Dear friends,

We leave Thursday March 1 for Southeast Asia. We have been planning for this day for more than a year. Originally we planned to leave last August but life got in the way and we postponed our travel for a few months. We needed vaccination for Hepatitis A and B, Typhoid, Japanese Encephalitis, Flu and Pneumonia. We closed down our apartment in Woodstock, GA a couple of days ago. ALL of our worldly belongings are in a 10X10 storage. The car, too, will soon go into storage.

We have worked hard to get everything we are taking into a carry-on bag and small backpack. I think we did pretty good but it’s funny that now the bulk of the content in our bags are medicine for my high blood pressure, malaria pills and electronics.

The plan is to leave March 1 and fly directly, from Atlanta to Bali Indonesia (total of 23 hours travel time). We arrive at 12:10 AM on Saturday, March 3.

We are staying at a place called Bulan Bali Homestay. Not knowing anything about Bali I was shooting in the dark about where to stay so I found a place with good rating and booked it. The cost was more than I planned to pay at $69 but I figured that it was better to pay above our budget until we understood things better. To my surprise, the final price, once submitted and booked, was $69 for 4 nights, so $17/night. MUCH BETTER J J. The reviews are really good so we should be fine.

We will start off staying in Ubud. For yoga people this seems to be a popular yoga center. The most popular studio, Yoga Barn, is about a 10-minute walk from our Homestay. In Indonesia a Homestay is like a guest house in other countries. They have both dorm rooms and single rooms, including breakfast.

Our itinerary, for this trip, is VERY loose. Where we really go will be determined once we get there. What we know for sure is that we will meet up with our daughter-in-law, Susy and younger grandson, Kahlil at the end of June in Thailand. The four of us will travel in Thailand and then Cambodia. We meet up with our son, Kris and granddaughter, Sienna in mid-July in Cambodia. We will go to Anchor Wat and then to the newly built Baha’i House of Worship. Ending our time with them in Vietnam.

Depending on how things go we plan to spend as much time as we can, in Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos. As mentioned we do have a plan but we have plenty time. Today, subject to change, in oh so many ways, we plan to come back to the States in mid-September, but if something comes up we can pretty easily change our plans and stay longer.

So there you have it, our next adventure. We have our guide books, have our passports, have our iPhone, have our meds and most importantly our prayers and each other, so we are prepared for all the excitement that lies ahead (NOT!!!)

With any luck we will periodically update this Blog.

Cheers,
Missy and Richard