The Travels Of The RJs

Dollars and Data (That's date-er, not dart-er) We would quite often get asked questions about both the accommodations and the financials of the trip: How can you afford it? Where will you stay? Have you made a budget? What kind of places did you stay? How much do you think it will cost? Truth be told, there was no budget, but in my head, I'd plucked out a figure that I guessed the year might cost: AUD $100,000. It turns out that wasn't a bad guess. Of course, it actually costs a lot more than this because Kate and I didn't work for a year and there was the mortgage to pay - this is only focusing on the direct costs of travelling. I decided to keep a record of a few things as we went along 1. Accommodation Scoring (which included costs) 2. Expenses Accommodation Scoring (incl Cost) We started a system of scoring every place we stayed at, and developed 5 categories 1. Bedroom 2. Bathroom 3. Amenities 4. Location 5. Price Each was scored out of 20, giving a total out of 10...

Saturday 21st December - Bangkok, Thailand - Sydney, Australia (via China) (Day 341) Time to head back to Sydney after 48 weeks on the road. Sienna and Seb are keen for a repeat of the breakfast street food of the last couple of days; fried pork, fried dough and yoghurt. Meanwhile Kate and I set ourselves up for a day of travelling with a visit to the buffet breakfast downstairs at our Lancaster Hotel.  I really hope my stomach is settled for a 3 hour and a 9 hour flight because I gorge on, in no particular order yoghurt and muesli, 2 coffees, orange juice, guava juice, 2 poached eggs and bacon on toast, steamed fish, 3 pork dim sim, smoked marlin and stilton on focaccia. It feels a little glutinous, and it is.  The hotels golf cart shuttle runs us to the train station for our first flight with Xiamen Airlines - no, I’d never heard of them either - which leaves at midday. Shock, horror there’s no seat back TVs, but the iPad helps Sienna and Seb through the journey.  A lon...

Friday 20th December - Bangkok (Day 340) Our last full day in Bangkok and indeed for the whole year of travelling. Thankfully I’m feeling better so after a popular breakfast of grilled pork sticks, fried doughnut pieces, yoghurt and juice from the street stalls across the road, but eaten in our room at The Lancaster, we head on out.  The traffic/security guard at the front of the building is as happy as ever to see us - well Seb, then Sienna, then Kate and I in distant third spot.  It’s a simple single bus ride from outside our local 7/11 to the Bangkok City Library (Sienna and Seb’s place of worship as we won’t be visiting any temples this time round), should take 30 minutes.  Two and half hours later we arrive after our original bus was emptied half way along. A couple of locals try and help but we get kicked off / dropped off by a further two buses (only when you get on does a roving conductor ask where you’re going). They and the bus stops contain no English though....

Thursday 19th December - Bangkok (Day 339) I’ve got the stomach bug Kate had got yesterday afternoon so while I stay in close proximity to the bathroom and lose a couple of kgs, Kate takes Sienna and Seb out for the day to the, in their eyes, fabled Children’s Discovery Museum. Kate’s insert - Upon waking it’s time to hunt for breakfast, Matt is now feeling unwell (however I am better) so it’s the kids and I for the day. We cross over the main road outside the Lancaster Hotel and walk past 10 or so small carts selling various food options. We’re lucky as there is a university just beyond the main road, so there’s lots of foot traffic warranting the street food stalls. We settle for a bag of doughnut balls, pork skewers, watermelon chunks and a rice bowl with omelette on top. We also pop into the 7/11 for a couple of yoghurt pots. We eat back in the room, the kids very happy with our selection.  From our previous visit to Bangkok in January we went to the Children’s Discovery Museum...

Wednesday 18th December - Phnom Penh, Cambodia to Bangkok, Thailand (Day 338) Armed with our last 4,000 riel I take an early walk to the Central Market - whilst the tourist section is still shuttered up inside, the makeshift food market outside it is well underway, alive not just with people but marine life as fresh as it comes. Next door to my iceman of yesterday is a cigarette seller, definitely in the pack high, sell (very very) cheap.  Having successfully procured some banana crisps,  back at Saravoan Royal Palace Hotel  its a pair of English Breakfasts for Sienna and Seb  and fried pork, rice and egg for Kate and I to set us up for the day ahead as we depart Cambodia.  A 30 minute Grab taxi in slow traffic brings us to the airport where, before checking in, Seb dials into his ‘End of Year Assembly’ with 11 other children who have either been travelling Australia or travelling the world. He’s very happy to win an award - for Achieving his Goal and Improved H...

Tuesday 17th December - Phnom Penh (Day 337) As ever on my early walk, the roads are busy with school children heading to school for a 7am start - though we also see plenty of children during the day not at school but working to help in their mum and dad’s shop.  At the Central Market my attention is grabbed by the ice preparation going on. Slabs one foot deep and wide and six foot long are chainsawed in half, then pick-axed into quarters, each quarter then dropped between spinning metal wheels and crushed into flakes and fed into large rice bags.  Breakfast in our Saravoan Royal Palace Hotel, not extravagant, but more than enough to please and satisfy us. Seb has his last one-on-one zoom lesson with Miss Sophie whilst Sienna works on her profit and loss lines for her Amazon themed theme park down in the atrium whilst I sit with her trying to catch up and keep up with this journal.  It's clearly too hot for play parks outdoors, but a 20 minute walk away we find Kids Land ...

Monday 16th December - Kampot - Phnom Penh (Day 336) Pushing it slightly, today is the start of the journey back to Sydney. We leave Kampot today for two nights in Phnom Penh, a flight to Bangkok with three nights there and then onto Sydney.  There’s a concerted push with school work, sat in the common area of Onederz Hostel before we pack up to leave - each time looking for any Lego pieces that have continued to be a success all year but inevitably ending up spread around the room.  We continue to be a disappointment to hopeful tuk tuk drivers across South East Asia and walk the 10 minutes to catch the bus at 11am. Almost full the bus departs on time, this driver almost conservative in his overtaking as we whizz past skinny cows - only ever in 1’s or 2’s, never a field of them, past probably 20 consecutive coconut sellers.  This type of grouping of sellers is another consistent occurrence, from coconuts to bike shops to kitchenware to ladders to a possible record in Phno...