1 Year 16 Countries and Blogging Progress

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It may look like we’ve spent most of 2015 not travelling, sitting here in our little house in Romania, but we’ve been to 16 countries this year. I know! I couldn’t believe it either. They haven’t all been short trips, a month here, a month there, a few flying visits and long stays in London and Romania, a patchwork of travel, rest and adventures. It’s been fun and the best part is looking back at the memories we made as a family.

Chef has been away from us for around 5 months of this year, he’s been working and he took a solo trip to Australia, but still, that leaves 7 months of solid family time.

The time we spend apart is hard sometimes, but I think ultimately very good for me and the boys, growth. Strength and independence come through being without him.

2015 on the Blogs

In January, World Travel Family had around 50,000 Google Page Views per month. A couple of months ago we hit 100,000. So traffic is good despite a massive setback mid-year when I switched hosting companies.

We went from Host Gator to Blue Host. Under Blue Host everything went pear-shaped, I lost all traffic for a few days and it barely returned over the following 2 weeks.

There was an issue with them, they apologised and promised a full refund, I received most of it, not all.

We then switched to Site Ground, they seem to be working out OK, but my load speeds are slower than under Host Gator. One day I’ll find the time to fix that, until then…meh. I’m not a very dedicated blogger.

We launched Simple Life Romania in the summer, to track our build project, promote tourism in Romania and record village life here in Maramures. That site is doing well but it’s early days. (Update – all Romania content has now been moved to this website)

I continue to neglect the other 4 sites. I’m a mum and a traveller, not an entrepreneur, the kids come first. I decided to work really hard at becoming location independent mid year, but then came the hosting crisis and since then we’ve been too busy to focus on the blogs.

But one day I’ll get around to them.

We make a decent amount of money through Adsense, Agoda, Amazon and Cooperatize . I’m not complaining, but it’s not quite enough to support a family of four on the road just yet.

Worldschooling in 2015

It’s been another amazing year of diverse learning opportunities for the boys. This was D’s last year of junior school, he’s doing great and I’m really proud of him and how far he’s come.

I’ll have to write a post about the educational highlights of this year, as I did with our first. Of everything we’ve done, these last few months of living alongside the villagers in Romania, has been of most benefit to them.

London

British Museum Audio Guides For Kids

We spent Christmas and New Year in London before packing up our adorable little flat in Richmond, saying goodbye to new friends and taking the bus to Gatwick as the first fat snowflakes of winter fell.

Chef stayed on in London a few weeks more before heading to Australia for a wedding.

Turkey

Istanbul in snow

The boys and I had a blast in Istanbul, we were there a long time, 2-3 weeks. Istanbul has so much beauty, culture and history packed into a relatively small space and the food, sea air, snow and warm people made this trip unforgettable.

Dubai

A Camel Safari in the desert. Dubai family fun travel.

Just a few days here but the kids declared our camel riding in the desert safari “the most fun ever”. We also found culture and glimpsed old Dubai on a short lunch tour. We checked out the mall and amazing fountains at the Burj Kalifa.

We’ll be back in Dubai in a few weeks, this time with Chef,

India

India

From Dubai we took a cruise ship south. Our first two stops were Mumbai and Kerala, where the boys got their first taste of my life-long favourite country, India. They were impressed, they both wanted more.

Sri Lanka

Sadly, we were in Sri Lankan waters but never actually left the ship. That’s the problem with cruising. It was painful to be so close yet so far from another of our family favourites.

Had we left the boat, it was a long walk through the dockyards to, what? More industrial areas? We just didn’t think it was worth getting off.

Most of the passengers left on shore excursions, we watched them board their air-con buses, it wasn’t for us. We’ll be back in Sri Lanka soon.

Thailand

Phuket. Another cruise ship stop. This was where Chef rejoined us so we braved the tender boat and dockyards to get a tuk tuk into Phuket town for lunch.

Our first tom kha gai of the year was magic, but with only a few hours on shore, that was it.

Malaysia

Langkawi. Approaching and mooring in Langkawi was pretty spectacular, it’s a beautiful part of the world. We walked from the docks and found a picture-perfect beach before heading back to the ship.

Singapore

This is where we left the ship. We only had a few hours in Singapore but we were really impressed by how nice the people were and by how easy getting around was.

Thailand

Silom Bangkok. Eating bugs.

Arriving in Bangkok feels like coming home now. The South East Asian transport hub is familiar territory and we have a favourite hostel that we use every time. We spent a few days eating, taking river taxis and just hanging out.

Cambodia

bamboo railway battambangA

We had a whole month in Cambodia and I finally got to take my kids to Angkor Wat. That was a big bucket list tick for me, very special. We tried to see more of the country too, we got out to Battambang and Kampot before crossing by land back to Bangkok.

Thailand

Staying in Silom. Hindu Temple Bangkok

Same same. Eating and exploring, stocking up on a few medical supplies and toiletries, before catching our flight to India.

India

cooking class colva south goaA

We had big plans that didn’t work out. We flew into Chennai before heading south to Mamalapuram. From there we crossed the country to Hampi, then on to Goa, Kochin and the Kerala beaches.

