Assalamualaikum,
Since I was a kid, my mom always tell me about going places. Travel.
But back then, travel is expensive. So we could only dream.
Come year 2000, travel became cheaper. Budget airlines blossom. Everyone can fly!
However, not all travelers are the same. Some people don't bother in sightseeing, thus choosing to 'holiday' in the destination they go. Some people only go to the beach. While others may like exploring places they go, to see this and that. Recently, there are more people who are called backpackers.
I am not a backpacker. But that does not mean I don't travel on a budget. This is where I think most people get it wrong..they think that when you travel to places with tight budget, you are force to backpack. For me, backpacking is more suitable for people who travel solo/in a small group, carrying just a backpack & no luggage, with extremely tight budget, sleeping in the most cheap places such as hostels, room, tube, or even couch and most likely with no kids.
As per Wikipedia,
Backpacking is a form of low-cost, independent international travel. It includes the use of a backpack that is easily carried for long distances or long periods of time; the use of public transport; inexpensive lodging such as youth hostels; often a longer duration of the trip when compared with conventional vacations; and often an interest in meeting locals as well as seeing sights.
Although I've always wanted to try it, I can't. The most obvious reason, Lulu & Mimi. Btw, I was only able to freely travel on my own when I got married. Even then, we had not enough money to go on our honeymoon. We had our destination but we postponed because of money. 6 months later, our destination changed. We went to Matta fair and saw a great deal for a trip to Korea and we decided to just go for it. It was Allah's plan. At that trip, everyone except two were around our age & we clicked! It was like going to a vacation with friends instead. Believe it or not, our trip was less than rm3.5k per pax, around 9 days, with Jeju Island.
After that, we did not go anywhere. In the beginning of our marriage, me & FF had always wanted to go travel together. But at that time money was scarce for us, I had a job where I cannot simply ask for long leave, and we also had investment commitments. So we left our dream honeymoon destinations aside.
I guess we really were able to travel after we had Lulu. We started slow by just one place. Then I got to perform Umrah while Mimi in my tummy. After Mimi was born, we were able to go few places and almost all of them with the kids. And traveling with kids, there is never an option to backpack. Although it is not that cheap cheap to travel with kids, we try to minimize our costs as much as possible. And we always always try to minimize our luggages too.
I am always grateful to my Maker for He have given us these many blessings in our lives. From not being able to travel together to being able to do that a bit later in our marriage. Patience in dreaming plus sticking by FF and supporting him in his decisions paid off.
Insyallah, if time permits (if I'm not busy), I will do posts on our travels. It may not be like most travel blogs out there, but I just want to share a glimpse into our travel life with kids.
Till next post,
Assalamualaikum.
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