Itinerary: Trip itinerary has been refined somewhat. It does not look like we will be headed to Bali. Ray promises that we will get back there someday, but I am not holding my breath.
Budget: We have been working on refining our budget. By taking out the alcohol expense for the boys, as well as a few other things (like Bali), I have gotten the budget down to $45,000. I'm still hoping to reduce further, and staying longer where our money goes further will help.
Another way that we have reduced our budget is by taking advantage of train transportation within certain countries. We have done quite a bit of research on train travel within southeast Asia (see train route map below), especially Vietnam and India, and apparently it is the way to go. Not only is travel relatively inexpensive, but it will allow us to see much more of the countries.
Volunteering: One of the things we want to do as we travel is volunteer. This sounds so much easier than it actually has turned out to be. There are so many organizations that offer travelers the opportunity to travel and volunteer. While I think these would be great for an individual traveler, once you multiply the program cost by 4, it becomes too much for us. So, we are finding that we are really having to dig in and do some homework to find out what might work for us. Ultimately, I am not sure that it is going to work out, but we'll see. I think at the very least, we have found one place in Vietnam for a month and one place in Nepal for a month. We're still working on contact with the king of Ghana. Apparently, you can't just e-mail him!
Credit Card: I found a credit card that doesn't have and foreign transaction fees and is all ready for international travel. We have applied and have been accepted. So I can check that off the list!