08,679 --> 00:12:10,800
Speaker 5: going to travel after we have a kid, where we're

237
00:12:10,800 --> 00:12:12,520
Speaker 5: not going to be able to travel, We're not going

238
00:12:12,600 --> 00:12:15,480
Speaker 5: to want to travel. So let's just get out of

239
00:12:15,480 --> 00:12:18,920
Speaker 5: our system now. But you know what, we had our daughter.

240
00:12:19,120 --> 00:12:23,760
Speaker 5: She's almost five, she's turning five in a month, and honestly,

241
00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:27,680
Speaker 5: I feel as though that kind of reignited my urge

242
00:12:27,679 --> 00:12:28,920
Speaker 5: and desire to see the world.

243
00:12:29,960 --> 00:12:32,360
Speaker 1: My daughter at this point, she's almost five, She's been

244
00:12:32,400 --> 00:12:33,480
Speaker 1: to over thirty countries.

245
00:12:34,440 --> 00:12:40,960
Speaker 5: We've spent months in Latin America and in Asia. So

246
00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:43,880
Speaker 5: she's just very well attuned to the world and I

247
00:12:43,920 --> 00:12:47,040
Speaker 5: think it hasn't stopped us at all. I think people

248
00:12:47,080 --> 00:12:51,560
Speaker 5: are really surprised that she's traveled so much, and they're

249
00:12:51,600 --> 00:12:55,559
Speaker 5: surprised even more that we haven't let her being around

250
00:12:55,880 --> 00:12:58,920
Speaker 5: stop us. We just kind of bring her along and

251
00:12:59,320 --> 00:13:04,040
Speaker 5: it just as really a testament to how adaptable kids are,

252
00:13:04,760 --> 00:13:11,680
Speaker 5: because everything she does, everything she sees, everything she learns.

253
00:13:11,800 --> 00:13:15,080
Speaker 5: I mean, it's really through us as a vessel. And

254
00:13:15,160 --> 00:13:18,679
Speaker 5: so this is her normal, traveling from place to place,

255
00:13:18,760 --> 00:13:21,520
Speaker 5: different time zones, being on the plane, meeting different people,

256
00:13:21,760 --> 00:13:26,079
Speaker 5: hearing different languages. That is her normal, and I really

257
00:13:26,320 --> 00:13:29,680
Speaker 5: love that for her. She's a true global citizen in

258
00:13:29,720 --> 00:13:32,400
Speaker 5: a way that my husband and I never worked just

259
00:13:32,400 --> 00:13:34,640
Speaker 5: because we didn't have that opportunity.

260
00:13:34,880 --> 00:13:36,920
Speaker 1: And forty years ago.

261
00:13:36,840 --> 00:13:40,120
Speaker 5: Life was very very different, right, Like the access and

262
00:13:40,160 --> 00:13:43,880
Speaker 5: the mobility that we have now does not compare it

263
00:13:43,920 --> 00:13:48,440
Speaker 5: to what it was like back then. And so I

264
00:13:48,480 --> 00:13:52,360
Speaker 5: think not only that did her, you know, being born

265
00:13:52,600 --> 00:13:57,160
Speaker 5: reignite my need or my desire to travel, but it

266
00:13:57,360 --> 00:14:02,040
Speaker 5: also very much compelled me to want to share the

267
00:14:02,120 --> 00:14:05,360
Speaker 5: journey with other people and to show people to normalize

268
00:14:05,440 --> 00:14:08,680
Speaker 5: traveling with small children to other people.

269
00:14:09,520 --> 00:14:10,040
Speaker 4: I love it.

270
00:14:10,320 --> 00:14:12,199
Speaker 3: We're going to take a quick break and when we're back,

271
00:14:12,200 --> 00:14:14,080
Speaker 3: I'm going to ask you some questions about those early

272
00:14:14,160 --> 00:14:29,520
Speaker 3: days of traveling with a baby. All right, we are back,

273
00:14:29,680 --> 00:14:32,480
Speaker 3: and I love that your daughter has gotten to have

274
00:14:32,520 --> 00:14:36,400
Speaker 3: all these experiences. I agree that sounds absolutely amazing. I'm

275
00:14:36,440 --> 00:14:39,080
Speaker 3: curious as to whether there was any Now, maybe there wasn't,

276
00:14:39,080 --> 00:14:40,880
Speaker 3: because you're like more of a pro than I think

277
00:14:40,920 --> 00:14:43,440
Speaker 3: most of us are to start with. But did it

278
00:14:43,640 --> 00:14:46,400
Speaker 3: always feel easy from the get go, or even if

279
00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:49,080
Speaker 3: it did, were there any mistakes or learning points that

280
00:14:49,120 --> 00:14:51,680
Speaker 3: you made in the early days where you feel like

281
00:14:51,720 --> 00:14:54,520
Speaker 3: you've figured things out since then in terms of traveling

282
00:14:54,920 --> 00:14:57,000
Speaker 3: long haul trips and everything with a child.

283
00:14:57,000 --> 00:14:59,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean definitely. So. My daughter was a co

284
00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:00,560
Speaker 1: with baby.

285
00:15:00,680 --> 00:15:05,400
Speaker 5: She was born in January of twenty twenty, and by March,

286
00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:07,360
Speaker 5: when she turned two months old, we were actually due

287
00:15:07,440 --> 00:15:09,000
Speaker 5: to go on a trip. She was we were going

288
00:15:09,040 --> 00:15:12,800
Speaker 5: to go to California. I'll never forget, and basically everything

289
00:15:12,840 --> 00:15:16,280
Speaker 5: shut down. The US shut down completely, and so for

290
00:15:16,360 --> 00:15:18,920
Speaker 5: the first six months of her life, we didn't go anywhere,

291
00:15:19,560 --> 00:15:22,600
Speaker 5: we didn't travel, and then when she was six months old,

292
00:15:22,600 --> 00:15:24,960
Speaker 5: a little over six months old, we ended up going

293
00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:27,480
Speaker 5: to California. We ended up making that trip. In the end,

294
00:15:28,560 --> 00:15:31,440
Speaker 5: we stuck to social distancing and we stuck to trips.

295
00:15:31,560 --> 00:15:35,480
Speaker 5: You know, in the great outdoors where we wouldn't be

296
00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:37,560
Speaker 5: in like enclosed spaces or anything like that.

297
00:15:38,840 --> 00:15:40,200
Speaker 1: And I have to say, to.

298
00:15:40,160 --> 00:15:44,280
Speaker 5: Be quite honest with you that at least in that range,

299
00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:48,560
Speaker 5: that age range of like let's say, like zero to

300
00:15:49,920 --> 00:15:53,600
Speaker 5: like two years old, I think it was easier than

301
00:15:53,840 --> 00:15:56,520
Speaker 5: to travel with her just because she slept a lot,

302
00:15:57,360 --> 00:16:00,600
Speaker 5: she didn't really demand much. So for a lot of

303
00:16:01,240 --> 00:16:04,080
Speaker 5: new parents and parents of young children, I think there's

304
00:16:04,120 --> 00:16:07,360
Speaker 5: a lot of like reticence and a lot of fear

305
00:16:07,920 --> 00:16:08,920
Speaker 5: surrounding you know, what.

306
00:16:08,840 --> 00:16:10,400
Speaker 1: Are they going to do? Like what are you going

307
00:16:10,440 --> 00:16:12,280
Speaker 1: to eat? Like how are they gonna sleep on the plane?

308
00:16:12,360 --> 00:16:15,160
Speaker 1: Da da dah? And honestly, I feel.

309
00:16:14,960 --> 00:16:18,280
Speaker 5: As though before she could walk or talk was like

310
00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:22,320
Speaker 5: way easier because pretty much, you know, you just feed

311
00:16:22,360 --> 00:16:24,240
Speaker 5: her or you just make sure to travel during her

312
00:16:24,320 --> 00:16:28,480
Speaker 5: nap times, and it was easy peasy. Now she's a

313
00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:32,640
Speaker 5: lot more active. But I will say that now it's

314
00:16:32,680 --> 00:16:34,600
Speaker 5: almost like traveling with like a little adult. To be

315
00:16:34,680 --> 00:16:38,360
Speaker 5: quite honest with you, probably the most difficult stage for

316
00:16:38,440 --> 00:16:41,240
Speaker 5: us probably would have been about you know that two

317
00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:44,840
Speaker 5: to three years old phase where you know that verbal

318
00:16:45,080 --> 00:16:49,240
Speaker 5: is still developing, so they can't necessarily express exactly how

319
00:16:49,280 --> 00:16:52,160
Speaker 5: they feel. You get that terrible two thing going on

320
00:16:52,400 --> 00:16:54,360
Speaker 5: with like the tantrums.

