Work, Work, Work

Dear Mom and Dad,

The boys and I have been working our butts off to save money for this trip! The one thing I have learned so far about traveling is bring half the stuff you think you should pack and twice the money. It's actually a quote from somewhere, but it couldn't be more accurate.

We have a travel guru that will guide our trip with helpful advice and tips. I'm excited to be in contact with Tom Bedell for this very reason. I think he will be able to give us valuable insider information about traveling Southeast Asia. From the brief 15 minutes I have spoke to him about traveling around the Asian countries, I gained information about ways to go through the different countries, food to try, and places to visit. We now have a tentative plan of where we want to initially travel once we have landed in Singapore. Our route is going to consist of traveling South along the coast through Jakarta, Indonesia into Bali. We will stay in Bali for a week and travel back up North to meet Jordie. This should take about month to do this.

After googling pictures of Bali, I can't wait to explore! I am going to look into getting scuba certified since Charlie is dying to do some diving. There are packages for snorkeling and diving that cost anywhere from $30 to $150 not a bad price if you ask me. Another reason to pick up an extra work shift. It's how I have started to rationalize working all the time. I think, "I could do this for a couple hours now in exchange for the cost of scuba diving in Bali for an entire day." I guess I'll pick up the extra shift! :)

Love,

Your workhorses

Here We Go Again

Dear Mom and Dad,

It’s time to fire the blog back up because we are TRAVELING again! I’m so excited to announce Charlie and I are leaving December 3rd to Singapore. We aren’t going alone this time. Our good friend, Andy Wilms, will be joining us. We will also be joining forces with Jordie Willison January 5th in Jakarta, Indonesia. This will be such a fun experience, and I just can’t wait to get started! Let the planning begin!

Charlie and I will arrive into LAX at 630 pm, where Andy will hopefully be meeitng us. His flight arrives a couple hours before our flight. The three of us will then fly out at 10:30 pm to Guangzhou, China where we will have a 3  hour layover. Our next flight is at 5:40 am and we will arrive in Singapore on 12:30 pm two days from our original departure date. Between then and January 5th, we have to make our way to meet up with Jordie in Indonesia, and the four of us will take on Asia. 

This experience will be completely different than our travels through South America. One, we have friends along! Two, none of us speak any Asian language or anything remotely close. I’ll have to admit, when we first booked tickets, I thought Singapore was in China. Clearly, I need to brush up on some geography, which may or may not help beings I’m the most directionally challenged person. Dad, it’s time to buy another map. 

Countries I have been to or should I say lived in: 

• Mexico 
• Ecuador
• Peru
• Bolivia
• Virgin Islands ... and those other islands we visited (Does this count?)
• Spain
• Morocco
• U.S. (obviously)
• Chile - Charlie and I technically did step and cross into the boundaries of Chile, when Charlie and I were traveling through Bolivia for about a strong 5 minutes. 

Continents I still need to visit:

• Antarctica
• Australia
• Asia - Crossing this one off the list with the upcoming travel plans! 

I can’t wait to update this with new information!

Love,

Matti and the boys