Latest / Babes, how did you get here / 21, Broke & a New Mom: How I Manifested Time Freedom & a Life Traveling Thailand with My Family

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21, Broke & a New Mom: How I Manifested Time Freedom & a Life Traveling Thailand with My Family · Babes, how did you get here

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  When you think of what your younger self would be saying about your life,
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  no, what do you think would be the impression or what would you have said to your
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  younger self? Oh, she'd be so shocked. She'd be like, wow, you didn't. And I think at those
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  points, I was battling a postpartum depression really, really bad. And no matter what,
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  I think it's having just that unwavering faith and conviction that I may not see it,
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  but I know it's like there. If I can see other people doing it, how is that not possible for me too?
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  I am joined by heaven Griffin, a travel content creator and online businesswoman,
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  and she is currently touring the world with her husband and their three kids. In this episode,
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  we will discuss why they chose to live in pukets and how she juggles all of the things,
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  mom, entrepreneur, and wife. I am also a mother traveling alone with my little ones,
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  so I cannot wait for this conversation. But I have to ask babes, how did you get here?
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  So actually originally we were just traveling. We brought our kids and my husband to my home
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  island where I'm from so that they can see we've been to where my husband's from so we wanted
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  to show both sides. Where are you guys from? My husband's from Louisiana. I'm from a very small
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  island called Rhoda. Okay. It's near Guam. Okay, yes. Yeah, so it's about 15 minutes away and we
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  wanted to be able to show them that and then we decided why don't we just travel to other countries
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  and so we landed in Thailand just with the intentions of being tourists and then we traveled some more
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  ended up in puket and we like fell in love with it and so since then we decided okay we're moving
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  to puket and now we're here. How long after your visit to puket did you decide that you're going to
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  move here? We came in January of 2022. Okay. Oh wait a minute. Now January of 2023 we came to
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  puket and then we're actually Bangkok but then we ended up down in puket a couple of months later
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  and then we ended up moving in I'd say yeah I think it was September. Okay, so the same year.
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  Yeah and what was it about pukets that won you over? I think we loved that there was everything
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  here in puket. There was nightlife. There was everything for kids. There's so much for kids to do.
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  We love the beaches and so we like variety and you know I've always said this if I wanted a very
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  like quiet place to live we would just move back to where I'm from. Okay. It's really quiet there.
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  Is it an American territory? Yes it is. Okay. So before you started your travels
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  in January where would you have considered your home base at that point? It would have been my
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  home island because it's only about a six and a half hour like a weight to Korea and then to
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  Guam. Okay. And so yeah it's not a bad flight versus going all the way back to Texas where we moved
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  from that's such a long flight so that was our home base. Okay. You've spoken a little bit about
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  the mental prep that is required before you move and I just wondered if you could expand on that.
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  Yeah you know I feel like when you're coming to a new country you have to be willing to adjust
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  and so it's coming here without that mentality that everything's going to be exactly like how it is
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  where you're from right or certain services when you sit down at a restaurant when you go somewhere
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  and you get like very specific services. How do you say this? Like even just trying to think.
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  like a CEO. I'd say even when you're like doing business with others it's it's different from
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  what you're used to you know what I mean and so we just adjust and I feel like you have to prepare
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  for that that you're not going to have the same conveniences or luxuries that you may have had
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  where you're from. Sure. But you may open yourself up to other conveniences and luxuries while
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  you're here you know. Have you been to other parts of Thailand and why did you choose Puket over say
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  Bangkok or Chiang Mai? Everyone seems to be moving to Chiang Mai. Oh we love Chiang Mai. Oh you do okay?
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  Yeah we've been to Chiang Mai, Bangkok. I'm totally new but but you're the way you say it but
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  constantly. Crabby, gosh you've been Chiang Rai. Okay, Hua Hin, Pataya. You've done a lot. We've
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  been to a lot of places and we love love love Thailand but the reason why we chose Puket over
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  others is there were other things in other areas like Bangkok was too busy for our kids. Chiang Mai
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  there's burning season so we knew we wouldn't be there all year. Sorry what's burning season? Yeah
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  burning season is when farmers and I know there's other reasons too but from what I've learned it's
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  when farmers burn their crops. Okay. To make way for a new season of crops. Okay. And that creates a
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  lot of differences in the air quality when we went shortly after burning season both my son and I
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  were having trouble breathing. Okay. So for some people it may affect them more for others they don't
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  mind but we had to consider a lot of factors for our health and also for our kids and what they like.
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  Cool and so when you decided Puket was the place then was it a case of finding housing and how hard
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  is that considering a family it's not just like you won by yourself but you need to have the appropriate
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  housing for your husband and your kids. Oh my goodness so easy actually. Oh really? Yeah we've been
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  in apartments. We've been in actually villas where you only rent the rooms and you have a shared
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  kitchen. Okay. We've been in those and now we're in a house so we've been in all kinds of
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  accommodations and it's actually really easy to get even just short-term housing. Okay. The first
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  year that we lived here we jumped between apartments condos and villas for about nine months. Okay.
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  Yeah and then now we chose to do the one-year lease with the house because we wanted something
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  more stable presumably it's not like a credit check situation because when I moved to the states
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  I went to college in New York and because I was a foreign person it was a lot harder right because
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  I don't have any local credit so I had to put down just a huge deposit in order to secure an
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  apartment. What is the process here in terms of being able to rent short-term? Oh so for short-term
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  the deposit is actually not that big. Okay. For one apartment our deposit was 10,000 baht. Okay.
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  For the shared villa that we stayed at the deposit was 3,000 baht. Wow. And then when we went
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  we did go to a service like condo that was more catered to expats. Sure. It's called Homa
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  okay. In Puket Town. Right. And that one we had to give one month rent in advance as a deposit plus
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  the first month. Sure. But when you're rent. Yes it's very flexible. We only rented it for one month
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  to see we actually liked each area that we were in. So we actually jumped around different areas
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  in Puket. Amazing. And were there any culture shocks for yourself, your husband or your kids?
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  Honestly. I'd say culture shocks. Not really. We adjusted really well to be quite honest.
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  And we were very intentional in trying to learn the language and also trying to communicate
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  with locals allowing ourselves to integrate into the culture. I feel like when you do that you
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  can immerse yourself more in the culture and it doesn't feel so much as a culture shock. Sure.
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  I'd say maybe something that was different is tipping culture is definitely a different year
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  from what we're used to in America. Yep. You know because America you tip everywhere. No. America
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  and tipping. I remember once in college I went to a Chinese restaurant and my friend and I would
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  do lunch right. So this time it's my time then it's your turn to pay. And because we're always
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  doing lunch it was cool. And I was on the phone with my dad and I'm at the door getting ready to put
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  my coat on and this lady's hovering around us and I'm not really figuring out what's going on.
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  I come off the phone for a second and I said sorry is there a problem? She said but you didn't tip.
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  I said well the service was poor right. The food was awful. I sent it back. I haven't eaten lunch.
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  Why am I tipping? Here is a tip. Be good to your customers and then maybe you'll get some more
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  money but she was on me appalled at the idea that I wouldn't tip and coming from Jamaica I was just
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  what? You get tips regardless of like the quality of service that you receive but America that's
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  America. Tipping is serious. You know that led to another thing that I just thought of with culture
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  shocks is how friendly people work and it's absolutely crazy to come from America where everybody's
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  kind of on guard everybody's standoffish and yes there's lots of friendly people especially if
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  you're in the southern areas. I feel like there's a lot of that southern hospitality and there's
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  friendly people all around but I think we have like a natural guard because of our environment. Sure
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  versus here like everybody just feels comfortable they feel safe so they're everybody's naturally friendly
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  sure you know and I saw where you said that you really need to know your why and I always say the same
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  when you're opening a business like you need to know your why because when the hell of business
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  reaches you it's that why that's gonna like keep you going what was your why for the move?
