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Our FOURTH 30 Days Abroad: By the Numbers

These posts feel a bit like the monthly baby photos– we should have brought some sort of cute stuffed animal to mark our time away!

Not to compare our travels to raising an actual human child, but I will admit to feeling a little #proudparent -ish of how we are growing as travelers.  These posts may not mean as much to our readers as they mean to us, but Rich and I really enjoying spending time together reflecting and crafting these every thirty days.

Amanda has an unhealthy obsession with Gritty, the new Philadelphia Flyers mascot. He’s ugly, but he’s our ugly. It was only a matter of time before she slid him into the blog.

Without further adieu, our FOURTH 30 days!  And if you like this post or want to see the progression of thirty day reflections, be sure to check out our first , second , and third thirty day review posts too.

Dates Included: September 24 – October 23, 2018

Countries Visited: 4 (Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia)

Cities/Towns Visited: 9 (Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Phuket, Krabi, Koh Samui, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Yogyakarta)

TRANSPORTATION

As you can see, our modes of transportation varied greatly in these 30 days!  It’s not just planes, trains, and automobiles for us.

Flights: 7

Bus Rides: 1

Taxi/Uber/Grab Rides: 28 (22 Grab rides)

Van Rides: 3

Tuk Tuk Rides: 1

Funicular Rides: 1

Ferry Rides: 1

Train Rides: 1

Long Boat Rides: 2

Rich boarding the ferry to Koh Samui, Thailand
LODGING

AirBNB’s: 5

Hotels: 4

FOOD

Percentage of Meals Eaten Out: 60% (41 meals)

Percentage of Meals Eaten In: 21% (14 meals)

Percentage of Meals Eaten in Airport Lounges: 15% (10 meals)

Percentage of Meals Provided by Hotels or AirBNB’s: 4% (3 meals)

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

If you are a frequent reader of these posts, you know that while Rich and Amanda spend most of their time together, walking what you would assume to be the same distances, Rich consistently records many more miles than Amanda.  Will the tide turn?  Or will Rich continue his walking dominance?

Rich

  • Total Distance: 342,795 steps (158.40 miles)
  • Average Daily Distance: 11,460 steps (5.28 miles)
  • Daily High: 22,434 steps (10.30 miles)
  • Daily Low: 1,676 steps (0.77 miles)

Amanda

  • Total Distance: 296,857 steps (133.22 miles)
  • Average Daily Distance: 9,895 steps (4.44 miles)
  • Daily High: 20,759 steps (9.07 miles)
  • Daily Low: 132 steps (.06 miles)

Rich wins.  I am also confident that the day I only had 132 steps was a day that I had my FitBit off, if only because we have not stayed anywhere where I could have only gone 132 steps and still eaten food.

INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITY

We had a tough time finding anything to read where you would want to read the most: the beaches of Thailand!  As you can see, Rich and I both continued to love Kevin Kwan, the author of megahit Crazy Rich Asians.

Rich

Amanda

Reading at the beach in Koh Samui.
OVERALL COSTS AS PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL BUDGET

Flights: 16% (12% decrease)

Other Transportation (Buses, Trains, Ferries, Taxis, Funiculars): 10% (5% increase)

Lodging: 41% (1% decrease)

Food:  21% (5% increase)

Sightseeing: 3% (same)

Other (Books, Haircut, Laundry, Toiletries, Massages, Yoga): 9% (3% increase)

FAVORITES:

Favorite Meal:

  • Amanda: Rich’s birthday dinner at Akira Back in Bangkok.  We had the best sushi of my life.
  • Rich: My birthday meal at Akira Back in Bangkok. Amazing sushi.
The aforementioned sushi. It was so delicious, we forgot to take a picture of it until after we had eaten a few pieces already.

Favorite AirBNB:

Favorite Hotel:

  • Amanda: I really loved the Grand Sunset Hotel, our hotel in Phuket, Thailand.  There was a beautiful rooftop pool, and they had all kinds of little free treats throughout the day: coffee from 3-4 PM, popcorn and a cocktail from 6-7 PM, and free ice cream from 8-10 PM.
  • Rich: I loved our boutique hotel in Singapore, Hotel Yan. It was stylish, sleek, and perfectly located. They had the best toiletries and mini bar with free Cokes, M & M’s, and chips replenished daily.
At Hotel Yan!

