written by ed; photos by jayne
Sitting on the verandah of a 100-year-old Queenslander home in the sleepy, quaint town of Maryborough, Australia (home of the fictional character, Mary Poppins), with our house-sit Golden Retriever, Merlin by my side, I’m reminded of what a whirlwind year it’s been and how grateful I am for all we’ve seen and experienced while eluding, as far as we know, COVID-19.
It’s been quite some time since I’ve updated our travels, and rather than going into much detail about particular places we’ve visited since Cambodia, I thought I’d spend more time sharing my insights and giving a more introspective view of this year of living nomadically.
After Cambodia, we made our way to Thailand, where we met up with our fabulous nephew, Michael. I don’t use superlatives often, but Michael holds a special place in our hearts. When we downsized from our home in Palm Springs to our condo, Michael was one of just a few people who visited us, and given his love of travel, he asked if he could join us for two weeks in Thailand. Of course, we welcomed him with open arms.
Prior to Michael’s arrival, we spoke and texted frequently with Michael to get a sense of what he wanted to see and do in Thailand. For him, it was beaches, snorkeling, and elephants. Sounded great to us, so we organized our trip accordingly. We decided to meet up with Michael on the island of Koh Samui where we stayed at a fairly posh (for us, anyway) resort on Bohput Beach.
Little did we know, that one of Micahel’s favorite, if not favorite, animals is the elephant. When we met up in Koh Samui, we visited an elephant sanctuary which allowed us to get up close and personal with the elephants and their handlers. For elephant-philes, like Jayne and Michael, one visit wasn’t enough so they made their way back to the sanctuary a week later.
Thailand would be the 10th country we visited during those first eight months of being nomads and it would be the last country we would visit before reaching Australia, a country we consider one of our home bases.
Over the past 14 months, we have spent very little, and I mean very little, time apart from one another and, by and large, our relationship is stronger than ever. At least from where I sit, I’m pretty sure that I would not have been able to do what we did as a solo traveler, and being able to share this with my best friend is special, indeed. Having said that, we’ve also realized having some “me” time is important in sustaining our relationship. Not only didn’t we have “me” time, with the exception of our time in Denmark where we spent each day with our friend, Peter, and his faithful dog, Bowie, we rarely had other companions. So, having Michael join us potentially could have been fraught with uncomfortable moments, but Michael’s easygoing nature proved to be the perfect antidote!
Koh Pha Ngan, Thailand’s 5th largest island was next on our list and is best known as a party island, especially its Full Moon Party. Unfortunately (not!), we missed the party, but our intention all along was to take a day trip on a tour boat to Ang Thong National Marine Park and its 42 islands, about an hour’s boat ride away (well, it was supposed to be an hour’s ride; try like 2.5 hours ride!). Once there we snorkeled, did a short hike, kayaked, and spent some time on the beach.
The majority of our time in Thailand was spent relaxing by the pool, snorkeling, walking to Fishermen’s Village on Koh Samui (where we met up with a few Senior Nomads that have been traveling for years as such), eating some nice food, and enjoying our time with Michael. We were so happy he joined us!
We timed our departure from Thailand to coincide with Michael’s, with him heading back to the US and us on our way to our second home – Australia. For those of you who don’t know, Jayne and I met in 1995 on a blind date at an Australian Rules Football game at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds, better known as the MCG, as I was working in Melbourne and Jayne had lived there since her university days. We moved back to the States in 1997 but returned most years as Jayne ran a yoga retreat at Mission Beach in the state of Queensland.
For Jayne, Australia is what she calls her “heart” home. Many of her dearest friends live in Australia, and there is something special about the country that tugs at her heart. For me, when I lived in Australia for 3 years, I thoroughly enjoyed the quality of life, how safe I felt, the people, and the friends I made. Over the years, we had talked about spending more time there and thought this would be a good opportunity to see what that might feel like.
Most of our very dear friends live in Melbourne, so we spent the first few months socializing with them without feeling the restrictions of time (of course, we were sensitive to not over-staying our welcome when we crashed at their homes!) which made for good quality time and strengthening our relationships. Although we had always thought that the majority of our time when we come to Australia would be in Queensland (for the weather and the beaches), we realized after our visit to Melbourne that we have such a wonderful community of people there, that we’re now thinking of spending more of our time with our “peeps”. We’ve always known and spoken about our need to have a strong social network as we grow older, and this group of disparate friends most certainly fulfills that need.
After spending two months in Melbourne, enjoying the food, culture, and friends, we headed to Sydney and Brisbane for a week to spend time with some great friends. We decided to buy a car, rather than renting one given we would be spending 4 months or so traveling around Queensland. It’s always a bit of an adjustment, especially for me, driving on the left side of the road, but now I know when we return to the US in a few weeks another adjustment will be in order. Talk about being in the moment. When driving on the “opposite ” side of the road you better be in the moment! It’s been funny watching shows on Netflix based in the US, watching scenes with cars, and each of us saying to one another that it’s weird seeing cars driving on the “wrong side” of the road!