321
00:16:54,920 --> 00:16:55,840
Speaker 1: That is challenging.

322
00:16:55,880 --> 00:16:58,680
Speaker 5: But something that I always say to people is, well,

323
00:16:58,960 --> 00:17:00,880
Speaker 5: your child would do that at home. So if they're

324
00:17:00,920 --> 00:17:03,840
Speaker 5: gonna like throw a tantrum at home, like, why not

325
00:17:03,880 --> 00:17:06,040
Speaker 5: do it in Greece, you know what I mean? So

326
00:17:06,080 --> 00:17:08,320
Speaker 5: at least you can kind of like go out for

327
00:17:08,840 --> 00:17:11,320
Speaker 5: like a drink and some sadiki later on, you know

328
00:17:11,359 --> 00:17:14,639
Speaker 5: what I'm saying. So for us, it was just always

329
00:17:14,680 --> 00:17:18,560
Speaker 5: important to just live our lives as we had been

330
00:17:18,600 --> 00:17:22,720
Speaker 5: living our lives before, just with an extra friend. So

331
00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:25,280
Speaker 5: it's been a really great time. And I think because

332
00:17:25,320 --> 00:17:28,040
Speaker 5: we've just never really made it a big deal, because

333
00:17:28,080 --> 00:17:31,520
Speaker 5: we've just made it so natural. Our daughter has just

334
00:17:31,560 --> 00:17:34,280
Speaker 5: followed suit like it's just no big deal to her

335
00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:37,480
Speaker 5: at all. She'll sleep when she's tired, if she wants

336
00:17:37,480 --> 00:17:39,640
Speaker 5: food or she's hungry, she'll let us know, she needs

337
00:17:39,720 --> 00:17:41,800
Speaker 5: to pee, she'll let us know, I mean, she just

338
00:17:42,160 --> 00:17:45,240
Speaker 5: lets us know about her needs and we accommodate her.

339
00:17:45,280 --> 00:17:49,680
Speaker 5: And honestly, it's no different than if we were at home.

340
00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:51,919
Speaker 3: No, that makes sense, And you're right, those are tricky

341
00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:54,600
Speaker 3: years with a kid no matter what, So you might

342
00:17:54,640 --> 00:17:57,680
Speaker 3: as well have them while enjoying all the awesome things

343
00:17:57,720 --> 00:17:59,840
Speaker 3: that you want to be doing. I'm with you that

344
00:17:59,880 --> 00:18:01,960
Speaker 3: I feel like I feel like it's like eighteen months

345
00:18:02,040 --> 00:18:04,520
Speaker 3: to three years is like, Oh, it's just a very

346
00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:07,879
Speaker 3: hard parenting time in general because your kids have opinions

347
00:18:08,080 --> 00:18:09,000
Speaker 3: but they make no sense.

348
00:18:09,119 --> 00:18:11,639
Speaker 4: Yes, and it's not like you can and they can't.

349
00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:13,399
Speaker 1: Yeah, they can't express.

350
00:18:13,040 --> 00:18:14,960
Speaker 3: Them and you can't reason with them because it's not

351
00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:16,520
Speaker 3: their fault, but they're not ready.

352
00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:17,600
Speaker 4: To do that yet.

353
00:18:17,640 --> 00:18:21,919
Speaker 3: Like, yeah, So what would you tell a family that

354
00:18:22,040 --> 00:18:26,160
Speaker 3: is maybe approaching their first trip abroad with a young kid.

355
00:18:26,280 --> 00:18:29,080
Speaker 3: Are there any go to hacks if it's not something

356
00:18:29,119 --> 00:18:32,639
Speaker 3: that's like old hat for that family, like anything that

357
00:18:32,680 --> 00:18:35,040
Speaker 3: you would think about in terms of planning the itinerary,

358
00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:37,760
Speaker 3: like leaving space for certain types of activities.

359
00:18:38,720 --> 00:18:39,840
Speaker 1: So tell me.

360
00:18:40,040 --> 00:18:44,080
Speaker 5: Particularly with young children, I always recommend if you're taking

361
00:18:44,200 --> 00:18:46,320
Speaker 5: some sort of flight, like a long haul flight, I

362
00:18:46,320 --> 00:18:48,639
Speaker 5: would say to do it during their nap time. So

363
00:18:48,840 --> 00:18:52,119
Speaker 5: I've found that traveling at night, for example, taking that

364
00:18:52,119 --> 00:18:54,840
Speaker 5: that red eye, that late night flight has been clutched

365
00:18:54,840 --> 00:18:58,159
Speaker 5: for us because our daughter that's when she's typically sleeping anyway,

366
00:18:58,400 --> 00:19:00,600
Speaker 5: so we benefit from that and we don't have to

367
00:19:00,600 --> 00:19:03,800
Speaker 5: worry about occupying her in a very tight space on

368
00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:05,240
Speaker 5: the plane.

369
00:19:05,400 --> 00:19:08,000
Speaker 1: Also bringing toys, you.

370
00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:12,399
Speaker 5: Know, activities, but new activities to keep kids occupied is

371
00:19:12,520 --> 00:19:15,960
Speaker 5: also very key if you're not a fan of screen time,

372
00:19:16,080 --> 00:19:18,359
Speaker 5: which I don't love screen time, but I love screen

373
00:19:18,400 --> 00:19:22,640
Speaker 5: time when it keeps my child quiet and not descriptive,

374
00:19:22,800 --> 00:19:26,560
Speaker 5: like in an enclosed space like an airplane. If you're

375
00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:30,480
Speaker 5: not into screen time, then bring what book, Bring cards,

376
00:19:30,560 --> 00:19:33,399
Speaker 5: Bring something tactile, something that they can kind of fuss

377
00:19:33,400 --> 00:19:37,520
Speaker 5: around with. Something that my now almost five year old

378
00:19:37,640 --> 00:19:40,960
Speaker 5: is really into for the last three or so months.

379
00:19:40,720 --> 00:19:41,680
Speaker 1: Is playing cards.

380
00:19:42,080 --> 00:19:48,440
Speaker 5: So we have Uno and it's just I guess complicated

381
00:19:48,600 --> 00:19:51,520
Speaker 5: for her enough to really engage and to make or

382
00:19:51,560 --> 00:19:54,640
Speaker 5: think about how to play her cards, but it's also

383
00:19:54,680 --> 00:19:57,240
Speaker 5: simple enough that she's still able to grasp the concepts.

384
00:19:57,359 --> 00:20:00,480
Speaker 5: So she's really enjoying playing cards. And I find that

385
00:20:01,640 --> 00:20:05,200
Speaker 5: us playing this card game even trump's like her getting

386
00:20:05,200 --> 00:20:07,639
Speaker 5: screen time, like it's insane. We'll go out to a

387
00:20:07,680 --> 00:20:10,080
Speaker 5: restaurant and the first thing she'll say is can we

388
00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:14,160
Speaker 5: play Luno? And so that's kind of been a game

389
00:20:14,280 --> 00:20:17,800
Speaker 5: changer for us. I would say, bring all the snacks

390
00:20:18,640 --> 00:20:22,240
Speaker 5: if you can't. Kids are picky, so obviously if there's

391
00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:25,120
Speaker 5: some sort of food that can sort of pacify them,

392
00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:29,040
Speaker 5: then most definitely if that makes the journey easier for you,

393
00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:31,720
Speaker 5: then definitely let them have it or.

394
00:20:31,720 --> 00:20:32,399
Speaker 1: Bring it along.

