Nerves of Linguini
it's just this side of a month before the wedding. so just this side of two months before everything we own is in a box or on the sidewalk or in our packs and we're on a plane.
we'd decided a long time ago that we needed to hit australia after the wedding. to see bartlebee's grandparents before they die. to visit with cousins and aunts and friends. so we figured we'd fly to palau -- someplace i've always wanted to go -- on the way for a honeymoon. turns out palau isn't so much on the way but we found a cool travel agent who's worked out a package for us. LAX to Palau to Cairns, Australia with thirteen nights stay in a beautiful cabana and a weeks worth of diving.
thing is, it costs a boatload. somewhere in between a quarter and a third of all our money. then we'll be in australia for a month or so and that will cost a lot too. australia isn't cheap and we'd need to get somewhere FROM australia. closest places would be South East Asia and we've both been there. plenty.
so we're going to palau 'cause we need to go to australia (and i've dreamed of going there for ages!) and we're heading north from australia because, well, that's the only thing that really makes sense financially. we'd visit A&A in laos and then head to India, someplace i'd like to spend more time. that was the rough plan.
until last night.
last night, after watching Breakfast at Tiffany's, i ask bartlebee: are we crazy to go to Palau? it's going to cost us so much?
the cogs in her brain start clicking. her god parents just surprised us by saying they're attending the wedding (from Oz) and now... maybe we DON'T need to go to australia right away. maybe it's better for us to travel for some time and then end up in Australia when we're broke as opposed to running out of money in the middle of the Sahara or something?
and if we don't go to Australia right off the bat, should we really blow so much money going to Palau?
and if not, what the hell should we do instead.
this, a month before the wedding and two months before the ETD, is enough to demand some xanax treatment and a sick day.
i like to travel without a plan. i like to have done some research though. i like to have a sense of what i'm getting into. i like to, say, have gotten the shots needed before my health insurance runs out. i like to not be shocked to find the flights from point A to point F cost 2000 pflugs not 20 pflugs and that the pflug is an acceptable currency.
basically, i went a little blooey. everything bartlebee said is right, i just wish we had figured that out three months ago. now it seems a bit daunting to re-un-plan everything.
ha ha.
any good ideas for us? we're thinking of heading more towards africa than asia. or south america? hell. we don't know.
as long as it's warm, quiet, beautiful and they serve drinks on the beach, i'll be okay.
whatever you do, don't go to rwanda. i saw some commercial for a hotel there and it didn't look fun at all.
I think you want to go to Laos. Laos is the answer. You know it doesn't cost nearly as much as Palau, and it kind of sounds the same if someone asks where you're going and you act like you're not sure and say, " Uh, I don't know...uh..puh..laos?"