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  Oh so provider kids are better life okay you know at the time there was a lot going on
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  back home especially in Texas there were I don't know if it's okay to talk about this but there
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  were school shootings there were things that have happened that didn't make us feel so safe we've
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  had our car broken into we've had things stolen and so we didn't feel super safe although we could
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  keep ourselves safe we we don't want to be in that position sure you know we want to already
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  be in a position where our kids are better off we feel happy we don't feel like it's a constant
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  rat race to just survive and I find that's a lot of things that we see in people we know
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  and our life that we lived when we were there too yeah so yeah hold our kids
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  uh four six and eight wow yeah so I still say we're pretty young too because our first child
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  um I was only 21 when I give birthday very cool and for your babies are they also picking up
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  some tie how do they feel about being here oh they love it they love it so much actually even when
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  we went to krabby they didn't want to leave really they love love love love why do we live in krabby
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  you know we considered it and we actually even just talked about it I think because we loved
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  the lifestyle here in krab but you know even just recently we were like huh
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  would we consider krabby as a home base and then just maybe we could jump around but
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  we're the kinds of travelers and I know it sounds kind of odd like as a family but we are the
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  types where we can plan a day in advance two weeks in advance we never plan too far out sure
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  so our plans are always up in the air and we love it that way honestly what would you say to
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  people who have this idea that as a family you couldn't be doing these things even myself when
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  people are like you're traveling by yourself with your twins and I think they imagine chaos
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  and I always tell people in my life it's the adults that are the problem it's never the children
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  and I just wondered in terms of traveling with a family it's obviously a lot of other things
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  that you have to navigate and plan but you guys seem to be doing it seamlessly we have a flow
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  down and you know I feel like this is not talked about often but I think it requires a lot of
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  emotional intelligence not just from one parent but both parents so both my husband and I have
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  done a lot of work to heal ourselves to be the best version of ourselves for our kids and also
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  to teach them that same emotional intelligence so there's times where yes we may be stressed out
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  and if we realize that we handled it differently then we would have loved to handle it sure we correct
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  each other we recognize it and we fix it amazing and so I think emotional intelligence flexibility
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  and also just being willing to not have to control things you don't need so much control unless
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  you're on a fixed schedule sure right but if you do on that kind of life where you're jumping around
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  maybe you don't know what country you'll be in next month you have to be willing to just let
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  some things go I love that and I also think there are times where different elements of our lives
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  can make relationships more difficult right like for example if you're doing long distance
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  you're adding another layer to a relationship presumably travel right like constantly moving
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  and moving around could potentially add another layer has anything about travel been difficult
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  in terms of your family life just balancing the two I think at first when we were jumping around
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  we were having difficulty with homeschooling at the time because we were just now learning how to
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  homeschool our kids with kindergarten first grade second grade now our Otis is going at third grade
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  but technically homeschooling at the same time so I think it was just finding a flow with that
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  and making sure we're still committing to our responsibilities right right and you know actually
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  even some things that would feel hard like packing at first it used to be just me and my husband
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  packing everything and then we gave our kids the responsibility of having their own little
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  legages and then their own part of the main big luggage and they love it they pack their own
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  things and we kind of remove that stress of having to take care of everybody and we do give our
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  kids that responsibility where they feel like well how they trust me to do this you know I love
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  that so much my kids also have their own luggage and they have to carry them even when the flights
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  is at midnight and it's late I'm like babes it's your luggage because when they're not tired
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  best believe they're claiming the luggage hard right and I do think that as adults sometimes we
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  underestimate what our children are capable of doing and that involvement to me is another reason
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  why they travel so well because they feel like they're a part of the journey not just that they're
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  being like instructed to be there don't move do this so I'm loving that you do the luggage
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  thing too and it sees little things when you're parenting that like you could really underestimate
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  the value that it has in giving responsibility I guess in my mind why did you choose homeschooling
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  over perhaps an international school or a local Thai school oh we've actually done an international
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  okay yeah we've done an international kindergarten before I think for us our kids just loved the
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  flexibility with homeschooling they also even told us that they prefer homeschooling okay very
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  cool yeah we've tried it where in Texas they offer an online public school okay and we tried that
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  and our son absolutely did not like it you had to log eight hours every single week and I just
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  can't imagine him staring at a screen for eight hours to learn something you know that he can
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  learn in other ways or they can learn in other ways and when you look at the experience where
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  you had them in an international school here initially versus homeschooling from your perspective
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  what are the pros and the cons for international school a big pro is of course time you gain a lot
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  of time when your kids are at school and you can work on more projects but also your kids gain
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  that social skills they also allow themselves to learn other cultures right because I remember when
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  they were in the international school they even have these culture days where they can tell people
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  about America other people can tell them about where they came from and so I thought that was
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  really cool I'd say maybe one of the cons is if you're coming out here with multiple kids it does
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  cost a good amount of money I'm a twin mother babe so I'm just like really could I just get
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  price for one please yeah I know yeah so it definitely adds up and then there's times where
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  you know you have a two-week break but the fees stay the same okay yeah so I think that's one of
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  the things if you're more wanting to spend that money on other things that could be experiencing
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  homeschooling so I in my mind feel that that's where like the universe is leading me just because
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  of the way I raise my children I'm quite peculiar I'm always happy to be the problem it's working
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  out for me and my babies but I have no idea where to start with homeschooling it is literally a
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  concept my kids technically would be starting school in the UK in September coming so I'm kind of like
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  figuring it out and thinking that it will just come together how did you start homeschooling and
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  was any part of that process like worrying or concerning for you or did you know from the get
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  go that it was gonna be easy not that it would be easy but thankfully I use multiple platforms
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  okay our kids take online classes throughout school I talk about that one quite a bit actually
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  they also do an online program okay for reading and math but then you know a lot of homeschooling
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  is also an experiences like our kids when they went to Riley Beach and Crabby and we talked a lot
