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Despite travelling for almost ten years, 2012 was the first year in which I blogged about my travels. What a difference it has made to how I travel! I’m so much more conscious of what I’m doing, photographing, eating, seeing. I’ve begun thinking in terms of blog posts. I research travel completely different. Knowing now that anywhere I want to go there’s bound to have been a travel blogger ahead of me having posted everything I’d need to know. Other bloggers have become a constant source of inspiration.

Blogging has also made a big impact on my life outside of travel. I feel like I’ve become part of a community of travel bloggers, and particularly, of travelling families. I’ve made some wonderful friendships with people who finally “get” me, how I want to live my life and how I want to raise my child. Best of all, I’m learning so much about myself by having a creative outlet. I can process my own thoughts with more clarity and, through that, I’m learning and growing as a person.

After starting Flashpacker Family in March, we’ve grown from less than 50 visitors in the first month to over 2000 unique visitors in December already. That’s almost 10,000 total visitors in nine months. I don’t think that’s too bad an effort! Not only that, our Facebook community is almost at 1000 people and we have over 1500 Twitter followers. It feels fantastic to think that I am making a little impact in the lives of others. I love getting messages from readers planning their own travels and using Flashpacker Family as inspiration. Nothing feels better than knowing your words can make a difference to someone else’s life.

 

Our year looked a little something like this…

 

Australia

We started our travels in Australia in our “second home” on the Sunshine Coast. We filled our days with work, long walks, early mornings in the park, afternoons at the beach and evenings kayaking the canals.

If you’re planning on visiting Australia in the near future, take a look at Hop On Hop Off Sydney for a fun and hassle free way of catching the highlights in Oz.

 

Thailand

Our second stop was Thailand. I was excited to introduce my favourite country to my family. We adventured through food, realised we had an interest in history and discovered that culture shock in kids is well and truly real. Despite the ups and downs Thailand still remains my favourite country and one we want to explore more of as a family.

 

Malaysia

To us, Malaysia was both interesting and boring at the same time. There are aspects of it we really enjoyed but also many we didn’t. It lacks a bit of the “juzz” that Thailand has but at the same time is more modern and comfortable. The big disappointment for us was the food. In Thailand, eating out for every meal was a joy but in Malaysia it became a real chore to find something everyone would enjoy. That being said, the beaches at the Perhentians more than made up for the greasy food.

 

Singapore

Singapore was an unexpected treat. Though we were only there for four days we could have seen ourselves living there. We packed a lot into our visit but particularly enjoyed walking through Chinatown and exploring the many foodcourts. It definitely made our list of places to revisit.

 

New Zealand

And finally, New Zealand. Even though it’s beautiful and on almost everyone else’s bucket list, New Zealand just doesn’t do it for us. We don’t feel at home here and we’d rather be somewhere else. We tried to enjoy it as tourists by taking a few trips but really just couldn’t.

 

2012 actually wasn’t that eventful for us in terms of travel despite making it to five different countries. We could have done a lot more but we’ve been in Christchurch for the past five months focusing on setting up a new online business and sorting out our finances.

We’ve been on nine flights through ten airports. We’ve enjoyed third class trains but been miserable on first class trains. We’ve taken big comfortable buses and squished ourselves in to tiny minibuses. We’re ridden songthaew, tuk-tuks, pick-up trucks, taxis, motorcycle sidecars and an elephant. We’ve crossed seas on massive ferries, tiny motorboats, catamarans and speedboats.

We’ve gained insight into our own personalities and how to work with each other. We’ve melted down together and come back through the other end with a better understanding of how to travel as a family. Most importantly, we’ve discovered how we want to live our lives and now we’re working towards that goal.

Thank you to anyone and everyone who read a post, left a comment, liked us on Facebook or followed us on Twitter. I appreciate it wholeheartedly and look forward to making Flashpacker Family even better in 2013.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Showing 12 comments
  • Lou
    Reply

    Wow! What a year…. love the photo flash backs 🙂 I totally get you on the whole blogging community, and having a creative outlet…. it’s really been so great for me too.

    Can’t wait to read about your 2013 adventures!

  • Belle
    Reply

    Hey there, you guys totally inspire me, there is nothing better than to see families exploring amazing places together, if I ever have children, travel will become an integral part of their upbringing!!!

  • Travel with Bender (Erin)
    Reply

    Singapore is where we met you! We love it too! Great year – cheers to next year bigger and better!

  • Keryn @ walking on travels
    Reply

    First of all I had no idea you hit so many places this year! I thought they were spread out over a few years. Number 2- I will meet you in Singapore to eat one of these days. LOVE the food there and need to bring the hubby and kids out to introduce them 😉 Thirdly- you may live half a world away, but I love how similar a lot of the photos of our kids are (boy pushing stroller, boy sleeping on plane, boy on beach)- as parents we all have a lot more similarities with our international counterparts than we think!

    • Bethaney
      Reply

      1) So far, as a family, we’ve had to cram all our travels into 4-6 months each year… so it may seem like we’re always on the go but really we just knock it all out in a few months!

      2) Singapore – yes! Let’s meet together and eat together!!!! There is a tonne of stuff for older kids in Singapore so maybe wait until then.

      3) I think we all think our own kids are the most adorable thing we’ve ever seen so will take any excuse to photograph them. Boys will be boys right? How many matchbox cars have you driven through departure lounges? 😉

  • Erik
    Reply

    It’s been a pleasure following along with your blog this past year and I hope you have many exciting adventures in 2013!

    • Bethaney
      Reply

      Thank you Erik! I’m hoping 2013 brings us something bigger and better. I have some grand plans! How about you?

  • Jenna
    Reply

    What a collection of adventures you and your family had last year! Your little one looks like he’s having so much fun 🙂 All the best for 2013 to all of you!

  • Michael Figueiredo
    Reply

    It sure looks like you had an awesome year of travel. Best wishes for 2013!

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