Fotografo de Bodas, Santiago

October 19, 2010

As I believe I’ve mentioned on here a time or two, or you have happened to notice, we’ve been constantly in motion for the past year. Between trips for fun, trips for work and trips for free, we’ve covered a good amount of ground. This form of immersion therapy has basically cured most of my fear of flying. I still have issues sleeping, because I think that the pilot may need my help at any given moment, but other than that, I’m ok.

We always fly Lan when possible for a few reasons. We both like their seats better than Delta’s or American’s, they’re more comfortable. You also get a little TV on the back of the chair in front of you and can watch pretty current movies, TV shows, or play games. Eclipse was on for my viewing pleasure on our way home. I’m such a 12 year old girl. Lan’s flight attendant’s are generally pleasant, I’ve yet to have a bad experience with one, the food is semi-edible most of the time. They bring around free wine, which I use to try and drug myself into a state of relaxation that will let me sleep. They’re generally the cheapest we find if we either wait for their sales, or buy the flights through American (and then you get American prices but you can choose a flight that’s “Operated by Lan.” And the biggest reason is because way back when, I had a break down and started crying and didn’t want to get on a flight because I was scared to fly (again, because I thought the pilot was going to fall asleep. What a strange fear to have.), the counter check lady was really nice to me and explained their rotating sleep schedule and how many pilots are on each flight and then even had another flight attendant introduce me to the pilot when I was boarding. So while I know that Andrea hates them with a passion, I absolutely love them. They’ve never given me a reason not to fly with them.

Anyway, aside from helping me get over silly fears, all this traveling has also given us something else. Miles. Glorious, glorious, miles. We hit the first LanPass status so now we’re “Premium.” Don’t we sound like fancy schmancy d-bags with that title? Being Premium gives you various benefits — you get a few upgrades into first class if they have space, you get to go in the short line at the airport (I am overly excited about this benefit!!!) and your luggage comes out sooner. But most importantly, instead of getting the actual miles traveled from the flight credited into your account, you get additional miles, 125% to be exact. So we’ve racked up a good amount, and we need to decide how to use them. We have enough miles to go anywhere. ANYWHERE!

Where would you go? We have a few ideas in mind, but I’m curious to see if you guys have any fabulous suggestions that we haven’t thought of. As of right now we’re leaning towards adventure tourism’ing it up in New Zealand and then laying around getting fat on some fabulous tropical beach somewhere like Bali, that’s also on that side of the world. We have the miles for the flights so at least that’s free, but we’ll still have to save for a while to you know, pay to breath the absurdly expensive Kiwi air, so this trip might not happen until the end of next year. But still, the possibilities are absolutely intoxicating. Let me repeat myself one more time — ANYWHERE. What a luxury! I can’t wait until we can go! Even though we don’t know where yet

Tell me — if you could go anywhere, where would it be? Or if you have gone all over, what was your favorite place to visit?

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29 Comments

I think if you go to New Zealand (which I’ve been to) and Bali.. you will end up wondering why you didn’t spend the whole time in Bali. New Zealand is gorgeous, but not something exotic. Except for the fjords, I think New Zealand is kinda like the south of Chile. NZ food sucks also.
Go to Bali and Thailand or some other random southeast Asian country.. mmmm super exotic.. and super cheap once you’re there. There are baby tigers to pet in Thailand. I wanna go!

Comment by Lana — October 19, 2010 @ 7:55 pm

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Come to Australia! We have tropical beaches, glorious islands and coral reefs, desert, snow,and adventure tourism!

Comment by Xanthe Roxburgh — October 19, 2010 @ 7:57 pm

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Siiiii yo tambiÃ©n quiero conocer Irlanda, como dice Caitlin, que ganas!!!! ya quisiera poder hacer eso!!! IRlanda, de todas maneras, todo tan verde, tan bonito! tan rural y mÃ¡gico… aunque soy partidaria de que absolutamente todos los lugares tienen su magia, su gracia y su encanto, me llaman mucho la atenciÃ³n paises como Holanda, Irlanda… o Alaska! para ver la auroa boreal =P

Comment by Loquenoves — October 19, 2010 @ 8:04 pm

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Kyle,

come to Malaysia!

Comment by shue — October 19, 2010 @ 8:09 pm

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Yeah, come to Australia

New Zealand was beautiful. I really want to go to Norfolk Island. And Vanuatu. And the Faulkner islands…and um. lots of other places.

Comment by Deidre — October 19, 2010 @ 11:02 pm

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Meet us in Barcelona or Nairobi in February. Accommodations are already taken care of. You know you want to.

