Not Your Average Gal

Copywriter. Content Creator. Constant Sassypants.

Asia

Preparation and Excitement

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They say preparing and anticipating for a trip is as exciting as the trip itself. I’m pretty sure TripAdvisor has some legitimate concerns about how often I’ve been logged in. Is there a TripAdvisor Intervention team?

“Dear Caroline, Your addiction to TripAdvisor has affected my life negatively in the following ways…”

These last few months have been incredibly stressful in our household; the culmination being this month with important exams occurring. I’m not sure how to describe medical school to everyone else other than saying it’s a slow form of torture. It’s tough to watch and very often, tough to be a part of.

Perhaps planning has been my outlet? The med school hubster doesn’t have time to help, so it’s been my responsibility and a way to “check out” from the stress. Either way, I think it’s safe to say we are both very happy to see this trip happen at the beginning of July.

Preparation:

– All of our visas for Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia have been approved online and are ready to be stamped once we arrive (pending an in-person approval)
– Extra passport photos printed:

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– Obnoxious To-Do list made

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– Make sure all of my travel docs are printed
-Buy all the last-minute travel size items (P.S.- Have I ever told you my love for travel-size items?!)
– Learn how to use my new GoPro!
– Plan out posts here while I’m gone

 

Excitement:

I very often walk a fine line of having just the right amount planned and not leaving enough time to explore or, you know, relax like normal humans.

I held myself back a couple times while preparing for this trip to not make reservations for every food or walking tour in site. I fully believe they are beneficial to immersing yourself and learning more about cultures. But, while I may struggle with it, I want to be a bit more spontaneous. Some of my favorite memories from Thailand or Cambodia were when we had nothing planned and just explored.

FOMO be dammed, I’m trying to be okay knowing we may not hit every single thing Trip Advisor…advises.

That said, there are some things that needed to be reserved prior to arrival and few things I’m just really looking forward to:

The Flights

kabar

To Hanoi, Vietnam:
We’ll be flying in the Prestige Class of Korean Airlines in their lie-flat beds and they. have. a. bar.

To the U.S.:
We’ll be flying home in First Class on Delta’s upper deck. I’ve always wanted to fly in the upper deck of a 747 and since most are going out of commission, I’m happy I’ll be able to. Plus, lie-flat beds!

 

Vietnam

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HanoiKids
This student-run organization provides tours around Hanoi and adjusts the half-day or full-day tour depending on what you want to see. The tours are free and used as a way for students to practice their English. How cool, right? I can’t wait for them to tell us the best place to get egg coffee.

Courtesy of Wikimedia: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ha_Long_Bay.jpg
Courtesy of Wikimedia: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ha_Long_Bay.jpg

 

Halong Bay
Not only am I so excited to check this beautiful place off my travel list, but we decided to splurge and reserve a suite on a eco-friendly junk boat overnight. (That’s the local term for the boats.) I’m excited to explore the bay, kayak and take beautiful pictures. Everything I’ve read says you get what you pay for, so I’m hoping that’s true.

 

Myanmar

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Bagan Temples
I just want to hop on an eBike, strap my GoPro on and explore, explore, explore. I’m hoping I don’t have my expectations set too high because this is really what I’m thinking the highlight may be.

 

Cambodia

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New Hope Cambodia
This NGO provides education, training, housing and health programs for impoverished youth and families. Many of the families cannot afford public school fees, clothes or food and are at-risk for human traffickers. I read about the training restaurant that has lunch and dinner for patrons cooked by students in training. I emailed to inquire more and it looks like we’ll be doing a tour, eating lunch as well as talking to the medical team. Med school hubster is very happy.  (Psst. I am too.) Read more here.

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Tour with Nat
The last time we visited Cambodia, we did a tour of Angkor Wat with a tour guide named Nat. We had such a crazy-fun time that I emailed him recently to see if he’d take us around again, and it looks like he’s available!

