In his mid fifties, @new.things has been planning for an early retirement for ages. In my early forties, I've barely thought about it, until this week, that is.
The Mister has accrued long service leave at the company he's been with for 20 years and had always imagined he'd either do a(nother) lap around Australia or a trip around the world.
Now that it's getting closer to that time we've realised that there might be (even) better options that actually suit us both better.
Step 1, before he gives us the well paying day job--and as he continues to build his Hive portfolio, of course--is to do some shorter, fun trips.
Over the next six months we're planning to go to Singapore, Chiang Mai (Thailand), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and Kuta/Seminyak (Bali, Indonesia) in one 17 day loop.
Then after a quick road trip south to New South Wales to visit my family over Christmas/New Year's, then we'll head to Japan to go skiing in Feb (and pick up two of three parkruns, of course!)
Before, between and after these trips we'll have strong motivation to both work and save, create and invest, learn and grow to help make these (and more trips like these) happen.
I'm expecting we'll learn a lot from these trips, about these locations as well as more about how we like to travel, but also about each other and, ultimately, about ourselves as humans.
But before I get too deep, here's what I want to know from you:
āØ Have you been to (or do you live in) any of the places we're visiting? (Singapore, KL, Chiang Mai, Kuta (or nearby), Tokyo, Nagano and Sapporo)
āØ If you have visited any of these places (or live in any of them) what would you absolutely recommend we do while we're there? (Note: We're most interested in beaches, hiking, skiing, eating healthy food, experiencing genuine local culture and sleeping well š We are not interested in staying up late, drinking copious amounts of alcohol or spending up big on crap we don't need.)
I look forward to hearing your suggestions!! š