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  about nocturnal animals because there's a bat cave there amazing yeah um we've talked about
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  high tides and low tides like they can learn science they can learn geography and all of these other
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  things through experience we went to Aquaria here in Pouquet okay and they have the US as Lovato
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  oh very cool which is I believe a US naval ship yeah um that was somewhere in the end of
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  an area or it's it's close to Thailand sure and so they give history on that too so I feel like
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  you can learn a lot of history just by traveling and also a lot of experience even with science so
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  our main things that we homeschool with the structure is mainly reading in math okay for people who
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  have said to me for example that my children are so young they're never gonna remember the travel
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  how do you think about that they're gonna remember it I promise you we went to Crabby and we went to
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  the exact same hotel that we stayed up before because we love the staff there's very specific staff
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  that we've created a connection with and they came there like oh mommy this is a place that we
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  came to when we first came to Crabby and I'm like yeah it was uh huh or they talk about mommy do
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  remember this when we did this and they'll explain it in detail can we go back I love it so yes
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  they do remember they may not remember it all but the fact that you have those photos and videos
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  and they can look back on that I think that's what you cherish most yeah and I think it's not the
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  fact that they have to remember it it's the fact that you enjoyed it in those moments yes I agree
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  a hundred percent and I also think there's something about knowing that it happened so the first time
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  I was on a plane I was actually born in the UK but raised in Jamaica so the first time I was on a
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  plane I was six weeks old and again just kind of knowing that you've always had access to the world
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  I think I took it for granted that you could just don't pump planes right because as a child
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  that's what you know that you did so it kind of becomes a part of your being and one of my girls
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  know she wakes up sometimes and she's like mommy are we taking a taxi or a plane today as I
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  my pocket needs you to understand that the two are not the same but again there's just a
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  relaxed nature to and what's beautiful about children it's not about hierarchy right it's not
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  about oh well I'm better for doing this it's just matter of fact these are our lived experiences
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  and that's how they see see the world how do you think that your children or what do you hope
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  that your children are gonna gain in terms of their perception of the world through your
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  traveling lifestyle you know there's actually something have you heard of NLP no tell me it's
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  called neuro linguistic programming and there's kind of these presuppositions of NLP where it's
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  said there's one that says the map is not the territory okay so just because you see this part
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  doesn't mean it's the whole picture sure and so I want our kids to see the whole picture so they
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  can decide which map they want to pick from amazing and I want our kids to see that you can have any
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  career any lifestyle you can be anywhere and you decide what's best for you I don't want to have
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  to pick that for you because I've been the route of going to college getting my MBA doing these
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  things that I thought I was supposed to do in order sure and I found that some things didn't
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  fulfill me and so I want them to be able to choose for themselves this is what will fulfill me
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  and maybe a dozen but at least I tried sure and so I want them to see different ways each culture
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  and each place views life amazing how do you think that being in Thailand has changed your approach to
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  motherhood I feel like in Thailand I've healed a lot yeah I feel a lot as a person and I feel like
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  I've become more confident not just as a mom but as me yes and I think discovering that has
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  allowed me to be a better mom and a better wife you know so I think being here has allowed me to
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  see that there's so much freedom we can have sure outside of you know and again America because we're
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  so used to such a fast-paced life and what they say is keeping up with the Joneses sure right but
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  here we don't have to nobody cares what car you drive sure nobody cares that you don't have
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  that you don't have a car actually yeah so yeah do you think that that feeling of having the
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  space to heal is simply coming out of your own environment in America or do you think there's
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  something about being in Thailand because I think sometimes when we leave our like comfort zone
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  leave the people that knows and leave those expectations it it might be growth wherever we go
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  and I'm just wondering has the healing been easier because it's Thailand or is it just
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  getting out of your your normal environment yeah and I think it's also getting out of just your
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  comfort zone right and being willing to find what will help you heal because Vietnam as well
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  was beautiful for us we want to go back okay and I do feel like those all play a part in how we heal
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  how we find freedom and how we just view life you know do you think it would have been possible
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  to still have the same like self-development progress at home as in at home in America or do you
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  think that you had to break away I think I had to break away because I was doing a lot of personal
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  development there and I just still felt stuck okay I still saw patterns that once I'm around family
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  or once I'm around friends yeah I go back to patterns you know so environment I saw that
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  I started prioritizing myself more I didn't have to say yes to everything just because we're
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  hosting birthday parties every weekend sure and I can't spend that time working on my business
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  or myself or my kids you know or my husband so there's a lot that you can now focus on when you're
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  out of that environment of having so much influence from other people when you told your family
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  peace out we're leaving what was the reaction the reaction was let's look at everything that's
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  possibly dangerous about reading this really um we were told don't wear your jewelry and Thailand
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  and go and you know it's just I think they haven't explored that world yet sure so they don't
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  know and to be quite honest you know growing up in America we're taught a very specific view
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  of how we see other countries okay you know we learn that these kinds of places are third world
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  countries and super underdeveloped and then you come in you're like wow I can live here without
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  even transportation I can move around between houses I can do all of this that I can't do there
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  would you say that that's the greatest misconception that traveling to Thailand or living in Thailand
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  you're gonna have to almost go backwards in terms of your lifestyle because it's not it's not
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  America you know it's actually funny because now I'm seeing a trend on TikTok where a lot of
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  Americans are talking about how to get out of America so I think people are like seeing
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  wow the way that these people are living their lives in other countries is so different than how
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  we're taught to live our lives until we're 50 and 60 in retire yeah and that's when you travel
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  yeah I absolutely do not want to wait 30 something more years yeah to do all of this
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  what would you say is the biggest difference between a western mindset and say a Thai mindset
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  Thai mindset they have this saying survive right just very chill life gets to be slow there's
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  there's really no rushing if there's something wrong we can figure it out right in America it's
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  kind of like there's no survive you you have to work hard you have to do all of these things just
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  to be able to pay your bills you know or if you do want a better job or better career of course
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  you have to climb a corporate ladder and there's so many things that you have to do and not that there's
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  anything wrong with them it's just not everybody's meant to do that sure yeah I think that
