It was very dark when we rolled into Dunks Island View caravan park, luckily, we had booked in advance.

Located at Wongaling Beach, a wonderfully remote stretch of sand we enjoyed a day and a bit of not much, other than runs up to North Mission Beach and beach olympics on the sand.

Sadly we couldn’t swim in the sea due to no stinger nets, but did enjoy a splash about in the campsite pool. As we were leaving, we stopped to have breakfast with a view of South Mission bBeach, the closest in feel to Summer Bay (of Home and Away fame, actually shot north of Sydney).

The drive down the pacific coast road, A1 or the Bruce Highway, took us through sugar cane country and various fruit growing areas.

Our favourite was the mango region of Bowen, passing the giant mango sculpture – one of many giant food items found along the road: it became a bit of an obsession to drive past them and take a snap.

We stopped at Ayr skatepark for lunch, where Tom first realised a post lunch nap in the camper was much needed, whilst I enjoyed a coffee supervising the girls in a playground. This happened on repeat all the way down the coast.

We made it to Airlie Beach by mid-afternoon. We had decided to stay at a Big 4 campsite for three nights as it had incredible kids’ activities, jumping pillows, a water park, free pancakes for breakfast and so on. It was a great decision, we played tennis, relaxed and Molly was quick to make friends with Australian girl Sienna and her older sister Lily.

We ended up have a bbq dinner with them and their parents Jo and Mel. The family were from Port Macquarie but living on the road, an inspiration when it came to home schooling. The girls put on a rather impressive glow stick performance!

The reason for taking our time in Airlie Beach was to spend a whole day out at the Whitsundays on a sailing boat. We picked Providence 5, a replica of the Grand Banks fishing schooners built from North Queensland timber. Old hack Captain Steve (recent Dad) and new boy deckhand Isaac (Kiwi chef) took good care of us on their beautiful vessel.

We started out with a snorkel around Dumbbell Island with coral and various fish on display beneath the surface. We all had trendy stinger-suits on, but the girls still found the water cold.

Next stop was a longer one, to experience Whitehaven Beach. Walking up to the lookout point and then spending time exploring the incredible white expanses of sand, surprised by the millions of crabs.

The super fine sand is supposedly good for cleaning jewellery and has nutritional benefits for your hair, so Molly and I rubbed lots in and gave our rings a polish!

Sadly, the wind never picked up enough to launch the sails, but it was still a wonderful day out on the water. We made friends with a Dutch family also traveling the world with their two daughters. We rounded it off by a seafood dinner at the Deck in Airlie Beach.

Next day was a long drive to the Capricorn Caves, again finding a playground picnic lunch stop at Clairview to learn about Dugongs.

We were practically the only ones at our campsite and enjoyed the first morning tour of the cave complex by informative guide Crispin. A highlight was listening to Pentatonix’s version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah in pitch blackness, in a space called the cathedral. We also saw a lot of bats and learnt about the ever-evolving story of the caves.

After yet another amazing playground lunch stop, this time at Miriam Vale, we arrived at Hervey Bay, our campsite right on the beach.

We loved watching the junior lifesaving competitions out on a weekend morning, Tom even spotted a dragon boat team out practicing and I had a great run round point Vernon.

We took the girls up to Sandy White park and Molly went down the water slides hundreds of times. The neighbouring playground had terrifyingly high slides and climbing nets to reach them and public foosball tables.

It was at Noosa that we really felt how hard it was to park the campervan in certain car parks – making do with a picnic at Noosa Heads lookout rather than in the main town, which was actually probably a better option.

We had arrived at the Sunshine Coast, with an idyllic afternoon on Coolum Beach where the girls enjoyed a spot of rock climbing and Tom perfected his sandcastle skills.

We drove on to where we were staying, at Cotton Tree in Maroochydore. We were very amused to find a MoJo café just across from our campsite! The owner was kind enough to give us some t-shirts.