395
00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:37,320
Speaker 5: Something that I you know, before my daughter was really mobile,

396
00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:39,840
Speaker 5: because probably up until the age of three and a

397
00:20:39,880 --> 00:20:43,119
Speaker 5: half four we were still traveling with a stroller. We

398
00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:46,399
Speaker 5: had this really lightweight stroller that I love. It was

399
00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:50,400
Speaker 5: called the GB Mini Plus. I believe it's like one

400
00:20:50,400 --> 00:20:54,840
Speaker 5: of the smallest lightest strollers on the market, so clutch,

401
00:20:55,280 --> 00:20:56,800
Speaker 5: very easy. You know, a lot of people talk about

402
00:20:56,840 --> 00:20:59,520
Speaker 5: the Yo yo Zen and all these different things which

403
00:20:59,520 --> 00:21:02,879
Speaker 5: are slightly heavier and more robust, but I really, you know,

404
00:21:02,920 --> 00:21:05,840
Speaker 5: for me, mobility is key. So as soon as we

405
00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:09,800
Speaker 5: weren't able to babywear, which I love, like an Ergo baby,

406
00:21:10,720 --> 00:21:13,120
Speaker 5: like very baby wearing sort of thing.

407
00:21:13,560 --> 00:21:15,199
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you got too heavy for that.

408
00:21:16,400 --> 00:21:19,680
Speaker 5: I love bringing around this stroller which folded up into

409
00:21:19,680 --> 00:21:22,280
Speaker 5: basically nothing. It could fit in a carry on suitcase,

410
00:21:22,359 --> 00:21:26,480
Speaker 5: it can fit in the cabin, and it just gave

411
00:21:26,560 --> 00:21:28,920
Speaker 5: us kind of a little bit more freedom and ease

412
00:21:28,920 --> 00:21:31,080
Speaker 5: of mobility, just because my husband and I we love

413
00:21:31,119 --> 00:21:35,360
Speaker 5: walking everywhere and we want to avoid cars wherever possible,

414
00:21:35,480 --> 00:21:39,800
Speaker 5: wherever we can. So again, just like really simple things

415
00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:43,320
Speaker 5: like whether it's a product or whether it's just a

416
00:21:43,359 --> 00:21:46,040
Speaker 5: little accouterment that you can bring along, just to keep

417
00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:49,600
Speaker 5: your child occupied and to keep you as a parent saying,

418
00:21:50,920 --> 00:21:54,600
Speaker 5: I think that's kind of what I would suggest.

419
00:21:54,119 --> 00:21:56,120
Speaker 4: When you're doing your itinerary planning.

420
00:21:56,280 --> 00:21:58,320
Speaker 3: At One tip I've heard and that I have used

421
00:21:58,440 --> 00:22:00,680
Speaker 3: is to like make sure you include and some kind

422
00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:03,680
Speaker 3: of activity that provides space to run around, like even

423
00:22:03,680 --> 00:22:04,360
Speaker 3: if you're in some.

424
00:22:05,400 --> 00:22:06,160
Speaker 1: Yes, oh my god.

425
00:22:06,200 --> 00:22:09,679
Speaker 5: It's probably my biggest tip is when we travel, we

426
00:22:09,720 --> 00:22:13,880
Speaker 5: identify the playgrounds. We identify the playgrounds, like literally about

427
00:22:13,960 --> 00:22:18,880
Speaker 5: ninety minutes before we got onto this call, we're in Namibia,

428
00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:22,720
Speaker 5: but my child was at the playground. We identify the

429
00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:26,280
Speaker 5: playgrounds because inevitably, I mean, kids are young, they have

430
00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:30,800
Speaker 5: a lot of energy, and as much as you're kind

431
00:22:30,800 --> 00:22:34,280
Speaker 5: of like, okay, well they're local by like my schedule, No,

432
00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:37,960
Speaker 5: when they flip out, that's all out the window. So

433
00:22:38,160 --> 00:22:41,240
Speaker 5: definitely highly suggest carving out some time in your schedule

434
00:22:41,640 --> 00:22:45,200
Speaker 5: to allow kids to be kids another thing that we love.

435
00:22:45,240 --> 00:22:47,320
Speaker 5: And even on this current around the world trip that

436
00:22:47,359 --> 00:22:50,120
Speaker 5: we're doing, basically in every country, almost every country we've

437
00:22:50,160 --> 00:22:53,359
Speaker 5: been in, we've gone to the mall and we found

438
00:22:53,359 --> 00:22:57,800
Speaker 5: when these indoor playground sort of setups. So we were

439
00:22:57,840 --> 00:22:59,879
Speaker 5: just in Kenya and we were at the mall and

440
00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:02,280
Speaker 5: they had an indoor playground. You know, you pay ten

441
00:23:02,320 --> 00:23:04,600
Speaker 5: dollars for the hour, and it has all of this

442
00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:08,920
Speaker 5: set up with like a bouncy castle and different toys,

443
00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:11,000
Speaker 5: and a lot of them that we've been to have

444
00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:15,440
Speaker 5: costumes and things like that that kids can get into.

445
00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:18,600
Speaker 5: So the indoor playgrounds have been a lifesaver. The outdoor

446
00:23:18,600 --> 00:23:22,240
Speaker 5: playgrounds have been a lifesaver. And then if we're traveling

447
00:23:22,720 --> 00:23:25,760
Speaker 5: in terms of accommodation, if we're staying in a hotel

448
00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:29,280
Speaker 5: or actually I should probably say at resort, we always

449
00:23:29,320 --> 00:23:30,719
Speaker 5: try and see if we can find one that has

450
00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:31,399
Speaker 5: a kid's club.

451
00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:33,520
Speaker 1: A few weeks ago, we.

452
00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:37,720
Speaker 5: Were in Mauritius. We were staying on this really nice property.

453
00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:43,119
Speaker 5: It was a Meridian, the Meridian, and they had an amazing,

454
00:23:43,359 --> 00:23:46,120
Speaker 5: amazing kids club and we happened to be there over

455
00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:49,760
Speaker 5: Halloween and they even had programming special programming for Halloween.

456
00:23:49,840 --> 00:23:53,120
Speaker 5: So my child, who we didn't even want to tell

457
00:23:53,119 --> 00:23:54,960
Speaker 5: her Halloween was happening because we're afraid that she was

458
00:23:54,960 --> 00:23:56,480
Speaker 5: going to be really upset that she was missing it

459
00:23:56,520 --> 00:24:00,480
Speaker 5: in the US. In Mauritius, she got to attend the

460
00:24:00,520 --> 00:24:03,160
Speaker 5: Halloween party and she dressed up as a witch. And

461
00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:07,320
Speaker 5: that day they had a whole thing where they got

462
00:24:07,320 --> 00:24:09,600
Speaker 5: to learn like a dance routine to thriller, and then

463
00:24:09,680 --> 00:24:13,240
Speaker 5: they did it for the parents at the at the

464
00:24:13,280 --> 00:24:19,920
Speaker 5: tiki bar. So I think recognizing that your whole trip

465
00:24:19,960 --> 00:24:22,760
Speaker 5: does not need to be centered around your child's experience,

466
00:24:23,480 --> 00:24:29,040
Speaker 5: but really locking in and finding opportunities to make them

467
00:24:29,080 --> 00:24:31,960
Speaker 5: happy and to enrich them, you know, even in a

468
00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:34,040
Speaker 5: small way, I think it makes all the difference when

469
00:24:34,080 --> 00:24:34,960
Speaker 5: you're traveling with them.

470
00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:35,800
Speaker 4: I love that.

471
00:24:36,080 --> 00:24:38,199
Speaker 3: And the truth is, like even a playground can be

472
00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:41,520
Speaker 3: a cultural experience because the way the kids play are different.

473
00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:43,720
Speaker 3: You hear kids speaking different languages, and even like the

474
00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:46,680
Speaker 3: equipment is going to be different and the clothing like everything.

475
00:24:46,800 --> 00:24:49,280
Speaker 3: So I can see how like playgrounds around the world

476
00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:52,120
Speaker 3: would actually be way more fascinating than it might sound

477
00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:52,840
Speaker 3: from the outset.

478
00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:55,560
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, we were in a playground in a

479
00:24:55,600 --> 00:24:58,760
Speaker 5: few weeks ago in Saudi Arabia and Jetta, Saudi Arabia,

480
00:25:00,119 --> 00:25:04,400
Speaker 5: and my daughter was playing with like some Saudi.

