By telling us your country of residence we are able to provide you with the most relevant travel insurance information.
Please note that not all content is translated or available to residents of all countries. Contact us for full details.
Shares
It’s been nearly ten months since we’ve landed in the Philippines and it’s only now that I have felt that I can finally write what has been like moving here. It’s hard to imagine that I will be the first one to feel the urge to go back home, to Australia. Even my kids love it here. I have wondered whether if its because everything is new, they’re free range or that we are all doing and experiencing new things together. Perhaps it is the seeing where and how their mom used to live? Or is it the weird and wonderful delicacy they come across on a regular basis? Maybe it’s as simple as being free. I don’t know if I will continue writing or if it is just a whim that will fade again after a few pages. I hope that I can garner enough desire to continue until the end of our trip, when the reality of unemployment, debt, kids responsibilities finally hit us. My colleagues as a farewell gift gave me a book voucher which I’ve used to buy this beautiful journal with the intention writing the best travel journal ever. However, as it happened, it has taken me nearly ten months to put pen to paper. So what are my expectations with this sojourn in writing my very first travel journal? I guess it will not be just about us but also the experiences, the wonderful people that will touch us along the way. Our gratitude extends to these people who have opened their hearts and home and welcomed us within their inner circle. It will be about the inspiring anecdotes said to us (my favorite – “is it wrong to want more than a simple life when all your life you’ve had a simple life?”). It will be about our ups and downs travelling with a young family. It will be about seeing everything through the eyes of our children. It will be a fusion of all our senses. Before we left Australia, we were constantly teased from being kidnapped, losing our Aussie accents, getting fat, getting worms (which we did!) and generally becoming embedded in the Filipino culture we forget everything Australian. Am I ready for this change? Is my family ready to be together every single second of the day? Are we ready to leave the life as we know it behind and replace it with the unknown? Are our bellys strong enough for the degustation of a lifetime? Will we see anything more beautiful than Australia? Fast forward another ten months while sitting outside my little verandah sipping a local brew so strong it will make your hair curly as they say, I saw an old woman pulling what seems like a very heavy cart (contents unknown). What came to my mind was the question of how long has she been doing this? Was it only today or all her life? Her back was stooped enough but with arms quite strong that I figured she does this everyday. I found at later that day that she pulls that cart everyday. She walks long distances to different places picking up food scraps and whatever else other people throw she thinks worthy enough for her family. But as she walked, she looks at peace, smiling at those she passes. And for the first time in a long time, as I look at our current home (one bedroom, kids sleeping on a mattress on the floor, non-existent toilet seat and forever ice bucket challenge for a shower), I felt shame but also gratitude. Our current home wasn’t a palace but it was still quite extravagant in local standards. We didn’t have to worry about putting food on the table for our kids. Our lifestyle is being financed by someone else. We have passports and we can leave any time but at that moment I didn’t want to leave. Australia seemed so alien right at that moment. For the first time I got it – why foreigners give up their lives back home to live simply and sometimes very basic life here in the Philippines and why those who sees us as having it all want it all.