Earth Family Travel - How To Travel The World Full Time With Kids

Today we talk to Pete from @earthfamilytravel. Pete and his wife Denise have been travelling the world full time for a number of years, but when kids came they thought it might come to an end.

Instead, they took their 2 kids with them. Now this family of 4, from Vancouver, Canada, take their kids on an epic worldschooling adventure!

Guess what else? They travel long-term, with carry-ons only and focus on budget-friendly destinations which make this lifestyle available to almost anyone.

Pete and I talk about worldschooling, travelling with kids, working remotely, deciding to stay in Vietnam during COVID and much more.

• How to travel full-time with kids and just carry-on luggage
• How to "worldschool" your kids and give them the education you want
• How to travel on a budget to extend your freedom lifestyle
• How to navigate Corona Virus while thousands of miles away from home

And so much more...

Skye Khilji 0:20
So on the show with us today, we have Pete from Earth travel family. Pete is originally from Vancouver, Canada and travels full time with his wife Monica and their two kids with only three pieces of carry-on luggage. They focus on visiting budget friendly destinations, blogging, and world schooling decades along the way. Let's hear from Pete, figure out how they started this journey, where they are now and where they think things are going to go. Hey, Pete, how's it going?

Peter 0:47
It's good. How are you doing?

Skye Khilji 0:48
Good thank you, sir. Where in the world are you today?

Peter 0:51
I am in Da Nang, Vietnam.

Skye Khilji 0:54
Okay. Okay, lovely. I'm over in Romania right now. I think I told you in the DMs.

Skye Khilji 0:59
Yeah. Which part?

Skye Khilji 1:01
In Sibiu in the mountains.

Peter 1:03
Okay, I actually have a booking there in September. We're planning on visiting. I'm hoping I'll still be able to make that.

Skye Khilji 1:12
Yeah, it's pretty quiet here. Business as usual. There's a few people wearing masks, the two meter restriction and no crowds. I think about 50 allowed. But so far, we've had about 400 cases and two deaths, and both were elderly with pre-existing conditions. So yeah, seems to be in control at this point.

Peter 1:31
Yeah, well, let's hope things don't get to that point. You might get to this later. But yeah, we had in the month of February, planned our travels all the way up until the end of September, and most of that's been scuttled.

Skye Khilji 1:47
Yeah, we booked until January next year, and we've had one flight cancelled so far, I think to Latvia or Lithuania. Yeah, but the rest of them seem to be holding up relatively well.

Peter 1:58
Well, I'm really excited to see Romania are going to have Brasov and Sibiu where we're going to be for the most.

Skye Khilji 2:05
So awesome. We've been here for about three weeks. We got one more week here in Sibiu. And then we go to Bucharest for a month.

Peter 2:12
Nice. Yeah, we got a month in Sibiu.

Skye Khilji 2:15
That is awesome. It's pretty quiet. But there's 24 hours stores here. There's no shortage of food at the moment. It's pretty relaxed.

Peter 2:25
Yeah, same with Da Nang actually.

Skye Khilji 2:28
Okay, that's interesting. We'll kind of dig into how things are on the ground there in the episode. But usually what we do is we talked about the timeline, which is, you know, life before you made this decision, the turning points, then leaving where you are now and what's next.

We tend to go across that and then we scoot around some different topics, we pretty much freestyle. So I think what would be awesome, is why don't you tell us who you are and where you're from and what life was like before you embarked on this magical journey with your family.

Peter 3:02
All right, my name is Peter Scott. I am presently 45 years old and been living in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for over 20 years. I met my wife, Monica almost 18 years ago. And in 2000, well go back to 2005. We decided we wanted to travel, we spent a couple of years working in a remote nursing station in northern British Columbia.

And then we took a year off and at around the world trip, mostly sort of fast travel, but we just flew by the seat of our pants, didn't book anything in advance. Didn't mean to rhyme. But and we hit all the, you know, all the cheap countries, Southeast Asia, North Africa, South America. And we thought we get that out of our system, you know, and then came back and ended up buying a home in Vancouver.

We in 2009, basically when the markets were Rock Bottom and we got a good price. And we settled into a nice neighbourhood and we were both registered nurses were both working and downtown Vancouver at St. Paul's hospital. And we settled into a comfortable life. And we ended up having two children in 2011 and 2013. Girl and then a boy. And to me, I thought we were just gonna ride this for as long as we could pay down our mortgage, and then eventually work a little bit less and travel some more when we had more money and, and that sort of thing without having to pay that down.

And then one day, my wife started getting itchy feet, and we started talking about maybe moving to another place. We talked about maybe traveling and we had all kinds of ideas whether we could, you know, rent out our place and all this stuff. And after a lot of talk, the long and the short is she sent me a video And it was basically the prologue for vagabonding by Rolf Potts. And I think the foreword by Tim Ferriss, and it was a two-and-a-half-minute video. And at the end of that video, I said, I'm all in. And we decided the best thing to do to make Well, the easiest sort of thing and a lot of ways would be to sell our home, our possessions, quit our jobs, and take off and we call that our and forget the language, fuck it and go play.

Yes. We didn't want to have to have to worry about, you know, tenants in our place. We'd rented our condo in the past and we didn't want to have to have a timeline and we and we wanted to just kind of leave things open ended to see what might come along and we weren't sure we wanted to go back to nursing. I'm sure you're aware. It's a it's a stressful job and after 20 years doing that I you know, you could use the word burnout I and I worked in all kinds of different departments and I was ready for a break even though I'd had a break in the past, but I, you know, it's also 12 hour shift work days and nights and working full time, had taken its toll.

And it's not just the work itself. It's, you know, politics and all kinds of things. You know, I thought I'd found my dream job at a hospice and we had the pipe burst and had to evacuate everybody who were, you know, all the patients are dying, literally. And there's a brand new building that you know, things like that happen and all kinds of different stresses that you wouldn't even anticipate. So we took this was in 2017, and we thought two to three years we'll make this happen and ended up being two years and we slowly made our plan. And the last few months went by really fast like it was, you know, check it out gear and make it The list of countries we wanted to see. And then we started having to acquire things.

And you know, all those, like looking at spending a lot of time on the internet researching different things from backpacks to different countries who want to visit these requirements, what's the best time to visit a country. So I came up with that a list and plotted in thing so we could be sort of fluid with our travels. And we knew we wanted to be traveling slowly, because we have kids. And that changes everything completely from how we first traveled with our kids. So anyway, I could go into more detail I could go on and on. But if you want to get into more specifics.

Skye Khilji 7:39
yeah, I'd like to touch on a couple of things. So the first one is, I definitely understand the nursing thing. My mom was a nurse when I grew up, she was working neonatal with the premature babies in the hospital and I always remember her coming home in the morning just exhausted. And then she couldn't sleep in the daytime because it was too noisy and it was light outside and that burnout. Absolutely We saw happen and you know, that experience of it being a dream job turning into something that just kind of drains you of everything. I've definitely seen that and can appreciate that.

