This is a first-person travel vlog by Nate and Kara Buchanan documenting a 28-hour journey from Chiang Mai, Thailand to the Dominican Republic (their 83rd country). The video follows airport lounges, flights on EVA Air (short Chiang Mai→Taipei, long-haul Taipei→New York), a late-night connection to Santo Domingo, arrival details, and an incident where their checked luggage was left in New York. It closes with Nate sharing a flashback story from a previous Dominican visit.
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I seriously can't believe it's been five weeks. Five weeks in one place. Maybe we'll be back one day.
We are about to be traveling for 28 hours. 22 of those 28 will be on an airplane.
After five whole weeks of being in one of our favorite cities in the world, it is finally time to say goodbye.
And now we are at the Chang My Airport where we are beginning our 28 hours of travel to the other.
Side of the world.
But first, coffee and sushi. Best lounge ever. Great start to the travel day.
They also do 15 minute massages in this lounge. Should have gotten here earlier.
We should have gotten one last Thai massage.
Thank you. All right. We are starting with a four hour flight to Taipei.
I still can't believe we're leaving.
As sad as I am to be leaving, I'm very excited about where we're going and I'm just excited to be flying again. It's been five whole weeks.
Please make yourself comfortable and enjoy the flight with us. And once again, one for. Thank you.
We're one hour into our first ever EVA Air flight. And so far, so good.
Feels so far. I'm sorry.
There's tons of leg room. We're on a short four hour flight. We're getting a full meal. Super impressed.
There's just no TVs on the headrest. That's okay. It's not working on my computer.
Hopefully there will be on our next 14 hour flight.
On behalf of the captain and Kayakuru, thank you for flying with EVA Airways, a Star alliance member.
We have just arrived in Taiwan. I had a nice little nap on the way here.
Last time we were here, it was almost three years ago. We had just started our full time travels and it was Chinese New Year. Happy Chinese New Year.
I remember we thought it was summer here and we showed up and it was freezing. Now we have three hours to spend in the lounge.
As usual, we stayed in the lounge too long and we are rushing to the gate. We didn't end up vlogging the lounge because it was dark and it was really crowded. Just like not a pretty scene. But we did rediscover our love for Taiwanese beef noodle soup.
Yeah, we did.
Best beef noodle soup in all of Taipei.
What's it taste like?
It's really good. And now for the big flight of the day. 14 hours and 40 minutes to new York City. We have so many movies to watch.
Let's go.
Really hope nobody booked the seat between us.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
You'll be here.
Really Nice tv.
We're so close.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Kevin.
He never said boarding complete. How big of a difference this makes for the next 14 hours of our lives?
I cannot believe this. When I looked at the seat map yesterday, there were literally two empty rows. And I just booked the aisle and the window on the further smoothest possible one. Back on the airplane in row 70. With a plane this big and only having two empty rows, I had like a 10% hope that we would maybe have it all to ourselves.
I'm just so happy we just heard the official boarding complete.
I mean like it would have been fun if somebody was here, but it's 100% better without somebody between us. I love you, bud.
This is definitely one of the fancier economy flights we've been on. We have a full menu with so many options. This, this is the walk fried pork. So far so good. We're only an hour into the flight. Only 13 and a half hours to go.
After 14 hours, a lot of tossing and turning and several movies, we have made it to the usa.
Now we have a one hour layover before we jump on our next flight that'll take us to our final destination. We said where we're going?
No.
Our bodies think it's 11 o' clock in the morning. But here in New York it is 11pm we don't board our next flight until midnight.
I don't know how to feel right now.
My body's very confused. I think it's gonna work out well though because we arrive in the DOMINICAN at like 4am, sleep for a few hours, wake up and just like conquer the next day.
Yeah, we're gonna conquer.
That's the hope at least.
I'm so awake. They don't have a lounge in this terminal, but they do have these weird pods.
Oh.
Privacy. How is it?
I don't know. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I pressed start and there's a 20 minute timer. We board in about 20 minutes.
So.
Good night.
So relax.
Let's go. No.
Seriously.
Our flight's boarding.
It's final call with Meo.
Beautiful night for flying. 3 hours 10 minutes en route tonight anticipate a nighttime arrival in Santa Domingo. Light should be mostly comfortable. Maybe just a few light bumps along the way. Please pay attention. Fast and seat belt sign. Current weather conditions and Santa Domingo.
Partly cloudy sky. 28 hours later, we have arrived in our 83rd country of the Dominican Republic. But it's looking like our bags may have not.
Oh, there's somewhat.
There's Somewhat there's a chance.
Oh dear.
It stopped.
Lets go talk to someone. Maybe they came earlier.
This is going to be a first. After almost three years of travel, the first time our bags have ever not made it.
We've had some close calls, but it's never actually happened.
At least we're in the Dominican. All you need is your bathing suit, right?
Yeah.
Just buy a new bathing suit and we'll be good to go. I have all the important camera stuff in my backpack. Do need a toothbrush though.
It is official our bags have been left in New York. Could have possibly been our fault. We didn't like get them and then check them back in. But to be fair, the lady at EVA Air when we were checking in told us that we didn't have to 100 that they were going to end up here in Santo Domingo.
I'm just mad at myself. I should have made sure you think.
We'D be better than at this? After three years our bags are officially.
Hopefully getting on the next flight out of New York to the Dominican and to our hotel by the end of the day. We'll see. It could be worse. We can't be that upset because we get to stay in this beautiful country for the next week.
Before we end this video, I just wanted to share a really quick story with you. This is actually not my first time to the Dominican. I was here five or six years ago with Jordan, who you may recognize from some of our past videos. We're going to bungee jump off of a bridge over a river in a gorge.
Oh shoot.
I have about zero patience. Right?
So I was actually here helping him pull off a surprise proposal. I brought along my GoPro and as I was thinking back to it, this was actually the very first travel movie that I ever made. So I thought it'd be fun just to share a few clips from that video with you.
I didn't think I would be nervous. I'm freaking nervous.
I don't know why. I want everything to go right.
I'm currently waiting here.
Obviously our videos have come a long way since then, but I'm super excited to be back here in the Dominican. I was only here for two short days last time and Kiera and I are going to be here for an entire week doing a ton of diving and I could not be more excited.
After five whole weeks.
There's a lot happening at the Chiang Mai airport this morning.
Okay.
We are four hours into our first one hour.
It just feels so good to be able to straighten my legs.