The boys said they wanted more India, so that’s what they got and it was brilliant to be back.

Our plan came unstuck on the day before Chef’s 1-month visa ran out. Our booked flight to Nepal was the day after the devastating earthquake. From Nepal, we had planned to return to the north of India for another month, but that wasn’t to be, we had to move fast and our best, cheapest, simplest option was a flight back to the UK.

We’ll be in Nepal in early 2016.

London

We were in London, for maybe 2 or 3 weeks, I was sick and absolutely devastated to be torn out of Asia so abruptly. I think I was grieving for Nepal too, so those few weeks weren’t great.

Chef picked up work straight away, the boys and I caught up with friends and moved around various cheap hotels and apartments. London is fabulous, but this time it  just wasn’t right.

Romania

Village life in Romania. Traditional Maramures outfit

We’d been invited to Romania to help with some promotion, so, with our plans in shreds, we decided to take up the offer. It was one of those chance happenings that changes the course of everything.

As you probably know, we loved the far north, Maramures County, so much that we bought a house. It’s still not fully ours, the paperwork is taking an eternity to complete, but any time now it will be and we can start building, renovating and creating a lifestyle of still more freedom.

London

We had a ten-week house sit in London. What a perfect opportunity to enjoy friends, museums, history, art and everything our favourite city offers. This time without pain.

Romania

Digging potatoes. Romanian village life
The boys help with the potato harvest in our rented garden.

Back to find us a place to live. This didn’t go as smoothly as we’d hoped, it seemed that nobody in the village really wanted to rent us a house, they just don’t need the money, but after a couple of days of pulling our hair out we struck a deal.

We found a traditional wooden home with mud-insulated walls and wood-burning stoves in its own garden and orchard. It quickly became a much-loved home and the locals adopted us.

London

The View from The Shard with Chldren. Is it scary?

Back again! A little friend had a birthday so we flew back. It only costs us around $60 to fly from Cluj Napoca to Luton and it’s an easy trip.

On this visit we picked up the 5th member of the family, Sexy, our 13 year old battered Mitsubishi, TARDIS-blue, 4-wheel drive. She goes great, when she feels like it. She did us proud on the long drive back from London to Romania.

France, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania.

Tour of Prague with kids. The John Lennon Wall is a must see.
Tour of Prague with kids. The John Lennon Wall is a must see.

A trans-European road trip of car relocation. It was great to have waffles in Brussels, lunch on the Rhine, goulash in Hungary, cake in Prague and be home in Romania in time to go to the village pub with new friends.

I think we took about 9 days all up, with a long stay in Prague.

We lost Chef again in Germany, he flew back to London to work. Building a house will cost a lot more than my websites bring in. He’s back with us in a few days, in time for Christmas and to hit the ski slopes. One of the reasons we do this is to have him with us at Christmas, Chefs don’t have holidays off.

So that’s it, another busy year.

I can’t tell you what we spent, as we did with our first year, we just don’t keep those kind of records any more. We can tell you that we still do everything as cheaply as possible. If something doesn’t matter to us, we save our money, but if we want something, we’ll happily spend more.

I always say don’t scrimp, spend what you need to enjoy your travels, your way.

2016 is looking promising with much to look forward to. We picked Romania partly for its great transport links. A flight to Dubai is under $100, from there Asia is open to us. We can drive to any neighbouring European country and a shopping trip to London by plane is entirely possible.

We also get to enjoy this incredible village, it feels like where we belong.

So Happy Christmas to you, from us. We hope to have you with us into next year and beyond and we hope to keep inspiring you to live your dreams and be free in this fascinating world.

If you'd like to hire a car during your stay, use this car rental comparison tool to find the best deal!

We also suggest you take a look at this company to get a quote for all kinds of the more tricky adventure or extended travel insurance.

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About the author
Alyson Long
Alyson Long is a British medical scientist who jumped ship to chase dreams. A former Chief Biomedical Scientist at London's West Middlesex Hospital she started in website creation and travel writing in 2011. Alyson is a full-time blogger and travel writer, a published author, and owns several websites. World Travel Family is the biggest. A lifetime of wanderlust and over 6 years of full-time travel, plus a separate 12 month gap year, has given Alyson and the family some travel expert smarts to share with you on this world travel site. Today Alyson still travels extensively to update this site and continue her mission to visit every country, but she's often at home on her farm in Australia.

5 thoughts on “1 Year 16 Countries and Blogging Progress”

  1. May you all have a glorious, crispy fresh, white Christmas with all the trimmings that being together as a family brings. How wonderful that you’ll be in such a lovely village with community spirit around you. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading all your highs and lows of travels, all your snippets of home schooling, all the history, culture, art, food stories, all the photos that bring those stories to life and all the honesty in your write-ups. I can’t wait for 2016 as I love a good renovation story, where I am sure there will be many highs and lows and frustrations and fun. All the best to you, you’ve worked so bloody hard Alyson, I totally admire your solo travel, your dedication to the kids, your relationship with Chef (and to you too James who works so hard for the family to keep the dreams alive for each other). You are a great team and it shows and your boys are awesome. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. xoxo Love Kym

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