So we’ve decided to extend our trip by another 4 – 5 weeks!!
What’s changed?
Since I wrote the last post, Josh’s employer went into administration right before Christmas! It was stressful momentarily, but thankfully he got a short term contract straight away for good money. Coincidentally, it finishes right when our trip starts, so it seemed like a sign to not only go away, but to go away for longer, particularly since at some point, he will get a nice pay out. I can do my uni work overseas, just need to be back by April 29th for my school placement.
Where should we go?
It was quickly back to the drawing board, especially as there was some nice sale fares. Since we have about a month to fill, I was keen for us to go a bit further afield, to places that take a bit longer to get to and so were too annoying to get to in only a 1-2 week break with little kids. We quickly rethought some places we had written off before, checked out what flights were available and came up with three different alternatives:
- China – specifically Shanghai/Nanjing region with a quick trip to see a mate living in Beijing.
- Nepal
- Philippines and Taiwan. This option has two countries as it is just as cheap to fly one way to Taiwan as go via Philippines to get there.
Nepal was quickly relegated to third spot, for no reason except the other options interested us more. We love China and Shanghai/Nanjing have been the top places I have wanted to go for awhile, but the temptation to go to two new countries was just too great, so we went for this! Besides which, it meant that Z’s first birthday would be in Boracay, Philippines, reputed by many to be the best beach in Asia, which seemed like a great spot to celebrate this momentous milestone.
What we decided?
We quickly booked very cheap flights from KL – Manila Clark – Boracay (Kalibo)/Iloilo City – Manila – Taipei for less than $600 for all four of us (Z has a seat sometimes, on lap sometimes as actually cheaper on some sale fares for him to have a seat!) including booking fees, luggage charges, etc. We are still trying to determine what date to fly out of Taipei and how much time to spend in Malaysia on the way home, so we haven’t booked these flights yet. It’s hard to judge just how exhausted we may be and what we will feel like doing. We plan to leave accommodation bookings and exact plans for the end part, but we do need to have our flights booked.
So lots more to organise, so I am in a travel research/planning frenzy which is my favourite place to be!
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| S checks out Lonely Planet Taiwan <3 |
Tags: preparation
