63 HOURS OF TRAVEL?!
Greetings my fine fellow folks,
Hope all is well in your neighborhood. If you don't live in a specific neighborhood, then I hope all is well on the street you turn off into your driveway. I know... All of you who have felt excluded from that first statement for ages can now dab your eyes with Kleenex for a few minutes. I'll wait...
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Annnddd welcome back. In this week's edition of Sunday Somewhere, the weekly dose of travel updates and advice from Wyatt and Reyka the global travelers, we have a big update!
WE ARE IN MEXICO!
I know, right? We can't really believe it either. Eating tacos and burritos is difficult to stomach (*pun intended*) when you were just eating dal, ramen, and curry for four months straight.
The story of how we ended up here is a long one, but I'll give you the Sparknotes version.
- After India, we were going to stay in Malaysia for five days before heading to...
- New Zealand! We were scheduled for three weeks exploring both islands beginning on February 20th.
- Cyclone Gabrielle hit NZ on February 12th, leaving at least 11 dead and displacing thousands.
- My parents called me on the 15th and said they did not want to come and would be canceling their flights.
- The questions began: Would 8 days post disaster be a good time to go? Could we be refunded the tickets? etc.
- My parents had an alternative idea
It was a 63 hour journey in total from Kuala Lumpur. We flew 7hrs to Tokyo, chilled in the airport for 23 hrs (that is a really long time), flew 10 hrs to LA, hungout there for 20 hrs (also a long time), and finally flew 3 hrs to San Jose del Cabo at the bottom of the Baja Peninsula.
We were refunded travel credits for our flights to/from New Zealand, and we are now relaxing every day. Let me tell you... it's been WONDERFUL. Tacos, avocados, speaking Spanish, wearing swimsuits all day, backgammon. As my dad, an avid fan of Shrek, would say - "This place is like Duloc." Duloc is the utopia city where Lord Farquad rules where nothing ever goes wrong.
Tips for Travel Days:
- https://www.sleepinginairports.net/ has excellent guides on the best terminals and areas to sleep in most airports in the entire world!
- A good book is the best for making a boring place not boring. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson occupied most of the 63 hrs on the way here.
- Check in online if you can. A digital boarding pass will save you time and stress geting to your gate.
- Wash your hands a lot. In general I feel like being a bit of a germaphobe can't really hurt us in airports.
We failed already...
We planned to edit multiple vlogs on the way to Mexico, but this didn't quite happen. Such a pity we've already failed on our posting schedule goal this year to post a vlog every Saturday and Tuesday for all of 2023. Sorry, guys. In hindsight, we shouldn't have been so optimistic and should have worked harder before leaving Malaysia.
That's it for today. I'm going to go watch humpback whales flop in the Sea of Cortez from the balcony of our Airbnb. Would you visit a country right after a natural disaster? What are your best strategies for getting through travel days? Why do whales flop like they do? Let me know by replying to this email! (Seriously, I'm curious about all three.)
Adios amigos,
Wyatt and Reyka
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