29 Places I’d Love To Go Back To

If time and money weren’t an issue, where would you go?

We’ve spent the past two years working while traveling.

Both time and money have been a daily challenge.

But the work we do ,(and the people managing the Internet and power grid in the countries we’ve been to) has allowed us to successfully work and travel for over 2 years.

We are now returning back to America because we want to once again spend time with our families and be part of their lives in-person.

But given unlimited time and money…

Here are 29 places we have already been that we will love to return to.

(In some cases we’ve noted the things we would do there.)

1. Tanzania, Africa – tour the tanzanite mines, see the Serengeti
2. El Cid Resort, Cancun, Mexico
3. Munich, Germany – Could live here
4. Germany – Pretty much most places we’ve been
5. Puerto Iguazu, Argentina (see the falls at midnight with the rainbows)
6. Mendoza, Argentina – spend another weekend enjoying the wineries
7. Lake Atitlan, Guatemala
8. Chichicastenango, Guatemala
9. Granada, Nicaragua
10. Boquete, Panama
11. Quito, Ecuador – neurotic crazy city, but awesome too.
12. Cuenca, Ecuador – See the surrounding hill country and take Spanish classes
13. French Polynesia – this time I would go to Bora Bora or Moorea
14. New Zealand – almost anywhere in New Zealand. We could probably live here if our family did.
15. Bali – do more diving and see more of the island
16. Malaysia – but see more of the country outside of Kuala Lumpur
17. Hong Kong (Hong Kong Island)
18. Brunei
19. Chiang Mai, Thailand – stay inside the old city walls during a cleaner air quality season.
20. Hoi An, Vietnam
21. Udaipur, India
22. Bilaspur, India
23. Hyderabad, India – Nothing can prepare you for a trip to India except a trip to India. This time we know what to expect – and the food… oh the food was so good.
24. Slovenia – Viktorija and family, thank-you, thank-you, thank-you!
25. Krakow, Poland
26. Budapest, Hungary
27. Northern Italy
28. Rome, Italy – live in an apartment for a month
29. Mallorca, Spain – Stay at an all-inclusive resort, see the castle on the hill above Palma, see the old defensive castle on the water, go diving.

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1 Year Ago Today

1 Year ago today, I was working at the heart foundation of New Zealand in Auckland, New Zealand.

It was spring.

Today, exactly one year later, I am at the home of a friend in Oulu, Finland.

It is fall.

Amazing planet we live on.

Russell Peden, a friend of mine, (finally) replied to an email I sent him 1 year ago today. He included the orignal reply in the email.

Here is the text of the email below.

It was a good reminder for me. I hope it will have the same effect for you.

On Oct 10, 2010, at 4:45 PM, Jonathan Kraft wrote:

Was listening to an audio wth Seth Godin this morning and paraphrased this out of what he was sharing. Wanted to share it with all of you, people in my life who are courageously bringing new things into the world.

“A factory costs millions. A blog costs $12. If you screw up in the world of 2010, no one’s going to notice because they weren’t taking notice in the first place.”

“What we’ve discovered in the last 10 years is that it is easier than ever to record a song, write a book and publish it for free, treat a customer with respect, put a new idea out there, distribute a piece of art… All these things cost almost nothing. The cost of failure in 2010 is basically nothing. So do that thing you’re afraid people will ridicule. Do the thing where you could fail. Do something that’s a little bit nutty, and see what happens. The worst thing that will happen is that you’ll fail, and no one will notice. But what could happen, by you strategically bringing a unique idea into the world, is bigger than you can possibly imagine.”

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My Four Favorite New Food Experiences (up to now)

The most commonly asked question of a frequent traveler is “What is your favorite place?”

And that’s a hard question to answer. People who ask me what my favorite place is usually get a question back.

“My favorite place for what?”

But I understand it’s easiest to categorize information in list format, so if you’re really interested (and not just asking to be polite), I’m going to be writing multiple posts about my “favorite” things.

This post is about my four favorite plates/new food experiences.

In order to make the list, these things had to be new to me since October, 2009

Caveat: EVERYTHING I ate in India I loved. Even the Pani Puri was good (it’s a crunchy thing filled with a very thin curry/mint flavored sauce that seems to explode when you put it in your mouth.) The same goes for almost everything I ate in Thailand.