So I got that on your timeline. You've been through that. You've read the we've seen the video about the vagabonding book. And you've decided, Okay, we need to set up we're going to kind of cut all of our earthly possessions. So we have the freedom to travel. But I'm interested how old were your kids at this point? Were they in school? What sort of preparation did you have to make in terms of the children in their schooling?

Peter 8:35
Well, they had both been in school and we had a great neighbourhood school, a five minute walk away. It wasn't one of the highest rated schools and a lot of the parents in the neighbourhood actually would drive the kids across the city to what they felt was a better school, but we had no problems with it. It was great teachers and actually had low numbers. So really good class ratios, all that sort of stuff and My daughter had gone into a sub when we left, she was seven and my son was five. And he, at the time we left we decided to leave at the end of the school year so the end of June.

So he had done one year Molly had done three years. And we had to prepare them for this. We told them all along the way, as soon as we made the decision, even at a very young age, I don't know if they really fully understood it. But we explained it to them as best we could and and we wanted them to be prepared mentally for it and and actually got quite excited about it. And we looked at all kinds of different ways to approach schooling from very structured online programs to unschooling, which is basically let them do whatever they want. And we ended up finding something in the middle, which we're like right now, with the pandemic going on.

We're feeling very fortunate that we've had this preparation that we're all ready doing the things that all these parents are forced to do that they're since all the schools are closed. So we feel like we're in a good position that way. So basically, this is called self design. It's through a provincial health or education ministry. And they connect you with a teacher who's like a liaison. And they provide you with all kinds of really great online resources. And they let you basically do whatever you want, and you are following the interests of your kids.

And you check in with them once a week you send a report on what you've done and what they've learned. They're really happy to have the kids learning from their experiences. And you know, everything that you do as you travel is a learning opportunity, especially for children. So, you know, they learn currency exchanges with their and that's their math and they learn geography and history and biology just from what they see on a day to day basis.

And we try to find other things historical places, museums and everything is opportunity for learning really. And then they do you know, in our day to day is quite unstructured we try to do some little bit of writing here some like using pencil and paper that they're it's math problems writing out words or journaling. They also do online stuff that follows like a curriculum so it's math and English and those sorts of things. And then we try to get them to express their artistic side so we are more often than not spending one month in a location.

So we'll go to a store and get like a cheap set of watercolor paints and let them play with those. Get some plaster seen. There's always paper pencils and pencil crayons and markers. So they're getting into that and origami has been a big one to my daughter especially is really into origami. There's some great apps that so they could look at the phone And shows the step by step instructions on how to do that all kinds of book apps where they can read books. So it's basically a take a library around with you. And having like, using technology has just been great because one of the other things I didn't mention was that we're traveling with carry on luggage only.

So we have basically three packs. My wife and I have a backpack and we have one roller for the kids. So having a big stack of books to carry around with us is not an option, although I've met families who are doing that. And so utilizing technology without having their faces glued to the screen and all the time is a bit sometimes a challenge. But it seems to be working out it's I have a lot of respect for the teachers out there though. Because getting kids to sit down and focus and learn is not always easy.

Skye Khilji 12:51
Yeah, I love that the kids are getting both that right brain stuff, the logical stuff and then the left brain artistic they're getting to kind of embrace both sides. And, you know, their creativity. I think our education system kills a lot of that in a lot of our kids. And you know, that system is probably outdated and is designed to create employees. And I think, yeah, we've lost a big part of ourselves in forcing our kids to work in that way.

Peter 13:17
Absolutely. Yeah. It's, they're no longer going to work the factory floor, so I should probably change the system.

Skye Khilji 13:25
Exactly. And that's why I was really interested in talking to you because there's parents out there that even if they don't want to travel the world, they would probably be interested in homeschooling, or an alternative education process. So I'm interested, you know, when you decide to take your kids out of school, are there any legal requirements or kind of hoops you have to jump through to be able to educate your kids in your own way?

Peter 13:48
We're very fortunate. I know that in the province of British Columbia, there are no requirements whatsoever. You can basically do whatever you want, and I do believe all of Canada is the same way. We met another family from Alberta. And they're doing distance education. And they were actually sent along with the stack of books and workbooks and papers and things like that. So it's a little bit different from place to place.

But I do believe that everywhere it's possible for people to not do anything to take your kids out of school. There's, I know there's countries, especially Scandinavia and parts of Europe where it actually could be illegal to do that, and right families who actually had to move to another country when they wanted to do that sort of thing. So but we've had, you know, there's a lot of the homeschooling world had been traditionally religious families that wanted a more Christian education that they didn't feel they didn't want their kids to learn about, you know, evolution and things like that. So they would do that their own schooling at home, like a Bible based so they help pave the way for people like ourselves and thing.

Skye Khilji 14:57
Yeah, I was talking to my dad a few days ago, about This I told him I was interviewing you. And you know how exciting it was. And why I mentioned that to him. I was actually born on a bus. And I lived that way until I was around for it was converted into a home. And we lived in caravans, we were kind of nomadic in the beginning, and we moved to London to have my sister go to school.

And my dad to this day says he doesn't think it was a good idea is indoctrination, not education. You know, he's in that mindset. And I'm the opposite where I say when I got to see both sides, and what I notice about my sister and myself, in contrast to others is because I've seen both sides, I have a bit of a different perspective, that's beneficial. So I'm interested Pete, when your kids go back to Canada, or they engage with other kids who are in a more traditional education system, what do you notice is the differences between them?

Peter 15:48
Well, we haven't gone back to Canada again. So we've been on the road since June of 2019. And we have yet to see how that works out. I don't think it's gonna be much different and because They have been in the school system and they liked school, they've often said they'd be happy to go back to school. But I don't anticipate there being a big difference. You know, like we've met up with families along the way. And some of them have not been traveling long. And they're from different countries.

You know, there was a family that hadn't been on the road too long. And they're from Germany. And even though the kids were both older than ours, they all just got along great. Kids are kids. And that's one thing that we've learned from this is, you know, not every kid is going to connect with the next one. You're not going to have every kid in your class be your best friend. But right. And it has nothing to do with their background. I mean, we had our public school or elementary school, where our kids went is very diverse. And it's not really the background that really determines whether they get along or not.

Skye Khilji 16:52
Yeah, and it makes a lot of sense. One aspect that's interesting is that group environment that collaboration and you know, cooperation with other kids. Do they replicate that in online schooling in some way? Or is it very much, you know, one to one student and teacher type model?

