Luang Prabang is a beautiful little town located on a peninsula at the intersection of the Mekong and Nam Kahn rivers in northern Laos. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and thus retains much of its colonial architecture. I could feel the French influence more strongly in Luang Prabang than anywhere else in Southeast Asia thus far. Walking some of the streets I could almost fool myself that we were in a European village. But then a little Buddhist…
Chiang Dao Dan and I arrived in Chiang Mai about a week before our friends were scheduled to meet us. That amount of time, combined with the three days we would overlap with them there, seemed like a little long to spend in a city we’d already been to. We did some research and decided that the nearby mountain getaway of Chiang Dao would be a good break from the city for a couple of days. We hopped on the…
Back in 2014 Dan and I took our first big trip together. We spent two weeks exploring Thailand, spending a hectic day in Bangkok followed by almost a week in Chiang Mai and then a week on an island beach. We had been dating for a few years and things were getting serious. Although we weren’t living together yet, we were starting to broach the subject of maybe moving in together. At that point we had never spent more than…
One thing that Dan and I were completely unprepared for when we arrived in Vietnam was the air quality. When I think of places with serious air pollution problems I think of Beijing, Mexico City, and India. We had been to nearby Thailand a few years ago and the air was fine so it didn’t even occur to me that the air quality would be noticeably bad in Vietnam – but it was. When we arrived in Ho Chi Minh…
I’ve already outlined our somewhat stressful adventure trying to get to Monkey Maya from Kampot, but once we arrived at this secluded beachside hostel on the edge of the jungle and they handed us our welcome beers life was all good. Monkey Maya is located on the southern coast of Cambodia in Ream National Park about 45 minutes from Sihanoukville proper. It is isolated, with no other resorts, restaurants or shops within walking distance. They are not on the power…
Kampot is a sleepy little town on the Preaek Tuek Chhu River, near Cambodia’s southern coast. As soon as we pulled in to town I knew that I was going to like Kampot. With it’s wide promenade along the river, brightly colored shop house architecture and cute little cafes and restaurants sprinkled throughout, it is just the type of place Dan and I gravitate towards. We had been moving around every few days while Megan and Varshan were traveling with…
Since leaving Ankor Wat we have been to Kampot and Sihanoukville in Cambodia and then to Chiang Mai, Chiang Dao, Pai and Chiang Rai in northern Thailand. I plan to write about and post pictures of all of these places but for now I’m going to skip ahead for a moment and talk about the last two days which we spent cruising down the Mekong River from Huay Xai at the Laos border to Luang Prabang, where we arrived last…
Get ready for a lot of pictures, folks! Those of you who know me well know that ancient architecture is kind of my thing. I have been known to jump up and down like little kid in front of renaissance churches and get teary eyed gazing up at vaulted ceilings. I love old buildings and they are probably my favorite thing to photograph. Therefore, visiting Angkor Wat and the other temples of Angkor was pretty much a dream-come-true for me….
One thing I know about myself: the actual act of traveling (getting from point a to b) stresses me out. I’m definitely the person who would rather be extra early to the airport and have to waste some time rather than rush there at the last minute. I am a planner and I like to have all of the information laid out ahead of time, and even more so if something goes wrong. Nothing drives me crazy like boarding an…
I mentioned in my earlier post about our time in Hue that the food we experienced in Vietnam was unique and wonderful but that I had been doing a terrible job documenting it. With that in mind, I made a more conscious effort to document what we ate when we returned to Hanoi from Halong bay. When we got back Varshan left to go on a two day motorcycle ride, leaving me, Dan and Megan to really dig into the Hanoi…