July's trip was Steve's second time in East Timor. Luckily he didn't get his wallet stolen this time. (Travel horror story coming...be warned.) All that happened was his flight got delayed by a flat tire. No big deal, right? Not typically at any major airport. You're delayed for a couple hours tops while they fix it, then you're on your way, right? Nope. In a country where flights only come in three days a week, it made him have to stay an extra day. Which in turn made him miss his flight out of Singapore, so of course he had to spend an extra night there until he could get a flight to Narita, Japan. And because he flew Delta for part of the journey and Singapore Airlines for the other part, it was a huge mess trying to get from Japan to LA and from LA to JFK and FINALLY from JFK to BWI. It took him like two and a half extra days just to get home. I guess crazy stuff like that happens when you travel to developing countries.
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| An East Timor food market |
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| This sign was in the airport. Steve thought I would appreciate it and he. was. right. :) |
He made it to Tahiti again this year in August...no pictures this time, just work. The second half of his trip took him to New Caledonia! A new country to add to his scratch-off mat :). He said it wasn't quite as pretty as Tahiti, but a lot more tourist friendly.
He technically added New Zealand to his list as well when he had a layover there. And a layover in NZ means TIM TAMS!! Oh man, we've been slowly converting families in our ward to the tim tam slam and it was great getting to break out the hot chocolate on the first day of September! :)
Steve actually just got back from a two week trip to Vietnam and the Philippines this September. I'm so ready to have him home for awhile! We have two trips left before he's done for 2014, but at least they're not huge Asia/South Pacific ones. I keep telling myself "frequent flyer miles...hotel points...future awesome family vacations..." over and over, haha. Traveling can stink sometimes but he loves it, which is a huge blessing. It's worth it for him to have a job he loves and his personality is perfect for this kind of travel. Plus the Tim Tams??? I can't complain :)
Seriously? I would DIE if Buck got to travel to all these cool places- you are amazing to keep your head up and look forward to those frequent traveler miles! :)
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