Around the World…80 Days and Counting

Today marks eighty days on the road! We haven’t quite made it around the world but we’ve covered a lot of ground. There is still so much more to see and I am so grateful that we have so much time and travels ahead of us.

We are currently spending some time on the islands of Langkawi and Penang which are off the coast of Malaysia. They weren’t places we had planned to travel to, heck, we didn’t even know they existed until we saw the turquoise waters on some glossy tourist brochures during our first trip to Kuala Lumpur. We are really loving our time here and will update you about our trip to Malaysia in a future post.

Over the next two months we will continue our travels throughout Southeast Asia including Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and the beaches of Southern Thailand. These developing economies will test our travel smarts but will undoubtedly be a rewarding experience and one that shouldn’t be missed.

Here is a rundown of the stats for the past eighty days:

• Number of countries visited: 6
• Number of different currencies: 6
• Air Miles Traveled: 17,168
• Number of flights: 9
• Number of Accommodations: 29
• Hotel points redeemed: 22,000 (6 nights)
• Airline points redeemed: 0 (saving them for long hauls)
• Loads of laundry done: 6
• Best new dish we’ve tried: Khao Soi – a specialty of Northern Thailand.
• Best Hotel: Doubletree Hilton Kuala Lumpur, we thought about using our Hilton points to take up residency.
• Favorite memory: Launching a sky lantern at Yee Ping Lantern Festival.
• Nail biting moment: Crossing the street…anywhere.
• Hotel nightmare: Mice and other assorted amphibians scurrying around on the ceiling of our thatched roof beach hut in Sri Lanka…luckily it was as we were packing for check out.
• Hotel home run: Executive all you can eat and drink happy hour at the Doubletree Hilton.
• Number of times scammed: 0
• Place we are most excited to go to next: We are so excited to get back to BALI, it will be four years since we honeymooned there.
• Place we’d love to return to: Africa. It was so visually stunning and so much more to see.
• Place we wouldn’t return to: Dubai. It was great to see the Burj Khalifa and the other architectural marvels but we kept finding ourselves in shopping malls. We liked Abu Dhabi so much more.
• Biggest annoyance: Humidity is killer in some of the places we’ve been including Sri Lanka and Kuala Lumpur.
• Squatty potties used: 1…and boy is there a story behind that one time.
• Most pleasantly surprising city: Kuala Lumpur. A place we knew existed but knew relatively nothing about until we got there.
• Penguin encounters: 1
• Biggest Unexpected Expense: Nothing unusual yet. We have been very lucky.
• Countries that were covered under T-Mobile Service: 5 of 6 (not Laos)
• Sick Days: 2 (1 Kerri, 1 Chris)
• Times we wanted to kill each other: 0 (so far)
• Most Unique Transport: Motorbike with side-cart (and Chris riding on the back of the motorbike with Thai gentleman half his size as the pilot)
• Cheapest Beer: Langkawi, Malaysia. 4 Ringgit at bars = $0.91
• Most Expensive Beer: Sheraton Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 38 Ringgits at hotel bar = $8.68

Thanks to all who are following along on our journey. It has been quite the adventure so far. Hopefully we can inspire a few people to take the leap and do what we are doing and experience all life has to offer. We will post up some additional days in review posts down the road. Please continue the journey with us!