A windy day gave us the chance for a run round the split to Mooloolaba where we also had delicious fish and chips and a vinyassa yoga class at Union Yoga Collective for me.

Most special of all was lunch with Dragon boat buddy Fran at her local fave café Hungry Eats in Buderim. The girls love the kangaroos and Aussie cork hats she gave them!

Our final night in the camper took us to Toowoomba, Queensland’s largest inland city, appealing due to its many jacaranda trees. The reason we went was to take up an offer by a supplier Tom knew from Dubai, Malcolm from Mort & Co.

He collected us from our campsite and took us on a fascinating tour of the farmlot, home to 74,000 cows. We could spot the difference between the lush black coats of the waggu, there for 365 days, and the mixed breed Angus who have 100 days. It was interesting to learn about the grain and manure side businesses.

We met more of the team back at their impressive head office, formerly a hotel and recently stylishly done up. We spent most of our time in a smart kitchen and dining area with a beer tap, being treated to a delicious dinner of some of their best cuts of beef. Luckily MoJo are big fans of steak!

Tom of course ran to collect our Mighty camper, their depot on the same road as our Airbnb (Sheridan Street), but it was a long road! It was quite something to get used to traveling in, let alone driving. In order to have a toilet and shower, you need a six berth, so it was bigger than we needed, but quite nice to not have to put the two beds we used away every day to travel.

For sleeping, girls were up top, we were at the back, middle table fitted the girl’s car seats nicely. In Australia we hardly ate inside at all given the great weather. We needed to stay in campsites in order to plug in and switch on the AC! The girls were great at helping with chores, Molly especially becoming a very dedicated sweeper, essential given all our beach stops!

We soon realised it was best to make bookings for sites a few days in advance, prime spots at most were booked out by pensioners! Although we did find plenty of other families as well. Tom spotted some future camper dream goals!

Despite the plan being to ultimately go south, we had 13 days to reach Brisbane – we started off our first stint of driving heading north up Captain Cook Highway, hunting for beaches, which were easy to find.

Our first stop was one of Cairns northern beaches, Ellis Beach.

It was our first encounter with sand-flies, and we were unsure whether we could swim due to the box jellyfish season kicking in, we didn’t.

It was however an incredible expanse of palm-fringed sand, so tempting indeed that after a picnic lunch I made the mistake of running off barefoot across the sands with a plan to meet in 45 minutes at the famous ‘Cairns of Cairns’ – a collection of piles of rocks.

Unfortunately it was high tide, so I very soon realised I was going to have to be clambering up and down rocks and through bush to reach our meeting point, poor Tom realised the same and had to make numerous U-turns on a small coastal road his first day of driving a camper van to find me – which he did, eventually.

We had considered going up to Daintree national park or Cape Tribulation but decided that to get to Port Douglas would be far enough, and that we wanted to spend a couple of nights there.

It was a good decision: we loved Port Douglas. Staying at Tropical breeze campsite we were a short walk from stunning four-mile beach where we had a wonderful day running, swimming (it had the all-important stinger net in place) and making sand balls.

Tom’s sand balls / caterpillar were so admired by the lifeguard that he placed orange cones around them to keep the crowds away!!

We also ran around the cliffs to the marina with great views. Town was one strip, but a very pleasant one, where I found a fantastic yoga class and we had a memorable evening at Iron bar, watching Cane Toad racing.

It was probably made a spectacle due to the charismatic host Matt’s tirade of impolitically correct gags (we enjoyed his banter again at Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures, his day job) but it certainly was an entertaining night out. Cane toads were introduced into northern Queensland in 1935 to control the cane beetle, it is the only true toad found in Australia.

Selected audience members had to hustle their toad across the table and into a bucket – for big money.

As mentioned, we are trying to only visit animals in their natural environment, I’m not quite sure whether Hartley’s counts, but it was a brilliant day with the chance of meeting and learning about most of Australian wildlife. An Aussie institution running for over 85 years, Hartley’s Creek is the place to get close to crocodiles.