 

South Korea

I have zero planned here. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. But we only have about 48 hours and to be honest, I just want a video of me dancing to Gangnam Style to send to my dad while we’re staying at the Intercontinental COEX in Gangnam. It’s a favorite song of his. This is a judgement-free zone.

 

So I’d say that aside from some last-minute purchases and fitting everything into a carry-on (imagine me doing the sign of the cross right now and I’m not even Catholic), we’re well on our way to taking off in 3-ish weeks. What do you think of our plans?

 

“Did you win the lottery?”

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I’m happy to introduce Kiki from Wanderlust Explorers for my very first, brand spankin’ new guest post! If you’ve ever wondered how people manage to travel so much, read up. Kiki and Jen are experts at making this travel thing work.

Hi everyone! Happy to be here guest posting on Caroline Made This. Funny, we only met once or twice for trivia, but from what I have read on her blog, we're pretty similar in how we are living our lives. The blogging, the love of travel. Samesies. I think what sealed the deal on us being buds was when I made some snarky comment about how a young 20-something girl was being very loud and ridiculous to get some guys' attention.

TerracottaWarriors_WanderlustExplorers

A little background for everyone on Wanderlust Explorers. We are Kiki and Jen. Married since 2013. Have known each other since 2001. Dated for, wow, almost 10 years of that. I am a freelance art director/graphic designer. Jen is a Registered Nurse, specializing in ICU or Cardiothoracic ICU patients. We love travel, outdoorsy things (hiking & camping), craft beer and road tripping. We've been leading a nomadic lifestyle since 2010. Kiki's favorite color is blue, Jen's is green.

I was laid off in October of 2008. You know when all of the banks and housing markets failed. At the time, I had been working at one of those fancy, schmancy advertising agencies on Madison Avenue that had big name clients. My first job and I was laid off! Canned. Adios senorita! I was devastated as anyone would be. The jobs were disappearing. I had no sight of what I should do for the future. I had been dating Jen and decided to jump and hope the net would appear.

What eventually happened was a slow motion- the…net…is…finally…appearing. In May of 2010, I formed my business. My own LLC. Funny that a client made out a check to my business name, so I had to form the business to get my moolah. That was the day that I probably felt the most like an adult, until I bought a house.

I'm guessing everyone is now noticing that gap. October 2008 to May 2010. Yes. The gap. This is that gray period where I was reeducating myself. Homeschooling myself if you will. I was on unemployment, but did whatever work I could get. Logos, flyers, you name it. I was applying anywhere I could. I even worked the U.S. Census. It's not like I wasn't trying. The small, Northern Michigan town wasn't really ready to hire someone who had worked on Madison Avenue.

Jen and I moved in together in April of 2009. She agreed to carry the brunt of what I could not pay. I was a model housewife. Making coffee & breakfast in the morning. Lunch, dinner, cleaning, laundry, you name it. We kept our expenses tight. No cable, just the local channels and PBS. I'd rent movies from the library. We were super savvy about where we would buy what where. Had the pricing down to a T! No that's cheaper at Meijer. Sam's Club has that on sale this week. You get the idea. We never went without the things we wanted, we were just smart about where our money went.

Jen_WanderlustExplorers_FerrisStateUniversity_Graduation

Jen graduated with her MSN from Ferris State University in May of 2010. In June of 2010, we sold all of our stuff and we hit the road and left Traverse City. We called it our “Jobless, Homeless Roadtrip Across America” Jen was going to be a travel nurse. (What is a Travel Nurse? Check out her blog: www.wanderlustnurse.com). We set out across the United States, sights set on California.

Since then my freelance work has grown into a respectable business. We've lived in 9 different states: Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Texas, California, Colorado, Arizona, Washington and recently spent 6 months in New York City. And have visited 45 out of 50 states together.

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Pretty close to being able to tick all 50 off of the bucket list — anyone up for a white water rafting trip to West Virginia?

So how do we do it? Jen has been messaged by friends and random nosey people from high school asking if we won the lottery. Nope. We're just very financially responsible. Trying to save for everything that may come our way. We had a long engagement so that we could save money for the wedding and pay off two engagement rings. I must say that you heteros are very lucky to only have to save for one engagement ring and one wedding dress.

