Ugly bungalow heaven

We drove around the Bude area today. Widemouth bay looked a fantastic beach, Bude was busy enough with plenty of shops and restaurants but neither they or the surrounding villages said: this is it! Mind you, will any place?

The most enjoyable part of the day was our visit to Hartland quay, Hartland itself is a pretty village and the Quay is a properly windswept and rugged bit of coastline with incredibly folded and crushed rock formations. The kids were immediately entertained climbing rocks, finding stones, yelling, screaming, having fun and despite the cold could have stayed for hours, confirming again that a coastal or close to coastal location would be amazing.

Properties on the UK coast are in my experience crap and ugly. The Georgian seaside resort towns are well past their best. The loose planning era following the wars resulted in some of the ugliest buildings being constructed in some of the most beautiful places - usually ugly bungalow heaven. Any building older than Georgian reflect where people used to live before central heating, double glazing, mains water and beach holidays: sheltered inland areas, on the banks of rivers/streams or around harbours and all in tiny buildings with low ceilings and minuscule windows.

Light, bright, well insulated homes, with big rooms and high ceilings on or near the coast? You either pay millions or you need to go through the planning process and do it yourself. Is that an option?

The other really noticeable thing today was that in an undulating landscape with narrow roads you are quickly in the middle of nowhere and isolated. Will we city folk be able to handle that? Certainly I'm gravitating towards decent settlements (a pub, a couple of shops with easy access to a decent sized town) but this will impact the size of plot of course. There are always compromises...

Free coaching

Our plan for a UK wide roadtrip to search for somewhere to relocate lasted about five days.

We were going to check out Scotland, the Lake District/Cumbria, Wales (particularly Pembrokeshire) and then if time allowed down to Cornwall and Devon.

Instead after some good questioning from friends, some marathon online searching and some clarification of our desires we turned around and headed straight for the South West.

There's no doubt that the highlands of Scotland give us the most value but we've decided it's a bit too far North and with a likely post brexit referendum around the corner not really appealing. The lakes are gorgeous but wet and expensive. Which left us with the very affordable wales and the still affordable South West. Since we'd seen really nice properties in both, assuming identical houses where would we prefer? Cornwall. 

Thank you R&C&O&H for the hospitality and the free life coaching!

Rightmove binge

Since being back in the UK we've been on a Rightmove binge. Where do we move to?

What we know for sure is that we'll be selling our house in London and using the proceeds to move to a more cost effective area. Since more cost effective than London leaves pretty much the whole of the UK there's almost too much choice.

So to try and narrow things down a bit we've set off on another road trip to try and rule in/rule out some places.

What are we looking for?

• Picturesque
• Space
• Potential
• Community
• A residence
• Possibility to earn a decent passive(ish) income.

Again, this should be possible in many places, hopefully we'll recognise it when we see it.

Since our last UK tour, almost exactly two years ago, a lot has changed. There's five not four of us, our vehicle is less flamboyant than Major Laser,

We don't have every stop booked in (just the first) and it didn't take a week to pack (about 3hrs).

Change in fortune

Well it felt like the moment we made the correct call, things started to go better, but perhaps that's just confirmation bias.

First of all we found a surprisingly affordable flight to London (thanks Sash), which after flirting with a cheaper flight to Istanbul followed by a road trip across Europe... was the less exciting, but more sensible option.

It wasn't all easy; F contrived to puke all over himself and KFC at the airport (BTW if you're ever stuck a KL airport with kids, KFC have a great indoor playground). But other than that our long wait for the plane went well.

On our first leg (2hrs to Bangkok) a family sitting next to ours with a 16month year old baby started emptying a typical firstborn's travel toy collection onto the floor, D made her way across the aisle and was entertained for almost an hour. D as a no.3 has had to settle for  one stuffed toy, one baby book and a couple of teething items on this trip, not the entire suitcase worth of equipment her young neighbour had at his disposal.

In Bangkok, my dad then called us by accident and when I called him back, he offered to pick us up from the airport the next morning despite the ungodly hour - result!

By our second flight (12hrs direct) we were all tired; F was asleep before take off, G went through her normal hyper half hour on the way up, then fell asleep on my arm. Finally D calmed, then crashed,  Ali and I quickly followed.

