Lauren, Scott and I all headed to Sydney, Australia for almost a week. It was the first country I have ever visited that also speaks English as the primary language (besides the USA and Canada). It was an awesome change of pace to be able to communicate with those around us, understand menus, and to not stand out like a sore thumb. Sydney reminded us of San Diego (minus the driving on the wrong side of the road, cool accents,…
I am not sure if we just got to confident or started to relax a bit, but either way we made some mistakes on the Indonesian and Australian legs of this trip. We were with our friend, Lauren, for these legs of the trip and naturally we brought our A-Game to show off what experienced travelers we have become. Some mistakes were not so bad and others could have turned out really terrible. In an effort not to just talk…
Indonesia is a country comprised of 17,000 islands. We barely scratched the surface in our visit there, but we loved our time exploring as much as we possibly could. Scott and I flew into Bali where we spent a day or two before taking a boat to a little island called Gili Air. It was much needed time to relax and to try and get over the virus I had caught in Korea. After a few days we headed back…
I am hopelessly behind on recaps and blogging in general. We spend the end of October and beginning of November in South Korea. It is now Christmas time….woops. Better late than never I think! Arriving in South Korea we were tired. A quick-paced trip through Japan and our inability to rest while in exciting cities finally caught up with us. I had hit a wall. I have learned that sometimes it has nothing to do with a place, but about…
After China, we headed to Thailand to spend some quality time seeing temples and enjoying the beach. While this did happen, it did not happen quite as we thought. We spend 12 nights in Chiang Mai and decided to leave Thailand for a 9-day adventure in Cambodia. Our main purpose of coming to Cambodia was to check out Angkor Wat, a temple complex and the largest religious monument in the world. We arrived in Siem Reap (by plane skipping the long…
Hopefully we can get caught up on recap posts so we can write about our other experiences in more details, but for now we are doing our best! Japan exceeded every expectation we had and is our favorite place we have been on this trip (and ever). It was a perfect blend of modern, exciting, clean, orderly, and safe. While we loved everything about Japan we also loved being able to experience it with my parents! We traveled way too…
On a whim we decided to buy a cheap flight over to Cambodia with one goal in mind…to check out the famed Angkor Wat. We spent some time exploring temples, discovering undeveloped beaches and learning about the horrifying past of Cambodia. Our time was mixed with extremely beautiful places, constant reminders of poverty, lessons about humanity, and we feel that we have left Cambodia with a new perspective. Out of all of the places we have been so far on…
Thailand was a place we couldn’t wait to visit and was on the list from day 1. We have heard from so many friends about the beautiful beaches, friendly people, great food, and laid back vibe (also, I had a quick visit here a few years back and loved every minute). After our difficulties in China we knew it was just what we needed. We flew into Chiang Mai planning to spend a few days there before taking the overnight…
My first visit to China was 6 years ago with my parents. It was the first place I had ever traveled to outside of the USA/Canada (well, besides an all-inclusive resort in Mexico) and upon my arrival in Beijing I was excited, overwhelmed and completely terrified that I had signed up to spend a few months there. China taught me so many lessons about myself and the world around me, but most importantly it taught me what a small part of…
Taiwan, you have won our hearts. We spent a total of 19 nights in Taiwan to kick-off our RTW trip! Our initial plan was to spend 4 nights in Taipei before heading around the country starting with the east coast and working our way clockwise around the island by train until we made it back to Taipei. We made it to Hualien, a city about 3 hours by train southeast of Taipei. We were supposed to spend 3 nights here before…