We kicked off with a crocodile feeding show, then getting up close and personal with the crocs on a boat tour (again led by Cane Toad racer Matt), later visiting their onsite crocodile farm and the grand finale of ‘the best crocodile show in Australia’ where the aforementioned Matt got close enough to the crocs for them to demonstrate the death roll and head shake.

We also learnt a lot about snakes, saw some cassowary’s and koalas for the first time, fed some kangaroos and wallaby’s and even eyed up a Komodo dragon. The girls got to stroke a baby crocs scales, luckily with its jaw taped up.

We stayed so long in fact, once we hit the road, we had a race to beat the setting sun on our drive south to Mission Beach, and we lost.

It was surprisingly chilly when we got to Cairns, not what we were expecting but perhaps we had been spoilt by Bali. It was a relief that in less than 24 hours the girls had acclimatised, jumping in the splash park at Muddy’s playground and swimming in the pool in our Airbnb apartment complex. What struck us after nearly four months in Asia were the dead straight roads, the wide pavements, the normality of it all.

The night we arrived we went to the local pub, the Cock & Bull, ate steak pies and thought about trying our luck at pokies but in the end only signed up for a raffle to win a fishing boat trip (which we didn’t win sadly).

We made the decision to not taking a boat trip out to the Great Barrier Reef or the islands close off shore: when we looked at prices we had been so spoilt by our experiences in Bali and the Gili Islands just a week before we couldn’t justify it on our budget. We waited patiently to get on a boat in the Whitsundays.

My run was flat along the esplanade, realising we couldn’t swim in the sea given the presence of ‘salties’ crocodiles but admiring the pelicans. Tom found a hillier route up Mount Whitfield and we had a great afternoon exploring the Flecker Botanical Gardens close-by.

Frustrated at not being able to buy a coffee after 3pm (wow most Australians go to bed really early!), we managed to have some fun finding dinosaur footprints and walking across the Rainforest and Mangrove Boardwalk to Saltwater Creek and Centenary Lakes.

Finding the Tanks Arts Centre was good luck too. Three ex-World War II fuel-storage tanks which have been transformed into venues, one had some interesting art exhibits on display. We enjoyed the night market and aboriginal souvenir shops; we still regret not buying a didgeridoo – making do with a boomerang. We had fun with some familiar characters busking.

It sounds ridiculous but was so refreshing to be able to make simple sandwiches and eat them at a picnic table. This was something we ran on repeat throughout Australia and New Zealand – made all the better by having a fridge in our vehicle: bring on camper-van living!

For Tom it was a year spent there twenty years ago, for me it was a two-week trip pre-Molly to Perth and Sydney and years of Neighbours, Home and Away and Heartbreak High: for both we had done our homework and knew spending time in Australia was going to be a highlight of our world tour.

In fact, it was where the idea of the World Tour first started: since 2012 we always said that when we left Dubai we wanted an Australia trip before going back to the UK. We knew it would be great for the kids, we had a lot of friends to catch up with and it was the perfect place for Tom to live out his dream of camper-van living.

The girls certainly learnt a few new Ozzie phrases and I have never been teased so much for speaking ‘proper English’ in my life!

We were also very much aware of how ‘alive’ it was – never quite seeing a spider or snake in the wild but always on the lookout and constantly fascinated by the different fauna and flora surrounding us, from crocodiles and toads to Jacaranda trees and pristine beaches.

It’s sad to think we are already almost half way through our adventures! 16 weeks done, 18 to go. What fun we have already had and what memories we have made. In some ways it feels we have been on the road for an age. Here’s a reminder of where we have been and where we are going:

We’ve just about got to the bottom of our deodorants and shower gels despite all the packets taken from hotel rooms along the way (shhh!). Our packing choices were mainly spot on. I think we’ve all worn everything we brought with us (it got cold in Japan so the jumpers came out finally) with just a couple of emergency clothing purchases along the way (socks for Joanna! flip flops for molly!). We are getting a little heavy with souvenir purchases (mainly magnets and one artwork from each country) so will need to send a package back to the UK from Australia (sorry grandparents!!!).

