Soldier and Spouse and Their Traveling House, Matthew Alan House, Traveling Houses

An Amazon “Best Seller” in the Military Families category!

Soldier and Spouse and Their Traveling House puts a witty spin on the dynamic of newlywed husband and wife trekking across two continents during their first three years of marriage. Who heads this household? The thrill-seeking soldier? Or the sensible spouse? Come along with this twenty-something military couple on their off-duty weekends as they dash in and out of trouble from the Emerald Isle to cruising down the Nile and many places in between—Western Europe, the Baltic, North Africa, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, and the Mediterranean.

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For more info on this family, check out the About Us section!

Ho Chi Ming City with a toddler: Tunnels and Snow

Continuing our two-week trip with Matt’s brother, we headed to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam from Siem Reap. Cu Chi Tunnels After landing in Ho Chi Minh City, we were picked up by a driver and guide then whisked away

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Siem Reap with a Toddler: Khmer New Year Madness

While Matt’s brother was visiting we really wanted to take him to Siem Reap. Matt and I had been there before, but before we had Lily. We expected this time to be a lot different and we totally underestimated how

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Napa Valley Wine Trolley

During our Thanksgiving leave in the states Matt and I decided to to the Napa Valley Wine Trolley tour. My family lives one county over from Napa and I have always wanted to go wine tasting at various vineyards across

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Vietnam: Top 5 Cities to Visit with Kids

Vietnam is one of the best places that you can choose as a holiday destination especially if you are planning on going with your kids. It is the perfect holiday destination for families and there are a lot of places

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Penang with a Toddler: Chinese Lunar New Year

On our latest trip we prepared some ideas on what to do and what not to do when traveling to Penang with a toddler. We arrived in Penang with another family from Hanoi right around lunchtime. We had our driver

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Da Nang / Hoi An: Top 5 Kid-Friendly Activities

Situated along the central coast of Vietnam, Da Nang is considered to be a Top 10 world beach while nearby UNESCO World Heritage Site, the old town of Hoi An, make these destinations a must when visiting Vietnam. These attributes

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Sydney with a Toddler: Playgrounds, Birds, and Harbours

After Adelaide we did a short overnight stay in Canberra, the capital of Australia, where we did a quick hop on hop off bus tour of all the sites in Canberra. The next day we headed to Sydney for a

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Hanoi: Top 5 Kid-Friendly Activities

Hanoi is one of the best places that you can visit in Vietnam if you are planning on going on a vacation with kids. It is the second largest city in the country and has plenty of things to offer for tourist families. Even if you are traveling with a toddler, this city will make sure that you and your kid are never bored. Here are some of the best kid-friendly activities that you can find in Hanoi.

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Adelaide with a Toddler

Our dream visit to Australia finally came when Matt was asked to attend a conference in Adelaide, Australia. Lily and I were able to accompany him so we were super excited to go to the land down under. The cheapest

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Halong Bay with a Toddler

Halong Bay with a Toddler Halong Bay with a toddler During the summertime, my mom, dad, and sister came to visit us in Hanoi for around 10 days.  In order to break up the monotony of being in Hanoi the

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Myanmar with a Toddler

Myanmar with a toddler For one of our last trips for Matt’s work, we decided to check out Yangon Myanmar. I was a bit nervous about this trip because I did not know a lot about Myanmar and it’s culture.

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China with a Toddler: Beijing and Chongqing

Beijing and Chongqing with a  Toddler Hanoi to Beijing After some local Vietnamese trips, we thought we would venture to China and take Lily to the Great Wall. Matt did some research and decided we would go to Beijing and

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Can Tho and Danang with a Toddler

Can Tho and Danang with a Toddler For our next domestic trip within Vietnam, we decided to combine the cities of Can Tho and Danang. We first flew to Can Tho for three days, then flew from Can Tho to

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Ninh Binh with a Toddler: stairs, boats, and King Kong

Ninh Binh with a Toddler For our second domestic trip within Vietnam, we decided to go to Ninh Binh Province for two days and one night. Check out our activities as we explored Ninh Binh with a toddler. Day 1

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Phnom Penh with a toddler: Private river boat cruising and Cambodian history

Phnom Penh with a Toddler For our last leg of our 10-day trip, we headed to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Since we had a late afternoon flight we didn’t arrive in time to see much of the city. The airport is

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Bangkok with a Toddler: Leg two of our Thailand and Cambodia trip

