Planning Myanmar

November 13, 2015November 12, 2015 / lifeafter9to5 / 1 Comment

[photo credit: Wikipedia]

“Why are you going to Myanmar?… Wait, where is Myanmar?” I think those might be the two most common questions I’ve gotten each time I’ve told someone we’re going to Myanmar. Our response is always some combination of: “It’s near Thailand, and well, why not?” If you’ve ever searched for pictures of Bagan on Google, you’d know right away why we were drawn to Myanmar. The country looks beautiful, it is in Southeast Asia, there is a rich cultural history to explore, and until a few years ago, it wasn’t even possible to enter the country. All the reasons that would make for a great trip. We’ve been pretty excited for this trip, so much so that I’ve even managed to pull myself away from work for a whole two weeks! Continue reading →

Planning Brazil

September 2, 2015September 2, 2015 / fpalazzetti / Leave a comment

BrazilTrip-Copacabana_beach-Misc2-RioDeJaneiro

[Photo credit: Len Theivendra via Flyseestay]

In a few days time, we’ll be on our way to Rio DeJaneiro! We booked our tickets way back in January, when we saw an error fare, and decided to snag a few seats. Fast forward 9 months, and its finally time to start packing. We are lucky that Caitlin’s sister also booked the same fare and visited Rio back in March. She shared all of her itinerary with us so we didn’t have to plan too much. Continue reading →

Travel Tip: Australian Visitor Visa

November 14, 2014November 13, 2014 / lifeafter9to5 / 22 Comments

As you may know, we’re traveling to Australia in a few weeks. Three weeks out, it finally dawned on us that we still haven’t gotten our travel visa yet and we need to get on it ASAP. Since we have passports from one of the few countries that are allowed to apply for an electronic visitor visa to Australia, we thought it would be quite simple: fill out the form online, pay the $20AUD fee, and and be on our way. The whole electronic visa process is supposed to be hassle free with a high acceptance rate of 99.8%. But nothing is ever easy or hassle free when I travel, and it turns out that I am in that special 0.2% that got rejected – with no explanation and also no refund for the $20AUD fee. So this post is not so much about travel tips as it is things you should not do from my personal experience.