Good Fortune is with Us

This is being typed as we fly across the ocean towards Hawaii to kick off our Asia-Pacific tour.  We have, and continue to experience mixed feelings of sheer excitement, fear of the unknown, and lots of “I can’t believe we’re doing this.”

These varied feelings are to be expected and we know this journey will help us grow individually and as a team.  We have worked hard to get here, but there is something to be said for hedging one’s bets.

Our good friends, Rich (affectionately known as Richie B) and his lovely wife Laverne (aka Elle) gave us a beautiful little Buddha statue for good luck.  They purchased it specially for us while traveling in Thailand last November.

The baby Buddha is joining us in our travels; after all, one can always use a little extra good fortune.

Quick Trip Quip - How to Avoid Speeding Tickets

Quick Trip Quips are those funny witticisms picked up by peripheral hearing during our travels. This entry falls into the "educational" category.

Venue: Caroline's Cafe in Key West Florida - A quality people watching spot if ever there was one.

Players: Two people are sitting at the outdoor bar. To protect the identities of those involved in this Quick Trip Quip, we shall refer to them as:

• Almost Naked Girl - Wearing a bright red lace camisole and thong bottom...Oh, and a very retro-styled tricorne hat; she was extremely inebriated.

• Funny Hat Guy - Rotating a wide selection of decorative head-wear including an overly fuzzy pimp-style hat and one in the shape of a roosting chicken. Funny Hat Guy was the most likely source of Almost Naked Girl's handsome tricorne.

Quip: Almost Naked Girl to Funny Hat Guy, "I dress like this all the time...I never get speeding tickets!"

Post Script: Sorry gents! We didn't manage to capture a picture of this scene.

Travel Visa Requirements

Embarking on our world tour in the near future brought up the question of visa requirements for the different places we may be traveling to.  Matt found a great reference via Wikipedia that may be helpful if you decide to embark on your own journey. 

One location noted "Immigration offenses, such as visa overstaying, are punishable by caning."  Yowsa!  You can believe we will be following the rules in this country.

Update on Wednesday, February 19, 2014 at 6:20AM by DINKS Travel

Please note - The Philippines requires a return ticket to the United States or to another country (as we luckily read online before we arrived).  We created an updated entry in Wikipedia for this.

Update on Saturday, February 22, 2014 at 6:43PM by DINKS Travel

We believe we found even a better site for Visa requirements while having to do more digging on what's necessary to keep us from being slowed down during our travels.  Try - http://www.visahq.com/.

Less than 2 Weeks!

Happy Holidays everyone!  Tis the season to celebrate with friends and family and we have been partying it up!  We would like to give a “shout out” to our friends and co-workers for awesome parties / outings, thoughtful gifts and well wishes.

Preparations are coming together.  It’s been a lot of work, but satisfying to know we will soon realize our goal.  Since our previous blog posting, we sold our secondary vehicle and condo, moved, finished all travel vaccinations, secured our international drivers’ licenses, and completed all travel related purchases.

And you may have noticed this website is officially up and running!  Woohoo! 

TripAdvisor's 10 Destinations on the Rise

TripAdvisor's 10 Destinations on the Rise offers a great idea generator for the upcoming trip.  We noticed a few destinations already included on our list of "must visits" and some new considerations as well. 

For those targeting specific regions, the article offers an option towards the top which reveals TripAdvisor's picks for the top 10 destinations in the United States, Europe, South America, Asia, and the South Pacific.