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  culture and like nationality and just alignment is really interesting at this time right I think
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  there's a time where we're seeing that worlds are quite divisive do you think that whilst you love
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  living here is there ever an element of the fact that you are not Thai do you ever feel a bit like
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  you're an outsider I think there are times where yeah we may be hesitant because we may be
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  the foreigner in this situation but I'd say that we feel comfortable here honestly we've never
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  really felt like we're outcasted or even even for me I've never personally felt that myself
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  even as an American like people have told us you know be careful because all these things that
• 26:46
  are coming about excuse me about America they're going to start targeting Americans and we're like
• 26:55
  actually we have an experience at all sure like we've just been welcome with so much love and
• 27:03
  friendliness from people here I mean maybe there's sometimes where we are
• 27:09
  taking advantage of as the foreigner like for example I remember one time we rented a car we didn't
• 27:18
  know that this car apparently had just personal insurance it wasn't anything commercial okay and so
• 27:23
  when there's an accident they're like oh it's covered it's covered you're good let us walk away
• 27:28
  and it wasn't and we were even at the police station everything was taken care of at the police
• 27:32
  station when it was time to return our rental they said oh actually it's not covering you have to
• 27:38
  pay this amount in damages a lot yeah and so because we're hesitant we don't want to have to deal
• 27:44
  with anything extra we just decided okay we we pay it and we're good sure but I think there's
• 27:50
  also you know sometimes they look at westerners that you know they just come here with way more
• 27:55
  money and sure and they're good they can pay anything yeah you know it's funny because some people
• 28:00
  complain I call it tourist tax right and some people complain about tourist tax even from a more
• 28:06
  mundane going somewhere and people are trying to sell you something and they put some extra money
• 28:10
  on it I don't know if it's because I'm from Jamaica and you know we're very entrepreneurial so selling
• 28:15
  things places is normal to me but I never get offended by tourist tax because in my mind we have
• 28:22
  the option to engage right someone asking you if you want to buy a hat and I was in Vietnam and
• 28:27
  she said it was 650 thousand I'm done for this hat a man had previously told me that a hat was
• 28:33
  150 thousand as I babes we're going to 600 I feel like I'm on for a little bit of tourist tax
• 28:39
  yeah but you have almost put six times the price I'm good and then immediately she wanted to
• 28:44
  no no we can go down I'm like again I love to bargain but you've started off too high and again
• 28:51
  I could have been the type of person that was happy to pay the 650 so I don't blame her for
• 28:55
  trying yeah I get I get a bit confused when people sort of almost seem as though they're defensive
• 29:00
  and they're taking offense that someone's trying babe they might try if they could get a 650
• 29:05
  one type of 650 yeah I mean I don't like when people villainize that too because honestly everybody's
• 29:13
  just trying to make a living too but I think there's those moments where it's very clear you're being
• 29:18
  taken advantage of yeah so yeah then when you see yourself in terms of life here in Thailand
• 29:25
  is this the spot you said that you got a whole snow for a year is this where you see yourself
• 29:31
  for a longer term or is this like after the year we're going to see what's up no we're actually
• 29:36
  heading off to Vietnam in Cambodia yeah we want to travel more okay yeah and then spend
• 29:44
  extensive times in those locations yes possibly like two months in Vietnam okay and the way we plan
• 29:50
  it is around like you know the special events I know I believe it's in March where the anchor
• 29:55
  watt the in Cambodia the sun hits a certain point there and I want to make it there for that period
• 30:03
  and so we know why would we go to Cambodia in December when our visas up when we can actually
• 30:09
  go to Vietnam first sure plan Cambodia for that period and yeah we just want to move around but
• 30:16
  I'd say minimum in each place is at least two weeks okay and are we keeping it to Southeast Asia
• 30:21
  or do you hope to go to Southeast Asia we love it it's so nice and of course we've been to other
• 30:27
  countries like Korea Japan but we absolutely love Southeast Asia what is it about Southeast Asia
• 30:35
  everything is just so accessible here like super super accessible I think for our family it's
• 30:42
  much more affordable as well that's a huge factor but the cat isn't cheap babes oh no
• 30:47
  the cat's not but thankfully we live in a local area okay and I think this is a huge thing too
• 30:52
  you know if you're gonna make the effort to support local for example we genuinely try to support
• 30:57
  local we rent directly from a Thai owner okay and she's so sweet she even offered us her home to
• 31:04
  stay for free in Krabi overnight we ended up not going but it's a fact that she opened up her home
• 31:10
  to us everything we do is with practically locals okay honestly and we do live in a local area
• 31:18
  so I could literally walk three houses down in the noodle shop that one of my neighbors has
• 31:25
  so yeah we make an effort to really integrate into the culture even though Puket overall
• 31:32
  seen as even though Puket overall is seen as expensive there are honestly parts of Puket okay
• 31:39
  where you get local prices okay you just have to be willing to find it you know
• 31:43
  and when you are looking at your next destination what are the things that you're considering
• 31:49
  we love beach towns okay that's a huge thing for us so we already kind of have an idea of where
• 31:54
  we're going in Vietnam but again it's not even planned no tickets our book um we're just going
• 32:01
  with the flow of it but honestly as long as it's a place that we can still do we do love still
• 32:06
  doing touristy things but also a place where we can get street food go to night markets do you
• 32:12
  know do a lot of things that feel like we're immersed in the culture and when you get to places
• 32:18
  and you have to do like the nitty gritty you're spoken a little bit about housing obviously you
• 32:22
  home schools you don't need to worry too much about in terms of education things like banking
• 32:27
  healthcare these are the things that people consider when they're moving abroad is it quite easy
• 32:31
  to set up in those ways yes yeah actually pretty easy so I remember when we needed an allergy test
• 32:38
  for our youngest son all I had to do was text bank our hospital through line this is their system
• 32:45
  here line or WhatsApp and they got us an appointment like the next day everything is super
• 32:52
  accessible our dental appointments all we had to do is look at pediatric dentists okay and we
• 32:57
  were easily able to find one you don't need dental insurance and actually the price point is to
• 33:02
  where you actually don't need actually need it yeah versus you know where we're from you need
• 33:08
  all of these things sure um we do pay for emergency travel insurance okay so when things happen
• 33:15
  like for example my husband he had not a motorcycle accident it was just kind of a weird accident
• 33:22
  where he went through a glass door with our son and Lynn showed up um we had to go to the private
• 33:28
  hospital actually went to a public hospital first and then got transferred to a public hospital
• 33:34
  and there are all of these things happening but the way it happened was to where the people made
• 33:40
  it so much easier to understand what to do okay so people genuinely want to help you if you're
• 33:47
  confused about something or if you need help finding something the Facebook groups um the locals
• 33:55
  or even if you were to just call up a hospital they do have English speakers and I think that's
• 34:00
  something that people are hesitant about yeah are there English speakers sure and there's a lot
• 34:04
  okay that's really encouraging especially with the accident because one of the reasons why I could
• 34:09
  never see myself driving here is from a language perspective I always think if I have an accident
• 34:14
  I can't communicate but you're saying that actually there's still hope that you'll be fine
• 34:20
  something that I do actually in my wallet my daughter drew some actually was her little grocery
• 34:25
  list of things that she wanted to buy um and that she wanted me to bring to the store and get
• 34:30
  and get for her and so under that grocery list I actually folded it up I have my full name my
• 34:40
  um my age I have my husband's name has aged we I put that we have three children okay because
• 34:46
  we both ride motor bikes right so it says we have three children I have all of their names ages
• 34:53
  our address our our US contact number um so everything is set up to where
• 35:00
  granted we don't want anything to happen but you can never really predict things and so
• 35:06
  I know that if somebody were to find my wallet they would know everything they need to know
• 35:10
  everything they need to know immediately and that we have kids at home all of that that's
• 35:14
  really smart I'm taking that one because I don't if you check my wallet no you have no idea
• 35:19
  yeah but that's a really really good idea and the reason why I use my daughter's grocery list is
• 35:23
  because if they see kids riding sure it makes so much sense to check like oh maybe they have kids
• 35:29
  that's amazing yeah I didn't know that we're gonna get that kind of gem oh yeah I'm like why
• 35:33
  didn't I think of this but it's so so true are there any other things that you do that are
• 35:38
  specific to making sure that you have the best kind of way of life yeah actually I'd say as far
• 35:46
  as like safety or anything I think actually oh here's something that we do especially because we're
• 35:56
  a family um my kids are our kids um they of course they love to travel but when we're going
• 36:03
  somewhere new we don't want it to be a shock for them we don't want them to be surprised with what
• 36:08
  they're seeing sure so what we actually do before we go somewhere new is we show our kids videos
• 36:12
  of where we're going very cool and they will watch things to do in dening Vietnam or things to do
• 36:18
  in Chiang Mai Thailand and then we'll make a list of okay this is everything that you said you wanted
• 36:24
  to do and we have that on our itinerary amazing and so they're excited and looking forward to where
• 36:29
  we're going instead of not knowing where we're going I love that yeah so that's something we do
• 36:34
  did you always know that you'd be living this kind of nomadic explorative lifestyle no but in
• 36:41
  february 2018 it's funny I had this um I enrolled in a program where you did a lot of mindset work
• 36:49
  and so one of the things was like what do you see yourself doing or what do you want for yourself
• 36:54
  and what do you truly want for yourself and there were three things I listed it was to travel
• 36:59
  with my family to have time freedom to be with my family and to have my husband home full time
• 37:06
  because at the time he was active duty military okay so I wrote these three things down and it's
• 37:12
  funny I still have a picture of it it's somewhere in my phone so um and all of that is here that's
• 37:19
  incredible and that was just 2018 yeah I set that and I said it doesn't matter how I get there
• 37:27
  but it's gonna happen yeah I'm so sure it's gonna happen and you cannot tell me otherwise that's