7-8hrs later we woke up, watched a couple of movies then before long we were at Heathrow. We collected our untampered bags - we'd taken precautions:

And we were back!

To top off our change in fortune D slept through for pretty much the first time!!

Can't you take a hint?

WTF is wrong with this trip? We'd had a decent day, lunch out, nap for me, swimming and then a nice evening with some new friends. Then on our walk home F turned to me in a panic: Dad I'm think I'm going to be sick. Thankfully Ali is prepared for this sort of emergency and we managed to contain the mess in a sick bag, before making it back to our flat.

Since our return to KL aside from my issues, D's run a fever one night with accompanying diarrhoea, G was sick all over her bed 2 days ago and Ali's tummy's been iffy. We are really struggling.

After having put the kids to bed, I was in my usual position (sitting on the toilet) when with no warning I hear retching coming from the kids room.

Who was that?

F: It's me Daddy

Me: Get in here quick!! I yell

He rushes in, hand over mouth and looks around in panic and confusion, I direct him to the toilet but it all comes out exorcist style through his hands onto the floor, me and himself.

I enquire quietly and calmly as to my best beloved's availability in this time of need. She arrives with a now awake and super excited D under the arm who then proceeds to copy her brother and puke all over the floor. WTF!?!?

Ali and I just look at each other and started laughing. It's either that or tears.

We finally cleaned the bathroom while F rinsed off in the shower. We get him out and wrap him in a towel and say, right time to get you back into bed for some sleep.

F: OK, but who's going to clean the bed?

Ali and I just look at each other in despair as realisation dawns.

We rush next door and sure enough it looks like someone's just poured a bowl of Ramen over the bed! WTF I yell in frustration. Poor F, he must be so embarrassed, we direct him to the couch while we (mainly Ali) gets to work. In all the commotion G is now also awake, totally cheerful and asking perfectly reasonable questions, I do what any parent would in this situation and tell her to be quiet. Meanwhile on the floor D has followed us in, very excited at all the goings on. She goes to explore the cupboard where she silently, stealthily pukes up again. WTF?

I don't expect life to be easy, overcoming obstacles often lead to good outcomes, and I subscribe to the theory that it's how you react to situations that matters most. It's not searching for the path of least resistance but the path that feels right. Lately on this trip nothing feels right and everything feels hard. When we chose to ignore the difficulties a few days ago and decided to plough on, it just feels like everything got even harder as if the universe was saying: were you not listening? You're not meant to be here! Go home.

Laundry loaded in, kids are in bed I apologise to F in case we've scared him earlier, and say goodnight. Ali and I retire to discuss the only thing on both our minds: how do we get out of here?

I go to bed with our plans unconfirmed. Only to be woken up an hour or two later to support F while he's sick again. Ali comes in and says we're leaving!

F turns to her: no more travelling?

Ali: No more travelling in Asia.

F: Does that mean people will stop touching me all the time? - it's been a tough trip all round.

This morning we've booked flights for London. Goodbye Asia!

Croissants back on the menu

It's been six days since I got food poisoning (we think from Jakarta) and there's been no let up. I'm no longer counting the number of toilet visits, I'm keeping track of the number of toilet rolls I go through. Boom, boom.

In desperation today I went to a local medical centre. It turned out to be super efficient. It wasn't free but for a total of £9 I walked in, got to see a doctor (GP equivalent) within 20min, she gave me a prescription and 10 min later I was out antibiotics in hand. If that was available in the U.K. I think I'd do it over going to our horrendous old GP practise. Certainly if something is really wrong and you need to visit often (as you get older say) it's nice to know that it is fully covered by the NHS, but when I was working and time was truly precious I would happily have paid a bit more to be seen faster, which would hopefully subsidise other services (unfair as that might be on time poor people without the funds).

Bizarrely since I have been on a high fat and low sugar/carbs diet for the last 4 months, I'm now on a 100 percent carb and sweet drinks diet (doctors orders). Today's happy moment was going to a KL bakery and realising everything without fruit and cream was on the menu!!! For me, the hardest place to visit while on the diet are French boulangeries since croissants, baguettes, pain aux chocolate, croix de savoie, etc... have all been off the menu - I'm very much looking forward to my croissant for breakfast tomorrow.

