{"id":1731,"date":"2021-07-01T15:03:17","date_gmt":"2021-07-01T19:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.expatriateism.com\/?p=1731"},"modified":"2021-07-01T15:03:17","modified_gmt":"2021-07-01T19:03:17","slug":"the-best-laid-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.expatriateism.com\/?p=1731","title":{"rendered":"The Best Laid Plans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written on July 1, 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The USA confirmed one more case of COVID-19 on Feb. 20, bringing the total to 16.\u00a0On Feb. 21 the USA confirmed 20 additional cases. Elsewhere in the world the case numbers rose. [Wikipedia<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jill and I were wrapping things up in Amed but we were still waiting to return to China. There were rumors of k-12 schools in China starting again sometime in March but the government hadn\u2019t issued any timeline. Jill did not want to go back before we had to because it seemed pretty dangerous and I thought why go get stuck in our apartment with a greater chance of getting sick. Slowly, our vacation was turning into something else.\u00a0 Our plan was to travel to Penang, Malaysia for a week which, I believe, had zero COVID-19 cases so far. Our goal was to burn time and for Jill to work on Grad School. We were also resetting our Indonesian tourist visas and setting us up for a return to Ubud. I had a grand idea to rent a big house with Daria who is a professional vegan chef. Jill is a fabulous chef too, and living with two chefs I would eat like a king! Heck, we could even start a great restaurant in Ubud. This was all in my head but what a way to ride out this strange epidemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The snorkeling in Amed hadn\u2019t been as good the last few times I went. It was too wavy and the water clarity was not as good. I think I was just a little unlucky timing the tides. On our last night in Amed we walked on the beach, saw some new animals, and watched the sunset again. We were going to move to Ubud and visit Amed on little motorbikes after our work contracts were done in Shenzhen. All of our friends and family would come visit us. Everything was beautiful as the sun set on Amed Beach. The next day we went with our trusty driver Wayan to return us to the airport in Denpasar and left Bali in our memories.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Painted<\/a>
This little painted boy made a second appearance near Amed. I first saw him peeking at me on my scooter ride. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/a>
I found this majestic fellah on our last evening walk in Amed. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/a>
Yet another delicious meal we had. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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