USA

Nicole and I are at it again...
Last week I graduated from business school and while Nicole still has a few years to go in her PhD, we have a bit of transition in our lives. At the end of the month, we'll be relocating to St. Louis, where I'll start work with Anheuser-Busch (now ABInbev) in marketing. She'll still be commuting to New York, but after two years, we'll actually live together again (thank goodness for a far simpler life). In fact, we just signed a lease on a great place in St. Louis' Central West End, and after spending a few days in the city, are looking forward to our move.
First though, we thought a bit of celebration was in order, so in customary style and to take advantage of the most downtime we'll have in some time, we're off on one last long trip - three weeks spent primarily in Laos and Vietnam. We'll be starting the main part of the trip in Luang Prabang, after which we'll spend time in the north of the country and on a lazy cruise back down the Mekong to the city. Then we'll head to Vietnam for two weeks, visiting Hanoi and the scenic hill station of Sapa in the north and Hue and Hoi An along the coast before ending with a couple of days in Ho Chi Minh (Saigon). While June may be pretty steamy in the Mekong region, we're sure it'll make good preparation for those muggy summers in STL, and there'll be plenty of spicy food (and of course beer) to cool us down.

In order to work the major flights using miles, we also fit in a stopover in Kuala Lumpur on the return, where we'll hopefully get a chance to meet up with some friends and enjoy authentic Malaysian food. Given how much sambal I've watched these guys use, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

Well, that's all for now. We'll be back when internet and time allow.

Thanks for reading!

After an 18-month hiatus, we've decided to use the occasion of a trip to India to start writing about our travels again. We'll see how long we manage to keep it up, but it was a great way to capture our memories and experiences, and we've found ourselves flipping through the entries every now and then.

The main event in India is a friend's wedding in Delhi over the weekend of January 15/16, but we're also taking advantage of the trip to visit Mumbai, several points in Kerala, and Agra. Unclear how often we'll have internet, but we'll try to do updates every few days.

Thanks for coming along!

- Jake & Nicole

With 30 days under our belt, we hit the halfway point of the trip yesterday afternoon as we enjoyed a sunny day in northern California. The first half has gone by quick, but we've had an amazing time! That said, its also been nice to have this little break stateside to do a real load of laundry (instead of in a hotel bathtub) and take it easy for a couple of days.

Tonight, it all starts again as we depart for China!