Making our Way to Ho Chi Minh After two weeks of getting sand in crevices and gallivanting a tropical island, we feel reinvigorated to begin our 1025-mile overland adventure of traversing the length of Vietnam! And we started by heading to Saigon, today also known as Ho Chi Minh City since 1975. The day began bright and early with a 1.5…

Continue ReadingAn Obligatory Stop in Saigon, Vietnam

After three days in Ho Chi Minh City, we were more than ready to replace the cacophony of horns and motorbikes with nature’s symphony, so we took a local bus 4.5 hours north to Cat Tien National Park. It is a large area of protected lowland tropical forests whose floral and fauna diversity has been recognized by the World Wildlife…

Continue ReadingBiking into the Jungle at Cat Tien National Park, Vietnam

Arriving to Da Lat From Cat Tien National Park, we boarded another local bus north four hours to the cooler mountain town of Da’Lat for a week. Da Lat is most famous for its wide variety of flowers, vegetables and fruit harvested from its surrounding farmlands. During the war, this town also became a resort destination far from the bombing…

Continue ReadingCoffee, Kitsch, and a Nice Cool Climate in Da Lat, Vietnam

Exploring Doc Let Beach From Da Lat, it was time to drop off the mountains to the stew pot of record topping heat and humidity below. While we could have high-tailed it to the tourist havens of Hoi An or Hue to make things “easy,” we wanted the opportunity to immerse ourselves in an authentic Vietnamese sea village first for…

Continue ReadingOff the Beaten Path in Doc Let Beach, Vietnam

The Sights Jioufen is hardly an off the beaten path destination while touring Taiwan, but with its proximity to Taipei, ample hiking opportunities, its promise of old world charm and the coincidental placement of it during a significant Taiwanese event made it an obvious choice for us. The seductively ramshackled village dotted with crimson lanterns, meandering alleyways and loads of sights…

Continue ReadingThe Lights, Bites and Sights of Jioufen, Taiwan

On February 17, 2024 you could find us at an absolutely stunning 19 km aquamarine river-cut marble canyon called Taroko Gorge in eastern Taiwan. A month and a half later, on April 3 a massive 7.2 earthquake hit the same region. This is not the first time this has happened to us, and we realize how lucky we were to…

Continue ReadingOut of Hualien and Into Taroko Gorge, Taiwan

We found ourselves in Taiwan because we had a Jetstar voucher to use by December 31 and it was the only logical connection from Tokyo. Although Taiwan very much has its own identity and story, the island was our first gentle taste of Chinese language and culture. Unfortunately, because of the rain and our limited time, we didn’t have the…

Continue ReadingTaiwan: It’s a Wrap!