We’ve only been here a few months, yet already we’re cheating on Congo.

One of the benefits of being an expatriate is having generous vacation time and an annual travel budget.  The idea is that the company wants us to be able to go home every so often to keep up on things, but it’s okay to go elsewhere, too.  Since we don’t have many loose ends at home, we’d like to use the opportunity to travel to far-flung places, especially those hard to reach from the States.

Our first vacation will be to Southeast Asia.  I feel guilty that we’re not exploring more of Africa instead.  But my husband (who’s been here longer than I) had one request for our first Christmas abroad: it must be somewhere developed.  Apart from South Africa, I don’t know if “developed” is a good description of the continent, but I hope we find out during our stay here.  I want to see Ethiopia, Ghana, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, Namibia, Botswana… I want to see it all.  But, to be fair, Asia has been on both our must-see lists the longest.  And living in the eastern hemisphere has its advantages.  So off to Asia we go…