SNOWBIRD LIFE IN ASIA!

So we arrived home a little over a week ago to this... THANK YOU, Jason and Chloe, for the wonderful welcome home signs, birthday greetings, (homemade) confetti, groceries, etc., etc., etc.!!!  We REALLY appreciated it! And the very next day, we were surprised by this... THANK YOU, Jonathan, for delivering Shallie home to us with a nice supply of dog food!  We appreciate you taking such good care of her for the past three months! And TODAY, at long last, I woke up long enough to say, “I’M ALIVE AND HOPE YOU ALL ARE TOO!”   John and I both had jet lag and head colds from our trip home.  But I got some kind of flu bug (NOT Covid-19) thrown into the mix which had me SLEEP an entire week away of our two week self quarantine!  Now what am I going yo do for FUN? Thanks for your calls, texts, Facebook Messages—I went online this morning FINALLY and I appreciate them all!  I hope everyone is figuring out your new normal ou...

Happy Birthday to my travel buddy, John! I am THRILLED that you have FINALLY reached that 65th milestone that we can enjoy together! This year started out pretty memorable traveling abroad!  And we made it home safe and sound in the middle of the Coronavirus Pandemic.  We’ll never forget THAT for the rest of our lives! Love you, my dear!  And Happy 65th Birthday!!!!

We arrived in Singapore early after an uneventful (but packed full) flight.  We had a ten hour layover before our second leg, Singapore to San Francisco (USA)!!!  It was scary seeing all the cancelled flights! We got a notice saying our Denver flight was cancelled.  Now we’re being routed through Chicago from San Fran!  These ladies were wrapped from the tip of their heads to the tips of their toes!  Think it’s going to help keep the Coronavirus away? 🤣🤣🤣 We were ready to get the show on the road! After an uneventful 14 hour flight, we arrived back into the USA!!!  WOOHOO!  Two legs down two to go!  Next flight is to Chicago and then to Indianapolis!  The airport here in San Fran is eerily quiet. Chicago O’Hare was like nothing we’d seen before.  It was deserted!  But we made it!  One more flight (a short one) and we will be home sweet home!  There has been no mention of self quarantine measures to be ...

John and I stayed holed up in our hotel room today, practicing for a possible quarantine on our long journey home! 🤣🤣🤣  We spent the night at a LOVELY Hilton property by the Bali airport.  Note how DESERTED it was! 😳😳😳 We arrived at the airport in plenty of time for our 5 o’clock check in.  The airport was EMPTY! Our flight from Bali to Singapore got the green light and we WILL NOT be quarantined there!  AHHHH, can you spell RELIEF?  So far so good! We are sitting at our gate and we are READY TO GO!!! And so it begins...

We woke up this morning to the news that our President is urging all Americans traveling abroad to come back to the USA as quickly as possible.  And our dear friend, Jeff, who is a more seasoned traveler than John, texted us this message, “John, can’t tell you why,  but it might be a good idea to cancel and come home quickly.” It is what it is.... John (bless his heart) immediately set up Grand Central and began looking into cancelling all of our original flights and figuring out our new ones.  And he did it!  IF (and we realize this is a BIG IF) everything goes smoothly (🤣🤣🤣) we are leaving tonight on a 9:45PM flight to Singapore.  Then we leave Singapore Sunday morning and fly to San Francisco and then SF to Indianapolis. We have heard MANY stories about long lines at the airports and through immigration, cancelled flights, mandatory quarantines, the list goes on and on!  We know there will be hiccups along the way, but we will SOON be on our...

So we had the news on ALL MORNING LONG and we quickly discovered that THAT was the wrong thing to do!  😢😢😢  All we heard about was the CORONAVIRUS!  We wanted to go to the highly rated Bali Zoo today—it has been closed indefinitely!  We went to the grocery store in search of masks and antibacterial hand wash — totally out-of-stock!  Toilet paper, however, was in good shape!  We are beginning to feel your pain, friends and family.  😢😢😢 We spent the morning “what iffing” — what if flights into the US from other countries are banned between now and our departure date?  What if we can’t get back in for several months?  And then we would think, “But what’s waiting for us at home?”  No contact with family or friends, no restaurants are open, travel is banned....you all know the saga cuz YOU ARE LIVING IT!  😳😳😳 (And how are you all doing, BTW?) So we spent our day poolside!  Social distancing at its best!!! And then...

This sweet young Balinese lady made her rounds this morning with offerings.  She placed them EVERYWHERE around our little boutique hotel!  Like we’ve said before, Balinese Hinduism is all about superstitions, ceremonies, traditions, spirits, and is TOTALLY BAFFLING!  Read about it here: BALI TRADITIONS   and here:   BALINESE RELIGION .   We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, alone in the dining area, looking out at the nearly empty streets. After breakfast, we took a leisurely stroll to The Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary.  WOW!  It was a beautiful park, filled with moss covered statues, magnificent trees, babbling brooks, temples, and MONKEYS!  Lots of Balinese long-tailed monkeys called Macaques!  They were so much fun to watch in their natural environment! After our leisurely morning in Ubud, we booked our driver from yesterday’s tour, Wayan, to ta...