One of the purposes of spending several months in QLD was to see where we might consider buying/renting for some months of the year. We had always thought it would be in the area of Peregian Beach on the Sunshine Coast, but real estate prices have skyrocketed there in the past few years so that is more likely than not, no longer an option. We did, however, discover the twin towns of Agnes Water and 1770 and fell in love with the area. It is still a bit undiscovered so real estate, while increasing in value, is still a bargain compared to other areas of the Sunshine Coast, like Coolum and Noosa. In our opinion, the beaches rival or surpass others we’ve seen on the Sunshine Coast without the population density. Of course, with that brings the relative paucity of good restaurants and infrastructure, but the overall natural beauty outweighs the inability of getting good pizza, laksa, or banh mi. We can always get that need fulfilled when we stay in Melbourne! Anyway, there is a great fish store that has freshly caught barramundi!
We decided to try our hand at house sitting so we joined an organization called Trusted House Sitters, which matches up homeowners, usually with pets, who might be taking a vacation with those looking to save some money and experience a locale and love animals. Our first week-long house sit was in Townsville in tropical North Queensland, where we looked after 3 ducks, 5 chickens, 2 tanks filled with barramundi, and an old cat. It certainly was an experience like no other, and we discovered that chickens, and, more so, ducks would not be in any household that we might have in the future. I don’t want to disparage any duck owners who might be reading this, but I will say that fresh duck eggs are delicious. We also learned from the owner of a coffee shop we frequented in Townsville that fresh duck eggs are wonderful for baking. Since we had extra duck eggs we gave him some and the good-hearted soul he was, baked a beautiful chocolate cake, and treated us to a few slices.
The attraction of our final house sit in Maryborough was Merlin, the 2-year-old Golden Retriever. Merlin reminds us of our two Goldens in many ways, but he still has his “terrible twos” moments. We’ve spent some time training him in basic commands, and we always have to remind ourselves, that he is not our dog so any idiosyncrasies he might have are not our responsibility to fix. Overall though, he’s very lovable and sweet. He’s a Golden Retriever after all!
There’s not a lot to see or do within the confines of Maryborough, a town of 26,000, and the other main attractions of Fraser Island and whale watching we’d already done on a previous visit. Hervey Bay, a 30-minute drive away, has more restaurants, but for the most part, we’ve settled into a routine life here in Maryborough. With the exception of the pickleball games I’ve found in Hervey Bay, our days mainly consist of reading, watching some Netflix, visiting some local historic sights, and taking in the weekend markets, as well as taking Merlin on two walks a day to the local dog park. At the dog park, Merlin has garnered a reputation for getting quite wet at the water fountain, then getting the dog owners wet as he playfully comes up to them. It’s a good thing he’s cute because it’s not very endearing to have been “Merlin’ed” as the regulars at the dog park like to say. We will have spent 5 weeks here and are ready to move on to what’s next!
One of the benefits of house sitting, especially if it’s for more than just a few days, is that you can immerse yourself in the community, and get to know the true wholesomeness of people in small towns. Here in Australia, where people truly like Americans, they are nevertheless stunned by our choices in politicians (Trump, in particular) and our abhorrent gun culture. Just today, on our beach walk with Merlin, we met another dog walker and after hearing my American accent, asked me how Americans could vote for an “idiot” like Trump, and then said, “as much as I like America, there are some serious issues in your country.” While I’ve never initiated a conversation about American politics in any country we’ve visited, when the subject is brought up, the sentiments expressed are always the same. It seems like the world is just shaking its heads in bewilderment at the current state of the union, just like many of you reading this post.
With the above in mind, we wonder how we will feel when we once again land on American soil. While I keep abreast of the news by reading the NY Times daily, I can’t help but think that being amidst the present turmoil rather than sensing it from afar, will be striking. Then again, maybe it will feel like we’ve never left. For certain, we’ve changed over these past 14 months, as we’ve understood that we have more than enough, in so many ways, and living simply is very doable.
What we’ve also learned is that human connection is so vitally important for a happy and curious life. Whether it’s the boatman on a Kenyan dhow, Zillah, who calls us Pops and L’il Momma, or our other “adopted” son, Dasun, from Sri Lanka, and countless others we’ve met along the way, we know that our hearts are filled with so much gratitude for having met them. It’s this connection we’ll remember far more than the ancient pyramids, Maldives snorkeling/scuba, waterfalls, beaches, sea life, elephants, etc. we’ve seen along the way, although I must admit those sights were pretty incredible!
Political turmoil aside, we can’t wait to see our families and friends when we arrive in the US in a few weeks. Our travel has been fueled by all the love and support we’ve received from you. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
