When we arrived to Romania, we were treading into an unknown. For the first time since leaving the U.S. in July, we didn’t have any plan for where we were going in the coming weeks. On the ground in Bucharest and Braşov we began asking a few locals, “what’s your favorite place to visit in Romania?” Almost without hesitation, and…
Mt. Ararat looms over the city of Yerevan at 5,137 m. (16,854 ft). Ararat, now in Turkey, is notable as the mountain on which Noah’s Ark landed upon, and according the Bible, the remains rest there under its snow-capped peak. Armenians consider Ararat the symbol of their state no matter where the mountain lies . There is a giant statue…
We never expected to spend eight weeks in Phnom Penh, or for that matter, ten weeks in Cambodia, but COVID-19 gave us an opportunity. If we had to be “stuck” in a SE Asian country, we think we landed in a good spot, especially based on the more Draconian measures set forth in neighboring Thailand and Vietnam. The Cambodian government,…
Before COVID shut down all the tourist sights in Phnom Penh, we went to the Tuolsleng Genocide Museum, followed by the Killing Fields, one of only 343 known sites where thousands of Cambodians were executed by their own people during the 1975-1979 Genocide. Three million of Cambodia’s eight million died during this tragic regime. This is when the Khmer Rouge…
Kampot is a coastal city on the Preaek Tuek Chhu River in southern Cambodia. We’d had our eyes on heading there for several weeks so it felt good to finally get the opportunity to hop on a totally empty, A/C blasted, $8/ticket mini bus for the three-hour jaunt out of Phnom Penh. Although the area is most widely known for…
We knew very little about Georgian cuisine before arriving there other than the drool-worthy recommendations we’d read on guidebooks and blogs. But we knew we were highly intrigued. The recommendations lived up to their hype and in the three weeks we traveled here, we never tired of it once thanks to its variety, simple sophistication, and unique flavors and spices…
As we barreled south of the Georgian border into Armenia in our mini bus (which we got overcharged for), the terrain became drier, the sun more intense, but the road equally bone shaking, as it continued to wind tumultuously through the mountains. It was a relative easy border crossing with only us, some locals and two Asian ladies whom our…
The Republic of Georgia is fast becoming the tourism hot spot for travelers in-the-know for Eastern Europe. And for good reason. The Georgian people are some of the most welcoming and warmest we’ve ever met, the cities and culture are dynamic and storied, the tucked away villages and ruins draw you in with their authenticity and charm, the nature is…
