Jeff and Hillary's Travels

Hill and I love travel for travel's sake. Travel makes a person step outside his/her comfort zone and presents challenges not normally faced in familiar surroundings. It keeps you thinking, questioning, learning and discovering. We spent three years together teaching English in Okinawa Japan, where I also taught SCUBA diving, then another 10 months traveling S.E.Asia. Indonesia and Laos were our favorite all-around countries for different reasons, but really enjoyed every place we went. Some would consider it a 'once-in-a-lifetime' experience, but I can't stand that expression...Why only once in your lifetime? Why not make it a lifetime of experiences? I have just returned from three months teaching SCUBA in Puerto Escondido, Mexico and Hillary, my travel and lifetime-experience buddy, and I are getting married in September afterwhich we are planning to honeymoon in the Philippines. This adventure has its beginnings while still living and working in Okinawa, Japan. More than a year of research and planning went into making this journey happen. It was planned with no definite end or direction, just an idea and a bit of money. We knew we would begin and end in Bali, Indonesia - I had been there before - but the in between was left purposely vague so as to give us flexibility. No reservations were made, we just flew in and began moving...for ten months. The only reason it ended when it did was because we finally ran out of money! Over ten months beginning in September of 2003, we travelled to Bali and Sulawesi, Indonesia, Sabah and Sarawak (Borneo) Malaysia, Singapore, Penninsular Malaysia, Thailand, Burma (visa run), Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, back to Thailand and Malaysia, into Sumatra, Indonesia, back to Bali, down to Western Australia, back to Bali, West Timor, and Flores, Indonesia and finally home to Eugene, Oregon - after returning to Bali again - in July, 2004. We've broken it up into separate journals as there is too much for just one...First up: Jeff and Hillary's Excellent Adventure: Part 1 - Bali and Lombok...read more »