We've been back in the states for about a month now and I figured I would wrap up the trip by sending out a final blog entry of our times in New Zealand, Fiji, and Hawaii. As you know, we fried our laptop and didn't have much access to computers after that. So here you are... New Zealand: Lord of the Rings was filmed here. Days 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 9o4, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108 etc Australia was pretty much by the hip. New Zealand was [View Full Entry]

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We have reached the pinnacle of our trip. Today will be 48 hours long. We are crossing the international date line headed back to the states, and we will recoup 24 hours from all the time we've missed travelling east! Today, on Day 110, we woke up in fiji, had our made-to-order breakfast, and laid by the beach/pool. Today we will get our boat back to Nadi, board a red eye, land in Honolulu, clear immigration (home sweet home) then fly to Kona, and we will be on an entirely new beach before its even noon today. Confusing isn't it? By [View Full Entry]

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…and you better read it… from cover to cover! Days 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 72, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, and 84 - Perth, Melbourne, Cairns, Sydney…and all around! Australia. The land down under! This has been a nice change in the itinerary. Beaches are on hold (sort of) and we get to hang out in an English speaking island, country, and continent. It is springtime in Australia, so everyone is pleased with the nicer weather. For us, however, it is very “fresh” (Aussie for cold or cool). We arrived in Perth late evening and [View Full Entry]

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Days 62, 63, 64, 65, and 66 - Bali, Indonesia Back to the Islands! So we left behind the westernized Asia, Hong Kong and Singapore, for one more island. We had Bali on the list and primarily relied on friend’s research (thanks to the Douglass’s!) as a guide. We initially planned on splitting our time on a beach and near a central village. Bali is a big island, about seventy miles by thirty miles, so there is plenty to do on and off the beach. However, being more in tune with the water then the land, we decided to spend all [View Full Entry]

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Casinos, Ruths Chris, and Miller Lite, Oh My! Days 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, and 61 - Hong Kong and Singapore Our sprint through Asia Part II We arrived in Hong Kong, a gigantic airport, unsure of how we were going to make our way to Macau, which we were headed to first as Tim needed to service his gambling itch at the casinos. Upon arrival we witnessed a great security process in Hong Kong-- they had special monitors to review the body temperature of arriving passengers. No sick people in Hong Kong please! Macau is a Special Administrative Region of [View Full Entry]

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We’ve been visiting Wats (temples) in Cambodia, dodging motos in Hanoi, breaking even in the Macau casinos, living the Hong Kong nightlife, and eating our way through Singapore. But let’s just recap Cambodia and Vietnam. Days 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, and 54 - Siem Reap and Hanoi We had to depart Koh Phi Phi of the western Thai islands very early on day 48 in order to catch our flight from Phuket. The plans worked out well as our flight from Phuket to Bangkok was on time and very smooth. Once in Bangkok, we noticed an earlier flight to [View Full Entry]

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Conquering the Thai islands Days 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 45, 47, 48 - Lots of beach days! We left Bangkok to go to Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand to begin our island journey. This was a change of plans, as we intended on going in and out of a western island call Phuket. We felt that it would be easier to start east and make our way west (good things flights are cheap!). This plan all worked out well, with a good number of island days ahead of us! Leaving Bangkok was also [View Full Entry]

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...and the world's your oyster! Days 32, 33, 34, 35, and 36 - Bangkok, Thailand I never understood that song, and I still don’t. So days 32-36 we stayed in Bangkok. We had originally only planned on staying 2 days, but the idea of quickly traveling again after our 7 hour flight from Dubai, coupled with the fact that we were staying in a true five star amazing hotel for cheap (love Thailand!) made us extend our stay. First of all, if you ever get to go to Bangkok, we highly recommend the Oriental hotel—everyone is treated like royalty. Bangkok is [View Full Entry]

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Dubai - Days 29, 30, and 31 I told you the updates would come quickly! We probably will have one more soon after this as we're in Bangkok and we will head off to the islands in two days. I'm sure internet is spotty in the Thai islands...and not much to write except the beach is very nice....so updates may get slow again. We didn't take too many pictures of Dubai as I think we were kind of confused by the town/area/beach/industrial city? Its a very large place with tons of cranes and construction everywhere. Combination of Orlando meets Vegas meets [View Full Entry]

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Did you know that Turk-haters call Istanbul Constantinople? Need to make sure we don't make that mistake! We arrived in Istanbul on Friday morning. Customs of course takes some time, so we make it into the city in the early afternoon. We decide to walk around and get our bearings, and end up walking all over Istanbul. This is one crazy town (people...you to need to visit -- take note Attfields and Bob Meyer)!! We're in the Beyoglu area where all the restaurants, bars, and cafes are located. We walk over to the Sultanahmet area where the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya, [View Full Entry]

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