The diet has been remarkably effective though. With a final kilo lost over the last six days I've now dropped around 7kg while on it and around 20kg since setting off on our travels a year and a half ago. I've not weighed this little since my university days.

A new plan

Aside from Asia fatigue, general exhaustion and my sickness I think Ali and I have just checked out of Asia. Our reassessment a week or so ago to stop full time travel and instead find a place to settle down, has us really excited and in a rush to get started. Unfortunately we're stuck in the wrong part of the world and it feels like we're wasting time.

Whenever a setback or difficulty arises like the last 48hrs, it's made doubly hard by the fact that our hearts are just not in it.

When I imagined travelling in Asia I imagined Tuk Tuk's, beach huts, white beaches, turquoise waters, palm trees, temples, splashing to shore with bags over our heads, street food, etc... The reality is that we've found travelling in Asia really hard.

Probably the main thing is that we always seem short of cash. Hygienic restaurants are expensive, well located hotels with good facilities also, and last minute flights can be too. This would have been partly avoided by having a prebooked itinerary as Ali had always wanted. I pushed hard not to have one preferring the flexibility to leave or stay in place depending on whether we liked it or not. Unfortunately by leaving it late, a lot of previously affordable places and experiences have got very expensive, and as yet we've not found even one place that we wanted to spend much more time in (except compared to worse places) - Ali is understandably pissed at me, particularly since she's spending so much of the trip on her phone researching or booking our next accommodation. For the record a fixed itinerary with the jetlag and various illnesses we've had would have been a nightmare too.

We are only half way through our trip, how can we make the rest of it easier and more pleasurable? What do we now?

Well KL is turning out to be much cheaper than Bali. While our very nice Airbnb (with pool)

costs a little more, transport is super cheap and we're managing to eat for about half the price. There is also lots of things to do both for us and the kids, it's like living in a much cheaper London but with consistently hot weather.

So the plan is to split most of our remaining time between KL and Bangkok with occasional regional jaunts/tours. If any flights are involved we're going to book them well ahead of time. Fingers crossed...

Asia fatigue

Never ones to make our lives easier, we headed out of Bali on our way to KL but with a 3hr layover in Jakarta. Things inevitably did not go smoothly.

The Balinese airport staff seem to have announcement/update phobia; with no notice that our plane was running late we nearly boarded a plane to Lombok! When our plane was finally ready, no one mentioned it would be from a different gate; queue a scramble across the terminal to get on in time.

After manhandling D for the two hour flight we arrived refreshed at Jakarta airport. On arrival we realised a planning error: booking an internal followed by an international flight - we were in the wrong terminal! After some panicked questioning we boarded a transfer bus where we got some weird looks from the other passengers as we sat together, turns out it was male/female segregated and I'd sat in the ladies section (shrug).

We then had to go through the whole security and border security procession for the second time today. Jakarta airport is one to miss: an absolute dump, completely disorganised, nothing is well indicated and while staff are plentiful they don't seem to be doing anything meaningful.

While we were pulling our hair out in the pointless queues and inefficiencies, some enterprising baggage staff were in the process of ransacking one of our bags. Thankfully nothing of easy resale value was there so nothing appears to have been taken, but they did all this in a massive downpour, it looked like someone had poured a bucket of water on the contents. Now I understand why Asian travellers cling film their bags on their travels (weather and theft proof) - layover bags must be a particularly tempting target.

Having at last negotiated our way through security, we gobbled down some dinner. Ali by this point was losing the plot so bought herself a calming cup of tea. Unfortunately the idea of sipping away happily at her tea was snatched away since this is one of the Asian airports where you have a double security screening, hot tea and all our water had to be disposed of. We were through and at the right gate but with no liquids, Ali went and enquired and discovered the local thirsty tourist tax, the only bottles available cost a bomb and were only two inches tall (we bought a lot).

At last we were on the plane, the flight went fine until the pilot tried to land, in all my years of flying I've never experienced such a rough landing, sounded like the landing gear had got crushed into the runway, I was clinging on to the seat in front of me in a panic. Thankfully the shock absorbers must have done their job and we got to the gate safely - I'm not flying lion air again in a hurry.

