We have finally come to a decision to where we will live in Asia for next year – at least for the first three months then we will re-evaluate. We kept going back and forth between Penang, Chiang Mai and Kuala Lumpur but have finally come to a decision. We have also booked some side trips for the first part of next year. Thanks to everyone who commented on our post about where we should live in Asia – it was very useful!

And the winner is….

Penang!

It seems like it is the best and easiest option for us taking into account what we want for our kids and for us. I would love any information you can share about setting up in Penang – finding an apartment, preschool and hiring a car in particular. I have read so many blogs with this type of information over the years but all the ones I remember are a bit out of date now. I would love some up to date info. Feel free to share any relevant blog links in the comments.

Our plans for 2015

There was a recent Air Asia sale for next year, and I must admit that I went a bit crazy. Between that and using a great tool to find the cheapest flights, I Want That Flight, it was easy to find some great flight prices which were just too good to resist! It will be so easy to travel when we don’t live so far from the rest of the world. At the moment, we have not planned anything past April as we will have to wait and see how we are feeling about Penang, living away from Australia in general, travel, working online, etc. If things go well, we would love to go to Europe at some point too.

The following are our plans at the moment:

Dec 31: Leave Australia!

Early January: KL and Bali.

We have a few nights in KL before spending a couple of weeks in Bali. This was a holiday we have had booked since last November – we actually booked it during our Deep South road trip!

Mid January: Arrive in Penang

February: Thailand?

We will probably go to Thailand for my birthday.

March: Myanmar and Langkawi

Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar

I have a very fast 4 days booked in Myanmar alone visiting Mandalay, Yangon and Bagan. Z’s birthday is mid March and we are going to spend it in Langkawi. I wonder how it will measure up to his first birthday on Boracay?

April: Sri Lanka

We have flights booked one way to Sri Lanka in mid April. We have not booked our return flight yet as we are waiting to see how we feel about working while travelling and whether we will be going back to Penang afterwards.

We also need to fit in Japan. I haven’t been able to find cheap flights yet which has us undecided about whether J will go alone or if we will all go or if we should just leave it until later in the year. He especially wants to go in March to line up with one of the sumo tournaments.

Sri Lanka

It’s shaping up to be a very exciting start to the year. Myanmar and Sri Lanka have been at the top of my Asia bucket list for awhile, so I am very excited to check them out. I am also excited to see where else we end up. Returning to the Philippines and China is also high on our bucket list and we hope to spend a few months in Europe. Fingers crossed our business plans go as well as we hope, so all of this becomes a reality.

Have you got any travel plans for next year yet?