Peter 17:09
Well, yeah, that's a good question. There definitely is no groups. Like I said, we've have gotten together with some other families, but you know, yeah, I think that that's something that you could say there may be missing out on I mean, they're obviously not going out and playing soccer and, or baseball or anything of that sort with a large group of kids, which of course, President is strongly discouraged. So I still don't like like I, I did a lot of research before we took this trip. And I've heard a lot of stories even from these unschooling families.

And every single one said that their kids, some of you chosen to go back into the school system as teenagers and they wanted to see what they've always seen in movies and TV. shows they want to have that their locker and their friends and their cliques, all that stuff that a lot of people are scared of. But the kids wanted to have that opportunity to have that experience. And they generally didn't have any problems getting back into things. So I'm not concerned about that. Personally, I think that when you play to their strengths and their interest, I think that has more of a benefit in the long run. And having kids shoehorned into just having to study everything because they're told it's important.

Skye Khilji 18:30
100% I love that you get to tailor that to the individual. I'm a big proponent of that, you know, that education system and as you said, it does shoe on us into these topics. And often they're not even practical, useful. So I love that the kids are working out exchange rates and you know, when you use something, you retain it, rather than it just being an exercise in a textbook that doesn't really serve anybody.

Peter 18:56
Absolutely. And that's what I'm hoping for. I mean, one of my early Memories as a child with driving across Canada and the US when I was four years old, and I remember so many things from that so clearly, and I'm hoping that that's going to be a similar thing. And as well, that they actually are learning things along the way too.

Skye Khilji 19:16
Definitely, my dad told me a story of how he used to make me read the map when I was really young. And he'd say, you know, is it this way? Is it that way, and he'd have me memorizing the direction without the map, and he would drive 20, 30 minutes in the wrong direction, you know, knowing it was wrong with me to figure it out.

And I don't know if this actually helped. But I'm great with strategy now, which is where are we? Where are we trying to get to and how do we get there? So there's something in that using it and parents applying those lessons in the real world, I think does make a big difference.

Peter 19:48
Oh, absolutely. Yeah, my kids love maps. Like I remember, my son just spent the whole day with this map of a campground in Canada, and that was his whole entertainment. It was amazing. Yeah.

Skye Khilji 20:01
So Pete, talk to me about you've moved from Canada, you're now on the road with the kids. You've got the homeschooling or world schooling situation figured out. You went over to Asia. First is that right?

Peter 20:13
Before we left for Asia we did across Canada trip, not all the way across, but we got another minivan with our tent. And we went from Vancouver to Toronto, and then back again, all through Canada. And it was a great experience. I wanted to show them, you know where we're from, so they can appreciate that before we move on. And it was an opportunity to do that during the summer, it's hard for us to get all that vacation time during the highest demand.

You know, another thing about being a wage slave is you got to really spend years and years working up in your seniority before you can actually get the time off that you want. And I mean that can be quite limited and a lot of places too. I mean, it was a it was a unseasonally cold and wet summer, unfortunately We spent a lot of time in our tent in the rain. But we didn't have to deal with any forest fires.

But anyway, I was able to show them a lot of the places that I had seen as a kid and, and go back and visit my dad and my hometown, and see friends and family along the way. And that's one of the things that we're trying to do as much as possible is to, to reconnect and stay connected with our friends and family. Because, you know, that's what's really important, long term. And I hear time and time again about people who are on the road who sometimes have an even better connection with loved ones than they did when they were at work and having no time to actually talk to them or email or FaceTime.

Anyway, then we decided we would start with South Korea because my wife, her parents are from South Korea, though she never lived there. And we thought that would be a nice slow introduction into Asia and that it's a little bit more pricey of a destination but also more comfortable. they're familiar with the foods and whatnot. So we spent a month in Busan. And that was just fantastic. It's right on the beach. It's not a giant city like Seoul but big enough that there's plenty of things to do. And spend a week in Japan because it's expensive, but we had to go there because it was close. And then we went to Thailand two months and about a month and LAO. And we've been in Vietnam since January 15.

Skye Khilji 22:25
I love that you're reconnecting with your roots before you go. So your children are seeing where they're from. And then your wife is seeing where her family are from. I think that's so important, you know, to before you go out into the world, they will say that they don't know where you've come from. How do you know where you're going?

Peter 22:41
Absolutely, absolutely. That's been pretty important. And, and they have such fond memories of all those things, too now.

Skye Khilji 22:48
Yeah, definitely. So you were nursing prior to leaving, you've sold the house. Imagine you've got some money behind you. So at this point in terms of, you know, paying for your travel Are you using The money that you had in making that last as long as possible, have you started to do some kind of online or side hustle to to augment that income?

Peter 23:08
Well, both. But I mean, we're not in the augmenting stage right now. So we've budgeted a certain amount, we took a hell, luckily, we sold our home at a good time. And we were able to make some money off of that we invested some and kept some aside to pay for our travel. So that's also why we've been trying to even in Canada, we were mostly sleeping in tents. And we're visiting mostly budget friendly destinations. And slow travel is makes things a lot more affordable than when you're always trying to get on another plane or train and switching from place to place and racing to see all the sights and those sorts of things.

Having a kitchen and being able to cook your food. There's all these ways that we're trying to keep our budget down so that if there is no more money Coming in, we can still make this last as long as possible. We did start a blog, Earth family travel calm and started that in June of 2019. And our content creation has not been as fast as we hoped. We had all kinds of plans about what we're gonna do with that. And traveling with kids is, you know, definitely challenging as far as you know, being productive.

So I know I've listened to so many podcasts and still do about digital nomads and you know, travel like a boss and travel indie and all the kinds of and read books and things. And so we haven't monetized our blog, but and we're just learning so much like, we have zero business sense whatsoever. We're nurses, we just you know, we clock in clock out, and my wife has often said I'd make a good salesman because you know, if I buy some cool gear at the store, I'm happy to tell everybody how awesome it is. why they should have this or that. So, you know, I haven't really converted that to an income.

But we're focusing on things like, you know, we're learning about SEO, and all kinds of stuff. And we're focusing on content and trying to see if we can get people just visiting our site. And hopefully that first they'll be really refreshed by the lack of advertisements, and they'll find some valuable information there. And trying to find our, you know, niche, and then eventually, who knows how, honestly, I'm kind of hoping something's gonna land in my lap or something that talked to the right person and an opportunity will arise.

And there's been a few things that could materialize. I've, you know, looked into affiliate marketing. And Amazon still hasn't gotten back to me on that. But at the present time, our expectations are very, very, very low. especially in light of recent events. I literally just listened to a podcast earlier this evening about a travel blogger who was making A lot of money until recently, and her business has completely dried up. So, we're going to use this time to try to get caught up with our blog posts and, and create more content and tweak things and learn things and supposed to be going to the real Nomad summit in Tbilisi in May. I don't know if that's gonna work out.