481
00:25:04,119 --> 00:25:05,080
Speaker 1: Kids at the park.

482
00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:05,800
Speaker 4: That's awesome.

483
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:11,440
Speaker 5: It's amazing to see how little verbal communication actually counts

484
00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:16,040
Speaker 5: in those situations because my child will I've seen it

485
00:25:16,080 --> 00:25:19,080
Speaker 5: with my own eyes. She's bonded with kids where they

486
00:25:19,080 --> 00:25:22,560
Speaker 5: have completely different backgrounds linguistically and they're able to get

487
00:25:22,560 --> 00:25:23,080
Speaker 5: on just fun.

488
00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:25,880
Speaker 4: It's like tag is a universal language exactly.

489
00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:30,119
Speaker 3: Definitely, question about how you plan your travel Now, this

490
00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:32,639
Speaker 3: might be unfair because you're a professional, so a lot

491
00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:34,800
Speaker 3: of the planning might have to do with opportunities that

492
00:25:34,840 --> 00:25:37,040
Speaker 3: you get, which makes total sense because this is.

493
00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:38,520
Speaker 4: Your career as well.

494
00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:42,119
Speaker 3: But do you have like a long range like wishless

495
00:25:42,119 --> 00:25:44,399
Speaker 3: and how do you how do you track that? Like

496
00:25:44,440 --> 00:25:46,720
Speaker 3: how do you like do you have things you tell

497
00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:47,880
Speaker 3: me about your travel planning?

498
00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:53,119
Speaker 5: So when I started out traveling, I was younger, I

499
00:25:53,119 --> 00:25:54,960
Speaker 5: didn't have a ton of money, and I was just

500
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:57,840
Speaker 5: willing to go anywhere, and I really did not discriminate

501
00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:00,680
Speaker 5: when it came to traveling. So most of the time

502
00:26:01,119 --> 00:26:03,280
Speaker 5: back in the day when I was traveling, my travels

503
00:26:03,320 --> 00:26:04,760
Speaker 5: were based on how much it cost.

504
00:26:05,160 --> 00:26:07,040
Speaker 1: It was really simple.

505
00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:10,560
Speaker 5: I would go to the cheapest places because my objective

506
00:26:10,680 --> 00:26:13,800
Speaker 5: was just to be somewhere anywhere. Now that I'm older

507
00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:20,040
Speaker 5: and obviously more picky, more stubborn, have some more money,

508
00:26:20,359 --> 00:26:23,080
Speaker 5: I obviously have you know, a long and short list

509
00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:27,200
Speaker 5: in terms of my bucket list destinations or my must

510
00:26:27,240 --> 00:26:30,920
Speaker 5: dews and must sees. But still a lot of that

511
00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:35,120
Speaker 5: list is predicated on how much does it cost and

512
00:26:35,400 --> 00:26:36,960
Speaker 5: can I use? You know, now I'm just a little

513
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:41,040
Speaker 5: bit more sophisticated when it comes to funding these opportunities.

514
00:26:41,119 --> 00:26:44,439
Speaker 5: So can I use my credit card points? Can I

515
00:26:44,520 --> 00:26:45,520
Speaker 5: use my air miles?

516
00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:46,679
Speaker 1: For example?

517
00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:49,639
Speaker 5: We started this trip we knew that we wanted to

518
00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:53,520
Speaker 5: eventually hit Africa, but when we're looking at our points

519
00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:56,040
Speaker 5: of miles, we realized that it made way more sense

520
00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:58,639
Speaker 5: and we could get way better redemptions if we flew

521
00:26:58,680 --> 00:27:00,880
Speaker 5: to the Middle East first, And so that's what we did,

522
00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:02,960
Speaker 5: and we ended up spending a couple of weeks in

523
00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:08,359
Speaker 5: Dubai and in Saudi Arabia. And Saudi Arabia wasn't necessarily

524
00:27:08,400 --> 00:27:11,120
Speaker 5: on our wish list, but once we saw how easy

525
00:27:11,880 --> 00:27:14,159
Speaker 5: and quick it would be to get there from Dubai.

526
00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:16,680
Speaker 5: It was kind of like, why not. So I think

527
00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:20,000
Speaker 5: it's a mixture of that. It's a mixture of curiosity,

528
00:27:20,280 --> 00:27:27,320
Speaker 5: it's a mixture of circumstance, it's a mixture of cost

529
00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:31,320
Speaker 5: and all of those things combined. Really, you know, And

530
00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:33,919
Speaker 5: I think just in general, we're just really I'm just

531
00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:38,479
Speaker 5: very open minded. I'll still pretty much go anywhere. So

532
00:27:38,720 --> 00:27:41,000
Speaker 5: if it's easy and it's cheap, I'll probably get there first.

533
00:27:42,119 --> 00:27:46,600
Speaker 5: And the more expensive destinations or the more I guess

534
00:27:47,040 --> 00:27:50,680
Speaker 5: onerous destinations to visit, those are kind of left to

535
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:53,520
Speaker 5: the wayside for now until I can figure out a

536
00:27:53,560 --> 00:27:54,760
Speaker 5: way to kind of facility.

537
00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:57,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then maybe one day some amazing deal will

538
00:27:57,080 --> 00:27:59,960
Speaker 3: pop up and you're like, great New Zealand, here I come.

539
00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:01,840
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely absolutely.

540
00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:05,200
Speaker 5: I'm a huge fan of just kind of throwing caution

541
00:28:05,359 --> 00:28:09,040
Speaker 5: to the wind and just kind of checking. There's a

542
00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:12,280
Speaker 5: couple of online platforms where you can just kind of

543
00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:16,280
Speaker 5: click your your starting point and then in terms of

544
00:28:16,320 --> 00:28:19,399
Speaker 5: the destination, you can just sort by cost, and so

545
00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:19,760
Speaker 5: I do.

546
00:28:19,760 --> 00:28:20,400
Speaker 4: A lot of that.

547
00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:22,280
Speaker 3: Do you mind would you be able to share a

548
00:28:22,359 --> 00:28:27,760
Speaker 3: couple of those orner them? So all right, well we're

549
00:28:27,800 --> 00:28:29,919
Speaker 3: going to take another quick break, and then I'm gonna

550
00:28:30,119 --> 00:28:32,080
Speaker 3: ask you about some of the most memorable trips you

551
00:28:32,080 --> 00:28:32,760
Speaker 3: have ever taken.

552
00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:34,280
Speaker 4: Maybe you're on one right now.

553
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:50,120
Speaker 3: All right, we are back and you're in the Mibium

554
00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:51,760
Speaker 3: right now, so maybe this is going to be part

555
00:28:51,760 --> 00:28:55,120
Speaker 3: of the answer. But if you had to say the

556
00:28:55,160 --> 00:28:59,000
Speaker 3: top three most memorable or fantastic trips you've taken with

557
00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:00,960
Speaker 3: your daughter, what would they be?

558
00:29:01,160 --> 00:29:03,360
Speaker 1: Ooh so so so difficult to say.

559
00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:05,800
Speaker 5: But you did mention that I'm in Namibia right now,

560
00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:09,720
Speaker 5: and I absolutely had and oh my goodness, this is

561
00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:13,920
Speaker 5: amazing moment. Two days ago so I had the chance

562
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:17,920
Speaker 5: to visit. I guess it's the is it the Nama Desert.

563
00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:19,800
Speaker 5: I'm not even sure what the desert is called, but

564
00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:24,040
Speaker 5: it's in sous Le dead Lay, which I'm probably butchering

565
00:29:24,120 --> 00:29:25,200
Speaker 5: the pronunciation of.

566
00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:29,280
Speaker 1: But it is in Namibia, and it's one of the

567
00:29:29,680 --> 00:29:33,680
Speaker 1: I guess the largest deserts. And I'm not too sure of.