Asia has been an assault on the senses in so many ways and such an exhilarating place of exploration for the kids. From a food perspective they have tried everything, we never leave an empty plate even if what’s on offer is live octopus or a spicy hotpot!

Our ears have been filled with different languages, music and sounds, we have stayed in high rise apartments, beach side bungalows and traditional houses. We have played football, some yoga, surfed, snorkelled and even taken a Kung-Fu class.

We have walked for miles and miles through cities, parks, around cliffs, up volcanoes and across paddy fields. We have seen so many beautiful sunrises and sunsets, we have run, sung, danced and laughed. Fine, we’ve had our fair share of moans and tears as well, let’s be honest, that’s life for us all, especially a 4 and 6 year old in unfamiliar surroundings.

For 4 months we have crossed Asia from Dubai to Bali, pretty much always taking short flights from place to place on budget airlines. We had two short layovers in KL and have traveled internally via overnight trains, cruise ships and minivans. Apart from a sidecar adventure in Hoi An we have only admired scooters and motorbikes from a distance.

The most stressful travel days were probably in and out of the Cambodian islands and reaching Tokyo post-typhoon but mostly we’ve managed pretty well, Joanna has a tight hand grip when the waves get rough but mostly the girls are pretty resilient! We’ve had a couple of outbreaks of nits, a corn on the foot and a few mosquito bites but no major stomach bugs, runny noses or high temperatures, I think we are doing well, fingers crossed it continues…

Each country has had an ebb and flow – oddly without planning to do so we have finished each country with a few days in the capital city but started out elsewhere. It sort of works, the trip builds up to a crescendo and you have somewhere a little more manageable to get to grips with the country’s nuances. It does mean however, that we seem to be visiting each country backwards, reading the guidebook back to front or travelling upstream. We are going against the flow of most travellers we meet, which is no bad thing as we can pass on tips of places we have been and vice versa. As we are basically going back to the UK the wrong way round the world, it all sort of makes sense.

As we landed into Cairns in Australia on the 29th October 2019, Molly asked: “what language do they speak here?” To which I gave her a brief background on the 300 aboriginal languages – but concluded by saying English – she looked a little disappointed, not another language to write the basics of hello, goodbye and thank you into her notebook. It made me realise what an incredible experience it has been for us all jumping in and out of different countries and starting to learn about them – Asia has given us so much and we look forward to returning again in the future.

Back in Bali we had one last place to visit, I admit mainly because of Eat Pray Love – Ubud. A mecca for yogis and spiritual types, it is also the cultural centre of Bali, so we really had to check it out. On route we stopped off for a tour of the Green School which really blew our minds. A perhaps extreme example of how education must go in the future, the eco-projects and whole mindset were truly inspiring.

The buildings were almost entirely built of bamboo and yet achieve monumental spaces such as the heart of school, the classrooms windowless. The school uses minimal electricity, the majority of the energy generated by its incredible vortex courtesy of ‘turbulent’ going to the local grid.

Despite being primarily aimed at international children, the school works admirably with its local community, with scholarship programmes supporting Balinese students (filling 10% of the spaces). Over 400 local children use the after school clubs and facilities, and international students learn the local languages. Our girls really benefited from experiencing such an environment, if only for a couple of hours.

We had lunch at Sayan House in Ubud, a stunning location with incredible views across the valley and delicious Asian fusion cuisine.

We were staying pretty centrally near the river in a slightly random place, not our best booking but at least it had hammocks near the pool, bunkbeds and an ok breakfast.

Next door was a massage salon and given the prices we decided to book all four of us in for a massage which we all thoroughly enjoyed!