Peter 26:24
But the summit hasn't been canceled yet. So we'll see.

Skye Khilji 26:29
Yeah, I want to touch on a couple of things that you said that I think were quite important. So there's a couple of paths out of the nine to five. One of them is you know, build up that side, hustle till it replaces your day job income, and then go and travel. Another path is what you guys did, which is if we have an asset and we can convert that to cash, we can then use that lump sum to live for an extended period. And that model I think works really well particularly when you budget because then you have a certain runway to get your passion projects off the ground.

And I think that's important because these kind of things affiliate marketing, travel, blogging, content creation, they do take 12 to 18 months of creating content before you get significant traffic before you can monetize that. So I think that's important that people realize that it's probably unlikely unless you know, you're just a complete lucky person, that you're going to create a new blog, get a ton of traffic and convert that to sales immediately. So I think having that lump sum, and budgeting to give yourself the time to bring that to fruition is so important.

Peter 27:35
Yeah, we're also okay with the fact that this might not go anywhere, as far as making money. But hopefully we will inspire some people to do something similar to what we're doing and inspire families to not wait until their kids are growing up to, you know, plan on on retirement home. We basically resigned to the fact that we're okay with being poor when we're old.

And that, you know, worst case scenario will live in a cheaper part of the country. And right now, which is like geographic arbitrage. Right now we're using geographic arbitrage to, to help this bit of money last a lot longer and sort of taking an early retirement, if you will, because we both had losses in our families, friends, people who've died quite unexpectedly. And one of the big reasons why we have done what we're doing is because of that, even two weeks after I went, told my mom and dad about our plans, my mom just died in her sleep for no apparent reason, and was, you know, was painless.

She was singing in the choir one night and, and didn't wake up the next morning. And that's, you know, one of the reasons why we're doing what we're doing, because you just don't know what the future is going to bring. And putting it off for some day. is I don't think is always Lies, because anyway, anything can happen. Life is short. And we need to enjoy the things that are most important. Now, which is doing the things you love spending your time with the people that you love as much as possible.

Skye Khilji 29:14
Yeah, I think that's so wise. If this time in the world has taught us anything, it's that, you know, we don't always have time. And my uncle sent me a message the other day, he said, Remember, the pharaohs had all the gold in the world, but they couldn't take it with them. Absolutely. I just absolutely loved that. Because it's really about the memories that we create, you know, the end of life that we all that shows you, you know, the highlights reel of your life exists. We're not going to see how much money we made, or the deal that we closed, we're going to see those moments with our kids those moments with our parents. So, to me, surely life's about creating as many of those as possible, isn't it?

Peter 29:50
Absolutely. Yeah. That's the main aim for this whole thing and to just live a life of no regrets, you know, but anyway, if things Do take off with our blog. And we can try to turn this into a business that we can take with us. We do hope that we can continue doing all these wonderful things and creating more memories. And if that doesn't work out, we do have some other sort of backup plans. One of the things that we did after our last trip was work as a nurse on a contract basis.

So with the agency, and they'd send you to usually a small hospital or community nursing station in a remote part of the country. And you'd be there they'd fly you there. You'd be there for some weeks or up to a couple months. And then you fly home. They provide you with housing and whatnot. And we worked in a small town Bella coola. for about four months, my wife and I, and we're thinking, you know, what, after we're done traveling Now we could go back to that for four months, and not even need to have a home to live in.

So because they're providing Housing almost everywhere that I stayed had enough room for our whole family. And we could get pride with one salary probably if, if need be, or if they were willing to make use of both of us alternating, so we have somebody with the kids, then we could also do something like that. And then, you know, spend some time and other places we're hoping to eventually make it to back to South America, you know, maybe set up a base in Ecuador or Colombia or something of that sort.

Skye Khilji 31:27
Yeah, that's definitely one of the other parts a lot of nomads take, which is they work in the job they were doing previously, but they do it for a limited period, say three or four months and then they take three or four months off. That is something from you know, working on the fruit farms doing picking to language teaching, there's a ton of opportunities there to, you know, to work for a little while and then go and travel. I think that's, that's something that's worth highlighting. And I just want to explain something for the listeners.

So geoarbitrage is the process of earning dollars or Canadian dollars or pounds or euros, typically a Western currency, and then living in a another country, perhaps in the Far East, perhaps in South America, where things are cheaper. So you're earning your income in a powerful currency, and your expenses are in a currency, which is less powerful. So your dollars go further, quite simply. Yeah. I wanted to kind of just ask you was that one of the reasons that you headed over to Asia, you know, once you got the expensive countries out of the system and out of the way was Asia, you know, a logical choice because of that ratio between expenses and income? Are 100%

Peter 32:37
Yeah, I mean, we've traveled through Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos on our last trip, and when we're before kids, and you know, is an inexpensive place to travel, and we only visited places that we are considered to be such a human on the last trip with the odd exception you did 10 days. In butanna, and I was sort of using an inheritance to do, you know, a dream trip, but that was 12 years ago. And we have no plans on returning to Bhutan this time. and South America, you know, we went to North Africa.

And on this trip, you know, I've done a lot of research into where, or to make our dollar go further. And so we were basically going to do Southeast Asia and then Eastern Europe. So Georgia, some time in Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania. As far as we've gotten, though, there's plenty of other countries around that would also, I mean, every country I think interrupt is an interesting and wonderful place to visit. And the more you learn about them, the more you realize that wasn't always my picture of it in my mind. You know, I didn't always you know, I remember hearing about that, you know, Nicolette Ceausescu, I believe right was the former leader of Romania and you know, during that time Didn't seem like a nice place to visit.

But now, I'm just so excited about places like Bulgaria and Romania places I've never thought about before. And your dollar can go a very long way, especially if you are going to be spending a month in one place and can get an Airbnb or something of that sort can be cooking in your own home, and Georgia as well. So yeah, that's definitely a big part of why we're doing what we're doing. Because we always keep telling people like we're when we run out of money, we have to go home. So we're hoping to make it last as long as possible. Yeah,

Skye Khilji 34:38
the slow travel thing is so important. I think the tendency A lot of people have and I had this even this year is to try and do 10 countries in eight weeks and you just cram it all in. You actually don't enjoy it. You feel completely fried all the time, because you're thinking about this train this flight, this hotel, you're constantly packing, repacking or even just Leaving the case open and picking some clothes out. And when it comes to doing your work, content creation and all those great plans you said you'd have, they literally go out the window. It took me a long, long time to learn that we've recently switched to slow travel one month in each city. And it's made a huge difference. I think in January, and the first two weeks of February we did 10 cities, and I got nothing done and I made no money.