• 37:32
  amazing do you believe in manifestation in general a hundred percent okay cool I have it where it
• 37:37
  says faith doesn't make things easy it makes them possible love it I need to start writing babes
• 37:43
  because I have some things that I need to to come through real fast um when you think of what your
• 37:50
  younger self would be saying about your life now what do you think would be the impression or what
• 37:55
  would you have said to your younger self oh she'd be so shocked she'd be like wow you didn't
• 38:02
  and I think at those points I was battling postpartum depression okay really really bad um
• 38:09
  and no matter what I think it's having just that unwavering faith and conviction that I may not see
• 38:16
  it but I know it's like there if I can see other people doing it how is that not possible for me to
• 38:23
  sure and I think it's sometimes so hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you're
• 38:28
  struggling or when you see this is something I want but it feels so far away you don't have to look
• 38:35
  how you're going to get there every step of the way you just have to be you have to be willing
• 38:40
  to take that first step sure and say this may not be the thing that I commit to you know there's
• 38:45
  so many different kinds of things that I've done that I'm not doing now but it got me closer to
• 38:51
  if I had never done that I wouldn't have seen that wasn't for me sure and now I see what I do
• 38:56
  going yep you know so I feel like every step leads you closer but you have to be willing to take
• 39:00
  that step yeah it's interesting that you talk about having children and things that aren't
• 39:07
  spoken about enough and what's beautiful is you clearly thrive in motherhood right and you clearly
• 39:12
  adore being a mother and sometimes I feel that the conversation around motherhood is very negative
• 39:17
  in a way that is quite bizarre to me and I get that people need comfort to share you know I'm not
• 39:24
  I'm discrediting that if you're going through a hard time of course you want to know that you are
• 39:28
  not alone but I also think that sometimes the balance is a little bit off where we're also not
• 39:33
  seeing enough positive discussions around motherhood so it's deeply inspiring that you've been
• 39:38
  able to create this space and and live the life that you wrote down um in 2018 yeah I think my
• 39:46
  question to you has there been any point of this journey so far that you have reconsidered and thought
• 39:51
  maybe I need to go back to America no honestly the only time where we decided we need to go back to
• 39:59
  America is to sell our last car okay because we held on to one car we weren't sure and I do recommend
• 40:08
  that you know if you're not a hundred percent sure that you're going to thrive in these environments
• 40:13
  or or you're a hundred percent sure that you're going to live in Thailand you know forever or
• 40:18
  you're going keep at least some kind of stability there unless you feel comfortable I'd go back
• 40:23
  and buy a car um but for us we kept one car we weren't sure if we'd like really really love it
• 40:30
  sure and so yeah we went back to sell it visit family and I think the only reason we would go back
• 40:36
  is just to visit family sure but we've already decided we do not want to move back
• 40:42
  when you saw that one car um how long into the journey were you it was 2022 that we left the US
• 40:52
  and then we went back in 2023 to sell it to sell it was there a particular moment where you go
• 40:58
  you both knew it's time to cut our last tie yeah what happened I think we both just saw that we
• 41:07
  were much happier honestly and we realized that we were holding on to and I think the reason we
• 41:15
  held on to this car a lot is for us it was almost like a physical manifestation of something we
• 41:22
  worked so hard for you know and so that's why we were traveling and paying for this car and then we
• 41:28
  decided if we really want to let go of that place of you know the fact that we can go back to Texas
• 41:36
  anytime if we really want to let that go let's let go of the car because then it'll always be a
• 41:42
  reason for us to come back sure and so we just decided it's time to let out everything go
• 41:50
  and yeah your family do they visit it's such a long way away I'm like wow yeah how does that
• 41:57
  impact your relationships with your family how do you maintain those relationships with your
• 42:02
  children for them to also know that they're a part of a family oh we talked to them a lot okay
• 42:07
  yeah we talked to our families a lot and even for our kids they and I think this was a huge thing
• 42:14
  for us is our kids always get oh my gosh our kids always get to be a part of the decision okay
• 42:21
  so even our Otis he's telling us he wants to be with my parents for a little bit okay
• 42:26
  and we're giving him time to decide when he wants to go but we asked him is this something you're
• 42:32
  doing permanently or do you want to come back and travel with us and he says I want to come back
• 42:36
  and travel okay but I want to be he calls him Nana and Papa I want to be with Nana and Papa for
• 42:41
  a little bit okay and so our kids he's nine he's eight yeah he's eight yes it's incredible that he's
• 42:48
  able to make those decisions vocalize those decisions how are you feeling if my eight year old
• 42:56
  I mean I'd be like on the outside of course babe on the inside I think I'd be having a breakdown
• 43:02
  always as soon as you were done with that conversation I was crying in my husband I was like
• 43:07
  already super emotional but as I've looked at it there's certain things that he enjoys that he
• 43:14
  can't do here and he just loves being outdoors with my for example with my dad and so when I
• 43:22
  see that for him it's beneficial for him and his life and what he wants then it's almost
• 43:28
  an of course sure but it's not forever sure and we don't need to like it all the time yeah exactly
• 43:35
  exactly but it's funny that my sister the other day told me wow like they feel comfortable telling
• 43:41
  you how they feel when they're upset they will actually say you know I'm upset because of this
• 43:47
  sure the fact that they're able to vocalize their emotions and show so much emotional
• 43:53
  intelligence at such a young age just makes me feel so proud and so as heartbreaking as it may be
• 43:59
  like he wants to go and be with my parents for a little bit I know that no matter what he wants
• 44:06
  to come back sure and it's just temporary too so but I'm glad that they feel safe to tell us what
• 44:12
  they want yeah I think that's amazing I also wonder you said you had your kids quite young did you
• 44:18
  feel that that helped you because some people are critical of like life experiences and yet on the
• 44:25
  other hand we're seeing where so many women are perhaps freezing eggs or or trying to justify the
• 44:31
  fact that they haven't had kids based on following a career path I feel like it's never a win-win
• 44:36
  right yeah you always everything in life has an opportunity cost but it seems like you're really a
• 44:41
  short in your style of parenting and I'm just wondering what was the inspiration for that
• 44:46
  I think the inspiration for that was that I wanted to show my kids that a certain traditional
• 44:53
  way of thinking wasn't the way I wanted to teach them you know I grew up sometimes I felt like
• 45:01
  I had to be the quiet girl or I had to save face okay or I had to just achieve everything that
• 45:11
  I was told would be best for me and I realized that put so much pressure on me and I became such a
• 45:17
  high achiever because of that and you know there are some positives that did come out of that
• 45:22
  so I'm really really grateful for my parents no matter what but I think there were certain things
• 45:28
  that I realized I want my kids to be able to speak up for themselves I want my kids to be able
• 45:33
  to express what they want when they want I want them to feel safe with their emotions and who they
• 45:40
  are as a person and so even though I became a mother so young I think it allowed me to see wow I'm
• 45:48
  healing myself I want to make sure that as I'm healing I'm allowing them to see this new world this
• 45:55
  new way of thinking and so I invested in tons of mindset programs for growth and how you can look
• 46:02
  at money finances business all of these things and you just see that just because I'm from a very
• 46:09
  small island so I've never seen somebody who's you know at a certain level of success or somebody who
• 46:16
  travels the world with their kids sure I I'm almost a one who wanted to be the first I always
• 46:23
  set that to my parents like I'm gonna I want to be the first to do this so I can show might not
• 46:29
  just my kids but also my family that this is possible and you know a lot of it I feel like was
• 46:36
  both me and my husband working super hard to how would I say this work on ourselves yeah yeah
• 46:43
  because we both grew up in very different environments how did you guys meet oh I was the new
• 46:48
  grown middle school no so yeah it was eighth grade and it's funny one of our eighth our middle
• 46:55
  school classmates he visited puket and went on a double date and he was like I remember when he said
• 47:01
  like the the first day that I arrived as a new girl because it was like middle of the school year
• 47:06
  sure so it was always a big deal and there was someone new coming right and one of our friends
• 47:12
  told us like I remember like the first day he saw you he said like that's going to be my wife
• 47:18
  and it was very very like I don't know when we saw each other it's almost as if we knew each other
• 47:24
  and we always say this that we've had a past life together and we just don't know what you know I
• 47:31
  love that I love a love story that is that is so sweet I think what comes to mind is when you're
• 47:38
  away from your family and you don't necessarily have the safety net for child care you know to
• 47:42
  continue making sure that yes your mom and yes he's their dad and you have that family unit but
• 47:47
  how do you ensure that you're keeping your relationship as husband and wife in sync oh my gosh
• 47:52
  communication I'd say that was the biggest thing that changed our relationship because we
• 47:58
  practically grew up together you know we became adults together you're still finding your way
• 48:03
  and you're still developing and so I think the biggest game changer in our relationship was being
• 48:09
  able to communicate safely and not feel like when you communicate it's going to be in me versus
• 48:16
  you kind of thing it's a how do we make us better how do we make us stronger and so because
• 48:22
  we've learned to communicate properly to each other or to be able to express when something's bothering
• 48:27
  us without taking offense to it we've been able to create such a good dynamic with how we operate on
• 48:33
  the daily practice do you think that being in Thailand again perhaps not having the extended family
• 48:40
  as support because sometimes in relationships I think people and I'm not saying you guys do this
• 48:45
  but sometimes people speak to the others right like you speak to your sidelines and they're not
• 48:50
  necessarily keeping you guys on track but it's like a natural thing to do and I wonder if being in
• 48:55
  Thailand because you have less of the the cheerleaders on the side has that helped because it's more
• 49:02
  of a nuclear team rather than input of anti-onkel mummy and whoever I think that's more so with
• 49:09
  parenting actually okay for our relationship my husband I have always been very private where we
• 49:16
  fix things together and we communicate with each other if we have fights it's not
• 49:21
  everyone else is fine yes it's just between us um we've we've just always kept our relationship
• 49:27
  private there's no social meet going to social media we're arguing or or reposting subliminals