Ubud happened to be hosting the annual Writers and Authors Festival while we were there, so I caught the end of a panel with Irvine Welsh at the Nuka Art Museum. The collection of the museum itself is mixed but does give some insight into Indonesian painting from the 17^th century until today, in a series of buildings set in a beautiful garden. Highlights were disappointingly probably by foreigners, such as recent landscape paintings by the Dutch-born Arie Smit and black and white photography by the American Robert A. Koke from the 1930s.

The main sights to see in Ubud are really the Campuhan Ridge and the paddy fields, by most people experienced on a walk but we decided the best way to see it was our usual style: alternate runs before the kids woke up.

Ubud was certainly a place we needed to experience – but it was nice to be back at Michele’s for our last night in Asia.

Seeing how much Molly in particular was enjoying snorkelling, time over the water in the Gili Islands seemed to make sense as a trip from Bali. Getting there and back however was quite an ordeal: after our somewhat hairy boat rides in Cambodia and reading horror stories on trip advisor I was getting more than a little nervous. We booked a return boat from Padang Bai, a bus ride up the coast from Sanur to reduce the sailing time. The crossing was quite rocky but not too bad. Coming back the issue was finding which boat we were booked on and getting a seat, and then the boat headed in the wrong direction across to Lombok mainland to have its passengers counted by the authorities! We had to remind ourselves time and time again everything ran on island time and in the island way…

Arriving at Gili T felt like stepping back in time, there are no motorised vehicles, everyone travels by foot, pedal bike or horse and cart (called a cidomo). We found out we had booked to stay in an Irish pub slightly by mistake – I guess the name ‘Tir Na Nog’ should have given it away – but it was fantastic.

The bar was known as the spot on the island’s weekly pub crawl with live music most nights, but they put us in a room furthest from the bar, so the noise didn’t bother us. We very much enjoyed the lovely pool and our exterior bathroom and shower in the undergrowth. Breakfasts and staff were brilliant too.

Gili T is short for Gili Trawangan, Gili means ‘small island’ in sasak (the language spoken in Lombok) and terowongan is tunnels in Indonesian, referring to the cave tunnel built during Japanese occupation during World War II. Bunkers are still visible on the island. In the 1980s and 1990s Gili T became known as a party island, its neighbours, close enough to see, Gili Meno and Gili Air are smaller and quieter.

Gili T was the perfect size for us – a great run round it and with plenty of restaurants to visit and things to do. I enjoyed a morning Vinyassa Flow yoga class at Sunset Beach and me and the girls had a sunset horse ride thanks to Stud stables. A major highlight of our world tour for MoJo.

Our best meals were at Casa Vintage and Scallywags where there was a great all-you-can-eat salad bar: in Molly’s books as good as a buffet! We also had a great meal one evening at the night market, where you could pick which combination of satays and side dishes you wanted.

The highlight of our time there was definitely the snorkelling (well the horse riding might have been for MoJo). Visibly was outstanding – best really just off the beach, seeing countless fish, turtles, eels and rays. We also took a boat trip out round the other islands to some famous spots to snorkel, which were also interesting with sculptures placed on the ocean floor and a wreck. The lunch on Gili Air was mediocre and Joanna was quite scared of the waves on the way back, but it was worth it.

To experience a true island, you have to accept rocky boat rides, relaxed service and other people also hoping to find their own piece of paradise – but on Gili T you could make it your own, there were enough quiet beaches to fully switch off. We really loved our four days there.

From what you hear, Bali is one of those places that is the ultimate get-away-from-it-all holiday destination. Miles away from the UK its more the playground of Aussies or Kiwis, although it wasn’t an uncommon spot for Dubai-based folk to fly to. When our friend Michele moved there from Doha, we clocked it as an opportunity to go and find out what all the fuss was about, making sure we slotted it into our world tour.

Immediately walking out of the airport the heat hit us, wahoo we thought, it’s another place we can wear flip flops all the time! Although Molly swiftly reminded us that her only pair had broken a few weeks before – so priority was to replace those, heading to Fippers and kitting her feet out for the beach again (these lasted her another two months until one was lost on a bouncy castle in Rotorua….).