Comment by Kai Heeringa — October 20, 2010 @ 4:52 am

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I think you should go to China (Shanghai) or some place random, like Japan (Okinawa) or EAU(Dubai) although Dubai must be expensive.

Comment by Fernando — October 20, 2010 @ 6:49 am

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Kai, I would completely consider that if you guys didn’t always have to travel during the middle of our high season! I’m so jealous of your trip, I wish we could coordinate. We are going to go to Barcelona in May or June. You can give us tips.

Shue, that’s on my list too! Someday soon, hopefully!

Comment by Kyle — October 20, 2010 @ 6:50 am

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Fernando, my mom will be moving to China, hopefully next year so we’ll definitely go there once she’s there. That will be a separate trip. Dubai is pretty random and sounds awesome! I actually have a friend who lives there. Hmmm, now you’ve got my wheels turning.

Comment by Kyle — October 20, 2010 @ 6:52 am

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Gorilla trekking in Uganda, a few days in the Serengeti (Tanzania) or Maasai Mara (Kenya), followed by chill out beach time in Zanzibar (Tz) or Lamu (Ke). Animals, culture, beauty, adventure and awesome, unbeatable, mind blowing photo ops!

Comment by Marguerite — October 20, 2010 @ 6:53 am

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Marguerite, are those places terribly expensive?

Comment by Kyle — October 20, 2010 @ 6:54 am

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You can do it quite cheaply (around US5K per person for a month’s touring) if you like camping and group travel, or it can be hideously expensive (US1K per person per day!) if you like private vehicles and butlers

If you have any interest in Africa / safaris, I say do it now. If you guys plan to have children in the future, it would pretty much cross off the continent until they are grown up and out of the house (or if you win the lottery). I wish I could have done more in Africa with Harry before we had kids… (We did Gorilla trekking in Uganda for our honeymoon!), as now we have to do family friendly resorts or stay home. Yuk.

Comment by Marguerite — October 20, 2010 @ 7:02 am

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We definitely want to hit Africa before we have kids, you are so right!

You’re making it sound awfully tempting. Though 5k is still a lot, but we probably wouldn’t go for a full month so we could maybe do it cheaper. I had never considered that Africa also has good beaches, obviously the first thing that comes to mind is safaris and wildlife.

Comment by Kyle — October 20, 2010 @ 7:06 am

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Ok, so off the coast of Australia near Brisbane is a place called Fraser Island. There is like one real road on the island, and one real hotel or something, but really you just have to rent a 4-wheel vehicle and then can camp/drive around the relatively small island on the packed sand at the water’s edge. It is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. Its a sand island, that has been there so long and is so big there are some rainforest areas that have managed to grow up out of the sand. Also, there are freshwater lakes dotting the island and some of the purest white sand in the world. Most bizarre, awesome, fascinating…there’s dingos, and… its gorgeous. So… while I realize flying to camp might be a bit of a challenge, if you’re going through Australia anyways…. or honestly even if you’re not, I think its worth it!

Though also, reading above, as photographers… Africa would be really cool as well. And yeah might be more expensive overall, but… also really awesome.

Comment by Shannon O — October 20, 2010 @ 7:20 am

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There is no question after just taking this trip that you need to go to Easter Island ASAP and then from there you continue on to Tahiti. Trust me on this!!! But b/t NZ and Oz, go with Oz!!!!!

Comment by Andi — October 20, 2010 @ 7:28 am

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I say make a list of possible places and then go to the one with the most expensive flights to get the most bang for your mileage buck. I know you want to go to Australia someday, and my nephew also loved Fraser Island from his time driving around Australia. Or somewhere in Africa would be a good vote – my dad and Jane said the safari lodge in Uganda was really nice and pretty inexpensive since Uganda isn’t one of the more typical safari destinations. I wouldn’t lean toward Asia just because it’s a bitch to get to from Chile, so I’d go from the US during a time when you’re there for a few months. Of course I think you should go to Easter Island too, but since you can find deals on flights I’d probably wait for a promotion and spend money on that rather than miles.

Comment by Emily — October 20, 2010 @ 7:47 am

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I know a way to do Africa cheaper…go with your friends who have family that lives there. Wink! Besides the safari in the Masai Mara and many other things, we are spending a 4 day weekend near Mombasa, where we are renting a house on the Indian Ocean. Don’t act like you’re not coming.

Comment by Kai Heeringa — October 20, 2010 @ 7:58 am

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Sigh. What are your dates and where we would need to fly into?

I’m just looking into it! We probably have a wedding right smack in the middle of it all.

