Welcome to our travel blog! We plan to share photos, stories and lessons learned from our 2016 one-full-year adventure in Southeast Asia. If you have any tips or suggestions we’d love to hear from you!
In preparation for this trip we sold, or gave away, everything! Ok …99% of everything (we have a few boxes of keepsakes stored in our mom’s basements). The house, both cars, mountain bikes, all the furniture, etc. are all gone. Everything we kept fit into our compact rental car. We are off with just the clothes on our back.
When we return we will get to start fresh… and after a year away we are hoping to have a new perspective.
We left Kelowna, BC, Canada on December 18, and spent a great, wintery Christmas season in St. Albert, AB with family and friends. Then we spent another wonderful 10 days in Escondido, CA, USA with Christine’s mom. On January 10, 2016 we fly to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Our friend Fred lives there and we will start our trip with a long overdue visit.
After travelling in Malaysia we are hoping to go to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. There are many other countries we would also like to visit – we will be making up our plan as we go! Bhutan is a dream for Mark… has anyone been there?
The Roaming Two 
Aloha! Your adventure sounds amazing! I’m sending this note to you from the sunny North Shore of Oahu and am very much looking forward to your updates! Take care, Richelle Maeers
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Hi Richelle. Hawaii is my most favourite place in the world so far! Probably because it is so beautiful and easy to get around … there is just something so magical about it. North Shore is AMAZING. I hope you had a fantastic time!
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Jan.9 So happy for you Mark and Christine..so many adventures await you both. Have a safe journey and our family (and Subie) look forward to the Blogs!!!
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Have a marvelous safe trip you two, looking fforward to sharing your blogs, Take care of yourselves, remember if ever you need a break and a nice resort for a week you are welcome to use our timeshare program……I’ll let you know if they have special deals as it might work out for you…..and a few times a year they offer bonus weeks if you buy one you could get two!!!! All the best, love you,
and we will pray for safe travels for you…. Hope you have the best time of
your life!!
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Christine and Mark, congrats and best of luck on this extended adventure. My son and his wife spent some time in Thailand and Cambodia and loved it, except for the shysters in the larger cities and the bed bugs at some of the accommodations. Advice, check Trip Advisor often. Bon Voyage!
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I can’t wait to hear and see what you are up to as you take the big plunge into ‘adventuredom’. I hope I get some insight as to some food and activities not to miss when I ever get a chance to plan a trip that direction. So excited for you. Have the greatest time of your lives and safe travels!!
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Wow. The time is here!! You have waited so long and spent many days and nights planning for this day. I’m so very happy for you both and extremely proud of you for following your dreams. We wish you nothing but the best on this adventure and are looking forward to watching for your blogs. Love your baby sis. 💞 Miss you guys already.
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Hi guys. Wow!!!! Can hardly believe the day is here!!!! All those endless days and nights of planning have finally paid off. We are so very excited and proud of you guys. We only wish you the best on your journey and we look forward to getting your updates. Miss you guys already. Lil sis. Lorraine and family.
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YAY for your big Adventure M&C! I know you are hydrating and enjoying that brutally long flight as I write this! Think of it as training… I know you don’t want to take the easy road here (haha) so I would Like to take Cathy (above) up on her timeshare offer- in your place! Jk.
It was terrific seeing you In EDM – you already saved us a whack of $$$ for our own travel budget- thanks for the sage advice! I know this will be a life altering year for both of you. We can’t wait to hear about your adventures!!!
stay safe and enjoy!
Xxoo Sandy & Marty
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Thank you for including me to visit your blog! Have an amazing adventure! Looking forward to your updates. Safe travels! from Marge Mitchell
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Hi Marge. You bet. We checked out Batu Caves as well … very interesting… and a bit smelly 🙂
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Hi Mark,
How lucky it was to run into you the other day! I’m looking forward to following your blog. I know you and your wife (hopefully we will meet upon your return) will have an excellent adventure!
Thanks for the e-mail – safe travels!
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We sent you an e-mail re our son in Bangkok. Do contact him. We went to Bhutan in 2014 for x2 weeks on a tour with REI. Everything was expensive. It was $250.00 charged daily (in 2014) by the Bhutan govt just to be in their country. The hotels and food are also expensive. The Bhutanese are pretty open about not wanting any visitors who just want to hang out and have no money to burn as so many younger travelers do. Well heeled visitors however, are very welcome.They also have cannabis widely growing all over the country; it’s a weed. They have draconian laws about using it for recreational use. They are fearful of hordes of young foreign users with no money invading. Their main protein consists of chicken imported from India; they are Buddhists and forbidden to kill any living thing etc. Over all, their food is noting to write home about. The sights include Buddhist temples, Buddhist temples and more Buddhist temples. The natural countryside is beautiful. Their design of normal housing was very appealing. Their highway system is very rudimentary; mostly narrow 1-2 lane dirt or unimproved poorly maintained asphalt. Infrastructure is lacking. Most of the country is pretty third world. They tout “happiness”-but it is not readily apparent. However, the people generally are very nice and welcoming and colorful. It is a country struggling and not really ready for everyday touring as yet. Currently, it is a place for travelers with plenty of money to spend to aid in development of this recently opened country to the rest of the world.
I suffered a bit with altitude sickness and so my above comments may have been influenced by my lack of oxygen; or so Kitty believes. She and her sister mostly agree with my comments, but found it interesting enough to want to return-but not during the monsoons. For me, once was enuf.
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Hi Jim and Kitty. We are just trying to figure out how this blog site works and internet is not the best. Thank you so much for your comments. I love that Bhutan measures their GDP on happiness and that has had me intrigued. I recently met a fellow here in Malaysia and he said, unless you are searching for the meaning of life, why go to Bhutan? 🙂 Well, I have been searching for a long time and I doubt Bhutan will be the answer :), I read it was very expensive, so your comments will help us figure out if we just jump over to somewhere else. But then our friends Sandy and Marty will have to change their plans to meet us ;).
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Best of luck to you both. Can’t wait to hear about your adventures – and very jealous that for the next year you will not experience staff meetings, talk about employee engagement or worry about performance management. Enjoy your escape and good luck.
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