Preparation and Packing... and a quick trip to Las Vegas

As most of you know I am about to embark on an adventure to Southeast Asia with my boyfriend Andrew Eldredge.  I've bought a one-way ticket to Bangkok since I am planning on staying longer than Andrew who has to come home in August for law school.  We will be traveling through Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and hopefully Myanmar for 4 months with backpacks and an open mind.   Andrew will have have a Tumblr which you can access at andrewandjess.tumblr.com.

The trip hasn't even begun yet but this past week has already been a crazy adventure. When my dear friend Liza Dabrow told me that her and a few girlfriends were taking a trip to Las Vegas to visit her brother, it only took a few hours to convince me to book a ticket.  Although I had less than 48 hours to recuperate in between this trip and my flight to Bangkok, Vegas was DEFINITELY worth it.   

Andrew and I have done a pretty good job preparing for this trip.  We had plenty of time to research but also planned on packing extremely light and with a very flexible itinerary.  The past month we've gotten vaccines, fought with insurance companies over the price of malaria medicine, researched which Thai islands have the best beaches (and parties) and had a very hard time concentrating at work instead of daydreaming about this trip.  

I am very impressed and surprised with how little we need to pack and how much we were able to fit in our backpacks.  They aren't too heavy and there is even some extra room.  We've also been told that we can buy almost anything in some of the cities that we are traveling in.  The one thing that we needed to stock up on was sunscreen-- it is apparently pretty pricey and poor quality in most of Southeast Asia and Andrew's "tan" is a nice shade of red.

Everything that I am packing

Andrew's Sunscreen

Everything that Andrew and I are packing

Since it is 4 in the morning and we are leaving for the airport in less than two hours I am going to have to cut this blog post off here but will hopefully post again soon! The best way to contact me is through email (jlhalpern89@gmail.com) and I would love to hear from you all!  See you in about 6 months!