San Diego Airport

A few days after Thanksgiving 2014, we started our Indonesian adventure from Lindberg field in San Diego. The flight was going to be a long one and we got to the airport super early so we decided to go have a few drinks at the bar before our flight.

Normally, 11am would be way too early to drink, but what the heck, we were on VACATION! 

After our first bloody mary, a guy sauntered up next to us at the bar and ordered a drink. He was clearly either the Most Interesting Man in the World or a close relative, so we struck up a conversation. 

After a short time, we found out his name was Paco and he was from Chicago. He was on his way back from a family vacation and revealed to us that he owned his own executive recruiting business and was of Greek Ancestry. Why his name was Paco is a mystery, but either way, we became fast friends and he ended up teaching us how to play a card game called "Casino" and bought us a few more drinks. 

We will probably never see Paco again, but he was super cool so we decided to name our beta fish "Paco Mcgillicuddy" after him. We don't know his real last name, but we figured that if a greek guy could be named Paco, his last name could be just about anything. 

Planning Our First Overseas Trip Together

We had known each other maybe six weeks. I had plans of traveling to Cambodia alone, but then after meeting Helmut, I decided we HAD to travel together. The decision to go to Indonesia was over text. Something like:

Margarite: Cambodia is too much of a downer. Let's go somewhere more romantic but still adventurous.

Helmut: Ok, where?

Margarite: How about Bali?

Helmut: Ok.

And just like that, we had plans to go to Indonesia. The next 2 and a half months were spent summiting to work out the details. It was pretty simple. We consulted Air B&B and Trip Advisor quite a bit.
In the end, we decided on Canggu and Ubud on the island of Bali, and the west coast of Lombok.
International travel was going to be a true test of our relationship!