This year's trip : the HOME MISSION

Exactly 4 days from now, we will be hopping on the plane and starting our biiig triiip.

We named it : THE HOME MISSION. Do you want to know why?

Ever since we moved to New Zealand we never visited our countries of origin. And we also never brought our kids over there. But because we have them, we had our families coming to see us. Babcia ( grandma in polish ) came actually 4 times, and because she was a huge help with babies, the total of all her visits was about 9 months! And as she was coming, she was always bringing some goodies, chocolates, bottles of vodka, instant soups, polish magazines... so she was bringing that flavour of Poland with her, which was making me miss my country a bit less. Same with Vathsan's parents. They came here with luggage full of ladu ( Tamil name for sweets ), and local ingredients, as Pati ( grandma in Tamil ) was cooking for us one month straight.

What about friends?

When we met in China, both of us were quite a bit of travellers. Very social, meeting other people from all over the world. And you know what is so good about having such

international - travel friends? That if they are on their world trip, they will all end up in NZ : )

So we had a few incredible visits:

-When Yana was only 4 months old, we were already hosting our first friend, Alvaro, the Biciclown. Crazy Spanish clown who gave up everything and decided to cycle around the world. Vathsan met him back in 2010 in Mogolia, and was extremly happy to be able to host him 2 years later in New Zealand.

-When Yana turned 9 months, we were having Alex - another Spanish guy and Carven ( Autralian girl ). Our old Couchsurfers from Kunming who were hitchhiking the world. It took them only 18 months, to get, from South of China where we met - to Auckland, where they were surfing our couch again.

- Two weeks apart from Alex, suddenly Masaki showed up, Japanese musician that Vathsan knew from 2007 from Nepal.

- And few moths later Ryan, the New Zealander, with whom Vathsan traveled on a motorcycle in 2008 in China across the silk road. ( Who btw, promoted NZ so well, pretty much convinced Vathsan to migrate over here ; )

- Sometime in May 2013 we also had Daniel, a polish guest. He was hosting me on his couch, in Kunming in 2008. Funny is, that he was also staying with Vathsan in Dali, little town 3hrs drive away from Kunming, the same year. That year I didn't even know Vathsan, so we were quite excited when we figured we both know the same Daniel, and totally wanted him to stay in our place so he can meet us now as a family.

- And of course my dear polish friends, who somehow made it to our wedding! What a great meet up it was in Vanuatu in 2013!

So why am telling you all that?

It was just to show you how we felt always surrounded by family and friends, and didn't have such a strong need of returning to our countries. And it was also great, instead of always coming back home, be able to explore the South Pacific ( no doubt about that ). But 4 years is enough, and it's simply time for our home mission.

This year travel is more about people than places. We still will be actually visiting many countries, and yes we are even packing some camping gear hoping to pitch a tent in Slovakian White Carpatians Mountains,

but again it will be more about people.

We will be staying in Singapore, India ( Tamilnadu ), Poland, Slovakia and Czech Republic.

We will be showing our roots and some new places to our kids.

They will meet for the first time ever their 90 year old Tamil great grandma, and their

polish cousins. And Vathsan will finally get to meet my brother, for real, not via skype screen.

We will meet up in Singapore with our old neighbours from Auckland with whom we used to spend Christmass.

We will come over to hug Majka, our wedding witness, who by the time we

will arrive, will become Mama herself.

We will pitch a tent in front of Jan's house - a Czech guy, my brother's ex flatmate, who I was flatting ever since I was coming to UK, earn quick money before exploring Asia.

And then we will explore Moravia region with Lukas - a Czech guy we met in Samoa.

We are also hoping to somehaw catch up wit Alex and Carven, who are finally finishing their hitchhike the world trip, and now are probably somewhere in Albania.

On the way back to Warsaw we are planing to go via Łódź - a polish city which almost looks like someone was trying to cross it out, and meeting Marcin, another couchsurfer whom we were hosting in Auckland, while he was on his " climbing/ bouldering around the world trip".

There are quite a bit of plans we made, and people we are hoping to meet.

Finger cross for our kids. We hope they will enjoy it, and won't get all shy and overwhelmed about meeting so many strangers.

#theHOMEMISSION #Singapore #India #Poland #Czech #Slovakia #NewZealand