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We saved up the full 20% for a down payment on a house so that we didn't have to end up paying mortgage insurance. C'mon people! It's not that hard. Just save your money! Find free stuff to do.

  • Rent Redbox movies instead of going out to a movie.
  • Hit up the thrift store for clothes.
  • Shop on eBay (most of time you will get what you are looking for at 30% off!)
  • Have friends over for a bbq/potluck instead of going to the fancy restaurant. Odds are the meal will be better and you'll spend more time together. Double bonus!
  • Have a bonfire.

You don't have to spend a lot of money to have a good life.

A lot of how we travel is funded through credit card miles. We put everything on our credit cards, pay it off monthly and then travel with the miles. Another awesome thing we have done recently is get a Charles Schwab Investor Checking Account because we had spent a lot of money in ATM fees when we took our 4 month honeymoon in SE Asia back in 2013. The best part about this Charles Schwab Investor Checking Account is that there are no ATM fees…ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD! At home in the U.S. we use Ally Bank, again no ATM fees and they have amazing rates for money market savings accounts.

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Right now we are in Shanghai — Jen is volunteer teaching nursing at a local university with Project Hope and we flew over here using only 35,000 miles per person one way from Grand Rapids. Such a deal — the flight only cost $75.00 total (we splurged and bought the trip insurance). The miles had been collected on our United Mileage Plus Visa. Bonus with that card is that there is no foreign transaction fee. We also have a Delta Skymiles Amex Platinum card, again no foreign transaction fee. With that card you have a higher annual fee but get a free companion ticket. So we just use miles to book one ticket and use the companion or pay out of pocket. Either way we are covered with Amex & Visa so we will always get miles. We even went so far as to put most of our wedding on our credit cards so that we could get miles and pay it off immediately.

Wondering how are we living in Shanghai? Jen is provided with an apartment and monthly stipend. Ironically, the apartment is the largest that we have lived in since leaving Traverse City back in 2010. We're loving being full immersed in a city that is so different from any in the U.S. What you may have heard about the Chinese is all true, the pushing, the spitting — that's not them being rude. That's just them. But I'll get more into that in my next post.

(Editor’s note: Bolding done by me.)

I Left my Heart in Cambodia

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From the moment we landed, I thought it was a mistake choosing Cambodia and Thailand for our honeymoon.

It was a 14 hour plane ride to Tokyo. Then 7 hours to Bangkok. A quick evening layover at the airport hotel and the next morning a 1.5 hour plane ride to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Siem Reap Cambodia Airport

After a haphazard visa experience in the airport where you shove 25 US dollars in the general direction of border patrol agents and they yell out your last name to collect your newly-minted passport with a Cambodian visa, I walked outside to see a gentleman holding a sign for PETERSON. He had the largest grin I had ever seen and gestured proudly to his tuk tuk while offering us water from a small knock-off Igloo cooler.

Siem Reap Cambodia tuk tuk Siem Reap Cambodia tuk tuk

I sat in the first of many bumpy, dusty, tuk-tuk rides on the way to our guesthouse. It had a kind sign letting us know that our driver didn’t speak much English and it was in that collective, jet-lagged, exhausted, heart-pounding, eye-opening moment that I wondered if we should have chosen Europe for our honeymoon.

I was in complete and utter culture shock.

It took a day or two to adjust to the new sights and smells. Oh the smells. I never, ever thought I’d get used to the smells. It didn’t take long, but I did. The distinct smells of pure delicious street food could be taken over by a quick waft of sewage. By the second day, I didn’t even flinch.

Siem Reap Cambodia

Siem Reap Cambodia

It’s funny there’s a route I take while running here in Florida that goes over a small bridge that has a sewer drain and every once and a while on a hot, humid day (every day) you can get a whiff of something not so spectacular. Ironically, I immediately think, “Awww, Cambodia.” And I write that sincerely without condescension.