KL airport was a haven of calm and efficiency compared  to Jakarta (despite Kim Jung Un's brother being assassinated there the day before) which eased some of our stress. I won't be moaning about first class infrastructure in developing countries again! The only issue were a bunch of old Indonesians on a package holiday who thought it was OK to poke and prod F, then laugh at him when he screamed at them to stop - he has had enough of having his personal space invaded. I would too if I was given as much attention as our three get. We've stuck to the cities/touristy/cosmopolitan areas I don't want to think what it would be like in more remote places.

After a short cab ride, we were all tucked up in bed by 2am in our airport hotel.

While everyone else had a good night's sleep I'd been given a parting Indonesian gift of Bali belly (or the Jakarta equivalent) and was up for a good part of the night in the bathroom. As I write this now the cramps have still not eased and I'm not straying too far from decent toilets. Malaysian toilets are notorious, they even put old French ones to shame; squatting but with the added fun of toilet paper being replaced by a shower hose which the locals seem to use for a full body wash. While I've not made a detailed study of it, since the women squat more than men it's probably the only country in the world where the ladies toilets are more flooded and more smelly than the men's.

With lack of sleep affecting all of us, me feeling dreadful and after yet another tough Asian travel experience we had had enough. Yesterday we tried to bring forward our flight back to the UK. Unfortunately our carrier wouldn't discount and we really don't have the cash for new flights. We're going to stick it out but a new plan is needed.

Goodbye Bali

Well we were warned and we'd managed to avoid it until today, but Kuta is as bad as everyone says!!

I never thought I'd say that I'd miss the hawkers, traffic, and chaos of Ubud but it's so tame in comparison. The touts here really hassle, the lush vegetation is gone, the tourists are burnt and rowdy, the smiles are fleeting or replaced by frowns (except for D of course), the interesting open architecture replaced by western hotels and malls, the amazing doorways hidden or just missing.

There are some plus points; sunsets over the sea, a horizon, a big beach, decent pavements (we managed to take the buggy for a walk for the first time) a clean sterile mall with good, but expensive food and high chairs!! But give me Ubud any day.

We leave Bali today but have one more month in Asia. First we fly back to KL for a few days then the current plan is to head North...

Bonding with No.3

Not only are Ali and I full time with the kids we are also full time together. So when Ali had a client this evening the realisation hit that I would be solo with the three kids at dinner time for the first time in a long time. With F&G that would be no concern but with D it's quite another story. Particularly as we'd promised pizza out and I wouldn't be able to put her down all night as high chairs are unheard of in Bali.

There is definitely a difference even at this age compared with our first two. Even though I've been much more around with D, I was much more of an equal parent with the other two since I was able to bottle feed. There is something immensely satisfying/connecting of having a baby calmly lying on you guzzling milk and studying your face with their young/old eyes.

While I do on occasion manage to get D to fall asleep on me, most of my time with her is while she is doing an impression of the cartoon Tasmanian devil; spinning, dribbling, grabbing, drooling, blowing raspberries, falling, standing, kicking, dancing and spitting food everywhere. Not the most emotionally connecting time.

She is particularly difficult around meal times. She is now on solids and generally Ali will feed her since she tends to eat better with her (or Ali is more patient so D eats better with her).

So with some trepidation I set out with the kids with 60 long minutes ahead of me. To kill some time we ambled up and and down our road looking at the construction boom in the paddy fields.

I managed to coax two laps out of F&G killing about half an hour before we entered the restaurant.

It was one of those moments when you really appreciate being in Asia; the staff were super friendly, and went giddy with excitement at the sight of D. I set F&G up with a movie and checked the menu while Darcy was being cooed and prodded in the buggy.

With a pizza ordered for the kids and a large Bintang for me I rescued D from being pinched and tickled to death, she clung to me with all her might.

All in all the dinner passed very uneventfully, the food arrived quickly, the kids were starving so ate really well, D got whisked away on a couple of occasions for a tour of the kitchens which meant I got to enjoy my beer and whenever she returned was delighted to see me, ate well from my hand and was continually entertained by passing waitresses. Before long Ali arrived. Even with with her favourite person back I seemed to be favoured for that night - heart warming.