• 49:34
  we're not that type like we really just keep it between us but I say that affected more
• 49:40
  so the parenting or we don't have as much opinions on how we pairing or how we do things with our
• 49:48
  kids so yeah that makes sense that makes sense it's funny because I do think that for a lot of people
• 49:54
  even if they start off with like a got instinct as to how they want to parent their children
• 50:00
  the like sound the noise I call it from around really kind of pulls them in different directions
• 50:05
  so it's amazing that on your travels your initial immediate family unit has been able to kind of
• 50:12
  be void of those distractions but I think that's made a difference when you think about like just
• 50:19
  your favorite places in Puket whether it's for family fun or a date night what are the places that
• 50:25
  come to mind oh I love love love Roy okay that's more of the quiet local side there's still a
• 50:32
  touristy strip there okay but a lot of it is very local if you want a good mix of local and
• 50:38
  touristy in a sense sure so Roy's beautiful catta cut on okay those are beautiful places for
• 50:46
  gosh shopping okay walking around it's very very walkable we used to rent there and so there's a
• 50:52
  point where we both didn't have motorbikes okay and I would be able to walk a lot with our kids
• 50:56
  amazing that's beautiful date night can be almost everywhere actually there's so much for date night
• 51:04
  if you want the party nightlife scene you know me and my husband we're still like I'm 29
• 51:12
  so I think when because I had kids so young I missed the clubbing party scene and so we were able
• 51:19
  to experience that but then you know there's Puket town for just more of a low-key date night
• 51:26
  or there's other beautiful areas there's this gosh I wish I remember the name of the restaurant
• 51:31
  but if you look at different restaurants in Kamala I know Bangta has some but we never really
• 51:38
  explored that area okay there are just so many beautiful restaurants that have these experiences
• 51:44
  I have to show you which one has the boat there's there's a evening dinner that happens or there's
• 51:51
  a restaurant that does these like nighttime yeah it's it's beautiful like the only thing that
• 51:57
  our lit up is the candles okay the candle is in very soft lighting sure and then you go on a boat
• 52:04
  to get to your table amazing so so yeah that's something that I saw that I saved for a different
• 52:09
  date night ideas but there's so many things you can do in Puket and I think that's the reason why
• 52:14
  we kind of lean towards Puket because we didn't want to get bored to be quiet on this yep do you
• 52:20
  find that you guys are cooking more at home or do you eat oh because eating out here can be really
• 52:25
  really affordable sometimes I wonder if it's more affordable to eat out at local eateries I'm not
• 52:30
  saying that there aren't also you know more expensive ones or do you find that you cook at home both
• 52:35
  yeah we love to eat out but I also love to cook at home especially for more of our traditional dishes
• 52:43
  right so like dishes from my culture or dishes that he wants from back home we try to figure
• 52:49
  out how to make it at home and so that's when we usually cook orders meals that are simple kids
• 52:54
  meals that our kids prefer at home sure so can you tell me about some of the dishes from your
• 53:00
  culture and his culture oh yeah so for him like we'll make a poboi or seafood boil or gumbo
• 53:09
  because he's from Louisiana sure and then from my culture we'll make things like a corn soup
• 53:16
  corn soup is like this coconutty broth yeah and it's made with coconut milk green onions
• 53:24
  corn chicken it's so good paired with rice we eat a lot of things with rice sure so yeah
• 53:31
  there's a good amount of dishes and we have something that's called chicken adobu okay that's more
• 53:37
  something that we created a variation of from the Filipino culture and so there are things that
• 53:43
  our kids love eating that we know we can't get anywhere are there any ingredients that you're
• 53:50
  like oh I really wish that I could get that that you can't get here yes there are these certain
• 53:56
  kinds of seeds they're called a toti okay and it's like these little red seeds and we use that to
• 54:03
  make what we call red rice okay and I miss it and this is so much but we they don't have it here
• 54:10
  sure so yeah I haven't been able to make that at all but other than that we get a lot of things
• 54:18
  here like pretty easily for what we make sure and just a general like day in the life input kit how
• 54:24
  would you describe what your life looks like and how does that differ perhaps when you're living in
• 54:29
  Texas so in Texas I'd say it was a lot of time spent with family okay we would take care of what we
• 54:40
  need to take care of as far as like the business or our kids and then we go straight to a family
• 54:47
  member's house sure right it was always something with family and then here it's more like
• 54:54
  we get things that we need to get done as far as the business in the mornings and then
• 55:00
  our kids will throughout the day they're learning and then we usually will try to go somewhere to eat
• 55:06
  we at least want at least one place to eat sure either each day or every other day because we
• 55:13
  love eating out here yeah and if you eat locally for a family the prices are not that at all
• 55:20
  no that's true yesterday I was walking so I broke my luggage when I'm not I broke it
• 55:24
  somebody else broke the luggage I arrived at the airport I've only flown on the plane twice with
• 55:29
  this brand new piece of luggage and there was no wheel and then I go to the mall to go and get a new
• 55:34
  suitcase and it holds the kids side like I have a bedguard so it's quite long and I couldn't find
• 55:41
  one that was big enough the biggest one I found was like 120 pounds I was like for a suitcase
• 55:46
  and so then I googled like luggage store in Puket and I saw that there's a repair shop right and
• 55:52
  then I realized going back to like Western versus Thai culture when's the last time we got anything
• 55:56
  repaired like in the west everything is or it doesn't work you throw it away and you buy a new one
• 56:01
  right it didn't even occur to me I know it might sound really silly but it did not occur to me to
• 56:06
  look for someone that could repair the luggage and then I saw it had great reviews I went into the
• 56:11
  middle of nowhere walk through a mosque down Somlika Ali with my brookok suitcase and then I get
• 56:17
  to a house right and he sent you a video of how to find this little house and he's at my mother
• 56:21
  doesn't speak English I said babe there's Google translate I got this so I get there and they repaired
• 56:27
  the wheel and the inside zip he delivers it back to my house he's I don't wait you have children
• 56:32
  and it was 400 baht versus paying what is that like nine pounds or something versus paying 120
• 56:39
  and there was nothing else wrong with the suitcase right it was just this wheel and the point is
• 56:44
  by I'm talking about this is on the way back I saw like a stand this guy's like grilling some meat
• 56:49
  and we got like four skewers a leg and thigh joint and a wing and it was 110 baht I was like wow
• 56:57
  I've been eaten in the wrong places right so back to what you were saying I mean I was definitely
• 57:02
  in a local space right and you're completely right it was delicious as always there were you know
• 57:08
  beautiful Thai hospitality everybody's kind and we ate well outside this is great I should break
• 57:14
  luggage more often so funny and yeah you know what's funny is that oh my gosh when you build amazing
• 57:21
  relationship with locals they will be there for you if you need it I remember the second time
• 57:27
  we moved back to bouquet we have this amazing motorbike place that we run from she's so sweet and
• 57:37
  the second time we came back we desperately needed to get to meet our agent right but the time
• 57:45
  we were already set that we needed our motorbikes sure and so we went to one motorbike shop
• 57:51
  that we know that we would always run from as well sure she wasn't there and we couldn't wait
• 57:57
  because we had to go to our agent to meet her at this house so we went to the other motorbike shop
• 58:03
  that we know she has bikes sure and so my husband called her on WhatsApp and he's like oh are you
• 58:11
  there at the the shop like we need a bike right and so we go there and she's not there she said
• 58:19
  she said gosh excuse me she said my keys are in the drawer here go get the keys I'm not there
• 58:28
  right now take the bike pay me later she was not worried about it she trusted us that's amazing
• 58:35
  yes and I know it's like okay why didn't you just get the car straight to the agent like take a
• 58:41
  grab straight to the agent but I know for us with our kids we want it convenience like to get up and
• 58:46
  go and so yeah that's incredible yeah you create amazing relationships with locals and they
• 58:53
  create you so well is it hard to create like your own community and your own friendship group
• 59:00
  in Puket I'd say as far as like friendships you do have to go out there and actually
• 59:06
  find friends I feel like maybe joining Facebook groups or going to different things that you
• 59:12
  enjoy and finding like-minded people sure like you have to actually put yourself out there instead of
• 59:17
  doing yoga at home if you really want friends who do yoga go to a yoga class sure but yeah you
• 59:24
  have to be willing to put yourself out there I feel like for us a lot of the relationships that we've
• 59:30
  built have just been people we interact with every day okay the lady that I buy our fruits from
• 59:36
  all the time or the motorbike you know maybe that trusted us to take the motorbike or if you go to
• 59:45
  just like these different places we went back to Krabi and the amount of people that remembered us
• 59:51
  just shocked me yeah and that's because we just talked to them every day sure and I think when
• 59:57
  you show people like him I'm actually interested in a genuine conversation with you that creates a
• 1:00:03
  natural friendship where you don't have to go out and try to find friends or try to find and build
• 1:00:08
  relationships you just naturally build those I'm for your kids in terms of making sure that they
• 1:00:13
  have a little friendship circle how have you navigated that so originally when they were going to
• 1:00:18
  an international school I feel like that's where a lot of their friendships were but I noticed it
• 1:00:22
  stayed mostly at school so what we try to do is put our kids in extracurriculars okay since we got
• 1:00:29
  back from Krabi already our daughter is going to be joining ballet excited about that and then
• 1:00:35
  they're also going to be going back to their more Thai classes okay they took a little break because
• 1:00:39
  of high season it ended up becoming like overloaded okay it almost felt like right they became
• 1:00:44
  overwhelmed with the amount of kids sure so it's funny that my kids actually love small groups
• 1:00:49
  and small circles yeah where they can interact and say oh that's my friend sure I think for me I
• 1:00:55
  think about this a lot while traveling that of course I love what they're gaining but like we were
• 1:01:00
  doing piano lessons every morning I used to play the piano so got a piano we're doing that consistently
• 1:01:05
  and then I take them to swimming lessons every week and tennis every week that was like their thing
• 1:01:10
  and obviously because we've been moving and unfortunately a lot of the programs I've found
• 1:01:15
  you kind of have to commit for three months but we're not anywhere for three months and I just
• 1:01:19
  wondered do you have similar challenges or have you figured out something that I could learn from
• 1:01:24
  honestly our kids I think because we have three they play with each other to be quite honest