Bangkok with a Toddler Coming from Chiang Mai, the flight time was only about an hour and we arrived early in the morning. We met our driver outside and headed for the hotel which was about an hour drive into

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Chiang Mai with a Toddler—Wats, Elephants, and PooPoo

Chiang Mai with a Toddler Chiang Mai is situated in northern Thailand surrounded by lush mountains. This ancient city is home to many Buddhist Temples and the old town area still has the remnants of the moat and portions of

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Kuala Lumpur with a toddler—parks and malls galore

Kuala Lumpur with a Toddler Kuala Lumpur, or commonly known as KL, is the capital of Malaysia. We visited KL once before as a port of call on a cruise we took in Southeast Asia back in 2013. However, on

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Hong Kong with a Toddler-Unprepared for the Cold

Hong Kong with a Toddler Hong Kong is an autonomous region of China, made up of several islands just south of the mainland of China. It has a gorgeous city skyline with skyscrapers on the two main populated areas of

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Phu Quoc with a Toddler – What to Do and Not to Do

Phu Quoc, Vietnam—or Phú Quốc, Việt Nam—was our first trip since we landed in the Vietnamese capital in late December. No visa, no cold weather, no problem, right? Onward to Phu Quoc, the southwesternmost territory (and island) of Vietnam, which is situated

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Living in Hanoi with a Toddler: First Impressions

Arriving in Hanoi with a Toddler This post will be a little taste about our first impressions of living in Hanoi with a toddler. We arrived in Hanoi on December 30 at 11 pm, and made it to our apartment,

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Traveling with a Toddler Internationally

Our Journey to Hanoi, Vietnam—Part II: California to Vietnam Following Christmas with my family, we jetted out of California to our final destination—Hanoi, Vietnam! And, we started out this leg of the trip with again, another two-hour drive to the

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Traveling with a Toddler Coast to Coast

Traveling Houses

Our Journey to Hanoi, Vietnam—Part 1: Florida to California After traveling with a toddler, we finally made it to Hanoi—the capital of Vietnam! This is a culmination of excitement as we’ve been destined to live here since being notified two

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All-Inclusive Hotels in Morocco, Tunisia, and Mallorca

Matthew Alan House, Soldier and Spouse and Their Traveling House, Traveling Houses

Benefits Of Going On An All-Inclusive Getaway in Morocco, Tunisia, and Mallorca It’s never too early to start thinking about that dream vacation! Going on a trip or vacation can be difficult to plan. Who is going? Where are you

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5 German Beers Explain Beer Culture in Germany

Top German Beers to Know to Experience the German Beer Culture Have you ever come across a German beer but didn’t find the courage to try it because it wasn’t the mainstream Coors Light or Bud Light, or your go-to

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Manly Man Tips for Moving to Germany

Matthew Alan House

Want to be a Manly Man in Germany? Follow These 5 Tips: In light of my recent book launch of Soldier and Spouse and Their Traveling House—which details some of the good, all of the bad, and special emphasis on

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Travel Planning Mistakes the Spouse is Bound to Make

5 Ways a Holiday Will Go Amok. . . No Thanks to Your Spouse   I’m sure you’ve all been there. You’re off on your first holiday abroad, envisioning stunning sunshine, breathtaking views, an easy and comfortable plane ride, and

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The Proverbial Doghouse

Traveling Houses

5 Common Ways The Man Ends Up In The “Doghouse”   Many men will be familiar with the phrase “In The Doghouse,” and it’s a phrase used in popular TV shows and comedy sketches for years. The protagonist who ends

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The Curse of Culture Shock!

traveling houses, culture shock

Culture Shock   For anyone who likes to travel, culture shock is something you are likely to experience at some stage in your life. For us Traveling Houses, it was moving to Germany and living in a little farm village

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The Triple P’s of Palinka

The Triple P’s of Palinka   As a military couple who have lived and traveled abroad, we had the fortunate opportunity to taste the country of Hungary’s famous brandy—known as Palinka. I talk about our experience with Palinka in Chapter

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Singapore: New Years Eve

Since we liked Singapore so much the first time we thought we would go back again. This time we went back for New Years Eve. Studio M Hotel We usually keep with our club rewards hotel chain, IHG, but this

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Osaka, Japan

We had Matt’s dad and step mom in town and we wanted to take them outside of Tokyo so we decided on Osaka, Japan since we have never been there. We happened to go there in the middle of summer

