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Background

Oden and Ingval are a young family from outside of Oslo, Norway. They have chosen a life of travel and adventure for themselves and their two daugthers. This is their story:

Family Life

For the past 5 months, Oden, his wife Ingval and their two daughters have been traveling around South East Asia and Oceania. They’ve had to make quite a few adjustments to living in camper vans in different countries a month at a time. But they have no regrets. They spent a month in Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. Oden feels it’s the best way to really experience the nature and culture of a foreign country. They spend most of their time climbing, biking and hiking and finding free spaces to park and be out in nature.

Ingval and Oden had to home school their children with such a long time away from home, which has had its ups and downs. The children are getting a great education about culture, history, and nature as well as science with their experience, but it still has to be supplemented with some real homework to make sure they don’t fall behind when they return home. It’s also a lot of time in much closer quarters than they are used to. The camper vans they’ve been renting have everything you need, but the space is small. The four of them sleep, eat, cook, shower and travel all in their van. But as Oden explains, “it really has everything you need.” They like to live a minimalist’s life and focus on nature and experiences, rather than positions and status.

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Their Perspective

Although Oden had a difficult time convincing his employer, he works as a engineer, to give him so much time off, he still plans to do more 6 month vacations in the future with his family. He feels it’s worth the time off and away from home to experience more of the world. Ingval and Oden also believe it makes their family ties stronger. When you live in such a tight space for such a long period, you have to work things out and let things go.

The family’s focus is that life is meant to be lived and experienced, so take the time to do it. Their daughters, ages 9 and 13, are getting a better education and experience to set them up for success in life than anything else they could do. They love the travel and seeing the world, but especially the areas of nature where they can focus on their passions of hiking and climbing.

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