Favorite City/Town:

  • Rich: Singapore
  • Amanda: Singapore

Favorite Beach/Pool: 

  • Amanda: So many beaches!  I really liked Railey Beach in Thailand.  Runner up goes to Phuket where we got the amazing sunset pictures.
  • Rich: Railey Beach was beautiful, but so hot! We lasted maybe 30 minutes before we were covered in sweat and retreated to the water, followed by a couple of Tiger beers with a view.

Favorite Mode of Transportation: 

  • Rich: I really enjoyed the rawness of traveling in the long boat to Railey Beach and back. It was exciting wading into the water and climbing in and out of the boat. There was a real authentic feeling that made me feel like a local.
  • Amanda: I did not enjoy the long boat because I thought we might drown.  I don’t have a specific flight, but I loved anytime we flew and got to go to an airport lounge.  It is so nice to be able to eat as much as we want and drink an extra latte without worrying about costs.
In front of two long boats in Krabi, Thailand

Favorite Book:

  • Amanda:  I weirdly read two books (Truly, Madly, Guilty and The Slap) about adults behaving badly at backyard barbecues in Australia.   Me Talk Pretty One Day was the first David Sedaris book I had ever read, and it was both hilarious and touching.  So it wins as my favorite book for these 30 days.
  • Rich:  Crazy Rich Asians. If you have not noticed yet, I…love…Kevin…Kwan… Almost as much as Amanda loves Gritty.

Least Favorite Moment:

  • Rich: We landed in Yogyakarta and our hotel was only a 23 minute walk from the airport according to Google Maps. We decided to tough it out and walk, can’t be that hard right? WRONG! We had to go a different route than what Google Maps stated due to airport security, and it added about 10 minutes to the walk in 90 degree heat with 20 and 25 lb backpacks on. When we arrived at our hotel, we were tired and drenched in sweat. FAIL!
  • Amanda: Trying to hike to the Big Buddha statue in Phuket and failing because the blog directions I followed were terrible.  I should have done more research before leading us down the wrong road in really hot weather.  Not finding a statue is really not that bad, but Rich and I got cross with one another, so that moment stands out as being my least favorite.  If you are going to argue, you should at least be able to do it in air conditioning.

Most Favorite Moments: 

  • Amanda:  I loved the day in Singapore where we walked and walked and walked and saw the SuperTrees and then had a drink at the top of the magnificent Marina Bay Sands.  It helped that we had seen Crazy Rich Asians in Singapore the night before– on our long walk, we passed so many places from the movie.  I also loved getting a Thai massage in Krabi, Thailand, and I loved our routine in Kuala Lumpur, especially getting to go to the amazing gym in our building.  On our last morning in KL, we got up to go to the gym but it didn’t open until 7 AM so we headed to the building’s putting green (yes, the building had a putting green) to do an Aaptiv strength training workout in the dark.  Right as we finished, the Call to Prayer came on softly in the background, and we were surrounded by all these huge skyscraper buildings– it was a moment where I really felt like I was a world away from home, experiencing something I never could have scripted if I tried.
  • Rich: I loved the sunsets at our rooftop pool in Phucket. I also loved our Thai massages in Krabi. But my favorite thing was EVERYTHING in Singapore. From seeing Crazy Rich Asians to eating at the hawker stands to the beautiful SuperTrees to the drink and view from the Marina Bay Sands, it was everything I imagined.  One day, I will swim in that infinity pool.
Enjoying Singapore and being on top of the world at the Marina Bay Sands.

DELTAS:

Looking back on the last thirty days, here are a few things we might have done a little differently.

