2nd Year: In Review

You may remember my post last year telling you where we went during Jason's 1st year at Southwest Airlines. Now, it's officially been 2 years since Jason started and we've definitely continued to take advantage of the perks. In addition to the US travel, we did a LOT of international travel during the past 12 months. We are pretty much pros at flying standby on other airlines. Also, we've mastered the art of packing in carry-ons (even for a 17 day SE Asia trip).

By the numbers:

10 countries visited

57,468 miles logged

130 hours in the air

2,886 pictures taken

20 bags of honey-roasted peanuts eaten

I've added a new tab ("Where We've Traveled") to the top of the blog so you can see everywhere where we've been, so I won't be repetitive here. We've gotten pretty used to being on flights and even better at traveling together in general. We've had some great flying experiences and a few not so great ones, but the trips have always been amazing and more than make up for any annoyances. We always fly standby and didn't encounter a full flight or anything that prevented us from making it back home. We've had some serious close calls, but we've been pretty lucky so far! I feel like I could write a whole book on surviving the non-rev system...

Plans are still up in the air (yes, pun intended), for Jason's 3rd year at SWA, but we have thrown around the idea of going somewhere in Central America or Mexico with the Gold Passes or AA points. We're also planning to make a trip to England and Scotland. There will be plenty of US travel mixed in there too (including 3 traveling weddings). In addition to the confirmed trips we are taking, you can also see our wish list for all of the trips we eventually plan on taking on the "Upcoming Travels" tab.

Whale's Tail - Belize

Isle of Skye - Scotland

Big Ben - London

My next trip is to Orlando, FL here in a few days for a work conference. I'm so excited about checking something off my bucket list - visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I'll let you know how butterbeer tastes! I'll also be swinging by Magic Kingdom for a night. After that trip, it's mainly traveling to weddings to round out 2013.

Well, I'm off to plan our trips for year 3. I'm sure it will be just as amazing as this past year. Here are some of our favorite moments from Jason's second year at Southwest Airlines:

Sound of Music bike tour in Salzburg, Austria

Aggies at Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany

 Picnic at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France

Walking the Lavaux terraces in Montreaux, Switzerland

 Dinner along the Danube in Budapest, Hungary

In a tuk-tuk exploring Angkor in Siem Reap, Cambodia

Cruising through the karsts in Halong Bay, Vietnam

Tasting the sour mash at the Willett Bourbon Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky

Boulevard Brewing Company behind the scenes tour in Kansas City, MO

Feet in the sand in Key West, FL

Visiting the Temple of the Reclining Buddha in Bangkok, Thailand

On top of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in Sante Fe, NM

 Hiking in Deep Cove in Vancouver, Canada

Cheers to Southwest Airlines in Koh Samui, Thailand

Siem Reap, Cambodia {Part 2}

As I mentioned, we decided to hire a tuk tuk driver (for $12/day!) for our 2nd day of exploration. This was the best decision EVER! Our first stop was Bayon, a Buddhist temple built in the late 12th century complete with 37 towers. Almost every tower has four carved faces each pointing in a cardinal direction. From afar, the temple looks completely uniform but up close, you can see how each stone was fit together like jigsaw puzzle pieces. The large stone faces have become some of the most famous images connected to Khmer art and architecture. Inside was like a giant maze with passage ways, shrines and open window sills all looking like they were about to crumble.

 

Bayon was part of Angkor Thom, which was a complex that included many other temples and terraces. Below, there are pictures of the Terrace of the Lepers and Terrace of the Elephants. It was fun walking around, but we didn't last long here as most wasn't shaded. Did I mention that it was HOT?! When we got back to the hotel later this day, it was 107 - I can only guess that it was hotter while we were out exploring.

We really enjoyed Preah Khan temple as well. This was probably the temple that we saw that was the most "in ruins". There is a debate going on about how much to restore this temple and how much to leave it in the state that it was found in. I personally loved the feel of this one since it was really in the jungle with overgrowth and trees poking out. You could hear the birds chirping and there were hardly any people to be seen. I felt very much like Indiana Jones discovering this hidden ruin. For the most part, you can really jump and climb over everything. Hard to believe that all of these areas had to be swept for landmines only 30 years ago. For that reason, when an area says "danger" or "landmines may be present", you need to respect that.

