Finally realizing it's vacation time!

Turning 57 years old back in October, I started to think about my retirement and how am I going to process all of it and take the first step. I've been in and out of different jobs for the past ten years and had finally landed on a secured building maintenance and part-time school bus driver job since 2016. I love my two jobs and on top of that managing my student rental property, handyman side hassle, and being available for my girlfriend, three grown children, two grandsons, and elderly parents to look after to. My life has always been taking care of others first and me last.

It's been 48 years since I came here to America as a Cambodian refugee of war and had never left my home state of Rhode Island for Christmas. One day, my girlfriend and I decided to go online and booked a Christmas vacation to an all-inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic. It was my our first time going to Dominican Republic and had heard lots of good things about the country. If not familiar with the northeast, the weather sucks in the winter time and a lot of folks fly south for the winter or go stay down south for the winter. My girlfriend and I have been together for fifteen years which also gave me more incentive to do something nice to celebrate our anniversary, Christmas, and her birthday together somewhere warm. After about five to six hours of total flying time, I realized it immediately that this vacation was the right move and at the right time.

Dominican Republic and the people we came into contact with while on vacation were very pleasant and accommodating, I would definitely go back again. We stayed at a luxury hotel resort and they made dinner reservations for all the nights we were there at all the fancy restaurants and we were treated like king and queen. The best part of it all, everything was included, I only spent money buying gifts, and tipping all the well-deserved employees. There were two resorts next to each other, both own by Bahia Principe. We stayed at the adults only hotel but we could frequent the other hotel and use its services and facilities if we wanted to. Our hotel had everything we needed including all the amazing dining facilities, two swimming pools with swim up bars, private beach fronts, nightly entertainments and shows, room service, and beautiful architectures and landscaping to look at. We took advantage of all the daily breakfasts, lunches, and dinner reservations. Every night after dinner it was nice to get a drink and walk along the beach fronts and enjoying the beautiful summer like breeze. During the day we spent a lot of time shopping around at most of the giftshops and buying some unique items for our loved ones and friends.

A little word of advice, don't be afraid to say no and be forced to pay full price. You can bargain with them, ultimately, they need to sell and make a living which is so much different from the US. If you don't like the price, walk away, there are plenty of other shops, or do what I did and say let's go to the other shop around the corner. The eager sale person will then drop the price and you will end up getting a discount for a special and unique item. Sometimes I did give the sale person a dollar or two tip because I know that the locals don't really make a lot of money and they rely on tips. Depending on their position working at the resort, they make anywhere between two hundred and fifty to four hundred dollars a month, that's what I was told by one of the staff at the resort. Please have some compassion, be generous, and tip the employees, especially the real friendly ones. I would definitely bring a lot of US one dollar bills because carrying around pesos to me would be too much and they will charge you an exchange fee(s).

This was our first and probably the beginning of our exploration into vacationing down in the Caribbean. I would want to go and stay at other popular locations in and around the Dominican Republic and see what areas will please me and my girlfriend. This vacation made me realize that at 57 years old, my time and health is getting shorter even though my wealth might be growing. At this point in my life, how many more weeks will I have, there are no guarantees in life, and there are no moving trucks in a in a funeral procession. We take nothing with us, and only leave behind everything that we own. My goal now, is to quickly find ways to retire early, and start traveling more. To me, health is wealth, thank you for reading this far, and I hope that you will come back and read more of my blogs. I will be writing more interesting topics to share.

Remember, every day is a blessing and we are living the dream.