And then we switch to a month in Budapest a month in Romania. All of a sudden, productivity is through the roof. We're, you know, making good money. We're creating a ton of content I'm recording. This is my fifth podcast this week, that slow travel and definitely having an Airbnb with a kitchen where you don't have to go out. It makes such a huge difference. I absolutely would recommend that to anybody who's listening to this. And they're thinking about going on that first trip, you do save a ton of money, you do get a lot more done than it does give you a longer period of time to live this lifestyle. So I want to mention Yeah,

Peter 36:00
yeah, and you get a more enriching experience of the country that you're visiting. You know, there are so many tourist sites that we don't even necessarily visit when we're in a place that are on all kinds of lists. And we're just okay with that. I mean, having kids is another thing entirely with children. And we've met some families that have done the fast thing, and they burned out fast and their kids just were very grateful to sort of settle into a place and get to know a neighborhood. And when you go to a restaurant or a fruit stand, or a cafe, the second the third and the fourth time, they treat you completely differently.

You almost become like a family and even if you don't speak the language, I'm you know, like there's people like this lady who sold us our mangoes in Chiang Mai and you know, this driver that we would just keep getting when we booked to grab and things like that and that, you know, they'd become almost like a friend. Or even if you're not having great conversations with them, they greet you with a different warmth. And then next thing you know, you're getting little extra things thrown in, that you didn't ask for. But there's their generosity, which just comes out and makes the place really feel like home. And we like to think of ourselves as nomads. And that's why, which is a whole nother thing.

But that's why we haven't returned to Canada during this pandemic. And it was a another big stress that we went through recently about whether we should or shouldn't, because they're all telling us, oh, if you want to come home, you better come home now and don't get stranded there. And we're like, well, this kind of is our home. We were actually hoping to be flying to Malaysia in a few days, but we scuttled that plan. And we've just decided to stay where we are longer and make the most of it. And we're like I said, we still haven't even been to a lot of the tourist places because they've been closed recently. So maybe they might open up again.

So yeah, that's been whole new thing I even bought a ukulele today because I've been out of practice for my ukulele. So I might have to return that to the shop that I bought it at when we leave because I don't know if that'll fit my carry on but, and I think I'm going to try to convince them that they could just give it to a kid or a student that needs it when when I'm done using it, but I think if I get a month or two practising, that'll be kind of fun.

Skye Khilji 38:23
The Coronavirus thing has just been a topic of conversation, you know, naturally for everybody. But for nomads it's completely different. We live you know, in the world in different places where away from home. I've had people who have flown home couples who have split and they haven't split as a couple but they've gone back to their respective countries and families because you know, they met while they were traveling. I had a podcast a few days ago with a lady who was actually in Vietnam and she flew back to the US. I myself have decided to stay in Romania because it feels like it's more in control here than than in the UK which only went into lockdown yesterday evening.

So there's definitely This personal decision that's taking place with individuals to go or not go, you know, the UK have given the same announcement come home immediately. But when you look into it, it's for people who are not long term travelers, it's people on business trips, on weekend trips, on vacations, etc. So what was your decision making process for staying in Vietnam as opposed to heading back to Canada?

Peter 39:22
Well, like I said, it was not an easy decision. You know, the news was changing so fast, and Vietnam was one of the very first countries hit and we were here when they got their first case in January. And it was over the Lunar New Year celebration and there was a holiday, everything was closed down. And they luckily Vietnam reacted very, very quickly. And being a communist country with less personal privacy issues and all those sort of things. It's easier to do these measures than it is in Western Europe or North America.

So, the end these measures as they, as they did in China, they can be quite effective. You know, they were a little, you know, late in acting them in China, before they acknowledge that this was a real problem. But Vietnam did not hesitate. And they continue to do so we still had to, I haven't checked the latest numbers were this evening. But there's 123 cases in the whole country here. And it's one of the very first countries to see it. And there's been no deaths at all country.

So that's one of the main reasons we decided to stay where we were we looked at back in Canada, there's over 2000 cases now. And when you factor in the population, like per million people that the statistics are right off, you know, it's one of the lowest in the world 96 million people. They've just effectively closed their borders and, and there's been no school since January. And there's checkpoints at all the points of entry even into the city.

Every single passenger getting off an airplane Hear is put into strict quarantine. They're escorted from the airport to a quarantine facility. And literally soldiers out there very friendly, nice soldiers who, you know, we've heard will even bring them a SIM card and delicious Vietnamese food or Western food, if that's their choice. And they're showing all these happy people. Some of them are in hotels, some of them are in military bases, but you know, they're all being tested.

They're all being contact trace. So, the Vietnamese government's reaction to this, from what we understand there's some people who weren't believing they're saying it's propaganda, but it's had a dramatic effect on the tourism. And there's a lot fewer tourists here, but that's been a huge factor. And we looked at things we said though, what's the safest, most responsible thing that we can do? Is it to get on go to a busy airport, get on an airplane transit through, possibly at least one or two other airports before we land in Canada, then wait in these long lineups.

People crowding in rushing home. And we've heard that the screening there is very little they weren't having their temperatures check. They weren't doing any medical questionnaires. I get my temperature checked every time I go to the grocery store here. I don't think their thermometer is very accurate because I'd be hypothermic if it were true. But 32.8 today, but you know, they're making the effort. Right there. They're literally, you know, in the shopping malls open, but it's deserted. But they turn people away.

There was a couple in front of me just today, we're trying to go into the mall and the security guard said no, because they didn't have masks on. And I walked up wearing my mask. And whether that's an effective thing or not, is some people will debate that but it's the norm and it's expected here. They even have sent out text to English to all the foreigners who have a SIM card and our hotel asked us what you know a few questions today. When we first arrived into the country and whatnot, and depending on those answers, we probably would have been tested ourselves, or at least had further testing or questions and whatnot.

So yeah, we decided to stay put would be the safest thing. And our biggest concern is that it's going to get really hot here, eventually. But we got a place with a pool on the roof. It's just a very small hotel. We're going to be moving there in a few days. And we're going to make the most the best of it. Like I said, I bought a ukulele. So I haven't played one in six months. And we're talking about fostering a kitten from a local shelter that is desperate because they have no volunteers right now. And two kittens are quarantined as well, because when they're very young, they don't have their vaccinations.

So they have to keep them separated from the rest of the cats. So if we bring in one of them into our home, it's going to keep our kids busy and occupied and it's going to help that thing. Stay out of a tiny cage for a few months. So that's basically what we've decided we're just keeping a close eye on everything and trying to use data science and, and whatnot to, you know, make our next decision

Skye Khilji 44:15
differently. I think I've spoken to probably over 60 nomads in various different countries over the past week about the situation there. I think I've got a fairly clear understanding from different people. I have people in Vietnam who are getting letters under the door of the hotel saying report at ATM for a temperature check. I've seen people who have flown from Italy to the US and walk straight through the border without any testing just maybe three or four weeks ago.

