Home Brings Mixed Emotions.

We arrived back in California last Sunday and have many stories to share about our final weeks in Vietnam and Indonesia.  Forgive us for not posting photos for the last month; we didn't want to risk getting more viruses from internet cafe computers (you never know where those things have been.)  Since our computers work SO much better here than they did in Asia, we will edit down our photographs before posting them to Picasa and save you the torture of looking at every single picture we snapped.  Come back to the blog in a few days and hopefully we'll have a link ready for your viewing pleasure.

There is so much that we would both like to reflect on, but I don't think we'll be able to do it in one blog post.  For now, I will just say that this trip was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.  Our travels have fundamentally changed who I am (in a good way) and have given me a broader, more dimensioned perspective on the world and the people in it.  Maybe that sounds cliche, but it's true.  If you have done a trip like this, or even traveled for just a week or two at a time, you know what I mean.

While we were gone, Tyson's sister Teagan left to spend 10 weeks in Cuba for her last semester at college.  A few weeks into her trip, she sent us an email opining that travel should be a requirement for everyone.  I completely agree.  Traveling forces you out of your comfort zone.  It tests your strength and your courage and your bowels.  It opens you up to unexpected interactions, unfamiliar situations, and whim.  It teaches you about yourself and what you are capable of.  It heightens your senses (sometimes this is not a good thing.)  It shows you how breathtaking and heartbreaking this earth is and how we are all beautifully, subtlety connected.

Even though our trip has ended, we intend to try to keep the blog going.  Hopefully, we'll have some interesting things to write about even though we are back in America.  In fact, just yesterday, when Tyson and I were heading up the stairs at the post office, we saw a large homeless woman who was bending over wearing a short summer dress.  Not very noteworthy, right?  Except that it is blog-worthy when said woman fails to wear underpants.  Seriously.  Bare ass and then some on the steps of the Santa Barbara post office.  Now that is a good travel story.  (Thankfully, there are no photos.)

Four Months on a Map

It really is amazing how easy things can be stateside.  At the store, we're able to pick out whatever we want with ease.  If anything, we're faced with too much choice.  We walk down the sidewalks without looking down to make sure we don't step in a hole.  People generally stop at stop signs.  We can pay with a credit card (this should not be so easy) and there is toilet paper and soap in every bathroom (so far).  And once its set up, the internet is easy to use.  This helped us update the basic route we took over the last four months and share it in Google Maps.

The blue upside down raindrops are all of the places we stayed, red lines are flights we took, and blue lines are all sorts of other travel options (ranging from buses, boats, sangthaews, and somebody's uncle's tuk tuk).  The travel was half the experience, maybe more.  We had some great rides, and some scary ones, but it all seemed to work out for the best.

Here's basically the first two and a half months in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia:


View Jenn and Tyson SE Asia Trip in a larger map


And a month in Vietnam, then Indonesia (Bali and Gili Islands):


View Jenn and Tyson SE Asia Trip in a larger map


And our final gorgeous days in Bali, and then Bangkok, where we reluctantly caught our flight home:


View Jenn and Tyson SE Asia Trip in a larger map