Since pizza is a definite low carb diet no no, Ali went out in the monsoon downpour that the cooling evening had set off and picked up some take away burgers for us to have at home, while F&G finished off their second pizza. Ever since our travel restricted diet in the Villa, Ali and have been dreaming of a good burger, the ones she picked up were London prices, soggy with drippings but absolutely amazing! Their taste, our chaotic race home in the downpour and evening where I bonded with my youngest will live long in my memory.

Tourist day

Bali taxis are about three times more expensive than in KL, but since we needed one to take us to Ubud anyway, we decided to pay a little extra and hire our friendly taxi driver for the whole day to check out some of the touristy sights.

First stop the darling of most Bali tourist brochures, the Balinese version of St michaels mount, the temple of Tanah Lot:

looking at my photo it looks impressive, when we there it was just shit. This is far more representative of what it's actually like:

Rammed full of tourists. What the photo does not capture is the roasting heat, the cloying humidity, the sweat, the stink, the noise, the unsmiling/angry hawkers, the general chlostrophobia. Not only would I not go back, I wish I hadn't gone at all. Felt like a complete waste of money.

Our next stop was Echo beach, we'd been told it was a nice place to go for lunch by the owners of the Villa. We really liked it. Plenty of waterfront cafes, lots of crabs for the kids to look at and hundreds of surfers battling the waves.

Happily, since I've always wanted to give it a go, I've also been given full permission to become a surf bum by Ali (in the hope I may achieve a similar physique to the surfers on show) - I'll take it!

After a cheap lunch we headed down for a stroll on the surprisingly clean beach while the kids splashed in the water. We could have stayed for hours but with no swim stuff and no sun cream we had to keep it short.

Looking at how happy the kids were, we really need to find a beach for them sooner rather than later on this trip.

While in Ubud we'd heard about a really impressive tiered paddy field nearby, so took a final detour to check it out. It is really impressive:

As with Tanah Lot the construction of cafes, stalls and shops to separate tourists from their cash really restricts the view. But it is still an amazing feat of agricultural engineering. The years and hours of labour required to build and maintain the irrigation system and paddies is just awesome.

Agriculture is certainly very different here than in the UK, everything grows year round, so with a few paddy fields on constant rotation (you can harvest every 5 months), fruit and veg growing year round and a few chickens you're basically good to go. Nowadays the farmers probably make more money from taking tourists down for a walking tour than they collect from their crops.

Leaving the paddy fields behind we headed back into Ubud to see how bad our "good deal" hotel booking was.  Initially not good, we'd booked adjoining rooms but the hotel/booking.com had made a mistake so we were shunted to a much smaller room, a bit of negotiation later we were installed into two next door rooms. Turns out the real "good deal problem" is the building works in the garden below our room, but since labour is cheap here, there's no heavy machinery running its just manual work and we've barely noticed the noise.

Looking forward to visiting some familiar haunts and eating a more interesting and varied diet for a few days before leaving the island.

Well we're in trouble now!

D is immobile no longer.

It's seemed that she's been on verge of crawling for about four months, she finally figured it out two days ago. There's a mixture of delight in her achievement, to go from a helpless newborn to a proper individual, funny, caring, communicative, headstrong and now mobile in around seven months is really impressive, on the flip side we now can't leave her alone for a second.

I've always thought that she looked A LOT like F, she now sounds like him at the same age (lots of excitable screaming) and unfortunately moves like him too - she does not stop!!!

They say that children (adults too?) learn as a series of leaps and plateaus rather than a straight upward curve. It certainly rings true for D, and right now she is leaping:

• Day 1: got this crawling thing sorted
• Day 2: hmm, that's interesting I can now pull myself up to a standing position.
• Today: stairs! ...don't know what all the fuss is about.

Thankfully tomorrow we leave the villa (for a worryingly good deal in Ubud) which might slow down her progress a little.

With our other two, we installed cushioned matting throughout the house. With the hard floors of Asia we're going to need to be very aware for the rest of our trip - I'm really considering looking for a crash helmet.