• 1:01:31
  but we do try to give them those social aspects of when we connect actually we connect to through
• 1:01:37
  um or we connect with a lot of families through TikTok okay yeah there's a family that's in
• 1:01:44
  Waheen but they see they see their kids as cousins they got so so close yeah there was another
• 1:01:51
  family that came to Puket who was traveling through Cambodia and then Bangkok and then they came
• 1:01:57
  down to Puket and we spent the day together okay and they really really like I feel like kids just
• 1:02:04
  can build connections everywhere they are so much better than adults like they don't skip a beat
• 1:02:09
  immediately they're friends immediately like as soon as they have something in common they're best
• 1:02:14
  friends yes I love that and I love that you are actually putting the social part in social media
• 1:02:18
  because a lot of times you know people are living these worlds online and they never really
• 1:02:23
  get to connect in real time I know that you do quite a lot of travel content how does that work in
• 1:02:29
  terms of balancing all of the things because we know for those that post regularly it is a real job
• 1:02:35
  oh yeah the travel content for me is pretty sporadic at some points only because there's other
• 1:02:41
  parts where we're just so busy to be quite honest but the travel content is more of a hobby actually
• 1:02:47
  like I really love just genuinely sharing tips and things that families can do
• 1:02:52
  sure because I'll have people messages and say oh we picked this place because we saw your
• 1:02:58
  there's even somebody who tagged us in a comment and somebody said how did you even get this idea
• 1:03:05
  because they posted about is the uh it was a chain my elephant poo poo paper I saw your post on that
• 1:03:14
  yes well actually I think it was last yeah it was last year where I only posted photos of it
• 1:03:20
  okay and I shared that I be sharing yeah it's where they they basically take elephant poo
• 1:03:28
  they clean it they sanitize it goes through a whole disinfectant process to where you just end up
• 1:03:32
  with fibers okay so all of the wet stuff goes away and you're left with just almost like hey
• 1:03:39
  that's what the fibers look like okay I'm just dark hay right and it's safe to touch after that
• 1:03:45
  right um and they also explain the whole process like there are signs everywhere sharing
• 1:03:51
  this is what we do to sanitize it or this is what we do to um make sure that it's safe
• 1:03:57
  to make sure that your kids aren't playing with elephant shit yeah basically yeah like oh you know
• 1:04:03
  you're not gonna catch an infection or anything from this because of course that's something that
• 1:04:06
  you can be worried about sure um so yeah we posted that photo basically of our kids they got to go
• 1:04:15
  through the whole process of making the paper okay so they'll make paper out of elephant poo right
• 1:04:20
  but that's after they get all the fibers and all of that um and so you just basically end up with
• 1:04:27
  this stack of food that you can hold it's very dry okay um and then it goes through a process of
• 1:04:36
  like sifting you you sort it out on what they make I forgot the name of that sure um but basically
• 1:04:44
  yeah they teach you you have your own guide and everything um and our kids loved it they got to
• 1:04:48
  make passport covers right yeah and design it and so when I posted those photos last year another
• 1:04:55
  family went and did it they went and did it and they posted on tiktok about it somebody you know
• 1:05:01
  asked in the comments how did you even come up with this idea because I'm about to ask you how did
• 1:05:04
  you even find this place you know it's so funny is I will spend hours on google maps okay looking
• 1:05:11
  because I don't only rely on tiktok and things to do in puket or things to do in Chiang Mai
• 1:05:16
  or not just google like I will go into google maps sure and I type keywords kids kids play yeah kids
• 1:05:24
  fun yep um play area I try to find things that aren't on tiktok sure and we'll go and do these
• 1:05:33
  things but actually the elephant poo poo paper park is on tiktok I love that you just casually say
• 1:05:39
  the elephant poo poo paper park I know that's actually that's the name of it is so funny um but yeah we
• 1:05:45
  I I saw it somewhere and I was like oh yeah we have to do this sure um because it's something
• 1:05:51
  that's new it's something we've never experienced and it's sustainable sure and I love teaching
• 1:05:56
  our kids about ecotourism and sustainability and so yeah we end up doing it and when somebody
• 1:06:03
  asked them how did you get that this idea they tagged us saying oh one of my favorite families
• 1:06:08
  posted about it and I was like oh my gosh that makes me feel really really good um and then I
• 1:06:14
  said oh and that reminds me I never posted the video about it so I posted the video about it recently
• 1:06:20
  but yeah we just love doing things and cheering things so that other families can see what's
• 1:06:25
  possible and I feel like when you share more of these kinds of places it allows you to support local
• 1:06:31
  even more sure so yeah I just say about supporting local there's a really interesting dynamic between
• 1:06:37
  being an expert or immigrant or whatever the word is a foreigner in another person's country
• 1:06:42
  and causing the prices of things to increase and how do you strike that balance and what do you
• 1:06:48
  think that we could be doing better to ensure that we're not basically pushing out local people to
• 1:06:54
  enjoy their own environments yeah so for example if you're somebody who's booking for example boat
• 1:06:59
  tour in hookat don't go online like yes I mean you can save some money online sure if you go to
• 1:07:05
  these websites and I have used websites every now and then but it's not my main source of traveling
• 1:07:12
  and so when you go to these places if you want to do something can you go through a local person
• 1:07:20
  to accomplish that sure when we booked tours when we did our ATV ride when we did our boat tour
• 1:07:25
  all of it was booked through a Thai lady okay because we actually went to her stand and I know
• 1:07:32
  it's convenient to book online sure but we went to her stand and we're like you know what we know
• 1:07:36
  we want to book with you because we've booked with her before and we actually we live in Roy
• 1:07:41
  we went all the way to Patong which is about 30 minutes okay just to book that tour amazing
• 1:07:47
  so if you make the effort to support local as much as possible because I do come from a place where
• 1:07:54
  our economy thrived off tourism sure and yes some things went up but actually now our economy has
• 1:08:00
  felt like it's practically dying without that tourism okay and so I know the effects of if we drive
• 1:08:07
  tourism out yeah what does that leave for us locals yeah and our jobs and the things that we want to
• 1:08:13
  deal yeah because I feel like tourism is needed but there is kind of a balance of you know yes you
• 1:08:20
  can do this but why don't you try to see if a local offers it sure or actually even sometimes like
• 1:08:26
  if we go into a shop I'll say is this um locally owned and I've asked that before because I see it
• 1:08:35
  looks like so nice and then I just want to make sure that you know not every business that we're
• 1:08:41
  going to is just run by foreigners sure you know and I know foreigners are trying to make a living
• 1:08:47
  as well but just not with your money you do have to go with the people who are native to this land
• 1:08:53
  sure so I think that's that for us is really really important that's really good advice and what I
• 1:08:58
  found funny I just came back from Jamaica and I realized that when I traveled to other countries
• 1:09:04
  I also make the effort of making sure that I'm spending my money locally and then I get home
• 1:09:09
  and I realized but I don't do the same right like I don't apply the same rule to Jamaica I'll just
• 1:09:13
  eat wherever I want to eat and on this occasion this last trip in particular because I had spent
• 1:09:17
  so much time in Southeast Asia before I was like nobody I need to apply those same rules to my own
• 1:09:23
  home and it's funny how when we travel we do sometimes change our mentality in ways that seem
• 1:09:29
  obvious right but again you kind of just go with what you're habitually doing that you don't really
• 1:09:35
  consider and think about it I wonder how living in Thailand you spoke a lot about healing and how
• 1:09:40
  that Thailand gave you the space to do that who is heaven after living in Thailand versus who heaven
• 1:09:47
  would have been had she stayed in Texas I'm way more confident and actually even if you were to
• 1:09:54
  and I'm not expecting anybody to scroll back on our videos but just old videos of me old photos of me
• 1:10:01
  and you know it's funny because I have done things like being a keynote speaker like or speaking
• 1:10:06
  but when it comes to speaking out loud and on social media or like just showing my face I was not
• 1:10:13
  confident at all I was very shy I was hesitant of if I said something wrong would somebody take it
• 1:10:20
  the wrong way even though that's not how I meant it you know and I feel like the heaven now she's
• 1:10:26
  more expressive I'm way more confident I just I feel free to be me amazing and I do credit that
• 1:10:35
  actually even a lot to my husband because he supported my healing so much and just has given me
• 1:10:41
  you know when he knows I need time for myself he we don't have to talk about it he he takes over the
• 1:10:48
  kids and make sure that oh he sees mommy's overstimulated give her let's give her a space but he
• 1:10:54
  doesn't have to tell them that he just jumps in and does things that's amazing and so I think for me
• 1:11:01
  it does have a lot to do with this partnership that we've created on how we parent and how we
• 1:11:08
  can communicate without actually saying anything at all sure that's beautiful so yeah a lot of
• 1:11:14
  people when they think about moving we've spoken a little bit about health you know finding somewhere
• 1:11:17
  to live banking but most people want to know how are they gonna like actually sustain their
• 1:11:23
  lives financially you mentioned that you have an online business did you always have an online
• 1:11:27
  business even before you started traveling yeah actually okay I started my business at 21 it was
• 1:11:34
  actually two weeks after giving birth to our first baby yeah because I went from someone who was
• 1:11:40
  practically working three jobs to having no job at all okay because I knew
• 1:11:45
  my husband's active duty military he's gonna be gone I'm gonna be a stay-at-home mom right
• 1:11:50
  because it with the prices and everything and made absolutely no sense to deal sure day care
• 1:11:54
  and all of that isn't sure that you don't get an eternity leave in America to an extent it depends
• 1:12:02
  on what job you have okay yeah I know for the jobs I had no really yeah so people expect you to
• 1:12:11
  give birth to a baby and then just go straight back to work I mean you probably get like a few days
• 1:12:16
  off days possibly a week or two it just depends honestly on what what job you have because some jobs
• 1:12:25
  like basically there's protection to where some jobs you can go back they give you like six weeks
• 1:12:32
  to be honest though I've been so away from that environment for so many years I may be saying the
• 1:12:37
  wrong thing to yeah but I know for what I was doing I wouldn't have been able to go okay to go
• 1:12:45
  back right easily and so you said I've just given birth but I'm gonna start a business
• 1:12:50
  yeah at the same time I looked I'm the type who I can't not be doing something okay yeah and so
• 1:12:57
  I told my husband I was like this is the business I want to start these are programs I want to
• 1:13:02
  invest in to learn more okay and yeah I just kind of went full force with it and did you do that
