An Update on the Life of Chris and Mindy

I know everyone says it but I seriously cannot believe it’s 2014. Chris and my trip is only a few months from being finished, we’ve been married for over a year, (yes, I know that is a short time but it seriously feels like yesterday), and before we know it we will be back in the 9-5 working world.

As we were looking at our calendar and deep gulp planning our return to civilization it occurred to me that our schedule has completely changed and that we should send out a bit of an update. So here it is, our next 5 months of life. Of course who knows how long that schedule will stay that schedule but at least it’s a bit of an outline.

Currently, Chris and I are at the beach in Southern Thailand! We are relaxing and enjoying the fact we haven’t had to repack our backpacks in a week.

January 16th-29th, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. So this is an addition/switch from our original schedule to head to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat. After looking at prices of flights, we had to fly instead of overland back into Thailand due to Visa issues, timing, and our deep desire to pick a place to stay put for more than 3 days, Malaysia won. I have no idea what is there but quite a few people seem to really love it and we are excited to find out.

January 29th-February 27th, Chris will be heading as planned to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand to learn how to break boards with his head and high kick while floating through the air. In other words he is going to be staying at a Kung Fu monastery and finding out if his true calling is to be a member of the Furious Five. (That was a Kung Fu Panda reference for those that missed it.)

I on the other hand am a bit up in the air though I will be heading to Chiang Mai as well. Unfortunately both of my sea turtle projects have fallen apart as even more unfortunately the areas they were supposed to take place in in Indonesia and Bangladash have been experiencing strife. Chris and I have been coming up with an alternative plan for my getting to do this at a later time which I will get to below. For the month my plan is to volunteer for a while at an elephant/dog sanctuary and then go where the wind takes me. I may just hang-out in Chang Mai and learn to cook Thai food!

February 27th – April 10th, Time to hit Australia and New Zealand! And one of my favorite parts is my best friend is coming with! My friend Mary from childhood has booked her flights and will be arriving with us in Australia on the 27th and staying with us through the 21st. Woot, woot! We will probably be spending a week in Australia before heading to New Zealand to do some trekking. Anyone else want to join?

April 10th, Time to fly back to the States. I cannot believe it but in just 4 short months we will be back. We will be landing in Tampa, Florida and the plan is to spend some time with our families and see some friends. As Chris’ job prospects are very location specific, his goal is to immediately start interviewing so we can at least figure out where we want to live next.

Towards the end of April, The plan at this point is for me to fly back out to Costa Rica and volunteer there with a Sea Turtle project for a month. After looking at all my options this seems to be the best idea. We haven’t worked out any of the details, such as if Chris will come with, but I am really excited that I will still get to do my time with sea turtles.

So there is the plan. We can’t nor want to say it’s set in stone but we are excited to see what it brings. And hopefully over the next few weeks of staying in place we might get caught up on blog posts!