OK now what?!?!?

So the decision was made….for better or worse, we were going to give this a try.  I had two opportunities presented to me, with the understanding I would accept one on the following Monday….I accepted neither, lol, so now we’ve gotta do this!  But how, where…..how do we even prepare to leave, let alone figure out how to live in Bali??

Over the next month or so, we were fortunate to find seemingly perfect tenants.  They’re willing to stay for exactly 12 months, or stay a few months longer, perfect….Check!

They move in Feb 15th, 2017….so there it is, whats next?  Oh yeah, Bali….

As it turns out, visa’s would be required for us to live in Bali.  Indonesia will grant us a 30 day visa upon arrival to stay as vacationers…..beyond that, a 60 day visa can be arranged ahead of time.  After 60 days, we would have to arrange to have our passports stamped outside of Indonesia before we could come back.  Big deal? Not sure…  Bali is pretty much right in the middle of Indonesia, so our initial thoughts were that we’d have to fly to Thailand or NewZealand to get our passports stamped, and visa’s renewed.  A quick google search told us that could cost as much as $300-400 per person….although we’ve spoken to people since then that say it can be done for much less….  Regardless, our research at this point begged the question….why just Bali??

Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Vietnam, all look amazing…..and they fit our budgetary criteria.  As do some places in Europe…..and Central America.  Why don’t we try to see as much as we can!

We came across a cool book (Lonely Planet’s) “Where to go When”.  It isn’t super in depth, but it has the basic’s on all these places, and highlights the best time of year to visit. February’s feature destination….. CAMBODIA.  Bali is in it’s wet season in February, so we’ve made the decision to start in Cambodia and go from there.  We’ve just booked our flight to Siem Reap which has us arriving on the 17th of Feb.  We plan on staying in Siem Reap for a week or so before travelling south through the country and perhaps going to Laos or Vietnam next, on our way to Bali for May/June (ish), we’ll see.

Having made this decision, I find myself generally reinvigorated, brimming with the possibilities of the near future.  I think it’s made this past Holiday season really special too, almost as if leaving for this length of time has heightened our relationships with our families and friends.  Mostly, I’m so happy I’ll get to share this journey with my wife and daughters as I imagine this will bring us even closer together.