May 13, 2016 9 Comments In my latest video, I share practical tips for living in Bali. If it’s your first visit, you may be wondering how to obtain a visa, where to find accommodation, what medical care is available, and how to use the local currency. I cover all of this, and more. I hope after watching, you’ll understand that travel doesn’t need to be intimidating. There are people...
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Bali / Indonesia / Travel Apr 16, 2015 6 Comments Just off the Northwest coast of Bali, Indonesia lies Menjangan island. Surrounded by clear water, colorful coral, and incredible numbers of fish, it’s a spot we’ve been wanting to visit for some time. So we invited our friends, Brian and Scottie and their 5 year old son, and spent a few days there together. Well, actually the island is uninhabited, except for some monks. But there are several lovely hotels on...
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Bali / Indonesia / Travel Mar 06, 2012 32 Comments Bali is amazing! In many respects, it has exceeded my expectations, while in others, I’m a bit disappointed. But despite its flaws, and even though we’ve only been here a week, and we’ve only partially explored one town, I think we’ve found where we want to settle for the next year or two. Ubud has been dubbed the cultural and art center of Bali and...
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Malaysia / Penang Nov 20, 2011 13 Comments Well, we’re here! We’ve been enjoying Penang, Malaysia for about a week now, and while we’ve mostly spent the time getting settled, cleaning and organizing the house, and trying some delicious food, it’s been a great adventure and in this post I’ll share my first impressions and some pictures. First of all, it’s a lot hotter and more humid here than I expected. It reminds...
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Costa Rica Apr 20, 2011 6 Comments Last week we enjoyed a fun visit from my wife’s parents who came down for nine days. This is the third time we’ve had family visit since we’ve lived in Costa Rica, and while we really like having visitors, we’ve gotten kind of tired of showing the same sites over and over again, especially when they’re expensive tourist spots. Yes, La Paz Waterfall Gardens, Monteverde...
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Guatemala / Travel Dec 17, 2010 4 Comments We just got back from an 8-day trip to Guatemala as a final visa run before we have some visitors over the next few months. This was our first time in Guatemala, but I hope it won’t be our last. We really enjoyed our time there. When researching the trip, one caution I continued to hear was the extremely high crime rate, including murders, muggings,...
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Peru Sep 16, 2010 19 Comments Lima rocks!! We flew in last Thursday and are staying in the Miraflores area, which we’re told is one of the nicest and safest parts of the city. And it’s easy to see why. Our apartment overlooks a lovely and very well-maintained park that follows the coastline for miles, providing a beautiful backdrop of ocean and greenery. The friendly tourist police are abundant, keeping order...
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Costa Rica / Panama Jun 28, 2010 14 Comments This past week we made our second visa run since moving to Costa Rica. We have to make our way out of the country every 90 days, and this time we chose to drive to Panama and visit our friends in Volcán, whom we met on our 6-week trip last year. It was quite an adventurous week, including driving on a closed highway with fallen...
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Costa Rica Mar 19, 2010 9 Comments Today we decided to take advantage of having a car (yes, we finally got one!), so this afternoon we drove to a nearby town called Zarcero. It’s about an hour away from our house in Grecia, and has some beautiful topiary gardens in its central park reminiscent of Dr. Seuss trees. On the way there, Emily was getting a little car sick, so we stopped...
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Panama City Mar 10, 2009 2 Comments Yesterday, we bid goodbye to Bocas on a half-rainy, half-sunny day, and headed back to Panama City for another two nights before coming back home to Utah. We had a great time in Bocas, although being so far away from civilization for a week was a bit of a challenge for us, especially when we didn’t have power or water. But it was still a...
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