Sometimes in life those impulse decisions turn out to be the best you ever make.
Throwback to 2019, we were sitting in Ireland, impatiently waiting until the 10th of September. The day that we had been working towards for two years. We had one way tickets booked from Dublin to Beijing, and that would be the start of our world adventure.
We had enough money saved up to allow us to travel for 9 – 12 months (depending on how we spent that money). We had a rough itinerary planned and we knew that if we wanted to travel for any longer than 9 – 12 months, we would have to find jobs along the way.
Before leaving Ireland, we discussed the idea of moving to New Zealand on a working holiday visa. Our plan was to work there for as long as it took to fully replenish our bank balance. This was our plan even throughout our first few months of backpacking, until one life changing breakfast in Bali…
If you follow our blog and Instagram you might remember that we caught up with our friends Brendan and Molly from frawlovertheworld in Bali. At this stage it was November, we had been traveling Asia for two months, with a two months backpacking trip to Australia next on our itinerary. After that our plan was to book a one way ticket to New Zealand where we would travel and then begin our search for work.
It was Brendan and Molly’s last day in Bali and we were enjoying breakfast together, surrounded by the beautiful rice fields of Ubud. Next on their itinerary was Asia. As we tucked into one final breakfast together we gave them all of our tips and recommendations.
After saying our goodbyes Brendan and Molly headed off to the airport and left us deep in thought…“Was our Asian adventure over…?”.
A trip to Vietnam in 2017 is what sparked the idea to travel full time and Asia is home to some of our favourite countries and cuisines in the world. As we sat by the pool we began to think ‘Is that it for our Asian backpacking trip…?’. At this stage we had traveled to China, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia but there was so much more of this amazing continent we wanted to see.
This is when the idea hit us! ‘Lets move to Asia!!!’. After our two months of backpacking in Australia we made the decision to put our New Zealand travels on hold. Within a few minutes our trip took a u-turn as we decided instead of New Zealand we would make our way back to Vietnam. From here we would travel South East Asia before deciding on a new city to call home and seek work as teachers.
It didn’t take much convincing for either of us to instantly grab our phones and purchase a TEFL course. We spent that day lounging by the pool in Bali getting stuck into our recently purchased TEFL course, excited for what new adventures were to come.
That decision was made in November 2019, now fast forward to May 2020 we are currently in lockdown in Chiang Mai Thailand. We have been here for two months now. Within those two months we have secured jobs at an International School where Brian is working in the secondary school as an English teacher and I (Lynne) am working as a Grade 2 teacher in the primary school.
All of our teaching so far has been done via Zoom due to the Covid-19 outbreak. We have still yet to meet our students face to face. However we are counting ourselves lucky that we got into Thailand, secured jobs and an apartment all before lockdown was implemented.
The situation in Thailand is slowly getting better now. We are currently in phase one of coming out of lockdown. At this stage it is hard to know when international travel will be possible again. In the meantime while we wait for everything to get back to normal we are planning future travels for when ever they maybe.
As we are unable to travel during this time we will be posting regular blogs about our experience teaching in Thailand, living in Thailand and hopefully soon traveling in Thailand. If you are interested in becoming a teacher in Asia watch this space, lots more content to come!
If you are itching to book that next trip but just like us you are unsure when it will be possible you can always start planning. Take a scroll through our blog. You will discover destination guides for Asia and Australia plus lots of travel tips.
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To The Airport...And Beyond 
what a way to start your teaching, in such a strange and weird environment!!
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I read the article and I must admit that I like your spirit of adventure. I wish you more fun!
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How exciting, can’t wait to read about life in Thailand!
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