Many people, trapped in the rat race that is city life, like to fantasise about giving it all up, chucking their belongings in storage (or escaping the trappings of material possessions altogether) and moving to a remote island far, far away.
While for many of us this is a mere pipe dream, some people are determined to make it happen. Two such visionaries are Patrick and Hannah Canavan, who fled south London with their three children for a new start in Bali and are documenting their adventures on their blog, Adventure Travel Family.
Hannah, 28, and Patrick, 31, left Caterham for the Indonesian island a month ago with Esmae, six, Eira, five and Elfie, two, and Hannah's retired mum Jayne Davies, 55, who “came along for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" – and seem to be having the time of their lives. Having left London with £5,000 savings, they are now living comfortably on a shoestring budget of just £1,000 a month, reported the Evening Standard.
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Patrick, who quit his 9-to-5 job as a personal trainer, and Hannah, who is working as a freelance travel and parenting writer from the island, also have a YouTube channel where they will be documenting their new idyllic life. The pair eventually hope to find "a charity they believe in to work for full-time". Don't we all.
“Patrick and I knew we wanted to do this for nearly eight years… going away means that we get to spend more quality time together and Patrick gets to spend time with the girls, which is important,” Hannah told the Standard.
They are homeschooling their children, as they did in London, as they considered travel to be a more valuable education than what the capital had to offer. The low cost of their new lifestyle is also a much better deal than what they were getting in London. "People think you have to be super rich to do this but it actually costs a lot less to live and explore here than it does just to live in London," she continued.
Their rent on a house with a swimming pool that's five minutes from the beach is just £300 per month. "We will have lived for £1000 for the whole month, by eating local food and cooking at home on our one small gas hob ring. Lots of people could do this, but they don’t realise.”
An average day for the couple, who were inspired by a backpacking and volunteering trip they took to Thailand a decade ago, also sounds pretty dreamy. Patrick takes the kids to the beach in the morning while Hannah writes, before they spend the afternoon relaxing as a family or volunteering with charities.
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“We have always lived a calm lifestyle, but now we take things really slowly,” Hannah said, and the family don't have any plans to return to the UK any time soon. After spending a few more weeks in Bali, they're heading to Thailand for two months before travelling to Vietnam, Cambodia and Sri Lanka.
“We will miss the people, but we don’t miss anything else about London. We don’t miss rushing around and the hectic lifestyle and the keeping up with the Joneses aspect of life, or the house cleaning – or the weather.”
Hannah continued: “We are not special – if we can do this, lots of people can.” And indeed they are. Alex Holder, a freelance writer and contributor to Refinery29, spent a month in Bali with her husband and young son, Cass, last year and is leaving Dalston, east London, in December to spend another four months on the island.
"It’s just so easy to live there. Within two days of arriving we’d found a wonderful English speaking nanny for our two-year-old son, which meant we could work for a few hours a day while our son played with local children," Holder said.
"There are loads of families living in Bali and working into London remotely so the place feels set up for that – great internet and laptop cafes. After a couple of hours working, we’d pile the family onto the back of a motorbike – Cass strapped to my front – and 'ped it to a beach for the afternoon. It’s basically a reason to go freelance; the ultimate respite from Dalston!"