Argument leads to change

Arguments in our relationship are not good for the status quo.

Our finances this month have been depleted by some unforeseen events and since we're travelling on a tight budget anyway, the stress levels have risen.

Today's argument boiled down to: after a year and a half year of travel, with the uncertainty of our house rental coming to an end and with money tight, what should we be doing next?

One of the reasons for our travels was to see if we found somewhere so wonderful we might want to settle down there. In that regard our experience in Asia has been extremely useful, we've entirely written off the tropics (globally) other than for visits. As Ali put it:

 "On this trip it has helped clarify that I do mind bugs, I don't want ants everywhere, you put one thing down for a second and it's covered! I am fed up of large flying things in the house, snakes in the garden and mainly mosquitoes!

If I am not smearing suncream on three moving targets I am coating their precious skin in bug repellant! Despite all that we still have been eaten alive!"

As the realisation that the tropics are not an option for us, I'd suggested and put some research into the possibility of Portugal - land is cheap, there's good weather, cost of living is affordable and it's a well trodden path. It might not be a bad place to build a house, dig a pool, set up a small holding, and live the good life.

Today is hot (which probably helped the argument develop) Ali said: you know I just can't do the heat! (Portugal is likely off the list).

Ian: France has a great climate

Ali: it's not a happy place right now.

Ian: so where?

Ali: Cornwall perhaps? We know some people doing that sort of thing over there.

Ian: bit expensive no?

Ali: we may have to be creative...

The argument was over fairly quickly and like our first argument that set our travels in motion  almost exactly two years ago I suggested that we write what we both wanted on pieces of paper then share and compare.

This is what I came up with:

• Community
• Workshop (for me)
• Regular travel in bus or other
• Unschooling the kids unless they want school
• Home or buildings to build
• Small small holding
• Climate where walking and running outside are bearable
• Good wifi

Ali's for comparison:

• Successful business
• Easy access to parents
• Space that is ours without limitations
• Enough money to feel comfortable on a daily basis
• Engaged and happy children
• Friends and community nearby
• Good food
• Time for us as a couple
• To feel at my best
• Fit and healthy
• Space to relax
• Wonderful view everyday.

Conclusion? Some differences but not incompatible.

No certainties since we change our minds often, but it looks like our days of constant travel are numbered. Thankfully with our bus we'll still get to move around plenty wherever we end up.

Disadvantage of a good deal

Unfortunately there are disadvantages to getting really good deals.

There's often a good reason for someone discounting. In our case right now we're only the second ever tenants so we're a test case (it's not a smooth operation).

Although you might get a good deal on accommodation, there are always other costs as part of a stay and those will be full price and way out of budget (Hotel mini bar anyone?). In our current example, the villa is extremely remote and we have no transport (we're not about to go full Balinese and take Darcy around on a moped) so food options are: the staff or self catering. The former is a "reasonable" price for someone doing your shopping, cooking for you in your own home and then washing up, we did it once (which was fantastic) but not at all possible twice a day for a week. The latter involves a cab ride to some shops half an hour away. Unfortunately the staff control the choice of cab so we got royally ripped off for our trip to the supermarket. With a more appropriate budget we would probably have shrugged these costs off - ah well.

Going shopping in non tourist areas of different countries is always interesting to see what's different? what do you recognise?

Ali and I have been on a low carb/low sugar diet for a few months (so plenty of meat, full fat anything and lots of veg). As soon as we walked into our supermarket in Bali it was clear our diet was going to have to change at least for this week. The smell of the fresh food area and particularly the meat counter made you want to gag, so we picked up the overpriced, OK looking vegetables that were on offer, a week's worth of snacks and a 5 kilo bag of rice!

In the end to compliment our veg and rice diet we've engaged the staff to source and prepare some chicken skewers (which are delicious) - I won't be asking where they got them from though.

Villa in the paddy fields

After practising her haggling skills in the markets of Ubud, Ali surpassed herself on airbnb, somehow she managed to land this place:

With staff and breakfast included, but for Bali hostel prices!

It's smack in the middle of rice paddy fields,

the roof deck has a view of the sea and we're only a 3min walk to the beach.