568
00:29:34,520 --> 00:29:37,120
Speaker 5: The superlative that you would attach to it, but it

569
00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:40,840
Speaker 5: definitely has one of the largest dunes and large expansive

570
00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:43,880
Speaker 5: dunes in the world. And so we were climbing this

571
00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:47,880
Speaker 5: done which is affectionately called the big Daddy dune, and

572
00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:49,959
Speaker 5: I thought to myself, you know, I was surrounded on

573
00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:55,480
Speaker 5: all sides by this red dirt, just miles and miles

574
00:29:55,520 --> 00:30:00,160
Speaker 5: of it, and I thought, this is absolutely incredible. This

575
00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:02,680
Speaker 5: is what living is about. And my daughter was just

576
00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:06,240
Speaker 5: having such great time. She's definitely a beach girl. We

577
00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:09,320
Speaker 5: were living in Miami prior to going on this trip,

578
00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:12,280
Speaker 5: and so she was just she loves the beach, she

579
00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:15,200
Speaker 5: loves being in the sand, playing in the sand, and

580
00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:17,720
Speaker 5: so she was just having an incredible time. And I thought,

581
00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:21,520
Speaker 5: this is really really cool. But honestly, I mean, there

582
00:30:21,560 --> 00:30:24,160
Speaker 5: are It's so funny. Sometimes I go to places and

583
00:30:24,200 --> 00:30:26,720
Speaker 5: I'm like, oh, this was like a tough trip. I'm

584
00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:29,440
Speaker 5: glad that it's over, and then afterwards, a week later,

585
00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:32,680
Speaker 5: I kind of get twins. I'm like, well, actually, that

586
00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:33,160
Speaker 5: was really fun.

587
00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:34,720
Speaker 1: I wouldn't mind be living that again.

588
00:30:35,200 --> 00:30:39,840
Speaker 5: So I think oftentimes, with perspective and time, I feel

589
00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:41,080
Speaker 5: differently about.

590
00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:43,920
Speaker 1: Places, and sometimes it's more.

591
00:30:43,800 --> 00:30:46,120
Speaker 5: About how I feel in a place or who I

592
00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:50,760
Speaker 5: met in the place, as opposed to the actual physical

593
00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:52,400
Speaker 5: geography of the place itself.

594
00:30:53,160 --> 00:30:53,840
Speaker 4: That makes sense.

595
00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:58,360
Speaker 3: So Nimbia, Namibia, any other nothing, no other specific destination

596
00:30:58,440 --> 00:31:00,800
Speaker 3: is standing out to you.

597
00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:02,000
Speaker 5: In terms of my daughter. I mean, we had a

598
00:31:02,040 --> 00:31:04,880
Speaker 5: really great time in Japan. I thought that was she

599
00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:09,880
Speaker 5: loves sushi. She's super bougie, so she will go in

600
00:31:10,880 --> 00:31:14,600
Speaker 5: on the salmon and gury. And we went and we

601
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:18,880
Speaker 5: got to put on kimonos and get dressed up, and

602
00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:21,560
Speaker 5: she really really loved that. She's very girly and she

603
00:31:22,040 --> 00:31:25,920
Speaker 5: loves putting on different You know, she's somebody who really

604
00:31:25,920 --> 00:31:27,360
Speaker 5: loves diving.

605
00:31:27,040 --> 00:31:27,719
Speaker 1: Into the culture.

606
00:31:27,760 --> 00:31:31,120
Speaker 5: I guess you could say so she loves kind of

607
00:31:31,120 --> 00:31:33,200
Speaker 5: these experiences where she feels like a local.

608
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:34,440
Speaker 1: And it's funny to say that.

609
00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:38,320
Speaker 5: It sounds funny that you would think you'd probably think

610
00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:40,200
Speaker 5: that at that age she wouldn't have.

611
00:31:40,080 --> 00:31:41,200
Speaker 1: Those sorts of preferences.

612
00:31:41,240 --> 00:31:45,080
Speaker 5: But she really enjoys things like cooking classes and meeting

613
00:31:45,120 --> 00:31:49,800
Speaker 5: local people. Something else that sticks out is earlier on

614
00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:53,560
Speaker 5: this year, we traveled to India, and we traveled to

615
00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:57,080
Speaker 5: India during Holy so that was in March, so during

616
00:31:57,120 --> 00:32:01,320
Speaker 5: their celebration the Festival of Colors. We got to participate

617
00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:03,280
Speaker 5: in that. But something that we also did was we

618
00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:07,360
Speaker 5: did a Bollywood dance class and we also did a

619
00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:11,160
Speaker 5: couple of cooking classes, and she absolutely loved that. So

620
00:32:11,400 --> 00:32:16,560
Speaker 5: I think the more I guess, the more local experiences

621
00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:17,400
Speaker 5: we engage in.

622
00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:19,200
Speaker 1: The more she enjoys it.

623
00:32:19,240 --> 00:32:21,560
Speaker 5: Like the sight seeing is okay for her, but she's

624
00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:25,520
Speaker 5: also somebody who is an active learner, and so if

625
00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:29,959
Speaker 5: she can do an interactive activity where it's very tactile

626
00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:33,560
Speaker 5: or she's moving her body or something like that, she's

627
00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:34,360
Speaker 5: super interested.

628
00:32:34,440 --> 00:32:35,360
Speaker 1: She's super into it.

629
00:32:35,920 --> 00:32:36,400
Speaker 4: I love it.

630
00:32:36,440 --> 00:32:38,560
Speaker 3: And it sounds like she loves food too, which I

631
00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:41,560
Speaker 3: wholeheartedly agree with. And I can't even imagine how good

632
00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:43,120
Speaker 3: the food is in both of those places.

633
00:32:43,160 --> 00:32:44,920
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh.

634
00:32:44,440 --> 00:32:48,600
Speaker 3: All right, Well, another one kind of question we get

635
00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:52,440
Speaker 3: a lot is time zone changes and jet lag. So

636
00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:55,000
Speaker 3: do you have any tips for how you deal with this,

637
00:32:55,240 --> 00:32:57,760
Speaker 3: both for with yourself and with your daughter.

638
00:32:58,520 --> 00:32:59,920
Speaker 5: You know what, one of the things we always do

639
00:33:00,200 --> 00:33:02,760
Speaker 5: we just get ourselves on the schedule of wherever we're

640
00:33:02,800 --> 00:33:07,400
Speaker 5: going to. So for example, if I do, for example,

641
00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:10,880
Speaker 5: we traveled from Miami all the way to Dubai.

642
00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:13,360
Speaker 1: Via Qatar and we landed.

643
00:33:14,400 --> 00:33:18,280
Speaker 5: If I do a long haul flight and I land

644
00:33:18,520 --> 00:33:21,240
Speaker 5: at nine PM, I'm going to take myself to bed,

645
00:33:21,280 --> 00:33:24,400
Speaker 5: because that's basically with the schedule.

646
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:24,640
Speaker 1: That I'm now on.

647
00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:29,400
Speaker 5: Similarly, if I arrive at one in the afternoon, then

648
00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:31,680
Speaker 5: I'm going out and I'm going to stay out and

649
00:33:31,760 --> 00:33:34,360
Speaker 5: keep myself up until at least nine pm. So I

650
00:33:34,360 --> 00:33:38,200
Speaker 5: think it's really important to get yourself on the schedule

651
00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:40,920
Speaker 5: of the new destination as soon as possible.

652
00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:44,760
Speaker 3: That's interesting, So like, no easing in, It's just like no, no, no,

653
00:33:45,160 --> 00:33:46,760
Speaker 3: I've heard the daylight and it is helpful to like

654
00:33:46,800 --> 00:33:48,320
Speaker 3: if you do land in the middle of the day,

655
00:33:48,360 --> 00:33:50,840
Speaker 3: like get the sun in your face so that your

656
00:33:50,840 --> 00:33:52,480
Speaker 3: body knows it's daytime.

657
00:33:52,520 --> 00:33:54,280
Speaker 1: Now. Yeah, definitely, definitely.

658
00:33:54,400 --> 00:33:56,960
Speaker 5: No, I'm definitely the type to hit the ground running,

659
00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:01,160
Speaker 5: will fall into bed like a sack of potatoes because

660
00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:02,480
Speaker 5: I'm absolutely exhausted.

661
00:34:03,160 --> 00:34:05,000
Speaker 3: No, that makes sense because you're kind of lengthening out

662
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:07,560
Speaker 3: your day, but then ultimately probably with a few slightly

663
00:34:07,600 --> 00:34:08,560
Speaker 3: longer sleeps.

