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…
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…
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…
After months of dynamic and challenging travel, we couldn’t have been more giddy to be jetting off to the luxurious and exotic Maldives for some forced R&R and a rendezvous with Greg’s parents, Larry and Grace. The Maldives is a collection of a whopping isolated 1,190 coral islands and atolls (all but 200 uninhabited) 2000 km off the coast of southern India. After a lot of planning, we settled on the island of Dharavandhoo, which is one of the few islands “big enough” to have a domestic airport. (For the record, by big, we mean 800 people and 1.3 km long and .4 km wide.)
At some point in our travels through India we happened upon a quote that read, “Don’t make plans for India, India makes them for you...” This couldn’t have been more accurate in our case. We began our adventure along India’s Golden Triangle route. This well-trodden tourist trail of Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur is where most first time travelers who come…
Two hours by local bus ($.50/ticket) east from Kathmandu brought us to the small village of Dhulikel. We sought two things here...fresher air, and views of the eastern Himalayas. Both, it turned out were only marginally attainable at our new address. The locals here (and guidebooks) claim that on clear days you can see the entire Himalayan range, including almighty…
