Who are we?
Hello and welcome to this new space! I’m Jess.
For those who may not know, we are a family of five who are gearing up for a six month trip through mostly Southeast Asia. Our kids are ten, seven, and five years old. My husband will technically be on sabbatical and will need to get some work done along the way. I am taking a full leave of absence from my job in healthcare. The kids are leaving their school life in grades 5, 2, and senior kindergarten. We do not plan to do too much formal education for the kids, though they will continue with reading, writing (journaling), and some math while we are away.
No, we have never done anything quite like this before! Well, maybe that’s not quite true. I spent a year teaching in South Korea before kids and visited some of this region at that time. I also kept a prolific blog back then at https://neumanjm.blogspot.com/ and it’s still there!!
As a family, we spent six weeks living in Belgium when our oldest was turning one, and we also managed to travel to Israel, Sweden, Netherlands, and France on that trip.
When our second was 8 or 9 months, we went to Oaxaca, Mexico for a month and had such an amazing time exploring the city, then visiting several small towns along the coast.
When our daughter was six months old we spent six weeks in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and though our hands were full, we had some fun times exploring ruins, cenotes, and historic towns (in between diaper changes, tantrums, and naptimes.)
So now, here we are, a bunch of all-inclusive, simple as possible holidays later. The baby phase is behind us, and while I’m sure there will still be some tantrums along the way, we are ready for this next adventure.
What is this?
This substack newsletter is meant to serve as a way of sharing our adventures with friends, family, and curious strangers. I also hope it can help me preserve some of the memories and special moments for us to look back on later. We’d love to hear from you if you have tips, stories, or experiences to share along the way! Or just drop a friendly hello in the comment box. We are going to miss you!
What are you signing up for?
I’m planning to write weekly (ish?) posts where I’ll share pictures and stories about where we are and what we’ve been up to. These will come straight to your email, or you can come to the website to read when you feel like it. I’m not a great writer and I’m not going to spend lots of time creating and editing content. That’s not what this is about. I wish I knew how to make fancy videos so I could throw it all away and become a travel influencer but.. I don’t! :)
Subscribe!
Where to?
Where are we going, you may ask? Here is the general itinerary:
December 31 Japan
January 18 Thailand
March 1 Malaysia (including a trip to Borneo in there)
March 26 Singapore
April 1 Bali - we plan to stay in Bali until June 19
Some things are booked and planned, but most things are very much NOT.
And that’s really it! We are in the final countdown after months of planning and anticipation. In the next week I’m going wrap up work, then begin packing up the house to prepare it for the people renting it while we are away. We are busy trying to see friends and family before we head off. I know this time will pass in the blink of an eye. We are all so excited and also kind of nervous. We know there will be ups and downs along the way, but can’t wait to experience them.
I hope you enjoy following along!
Sounds and looks like you’ve done a heap of ground work so far! I’ll go along for the ride. Send those updates! Happy adventures!
Welcome to Substack.