Getting (near) to Theth After a few low-key days in Shkoder it was time to set out on the adventure that had brought us there in the first place. At the crack of dawn we left our hostel and climbed into the van to Theth with several other would-be hikers. The ride was long and winding, though our driver had no problem tearing around hairpin turns on the edge of cliffs. We made one brief stop at a roadside cafe…
When we arrived in Europe after four months of crazy transportation adventures in Southeast Asia, the open borders of the EU felt like a dream. Buses and trains took us from country to country without ever having to worry about passport checks or making transfers at the border. However, reaching the Balkans marked the end of seamless travel and a return to more… arduous modes of transport. To get from Mostar to Dubrovnik we had to cross the Bosnia-Croatia border. …
From Sarajevo we took a train south to the Herzegovina region to visit the beautiful little town of Mostar. We were initially a little concerned about how this train ride would go. There is no online ticketing (nor ticket machines) for Bosnian trains. We bought the tickets at the station from a person who hand wrote them for us. It was a pleasant surprise to then board a very modern and clean train. We were even more surprised by the…
From Salzburg we took a train south to Slovenia. Before I talk about Slovenia I need to talk about this train ride. This route was was everything I had hoped for when I imagined riding trains through Europe. We wound through narrow mountain passes with crystal clear rivers running beside the tracks. Then the view would open up into scenic valleys sprinkled with picturesque alpine villages. Lake Bled The beauty of that train ride was a hint of what was…
After our two day trek we returned for one more night in Nong Khiaw. Chatting with Dan over dinner that night it suddenly hit me: I was ready for a city. The thing about traveling in Southeast Asia is that so many of the popular tourist towns (such as Hoi An, Chiang Mai and Luang Prabang) feel like they’re designed for visitors. In our experience it’s in the bigger cities that you feel like you can actually blend in a…
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…
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…
Before I talk about Hoi An itself, getting there was an adventure that seems worth describing. It started with a moto taxi from our homestay on An Binh to the ferry landing. Our homestay host had arranged a bus for us to get back to Ho Chi Minh City. He told us to take the ferry accross the river and to cross the street when we get to the other side and a shuttle would pick us up. We had…
We are four days into our trip and I’m struggling to put my impressions of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) into words. We arrived at 1AM on Wednesday night after almost 20 hours of travel and I have to admit that, in my exhausted and jet lagged state, I did not love Ho Chi Minh for the first couple of days. We spent our first two days wandering around the city, trying to get our bearings and trying not to…