664
00:34:08,280 --> 00:34:10,960
Speaker 4: You'll you'll like just exactly. That's awesome.

665
00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:14,160
Speaker 3: Okay, one last question, well, one last one before we

666
00:34:14,200 --> 00:34:16,120
Speaker 3: get to the level of the week, which is, can

667
00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:18,640
Speaker 3: you think of a tip that's like under the radar,

668
00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:20,960
Speaker 3: Like is there anything you feel like people don't talk

669
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:25,400
Speaker 3: about enough regarding traveling with kids, Like I know, like

670
00:34:25,440 --> 00:34:27,520
Speaker 3: something you just feel like people are missing.

671
00:34:28,239 --> 00:34:29,000
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness.

672
00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:31,680
Speaker 5: People always say, why would you travel with a one

673
00:34:31,760 --> 00:34:33,439
Speaker 5: year old or a two year old? They're not going

674
00:34:33,480 --> 00:34:35,640
Speaker 5: to remember it. It's a waste of time. You know,

675
00:34:35,640 --> 00:34:37,560
Speaker 5: why you're going to travel with them? Because flying with

676
00:34:37,560 --> 00:34:42,120
Speaker 5: them is free. Why I always encourage people. I'm like,

677
00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:45,640
Speaker 5: why would you not take advantage of that? You could

678
00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:49,040
Speaker 5: basically fly for free with this child, And quite honestly,

679
00:34:50,080 --> 00:34:52,480
Speaker 5: before the age of one, it's so easy to travel

680
00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:54,279
Speaker 5: with a kid, Like, why would you not just take

681
00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:55,600
Speaker 5: advantage of that?

682
00:34:55,920 --> 00:34:58,040
Speaker 1: So I always tell people.

683
00:34:58,840 --> 00:35:00,840
Speaker 5: Do it while you can, while you don't have to

684
00:35:00,840 --> 00:35:02,520
Speaker 5: pay for it, Do it while your child is young

685
00:35:02,560 --> 00:35:04,759
Speaker 5: and they're not walking and you don't have to worry

686
00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:08,359
Speaker 5: about them walking into into traffic or something like that.

687
00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:13,160
Speaker 5: I wish we had, I guess, a better view or

688
00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:16,799
Speaker 5: a more positive view of traveling with the young kids.

689
00:35:17,320 --> 00:35:21,600
Speaker 5: I'm definitely about that life. And then also something that

690
00:35:21,680 --> 00:35:24,960
Speaker 5: we've done quite often with our daughter, which I guess

691
00:35:25,040 --> 00:35:29,759
Speaker 5: is deemed unconventional by most is we've spent months with

692
00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:33,920
Speaker 5: her abroad and I understand, you know, as digital nomads

693
00:35:33,920 --> 00:35:36,440
Speaker 5: and as particularly as someone who works in the industry,

694
00:35:36,520 --> 00:35:39,840
Speaker 5: it's it's super easy for me to get away. But

695
00:35:40,920 --> 00:35:44,560
Speaker 5: we've really been taking advantage of our child not being

696
00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:49,400
Speaker 5: in like regular school to take these longer trips to

697
00:35:49,520 --> 00:35:50,480
Speaker 5: live overseas.

698
00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:52,000
Speaker 1: Last year we.

699
00:35:51,960 --> 00:35:55,759
Speaker 5: Rented an apartment for a month in Chang My not

700
00:35:55,840 --> 00:36:00,120
Speaker 5: in Chang Mai, in gosh in Kosamuay, Thailand, and then

701
00:36:00,160 --> 00:36:04,040
Speaker 5: we spend another month in Bali. The year before, we

702
00:36:04,160 --> 00:36:08,840
Speaker 5: spent two months in Pliotel Carmen, Mexico, and in Guatemala

703
00:36:08,920 --> 00:36:13,239
Speaker 5: and in Colombia, and so just really taking these opportunities.

704
00:36:13,239 --> 00:36:16,240
Speaker 5: If your child is not in school to world school,

705
00:36:16,280 --> 00:36:20,320
Speaker 5: then I think that's something that people are not really

706
00:36:20,360 --> 00:36:24,320
Speaker 5: taking advantage of and or it's not something that's really

707
00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:25,799
Speaker 5: top of mind for folks.

708
00:36:26,280 --> 00:36:28,759
Speaker 3: That's so cool, And you're right, like I do think

709
00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:32,520
Speaker 3: it's underthought about because I have older kids now, and

710
00:36:32,680 --> 00:36:35,400
Speaker 3: I do feel like the biggest constraint is the school calendar.

711
00:36:35,560 --> 00:36:38,120
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I feel like you're going to find a way,

712
00:36:38,239 --> 00:36:40,319
Speaker 3: Like I see you figuring out like how to like

713
00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:42,360
Speaker 3: a school around the world or something like that.

714
00:36:42,239 --> 00:36:43,759
Speaker 4: Like you're going to figure out a way around it.

715
00:36:43,840 --> 00:36:46,120
Speaker 3: But it is true, if you have a job that's

716
00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:50,200
Speaker 3: very remote friendly, then if you have a three year old, there's.

717
00:36:50,120 --> 00:36:52,880
Speaker 4: Really not that much stopping you from taking it on

718
00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:53,480
Speaker 4: the road.

719
00:36:54,040 --> 00:36:58,320
Speaker 5: And there's something and I think something that people don't

720
00:36:58,360 --> 00:37:04,040
Speaker 5: realize is that life overseas is often way cheaper than

721
00:37:04,040 --> 00:37:04,880
Speaker 5: it is in the US.

722
00:37:05,080 --> 00:37:05,279
Speaker 1: Yeah.

723
00:37:06,120 --> 00:37:08,759
Speaker 5: So when I look at my expenses and keep in mind,

724
00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:11,200
Speaker 5: I lived in very expensive cities. I lived in New

725
00:37:11,280 --> 00:37:14,240
Speaker 5: York City for almost seven years and I lived in

726
00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:18,120
Speaker 5: Miami for two years, both very very expensive cities with

727
00:37:18,200 --> 00:37:23,120
Speaker 5: a high cost of living that's increasing steadily. But rent

728
00:37:23,200 --> 00:37:27,319
Speaker 5: and bills in those two cities. I mean when we

729
00:37:27,480 --> 00:37:29,920
Speaker 5: basically lived in Thailand, we rented in Thailand for a month,

730
00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:31,520
Speaker 5: or we rented in Vali for a month, or we

731
00:37:31,560 --> 00:37:34,840
Speaker 5: rented in Plyi at Al Carmen in Mexico for two months,

732
00:37:35,680 --> 00:37:38,880
Speaker 5: our costs, our living costs were like half yeah. So

733
00:37:39,080 --> 00:37:41,720
Speaker 5: I mean you can really really take advantage, I feel,

734
00:37:41,760 --> 00:37:45,120
Speaker 5: and a lot of people do not realize that, and

735
00:37:45,160 --> 00:37:46,839
Speaker 5: it's to their detriment at the end of the day,

736
00:37:46,880 --> 00:37:49,880
Speaker 5: because they're on the hamster wheel. You know, they're in

737
00:37:49,920 --> 00:37:53,440
Speaker 5: the rat race, and there are other options. So I

738
00:37:53,440 --> 00:37:55,759
Speaker 5: think that at least in terms of what I do,

739
00:37:55,840 --> 00:37:58,520
Speaker 5: one of the goals that I have. Something that's really

740
00:37:58,600 --> 00:38:02,520
Speaker 5: top of mind for me is just showing people what's

741
00:38:02,560 --> 00:38:06,000
Speaker 5: possible and helping them to gain access and helping them

742
00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:08,360
Speaker 5: to realize that there's no one way or there's no

743
00:38:08,520 --> 00:38:13,360
Speaker 5: one right way to live life or to have kids

744
00:38:13,520 --> 00:38:16,719
Speaker 5: or to raise children. And so that's kind of what

745
00:38:16,800 --> 00:38:21,640
Speaker 5: I hope to achieve by sharing my story.

