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2 girls, post-FIRE, traveling the world

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Tag: LGBTQ travel

December 2, 2019December 2, 2019 Ali

City Report – Ho Chi Minh City

Where are we now?

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Hiking/climbing the Lost Waterfalls in Boquete 🥰 . The hike is around 3 miles to see 3 big waterfalls, and it’s a steep grade up and down along the whole route. On a dry day it’s muddy. And on any day it’s gorgeous 🥰 . A special thank you to all of the rocks, roots, and trees I used to get my 5 ft self up and down in the many very steep spots 🌴 . Why were the hummingbirds chasing Alison? Her bag is the same color as the flowers 💜 . Also. We brought a ton of mud back with us 🤣 . . . . #alloptionsconsidered #itsjustusalix2

Home is More Than Just Housing 🏡 . When we decided to retire early we took the opportunity to look closely at our housing options moving forward. We took a deep dive into both our personal needs regarding a home of our own, and also into what we could afford on our retirement budget 🤩 . Going through that process helped us design clear parameters for our housing choices moving forward 📐 . Most people have an emotional attachment to their home, and for many people their home actually feeds their sense of self worth. Our home also impacts our ability to feel grounded as well as our sense of being safe 🥰 . Understanding what you personally get from your sense of home and how that might link to your health and happiness is liberating. Having that emotional element figured out can also make it easier to understand how your sense of home can affect your housing budget 🤑 . And now we have just gone through the process of reviewing our housing options again, and planning for 2020. And the plan is to live home-free as travelers again next year 🗺 . We also have a hefty spreadsheet ready to share. This is our Rent vs Home-Free vs Buy spreadsheet and it’s full of calculators. It’s also full of real numbers and ready for you to copy and insert your own real numbers so you can do some housing planning too 🤓 . Check out our “Home is More Than Just Housing” blog post at http://alloptionsconsidered.com 👉 . Link is in our profile 🔗 . . . . . #alloptionsconsidered #itsjustusalix2

Sights from today’s walk in Boquete 🤩 . . . . . . #alloptionsconsidered #itsjustusalix2

Art by humans in Boquete Panama 🥳 . . . . . #alloptionsconsidered #itsjustusalix2

Love this sunrise photo from Alison’s 6am dog walk this morning ❤️🌞 . . . . . . #alloptionsconsidered #itsjustalix2

We take a few walks every day if we can 😊 . If we’re going downtown to get groceries 🥦🥑🍎 . Our favorite walking route around downtown Boquete is a loop using 2 bridges that cross the Caldera River 😊 . Even though we are walking in the middle of the busiest part of this small town there are some amazing views of the mountains and the canyon, especially from the bridges over the Rio Caldera 🤩 . Just one of the things we love about Boquete Panama 💜 . . . . . #alloptionsconsidered #itsjustusalix2

By the end of 2019 we will have visited 12 countries this year, not including the US 🥳 . Our goal in each country was to learn a few basic phrases in the local language. Just enough to be able to greet people, thank people, order food and drinks, navigate around town, and be generally gracious and polite 🥰 . Including Mandarin, Tamil, Malay, Thai, Khmer, Vietnamese, Japanese, French 🙏 . Those little bits of words and phrases were all learned using apps on our phones. And they were mostly forgotten as soon as we moved on to a new place 📲 . This month we are taking it up a notch, since our travels are taking us to 3 different countries this year where Spanish is the primary language. To start, we have a Spanish teacher working with us twice a week for a month during our stay in Boquete. We’ve never done anything like this before. And so far - this experience is amazing 🙏 . . . . . #alloptionsconsidered #itsjustusalix2

Vietnam was our final stop during our 4 month trip through SE Asia. Our plan was to travel through Vietnam for a month from south to north, which made Ho Chi Minh City a logical first stop 🇻🇳 . Our original plan was to stay 2 weeks in HCMC, but after getting some advice we dropped that down to 6 nights 🤔 . We had a great time during our 6 nights in HCMC and of course at the end of our trip we wished we had stuck to the plan to stay 2 weeks there 🥰 . We really enjoyed the parts of the city we saw. And best of all, we met some amazing people there who made us feel very welcome and shared their love and excitement about HCMC and Vietnam 😍 . We kept our spending pretty low in HCMC. When we left the city and Alison did her Money Crush math we found that our total spending in HCMC was $32.30 PPPD, well below our budget 🤑 . HCMC is a location that has a cost of living that’s comfortable for us, and it’s a place where we can overpay and be generous while staying within our budget 👍 . Our HCMC experience was a reminder that we often love the places other people tell us we won’t like. Pretty much every person we talked to about HCMC essentially said, “Don’t go there you will hate it.” Everyone was wrong because we loved this city and we can’t wait to return 🥳 . You can read more about our trip to HCMC on our blog 💻 . Check it out at alloptionsconsidered.com 👉🌐 . Link is in our profile 🔗 . . . . . #alloptionsconsidered #itsjustusalix2

Alison is my hero 🦸‍♀️ . I woke up here in Boquete and found a giant scary spider on the screen door. It was outside between the glass door and the screen door so I was safe, but I let out a little “whoop” of fear just for dramatic effect 😱 . Then I went and got Alison. She took one look, then went around outside and pulled the screen door off. She walked that over to the balcony and flicked the spider off onto the lawn 🕷 . Done ✅ . Thank goodness for Alison. And thank goodness for our division of roles. Big scary spiders are totally Alison’s department and she seems fine with that 🥰 . . . . . #alloptionsconsidered #itsjustusalix2

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