Our absolute favorite temple was the last we visited - the Buddhist temple of Ta Prohm. I loved this temple because it was in complete shambles and tinted a faint red and green color from its jungle surroundings. The grounds and temple itself were completely overgrown with humongous roots and trees. This is also the temple that was featured in Lara Croft, Tomb Raider for any of you movie buffs out there.

 

We ended our day at the pool with $5 pitchers of Redbull/vodkas and massages. The next morning, we got in some pool time before we had to catch a plane to Bangkok. The trip back to the US home involved us frantically buying Australian visas at the Bangkok airport (only needed for people who don't have a "guaranteed seat" out = us), but seats looked good! We jumped on a flight from Bangkok to Sydney (on Emirates) and Sydney to LAX (on Qantas) and then LAX home (on Southwest). 30+ hours of traveling later and we were home!

We really loved this trip and we especially loved how cheap everything was. There are so many places I would like to go in the world, but I can definitely see going back here some day. I would recommend every single place we visited and would be happy to email anyone more details in case anyone is thinking about a trip. My biggest piece of advice? PACK LIGHT! I am fairly high maintenance and I managed to fit 16 days worth of clothes in this carryon pack. Be impressed - be VERY impressed.

 

Thanks again Southwest Airlines. This trip had been planned in my mind for at least 6-7 years and was truly epic. Standby travel is always stressful (I expect no sympathy here), but it is always worth it. I'd like to think that we're kind of old pros at this thing now!

Up next for us? We just can't stop - we're heading to Vancouver, Canada tomorrow. We've never been to Canada before, so it should be great! I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!

Siem Reap, Cambodia {Part 1}

Our first full day in Siem Reap, we decided to sleep in and eat our free breakfast at our hotel at a leisurely pace. Knowing what we know now, we would have woken up first thing. We decided we were going to take our hotel's free bikes to explore Angkor Wat. First, we had to buy our 3 day pass, which is a story in of itself. By the time that was done, it's close to 10am and getting hotter by the second. We arrive at the entrance, purchase water bottles from someone so they will "watch our bikes" and head on in.

Walking up to Angkor Wat is so impressive. Built in the 12th century in dedication to Hinduism (seems weird, right?), Angkor Wat is massive and equally as impressive. The ornate details and carvings are still visible even though the sandstone temple is slowly eroding away. It was amazing in the 21st century, so just imagine how stunning the temple used to be with intricate carvings on every surface of this 400 acre structure.

We enjoyed exploring all of the hidden passages and trying to stay in the shade. It was WELL over 100 this day and we could definitely feel it. One benefit to exploring during the hottest part of the day? Everyone heads back to sit at their pools or take a nap, so we mostly had the place to ourselves!

This was (no joke) about 3 minutes after we got off our bikes. The first of many times we did this.

After it got too hot to handle, we biked back to our hotel for the day. As far as food goes, I tried a popular Khmer dish called amok (very similar to a watered down yellow chicken curry) and Jason got a burger. Haha. We also tried sticky rice with fruit for dessert. We spent the rest of the day relaxing by the pool and getting the first of our 2 massages.

I feel compelled to mention where we stayed because I think it is a big reason why we really liked Siem Reap. We paid $50/night for our three night stay at the Golden Temple Hotel. The guesthouse welcomed us with a cold tea, cool hand towels and a tray full of snacks. In addition, we got a free hour long massage, a TV with HBO, breakfast every day, free picnic for two, free lunch or dinner for two, free bike rental and free water every time we left the hotel. We somehow ended up with 4 t-shirts as well! Plus, the staff was absolutely the nicest group of people we met in Cambodia…so incredibly kind and gracious. They were literally honored to be serving us. Needless to say, we definitely didn't mind spending our evenings here.

After our first day, we decided that hiring a tuk tuk driver for day 2 was our best bet. Some of the temples are pretty far away and we wanted to make sure we could see everything we wanted to. Up next - Day 2!