746
00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:24,160
Speaker 3: Yes, Anika, you can't see me, so we turned our

747
00:38:24,239 --> 00:38:27,239
Speaker 3: videos off for this, but I've been smiling the whole time,

748
00:38:27,520 --> 00:38:31,880
Speaker 3: like you be just so many inspiring and interesting things,

749
00:38:31,880 --> 00:38:33,120
Speaker 3: and I like the idea of just sort of like

750
00:38:33,200 --> 00:38:36,239
Speaker 3: questioning the standard narratives about what's possible, and I think

751
00:38:36,280 --> 00:38:40,120
Speaker 3: you've done that in such a cool way. Can you

752
00:38:40,200 --> 00:38:42,400
Speaker 3: share your love of the week? I did warn you

753
00:38:42,440 --> 00:38:44,920
Speaker 3: at the top of the episode that every week we

754
00:38:45,040 --> 00:38:48,120
Speaker 3: share something that we are in love with in a

755
00:38:48,160 --> 00:38:50,200
Speaker 3: given week, and I'm going to be really silly and

756
00:38:50,239 --> 00:38:53,640
Speaker 3: share mine first. And my love of the week is

757
00:38:54,239 --> 00:38:56,959
Speaker 3: feeling healthy and good because right now I'm a little

758
00:38:56,960 --> 00:38:59,759
Speaker 3: bit sick. You know, we really don't spend enough time

759
00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:04,399
Speaker 3: when we feel normal recognizing like what an amazing thing

760
00:39:04,480 --> 00:39:08,360
Speaker 3: and blessing that is. So being a little cheesy today,

761
00:39:08,360 --> 00:39:11,000
Speaker 3: but yeah, my love of the week is generally feeling good.

762
00:39:11,040 --> 00:39:13,800
Speaker 4: I feel very lucky to have that be the case.

763
00:39:13,960 --> 00:39:16,520
Speaker 1: I think that's beautiful. I think that's really really beautiful.

764
00:39:16,560 --> 00:39:19,680
Speaker 5: And I'm going to share my loves of the week plural,

765
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:25,120
Speaker 5: which may sound a bit silly, but something that I realized,

766
00:39:25,160 --> 00:39:28,520
Speaker 5: and I was telling this to my husband the other day,

767
00:39:29,239 --> 00:39:32,040
Speaker 5: is something that I really love, Like when I check

768
00:39:32,120 --> 00:39:35,960
Speaker 5: into my accommodation, something that I always look for and

769
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:38,400
Speaker 5: I'm always so geeked, like when I find it is

770
00:39:38,440 --> 00:39:41,600
Speaker 5: a pair of slippers. I realize that I really love

771
00:39:42,560 --> 00:39:47,160
Speaker 5: when my hotel offers me slippers like that for me

772
00:39:47,280 --> 00:39:51,200
Speaker 5: is ultimate number one. And I've actually from the last

773
00:39:51,239 --> 00:39:53,560
Speaker 5: two places we were staying at they had slippers, so

774
00:39:53,640 --> 00:39:56,080
Speaker 5: I actually packed them in my bag and I brought

775
00:39:56,080 --> 00:39:58,600
Speaker 5: them with me because I realized that that's something that

776
00:39:58,640 --> 00:40:00,000
Speaker 5: I really needs.

777
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:00,879
Speaker 1: This is a big thing for.

778
00:40:00,880 --> 00:40:07,160
Speaker 5: Me, and this is perhaps very specific to Namibia and

779
00:40:07,239 --> 00:40:11,880
Speaker 5: Kenya where we were just now, both places where I

780
00:40:11,920 --> 00:40:14,720
Speaker 5: feel cold, Like right now, I'm actually very cold. I'm

781
00:40:15,400 --> 00:40:18,560
Speaker 5: in my fleece talking to you right now with a

782
00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:19,520
Speaker 5: scarf around my neck.

783
00:40:20,719 --> 00:40:21,600
Speaker 1: The hot water.

784
00:40:21,440 --> 00:40:26,839
Speaker 5: Bottle has been so underrated for me because I live

785
00:40:26,880 --> 00:40:30,839
Speaker 5: in Miami, where it's hot all the darn time, and

786
00:40:31,440 --> 00:40:33,879
Speaker 5: I was on safari in Kenya a couple of weeks ago,

787
00:40:34,440 --> 00:40:37,919
Speaker 5: and now I'm in the Namibian desert and it's really

788
00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:42,280
Speaker 5: cold at night. And the Turndown service where I'm staying

789
00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:46,120
Speaker 5: now and where we were in Kenya, they put a

790
00:40:46,160 --> 00:40:50,600
Speaker 5: hot water bottle in between the sheets, and it's the

791
00:40:50,640 --> 00:40:51,719
Speaker 5: most amazing feeling ever.

792
00:40:53,640 --> 00:40:56,120
Speaker 3: Well, I am talking to you from South Florida. I

793
00:40:56,200 --> 00:40:58,120
Speaker 3: used to live in Miami. Now I'm in Broward County.

794
00:40:58,239 --> 00:41:01,240
Speaker 1: But nice. I didn't realize it's.

795
00:41:01,080 --> 00:41:04,680
Speaker 3: Fifty degrees right now and everyone is like in boots,

796
00:41:04,719 --> 00:41:06,960
Speaker 3: and I wore my puffy jacket this morning, and I

797
00:41:06,960 --> 00:41:07,359
Speaker 3: would have.

798
00:41:07,520 --> 00:41:10,040
Speaker 4: Loved a hot water bottle in my bed today. So

799
00:41:10,239 --> 00:41:11,359
Speaker 4: I love that.

800
00:41:11,360 --> 00:41:12,040
Speaker 1: That is awesome.

801
00:41:12,160 --> 00:41:15,240
Speaker 4: I didn't know that we're having a cold front.

802
00:41:16,200 --> 00:41:17,520
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. So funny.

803
00:41:17,640 --> 00:41:21,640
Speaker 5: It was maybe like sixty three or something like that

804
00:41:21,719 --> 00:41:24,959
Speaker 5: last January. I remember because we had my in laws

805
00:41:24,960 --> 00:41:28,040
Speaker 5: were visiting from Germany and I was freezing.

806
00:41:28,719 --> 00:41:29,680
Speaker 1: I was a freezing I was feeling.

807
00:41:29,719 --> 00:41:31,680
Speaker 5: I remember my mother in law was on our balcony

808
00:41:31,719 --> 00:41:33,360
Speaker 5: and she was like this is great, and I'm like

809
00:41:33,400 --> 00:41:36,120
Speaker 5: I'm dying, so I definite get it.

810
00:41:36,640 --> 00:41:39,600
Speaker 3: Yes, Well, tell our listeners where they can find you,

811
00:41:39,640 --> 00:41:41,960
Speaker 3: because I'm sure they're all going to be like anxious

812
00:41:41,960 --> 00:41:44,360
Speaker 3: to click through right now and see what is happening

813
00:41:44,360 --> 00:41:46,799
Speaker 3: with you in Namibia or whatever country you're in. Nice.

814
00:41:46,920 --> 00:41:49,319
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, well, thank you so much for having me.

815
00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:52,600
Speaker 5: I would be so honored for people to kind of

816
00:41:52,760 --> 00:41:55,920
Speaker 5: follow along and tap in. So I can be found

817
00:41:56,520 --> 00:42:01,040
Speaker 5: on social media, so on Instagram primarily, and my handle

818
00:42:01,080 --> 00:42:05,440
Speaker 5: on Instagram is at my full name so Onnka Raymond

819
00:42:05,480 --> 00:42:08,240
Speaker 5: O n e Ika ry.

820
00:42:08,200 --> 00:42:08,759
Speaker 1: M O n D.

821
00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:14,320
Speaker 5: And that's the same on Instagram, on TikTok, although I

822
00:42:14,320 --> 00:42:17,840
Speaker 5: don't really post there, and my website is Onnica raymond

823
00:42:17,840 --> 00:42:18,400
Speaker 5: dot com.

824
00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:20,359
Speaker 4: I love it and we'll put that in the show

825
00:42:20,360 --> 00:42:20,919
Speaker 4: notes as well.

826
00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:23,160
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for coming on all the way

827
00:42:23,600 --> 00:42:24,760
Speaker 3: across the globe today.

828
00:42:26,239 --> 00:42:28,560
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.

