I have not written for a while. But of course it doesn’t mean that life has stopped here. Ladies and gentlemen, we are in our SECOND year of living in mysterious Japan. And I can say with all the truthfulness on behalf everyone in our family that WE LOVE JAPAN.
But I am not stressed because of the fact that we still have two more years to be here. Nope. About 5 months ago, we decided that in November we’d take a vacation to Bali. Where in the world is Bali? Bali is an island which is part of Indonesia, south of the equator. The plan was to go down to Tokyo by Shinkansen, hopefully get on an almost free military flight from Tokyo to Singapore and then fly super cheap from Singapore to Denpasar, Bali (Fantastic place!)
I was working with a travel agent from Australia, whom I met on my trip to Kyoto earlier this year. She helped me find the perfect place. It is incredibly difficult to find a resort that would accommodate two adults and three kids in a suite for a reasonable price in Asia. And lots of the resorts wouldn’t guarantee placing us in two smaller rooms located next to each other either. Anyway, we found a place, according to our requirements—on the beach, with a door between a living room and a bedroom, not in the busy are of Kuta (big touristy place), hopefully with a kids’ club, and within our budget.
We also purchased our tickets from Singapore to Bali which were super cheap with Air Asia. We had to “cushion” ourselves with an extra night in Singapore on the way there, just in case we didn’t get on the Space-A flight out of Tokyo the first night. Lots of planning with this Space-A travel!
So finally, three weeks ago, Robert put in his papers for approval of travel (official stuff he has to do as a military personnel). And….he was denied….What we THINK happened was that Bali was made a restricted travel country for us because of the events surrounding Sep. 11 this year. We can only speculate though. Even two months ago, we were all clear to go, but now we cannot.
What have we been doing for the past three weeks then? Ummm, trying to figure out if we should still go on a vacation SOMEWHERE and how to cancel all these bookings we have made with minimal loss. To make this long story short, we have decided to go to Thailand instead. As of right now it is unrestricted. We’ll still be able to go to Singapore and then fly to Thailand from there, crossing our fingers we’ll get on that free flight. We have been frantically searching for a good place to stay in Phuket, a very popular touristy city on the beach. And THAT is supposed to be fun, except not when you already wasted a ton of money on a trip that didn’t happen…
Where in the world is Phuket?
Thanks for listening to my rant. Now that I have found two resorts we’ll stay at, I feel better. We’ll be leaving in the beginning of November. You don’t want to miss hearing about that trip, for sure:) IF we are allowed to go. So we need to have a Plan B and Plan C figure out.
If you have been to Thailand, let me know what you think.
Have a great weekend, my friends!
But I am not stressed because of the fact that we still have two more years to be here. Nope. About 5 months ago, we decided that in November we’d take a vacation to Bali. Where in the world is Bali? Bali is an island which is part of Indonesia, south of the equator. The plan was to go down to Tokyo by Shinkansen, hopefully get on an almost free military flight from Tokyo to Singapore and then fly super cheap from Singapore to Denpasar, Bali (Fantastic place!)
I was working with a travel agent from Australia, whom I met on my trip to Kyoto earlier this year. She helped me find the perfect place. It is incredibly difficult to find a resort that would accommodate two adults and three kids in a suite for a reasonable price in Asia. And lots of the resorts wouldn’t guarantee placing us in two smaller rooms located next to each other either. Anyway, we found a place, according to our requirements—on the beach, with a door between a living room and a bedroom, not in the busy are of Kuta (big touristy place), hopefully with a kids’ club, and within our budget.
We also purchased our tickets from Singapore to Bali which were super cheap with Air Asia. We had to “cushion” ourselves with an extra night in Singapore on the way there, just in case we didn’t get on the Space-A flight out of Tokyo the first night. Lots of planning with this Space-A travel!
So finally, three weeks ago, Robert put in his papers for approval of travel (official stuff he has to do as a military personnel). And….he was denied….What we THINK happened was that Bali was made a restricted travel country for us because of the events surrounding Sep. 11 this year. We can only speculate though. Even two months ago, we were all clear to go, but now we cannot.
What have we been doing for the past three weeks then? Ummm, trying to figure out if we should still go on a vacation SOMEWHERE and how to cancel all these bookings we have made with minimal loss. To make this long story short, we have decided to go to Thailand instead. As of right now it is unrestricted. We’ll still be able to go to Singapore and then fly to Thailand from there, crossing our fingers we’ll get on that free flight. We have been frantically searching for a good place to stay in Phuket, a very popular touristy city on the beach. And THAT is supposed to be fun, except not when you already wasted a ton of money on a trip that didn’t happen…
Where in the world is Phuket?
Thanks for listening to my rant. Now that I have found two resorts we’ll stay at, I feel better. We’ll be leaving in the beginning of November. You don’t want to miss hearing about that trip, for sure:) IF we are allowed to go. So we need to have a Plan B and Plan C figure out.
If you have been to Thailand, let me know what you think.
Have a great weekend, my friends!
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