Farewell, Singapore!

"Bye Sin-a-pore! We going some-wheah else!" Is how Danger Monkey bid farewell to the Singapore skyline as we passed the Marina Bay Sands, the Singapore Flyer, and the supertrees on our final evening.

Our last week in Singapore was a flurry of celebrations, packing, and farewells.

We celebrated Michael's birthday and new job, as well as the big kids' school year accomplishments.

Nothing says "We'll miss you!" like 3 AM karaoke

The packers arrived to box our stuff and ship it stateside, and over four days they transformed our home into a bare, efficient, and clean apartment that somehow seems impossibly small for five people. How an apartment can seem smaller when empty than before 3/4 of a shipping container's worth of stuff has been removed remains a mystery.

Your authority is not recognized in fort Kick-Ass.

Goodbye Everything!  See you in Minneapolis!

With outings, BBQs, lunches, and parties we bid farewell to neighbors, classmates, teachers, and coworkers...our new friends. We will stay in touch, and hopefully see each other again someday. If any of you are reading this, come visit us in Minnesota! We'll show you the sculpture garden and the lakes; we'll feed you amazing tacos, pizza, ice cream, and farm-to-table fusion; and if you time it right we'll take you to the state fair, renaissance festival, or some great theatre. (Hint: May through September are lovely)

There are a lot of things we'll miss about living in Singapore:

The incredible multiculturalism

The efficient public transportation

The delicious food in infinite varieties

The warm evenings

The delightful parks, playgrounds, and wild areas

The joyful festivals

The proximity to the rest of Asia

...and most of all, the wonderful people who became our friends.

Goodbye Singapore. We're going somewhere else. But you will be a part of us always.

I can see our stuff from here!

Now begins the Long Way Home... approximately 5 weeks of rattling around Southeast Asia while all of our worldly possessions cross the pacific ocean.  We had originally conceived of a trip where we hit all of the highest-priority locations that we hadn't made it to, but then we did the math on the travel time from New Zealand to the Maldives and pursued a different strategy: Let's visit all of the out-of-the-way places that are probably not going to draw us across the Pacific for their own trip from Minnesota. The rough itinerary wound up being Myanmar->Northern Thailand -> Laos -> Bali -> Malaysian Borneo -> Okinawa -> Home, mixing in a few resorts, a few hikes up to stay with indigenous mountain tribes, a world music festival, and our first time trying to drive in Asia.

Expect some more frequent updates as we update from the road!

Sending birthday greetings to Uncle Brendon