I've got Andrew Jernigan, a good friend of ours insurednomads.com interviewed. And, you know, he's telling me in that episode that the communist countries they shut things down quickly, and that's why it flattened the curve in 15 days. And that's not just it's just not gonna happen in the West. That quickly because of the way we, you know, respond to those kind of requests. I have a friend whose father in law was the Chief Medical Officer of Taiwan. And you know, they shut that down quickly, again, because people follow the rules that the government specifies and what we tend to be seeing in some of South America, in the US and in Europe, people are not following those restrictions. They're gathering on the beaches in Australia, in London. They're all in the store in queues really close to each other.

And the governments are having to put, you know, stricter measures in place where you're going to get significant fines. But the general consensus and feedback that I got is in the West, they're just not controlling the situation. They're taking too long to address the situation. So for me, I came to the same decision as you as pay it makes more sense to stay somewhere remote, where they are controlling things a little bit better than to fly through those airports and to go back into London where there's a situation which appears to be out of control, and it's

Peter 45:59
Not just about your own personal safety, but whether you are going to get sick or your loved ones are going to get sick. It's about being a possible carrier, about, you know, you could get it from the person in the seat next to you or in the lineup in the immigration, and then take it back into your community. And that's what is happening all around the world with all these people they're bringing in and so many people actually are returning to Vietnam from Europe right now. And they're positive.

They're Of course, we're being treated and quarantined and all that. But when you see back home, I know I know, other people that have gone home and they had they were just recommended that they go into quarantine. But, you know, we even did consider that we're like, okay, we don't have a house where we're going to go or address that we use as my mother in law's and we don't want to be staying with people over 60 are you know, and I posted a question to friends and family back home and we didn't get off Arizona, you know, relatives thing we could use their cottage or are people saying they need to have an empty apartment and my friend said he could leave a car at the airport for us, but, you know, go into grocery stores, no food or toilet paper, and there's just so much chaos and may have there it's and it's a tricky thing like I like I respect the fact that these communist countries and the people follow their leaders directives.

Whereas, you know, depending on what side of the political spectrum you're back home, you may think your leader is a complete idiot, no one listen to them. And they might be giving mixed messages as well which we're hearing a lot of us in the UK, and that's causing, you know, people are still going to the church or to the beach or to the synagogue or to the mosque and, and hearing these reports from Canada just this evening was looking at all these hikers gathered on this rock You're Vancouver, can large numbers where they always do, and it's still happening. So anyway, the thing is, do you think this is something that we want to bring, that all countries should follow?

Like, it's hard, like, you know, there's a reason they could do this because people don't have all the freedoms that people love back in the West, and this is going to lead to an excuse to erode those personal freedoms that people have come accustomed to. And, you know, like the Patriot Act and us after 911, and all those sort of things, and, you know, where whether universal health care, having one system, overseeing everything can help with situations like this. There's going to be a lot of interesting discussions about that in the future. And, unfortunately, the opportunity for people to you know, do some bad things, but in the name of good which is part of human history, right.

Skye Khilji 48:59
Yeah, absolutely. They That can happen. We see a lot of the time politically, these situations can be used to erode those personal liberties. The Patriot Act for sure was one of those and, you know, bring military into the streets martial law. There's a lot of people who have those views, and there's probably some merit to them. I think at this point, nobody's saying Coronavirus isn't real anymore. There was definitely something that in the beginning, it's very much real, whether the political classes will use that to erode personal freedom. And that's something that goes beyond Coronavirus.

I guess we don't know. There probably are some desires to do that in some quarters. But I think at this point, based on on what I'm seeing and who everybody I'm talking to, is something that is necessary. At this point, we saw that it worked in China and boo Han, after 15 days, the number of cases declined. And I think now they're at the point where they had more people recovering the new cases in a single day. When I look at Italy, the worst affected in Europe. I actually have family in Milan I was there On New Year's Eve this year, I spent all of January in Italy. Again, we see that Italy had the biggest cases, the biggest volume of cases and they responded too late. And we're only seeing the impact now, there were 200 deaths in a day, then 400, then 600. It's increasing.

So there is a tale to this. So from the point when the lockdown comes into force, it does seem that you don't really see the effects of the severity of the sickness until further down that line. So I do worry about the UK. The US Yes, our personal freedom is so important. But at this point, it does seem we do need to stay home, we do need to support our health workers. And you know, the biggest risk I guess is if too many people get sick, the entire infrastructure of the hospital and health system it cannot cope with that volume of patients.

Peter 50:51
Well, yeah, you don't want to come down with another illness like you know right now. If you were to have a heart attack or a stroke in Italy, would not be a good situation. And as things worse than in other parts of the world, you know, there's gonna be no room in the ICU. So if you're critically ill you even have a chance of recovering from, you know, it could be an injury car accident or, you know, any number of things. And then there's all the people with chronic problems that are hoping for that knee or the back surgery so they can get about coming back to their lives. That's all been put on hold as well. And it's only going to be put on hold for longer.

Because there's these idiots that want to go hang out on the beach or, or I've heard about churches in southern states where they think that God is going to protect them and they don't need to worry about it. And so they're still congregating in large numbers. And this is why they're going to have to change laws if they do is because of some people are just not smart enough to do the right thing. Fortunately, and you know, I don't mean to disparage anybody, but it really comes down to just, you know, thinking about the bigger picture. And then a communist country like Vietnam, it's all about the we and not the me. And it's not every man for himself by any sense and, and politicians don't have to worry about getting elected here.

They're not politicians, they're, they're servants of the people. They don't have to think about the political fallout of what they did or didn't do. You know, and, and not taking that gamble that it's the right thing, or is it the popular thing? You know?

Skye Khilji 52:34
Yeah, I think I sit in the middle of the spectrum is what I would call a conscious capitalist. I think there's just you know, any direction that's too far, one way is unbalanced. And the middle is usually where, you know, balances found if we look at nature, so you know, having those personal liberties and the freedom to do what we want. I love that. I need that that's important. That's why I'm a nomad. But the other side is sometimes we become so individualistic, we forget about You know, as a as a, an entity in our, in our entirety. So I think those communist countries whilst they do restrict freedom, there is something to be said about, you know, the way they pull together in a crisis.

Peter 53:12
Yeah, and they're definitely not shy of capitalism business and making money because look at China, in Vietnam, Vietnam is doing very well, you know, until recently, like, you know, businesses booming here, and, you know, just with the manufacturing and whatnot, but it's definitely there's a way to do both, I think and I don't think there's been a perfect political system created yet. But you know, still don't have that except for the benevolent dictator but but we'll see whether there's going to be a lot of changes in the world after this. And there's gonna be a lot of Fallout and I'm hoping that at least be a short period where travel will be more affordable and safe at the same time. Perhaps that will work to our advantage. And we'll be able to travel a little longer.

