Celebrating the New Year (and five months on the road) in Laos

2011 greetings from Vientiane!

First, a brief update on our RTW itinerary: We're here until 02JAN, then in central & southern Vietnam until 14JAN. We're going to spend a week in Cambodia focusing on the temples at Angkor Wat, then a month in Thailand. It's time to slow down and relax more and I think Thailand will be the perfect place. Afterward, we'll spend a few weeks minimum in India; longer if Greg doesn't hate it! :) Then on to Europe...

2010 represents the year I finally started living my dream. True, those of you who know me well also know that I’ve never been one to follow the mainstream. It has taken a lot of hard work and trial & error to get to where I am today. For me, happiness is never measured by financial or material wealth but by life experiences. Of course, I love my family and I’ve even had jobs that I loved for a time, but nothing compares to how alive I feel when I’m traveling in an unfamiliar place. In the past, many of my most memorable experiences are from times when I was alone. Sharing this trip around the world with Greg has been both challenging and rewarding. Thankfully, it’s mostly rewarding!

As I look forward into the new year & beyond, I hope for continued (reasonably) good health and for the courage to continue creating my own path in life. I have no idea what will happen when we eventually do return to the U.S., but I have to believe that everything will fall into place as it always has. I refuse to consider the alternative!

Here are a few photos of us from 2010:

loving the beer in our "new" hometown of Portland, OR

sharing good times with "old" friends in Nashville, TN

touring Yellowstone & the Grand Tetons, Wyoming

feeding roos on Kangaroo Island, Australia

walking on the Great Wall in China

enjoying dinner in Istanbul, Turkey with my mom & stepdad

riding camels at the Giza Pyramids, Egypt

celebrating Greg's birthday in Wadi Rum, Jordan

on safari in Tanzania

riding an elephant in Luang Prabang, Laos