Posts tagged myanmar
Living a better life
Our determination to live better dates back to around the time my mother died. During the reflective time after her death, a friend asked whether I had unresolved dreams for things to do with my mother which we hadn’t been able to achieve. Although the answer to that question was no, Ross and I identified that we had many unrealised aspirations to do things together. We set about changing that, particularly in relation to travel - to see family and to explore places – in conjunction with work trips and just for pleasure.
By 2011 our aspirations had evolved further: we wanted to be able to respond to the interesting opportunities that were being presented to us, we wanted more love, laughter and adventures in our days – to spend more time with family and friends, more time in the sunshine being active and we wanted to do good work. We wanted to be open to adventures, either at home in NZ’s great outdoors or overseas if opportunities presented themselves. The plan was not to have a plan.
It took some months to divest ourselves of the financial responsibilities of the old life that tied us to corporate jobs and salaries and to achieve a financial position that allowed us to take up work that was worthwhile, interesting, and challenging, but not necessarily well-paid. We down-sized from our large family home appropriate for raising a family, to a mobile home suitable both for adventures and also as a base in shaky Christchurch where we worked on documenting the impact of the earthquakes in photographs.
Opportunities to work overseas opened up for me, providing consultancy services to improve research and information services in developing parliaments. The short-term assignments in Myanmar developed into a longer contract so that Ross joined me there in 2013 where we fell in love with the gentle people and the beauty of the landscapes and temples. It was an extraordinary opportunity to work in the Myanmar Parliament just at the time when democracy was being established and the people could choose their leadership for the first time in 50 years.
When my contract in Myanmar ended in 2016, the next adventure beckoned us to live in Yorkshire for 6 months helping to run a B&B on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. We loved both the work and the opportunity to walk or cycle almost every day exploring the glorious landscapes of the Dales.
By the end of 2016 it was time to head home to New Zealand. While I was sorting out what came next for work we began our South Island Odyssey through the south of the South Island, cycling every NZ Cycle Trail and walking the Rakiura Track in Stewart Island.
What came next for work, was a role in Auckland, which allowed us to explore a region that we didn’t know well. We particularly loved the coast and the estuaries, as well as the volcanoes and the forests, so we spent our weekends and holidays exploring.
Now that the time has come for us to leave Auckland, we are undertaking a North Island Odyssey, with the intention of cycling most of the NZ Cycle Trails in the North Island and walking another of the Great Walks - Lake Waikaremoana.
Goodbye 2016
2016 was one of those years that turned out quite
differently from how it looked a year ago.
For us it was a year of transitions, as we lived in Myanmar, moved to
Yorkshire and finished out the year in sunny New Zealand.
We had some wonderful family times in Myanmar, Cambodia and Bangkok early in the year and in Scotland and Yorkshire later on.
Ross and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary in early February. The hotel staff at the Park Royal in Nay Pyi Taw where we lived at that time, were so very kind to us and helped to make it a wonderful celebration. We had decided long ago to take a longer trip to some of our favourite places in honour of this significant anniversary. Our trip began before Easter with a few days in Venice, followed by 2 weeks of walking in Malta, 2 weeks of cycling in SE and NW Sicily and a week exploring volcanoes. We finished up with a week with Rebecca and Jean on the Isle of Skye.
By May we were heading back to Myanmar to say goodbye to our many dear friends, write final reports and pack our belongings. We had put down a lot of roots in our three years in Myanmar and it was hard dragging them up.
Fortunately we had something to look forward to, as we were going to live and work in Yorkshire for 5 months. Our jobs as Assistant Managers at Eastfield Lodge were better than we had ever dreamed. We loved looking after the guests and the house, and the work-life balance that gave us time off most afternoons to explore the beautiful Yorkshire Dales on foot or by bicycle. It was great to be in the same time zone as Rebecca and Jean and we enjoyed time with them both in the Dales, as well as in Edinburgh.
Our year has finished on a high note with a NZ odyssey of walking and cycling in the NZ summer. We have fallen in love with our beautiful homeland all over again and loved finding new delights in places we thought we knew well already. At year’s end we are in lovely Te Anau, surrounded by high mountains and wonderful rain forest.
World Wanderers
We are often asked about what the drivers were for our choices about the way we live.
Back in 2011 when we began our journey to a nicer life we focused on:
• Relationships with family and friends
• Improving our health through increased fitness and reduced stress
• Meaningful, worthwhile, challenging work whether or not it paid well
• Travel to interesting places
We began to live in a much smaller space, and to concentrate more on experiences and a whole lot less on material possessions. We worked together a lot of the time, and undertook a range of assignments in NZ and abroad because they interested us.
Five years later, the key focus areas have remained the same for us. We have refined our travel goals, and choose to travel more slowly most of the time -cycling or walking so that we interact with the locals and absorb more of the smells, sounds, and sights around us. We tend to return more often to the countries we love and explore new regions.
A key driver for us arose from family and friends who had died or contracted serious illnesses before their time. We worried about running out of health before we ran out of money, and not having enough energy to enjoy any retirement years together. We wanted to ensure that we did the active travelling while we were able to really enjoy it. We had always dreamed of living and working in another country to learn more deeply about another culture.
In the past 5 years we have lived and worked in Christchurch, Myanmar and Yorkshire in the UK. We have travelled to many parts of New Zealand, Lebanon, Cyprus, Bangladesh, Scotland & London, Finland, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Vietnam, UK, California, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, India, Malaysia, France, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, Namibia, Japan, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Malta, Italy, Laos and Lesotho. Some of those trips were work, some to attend conferences and others to cycle or walk or just to experience the people and places. While we lived in Myanmar and Yorkshire we travelled extensively, exploring the cultures as fully as we were able.
Family, friends and health goals remain at the top of our list. We will continue to spend time and energy on keeping in touch with family and friends and work at keeping in excellent health. We are unlikely to travel quite so much in the future, but are not ready to hang up our travelling shoes just yet. What 2017 will bring in the way of interesting, challenging, worthwhile work is as yet unknown – for sure, something will transpire to inspire us