Skye Khilji 54:06
I think so. I think so. So let's switch gears for a second. Pete, let's leave the corona thing we've probably done that one to death recently. We're all tired of hearing about that. So I'm interested now, if there's a family out there who are listening to you on this podcast, and they're thinking, you know, Pete, this sounds good. When the world resumes. It's his normal service. I'd like to go and do that. I don't have a ton of money. What kind of budget would they need for a month, if they were traveling with two kids like you are? What's the kind of range that you've seen?

Peter 54:37
I think, right now, when you factor in airfare, and you factor in all the costs, it depends, you know, where you're flying from where flying to airfare is one of the biggest costs and being flexible is one of the most important things we kind of had a bit of an agenda when we started out, but you know, have a long list of current trees that I would like to visit, and just some preliminary information about where I'd want to go. But what I would suggest to people that keep an open mind, you search the places where your dollar is going to go the furthest. And where it's going to have those things that are important to you, whether that's a beach or mountains or a city, or perhaps a specific kind of a culture may have to do with your routes and whatnot. And then, you know, make a list of countries that could possibly fit that bill.

And then you got to look at trying to find a good flight because once you get that ticket is one of your biggest price tags. And if you can find a place where you can just go to the next destination without having to get in an airplane, then that's gonna cut down on your travel costs dramatically, and also your carbon footprint and we've actually posted, done a couple articles about reducing your carbon footprint traveling which is another story but there's the side benefit of that. There's been some things that we've done that we would do differently, like flying to the south of Thailand.

And then we took the train back from Southern Thailand to Bangkok. It was great. It cost us way less money, the kids loved it. So train travel is really great when traveling with families. And based on that experience, and large parts of our budget, going through Asia was flying in and out of Laos, and we regret doing that as well. We would change things, you know, we thought our 24 hour bus ride would be impossible, but there's ways to break that up. And there are trains that will get you partway. And you can stay in a place for a couple nights if you need to.

And then take another shorter bus ride. And we've also spoken to families who have done 24 hour bus trips and the kids were fine. Just loaded their their devices up with movies. And young kids are begging us to go on a long airplane trip just so they could have a lot of movies to watch.

Skye Khilji 56:58
Definitely we've done the exact same Thing those bus rides from Budapest to Romania like eight hours you leave at 4am you there by kind of midday you got some movies, you're good to go. It's like $10 per person. That's nothing.

Peter 57:11
Yes, in trains, especially with kids are great because they can stretch the legs and walk around and can do walk from one end of the train to the next and always something interesting to see and go to the food car. And they have because there's four of us and you can get a compartment that in Southeast Asia is very affordable. And where you know, you've got four bunks through all in one little area.

It's also great about you know, if you want to have your privacy, you don't want to be you know, maybe especially with the social distancing and whatnot, it's, it's good for that too. You don't have someone breathing over your shoulder. And you know, you can lock the door and bring your own food and look at the window and the kids really do enjoy it. That's one of the best parts. So budget wise you know, and then you in shopping around finding that regular location, spending a month in a place.

Sometimes we spent too much time looking for that perfect Airbnb, where that, you know, is has enough space for us in our family and, and we want to be able to walk places. So that's another thing. We don't ride motorcycles in Southeast Asia, we've just seen too many injuries and heard too many horror stories. So we try to go places where we can walk around or take Southeast Asian equivalent to Uber is called grab. So doing that is great and very affordable.

It's often cheaper than taking local transit when you've got four people. So for a month, and sometimes there's other costs that we take into account like visas and immunizations, we we did most of our immunizations before we left but we also got a few done in Thailand because it was cheaper to get our yellow fever and rabies, immunizations and Chiang Mai the kids insisted on getting their babies back Patients because they wanted to pet puppies and cats. So, you know, that was all factored into our budget, but two to $3,000 a month is pretty doable for a family of four in a Southeast Asian country.

Skye Khilji 59:15
Yeah, that's awesome.

Peter 59:17
Yeah. And like, you know, we spent more than than Busan, South Korea, and we've planned the next leg of our trip, which is still up in the air. It's flying into Tbilisi and then just traveling by rail pretty much all the way through from there. So we're hoping that things would be a lot more affordable.

Skye Khilji 59:35
Yeah, I mean, I've spent a good amount of time in what I would call Eastern Europe recently. We spent almost a month in Poland in Hungary in Romania. And what we found is an Airbnb for a month is around $450, maybe $500 you get a great discount if you booked for a month and on food for two of us because we have a kitchen. We're probably spending about 50 bucks a week and we're just doing the you know, the same meals again, we tend not to go out too much. So it's definitely way more affordable than you know, when I was living in London, your rent for the apartment is going to be 15 1600 dollars just on its own.

Peter 1:00:11
That's true, certainly

Skye Khilji 1:00:12
get a lot more life for your money. And you know if that freedom lifestyle is what you want, and you want that space to be able to work and to kind of build the side hustle or create your content, having a place of your own for a month, while saving money, it doesn't get any better than that.

Peter 1:00:27
Absolutely. And having like a beach to go to, that doesn't cost money. And that can be your entertainment for the day or mountains to hike on is also really helpful. If you want to have, you know, get your exercise entertainment and we've had places with amazing gyms in them as well. And we're at no additional cost and we'd always take advantage of that when it's there. So, you know, there's so many opportunities to save money and I think we're getting better at it with more practice, which is why you're also writing about that in our blog. and hoping that we can help people out in that way.

Skye Khilji 1:01:03
Yeah, and I recommend everybody does go and check out that blog earthfamilytravel.com. Right, Pete.

Peter 1:01:08
Yeah, that's right. And we're also on Instagram at our family travel. And we have a Facebook group. Yeah. And

Skye Khilji 1:01:15
everybody go and check out on Instagram the picture of the rail cart that Pete was talking about. I showed my girlfriend and she immediately said, I want to do that. Like a real fun time your own private cabin introverts of the world rejoice. You can get a private cabin affordably on the train in Asia.

Peter 1:01:32
Absolutely. Yeah. And it wasn't that much money off. And we did a different train in southern Thailand, which was a second class and it wasn't completely separated from the other books. But there are two bunks facing each other. But there's a hallway between them. At the kids said they actually prefer to

Peter 1:01:53
do the action happening around them.

Peter 1:01:55
Oh, there was it? Yeah, it was a lot of action which which woke us up early in the morning. But people come in via selling food and whatnot. Yeah, right.

Skye Khilji 1:02:03
Yeah. So a couple things before we wrap up, you continue to impress me the fact that you travel the world with two kids and only three carry ons is just blows my mind I'm struggling with one hardshell luggage that I check in a backpack. So talk to me about gear, what are those essential things that you travel with that have just completely transformed your life, that thing that, you know, is one thing and it takes the place of three others? What are those, you know, just must have most recommended things when it comes to?