On our arrival we thought we'd check it out, it was described as a beautiful silver sand beach.

Unfortunately it was a real disappointment! The sand is definitely silver looking but of the very dark volcanic kind which is pretty cool. The disappointment came from the crazy amount of trash found all over it! We'd been warned that during the wet season, unless the beaches are actively groomed and cleaned by resorts you will find rubbish everywhere.

Unfortunately Bali just doesn't have the waste collection and disposal infrastructure in place nor a populace well fed enough to care. Basically as the torrential rain falls on Bali it washes away a year's worth of trash into the rivers, on into the sea and back onto the beaches. Not sure we'll be spending much time on the beach.

The trash did bring about a wider wealth/poverty/environmental discussion with the kids. As ever on these complex topics it's hard to know what, if anything sinks in. By global and Balinese standards we are stupendously wealthy, but our travel budget is tight which impacts the kids every want and desire - must be confusing.

Ubud

Our time in Ubud has come to an end at least for now.

After a difficult start, adjusting to tropical life (being visited by Snakes, frogs, geckos and mosquitoes)

in the rainy season

and the general chaos we've grown to like it.

Yes getting around is hard with pavements that are slick in the rain, 

covered in offerings,

...broken, misshapen or just missing and with scooters and cars driving wherever they want following a driving code I still find mistyfying (we saw no accidents however). But for tropical newbies like us, the high expat and tourist population means creature comforts (the door to our hostel room at the Onion collective opened onto the pool) ...

...and excellent food were easy to find.

Compared to London prices, food is at least half price, though apparently very expensive from a Bali perspective. Truth is I prefer eating in places like this:

 ...rather than grabbing a bargain from eateries like this:

 ...perhaps that will change as our trip continues. 

Ubud on an island rammed packed full of temples is regarded as the spiritual centre. The main religion is Hindu but with a Balinese twist and a bit of Buddhism thrown in for good measure. Apparently every village has three temples and every family their own family temple. The result is even though all the ugly tourist focused commercial shops dominate the streets, you're never far from an interesting roof

...or from an ornate doorway into a traditional family compound guarded by a statue 

or two​

By the end of the week, along with becoming expert road obstacle avoiders, one thing had definitely changed; we were smiling a lot! Apparently the more remote the place in Bali, the bigger the Balinese smile. But even in touristy Ubud everyone, even disappointed taxi drivers/shopkeepers smile at you, it's proved pleasantly contagious.

First time in Asia

We've been in Asia for 10 days. After a brief stay in Bangkok, a longer one in KL we are now in Ubud, Bali.

It's not been all plain sailing, which was probably inevitable considering D's youth, jet lag and our tight budget. All the same having D and F taking it in turns to run a fever for seven out of the ten days seems a little excessive.

Despite the difficulties it's been a fascinating few days. Looking back the things that have struck me most so far are:

The heat! Apparently it's not even hot at the moment!?!?

The inequality. The wealthy residents of Bangkok and KL are basically living 1st world lives, driving nice cars in heavy traffic, living in luxury condos and idling their days in air conditioned mega malls (including indoor rollercoasters).

The contrast with the life of most of the populace is quite staggering.

A good example in KL is the top class fast train from the airport into the city which takes around 30min but which costs around five times more than the equivalent 1hr taxi ride, which must put it completely out of reach of most of the population. Perhaps it's just a tourist tax, but it seems like a crazy infrastructure investment to benefit so few (it was empty when we paid our contribution to the coffers). I guess parallels could be drawn with HS2 in the UK without the cheep taxis of course.

The genuine pleasure that everyone in this part of the world has for children and particularly babies. So unlike the UK and France you actually feel welcome in restaurants and other social spaces. D is regularly picked up and paraded around by various staff members giving us a few minutes peace. We even had an evening off at our KL hostel when the kind staff volunteered to look after her while she slept.

The smells good and bad, particularly in Bali where you're never far from inssence burning.

A lot had to go right

Looking back, a lot of things spread over several weeks/days had to coordinate.

Some Trover suggestions leading us to two of the most beautiful villages in France.

Which led to me to finding another on our route to Paris.