So in the interest of keeping this post short,

Patacones (Ecuador)
Plantain is such a versatile plant. Patacones are simply sliced, smashed, and fried plantain, lightly salted. Awesome and simple.

Chiang Mai noodles (Thailand)
The city of Chiang Mai is known for a specific kind of dish which has noodles in it, and then has fried noodles on top which give it this awesome crunch. It includes shallots and cilantro and a bunch of other pure goodness.

Paneer Butter Masala (India)
In particular the one made by Bhavesh and Pravin’s mom in Mumbai was my favorite, but also the one at Jaiwana Haveli in Udaipur. I knew paneer existed, but the one we had in Mumbai on Carrie’s 30th birthday amazed me because I didn’t know that cheese could be both solid and schmelzy at the same time, and absorb so many amazing flavors from the masala used to flavor it.

Kumara Fries, Ginger Beer, and Feijoas (New Zealand)
Okay, that’s three things, but whatever – these were all new to me in New Zealand. Kumara is a kind of sweet potato that gets turned into what Americans call fries (what the Brits call “chips”). Ginger beer is the best from a restaurant called Dux Delux in Christchurch. Feijoas only grow during March/April – but I’m shocked they’re not more known.

There are so many more delicious items to add to this list. So I’m stopping now. Those are my four (6) favorite (new) food experiences since October 2009.

(Pictures coming soon.)

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Heartbreak

I am of the opinion that we are meant to have our hearts broken.

Life brings us friends, incredible companions, people who change our lives.

These people impact our lives in ways we couldn’t have thought possible.

And then for various reasons (some of which we don’t quite understand), that changes.

People move on, pass on, or just change.

Right now in our lives, we are the people moving on.

Continuously, place by place, we leave, and our hearts are broken for the loss of the contact of the people who are still there when we leave.

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Leaving New Zealand finally? What’s next?

It is with sadness that we are leaving this country that we’ve really come to love and appreciate. New Zealand has treated us well and we’ve really enjoyed being here.

At least for Panama, Ecuador, Argentina, and Germany (other countries where we’ve lived in one place longer than two weeks) we’ve learned when it’s time to leave.

When it’s time to leave a country is when we’re at the point where we’re ready to go, but not ready to leave.

That’s the reason we didn’t leave New Zealand in September 2010. We just weren’t ready to go.

We’re ready to go now, but not ready to leave.

There’s a big section of the world calling us, and not a lot of time to see it in, since we are meeting up with family in June, in Italy.

This gives us 4 months to see Southeast Asia and India.

(For those new to our site, our work travels with us wherever we go, as most of what we do professionally is taken care of via having an Internet connection.)

Our travel plans have us traveling a route from New Zealand to Singapore, then on to

• Indonesia
• Hong Kong
• Macau
• Hong Kong
• Thailand
• Camobdia
• Vietnam
• Laos
• Thailand
• Malaysia
• Brunei
• Malaysia

and then flying on to India, where we will be for 5-6 weeks before heading on to Italy.

This will be the most countries we have traveled to in such a short amount of time, and will include a host of new countries for both of us.

It will be quite exciting!

Work has kept us pretty busy here in Auckland, which has been good, but has meant less time spent keeping our site up-to-date with what we’ve been up to.

We will be working to get back to our regular updates as we’re traveling.

So yes, we are leaving New Zealand for now.

It is sad.

But we’ll be back New Zealand. 

We’ll be back.

Thanks for continuing to come along as we travel the world!

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Pavlova

If there is one thing Aussies and Kiwis argue about more than any other, it is who can claim the pavlova as their own.

Never head of pavlova? Neither had I.

Pavlova is a meringue style dessert. It’s gorgeous really.

It’s this really tall meringue that looks like a cake. It’s nice and crunch on the outside and kind of like a marshmallow on the inside. Then the whole thing is topped with fresh fruit and cream.

The first time I had one, we were in Mangonui with our friends Mark and Nessy. Nessy made a delicious pavlova.