  1. Eating out so much has been tough.  I think we have been to three grocery stores in Southeast Asia.  There are frequently 7-11’s or small local markets, but if I were to try to cook a whole meal, I’m not sure I would know where to start.  Eating out occasionally is nice, but Rich and I are both pretty introverted and so we find eating in way more relaxing.  And I miss cooking and eating what I have cooked.
  2. We would not have gone to Iceland.  Wait, aren’t you supposed to be talking about Southeast Asia?  Yes, stay with me.  We were looking at the budget last night, and we have done a pretty decent job staying on budget in Southeast Asia.  And yet, we are still over budget on the trip…for almost the exact amount of money it cost us to go to Iceland.  Iceland was pretty but was SO expensive, especially when viewed in light of how far the money for those 6 days would go in Southeast Asia (read: it would pay for everything for 19 days).  And we slept in a tent in Iceland and ate hot dogs.  We should have saved Iceland for a trip of its own versus including it in our around-the-world trip.
  3. We wish we had picked a better AirBNB location in Bangkok.  As I think about how much we loved Kuala Lumpur and Singapore and how meh we felt about Bangkok, I have to think that if we had been in walking distance of the things we wanted to visit in Bangkok, we would have liked it more.  Bangkok traffic was insane (makes 75/85 traffic in Atlanta and 676 traffic in Philly look light) and so it took forever to get anywhere.  And Rich and traffic are not friends.

LOVES:

  1. Our new planning routine.  Since Phuket, Rich and I have dedicated time to meet with each other to calendar out our time in each new location.  This facilitates a discussion about our priorities for what we want to see and do in each place so that we are on the same page from the jump.  If I am being honest, sometimes it is hard to really tune in and listen to Rich, not because he isn’t charming and interesting, but because we spend all of our time together and sometimes he’s talking to me, but I am daydreaming or playing on my phone or am just otherwise distracted.  During our meetings though, I can totally tune in, focus, and pay attention.
  2. The balance of beaches and cities in the last 30 days.  We had a lot of beach and pool time in Thailand, but we also spent a significant amount of time in some of the largest cities in Southeast Asia in Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore.  The balance was nice.  We could chill in the beach towns, and then enjoy walking and moving as much as we did in the big cities.
  3. Being together!  Nope, not sick of each other yet.  In fact, the longer we are gone, the more common experiences we have to compare and share with one another.  Rich was organizing our Insta stories the other night, and just watching videos of everywhere we have been and all we have done was so fun.  Remember when we watched the World Cup in Croatia (but left because the fireworks were scary and the fans were throwing beer bottles!), and then we were in Malta and we ended up at Friday Happy Hour with the St. Vincent Retirement Community, and then we were in Hanoi, Vietnam exercising with thousands of people in the early morning hours? All of our experiences build and build and build.  This is truly a trip of a lifetime, and we love sharing all of it with each other.
Sunset in Phuket
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Random Reflections and (Sort of) Deep Thoughts from the Road

Over dinner or while we are walking somewhere, Rich and I do a lot of back and forth about what we love about traveling, what we miss about home, what we are glad we did, what we might change, etc. In other words, we take some time for reflection.

We thought it might be fun to share some of these reflections with you!  We will still do our next 30 days post– think of this more as eavesdropping on some of the conversations we have back and forth as we hang out all day, every day.

And in terms of process, we answered the questions in the order our names are listed (i.e. the first person writes his or her response blind, and then the second person can respond).

What it is the one physical thing from home you miss the most?

Rich: Our large, grey, comfortable sectional couch. From watching the Eagles and Georgia football games to Homeland, Handmaid’s Tale, and Game of Thrones, it is where we unwind. It can be difficult to relax fully when you are switching destinations every 3 to 5 days.

Amanda: HAIR CONDITIONER.  Hear me out.   None of the hotels and AirBNB’s have it, and we fly so frequently that I can only buy it in travel sized amounts.  Also, everything we do is terrible on my hair– being in the sun and the heat, swimming in pools, oceans, and waterfalls, using the random shampoos provided by the hotels and AirBNB’s.

I think about a huge bottle of great conditioner every day.  I read articles about conditioning treatments (here, here, and here) which is just torture because there is no CVS or Sephora in Laos.  And if there were, I could only buy the best products in travel sized amounts! Seriously, #1 fantasy: a huge, budget busting bottle of Moroccan Oil conditioner.  The end.

What is one experience from home that you miss that you expected to miss and one experience from home that you miss that surprises you?

Amanda: I expected that we would miss family and friends, and we do.  Events that would seem super regular at home- kids’ birthday parties, friends going out to dinner- seem the coolest from this far away (“Oh my gosh, look at all those people we know in the same room!”).  Abbey starting high school has definitely been the most expected, hardest thing to be away for.

I realized yesterday that I unexpectedly miss folding clothes.  We are at the mercy of our situation on how we will get our clothes clean, but yesterday our AirBNB provided laundry service for a small fee.  I had to fight the urge to ask if I could fold the clothes myself when they came out of the dryer– the allure of clean clothes, DRIED IN A DRYER (not a given in most of the world), and then the sense of task completion when they are all folded neatly…sigh.