Several long days of driving searching for aires which turned out closed or in remote regions, tiring me out.

G being in a foul mood over 48hrs causing everyone in our small space to be stressed and on edge.

Having our first sat nav error of the trip - directing us to a non existent Aldi right before a major cross roads.

Me throwing a wobbly. Then deciding that all this shit is happening to me for a reason and that instead of turning left to take everyone up a volcano, I should go right instead and head towards Paris.

Driving longer and further than expected that day.

Staying in a shithole aire we were so eager to see the back of that we left early the next day.

All resulting in us making our typical rumbling entrance into Apremont sur Allier before lunch on Sunday in time for the last day of the Christmas market.

It is a beautiful village complete with castle. Ancient yellow sandstone houses clustered along the road, which runs parallel to the river Allier.

We got out, with low expectations on such a damp, foggy day but intent on having a nice walk. We neared the castle, and discovered they were charging entry to the Christmas market, castle battlements and an atelier pour enfants, we didn't hesitate, two euros handed over and we entered.

Our day had turned for the better...

The market was set up in the old stables. What it lacked for in size, it certainly made up for in tasteful decoration, homeliness, friendliness, affordability and uniqueness.

​We picked up a couple of last minute presents then headed up to the battlements.

​Weather conditions meant they lacked their normal impressive views, but the kids had fun on the canons.

We then wondered into the atelier,

where the kids were asked if they wanted to do some craft work. Before our travels they might have hesitated, these days when an activity is proposed they get straight in there. Ali and I sat back, had a drink and enjoyed seeing F&G gluing, sticking, cutting, squeezing and drawing all under the direction of one of the organisers of the market.

The organiser turned out to be a fellow well travelled, homeschooling parent of similar aged children. It seemed to me like a meeting that was fated to happen. We had a lovely chat for what felt like FAR too short a time, in what was likely the one quiet period of her entire day (after lunch the village car parks filled and the population of the village must have quadrupled in size). With contact details exchanged hopefully we will meet again...

On the road again

After a two week interlude in Chamonix spreading out, streaming, catching up with friends, hiking, and bathing (a lot), we're now on the road again.

Even when we arrived in the luxury of chamonix  Ali and I definitely missed some things about van life which we'd not expected.

At the rhythm we were travelling everything had to be put away two or three times a day. While this could and did get tiring after several weeks it was also quite therapeutic, the bus was really tidy, clean and neat.

When we first set out we were still working out the best places for things but by the end everything had a designated spot and in very easy reach. It was fantastic to always know where F's hat was or where to reach for more bibs (rarely the case in a big house).

But the main thing is that bus life really suited D:

• She slept better in the bus (routine/darkness/cold/loud engine?)
• She was more entertained in the bus with F&G to observe at close proximity.
• And more satisfied out of the bus since we were always doing something or walking somewhere.
• She loves just looking at the ceiling.

While I'm definitely going to miss hot running water and good wifi, I'm really happy to be back in the bus. New experiences await...

Back in Chamonix

Following Kaisersberg, we finished our Trover tour in Colmar. Yet again we were met with a christmas market!

The centre of Colmar is a gorgeous medieval town and well worth a visit. If we hadn't seen Kaysersberg it would likely have been our best christmas market experience, as it was even Ali said that she'd had enough of Christmas markets for a while (not something I ever thought I would hear her say). So we cancelled our planned trip to Freiburg, and instead set our course for Chamonix.

The most direct route is to pass through Switzerland. Pretty much the moment we passed Basel the landscape really changed. Apart from a short interlude in Luxemberg we'd been almost exclusively travelling around lowland estuaries and river valleys, at last there were mountains to look at! Hoorah!!

I was about to write that "my heart and spirits lifted" which is kind of true, but really i'm excited to be back, the mountains just feel right to me.

The only problem with mountains is that in a 6+ ton truck, steep climbs and windy roads are a bit of a test. I was particularly nervous that our route from Martigny took us up to the Col de la Forclaz (700 metres straight up). As it turned out other than over heating light flashing the bus made it up just fine. Here we are about 600m above Martigny:

From the Col de la Forclaz the rest of the way to Chamonix is pretty straightforward and soon enough we were back! Time for a bath...