We were so lucky to have Michele’s beautiful villa to stay in. With two guest rooms and bathrooms and a lovely plunge pool it really was idyllic. It was also great to spend time catching up with her! Well located off Jalan Batur Sari in Sanur, we had a couple of lovely meals together a short walk away, the first night at Parisi for steak, burgers and delicious chocolate mousse and our last at Madu Sedana with cute stray kittens and yummy Asian dishes.

It was easy to use the ‘grab’ app to order taxis to go further afield, sadly with the kids we were not able to jump on the back of Michele’s scooter although Tom did use her pedal bike to go shopping. A short ride was lively Tamblingan street, where we ate well at Soul in a Bowl and Coconut Café. From there it was a little walk to the beach strip, which for the whole length of Sanur is pedestrianised.

It should have been a good run, although a little uneven in places so I tripped over – and was amazed at how fast I was offered aloe vera to rub into my wounds by ladies giving massages on the beach. I couldn’t resist ordering a smoothie at Genius cafe to recuperate before running back.

We had a lovely evening of sundowners with Michele and her fellow teachers at Segura and met up with them all again at the Beach House to watch matches of the Rugby World Cup. Perhaps the least said about the results the better given Michele is a rather competitive All Black!

We joked that she had decided the week a professional chef was staying to have her kitchen redone – so when we returned from Gili T it was all finished and Tom was centre stage in cooking for us all which turned out to be a great evening!

Tom went off early one morning for his first experience of fat biking, going to the volcanic Gunung Batukaru where he narrowly escaped a forest fire (we were going to see a few more of them once landing in Australia).

Tom had met Pete Collis (the owner of Kayuh Bali) on a few roadsters rides in Dubai so got in touch to see what trips they organised and managed to get a slot. The day consisted of two different types of rides, the first over volcanic lava rock and after lunch a fast-downhill sand track. Both were challenging as Tom is used to thin tyres and smooth tarmac but he had an exhilarating time.

After all this beach and rugby watching we realised we must see some more of the island, so booked a driver to show us around for a day. It was the best thing to do as we could be relaxed with timings and go from place to place at our own pace. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch at Mano on Seminyak beach and then went to Kuta beach for Tom and Molly to have their first ever surfing lesson. They both did very well getting up many times!

We went on to Ulawatu to visit the temple on the clifftop, a stunning location for sunset, the native monkeys causing much havoc stealing tourists’ handbags and sunglasses! For dinner we sampled some fish at Jimbaran on the beach, with sand between our toes and being serenaded with La Bamba and Byran Adams, although not quite Eat Pray Love, it felt like the holiday was going in the right direction.  

It is next to impossible to know the right place to stay in the sprawling metropolitan mass that is Tokyo. We followed advice to stay near a station on the JR Yamanote line, picking Gotanda and it was a good choice. From there we had long runs along the Meguro river to the sky garden and could access the parts of the city we wanted to pretty easily on public transport. On our last night we enjoyed dancing to some jazz musicians busking outside the station. Our hotel had an onsen on the roof, where unfortunately kids were not allowed but Tom and I visited separately! We could all enjoy stunning views of the city from the oddly situated rooftop lobby.

Tom was forced to take a taxi to the Toyosu fish market (Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market) to see the live tuna auction as it started before the trains which was an expensive enterprise. It moved to its new location in 2018 from the old fish market of Tsukiji. He should have applied to a lottery a month before to get a chance to get closer to the action but still had good views from the public viewing deck with speakers installed to hear the action going on below.

We all went to the original Tsukiji market near Ginza, known as Japan’s ‘food town’, where we enjoyed the lively atmosphere, sampling the rectangular omelette (tamagoyaki), oysters, dim sum and various parts of tuna sashimi. The one temple we visited in Tokyo was close by: Tsukiji Hongwanji temple. We only went in because it was raining!

