Beauty Abounds!! There is so much to see and to do in New Zealand that you will need more than several weeks we have to take a good look. We spent almost one week on the North Island and 3 and a half weeks on the south island and we feel like we are just getting a quick glance. It is a simply beautiful country and the roads curve through hills and mountains and it slows your travel so you can have a better view. In our previous blog, we forgot to tell you a cute story. While we were in [View Full Entry]

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Greetings from New Zealand’s North Island……..we’ve had a wonderful time exploring the north part of this island nation. New Zealand is much cooler and less humid than Asia and we are seriously enjoying the change in the weather. It is not quite summer here and we actually have worn shoes and sweaters for the first time since……Seattle! Some of these clothes we’ve been shlepping around are now coming in handy. We flew from Bali to Kuala Lumpur to Auckland. The flight from KL to Auckland was 9 hours and 45 minutes. We are now 18 hours ahead o [View Full Entry]

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Hi! We would like to start this blog off with a request/ challenge. We have a good friend in Olympia who has a son named Jayson. He is currently in 3rd grade and learning about our world. He has recently started a worldwide stamp collection and we’ve been trying to help him by sending a postcard from each country that we have traveled to. I would like to ask that each of you write down his address and when you travel outside the US in the next few months please send him a postcard from whatever country you are in. I [View Full Entry]

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Ubud, Bali After 5 great days in Lovina Beach, we traveled a little over 2 hours to reach the town of Ubud. The drive takes 2 hours, but the actual distance is only about 40 or 50 km. The roads wind through the volcanic hills of Bali and through many villages along the way. Bali is a very green island thanks to the rich soil and abundance of precipitation. We are here during the rainy season, but it has been unusually dry according to the residents. The land still appears quite green and lush, despite the fact that the rains have [View Full Entry]

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Selamat siang from Bali! This blog is one of three we hope to publish regarding our travels in Bali. We are going to be in three different locations in Bali, each of which has a distinct flavor. Bali is only one of the 13,000 islands in Indonesia, which is part of the world’s largest archipelago. We’ve divided our time in Bali to three locations: Lovina Beach in the north, Ubud in the central and Kuta Beach in the south. We would have loved to go to the island of Lompok but we didn’t have enough time. Sounds funny coming from us, [View Full Entry]

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Sun, sand, beaches, beaches and beaches. Hello to everyone and we hope that the holiday was kind to you all and you got your fill. It is hard to believe sometimes that we have been delightfully unemployed for over 4 months and have spent the last 2+ months in Asia. At this point, we decided it was time to take a brief respite from all this fun! Believe it or not, all this traveling is a bit tiring and we needed to kick back for a little while. Now when you stop laughing, remember that this should never be construed as [View Full Entry]

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Curious & Careful In The Kingdom of Cambodia For whatever reason, our interest in Cambodia was less than in other countries. Our time here was short and so is our blog…unlike the one for Vietnam, which probably seemed too lengthy to some. Our time in this country was split between Phnom Penh, the capital and Siem Reap, which is near Angkor Wat. We understand that the beach areas are nice but we did not go. Our personal opinion is that Phnom Penh is the dirtiest and smelliest of all the Asian cities that we have visited. This is not a city [View Full Entry]

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We sent this blog out on Veterans Day and have recently learned that the travel blog server went down so we are republishing. Sorry for the delay. Vietnam’s Vitality First off, it’s really great hearing from everyone! Thank you for your e-mails. We are a long way from home and it is great hearing from you and keeping in touch. If you are one of those people who haven’t replied to the blog, it’s easy….at the bottom of the page is a spot to write a quick note. We would love to hear from you! We’ve been in Vietnam for the [View Full Entry]

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Laos is Lovely!!! We’ve had wonderful time in Laos and we were fortunate as we spent our time in Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng and Vientiane. It is a marvelously beautiful nation whose people are quite friendly. We arrived in Luang Prabang from Chiang Mai, Thailand. Originally we had considered taking a 6 hour bus trip to the Laos border, and then a two day boat ride down the Mekong River for the adventure. It sounded quaintly adventurous and we thought that it would be a great experience. We changed our mind and flew into Laos and it appears that we made [View Full Entry]

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Welcome to Chiang Mai. We’ve been to several countries and traveled many miles. We decided that we needed a rest so we decided to hang out in Chiang Mai for 10 days. This turned out to be a great decision as this town is laid back. There are not a many vendors coming at you selling their wares. We traveled on an overnight train for 14 hours north from Bangkok. It’s really not that far from Chiang Mai from Bangkok but the train moves slowly and stops along the way to pick up passengers. We experienced a sleeper berth which had [View Full Entry]

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