Ask Jenny: The Hard Questions

‘Ask Jenny’ is a series where you can ask me about our travels, logistics, parenting on the road, my life before travel, or whatever else you have a question about. You can leave your question(s) here at the end of my post in the comments section. Once a month, I will write a post to answer one (or more) of them. The only rule I will have is that the questions be kind.

I will admit, I have had so much fun answering all of the questions you have asked during my ‘Ask Jenny’ series. All of them have been fun and easy to answer. But, there are two questions left that I have been pushing back on because they are the hard questions, the hard-hitting questions that are a bit more of a struggle to answer. The questions are tough, but awesome! These questions are so good, I think I may ask Chad to answer them as well next week. What do you think?

1.From the adventurous and fun Sha at Life to My Fullest:

Why South East Asia and not somewhere closer to home?

Right now we are staying in Phuket, Thailand for the near future. Chad traveled to Thailand over ten years ago and fell in love with everything about it. Two years after that, he and I traveled for a month in Thailand on our “honeymoon” before we moved to Taiwan to teach English. I fell in love with it as well. Even now after we have traveled around the world a couple of times, it is one of my top three favorite places in the world (Portugal, Thailand, Taiwan).

Southeast Asia in general (although I would not include Singapore in this) is less expensive to live in. Every country I have visited in SE Asia has had amazing food (Malaysia is a little meh to me, but the Indian food there is drool worthy), beautiful sites to see, and great weather for most of the year. I love hot weather! I love beaches! I love being able to travel cheaply from one country to another.

It is much easier and cheaper to get from one country to the next (in comparison to USA at least) here in Phuket. Phuket International airport makes it so easy to travel anywhere in the world and is just an hour away from where we stay.

Overall the main reasons I love to live in Southeast Asia (Thailand) right now are these: 1)Wonderfully warm weather, 2) Delicious food, and 3) fascinating cultures and people.

And with that I think I will hop on over to question number two..

2. From the lovely Jhanis at The Vanilla Housewife:

If you were to settle in one place, is it going to be in the US or somewhere else?

Jhanis, you cut me to the core with this one. I admit that thinking of settling ANYWHERE gives me mild heart palpitations. There is probably someone out there that has some psychological theory as to why I like to be on the move all the time, but that has always been the way I am. I love change, meeting new people, trying new foods (might even say that is my favorite part of it), immersing myself in new places and cultures, and it goes on.

In writing this though, I know that soon we will need to settle in one place for a while. Z is getting older and asking about school. She is social and loves having friends. She loves to travel, but she also LOVES to be home. For these reasons, it makes it a little less panicky for me to think about settling somewhere (as long as we travel to new places often occasionally). The happiness of my daughter and husband are way more important to me than anything else.

So, that leads me to where do I think we will settle when the time comes… Okay, all I can mentally do is choose a possible place for the next 5-10 years, because beyond that it really makes me freak out. So much can change in that amount of time. And, on top of that,  I will choose two places, one practical, and one that I think would be more fun (I don’t want to jinx myself by choosing just one).

• The Practical Choice: USA. Reasons: As much as I dislike America’s politics, fear-mongering, war-waging, overpriced living, and exorbitant taxes, I am still an American and there are some of my favorite people on this earth living in California. There are job opportunities for Chad and I, amazing Waldorf schools to send Z to, and the ease of living in a place where we never have to worry about visas.
• The Fun Choice: Thailand.  Reasons: The cost of living here is much less than California. Z could learn to speak Thai and Chinese easily here. The beaches. The food. The people and culture. I love most of what Thailand is about. I love the people who I have come to know here. There are great international schools here for Z, though none that use the Waldorf method. I think the thing I love most about settling in Thailand is that I still feel out-of-place. I love living in a foreign country, even with the cultural hiccups that happen along the way, I love the excitement of being in a “strange” place.

So there you have it, my answer is a complete non-answer I know… But I hate to back myself into a corner. Most likely we will end up somewhere completely different than I have even ever thought of. Our future is always up in the air until it isn’t.

Thank you to Jhanis and Sha for the excellent and thought-provoking questions! For all of you that have not checked out their blogs, DO IT! They are both awesome ladies whose posts are engaging and exciting.

Now it’s your turn! Do you have any questions for us at And Three To Go? Where would you like to live? Do you want to travel to Southeast Asia? Leave a comment and join in the fun!