First stop for some art was the must-visit Mori Art Museum in trendy Roppongi Hills. The museum is located on the 52^nd floor, so the views are tremendous. We were there to see a solo exhibition by the incredible artist Shiota Chihara, ‘The Soul Trembles’, very much worth the hour queue to enter (Tom and the girls went off to look round a Lego store while I stayed in line on my kindle). We were all mesmerised by the installations, made with anything from childhood toys to a burnt piano and hanging suitcases, all connected and bound by her signature thread. It was also interesting to learn about Shiota’s beginnings as an artist and more recent set-design projects.

The next day we took the train to Aomi to visit Teamlab’s Boundless, where we spent about six hours exploring room after room of immersive artworks. Highlights were the forest of lamps, a light-show experience and the future park for the kids to do many of the activities familiar from Oli Oli in Dubai but also jump on huge air pillows and climb through a virtual forest. Knowing smaller versions of their works from art fairs, I knew a visit was essential and I’m so pleased we went. There was another long queue to enter, even with advanced ticket purchase online (Tom and the girls left me lining up again, this time finding a Toyota car exhibition) and queues for individual rooms inside. The themes of nature and the passing of seasons are interestingly at odds with the mind-blowing possibilities of technology that they display.

Other parts of the city we enjoyed were Yakitori alley in Shinjuku, laughing at the number of people taking selfies with Haricho the dog statue at Shibuya and spending just as long ourselves on the crossing, as well as the cool vibes of Harujuku.

The final place we visited before going to get our plane was Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo, which had an exhibition by Christian Boltanski including a video part of a work we had missed on Taoshima island, ‘Animitas (La forêt des murmures)’. The piece includes an installation of 300 Japanese bells on slender stalks installed in a particular arrangement to refer to the configuration of stars the night of the artist’s birth. Iterations of the work have been installed across the world, in the Dead Sea, Atacama in Chile and Quebec. Finding it here made us feel our time in Japan had gone full circle.

We left Japan on a night flight which was actually a lot longer than we had remembered, but went quickly with all of us sleeping most of the 9-hour flight. With a few hours stop over in Kuala Lumpur for breakfast, it was then onto Bali for some beach time!

We were pretty excited to be taking the Thunderbird express up the coast to Kanazawa (sadly not a particularly exciting train despite the name) where we had a quick connection to get a train to Toyama (i.e. running from one platform to another!) and then a very small local train (basically a bus on a train track) to our final destination, Kammiichi.

It was refreshing to be heading off the traditional tourist trail. Our trip there was thanks to the kind offer from Sooh and Yongshik, parents of Molly’s friend Minji, to come and stay for a few days. They had left Dubai in early January, so the girls hadn’t seen each other for around 10 months, they had been in class together at Horizon English School. It was so sweet to see how excited they were to be together again. We went to collect Minji from school and had a great afternoon as Molly learnt how to rollerblade, Minji played the piano and Sooh prepared us a delicious dinner of sukiyaki which involved everyone cooking their own beef and various vegetables in a sweet broth, its a traditional Japanese hotpot-style dish.

We really welcomed the countryside feel of Kammiichi. We were under very little pressure to do very much at all. We did run, of course (Tom doing his first half marathon of the trip), and enjoyed a walk to the Shomyo waterfalls in nearby Tateyama, at 350 meters it is the tallest in the country. We had fun in the park and feeding goats, horses and koi carp and meeting some friends at a soft play area.

We were watching reports of Typhoon Hagibis and feeling the rain getting heavier and heavier, so decided to stay an extra night to be safe.

It was great to have another evening together – we finally made it to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, with the best motivation for children to eat their plates: for every five you could try and get a prize! I think we had 60 dishes between us! Molly surprised us by liking the tuna and mackerel sashimi.

Perhaps the most memorable experience was visiting an Onsen, a traditional bath. Men and women have separate areas, no one has any clothes on! You will be relieved: no pictures from here!

All in all, the few days we spent with Minji, Sooh and Younshik were such a special time during our trip, their generous hospitality so kind and welcoming. They must come and see us in London!