• 1:13:09
  because you knew that you wanted to have the freedom to move around and that this was the best way
• 1:13:13
  to do that or at the time was it literally I want to keep myself occupied in another lane other than
• 1:13:20
  at the time I was very money motivating okay I wanted us to have more yeah disposable income yeah
• 1:13:27
  like I loved when we had extra money I I loved when it felt like I was contributing so see and
• 1:13:34
  actually there's even a point where we had no kids and my husband was like oh you can be a
• 1:13:39
  stay at home at the time we were I just girlfriend and boyfriend sure so he was like you just
• 1:13:44
  focus on school on your degree and our work and we had that dynamic but even when we have that
• 1:13:50
  I was like hmm I'm gonna go look for a job and then I ended up with two jobs and an internship so
• 1:13:56
  just three jobs and and it worked out for us that's just always been my mindset is I want to continue
• 1:14:02
  always want to continue growing myself so I knew even after having a baby I wanted to do more
• 1:14:09
  sure and it's the same business that has been able to be sustained or have you changed and pivoted
• 1:14:14
  at all missed or niche changed but as far as what I do know okay and how is it moving around in terms
• 1:14:23
  of time zones and managing that you're gonna be putting your children's time in terms of their
• 1:14:28
  homeschooling but you also have to have the discipline to still continue growing your business
• 1:14:33
  actually I I set it up to where I wake up at five in the morning and that's when I take my client
• 1:14:41
  calls okay yeah so I take I take calls and it's the US your clients are really US based mainly US
• 1:14:47
  based okay and so yeah I do all of it basically on calls on zoom and it's I'm done by nine 45
• 1:14:57
  okay and then it's mom time and then it's full on whatever we want to deal sure yeah
• 1:15:03
  very cool is there anything that you would say to advise people who are perhaps thinking of
• 1:15:08
  moving not necessarily just a Thailand but anywhere oh if you're moving somewhere don't rely on
• 1:15:14
  social media and I know that sounds so counterintuitive because I post how to move to Thailand
• 1:15:20
  but please do not rely on social media because you're gonna end up so confused of somebody told me
• 1:15:27
  not to do this visa or somebody told me this visa is way better and to be honest there was a point
• 1:15:32
  where everybody was promoting the DTV visa and now there are so many people having problems with
• 1:15:37
  the DTV visa okay yeah but you know it's all different personal experiences but it's the same
• 1:15:42
  with any other visa and I think you just have to find what's best for you like I remember we posted
• 1:15:49
  that we are and I know this could help other families but both me and my husband are on the
• 1:15:54
  education visa what's not the education visa if you study like Thai language okay or any other
• 1:16:01
  part that invests in Thai culture like cooking or Thai yeah you can you can get an education visa
• 1:16:09
  but now there's a DTV visa so you kind of have to compare the two okay but for us we did the
• 1:16:15
  education visa because we knew we didn't want to commit to such a long amount of time sure we
• 1:16:21
  are the types we're even in Texas we were moving between apartment house apartment house like we
• 1:16:27
  were we never liked to just be in one place sure more than a year like I say the most we lived in
• 1:16:33
  one place was a year and two months okay yeah and so we knew we didn't want to commit and we also
• 1:16:39
  wanted to have convenience of okay we know that if we go through this school the education visa is
• 1:16:45
  taking care of and we're going amazing yeah so you get your visa through an educational institution
• 1:16:50
  rather than having to do it myself yeah exactly okay very cool um but I think that's my biggest tip
• 1:16:56
  don't only focus on social media like actually look at online information from the government website
• 1:17:03
  like like please actually do your research don't only rely on AI and what people are saying on TikTok
• 1:17:08
  because some people will spin it to fit a certain narrative or to to how would I say this honestly
• 1:17:18
  just some of its reviews sure I'm just gonna be honest about that um on it but what we pose
• 1:17:24
  is just to help people sure but I will say even if I say something do you still do your own research
• 1:17:31
  and I actually always say that in my content I will put it in the captions or I'll put it even in
• 1:17:36
  like a little text box on the screen to do your own research separately 100% as you say check
• 1:17:42
  like government websites are there any laws in Thailand that are unique or perhaps you didn't
• 1:17:47
  know until you moved here yeah um my ghost friend yeah one of the things is that
• 1:17:53
  Thailand has a very strict discrimin not discrimination gosh Thailand has very very strict
• 1:18:00
  defamation laws okay and even I remember there was one person who she made a YouTube video
• 1:18:09
  because she has a big audience she made a YouTube video about non-applaus basically talking
• 1:18:13
  negatively and about what sort non-applaus it's like a place kind of like the bar scene area in
• 1:18:19
  Bangkok she shared some negative you know perspectives on it she and yeah it landed her into like
• 1:18:26
  actual trouble with the law like with the government uh-huh it became it went into the news um
• 1:18:33
  you you do have to be careful with what you say because you know for especially if you're a
• 1:18:38
  westerner you're so used to where we can freedom of speech say what you think yes exactly and you
• 1:18:45
  can say whatever you want about the president and nothing's going to happen but you cannot say
• 1:18:48
  whatever you want about the um even a bar area yeah you you can't say anything about the king or
• 1:18:55
  you have to be very respectful of businesses okay and areas and the government and is that why
• 1:19:03
  there's never a bad Airbnb review because I've been staying in some Airbnb's on this particular
• 1:19:07
  trip and I'm like oh why does everyone rate this five star I think some people are hesitant some
• 1:19:14
  people are definitely very hesitant to leave reviews that are super negative sure especially if
• 1:19:19
  they have your passport information okay yeah and so I think that's something that people are
• 1:19:23
  hesitant about but I've noticed that I've also still seen negative reviews it's probably just
• 1:19:29
  a not as much as we see like in western yeah countries um but I think that's because people
• 1:19:36
  want to be careful to not break any laws and me personally too like I have left a negative
• 1:19:43
  review before but I just stated just purely a fact and even facts can still you know land you
• 1:19:51
  in trouble actually made a video on that as well so yeah I do try my best to share what you can
• 1:19:58
  do what you can't do while traveling here or even being here that's really interesting I had no
• 1:20:03
  I won't leave my Airbnb review thanks I think you still can but I think you just have to be mindful
• 1:20:09
  that it's not like an attack on it's okay it's not that deep I don't need to run the risk it's fine
• 1:20:13
  everybody else can stay there not my problem if your life was a postcard tell me what would the picture
• 1:20:20
  look like my family would be on the beach yeah we would just be on the beach just free that's where
• 1:20:28
  kids feel like they can just play and run around and it's something that I feel like we've in so
• 1:20:38
  many different countries we try to go where the beaches are yeah and so if I were to put that
• 1:20:45
  in a postcard that's literally us a family on the beach and for your kids in terms of identity
• 1:20:52
  where do they like feel like they are from or does it not matter I brainwash my children from a
• 1:20:57
  very young age they say that they are Jamaican every morning and every evening when we go and
• 1:21:02
  anyone asks where they're from immediately they know babes they're Jamaican and that's with them
• 1:21:07
  not being born in Jamaica they're born in the UK they speak French and everybody's a bit confused
• 1:21:11
  where the Jamaica thing comes in I'm like don't watch that their blood is black gold and green
• 1:21:16
  there's no discussions and I just wondered do you feel that there's a need for a sense of identity
• 1:21:22
  with your kids in terms of location or is it literally like home is where we are and it's not
• 1:21:27
  necessary almost okay almost and that's because we do say like home is where we are but whenever
• 1:21:36
  we talk about home they know if somebody were to ask where they're from we're from America
• 1:21:40
  okay or they'll even if somebody needs specific they know Texas but then also
• 1:21:45
  they we've exposed them to both of our cultures I feel like they know where they come from
• 1:21:53
  just innately you know but I feel like they've yeah they've just gotten comfortable with wherever
• 1:22:01
  we are is where home is amazing thank you very much for your time yeah is there anything that
• 1:22:07
  you wanted to share that we haven't touched on honestly I just wanted to share that we've
• 1:22:11
  always wanted to visit Jamaica it's on our bucket list actually our oldest son his name is
• 1:22:15
  Camani really you guys have good taste base so yeah we've we've just always wanted to go to
• 1:22:24
  Jamaica and so I love that every time you bring up Jamaica I'm like one day it's gonna happen
• 1:22:29
  yeah honestly it's the best like I just came back and it's just confirmation again that it's
• 1:22:35
  the best place like for me I think to me a lot of people talk about Jamaica from a beach perspective
• 1:22:40
  a music perspective or however our culture has touched lives but a lot of people don't realize
• 1:22:45
  we're 2.8 million people in terms of our population we are tiny and there is very you will find it
• 1:22:50
  very very difficult to find a corner of this earth that hasn't been touched by some sort of
• 1:22:55
  Jamaican culture and for that I'm I'm Jamaica's biggest fan because I think that it's our people
• 1:23:01
  that just blow me away every single time oh gosh you see that all over Krabby yeah honestly that was
• 1:23:08
  a big thing but yeah I agree for me I want the food for anywhere we go I'm like let me please
• 1:23:15
  try the food if I visit somewhere and the food isn't good I'm not coming back and that like Barcelona
• 1:23:21
  they don't have lots like Thailand I can tell you Barcelona I had very few meals whereas like oh my
• 1:23:26
  gosh this is amazing and so I have zero interest to go to Barcelona whereas Madrid I thought
• 1:23:30
  the food was super delicious so it goes to show like even within one country different cities
• 1:23:35
  different regions are doing things so so differently exactly and I think that's also what
• 1:23:40
  we just found with the Thailand now like some of our favorite food is Thai food is Chiang Mai
• 1:23:46
  different in terms of food I've never been but we're going in a couple weeks yeah the northern
• 1:23:50
  area is more like cow soy cow soy is a very common dish southern area is like the yellow noodles
• 1:23:57
  yellow noodles are really popular here but not all yellow noodles are created equally just like
• 1:24:01
  maybe not every jerk chicken right is created equally and what's cow cow sorry you said cow soy
• 1:24:06
  cow soy cow soy it's like um oh it's such a delicious soup okay but it's like a noodle soup
• 1:24:15
  and they also get crunchy noodles okay so that's what I need to order and they can have like a whole
• 1:24:19
  chicken drumstick in there love it and it's so delicious is there anything else that I need to order
• 1:24:23
  when we go to Chiang Mai hmm I was stuck on the cow soy to be honest I can't think of anything
• 1:24:31
  that's cool we're going I will be sure to report back exactly what I thought but yeah thank you
• 1:24:37
  thank you as well cool