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Shirakawago and Takayama

We took a tour with our local military outdoor recreation  on post to Shirakawago and Takayama. The journey started at 4am as well headed on a packed bus to Shirakawago. Shirakawago Six hours later and little to no sleep we

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Kyoto Highlights

During Memorial Day weekend, us and four other friends went to Kyoto. For some of us this was a second time around, especially since the last time the House’s were there I broke my wrist in a bicycle accident, cutting

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Hiroshima and Miyajima

After our Kyoto excursion with our friends we decided to go to Hiroshima and Miyajima, which are very close to Kyoto, by train. We took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Hiroshima for one night. While we were there we went

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Jaipur, India

The morning of leaving for Jaipur we made one last stop outside of Agra to see Fatehpur Sikri which was built by Akbar and the capital was moved there. It was only occupied for 14 years and then the capital

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Agra, India

On our long exhausting drive to Agra we learned a few things. One being that people love to stare at western tourists. Our tour guide had told us that people in India think white skin is beautiful and they try

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Delhi, India

We started our three-city tour of India in Dehli. Our trip to India cannot be explained in one word. There were so many things that we saw that will remain with us forever. Some good and some bad, but overall

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Singapore: Cruise Embarkation

As part of a Southeastern Asia cruise that was based out of Singapore, we decided to stay a few extra days to check out Singapore. When we docked in Singapore we went to the Intercontinental Hotel to drop off our

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Phuket, Thailand

Phuket, Thailand was another embarkation point on our Southeast Asian cruise we went on. After a long New Years Eve night on the boat we made it to Phuket where we we were supposed to take a tour out to

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Langkawi, Malaysia

On New Years Eve, during our Southeast Asia cruise, one of the stops was the island of Langkawi, Malaysia. We did our own tour that day instead of booking through the cruise line. We started out by trying our luck

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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

We decided this year for New Years we would take a Southeastern Asia cruise. Once we set sail on the cruise from Singapore, our first stop was Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (KL). Once we docked we took a bus to KL

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Bali, Indonesia

Over the new year we went on an adventure to Southeast Asia. We started our trip in Bali Indonesia. We stayed at the Hard Rock Resort in Kuta Beach. The first day there we just lounged around after arriving late

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Siem Reap

angkor wat

We decided to take a four-day weekend to trip from Japan to Siem Reap, Cambodia to see all the ancient temples. I think ee were of course most excited to see the great Angkor Wat. The tour company from the

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Iwo Jima

Matt planned a battle staff ride to the island of Iwo Jima. Only military personnel are allowed to visit the island. I will tell the story from his pictures and captions, as I was not there to tell the story.

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Ginza- Vampire Cafe

For my 26th Birthday, Matt had planned an evening out with all of our friends. He kept the details a secret from everyone. We were all very trusting on where he was planning to take us for dinner. We all

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Tokyo, Japan

For our last weekend before Matt’s knee surgery we went to Tokyo to do the sightseeing thing. We’ve been there before, but for other purposes! First we visited Tokyo Skytree which is the highest tower in the world and just

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Oahu, Hawai’i

Shortly after our Hong Kong trip (2 days later) Matt had to go to Hawaii for Army training that was 2 weeks long. He went ahead of me  and then I came a week later. There was no availability on

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Hong Kong and Macau

Hong Kong Hong Kong was an awesome city to visit with a little bit of Eastern and Western influences. It felt more like a European city, with outside cafe’s, every type of food you can imagine and beautiful landscape. Our

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Kyoto, Japan

Kyoto…what an experience that was. It was our overnight weekend trip in Japan. We started our trip by visiting the Fushimi Inari Shrine which is built at the bottom of a mountain and has trails leading to the top with  shrines

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Chiyoda Cherry Blossom Viewing

Last weekend we went to a district in Tokyo called Chiyoda which had an amazing amount of cherry blossom trees! When we first got there, we rented a row boat where we were able to get amazing pictures of the

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Kamakura

On Friday we went on a “spiritual orientation tour” with the chapel to Kamakura. This city is known for the great Buddha that you see in famous pictures of Japan. We first started our tour at the great Buddha (aka the Daibutsu)

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Odawara Castle

This week Matt and I participated in Japanese language class, which is a class all incoming soldiers and families can take to learn about Japanese culture and language. At the end of the week the two teachers (one who is

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St Patrick’s Day Parade in Tokyo

Our first trip in Japan was this weekend. We decided to take a bus with the post’s outdoor recreation facility, which drives us to Tokyo and drops us at the area for the parade. The name of the area was

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