Peter 1:02:34
Well, this sounds silly, but cell phone before 2019, my wife and I had one Motorola phone between the two of us that we would use on road trips and occasionally when I'm trying to meet up with my friends for a movie or something, and we actually would go months without using it and then had to get a new SIM card because it was no longer valid. So we made a plan.

And I love technology, they haven't laptop, I have a bit of a geek, but I just always thought I'm just gonna wait until they have better phones that have better cameras and all that sort of thing. So we thought well, you need to get a good camera that fits in my pocket and I can always have on me takes good pictures.

So we'll get a decent phone. And it's not the best I got a Samsung Galaxy S nine. But I like having an Android so I can add additional memory to that. Fill that thing full of all my entire music collection movies, videos, and always have that handy and be able to take all the pictures and videos that I need to. And that does so many things. I mean even today I downloaded a ukulele tuning app so I don't have to worry about not having my ukulele tuner that I left back home. So that is like we have each have a cell phone.

We each have a tablet that we've had before and those are good for using with the kids and things and I also like to mess around Some electronic music and stuff I use GarageBand I have one Apple device because GarageBand is great for $5 and I had great ambitions to do more with my music since I've started but hopefully that less downtime with the quarantine kind of locked down situation will help with that. And we've gotten rid of a lot of gear so we and you know I've got a good pair I know you like your Bose headphones, I got some good Bose earbuds with noise cancelling is amazing. I just I think that is the best thing when you're on an airplane or a train.

Yeah, it's incredible. So and the sound quality is fantastic. But I don't have big headphones because that would be just too bulky to carry around and to pack so just got like the sport earbuds so because they're waterproof. Hopefully they will last longer. And that's about it. We got it. Yeah, I got a ThinkPad because we wanted to get a The laptop that could take a beating. And from what I've read that they're the most hardy dropping down a flight of stairs and won't break. So it's not the latest one. And I might have gone for the later model, in hindsight, but there's that and I've got a little microphone that I still haven't really used.

But I have ambitions to do like recording of Santa sound says, I've traveled and I just use the microphone on my phone for that now, you know, monk chanting or frogs chirping and I want to use that into music and things, but I have a better microphone that I could use. And as far as tech goes, like, that's about it. You know, we've tried to streamline things and it's amazing that what you could do with even just with the fall,

Skye Khilji 1:05:48
yeah, absolutely agree. And I love that you're talking about GarageBand and recording music. But if one thing has happened in this time, it's that people are starting to write those books make that music do those things that they didn't have time. For when we were all going outside and you know doing everything else that we did, and one thing is people, I think are rediscovering books and a question I always ask people and I'm gonna shout out Tim Ferriss, I'm stealing this question from his podcast. Yeah. Which is which book do you most often gift or recommend?

Peter 1:06:18
Well, I would have to say, Vagabonding by Rolf Potts, because that was the book that really got us inspired to do this. And actually, I did the audiobook, I'm very much into podcasts and audiobooks. Because with kids, you can do that while you're doing the dishes, cleaning the house and whatnot. So it's a lot easier to then to find quiet time to sit and read.

So I listened to the audiobook and Rolf Potts reads it itself, and he just has a really captivating voice. And it's great. Anybody who's thinking about doing this sort of thing, I just think it's, it's not a long read or listen and it is just full of so much inspiration that really makes you think about your whole life where you've been, what you want to get out of life. And there's some practical tips there as well and a lot of resources if you want to follow up with that, and delve a little deeper, but it's really great.

Skye Khilji 1:07:18
Yeah, that book, I think, was the book that inspired Tim Ferriss himself to start that laptop lifestyle as it was. And it's funny whenever I asked this question, the four-hour workweek is a book that comes up a lot and vagabond only seem to be the two pillars of our community. Absolutely. So Pete, as we just close things down. What I'd love for you to do is for that parent out there, that family who have dreams of doing what you're doing, and they have kids and you know, they think that they can't do it. What would you say to them?

Peter 1:07:48
I would say to them, take a look at where you're at now and how much time you actually get to spend with your kids, between taking them to school to soccer practice. piano lessons, all those sorts of things and think about the fact that one day, they're gonna not want to even spend any time with you. They're gonna become teenagers. And this is a golden opportunity, this window where they can actually walk and talk and do their own things and where they actually choose to be around you. And using that instead of waiting to spend time with them. When they're full grown adults or when you're, you know, not able to go out and have adventures with them.

When you're, you know, maybe your knees hurt too much to go for that hike, or something like that, that closely at your life and think about what you want to get out of it and whether or not you want to be the biggest influence in your children's lives, or you want other people to fill that void. And, you know, what do people really want to get out of life? What are people gonna look back upon when they're old and gray? And think, do they regret doing this more of this or not enough of that. And most people are not going to look back and say, Boy, I really wish I'd spent more time at the office and freedom as well. Or do you have any dreams that you've always wanted to do that you've never thought were even possible that are they possible?

You know, and I don't think I'll ever be a world famous DJ. But some things aren't always going to be realistic. But there's a lot of the bar and just seeing the world and spending more time with your family and your kids and creating those memories. So they don't look back on you when they're older and complain about all the things that that you made them do or something, you know. So yeah, I think that's a ramble. But that's what I would say.

Skye Khilji 1:09:50
Do you want to be the biggest influence in your children's life? Or do you want someone else to be? Yeah, do you wish you spent more time at the office at the end of your life? And what are those dreams that you have inside that, you know, you're kind of letting slip by, I think they're just three incredible points for everybody listening out there.

So I really just want to say thank you. I think it's an inspiring story. I think you're doing something that a lot of people think isn't possible. And we need people like you and your wife and your family, to show people that it is possible that there is an alternative. So thank you. For everything that you've been doing. I recommend everybody checks out family travel Comm. And I just really want to say thank you for joining us today, Pete.

Peter 1:10:30
But thank you very, very much. It's been a pleasure to be here. And I've listened to every podcast episode you've published so far, and it's really fascinating stuff. So I look forward to listening to more of it.

Skye Khilji 1:10:43
Thank you very kind to get beat. Nice to talk to you. All right, you too. Take care. Thank you. If you enjoyed this episode, I want to talk to you about voicelink.fm. This is a place where you can send me any questions you have and I'll include the answer to your question on a future episode of the podcast, we're going to be doing a lot more listener q&a. I'll answer questions on business finances entrepreneurship, marketing, travel, personal development, success, productivity, do I believe in aliens? Is the Illuminati real? Whatever it is that you want to know. I'm going to answer those questions go to voice link.fm forward slash free the wage slave that's voicelink.fm/freethewageslave