Rich: I expected to miss the fall, the start of school, and football, and I have. I especially miss the start of school this year as it is Abbey’s first year in high school. Fall is our favorite season: the cool temperatures, La Colombe coffee on our couch on Saturday morning, and watching football. Our travel route has us in summer in almost every country we visit, and fall seems so far away. Also,  halfway across the world “American” football is non-existent. This is unimaginable back home.

The unexpected experience I miss most is food shopping and having a well stocked refrigerator. I am a creature of habit and love my Saturday mornings at Whole Foods. I miss selecting the meat, fish, and produce that Amanda turns into delicious meals. I also miss the convenience of going into my fridge and grabbing a drink or something to eat whenever the urge arises. When traveling you have to plan out how to get every meal.

What is something that another country does way better than the United States?  Like, why don’t we do that at home?

Rich: Bus safety. All buses in SE Asia and some in Europe have two employees on each bus. Makes total sense. We have all heard stories of SEPTA or Metro violence, passengers not paying fares, etc. It is illogical to think one person (the bus driver) can collect fares, enforce collection of fares, ensure bus etiquette, prevent bus violence, and DRIVE THE BUS!

In other countries, the bus driver does just that, drives the bus. Another employee collects the fare, and keeps an eye on the bus and its passengers. Makes total sense. Part of me can’t help think that transportation companies in the U.S. are more concerned about their bottom line.

Amanda: I basically wrote this question because Rich is so fired up about the buses!

Something that we have seen in Asia that makes so much sense to me is that all of the escalators have motion sensors so they only start up when someone steps on them.  Genius!  Why does the escalator need to run continuously and waste energy?  It should just come on when you step on the platform right before you step on the escalator stairs.  An elevator doesn’t go up and down when there aren’t any passengers on it. America, you’re welcome.

Let’s talk about time.  Does it feel like it is moving more quickly or more slowly than you would have expected?

Amanda: That’s tough.  I cannot believe that we have been out of the country for 89 days, and I also cannot believe that we have seen everything that we have seen in only 89 days.  Like, oh remember when we were at that waterfall in Iceland, and then we were in Sicily for a long time, and now we are at a waterfall in Laos.  So in that sense, it is moving really fast.

However, it feels like FOREVER since we were in the United States grabbing a cheeseburger and going to CVS.  And I had a job? Feels like a lifetime ago.

Rich: I agree with Amanda here. Iceland seems like so long ago; however, I can not believe how much of the world we have already seen so far. We have learned how big the world really is and how small we really are in it.

What is your very favorite part of traveling the world?

Rich: For me, it is seeing how different cultures live and learn from each other across the world. I love the world fusion. I love it in food (Think: Bing Bing Dim Sung in Philly- Asian/Jewish food). I love it in music (Think: Hip Hop collaborating with Rock). Also, spending time with Amanda, the learning and growing we are doing together is amazing!

Amanda: Oh, that was sweet– thanks! Besides being with Rich, I really enjoy the unknown unknowns.  I might have a vague notion of what a town or a country will be like, but then all of these surprises unfold along the way.

Some of the surprises are amazing- trying a new delicious food or seeing something in nature that looks like nothing I have ever seen before- and sometimes they are a little quirky or even frustrating (oh, our “bus” is actually a minivan and the driver changes twice in five hours and the second driver gets out of the bus to pee on the side of the road once an hour and then drops us at a location in the next town that is not the bus station).

For better or worse, I almost always kind of love all of the surprise.  Things are never boring, and there are lots of good lessons about accepting things as they are.

Was taking this trip the right decision?

Amanda: Oh, absolutely.  There are so many things about having the opportunity to do this and seeing all we are seeing as well as being back home when we are finished that I hope I will appreciate forever.  There is psychological research that gratitude is the key to happiness, and I feel like we are making a yearlong investment in a lifetime of happiness.

Rich: Yes! We talk all the time about how lucky we are to be able to do this. I want to live a big, full life. I want to see the Big 5 in Africa, swim in the Mediterranean, dive the Great Barrier Reef, do Yoga in Bali, hike Machu Picchu, visit all of the great U.S. National Parks, and try great food, beer, and wine from all over the  world. And we get to do it all now!

