Which was your favorite city?

I don’t usually pick favorites and this is no exception. I loved pretty much all the places we visited. If I have to pick a standout from this visit, I’ll go with Hong Kong. It was such a short trip but we were all healthy, we stayed in a really nice hotel, and the two days we were there were packed with fun and excitement. HK is such an amazing city and while we’ve eliminated it from our potential relocation spots, it is undeniably an awesome place to visit. Really hope the current political tension will be resolved without tarnishing the beauty of the place and its people. 

Favorite airline(s)?

For transpacific flights we flew on ANA to Asia and United Airlines back to America. There really is no contest. Asian flagship carriers are by and large the best in the world while NA legacy carriers are widely panned as among the worst…and this was unsurprisingly our experience. ANA is also considered one of the better Asian airlines. Besides ANA, we flew Air Japan, China Southern and a handful of Asian and American low cost carriers. I would say Jetblue, Southwest and Air Japan were all enjoyable. Still, ANA was far and away the best for service and comfort. 

Where will you move?

Part of our goal for this trip was to begin our search for a future base in Asia. On paper, we focused on a top 5 list (Hong Kong, Macau, Penang, Singapore, Taipei) and we planned to spend a decent amount of time in each of these cities to compare. Besides that top 5, there were a handful of wild cards that could possibly get consideration, and we were able to visit all of them but one. 

With the trip concluded, I think we have settled on a top four, with it realistically coming down to the first two: Taipei – 50%, Singapore – 35%, Macau – 10%, Penang – 4%, Other – 1%. Of course the percentages I listed are kind of ad hoc, but they paint a picture of how we feel. Things could certainly change in the interim 2-3 years before we move, but barring unforeseen circumstances, I believe the answer will be Taipei or Singapore, with the actual choice coming down to work obligations and future income. If Kelly ends up having more business in Singapore AND our income is pretty good, then Singapore could squeak ahead. If things are more or less as they are right now, we will move to Taipei.  

Where are you traveling next? Is this the new normal for you?

Nowhere and no. Lol…well, Kelly has a business trip upcoming and we want to get back to Jacksonville at some point, but besides that we are happy to not travel anywhere for the rest of the year. The 67 days on the road definitely took a toll and…we are doing another 6.5 weeks in Asia early next year!! So time to rest and recharge. The next Asia trip, while long, is significantly shorter and should take us to just a handful of cities. No, we do not plan to do any more trips like the one we just completed anytime soon. When the kids are a bit older, more responsible and independent, then we will reassess. 

Biggest regret or mistake from this trip?

Well, there were two things that stood out. One was getting sick. We all got sick for a stretch. Jadon and I were relatively unscathed, in both severity and length, but still did not feel great for a week. Jalen got pretty sick but he managed to fully recover after about 10 days. Kelly, however, was sick off and on for three weeks. She did not fully recover until after her second, stronger dose of antibiotics was prescribed to her in Macau which she completed in Zhongshan. So I wish we (or the doctor in KL) had figured out exactly what was wrong and gotten her/all of us better faster. Kelly’s extended illness really wore her down, obviously, and also affected the whole family. We plan to be far more vigilant about hygiene in the future. 

The second regret could actually be claimed as a byproduct of the first one as well, and that is us missing our original flight to Taipei from Kuala Lumpur. Air Asia offered us zero refund/recourse, so the subsequent flight booking for the next day plus the two hotel rooms cost us a little under $500 extra. Not the end of the world but I’d obviously rather have the $500 for something else. If you read about our missed flight, you will see we attribute most of it to the entire family being sick. Yes, it was absolutely our fault for getting up late AND leaving slowly, but when your entire family of four is feeling crappy it makes you lethargic, you want to sleep as much as possible and getting organized and out the door just takes that much longer. So for this, the solution would have been to get a hotel room at the airport terminal. In spite of everything that went wrong (getting up slowly, packing slowly, taking a long time to locate the right car type from uber, getting stuck in insane traffic just two miles from the airport) had we just booked a hotel in-terminal we would have still easily made our original flight. As it happened we missed the cutoff to check our bags by just a couple minutes. Yes, the room cost three times as much ($33 vs $100), but it would have been much cheaper than missing the flight (plus we ended up booking this hotel the next night anyway!)

Total cost?

Airfare for one adult was approximately $1400 and that includes the last-minute booking for the flight we missed to Taipei as well as the same day booking to Shanghai that we made after our original flight was canceled by the airline (China Eastern). Other intercity travel costs, like ferries, buses, taxis, rental cars and gas, as well as taxi/rideshare to/from airports, totaled approximately $250 per person. So our overall transportation costs for the entire family during this 67-day journey was right around $5000 total (much of our travel was funded with points, so this would be the dollar equivalent). This number does not include hotels or local transportation, which I feel might not accurately translate for another family. We spent less than one-third of our nights in hotels and local transportation will depend on how much you want to move around and whether you have people to take you. If you are curious, our 21 hotel nights cost us right around $2100 (in cash or points), so we averaged $100/night. 

How can you get so much time off?

We are location independent and lean FIRE as well. That means we can work from anywhere and we can even survive without working if we have to. On this 67-day journey, Kelly mostly took the time off from her business. She did some networking and groundwork for future business in Asia. Also a small part of the trip, 3 days in Detroit, was specifically for her business development. I anticipated working about 15 hours a week but in reality only managed half that. It wasn’t by choice and some things work-wise simply didn’t get done and went haywire, but that’s what happened and the first 10 days after returning home was pretty chaotic. 

What travel advice do you have for other families?

We learned so many things that I’ll probably turn this into an article by itself. But one thing that comes to mind in regards to travel planning is: prepare for delays when selecting your flight times. We have never really worried too much about this and it has generally worked out fine because our family is quite good at traveling any time of the day. What I hadn’t considered is the fact that we are not very good at traveling any time of the night. Realize that delays can happen so just because a scheduled time works for you doesn’t mean it is the best option. We had a flight with a 10:30p arrival delayed by 5.5 hours, an 11p arrival delayed by an hour, and a 6:30p arrival canceled and replaced by a 10p arrival that was then subsequently delayed 4 hours. These were not fun. 

If your flight is delayed by 2-3 hours will that new time still be ok or would you be better off choosing an earlier flight? Remember also that the earlier the flight is, the lower the likelihood of delays (although too early can lead to a missed flight, SEE “Biggest Regret” above lol). Of course, sometimes there is no better alternative, so just do the best you can while factoring in the potential for delays. I know I will generally be favoring morning over evening departures from now on.