829
00:42:29,480 --> 00:42:32,920
Speaker 2: Well that was great, lots of travel discussion with Sarah

830
00:42:32,960 --> 00:42:36,440
Speaker 2: and Oneka there. So this episode is airing in mid December,

831
00:42:36,440 --> 00:42:40,080
Speaker 2: which means that for many people, a long winter break

832
00:42:40,200 --> 00:42:42,799
Speaker 2: is on the horizon with kids home from school. So

833
00:42:43,440 --> 00:42:47,440
Speaker 2: our question this week, Sarah ideas for getting through the

834
00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:50,080
Speaker 2: long winter break with kids at home.

835
00:42:50,840 --> 00:42:52,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I know your mileage is going to vary

836
00:42:53,080 --> 00:42:55,959
Speaker 3: based on whether you are somewhere that you're actually also

837
00:42:56,160 --> 00:42:59,320
Speaker 3: like very much stuck inside, like if it is snow

838
00:42:59,360 --> 00:43:03,279
Speaker 3: season or freezing rain season where you are versus not.

839
00:43:04,520 --> 00:43:07,960
Speaker 3: I have historically done a lot of solo parenting, especially

840
00:43:08,080 --> 00:43:10,920
Speaker 3: during winter break. Our common pattern is that we'll travel

841
00:43:10,920 --> 00:43:12,800
Speaker 3: all together one week, but then Josh wall you usually

842
00:43:12,800 --> 00:43:16,600
Speaker 3: have to work the other week. And my go to

843
00:43:16,640 --> 00:43:18,920
Speaker 3: strategies have been really to make sure I have stuff

844
00:43:18,920 --> 00:43:21,000
Speaker 3: on the calendar. It just doesn't work well to have

845
00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:22,799
Speaker 3: multiple days at home without.

846
00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:23,920
Speaker 4: A lot of things planned.

847
00:43:23,960 --> 00:43:26,520
Speaker 3: So I have reached out in advance and try to

848
00:43:26,520 --> 00:43:29,399
Speaker 3: figure out who else is stuck at home because fun fact,

849
00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:31,600
Speaker 3: if you're doing it, probably someone else is doing.

850
00:43:31,400 --> 00:43:33,080
Speaker 4: It too with kids similar ages.

851
00:43:33,360 --> 00:43:35,239
Speaker 3: So it's like a prime time for playdates or just

852
00:43:35,280 --> 00:43:38,640
Speaker 3: having people come over or meet up somewhere. We often

853
00:43:39,440 --> 00:43:41,920
Speaker 3: fall into a rhythm, or we'll do something in the morning,

854
00:43:42,120 --> 00:43:45,520
Speaker 3: something out in the community. For us, it's good weather season,

855
00:43:45,600 --> 00:43:47,759
Speaker 3: so again I know that's not really fair, but something

856
00:43:47,800 --> 00:43:49,600
Speaker 3: outdoors in the morning and then PM is more just

857
00:43:49,600 --> 00:43:52,959
Speaker 3: like chill time. I think this year might be fun

858
00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:54,919
Speaker 3: to have the kids create some kind of like really

859
00:43:54,960 --> 00:43:58,040
Speaker 3: short mini bucket list just for that week, to kind

860
00:43:58,040 --> 00:44:00,799
Speaker 3: of create a quest mentality out of it, because often

861
00:44:00,840 --> 00:44:02,600
Speaker 3: that can just kind of make things seem like a

862
00:44:02,640 --> 00:44:04,920
Speaker 3: little bit more fun, a little bit more gamified. And

863
00:44:04,960 --> 00:44:07,400
Speaker 3: then I mean, it is a great time to organize.

864
00:44:07,560 --> 00:44:10,680
Speaker 3: So it depends on the kid, but I have at

865
00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:13,560
Speaker 3: least one kid who's very excited about like remaking their

866
00:44:13,680 --> 00:44:17,279
Speaker 3: room during that time period, So something fun to do.

867
00:44:17,440 --> 00:44:20,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, I would encourage people to check out our

868
00:44:20,239 --> 00:44:24,200
Speaker 2: previous episode, which was Long Weekends with Little Kids that

869
00:44:24,560 --> 00:44:27,240
Speaker 2: aired sort of at the end of this past summer

870
00:44:27,239 --> 00:44:29,839
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty four. We had lots of tips for

871
00:44:30,840 --> 00:44:34,040
Speaker 2: getting through extended periods of times when kids are out

872
00:44:34,040 --> 00:44:38,120
Speaker 2: of their usual school or daycare routines. Obviously that was

873
00:44:38,120 --> 00:44:40,720
Speaker 2: aimed more at little kids, but certainly young elementary school

874
00:44:40,719 --> 00:44:43,840
Speaker 2: age kids could be fairly similar, although you might not

875
00:44:43,960 --> 00:44:46,880
Speaker 2: need to be quite as concerned with the post nap

876
00:44:47,080 --> 00:44:50,520
Speaker 2: time as you would be with little kids, and certainly

877
00:44:50,520 --> 00:44:52,919
Speaker 2: older kids might be able to entertain themselves a little

878
00:44:52,960 --> 00:44:55,719
Speaker 2: bit in the afternoon, especially if you're going for a

879
00:44:55,719 --> 00:44:56,560
Speaker 2: little downtime for the.

880
00:44:56,560 --> 00:44:57,520
Speaker 4: Adults as well.

881
00:44:58,719 --> 00:45:02,200
Speaker 2: But you know, if the there's also lots of break camps.

882
00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:03,840
Speaker 2: Might be a little bit late to be looking for this,

883
00:45:04,000 --> 00:45:06,680
Speaker 2: but perhaps there are still some places with last minute

884
00:45:06,719 --> 00:45:11,040
Speaker 2: slots to have at least a day or two. And

885
00:45:11,200 --> 00:45:13,520
Speaker 2: certainly if you need to get some work done over

886
00:45:13,840 --> 00:45:15,840
Speaker 2: the break, you want to make sure that you have

887
00:45:15,960 --> 00:45:18,719
Speaker 2: adequate care for that as well. I don't think any

888
00:45:18,760 --> 00:45:21,040
Speaker 2: of my kids are excited to organize their rooms in

889
00:45:21,040 --> 00:45:23,120
Speaker 2: the new year, Sarah. And I mean I don't know

890
00:45:23,120 --> 00:45:25,759
Speaker 2: that I'm excited to organize anything. So I think that's

891
00:45:25,800 --> 00:45:27,360
Speaker 2: a lot to put on kids.

892
00:45:28,360 --> 00:45:30,680
Speaker 3: Only if they're excited, only if they're which some kids

893
00:45:30,719 --> 00:45:32,440
Speaker 3: will be, especially when they got new toys and they

894
00:45:32,440 --> 00:45:34,719
Speaker 3: want to have like space for them and stuff like that.

895
00:45:34,880 --> 00:45:36,839
Speaker 3: So that episode that you mentioned is called the Long

896
00:45:36,840 --> 00:45:39,080
Speaker 3: Weekend Survival Guide and I will definitely link to that.

897
00:45:39,440 --> 00:45:40,879
Speaker 4: All right, sounds good?

898
00:45:41,040 --> 00:45:43,840
Speaker 2: All right, Well, this has been an episode mostly about

899
00:45:43,920 --> 00:45:48,120
Speaker 2: travel with children. Sarah interviewing Onka Raymond. We will be

900
00:45:48,200 --> 00:45:50,560
Speaker 2: back next week with more on making work and life

901
00:45:50,600 --> 00:45:51,200
Speaker 2: fit together.

902
00:45:53,280 --> 00:45:54,120
Speaker 4: Thanks for listening.

903
00:45:54,360 --> 00:45:57,440
Speaker 3: You can find me Sarah at the shoebox dot com

904
00:45:57,560 --> 00:46:01,040
Speaker 3: or at the underscore shoebox on instead, and.

905
00:46:01,040 --> 00:46:05,160
Speaker 2: You can find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

906
00:46:05,280 --> 00:46:08,480
Speaker 2: This has been the best of both worlds podcasts. Please

907
00:46:08,560 --> 00:46:11,160
Speaker 2: join us next time for more on making work and

908
00:46:11,239 --> 00:46:12,360
Speaker 2: life work together