Comment by Kyle — October 20, 2010 @ 8:00 am

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Kai, you don’t know me, but umm – can I come on your trip?! Kyle can vouch that I’m not a crazy, promise.

Comment by Emily — October 20, 2010 @ 8:36 am

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I vote yes to that idea. Let’s all go on Kayley and Kai’s romantic African safari vacation

Comment by Kyle — October 20, 2010 @ 8:40 am

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I recommend you going ahead with the New Zealand plan. I lived there for two years before moving back to the US and loved it.

Comment by Addie — October 20, 2010 @ 9:50 am

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Go to Thailand Kyle. We just got back as you know. You could go to one of the national parks for hiking, camping, canoeing and elephant rides. You can get a guide for a crazy cheap price so you won’t be completely on your own and stuffed. The guides will also carry and cook your food, which trust me, coming from a guy who’s camped and hiked a lot; is a massive weight of your shoulderes. Literally. You can then explore Bangkok, a melting pot of all things asian, from cuisine to nightlife. Craziest and most random city I’ve ever had the pleasure to experience. Then you can mission down to the islands, we went to Koh Samui, for some diving and general beach awesomeness, I mean wunderbar-ness. On top of all that, it’ll be very difficult to find somewhere besides Thailand where your money will stretch so far. Best best option for a tropical budget break.

South Africa would also be a great pick if you want African beaches. SA also has such a wide variety of ecological areas, from tropical rain forests to deserts. Kinda crazy actually. Also really good for a budget holiday, though not as good as Thailand because you’ll have to rent a car. Public transport isn’t adequate.

Anyway, good luck picking somewhere!

Comment by Andrew — October 20, 2010 @ 10:43 am

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Norway – I would go to Norway.

Comment by Dee — October 20, 2010 @ 11:22 am

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We’ve been to Norway too Dee, and absolutely loved it, so it would’ve been an awesome suggestion otherwise!

Andrew, hmmm, money stretching far sounds like a good option. As do melting posts, elephants and beach awesomeness.

Comment by Kyle — October 20, 2010 @ 11:27 am

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Every person I have met that has been to South Africa absolutely loves it….my sister and her husband just got back from South Africa and loved it…they actually went swimming with sharks (inside metal cages) and they loved the wildlife parks and currently I am working with a guy who spent two years working in South Africa and he absolutely raves about it….

Comment by Brendan — October 20, 2010 @ 12:39 pm

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I agree with most others, chose Thailand over Bali anyday. Bali is like the Punta Cana of for Australian’s! Trust me, if you go to Bali get ready to meet 1 million drunk aussie’s! There are still drunk Aussie’s in Thailand but it’s less cutre!

Thailand and Vietnam would be my picks or India! My friend once won a trip to anywhere in the world and he took me, we went to India…amazing! Not sooo relaxing though! If it’s a free trip and you go somewhere cheap you practically won’t need to save any money!

What an excellent decision to have to make! I’m jealous!

Comment by Kristy — October 21, 2010 @ 3:10 pm

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to answer your question. thailand. i have never been but it is high on my list. and all my friends who have been want to go back. besides it is dirt cheap once you are there.

now i am sorry to have to break your dream…

“â€” you get a few upgrades into first class if they have space”

that is marketing lingo.. i also fell for it. in order to be able to use your upgrade coupons which you receive 2 in premium you need to pay a higher fair without knowing that you will be able to get the upgrade. You will usually find out at checkin if you get the upgrade but that is well after you paid for the higher fare. also you need a minimum of 4 coupons for europe i believe and the same amount to the states… so all in all it is mainly to get people excited, then to pay more but it can lead to frustration.

“you get to go in the short line at the airport”
this i love… and i will be missing this when i loose my premium status in march in santiago there is usually no line for premium & platinum

Comment by andre — October 21, 2010 @ 3:23 pm

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Don’t worry Andre, even in the normal people lines with Lan, they usually go really fast!

Comment by Kyle — October 21, 2010 @ 6:33 pm

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kyle!! i have enough miles to go anywhere too, and i’m trying to decide where i want to go as well!

having lived in australia for a year and traveled around NZ for a month, i can tell you that both are must-sees. NZ is really chill and perfect for just renting an RV and driving around, as there are so many spots to camp and so much nature to see. a trip could be really affordable if you do it this way. australia is huuuuuuge so you’d wanna target your trip to a certain region. the outback is unbelievable and unlike anything else you’ve seen. and it goes without saying that the great barrier reef should be on everyone’s bucket list.

you should keep us updated on your travel plans, maybe it’ll give me some ideas for where i should look into going! ;D

Comment by Lindsay Buckley — October 27, 2010 @ 7:43 am

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