

Sometimes I want to just quit my life, pack up and take off. Then I remember I have a family I don’t want to abandon. So I start thinking about us all quitting our lives, packing up and taking off.
The whole family could be on a permanent, exotic break, setting our own schedule, learning about other cultures and rejecting city life and all the stress it can bring.
I’d never have the guts to do something like that, but I love hearing about families who have. Author Fiona Higgins and her family did it, relocating from Australia to Bali, Indonesia for three years.
Fiona tells Holly Wainwright and Andrew Daddo what it’s really like on Mamamia’s podcast This Glorious Mess.
Fiona joined her husband, whose job in international agriculture focuses on developing communities. Higgins had previously lived in Java for a year, but that was during her single days.
Moving to Indonesia for a prolonged period of time with three young children aged five, three and 14-months would prove to be a whole different kettle of fish.
Firstly there was the rabies…
Almost every dog in Bali has rabies, Higgins told Holly Wainwright and Andrew Daddo on Mamamia Podcast This Glorious Mess. She said 200 people a year – mostly locals – die of rabies and she had to teach her dog-loving children to keep their distance because even being scratched or licked in the eyeball is dangerous.
Then there were the killer mozzies…
She explained that in Indonesia mozzies “carry all sorts of nasty, possibly fatal conditions” such as dengue fever.