(Editor’s note: This is Pt.2 of a two-part post about backpacking with small children. You can jump to Pt. 1 here.)
When I first announced to friends and family that my partner and I were planning on taking our 18-month old backpacking through Southeast Asia for four months, the responses ranged from “Amazing! But how!?” to “Are you crazy?” It’s definitely not the most common thing to do with a child at such an age, but as a veteran backpacker (in my younger, more care-free years) I was desperate to use my paternity leave from work for something other than sitting at home and visiting friends during the cold, gray months of a Vienna winter.
Choosing transport
A big part of traveling with a child in a country that you don’t know so well is choosing safe and reliable transportation, and being able to balance price against safety and comfort. Fortunately in Thailand, trains are easy to use (especially in the north) and bus accidents are rare due to mostly responsible and safe drivers. On public buses in the cities it was easy to carry our son in the child carrier or have him sit on our laps, and although I was nervous at first, we also became comfortable using tuktuk’s if we were going short distances.
Whenever possible, I would travel by train. Our son loved being able to move around without being confined to a seat, greeting people as he wandered down the aisle and enjoying a trip to the café wagon. Trains are safe and inexpensive, and the freedom of being able to walk around during the journey was a huge blessing for our toddler.
For longer coach journeys from city to city, and taxi rides to airports and hard-to-reach hotels, we were concerned about having our son safely strapped into the vehicle, without just sitting on our laps. However, my partner found a perfect solution. We found brands that offer “travel car seats” for toddlers, which fold up to the size of a full rucksack, and are certified for safety.
Our model is the Maxi-Cosi Nomad, and although it is definitely an extra thing to move from place to place, it is easy to carry, only 4.2 kilograms and super easy to install. It has given us a lot of comfort on coaches and in cars that our son is safe. Even if we don’t need to use it for a few weeks I’m very happy to carry it around for the times when it is necessary.
Toddler necessities and nutrition
The final thing that has been a learning curve for us traveling with a toddler is where to find all the elements of childcare that are necessary, such as diapers, hygienic wipes, milk powder and healthy food. One of the first things we did when arriving in Asia was to do an Internet search on which stores in which countries carried the baby supplies that we would need. This way, we could prepare ahead of time if we knew that we were staying somewhere that did not have easy access to what we needed (mostly on small islands or in the mountains where transport was less reliable).
In this regard, it helps a lot to purchase a SIM card for the country that you are in (either physically or buy using an eSim) so that you can be guaranteed network connection whenever you need the internet. So far, we have not had any problem finding the necessary supplies as long as we were staying in places which had large supermarkets.
We tried to be prepared ahead of time, having an extra grocery bag filled with emergency diapers, wet wipes, milk powder and snacks just in case it took a while to orient ourselves when we arrived.
Of course, there are also babies in other countries, so even when we were relatively isolated, most mini-markets would have some sort of milk solution and diapers, although of course you might not find the correct size, age or be able to buy more than two diapers per pack!
Healthy food and snacks were not always so easy to come by. Especially in places where we only had mini-markets to shop at, it was almost impossible to find snack food that was not covered in large amounts of sugar or salt. Of course, fruit was always an option, but even our young son got tired of mangos and bananas eventually!
Eating noodles and rice with vegetables at a restaurant is always possible, but for mid-day snacks we always tried to prepare in the big cities ahead of time by buying organic healthy snacks to take with us.
So grab your toddler, your backpack, book a hostel, and don’t worry! You’ll find that traveling with a young child is easier than you think, especially as nearly everyone you meet is happy to help or support you along your journey!
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Read more about expat travel here in Dispatches’ archives.
Thom Harding was born and raised in the UK and USA, sharing his time between Bath and Boston. Upon completing his studies in Art History and Painting in Florence, Thom travelled around Mexico and India before moving to New Mexico to start his career as a Primary school teacher.
After completing his MA in Education, he now lives and works in Vienna, Austria and enjoys spending his free time hiking, reading, travelling and exploring around Europe.
See more of Thom’s work here in the Dispatches archive.
You can read more about Vienna here in the Dispatches archives.
