Not everyone would approve of taking a 4-year-old overseas period. Handful would give a consent to taking one into remote areas of the likes of the Indian Himalayas and the alien regions of the Tibetan cultures of Ladakh, Lahaul and Spiti. No one thought that to travel to such places would be wise just after the September 11 attacks. No one would agree that bringing a child not much older than a toddler alone on a nearly 6-month journey to such destinations would be prudent. There were no tourists anywhere after 9/11. At best, only a few dared to travel. Yet I felt there was no reason not to go when I felt compelled to go myself and having travelled extensively in that part of the world before, I had the confidence to undertake exactly such a trip with my 4-year-old son. I feel there is no reason to shield small children from exposure to alien cultures and environments, not to take them to a world much different from ours. Quite the opposite, getting your children started early on a road to an open mind and broad experience is the best education. Adventure travel with children in vastly different cultures and environments is exponentially enriching for them. In 2001, I took my son to the Hindu pilgrimage sites of Garhwal and Kumaon Himalayas to sample the cultural riches of remote hill towns, temples, and festivals. En route to pilgrimage temples of Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath deep in the Indian Himalayas, we trekked in the shadows of Kinnaur Kailash and Bandar Punch in the west to Nanda Devi, Trisul and Pancha Chuli in the east, and we had an amazing journey.
We started preparing for the trip since before my son became 3 years old. Living at 11,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains, I took countless walks with my son when he was a toddler. When he was 3, we backpacked for four months around Europe. Before we embarked for the Himalayas, only two months before his 4th birthday, my son summited a 13,000 foot peak in the Rockies all on his own power; we camped one night on the mountain just to shorten the trek by dividing it into two days it took to climb the mountain leaving from our house. Our routine walks in the Rocky Mountains were always easy going with constant stops to teach him about the nature and its cycles. Although we frequently walked on longer outings, I always kept our walks to what I sensed he could comfortably handle. Sometimes he was tired or not in the mood to go around where he had already been so many times with me. By the end of the summer before his fourth birthday, I felt he could do much, if not all, that I envisioned we do in the Himalayas and we could have fun doing it. Above all, I knew I needed to stay aware and not press for the unattainable for him and the two of us together, no matter what lay ahead where we headed. We would need to stay flexible and only do what the circumstances would allow. I was always prepared having to abort our journey for whatever the circumstances, whether medical, political, financial, or just any reason plainly beyond our control. I had a loose plan and itinerary in mind that I was confident would fit together, and we would accomplish our journey. As I ran an adventure and cultural travel company, I could work my business from anywhere. In the Himalayas, we often camped, and I cooked. Other times we stayed in people’s homes or simple rest houses.
Our first trip to India became a stepping stone to six years of travel that followed, always traveling just the two of us. I got a permit to homeschool him and we did so until he started public school when in the 6th grade. By the time he was 7 years old, we traveled to India a second time and had been twice all over China, as well as Bhutan, Sikkim, Thailand, and Vietnam. By the time he started school, we travelled to Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, and all the way to the bottom of South America, to Tierra del Fuego, around Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Brazil. We always traveled adventure style, backpacking, always on entirely self-supported trips, and often in remote areas, including a trek in the Andes.
If you have small children and wish you could see the world but can’t because your children are small, you can! Travel with small children is utterly enriching, eye-opening for you and them. Twenty-some years ago, I have given a few lectures on the topic of adventure travel with children, from institutions as the Sierra Club to universities, often encountering many people who dreamed of what my son and I were doing but felt they could not until hearing about our travels. While many became inspired to follow our example, perhaps only some of them indeed did, and perhaps even only a handful of you, if any of you at all, seeing this post may follow as well.