Sometimes in life you just gotta take a walk to savor slow travel at its utmost. The Romanian countryside around the small city of Miercurea Ciuc in autumn is ripe, and beckoned us to set out on an admittedly very vague plan to walk a “Mineral Water Trail” dotted with natural springs and thermal baths spread out over 50+ km…
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…
One of the world’s oldest cities, 1500-year old Tbilisi is the pulsating heart of the Caucus Mountains. It breathes a history which intertwines the Silk Road, ancient Christianity, and sulphur baths and combines with a modern, thriving city sometimes even said to be “the New Berlin.” It was a great city to stroll in…and we soaked it in in more…
After a week in Siem Reap, we were ready to get off the grid and experience authentic village life in Cambodia. Our original plan had included heading to Kratie in central Cambodia to stay in the countryside for two weeks volunteering to teach English to village kids. Unfortunately, thanks to COVID, our plans got upended, so we opted instead to…
It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve seen it in movies or pictures, getting a glimpse of the UNESCO world heritage site of Angkor Wat in person rendered us both speechless. An awe took over our bodies with seeing something so truly magnificent, practically turning us to jelly. But Angkor Wat is so much more than just one temple complex,…
