Vacation Time Again

Didn't we just get back from vacation? Yep, but we're going again!

This time we are off to Penang, Malaysia. How can we afford all of these vacations? Well, we aren't paying for them ourselves...that's how.

Our company provides us with a very generous benefits package to live here (other major multi national companies aren't as generous...I wonder if they have a hard time getting people to move here?). Living in India is considered a severe hardship by our company, and thus we are allowed to take 3 vacations/trips per calendar year that are paid for. We do have a budget/allowance that we have to stay within...if we go over this set amount, then we have to pay the difference. If we don't take these trips, we lose the benefit...we can't roll them over to next year, and they won't pay us any money if we don't use all of them. So, it's either use it or lose it! In my opinion, someone would have to be really dumb not to use this benefit. Who doesn't like to go on vacation when it's free?

Living in China was also considered a hardship...just not as severe. If we would have stayed in Beijing, and not moved to Chennai this year, we would have only received one trip. Because this move was unexpected, we hadn't used our one Beijing trip yet...we had planned to probably go to Hong Kong at some point this year. However, with the move and getting settled in, it was already September, and we still had 3 trips to take plus home leave (going back to Illinois) before the end of the year. Well we went to Dubai a couple of weeks ago. Plus we have already been planning on meeting friends from Beijing in Germany at Thanksgiving. We are taking home leave in December. So, that only left October to get our 3rd vacation in.

Well, with us just being gone, and with S being off of work for 2 days this week due to the office being closed (although he did work a fair amount from home), I wasn't sure S was going to be able to get back away from the office. Well, last night, he told me that next week works for him taking a couple of days off. Of course, I have nothing booked for us. Instead of using a travel agency for this trip, I decided to just go online to see what I can find. I really wanted to go to Singapore, but S didn't. He wanted to go to Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia. I was OK with this until I did some research on KL and found that it looks to be just another big city. Being that we just did the big city thing with Dubai, I wanted something else. So, I found Penang, Malaysia, which S agreed to.

Now Penang is a little bitty island off the northwest part of Malaysia. We are going to be staying at a beach resort (trust me, the first thing we'll be asking when we check in is about their internet rates). We aren't beach resort type people...in other words, we don't like to lay out in the sun at the beach (or at the pool) all day long, we don't swim, and we don't do water sports. Well it appears as if Penang has some other things for us to do, and after Dubai (and life in Chennai), sitting in a lounge chair reading a book for an afternoon on a nice beach sounds pretty good to me. Plus, I have been wanting to try a beach resort...but for us, going for only a few days our first time will probably be better than going for a full week.

So, we are off to Malaysia...then home for 5 weeks...then off to Germany...then home for a week...then off to the U.S. for 3 weeks...then back home. All of this before the end of the year (not to mention that S may have a business trip to take sometime in there). Man, I'm tired just thinking about all of this travel. By the time I get back home here to Chennai at the end of the year, I don't want to go anywhere! OK, at least not for a few months that is. I think next year, our trips are going to have to be spaced out throughout the year a little bit better.

My mom was so right the other day when she made the comment that we spend a lot of time in airports and on airplanes. We have already gotten our money's worth out of the iPods we invested in this year. Now...if I could only learn how to sleep on a plane, maybe I would like traveling better.

Yes, that's right, I hate traveling. Now don't get me wrong, I am loving the fact that in the last year I have been seeing parts of the world that I never dreamt I would see (and very thankful that for the most part it isn't on our dollar)...however, the travel aspect of traveling really sucks! At least for me, it does. Now, I haven't flat out asked him, but I think S actually likes the traveling. When we went to Dubai, he actually read an entire book on the flight...and it wasn't for work either. I can't tell you the last time he read a book for pleasure. Plus, he can sleep on planes. Just snap your fingers and he's out cold. Not me though.

Anyway, for those of you considering a trip to see S and I, I would highly recommend you have an iPod, a good book, some magazines, and a lot of patience...you'll definitely need all of these things if you are like me and can't sleep! It's worth it though...it's definitely worth it!