Feel free to send more deep (ha!), higher level thinking and reflection questions our way!  Sending our love back across the world to you.  

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Mailbag! You’ve Got Questions, We’ve Got Answers.

Ciao!  I write from Sicily from an AirBNB with amazing internet (grazie, Davide!).  I am behind on getting our Sardinia post out (spoiler: we had a great time), but we got positive feedback from our last month-in-review post so I wanted to do one more quick stepback to answer some questions generated by that post.

And please keep the questions coming!

Question #1 from J: I can’t believe how much you eat in. What do you eat?

Thanks for the question, J!  As we shared in the last post, during our first month of travel, we ate 68% of our meals in.  That number is definitely going to drop this month as it is really hard not to eat out in Italy, but we have tried to eat in as much as we can to save money.  Also, sometimes it is just way more relaxing to eat in your pajamas than to try to order in another language.

For breakfast, we eat a lot of chocolate cereal– something we pretty much never did in the states.  For some reason, it is always, in every single country, the cheapest.  And I mean, it’s chocolate, so it’s not going to taste bad.

Question: Breakfast food croatia
Our favorite chocolate cereal: Chocolate Pillows in Croatia

In Iceland, which was super expensive, we ate a lot of hot dogs– hot dogs in buns, hot dogs in pasta, pork and beans- really, a lot of hot dogs.

question- hot dogs in iceland
Hot dogs in Iceland. Eaten in the car to avoid the bugs. This is the night of our third wedding anniversary-ha!

Then we usually make pasta at least once a week because it’s just so easy and requires so few ingredients.  We try to use everything we buy which sometimes results in totally strange behaviors like carrying extra garlic bulbs around in our luggage.

Related: Rich LOVES grocery shopping abroad.  Sometimes I think we are never going to leave the grocery store.  It makes him feel like a local, and he can play weird mathematical budget games to make sure we are getting the highest value on the eggplant versus the onion. Or something.

question: market
Sometimes we shop in markets. Usually, we shop in local grocery stores

Question #2 from a sweet relative: You say that Europe is very communal.  Are you becoming a communist?

Europe does feel very communal, and I currently do not plan to become a communist.

I wrote a bit about this in our Agios Nikolaos post— when you go out to dinner or get coffee or spend time at the beach in Croatia or Crete or Sardinia, everyone talks to each other.  Crazy, huh?  No one– including teenagers– uses a cell phone.  It’s possible that it is because all of these Europeans are talking about secret communist plans (I kid), but mostly it seems like people really like each other.

teenagers in Italy
People are together a lot in Europe. Peep the teenagers chilling together behind Rich

Question #3 from R: Speaking of really liking each other, how do the two of you spend so much time together?

You would not believe the number of people who pulled me beside before leaving for this trip to ask me if I really and truly thought I would be okay spending so many hours a day, every day, with Rich.

I am okay.  I really like him!

Iceland selfie
Together in the rain in Iceland– with a waterfall

Have we had disagreements along the way?  Absolutely.  Sometimes is he grumpy?  Totally.  We have had some very early mornings and some very late nights.  Sometimes does Rich tickle me and poke me and otherwise do annoying things?  Yes.  Like every ten minutes.  Especially on bus and train rides when he has no cell phone battery.

And sometimes do I do dumb things?  Only if you count irreversibly turning off the hot water heater in the AirBNB in Budapest resulting in 24 hours of cold water as “dumb.”  Oh, wait, did I not share that story here on the blog before?  Oops.

selfie
I’m pretty sure I thought he was going to lick me on the face outside the parliament building in Budapest.

Seriously though, it works.  We have both done a fair amount of growth mindset work so whenever we mess up, together or individually, we try to reflect and learn and do better the next time.  In our marriage, the phrase, “I need a minute,” is pretty sacred– when one of us says it, the other one shuts up and backs off, and I think that saves us from launching arguments that don’t need to happen(read: pretty much every argument).

We both feel really grateful to get to do this and are just as happy to do it together.  Only ten months, one week,  and six days of just the two of us together every minute left to go… 🙂

I like him!

Alright, off to explore some Sicilian temples!

Keep the questions coming!  What else do you want to know? What do you imagine would be challenging about a trip like this?  

 

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