When we went back up north for a visit, Nessy taught me how to make pavlova. She even let me use her copy of the New Zealand Baking Bible.

It’s quite an easy recipe to make. It was really fun, and really delicious.

We brought it as our contribution to the neighborhood hangi that we went to that night.

I will definitely be making one of these again (when I have such exotic things as an oven and electric mixer again)

Pavlova

ingredients:

4 egg whites

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Fresh fruit

fresh cream

directions:

Preheat the oven to 350*F

Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer for 10-15 minutes.

Then add the sugar and beat for another 5 minutes.

Mix the cornstarch, vanilla, and vinegar together.  Add to the egg mixture.  Beat until thick and glossy.

Spoon it out onto a parchament lined baking tray, making a circle that resembles a cake layer.

Put the pavlova in the oven, and lower the oven temperature to 200*F.

Bake 1 – 1 1/2 hours until dry and crispy on the outside.

Crack open the oven door, leaving the Pavlova inside to cool.

Once cooled, transfer to a serving plate.

Top with fresh berries and freshly whipped cream.

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Diving at Goat Island Marine Reserve in New Zealand

Near Leigh is the Goat Island Marine Reserve. Some say Goat Island Marine Reserve is a perfect diving spot. This was not our diving experience at Goat Island.

North of Auckland, New Zealand is a town called Leigh.

Near Leigh is a place called the Goat Island Marine Reserve.

Goat Island is a tiny island (approximately 1 hectare / 2.5 acres) in New Zealand located close to the North Island coast, north of Auckland, northeast of Warkworth, and directly west of Little Barrier Island.

It is within Cape Rodney-Okakari Point Marine Reserve, New Zealand’s first marine reserve.

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Nobelcom Promotion Code (And) Cheapest Options for calling while in New Zealand

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Nobelcom.com Promotional code
10% Discount on phone cards with code: CJTravel
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Some people know that when I got started marketing online, the first market I talked about was calling cards.

This was because I was an exchange student in Germany.

I knew an easy way to make cheap phone calls to Germany.

At that point (2001), a cheap phone call to Germany from the United States was 9 cents/minute.

I put up a web page on Geocities (Geocities is no longer in existence) called “How to make cheap phone calls to Germany”.

Within a month, I was getting 40-50 visitors/day to that website.

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Plum Sauce, Plum Jam, Plum Chutney

Plums plums and more plums. That’s what we saw when we walked into Mark and Nessy’s garage.

I couldn’t help myself. I snuck one. It was so delicious. Seriously one of the best plums I’ve ever eaten in my life.

When I asked Mark what he had planned for all those plums, he said sauce, jam, and chutney. I was so excited! I would get to make plum sauce and plum chutney for the first time.

Just by getting back in to home canning, makes my heart sing. It’s great to use local produce and provide delicious treats to your family and friends.

Unless of course, you’re too selfish to share.

It took 3 of us half a day to make everything. Andrew was even so kind as to sit outside in the rain to stir the boiling jam mixture, while I peeled and chopped 4 head of garlic (not for the jam).

I had such fun! And everything turned out so delicious.

Jonathan was in charge of custom labels and naming conventions.

You know sometimes when you eat something and it’s so good you really want to everyone to experience the complete bliss that you are as you eat it? But, it’s so good that if you share it means that you’ll get to eat?

Yeah, that’s how I felt about what we got to take home. Thankfully Mark didn’t feel that way!

So, what would you do? Hoard or share?

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New Year’s in Auckland, New Zealand

Lucia (loose – e – uh: Slovakia) and Ivo (eye voe Czech Republic), as well as Lucie and Dominick came to our apartment on New Year’s Eve 2010.

Lucie and Dominick are leaving for Australia very soon. Though we would have like to have known them better, time and distance will probably dictate that, at least at this point in our lives, we won’t have the opportunity. But we are glad to have spent New Year’s with them. We also wish them the best on their new adventure in Australia, and on their return journey to Eastern Europe and re-adjusting to life back at home after being gone for 5 years.

So why did everyone come to our apartment for New Year’s?

Well, we invited them.

But they probably had other invites from their other friends as well.

They chose to accept our invitation (presumably) because

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