2018 Year in Review

Another year!

2018 brought a lot of changes in my life. I quit my job, I moved to Vietnam for a few months, and I was able to visit home for Thanksgiving and Christmas for the first time since moving to Thailand. It's been a great year - not without its challenges, of course - but a great one. I never could have imagined where I would have ended up this year!

Let's rewind...

The year began with the visit of some very dear friends. My good buddy James and his girlfriend came to Thailand (his third time, her first), and we began the new year with blessings in the Old Town of Bangkok.

Bangkok Old Town, along the river

In February, I flew up to Chiang Rai to attend the wedding of some friends. The bride and groom are both from the north of Thailand, and had a really beautiful traditional northern-style wedding. All of the guests were invited to wear northern outfits to the wedding, which was held in the early morning in a beautiful antique wooden house.

wedding guests

I left my job of five years. I miss it every day, and I miss my students. I loved every minute of my time at the school, but it was time to move on.

saying goodbye to my students

Pinky and I relocated to Vietnam! We decided to take a risk and try something new. We spent three months in Vietnam, starting with a month in Hanoi, the beautiful and storied old capital.

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Hanoi, Vietnam

After that, we moved to the central region. Hue was the ancient imperial capital of Vietnam, and in the weeks that we spent there, we really immersed ourselves in the history of the city. We stayed at a wonderful home stay during our time in Hue, and were really made to feel at home.

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a night out in Hue

Next, Da Nang. The central Vietnamese city is one of the biggest and most modern in the country. It felt much more modern and easier to live in than Hanoi. In Da Nang, we began to really feel like we were settling in to life in Vietnam.

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hiking in the Marble Mountains in Da Nang

While there, we were joined by Pinky's sister for a week of traveling to Ba Na Hill (a French colonial mountain resort) and Hoi An (an ancient port city).

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the Mercure Da Nang French Village

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Coconut Boats in Hoi An, Vietnam

Nha Trang was next, a cool beach resort town where we spent two weeks. There wasn't so much to do there, and we had seen all of the sights within a few days. Nevertheless, after a few months of traveling, we were just about ready to take it easy for a few days!

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We even spent the Fourth of July celebrating at the most American restaurant we could find in Nha Trang: Texas Chicken.

Nha Trang, Vietnam

Finally, we spent a month in Ho Chi Minh City, more commonly known by its pre-war name, Saigon.

It rained. A lot. And we both had a bad cold for the first week. We ended up staying in a playing Skyrim for like a week. By this time, we were both exhausted from traveling so far. We had been staying in hostels and living cheap for months. After we were feeling better, we finally got to explore Vietnam's biggest city.

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downtown Saigon

Vietnam was amazing! I ate some incredible food, and enjoyed the most delicious coffee that I've ever had. The time we spent in Vietnam (1/4 of a year) was incredibly rewarding, but it was challenging at times too. We had to learn to be truly independent, how to budget, and how to be super travelers. We packed way too much, and learned a lot about each other and about the things that are really important in life. With that, we returned to Thailand for a month to plan our next move.

The next move, in September, was to fly to Laos to spend another month.

Vientiane City Pillar Shrine

We flew into Vientiane, the capital of the tiny landlocked nation. From there, we took a harrowing bus to Vang Vieng. VV was once the party capital of Southeast Asia, but after a series of government raids, had been shutdown and transformed into more of an eco-tourism and adventure travel destination.

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Vang Vieng, Laos

After a few days in Vang Vieng, we took an even more harrowing bus ride through the hairpin mountain roads to Luang Prabang, Laos' ancient royal capital, ,most famous UNESCO world heritage city, and spiritual capital of Laotian Buddhism.

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Haw Phra Bang and the Royal Palace, Luang Prabang, Laos

I loved Luang Prabang. I would gladly have spent three months there. The town was small, quiet, and stuffed to the brim with history and culture. Luang Prabang has over thirty UNESCO-recognized temples, and we tried to visit every one of them.

at one of the many Buddhist temples in Luang Prabang

I loved Luang Prabang so much that I even started a little mini side project. LuangPrabangTemples.com is my side blog to help travelers plan their trip to Luang Prabang. It's all about the temples (and other tourist sites) in Luang Prabang, Laos.

Vat Xieng Thong, Luang Prabang

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I tried some 100-proof Laotian moonshine...

the Whisky Village

... visited a bear rescue center at an amazing waterfall...

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Kuang Xi Falls

... and observed the very spiritual and special morning alms-giving ceremony.

alms in Luang Prabang

In November we flew to Macau, and then to Hong Kong.

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St. Paul's, Macau

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Chi Lin Nunney, Hong Kong

We flew in to the USA in mid November, on a surprise visit home that we had been planning all year. We got to spend Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year with my family in Texas, and I couldn't be happier!

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While home, I celebrated a Norwegian Country Christmas in small town Texas.

Norwegian church in Texas

And I traveled once again to New Mexico to visit the incredible White Sands National Monument.

White Sands

But the most special thing about being home is just to be able to spend a lot of time with my family. It's been a wonderful holiday season, and I've been so happy.

Now, it's almost time to head back to Bangkok and begin the next chapter of my life. 2018 was a good one, but I have a feeling that 2019 will be even better.

I wish you all a joyous year full of peace and happiness. Thanks to all of you for following my adventures.

*I know... I've fallen behind on the blog. I'll catch up, though! I always do. Over the next few weeks, I'll be writing about my adventures in Texas and New Mexico. I hope, as always, that my adventures can inspire your own. Stay tuned for: The Living Desert Zoo, White Sands, Mesilla, ICE, the Armed Forces Bowl, a Norwegian Country Christmas, a Yule Log, and much more!*