They say smell is your strongest sense for evoking memories and I have some amazing memories from Cambodia.

Cambodia has forever changed me in such a wonderful way.

It slapped me in the face for my preconceived notions of a third world country and enthusiastically questioned my version of a good life.

There are undoubtedly issues pertaining to living conditions and education that shouldn’t be glazed over when speaking of Cambodia.

Joseph Mussomeli, former US Ambassador to Cambodia, once said, “Be careful because Cambodia is the most dangerous country you will ever visit. You will fall in love with it and eventually it will break your heart.”

The truth is, I was left with so much more in my heart given to me by the people we met.

Golden Butterfly Villa
The Golden Butterfly Villa sent us this picture after our stay.

Such as, Nary, an employee at a guesthouse where we were staying, who pointed out the Detroit Tigers hat the hubster was wearing and asked him if he was American while winking at him.

Siem Reap Cambodia

Or Nat. Oh, Nat, our tour guide that took us around Angkor Wat, who spoke with such an enthusiasm for his people and culture one minute and the next, openly spoke of the atrocities that occurred in Cambodia in the late 70’s. He told us so many times he was happy we were here and we needed to tell all of our friends back at home about Cambodia.

So I am.

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I can’t wait to share more with you about our experiences.

Have you ever had a city or country forever change your perspective?

Destination Known: Where We’re Going in July!

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We asked for your suggestions in helping us decide where to go this upcoming July. The response was great— with tons of fabulous, detailed advice and suggestions.

As I mentioned, we were thinking of heading back to South East Asia, specifically to Cambodia. But, with the help of some readers’ suggestions, we added a couple other fantastic cities to our itinerary. See? Following this blog is a big deal. Pat yourself on the back.

I’m happy to tell you guys…

This July we will be heading to:

  • Hanoi, Vietnam
  • Yangon, Myanmar (Burma)
  • Bagan, Myanmar (Burma)
  • Phnom Penh, Cambodia
  • Siem Reap, Cambodia
  • Seoul, South Korea

How cool is that?! Our general itinerary looks like this (for now):

July Adventure

We may need to adjust cities to accommodate the schedule, which means this could change. If we find we’re not giving enough time to really explore, we aren’t opposed to cutting things out. For now, this is ideally what we want to do.

AND WE’RE SO EXCITED!

More late night tuk-tuk rides are in our future.
More late night tuk-tuk rides are in our future.

 

We are going during low-season, so it should be less tourist-filled. But, that comes at a cost—it’s rainy season. And it will be hotter than eating ghost pepper chili in the middle of the desert. We’re South Florida residents now, so we’re prepared. Also, our plans may need to change if a cyclone hits. We’ve been known to have some bad luck with weather and traveling (aside from our wedding in England) so, we’re good at being flexible. Read: finding the nearest watering hole.

Tentative Sights To See:

Hanoi, Vietnam (3-4 days)

  • Halong Bay
  • Sapa (weather dependent)

Yangon & Bagan, Myanmar (Burma) (3-5 days)

  • Shwedagon Pagoda
  • Bagan Temples

Phnom Pehn & Siem Reap, Cambodia (7 days)

  • The Grand Palace
  • The Killing Fields
  • Angkor Wat (explore other temples we didn’t see)
  • Floating villages

Seoul, South Korea (2 days)

  • Gyeongbokgung Palace
  • Gangnam Style (Sorry. Had to say it.)

Have I ever told you guys what an AV Geek I am? My office looks out on the flight path into Ft. Lauderdale Airport. I usually can name what type of plane is flying past… *NERD ALERT.*

Anyway, you may not be as impressed by this, but I think it’s so neat.

Our flight paths and total miles:

Bagan, Myanmar (Burma) Bagan, Myanmar (Burma)

We don’t have all our flights booked yet, just the main ones to and from the States. Only paid $66.73 too. That’s for another post…

Thanks for all of your suggestions and input, obviously it helped. We don’t have a ton of insight on Seoul and we’re figuring out just how exactly we’re going to get to Myanmar (Burma) without wasting days of travel.

