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…
First we wrote this: "We made it through after three winters in 2023! Yes, today we bid farewell to several layers of winter clothes because, as we head toward the Tropic of Cancer, we don’t plan on seeing winter for a very, very, very long time. To fly four hours southwest across the East China Sea, we used a Jetstar flight…
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…
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…
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…
Cold Monkeys We’ll never forget the day when we first saw a photo of fuzzy little rosy-faced monkeys without tails basking in a pool of piping water. It was years ago in some travel magazine, or book, and quickly gained a well-deserved spot on both of our “60 by 60 Lists.” The Japanese macaque is known as the world's northernmost…
Arriving to Tokyo & the Battle of Jet Lag In mid-February 2024, the day came for us to leap the pond...again. But, this time we were westward bound just in time to leave US election coverage behind for a year. Shucks. You may not recognize the badasses we were wearing sunglasses inside because we were testing out an app called…
Night Six: Staying in a Ryokan An absolute must on any Japanese itinerary should be staying in a ryokan, which is exactly what we did after returning from Snow Monkey Land. And although we had stayed in one the night before in Yamanouchi, we were also excited to know they offered such options in Tokyo as we found at Ryokan…
