Read part I: Indian visa denied, part II: detained in Bali, part III: Chinese layover mishap to find out why and how we ended up home unexpectedly during our world trip
Part IV – Heading home for a legitimate passport
Get a new passport, wait for travel insurance…
To my pleasant surprise, I was able to get a new passport in three days in Seattle! It wasn’t without inconveniences (the passport picture I got done at Bartell Drugs the day I arrived home didn’t meet standards at the passport office and I paid a ridiculous amount parking downtown for both of my appointments), but I got it and that’s the important part!! It would have taken a week to get an appointment in my hometown and then two to three weeks to get it expedited afterward, or two to three weeks in nearby Bellevue and Redmond.
We already filed two claims with our travel insurance, World Nomads. We filed one immediately after I wasn’t allowed on the first flight to India and then another when we had to cancel our entire India trip. We will need to file another claim for our Bali cancellation and the canceled Xiamen Air flight when we get home. We are praying they will cover the thousands of dollars we incurred from travel cancellations – that is why we got travel insurance, after all.
No, we are not sponsored by World Nomads – if they pull through for us we would gladly be ;). If they don’t Matt has promised a sh*t storm to come their way (let’s hope for everyone’s sake they are able to help us out).
The pit in my stomach
As someone with a type-A personality, I couldn’t help but feel like a failure having to come home to deal with this. The sheer amount money and time that we have spent dealing with all this is frustrating and the sinking feeling in my stomach has been lingering with each new hurdle. But I have to accept that this is just part of our journey, and there must be some reason behind all the madness.
What’s next? Hopefully back to SE Asia
We were originally planning to go to Thailand in November. We are still hoping to (either in November or December). We also want to visit the Philippines, Malaysia, and Cambodia. It depends on flight costs and other factors. Another option would be to continue our trip after the holidays, as we were originally planning to spend Christmas with our families. We will see how things go and continue to go with the flow…
Making the very most of an unfortunate situation
We are home, which that means we get to see our family and friends! So that’s pretty awesome. 🙂 We are enjoying catching up with everyone and hope to see as many friendly faces as we can! We are embracing this part of our journey!!
Something I’m very excited about is to be able to completely repack my travel backpack (lol). I have a handful of cold weather clothes (fleece, sweatpants, long sleeves) that I won’t be needing for SE Asia. My backpack was nearly 20 kg (44 lbs), so it will be nice to lighten the load and swap out for other clothes! Expect a new wardrobe on our Instagram feed. 😉
I’m hoping I can pop into CorePower Yoga studio to take a few classes and Matt is more than excited to go fishing (he’s wasted no time catching fish already!)
We hope to do a lot of blogging, editing, and collaborating (we hope you enjoyed this 5-part blog series of our misfortunes). We purchased a drone (DJI Mavic Pro) in Frankfurt last months (before all of the visa sh*t went down) so we want to get practice flying, filming and editing video content while at home. Luckily the pacific northwest provides a beautiful background (if the rain will hold off long enough!).
If you are a brand or company who is interested in collaborating with us, drop us a line at go4theglobe@gmail.com. We will have more space in our backpacks to bring your gear/clothes/etc. to beautiful Southeast Asia!
If you live in the Seattle area and need someone to pet sit, house sit, do yard work or any kind of other task/small job over the next couple weeks, email us too! We could use some cash to offset the costs from our crazy passport/visa snafu (especially if insurance doesn’t pull through).
