Back in beach mode and sightseeing activities have all but stopped.  Instead, we have been mainly doing:

1 Exercise (about time I hear you say), to whittle off the excesses of the past few months.  Swimming twice a day for 30 mins. (approx 1km for Cheryl & 2km for Neil each day)

2 Calculating the cost of the trip.  A grand total of £7k, or about £40 per day.  We have travelled a lot, especially flights around Vietnam, so have been pleasantly surprised that it has all been so reasonable.  We also calculated that by doing long stays and travelling less this could be as little as £25 per day – in relative luxury, and sunshine of course.

3 Assessing our finances.  Including, getting to grips with SIPPs & ISAs (yawn…..but hey Cheryl was a beancounter and has to be tax efficient!!.) Current Income levels have been better than anticipated as there are winners & losers in every economic climate (thanks Bank of England for the unprecedented base rate).

4 Enjoying the benefits of the lovely hotel that has kindly given us the best value rates that we’ve ever had for taking a long stay.  In fact we have swapped the usual backpacker hostel/budget hotel standard for 4* luxury, and all for £12 per night.

5 Thinking a lot about what we do next………Needless to say we will probably be coming back as we cannot live in the UK on what is the equivalent of £12k a year for both of us….bargain!!