So, if you have any suggestions on places to go and explore while we’re there, comment below. I’d love to hear it!

Here’s to 5 months of exciting adventure planning!

 

Help Choose our Next Adventure for July

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Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Med school complicates everything, including having any control over our schedule.

  • Our wedding? The hubster had to move mountains to find out the schedule for the following semester so we could, you know, plan our nuptials. We never got a final answer and took a guess. A good guess! (Not joking…)
  • Honeymoon? Didn’t know what his break schedule would be until, you know, the week the Fall semester began.
  • Holidays together? HA. Hahahahahahahaha.

So, when we actually knew he would have a break in July 2015, my type-A-planner-little-heart burst with joy! WE CAN PLAN OUR NEXT ADVENTURE NOW!

<insert rhythmically challenged tap dancing here>

This is where YOU come in.

In general, we know we want to head back to SE Asia. We fell in love with Cambodia. We liked Thailand as well, but something about Cambodia pulled at our hearts. So, I think we want to head back and explore another city and then more countries in SE Asia.

My intention is to use miles to fly (hopefully in our first lie-flat seats). Nearly all our major miles are with Delta and it has a pretty good hold on the Asian region for flight options. I also want to use my points for hotels and spend as little as possible in other off-the-beaten-path guesthouses. Read: $5 a night. Nope. Not joking.

All that said, I’m not opposed to hearing from you about other places to explore.

South Korea. China. Japan. Hong Kong. Australia. Colombia. South Africa. Morocco. Czech Republic. Turkey. The Netherlands. France. My list goes on…

Ultimately, the decision will be ours. I gave my husband a deadline of mid-January to let me know where we should go and I’ll make all the plans and arrangements. That’s the fun part!

But I want to hear what YOU think.

Keep in mind we’re not luxury travelers. We like a nice combination of “roughing it” and splurging on an exotic day-trip or a nice night in a hotel with a great bar on the roof overlooking the night skyline. We probably won’t travel with more than a carry-on/backpack. We ideally would have 2 weeks to work with.

Now it’s your turn:

  • What other countries do you think we should consider?
  • Where would you recommend to go in SE Asia? 
  • Where have you gone and would you recommend? 

Once our decision is made, I’ll post it here to begin the planning festivities. Grab your party pants and get them ironed, you guys. This is going to be fun!

More smiling pics like this to come! Railay Beach, Thailand
More smiling pics like this to come!
Railay Beach, Thailand

Which Country do you Want to Visit First?

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madewithOver

If travel has taught me anything, it’s that I don’t need a lot of shit to be happy.

You know when you’re in IKEA… (Hold up. Imagine that for a moment. Ahhhhhh. Happy place.) …and you see the displays of living spaces? The ones that are between 300-500 square feet. And you’re all, “Yeah, right.”

IKEA markets that because people can and DO live in spaces that size. You know why? They don’t spend their money on tchotchkes from Bed, Bath and Beyond to fill corners of their house that they don’t actually use daily. They either live in cities that demand they live in places that size or they simply spend their money on things like the finer things in life: food, family and fun times. Imagine that?!

Ask the hubster. I’m constantly asking, “Do we need this?” “Should I really buy this?” I’m known to clean out cabinets I just cleared out months ago, that have nothing new in them, because I just feel like there’s “too much.”

I’m not the perfect example…

Sad, pathetic example #1

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I donated most of my handbags this past weekend. Hey! I’ve had some of these for over 11 years. That counts for something, right?

I’m trying, I’m trying.

Anywhooo, in line with what traveling has taught me, what would you like to see from our recent travels? I will be writing about my adventures in England, Scotland, Cambodia and Thailand in the upcoming months. Which country do you want to see first?

Just leave a comment below and the country with the most comments, I’ll blog about first!

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

Which country would you like to hear about and see first? England, Scotland, Cambodia or Thailand.